He is Risen. Who has believed our report? Where is the pure and the lowly in heart? 

 This is a time when the image of God is being underminded by a generation of modern thought. As smart as man is to have developed communication systems that connect each of us to anyplace in the modern world, we have yet to answer the question of creation and sovernity. It is as interesting that their is no research to discredit any of the religious leaders associated with the many false teachings on earth. However when you bring up the name of Christ their is emotional and political backlash. You can’t hear anyone curse Budah or Mohammed when in trouble, but Jesus is swarn at in many films and venues in the land.

Resurrection Sunday has lost its appeal in the market places and in the political platforms.  Many churches turn the simple truth of the work on the Cross into hollywood productions. Where is the holy and righteous follower of pure religion in our times? Where is the hunger and thirst for truth?  Oh God, what has happened to us in the house of God? Give us light, Father.  He is Risen. His work is completed. We rend our hearts. He is risen.

I had driven 600 miles to my hometown attending a furneral  of one favorite uncle. The car had broken down the day after my arrival and I was scheduled to fly to Chicago on Saturday, the following weekend. It was Thursday evening before the car was ready and it would take me fourteen hours to get back to Tulsa. I attended a church service that evening with the congregation that had seen me pack up my family 25 years earlier and move to Oklahoma.  I had planned to leave between 12 and 2 but slept till 5 Am.  The first leg of my trip was a stop in Louis. At a friend’s auto body shop and at 8 o clock in the morning he was glad to see me. One and a half hours later, I was lost in the city. I had forgotten the roads that led to the main highway. When I found my way to a White Castle on the edge of town, I made a rest stop and purchased a couple of fish sandwiches. Also I reflected on the stops made there with my family travelling back and forth from Tulsa years past. 

 I had planned to be home on Wednesday and here it was Friday. I stopped again for a second lunch and I was exhausted, being alone. I pulled into a Mosuri rest stop for and shut eye nap since I had not slept well the night before. My last stop was in Springfield, Mo. where we had always gassed up. Gas prices were 20 cents a gallon lower than back home or anywhere I had gone. It was nearly 7PM when I pulled up into my driveway. After unpacking the car, I made calls to get a friend the next morning to drive me to the airport. I got a call from dad. He wanted to know if I had returned safely. He gave the reciever to my sister, who was visiting him from Wisconsin. I responded to my emails. It had been a full week without a computer. Someone  wanted me to provide help moving furniture into a garage for a garage sale. It was scheduled for the day I was to return.

At 230  the next afternoon, I was standing in downtown Chicago on State Street waiting for my  father. At age 84,  he was driving to meet me in the heart of the city so he could take me to dinner. We had talked several times to coordinate  our ranundevu.  My plane had goten in shortly after one and I rode the subway to the Loop.  I hadbeen watching and waiting about half an hour. suddenly, I heard a voice calling my name from the opposite side of that busy street. My dad had pulled out of traffic on the side street and hurried around the corner to attract my attention so we could connect. I had expected him immediately in front of me, on State Street. I grabbed my bags that I bought alone and hurried to catch up to him.  I knew that he had stopped some where close probably holding up traffic.. When I caught up to him and got in the car he had to crowd his way back into traffic. It was explained that He was in heavy traffic and changed he direction so missed me by a block. That was dad. When something did not fit he always had another course of action to make it fit. He had recently been fitted with a pacemaker some of the family had visited ,while going throuhg that surgery.. Only after a month of slowing down he is back to his old pace. It was 6 Pm when we finished dinner and retreated to the house.  And tomorrow was Fathers Day.

Dad began to show and tell me of the gifts he had recieved from my sisters and his grandchildren as I seatled in his brick southside home . My oldest sister, who lived in Wisconsin, had visited the day before with her family and left her blessings. He read cards and pulled out money gifts and shared his excitement for each. This was dad. He had always rewarded us on Christmas and at our birthdays.  So it was our turn to show him honor on Fathers Day. And he is dad and the king of his castle.

