ANGELFIRE 2-2-06
President Bush will have delivered his State of the Union when this appears, and Sunday's XL Super Bowl be on all our minds, however we may feel about the big game (when Glen and I will be holding serices at LARK). That's because terrorists could try to stage another 9/11 there in Motown. So more security is going to be focused on Detroit that day than any place ever in our nation's history. That thronging stadium can't be allowed to follow NYC, DC, or OKC's disasters, even though Feb.5 matches the date in '89 when ObL claimed victory over the Russians in Afghanistan. Thereafter Russia began withdrawing troops in defeat. Following the Superbowl that ugly nuclear issue in Iran will loom ever larger. I've seen reports on the web that if UN or EU sanctions don't work, the Israelis already have an attack plan in the works. It would have to greatly exceed the one they made on Iraq back in the eighties, though it did take out a nuclear bomb factory Saddam had set up.
Here at home we've seen prayers for rain rewarded to some extent. Of course we need plenty more, but an attitude of gratitude can help our prayers get higher. I think of my recent ones for those twelve coal miners. When it seemed so bleak at first that I had asked "Oh Lord let at least one be spared." Suddenly it seemed that all were going to survive. But when reports lapsed back to one, even that was yet a miracle. So there's an expression "Thank GOD for small favors," which is usually spoken to mean just the opposite. But it does state a truth that can pave the way for larger heavenl favors. A positive sequel to those two years I spent praying for rain at Erick OK, then seeing the torrent wash out that bridge to Sweetwater with a dad and his two kids standing on it, was getting reassigned across the state at Muskogee. There it seemed to rain constantly. In fact we began begging the Lord for some clear skies and sunshine. That's when I sensed something in "weather" sounding so much like "whether" (both words contain unpredictability as no pastor, preacher or priest can pull any strings to control weather). So here's my alphabet for faith in 2006: " No haughty attitude of Altitude. No human book above the Bible. No man made creed compared to Christ." Call that the ABC's of faith in our state of OverKomers (or the OK state). I suggest "We Shall Overcome" to sing instead of "Oklahoma" (especially since we've lost the early innocence by opening to liquor and now also to gambling). We're called "Heartland" as well as "Bible Belt" yet our wild fires have compared somewhat to NO's hurricane or even S.Asia's Tsunamie. So let's "be not overcome of evil but overcome evil with good" (Ro.12:21) and also sing "Faith is the victory that overcomes the world" (1 Jn.5:4); plus many other such references, especially in Revelation (spelling it "overkomers").
ANGELFIRE 2-04-06
We heard the president talk about breaking our petroleum addiction to imported oil in his State of the Union. But he didn't even mentioned little Iceland where that addiction never happened in the first place. It's economy is based on other energy sources. But of course GW was a former TX oilman himself. So he talked about ethanol. We've heard that before. Remember back in the seventies when Jimmy Carter tried to slam on the importing brakes? He said "No more foreign petroleum" then failed to regain his office. I was pastor at Marlow then and vividly recall those fifty hostages taken at that university in Tehran by followers of the Islamic Ayatollah. They were held 444 days (we rang the church bell daily that year and a half) until Ronald Reagan won the presidency. Carter lost his office and reputation, I think, in the ordeal. Even an airlift rescue his administration launched turned into a fiasco before it ever got there. And Iran's been a pill to US ever since, while they still produce a lot of oil. But now they want to produce nuclear power also. And we keep buying their oil because we're more addicted than when Carter blew the whistle. Just think of all those SUVs our auto industry sold us until hardly anyone can afford to drive them. Ugh!
