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ANGELFIRE 3-3-07 Wow, it was a brief Feb. wasn't it. Shortest but most original month, since they're all from the 28 day lunar orbit of Earth, thus "moonths." Padding was added to the others so that all would total our 365 days of Solar orbit. So maybe that's why Feb. seems most solid and sound of all twelve. Or could the Washington and Lincoln birthdays add that element? Certainly not Valentine's Day right smack in the middle, since romance is nearly all the very opposite. Well, we are on the "march" now toward PV's Sesquicentennial, Nov.16. I hear that this town's unique in having such a celebration right in the state's Centennial Year. And a number of our citizens are becoming very prominent people i.e. Kevin Stark (he's the PV superhero since Geezer's gone home to Sulphur City), Allen Eubanks, T.J. Rushing, Bobby Russell and Susanne Blake noted so very recently. And we are the only Pauls Valley on the entire planet if you check he Internet. Maybe there could be another somewhere in outer space. But I don't' even hear of SETI any more. Remember that craze a few years back called Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence. Just all seems to have faded away (for lack of results I assume). But PV's sure had results, with so much civic development. And ANGELFIRE predicts "Ya ain't seen nothin' yet."
Judy Willis is also a carrier for the Democrat like me. Only she's seen a couple of fires lately that I've been spared. First it was her own car several weeks ago. She and her mother Emma were on their routh W. when an oncoming driver flagged them down because of it. He called 911 and it was put out with no injury. Then last week Judy was going down Klondyke Road as she saw Jack & Elaine Pack's house burning. She punched in 911 on her cell phone just as the guy had done before. It worked but help was too late to save the home. Jack told me the loss of his animal pets hurt more than anything else. Now you've seen that there's a benefit auction sale out at Katy on Sat.evening Nov.10. Items can be left at the sheriff's office before then. If any of us see an emergency, I guess we can report it as Judy did. Or at least try.
Here in WW a new mayor's to be elected as John Warren retires. Mike Perry, whose been on my route for years, is running as well as Marshall Love, whose wife has been very active in civic affairs here. Then another candidate, but I can't remember his name. This place just keeps looking nicer as things are restored. The old Baptist church on Robberson St. looks like new now. And a Centennial Clock is being erected in front of WW's post office on Kerr Blvd. Ya'll come and take a look. So long and PEACE be with you
ANGELFIRE 3-5-07 We're now in the 40 day season when some Christians fast and pray, because Jesus began His ministry that very way. Maybe we could also abstain from other literature or TV in order to spend more time in the Scripture. Here's what I see as more evidence of it's Divine authority: THE CENTER OF THE BIBLE (1) What is it's shortest chapter?... Psalm 117. (2) What is it's longest?... Psalm 119. (3) What chapter is right in the center?... Psalm 118. Now some facts that are way beyond coincidence--There are 584 chapters before Ps.118 and 584 after it. Add these and you get 1188. (4) What is the center verse? Psalm 118.8. If you'd like to know GOD's will for your life to get in the center of it, go to this central verse of His Divine Word: "IT IS BETTER TO TRUST IN THE LORD, THAN TO PUT CONFIDENCE IN MAN." I don't believe numbers have magic meanings, but 1188 surely counts the chapters before and after that verse, as well as being it's very own designation.
An inmate at LARC gave me this item Sun. night: The divisions of Isaiah are an interesting coincidence. Isaiah is a miniature Bible. It has 66 chapters just as there are books in the Bible. Isaiah has two main divisions, 39 in the first (like O.T.) and 27 in the last part (N.T.). The first opens with God's case against man because of his sin, as does Isa.1:18. Then closes with prophecy of the coming King and redemption for Israel in Isa.34-35, same as the prophets that close the O.T. predicting His coming Kingdom. The second part of Isa. (40-66)) opens with the voice of him that crieth in the wilderness (John the Baptist) and is concerned with the person and work of Jesus. The N.T. opens in exact accord with this (Jn.1:6,23). Isaiah ends with the vision of a new heaven and a new earth and the N.T. closes with this same glorious view in Revelation. Isaiah is like a jewel case, with the 53rd chapter as it's jewel. This has a central position in the group of chapters where it belongs, like the four Gospels are to the last twenty seven books of the Bible, or New Testament. It tells of "the Savior who hath borne our griefs and carried our sorrows." No wonder our Lord quoted Isa. so very often in His preaching and teaching. And He even spoke in the same O.T. tongue, though the N.T. has been later written in the Greek that was an international language back then. When He first greeted the Apostles saying "peace" after He'd been raised from the tomb, it was that Hebrew word known today internationally which He spoke to them: SHALOM. So long, for now...
