IN MY LIFE

   When I was a kid, my parents taught me how to get dressed, how to pull up my pants, how to wash my hands, how to go to school, and how go to church.
   Everything else was secondary.
   Playtime had to wait.
   When I learned how to spit (when I thought that was cool!) my mother told me how nasty that was for young men to do, and that was the end of that.
   My parents also taught us to respect our neighbors and their properties.  They taught us to respect school teachers, firemen, policemen, preachers, and not to interrupt when adults are talking.  Simply said, they taught us to be nice to others.
   When I was a kid, I mowed grass for neighbors for a dollar, two dollars, or .75 cents.  The wages my neighbors paid me, I gladly accepted, and trotted on home.  Once, however, a neighbor paid me THREE BIG DOLLARS---and I thought she had lost her mind!
   My first job at Minimum Wage paid .50 cents per hour.  Working in a restaurant, I washed dishes, bussed tables, swept and mopped the floor, cleaned bathrooms, peeled potatoes, chopped onion, and ran errands to the market to get more hamburger and other meat items, and I delivered lunches to the ladies at the bank.  My paycheck at the end of the week was $23.00---and I thought I was rich!  Fortunately, I was still living with my parents because I was only fifteen at that time.
   When I arrived in Vietnam in 1969, I experienced something that we call culture shock---and I, indeed, was shocked when I saw people still living as their families had been living for a thousand years.  Out in the hamlets and villages, far removed from Saigon and smaller towns, the people had no electrical system, sewage system, or educational system.  Fish and rice was their food staple for the day, every day.  They had never heard of the telephone, television, or even the telegraph.  Yet, they were not complaining about their way of life, or for all that they did not have.  The only obstacle that was interfering with their life and lifestyle was all because the Communists wanted to kill them.  Otherwise, they were happy and content with all they had, or for all they had not.
   In my life, I have never been in jail.  I have never thrown rocks at neighbors' houses.  I never pulled Peggy Sue's pigtails in school.  While I have never had exactly everything I have wanted to have, everything that I have has been worked for and paid for by me.  I have never relied on government to give me free clothes, a free lunch, a free phone, a free car, or a free college education.  While I do not have much, I have plenty.
   In my life, I will also tell you that I have made more mistakes than I can count, more blunders than I can remember, spoken words I should have never spoken, and been to places I should have never gone.  I have had to face the consequences of my own choices.  I have had to get up off the floor, stand up on my feet, tie my shoes, and fix the war I created inside myself.
   Others have not done to me the things I have done to myself, by myself. 
   Others will never fix the me in me, and neither will government and politicians.
   As I look across America today, I see a nation that is not the America I once knew.  I see a generation of people that I do not understand.  Where did they come from, what are they doing, and where are they going?  Answers are not easy. 
   Perhaps we have lost the attitude of gratitude.  Perhaps we are unthankful for all that we have.  For I see a generation of people bathing in a self-induced pity party, and wanting everything that everybody else has worked for and earned---with their own hands and with their own wages---as if they are entitled to all things free.
   Over the past forty years, I believe the five greatest teaching methods in our homes have been from television, movies, music, video games, and the internet. 
   So maybe---just maybe---we have had parents absent from duty.
   In so doing, perhaps we have raised up a generation of children without parents.  For if children will not be obedient to parents, neither will they be obedient to government, and obedience to God is a foreign language.
   Perhaps they were never taught how to get dressed, how to pull up their pants, how to wash their hands, how to go to school, and how to go to church.

