Today song is The Wanderer so what comes to mind when you hear about a group of people wandering around? After Moses lead the Children of Israel out of Egypt the Children of Israel “wandered in the wilderness” for 40 years. Thus becoming wanderers, see how I totally matched up today’s song with the subject for the day, well sort of .
The Children of Israel wandered in the wilderness for 40 years. In the Bible the number 40 has a lot of meaning. I have copied and pasted just a small sample from the internet about the importance of the number 40.
The Meaning of Numbers: The Number 40
Mentioning 146 times in Scripture, the number 40 generally symbolizes a period of testing, trial or probation. During Moses’ life he lived forty years in Egypt and forty years in the desert before God selected him to lead his people out of slavery.
Moses was also on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights, on two separate occasions (Exodus 24:18, 34:1 – 28), receiving God’s laws. He also sent spies, for forty days, to investigate the land God promised the Israelites as an inheritance (Numbers 13:25, 14:34).
As in says above the number 40 is in the Bible 146 times. There is much more on the number in fact it makes a very good study theme or the number forty would make a great sermon serious. In fact pray about asking your pastor to think about doing a series of sermons on the number 40. From the flood to how many times Jesus associates himself with the number 40. It would really make a good study. Because the number 40 is back in 2020.
In 1980 40 years ago a TV preacher by the name of Jerry Falwell founded what he called “The Moral Majority” declaring God to be a Republican, therefore is you didn’t vote straight down the Republican ballot you were “wicked” and against God.
The Moral Majority is alive and well today, they don’t call themselves that anymore, But the Moral Majority just like the Children of Israel wandered for 40 years, The Moral Majority was been wandering around for the past 40 years. They been wandering in The Wilderness of Self-Righteousness, Eating the Manna of Arrogance, drinking out of the River of Conceit, walking around on The Holier Than Thou Trail.
What did walking around in the Wilderness of Self-Righteousness for the past 40 years do for today’s Moral Majority? They are defending Donald Trump with all their hearts, with all their minds and with all their strength. What else would you expect from people that believe they are moral? Yes it all make sense after these 40 years, it really can’t end any better these 40 years of people thinking they are like God than to believe that just like them Donald Trump is moral.
Today’s song Sweet Hour of Prayer is one of my favorites. It always reminds me of another one of my favorites I Need Thee Every Hour. Today’s song speaks of the proper, scriptural use of prayer. But today I going to write about what I think and I didn’t just make this up out of my own mind, I’m going to use the words of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Once again the subject of prayer in schools is now a hot issue since President Trump rolled out new guidelines for prayer in schools. There are a lot of people that go to church with are making posts, bragging about Trump and how happy God is with him. But I don’t know so much about that after all how did Jesus tell us NOT to pray? In the Book of Matthew: Jesus says
What is Jesus talking about and what does it have to do with prayer in schools? I give an example: Today there’s something know as Meet Me At the Pole. Best I can tell this is where church leaders, mostly Youth pastors gather around the flagpole at Middle, Jr high and high schools and I don’t know if they hold hands or not, we didn’t do anything like this when I was in school, then they have a prayer. So what’s wrong with that? I’ll give an example; This is once again a story of Jr. high and Little Donny, I’ve talked about Little Donny before, you know I told the story of how there was a Jewish boy who went to the same Jr. high as Little Donny. And how Little Donny would make fun of his name. Remember the little boy last name was Schiff, and Little Donny would always call him, Schitt. Yeah that Little Donny. Anyway that spoiled, cocky rich kid would always meet at the pole. And Little Donny was very loud and everyone knew Little Donny was there. But here’s the problem come gym class, Little Donny would be in the locker room bragging about how he would grab girls in the hallways. And oh no he said he wasn’t grabbing them by the arm. Do you know where Little Donny was grabbing girls? But wait he would always be at the pole praying showing all the kids how “good” he is. Sometimes there wouldn’t even be no one else there! Is Little Donny just doing all this praying, as Jesus said to be seen by men? And by the way just ask any boy in Jr. high and he will tell you they are MEN!
Do you see the problem I have with Meeting At the Pole? There could even be one or maybe two Youth pastors who refuse to do the whole pole thing because Jesus said thou shalt not pray this way. But in today’s world I’m sure if one refused to do this he would very quickly be fired! Today you have to know politics is much more important than following the words of Jesus.
