ANGELFIRE 9-02-08 Labor Day can remind us that GOD labored six days in creating and then rested for a day. I've wondered if that was when Satan go going in secret. Of course he doesn't labor but only sponges off the work of others as a parasite. Corrupting the magnificent work of the LORD GOD is his devious mission, as I see it. He wears many disguises, to become the false gods of this world. Well the newly famous Palin family image is certainly blemished now by a daughter's situation, even though Mrs.Palin's infant son being accepted despite having Down's syndrome had been such an inspiring example of care. Life in this world of unclean/Godless behavior becomes a burden at times. The words of Christ Jesus about that woman brought before Him after being taken in adultery apply to all of us, "Let him who is himself without sin cast the first stone." John McCain says he knew about this when he chose Sarah (wonderful name), so he must have been ready for America to learn of it also. I read in Deut.17 just now of the LORD's severe penalty on those who made unfit offerings to Him. Of course the vice presidency isn't exactly such. But it should be exemplary for the nation. So the four more months of illicit pregnancy will be a test to the loyalty of Republicans and conservatives, who traditionally frown on such belated marriage. Will the wedding come before or after the birth? I'm urging it for right now and for family only, if the father is willing. Thus the child would at least be born in wedlock. Reports I hear about our national situation are that the majority are illegitimate these days. That's an awful onus on a child, a word so ugly that we don't use it (except to slur) though it's still in the Bible. Like marriage, the birth of children should also be seen as sacred in our land. So if the baby was/is truly wanted, then that teen couple should marry sooner rather than later. The Palin family could set a painful example up there in Alaska for all the rest of us down here showing that human reproduction is akin to divinity. There's a mystical hymn I've sung this morning, "Jesus, Joy of Man's Desiring." It's #644 in the UMC hymnal (by Martin Janus in 1661; and the great J.S.Bach wrote it's music), which is strangely different just as heaven is different from earth. Remember how John Wesley felt his heart warming experience at Aldersgate Streen in London, May 24, 1738? Well Jesus will bring such to us who seek it, especially when He soon returns. It's that "uncreated Light" of eternity. Strange, as of GOD Himself is LIGHT! SoLong/Shalom

ANGELFIRE 9-05-08 The start of that hymn Angelfire previously mentioned are "Jesus, joy of man's desiring, holy wisdom, love most bright; drawn by thee, our souls aspiring, soar to uncreated light." Those last two words have to refer to the Creator Himself instead of the kind of light He spoke into existence.   So we can only see It with eyes of our soul; though beholding the stars above can evoke such inner sight. Astronomy has been a favorite subject to me, especially cosmology. I've long sense given up my own optical telescope. Data is now gathered by observatories around the world and even in outer space. Of course the Hubble Space Telescope is the one most of us know of. But the EU also has one, and other International agencies. Now E.U. is taking on a larger reference than European Union. It's the acronym for a theory of this ELECTRIC UNIVERSE. The wonder of electricity has been lost, as so few of us can remember living without it (but I can as a child). Clear through the 20th century, astronomers considered gravity as the force that ruled earth, and sky also.   But weather and lightning are now being given more respect. In Jack Pack's Sunday morning devotional on KJCS he made mention of a global list of storms and disasters that have shaken the nations. And previously I wrote of how the galaxies in far off space look so much like our hurricanes/cyclones here on planet Earth. In fact, electromagnetism is more powerful than gravity way out there. So a new interpretation has been formed called Plasma Cosmology. Plasma has been dubbed the 4th state of matter (as compared to solid, liquid and gas), but it fits the new theory as being a first state of matter, (then gas, liquid and solids consecutively). And plasma is highly electric. It's what causes our Northern Lights. And now we've learned it forms threads of pasm`a, or filaments, connecting all the stars and galaxies. Thus thereīs power flowi`ng throughout the Universe like a wired up home. I mentioned previously the program seen about the Cosmic Web wiring all bodies or formations of matter together. Having studied electronics in my Navy days, Iīm aware of the structure of atoms with their protons and electrons allowing for energy flow. But this other form of matter isnīt that advanced. Itīs made of even smaller units, quarks and glueons. And so is 99.9% of everything we can see in the sky (that weīve called fiery gas). Solid matter is much more rare. So perhaps this Cosmic Web even links every part of our Solar system, maybe on down to each atom unit. How amazing is the handiwork of our Glorious GOD, creator of heaven and earth, Who sent His own Son to live among humans. John 1 tells us about that in his account of creaion by the Word, which brought the "uncreated light" that our observatories canīt detect. Yet we may behold it with our hearts by faith in the` Lord Jesus. SoLong/Shalom, JosephAllen

