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ANGELFIRE 10-4-06 Remember when "weird" was the pop term for something new or different (replacing "cool" as the very best). Wierd was a crazy carry over from that hippie influence of the sixties which tended to affirm strange or far out events. LSD was the "sacred" key into that psychedelic world. Now things have gotten so freakish that "normal" is the term we yearn to hear. Evangelicals have become the cultural heroes of this era, it seems to me. As we dread fanatics and the insanity of suicide murderers abroad and in our schools here at home, a "back to the Bible" and normality attitude keeps growing stronger. And it links Jews with Christians since 39 of the 66 books therein are shared by both faiths. Though Islam claims the Qu'ran also to be Biblically based, there are changes in it far too basic for that to be true. Thus our national sympathy for Israel emerges from the Book (as well as so many Jewish news people) which every US president has laid his hand on to take the oath of office. If a Catholic version has ever been used, it had 14 more OT books that neither Jews nor Protestants accept as Scripture, and thus departed from the norm. Let's not go back to glorify the wild, weird and warped because sin is a form of insanity and Satan thrives in it. Even playful allowance of freakishness can be dangerous. A level head is not one that's weaving and wobbling all over the place. I found a long list of texts in my Topical Bible describing WORLDLINESS that ran four full pages: "World" divides as (1) Universe, (2)Human race (3)Unregenerate humanity and (4)Roman Empire. The last would be this secular monetary culture, as I see it. Holding steady for the Lord is difficult but so necessary, until He returns to take full control.
That reporter who became famous as co-author of the book that brought Nixon down in the Watergate scandal of the seventies has written another, "A State of Denial." I get weary of so many books, especially when they are timed to make the author big bucks right before elections. Larry King had him on as usual, but I just took a peek and then went elsewhere. Larry's show is so often a garbage pit anyhow (though as a showman he knows such will be watched). What we see and hear feeds into our soul (or being). So we need to be as discriminating as in how we are about eating. Most news is loaded with entertainment these days, so watch it prayerfully that the Holy Spirit may screen out false meaning and spin. I used to withdraw and seek the Lord only in privacy, but have come to behold His hand at work in events as we await His full appearing, the consummation of history. Of course the season of Halloween seems to foster things spooky and freakish. Sometimes it gets clear over toward the devil, who Scripture tell us to "resist and he will flee from you." When the lurid, obscene and puctrid are being offered like a side show like the pornographic, we need to change the channel. Purity and holiness are what the LORD asks from those who serve and worship Him. There's a poem by Edgar Allen Poe that I've been tempted to quote about October, but I think he must have written it while high on opium, which he did use. So despite it's grisley poetic appeal, I'll skip ULALUME (name of his beloved). It ends dismally as her grave at last is found,"'tis the tomb of my lost Ulalume." Sounds like Halloween doesn't it.
ANGELFIRE 10-07-06 Wasn't it great to read how Kevin Stark received that award at the governor's conference. The Action Figure & Toy Museum was his idea, even though he shared the credit with others. Now PV is on the map for all of Oklahoma, as well as nationally and internationally. He has even used his comic strip to promote it. David Toth, the new manager, has appeared numerous times with Geezer (the comic strip hero). Thus we should all recognize him as the one replacing Della Wilson, who ran it for the first year. I stop in now and then and find David a good conversationalist. He tells me Sinclair gave that huge dinosaur in the window, which was first all green. That's the color I'd always expected them to be, like gigantic lizards. Then when kids got so fond of them, the colors went pink, purple or panoramic. I told David I'd give it my name now, since it now wears "a coat of many colors." But I secretly see it as the Old Tower just scaled down to fit. The Tower's my toy of imagination and is PV's own dinosaur, having stood facing east for over a century with the county building for it's body and the old City Hall it's tail that stretches around north. Yes, it's all "old." One of our happier realizations is that dinos didn't become extinct 63 million years ago. Instead, they sprouted feathers and flew away to become birds. Maybe that's why boys & girls find them so appealing as toys. And our Toy Museum is sprouting wings big enough to lift all of PV. Right on Kevin and David.