ANGELFIRE 3-08-07 As I read from Hosea this week, I got a yet another view of the Judas kiss that was given our Lord in the Garden of Gethsemane. It links in my mind with the casual term that "idol" has become in the glamor culture of today. Hosea 13 refers to the Baal worship that had crept into Israel, as the prophet says to "kiss the calves," he means their helpless children being offered up, "Let those which were being offered as sacrifices of worship. (Hosea 13:2 NKJV). That describes a new depth of wickedness in the Judas betrayal, as I see it. He'd forsaken the Living GOD of Israel for Baal, the Philistine deity of commerce. So he was even making a profit from the "crucial" role he played in our saga of salvation. Jesus was like one of those ancient calves (innocents) being sacrificed on the altar.
Early in my ministry I heard an interpretation of how GOD spoke such a terrible command to Abram, and tested his faith. I put such a consideration aside because it was quite uncomfortable to hear. But the "extra" went this way, which isn't said in Genesis: Abraham saw the Canaanites making offerings of their children to Baal. So he wondered if he could go that far in obedience to Yahweh GOD, especially with the son of his old age that Sarah had borne to him in ninety-ninth year. Suddenly the that Voice that had previously called him, said "Take now your son, your only son Isaac whom you love, and go to the land of.Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you." (Gen.22) Just as the previous bit wassn't openly stated, neither is it said that Abraham kept his mission a secret from Sarah. But that sure seems likely to me. And such was the secret that our Lord revealed about Himself to the Apostles during the Last Supper: that He would be the substitutionary Lamb to take our place, just as Isaac (like us) was spared when Abraham saw that ram with it's horns caught in a thicket to be the offering. Maybe Judas was confused by an allegiance to the high priest into thinking that he was acting with similar faith? He must have been a brilliant Jew, with contacts at the temple in Jerusalem. Perhaps so, but it was the love of money that blinded him into taking that pay-off with thirty pieces of silver. That was the idol Judas worshipped back then, and that the lost world still worships today. Idolatry is sin at it's worst. Shame on that American Idol contest. It plays into the Judas abyss. We've seen glamorous celebrities finally throw their wealth away to go and hang themselves. Judas threw his on the floor of the temple as he declared his guilt, "I have betrayed innocent Blood." What a terrible fate!
Here's a question. Why did GOD say of Isaac in His command to Abraham, "Take your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love." Didn't Abraham have Ishmael as a son for 14 years? And he felt some love for him also. But this episode is to pre-signify the Gospel, "For GOD so loved the world that He gave His only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life." (Jn.3:16) Though Ishmael was not the beloved son, other Scripture says he was not forgotten either. Thus this slight must mean that he's not to be a part of the Gospel revelation. Or that's how I take it. So long till Thurs.6:30 KJCS.
ANGELFIRE 3-13-07 After seeing my column about the Judas kiss, I noted a letter I'd left out of "calves" that Hosea had condemned as offerings. Israel was making with such final kisses. He actually meant the human sacrifice of their children, yet he used a euphemism that linked clear back to the molten image which their ancestors centuries before had gotten the high priest Aaron to make for them out there in the wilderness (from the gold gathered out of their jewelry). When Moses came down from Mt.Sinai with the Ten Commandments on stone, he was outraged at the sight, and threw both tablets down so hard that it broke them to pieces. They too, had been "breaking out" into immorality before that golden calf, a false god from their slave days in Egypt. So the kisses Hosea mentioned could signify a resurgence of such ancient idolatry among the Twelve Tribes.
Friday's headline about state "budget woes may cause cuts to school personnel" went on refering to "an additional 17 million to pay for the shortfall of lottery money that was to go toward education." So where are the benefits from making gambling legal in OK? Just seems it's made us less "ok" than we were. I know all the teachers didn't favor it, but it appears now that so many were taken in by the sweet talk about lottery profits and casinos too. Yet I read Sen.Susan Paddack's State SenateReport with appreciation on Saturday. She's bold to hold out for those student rewards despite such a push it's going to take on the Legislature just to fund their own law that mandated increases for teacher pay and benefits. Oh for a money tree...with big bills growing on it as leaves, free for the picking. Some feel that's what our giant corporations ought to be. Maybe that's the reason Halliburton is moving it's headquarters to the middle east. Don't know much about Doubi. Not even sure how to spell it. But taxes must be lower there; and no federal regulations either, so then all the "leaves" can just stay on that big tree. VicePres.Cheney must be glad as oil nations will now be so close by. Is there room to move the District of Columbia there next? It's only a mile square as I recall, and tilts on one of it's corners.
