ANGELFIRE 9-01-07 You're probably aware that Sept.5 will be the 10th anniversary of that royal funeral in England for Princess Diana. But you may not recall that Mother Teresa of Calcutta India died the very same day. That contrast of royal and common, young and old, pretty and saintly has stuck in my mind. But now a book about the most famous nun in history (who also won the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo) has revealed her inner anguish that we could never have guessed she was enduring. Her personal letters were compiled by a Rev.Brian Kolodiejahuk, her confessor priest. He writes that "her smile was a mask or cloak of her inner fears and doubts." It had been her dying request for all these about her unbelief even in GOD or Christ to be burned at her death. Because she's in line to be made a saint, the Catholic Church could not destroy them. And within only six years (record speed) it had lifted her to beatification. Sainthood is now expected to follow, unless this book has some detrimental effect. Her confessor believes it should do the very opposite, by verifying her own soul's suffering while going ahead helping greatly the poor and destitute people of India and elsewhere. Strangely, it began when she undertook such a calling. He compares her to the 16th century mystic, St.John of the Cross, who even wrote a book about his own "Dark Night of the Soul" (though it's a Buddist expression). So the collection of letters are finally being published as a book, "Come Be My Light." I don't need to read it to see that something's gone amiss; maybe all those churchly beings (clergy) who are assigned to offer what only Jesus and His angels can bring into our hearts. My favorite Bible word from O.T. Hebrew is "shalom," which means peace with GOD, not inner torment, toil and despair.
Sept.13 will mark the start of Ramadan, Islam's month of fasting and prayer. I mention it because the chaplain at LARC has notified us that Muslims will need the chapel for half an hour of our time each week until Oct.12. I can remember how upsetting it was to me a decade of so ago when Muslims build a Mosque in OKC. But then that didn't seem very near. Now it cuts right into our schedule of Sun. night ministry. I didn't even know back then that mosque means "a place of prostration." Thus, they push the pews aside and put their prayer rugs out on the chapel floor. And they like to tell us how they pray the way Jesus did in that Garden of Gethsemane: not only kneeling but falling down on His face; as also Moses and Joshua had done in their crisis hours. Jesus fasted too, fully 40 days (well over a month. though Muslims can eat daily during Ramadan, so long as it's after sundown). It all recalls for me the first time I encountered Muslims. It was on my first trip to Jerusalem in '77. And they stood out from other tourists as the most religious people I'd ever seen, down on their prayer rugs five times every day, even out on Jerusalem's sidewalks. Wow, I felt that was too much religion then, and still do now. I've since learned that Christianity too, can drive some folks crazy. After all, the Lord Jesus never even mentioned it since there wasn't yet any such religion. SoLong/Shalom, JospehA
LORDS'sDAY extra 9-02-07 I seen that the global population has now increased to 6.6 billion. It recalls those years when we worried so much about over populating this planet. Don't hear about that any more, so guess we've finally accepted the fact it's happening. But it's now alarming how much faster population is increasing in Muslim lands. We Christians still outnumber them, though the gap is getting smaller. And the continent we once considered our home base where "Christendom" had stood, is leading the swing toward Islamic immigrant population in France, Germany and Eastern Europe. So we just have to learn more about that zealous faith, and hopefully find ways to win them to Christ. Since I take pride in our I-35 exit for Wynnewood #66 as signifying all the books of the Bible, it pleases me to feel this same challenge in that new global count. Maybe we can show them that "Bible", a plural book, is THE BOOK of Books; and it's new birth in Christ Jesus, life's major priority; especially with His return now drawing so near. He even told us that it will be said (as judgement on that Day of calamities) "Blessed are the wombs that never bore and the