ANGELFIRE 9-09-08 We see another report from Pakistan's tribal areas adjoining Afghanistan this morning that al-Quaeda's training white western men as terrorist operatives. That certainly portends some other version of 9/11 after these seven years since. Yet I also saw that president Bush will speak today to announce troop withdrawals from our 146 thousand in Iraq down to 138,000 by Feb. of '09. By then a new Commander in Chief will be running our USA, so it might be an even bigger cut back than eight thousand. Pakistan has elected the husband of the late Benazier Bhutto as their president in place of former president Mushariff, who resigned (now PM instead). It would seem a new start, but he's badly tainted with corruption. So Pakistan will probably let Osama ben Laden continue his terrorist training camps in Wizeristan, their adjoining independent tribal area. And that's to furnish a supply of caucasian terrorists who won't have near as much difficulty getting past security as those 19 that highjacked the three airliners against our Twin Towers and the Pentagon bldg. Niece and I watched that movie about Flight 93 which would have also hit the Capitol if the crew hadn't bravely caused it to crash far short of the terrorists goal, but sacrificing all their lives. It ended with an explosion that totally destroyed the whole airliner into smitherenes so that the fire fighter/rescuers couldn't find any of it to preserve. All we had was their cell phone reports of what happened before the defiantly brave hostages forced it down; plus the testimony of one person who saw it just before the crash. All of us now aboard the USA need to be as patriotic and keep our eyes and hearts on heaven more than material survival. The Fed's bailout of FannieMae and Freddy Mac may give some temporary financial relief, but it has to be GOD in Whom we trust instead of the government. So here's words I've written to go with our clock chimes in downtown PV: "Christ will be here. Let's make ready. Soon He'll appear, so hold steady."   Try singing them when you hear those tones sounded there at the intersection of Paul and Chickasaw. SoLong, Shalom, JosephAllen

ANGELFIRE 9-12-08 Doesn't it seem somehow symbolic that almost seven years to the day after 9/11's colossal man made disaster, the LHC at Geneva should begin it's ultimate probe into how the Creator made all things. As the dark/blind wickedness of 9/11 took us down to ground zero in NYC, the magnificence of human inquiry is now taking us mortals clear up to peek at the Pearly Gates from over there Switzerland. CERN stands for the European research agency which is doing it. I just read that in reverse (Nuclear Research by Europe Coordinated)to comprehend it. But I still recall how we first aspired to build a Superconducting Super Collider over here. The Fed decided to build it in TX after OK's bid was rejected in '88 of thereafter. I recall being pastor here in WW back then and going up to OKC for a meeting to gain public support. I found myself in a crowd of professors, scientists, engineers, technicians, experts in physics and even military people. Some army General was presiding over the day long session. He began by asking us all to identify ourselves by our titles. That's how I can report the variety of fields of interest. We all knew that getting such a site here in OK would have global impart. I was nearly the last to answer, and when the General heard me say "Rev.Hazlitt" instead of Doctor, CEO, Governor or such, he said "My GOD, we've even got a preacher here." There was not chance given me to explain than I'd been an electronic tech in the Navy and a science buff all my life. Well, TX got the nod for SSC instead of OK, but later the rising expense caused Congress to cancel the whole fantastic project. That left it up to CERN, though ours would have been twice as large. Yet we have helped them with a nearly billion bucks in aid. So now the whole world is watching to see if quarks can be identified as the basic units of matter. Opposite direcion beams of ions are brought to headon collision in that huge twenty some miles of circular underground tubing. The earliest state of matter as plasma is playing a major role as we are coming to see the Universe in electric more than gravitational terms. When GOD created it saying "Let there be light," there was still no sun or stars. So it must have been lightning that dispelled that "darkness on the face of the deep" Gen.1:2. I talked to a man in the welding business yesterday and we discussed the plasma state of matter involved in his kind of work. It caused me to consider that lightning doesn't split the world apart. Instead it welds together in our Electric Universe, where every atom of matter has positive protons combined with negative electrons. What existed before them, as newly organized matter, was the chaos of strange quarks and free gluons. GOD had already created heaven into existence when He began speaking forth earthly order into the deep that was without form and void. Genesis 1 & 2. I've heard tales of strange things told by welders that do seem to defy the laws of nature.. Now our world demands natural explanations of such, though the Large Hedron Collider now running at last just could open a door to "all things possible with GOD" in His realm of miracles.   SoLong