Dad is also family man. As we grew from adolescent to adulthood he took us to visit the members of his family and of moms family. Not regarding the distance dad saw to it that we knew our relatives. His immediate family was a brother  two sisters and mother.  Moms family was 9 brothers and 10sisters. There was granddad, the Pastor of the family church and grandmother his second ife because moms mother had died before we were born. Her closes kin were 100 miles from us in Wiscinson. Dad bought his mom to live with us from E. St. Louis. Granddad lived in our hometown 300 miles away in Indiana. We saw him during the summer. I remember Dad taking the train to Jackson, Mississippi to go and bury his dad the year grandma came to live with us. When he returned I also remember him telling me that he really didnt know his dad. He had seen him brief periods travelling into and out of town.

Now Fathers Day is a day to honor dad. So we do and our children do  also. We let dad know that we appreicate how he turned his life to the Lord as we were children and made our home a place to live and grow in faith. Dad is a family man and somewhere in his makeup we have benefitted because he did not lose face and abandon his family. We have gleened from his example to bring up our children that thay can turn to the Lord in their journey. It is never to late to focus on family and the Lord. We would get up and go to church and Sunday School. He would show me off to as many as he could after services. (Since I am his only son) Than he would drive us somewhere to dinner. I listened as I heard him picking a place and than told him to choose where ever he wanted. I was paying. He brightened up. This is what he had always wanted. 

 I had also prepared by bringing a set of communion elements. After returning to the house I asked dad if  we could take communion together. For this was the word of the Lord that we remember. So this we did, father and son.  I had packed a bag of working clothes. And planned to say by service, Happy Fathers Day and thanks for being Dad. I asked for a list of things that needed to be done after communion. That was my gift.

I returned from a trip in Dallas Tx.  I had attended a conference and had an opportunity to see and hear testimonies from all over the globe. These people (who loved the Lord) told fascinating stories about serious health challenges and how they were reversed using nutritional subplements. (I am able to add my own testimony to these stories. I had been wearing eye glasses to read for over 30 years.  Due to this same dis-covery my sight cleared up after trying some of the subpliments for 120 days.)

My attention was arrested about this kind of thing on the day I sat in the overflow area of our church.  I looked over at my wife and confessed, “I think can see better than I usually do from here. I could hardly wait till I returned home from the service to pull out a phone book to test what I was experiencing. Usually it took getting out a magnifling glass to read the numbers. Or I would askmy daughter to tell me what the numbers were.  That day I coulld read them without any assist. I was overwhelmed.

My eyes had been examined while I was in the millitary. I had been told I needed corrected lens. I thought at the time this meant I was going to get to see a doctor and have a precedure to correct my sight. What actually happened was I was sent to another eye specialist and he fitted me for glassesto wear when I was reading. He told me l needed to see a doctor again in two years to see if there was any change. That went on for over 30 years. My sight deteriated. Shortly before hearing about this field of nutritional subpliments, I had began to have trobule seeing the writing on a TV screen clearly.  Now, I was reading the bold printed letters on the phone book. And a month later, I would be reading the fine print of the addresses in the phone book.  I wanted an explanation. I had learned that this is not how medical science worked. Sure, people want medical cures, but medical doctors treat and practice.

That is one reason I attended the conferance. I kept hearing over and over, “If you give the body what it needs it will repair itself.” This is how the body is created to repair the problems it has. Medical science can remove some obstacles but healing is what happens when the conditions are right (bar a miracle). I was stunned. If medical science knows this about the body why dont we have more results.

This conference takes place each year as thousands gather to promote nutritional sciences of the body. Than it was made clear in the conference that nutritional science and medical science are two differant fields. One deals with promoting obtimal health while the other treats for disfunctional health. Both are important to the body.