Hey Jeff's suggestion to save energy rang my bell. Just leave the time where it's set from now on. The loss of that hour could be a good investment if it cuts power that's being saved over a whole year. So why go back? Remember what happened to Lot's wife, when they were fleeing from Sodom as the fire and brimstone fell. They'd been warned: "Don't look back," but Sodom had been her family's home. So looking at it demolished instantly just turned her to stone (pillar of salt). Jesus us told how our faith gets paralized if we look back on worldly pleasures we have forsake to follow Him, "And likewise the one who is in the field, let him not turn back. Remember Lot's wife." (Luke 17:31-32)Or "He that sets his hand to the plow and looks back is not fit for the Kingdom." Instead, we must keep springing forward. Doubt that you meant all this, Jeff. But I just had to expand on the good point you made. Right on and So long ya'll, till Thurs.6:30onKJCS.
ANGELFIRE 3-16-07 I read from Daniel this morning, the O.T. apocalypse. It's the same kind of literature as Revelation that shows the influence oft Persian dualism upon the Jewish understanding of events. Of course the whole Bible can be seen as a record of the mighty acts of GOD in history for the redemption of mankind. And "apocalypse" means a cataclysmic conclusion as the LORD's conquest of Satan is completed So Daniel tells in it's final chapter of a "time of trouble such as never was since there was a nation." (12:2) In my lifetime there have been eras of tribulation that seemed to portend the end i.e. the cold war. But time has gone on into a third millennium. Daniel says "But you Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book until the time of the end; many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall increase." (12:4) And again ending the book "But you, go your way till the end; for you shall rest, and will arise to your inheritance at the end of the days." By the time Jesus came, the apocalyptic view was completely dominant. And He included His final return for the church in the Gospel. So that's why believers keep watching world events. He told the Apostles to "watch and pray, for ye know neither the day nor the hour." He even said it would come like a thief in the night. So being ready must be our constant concern. As we approach another celebration of Holy Week, and on that Friday mark how the Lamb of GOD was sacrificed, let's realize it's the ultimate Passover. When the children of Israel in Egypt offered those lambs, they were predicting this One. And when Abraham long before that had been shown a ram to offer instead of Isaac, it was an apocalyptic revelation even then. Thus, the Lord Jesus Christ will appear again in glory and majesty to recieve His own and judge the world. A representative from "Jews for Jesus" is to be here Mon. Mar.26, 7pm. He's a Messianic Jew raised in the Bronx of NYC but coming now from Israel. Efriam Goldstein will speak then to an open meeting at First UMC. Surely this worldwide movement is a sign of the endtime in which we are now living. So long till Thurs.6:30,KJCS.
Published only here instead of in the paper: ANGELFIRE 3-21-07 For this first day of spring I'm recalling that saddest song of the Viet Nam era, "Where have all the flowers gone?" The verses went in a circle sort of like the war also did: "...gone to young girls everyone...where have all the young girls gone...gone to soldiers every one...where have all the soldiers gone...gone to graveyards everyone...where have all the graveyards gone...gone to flowers everyone, when will we ever learn?" So our joy is not found in this war either. It's in this "jewel" of Holy Scripture, Isaiah.53(Jerusalem Bible): "Who could believe what we have heard, and to whom has the power of Yahweh been revealed? Like a sapling he grew up in front of us, like a root in arid ground. Without beauty, without majesty (we saw him), no looks to attract our eyes; a thing despised and rejected by men, a man of sorrows and familiar with suffering, a man to make people screen their faces (an expression used of lepers); he was despised and we took no account of him. Yet ours were the sufferings he bore, ours the sorrows he carried. But we, we thought of him as someone punished, struck by God, and brought low. Yet he was pierced through for our faults, crushed for our sins. On him lies a punishment that brings us peace, and through his wounds we are healed. We had all gone astray like sheep, each taking his own way, and Yahweh burdened him with the sins of all of us. Harshly dealt with, he bore it humbly, he never opened his mouth, like a lamb that is led to the slaughter house, lie a sheep that is dumb before its shearers never opening its mouth. By force and by law he was taken; would anyone plead his cause? Yes, he was taken away from the land of the living; for our faults struck down to death. They gave him a grave with the wicked, a tomb with the rich, though he had done no wrong and there had been no perjury in his mouth. ... By his sufferings shall my servant justify many, taking their faults on himself. Hence I will grant whole hordes for his tribute, he shall divide the spoil with the mighty, for surrendering himself to death and letting himself be taken for a sinner, while he was bearing the faults of many and praying all the time for sinners."
