Memorial Day, 2019

God’s best blessings to those serving in the American military, to my fellow veterans, and especially to our honored dead; those who lost their lives in the service of our country.  Thank you, and your families, for your service and sacrifice.

Somehow, our best and bravest continue to step up to the plate and bear the burden of defending our freedom for the rest of us.  The following poem is from another era, but it  speaks to the love of duty, honor, and country that General Douglas MacArthur said motivates our military men and women.

To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

by Richard Lovelace

Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,

That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind

To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,

The first foe in the field;

And with a stronger faith embrace

A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee (Dear) so much,

Lov’d I not Honour more.

https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/44658/to-lucasta-going-to-the-wars

To those who are content to let better men and women than themselves do their fighting for them … those who find fault with their actions under fire … those who would judge them and punish them … read how one of our founding fathers felt about that:

They who can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety

deserve neither liberty nor safety.

Benjamin Franklin

https://www.brainyquote.com/search_results?q=Benjamin+Franklin

Fishing

I caught some nice fish last Wednesday; big, deep-bodied cutthroat trout.  They were biting on a yellow Roostertail spinner with black spots, a black skirt, and a silver blade.  We went to a small lake way out in the sticks.  We had the lake to ourselves, and there was almost nobody on the road.

It was a day trip, and we got started late.  So, the fishing was done in the afternoon and evening.  It isn’t getting dark here ‘til about 9:00 PM, and there was plenty of time to fish.  The fish were feeding steadily, and we didn’t need to worry about missing the bite.

We had a good time; good companionship, nice country, and good fishing.  The dogs enjoyed themselves, too, but then dogs never have a bad day.

If we do any good, I’ll tell you about it after our next trip.  It is nice to share the good times.

Then He said to them, "Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men."

(Matthew 4:19 NKJV)

It Can Happen Here

At an Ummah (community) Celebration on April 17, 2019, at the Muslim American Society Islamic Center in North Philadelphia, children gave a recital of various songs, or chants, in Arabic that contained inflammatory language.  Some of the things they said included phrases like: "we will chop off their heads” to “liberate the sorrowful and exalted Al-Aqsa Mosque.” (in Jerusalem)  The recital was subsequently posted on the Internet, and it went viral.  The Muslim American Society said that they were investigating what they labeled an “oversight.”  They said event organizer had been “dismissed.” (1)

Another source reports that the children wore Palestinian scarves and sang the “Revolutionaries’ Anthem,” which is sung by Islamists.  The girls also recited a poem about liberating Palestine.  Other statements included references that could be construed to refer to travel to Palestine to commit suicide bombings:

"Glorious steeds call us and lead us [to] the Al-Aqsa Mosque. The blood of martyrs protects us ... Take us, oh ships ... until we reach our shores and crush the treacherous ones ... Flow, oh rivers of martyrs,” and “we will defend [Palestine] with our bodies." (2)

If you inform yourself about the “radicalization” of children in the Middle East, you will find that they are taught to hate and kill Israelis and Americans from an early age, and that it has been going on for a long time.  It should not come as a surprise that it is happening here.

The Muslim American Society apparently would have us believe that the event in Philadelphia was an isolated incident.  I am highly skeptical.  Dr. Zuhdi Jasser made statements today on national television to the effect that the “radicalization” of children may be occurring frequently in the United States. (3)  He appears to be a credible person.  His online biography describes him as follows:

M. Zuhdi Jasser, M.D. is the Founder and President of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) and Co-Founder of the Muslim Reform Movement. He is also the author of A Battle for the Soul of Islam: An American Muslim Patriot' s Fight to Save His Faith Simon & Schuster, June 2012). On March 20, 2012, Dr. Jasser was appointed by Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) to the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF)where he served two terms both as a Commissioner and Vice-Chair until May 2016. He hosts the new podcast REFORM THIS! On The Blaze Radio Network.

       

A first generation American Muslim, Dr. Jasser's parents fled the oppressive Baath regime of Syria in the mid-1960's for American freedom. A devout Muslim, he and his family have strong ties to the American Muslim community having helped lead mosques in Wisconsin, Arkansas, Virginia and Arizona. (4)

Hate leads to violence.  Hate crimes perpetrated against Christians and Jews are widespread in the Middle East and around the world.  Hate crimes against Jews are on the increase in the United States.  We must be vigilant.  Please support President Trump in his efforts to vet refugees coming here from failed states and to prevent terrorists from exploiting the crisis along the border with Mexico.

Jesus said, "But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to stumble, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were thrown into the sea.” (Mark 9:42 NKJV) (5)  The people who are teaching children to hate, who are inciting blood lust in them, may think they are getting away with it.  However, if they escape justice in this world, God will deal with them in the judgement.

