Where Credit Is Due

It's a powerful image-the Obamas standing in the doorway through which many African slaves left the continent of Africa.
From the Washington Post:
"President Obama stepped alone into the frame of the Door of No Return on Senegal’s Goree Island on Thursday afternoon, taking a look at the Atlantic Ocean from the same views that African slaves once did on their way to North America."
"The trip was a reminder that “we have to remain vigilant when it comes to the defense of human rights,” Obama said. “This is a testament to when we’re not vigilant in defense of human rights what can happen. Obviously, for an African American, an African American president, to be able to visit this site, gives me even greater motivation in terms of human rights around the world.”
Since President Obama has 'greater motivation' in terms of human rights, I would like to point out a few of the greater human rights abuses going on in this century.
First and foremost, if  the President is a defender of those whose human rights are being violated, I suggest that he take up the issue of Abortion, where millions of Americans are being slaughtered each decade.
These babies are stripped of their identity, considered less than human, just as African slaves were in ages past. That is wrong and the most egregious of human right abuses possible.
Another abuse of human rights-"Peace Talks" with the Taliban with whom we have been at war.
Peace talks CAN follow surrender by one side or the other, but to extend an olive branch in the middle of a conflict without one side giving up?
Traitorous.
The Taliban, Al Qaeda, Muslim Brotherhood-all are keeping populations of peoples in another form of slavery.
Their beliefs are diametrically opposed to our ideals of personal freedom. To talk peace to such groups is to offer to surrender our beliefs, our way of life.
Just one more for today. If President Obama truly cares about human rights, he should reverse his ship of State and do all that he can to free American citizens from being owned by the Federal Government and some State governments.
But the chains are of his design, and he will not set anyone free. Nice picture in Senegal, though, highlighting a problem that was solved in our country 150 years ago.

TIL Not Until

My brain doesn't always stick to the script. I saw the picture above and brain read it as: "TIL=Then I Learned we meet again."
"Til" is internet shorthand found on some sites, in league with LOL or IMHO.
So, why is this so fascinating that I had to post about it?
The 'we meet again' part. I'm not saying that we do, only that we might. When we who are part of God's family are brought together, all the generations will be represented. I'm related back through the ages to one
Thomas Stone, who signed his name on our Declaration of Independence. If he was a Christian, I will see him there.
In this my short life I have had many friends, known many Christians as I have lived in many places. I left them behind, but we will meet again.
Coin obverse: there will be many that I have known in my life that I will never see again. TIL

Ragin' Creation

³    The foolishness of man ruins his way,     
      And his heart rages against the LORD."
                   Proverbs 19:3

The rat race is full of rats. In nearly infinite ways Mankind messes up, fails, lowers the GPA of our
DNA.
"The foolishness of man ruins his way" should be carved in stone somewhere.
Why does his heart rage against the LORD?
Lets use one of my favorite examples of ruined way: alcoholism.
A guy drinks. A Lot. His body becomes more corrupted with each gallon of alcohol imbibed.
HIS foolishness ruins his way (his body, his family, his life) and what does he do?
Accept responsibility for his actions and his alcoholism? Nope.
He rages against the LORD for making him, for creating alcohol, for allowing him to become addicted,
for destroying his everything, for...you get the idea.
As I said, nearly infinite ways. Some poor souls confabulate a dozen or more 'ways' to screw up their
lives.
It aren't pretty.
And it aren't necessary. The wisdom of God greatly overshadows the foolishness of Man.
God has taught us in His wisdom that our highest purpose is to honor God.
The flip side of the proverb above could be stated as:
"The wisdom of God profits a man in his way, 
 and his heart will rejoice in the LORD".