Firemen are Oklahoma's heroes again right now just as they were back in 2001 after 9/11. Here in WW the local effort of replenishing our fire department made headlines in this week's WW Gazette: "We have heroes large and small all over the place. Mayme Smith, a petite 82-year old, is the mother in law of retired fireman Fred Rachel, who gave 26 years of service, and the grandmother of firefighters Erick Rachel and Josh Smith. She's the grandmother-in-law of firefighter Casey Ryan and the mother of Landmark Bank employee Sue Rachel She knows about heroes, and she baked up a storm. One of her German chocolate cakes and a blackberry cobbler were put out on a bid table. More heroes stepped forward in a bidding war that ended with her cake going for $650 on the high bid from State Bank of WW and Dixon Construction. Louis Perry paid $200 for the cobbler. Dozens upon dozens of people came to the bank to make a donation whether or not they bought baked goods or cookbooks. Some of them were back at the stoplight afterward and gave more there to help fill the boots."
I like the part about Mayme because she's on my route in WW. Over $6600 was raised that day, a week ago Friday. And it's even nice to see a senior citizen stepping into the lime light. I told her now that she's famous she can start a bakery and get rich selling her pastries. But at 82, I'd doubt if she's game for all that. By that age we've learned that you can't take money with you. So why all the sweat to make it? The true treasures must be laid up in heaven according to the Lord Jesus: "Lay not up treasure on earth where moth corrupts and thieves break in to steal, but lay up your treasures in heaven where neither moth can corrupt nor thieves break in to steal." (Mt.6:19&20)
ANGELFIRE 2-8-06
One reader told me she'd like for ANGELFIRE to include more about Critter and our Lady of the Flowers, references to the pet dog and my beloved wife. I have fond memories of when our animal was just "a little girl" and when Niece had the Pinkhouse surrounded with a sea of day lilies. In fact I count all that to be treasure laid up in heaven, as the words of that Viet Nam song come back to mind, "Where have all the flowers gone, long time passing...long time ago..." but instead of the melancholy ending "gone to grave yards everyone" a version that ends "saved in heaven where we'll learn Christ as the King of kings, since He has returned." Here on earth things temporal will soon pass away. Stress from the middle east continues to increase as our friend Israel deals with it's hostile neighbor, Hamas. Ties of there to Iran are clear, where that Islamic state is bent on getting the bomb. The democracy we advocate is surely best in the long run, but the elected Islamic leadership in Palestine and Iran are hostile to Israel and Iran's also leans toward belief in a return of the 12th Imam; one whom Shiites there call Mahadi(final ruler). All the uproar caused by that cartoon in a Danish newspaper of Muhammad wearing a terrorist turbin now adds to the global uproar. We evangelicals believe that the Son of GOD will rule "in the long run," and now that just may not be so very long. Our urgent task is to lift up the Prince of Peace(Shalom) and stand firm in our heartfelt allegiance to Him.
Did you see that article about Rotary Club's redoing of the rose garden at Wacker Park. I certainly plan to go up and take a first hand look. They've been beautiful in the past and will be even more so I'm sure. We have so many nice things to see in PV now. The new First United Bank is an impressive sight there as you come into town. And the depot at the east end of Paul St.is a treat to the eye as you circle around in front of it. Also, the Albert Rennie home atop that hill down south is another sight. "Weekend's" photo and story by Adrienne Grimmett were magnificient too. I want to call it Jackson Hill, but she's told me than name came from the school and only applies to it's specific area. I suppose the school's named for Andrew Jackson, our president pictured on twenty dollar bills. All I know about him is his record of fighting Indians and his being from the South. I once visited Jackson MS and suppose that it's the capitol of his home state. Blacks must have liked him because so many Afro Americans are named Jackson. I got my national history in IL as a boy and didn't learn much about the South. Jefferson was a name I heard a lot more than Jackson while I went to Lincoln Elementary, Casey Jr.Hi. and Mt.Vernon Township High. Then when I came back to PV Sr.Hi. in '42, I took off my Mt.Vernon Wolves sweater and graduated as a PV Panther in '44. Never had a Sooner sweater at OU nor a Mustang one at SMU since I didn't go out for football any more. Failed even to watch the Superbowl in Detroit. Seahawks or Steelers don't grab me like the Panthers or the Sooners once did. But I did give my outline of Scripture to the inmates again Sunday night where we had a full house even during the big game. I showed them how the Bible divides into four quarters and a half time: (1)Books of Law, (2)Books of History, (halftime) Books of Poetry, (3)Books of Prophecy, and (4)New Testament (the winning quarter). I've rewritten a PV fight song for Kingdom use: "Christ Jesus is our coach who always helps us play it right. This game against old Satan can become an awful fight. Stay trim like Him, running for life's goal. Christ Almighty on Good Friday died to save each soul."