paps that never gave suck." Extending our physical proginy can't even compare to the glory of increasing the FATHER's family of those spiritually re-born, Christ's church. Labor Day can remind us of His second pronouncement ("dust to dust" was the first, matching Eve's designation for fallen man), "In the sweat of your face shall you bring forth food from the earth until you return to the dust from which you were taken" (Hard work will be your destiny necessary to continue living after being expelled from the Garden of Eden). Then to the fallen woman, "In labor and pain shall you bring forth children and you will be subject to your husband" (perpetuation of the human species your primary purpose in obedience to Adam). Seems that she had already given him that name of "mortal being" or "soil creature", after he'd previously called her woman; thus he counters "Adam" by NAMING her Eve ("extender of my life"). Adam began to farm the ground and Eve to bear and mother children, both Cain and Able/then later Seth plus daughters. Now Labor Day tells us how woman's role is much more than just child bearing; she's become a full participant in the world of work. And humanity now has the ability to control it's number of offspring, which usually declines in developed countries. Having fewer rather than more children is the contemporary standard since global resources are stretched to the limit. Now women move into places of leadership to do just what they've done to make ends meet at home. For the second year in a row the most powerful woman on earth according to Forbs magazine is Germany's first female Chancellor. Her name is Angela Merkel and she's already pushed the EU into writing it's self a new Constitution. She was guest of president Bush after her election and Germany is now on the upswing. So as ANGELFIRE saw in a previous column, women are taking charge everywhere and the world is feminized right here before the Lord's glorious return. Their function of reproduction has been replaced by new roles of power and recognition, thus preparing for His Majesty King JESUS to reign in the new heaven and earth, where agape (divine love) completely outweighs gender. (Strange thoughts that I've only shared with you ANGELFIRE webpage readers). JosephA@webtv.com
ANGELFIRE 9-05-07 It was very fitting that GW should go to make his first statement about withdrawal from Iraq to our troops who have been stationed there. Certainly it was a sly move to get him there, being on the way to Australia for that meeting of those 12 APAC delegated down there in Sydney. The media thought he would go west but he slipped away toward the east without telling any outsiders. And he went on the smaller Airforce 1, his former presidential plane. So it was able to spiral down and land at al Anbar base without attracting possible resurgent gunfire; though that western part of Iraq seems under control now because the many al-Quiada terror attacks had provoked local war lords to side with us instead of them. At first they seemed our enemies, but now they've joined with our forces imposing peace in Anbar Province. So General Petraeus will certainly point out this gain in his report to Congress the middle of September. Our Government Accounting Office had already told us that only 3 of the 18 "benchmarks" set for Maliki's elected government were being met, which seemed to negate any help from that troop surge. Now this is a bit of positive news as our highest level of forces is reached, 160,000 boots on the ground in Iraq. So let us not forget to pray for them, and hope we don't have to send some into Iran to end their nuclear preparations.
Idaho's Senator Craig has certainly gained national attention, though it has cost him his seat (despite the claim that "There's no such thing as bad publicity"). There just is! Now the movie actor, Fred Thompson, is finally going on stage to gain the Republican nomination for president. He looks as good to me as McCain, my favorite, especially when compared to another Clinton, or another Baptist (not Hillary but John Edwards), or another Catholic (since Kennedy, Guiliani), or maybe even a first ever Mormon. But Obama the Afro-American has appeal too; even though I know he's had some Islamic medross schooling during boyhood in Indonesia. His father is a Muslim and his mother a Catholic, I've read; though he belongs to the United