POLITICAL PARASITES

   Let us not be deceived:
               Politicians are wealthy people!
   For example, Hillary Clinton told us that she and Bill were financially broke when they left the White House---and how they had to sell one of their mansions just to pay their taxes.
   Isn't that a sad story?
   Today, however, the Clintons are two of the wealthiest individuals in the United States and within the Democrat Party.
   My, my.  Their economic recovery program appears to have worked very well.  And where have they made the money to accumulate their wealth?
   In politics!
   There is something about politics that politicians like, something they enjoy, and something where they can amass fortunes---without having to actually work for a living!  They are, in a way, the same as nails without heads.  Which is why, once in, they want to stay in.  They like the salaries they receive, they like the idea that they can vote pay increases for themselves, they like their mansions, and they like the plate of lifetime financial benefits they are entitled to by becoming civil servants in their sacrificial service for their country. 
   Doesn't that sound noble and kind from loving hearts for the people of the United States?
   Touching.  Very touching. 
   Are you feeling the touch?
   The majority of U.S. politicians in Washington are, in fact, MILLIONAIRIES.  Some have even climbed the ladder to become BILLIONAIRES.
   That's not too shabby for civil servants in their sacrificial service for their country, is it?
   Such people are no more than political parasites.  They like living off tax payers.  They like living off the fat of the land.  They like living as drones in the beehive without having to actually work for their wages. 
   Let us be reminded that it is these rich people that do not want the American people to be rich.
   Does that sound much like hypocrisy?
   Of course it is! 
   But not according to the politicians:  for they have the power to speak from both sides of their mouths.  From one side they speak against capitalism and from the other side they tell us we can live the American Dream.  Their behavior, however, demonstrates Socialism:  that they can have it all, but not us:  that we are not to participate in that part of the American Dream that includes money because the money---belongs to them!
   Governments of other nations are just as guilty as the U.S. government, for all government leaders and politicians worldwide are wealthy people.  They like it that way because the rich govern the poor, and they want the poor to remain poor by persuading the poor to keep relying on government to take care of them, to provide for their needs, to comfort them in their pain and sorrow, and to keep believing that government is the same as their mother.
   Remember Jesus of Nazareth?
   Jesus was a poor person from a poor family.  He had no money, he had no wealth, he had no fame.  He had a simple message about the love of God.  But the religious heads and political chiefs had no interest in Jesus because they had no interest in the love of God.  Their interest was in their money, in their power, and in their fame.  They believed if they could kill Jesus this story about the love of God would simply go away and vanish.
   But the story of Christ and the love of God did not go away, did it?  The story is still being preached, but not by many people today, and certainly not by governments and politicians, for their hearts are the same as the hearts of the men that killed Jesus---cold and corrupted.
   The political cycle we are now experiencing in the United States is more than the election of another President.  The future freedom of this nation is in the balance.  If we, therefore, elect another President that is against God, this nation will crumble and fall because we have been deceived by political parasites much too long, and everything we have built across America is now on a shaky foundation.
   More than this, if the freedom of this nation falls, freedom will fall all over the world because other nations depend on us to protect them with our military capability. 
   At this point in time, however, all we can do is pray that God's will be done---in heaven as it is on earth---because only God knows the history of the future. 
   Will we, therefore, choose to lean on God, or will we choose to lean on politicians?
      "Trust in the LORD with all thine heart; and lean not unto thine own understanding.  In all thy ways acknowledge him, and he shall direct thy paths." (Proverbs 3: 5-6)
  
  

IN MY DREAMS

She wrote love songs in my dreams
   of things we used to share:
      a picture on the wall,
      some sand on the floor---
   gentle reminders
      for places we've been before.
The years of our youth
   were as time standing still,
   only to vanish so quickly
   as the fresh morning dew.
      Where did they go?
      Why did they leave us?
They never left us at all!
In a room down the hall
   at a table built for two,
she met with me there
   and softly explained:
I stood by you then;
   I stand by you now.
Awaken, my love,
   and dream no more.
         "Whoso findeth a wife
                      findeth a good thing,
                         and obtaineth favour of the LORD."
                                                       Proverbs 18: 22




