ANGELFIRE 7-03-09 The annual supplement to PV's magnificent 4th of July fireworks display is the rodeo called Thunder in the Valley. Though it's more down on the ground, that title adds more sky dimension, from which thunder is derived. Thus both PV events are amplified in this International Year of Astronomy2009. So if we look and listen, we might comprehend mighty sounds as well as see awesome insights from the vastness out there in space. ANGELFIRE is speaking of the Creator's handiwork. America was begun with a new paradigm of government. It was becoming, as Abraham Lincoln described for us over a century ago: "of the people, by the people and for the people." Now global media have given us such a wide world view that we see all humanity as entitled to democracy from GOD. That certainly links to our motto, "In God We Trust." For ANGELFIRE that divine word is an acronym--Great father, Our savior, Divine guide. But I try to avoid the name that means three-in-one, mainly because it's not used in the Bible. "Godhead" is the Biblical term. And the other word that I avoid was produced for theological use. And since America honor's Scripture, let's stick to words found therein. On thing that's being mentioned in our state legislature is a Day of National Righteousness. That is a key word in the Bible, where we read that it "exhaults a nation, but (that) sin is a reproach to any people." Turning from sin means repentance, which is also Scriptural. We see so much worldliness in our land, and other nations see it too. The scandal all gets attention in our open society, but where is any repentance showing? If there's money involved, we seem to assume that it can pay off all damages, moral as well as material. Anyone shown on their knees is mocked as being a phony or a weakling. Nothing is more real than inner assurance sent down from above. And that's available to those who turn their eyes away from all this worldliness to heaven's Holiness. Yes, that's also a Scriptural designation of the Father Almighy, creator of heaven and earth. And on our nation's birthday, His favor is what we Americans urgently need to seek; because time is running out and Christ Jesus will soon appear for His church that He will take as the Bride He's to marry. Such a final marriage is what makes that covenant very central to the Gospel: "an honorable estate, instituted of GOD and sigifying for all the union to exist between Christ and His church. It is therefore not to be entered unadvisedly, but reverently, discreetly, and the in the fear of GOD. Into this holy estate these two persons come now to be joined." (wedding ritual). Therefore, every Communion is a prelude sip of that great Wedding Feast of the LAMB (Rev.19:9) SoLong Shalom, JosephA
LORD;sDAY 7-05-09 What a disappointment Sunday night at Wacker Park, where we found the firewords post phoned. But there's more to say of seeing it from I-35 the following night. I had been at LARC with Glen and Dallas for prison ministry. Glen was driving as I sat on the passenger side. Watching about 9:45pm as we came past PV, I could see each rocket explode as a small mushroom on the eastern horizon. There was no sound at all and most of the majesty was missing. But the colors were there to enjoy and it was such a different feeling that being present at Wacker Park. Then on down I-35 I began to see another display that seemed as large in south PV. It made me wonder if some individual had funds enough to create their own rival display. But soon we got to Wynnewood, where there were no large giant fireworks going off.