This is the 21st century and it looks like we have some real answers to some of the sicknesses that medical doctors have to deal with in their training. It requires each of us to become sensitive about our bodies and remember they are a Temple.  We are responsible for feeding ourselves We are witnessing to our bodies ( souls). What we put in will determine the level of what can come out. Simular to what we know about computers- if you put garbage in it will give back what IS IN IT. 

In the Scriptures, Daniel of old was noted for deciding not to defile himself even at the Kings’ table.  John The Babptist was known for his eating locust and wild honey. And again, Peter, was given a vision where he saw clean and unclean beast for eating.  These things are learned.  Jesus said, “We make the Word of God void because ofour traditions. My thoughts  are that we will have the knowledge to take care of the vessel that we call our soul. May you look at a website here to began a simple regiment of care. www.shopgbg.com/helperofman    Be Blessed, all day and every day.

As a youth raised up in the Ohio River Valley of Southwestern Indiana, we had our first summer cookout on Memerial Day. We were part of a large family. Mom had nineteen brothers and sisters. We would pack several family cars and head towards Scales Lake State Park or Lincoln City National Park. It was usually an adventure taking place from preparation the day before till the closing of the park at dusk on Memerial Day.

All the youth had so much anticipation. We also knew that school would be out for the summer within a week. We could go swimming and make castles in the sand at the state lake or view the memorials and walk the trails at the national park.

At either place we grilled our meat over an open pit and chilled our drinks in tubs of blocked ice. We went on our tours before dinner to work up hearty appetites. We ate potato salad and baked beans and ears of buttered corn with our meats. Some went to riding boats while others went to fishing docks. Our evenings would end with a marshmallow roast and watermellons. And due to the darkness all the kids were counted as we loaded back in the cars to head home. We had to ride back in the car we came. It was the family way. This was the start of Summer for us.  It cost the grown ups a toll charge at the Park Gate. It cost us kiks also. We’d return home in wet bathing suits. Sometimes we had chiggers on us from walks up the trails.  We always  had sand in our shoes and mosquito bites. It was such fun and worth family memories.  After readjusting at home the children would play outside before the families separated for the night. We always took a bath before bedding down that night.

That was our family Memorial Day tradition. If  we could not make that trip, an alternative plan would be the local zoo. Most of our families have moved out from the family hometown now. Some of us carried similar traditions with us. Years have past and the children I grew up with are now grandparents and great grandparents. One thing was for sure. We were going to eat out on the grill on MEMORIAL DAY.

Now we gather for a reunion somewhere during the summer.  This event has seen above one hundred forty members attend.

Today we are able to get around with better vehicles. I hope you are making family traditions that will last. Relationships are important. Memorial day is for memories of those who have paid the price to maintain our liberties and established our freedoms. This is the ultimate price  we have learned of Christ. To be a part of the ultimate family. To make memories that will last throughout eternality. To be part of that heavenly family. What a Memorial Day that will be.

It is such an accomplishment to finish any discipline of study. It is a time to celebrate the times that we felt like quitting and didn’t. It is a time to celebrate the challenges and obstacles that we have overcome. It is a time to reflect on the supporters. The ones who believed we could finish when things were rough.  To graduate is an accomplishment that requires tenacity.  All the fears and worries can be put aside, now. The studies have paid off. There is that sigh of relief. Now its time to harness a dream and move on.

I caught a reflection from a Face-book page that prompted this article. It was a  text note from a young man in Georgia finishing high school. He made a statement that he had finally finished and was going to party his a** off.  On his Facebook page under the about me picture is the “Serenity Prayer” that so many know. His statement echos so many others who also are graduating this spring.  “Its time to party.”

My thoughts took me back years ago  when I finished high school.  My dad planned a dinner for me with family members to honor me; his only son. I was the first male in his family to complete high school.It was a quite dinner and he took pictures.

What has happened to the family event? Is not Graduation a family milestone. There is one who graduated from the Cross on Calvary hill 2000 years ago and was received up into glory. This one graduation has been passed down to all nations. Some choose to discount it. others mock it. His own words promise us, that one day each of us will graduate from life. And we are promised to a seat with Him to dine in his Fathers House in that day. Happy Graduation Day!