It was way back in 1962 that the Supreme Court took prayer out of schools. I was born that year so I don’t know what their talking about, and by the way I seem to make it alright without prayer in school. But the way my pastor talks the way it worked before 1962, before class the kids would say the Pledge of Allegiance followed by a prayer. By saying the Pledge of Allegiance, I guess that kept the kids from joining ISSI and the prayer made everyone feel better. I guess that sounds alright, but what does Jesus say about it. the next two verses Jesus says:
These verses used to be a big deal to Southern Baptist back in the day. If some of you have never been to a Southern Baptist worship service you’ll notice something missing right off. When someone prays whoever is praying will never ever say something like this towards the end of their prayer: and let us remember the words of Christ, and then the whole congregation will say Our Father, which art in Heaven–reciting the Lord’s Prayer all together. That was not done last Sunday and will not be done next Sunday at my Southern Baptist Church. Why? Because back in the day when Jesus said Thou Shalt Not it was taken very serious. Southern Baptist believe that we should not recite anything, which includes The Lord’s Prayer, in a way where it becomes a vain repetition. This turns The Lord’s Prayer into a ritual and us Southern Baptist just have a thing about doing rituals. A ritual would include things like those creepy chants you see in horror movies. You know where there’s a bunch of people dressed in monk robes with their faces covered by their hoods chanting something really creepy. Well us Southern Baptist are totally against creepy stuff during our worship services. Just saying! But the best I can tell that’s what Trump and his supporters want to do to our school children. They are to start each day with the Pledge of Allegiance making it kindof creepy then chanting some prayer which is without a doubt creepy. But Trump supporting pastors of today do not dare to preach on this passage of scripture, pretending Jesus never said this about prayer. And what do they won’t to accomplish with prayer in schools? If you believe Jesus all they will accomplish is their reward which is to be seen by men. You see this is great example of a heathen being praised by a bunch of hypocrites!
Today’s song title is about as simple as it can be just one word- war. I’m reminded of the war in Vietnam every day. The other day it was about 4 o clock in the morning however it can be at any time day or night cold weather or hot, sunshine or rain it doesn’t matter. There’s never a day that it doesn’t happen my next door neighbor stands outside by the road and yells at the top of her lungs and although she’s a very small woman her yells are clearly heard inside my house and my neighbors houses. My next door neighbor will sometimes set on his front porch and yell back at her making fun of her. This doesn’t stop her from yelling, in fact she will just yell louder. Why is my neighbor like this. Well she’s a Vietnamese lady in her sixties, which means she was a little girl back home in Vietnam when the war was going on. I believe my neighbors relives the horrors of her childhood everyday. A friend of Daddy’s come by the other day she was outside yelling and he asked “what’s wrong with that woman”? We told him she was Vietnamese and we don’t know what the poor woman went through during the war. He said that yeah that explains it.
Why do I have a woman from Vietnam living next door to me? That’s a story I’m going to talk about today. The reason why I have a Vietnamese neighbor is because in 1975 at the end of the Vietnam War there were millions of people fleeing Vietnam. Many thousands came to the United States as refugees. Now I’m making this up I always have music on while I’m writing I don’t like silence the song streaming as I stated to write this paragraph was Tom Petty’s Refugee! That would also be a great song for today’s story. I was in the eighth grade when over 100,000 refugees were settled through Fort Chaffee that borders my town, Fort Smith Arkansas. Did anyone catch that? As I have written before I live in Fort Smith, Arkansas the end of the Trail of Tears that Trump is so proud of placing a painting of Andrew Jackson the signer of the 1830 Indian Removal Act, in the Oval Office. And yet here we are 145 years later welcoming thousands of LEGAL refugees into our state! We had a toy drive at my Jr. high for the kids and those kids didn’t even speak English! My how times have changed!
President Trump signed an executive order allowing states governors to reject refugees in their state. The Governor of Texas said that Texas would refuse LEGAL refugees. Last Wednesday a Federal Judge in Maryland declared Trump’s executive order unconstitutional, so it will be up to the Supreme Court to decide. There’s a reason why I’m singling out the governor of Texas who is attacking The Great Commission. My church I belong to, Rye Hill Baptist Church of Fort Smith is a church with a heart for missions. My church doesn’t just talk about spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ we follow our talk with actions. Our church regularly has mission team that travel to Fort Worth Texas to minister to the people of the refugee resettlement in Fort Worth. If the Texas governor has his way there will be no more refugees in Fort Worth. They say we are a “Christian Nation” but it appears Texas is not a “Christian state”.
