Independence Day other than the 4th?
As we were driving into Beaver the other day, the First Security Bank computerized display sign read, "Happy 4th of July." Wanda said, "Why is it on Tuesday, instead of a Monday holiday?"


That got me thinking, well of course you cannot just have the 4th of July be on Monday every year, but why haven't our elected officials made Independence Day a Monday holiday like most of the rest of them? They certainly didn't consider the meaning of any other holiday being on a certain day of the month rather than the convenience of a 3-day weekend. Also, why do you think they chose to extend the weekend by putting the extra day after Sunday, so more people would miss church? Couldn't they have made the extra holidays celebrated on Friday for the extended weekend and some people would have returned on Saturday night to be in the house of worship on Sunday?

I am afraid that the motive was not "separation of church and state" as the popular phrase to use to oppose Christianity, but "separation from the church by the state." Thomas Jefferson did not express in his speech that the church should be kept separate from the state, but that the state should be kept separate from the church. Remember, the founding fathers were more concerned that we not have a recurrence of what happened in Britain when the state mandated a state church. Mr. Jefferson wanted a one-way wall, which modern-day unbelievers have changed to become a two-way wall blocking all references to Christianity from government.

It seems to me that the very paper upon which Independence Day is founded, The Declaration of Independence, stated much about a Creator who made people equal, that He endowed us with unalienable rights not endowed by the state, and that it was signed by 56 men who were mostly Christians. It was presented to Great Britain, but offered to the Supreme Judge of the universe. If that paper were written today, it would be struck down by the Supreme Court as violating "separation of church and state." I challenge all believers to reread aloud the foundation paper on this Fourth of July amid the partying, the hot dogs, and the fireworks. You can find a text of it online.

Tempting the Extremes
I think the statement from one of the people whose home just flooded near the east coast reminds me of other situations where humans have tempted the extremes. He said, "When you build your home on the banks of a river, you have to expect that there might come a flood."

Now what were people thinking who built resorts on the mountainside of the dormant volcano, Mt. St. Helens? What were they thinking when they built a bed & breakfast on top of the San Adreas fault in California, and why did we stay there overnight on our trip up Hwy 1? Why do people build beach houses on stilts on the coastal regions where hurricanes are known to exist? Why do cities and even entire nations build homes and businesses below sea level and then try to defend them from the water by building levees? Why are there residences in Thompson Canyon, CO, where frequent flash floods occur, or homes built in the downstream spillway of huge hydroelectric dams?

It must be the same human desire to tempt the extremes that millions of people are making assuming that they can somehow withstand the fires of hell. Denying that it exists doesn't make it go away. Denying that the infinite, creative God exists also doesn't make Him cease to be, or make the unbeliever seem smarter than the rest of the people. If the greatest prophet who ever lived (even stated by Islam that Jesus was a prophet) believed in an eternal hell and spoke of it in descriptive terms, then how smart is it to disagree with a person who has infinite and intimate knowledge of the unknown?

"Edifice" Complex?
Does Donald Trump have such a strange love for buildings that he must build an 88-floor building 1.5 blocks from the United Nations and call it "Trump World Tower?" Once again it points out the inward desire humans have for immortality, thinking that a building might outlive him.

Global Warming
The latest weather talk is about the extremes of droughts and floods, melting polar ice caps and snowless ski resorts, and whatever other effects they can blame on GLOBAL WARMING (the observed fact that worldwide temperature averages are getting higher with time). Is this Global Warming being caused by pollutants that our industrialized society is producing, or is it a natural cycle of the Earth as a planet?

Regardless of the cause and effect, we are so short-sighted about our own existence as humans. We must recognize that the exact location of our God-created planet is such that we are neither too far from the sun so that all the planet is frozen including our life-giving gases, nor are we too close to the sun, so that our life-giving water would all be evaporated. If average temperatures changing by 0.1 degree is an evidence of Global Warming, what would altering the apogee or perigee of our orbit do to our existence?

Some scientists postulate that by numerical analysis, having extreme numbers of stars must imply that there are other earth-class planets somewhere in the universe, which somehow evolved into just the right amount of mass and thus gravity, the right location to keep the temperatures moderate enough for liquid water and gaseous oxygen, the right mixture of chemicals to evolve life. I wonder if they have ever done a numerical analysis of the odds of that happening even once?

Why is NASA so interested in exploring our near neighbor Mars, which in its present location and other conditions could not support life as we know it? Is the prospect for them that there might be some subterranean water deposits enough to justify spending billions of dollars to explore another lifeless planet? I guess if my personal salary were dependent on convincing someone else to pay taxes to let me fantasize ways to explore the nearest places in the universe, I would want to push the same agenda.

Even with all our earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, droughts, wildfires, mudslides, meteorites, and other natural disasters, we are still the most blessed to be alive for even a few years up to maybe 100 years on a planet which the Lord created just for us to live. What must the next creation (new heaven and new earth being worked on by Jesus since He left the Earth) be like? My mind cannot conceive the glories of the eternal existence of believers in Jesus Christ.

Why Terror from Black Muslims?

With the arrest of several black Muslims in Florida, we find that there is a terrorist concept even within American to destroy buildings and probably citizens within them. Why then do the Black Muslims have the same terrorist agenda as the Al Qaeda Muslims? Could it be that they are taught from the same book, namely the Qur'an? Just a quick read of the translations of the Qur'an leaves us with the impression that Allah is against all Jews and Christians as unbelievers and tells his followers to fight the unbelievers.