ANGELFIRE 7-07-09 Los Angeles has been our second biggest city for several years now, putting Chicago in third place after NYC. But as I write, it's become the media giant of planet Earth. And everyone knows why on this Tuesday morning. L.A., stands for "city of the angels," a religious sounding name. Though contemporary technology our world of entertainment as long supplanted it's "holy" angels, if there were any ever there. To ANGELFIRE they all seem like fallen ones, beginning with Hollywood and built up to Neverland. The onus of artificiality and pretense has come to pervade every reference to LA. Even money, which is so basic to America, takes on a magical aura out there in the world Arnold Schwartznegger has tried to remake. And now he's facing a financial dead end as governor of CA. All the make believe that permeates that state has now reached financial reality. We used to hear of "angels" in economic affairs. They were sources of wealth to pay off monetary obligations, either individuals or corporations. Arnold could certainly use one now. But instead CA has to write IOUs for it's debt. And that's what could be happening to our entire nation next. President Obama will soon be in the same situation internationally, as the Hollywood wears off of his presidency. China is getting tired of being our financial angel, so we'll have to look elsewhere. But certainly not to LA, because those were all fallen angels from the start. We've mentioned plasma cosmology in our IYA2009 comments. It offers a view of the Universe just after the Big Bang that was totally plasma, a substance without form before matter as we know it emerged. ANGELFIRE sees that as a heavenly Los Angeles, realm of immortal beings that now permeate our material Universe. They add it's fifth dimension, which is MEANING, to the other four; length, width, height and time. Thus they are of a more basic composition than hard matter itself--solid, liquid or gaseous. Science is calling it the Big Bang's plasma phase of formation. Yet there was consciousness in that stage in the angelic inhabitants of shamayim (highest heaven). And angels are immortal beings that preceeded mankind. Scripture tells us little about their origin, yet it affirms their reality and power. And the King of kings rules over the majority of faithful ones, while those who joined Satan;s rebellion are going to be finally cast into a lake of fire, where they can no longer allure humans away for Christ Jesus our Savior. Knowing the LORD is our greatest treasure. Other things often let us down. So here's a chorus to encourage our souls: "Jesus never fails, Jesus never fails. Heaven and earth may pass away, b..u..t Jesus never fails." We can look to Him instead of so very much media. We need divine inspiration far more than entertainment, and that's found in prayer as we wait for His glorious return with all his holy angels. C.L.J. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 7-10-09 The remaking of downtown PV streets has more appeal as the competent workers do their jobs. It shows such power in artistic plans behind their hard labor. I'm amazed at how things keep on moving in spite of traffic barriers and road signs everywhere. Since this is the year or nine, you can see why "nova" also means new. I think that must come from the prenatal pregnancy period of mankind. And as our streets show new birth, our court house is also getting in on the glory, so that both our town and county headquarters are being repaired and restored. PV's "a place to surely shine after two thousand and nine." May the shine be heavenly too. We know the city is having a money disagreement with Garvin county over the new 911 center's cost. But we hope our good mayor Tim Gamble (angel chosen) can negotiate a peaceful settlement that's all around fair. Getting ugly seldom leads to a fruitful financial outcome. Just watch what likey happens now in the famous Jackson family's estate settlement. All the late Michael's gentleness is starting to evaporate and legal battles will get wicked now. Possibly the biggest money yet is to be made on selling tickets into Neverland, after they decide to bury the body there. It will be the same as Elvis at Graceland, showmanship supreme! Yet so much bright light and glamor is only human darkness. In the Bible the Pharisees put on their best religious show. It was quite profitable, but Jesus never bought a bit of it. Read that conversation He had with Nicodemus in Jn.3. He talks about true LIGHT that has come into the world (Himself), but men/women loved darkness instead. Right after the Bible's most beloved verse of John,3:16, Jesus tells Nicodemus that He had come not for condemnation. but rather to bring salvation. Yet He said that "men loved darkness instead of Light, because their deeds were evil." So the great majority continue walking in that ignorance, unaware of the true meaning of their existence, knowing our Creator as FATHER through the Son who has entered our humanity as a fellow human being while yet also divine. That dimension of reality is worth living more than anything else found on earth. And His promise to return is as real as the one He made to rise from the dead. Meanwhile, He is now representing to the FATHER all who pray in His name, that is "making intercession" for us there as we trust in Him down here in temporal affairs. As we Americans say the motto "In G-O-D we turst," let us see how it means "Our savior, Who will actually return at last". And the name America may still yet be spoken as "A Miracle." SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net.