Where is the crucifixion of our Lord more clearly depicted than in this prophecy given centuries before His birth at Bethlehem and His short life in Galilee? Beyond it's sadness is a triumphant joy that breaks out of any earthly circle to extend clear into eternity. So let us celebrate in faith the atoning death and everlasting resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ, who is coming again to take His own out of this perishing world. Our treasures should not be laid up here, but out there with Him in that Kingdom He will bring to full completion. So long for now
ANGELFIRE 3-24-07 Now it looks like the House is ready to pass a bill of funding for war in Iraq, though it will have a Sept.1 deadline for beginning troop withdrawal; which the Senate will then try to delay until '08. Our losses are approaching 33,000 and public opinion has swung away from support unless Iran (Persia) turns it into an even greater conflict. From the Apocalyptic Biblical perspective, that sure could be next. And nuclear, too. As we've said before, it was from Zoroaster, the ancient prophet of Iran that history was interpreted as a cosmic conflict of light against darkness, Mazda vs Ahrmand. In our New Testament that's turned into Christ vs Satan. The latter is never mentioned in Old Testament writing until 1 Chron.21:l, "Now Satan stood up against Israel...," which alters 2 Sam.24:l, "Again the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them...". The Chronicles are a rewrite of both books of Samuel and Kings at a much later date. So that's the first time Satan's mentioned in the Bible, more like divine wrath as separated from GOD, and personified as the adversary. Of course, such was standard belief by NT times, where the growing revelation of Scripture reaches it's fulfillment. Though we see the ancient devil as a serpent in the Garden of Eden, his full identity was of later disclosure; and later yet as Lucifer, the "shining one" of GOD's angelic host created before even earth, into which he was cast along with his demons that joined his rebellion. Some of this seems poetic to me, since it was so central to "Paradise Lost" written by John Milton. But there's nothing poetic about the Judas who betrayed Jesus, after Satan had entered him. And it was done with such evil deception (with a kiss), though the Lord knew such a lie by His betrayer. It was as wicked as that "Gospel of Judas" that was recalled at Easter last year. It claimed they were both friends, with Judas just helping Jesus accomplish His purpose. So the "Judas kiss" keeps fooling some folks even yet. The fact that Judas later hung himself shows that he thought Jesus would use divine power to overthrow His captors. He never imagined a Crucifixion, such as his own scheme for personal enrichment backfiring on him. Sounds like that enemy of the Jews in the book of Esther, Hamon, who was hung on the tower he'd built for the Jewish leader, Mordecai. So long for now.
ANGELFIRE 3-28-07 It was a joy for me to meet the representative of JEWS FOR JESUS in PV on Monday. His first name Ephraim recalls one of the sons of Joseph in the Old Testament, the younger than Manessa. But Joseph blessed Ephraim ahead of his big brother, so that Jacob later adopted him into the Twelve Tribes. Even his name means "double blessing." Just so, I feel those Jews for Jesus to be a double blessing as Jews & Christians combined into one. When since the N.T. have Jewish believers been so basic to the entire church i.e. the Apostles were all Jewish. And now in these last days, the Gospel faith is being restored in Jerusalem where it began. This is surely a heavenly sign that Rome in Italy is not the point of origin, but Jerusalem in Israel. That's the foundation which is clearly recorded in Scripture. Even the final vision of the City of God in Revelation is not of Rome but of "THE NEW JERUSALEM coming down from God out of heaven." Rev.21:10. And when, through all the centuries since Christ, has there been a movement among Jews for restoring the "faith once delivered to the saints" to it's very beginning place? The book of Acts records how the church extended it's congregations clear over to Rome, as even Paul was taken there a prisoner. And Paul had also written his most famous epistle to a local church in Rome. But Jerusalem is home base in the Bible. So JEWS FOR JESUS are from the very church core and can reconnect us to our Hebrew roots. Just look at how most of our Bible is O.T. material. And even St.Paul says of the Gospel "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentiles." Surely JFJ is another sign of the Lord's coming again. They have caused me to see the Lord's Supper as fulfillment of the Passover, a festival so central for Jews. Thus the angel of death that passed over ancient Egypt typifies divine judgement yet to come upon the wickedness of this world. Those lambs that were slain in each household for blood to sprinkle over the doorposts (and then eaten) were prefiguring a Lamb of GOD, or the flesh and blood symbolically consumed in our Communion. Thursday of Holy Week will be yet another reinactment of that night's supreme disclosure. Maybe the final one to "show forth the Lord's death until He comes." Shalom
ANGELFIRE 4-1-07 Since March has gone out like a lion, I'm trying to recall if it came in as a lamb. But weather's been rough, though rain surely welcome. And now we'll celebrate again that Lamb that was slain by this world, yet will return as the Lion of GOD. Palm Sunday marks His entry as Hebrew kings before Him into Jerusalem on that donkey. Humble lowly folk and children cried "Hosannah to the King," while the proud minded scoffed at such a spectacle. They scorned the palm branches being waved that day, and a few days later joined those angry money changers driven from the Temple in yelling "Let Him be crucified!" Though that was the devil's wicked day, greater powers from on high broke through to overcome Satan's dominion. Good Friday shows us the heavenly Father's love and forgiveness to this lost world. It opens a door into eternity that we call EASTer. East is the direction to heaven (from which the sun rises) which recalls the Son rising. That's the link with Easter sunrise services.
