Christ's Miracle Power Transforms

My brother passed away not too long ago at the age of 55. We had always been bitter rivals as we grew up, and even in adulthood, couldn't break through that pattern completely. Much to my disappointment, he remained so much unlike me as the years passed that I was never able to have a real heart-to-heart talk with him. He never forgot a slight, and carried grudges that were 50 years-old. He suffered from mental illness and was forced to take medication that shortened his life.

My parents' atheistic philosophy of 'progressivism' made his life far more painful and dysfunctional. For one thing, they named him Cedric, which would make any kid's life tough. My parents pegged him as an 'innocent victim' with 'special needs' before he was two-years-old. My sister and I - who were a few years older - were frequently blamed for making him unhappy.  The normal rough and tumble of sibling rivalry was seen by my parents as vicious assaults by two selfish older children who would never give the "baby of the family" a break. Immediately, Ced grasped this advantage and with faultless instinct played it to the hilt. He always knew how to provoke a fight with one or another of us, and come out looking as pure as the driven snow.

That's not entirely true. Occasionally he would be caught in the act, and our parents would see the phony facade. But because of their own selfish needs they quickly returned to comfortable habits, granting him 'affirmative action' and a pass to get in front of the line, so to speak. This kept Ced from growing up and learning to accomplish real things. When he tried, my parents had a way of dragging him back into the sick dynamic; which worsened with their inevitable divorce. You see how 'progressive' they were? His suffering was tremendous, and he paid a horrible price to get what he thought he wanted, his parents' attention and unconditional love.

He had an emotional collapse at 13, and the drugs he was given then were not much help. By the mid '70's, though, medicinal lithium was discovered, and he was able to live a more normal life. But the long term effect was kidney failure, and he had to be put on dialysis for the last 20 years of his life. Still, he lived much longer than many doctors had predicted.

Our family was a Petri dish for 20th Century progressivism.  In an earlier age, Ced would have not been indulged in  his unreasonable and incompatible needs. If we had grown up in a less stressful place, on a farm, for example, our family would have gotten emotional and spiritual support from a church and a congregation. Farm life would have demanded we work together for our survival.

My brother had an innate sense of right and wrong which always surfaced in his love of the Old West, and particularly Wyatt Earp and the marshals of lore. As we got older, we had many satisfying conversations about history and the moral issues that were clearly in play back then. He recognized that something was very wrong in this amoral world. That was one thing we could discuss and agree on. He got me to read Stuart Lake's biography of Earp, which turned out to be very good.

In the last two months of Cedric's life he had a premonition that his end was near and he thought a lot about God. This led to great clarity about who he was, what had happened to him, and why. He saw that he'd been run  over and mangled by the machinery of the modern industrial world; its godlessness and corruption. Ced had been sent 'into the system' of modernism; psychologists and counselors. He hadn't previously been strong enough to overcome the evil. Few of us are. The fulminating Satanic energy of our time is like Medusa, too hideous to look at, and fatal to boot. But we can overcome it with Christ's help.

He called me in those last two months, and I taught him a few prayers. It was obvious that all along he had been growing in secret. Not a lot, but enough to make all the difference in the world to him - and me - in the end. We finally had those heart-to-heart talks, and he confirmed everything I'm stating here. We talked of brotherly love. He made his peace with God. I know for certain he was taken up into the higher realms, and has an entirely new and infinitely better life.

This is what the miracle of the Resurrection is all about, you and me, experiencing a total transformation.

Good Friday; The Sacrifice Was For You

On this Good Friday, as we pause in the midst of the struggle for the soul of our nation, it seems more obvious than ever in my life that the moral struggle is eternal. Sometimes it seems as though the hand of Providence will be all that can save us from the forces of evil as it is now being practiced by the God hating leftists. But I guess that though Providence may guide us, and has set the parameters of right and wrong, the fight is truly ours to carry on and win.

Without the efforts of men against the forces of darkness, there can be neither meaning, nor reason for right to prevail. Today we can think of the greatest example of determination against the great evils that plague the soul of man as a potentially cruel and selfish species. The knowledge of that example is what has given mankind the inspiration and will to better the individual soul, and the souls of societies and nations that hope for moral survival.

Evil remains ubiquitous, even as mankind supposedly advances ever so slowly from animalism and barbarism.

Inspiration so often seems hard to come by.

DRW

What's the Point and Purpose of Life and Pain?

It's amazing how science and religion are merging these days. It's been happening for a while. Using the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope astronomers are now able to peer 13.5 billion years backward in time, to the very dawn of the material universe. Everywhere they look in the staggeringly huge universe, the same thing is going on, in accord with the same laws of physics. And the same elements (hydrogen, iron, helium, carbon, etc.) are present. What is happening? Refining. Purifying. Transformation. Birth and death.  All the stars and galaxies are huge furnaces where things are furiously burning down to the atomic level; being consumed, annihilated, emitting energy, and becoming purer; or turning to ash and waste which is then recycled and used again.