ANGELFIRE 7-14-09 This week will mark another anniversary of that day when humans first stepped onto the moon out of a lunar landing module from the Apollo space ship left orbiting above. Neal Armstrong was the one who said "That's one small step for a man and one giant leap for mankind" as his foot touched the lunar soil. How exciting that was for the rest of mankind here on Earth. The "giant leap" brought us into a new way of seeing the heavens as being out there instead of up there. In Engand a church leader whose name I've forgotten had written a book entitled "Honest to God" to articulate the coming shift in mankind's awareness during the fifties. But it actually hit us on July 16, 1969. We earthlings were stepping off of our home planet, or so we thought. Yet our greatest motivation had been to beat the Russians. It was the space race that gave us that major win in the Cold War. President John F. Kennedy had given America the challenge early in that sixties decade, and those astronauts answered it for us, with other landings following. Then Mars became the next challenge. Instead of days, it would take months of space travel going there. So NASA prepared robots instead and in the late nineties Donna Shirley (from here in Wynnewood) directed the first successful Martian landing. That space race had ended a decade before, with the collapse of the USSR. Yet we went on to send land rovers to Mars where they explored the surface of that red planet; and then orbiters to also scan it from the Martian sky. We've certainly learned enough to go there by now. But NASA's plan is to build lunar bases from which to deploy such a long voyage. And that's put the whole venture in question because of greater cost (unless we can find financial gain to be made on Mars. Where there's profit to be made, we will always find some way to build a gainful colony there). Yet ANGELFIRE sees this as the time for truly being "Honest to God" by preparing for the return of the Son, Jesus. Seeking righteousness rather than earthly profit must become foremost. The book mentioned by that title was offensive to me then for it's ridicule of things supernatural, yet it's name is right on target for now, in this Nova year of the new century/millennium 2009. Our every thought and act should be an offering to Him. As we take our first bite of food each day, let us remember "His body that was broken for me"; or swallow a drink from our cup washing food down, that His blood "was shed for me plus the persons I'll encounter." Thus we can abide in Matt.6:33 "Seek ye first the Kingdom of God, and His righteousness. And all these (other needed) things will be added unto you." The real heaven isn't just at church or way off in the sky, but here in each present moment that is offered up unto the LORD. ANGELFIRE writes these columns in such a manner of mind. Hallelujah! SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 7-17-09 As I begin this morning's column our clock here in the Pinkhouse is striking seven, and it's the seventeenth day of this seventh month. That's a Bible number to ANGELFIRE, and I've just finished a morning reading from Luke's gospel. It was about Jesus arriving in Jerico, that ancient city northwest of Jerusalem which the Twelve Tribes had encircled to gain entrance when it's great walls fell at the sounding of their trumpets. Remember the Nego spiritual about "Joshua(Jesus) 'fit the battle of Jerico...and da walls coma tumblin down." Well in Lk.19, our Savior (with the same name) arrived there some centuries later, on His way to Jerusalem. And as the throngs welcomed him, He saw one small but rich Jew who had to climb up in a tree in order to see. It was Zaccakheus. Jesus spoke to the little tax collector and told him to "Hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today. So he hurried down and was happy to welcome Him." Then the hated little guy repented of his corrupt behavior padding Roman taxes with fees for himself upon other Jews; he was offering to give half of all he had gained to help the poor. But the crowd complained about Jesus accepting Zaccakheus because he'd been such a swindler. Yet our Lord forgave him saying "Today salvation has come to this house, because he too is a son of Abraham. For the Son of Man came to seek out and save the lost" tribes of Israel. What a contrast to the Old Testament episode of destruction heaped upon on Jerico, a very ancient city long associated with idolatry and false gods. Yet it becomes famous in the New Testament for one "tiny" soul delivered from avarice/greed, which is