I am home sick today. I sometimes think my physical maladies correspond with the sickness I see about me in society and life. There is a spiritual vacuum it seems in the world today, of course no different in days past but this vacuum seems to grow in intensity at this time of year, especially in America.
I being a student of both history and scripture, know that Christ wasn't born on December 25th in the year of our Lord. I also know the origins for this date from the Mithraism or the cult of SOL INVICTUS (the Unconquered Sun) from the days of the Roman Empire. December 25th was first celebrated as the birthday of Mithras, a persian god, usually depicted as straddling a bull and killing it with a sword.
Mithras represented a savior-king throughout the Persian Empire well before the 1st Century, but was well adopted by the Roman legionnaires. Even coins stamped by Constantine, who was a pagan who used Christianity to bind the Roman empire for unity, had the symbol of the Sun God, tied to his reign and emblazoned on coins of the time. It was only on his death bed, that Constantine the founder of today's church and it's buildings, sought water baptism, for security from his fear of death.
It was in the context of these times, that many pagan traditions were mixed into Christianity and exist even today in modern "churchianity".
Regardless of it's origin from paganism, many Christians today, exclaim that this is to be representative of the time of the birth of Christ, and churches throughout America, seek to show that in Christmas specials and more.
Even in my town, there are plans for a full size live show with animals and more at one of the cities most important atheletic and conference centers, Known as the "CAIN CENTER". This show is being brought to you by our most favored Baptist Church, the one above all others, as it refers to itself as the "First Baptist".
Christmas time becomes a scurry for the religionist to find something they can do, to outdo the rest of the churches in. This often is more of a drive for evangelism and adding numbers to their membership rolls then anything else. People will bring out their children to see live shows, live animals and all the pageantry of Christmas and the story told of Baby Jesus. This then becomes the opportunity to seek new converts to their church and new money in the "offering plates" come the next year. Oh! they will tell you, this is evangelism, but is it?
This is the time of year, that I believe that if we are true "anointed one's" of Him. That rather than emphasizing, the giving of presents or recieving of presents, that this is a time like no other for us to take what is a largely paganist in origin, materialistic in practice, and show time for the churches, and make it real to our children and those around us. It is time for Christians to do as Paul quotes in Ephesians 5:14- "Awake, sleeper, and arise from the dead, and Christ will shine on you"
It is time for us if we lay claim to being Christian, to reveal the life and presence of Christ in us! It is time we teach our children, that Christmas isn't about "Christmas Presents but about Christ Presence".
I remind us all, to take heed to Pauls' words in the book of 2 Corinthians 15:5-
Test yourselves to see if you are in the faith, examine yourselves! Or do you not recognize this about yourselves, that JESUS CHRIST is in you- unless indeed you fail the test.
The whole story of this child being born into the world and then being crucified at the young age of 33 (best appr age, based on the experts) is not the end of the story, but the beginning of a greater one. That greater story is that this Christ child would introduce life back into a world which had been dead far too long from the days of Adam, and this child would become the eternal living presence, that would reside in the hearts of all those who would recieve Him as the true life in God, a glorious redemption that restores man to the intention for which God created Him to be the very image and glory of Him! We have been restored and it was in this child that was born in Bethlehem, who through His mighty resurrection, destroyed sin and death, and now His presence is within us forever...His kingdom is everlasting, and He resides with, and in those who have recieved Him by faith. They have accepted the greatest Christmas present ever given to any man, they have recieved Christ Presence!
May the Lord bless and keep each and every one of you, during this time and season. Let it be a time to teach one another and our children, that Christmas Presents isn't what is all about, but every day is to be a lesson from one to another of Christ Presence within our own lives. The life of Christ within you, the hope of glory~!
Dr. J.
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Tuesday, December 15, 2009
Sunday, October 18, 2009
Then Came Bronson- A trip back in time
I was up late Saturday night until 1:00 a.m. You may ask what does a guy do other than watch television until that time of night. Well your right, I was doing that but not off the "Big Tube" but on "You Tube". I am a multi-tasker of sort. Matter of fact my job requires intensive multi-tasking, keyboarding, searching, talking, analyzing and more in all at the same time. I do Client Representation work in Social Services in a call center. Sometimes I handle as many as 80 calls a day! So I was multi-tasking last night. I had the Big Tube on, but the sound muted, I was watching and listening to cuts from my favorite television show on You Tube, while downloading some of them and sending URL links in email to friends and family of my interest. I was watching clips of my all time favorite show in the 60's, a show short lived, but excellent in most content, a show that produced my childhood dream of riding a motorcycle and cruising the U.S.A. The show, "THEN CAME BRONSON", a series starring, the soft spoken, excellent singer-actor- Michael Parks. Here's a guy through life's tragedy, quits his job, and heads out on an adventure on a motorcycle across the U.S.A.
We all love stories of adventure, meeting people of different character, experiecing danger, love, and more. We wouldnt love the stories of Huck Finn, or the Lord of the Ring trilogies if that were not true, but we do. The show " Then Came Bronson" had it all. The main character was a man on a "mission to find God", I guess you could say, he even had the now known symbol on his 1969 Harley Sportster, the "all seeing Eye of God", which we have grown custom to look at on our dollar bills.
This wasn't a story about conspiracies, government gone crazy, or any of the things, I often find interesting to read today. This was the story which encompasses all men's dreams to go on an adventure. To cast care to the wind, and ride the wind, " to go where some man have gone before, but very few". These men are the men that have left behind multiple volumes of written and photographic works. Men who dare to get on the back of a two wheeled machines, horses, trains, planes,cars and even on foot and head out on that "Lone Lonesome Highway".
"Lone Lonesome Highway", just happens to be the theme song of the show, and was a hit for Michael Parks, with the groupies of this show, I being one of them.
I bought all of his record albums back then, but where they are today, I know not!
The show inspired me it stirred that need for adventure but mostly my love of motorcycles. The cowboy of today's "Iron Horse".
My first motorcycle I owned at age 15, it was an old Honda 90, that I stripped the leg windbreakers off of and adventured every where I could go in Texas.
Then after the dimurge of this bike, blown engine, it would be years before I could buy another one, but I continued to ride friends bikes and more until I could acquire another "horse".
My next one was on old Cimmatti 125, two stroke Bike, I believe of Italian origin.
I rode it to and from work in Florida before I married in 1974. Riding that motorcycle was a trip, just trying to keep the gas and oil mixture right, so you wouldn't conk out on the highway, with a cloud of black smoke surrouding you. It didnt have a auto mixer, you had to measure it in to the gasoline, shake and stir and pour it in, and hope she would ride right.
I don't recall what happened to that Bike, it's in the junk yard somewhere in my old memories.
Then in 1977, I bought a new Yamaha 500 XT, part Dirt Bike, part Road Bike.
I rode the heck out of the thing, I learned to dirt bike, jump, ride wheelies, crash and recover, run out of gas, fix bike flats, change the chain and more. I even took a road trip on it. Graduating in 1977 in Tyler from a Junior College, I went on to go to the University there to teach school, but tired the first semester, and my wife and sold a lot off and decided to return to the mountains and deserts of New Mexico. My wife drove the car and I took my first long haul ride of over 1200 miles to New Mexico on the back of my Yamaha! I can say by the time, I starting running that Bike on the Tarantula 400 track out there, that I was pretty much an expert Bike rider! I had rode through all kinds of weather, and conditions.
Then due to bad times and times of poverty and no work, I lost that bike to the "repo man". A sad day when she was taken off by two idiots who couldnt even start it. I had to show them how to even get the thing going so they could drive it off into the sunset, barely
What a beauty she was though, the old girl had taught me to ride like a pro..
Then the day came years later I finally got my hands on a Honda 450, that was in a friends garage in a box, torn down. I traded an old Buick I owned to him in exhange for a box full of unknown parts.. I built the Bike, put it back together, one bolt at a time, and then had it tuned out by a Biker shop guy I had met buying parts for her. She ran beautiful again and looked like new bike, all but the seat, and I had to eventually buy a new one. The bike got the adventure of being rode once up through northern New Mexico, as I had the neatest little tow gear built to go on my car hitch, where I could set the front wheel up in a rig attached to a ball hitch it was basically an upside down fender made of steel just the right size for the front wheel to rest in, you had to undo the bike chain drive you could take her with you on vacation trips. On this one occassion we had driven to northern New Mexico where I toured up and around Bandelier, the desert and mountains near Santa Fe and Los Alamos. I rode her hard for a couple of years until I moved to Houston, Texas where riding in traffic there with a small engine on a motorcycle was akin to SUICIDE! So she set on my porch for near a year and half whereby finally I sold her off when I returned to New Mexico, because I couldnt tow it with a U-Haul full of household goods and clothing. I think my cousin sent me $400.00 for her.