Though the war keeps drawing more and more critics, I continue to pray for the troops. They face foes not willing to listen to argument. A number of signs still up in WW that I see on the route cause me to think of Iraq so "wracked" with violence. It's also very basic to Bible history, and this conflict makes me feel that mankind has gone full circle so that completion is at hand with the Lord's return in glory and majesty. Some are talking of the antiChrist to appear, but I sense that it's already upon us as world wide terrorism. So let's cling to "the blessed hope of His appearing" mentioned in Titus 2:13. Scripture never says "second coming," but "Looking for the appearing." The former is loaded with too much baggage. So "blessed hope" is enough (and Scriptural). Each morning we can pray that it might be the long awaited Day of His return when He will set all things right. If I get to do another "Song With Spoken Word," I'll tell of a Jewish student at Hebrew University in Jerusalem that I first met back in '77, and what I later learned from him. His name was Jonathan Rosenthal rather than Yoni, as everyone had been calling him. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 10-11-06 Kofi Annan will complete his second five year term as Secy.Gen. of the UN at the end of '06, and a S.Korean named Ban has been nominated and expected to be confirmed by the general assembly's 192 delegates. Ban is at 62, about the age of his divided Korea. So his first name labels his destiny much as names in the Bible. He has long stood for curtailment of nuclear weapons and the UN had planned for an Asian leader to succeed the African one. As the 8th secy. general in it's 60 year history, he will also oversee some 92,000 peacekeepers around the world with a two billion annual operating budget. Hunger and slowing AIDS, as well as assisting refugees will fall under his pur-view. So pray that Ban will be the man who'll do what he can. Japan elected a new president a week or so ago named Abe. Talk about Bible names, that one's right at the top, as well as in our own American history. So those two can bolster each other against that Jung Mental Il (or whatever the name). And we have a Ben S. Bernanke named to replace Alan Greenspan if the Senate confirms it. He's been the president's economic advisor and last week the stock hit three new highs. Not sure his name was out yet, but he's 62, from S.Carolina and son of a Jewish pharmacist in Dillon SC. Jews seem to have the magic touch with money, as Greenspan has doe for us all these years. I even suggested once we call our dollar bills, greenspans. Of course they'll always be bucks or spondulas or just greenbacks, which applies because the backside has most of that color. The front is all black (except other side of the national seal). So how's all this for a look at Ban, Ben and our famous Buck (named after some cowboy hero I'd guess).
Hasn't it been a treat to see Dick Tracy getting attention in The Democrat as he's turned 75. I grew up on that comic strip and still admire his flinty face. So glad he and the artist will be placed in our Toy Museum's funny paper strip collection (or Hall of Fame) this Saturday, first anniversary of our delightful center that David Toth now manages. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 10-14-06 Thursday (yesterday as I write) was the date that Columbus discovered America back in 1492. He landed in the W. Indies and thought he'd reached the India of the Orient. So the natives were named Indians like the islands, though they were in fact the Native Americans of a new world. N. and S. America. Several years ago a map supposedly centuries old was used to show that the Vikings had actually made the discovery much earlier, but I saw on OETA last week how it had been proven a forgery. So the saying's still true: "In fourteen hundred and ninety two, Columbus sailed the ocean blue," though we've always known he didn't get clear to India despite the label "Indians" on these original residents of this hemisphere. Such compares in my mind to the Log Cabin Republicans that we hear about in connection with Mark Foley, now out of the closet. They use that name to imply that the Republican party founder Abraham Lincoln, was one of them. Mis-labelling can lead to destructive results, though it could yet prove in the long run that these Indians did originate in Asia (India) before coming up and across the Bearing Straights to the new world continents. That would prove Columbus even farther sighted than any had ever imagined. The only negative thing then,about his voyage, would be that it was funded with wealth king Ferdinan and queen Isabella had confiscated from the Jews expelled out of Catholic Spain. Perhaps that cruelty has now given them entitlement in this land like no other place on Earth. Their star of David even shapes the stars of our national seal above the eagle. Just look at the green backside of a dollar bill. So we might still have a Jewish president before we have a female one; or both in the same person, unless the Lord comes back beforehand. What turbulent days these are in which we are living! Come Lord Jesus.
ANGELFIRE 10-18-06 As I write this morning, the US population is reaching three hundred million people within our fifty states, from Hawaii in the west to Rhode Island on the east. It makes me wonder how many more we can sustain. Add the 13 million non-citizens who have emigrated here from surrounding nations and it's 313. Last week I passed a black friend in WW named Martin High and offered him a ride. He declined and I said "So you'd rather walk?" "No, it's Friday the thirteenth" he answered, as he laughed. I hadn't thought of it. so I told him America began with 13 colonies, and that wasn't bad luck, then added "And I surely you're not superstitious about my driving." So he pointed across the street and said "No, I'm just going right there" and I said "So long" (shalom) as I drove away thinking about thirteen. Even Jesus with His twelve had been that number. Yet number 13 must have been Judas. "Now whose superstitious" I said to myself. So I'm thinking back of when we become teens, and our years get fraught with turmoil or danger. Besides the Savior, we realize that there is a devil (not to pay but be reckoned with). Seems that's his number from then on, and thus we're wary of it. Now there's about that many days until the vote on liquor-by-the-drink in Garvin county. I recall my days on Treasure Island in Frisco bay back during WW II. I never started drinking, but we had to go into all those waterfront joints in pairs on shore patrol duty. Every bar tender would put out a couple of shot glasses and say "Have one on the house" as he lifted the bottle to pour them. We'd shake our heads, just as he knew we would. It was a phoney ritual trying to discredit our authority. So that's how I've felt toward the whole liquor industry; based on deception, trickery and deviltry. Then Friday the 13th was also when the first gay member of Congress died. Gary Studds was his name, as best I recall. Now we have the very first Muslim running. He's from Detroit where he grew up a Catholic, then converted to black Islam. I'm sure we'll keep hearing of Keith Ellison, if he defeats his Jewish opponent up there. But "Jesus is the Name high over all, in earth or sea or sky." And He's coming again to reign in the full glory of heaven's Shalom. Hallelujah!