Besides the March madness of sports and shopping that even spread into our weather, there's now this recurrence of Iranian hostage taking like that which lasted 444 days a quarter century ago. It's only 15 British sailors this time instead of the 52 American diplomats held so long in Tehran. UN pressure may get them released sooner, but the Mullahs of Iran are provoking international strife. They are Muslims but not Arabs. And they want all of Islam to side with them against the west. Even Abudenijab has to go along, since they have the final say in Iran. He knows that, because he was one of the Republican Guard which held our 52 citizens hostage back when the Shaw had just been replaced by Ayatollah Kohmenie. I often read Argus Hamilton's comic column hoping to find humor in ugly situations. But even he didn't see this as any joking matter. Our president told some at the national Radio, TV & Press Banquet, with several terrific wise cracks. Yet he side stepped this explosive issue. It's even more delicate than determining the father of Anna Nicole's baby. In fact, Danielle's dad may have distracted us the way that Monica Lewinski affair did with a former president, while Saddam Hussein kept rising with little notice into such a world danger. Now it's Abudenijab, spokesman for the Mullahs, who is taking Saddam's place. That's how I see it building up to the Lord's final coming. So rid your heart of trash by looking to the Cross where he broke the spell of evil. Let the love of heaven fill our souls in this urgent hour. Shalom
ANGELFIRE 4-04-07 Holy Week calls us back to a life separation from worldliness as Christians. In Exodus 12 we read how the LORD directed the children of Israel after that 10th and final plague upon Egypt (when they had killed the sacrificial lambs recallng Abram's offering up Isaac), to then eat only unleavened bread for the next seven days. It was so much sacred history recorded in their consciousness for being His chosen people. Thus the Passover/Feast of Unleavened Bread became the annual re-enactment of their own identity. Now as the "Israel of GOD," we evangelicals are "proclaiming the Lord's death (as Lamb of GOD) until He comes." Yet we usually neglect any mention of the seven days that followed in eating only unleavened bread. At that first exodus from Egypt (this wicked world), it was expedient because that was an eat-and-run situation with no time for the loaves to rise. But St.Paul interprets the leaven for us as unGodly influences in high places. For his epistles, he takes the words of our Lord Jesus, "beware of the leaven of the Pharisees and Saddusees, who teach righteousness but do not practice it themselves." Hypocrisy in religion was that very worst kind of yeast. In our day it could mean phony pretense of goodness, which abounds in the media culture. CNN has a special tonight entitled, "What Is a Christian?" So be very wary if you watch it. Remember that Passover was Israel's big day, followed by seven more of eating no bread with yeast in it. Both themes are in Maundy Thursday Communion when "fruit of the vine" represents His blood shed to redeem and the unleavened bread His flesh to feed our soul hunger for meaning. And every time we partake of them, we are remembering a holiness of life that we can/should share as His followers.
In this face-off with Iran that may point toward Armageddon, America needs some holiness to show the global community. We have allowed a fun culture out of Hollywood and Vegas to make our international reputation, so that the LORD is almost ignored. No wonder He is allowing a build up of calamity ahead. I heard one military expert say that a hot war with Iran now seems "even likely." But I doubt that the Brits will stand firm, even though it's their sailors who were kidnapped. Even Tony Blair looked wimpish in his stand against Iraq. And the EU and UN are usually much the same. So who is going to have to play the bad guy role? Or do we just let terrorism take control of the whole planet? Satan is the ultimate kidnapper and one view of the Gospel is that Jesus died to pay the ransom for freeing us. For believers then, here's good news: Our Lord Jesus has risen victoriously and will be coming back very soon. So keep the faith in Him, brothers and sisters. Shalom.