Truth and Freedom

John 1:17 "For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came through Jesus Christ."

John 8:32 " And you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."

Isn't it ironic that the words of Jesus recorded in John 8:32 are displayed on a wall of the CIA building in Washington? I doubt that Jesus is credited as the author. Although lies and deception are some of their main tools, the CIA has appropriated this quotation to lend dignity to their work which is to use whatever means necessary to spy out the 'truth' of what the enemies of our country are really up to. Somehow I can't bring myself to believe this is what Jesus had in mind. The CIA should remove this scriptural quotation and install these words instead: "We operate on the principle that the end excuses the means." That would be closer to the truth.

That the public is supplied with "misinformation" from every level of government is all too often the case. Raw truth is sweetened to make it palliative to the masses and served up cooked to the benefit of the party in power. One can only assume that ordinary people (as distinguished from the elite who alone know what is best for us) are considered to not have the intelligence to handle real truth.

Mr. Lincoln disagrees: "I am a firm believer in the people. If given the truth, they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. The great point is to bring them the real facts." Are you listening Mr. Obama and members of Congress on both sides of the aisle? We don't need a nanny!
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Little facts of life

If you accidentally drop a prescription pill to the floor, as it falls it gains energy that allows it to run and hide in some dark cranny where you can't find it. After you get up, puffing from searching on your hands and knees, the pill comes out of hiding unnoticed. The more expensive the pill, the more certainty there is that you will step on it or that the dog will eat it..

You Can Take it With You

After my first wife died I had every expectation that I would live out my life as bachelor and began to clean the house of things I wouldn't need. I was amazed at the amount of stuff we had gathered over 60 years of marriage and 52 years of living in the same house. A small part of it had sentimental value and was retained. The rest of it had very little material value as was confirmed in an auction.

I know of a wealthy widow who, according to her relatives, could no longer safely live at home and needed to be in an assisted living facility. She resisted the move until she had no choice The reason for her resistance? She had many fine and valuable possessions and she could not take every single one of them to the facility.

When it comes to the accumulation of wealth and possessions I have observed that there is a point reached of too much but not a point of enough. An outsider might say of the super rich that they have wealth for several lifetimes (too much) but that will not stop the wealthy from seeking to add to their fortunes (not enough).

In the 10th Chapter of Mark Jesus encounters a man who "ran up to him and knelt before him."
Luke says he was a ruler and Matthew that he was young but all 3 writers agree he was rich.
This is the 4th of 4 people so far in Mark who have run up to Jesus seeking something only he could provide; wholeness for a leper, healing for a woman, restoration for a demoniac and now for this rich man, the key to eternal life. The fact that each ran to Jesus portrays their desperation and their belief that, at last, they had found the one who could supply the solution to their problem.

Jesus gives the rich man a short quiz of which Jesus already knew the answers. Jesus was satisfied that the man was devout and sincere. Perhaps the man expected Jesus' blessing,
approval or a few easy to follow instructions and then he could be on his way. It didn't happen.
Jesus did say that in order for the man to achieve his goal there was one obstacle standing in his way, the thing he loved more than God; his wealth.

A sad story and not a popular part of scripture. That may be because we sense that it is not only addressed to the wealthy but to everyone who has erected an idol in place of God. Idols? Who, me? Yes, me.
Consider Matthew 10:37,38: "If you love father and mother more than you love me, you are not worthy of being mine; or if love your son or daughter more than me you are not worthy of being mine. If you refuse to take up your cross and follow me, you are not worthy of being mine."

Of course Jesus is not saying we shouldn't have other loves and allegiances. He is saying that every love, allegiance, relationship, ambition, goal or desire we have is secondary to loving and trusting him. He will not accept anything but first place in our lives. Considering what he has done for us, that is a perfectly reasonable position and you can't beat the rewards.