This passage is what is known as The Great Commission This is Jesus final instructions before his ascension into Heaven. It’s what all of his followers are suppose to do until his return which we Christians call the Second Coming of Christ. Yes The Great Commission is a very big deal to Christians. Of coarse Trump and the Texas governor would say “the Great What”?
Some may claim that The Great Commission is only about foreign missions, after all Jesus said GO. But here’s what I think the best answer to that is. It was a couple of months ago a missionary from Burma came to speak at our church. He was very hard to understand but if you listened closely this is what he said about his work sharing Jesus with the refuges from Burma. He said that the refuges from Burma was “God’s gift to the United States”. That’s right it’s God’s gift to our country, we don’t have to raise money to send a few missionaries halfway around the world God has brought them to us. Yes there’s no doubt about it refugees are a gift from God. The governor of Texas may not think so but rejecting a gift from God is a dangerous thing to do and it should end the political career of all the governors that reject the gift from God. Come election time Christians will not forget the attack they made on Christ and our Christian beliefs.
Today’s song is about Bad, Bad Leroy Brown and how since he was taken out how much safer that made the Southside of Chicago. When this song first came out the people of Chicago were so happy, after all who could blame them? Giving the baddest man exactly what was coming to him should have made everyone so glad! When the worst of the worst, the baddest of the bad is taken out it can’t do anything but everybody safer. Right? Everyday bad, bad, people, and I’m not talking someone in a made-up song, everyday day, it fact every hour there are bad, bad, I mean really bad men are “taken out”. They are “taken out” by arrest and by death. Everyday. But the people of the Southside of Chicago are not any safer so how is that? Is “taking out” bad guys not the answer?
Do you realize that kids of today even it high school have been taught all their life’s that the way to stop evil is to kill the “bad guys” that stops evil and make’s us all safer. Our high school kids do not remember 9/11 it fact none of them were even born then! There are people in college that were not born when 9/11 happened. Have you ever sat back and thought or counted how many bad, bad people the United States in order to make us safer has been killed. And how many “master minds” of 9/11 were killed. Why didn’t this make us safer? I have an idea why. It all has to do with Bad, Bad Leroy Brown—–Jr. And Bad, bad Leroy Brown other kids, and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown nephews, and Bad, Bad Leroy Brown brothers, and maybe even Bad, Bad Leroy Brown grandkids. That man you deemed bad, bad, the baddest is someone’s father, someone’s brother, someone’s uncle, yes someone’s best and maybe their only friend. For every bad, bad man that is killed five, ten, twenty or maybe more suddenly become bad ready to seek revenge, it fact the ones who follow are often far worse than the first bad, bad man that was killed. History has taught us that killing only leads to one thing more killing. No you say well just look up The Hundred Years War.
I remember well the first time I heard this song. I was seventeen years old, no I’ll not making that up just for the sake of today’s song of day, I really was seventeen just like in today’s song when I was seventeen I dreamed of being king. I may had first heard this song on the radio but if I did I would had been sixteen so I didn’t pay any attention to it. I listened to song on a 45. Because there might be some out there who don’t have a clue what a 45 might be. A 45 is (really I have to explain this!) a 45 is a small record with a big hole in the center, on one side is one song and on the other side is another song called the B side. You call take a small stack of 45s and put them on a record player then as if it was magic a 45 would drop, then the needle would move over, all by itself! and play the bottom record, after the song was over the needle would move of the record then the next record or sometimes the next 2 or 3 records would drop and the needle would play the next record, in the seventies that was as high tech as it got. I guess today it would be called your playlist.
But why did we have stacks and stacks of 45s we didn’t buy them. Growing up in the seventies me and my older brother and sister were, looking back on it now, very lucky. The grandparents that were Mama’s parents was Granddaddy and Grannie, I’ve wrote about them before, Granddaddy was a WW2 POW, who took us on his 115 mile rural mail route, not together but each of us separately making each grandkid fell special. But today’s story is about my other set of Grandparents, Daddy’s parents, Papa and Mama Mann, They lived just a mile down the Highway form my other grandparents. They had a house and on the same land Papa had a Skelly Gas Station beside the filling station was Mama Mann’s Ann’s Drive In. Going to the drive in was a kid’s best dream. Mama Mann would let us make our own ice cream any way we wanted to , I usually put chocolate syrup on my ice cream. But the very best thing about going to the drive in was Pinball! Yes there was always a pinball machine there and Mama Mann would give us all the quarters we needed to play. We would play pinball for hours. Along with the pinball machine there was a pool table that we played a little, but nothings beats pinball! That brings me to our 45s, there was also a juke box which being the seventies played 45s. They would change out old records for new ones, so Mama Mann gave us the old 45s which included today’s song. I miss those times at the drive in I consider myself blessed by those memories however I’m still the king of nothing.
