Direct to any page with URL and number i.e. angelfire.com/or/hazitt/index3.html
ANGELFIRE 9-2-06 Kevin Stark just told me that Pauls Valley won nomination in the state-wide contest for "Favorite Small Town in Oklahoma." Glad that folks are hearing good things about PV, small as it may be. Maybe we'll win state next. Chicago is America's second largest city, or at least has been as long as I can remember. Though L.A. may have moved into that rank by now (which it has so Chricago is third). Nevertheless, I have many fond memories of that "windy city" because of the year '45-'46 that I spent up there. Having experienced that cold wind through the canyons of Dearborn St. and Michigan Ave. that came off the lake, I just took that as it's natural name also. But Jeff, who has two sons living there, explained how the "windy" appelation came from politics. Even when I was there a Dailey was the mayor, so that family must be a dynasty there. And there was such a welcome to service personnel. I was stationed on Navy Pier right off the loop into Lake Michigan being schooled in electronics. Radar was something new and secret then. We had to had badges to get into the various departments, but we could see downtown from the Pier which was so close. I was only a seaman 1st and had to take my turn like the rest on guard duty. Christmas '45 was my turn to serve and I recall how lonely I felt at 17 away from my parents and walking that empty pier. Just about everyone else was gone on leave or liberty. So I sang carols by myself to dispel the gloom. It comes back to me clearly in memory. Yet Chicago Temple was the church I attended right there in the heart of the loop. It claimed to be the tallest in the world and as a skyscraper, I guess it was. And citizens were all so kind to those of us in uniform. There were three different Service Centers downtown. One called Victory Center was sponsored by some religious agency. It was there that a chaplain asked me if I was saved. It shocked me because that term wasn't familiar to me then. But after our conversation about the Lord he assured me that I was and gave me another tip, "Sailor always remember whenever the devil tries to tempt you, as he will, that you can whisper the word 'Blood' and he will flee because it will bind him" It was years later before I realized what a powerful weapon was give to my by that clergyman right there in the heart of Chicago, scene of so much crime and wickedness. So the Holy Spirit (wind of GOD) answers to the Blood (Christ crucified) to drive off and bind the devil: a Wind from heaven seen there in Chicago. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 9-5-06 I've read an online article by Moishe Rosen, founder of Jews for Jesus, about facing disappointment which touched me deeply. Surely that's how the movement is taking this law suit against them by a NYC rabbi/comic named Jerry Mason. He wants four million bucks because they used his name and a drawing of him in their publication distributed over the city without prmission. Mason considers Jesus as only for Gentiles, so he demands they destroy the circulars also. In the article by Rosen, it sounds clearly like a Christian's testimony. Thus Mason certainly has a case, unless he can be made to see that the Gospel is "for the Jew first and also the Gentile." Thus, I pray he might learn to become a completed Jew (or more truly Jewish) by accepting Christ Jesus as his Lord. That would show Biblically how the OT is completely fulfilled by the NT as Christians are ever more the true children of Israel.
The shuttle launch has been delayed over and over by dangers of hurricane weather. Now it's set to go again today (Wed.). That International Space Station needs to be completed since it's less than half built thus far. So here's a prayer for the Atlantis crew and their safe journey out and back; though the Columbia disaster three years ago still hangs heavy on our memory. And what a shock it's been to animal lovers learning of that beloved croc joc being stabbed in the heart by a stingray down in Australia. Steve Irwin was the guy's name who died far too young. While taping another TV show in shallow water, even his death got filmed at the very last. Tune us in 6:30 Thurs. on channel 2. Shalom
Jews for Jesus is getting sued for several million in NYC from claiming a Jewish comic Jerry Mason as being with them (he had supported NYC Christmas celebraions)' Now he's angry that they used his name and a drawing of him in their circular without his permission.