Then in 1988, I had moved from Aspen, Colordado to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, I bought 3 dirt bikes off my brother in law. They were all in the 250's range, One was a Honda, another a Yamaha and the last was a Suzuki. I rode those through the mountains and worked on them constantly they were in bad dis-repair, but all the same they gave me and my visiting cousin, some real fun, in the mountain terrain around my home in Glenwood Springs. I sold those bikes off eventually and then traded a 1977 Chevrolet Nova to my brother in law for a Honda 1977 CB 750. I bought the Bike on the day I was moving from Colorado back to Texas, I rode the Bike through the Eisenhower Tunnel over Vail Pass 12,500 foot elevation, through ice and snow, slipping and a sliding, through two snow storms one in Colorado and one in New Mexico. I rode the Bike for years more after that while living in Tyler, Texas again, until one morning, I woke up to find my drunken neighbor had his car parked right on top of her. She was dead. No more to go anywhere, I kept that Bike until just a few years ago, my present wife (first is deceased) sold her for $50.00. The old 750 had not run in years, nor had I tried to fix her.
Then came 2004, I bought a brand new Honda 750, rode it for a year, but I wasnt the skinny child I once was, and it just didnt have the humphf I needed to get up and go in highway conditions. I traded it in, and bought a brand new 2004 Honda VTX 1800cc monster, and I am in love again! I have driven her some short trips and one to Amarillo, Texas, and then in 2009, I talked one of my best friends into getting a motorcycle, a Honda 650 for him to learn to ride. Learn he did!
In May 2009, we hauled our motorcycles to New Mexico by trailer. We decided to do the "Wild Hog" trip and being housed in Albuquerque while visiting my parents, we ventured out and drove, to Madrid, New Mexico, up to Sandia peak, then we drove to Santa Fe and more. For one week we took an adventure, no cares, no worries, just riding the wind and the open spaces of the west. This is the life, of adventure but still didnt come to be the "Then Came Bronson, experience.
If you never saw the show, you missed out. This was the show, that inspired my drive to ride and to tour, and to love motorcycles!
I still dream of that "Then Came Bronson" experience, I am even planning for it, but with a slight change, I am praying to see my retirement in 6 years, and then I am getting on the back of whatever Bike I may have or can acquire at that time, and for the first six months of retirement, I am hitting the road again but this time with no final destination in mind other than "perhaps coming home" at the end of my adventure.
I want to ride to the west coast, up the coast and across America to the east coast and then back through the South to return to Texas. I want to document it, with video and still photographs, journal and blog it, so my readers can follow me as I take that adventure we all dream of as children- to be free to the wind, to go where some may have gone but very few, and to discover America again, myself, and others.
That is what "Then Came Bronson" stirs within everyone that watched the show, the dream to fly across America, free as an Eagle in the wind.
Now, that I have talked about the freedom of adventures on a motorcycle, the greatest adventure I ever started on, was my one with Christ.
I am now 56 years old and came to Christ at age 6, and it is an adventure of the Spirit, that requires nothing more than trust in Him. It has been wonderous, and full of danger, intrigue, love, and loss of things on this earth but gain of eternal things. However, the dream to still adventure across the highways of America is still in my blood. This time, though I won't be looking for God like Bronson was, there won't be a decal of the "eye of God" to carry me, but I will be carrying God with me into my adventure, to share my life experience with friends, family and others I might meet on the the trip, but all the same it will be my "Then Came Bronson" experience I dreamed of in 1969, it will be lived by me, not in television but in reality. This is my yet unfulfilled dream and that is to take my Apostolic Journey, and see the many I have loved in this world, and share with them the documentary of my most important adventure yet.."LIFE IN CHRIST"! To share the True gospel of Jesus Christ with all that I know, because it will be Christ in me, on the back of that motorcycle traveling the wind, and highway. It won't be a Long Lonesome Highway, because where I am He will be. If there is one lesson you learn as a Christian, is whereever, and whenever, if you are in Christ and He is in you, He is there!
If you get the opportunity, watch the old clips on You Tube, do a Google search for the show, and enjoy, I know I did, and because my reminicing of that old show, it stirred that need for me to take one more adventure. I pray before I leave on the great adventure to be with the Lord, and that is to travel on my Bike across America free and in the wind.
See the show clips if you can read the story outlines, and get that desire once more stirred in you. Once that happens, come join me on this great adventure of the Spirit, and perhaps and some years to come, you can join me on my ride, and then the best part of it all is you will join me on that final adventure into the heavenlies with Christ for eternity, where we will live out those childhood dreams forever with Him! It will be the consummation of the greatest adventure and story ever told and it will be entitled, and "Then Came Jesus"!
We all love stories of adventure, meeting people of different character, experiecing danger, love, and more. We wouldnt love the stories of Huck Finn, or the Lord of the Ring trilogies if that were not true, but we do. The show " Then Came Bronson" had it all. The main character was a man on a "mission to find God", I guess you could say, he even had the now known symbol on his 1969 Harley Sportster, the "all seeing Eye of God", which we have grown custom to look at on our dollar bills.
This wasn't a story about conspiracies, government gone crazy, or any of the things, I often find interesting to read today. This was the story which encompasses all men's dreams to go on an adventure. To cast care to the wind, and ride the wind, " to go where some man have gone before, but very few". These men are the men that have left behind multiple volumes of written and photographic works. Men who dare to get on the back of a two wheeled machines, horses, trains, planes,cars and even on foot and head out on that "Lone Lonesome Highway".
"Lone Lonesome Highway", just happens to be the theme song of the show, and was a hit for Michael Parks, with the groupies of this show, I being one of them.
I bought all of his record albums back then, but where they are today, I know not!
The show inspired me it stirred that need for adventure but mostly my love of motorcycles. The cowboy of today's "Iron Horse".
My first motorcycle I owned at age 15, it was an old Honda 90, that I stripped the leg windbreakers off of and adventured every where I could go in Texas.
Then after the dimurge of this bike, blown engine, it would be years before I could buy another one, but I continued to ride friends bikes and more until I could acquire another "horse".
My next one was on old Cimmatti 125, two stroke Bike, I believe of Italian origin.
I rode it to and from work in Florida before I married in 1974. Riding that motorcycle was a trip, just trying to keep the gas and oil mixture right, so you wouldn't conk out on the highway, with a cloud of black smoke surrouding you. It didnt have a auto mixer, you had to measure it in to the gasoline, shake and stir and pour it in, and hope she would ride right.
I don't recall what happened to that Bike, it's in the junk yard somewhere in my old memories.
Then in 1977, I bought a new Yamaha 500 XT, part Dirt Bike, part Road Bike.
I rode the heck out of the thing, I learned to dirt bike, jump, ride wheelies, crash and recover, run out of gas, fix bike flats, change the chain and more. I even took a road trip on it. Graduating in 1977 in Tyler from a Junior College, I went on to go to the University there to teach school, but tired the first semester, and my wife and sold a lot off and decided to return to the mountains and deserts of New Mexico. My wife drove the car and I took my first long haul ride of over 1200 miles to New Mexico on the back of my Yamaha! I can say by the time, I starting running that Bike on the Tarantula 400 track out there, that I was pretty much an expert Bike rider! I had rode through all kinds of weather, and conditions.
Then due to bad times and times of poverty and no work, I lost that bike to the "repo man". A sad day when she was taken off by two idiots who couldnt even start it. I had to show them how to even get the thing going so they could drive it off into the sunset, barely
What a beauty she was though, the old girl had taught me to ride like a pro..
Then the day came years later I finally got my hands on a Honda 450, that was in a friends garage in a box, torn down. I traded an old Buick I owned to him in exhange for a box full of unknown parts.. I built the Bike, put it back together, one bolt at a time, and then had it tuned out by a Biker shop guy I had met buying parts for her. She ran beautiful again and looked like new bike, all but the seat, and I had to eventually buy a new one. The bike got the adventure of being rode once up through northern New Mexico, as I had the neatest little tow gear built to go on my car hitch, where I could set the front wheel up in a rig attached to a ball hitch it was basically an upside down fender made of steel just the right size for the front wheel to rest in, you had to undo the bike chain drive you could take her with you on vacation trips. On this one occassion we had driven to northern New Mexico where I toured up and around Bandelier, the desert and mountains near Santa Fe and Los Alamos. I rode her hard for a couple of years until I moved to Houston, Texas where riding in traffic there with a small engine on a motorcycle was akin to SUICIDE! So she set on my porch for near a year and half whereby finally I sold her off when I returned to New Mexico, because I couldnt tow it with a U-Haul full of household goods and clothing. I think my cousin sent me $400.00 for her.
Then in 1988, I had moved from Aspen, Colordado to Glenwood Springs, Colorado, I bought 3 dirt bikes off my brother in law. They were all in the 250's range, One was a Honda, another a Yamaha and the last was a Suzuki. I rode those through the mountains and worked on them constantly they were in bad dis-repair, but all the same they gave me and my visiting cousin, some real fun, in the mountain terrain around my home in Glenwood Springs. I sold those bikes off eventually and then traded a 1977 Chevrolet Nova to my brother in law for a Honda 1977 CB 750. I bought the Bike on the day I was moving from Colorado back to Texas, I rode the Bike through the Eisenhower Tunnel over Vail Pass 12,500 foot elevation, through ice and snow, slipping and a sliding, through two snow storms one in Colorado and one in New Mexico. I rode the Bike for years more after that while living in Tyler, Texas again, until one morning, I woke up to find my drunken neighbor had his car parked right on top of her. She was dead. No more to go anywhere, I kept that Bike until just a few years ago, my present wife (first is deceased) sold her for $50.00. The old 750 had not run in years, nor had I tried to fix her.