ANGELFIRE 2-11-06
This time of the year we use a four letter word that isn't dirty or ugly. It's "love," the word that Valentine's Day recalls. And as a pastor I often linked that with celebration of GOD's love for mankind, as expressed in the Gospel about Jesus coming from the Father's Own heart. Now that I see how there's no place in liturgy for such a Valentine comparison, it's made me re-think that interpretation. Humans can "fall in love" but that's not comparable to the Almighty Source whose essence as revealed in 1 Jn.4:8&16 that says "GOD is love" (agape). Now the New Testament was written in Greek, which has three meanings for the single English word: divine love, brotherly/sisterly love and sexual attraction love. This last is eros from which we get the word "erotic." It's the drive that perpetuates our species, but certainly not the definition of Deity (unless procreation echos creation). And it's largely the basis of our Valentine's love, a poetic expression of eros. The third, or middle term is "philea," which doesn't seem to fit Valentine's Day either. We used it to name America's city of brotherly love, Philadelphia. Philea is used for love in the N.T. as well as the first kind (agape), but eros never is a word in Scripture. That suggests to me an aversion to speaking of sex, even though the grand finale of all Scripture is a marriage of the Lamb Christ Jesus to the Bride, His church. Since the Old Testament is so replete with sexuality (Hebrew has no neuter, thus everything's either male or female in that language) there's surely a place for "eros" somewhere in Scripture. I believe that it's transformed into "agape" by the Holy Spirit's regeneration of a reborn race, the sons and daughters of GOD Most High. As degenerate earthlings, this fallen humanity is still ruled by carnal concerns, but those who have their divine image restored in Christ Jesus are animated also by "agape," which will become total our motivation when He returns to bring His Kingdom in all it's fullness. So spiritual Valentines can point beyond cupid to King Jesus instead. In Ephesians, St.Paul instructs husbands to "love (agape) you wives." That's how Genesis at the outset of history describes marriage: "A man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and the two shall become one (or eros) flesh." So sex is pure from the start where it means marriage and loyalty. But unregenerate man has made it so wanton and wicked that there's a connotation of grossness or shame in the Greek language. Cheating on a spouse is vile and unclean sexual behavior. Yet through Christ it's made wholesome again and elevated to heavenly nobility, where earthly marriages cease and all souls are joined to Him forever. That's everlast marriage. In contrast, I've kept this column short and sweet as I always try to do. So you can read any or all of them on my webpage, where I've even made corrections that I saw as needful after seeing it published. I edit them again to get the meaning clear. Hope you'll take a look. Happy Valentine's Day
ANGELFIRE 2-15-06
Since today's Flag Day comes right after Valentine's, it has caused me to consider the stars and stripes as the heart of America. When I was a Boy Scout, I learned to always show respect for it and to place my right hand over my heart when the flag passed by in a parade. Then in the navy wearing a uniform, I was trained to give a hand salute instead. But I prefer the civilian way much more. That hand above my eyebrow signified military rather than voluntary submission. It's even the way service people say the pledge of allegiance. Though I respect the armed forces, I was glad to be discharged in '46. Back then there was just the army, navy and marines (plus coastguard). Each of those branches had their own aviation units. Then in years to follow the Air Force was created, surely the greatest branch of all. About that time in the fifties NASA also came into being. We were under president Eisenhouer, a former general, and I feared NASA would be military too. But he said that it should be civilian so that space would not become another battleground. President Ike also taught us to beware of a growing "military/industrial complex." But we paid little heed as we became the world´s greatest arms producer and biggest dealer equipping our allies with weapons during those years of the Cold War. Yet NASA without any guns has carried our flag far into space and even to other planets. Right now it´s headed toward the edge of the solar system for a Pluto probe. "New Horizons" is the name of that spacecraft which began the nearly decade long journey last month. May GOD bless this non-military effort to gain knowledge for mankind rather than dominion over other nations. And Pauls Valley´s native son, Jeff Moore, has supervision over the main part of this deep space venture. I place my hand over my heart and pray for New Horizons as it "goes boldly where no man has gone." Right on, Jeff, from all of us here in PV.