ANGELFIRE 9-16-08 The economy has become a far bigger concern for voters now than wars abroad. Gen. David Petraeus relinquished his post to his second in command in Iraq yesterday as he returned to FL, where he'll take charge of Middle East and global operations. That year and a half he spent in Iraq brought the turnaround so badly needed. But our wars have nearly sunk our ship of state into the depths of red ink. Glenn Beck on Headline News was claiming last night that we've joined Lehman Brothers in going bankrupt. The market declined 504 points as Monday was being called the worst day for the stock market since that Black Friday of '29. It caused the great depression of the thirties. I was a young tike then, only two years old; though I grew up hearing about people in NYC leaping from the sky scrapers because of their lost fortunes. Now I compare that mental image with those who jumped seven years ago in 9/11 to escape all the flames of burning fuel. No skyscrapers collapsed in '29, but two of the world's tallest certainly did in 2001 at the World Trade Center. Though it didn't launch us into a national depression, we went into a global war against terrorism that's super expensive in dollars (as well as lives, now some 4000). The hurricane that's hit Galveston and so much of TX should never have been named Ike. He was a great president back in the fifties, when our nation prospered greatly. Looking back, we call them "Happy Days." But the storm down there has been just the opposite, leaving so much destruction behind which will add to federal debt. I know one reason I pay attention to the Large Hadron Collider now up and running in Switzerland/France is that the US isn't bearing the brunt of it's cost. We cancelled our own SSC which would have run twice as much (and also that much bigger) for America. Now if it doesn't find a "Higgs boson," considered the final particle being sought in physics, then it will have been just a 12 billion dollar experiment. We can't take such financial risks anymore. Yet if it settles doubts about there being a Creator of this universe, I'd consider it still worthwhile.   Even particle physics could proclaim the One maker of all things great and small, with Christians adding the Good News that He cared enough to send the Son to redeem us from the wickedness that has crept into His handiwork. So we can sing "Jesus paid it all. All to Him I owe. Sin had left it's crimson stain. He washed us white as snow." Then the doxology, "Praise GOD from Whom all blessings flow. Praise Him all creatures here below. Praise Him above ye heavenly host. Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Amen." and "He's coming soon. He's coming soon. With joy we'll welcome His returning. It may be morn, it may be night or noon. We know He's coming soon!" SoLong/Shalom, JosephA

ANGELFIRE 9-19-08 A headline on the Internet this Fri. morning says that N.Korea may be restarting it's nuclear program. They had stopped it when we offered them aid, even blowing up facilities; but then they refused to allow inspectors in to check on things. So we didn't send the energy supplies first offered. Everything is kept so secret there that we're not even sure if their Communist leader, Kim Jong Il, is still alive. He didn't appear at their recent 60th anniversary celebration, and there was speculation that he may have died several years ago with lookalikes posing in his place. How can such a spooky situation exist anywhere on planet Earth? Well from reports, he was a freak show himself, just wearing official attire. That's the danger of a nation turning totally military. Uniforms can create an illusion of unity and strength, when things on the inside might be so wild and crazy as collective insanity. Yet if there was no set way for any other official to name Kim's successor, it would be their only choice since he'd posed as an immortal leader. Christians know how crafty the evil one called Satan can be. He uses cunning and deception all the time and even got into the art of politics several centuries ago through a brilliant Italian, Machivelli. I can recall my early days when church folks considered this world wicked, so they avoided any political involvement. Then it swung over to siding with causes of justice and equal rights. So now it's sort of like the weather, always dichotomous. That's why our private prayers are important even in political affairs. Too often open religion was used for show to get the vote of pious citizens. But I feel Americans are more mature now and can't be fooled by such hypocrisy. We get a clear picture of a candidate's record and see if his/her speeches match up. No one wants to vote for a liar, so a third party may be an alternate choice i.e. Bob Barr, Libertarian or Dr.Ron Paul, Independent/Republican; though I don't recommend either. But always seek first the Kingdom (Mt.6:33) SoLong Shalom, JosephA