Then came 2004, I bought a brand new Honda 750, rode it for a year, but I wasnt the skinny child I once was, and it just didnt have the humphf I needed to get up and go in highway conditions. I traded it in, and bought a brand new 2004 Honda VTX 1800cc monster, and I am in love again! I have driven her some short trips and one to Amarillo, Texas, and then in 2009, I talked one of my best friends into getting a motorcycle, a Honda 650 for him to learn to ride. Learn he did!
In May 2009, we hauled our motorcycles to New Mexico by trailer. We decided to do the "Wild Hog" trip and being housed in Albuquerque while visiting my parents, we ventured out and drove, to Madrid, New Mexico, up to Sandia peak, then we drove to Santa Fe and more. For one week we took an adventure, no cares, no worries, just riding the wind and the open spaces of the west. This is the life, of adventure but still didnt come to be the "Then Came Bronson, experience.
If you never saw the show, you missed out. This was the show, that inspired my drive to ride and to tour, and to love motorcycles!
I still dream of that "Then Came Bronson" experience, I am even planning for it, but with a slight change, I am praying to see my retirement in 6 years, and then I am getting on the back of whatever Bike I may have or can acquire at that time, and for the first six months of retirement, I am hitting the road again but this time with no final destination in mind other than "perhaps coming home" at the end of my adventure.
I want to ride to the west coast, up the coast and across America to the east coast and then back through the South to return to Texas. I want to document it, with video and still photographs, journal and blog it, so my readers can follow me as I take that adventure we all dream of as children- to be free to the wind, to go where some may have gone but very few, and to discover America again, myself, and others.
That is what "Then Came Bronson" stirs within everyone that watched the show, the dream to fly across America, free as an Eagle in the wind.
Now, that I have talked about the freedom of adventures on a motorcycle, the greatest adventure I ever started on, was my one with Christ.
I am now 56 years old and came to Christ at age 6, and it is an adventure of the Spirit, that requires nothing more than trust in Him. It has been wonderous, and full of danger, intrigue, love, and loss of things on this earth but gain of eternal things. However, the dream to still adventure across the highways of America is still in my blood. This time, though I won't be looking for God like Bronson was, there won't be a decal of the "eye of God" to carry me, but I will be carrying God with me into my adventure, to share my life experience with friends, family and others I might meet on the the trip, but all the same it will be my "Then Came Bronson" experience I dreamed of in 1969, it will be lived by me, not in television but in reality. This is my yet unfulfilled dream and that is to take my Apostolic Journey, and see the many I have loved in this world, and share with them the documentary of my most important adventure yet.."LIFE IN CHRIST"! To share the True gospel of Jesus Christ with all that I know, because it will be Christ in me, on the back of that motorcycle traveling the wind, and highway. It won't be a Long Lonesome Highway, because where I am He will be. If there is one lesson you learn as a Christian, is whereever, and whenever, if you are in Christ and He is in you, He is there!
If you get the opportunity, watch the old clips on You Tube, do a Google search for the show, and enjoy, I know I did, and because my reminicing of that old show, it stirred that need for me to take one more adventure. I pray before I leave on the great adventure to be with the Lord, and that is to travel on my Bike across America free and in the wind.
See the show clips if you can read the story outlines, and get that desire once more stirred in you. Once that happens, come join me on this great adventure of the Spirit, and perhaps and some years to come, you can join me on my ride, and then the best part of it all is you will join me on that final adventure into the heavenlies with Christ for eternity, where we will live out those childhood dreams forever with Him! It will be the consummation of the greatest adventure and story ever told and it will be entitled, and "Then Came Jesus"!
Saturday, October 3, 2009
American Children Don't Understand Sacrifice
In recently watching television, and taking in some most impressive documentaries on life in other countries, especially regarding the life of some of the children in those countries, my mind was inspired to write this.
The shows were on Discovery Channel called "Atlas". On this evening as I watched, first the life of a young 14 year old girl in South Africa, who must walk three miles to and from school everyday, studying hard to pass exams, so she might have a better life for her family and then later the life of a 14 year old in Egypt, my mind was stirred by their sacrifice. The little African girl not only gets herself up in the morning but she must tend to all her brothers and sisters, meals, clothing and care, every day while her parents work in the mines, and arent able to return home but once a month. She works hard and studies hard in hope of improving not just her lot in life but that of her parents, brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile back in American children are given what every they ask for and if not, they throw temper tantrums until they do. Their wants are always expectant of their parents to give to them, not to make sacrifice that their parents may have something more in life. Thus our nursing homes are full in America!
I was impressed with the sacrfice of the child in South Africa, even more with the next show on Egypt. Here in Cairo, riding a 1950's style bicycle, with a huge crate on his head full of bread, he rides the streets through traffic of vehicles and people, zigging and zagging through this with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding the crate on his head. He works 7 days a week, for 15 hours a day, and earns $6.00 per a day's work. He keeps back a $1.00 for himself to live on each day, and puts the other away. Why does this child work like this? This is a Muslim, child not a Christianized American child, this is a child that holds up to this kind of responsibility daily because of the love of his parents. The parents live in a very poor village outside of Cairo. They are so poor and elderly, that he alone has taken to the streets to work like this for their sake! He works especially hard delivering bread at the end of Ramaddan, the annual fasting and worship time of the year, where all the richer Muslims come together and serve the poor in a feast at the end of this time. The story closes with the child's return home to take his parents the money he has saved from his labor and gifts to his brothers and sisters. This is a child who lives and works in sacrifice everyday. You can't get most children in America to do chores without whining of some sort. Not unless they are promised some special pay or purchase for themselves.
I was impressed with His smile and his love for his family!.
Last Wednesday, I spent sometime loooking at You Tube videos of people in South America. I came across a video of a tribe in the Amazon, just recently discovered there, untouched by today's world. I found an interesting comment below on the video, someone had written, "Leave these people alone, we don't need anymore Christianized Wal Mart shopppers. It amazes me how truth can come from the lips of others often, even if it seems to be Anti-Christian to most religious folks.
The truth is the children of this country don't even have a clue about the sacrifice their own parents make everyday for them in this world. The painstaking having to drag yourself out of bed, even at times when you physically are feeling ill, to go to work all day in a dog eat dog world to bring home the simple things of life, like paying for food and shelter for their children. Yet in all this parents in this country die at the hands of their children who often in their anger over not getting what they want, have murdered their parents. For God's sake, what is wrong with American children...I'll tell you.. they bought into the idea that they are supposed to sacrifice for them 100%.. To quote another writer, this write said this:
"One of the myths of parenting is that it requires 100% self-sacrifice in order to meet the needs of the child. If this were true, the process of achieving this would leave the parent with nothing left of who they uniquely are to offer to their child. Do not sacrifice everything for the child, or you will find yourself empty, and your external relationships evaporated. The “100% self sacrifice” model of parenting is dangerous and unhealthy for the entire family".
America has created the children of "It's All About Me"
Why? Because there are those in this country including,parents who have been fed the false gospel of "it's all about me", they to often live this out in their lives.
We only need to look to the most terroristic act in the world commited daily in this country, ABORTION! One and half million unborn children die at the hands of these same adults who brought up in a culture of not knowing true sacrifice for others then themselves every year. Where did this monster come from in a country that claims itself to be Christian. It comes from a false teaching that pervases America, that Jesus came so we could all be comfortable with our lives, the Health, Wealth and Prosperity message as been the most pervasive of these. The Joel Olsteen's of American "Christianity" keep delivering the "feel good" messages without a hint at suffering. They act is if we ARE THE WORLD! Everything these teachers and preachers put forth is contrary to all Christians historically worldwide whoever made a life in Christ! They suffered much as our Saviour did. The Bible says he who suffers in the flesh ceases from sin! Thus we have a country full of sin, for the message in America would never stand in third world countries where not only children make sacrifice daily for those they love and care about, but where more than 95% of the toys, clothes, and other goodies, like cell phones, IPOD's and the like aren't found. Places where people have no fancy shiny automobiles, no flashy clothes, where food and shelter are appreciated for what they are gifts from God, and all else is expendable and not needed, nor most often not affordable.
In the end my message is like that of the commentator on the You Tube page, leave these people alone, don't give then what America has for God's sake!
Leave these children alone they aren't give me, give me babies like we have here in America, Muslim or other, they understand sacrifice and in light of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, they probably have more light than our churched children here in America..
At the end of all things, I know that their sacrifice doesnt mean anything toward their eternal salvation.. but who said salvation isnt about this life? I believe that God see's these Children and loves them, and reveals Himself to them and even may bring them the light of the TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, though in truth their young lives reveal more of it then most of any children I have yet to see in America!
What does that say for the children here in America?
They don't don't understand sacrificial living, they are the "GIVE ME GENERATION", not the let me "GIVE TO YOU", children you can find in many other places in the world, regardless of their religious beliefs, they show more of who God is, through their lives lived then most children in America, who have been preached a false gospel of promised prosperity that they are suppose to deserve. Our problem is love is not taught to children by giving them everything they demand, love is taught when they learn sacrifice for others. Is this not the love of God, that God so loved the world HE GAVE His only begotten Son, that who so ever should believe in Him shall have eternal life and shall not perish!