ANGELFIRE 10-20-06 I just heard of Israeli soldiers struggling with Muslims trying to get into old Jerusalem for Ramadan prayers. It struck me as something close to the great spiritual warfare of the New Testament. Of course I don't mean Judaism against Islam, nor even Christianity (a term I try not to use) against other religions. Rather it's the goodness of our Lord Jesus Christ overcoming the world through our living for Him. We are to be in the world but not of it. Christ Jesus people have a citizenship in the higher realm that He called "Kingdom of GOD." So as we watch world affairs, we must not be taken in by the notion that it's a collision of civilizations (though I admit tending to sympathize with Israel. I read Esther this morning how the Jews were presered by her charm). And I'm glad the season of Ramadon is nearly gone because it raises the level of conflict so much in Iraq. Now I don't see any end of this War on Terror until Christ returns. We just can't back down, but need to remember it's only temporal. The one for eternity is not carnal warfare and doesn't require worldly weapons. We are armed as Ephesians 6:13ff tells us, with the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, the shoes of Shalom, as well as gird with truth and the sword of the Spirit (which is the Word of God). It seems that something in little PV was more significant this week than even events in Jerusalem. We saw it as a headline in this paper LANDERS FORGIVES HUSBAND. Now that's a victory in the war against evil, though he killed their three kids and himself. Such a triumphant attitude makes me want to sing "Faith is the victory, Faith is the victory, Faith is the VICTORY that overcomes the world. Jesus said "Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good." And so a mighty blow was struck against Satan there at Whitebead. He had slipped into a family to wreak havoc, but forgiveness in such a disaster is more than the enemy can endure. Hallelujah!
Here in WW we have pumpkins galore. It's call the Pumpkin Patch as you come into town and see a field full of them. Then our PumpkinFest will be Sat.Oct,28 from 10am to 5pm. The Fire Dept. will have an open house all day celebrating their 100th year. And Halloween decorations are clear around town. I think of trying to produce a Wynnebear for Christmas to market next season. It would be like the one I treasured as a child called Wennie the Poo. How I did love that Poo Bear that my grandmother Hightower gave me. Now WW makes me feel so happy to see all aglow that I'd like to share the blessing. Ha and Shalom
EXTRA ANGELFIRE(Sunday morning and unpublished) The Democrat seems to be siding with "liquor by the drink" adovcates, judging by the series of recent articles favoring it's passage. Now there are also signs up in PV saying "support the Proposition" which make me feel like it's a secuction effort. I remember when that term was used for trying to solicit illicit sex, or to proposition a woman with an offer to pay. And certain select police are lending their support with the argument that making hard liquor more easily available will give greater control over it's consumption. Isn't that like printing porn in the daily paper so it would cause less of such stuff being read? All this line of thinking recalls to me the reasons given for prohibition repeal way back in '33 or whenever it was that FDR got it done. I was too young to hear such logic before the change, but grew up being told about it. And that could well have been the start of Muslim hatred for the USA, which has grown to the state we now face from radical Islam. I'm suggesting this because that's an abstainence religion, for all it's other failings. But the Catholics began to gain political influence here in America back then and they've never seemed to put any brakes on alcohol, except to condemn drunkenness. Just look at New Orleans (before Katrina) and in more recent decades at Las Vegas. It seems to me that Protestants are the only ones who have even tried, and evangelical Protestants especially. If we look at the 18th century, when distillation came into widespread use as the way to make hard drinks from wine, ale and beer i.e. brandy, whiskey, gin etc, then liquor became an issue to the pious faithful. The softer wines and beers were only five or six percent (here in OK only 3.5%, while 100 proof means 50% alcohol). Even the Bible has warnings against the softer alcoholic beverages of ancient times. First, John Wesley tried to preach moderation to those poor miserable coal miners in England so often drunk on whiskey, and then taught like Joshua of ancient Israel, declaring "As for me and my house" (Methodist rather than tribe), we will abstain. So evangelical pietists of other names and types took that position also, and brought it to America; even making it the 18th amentment to our Constitution. Yet now all that Godly wisdom has been eroded and a gigantic liquor traffic (or industry) has so much economic clout that it can hardly be stopped. It's considered modern modern culture. But this fuels the fires of global hatred for America as purveyors of Sodom and Gomorrow type drunkeness, debauchery. and shameless disgrace. AA is an after the fact way of dealing with widespread alcoholism. (Thank GOD for it). But an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. So we have a vote in Garvin county next Nov.7 that may be last chance to have any say about this big money monster that is promising to make us all so wealthy. Lies, lies, lies. JA