Matthew 10:29-30 "I tell you the truth," Jesus replied, "No on who has left home or brothers or sisters or father or children or fields for me and the gospel will fail to receive a hundred times as much in this present age (homes, brothers, sisters,mothers, children and fields- and with them , persecutions) and in the age to come, eternal life."

1 Corinthians 2:9 "Eye has not seen nor ear heard, neither has it entered into the heart of man the things which God has prepared for those who love him."

1 Corinthians 13:13 "There are three things that remain, faith, hope and love, and the greatest of these is love."

When we go to heaven we will no longer need faith because we will see Jesus. We will no longer need hope because are hope will be realized. What we will take with us and keep, is Love.

This and That

Rummaging around in the dusty attic of my mind I believe my first new car was a 1956 four door Chevrolet. Price: $1800. I bought it off the lot and it came with several options: heater (an option !), radio, vinyl seat upholstery, two-tone green paint. It had manual steering, manual 3 speed shift, one speed windshield wipers, no air conditioning, no power anything. Air conditioning was described as being "460" which meant 4 windows open and driving 60 miles an hour.


At the time of purchase my wife and I thought the two-tone green paint was unique to our little town. In a few days we began to see cars with the same color scheme everywhere. But to us it was a treasure. No subsequent car purchase brought with it the same level of excitement we felt with the first one.


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I see that "whatever" has been voted the current most annoying expression in the English language. I would have voted for the ubiquitous "you know" without which, you know, some people would be unable to converse. You know?


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Another member of Congress has been caught in a scandal that may have far-reaching and negative effects on the Democratic party. Charles Rangel, (Dem.), N.Y. failed to pay some of his income taxes and to report all sources of income. What is it with members of Congress that makes them think they don't have to pay taxes? The IRS, without mercy or second thoughts, would put a widow out on the street if she did something similar but the rich and the powerful escape punishment.


Five will get you ten that Rangel will get out of this with a mild slap on the wrist. The "Ethics"
Commitee" is "investigating." The facts are known so what's to be investigated? They will stretch out their "investigation" because they depend on the American public's shamefully short attention span. That may not work this time.


The danger to the Democratic Party is that the Public's smoldering wrath may finally get fully vented at election time because of Rangel's blatant disregard of integrity and other Democratic mis-steps.


In the meantime, few if any Republican Congresspersons have halos to polish or unblemished records to crow about.

Pray, pray, pray for our country!
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Our President and First Lady recently made a fruitless trip to Copenhagen. Their intention was to charm the socks off the Olympic Committee and secure the Olympics for the city of Chicago. Alas, the OC proved to be immune to the radiant charm of the First Couple and the prize was handed to Rio. Reading the transcripts of the Obama 'I/Me' speeches it seems they were inviting the world the wonderful opportunity to come visit the Obamas.

The "City of the Broad Shoulders" (Walt Whitman's description of Chicago) may now have sagging shoulders but it will survive. My brother suggests it may all be for the best. If 'Chi' had won, it would have been necessary to add a new Olympic event : "Dodging bullets and 2x4's to the head."


I honestly take no satisfaction from the President's failure. He did what he thought best. And I believe that no matter what he did the OC was determined to grant the Olympics to a country other than the USA.


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Miscellany

Josef Stalin: "The death of one person is a tragedy. The death of a million is a statistic." Stalin should know. He was responsible for the deaths of millions of his own people.

Leo Tolstoy: "Love hinders death. Love is life. Anything at all that I understand, I understand only because I love. All is bound up in love alone. Love is God, and to die means that I, a tiny particle of love, shall return to the universal and eternal source."

The Good Old Days

Sometime around 1935, at the age of 10, I contracted hepatitis (called "yellow jaundice") and was confined to my bed for awhile. My parents called Dr. Heath and he made a house call.

(This is not to be confused with a telephone call; he actually came to our house). Doctors making house calls was not at all unusual. For some reason the amount of his fee, $3.00, has stuck in my memory.