I need to start by saying I’m not a snake lover. The other night I watched a program on PBS about the crisis in the Everglades where non-native pythons are taking over by killing native species including alligators! This is not a natural invasion it’s a result of Man. People release their “pet” snakes into the everglades after they get to big to handle and what becomes of them? They get bigger and make cute little baby snakes who also get a lot bigger and kill even more natural species. They also told the tragic story of a one year old being killed by her parents “pet” snake. You may think this would wake people up but it didn’t the program said there have been 10 small children killed in Florida in the past few years by their parents “pet” snakes. Like I said I’m not a snake lover. Now before we listen to song pay close attention to the words especially the first line: He’s a coldhearted snake lookin into his eyes Oh, oh he’s been telling lies
Because after the song I’m going to talk about Trump!
Not only I’m not a snake lover I’m also not a Trump lover. I guess because I’m not a part of the Trump base I was totally aware that Donald Trump is Our Savior from poisonous snakes. The other night I was watching Frontline on PBS. The program begun with Trump’s first ever reading of the poisonous snake poem. I never heard it before but now I have a much greater understanding of why preachers and people who go a church support Trump so much. I hoped I couldn’t find the video they used on Frontline, but when I looked up on the internet I found a lot different videos, I guess this is a staple of Trump rallies.
This is wrong on so many different levels! But I will start with the first level so everyone one will understand what this poem really is. The nice lady takes the snake home and gives the snake milk and honey. The church people will recognize that milk and honey means something. In the Bible the Promised Land is always described as “flowing with milk and honey”. The Ku Klux Klan claims that they are Christians, that’s why they burn crosses, their beliefs is that in the Bible the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey is not the nation of Israel, or for the Jews rather the Promised Land, the land flowing with milk and honey, is the United States and they believe God attended this land for the white race. Many people in my church have accepted this Klan doctrine. They have posted on Face Book claiming that God wants the wall, then they will have scripture that is talking about Jews building a wall clueless to the fact they are passing on to the world this evil KKK doctrine: That when the Bible speaks of Jews, God really means the white race in America. Just because someone says God every now and then doesn’t make them a Christian and most of the time when Trump says God it’s usually followed by damn. This poem was more than likely wrote to be read at a KKK rally not a campaign rally for President of the United States!
The story about being bitten and killed by poisonous snakes has a very strong spiritual meaning to both Christians and Jews. Yes there’s a story about being bitten by poisonous snakes where people who were bitten died. It’s in the Old Testament when the Children of Israel were wandering in the wilderness Numbers 21:5-9
“And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of man be lifted up:”
This is the question I have: Is today’s church lifting up Trump as Moses lifted up the serpent or is today’s church lifting up Trump as Jesus was lifted up on the cross? Could it be that God sent Donald Trump to deliver the United States from the poisonous snakes attacking our country? Wait think about this: On the day Donald Trump declared his candidacy for president he descended down a golden staircase from his mansion of gold in the sky. And somehow, maybe with a little help from Heaven, the stairs of his golden staircase moved all by themselves! Once he descended the golden staircase he made the speech that he was “sent” to deliver. The speech was all about saving the United States from all these rapist and murderers that were invading our country. It was just a few months later that he delivered his snake poem for the first time.
You may say Jeff you can’t tell me that people really believe that God sent Donald Trump and that he is as great as Jesus Christ! I wouldn’t believe it myself then I look at my Face Book feed. You must understand that other half of my Face Book friends are people that I know from church. To see what these “church people” post on Face Book is simply unbelievable.
I put this post on and a few days later the picture was removed It’s President Obama with supposed to be Jesus
Face Book post with President Obama and Jesus. Wait that’s not Jesus it’s Jim Caviezel the man in the suit on Person of Interest He also played Jesus in the Passion of the Christ I’ve already made a post on Jim Caviezel back in June of 2018 with the Up With People song What color is God’s skin? If you will go back and read that post, You’ll find that I have had a problem with this 6’2″ white man being the face of Jesus, but the Christian right loves it.