Let our children learn from others, give them some good programming on television to watch besides MTV and it's likes. Children's perceptions of how life is to be lived comes first from their parents, then those things that they spend their other time doing.. Believe it, these are the facts. What lesson are you teaching your children?
Let it be the lesson of sacrifice but let it be a lesson whereby they must learn to sacrifice as well for others.
With love and prayers for our children, I close.
Doctor J.
The shows were on Discovery Channel called "Atlas". On this evening as I watched, first the life of a young 14 year old girl in South Africa, who must walk three miles to and from school everyday, studying hard to pass exams, so she might have a better life for her family and then later the life of a 14 year old in Egypt, my mind was stirred by their sacrifice. The little African girl not only gets herself up in the morning but she must tend to all her brothers and sisters, meals, clothing and care, every day while her parents work in the mines, and arent able to return home but once a month. She works hard and studies hard in hope of improving not just her lot in life but that of her parents, brothers and sisters.
Meanwhile back in American children are given what every they ask for and if not, they throw temper tantrums until they do. Their wants are always expectant of their parents to give to them, not to make sacrifice that their parents may have something more in life. Thus our nursing homes are full in America!
I was impressed with the sacrfice of the child in South Africa, even more with the next show on Egypt. Here in Cairo, riding a 1950's style bicycle, with a huge crate on his head full of bread, he rides the streets through traffic of vehicles and people, zigging and zagging through this with one hand on the handlebars and the other holding the crate on his head. He works 7 days a week, for 15 hours a day, and earns $6.00 per a day's work. He keeps back a $1.00 for himself to live on each day, and puts the other away. Why does this child work like this? This is a Muslim, child not a Christianized American child, this is a child that holds up to this kind of responsibility daily because of the love of his parents. The parents live in a very poor village outside of Cairo. They are so poor and elderly, that he alone has taken to the streets to work like this for their sake! He works especially hard delivering bread at the end of Ramaddan, the annual fasting and worship time of the year, where all the richer Muslims come together and serve the poor in a feast at the end of this time. The story closes with the child's return home to take his parents the money he has saved from his labor and gifts to his brothers and sisters. This is a child who lives and works in sacrifice everyday. You can't get most children in America to do chores without whining of some sort. Not unless they are promised some special pay or purchase for themselves.
I was impressed with His smile and his love for his family!.
Last Wednesday, I spent sometime loooking at You Tube videos of people in South America. I came across a video of a tribe in the Amazon, just recently discovered there, untouched by today's world. I found an interesting comment below on the video, someone had written, "Leave these people alone, we don't need anymore Christianized Wal Mart shopppers. It amazes me how truth can come from the lips of others often, even if it seems to be Anti-Christian to most religious folks.
The truth is the children of this country don't even have a clue about the sacrifice their own parents make everyday for them in this world. The painstaking having to drag yourself out of bed, even at times when you physically are feeling ill, to go to work all day in a dog eat dog world to bring home the simple things of life, like paying for food and shelter for their children. Yet in all this parents in this country die at the hands of their children who often in their anger over not getting what they want, have murdered their parents. For God's sake, what is wrong with American children...I'll tell you.. they bought into the idea that they are supposed to sacrifice for them 100%.. To quote another writer, this write said this:
"One of the myths of parenting is that it requires 100% self-sacrifice in order to meet the needs of the child. If this were true, the process of achieving this would leave the parent with nothing left of who they uniquely are to offer to their child. Do not sacrifice everything for the child, or you will find yourself empty, and your external relationships evaporated. The “100% self sacrifice” model of parenting is dangerous and unhealthy for the entire family".
America has created the children of "It's All About Me"
Why? Because there are those in this country including,parents who have been fed the false gospel of "it's all about me", they to often live this out in their lives.
We only need to look to the most terroristic act in the world commited daily in this country, ABORTION! One and half million unborn children die at the hands of these same adults who brought up in a culture of not knowing true sacrifice for others then themselves every year. Where did this monster come from in a country that claims itself to be Christian. It comes from a false teaching that pervases America, that Jesus came so we could all be comfortable with our lives, the Health, Wealth and Prosperity message as been the most pervasive of these. The Joel Olsteen's of American "Christianity" keep delivering the "feel good" messages without a hint at suffering. They act is if we ARE THE WORLD! Everything these teachers and preachers put forth is contrary to all Christians historically worldwide whoever made a life in Christ! They suffered much as our Saviour did. The Bible says he who suffers in the flesh ceases from sin! Thus we have a country full of sin, for the message in America would never stand in third world countries where not only children make sacrifice daily for those they love and care about, but where more than 95% of the toys, clothes, and other goodies, like cell phones, IPOD's and the like aren't found. Places where people have no fancy shiny automobiles, no flashy clothes, where food and shelter are appreciated for what they are gifts from God, and all else is expendable and not needed, nor most often not affordable.
In the end my message is like that of the commentator on the You Tube page, leave these people alone, don't give then what America has for God's sake!
Leave these children alone they aren't give me, give me babies like we have here in America, Muslim or other, they understand sacrifice and in light of the true Gospel of Jesus Christ, they probably have more light than our churched children here in America..
At the end of all things, I know that their sacrifice doesnt mean anything toward their eternal salvation.. but who said salvation isnt about this life? I believe that God see's these Children and loves them, and reveals Himself to them and even may bring them the light of the TRUE GOSPEL OF JESUS CHRIST, though in truth their young lives reveal more of it then most of any children I have yet to see in America!
What does that say for the children here in America?
They don't don't understand sacrificial living, they are the "GIVE ME GENERATION", not the let me "GIVE TO YOU", children you can find in many other places in the world, regardless of their religious beliefs, they show more of who God is, through their lives lived then most children in America, who have been preached a false gospel of promised prosperity that they are suppose to deserve. Our problem is love is not taught to children by giving them everything they demand, love is taught when they learn sacrifice for others. Is this not the love of God, that God so loved the world HE GAVE His only begotten Son, that who so ever should believe in Him shall have eternal life and shall not perish!
Let our children learn from others, give them some good programming on television to watch besides MTV and it's likes. Children's perceptions of how life is to be lived comes first from their parents, then those things that they spend their other time doing.. Believe it, these are the facts. What lesson are you teaching your children?
Let it be the lesson of sacrifice but let it be a lesson whereby they must learn to sacrifice as well for others.
With love and prayers for our children, I close.
Doctor J.
Thursday, September 17, 2009
DEEP BLUE MORALITY
I like most people often waste valuable time watching the "tube". I have been watching a new series program on TNT called "Deep Blue". The show is suppose to reveal the lives of those who work undercover narcotics with the Police Department.
Last night's show was interesting because it exposes the hypocrisy of lying, cheating and even setting up crime scenes by law enforcement to accomplish what they may call their objective in the end for "the good" of all.
The story is about the main Character "Carter" who heads up a team of undercover narc officers. In the story I wathced last evening, the main character shoots a DEA officer, and then lies his way through the investigation into the shooting. The hard nose investigator, really digs in on Carter, and before long has motive for Carter killing the DEA agent. It seems the DEA agent was the fiance of Carter's ex-wife, who had a baby with the agent. By all appearances Carter killed him out of jealousy over this relationship, as he has even refused to divorce her over the years.
Though Carter and the dead DEA agent worked together for five years in police work previously in L.A. it appears that this hard driving Federal Investigator is about to get her man, and bury Carter for murder.
Break away...earlier while on his suppose buy with the DEA agent, his own team on hearing the shots fired rushed to the scene from up on a hill to find Carter holding the gun in his hand telling his team to get out of there, telling his team you didnt see anything, you weren't here. Carter tells them it is best, through the whole investigation by the FEDS of Carter - the undercover narc officer now possibly facing homicide charges, keeps up with the same barage to his team stay out of it. The problem is the story Carter tells the FEDs has big holes in it, and the team knows it, and their loyalty to him, to their careers and to truth, whatever that is they find being tested. They face their own doubts. In so doing they do their own investigating and in so doing do discover, that the DEA agent had 6 drug deals for COKE but yet no one was busted. So now they are pretty sure that the DEA is dirty..
Meantime Carter in his discussion with one of his team, he gives him some money and tells him to give it to a guy at City Hall. His team member complies, and tells him later everything is in place. not knowing what is going on.
The test comes, for the team, the investigator to test their loyalty has one of her people in Special Crimes make a job offer to one of the guys.. The lone female undercover officer is tested as well she can tell the truth and leave with her boyfriend who just landed a big job with a top LAW firm in San Francisco, the other guy he is busy finally going to the crime scene where they could find no other bullet fragments or bullets from the supposed Blue Car with shooters in it, that Carter tells showed up drawing down on Carter and the DEA agent, where in trying to protect the DEA agent from one of the dealers Carter claims he accidentily shot the DEA agent instead of the PERP...Thus the investigation lead strongly that Carter lied about the blue car and the dealers with guns who took them on. The agent who seems the most loyal to Carter and has little hestitancy playing along with Carter, delivering the money to the guy at City Hall, he goes out to the Crime Scene and manages to draw away the two officers guarding the scene so he can plant some drop shells, and bullet fragments in the area, to vindicate Carter's story.