ANGELFIRE 9-23-08 Having a heavenly Father who cares for us is better than even the golden parachutes those Wall Street CEO's use when they bail out of their tall collapsing financial towers. We, like the prodigal son Jesus talked about, who had spent all and began to be in want, must return from the pig pens of this world to seek His face again. With 700 billion more being added on to America's national debt, the total will reach 11.3 trillion. The only other place I see such numbers are when I read in astronomy. That's always been a favorite subject for me. And now studies of quarks and glueons, smallest particles in the Universe, are fitting together our knowledge, even of the vastness of galaxies that may number a trillion. There are 15 more basic particles than quark and gluons, making a total of 17. But #17 is the Higgs boson that's yet to be found. It's so essential in The Standard Big Bang model because it gives mass to all 16 others (except photons which are just energy instead). So particle physics and astronomy are now linked together in Einstein's famous equation E=mc2.   E is for energy, basic stuff down in the microverse and clear up to the macroverse of outer space. That Higgs boson which science is seeking to identify over at CERN, is considered to be what brings mass into all of the 16 otheor particles of matter. It would be like the finger of GOD as it brings them into existence in this physical Universe with it's touch. Just so, the Father is shown in Jesus' parable of the prodigal son who had spent all his inheritance in lavish living. GOD came to meet and touch him. Let me sing it from an old song I like: "Ring the bells of heaven, there is joy today. For a soul returning from the wild! See! The father meets him out upon the way. Welcoming his weary, wandering child. Glory! Glory! how the angels sing. Glory! Glory! How the loud harps ring. Tis the ransomed army, like a mighty sea, pealing forth the anthem of the free." And that's being out from living with swine in prison of dirt, filth, immorality, guilt and even debt. Debt free, wow! That's as like loosing excess weight isn't it. Debt free and slim again, both like a foretaste of heaven. Shalom, JosephA

ANGELFIRE 9-25-08 That meeting yesterday of both candidates with president Bush and financial leaders didn't gel, yet the stock market did rise again. But another fall today is quite likely, though I think a limit is set on how far it can go down in a single day. It's also not clear yet if McCain will leave D.C. to join the debate with Obama in Oxford, Mississippi. If he does, I don't see how it can focus on foreign affair when or economy is most urgent. And GW may have to play FDR in making the bail out happen. Since GW is nearly off stage already, he can afford to offend all those Republicans who oppose such a Democratic solution to the crisis. Yet if the market is still holding by noon, I expect McCain to head south. If not, he may come out to add strong support for the president. Somehow I see hurricane Ike as a sign of this time. I was such a fan of Gen.Eisenhower back in the fifties and even learned the new word for that era, "affluence." Though we pastors were told not to take sides, "I like Ike" was on my front bumper. Yet he sewed some seeds of injury for later years i.e. "What's good for General Motors is good for America." And later when Hollywood took over Washington with the election of another Ike movie star, the first thing dropped from Reagan's platform was any effort for a balanced budget. You know who that was: movie star Ronald Reagen. So now politics has gone clear to the opposite spending it seems to me, with a Republican president willing to add an increase of our national debt by this super huge amount. Still it may be essential and urgent as well. Delay can only allow things to get wose, though there should be as much prayer of repentance for what weīve allowed to develope as there is rage expressed over high pay to CEOs with giant bail outs for them this airliner called USA. Here's a song some of us know, that could even apply to a Godly economy: "I will sing of my Redeemer and His wonderful love for me. On the Cross He sealed my pardon, paid the debt and set me free. REFRAIN 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. (2nd vs.) I will tell the wondrous story, How my lost estate to save, In His boundless love and mercy, He the ransom freely gave." SoLong & Shalom, JosephA

ANGELFIRE 10-01-08 News of financial collapse all over the globe makes this Fri. morning seem like the final Catastrophe. I'm looking at the Bible in Mt.6:19, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy and where thieves break in to steal." That's sure come to pass as we start into October. "But lay up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." That doesn't endorse an irresponsible life style, but places the emphasis on eternal values which this crisis cannot destroy. I think of the 18th and 19th chapters of Revelation, depicting the fall of wicked Babylon (an image for this world). The tower of Babel mentioned in Genesis didn't fall but stood to represent this world with it's divisions and strife. But finally the whole city it typified is coming to collapse. As the four horsemen of the Apocalypse ride forth in chapter 19, I recall the four sevens of that market plunge yesterday afternoon, 777.7, and wonder if it's a sign. Some of us will blame Congress for not passing that bail out, though it would only have been a temporary relief. We've just got to face it, that judgement has come upon this sinful world. Yet our Lord will soon appear. Today is a Jewish holiday so I'll use the Hebrew version of His name, Yeshua. In our O.T. it begins with J instead, but there is no J in Hebrew. So Jews say Yeshua, though they refer to the first Judge of Israel who took the place of Moses. Now if Christians would use their pronunciation, we might show them that their Joshua typified the heavenly successor to Moses (and the Law) Who is the Lord Yeshua Christ. And with the Jewish state of Israel as the focus of global affairs, it could speed their readiness for His coming again, which must be so close now. COME LORD YESHUA, JosephA PS my spell checker tried to change Yeshua to Joshua each time, thus it should accept "Yoshua" as being close enough)