I wasn’t going to show any of these Face Book posts I’ve been talking about but when I took a break from writing this post I came across this post from a good church person” and since this post encompassed all I’ve been talking about I decided to put it my blog. If you don’t have conservative “church friends”, you are not aware of the massiveness of this problem. Good Christian people who I’ve know all my life are posting things such as this on Face Book for the whole world to see. It makes me very upset but whenever I see these posts and all of the comments from other “church people” I try to remain clam and I think of what Jesus said when he was hanging on the cross. Luke 23:34
I have around a dozen or so pastors and worship leaders as Face Book friends and when posts like this appear they are always silent, except for one pastor friend of mine that pastor’s a large church in the Tulsa metro, he actually share posts like the one above! All I can say about that: Shameful! But that’s the world we live in today instead of Jesus a lot of pastors in the United States are preaching Trump!
Let me make this one thing clear. None of these people spreading false teachings on social media have even one single verse of scripture either in the Old Testament or in the New Testament or in one single verse spoken by Jesus Christ that in ANY way supports even the slightest evidence that God sent such a man as Trump. There are chapters and yes entire books in the Bible that proofs beyond a shadow of doubt that it’s not God who sent us Trump!
This is my second time around with today’s song because a lot has changed since the first time I posted this song. Still the same theme but different results. I believe this song expresses the finest example of racial hatred and it’s effects on society. Today’s song describes the hatred of what we now call Native American’s but why would there a division between Americans? Thomas Jefferson in the Declaration of Independence said All men are created equal but somehow the black slaves and Indians were not equal. I guess what Jefferson meant to say was All white men are created equal! Although the Indians have been in the United States for thousands of years they were not considered to be citizens until 1866 where the reconstruction laws made anyone born in the United States, including slaves and Indians automatic citizens. Before reconstruction Indians were considered “illegals” that’s why The Indian Removal Act of 1830 was deemed “legal”, where the U.S. Army marched thousands of American Indians out of the Southeast part of the United States out of what was in the 1830s, removing the “illegals” out of the United States which would come to be known as the Trail of Tears. I live in Fort Smith Arkansas, which I have said before, Fort Smith is not on the Trail of Tears, it’s the end of The Trail of Tears, because just across the river is Oklahoma. It’s called The Trail of Tears because many died between 2,000 or it may have been up to 10,ooo Indians died on the march, we really don’t know how many Indians died because in the 1830s Indians life’s didn’t matter! This didn’t go unnoticed by Hitler who 100 years later would say The Nazi’s were doing nothing different than Andrew Jackson did, removing “illegals” from their country. Now a portrait of Andrew Jackson hangs in the Oval Office by a president who believes he ‘s just like his hero, the same hero of Hitler, he is going to remove “illegals” from the United States.
Why do people hate other people? I given this a lot of thought and I believe it’s not the people that’s the object of the hatred it’s the people doing the hating. In the case of the American Indians 50% white and 50% Indians equals 100% Indian! It’s not just about the hatred of Indians from white people for thousands of years different groups of people have extreme hatred for other groups. The best example of hatred between two groups of people is the parable of the Good Samaritan. News reports almost always seem to say if someone comes to another person’s aid the news reporter says ” A couple of Good Samaritans came to help”. Today a Good Smartian is just a description and most people haven’t really hear the story of the Good Smartian or what it really means. First you have to know who the Samaritans were. The Samaritans were Jews who intermarried with Gentiles that made them “half-breeds”, they were not true Jews. Just like the song 50-50 equals 100% Gentile. The Jews considered the Samaritans “illegals” because they were not legitimate Jews. To totally understand the story of Good Samaritan, the reason why Jesus told the story of the Good Samaritan is almost as important as the story itself. —Luke 10:
The first time I did this song and the story of the Good Samaritan with it I compared it to Obamacare and how Jesus commands Christians to take care of others, even as the story of the Good Samaritan explains we are to take care of people we consider not to be our equals. That’s why Jesus used a Samaritan, a group of people that the Jews hated. How much did the Jews hate the half breed, not legal Jews, the Samaritans? The Jews in the time of Jesus hate could be described as a hatred as great as well as great as the good church people Trump base have for what they love to call the “illegals”. I call these people who have the extreme arrogance to call anyone “illegals” I call them the “Righteous” I believe that fits them. You noticed how I referred to them as church people not Christians? According to Mike Huckabee they are “The people of Faith”. I think that might be a “God thing” because in order to be called “Christian” people have to be able to see Christ in you and I can’t see any part of Christ in the righteous. In fact from what I have witnessed in their Face Book posts, when Christ said, Go and do thou likewise the Righteous shout out to the world No we will not go and do likewise! These Face Book posts, and there are many of them, are shameful but the Righteous post them with pride suggesting others share their posts. The posts all have a couple of things in common there’s a picture of for instance homeless people and the caption will say something like: Democrats care more for ILLEGALS than our own homeless. I’m sure all the homeless in America are jumping up and down with joy to find out that the church going Republicans now express their love for the homeless of America. But there’s a problem with their love for the homeless, the poor, the American Vets their “love” is the same kind of love that is described of Judas in John 12 3-6
These posts doesn’t show real love for the poor or vets they just like Judas Iscariot care nothing for the poor their pouring out their hate for illegals, as the Righteous love to call them, by using the poor as an excuse.