The universe is an astoundingly violent place. Surprisingly, this squares perfectly with Biblical Scripture regarding the coming of the Messiah:

“ But who can endure the day of His coming?
      And who can stand when He appears?
      For He is like a refiner’s fire..."  Malachi 3:2

What is God asking us to do, to become purer? Well, eliminating lies and deceptions is at the top of the list.   Particularly hypocrisy, which proves that we know the difference between right and wrong. Here's an example from Dennis Miller, comedian and social commentator. He recently said, "We say 'Christ'; they say 'Darwin'. We say 'Darwin', they say 'Christ'."

Miller was pointing out the utter falseness of Democrat 'progressives' who always take the expedient, easy way out of every argument. They play atheist/agnostic on subjects like abortion, and pious Judeo-Christian on the welfare state, saying,  "You can't impose your religious judgments on others! Choice [abortion] is a right!" [unless it's your money or your guns they want]. Or, "You Republicans and teaba**ers want to deprive people of their God-given rights to medical care, good jobs, good housing, convenient transportation, college educations, good food, self-esteem, and wellness!"

They are endorsing violence more and more openly now, to get their way.

We know that becoming a religious person carries risks, and many people whom we consider friends will abandon us if we really become serious about our spiritual beliefs. The subject comes up again and again in religious writings, and must be faced. No matter what religion you join, there will be a price to pay. This is why the reward of heaven is something that is also emphasized again and again. As it says in Revelation 3:18: 
  
"I counsel you to buy from me gold refined in the fire, so you can become rich; 
And white clothes to wear, so you can cover your shameful nakedness; 
And salve to put on your eyes, so you can see."

The process of being refined in the universe can be seen as difficult and painful, but something that is rewarded richly.

Here's another example of Scripture and science merging: the DNA code. It's now a known fact that every individual alive and who ever lived is unique from every other who ever lived. All the great religions emphasize the intrinsic worth of every individual, and their uniqueness. Now we have proof.

Where Do You Stand?

Why are you here? I don't mean just on this web site, but on earth. What is your purpose in this life? You may be wondering whether you are truly spiritual or authentically religious. It's an extremely important question, and the whole point and purpose of our lives is to make this decision, - one way or the other. Suffering and pain make no sense in this life unless we place them within a framework of meaning, and that meaning has to live in eternity, beyond our short little lives.

The pleasures of life will not compensate us for the agonies and daily troubles we have to bear. It's a scientific fact that pain and loss are experienced in a completely separate part of the brain from the pleasure center. This is why so many outwardly successful people suffer from the pains of past loss. All the money and success in the world won't erase the inevitable fact of age, sickness, and death. We must have a more solid foundation than earthly pleasure.

By answering these questions, you'll know where you stand:

1) Did God create all things according to Divine Plan?
2) Is God perfectly good?
3) Does Satan exist?
4) Are humans bound by immutable Natural Law?
5) Is anything sacred or holy?
6) Are we Americans part of the Divine Plan?

A truly spiritual person will answer yes to all.

Stalemate

When chess players reach a point in the game where neither player has a good move, and each are equally strong and invulnerable, that's known as a stalemate.

This is the situation now in Washington, D.C. and elsewhere in the world. There's a cognitive disconnect. Socialists, Marxists, and Islamists are teaming up to discredit and destroy the Judeo-Christian Western Tradition of individual rights and free market principles. But everywhere they have succeeded, chaos reigns. 

On the other side, believers in the Western Tradition see no clear way to defeat these radicals, and there's a fear that, like Rome in the 5th Century, our time may be up. Like Israel, we seem to be surrounded and every demand of our adversaries will weaken us more.

It can't go on forever. Events will force our hand and the hand of our adversaries. Chaos is increasing. Bankruptcy and economic need will require that decisions be made by all people in every nation, and soon. The accountant's ledger is essentially immutable law, and cannot be denied for long. People who won't or can't live within their means eventually find themselves destitute.

Everyone knows the Chinese and other rivals of ours are loaning us the money to keep our nation afloat. How much longer will they be willing to play the patsy? Or pretend that we're serious about managing our affairs? At any other time in our history this situation would be considered completely insane. The European Union also is facing real collapse. Germany and the Scandinavian nations are essentially paying the way for Portugal, Italy, Ireland, Greece, and Spain; all nations that have low productivity, enormous debt, and an angry workforce threatening violence to anyone who preaches austerity.

There's very little time left for us to act ahead of events. Proactive reform could head off the worst effects of this collapse, but sadly, so many people of bad character and worse motives are involved in distorting the issues that it's as though we're enveloped in smoke.

The price of oil and other necessary commodities is so high now that real economic growth is gravely threatened. It's insane that America still imports energy when it has vast deposits of oil and much cleaner natural gas. Everything that burns oil or gasoline can be modified with ease to use natural gas. We're funding radical Islamists, exporting jobs, and laying ourselves open for threats of a cutoff. Everyone, it seems, has forgotten about the oil embargo of 1973, when OPEC shut off most of our oil supply, sending our economy into a tailspin.

Something very big is about to happen. God has always been far ahead in this planetary chess game with Satan. That's what it is, and you can read about it in the Book of Job. In this book, an innocent and God-loving man is tormented by the Devil for the purpose of proving God's divine plan and His glory. See this excellent commentary:

http://www.slate.com/id/2162853/entry/2162854/