I walked outside of the local Dillards Deptment Store from the Womens clothing section. It was on the upper level of the Mall. I had just visited the food court through these doors. The light breeze and afternoon sun greeted me as gently as I had approached. Before I pushed the door open thoughts of women shopping had filled my mind. Mothers Day was two days away. I reflected on the years my wife and I raised our children and how deligent she had been throughtout the years. She was not one to spend a lot of time shopping or browsing through the stores looking for nothing. This time however, as I felt the breeze it occurred to me that shopping is a womans sport. Just as a man likes hunting, fishing, biking, traveling, a woman’s favorite sport is shopping. I immediately realized that it was not because she did not want to shop. But, when I was with her, she could feel my lack of interets in the ordeal. She wanted to please me. Many times in a store I would hear her apolpogize to me for using my time in search of a item. I would give her credit knowing how I felt. I could not give myself credit knowing how she felt. Selfish people only know what pleases them. I would not have understood how to please her if it was handed to me in black and white. My life, losing my mom at the age of fourteen, had left me so needy. Years would pass before I could be healed and see another persons needs. This is not to say she needed to shop. Only that she could enjoy something that I had no common interest. The fact that I had no interest was clear on this day because she was not there. This bought another realization to me. There must be many other sacrifices that a mother and a wife makes that the man in her life has no clue. So it gives reason that I and we that have women in our lives not forget to celebrate them today.
Soldiers make sacrifices. Fathers make sacrifices. Leaders make sacrifices. But a good mother makes sacrifices every day. Happy Mothers Day!

There is a poem that I came across some years ago that is more appropriate for our times than when I found it. I have been slow to share some things that the Lord put on my heart 40 years ago. It was of interest that the young preacher (David Wilkerson) who went to New York and started the Teen Challenge Ministry caught my attention while I was in military dress. I read his story of “The Cross and The Switchblade.” It was the closes thing to bible school that I could find in the 60’s.

Now our nation is moving towards transitional times. I can see that the things in my spirit need to be shared with believers. Here is the poem.

 He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not,  is a fool, shun him.    He who knows not, and knows that he knows not,  is a child, train him.  He who knows, and knows not that he knows,     is asleep, wake him.      He who knows, and knows that he knows,        is wise, follow   him.          PERSIAN PROVERB 

There are three books that I encourage any Bible believer to read. 

1 (History) Foxes -Book of Christian Martyrs                   2 (Allogory) Bunyons -Pilgrims Progress                        3  (fiction)  Sheldons- In His Steps

Its February!  Happy Valentines Day!                                                                    

Lately, I have had the time to do some biblical research and national history. America is in a culture revolution. THE INSTITUTIONS THAT HAVE DEFINED AMERICA’S GREATNESS ARE BEING CHALLENGED INTERNALLY. History reveals when a nation has lost its moral fibric and fails to reevaluate itself that begans the dismantling of that nation. Has America stepped on that threshold? Abraham Lincoln, whose bi-centennial birthday was celebrated this year, would be the kind of leader that could throw light on our times. Do we have anyone to help us with the lesson at gettysberg? We don’t have Abe Lincoln so the test will be to determine among the people if there is another voice strong enough to keep our form of government a shining light to the world. Will the immigrants continue to cross our borders for opportunity or will the next wave come for spoil?

What is at the heart of the war is the moral character of the people. Acting to be free of The Sovereign God has encouraged our new President to state we are a “secular” country with many religious ideas. This prompted my research into the history record. We have the stories that  can mix fact and fiction so I started searching. One document of interest was the prayer of September 7 1774 offered in Congress by Jacob Duche at Carpenters Hall, Philadelphia, Penn. This prayer was prayer two  years before Independance was declared. This prayer is quoted entirely here.