The ex- wife's testimony pretty much establishes that Carter wasnt jealous, the bullets are found, Carter's team holds out in their interrogation and the story sticks and Carter goes free.
In the end, it turns out that Carter had gone to the scene with his ex-partner DEA agent, to talk him out of being dirty, for it turns out he was doing some dealing on his own, and making some money. All from Cocaine sells, while he was working on one of the largest Heroin rings in the area. Carter got into an argument with the DEA agent who drew his gun on Carter,thinking he was going to burn him for his dirty dealing and Carter shot him in self defense... the team ask, why didnt he just come clean about his old friend that he had gone dirty and tell what really happened.
The reason Carter knows the danger of working the dirty business of doing undercover work. The toughest work a cop can do, for he has to become, just like those he is investigating yet somehow maintain his mission and law abiding enforcement officer sworn duty. He has seen it before some FLIP OUT.. turn into being just like those they are investigating and are soon dirty cops!
The show closes telling the whole story.
Carter delivers a package that he has to his ex-wife, telling her it is the Divorce papers. She looks at him through her tears and mourning and ask, "why now"?.. He had refused for years to give her the divorce and now he wants to. Her lover is dead, at his hands. He tells her inside the package she will find something else for her, a marriage license, to which was issued 11 months previous, that her and the DEA Agent were married and she is to say he just didnt want to tell the Bureau he was married yet. He tells her, he died a hero, and now she is entitled to full benefits for her husband" who died in the line of duty. His friend at City Hall fixed it all for the sum of money of course. Money buys anything in this business. I spent some 20 years in private investigations, I know!
Now we have a nice ending, seems like a good thing to do. Carter is such a good guy he hung is on butt on the line to save his former partners reputation as a DEA officer and give his ex-wife and the guys child his name, her money and ,,,the tears!
What can we learn from all this typical moral story?
Not much.
When I was in college I remember studying Fletcher's Situation Ethics..
The theorem was that any situation if the actions taken whether good or evil work out in the end toward the objective of the love of another, then it is good!
This the same kind of morality that all of America understands. It doesnt matter if those who say they uphold the law, become as evil as those they seek to bring to justice as long as their title is law enforcer or government and the guy they are getting is civilian crook or terrorist. The end justifies the means..
What hogwash hypocrisy!
What people dont understand this is hypocrisy, clean on the outside by position but rotten to the core by character.
Fletcher proposes for example some highly not probable scenarios in his writing..
Let's create one like he does in his book, if the highest objective is to love others the golden rule to love others as yourself, then lets take that objective to the extreme. Let's say a male along with a female are taken hostage by terrorist, and the terrorist showing off his power over the two, tells the male he must rape the girl while he watches or he will shoot the girl. What is the greater act of love Fletcher would propose- to rape the girl and let the Terrorist watch so that she might live or let the Terrorist kill her. This is situational ethics it is the same game lie that plays in politicians brains, law enforcement and even individuals, it is called the "end justifies the means to obtain the objective". So therefore it is good in the minds of most to do wrong if they think the over all purpose to their judgement of what is right or wrong will be that the end result is good. Whatever it takes to reach that goal is necessary, lying, cheating, whatever, as long as in the end the goal is achieved. Thus in the world for Narcotics officers, they have to sometimes use drugs, act like a criminal or whatever to get the target, that's OK!
Thus we have governmental officials who right now on the debate over healthcare, thinking that in the end if the government arbitrarily makes the life and death decisions involved in healthcare that is good! So what if a few old folks are turned down health care so the younger one's can obtain health care that was denied the old folks. In the long run, isn't it better to let those die who in not but a few years will die anyway/ These who really are a drain on the economics of America because they are no longer producers but takers, in Social Security money, Medicare, and more. Why not keep the young healthy? They will produce more for years to come, in tax money and labor for the rich and the elite of this country. thus the goal of a better society is achieved for (all) by forsaking the few- the old and decrepit,the terminally ill, those who will die soon anyway.
Do you see the circle of thinking in terms of good and evil. Good can become evil and evil can become good. It all depends on who is in charge making the rules. Those in power are the one's who make the rules, whether good or evil, but all they have to do is proclaim what they do as good even when it is equal to the evil that others do that they power over. Another example, we Americans went with the Bush argument that Saddam was killing innocent people, torturing others. We had to stop him at any cost. We were shocked at Hitler's henchman and their torture of the Jews in World War 2, but today because we believe we are righteous it is "good" to torture alleged Terrorist. On this I do agree with Obama, it lowers our values to theirs for human life.
This is the plight of men who live by the letter of the law versus the Spirit.
Holiness far exceeds good and evil thus God's actions will never be understood through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A man must be enlightened by the very Spirit of God living within them to understand GOOD. Jesus told the rich young ruler that called him good, that only God is good!
The shame of television is it plays the situational ethics game in almost every show ever watched. It leaves the viewers with no better philosophy of life then they live in this world or they live out themselves. It does display the fact of life, that no one can escape that the Bible makes clear, before God all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Thus what man can judge another man. Only God can truly judge in righteousness for He is righteous and man is just another man, evil and good about him in no matter what he does. He has only one hope and that is to be born of the Spirit and have the one true God's character instilled into his life. Thus as Paul wrote, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
There are none righteous not one!
Arent you thankful that if you have Christ inside, you can live above man's concepts of right and wrong and by faith, be the LAW...for He inside of you is the one that fulfills it to the crossing of the T to the dotting of the I... and there are none righteous except Him who is above all authority both in heaven and on earth. Grace is a beautiful thing to behold as we appear into His face who brings grace!
Dr. J.
Last night's show was interesting because it exposes the hypocrisy of lying, cheating and even setting up crime scenes by law enforcement to accomplish what they may call their objective in the end for "the good" of all.
The story is about the main Character "Carter" who heads up a team of undercover narc officers. In the story I wathced last evening, the main character shoots a DEA officer, and then lies his way through the investigation into the shooting. The hard nose investigator, really digs in on Carter, and before long has motive for Carter killing the DEA agent. It seems the DEA agent was the fiance of Carter's ex-wife, who had a baby with the agent. By all appearances Carter killed him out of jealousy over this relationship, as he has even refused to divorce her over the years.
Though Carter and the dead DEA agent worked together for five years in police work previously in L.A. it appears that this hard driving Federal Investigator is about to get her man, and bury Carter for murder.
Break away...earlier while on his suppose buy with the DEA agent, his own team on hearing the shots fired rushed to the scene from up on a hill to find Carter holding the gun in his hand telling his team to get out of there, telling his team you didnt see anything, you weren't here. Carter tells them it is best, through the whole investigation by the FEDS of Carter - the undercover narc officer now possibly facing homicide charges, keeps up with the same barage to his team stay out of it. The problem is the story Carter tells the FEDs has big holes in it, and the team knows it, and their loyalty to him, to their careers and to truth, whatever that is they find being tested. They face their own doubts. In so doing they do their own investigating and in so doing do discover, that the DEA agent had 6 drug deals for COKE but yet no one was busted. So now they are pretty sure that the DEA is dirty..
Meantime Carter in his discussion with one of his team, he gives him some money and tells him to give it to a guy at City Hall. His team member complies, and tells him later everything is in place. not knowing what is going on.
The test comes, for the team, the investigator to test their loyalty has one of her people in Special Crimes make a job offer to one of the guys.. The lone female undercover officer is tested as well she can tell the truth and leave with her boyfriend who just landed a big job with a top LAW firm in San Francisco, the other guy he is busy finally going to the crime scene where they could find no other bullet fragments or bullets from the supposed Blue Car with shooters in it, that Carter tells showed up drawing down on Carter and the DEA agent, where in trying to protect the DEA agent from one of the dealers Carter claims he accidentily shot the DEA agent instead of the PERP...Thus the investigation lead strongly that Carter lied about the blue car and the dealers with guns who took them on. The agent who seems the most loyal to Carter and has little hestitancy playing along with Carter, delivering the money to the guy at City Hall, he goes out to the Crime Scene and manages to draw away the two officers guarding the scene so he can plant some drop shells, and bullet fragments in the area, to vindicate Carter's story.
The ex- wife's testimony pretty much establishes that Carter wasnt jealous, the bullets are found, Carter's team holds out in their interrogation and the story sticks and Carter goes free.
In the end, it turns out that Carter had gone to the scene with his ex-partner DEA agent, to talk him out of being dirty, for it turns out he was doing some dealing on his own, and making some money. All from Cocaine sells, while he was working on one of the largest Heroin rings in the area. Carter got into an argument with the DEA agent who drew his gun on Carter,thinking he was going to burn him for his dirty dealing and Carter shot him in self defense... the team ask, why didnt he just come clean about his old friend that he had gone dirty and tell what really happened.
The reason Carter knows the danger of working the dirty business of doing undercover work. The toughest work a cop can do, for he has to become, just like those he is investigating yet somehow maintain his mission and law abiding enforcement officer sworn duty. He has seen it before some FLIP OUT.. turn into being just like those they are investigating and are soon dirty cops!
The show closes telling the whole story.