Another scientific quest has been the search for a "theory of everything." Now it seems to be at hand. Albert Einstein sought to find "a unified field theory" that would be the holy grail of physics. Though he never lived to see it, he left others that unfinished task. I first heard of him when as a boy so interested in science, my aunt Mary Bates in OKC who was sister of the late J.M.Hazlitt, started calling me "Einstein." It was a strange new name to me and I asked my parents who he was. "Oh your aunt's just teasing by comparing you to that long haired freaky scientist that everyone thinks is crazy." It was the era when scientists were often thought mad. I never had long hair and no sympathy for the hippies of later years either. Yet Einstein did became a great American under our flag's protection after Hitler ran him out of Germany for being Jewish. So at last the final theory that he had sought, to embrace all of physics, seems now being nearly found. I've already claimed it (for everything) as shown from Scripture: "In Christ all things are held together" (Col.1:17, Heb.1:3). Now even findings in secular science are telling of His approching return. Thus, all we learn is encompassed within the pages of Holy Scripture: "In the beginning GOD" and "Even so, come Lord Jesus" or from Genesis 1:1 to Revelation 22:20. So let us hold steady and be ready as we remember that the King is coming, and that He's the Son of GOD as well as being a Jew.
ANGELFIRE 2-18-06
President's Day is set between the birthdays of George Washington and Abraham Lincoln and pertains to all Americans who have held that high office. It makes me think of a "five fingers of prayer" that a boyhood friend back in IL recently sent me since we've reconnected on the Internet: (1) Your thumb is nearest, so it means pray for your family and loved ones, (2) Your index finger is for pointing the direction so pray for teachers, pastors and other worthy guides, (3) Your longest center finger represents our leaders such as the president or governor who need prayers, (4) Your ring finger is the very weakest one so pray for the feeble, ill, or those in suffering, (5) Your little finger/pinky is last and represents the self with it's personal concerns; as we humble ourselves by being last, the Lord Jesus will give them prime attention because He said "the first shall be last and the last first." So as we pray for GW (plus v.p.Chaney), we are setting our nation ahead of self. America never did have an earthly king because Christ is the only One for such status which is given only in hearts willingly yielded to Him. Thus a president "presides" as the chief executive chosen for a term, rather than ruling with authority draw from inheritance in a royal family line of blood. To preside is to maintain order while others rule their own domains themselves according to laws made by a representative legislature. The president (presiding officer) is bound by the same ones as everyone else. What an amazing shift it was in this New World, a name to describe the society established even more than the geography. Gone were the dynasties and royal ranks of baron, duke, noble etc. as in old Europe. Every equal citizen could seek the presidency over here; and for today perhaps at last it will be a woman or black person. President's Day certainly portends those possibilities: Hillarie, Condi or perhaps some other i.e. Ophra, whose already learned how to make a public apology. Though I get a feeling that professional writers design these media "kneeling pleas" of public figures. That one from OSU's basketball coach sounded too swathe to be just homemade. It swayed me, much as I deplore such adult "bottle babies." A new and growing genre in media is the Carl Rove of repentance, an expert at tapping into public forgiveness. Don't you know they can draw big pay checks. Yet instead of forgiveness, it becomes just public tolerance and then "ho hum" indifference as "So why all the fuss? What's new? Same old story." Right now I'm angered about the cowboy image being corrupted by Hollywood. They have been our legendary heros. But the public will pay to see that "Brokeback Mountain" and grow even softer as it breaks the bank at the box office. There will be judgement to pay eventually, far higher than the price to see a movie. Don't trust Hollywood for truth.