worship of wealth. Zaccakheus was delivered from enslavement to money, his abominable deity. Nothing more is told about him after our Lord Jesus left Jerico, heading for Jerusalem. There He would pay for our deliverance from Satan (and all the false gods) by giving His own precious blood to be shed on the Cross. Taking on the judgemental wrath of that angry crowd in Jerico for the sake of one lost son of Abraham was a preliminary sign of the redemption He would secure for us up at Jerusalem. He would be the Lamb of GOD offered for all humanity(children of Adam as well as Abraham) who will put their trust in Him. It demonstrates what Paul affirms, that salvation came "to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile." The state of Israel being so central in world affairs compares to that little Jew who was up in a tree. Israel signifies the soon coming return of that one who first came as a lamb but is coming back as the Lion, of the tribe of Judah. Though the O.T. used it describing David, the N.T. shows it to mean the King not only of the Jews, but the KING of KINGS(for all the nations). Read Rev.22:16 "It is I, Jesus, who sent my angel to you with this testimony for the churches. I am the root and the descendant of David, the bright morning star." Then (in another 17), "The Spirit and the bride say 'Come.' And let everyone who hears say, 'Come.' And let everyone who is thirsty come. Let anyone who wishes take the water of life as a gift." I recall from the month I spent in England as a young minister, that you were charged for every little thing over there. It cost to get a check cashed, a fee for any courtesy requested, and even a drink of water wasn't for free. But our American cafes go the extra mile with a glass of cold water that's usually set before the customer first. Often we don't even touch it or appreciate the free gift. Yet it's somewhat like the N.T. ending just quoted above. We all urgently need the living water mentioned there. So may these hot days give us thirst for divine grace as well, which can remake those who drink it into born again "sons/daughters of Abraham." As such, we can offer the official greeting used in Israel, SHALOM. It's the Hebrew word for "peace plus all good things." What a blessing in one word. As I wave back to folks seen on my paper route, I ask it for them to from LORD as a one word prayer. It's first use in the Bible is Gn.15:15, where GOD tells Abraham, "You will go to your ancestors in PEACE; you shall be buried in a good old age." And that same PEACE that passeth understanding was spoken by our Lord Jesus to greet the gathered Apostles when He appeared in their midst after His resurrection: "Peace be unto you." I link it with our cowboy expression of "so long" which means until (and if) we ever meet again. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
LORD's DAy 7-19-09 Because of the sevens mentioned previously, ANGELFIRE was given a headline like throwing dice. I take that as another hint from Above to stay clear of numerology. So my use of sevens in only subjective I'll admit. Numbers can speak to just me without any objective sacred claim. As I started this, the total on this website was another 17. That number seems to haunt me here in IYA2009. Just wish there was a song about it, like that one on 16, "Ya load sixteen tons and whatta ya get? Another year older and deeper in debt. St.Peter don't ya call me, cause I cain't go. I'm still working here on New Orleans shoah." The new all day July 18 was about that "most trusted man in America finally dying at 92, Walter Cronkite. How much he was a center of the news in the seventies and eighties. And the "turst" was that he stayed centered rather than biased to the left or right. But after CBS let him retire, he got onto PBS, which let his lefish feelings come out. Of course PBS tries to blaim it's centered in news coverage, but the left usually gets more coverage. Cronkite now looks to ANGELFIRE as having been that way, just kept it hid all those years on CBS radio and TV. In fact his closing AND THAT'S THE WAY IT IS was a mimic of the divind Voice, I'd say, even though it evoked Americas's popular trust. Don't know about his faith since he never revealed it. B but the funeral is at a NYC church named St.Bartholamew"s I understand. And then back home to Kansas City MO for burial. So here's to Cronkite, SoLong & Shalom Walter, from JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 7-21-09 It's brightest in the east just before sunrise and a little to the south. Now something big has struck Jupiter