Aged

I was sitting with a friend the other night discussing "Old Age". It is our future, if we should live so long; we
have friends who are quite aged, near death, and we were seeking to divine why God would design us to
break down and eventually fail physically.
I know I've mentioned it here before, but it's my blog, so...
Humbling. God opposes the proud and gives Grace to the humble. The young man or woman who takes pride in their self sufficiency, their youthful strength, becomes older, eventually more brittle and weak,
humbled by the deterioration of their bodies.
So they may turn to God in their old age, always by His design and by His drawing them to Himself.
Christians who age don't get a free pass-our bodies are as encased in entropy as anyone else s. We become
frail and eventually die, passing to Heaven. The difference is my metaphorical bags have been packed for the journey for over 30 years, and I look forward to dying and making it to the gate of Pearl. I would prefer to
have my ticket punched before I get too old and frail, but that's my pride talking. I don't want to become weak. But God sets the number of our days, so until THAT day...may God Bless you.

The Working Workmanship

"¹⁰For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them." Ephesians 2:10

Keeping it simple, God Created us. We haven't been created without purpose. We aren't here to please ourselves, build pyramids or watch TV.
God created works for us to do-Adam, for example:
"¹⁵Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it."
How about that? God is a tree hugger. 
Point one and only: Life has meaning only because God has Blessed us not only with existence but with a Purpose. When we die there will be no cloud sitting with harps, unless those harps are instruments to Praise God.

He's Just The Oz,He's Just The Oz, The Oz You Want

Join me in a few momes of unreality. Just finished watching the Special Features on the Blu of
"Oz The Great And Powerful", which I picked up yesterday and enjoyed last night. If you have
Blu Ray capabilities, get Ozed-you won't regret.
"But Doug", you might inquirate, "This picture doesn't go with that show."
I know.
But I did say momes of unreality, as in plural.
"Detour" from 1945 starring Ann Savage and Tom Neal also is fantasy-tastic.
I watched it on Youtube recently after prompting from a post on Movie Morlocks, and it is it's own
exceptional little noir animal.
You remember how nasty the Wicked Witch was in the original "Wizard of Oz"?
Setting Scarecrows on fire, threatening to kill young Miss Gale over shoes (must have been a sale), etc?
Wicked Witchie was a sweet saintly little grandma compared to Vera in "Detour".
Check them both out.

No, Really, I Can Make This Work

I thought of another example to compliment (?) the last post.
"How much less one who is detestable and corrupt,     Man, who drinks iniquity like water! "
Job 15:16.
Hidden in the picture above are two men who could be said to 'drink iniquity like water'.
It's quite simple-those who seek to please God will always oppose those who seek their own glory
and wish to honor themselves.
Such self-righteous ego driven madmen always seek power.
Such self-righteous ego driven madmen always stifle/defeat opposition.
Such self-righteous ego driven madmen always assume they are right.
Such self-righteous ego driven madmen always reject God.
For your own good, if someone pings your radar as such a "S.R.E.D.M." do the right thing and stand in
opposition to him/her.
You'll be glad you did once his/her egotistical house of cards comes tumbling down. Beat the crowds and start early.

Context, Please!

^"11    “Are the consolations of God too small for you,     Even the word spoken gently with you?
¹²    “Why does your heart carry you away?     And why do your eyes flash,
¹³    That you should turn your spirit against God     And allow such words to go out of your mouth?
¹⁴    “What is man, that he should be pure,     Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?
¹⁵    “Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,     And the heavens are not pure in His sight;
¹⁶    How much less one who is detestable and corrupt,     Man, who drinks iniquity like water!"
Job 15:11-16

In context, Job's buddy Eliphaz was taking him to task, suggesting that Job must be guilty of  dishonoring God, of speaking against God; Job's troubles were evidence of God's Judgement.
What made this SIN so scurrilous to Eliphaz was the fact that Job HAD known God, and must have sinned big time to heap up such Judgment.