Quoting from a translation of the Qur'an:
"9.29: Fight those who do not believe in Allah, nor in the latter day, nor do they prohibit what Allah and His Apostle have prohibited, nor follow the religion of truth, out of those who have been given the Book, until they pay the tax in acknowledgment of superiority and they are in a state of subjection."

While Christianity espouses trying to persuade unbelievers of the truth of Jesus, the Muslims are told to kill off the infidels and unbelievers, unless they become in a state of subjection to Islam.

There are statements about Allah having a son and about others having power of the holy spirit, but none of those statements indicate that the son or the spirit are as divine as Allah; thus, our difference in belief in the Godhead of Jehovah. They call us "polytheists" and proclaim that Abraham was not one of them, nor a Jew, nor a Christian.

Obviously, this book was written by someone in chronology after the ministry of Jesus Christ; perhaps, someone who was trying to find a way to resist the truth of the gospel.

It is more evident with each news report, that there is urgency in our evangelistic efforts. We cannot assume that our friends, family, or neighbors will live long lives, with the possibility of deadly attacks looming at our door. Our weapons are not carnal, but spiritual; and we should offer the truth of the gospel of Jesus Christ to all.

Thank you, Lord, for the additional 1.5 inches of rain on Thursday night!

Rain and Hail

Praise the Lord!! Our drought-stricken area of Beaver County, Oklahoma started getting hail at 5:40 p.m. lasting for 15 minutes followed by over an hour of gentle rain totally 0.5 inches. Here is how the radar looked at 7:04 p.m. (I was trying to load it to the blog when the power went out last night)















I have always been intrigued as to why hail was described in relation to coins, objects, etc., so here's my rendition of having hailstones larger than a quarter, but smaller than a golf ball.

Stem Sell......
at least that is what the media is doing trying to sell embryonic stem cell research.

So far, yesterday, the research managed to rob stem cells from rat embryos, thus killing the future population of healthy rats, to help an aged rat to walk better. By extrapolation, what they are saying is....we want to take away the life of human embryos and the potential for a healthy normal child to grow up in order to give their cells to someone who has been injured or become aged.

Am I against stem cell research or usage? No, but much research is already being done using adult stem cells from the eventual user and some early stem cells from umbilical tissue. I have a sister-in-law who is going to have her stem cells harvested, her cancerous cells removed, and the stem cells replanted within her own body. The rejection factor for the new cells should be very minimal, because they are, after all, her stem cells.

The impact of killing unborn children has already been felt in our country. Since 1970, we have lost potential population and workers in the millions. Is it no wonder that our Social Security System is bankrupt, when we haven't allowed for the natural production of new laborers to pay into the system to help the elderly, who are reaching Social Security age now?

Not to mention that the killing of unborn children flies in the face of the commandment against murder, which is the premeditated taking of another's life. Even the courts have realized that the killing of a pregnant mother with her unborn infant becomes two counts of murder. When will the Supreme Court reverse its stand that unborn children are not humans at all?

My Hope...

is in the Lord. That song has been in my heart and in my humming since I heard it on June 11. Last Tuesday, while I was doing my weekly activity of data entry at the Beaver River Stockyards, I was humming that when a co-worker came in, sat down, and said he felt his life was hopeless. I told him it was not coincidental that I was humming, "My hope is in the Lord." We'll see what comes from that initial contact.

Rainmaking Attempts

Living here in a drought-stricken area of the panhandle of Oklahoma, we are always attuned to any attempt to make it rain. Yesterday, one of Wanda's church members left her car windows totally down, and Wanda's church, Forgan Baptist, had a picnic scheduled for Sunday evening. Both things were accomplished without rain, but the picnic did at least have a dark cloud for a few minutes and some colder wind later in the evening.

If we only had someone with the fervency of Elijah, we could ask for divine intervention to end the drought. It is not quite as dusty as the 1930's period known historically as the "dust bowl."

Seriously, we are in the middle of a red flag burn ban. High winds and low humidities could lead to wildfires again. Last year, we had an area of 12,000 acres burned. Many of the Clearlake Baptist Church members live in that area, but no houses or animals were lost. In fact, there is evidence that the fires burned "around" the homes of many Christians. Some of us believe it was the Lord's protection.

This picture shows how close the wildfire approached our fellowship hall at Clearlake.

Crappie Biting

"Poppy Joe" and I caught 15 nice crappie on each of two days last week at Claremore Lake on the indoor dock. It is a nice place to fish for those in a wheelchair. The cost is reasonable at $3.00 per day. A local bait shop is close at hand in north Claremore.

Family Stamp

Recently we created a personal stamp as a couple. Look for it on any Postal Mail that you receive from us.

We have just returned from a week taking care of Ray's father, Joe Bob, who lives in Broken Arrow, and Wanda's sister, Shirley Shuck, who lives in Broken Arrow. Both of them are doing well, but need extra help from time to time. With the assistance of an electric wheelchair and scooter, "Poppy Joe" can still go crappie fishing.

On the way back to our Forgan farm, we took time to swing by Wichita, KS, and attend the church of my son and his family. Lance was preaching on Sunday morning, and he regularly leads the praise and worship. Both the services in which he preached were awesome times of corporate worship. My highlight was the rendition of "My Hope is in the Lord" by the choir and band. We also witnessed Ellie's performance in the children's musical, "King of the Jungle." She did great and we look forward to future events in which she ministers.