“Lord our Heavenly Father, High and Mighty King of kings, and Lord of lords, who dost from thy throne behold all the dwellers on earth and reign-est with power supreme and uncontrolled over all the Kingdoms, Empires and Governments. Look down in mercy, we beseech thee, on these our American States. Who have fled to thee, from the rod of the oppressor and thrown themselves on Thy gracious protection. Desiring to be henceforth dependent on Thee, to Thee have they appealed for the righteousness of their cause. To Thee do they now look up for that countenance and support, which Thou alone canst give; take them, therefore, Heavenly Father, under Thy nurturing care, give wisdom in Council and valor in the field; defeat the malicious designs of our cruel adversaries; convince them of the unrighteousness of their Cause and if they persist in their sanguinary purposes, of own unerring justice, sounding in their hearts, constrain them to drop the weapons of war from their unnerving hands in the day of battle! Be Thou present, O God of wisdom, and direct the councils of this honorable assembly, enable them to settle things on the best and surest foundation. That the scene of blood may be speedily closed; that order, harmony and peace may be effectually restored, and truth and justice, religion and piety, prevail and flourish amongst Thy people. Preserve the health of their bodies and vigor of their minds; shower down on them and the millions they here represent, such temporal blessings as Thou seeth expedient for them in his world and crown them with everlasting glory in the world to come. All this we ask in the name and through the merits of Jesus Christ, Thy Son and our Savior.  Amen.”

After reading, I was convinced this is the kind of lesson our schools need to remind the children. Looking at this bought awareness to me that the soldiers dead in battle did not die in vain. Also it cast light that our country’s  need to bring this prayer back on the front page of our society. Today I was thinking on our King. Jesus. He sat on that mount and began with the Beatitudes. The King decrees the business of the kingdom and sets the culture for it. When I remembered that He said “the pure in heart shall see God.” I paused. I know that in the last day we shall stand before the judge of all the earth and see and be rechoned for the time spent here on earth. However the great and small, the righteous and the unrighteous will all see in that day. Again. the king said, “The pure in heartwill see God.” I HAVE BEEN STUDYNG HISTORY TO FIND OUT WHAT THE CHURCH IS MISSING. I have been going back to the past to get understanding for today.I was at a prayer meeting when nudged by the spirit, ‘What are you looking to man for? How many times have you heard my voice? What other certification do you need? I was Stunned. I realized that day after day we gather to see if there a word in corporate prayer. He speaks to us alone the way. TO REACH BACK  IS NOT WISE. Remember Lots wife. He ask of us. Then I listen to the messages of today and hear a lot on future; How to… and go and … try this when you leave here today Jesus said, “Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God.”I paused because I wanted to pray. I have been seeking for past or future. And is the problem. We live now. We have memories of a past. But they are images gone with time like photographs taken of another day. we can not and will not pass that way again. I need to focus. This has been my prayer this year… to focus. I have a calling and a cause. It is not in the past. Forgetting those things behind.  They left some great memories and also so snail trails. But to see God in what happened gives some solace. HOWEVER, as He asked, Israel, “How long will you dwell at this mountain? You have been here long enough.” Release it. Let it go. Get up and get going.

Now, this is it. Going gets to visualize the future. Questions arise and mostly unanswered ones. This is future tense. We don’t have a future, now. Just as we had to release the past we have to refuse to live beyond now. This is all that we have. This is why we can not see God. We expect to see Him in the future don’t we? We expect to be pure some day but He expects us to be pure now. Now is the accepted time. We must get off the merry-go round in our minds and get back to now. Too much information has put us in a new religious Spiro or treadmill to nowhere. We can not make proper decisions because we don’t live for now. We have lost gravity. We have lost friction. We have lost our footing. This is my prayer. Lord give me to focus. Let me live where I am and be who You said and do what You have assigned me and be on with it. That is all. Now, I am beginning to see God. That well of living water is returning and springing up. Do you see Him? Amen.