ANGELFIRE 9-09-06 Now it's been five years since 9/11, the day that General Tommy Franks (of WW) called "a crease in history." The dictionary says that it's a line made by folding and pressing. To me it gave the military appearance of the trousers of an officer's uniform, and also recalls those Twin Towers the first two passenger planes knocked down that day. Even the number eleven in 9/11 evokes their image before the towers had fallen. So I might go on to interpret the hot iron that pressed out such a "crease" as being today's rampant terrorism, which has now gone global. GOD forbid that it should happen again (though there are usually two creases in any pair of pants).
Even before that moon race with the Russians back in the sixties, I had perceived our space ventures as the mark of America's destiny. Remember how we began with only 13 stars in our flag. So all these delays in the shuttle's launch right here before a fifth anniversary of 9/11 make me wonder. I'm writing this early Friday, and if Atlantis doesn't go now, it will mean a much longer delay. Lord GOD, do these events carry deeper significance for us?
Having the president of Iran possibly come over here to speak again at the UN just blows my mind. Who knows, he might wear a nuke this time and take the whole place out like a super suicide bomber. On the other hand, it might get all those delegates really praying in earnest before he arrives for any address. Now that would really be a new UN. I can recall when that UN Tower was built. A chapel was ruled out because of religious differences. So only a meditation room was to be allowed. But even such would be oriental religion. So then the whole matter was dropped, as I recall. Thus, I've never felt much confidence in the UN. Yet getting those peacekeepers into Lebanon is a plus. And Kofie Annon may get the two Israel soldiers released whose kidnapping caused Israel to attack Hezbolla. I think they found it a good excuse to go into Lebanon after them, since they'd built up such a big missile stash along that northern border. Israel has the world's best intelligence agency, the Mossad, that keeps a lookout for them. So they already knew what had to be eliminated, just as the UN now has to keep Iran from providing more weapons there and elsewhere or it's going to mean war again. Our strategy of building democracies in Afghanistan and Iraq which could finally spill over into Iran seems to be now put on hold. But we must stop the opium trade in Afghanistan which has brought back the Taliban, and also keep holding steady in Iraq. That's what the "crease in history" means to this ANGELFIRE observer. And let's keep our eyes on the Prise, Christ's final return to reign while this old heaven and earth are passing away and replaced by the new. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 9-13-06
Remember when "getting it all together" was an expression in vogue? Well I can say that now about my website which goes clear back to '99. The name I used for this bi-weekly column was SOJOURNER back then. NASA's lander of a spacecraft on Mars in '96 had a rover aboard by that name. And WW's Donna Shirley directed the successful operation. She had named her mobile craft aboard the Pacemaker after a famous black woman who lived in the 19th century; but I took up the name also from Scripture, where it was used to describe believers who are "in the world but not of the world" or sojourners. Then I switched to ANGELFIRE early in this 21st century as being a transcendent factor, rather than the pinnacle of achievement for human technology. Page 3 is first and the site continues up to 118 thus far. You can start there or jump back with
I heard Rudy Guillani say Monday (watched all day long) that we'd been in a defensive posture toward terrorism until 9/11, then had gone on the offensive ever since with this War against it. That made me see why we now call it The Day That America Changed. After dark, when I looked at all those beacons shining up from ground zero, I saw them as search lights seeking terrorism to go after before it can get us. Isn't that the best strategy for fighting the devil. Resist him, and he will flee. That sneaky, creepy, clever and corrupt enemy can only be defeated with spiritual weapons i.e. power of the Gospel. So ground zero must keep this nation alert to Eph.6:12 "For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this age, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places" (those trusting that their suicides to kill us will send them there). I noticed on TV how the slash in 9/11 is being replaced with a hyphen 9-11 but the former conveys assassination (by saber), which is far more accurate to my way of thinking. Praying "Come Lord Jesus," I still keep getting it all together. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 9-18 We seem to be stuck with so much carry over from the crusades of the middle ages in this global age. Pope Benedict XVI quotes what a 14th century pontiff said about Muhammad's condoning the sword for jihad and the Muslim world is angered. Makes us recall that cartoon of him in a Denmark newspaper that provoked so much wrath a year ago. Maybe if we Christians just centered our message completely on the Lord Jesus Christ and not on church history, we might get through the Good News to them instead of creating rancor. Some say there's no way to win souls out of Islam. It just locks the mind shut with their holy book, the Quran. But I once knew a convert years ago from Pakistan. In face he became an evangelist. I was pastor in Muskogee and a wealthy devout mayor named Jim Egan (for whom a church camp over there is named) had been traveling in India. He won a Hindu named Joe Naydu to the Lord and then the Pakistani fellow. Both were young and left all to come back to America with Jim to train. It was the age when Mahatma Gandhi, who'd been assassinated, was considered by some a secret Christian. India had been divided into Hindu and Pakistani nations in the fifties. I heard each of these young converts preach Christ. That sort of evangelical faith is what we need to face these final hours in world history. We feel Hindu India as an allie in the war against terrorism, but Islamic radicals are it's very cause. Yet the shalom of Christ is it's answer.