(1)https://www.philly.com/news/muslim-american-society-philadelphia-children-     investigation-20190504.html  (by Kristin E. Holmes)

(2) https://www.washingtonexaminer.com/news/we-will-chop-off-their-heads-young-girl-in-philadelphia-muslim-group-reads-bloodthirsty-poem

(3) Fox Business Chanel, Trish Ragan Prime Time.
(4) http://www.mzuhdijasser.com/about
(5) https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/

Of Geese and Covetousness

Government's view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.

Ronald Reagan

News Reports Indicate that over 20 Democrats have declared their intention to seek their party’s nomination for president in 2020.  Along with other leading voices in the US House of Representatives and the Senate, they all seem to think that there is support for a move toward big government programs paid for by taxes on the rich and big business.  I pray that such support is not sufficient to carry the election in 2020.

For those who are too blinded by ideology to see the good that President Donald Trump’s conservative, capitalist policies have done for the country, let me refer you to Aesop and his fable about the goose that laid golden eggs.

If you remember, the fable tells of a poor but honest farmer and his wife.  No matter how hard they struggled, they could barely make enough to subsist on.  Then a goose wandered onto their farm and began laying eggs of solid gold.  Each day when they checked its nest, the farmer and his wife found one golden egg.  Their neighbors advised them to cut the goose open, so they could get all its golden eggs at once.  In their greed, they did so.  However, they found nothing but the poor creature’s insides, and the goose died.  In their desire to get all the eggs, they lots the chance to keep getting one egg at a time.

Some Democrats, Progressives, Liberals, Democratic Socialists, and whatever are telling us that the rich are getting richer and the poor are getting poorer.  They say that people get rich in a capitalist system by exploiting the poor.  They want us to believe that global warming is our greatest threat, and that overconsumption is causing it.  (YO! It’s your fault.)

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has said that billionaires should be made illegal.  Too bad that she doesn’t feel the same way about people who enter the country illegally.

These Pied Pipers are promising the American people free health care and higher education.  They promise open borders, the vote for 16 year-olds, the end of gun violence, and to avert the end of the world by unilaterally eliminating the United States’ carbon footprint.  And, that is only the beginning.

They promise that us ordinary folks will not have to pay for any of this.  We can have it if we just take the income and property away from the greedy, exploiting, heartless, undeserving rich and their big businesses.

Here’s what they are missing.  If we do what these nut cases say, the rich and their businesses will leave, and they will take the jobs they provide with them.  Nothing is free.  Somebody has to pay for it.  If the wealth creating, capitalist economic system is driven out of the United States, American Voter, you will be left poor, wretched, and defenseless.  The government does not create wealth, it squanders it.  The government prints money, but it takes a thriving economy to give it value.

Wise-up America.  Socialism is the political philosophy of envy and covetousness.  Go to school.  Learn skills you can make a living with.  You get out of something what you put into it.  Give your employer a reason to value your services, and then negotiate for greater rewards.  There is no such thing as a free lunch.  Stop looking to get something for nothing.  Nobody owes you a living.  You have to earn it.

"You shall not covet your neighbor's house; you shall not covet your neighbor's wife, nor his male servant, nor his female servant, nor his ox, nor his donkey,

nor anything that is your neighbor's." (Exodus 20: 17 NKJV)

https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/

Hope

We all live in hope of something.  It may be as little as having a nice day, or it may be as great as finding a “soul mate.”  Hope can be concrete as hoping that the colors you selected to paint your house with will look good once the painting is done.  Hope can be as ethereal as wishing upon a star or longing for world peace.  Hope is so important to us that the absence of hope is considered a symptom of Depression or a measure of suicide risk.

I don’t know Latin, Hebrew, or Greek.  I was told that the words translated into the English word “hope” as it appears in the New Testament mean “a confident expectation.”  For instance, Christians live in confident expectation of the Rapture, when Christ will return in the clouds and call us out of the world to be with Him.  Those of who have died in Him will return with Him, and their bodies will be resurrected first.  Then those who are living will be caught up to Him in the air.  Instantly, we will be given new bodies, like Jesus’ resurrected body, and we will be with Him ever after. (1Thessalonians 4:13-18, 1John 3:2-3)

I love how the old song “Whispering Hope” (by Septimus Winner) speaks to how hope lifts us up out of the trials of this life and comforts us:

Soft as the voice of an angel,
Breathing a lesson unheard,
Hope with a gentle persuasion
Whispers her comforting word:
Wait till the darkness is over,
Wait till the tempest is done,
Hope for the sunshine tomorrow,
After the shower is gone.

·         Refrain:
Whispering hope, oh, how welcome thy voice,
Making my heart in its sorrow rejoice.

https://library.timelesstruths.org/music/Whispering_Hope/

The Great Commission

Jesus Christ is not a demigod.  He is not the offspring of a god and a mortal; half god and half man - a lesser deity.  He is fully God and fully man (Theanthropos).