Church of Christ. And his first name Baruch is Hebrew for "blessed." But then that Hollywood candidate may charm us all with his drama, an awesome force in politics. Maybe PV's own Tim Smith will end up serving on Thompson's staff. Where art thou, Oh Timothy? Ha! Shalom, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 9-08-07 He's been missing since Monday's trip out in his little plane over Utah, so now the search for Steve Fossett has been extended from six hundred to ten thousand square miles. As the world's greatest record setter, finding him may be a higher one yet. That woman in Oregon has who was lost for two weeks and presumed dead, has just been found. So that keeps hope alive for saving the billionaire too. But the thought of a terrorist kidnapping has surely come into some minds (or by extra-terrestrials into far out minds). If someone had been hiding in his plane at take-off, then such could be possible. Or maybe he'd made his own secret plans just to vanish into thin air. Such would be that inner terrorist, Satan, who speaks of "suicide" in our private thoughts as offering an escape into nothingness. Only lost souls are foolish enough to believe nothingness even exists. That requires complete denial of the living GOD, which Psalms 14, and 53, describe: "the fool hath said in his heart 'there is no GOD.'" Thoughts of nothingness contradict reality, because that which doesn't exist is certainly not real. Ontology is a branch of theology that shows GOD to be the ground of all being. As Creator (and Sustainer), He is foundational to everything in the universe, which is His handiwork. Thus Satan, is the illusionist. He's only re-created himself out of the angel he had been, through his rebellion; which he has since spread with deception to a third of the angelic host and to all mankind. Letting ourselves be tricked into yielding to his way is spiritual suicide. We may "gain the whole world but lose our own souls" just as Jesus questioned, "What shall it profit a man if...?" What an insane power humanity is facing in this global terrorism, where it's participants think there's a shortcut to heaven through suicides that destroy them and take us out too i.e. the nineteen that began it on 9/11. So, for all his craftiness and cunning, Satan is obviously insane. He's betting he will finally escape unpunished into nothingness, but Scripture says he and all his allies will be cast into the lake of fire that burns forever and ever. St.Paul shows us the true warfare in his most profound epistle, Letter to the Church at Ephesus, chapter six. We rightly pay attention to Romans, but his fuller expression is later in Ephesians. To keep our hearts and minds purified, we should feed upon His flesh and blood by faith. Even an ordinary meal could help us that way if we pray a blessing that remembers His injunction to the Apostles during that Last Supper with them. I'll say more about this on the ANGELFIRE website. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
LORD'sDAY extra 9-10-07 Here's the more I promised to talk about. Jesus declared that the menu for that Passover meal (or in John, the one just before it) was to be eaten as His own flesh and blood i.e. food and drink. Just as we need to wash our bodies again and again (recalling our baptism), we need to feed them frequently with meals. So why can't each time recall Him who is the bread of Life for soul nourishment, "bread" standing for meat, as in "meat and drink (sacred Blood for inner cleansing)." If we say a private blessing over our food that it may nourish our souls as well as bodies, then we are being linked to our Lord each time we eat. In a family this could be expressed aloud in the blessing, but for our fractured society where so few meals have that privacy, this "secret ceremony" could make eating far more significant than mere satisfaction of bodily hunger. A mature Christian is already aware that such is not entirely private, but that it's "our faith shared in these actions" of feeding upon Him by faith in our hearts unto life everlasting, and drinking in remembrance that Christ shed His blood for the remission of our sins." Thus the new covenant is constantly remembered three times each day and the blood is for our inward cleansing from demonic powers. Now I'll say more later about my view of "THEEology" replacing theology in our seeking the Lord daily.