Say, the water fight down at city council may get really hot (instead of the fun we had as kids squirting water at each other). Wednesday's headline WATER BATTLE BOILS OVER caught everyone's eye I'm sure. Boiling water in you face can even blind you. Just hope things cool down a little so that no one suffers the losses. That old expression " getting your water cut off" spells out serious trouble when one of our water towers is taken away from us (the newest" one in fact). Glad we have an extra of two still standing to get us through this. The old original tower looks so nice now with a bricked in area beneath it, that I enjoy driving past there. But PV's new "most modern" water plant that's planned seems to be at stake and the council is holding steady despite legal threats from that rural water district #4. Hang in there PV council. Water is basic to life any place on earth or Mars (right Jeff Moore?) and especially here in our home town. It's also the safest thing to drink. I'll even use the slogan of Harry Truman's election way back when, "Don't let 'em take it away." Shalom
ANGELFIRE 2-22-06
President's Day and today remind me of the dollar, since the original GW is pictured on it. And I got my first one as I started kindergarten, which I began in Garden City KA. Have happy memories of that city where my sister was born. Then when I started first grade in PV at Lee School in '33, Miss Perry was the principal as my uncle C.H.Hightower took me to enroll. There were a couple of bullies named Vernon and Foster who second graders who enjoyed chasing me home after school. I was timid enough to run from them. That was the same year that FDR became president and Hitler seized power in Germany. Depression was the problem for both nations, so Hitler started a military buildup while FDR spent lavishly on social programs. Germany gained wealth by taking it away from the Jews and from neighboring countries. FDR had to get us off the "gold standard" so that our dollar no longer required that precious metal to be kept in our treasury as it's backing. That allowed us to print as much money as we could possibly spend so that it would be in the hands of citizens to get the economy going again. But with WW II, we went back to requiring gold from foreign countries as they bought arms from us. So our gold supply greatly increased at Ft.Knox, giving us global money clout; especially from the oil we sold only for dollars. Then the Arabs struck their own "black gold" and so we set our dollar as the exclusive way for anyone to buy it by signing a deal with Saudi Arabia. That gave our money extra strength (as much as 25% above other currencies) at the world's two oil exchanges, NYC and London. I didn't learn all that at Lee School, but only to stretch the pennies I had on me and don't let anyone get them out of my pocket. Not Vernon nor Foster nor anyone but me. Well now Iran, second largest oil producer, is planning to set up their own Iranian Oil Burse next month. And instead of dollars, it will be based on Euros, the money used by the EU. Since it will save buyers that 25% edge we've enjoyed, it could really draw a lot of customers away from our exchanges. Instead of gold, we've been on "the oil standard" so long that the value of our dollar could drop and our money would buy far less abroad. Euros would then be the world's standard instead of dollars. We'd be singing "Happy days are gone again." Thus, an attack on Iran over the nuclear issue could head off such an economic collapse for us. I was raised to fault FDR for legalization of the liquor traffic (beginning of our drug problems) and deficit government spending (an addiction still with us). But he didn't try to be a dictator and he led us to finally beat that monster in Germany who committed suicide at the very last. I don't know what ever happened to Vernon or Junior, but I'm still here awaiting the Lord's return. It could be with the apocalyptic situation in Iran. We need to be ready to meet Him. Hallelujah!