I have seen posts with this same theme from people who attend my church every Sunday morning. There have been two children of preachers and a former Sunday teacher of mine. I can’t explain their actions or what they believe their doing by expressing hatred for all the world to see. I can tell you one thing for sure their actions, and posting on Face Book is an action, does NOT line up with the Bible! You would think they would know the meaning of the Good Samaritan but from their posts it’s clear they don’t.
To understand the meaning of the Good Samaritan you first of to know where the story took place. Jesus was teaching in the Temple in Jerusalem. When the Temple was built back in the Old Testament The Samaritans wanted to help build the Temple but the Jews would not let them help because the Jews considered the Samaritans unclean, illegals, trespassers, any other bad name you can think of the Jews called the Samaritans that. Another example of the hate is described in the fourth chapter of John:
After the Jews built the Temple the Samaritans built a small version of the Temple on the mountain she’s referring to here. If a Samaritan went to the Temple in Jerusalem they could only go to what is called the Outer Court where Gentiles could go and stand outside. Jesus was on the inside of the Temple where only Jews were permitted to go when he tells the story of the Good Samaritan.
This all starts in verse 25 when a Jewish lawyer stands up and asks Jesus a question. That’s not to hard to believe– a Jewish Lawyer! But notice Jesus asks a question right back, he asks the lawyer What does the law say? I could ask the Righteous that same question What does the law say? Because from their Face Book posts they must think the U.S. immigration law is quite simple; Whites Only!
How did the Jewish lawyer come up with answer he gave Jesus? It’s in the Old Testament but not from one scripture. The first part is from Deuteronomy 6 4-6
The Jews combined these two passages together and would recite it as part of their Shema, or creed, at the Synagogue during worship. By the way I looked that up in a book not the internet!
The Jewish lawyer asks Jesus Who is my neighbor trying to trip Jesus up. But Jesus outsmarts him by turning the question back to him personally. The story of the Good Samaritan is not a do-gooder story as most people may think, rather it’s a story about prejudice. Why did the Priest just pass the man needing help on the other side of the road. I have read some commentaries where the writer claims that both the Priest and the Levite (church leader) thought the man was dead and since he was already dead touching him would make the Priest and Levite “unclean” so they passed him on by. It’s sad to say but a lot of preachers today would say this too. Why would Trump supporters preachers make a ridiculous claim like that? Because the real reason why the Priest and Levite passed by on the other side road leaving this man to die on the side of the road is because the injured man wasn’t a Jew! How do we know that? Jesus says the man was stripped of his raiment so he was naked (Fruit of the Loom wasn’t in business yet) not getting into much detail but in Jesus time there was a way just by looking to tell a naked Jewish man from a naked Gentile man. When the Priest and Levite looked at the man they may had both said very impressive, but a Gentile! If the beaten man had been a Jew The Priest would had helped the man, in fact when the Priest looked up and saw the Levite approaching he would had called out for help and the Levite would had come running to help. If Jesus told the story like that, then the Jewish lawyer would had been very pleased that, of coarse, Jews were the hero’s of the story. But I just like I said before the story of the Good Samaritan is not a do-gooder story, it’s a story displaying how God truly made All Man Equal. That’s the same problem that the Jewish lawyer and today’s “righteous” have their love is limited only to people that look like they do, talk like they do, believe like they do, vote like they do. The Face Book posts like my former Sunday School teacher posts tell the whole world that they refuse to be like the Good Samaritan, that they would be just like the Priest and pass on the other side. Their telling the world they flatly refuse to follow Jesus commandment: Go and do thou likewise. Just one more verse to think about. Matthew 25: 40
Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me.”