My journed began when I was nine years old in Mt.Vernon IL. My older brother and I were out north of town on the "hard road" (paved) that ran up to Salem. He had a new bike and I had secretly learned to ride it just enoug to stay up; but had no idea of brakes nor how to stop. I started down a driveway on it in sight of everyone who could see me yelling "look, look." Then I noticed a car coming down the hard road and I just froze as the bike carried me straight in front of it. But I've always recalled the thought, or Voice, that said "going to see GOD and all the holy angels." My skull was cracked as it flipped me into the air before falling head down to the pavement; and I was out for hours afterward. Then I spent a month in bed there in Mt.Vernon where we lived on NW llth. My 10th birthday was also when I was finally allowed to get out of bed as I recall. Soon after, I had to be fitted with glasses; which I always hated (maybe as reminders of my cracked head). Also had to take medicine daily during that November, which I've also sought to avoid ever since. But that Voice I heard then, came back in later years as though I'd been allowed to live instead of die. And my vision was finally set from glasses, just in time for this 21st century. So I can can "see GOD and all the holy angels" in this end time era. An insight from Jewish anthropologist Martin Buber, that helped me keep faith, was of "I-Thou" relationships. His book by that name tells how most relationships are "I-it" since we deal so much with things and even treat some people that way. But "I-thou" is the fuller dimension of exisence. And he hints of an "I-THOU" beyond all interpersonal relations. Now I've come to feel that in depth of prayer, only it's "Thou-I" instead; or rather "Thee-we" as I keep kinship with all humanity. But then "THEE-He" takes my consciousness from GOD to Christ, Son of the Father. And also "Thee-we" as the Lord Jesus brings all my heavenly kin into a shared relationship in the Spirit. Finally, it becomes intimately personal as "Thee-me" when the Holy Spirit anoints this prayer connection. The Bible is thus full of reality/journey also being made through each new day's happenings. Halleluah! JosephA
ANGELFIRE 9-12-07 I've just now seen POLITICS HANG OVER 9/11 CEREMONY as the top Internet headline. Surely it's the issue of our going into Iraq, which was right in the middle of these six years that have passed after that strike on America by those 19 suicide terrorists. The presidential election next year appears more and more and up or down vote on that decision GW made. I watched the reports of our General and the Ambassador from there as they spoke to Congress yesterday (then saw it again on C-SPAN). They sure didn't paint a pretty picture ahead. Yet both agreed that we must go forward because there's just no turning around. I felt their views were patriotic rather than political and was disgusted by the yelling of those protesters that police had to take away. The Congressional leaders who questioned Petraeus and Crocker were both Republican and Democrat, but all except a very few showed respect. So even with the drawdown by next summer, most of our troops will have to stay in Iraq for the foreseeable future in hopes that a stable national government will eventually be formed. Seems to be so much to divide and so little to unite Iraq, which Saddam Hussein had been able to do as a despot. I have the feeling that a people's concept of God is what their leader will be like. It was a Christlike vision of the Almighty that allowed our nation's builders to create the world's first enduring democracy. So if He is seen as a tyrannical dictator, then that's the kind of rule accepted. Turkey has been an exception, since it began as a secular republic in the 20th century. It's been largely westernized, but now seems tilted back toward theocracy. Of course Israel has democracy, but it's based on a long Biblical history. Elsewhere it depends on a Christocentric view of things in order to survive, in my opinion. Yet the hope of a final return of our Savior and King of Kings and Lord of Lords makes us seek to have freedom in every land. The first "strong man" (autocrat) mentioned in the Bible is Nimrod, grandson of Noah. His name means "brave" and though he's called a hunter, that's not for wild game but other human tribes or clans to enslave. Thus that Tower of Babel (Gen.11) appears to have been his achievement. From it, Scripture's wicked city of Babylon took the name, which means "confusion." So despots only s-e-e-m to produce law and order, while confusion is the end judgement upon those who yield to them. And Babylon finally becomes a Biblical symbol of Satan's stronghold in the Bible's closing book, Revelation. Babylonia's known today as Iraq. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 9-16-07 That long funeral procession down Chickasaw clear to Mt.Olivet surely brought the war home Thursday morning in PV. The street was lined with those holding American flags as it passed. Then that night President Bush kept his 18 minute address positive as he endorsed the reports of our military and political situation in Iraq by the General and the Ambassador. He even agreed that the surge level of troops could be decreased. But now the "BACKERS OF SLAIN SHEIK VOW REVENGE." So that foretells ever more conflict within that land of ancient Babylonia/or Shinar. And it must be the "wars and rhymers of war" that the Lord Jesus mentioned as taking place ahead of His return. We know that "blood for blood" is so basic in the Middle East and that the Cross, where Divine blood was shed to rescue lost humanity from endless anger, retaliation and carnal madness has been ignored; especially by Islam (which claims Jesus as a prophet who never was crucified because God rescued him). And Jesus isn't even that much in Judaism, which still looks rather to Moses and David for guidance and inspiration. Yet we who know the Savior will be joined by all the rest of mankind at His return; then "every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord." Sing with me that Scripture song that looks to His final coming to catch away all those who are trusting in Him: For He is Lord, He is Lord. He has risen from the dead and He is Lord. Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that JESUS CHRIST IS LORD Phil.2:9-11.