ANGELFIRE 2-24-06
You might guess from the name of this column that it's writer has a special interest in angels, which means "messenger from GOD." Their reality has never been in question for me, but only whether it is objective or subjective . Those are the philosophical alternatives for our perceptions of what is basic in the universe. Modern idealists view it from the latter and realists from the former perspective in this age of science and technology. We can hardly imagine that noble thoughts were once valued above common sense facts. Of course that was the medieval age that ran on religious dogma handed down from spiritual authorities. The only science then was theology and things in this life were so transient and trivial that nothing could be gained from their investigation. Medieval "realism" was composed of things eternal in the mind. Bodily experience was so ephemeral that it was relegated to the lower level of awareness shared by animals and things. It was truly mind over matter back then. Yet with the Renaissance, everything flipped upside down (or right side up) and this physical world began seeming more important. The way to gain mastery of it was by careful study instead of the lofty disregard shown by contemplation of things above by high mindedness. Realism has long sense come to be equated with natural science (careful observation) and Idealism with mere speculation about a transcendent realm. There was a rivalry during the seventeenth century between Germany's idealistic school of thought and England's empirical one. That was the century of America's beginning and we went with the English (even taking their very language). In the 20th century the "plain language philosophy" of Ludwig Wicktenstein showed how profoundly language shapes our way of thinking. Thus, we separate fact from fiction by whatever is scientifically verified. Even angels to be credible must be detectable by some means of measurement. We elevate our brain above the mind in knowing that we are selves. Yet we may still turn to the Bible where a THOU speaks from the great beyond. In seminary, I was so attracted to that Jewish anthropologist, Martin Buber, whose "I-thou" description of interpersonal relations vs the "I-it" pertaining to our relation with things. Somewhere I'd heard that "GOD created things to be used and persons to be loved. Yet we get it backward by loving things and using persons." Buber said "In every thou we look out toward the fringes of this universe toward God." But from Holy Scripture we Christians sense the reversal into a "Thou-I" encounter. The high and holy One has come down to be one of us, and through Jesus our terror and dread toward Him is overcome so that we can say "Our Father, who art in heaven." We don't add "in the name of Jesus" because we prayed it together with Him. So we correctly call it The Lord's Prayer.
ANGELFIRE 2-28-06
I saw on MS-NBC a report that chocolate is good for your heart. Those who eat some regularly have less heart disease of blood pressure difficulty. So a great slogan for the Bedry Candy Company might be "a chocolate each day keeps the doctor away."
As the final day of February is gone, I'm reminded that it's the only month still kept on the calendar as exactly four weeks. The other eleven were once all 28 days, because that's how long it takes our moon to circle planet Earth; hence each orbit is a "moon-th" long. But when yearly periods of time were later set at 365&1/4th days measuring Earth's orbit clear around our sun, a few extra ones had to be tacked onto the eleven other months. Twelve times 28 is only 336. Thus two or three days were added to each of the other months making them 30 or 31 day, but February only gets it's "leap year day" added every fourth time around (to absorb a spare "quarter day" each year). All this came with the switch from a lunar to solar calendar in Western civilization (though some cultures stay with the lunar i.e. Islamic dates that measure from Muhammad's flight from Mecca in 622ad or the Jewish holidays that don't fall on our same days annually and supposedly measure from creaion).
The reason I'm interested is because the Biblical creation story tell's how the sun and moon were "for marking times and seasons." Without them, how would we humans even be able to think having no schedule in the sky? (moon for months and sun for yeas). Yet we get so locked into routines that we become forgetful that the point or purpose of everything is to glorify our Maker and not to rush through each day into the next one. I've found it a blessing in retirement slowing down enough to reflect on what's happening in and around our world. If I were back in the pulpit today, I'd have a far clearer perspective about life's foremost agenda. A song I've long sung is from Isaiah 40, "They that wait upon the LORD shall renew their strength, they shall mount up on wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary. They shall walk and not faint. Teach us LORD, teach us LORD how to wait." At this point in history we are more than ever awaiting the return of our Lord Jesus Christ, at Whose coming in glory and majesty to judge the world, the bodies of those who sleep in Him will be raised and along with those living, be changed into the likeness of His own glorified body. And so shall we ever be with the LORD.
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