I was often the one sent to the A & P grocery store 2 1/2 blocks from our home with a list of items to be purchased. I presented the list to a clerk, behind the counter, who then went about the store to retrieve the items. If self-service existed it hadn't made its way to our little town at the end of Long Island, N.Y. The clerk tallied the prices in pencil on one of the paper bags that he loaded the groceries in. The question, "paper or plastic?" never came up since there were no plastic sacks.




At the time:


Bread was 9 cents a loaf


Eggs, 18 cents a dozen


Hamburger meat, 12 cents a pound


A hamburger (bun, meat, ketchup) at the diner was 5 cents as was a cup of coffee or a coke





Gas, 10 cents a gal.


A new Pontiac, $745


Average new home, $3845



Man's broadcloth shirt, $1.00



Woman's wool sweater, $1.00



Washing machine,$23.95



Gas stove, $19.95





Before you think that we were lucky to live in a time when prices were so low consider this:

Worker's wages were 9 cents an hour, ---if you could get a job. Skilled labor managed to get slightly higher wages. To date, inflation has moved prices and wages to their present levels so, everything is relative.



The history of the Federal Government's handling, (mishandling, really) of the depression crisis is both fascinating and depressing (no pun intended). President Herbet Hoover seemed incapable of understanding economics and spent a lot of his time organizing commitees and conferences. The country verged on socialism with both Big Business and Big Labor briefly advocating collectivism based on their individual agendas. For example, Big Labor would have had a Government agency appointed to force businesses to hire the number of workers the agency determined the businesses should have. Big Business leaders had equally unpalatable ideas. A radical left-wing newspaper was lavish with praise for the fascist inclinations.



To say our country during the 1930's was on an extremely slippery slope is no exaggeration. Only the advent of WWll pulled us back from the abyss.

Once again our nation is on a slippery slope; perhaps not as steep as the Great Depression but still dangerous.



I may well be mistaken in my belief that in many ways we are not the nation of my earlier years. After all, greed and corruption in high places is still with us except it is more overt. We still do not have lobbyists for the mass of average citizens. We are a country divided. Often I have the feeling that nobody is in charge.

This is not the nation of my earlier years. Our liberties are slowly being chipped away but each succeeding generation does not realize it, thinking the way things are is the way it's always been.

If you've never had something how would you know if it's gone?



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Miscellany



Charles Dickens slept facing north. He believed it improved his writing (Did I hear one of you saying I ought to try it?)

The house where Thomas Jefferson wrote much of the Declaration of Independence was torn down to make room for a hamburger stand.

The above 2 facts are from "The Best of Uncle John's Bathroom Reader"

Lincoln: "A man is about as happy as he makes up his mind to be." (It's our choice)

Check Your Ammo

In part of my 3 years in the US Navy Air Corps during WWll, I was a top turret gunner on a torpedo bomber. I was no danger to the enemy but I did almost shoot down one of our own nearby planes accidentally and almost cause the death of its 3 man crew. Although entirely unintentional, had I succeeded I would have no doubt spent many years in prison. Memory of the incident pops up ocassionally and even 65 years later it still causes me some distress. I will tell you it was a matter of 1/32 of an inch between incarceration and my life since then. I am firmly convinced that God was involved in the outcome ; there is no other possible explanation.



Those bombers were relatively slow; so slow in flight that birds sometimes rested on the wings. Actually, not so; it just seemed that way. When I was not flying, my other duties involved my training as an aircraft mechanic. I worked on 1700 horsepower radial air-cooled engines. I am mechanically inept around car engines, BUT if they ever start putting 1700 hp air cooled engines in cars I'll be ready.

In my first story above, I was operating with the mistaken belief that there were no more bullets left in my machine gun. Over the target range I had pulled the trigger in bursts until the weapon quit firing. On the way back to base I swung the turret around, pointed my weapon at planes in our formation and pulled the trigger. The closest plane was about 50 feet away. When we got back to base and I got out of the turret and removed the can of spent shell casings I looked up and saw to my horror that there were still 5 fifty caliber live bullets hanging in the belt. I scrambled back up into the turret, opened the lid to the firing chamber and could see that the mechanism that pulled bullets into the chamber had scratched the next bullet in an attempt to pull it into firing position. If that bullet had been somehow moved 1/32 of an inch more it would have fired and carried the next 4 with it.