MS-NBC reported on Carlton Pearson Thurs. night, the young black preacher who had been so close to Oral Roberts at ORU up there in Tulsa. Pierson became famous in those days and then thought he'd found a totally "inclusive gospel": He declared that hell doesn't even exist because all souls are now saved. I was a pastor in Tulsa back then and couldn't ignore the confusion his gospel of inclusion was causing among Pentecostals and other Evangelicals (both so numerous there then). Pierson's version of salvation was that all souls were covered by the blood shed on Calvary, so everyone's already going to heaven. It doesn't need to be applied by faith. That's called Universalism in the science of salvation (soteriology) and was not anything new. But Pearson lost most of his following along with the church he'd built. Yet he's now been employed by a Lesbian/Gay congregation in Tulsa. The documentary was very sympathetic to all his losses from such heresy, even though Scripture warns us against false prophets who will mislead many before our Lord's final appearing. "Vengance is Mine" sayeth the LORD. "I will repay." That means there just has to be a hell, from which believers are saved. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
LORD'sDAY exra 9-16-07 I went to PV's UMC to hear our bishop preach. Had heard him at Annual Conference a couple of years ago, so knew he was gifted. But his sermon "The Aha Moment" was a masterpiece. He used the Prodigal Son parable and that place where the boy who become destitute and debauched said "I will arise and go to my Father." Then he drew on the poetic version by James Weldon Jones that I'd learned to appreciate years ago. It just made his message absolutely an eloquent presentation. The only thing else that he might have included was some reference to the penalties the prodigal ought to have faced. But even Jesus left that to the last half of the story, which Bishop Hayes didn't discuss. So it was entirely compassion and forgiveness, and so very appealing. My view of that story as depicting Gentiles as fallen and Jews as the stay at home self-righteous wasn't brought in, but the Father's loving forgiveness was told in masterful combination of Scripture and poetry. Everyone was invited to a dinner following, but I headed home to Sunday dinner with my beloved Niece. She'll be going without me to evening church, since this is a night at LARK for me. We'll be starting half an hour later because it's Ramadan and the Muslims will be using the prison chapel. Yet their holy day is Friday, so why should they get into our schedule? It's called Juma for Muslims and is taken to honor the creation of mankind on the sixth day. The Lord's Day honors the recreation of a new humanity through Christ's resurrectin on the first day (or eighth day). I can see their prostrate prayer posture for private sessions (with our heavenly Father rather than Allah). But the collective manner of Muslems bowing down before their slavemaster Deity just looks like groveling pious posturing to me. And Scripture doesn't say Jesus bowed down; rather "fell on His face" as Abraham and Moses before Him, alone there in the Garden as He plead for some other way than the Cross; though the prayer ended "not My will but Thine be done."
ANGELFIRE 9-19-07 The dictionary says that "aha" is an exclamation expressing triumph, mockery, contempt, irony, surprise, etc. according to the manner of utterance. It recalls magic shows to me.
Aha, O.J. Simpson has finally been put behind bars. What seemed impossible 13 years ago has finally come to pass. America's superhero who got away with murder is now where he's belonged for that many years, in ANGELFIRE's opinion. His public persona is still so glib that he might have gotten away with this lesser crime of robbery had it not been for an electronic tape capturing the event. What a time this is of cell phone recorders and secret tapes, which verify our Lord's words spoken about these last days "and every secret thing will be revealed."