For in Him dwells all the fullness of the Godhead bodily;

(Colossians 2:9 NASB)*

He was crucified, and the man Jesus of Nazareth died.  His lifeless human body was buried.  He was also God.  He rose from the dead bodily, and He sits at the right hand of God the father. (Acts 7:55)

Before He ascended into heaven, Jesus gave us His parting command:

Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee,

to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them.

When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

And Jesus came and spoke to them, saying,

"All authority has been given to Me in heaven and on earth.

Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations,

baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,

teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you;

and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age." Amen.

Matthew 28:16-20 NKJV)*

*https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/

As Easter Sunday began today in Sri Lanka, explosions killed at least 207 people in three churches and three hotels.  As many as 450 others were injured.  As of this writing, no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. (1)

Around the world, Christians are being killed every day.  They are also beaten, jailed and driven out of their homes.  Their property is stolen or confiscated.  In Northern Kenya, for example, people are being killed by Al Shabaab terrorists from Somalia for the crime of owning a Bible.

Islamic Extremists, and extremists from other faiths, who are persecuting Christians have not learned from history.  In the past, Christianity has experienced the most growth, during times when Christians were persecuted.

Further, there is nothing, no earthly atrocity, that can take away the Christian’s joy because Christ Jesus is risen!  He has defeated death.  He is with us until the end of this age.  When He returns for His beloved, the heartaches and tears of this world will be over for them.  Praise God!  Even so come Lord Jesus.

(1)  www.foxnews.com/world/easter-sunday-explosions-at-multiple-churches-and-hotels-rock-sri-lanka-death-tolls-rises

Divine Comfort

At the Last Supper, Jesus washed His disciples’ feet as an example of service.  At first, Simon Peter refused to allow it, but Jesus rebuked him.  To accept Christ’s sacrifice to save us, and to realize that our good deeds are not enough to save us, requires humble acceptance of what Our Lord has done for us.

Jesus identified His betrayer and sent him away.  He also gave us Holy Communion, which we observe in remembrance of Him.

As the evening drew to a close, the disciples came to a more complete realization that Jesus was going to be taken away from them.  They were greatly distressed and stricken with grief.  The Gospel of John records the words of comfort that He spoke to them.  I have found it to be one of the passages of scripture that moves my heart the most:

“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.

In My Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you.

And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself;

that where I am, there you may be also.

And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

Thomas said to Him, "Lord, we do not know where You are going,

and how can we know the way?"

Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through Me.

If you had known Me, you would have known My Father also;

and from now on you know Him and have seen Him.”

Philip said to Him, "Lord, show us the Father, and it is sufficient for us."

Jesus said to him, “Have I been with you so long, and yet you have not known Me, Philip? He who has seen Me has seen the Father;

so how can you say, 'Show us the Father'?

Do you not believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in Me?

The words that I speak to you I do not speak on My own authority;

but the Father who dwells in Me does the works.

Believe Me that I am in the Father and the Father in Me,

or else believe Me for the sake of the works themselves.

Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.

And whatever you ask in My name, that I will do,

that the Father may be glorified in the Son.

If you ask anything in My name, I will do it.

If you love Me, keep My commandments.

And I will pray the Father, and He will give you another Helper,

that He may abide with you forever--the Spirit of truth,

whom the world cannot receive,

because it neither sees Him nor knows Him;

but you know Him, for He dwells with you and will be in you.

I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.

A little while longer and the world will see Me no more,

but you will see Me. Because I live, you will live also.

At that day you will know that I am in My Father, and you in Me, and I in you.

He who has My commandments and keeps them, it is he who loves Me.

And he who loves Me will be loved by My Father,

and I will love him and manifest Myself to him."

Judas (not Iscariot) said to Him,

"Lord, how is it that You will manifest Yourself to us, and not to the world?"

Jesus answered and said to him, “If anyone loves Me, he will keep My word;

and My Father will love him, and We will come to him and make Our home with him.

He who does not love Me does not keep My words;

and the word which you hear is not Mine but the Father's who sent Me.

these things I have spoken to you while being present with you.

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name,

He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you.

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.

You have heard Me say to you, 'I am going away and coming back to you.'

If you loved Me, you would rejoice because I said, 'I am going to the Father,'

for My Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it comes,

that when it does come to pass, you may believe.

I will no longer talk much with you, for the ruler of this world is coming,

and he has nothing in Me.

But that the world may know that I love the Father,

and as the Father gave Me commandment, so I do.

Arise, let us go from here.”

(John 14:1-31 NKJV)*

https://www.biblestudytools.com/nkjv/john/14.html