again, largest planet in our Solar system; Apparently another comet, like the one 15 years ago on this very same day. It was named Shoemaker-Levy, after the two astronomers who had observed it coming. Since Jupiter is the biggest member of our Solar family (except for papa Sol himself), it's immense gravity could attract things as huge as a comet. They were once considered strays in outer space, but we've found them to travel in vast elliptic orbits until finally having collisions with other bodies. Their long tails that trail behind are what make them such beautiful celestial objects that they were worshipped before astrology gave way to the natural science of astronomy some four centuries ago. Here in IYA2009, we are honoring Galileo, that great Italian scholar/statesman/scientist, who along with a Swiss astronomer named Johannis Kepler, turned telescopes toward the sky and their minds away from superstition. The Polish observer, Copernicus had done so first of all, provoking great anger from religious leaders. With only calculations but no telescope, he enunciated a heliocentric view of Creation (sun centered instead of earth). Four centuries later now, we're shifting to still another perception persoective called "plasma cosmology". Non-theists accept it as an explanation that omits any Creator. But the so called Big Bang theory that has become established did leave room for a divine Maker, though He's called a Singularity rather than GOD. Since astronomy was the first "natural philosophy" which became what we now call science, it's basic to our subsequent outlook on everything in the Universe. The tails on comets demonstrate that other kind of substance/(matter?) now known as plasma, which is scattered throughout space. It's being called "the 4th state of matter" i.e. solid, liquid, gas and now, plasma." Yet ANGELFIRE sees it as transcending mere matter. Comets are signs of the HOLY SPIRIT in my opinion. The plasma they make so visible to us constitutes most of what's substance ("super matter", perhaps) in this Universe. Stars are composed of it and "empty space" is sprinkled with it. If angels are plasma beings then they might be designated as "angelfire"; which can appear anyplace or any time, in body-mind-or both. The Lord Jesus used weather to describe divine activity, and now we are seeing global weather reported on channel 24 right here on planet Earth; while on Jupiter it's plasma weather, that also stretches across the entire Creation. I had an inward vision just days ago, of the whole Universe encircled by a cyclone of divine plasma and "HOLY SPIRIT" was it's s-h-a-k-i-n-g impact upon my mind. Dove or tongue of fire I had somewhat grasped. But now comes a hurricane that enwraps both heaven and earth! SURELY as the song goes, "He's coming soon; He's coming soon. With joy we'll welcome His returning. It may be mourn. It may be night or noon. We know He's coming soon!!" SoLong/Shalom, JosephA
ANGELFIRE 7-24-09 PV's celebration in Wacker Park would not be complete in my opinion without mention of the H.T. still standing downtown. You all know that HT means "historic tower" which turned a century old back in 2003. Now it's added six years, to be 106. We've got a senior citizen at the PV Health Care Facility on S.Chickasaw who turned 104 just a couple of weeks ago. He's Barksdale McRee, the guy I sometimes stop in to visit. Though his eyesight is gone, he hears and understands what's said to him very well. Homer, Neva's husband, is a much younger friend living nearby who comes to see him often, and his own son Skip calls him from clear out of state every day, I've been told. So Mr.Mac may yet outlast H.T. in age (if it's demolished). It doesn't get near as much attention and care, but still keeps standing tall in it's downtown place. It reminds me of the Wright brothers who first flew an airplane at Kitty Hawk NC the same year it was built, 1903 beginning aviation. And my great grandmother, Rebecca Jane Hightower, who died back then. Her tomb stone is the large dark one on your right a very short way into Mt.Olivet. When I see it, I like to hope that she lived to see H.T. built, which provided the only flowing water in the Valley back then. Her first and second names were also given to my younger and only sister, Rebecca Jane. As Mrs. Tal Oden, Jane died just 13 months ago. She had finished school here but lived at Altus since, and she wasn't born here as I was. Neither was my older brother John. So H.T. seem special for those of us born here, as my mother Blanche had also been. Now I think the word "Shalom" when seeing HT, and even wish that greeting word could catch on in Garvin county. There are several who who know this and even pronounce it to me first, to which I gladly reply "Shalom." But more who will answer me with it when I express "Shalom" to them. Back in 1978 I got to made my first trip to Israel (which had then lasted for two dedades) and I was so impressed at it's use for "hello-hello" or "goodbye-goodbye" in that land--especially at Jerusalem. I spell it with a capital S to mean the PEACE that comes from heaven (since shalom is Hebrew for "peace"). As the time of our Lord's appearing draws nearer, it can point to His glorious return and prompt us to be ready for His coming. As the spiritual says "I wanna be ready, I wanna be ready; to walk in Jerusalem just like John" who wrote all that he saw in the book of Revelation. ANGELFIRE previously mentioned Jupiter being hit by a comet several days ago, (which is unnamed as yet). But that largest planet Jupiter is also the "bright morning star" mentioned in Rev.22:17. John the revelator was quoting a final "I AM" from our Lord JESUS, so the planet got a much holier name than "Jupiter" for believers: "the BRIGHT MORNING STAR." A long time ago I rewrote a song about it in this way: Morning star up yonder teach me to never wander, but willing and obediently stay in the path ordained for me, Morning star up yonder//Shady lanes refreshing teach me to be a blessing to some weary soul each day, friend or foe that pass my way, Morning star up yonder//Mighty ocean teach me to do tasks that reach me, and reflect as days depart heaven's peace within my heart, Mighty ocean teach me//Evening sun descending teach me when life is ending, life may pass but I like you will rise again where life is new. Mighty ocean teach me.And it's little tune sounds just as beautiful as those simple words do to me. Wish I could sing it to you. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
LORD'sDAY 7-26-07 Though I'm writing a day early, that name should pertain to every day of the week for a Christian. So here's some considerations on the health care reforms our president wants. First we should consider each day longer that we live as a gift of our Maker. Though the right to life is enunciated in the Declaration of Independence is inalienable, that doesn't mean a guarantee of health. It's the grace of GOD that allows such and not a civil entitlement. Those who leave any consideration of the Almighty Father out of consciousness, the vulnerability to Satan is greater. Though the Old Testament did describe the plagues upon Egypt as divine in origin, we see in the New that our Savior came to deliver us from sickness as well as sin. Thus a soul that is filled with the Holy Spirit tends to ward of illness from the Enemy. The more complete translation of The Lord's Prayer says "lead us not into hard testing, but deliver us from the evil one." That implies that the devil brings the hard testing even though the LORD allows him to do so. Looking again to the deliverance from Egypt, we recall that the 12th and last plague was loss of Egypt's first born in their homes, under the death angel, who only ?passed over" homes where a lamb's blood was on the door lintel. Now this must prefigure Satan, (as the lambs prefigure Christ). Satan is first named much later as such by Ezra/author of 1 Chronicles. By that time it was a re-write in 1Chr.21:1 or 2Sam.24:1-17. "Satan stood up against Israel" is the first use of that word for "adversary" as a personified being. Israelites were slow to use such a concept because of their strong monotheism in the First Commandment. But the Persians who freed them from Babylonian captivity, had a duelistic religion of their good god vs an evil one(Zoroasterianism or Light vs Darkness). So the Israelites borrowed the idea by using a Hebrew term already in use about adversaries of Yahweh, or satans. Thus Satan is thereafter seen when looking back to the earlier history where David had numbered his army, an act lacking faith, thus surely not from the LORD. So "Satan" came into Hebrew records along with Persian apocalyptic writing. The books of the prophets contain apocalypse as a newer view of their destiny, with Daniel being foremost. Then Revelation in the N.T. Jesus even faced Satan in the wilderness to undergo hard testing as the Messiah and then and then Jesus' model prayer includes "temptation" as mentioned above. Christians have been swindled by teaching that discards Satan, just as His final return is omitted. Can't you guess who it is erasing those truths?