Carter delivers a package that he has to his ex-wife, telling her it is the Divorce papers. She looks at him through her tears and mourning and ask, "why now"?.. He had refused for years to give her the divorce and now he wants to. Her lover is dead, at his hands. He tells her inside the package she will find something else for her, a marriage license, to which was issued 11 months previous, that her and the DEA Agent were married and she is to say he just didnt want to tell the Bureau he was married yet. He tells her, he died a hero, and now she is entitled to full benefits for her husband" who died in the line of duty. His friend at City Hall fixed it all for the sum of money of course. Money buys anything in this business. I spent some 20 years in private investigations, I know!
Now we have a nice ending, seems like a good thing to do. Carter is such a good guy he hung is on butt on the line to save his former partners reputation as a DEA officer and give his ex-wife and the guys child his name, her money and ,,,the tears!
What can we learn from all this typical moral story?
Not much.
When I was in college I remember studying Fletcher's Situation Ethics..
The theorem was that any situation if the actions taken whether good or evil work out in the end toward the objective of the love of another, then it is good!
This the same kind of morality that all of America understands. It doesnt matter if those who say they uphold the law, become as evil as those they seek to bring to justice as long as their title is law enforcer or government and the guy they are getting is civilian crook or terrorist. The end justifies the means..
What hogwash hypocrisy!
What people dont understand this is hypocrisy, clean on the outside by position but rotten to the core by character.
Fletcher proposes for example some highly not probable scenarios in his writing..
Let's create one like he does in his book, if the highest objective is to love others the golden rule to love others as yourself, then lets take that objective to the extreme. Let's say a male along with a female are taken hostage by terrorist, and the terrorist showing off his power over the two, tells the male he must rape the girl while he watches or he will shoot the girl. What is the greater act of love Fletcher would propose- to rape the girl and let the Terrorist watch so that she might live or let the Terrorist kill her. This is situational ethics it is the same game lie that plays in politicians brains, law enforcement and even individuals, it is called the "end justifies the means to obtain the objective". So therefore it is good in the minds of most to do wrong if they think the over all purpose to their judgement of what is right or wrong will be that the end result is good. Whatever it takes to reach that goal is necessary, lying, cheating, whatever, as long as in the end the goal is achieved. Thus in the world for Narcotics officers, they have to sometimes use drugs, act like a criminal or whatever to get the target, that's OK!
Thus we have governmental officials who right now on the debate over healthcare, thinking that in the end if the government arbitrarily makes the life and death decisions involved in healthcare that is good! So what if a few old folks are turned down health care so the younger one's can obtain health care that was denied the old folks. In the long run, isn't it better to let those die who in not but a few years will die anyway/ These who really are a drain on the economics of America because they are no longer producers but takers, in Social Security money, Medicare, and more. Why not keep the young healthy? They will produce more for years to come, in tax money and labor for the rich and the elite of this country. thus the goal of a better society is achieved for (all) by forsaking the few- the old and decrepit,the terminally ill, those who will die soon anyway.
Do you see the circle of thinking in terms of good and evil. Good can become evil and evil can become good. It all depends on who is in charge making the rules. Those in power are the one's who make the rules, whether good or evil, but all they have to do is proclaim what they do as good even when it is equal to the evil that others do that they power over. Another example, we Americans went with the Bush argument that Saddam was killing innocent people, torturing others. We had to stop him at any cost. We were shocked at Hitler's henchman and their torture of the Jews in World War 2, but today because we believe we are righteous it is "good" to torture alleged Terrorist. On this I do agree with Obama, it lowers our values to theirs for human life.
This is the plight of men who live by the letter of the law versus the Spirit.
Holiness far exceeds good and evil thus God's actions will never be understood through the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A man must be enlightened by the very Spirit of God living within them to understand GOOD. Jesus told the rich young ruler that called him good, that only God is good!
The shame of television is it plays the situational ethics game in almost every show ever watched. It leaves the viewers with no better philosophy of life then they live in this world or they live out themselves. It does display the fact of life, that no one can escape that the Bible makes clear, before God all have sinned and come short of the glory of God. Thus what man can judge another man. Only God can truly judge in righteousness for He is righteous and man is just another man, evil and good about him in no matter what he does. He has only one hope and that is to be born of the Spirit and have the one true God's character instilled into his life. Thus as Paul wrote, Christ in you, the hope of glory.
There are none righteous not one!
Arent you thankful that if you have Christ inside, you can live above man's concepts of right and wrong and by faith, be the LAW...for He inside of you is the one that fulfills it to the crossing of the T to the dotting of the I... and there are none righteous except Him who is above all authority both in heaven and on earth. Grace is a beautiful thing to behold as we appear into His face who brings grace!
Dr. J.
Sunday, July 5, 2009
The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men
Just a little history for the day after the Fourth of July in America. Most individuals know I do not beleive in violence or war, or rebellion as a Christian. I do beleive we are to pray for leaders and peace so that we may live out our Christian faith peacefully, tend to our families, feed them and ourselves and clothe and house them and ourselves. However, what shall we do when government becomes so oppresive as that believers cannot enjoy our God given right to peace, and freedom without license.
I dont' believe that God wants us to sit back silently, as I beleive very strongly that we live in the Kingdom of God, as a Preterist, however I also believe it is our duty as Christians to support freedom in ways that are neither violent or zealous beyond Biblical reason and the life of Christ within us.
I found it of interest that the belief system of the days of our forefathers in this country, that people thought very differently other than the Quakers who think more like myself. I make no oath to no one, no institution or nation, but to serve it in Christ, however, even Paul and Peter once it got down to obedience towards God or men, chose God- and thus when commanded to cease from preaching Jesus Christ or proclaiming Ceasar a god, they did rebel against authority and did what they were told not to do anyway. They never lifted a weapon or fought back ,they simply followed their King Jesus in the same manner He did, they suffered and died at the hands of their persecutors. They practiced civil disobedience not for the affairs of men but for God. Even as Paul said, he was compelled to preach Christ.
Though I do not agree with what follows it is a large part of American History and bears repeating as a reminder, to those that always seek to power over others, there will be others who rebel many times it will be the religious and lead by the religious.
Though the following is an outline of just such a man who was both a preacher and a statesman, it is to remind us, that it is easy to be caught up in the moment of resistance against oppression, to often turn to religious justifications as this sermon delivered by John Witherspoon on May 17, 1776 just a month before the Declaration of Independence was signed in July 1776 and finally completed in it's signing in August of 1776. Here is a little background into the Scottish preacher John Witherspoon and then I have presented his sermon as preached in May 1776, that gave great religious fervor to the Revolution in 1776.
John Witherspoon (1723–1794). Born in Scotland and educated at Edinburgh, Witherspoon came to America in 1768 to be president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), a position he held until 1792, when blindness forced his retirement. He had led the Popular Party among Scottish Presbyterians before his emigration, and he was prominent among ecclesiastical leaders in America. In the pre-Revolutionary years, the college at Princeton prospered under Witherspoon; with the Scotch-Irish influx into America, the Presbyterian church enjoyed great popularity and prosperity in the country, especially in the middle Atlantic colonies and on the frontier, where by 1776 there were many ministers who had been Witherspoon’s students. He closed the schism among the Presbyterians, and he made alliance with Ezra Stiles (president of Yale) to forge strong ties with the Congregationalists of New England as the Revolution bore down on the country. With Stiles he shared a distaste for the New Divinity and revivalism generally. He introduced into American thought the Scottish Common Sense philosophy of Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart, which dominated the young nation’s thought for a century.
Because Witherspoon had been captured and imprisoned in Scotland during the Highlander uprising in 1745–46, his critics called him a Jacobite. Witherspoon eschewed politics in America until 1774, but after that he steadily participated, directly and indirectly, in the leading events of the day. In 1776 he was elected to the Continental Congress in time to urge adoption of the Declaration of Independence and to be the only clergyman to sign it. To the assertion that America was not ripe for independence he retorted: “In my judgment, sir, we are not only ripe, but rotting.”
Witherspoon served intermittently in Congress until 1782 and was a member of over a hundred legislative committees, including two vital standing committees, the Board of War and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In the latter role, he took a leading part in drawing up the instructions for the American peace commissioners who concluded the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in September 1783. He later served in the New Jersey legislature and was a member of that state’s ratifying convention for the Constitution in 1787.
Witherspoon has been called the most influential professor in American history, not only because of his powerful writing and speaking style—and he was carefully attended to on all subjects, both here and abroad—but also because of his long tenure at Princeton. His teaching and the reforms he made there radiated his influence across the country. He trained not only a substantial segment of the leadership among Presbyterians but a number of political leaders as well. Nine of the fifty-five participants in the Federal Convention in 1787 were Princeton graduates, chief among them James Madison (who, among other things, spent an extra year studying Hebrew and philosophy with Witherspoon after his graduation in 1771). Moreover, his pupils included a president and a vice-president of the United States, twenty-one senators, twenty-nine representatives, fifty-six state legislators, and thirty-three judges, three of whom were appointed to the Supreme Court. During the Revolution, his pupils were everywhere in positions of command in the American forces.
Witherspoon’s The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men caused a great stir when it was first preached in Princeton and published in Philadelphia in 1776, about a month before he was elected to the Continental Congress on June 22. He reminds his auditors that the sermon is his first address on political matters from the pulpit: ministers of the Gospel have more important business to attend to than secular crises, but, of course, liberty is more than a merely secular matter.