  
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A DEVIL WOMAN

   She is an angry woman.
   She is loud, obnoxious, and even her husband and children fear her wrath.
   In her own mind, she believes she is everything that every woman should be---free from men, and also free from God.
   To other women, they see her as the epitome of everything every woman should be---a cherub upon the earth, a goddess from above:  perfect in all their ways, incapable of being wrong, and even to live their lives according to their own laws, above and apart from God, apart and independent from any authority, and especially apart from evil men.
   Her desire is to be in total control of every situation and every person in her own little world, working tirelessly and endlessly to expand her own coast, her own border, and drawing all people, from all walks of life, into her warped world and under her dome of authority:  believing that her plan is the only plan within the universe, and that her way is the only way that others should see their lives to be:  for she sees herself as a model of perfection, a champion without equal.
   She believes her lies are truth, and those that believe in her also believe her lies as truth, so that her lies become their lies, thereby living in an artificial world, a world of fantasy and make-believe.
   Her desire is to please herself and not to be pleasing to others.
   The heart of a devil woman is to deceive, to dominate, and to destroy.
   The past of a devil woman is a trail of death, and her path to the future is also a trail of death.
   To a devil woman, her marriage to a man is for no more than an arrangement of various sorts, or as a deception to conceal her true identity; for in her heart, she does not need a man, nor a husband, because she is bi-sexual.  Thus, she does not need a man to stand by her, and she needs to man to stand by.
   A devil woman does not desire to be a mother.  Children, to her, are quite bothersome, and children only remind her of men---and God's creative power through procreation, or the union of man and female.
   A devil woman is an angry woman, loud and obnoxious.  She rants and raves, stomps and roars.  Her voice rises above all voices.  Her nostrils are flames of fire.  She will be heard, she must be heard, for she sees herself as a giant---looking down her nose at all the ant people beneath her feet. 
   She enjoys the praises of her people, her conquered foes:  lifting her chin and nodding approvingly.
   But would the Devil disguise himself in the person of a woman?
   Of course he will! 
   For in truth, Satan is a female and not a male---as described in Ezekiel 28, "PERFECT IN BEAUTY" and "EVERY PRECIOUS STONE WAS THY COVERING". 
   In the book of Revelation, she is "THE WOMAN WHO SITS ON MANY WATERS".
   She is also described as "THE QUEEN OF HEAVEN" in pagan religions as the pagans kneel to a woman. 
   Even the word "beauty" is attributed to women and not to men.   And "precious stones" can easily be seen as jewelry, which women highly value and not men.
   An angry woman is void of love and she has no conscience.
   She hates men, for men only remind her of the King of kings and Lord of lords, who is Christ the Lord. 
 
  
  
  

YESTERDAY

   Politicians keep us living in the past so that we will keep looking to government to make the future a better place, but tomorrow never comes.
   Politicians operate with carrots on a stick, and while we continue to snap at the carrots, they keep moving the stick.  We keep chasing promises, promises, and tomorrow never comes.  Then on election day, the politicians want us to send them back to their offices on the hill because we keep trusting in their promises, promises. 
   This is their trick, and the trick is on us!
   How blind can we be?!
   They keep us living in yesterday with yesterday's companies and corporations, yesterday's jobs and wages, yesterday's dreams, yesterday's hopes, yesterday's policies and programs, while promising to give us a better and brighter future if we will simply continue to trust in them. 
   But tomorrow never comes, does it?
   They want us to keep singing the lyrics of Paul McCartney's song,
         "Oh, I believe in yesterday."
   And here we are, in 2016, still living in yesterday.  Still living with the same promises they promised us yesterday.  Still believing in the same slogans and chants they gave us yesterday:
      TRUST IN ME.
      BELIEVE IN ME.
      FOLLOW ME.
      TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE REAL CHANGE.
   We say, "In God We Trust"---and even print it on our money!
   We say, "One nation, under God."
   Really?
   Do we really believe we trust in God?
   Do we really believe we are one nation under God?
      MY PLAN HAS SUBSTANCE.
   Oh, wow! 
   Doesn't that thrill you to know that a plan has some real meat on the bone instead of chicken in a can?
      MY plan is carefully outlined on my website at dot org or dot com.
   Great!
   Now we must wade knee-deep through another five thousand page document from another career politician, still living in yesterday!
   Over the past fifty years, I have been watching and listening to politicians during election cycles, and politicians have been giving us the same re-cycled messages for fifty years.
   And what have we been receiving in return for our votes?
   Companies and corporations that were here yesterday are not here today.
   Jobs and wages that were here yesterday are not here today.
   Dreams and hopes that were here yesterday are not here today.
   The promises politicians are spinning today are the same promises they were spinning to us fifty years ago. 
   As long as our trust is in government and politicians, God will move out of the way and let the people have what the people want.
   As long as we keep trusting in the promises of politicians, instead of trusting in the promises of God, the Lord will move out of the way and let the people have what the people want.
   As long as we keep trusting in government and trusting in politicians, life in these United States will never be better than life is today because we will keep living in yesterday---while the politicians keep shaking the carrots on a stick:  TRUST IN ME, BELIEVE IN ME, TOGETHER WE CAN MAKE A DIFFERENCE, and MY PLAN HAS SUBSTANCE!
   God will let the people have what the people want as He has promised.
     "My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge:  because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me:  seeing thou has forgotten the law of they God, I will also forget they children." (Hosea 4: 6)
  