Eliphaz's  questions could be asked of any sinner (hint:everybody) who rejects God:
“Are the consolations of God too small for you,     Even the word spoken gently with you?"
Any joy and happiness you have enjoyed as part of His Creation you received from God whether you admit to it or not.
“Why does your heart carry you away?     And why do your eyes flash, That you should turn your spirit against God     And allow such words to go out of your mouth?"
Why DOES your heart carry you away? Because you have been taught in this corrupted world that God hates rather than loves, that God is not to be trusted, even though He made you for His own purposes.
“What is man, that he should be pure,     Or he who is born of a woman, that he should be righteous?"
In other words, seeing as how MAN is corrupt, living in a fallen world, who can honestly claim to be righteous apart from God?
“Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,"  
God Knows that even we who belong to Him, while we are in this fallen world, are incapable of being worthy of God's trust. Every Christian sins and falls and must come again to God asking forgiveness- not to be saved, but to be right with God as He works on us, conforming, perfecting us though we will not see perfection on this side of the grave.
"And the heavens are not pure in His sight;" Not Heaven where He is, but the corrupted place where we exist. The ones set for destruction and replacement by new heavens and a new earth as noted in Revelation
chapter 21.
 “Behold, He puts no trust in His holy ones,     And the heavens are not pure in His sight;
¹⁶    How much less one who is detestable and corrupt,     Man, who drinks iniquity like water!"
If His holy ones and the heavens are not pure, then those sinners who reject God don't stand a chance of being right with Him.

But of course, Eliphaz was wrong about Job, and did not consider that which does make man righteous before God: God's Grace and Mercy, freely given, impossible to earn.
God, in His Mercy, made a way for Eliphaz and his partners to be forgiven for their sins of ignorance and of being religious: they had to ask Job to petition God on their behalf, which Job, being Job, was happy to do.
Bottom line-God is in the forgiving business, and the purification of His Creation business, and it is fruitless to fight against God. Better to seek Him and ask to be considered for His Salvation business.

Atermincas

An honest living iceberg. My mental calendar notes that this picture was taken in the Summer of 1978 when
the ship on which I served made a cruise across the Nort' Atlantic-this icegarden of bergs was off the coast of Greenland. Probably a Kodak 110 camera-nothing fancy.
I wasn't yet a Christian, by human figuring, though of course God had eternally elected me:
"Ephesians 1:4-6 (HCSB)
⁴  For He chose us in Him, before the foundation of the world, to be holy and blameless in His sight. In love
⁵  He predestined us to be adopted through Jesus Christ for Himself, according to His favor and will,
⁶  to the praise of His glorious grace that He favored us with in the Beloved."
But Summer of 1978? No clue about God or Life or any of the big questions. It's only through hindsight that
I can see that God has shepherded me all of my life.
A tired cliche-that people are like icebergs, 90% of our lives hidden below the surface, does have some truth.
Bouncing around the internets today I came across a site which matched mug shots citizens with their social media photos. The idea being how people perceive themselves against how law enforcement sees them.
It wasn't pretty.
I'm the same as anyone else-10 above and 90 below-but online? Maybe 2% of my life is seen online. And that is only because I have been blogging for lo these many years.
Here's a thought-God sees 100% of what we try to hide. God looks at our hearts and knows our motivations before we do. One of the greatest miracles is that He loves us anyway.

 

Thank God For This D-Day

Thanks once more to Google images for aggregating the collection of pics above. 
One madman colluded with other madmen and the rest of the world banded together to confront and defeat their madness. There. In one sentence, the WHY of D-Day. Death and destruction on a scale unimaginable.
Bombs. Bullets. Blood shed.
One of the best days in human history.
President Roosevelt never apologized to Germany, Italy or Japan.
Thank God that He didn't allow any Obama-types near power in those days.
He raised up warriors then, and brought the free world together in the single purpose of destroying the vain
imaginings of a madman.
I would welcome such an effort here in America if President Obama continues down the same mad path as Hitler.
Remember that I said, "IF".
I still hold out hope that things won't get so bad.
Remember D-Day. Remember the reasons why Hitler was opposed. Learn from history.

Patient As A Saint

I'm patiently waiting to see what happens next in this world and in my life.
More often than you might think I hear mention of these being "The Last Days"
for planet Earth before Christ returns.
I say never underestimate the Grace of God. He hasn't yet closed the book on us
because there are still souls which He will bring into His Kingdom.
There is no other reason for this world to keep spinning.
If you are still among those shaking your fist at God, or ignoring Him as you walk
His earth...maybe He's holding the door open for you.