The thing that makes today’s song so great is how seriously people sing this, what just may well be one of the most stupid songs every written. Really? I believe for every drop of rain that falls a flower grows. All I have to do you is walk out my front door and see my dead petunias to see how silly this song is. This song is actually called a gospel song like there was anything that is even close to being in the Bible. But Elvis along with many others sing it like it’s God’s word. I’m unable to get the video to load to my blog right now but here’s the words to the song.
A lot of people would say I believe that I’m a liberal Democrat and if your one of those people you would be wrong. I’m not a liberal Democrat I’m a liberal Republican! Some may say there’s no such thing but I’m going to explain what a liberal Republican believes.
I enjoy watching Rachel Maddow on MSNBC she clearly explains what she believes in and more important why she believes what she believes. A while back I posted one of Rachel’s comments on my Face Book post. The comment was on her TV show May 6, 2010: ” I’m undoubtedly a liberal, which means I’m in almost total agreement with the Eisenhower-era Republican party platform”. If you think what the Trump Republicans believe the same as Republicans believed in the past your about to be shocked!
The other night I was watching Jay Leno’s Garage on CNBC. Jay’s theme on the episode I was watching the other day was cars that ran on something other than gasoline. His first guest was Arnold Schwarzenegger who showed up in his electric SUV. Jay and Arnold were riding in the electric SUV when Arnold said “when I first came to L.A. my eyes would tear up because of all the smog. But Reagan when he was Governor of California he started to clean the air because back then the environment wasn’t a Republican issue or a Democrat issue everyone cared for the environment. And Jay agreed with him saying something to the effect where’s the smog now? Imagine that a former Republican governor of California that cares about the environment and says Republicans used to also care.
Then there’s the Endangered Species Act of 1973 signed by Republican President Richard Nixon! That’s in the news because the Trump Administration is now in the process of gutting the Endangered Species Act. But wait there’s more! President Richard Nixon proposed the establishment of EPA on July 9, 1970 and it began operation on December 2, 1970, after Nixon signed an executive order. The order establishing the EPA was ratified by committee hearings in the House and Senate. —– So what’s going on? It all goes back to Rachel Maddow’s comment, every four years both parties have a convention and vote on what is called a platform. The platform is basically a statement of what each party believes in. Every four years they vote on a “new” platform and every four years their platform “believes” changes a little until as Rachel points out what they believed in the past is nothing like they believe today. That’s just the way politics works.
My main focus I is not politics, rather I believe what I should do is write about how today’s politics affects the church. I’ll give an example of my purpose. Just the other day one of mine Face Book friends made a post I strongly disagreed with. Now I believe that what makes America great is the free speech we all have and Face Book is a platform that most all Americans can practice our free speech. That being said I believe it’s my duty as an American and more important my responsibility as a born again Christian to speech up and not to remain silent. The post I’m referring to was posted by a friend of my who I’ve known since he was five or six years old because that friend of mine was the oldest son of my childhood pastor. That was way back in the late sixties, today he and his son are both Southern Baptist pastors just like their father and grandfather. Today the son of mine childhood pastor is a pastor of a rather large Southern Baptist church in the Tulsa metro, it’s not like it’s a tiny church out in the panhandle. He is a very strong supporter of Donald Trump and anything Republican. Believe it or not this educated Southern Baptist pastor posted the conspiracy theory about the Clinton’s having Jeffrey Epstein murdered. And I’ll make another comment here. Between Jeffrey Dahmer and Jeffrey Epstein, this is yet another reason I like to go by Jeff! Now I believe like the Bible says there’s a time for everything. And after that post the time for me to remain silent was over! This was my comment on his post: Brother Tim your calling is to spread the truth and love of Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ it is not to spread the lies and hate of Donald Trump! This comment didn’t phase him a couple of days later he posted that people who have “dirt on the Clinton’s they are 859% more likely to commit suicide. What makes this so sad is all the likes and comments in agreement of these non Christlike posts! This is what I fight for, I don’t care how big these pastors church’s are, or how large their viewership is on TV if they are spreading lies on the internet someone has to speak up to their lies and false teachings. I have no idea how these good people can now have such untrue beliefs in such a short time. It appears to me these “conservatives” believe it’s their duty to defend the Republicans weather it makes any sense, or totally without any scripture to back up their beliefs.