Surely the Wrath of Man shall praise thee; the remainder of Wrath shalt thou restrain.
(How the final statement of his can fit into what both Jesus and Paul taught is beyond me, but religious men believed it and fought the war under it's religious justifications to formulate this country which we live in now) - Dr. J.
Here is the sermon as he preached it back then in May 1776
The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men
John Witherspoon
May 17, 1775
Print this Page.
In the first place, I would take the opportunity on this occasion, and from this subject, to press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own soul’s salvation. There are times when the mind may be expected to be more awake to divine truth, and the conscience more open to the arrows of conviction than at others. A season of public judgment is of this kind. Can you have a clearer view of the sinfulness of your nature, than when the rod of the oppressor is lifted up, and when you see men putting on the habit of the warrior, and collecting on every hand the weapons of hostility and instruments of death? I do not blame your ardour in preparing for the resolute defense of your temporal rights; but consider, I beseech you, the truly infinite importance of the salvation of your souls. Is it of much moment whether you and your children shall be rich or poor, at liberty or in bonds? Is it of much moment whether this beautiful country shall increase in fruitfulness from year to year, being cultivated by active industry, and possessed by independent freemen, or the scanty produce of the neglected fields shall be eaten up by hungry publicans, while the timid owner trembles at the tax-gatherer’s approach? And is it of less moment, my brethren, whether you shall be the heirs of glory, or the heirs of hell? Is your state on earth for a few fleeting years, of so much moment? And is it of less moment what shall be your state through endless ages? Have you assembled together willingly to hear what shall be said on public affairs, and to join in imploring the blessing of God on the counsels and arms of the United Colonies, and can you be unconcerned what shall become of you for ever, when all the monuments of human greatness shall be laid in ashes, for "the earth itself, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up."
Wherefore, my beloved hearers, as the ministry of reconciliation is committed to me, I beseech you in the most earnest manner, to attend to "the things that belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes". How soon, and in what manner a seal shall be set upon the character and state of every person here present, it is impossible to know. But you may rest assured, that there is no time more suitable, and there is none so safe as that which is present, since it is wholy uncertain whether any other shall be yours. Those who shall first fall in battle, have not many more warnings to receive. There are some few daring and hardened sinners, who despise eternity itself, and set their Maker at defiance; but the far greater number, by staving off their convictions to a more convenient season, have been taken unprepared, and thus eternally lost. I would therefore earnestly press the apostle’s exhortation, 2 Cor 6: 1-2... "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
Suffer me to beseech you, or rather to give you warning, not to rest satisfied with a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. There can be no true religion, till there be a discovery of your lost state by nature and practice, and an unfeigned acceptance of Christ Jesus, as he is offered in the gospel. Unhappy are they who either despise his mercy, or are ashamed of his cross. Believe it, "There is no salvation in any other." "There is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved." Unless you are united to him by a lively faith, not the resentment of a haughty monarch, the sword of divine justice hangs over you, and the fulness of divine vengeance shall speedily overtake you. I do not speak this only to the heaven-daring profligate or grovelling sensualist, but to every insensible, secure sinner; to all those, however decent and orderly in their civil deportment, who live to themselves, and have their part and portion in this life; in fine, to all who are yet in a state of nature, for "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". The fear of man may make you hide your profanity; prudence and experience may make you abhor intemperance and riot; as you advance in life one vice may supplant another and hold its place; but nothing less than the sovereign grace of God can produce a saving change of heart and temper, or fit you for his immediate presence.
While we give praise to God, the supreme Disposer of all events, for his interposition in our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in, or boasting of an arm of flesh. I could earnestly wish, that while our arms are crowned with success, we might content ourselves with a modest ascription of it to the power of the Highest. It has given me great uneasiness to read some ostentatious, vaunting expressions in our newspapers, though happily, I think, much restrained of late. Let us not return to them again. If I am not mistaken, not only the Holy Scriptures in general, and the truths of the glorious gospel in particular, but the whole course of providence, seem intended to abase the pride of man, and lay the vain-glorious in the dust.
From what has been said you may learn what encouragement you have to put your trust in God, and hope for his assistance in the present important conflict. He is the Lord of hosts, great in might, and strong in battle. Whoever hath his countenance and approbation, shall have the best at last. I do not mean to speak prophetically, but agreeably to the analogy of faith, and the principles of God’s moral government. I leave this as a matter rather of conjecture than certainty, but observe, that if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.
If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of unsurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.
--
Comment: I can only say when men take scripture and things that are meant clearly to be spiritual in context then revert them to the carnal affairs of men, it is easy to see how in the religious mind, all kinds of justifications are found for all kinds of acts that any man can find solace in his action, though totally unscriptural and anti-biblical just as those who turn our Lord Jesus into G.I. Jesus, or like the anti-abortionist who seek to kill those who perform abortions. They have left the context of scripture, which Jesus reminds us, that life can't be found in it, neither is it a book of rules whereby we live our carnal lives, they are that which speak of Him, Jesus Christ who is KING OVER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF MEN, for it was He who said, "All Authority has been given unto me, in heaven and on earth". The affairs of government, and others lives, are not our affair but His, and His alone, and it is He who is judge, and will judge others, not we ourselves. How we forget so easily that Christ didnt come to establish an earthly kingdom of government among all people but an inward one in the hearts of His people who are here on earth being prepared for heaven, where there is no war, no death, no sin or men and their governments which will rise and fall always. Rome fell, and yes, sad to say as an American we are seeing the last vestiges of freedom in our country coming to a close as well. Is a revolution in store, probably and perhaps but should Christians lead it, my answer and I having the Spirit of Christ believe the answer for us is still, "No". Leave the affairs of men to men, there will be governments arise that are for individual freedom as history reveals, and there will be governments fall of despotism, like Rome and now America. Yes, we have a heritage but it is not our heritage of Americans that we need recall, it is our heritage and first most of being subjects, and not just subjects of the King but brothers to Christ, and Son's of the Father which must always guard our hearts against the idea's of any sort of justified violence against any of the kingdoms of this world. They will always be there, and they will always oppose God and the freedoms of Christ people, as they did Him, but our answer should remain...."Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord", and not ours, even at cost of our own individual lives under the oppression and hands of the persecutor, whoever that may be, another government or our own. We are to remain at peace with the Prince of peace..
Dr. J.
I dont' believe that God wants us to sit back silently, as I beleive very strongly that we live in the Kingdom of God, as a Preterist, however I also believe it is our duty as Christians to support freedom in ways that are neither violent or zealous beyond Biblical reason and the life of Christ within us.
I found it of interest that the belief system of the days of our forefathers in this country, that people thought very differently other than the Quakers who think more like myself. I make no oath to no one, no institution or nation, but to serve it in Christ, however, even Paul and Peter once it got down to obedience towards God or men, chose God- and thus when commanded to cease from preaching Jesus Christ or proclaiming Ceasar a god, they did rebel against authority and did what they were told not to do anyway. They never lifted a weapon or fought back ,they simply followed their King Jesus in the same manner He did, they suffered and died at the hands of their persecutors. They practiced civil disobedience not for the affairs of men but for God. Even as Paul said, he was compelled to preach Christ.
Though I do not agree with what follows it is a large part of American History and bears repeating as a reminder, to those that always seek to power over others, there will be others who rebel many times it will be the religious and lead by the religious.
Though the following is an outline of just such a man who was both a preacher and a statesman, it is to remind us, that it is easy to be caught up in the moment of resistance against oppression, to often turn to religious justifications as this sermon delivered by John Witherspoon on May 17, 1776 just a month before the Declaration of Independence was signed in July 1776 and finally completed in it's signing in August of 1776. Here is a little background into the Scottish preacher John Witherspoon and then I have presented his sermon as preached in May 1776, that gave great religious fervor to the Revolution in 1776.
John Witherspoon (1723–1794). Born in Scotland and educated at Edinburgh, Witherspoon came to America in 1768 to be president of the College of New Jersey (Princeton), a position he held until 1792, when blindness forced his retirement. He had led the Popular Party among Scottish Presbyterians before his emigration, and he was prominent among ecclesiastical leaders in America. In the pre-Revolutionary years, the college at Princeton prospered under Witherspoon; with the Scotch-Irish influx into America, the Presbyterian church enjoyed great popularity and prosperity in the country, especially in the middle Atlantic colonies and on the frontier, where by 1776 there were many ministers who had been Witherspoon’s students. He closed the schism among the Presbyterians, and he made alliance with Ezra Stiles (president of Yale) to forge strong ties with the Congregationalists of New England as the Revolution bore down on the country. With Stiles he shared a distaste for the New Divinity and revivalism generally. He introduced into American thought the Scottish Common Sense philosophy of Thomas Reid and Dugald Stewart, which dominated the young nation’s thought for a century.
Because Witherspoon had been captured and imprisoned in Scotland during the Highlander uprising in 1745–46, his critics called him a Jacobite. Witherspoon eschewed politics in America until 1774, but after that he steadily participated, directly and indirectly, in the leading events of the day. In 1776 he was elected to the Continental Congress in time to urge adoption of the Declaration of Independence and to be the only clergyman to sign it. To the assertion that America was not ripe for independence he retorted: “In my judgment, sir, we are not only ripe, but rotting.”