Maybe we should recall that one of the Apostles with Jesus had been such a fanatic. They were called zealots and caused great anger toward the Jews with their underground tactics. Simon the Caananite is mentioned in Mt.10, but in Acts he is designated Simon the Zealot. When the Romans finally tried to stamp out such Jewish insurrection by destroying Jerusalem in 70ad, hundreds of them fled to a butte above the Dead Sea called Massada. It's now the national shrine of the state of Israel, because a thousand zealots committed a mass suicide rather than surrender after holding out as long as they could against the surrounding legions. And Israel's national motto is "Never Again," which means that suicide will not be their answer (as it surely is with today's Islamic zealots). If Christ changed Simon into one of His own, He can even change today's terrorists whose hearts and minds are full of enough hate to make them die just to take us out too. Come Lord Jesus
ANGELFIRE 9-20-06 Jeremiah is considered the author of Lamentations and thus "the weeping prophet." He was called quite young (12 or 13) in 627bc, and reports so much calamity that such woeful sermons are called Jeremiads. He saw Judea's resurgence and then it's fall. In Je.25 he foretells divine judgement on the nation and all the others round about which the Babylonians from the east would carry back as they took the Israelites captive for seventy years; though Jeremiah himself was finally taken by fleeing Jews down to Egypt instead, where he ended his days. It was the original land of bondage for Israel. His name means "Yahweh is high" or could also mean "Yah[weh] founds/exalts/loosens/throws," which sure depicts the tumultous destiny of the Jews.
Today (Tues.) president Bush speaks to the UN and will focus on the Middle East. Then Abahdinejad of Iran will also have his say. It makes me recall a poem by Rudyard Kipling, whose poetry I grew up hearing from my dad: "East is east and west and never the twain shall meet, till earth and sk stand presently at GOD's great judgement seat. For there is neither east no west, border nor breed nor birth when two strong men stand face, though they come from the ends of the earth." We keep hearing now of military action against Iran if the UN refuses to enforce it's sanctions. Otherwise Iran may soon have a nuclear bomb and global terrorism will then become the rule rather than the UN's diection. Of course Abehdinejab will deny having such a goal, though he's publicly promised the destruction of Israel. So how else would that be accomplished? Jeremiah (of the LORD) still tells Christians in Scripture to turn from the world's false gods of affluence, fame, pleasure
and alcohol to seek first the Kingdom of GOD, the same thing our Lord Jesus preached. Here are words to go with PV's familiar downtown clock chime: "Christ will be here, let's be ready. Soon He'll appear, so hold steady." LORD grant us Thy shalom
ANGELFIRE 9-25-06 I see that Abbas is to address the UN next here on Friday. After those two radicals who have each had a turn, it will be nice to hear a moderate in world affairs, though Abbas has the same first name as Iran's Abadinajed, Momoud. Abbas is Palestine's successor to the late Arafat, and comes from the more central Fatah party of Palestine, while Hamas is the hate party that won in their recent elections. Now Abbas has to work with Hamas and claims that they are ready to at least acknowledge Israel's existence (though not recognizing it as a state). That would be a break though for diplomacy, but I don't count on it. It was 30 years ago this coming Jan. that I first visited there. And one vivid memory is of being accosted right in Old Jerusalem by a man carrying a gigantic book. He was dressed in a suit and looked like a preacher, though not clean shaven and difficult to understand. For some reason he picked me out of our tour group to show his book, which I expected to be a Bible. Instead it was a family album showing ancestors and their land properties. He said "This is the proof that we owned this place. For generations it belonged to my fathers but it's been stolen from us." It was an awkward encounter and people stopped to gawk as I wanted to leave. But he seemed a gentleman and I couldn't just brush him off as he talked on so passionately. So the group finally moved ahead and I went with them, still wondering why he'd chosen me. Then I realized it was the suit I was wearing. I had dressed like going to church to visit there in Old Jerusalem. That's how it had seemed to me, so he thought I must be the leader. His plea still haunts me after all these years and I've wanted justice for the Palestinians as well as the Israelis there in that cockpit of history. Some of both the Israelis and the Palestinians are Christians, though they are Jews and Muslims predominately. Thus, "Come Lord Jesus," a prayer that ends the whole Bible, must stay in our hearts daily for His final Shalom here on earth as it is already in heaven. We may be ridiculed and even called "the devil." but we must not give way to hate, for GOD is love(agape). And He packs a divine wallop, or the knock out blow. The Arab/Israeli fight seems like an open ended match to me. The rounds go on and on.