I got up to 1st UMC in PV Sunday morning for the bishop's visit. He preached a magnificent sermon from that parable recorded only by Luke of the prodigal son. Everything in worship was just as I'd experienced it growing up as a member there (except the dancing which added more gladness. But I do recall hand bell choirs). And we prayed the Lord's Prayer in it's King James version to which I added an amendment most scholars now verify. Instead of "deliver us from evil," it should be "deliver us from the evil one." So I prayed the latter words because just "evil" can seem to be in the abstract. In fact, it may have allowed the devil to hide from our consciousness, which is certainly not the true teaching from our Lord Jesus. He encountered Satan at the very outset of His ministry during that long fast He kept out in the wilderness; and again later He heard that spiritual liar speaking through His apostle Peter. He rebuked it with "Get behind me, Satan." So I'm thankful for more accurate translations today who make mention of our enemy right there in that exemplary prayer the Apostles were given. Even in my seminary studies of the Atonement, I learned a most dramatic theory is about a ransom that the devil collected in blood from Jesus for all souls released when they put their faith in Him. We sing about it: I will sing of my Redeemer and His wonderful love for me. On the cruel cross He suffered. Paid the debt and set me free. Sing Oh sing of my Redeemer. With His blood He purchased me. On the cross He sealed my pardon. Paid the debt and set me free." Knowing that is a LIBERATION EXPERIENCE such as bishop Hayes recouonted in his wonderful message for us Sunday, "The Aha Moment."
So aha and ha ha, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 9-22-07 Thursday was the big rally in Jena, La, in support of those six black students who beat up a white male at school there nearly a year ago. It seems the charge against them of attempted murder has been much too harsh,since he got out of the hospital and went to a party that same Dec. evening. But Jena's been put on the map by some twenty thousand demonstrators Thursday, including Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton. Yet it was all done without violence, even though much animosity had been connected with a spread out Oak tree. It was for whites only but a couple of black students dared to go beneath it's branches. Days later several nooses were seen hanging from the limbs and anger began to grow that led to the beating of that white student nearly a year ago. Then the county prosecutor filed severe charges in the all male conflict and blacks recalled the times of lynchings (not just a noose on the neck but also fire under victim's feet). So it's grown to national attention. And now there's a Gulf storm threatening Louisiana, as if Katrina wasn't enough hurt down there two years ago. But meteorology brings less damage than soul storms that lead to a clash of black and white. Lord Jesus may Your healing blood be upon that little place of about 3000, Jena, where residents all left town for the big influx (who had all pledged to spend only the day but no money there). Only His broken body and shed blood can buy real peace in Jena now. Pauls Valley is such a contrast, with our Sesquicentennial at hand and the overflowing goodwill that we feel toward everyone.
ANGELFIRE and all of PV will miss the Deans, who kept those pithy sayings posted at A/G church. I'd drive clear up Chickasaw to read them quite often. We know Charles and Carolyn will be a blessing to Norman where they have retired, just as they were here in PV so many years in ministering. Let's all keep them in our prayers of thanks and also ask an equal blessing on their days ahead still serving the Lord Jesus Christ. Solong/Shalom, JosephA PS To see our opinion right afer 9/11, go to ANGELFIRE.com/or/hazlitt/index13.html & preious pages.