Witherspoon served intermittently in Congress until 1782 and was a member of over a hundred legislative committees, including two vital standing committees, the Board of War and the Committee on Foreign Affairs. In the latter role, he took a leading part in drawing up the instructions for the American peace commissioners who concluded the Treaty of Paris, which ended the war in September 1783. He later served in the New Jersey legislature and was a member of that state’s ratifying convention for the Constitution in 1787.
Witherspoon has been called the most influential professor in American history, not only because of his powerful writing and speaking style—and he was carefully attended to on all subjects, both here and abroad—but also because of his long tenure at Princeton. His teaching and the reforms he made there radiated his influence across the country. He trained not only a substantial segment of the leadership among Presbyterians but a number of political leaders as well. Nine of the fifty-five participants in the Federal Convention in 1787 were Princeton graduates, chief among them James Madison (who, among other things, spent an extra year studying Hebrew and philosophy with Witherspoon after his graduation in 1771). Moreover, his pupils included a president and a vice-president of the United States, twenty-one senators, twenty-nine representatives, fifty-six state legislators, and thirty-three judges, three of whom were appointed to the Supreme Court. During the Revolution, his pupils were everywhere in positions of command in the American forces.
Witherspoon’s The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men caused a great stir when it was first preached in Princeton and published in Philadelphia in 1776, about a month before he was elected to the Continental Congress on June 22. He reminds his auditors that the sermon is his first address on political matters from the pulpit: ministers of the Gospel have more important business to attend to than secular crises, but, of course, liberty is more than a merely secular matter.
Surely the Wrath of Man shall praise thee; the remainder of Wrath shalt thou restrain.
(How the final statement of his can fit into what both Jesus and Paul taught is beyond me, but religious men believed it and fought the war under it's religious justifications to formulate this country which we live in now) - Dr. J.
Here is the sermon as he preached it back then in May 1776
The Dominion of Providence Over the Passions of Men
John Witherspoon
May 17, 1775
Print this Page.
In the first place, I would take the opportunity on this occasion, and from this subject, to press every hearer to a sincere concern for his own soul’s salvation. There are times when the mind may be expected to be more awake to divine truth, and the conscience more open to the arrows of conviction than at others. A season of public judgment is of this kind. Can you have a clearer view of the sinfulness of your nature, than when the rod of the oppressor is lifted up, and when you see men putting on the habit of the warrior, and collecting on every hand the weapons of hostility and instruments of death? I do not blame your ardour in preparing for the resolute defense of your temporal rights; but consider, I beseech you, the truly infinite importance of the salvation of your souls. Is it of much moment whether you and your children shall be rich or poor, at liberty or in bonds? Is it of much moment whether this beautiful country shall increase in fruitfulness from year to year, being cultivated by active industry, and possessed by independent freemen, or the scanty produce of the neglected fields shall be eaten up by hungry publicans, while the timid owner trembles at the tax-gatherer’s approach? And is it of less moment, my brethren, whether you shall be the heirs of glory, or the heirs of hell? Is your state on earth for a few fleeting years, of so much moment? And is it of less moment what shall be your state through endless ages? Have you assembled together willingly to hear what shall be said on public affairs, and to join in imploring the blessing of God on the counsels and arms of the United Colonies, and can you be unconcerned what shall become of you for ever, when all the monuments of human greatness shall be laid in ashes, for "the earth itself, and all the works that are therein shall be burnt up."
Wherefore, my beloved hearers, as the ministry of reconciliation is committed to me, I beseech you in the most earnest manner, to attend to "the things that belong to your peace, before they are hid from your eyes". How soon, and in what manner a seal shall be set upon the character and state of every person here present, it is impossible to know. But you may rest assured, that there is no time more suitable, and there is none so safe as that which is present, since it is wholy uncertain whether any other shall be yours. Those who shall first fall in battle, have not many more warnings to receive. There are some few daring and hardened sinners, who despise eternity itself, and set their Maker at defiance; but the far greater number, by staving off their convictions to a more convenient season, have been taken unprepared, and thus eternally lost. I would therefore earnestly press the apostle’s exhortation, 2 Cor 6: 1-2... "Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation."
Suffer me to beseech you, or rather to give you warning, not to rest satisfied with a form of godliness, denying the power thereof. There can be no true religion, till there be a discovery of your lost state by nature and practice, and an unfeigned acceptance of Christ Jesus, as he is offered in the gospel. Unhappy are they who either despise his mercy, or are ashamed of his cross. Believe it, "There is no salvation in any other." "There is no other name under heaven given amongst men by which we must be saved." Unless you are united to him by a lively faith, not the resentment of a haughty monarch, the sword of divine justice hangs over you, and the fulness of divine vengeance shall speedily overtake you. I do not speak this only to the heaven-daring profligate or grovelling sensualist, but to every insensible, secure sinner; to all those, however decent and orderly in their civil deportment, who live to themselves, and have their part and portion in this life; in fine, to all who are yet in a state of nature, for "except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God". The fear of man may make you hide your profanity; prudence and experience may make you abhor intemperance and riot; as you advance in life one vice may supplant another and hold its place; but nothing less than the sovereign grace of God can produce a saving change of heart and temper, or fit you for his immediate presence.
While we give praise to God, the supreme Disposer of all events, for his interposition in our behalf, let us guard against the dangerous error of trusting in, or boasting of an arm of flesh. I could earnestly wish, that while our arms are crowned with success, we might content ourselves with a modest ascription of it to the power of the Highest. It has given me great uneasiness to read some ostentatious, vaunting expressions in our newspapers, though happily, I think, much restrained of late. Let us not return to them again. If I am not mistaken, not only the Holy Scriptures in general, and the truths of the glorious gospel in particular, but the whole course of providence, seem intended to abase the pride of man, and lay the vain-glorious in the dust.
From what has been said you may learn what encouragement you have to put your trust in God, and hope for his assistance in the present important conflict. He is the Lord of hosts, great in might, and strong in battle. Whoever hath his countenance and approbation, shall have the best at last. I do not mean to speak prophetically, but agreeably to the analogy of faith, and the principles of God’s moral government. I leave this as a matter rather of conjecture than certainty, but observe, that if your conduct is prudent, you need not fear the multitude of opposing hosts.
If your cause is just, you may look with confidence to the Lord, and intreat him to plead it as his own. You are all my witnesses, that this is the first time of my introducing any political subject into the pulpit. At this season, however, it is not only lawful but necessary, and I willingly embrace the opportunity of declaring my opinion without any hesitation, that the cause in which America is now in arms, is the cause of justice, of liberty, and of human nature. So far as we have hitherto proceeded, I am satisfied that the confederacy of the colonies has not been the effect of pride, resentment, or sedition, but of a deep and general conviction that our civil and religious liberties, and consequently in a great measure the temporal and eternal happiness of us and our posterity, depended on the issue. The knowledge of God and his truths have from the beginning of the world been chiefly, if not entirely confined to those parts of the earth where some degree of liberty and political justice were to be seen, and great were the difficulties with which they had to struggle, from the imperfection of human society, and the unjust decisions of unsurped authority. There is not a single instance in history, in which civil liberty was lost, and religious liberty preserved entire. If therefore we yield up our temporal property, we at the same time deliver the conscience into bondage.
--
Comment: I can only say when men take scripture and things that are meant clearly to be spiritual in context then revert them to the carnal affairs of men, it is easy to see how in the religious mind, all kinds of justifications are found for all kinds of acts that any man can find solace in his action, though totally unscriptural and anti-biblical just as those who turn our Lord Jesus into G.I. Jesus, or like the anti-abortionist who seek to kill those who perform abortions. They have left the context of scripture, which Jesus reminds us, that life can't be found in it, neither is it a book of rules whereby we live our carnal lives, they are that which speak of Him, Jesus Christ who is KING OVER ALL THE AFFAIRS OF MEN, for it was He who said, "All Authority has been given unto me, in heaven and on earth". The affairs of government, and others lives, are not our affair but His, and His alone, and it is He who is judge, and will judge others, not we ourselves. How we forget so easily that Christ didnt come to establish an earthly kingdom of government among all people but an inward one in the hearts of His people who are here on earth being prepared for heaven, where there is no war, no death, no sin or men and their governments which will rise and fall always. Rome fell, and yes, sad to say as an American we are seeing the last vestiges of freedom in our country coming to a close as well. Is a revolution in store, probably and perhaps but should Christians lead it, my answer and I having the Spirit of Christ believe the answer for us is still, "No". Leave the affairs of men to men, there will be governments arise that are for individual freedom as history reveals, and there will be governments fall of despotism, like Rome and now America. Yes, we have a heritage but it is not our heritage of Americans that we need recall, it is our heritage and first most of being subjects, and not just subjects of the King but brothers to Christ, and Son's of the Father which must always guard our hearts against the idea's of any sort of justified violence against any of the kingdoms of this world. They will always be there, and they will always oppose God and the freedoms of Christ people, as they did Him, but our answer should remain...."Vengeance is mine, sayeth the Lord", and not ours, even at cost of our own individual lives under the oppression and hands of the persecutor, whoever that may be, another government or our own. We are to remain at peace with the Prince of peace..
Dr. J.
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