Banished from the Class

When I was in the first grade, oh so long ago, there was a boy named Dallas who acted up a bit. He was independant really. In that early age of "group think" that was a way to really get into trouble.

I remember the teacher asking us questions, usually of a negative nature, about how we should act and think. The question was one word. She would say, "Class?" And then we, in unison, would say, "No!" It was a way to form us into an obedient little bloc. Who would ever want to be outside the consensus of that group of little parrots?

One day when Dallas had shown a bit too much free spiritedness, the teacher blew up. "All right young man, you're no longer in this class!" She escorted him to the door leading to the playground and told him he would have to stay there for some terribly long time, maybe a whole hour. We were shocked. Imagine being banished from the group--isolated.

We expected to see a sobbing, repentant little boy, drenched in shame. When I found the nerve to peek out at him, there was Dallas, bending tree limbs over and inspecting the leaves. He seemed totally absorbed and quite content. Perhaps he was looking for insects?

No matter. He turned out to be a little woodsman in his off time away from school. I remember he told me about the "Quaking Aspen" whose leaves seemed always in motion, even on a windless day. "That's because the tree's wood was once used for the cross of Jesus," he told me.

Oh, Dallas, I should have followed your lead at an early age. It took me years to learn how desirable it is to be "banished from the class".

Precious Words From Long Ago

According to my start-up page, Justin Bieber may retire. I also see that blond starlets keep changing their hair dos. These overwhelming items are too much for me to take in, important as they are. I prefer to get totally absorbed in the writings of God's misunderstood and often lonely prophets.

By now I hope you have seen videos of the discovery of Noah's Ark in Turkey and Mount Sinai in Arabia. If so, what were your impressions? Do these scenes not make the Biblical accounts of them seem so much more real and, if I may say, more "recent". I am so thankful that I have lived to see them.

It has been my experience that when I immerse myself in the writings of the ancient ones, and become familiar with their style of writing, they become more and more "up to date". It is the moderns who seem quirky and out of place.

Old, Dying Man Seeks Words

How about that for pathetic! I imagine such a newspaper ad. It would probably bring 'em out of the wood work. But I don't care. Anything to elicit a response. I have no more shame.

I was very egocentricly reading an account about the qualities, good and bad, of Geminis. No, I don't follow astrology, but I do believe in planetary influences on babies in this electric universe.

Anyway, Gemini is mentioned in the Bible. Remember where?

So, this lady really nailed me, especially on one score. She said Geminis must have words. "They are like oxygen to him."

You've no doubt heard men complain about how women talk to much? Well, I have a complaint too. I don't think they talk enough!

So many treasures are stored inside us, that could be revealed simply by talking. Turn off the electronics, baby. Tell me what you have to say.

Even Though it Was Really Dark!

A little boy in a second grade class was demonstrating a flashlight he had been given. He told us it was so bright that it was visible all the way to his friend's house. "And it was really dark that night," he said. We smiled that he thought the darkness was an obstacle to his light.

There is a universal tendency to try to mitigate the terrible things contained in the Bible, by denying them. A denial of the plagues in Revelation is made by calling them symbolic events of the past, or just not reading about them at all. Denial of terrible truth begins in Eden, when God said that Adam would die and return to the dust from which he was made. The Devil, the first denier of truth in the Bible, led the way when he said, "Thou will not surely die."

Death is such an obvious and universal experience that to deny it, we have created a two-part person. The physical, and the invisible or "soulish state". Is there a pagan that does not believe this? So God was wrong when he said we would die.

Now why do I insist that this denial is not true? Am I a sadist who enjoys destroying peoples' hopes? If you knew me, though you might not like me, I do not believe you would think me so cruel. So why do I "push" for the reality of total death? It is because to deny it cheapens and detracts from the glorious resurrection God has promised us.

I talked to a very nice lady who maintained that the physically dead's souls were already in heaven. I asked her, "Then what is the purpose of the resurrection if we go to heaven right after we die?" She said, "Well, in the soulish state we can't fully enjoy the wonders of heaven as much as when we have bodies."

I do not wish to interfere in peoples' freedom to believe anything or nothing. It is only when they claim that such scenarios are based on the Bible that I will object.

Soon my faith in the resurrection will be fully tested. I will sleep the sleep of death. In this undeniably helpless state, I will await the call of my Savior to come up to join him in the clouds. My dark night will not prevent the shining of that wonderful light.

Those Who Travel Light

Those who travel light, travel fast.

One of my first jobs was as a messenger for a soybean processing company. I had a new company station wagon and drove about 70 miles a day. I really enjoyed the job. I loved to drive and went to all kinds of interesting places.

Soon the nice car was covered with soybean meal, soot, and dust. I used the wipers and fluid so I could see okay, but one day a boss told me, "Why don't you get the car washed? Just go to the car wash, get a receipt, and we'll pay you back." So I took the now crusty car to my favorite car wash spot. They cleaned the insides of the windows too. Such a deal.

Soon I was on the road again. But I noticed a very interesting thing. The car seemed to run better. You didn't need to push as hard on the accelerator to go at the same speed as before. Now obviously this was an illusion, but others have had the same experience.

I feel getting the old religious dust and dirt off has the same effect. Only this is not an illusion. Once freed from pagan myth, custom, and denominations, of the corporate church, you really do proceed more rapidly. Not in mph but in being closer to God and his truth.

In case you feel I am trying to start a cult of some kind, (we have plenty of those) I will give you my statement of faith. I didn't write it, Paul did.

For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures; And that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures: 1 Corinthians 15:3,4

So why more Bible study and why more books? A roll of string is a simple thing. But untying all the knots and tangles that occur can get a little complicated. And in his book, God has so many treasures to learn about.

The Joy of a Naive Literalist

My spell checker just rejected my use of "literalist". But that's ok. I'm used to such rejections. Better men than I have been so scorned--many highly educated men who saw a far better way than their university accreditation. It is very much like a child growing up and leaving its mother.

I once shook the hand of Dr. Morris, co-author of The Genesis Flood, a book that still torments college professors as they try to teach Faulty Geology 101, 102, and 103. I say torment, because Dr. Morris was a noted hydraulogist, who wrote textbooks on the subject. Morris and Whitcomb tore a patch off of those who totally misinterpret the flood.

Misinterpret? They deny it, as the Apostle Peter said they would.

This amazing book, approximately one third scholarly footnotes, devastates critics of the Biblical account of the flood. He sweeps away the so-called geologic record of millions of years. He maintains the flood strata was laid down in a matter of hours, not millions of years. His arguments and evidence are overpowering.

So, what about the naive literalists? The good Dr. now considers himself one. He became a licensed Baptist preacher. His naive literalism was of the Bible. So is mine.

Not Worth a Drone

They were useless eaters. Some of the more able bodied might serve in a work camp, but most would be fodder for the incinerators. While this was the thinking of the FEMA people, these so-called non-elite, worthless underlings were well aware of their status in the eyes of their overlords.

Overlords? Yes that is who they were now subject to. Representation of the people by responsible government had long ago disappeared. It had disappeared while the Entertainment People spent over $10,000,000,000 a year on video games. Far from the playground for children, the industry occupied much of the lives of adults averaging 37 years of age. A time when citizens should have had knowledge and maturity. It was, rather, the time when people sought diversion and escape.

Escape was just what a party of escapees sought as they left their former lives to ply some of their nation's rivers. They sought the most obscure places practical, where, encamped they would wait for the soon return of their real Lord, Jesus Christ.

"But satellites will see us," the young cried out. "They will send a drone. There's no escaping them."

An elder reassured them. "We're just a tiny band, living in isolation. We're not worth a drone."