LORD'sDAY extra 9-23-07 Jeff's editorial about various definitions of history recalled for me the professor at Perkins Seminary who laid such stess on that subject. He came down from a NE seminary to look us over in about 1951. I encountered him in the parlor with a group of fellow theologues talking about faith basics. He was so young I mistook him for a new student. When I asked if he was enrolling, he said "Yes, to teach here." That first encounter was typical of his dynamic personality which soon had a cult of us who wore flat top hairduts and bow ties (as he did). It would take pages to tell of his "existentialism," which was a stange new term back then. But he was somewhat Biblical and used the personal name for God as YAHWEH. None of us had heard that spelling of Jehovah. And he talked of the prophets of the YAHWEH/theLORD. They were "men who bent history" i.e. Charles Darwin, Karl Marx and Fredric Nietsche in the 19th century. He said it was too soon to see any for the 20th, but the name of Kierkegaard was often on his lips. Yet he affirmed that the Gospel is just two words, "God is." Then he'd show how we stetched that word so wide that it had little content, as he affirmed the living GOD of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Yet he was not at all pious as one or two other professors were, even though they were liberals. In the stress between fundamentalism and libralism, he seemed to side with the former; though he smoked an cussed a little in his lectures (until other faculty members heard of it. After a few years, they finally ran him off; even though his brother was bishop of the Washington DC episcopal area). Amazing guy, that Joseph Wesley Matthews. He died in '77 at a hospital, after founding The Ecumenical Institute in Chicago. And I wonder if it might have been from lung cancer when I recall the joke he made of his smoking (by calling it a "leper's bell"). He never prayed with us, but always had a chalk board to write dates and details, muttering "see" between each item fiercely scribbled before the class. I never felt close to him but held a sense of wonder as I stood back. Then I went for his counsel about a Master's thesis. He got me onto Wesley's Doctrine of Atonement, with special reference to Iraneus of the 2nd century. I still marvel at what I learned of the ransom theory and the devil's reality. Matthews's view of history held that YAHWEH is the One really making it. He didn't see himself as such and no one ever called him Dr.Matthews; just JoeMatthews. And he was the seminary rebel/hero. Some said it was "a new kind of fundamentalism." His E.I. in westside Chicago was called Fifth City. For some years it was part of the World Council of Churches and ministers would go to spend five or six weeks of intensive study there at no cost (funded by a Rockefeller grant I've heard). But you had to pledge to stick it out and I feared it was a brain washing. So I never went, but I saw others who did undergo personality change. They seemed to take on a "mod" orientation, like swinger clergy or Joe Cools. I never was "in" with that style. I remembered the time I asked him if he believed there really was a devil, which none of the liberal professors took seriously. His answer: "I'm a radical monotheist. Does that answer your question?" I took it to mean he could allow no dualism in his faith. But neither do I, though I still know Satan really does exist. Another subject he raised is "paradigm shifts." He said they make humanity see history in a new way. First he said there was the flat earth Weltenschaung, until Columbus disproved it. Then in the 19t century Darwin caused a second upside down shift, with evolution. In the 20th it might be chaos theory coming out of physics he suggested. Seems he was on target since here in the 21st century it's all about Postmodernism's deconstruction with the "uncertainly principle" from nuclear physics. Uncertainty/Probability theory was first foreshown to the world in 1927 (year I was born) by a German scientific genius, Werner Heisenberg, who later became Hitler's guy to build the Nazis an atomic bomb. But thank GOD he never accomplished the task, while we finally did in '45.
ANGELFIRE 9-25-07 Look at page 3 of Sunday's paper, down on the right at PAULS VALLEY PICTORIAL HISTORY BOOKS ARRIVE , and I believe you'll see me in an open top Model-T Ford which I owned back in '43. Above in the left corner of the photo stands THE water tower which has been mentioned so often in ANGELFIRE. I hadn't seen this photo, but the recollection of my mother being the only one who would ride with me in the back seat confirms it. So there Blanche sits behind me wearing a straw hat. It a summer day during WW II. Dad, or JM, was gone with the SeaBees fighting Japan in the Pacific. Then mom soon went out to CA and worked at the Moore Dry Dock Shipyard on Oakland's side of Frisco Bay, as part of the war effort. Gasoline was rationed, so I couldn't drive "Lizzie" (car's name) very much in PV. But seems that being in that parade got my picture into history. Dad came home with a permanent limp after he was seriously wounded in action at Rendova of the South Sea Islands. But he still got busy in church and PV civic affairs (and wrote his Sounding Off column) until his death in '69. Yet Blanche lived on until '96; proving she had the Hightower family genes for longevity. Now we three kids also have them. So maybe that's why I keep seeing in PV's "historic high-tower" a sign of long life. PV was already 53 years old when the tower was built (1903). Now it portends that our town could be around another 150 years. Wouldn't that be a Tri-Centennial? But for now it's our SESQUICENTENNIAL (century & a half) right here amid Oklahoma's century year. Media will surely give us state-wide coverage, maybe even national. Ye-haw, Yow-e-e & Yea PaulsVall-e-e
It's been Ramadan, Rosh-hoshanna and Yom Kippur these days of September. The fall season has also begun. And the message Brother Clay Shannon at JoyChurch delivered Sun. nite was on Passover, with Christ as the Lamb. But I know that the DAY, when Jesus returns isn't on any earthly calendar. The Savior said that only the Father knows. So our way to celebrate it is by getting ready beforehand. Are you trusting daily in the One who died for your sins?