Operating with insufficient, mistaken, false or unverified beliefs is as dangerous to our spiritual lives as was my similar dangerous actions with live bullets. It is up to each of us individually to do the study required to build on solid scriptural ground; to seek, recognize, listen to and abide by, the teachings of the Holy Spirit delivered through whatever source He may choose.

My second story illustrates that if we are going to stay prepared, we cannot stand still in our learning. To live the abundant life Christ promised us it is not enough to sit on our salvation. My knowledge of the 1700 hp radial engine is useless to me now and it did not prepare me for dealing with the complexities of modern car engines. Too many Christians say to themselves, "I know all I need to know." They stop growing and then resist the gentle prodding of the Spirit to move on to greater and greater joys in Jesus.

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A little boy asked his mother, "Mommy, where do people come from?"
Thinking the boy was too young for the birds and bees story she said, "Well, the Bible says we come from dust and we return to dust.'
That seemed to satisfy him and he went to his room to play.
A short time later he came back to his mother and said, "Mommy, I looked under my bed and someone is either coming or going."

Friends

Note: This post was supposed to be for 10/8/09 but I pushed the wrong button.


Friend: (dictionary definition) A person whom one knows well and is fond of. An ally, supporter and sympathizer.



Acquaintance: A person whom one knows slightly.



Proverbs 18:24: A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend that sticks closer than a brother.


Proverbs 17:17: A friend loves at all times.



The word 'friend', like 'love', many times is misused or very loosely applied in a relationship. The term 'friend' is often used when actually we are referring to someone who is an acquaintance. A person may have many acquaintances but few real friends.

Aside from my wife, who is my best friend, and my children and other family who already meet the following, to me a friend is someone I can call at 2 or 3 in the morning; tell him I'm in need and he will come to my aid without even asking for details. He would be someone who, if I got in trouble, would not desert me and would be among the first to be at my side. I would do the same for him. We might get angry with each other but we don't let the anger linger. We have a deep respect for each other, overlook the defects in each other and build each other up. We pray together and for each other. A friends keeps me accountable.

These are not all the requirements of real friendship, and you may have different definitions of what constitutes true friendship , but when I apply these scenarios to those I know it quickly becomes apparent who is a friend sand who is an aquaintance.

Aristotle maintained that there are 3 categories, or tiers, of friends: 1. Business partners 2. People you enjoy being with socially 3. People with whom you pursue virtue or arete. The Christian form of arete is a self-sufficient life of contemplation and wisdom.

During one of our recent wars, (as I remember the story) two army buddies, Jim and Larry, came under enemy fire and ran toward a friendly bunker. Jim made it but didn't realize that Larry had been wounded and had fallen until he heard Larry call for help. Jim immediately started to his aid but the sergeant in charge grabbed Jim and commanded him to remain in the bunker; the enemy fire was so heavy and accurate that Jim would certainly be wounded or killed once he left the safety of the bunker. Jim wrested himself from the sergeant's grip and crawled to his friend. Larry managed a weak smile, grasped his friend's hand and said, "Jim; I knew you would come."

John 15:9, Jesus said to his disciples, "As the Father loved me, I also have loved you; abide in my love"

John 15:13,14: "Greater love has no one than this, than to lay down one's life for one's friends. You are My friends if you do whatever I command you."

John 15:15: "No longer do I call you servants, for a servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all things that I heard from the Father I have made known to you."

With these words Jesus drew the disciples into a more intimate relationship with Him. At that point in their spiritual understanding they probably did not realize the importance of what he had said. He would die for them. He loved them with the most complete and deepest possible love: the love of God Himself. He had disclosed His Father's revelation to them of Jesus' identity and His mission: knowledge no one else had. That information could only be shared with friends; not with servants or acquaintances.