All this e-coli being spread through spinach is espeially abrasive news for my generation who were reared to eat it like our comic strip hero, Popeye. His song sometimes comes back to mind: "I fights to th finish cause I eat's me spinach, I'm Popeye the Sailor man." That line came to me in tha navy (like Popeye) when I got into amateur boxing. Three rounds were all we had to go, but in the ring that seemed to me all anyone could endure. When I see these pros going 15 or 30, it just blows my mind. I still like to watch a match now and then on that special channel and can only marvel at their endurance. Istead of that TV slogan "Eight is Enough," I say just three will do. Guess I never ate enough spinach. But I saw on Gospel TV recently a guy dressed as the announcer for the fight singing this song: "Ladies and gentlemen, in this corner presenting the undefeated undisputed Champion of Love." Of course it was our Lord Jesus Christ, and put a chill of thrill within me. I'd long forgotten my last big match in '47 at Ardmore which was a five state Golden Gloves Tournament. The referee stopped it before finishing the third because I was staggering so much. It was a TKP (technical knock out) that ended boxing for me. But preiously in OKC I'd won over a much larger opponent for the light heavyweight championship. That's how I got into the five state affair, which I've mostly tried to forget. In OKC everyone cheered for me because he was much larger, "Get him white trunks, go get him" and I did. Then at Ardmore I was the bigger one, but lost in a ref's decision. He was so fast I couldn't lay a glove on him. Like the devil does us at times, I can see now.
ANGELFIRE 9-28-06 I hate to even mention him, but Clinton's back in the lime light for his angry retort to reporter Christ Wallace. Wallace asked him why more wasn't done to get UbL who was known to be in Afghanistan. Only a series of missiles was fired into an area that bin Laden had left just an hour earlier. Clinton's anger flared like some Maffia boss as he began to attack the younger Wallace. He even brought up the charge right wingers had made against him the the military action was a diversion from his Lewinski affair. That should make Americans see that divine judgement has been on this nation for tolerating sodomy in our Whitehouse Oval Office. It condoned a practice that's spread through our land, especially our secular schools where conscience has been wiped from sexual behavior. So it's the Clinton legacy of which he himself reminded us. In the book of Judges such conduct is seen as the worship of false gods. Yahweh sends punishment on His own by withdrawing His protection from Israel. In chapters 8 & 9 we read how He used Gideon to restore them. After his death, they followed a wicked son, Abimelech, who killed 70 brothers and then even destroyed Shechem trying to become ruler. But the youngest son named Jotham escaped and from a mountain top, put a curse on Abimelech, that he should die at a woman's hand. Sure enough in an attack, one dropped a stone on his head and thus he ordered a soldier to run him through with the sword so it could not be said that he died at a woman's hand. After several more Judges were sent to Israel, their leaders finally begged the LORD for divine help and confessed "We were unfaithful to You." Abimelech reminds me of our previous president. (He even thinks he' still alive). Now we are stuck in this war as God's punishment, but Christians endure by the "blessed hope" that Christ is returning soon for those who know Him as Savior and have turned from wicked worldly ways. Isaiah 63:9 comforts us: " The LORD was truly merciful, so He rescued His people. He took them in His arms and carried them all those years." Thus our Lord Jesus has spared America. But this war has not brought us to full repentance of the wickedness still in our society, which is riddled with hypocracy i.e. the tobacco industry, which advertises against it's own product (complying with a federal penalty). Yet they still make and sell vast amounts of cigarettes. Who would read their phony rot, much less take it seriously?