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS

   Christians across America have been too silent too long.
   We hide behind computer monitors and television screens, then click to go or turn the channel.
   We are afraid to speak, afraid to do, afraid to exercise our freedom of speech, and perhaps afraid that we will lose friends on Facebook, or on some other social network, where we want to remain popular and liked among the people that know us best.  Therefore we sit on our hands and muzzle our voices---afraid to speak up for that which is right, and afraid to speak against that which is wrong.
   Perhaps we prefer to keep our polished images polished---our shirts starched, our shoes shined, and careful not to play in the dirt.
   Even on Facebook, we like for people to click "like" when we display pictures of our pets, pictures of vacations on sandy beaches, and pictures of ourselves looking at ourselves in mirrors.  But if we dare to speak a word for Christ, or dare to speak a word about crooked politicians, we fear the glares we will receive on the other side of the monitor---thereby choosing to remain politically correct by choosing to remain silent. 
   As Christians, we fear the arrows in our backs if we stand up and stand out for Christ, or to be a voice for that which is right.  This is going to happen, however, from among the people who claim to be our friends, but also from people within our own families. 
   Churches, too, have converted pulpits to political platforms by allowing politicians on the campaign trail to stop by and speak a word for Socialism and other worldly agendas, thus revealing the love of congregations for politicians instead of their love for Christ.  This is an abomination, but we don't seem to mind.  After all, what are people to do after the coffee and doughnuts other than turn the music up loud, stomp and shout?  Since congregations are more concerned about what Washington will do for them instead of God, politicians enter therein to light the fire, to get people moving to ballot boxes to vote for the people responsible for dividing our nation instead of moving them to altars to say, "In God We Trust". 
   Christians across America are among the world's most educated people.  We are also among the world's most informed in current events.  But what do we do with our educations and knowledge of current events?  We remain silent.  We hide behind computer monitors and television screens, afraid to move, afraid to do, afraid to run our fingers across the keyboard because we are afraid of what others will think about us, or because our friends and families on Facebook will not "like" us. 
   Have we forgotten?
   Have we forgotten that on the last day of the Lord's life on earth He had to stand alone?  He had to stand alone because his friends hid their faces. 
   Perhaps we should ask:  where are the Lord's friends on Facebook, or on Twitter, or on iPhones?
   Christians across America have been too silent too long.
   Yes, we are going to get some arrows in our backs if we stand up for Christ.
   Yes, our friends and families will turn their faces against us if we stand up for Christ.
   Yes, our friends on Facebook will unfriend us if we stand up for Christ.
   Yes, people on Twitter will stop tweeting if we stand up for Christ.
   But if we will stand up for Christ, the Lord will stand up with us. 
      "If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and heal their land."  (2nd Chronicles 7: 14)