Now, by the grace of God, we are more than friends with Jesus. We are children of God and joint heirs with Jesus.

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File this under Strange Wills and Last Requests:

Heinrich Heine left all his wordly goods to his wife but with this provision: She must re-marry.

He said he wanted at least one man to be sorry Heinrich died.

Change

Change. The word strikes fear in some, hope in others and some say: So what? It seems our country is averse to change and we cringe when ever change is proposed. Certainly we are suspicious when the federal government attempts to adjust the status quo. Exhibit A is the current brouhaha over Mr. Obama's health care proposals. Thousands of citizens have marched on Washington in protests partly staged and supported financially by special interests and partly made up of citizens paying there own expenses and genuinely opposed to the proposed changes in health care. This is not the first time change has caused discord in our nation.




There are a number of instances in U.S. history involving change that have led to protests that produced armed conflict, bloodshed and, in some cases, enduring bitterness.


To mention a few:


The Whiskey Rebellion of 1794. A tariff imposed by the government eliminated any profit farmers might make on their sales of grain. The farmers greeted the change with violence against tax collectors.


The Civil War. Slavery states would not embace the changes required under the Emancipation Proclamation. You know what happened after that.


The Bonus Army. In 1932 some 43000 WWl veterans came to Washington, DC. They had been promised a bonus for their service but it was to be paid in 1945. They wanted that date to be changed to 1932. Economic conditions in the country had deteriorated so much that the veterans and their families were in desparate financial straits. They set up a shanty town and prepared to wait for Congress to act in their favor. It didn't happen. President Herbet Hoover ordered federal troops, headed by Douglas McArthur, to drive out the veterans which they did. The troops also set fire to the shanty town. A number of people were killed including two babies.



Change brings uncertainty.

A man had next door neighbors he never visited or spoke to. Yet, when they moved he found that the event made him very uncomfortable. Who would be his new neighbors? Would they be noisy? Would they keep up their property? Would they be black, white, tan, yellow or brown?



From the day we are born we constantly change in one way or another; physically, mentally or morally. We can each recount changes that have taken place in our lives; some minor some momentous; some positive and some negative. Graduations, marriage, having children, careers, financial ups and downs, death of a spouse or parent, illnesess, aging, confronting our own demise and many, many others.

Accelerating changes in technology can be disorienting. They may make us feel we are being left behind and adrift with nothing static that we can hold on to.



An elderly lady made her first airplane trip. Her granddaughter met her at the terminal and asked, "How was the trip, Granny?"

"It was alright I guess, but I didn't let my weight all the way down on the seat."



On what can we confidently let all our weight down? What is there that is permanent in an ever-changing world? What is there that merits our complete trust? What is there that we can hook our anchor to and know that it will never be cut loose?



It's not our bank account, stocks or bonds; it's not our position in society, confidence in other people or our own abilities; most of which can be wiped out or nullified in a moment. Thousands of Americans found that out just recently.



"For I am the Lord, I do not change." Malachi 6:8



"Therefore, whoever hears these sayings of Mine, and does them, I will liken him to a wise man who built his house on the rock: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it did not fall for it was founded on the rock." (Jesus) Matthew 7:24, 25

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Recipes

From time to time I will bring you personally tested recipes from our chef's kitchen. This first one is for the more adventuresome who are looking for new taste sensations.

Potato Chip Sandwich. That's right; potato chips.

2 slices bread of your choice

Real Pimento cheese. (As opposed to fake cheese)

Barbeque flavored potato chips (I use Lay's)

Thin sliced ham or turkey

Spread one slice of bread liberally with cheese

Place 2 layers of chips over cheese

Place meat over chips and cover with remaining slice of bread; press to crush chips

Bon Apetit!

Eat your heart out Julia Child