ANGELFIRE 10-03-08 We used to sing that sad song in the Viet Nam War, "Where Have All the Flowers Gone," but now I think the question is about all the money. Where has it all gone? The House of Representatives will vote today on that bail-out for our Federal budget and I just saw that CA may need another seven billion also. So when's this going to end? I'm assuming that the Senate's enlarged and revised version will be approved today, even with those add ons to it getting it closer to the trillion originally proposed. Yet this could be another "Black Friday" if things should take a downward plunge; though both of our presidential candidates advocate the spending. And banks just have to survive to sustain our economy. Without them, our communities would wither away. In all my ministry I've found small town bankers to be the very opposite of that greed image which Wall Street has come to project. They have to be well dressed and professional appearing, as they carry a lot of weight in community affairs where so many go the second mile in being helpful. As I've recalled the 19 different places that I served in my 42 years as a pastor (nearly all small towns), bankers were strong church members and persons to respect. Of course they needed to be for inspiring trust, and they did so in me. I also like banks that take the name of their town (as ours in WW and also PV) since it gives a local identity in a world that keeps growing ever more vast and impersonal. So along with that Godly headline the Democrat had yesterday A CALL TO PRAYER, let me suggest we include also our town bankers in this time of national and international money crisis. If you missed that poem by another PV writer, Wanda Vaughn, then look again in Sunday's edition just beneath this column. It showed that money isn't filthy lucre when used properly. Wanda was indeed inspired when she wrote those lines. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA

ANGELFIRE 9-07-08 Another Tuesday morning and I'm writing from an MS-NBC headline "Why We Vote." It's only a month now till America makes her presidential decision. By the time you see this both candidates will have enguaged in their second debate, this time at Nashville. I watched the last one and also the one between possible vice presidents. So I'll have had my fill after tonight's show. I'm calling it that because there's so much pretense in politics that seeing through performances has become more important than just watching. By now we've become fairly familiar with both McCain and Obama. But it seems only recently that I first heard the latter name as some person Ophra Winfrey knew and had on her show. Now he's center stage for the whole world to see. Yet McCain's far more familiar, since he's been in the public eye for decades past. And their age difference sure makes a generational spread from the wisdom of age to the enthusiasm of a younger leader. Yet I'm sure we'll all be waiting to hear proposals for facing our economic future. It's become so painfully bleak that we older voters think of depression years in the thirties. I began grade school at Lee Elementary in PV the year FDR took office. We'd already learned his name from hearing it on the radio. But I grew clear up to adulthood still hearing it, the only president ever for four consecutive terms: Franklin Delano Roosevelt; through the greatest depression ever, an then the greatest war. Though his vast federal programs were aimed to get us going again after the market crash of '29, everone of my generation knew that it was really WW II which brought us back up. War allowed us to spend even more until we became addicted to his governmental policy of deficit finance. Only once since then have we balanced our budget and now we've so deep in debt that it staggers the mind, especially with this nearly trillion dollar rescue. I've never wanted to admit that money runs the world, because I know there's a HIGHER POWER that does. Yet down here in this world of financial competition, it's the monitary matters that make or break us. That's why my previous ANGELFIRE was a tribute to the bankers we need so greatly. I see them as handling the power that makes our world go round. It's even more basic than politics, (where there is so much fakery). Bankers are seldom politicians, though they often help them into office. Still, there's yet a more basic factor than money and that is faith in the LORD. If we loose it, even our currency become worthless. So regular daily prayer is the need of this urgent hour, just as PV's Ministerial Alliance issued such a call last week. Our hope is in the Living GOD and His Son whose soon return we of faith are awaiting, even as we keep voting as a privilege and duty. SoLong/SHALOM, JosephA

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