ANGELFIRE 7-28-09 ANGELFIRE continues to write with an eye on the sky, since this is IYA2009. Need I remind any that it's an International Year of Astronomy sponsored by the global network of national astronomic associations along with UNESCO, And by now it's over half way through 2009. Hopefully every reader has spent some time looking to the heavens, which all observatories do regularly. In the Bible see Ps.8:3-6 "When I look at your heavens, the work of your fingers, the moon and the stars that you have established, what are human beings that you are mindful of them, mortals that you care for them? Yet you have made them little lower than God and crowned them with glory and honor. You have given them dominion over the works of your hands. You have put all things under their feet." Just a little over a week ago the world recalled how 40 years ago it was man's stepping down onto the moon. That was four decades ago and yet we saw Apollo 11's crew still alive and well. So that dominion surely extends to the whole creation too, as this year's theme affirms, The Universe,, Yours to Explore. A space expert told us several days ago that the trip to Mars would take 30 days going, 50 spent there and 30 more returning,; or 110 total. That's faster than earlier estimates, but a longer stay. He said it would allow the crew to prepare for it's return trip with energy derived from Martian soil. That was a new spin too, though I'd heard Buzz Aldrin, 2nd man on the moon, saying this has to be the next venture instead of going back to build a lunar base the way NASA has planned. So I hope he and this expert can get it together while there's still financial resources left. With such horrendous debt looming ahead, the calls for cut back get louder and louder. And it doesn't seem right for Congress to take their recess in August, while the Health Care Reform remains incomplete. If those six senators now deliberating how to finance it come up with some compromise, there will be so much debt ahead that their "paid vacations" just ought not to be taken. And none of us Earthling Bible believers should ever vacate our role of daily worship, which includes helping others. Gal.5:14 tells us that our whole heavenly purpose is fulfilled in one statement: "Thou shalt love thy neighbor as thyself." As we struggle to keep our bills paid, we must continue to care for those around us who are less fortunate. The signs of these times keep gaining urgency, so let us see them as pointing to Christ the King who will soon return for His church, his Bride prepared to meet Him and be united forever in that end time wedding. It will be an orgy of miserable destruction for this world, but the magnificient marriage banquet for all believers who have kept the faith. Just read those last verses of Revelation again, the book that has at it's beginning a promise of blessing for whoever reads through all of it. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net
ANGELFIRE 7-31-09 As I write on this last day of July the story of that Cambridge cop and Harvard professor planning to meet again is not very inspiring. It seems to indicate that their beers didn't wash down the professors hard feelings left from being arrested in his own house on a charge of disorderly conduct. Tapes have shown no "yelling and shouting" as stated on the police report. And neither professor nor cop has apologized, while Sargent James Crowley has admitted that KoolAid would be a better drink. When asked what help president Obama had offered in the Whitehouse "summit" meeting, Crowley said simply that "He provided the beer." But ANGELFIRE would add that he also invited v.p. Joseph Biden, who drank Butler beer, which is alcohol free. That was to please abstainers I'm sure, and I wondered why all four had not asked for it instead. If there's anything that has messed up America more than illegal drugs (and now prescription ones too), it's this mother of all drugs called alcohol. Once we tried as a nation to outlaw it in our Constitution. But the industry paid off enough national leaders to gain an amendment that granted repeal. That left the issue for states to decide and we stayed "dry" in OK, as we had been from our very start in 1907. Then we began allowing only non-intoxicating beer. And finally we joined the wet trend by allowing package liquor stores. ANGELFIRE considers that less damaging than allowing it sold in restaurants as liquor by the drink. I know that the beer industry claims it's a refreshment of moderation, yet in the Bible it's called "strong drink." Wine and strong drink are usually mentioned together, in the order of potency. Back then wine was somewhat like coffee is today. In fact the Hebrew name for wine could be translated to mean only grape juice (fruit of the vine) as often as it means fermented wine. There was no refrigeration, so the juice left over always became fermented eventually. But fresh juice was used for sacred rites, since fermentation was considered decay and corruption. Today we use those two latter terms to describe political motivation or moral failure. The corrosion in public affairs can still be hidden from sight no matter how much media coverage is offered. That's because the devil is a clever deceiver who exploits our human naivety with a false comely face. He never allows his utter ugliness nor wickedness to show. So believers must stay alert to cunning and clever designs in these final days before Christ returns. The clouds of glory He's bringing include, for ANGELFIRE, this IYA2009 to increase man's awareness of our own Milky Way galaxy. I saw a report this month of a galactic mystery two astronomers had solved about gamma-ray radiation. It was explained by all the positrons and electrons emitted from exploding stars(super novas), which is matter and anti-matter, release energy (gamma rays), when they conjoin with each other into self annihilation. So our galaxy isn't so full of the mysterious "dark matter" as some had theorized. Hallelujah Marinatha and C.L.J. SoLong/Shalom, JosephA@webtv.net