ANGELFIRE 10-28-06 In America we see Halloween as an evening of fun for kids. "Trick of Treat" was an adaptation to tame the trend toward vandalism that tarnished it. But Protestants should remember that it's the day Martin Luther (the German clergyman) in 1517 posted 95 statements of Biblical dispute with the pope in Rome on the castle door of his city, Wittenburg. It launched a Reformation that broke away from Catholic control. The printing press had made it available, so national churches turned to the Bible for authority: Lutheran in Germany, Reformed in Holland, Presbyterian in Scotland, and Anglican in Britain. It was even printed in their own language to replace Latin. So when the USA formed two centuries later in this new world, it was mainly Protestant. Thus Halloween has been a spoof of all the medieval superstition that held away before Martin Luther's defiance. He was a rebel priest turned preacher and even got married later on. The eve of All Saints Day was also so timely because it had signified papal control even beyond this world into the next. The castle door was just a place for public announcements, but Luther made it a door of destiny. So "Luke" is a nick name we might use for him since it's Biblical and he himself was Mr.Bible.
"War of the Worlds" recalls another si/fi movie that captivate me, "2001:a space Odyssey." Arthur C. Clarke wrote the novel from which it was made. I once met him and asked if help from heaven shouldn't be sought in man's venturing into space. He said that mankind had already spent too much time waiting for such help already. "There's not enough of it left," he said. The world situation seemed quite urgent even then, in the sixties. A black monolith was the sign that ETs had left for us earthlings. It was found on the moon, as I recall. When our dad, JM died in '69, I got the family to allow a similar marker for his grave in Mt.Olivet. I stop by there now and then, where mother was also buried in '96 (sort of like a coin toss in time). The year 2001 came and went as we began a third millennium. Clarke said it didn't begin with 2000 but 2001, thus his novel's name. Yet he felt time was running out? And now PV's own Jeff Moore has a space probe on the way to Pluto that will still take eight more years to get there. Space stuff has to have time. But the Lord may return any day. Thus GOD holds the future! Arthur Clarke knew that, though he wouldn't admit it. Words from a secular musical years ago come to my mind again: There's going to be a great Day. Lift up your head and say "There's going to be a great Day." Angels in the sky promise that bye and bye there's going to be a great Day. Gabriel will warn you. Some early morn, you will hear his horn. So open your heart today (to Jesus), lift up your hands and say, "There's going to be a great Day." Shalom/So long
ANGELFIRE 10-31-06 It sounds good, and that's the reason I doubt it: a new report that N.Korea has agreed to join the six party nuclear talks at their "earliest convenient time." They exploded a small bomb on Oct.9 which drew international condemnation, and have continued demanding one on one talks with US. We don't want the whole load of making peace. It was that kind of a bind that cause Bush to launch the war in Iraq. Since the EU wouldn't go along, we went ahead with a coalition of the willing because we thought Saddam had nukes and other WMDs. Now N.Korea has shown both their missile and nuke capability, though both rather poorly done. So someone has to put the brakes on them, but we'd rather let it be those nearby Asian nations. We've already spent enough keeping troops in S.Korea to shield them from an invasion since the Korean War ended with a truce made in Paris way back in the fifties, after Eisenhouer became our president. One of my seminary colleagues went to serve as a chaplain over there. Then he became an Episcopal priest and now after a stroke is being kept alive on a feeding tube in that Holiday nursing home at Norman. Can't communicate and has been laying there for several years just breathing. He seems a symbol of Korea to me as I go to visit him now and then. So maybe N.& S.Korea, China, Japan, US and one other nation I can't recall will negotiate now. But don't bet on it. A bleak nuclear future is the global Halloween outlook. Those monsters from "War of the Worlds" are again coming out of fallen cylinders as rogue nations having their own bombs to horrify our international situation on planet Earth. But listen! Can't you hear that sounding of the Trumpet of GOD? (1 Thess.4:16) "For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of an archangel" (who is Gabriel shouting and blowing his ram's horn). Amid all this world's calamity there is also good news, our Lord Jesus appearing again after so long. That's why our "so long" expression can also mean Shalom, return of the Prince of Peace. Titus 2:13 calls it "the blessed hope" showing that GOD has the last word with goodnews for His people. Hallelujah