SoLong/Shalom, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 9-29-07 Today Pauls Valley has been here for a century and a half and that's really something to celebrate. I can recall when it was just a century and what a happy event it was then. Though I was not able to get home that day, my dad was involved as Chamber of Commerce secretary here. PV was only beginning it's growth into the dynamic place it is now and so much of our industrial developemnt was yet to come. Even I-35 wasn't on the map yet, but president Ike had called for such a system of great highways to be all over the nation. Yet #77 was still the main route coming right through downtown PV. I'd guess that it was even here in '07 when we became a state, because all my life it's gone up to OKC; like "seventy- seven, the way to heaven." In fact, it feels that same way here in WW where I've lived longer than any other place. You wave to nearly everyone in passing and they will respond. I can even recall when PV was like this. Smaller seems friendlier, maybe because you are more likely to know their names. But these little centers of closeness are fast disappearing as we are drawn into the vast world of globalism. And it brings enlargement to our existence. Prejudice and pettiness have to go, so that a wider awareness can come into the public mind. Scripture tells us to have the mind of Christ. When we stay focused on His purpose for our lives, then attitudes are made helpful and healing. And our roads will become #77s, with Book#66 also the guide. Samaritan Sunday in PV being right here after the SesquiCentennial makes much the same sort of linkup in this writer's opinion; then that community service of all churches together in Wacker Park. Thus, the historic tower still looks good coming up crossing Rush Creek bridge. Just swing over to Willow instead of Chickasaw as you drive into town, and you won't see as much rust (which is worst on it's east side). SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
LORD'sDAY extra 9-30-07 That rust on the h.t. (historic tower) is sort of like the wrinkles we keep seeing increase on our face as years go bye. It faces east, toward downtown. And that's where the rust shown most. Yet being there since 1903 entitles it to some signs of age. That was when aviation began, and now another famous pilot has been missing for a whole month. Steve Fossett's broken so many records already, and now this one's being set so to speak for lost contact. Well, I think of my childhood, when in 1937 Amelia Earhart was the first woman to fly around the world. She and her navigator had left Miami going across the Atlantic, then coming back over the Paciic. They took off from Guam with only some 8000 miles yet to go, but disappeared. Radio contact was finally lost as they tried to reach a tiny island where Coast Guard cutters were waiting. But her last message said "We must be over you but can't see you, so we're flying north/south now." That's a mystery ever yet solved. Maybe Fossett's fate will end that way too, but with all the communications of today it seems nearly impossible. I also recall a couple years before Earhart, when Wiley Post was flying Will Rogers up into Alaska and they crashed. Two famous Oklahomans lost together, but the site was found and bodies returned home. And Post is very famous here in Garvin county though not as much as Rogers is world wide. The h.t.(historic tower) reminds us of all this, doesn't it? Even of the Wright brothers who first flew a airplane in '03 at Kitty Hawk SC. Aeronautics is still a part of NASA (National Agency for Space and Aeronautics) as we move higher and higher. PAGE 130 TO 129