ANGELFIRE 9-30-06 I think of that sad and sentimental song about September, the month that's gone now: "Oh it's a long long time from May to December. And the days grow short when we reach September. Then the autumn weather sets the leaves aflame. And I haven't got time for the waiting game. Oh the days dwindle down, to a precious few--September, November. And these few precious days I'll spend with you. These golden days, I'll send with you." It's about intimacy toward a human companion, and leaves a lump in the throat or tear in the eye. Yet the song might yield a hint of the how glorious is our personal relationship with the Lord Jesus, which isn't locked in to the calendar. Instead, it goes on beyond earthly time. While prayer links us to Him in the unseen world even now, out there we will talk face to face. Another song says "What a day that will be when our Jesus we shall see, the One who saved us by His grace and we shall look upon His face. Then He'll take us by the hand and lead us through the Promised Land. What a day, glorious day that will be." No sad September ending there, but forever with the Lord (our spirits going to Him or His return bringing them to be rejoined to glorified bodies raised from this earth).
That new movie "Flyboys" authored by a member of PV's Blake family as described in last weekend's Democrat, is one I'd sure like to see. I grew up hearing all about WWI and aviation was the part I liked most. A movie made about it back in the thirties was "Dawn Patrol" that starred Earl Flynn. I went to see it more than once, along with pals who were into model airplanes as I was. Making our own ones to fly was great fun. With a rubber band inside them, we'd twist the propellers to wind up tight, then toss it up to fly. But the double wings of those WWI bi-planes we saw in the movie were too difficult for me. Mine were just single, though I did build a six foot winger with a tiny gasoline engine. It would fly for several miles. One time it got lost that way and I don't recall if I ever found it again. Oh yes, I did and then sold it to buy more. Even had my own shop back of our house in Mt.Vernon IL to work on model airplanes. We never though about having another WW as it was such a happy time then. Niece thinks of Happy Days being in the fifties (we both like that music), but to me they were first in the thirties. Then they ended when real planes from Japan struck Pearl Harbour. The Dawn Patrol wasn't guarding over on that side of the world, but aviation sure became important. We didn't even have a national Airforce then. It formed after the war, as I recall. But those flyboys that the new movie is about were surely it's early pioneers in WW I. Doesn't Garvin county make it's impact on the whole world?
Opray Winfrey doesn't want to be president, though she's the richest woman we have in America. Now she's named the man she will back, Barack Obama. He's also a black person now serving in Congress from Illinois, Oprah's home state. I like it that they're both Bible named, though her's is a city (Josh.18:23) rather than a person. His is both in the book of Judges and of Hebrews (as the general that Deborah inspired to free Israel from Sisera's tyranny. She was a Judge at the time). So maybe Oprah is Obama's inspiration/finanacier now. I checked on his faith and he's a member of the United Church of Christ, which is a merger of several denominations up north. With Oprah's money backing, he really could go places. like the Whitehouse perhaps. So better remember his name, Barack Obama. Shalom
PAGE 118 TO 117