The problem all my church friends have is that in order to be a conservative Republican today they have to forget what they use to believe and create a way to change the Bible in order to “fit’ their current beliefs. I’ll give a good example of this with climate change. From what I can tell church people now say that God is in total control of the weather and the climate, in fact God is in control of the whole Earth. That sounds great!! so that lines up with the conservative Republicans and Donald Trump calling Global warming being a “hoax. There’s only one problem, it may make sense that’s God is in control of the Earth, but that’s not what the Bible says!!!
Genesis 1:26 – And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our likeness: and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth.
Did you catch that? The Bible says that God gave man dominion (control) over all the earth! To say God is in control is just great you can put it on a T shirt but try to find in the Bible where God took man’s dominion over the Earth away from him! You can’t find those verses because it’s not in the Bible! This has a profound difference in belief’s for instance if man no longer has dominion over the fish of the sea, that means under the new belief that God is in control if man over fishes and a species become extinct then it’s “God’s will” because God is it control. And since man no longer has dominion over the fowl of the air if man over hunts, well it’s once again God’s fault! That’s why church people find global warming and climate change is so funny, yes they post on Face Book making fun of this, because they claim, like the current Republicans, man can do anything he pleases without any consequences whatsoever! God is in control man can’t change anything. The best I can tell that’s what church people really believe it sounds good to them and best of all it fits with their political Republicans believes. Of coarse there’s not any scriptures in the Bible to back up these beliefs but they are totally unconcerned they believe what they believe it doesn’t matter what the Bible says. What about the verse above? They will say that’s in Genesis and nobody really believes anything in Genesis! Making up new beliefs is harder than some may think. You see before making a new belief you first have to prove what you believed before was wrong. In order to be “conformed” to the Republican belief on global warming you have to transform the Bible to go along with this belief. Yes this is a shameless effort to remind church people of Romans 12: 2. And benotconformedtothisworld: but be ye transformed by the renewing of your mind, that ye may prove what is that good, and acceptable, and perfect, will of God. —– And by the way The will of God NEVER CONTRADICTS THE WORD OF GOD!
What about immigration? Is what the Republicans believe today the same as it was in the past? Did Ronald Reagan start to build a wall? Not exactly I’ll paste this from Wikipedia explaining what Ronald Reagan immigration policy was:
The Immigration Reform and Control Act (IRCA or the Simpson–Mazzoli Act) was passed by the 99th United States Congress and signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on November 6, 1986.
The Immigration Reform and Control Act altered U.S. immigration law, making it illegal to knowingly hire undocumented immigrants and establishing financial and other penalties for companies that employed undocumented immigrants. The act also legalized most undocumented immigrants who had arrived in the country prior to January 1, 1982.
Can you have two beliefs any more different than amnesty compared to building a wall? Today church people love to call undocumented immigrants “illegals” that makes these church people “the righteous” or so they think. My next post I’ll explain how today’s “righteous church people” flatly refuse to follow the word’s of Jesus.
And then there’s tariffs. Today’s Republicans might as well put on some red caps that says: Free trade sucks! In the past tariffs were Socialist and not a single Republican were be in favor of tariffs for any reason. But that was then, today in order to be a Republican you must forget the past and what and why you believed before and embrace today’s beliefs as if that’s how you always believed.
Today I used just three examples; global warming, immigration, and trade. There’s more but I will post a lot more in the future, I didn’t scratch the surface today. My next post will be on immigration and in particular how today’s church people call immigrants “illegals”.
This is my first time that I placed the song of the day before writing anything, but today I’ve changed my format because of the subject matter. I remember my Grandmother brought a copy of the LP of Welfare Cadillac and I thought it would be a good song to start my series on the poor in America. I always I found the video of the song on the internet. To be honest I was amazed by this video from the Porter Wagoner show. You might need to watch it another time in order to really understand what’s going on. I’ve heard the song from listening to the LP when I was a little kid, but I was not prepared to see this video as an adult and to see the disgraceful laughter of the audience during the song and if that wasn’t pitiful enough Porter decided to take it to another level and talk to this singer where he could make fun of his “big fat lazy wife” and the audience laughed even more at that. After all what could be more funny than lazy, fat, poor people!
Today I don’t believe there are a lot of people who remember Guy Drake and one would have to be as old as me to remember The Porter Wagoner Show. Of coarse there is something we all remember from the show. That’s Dolly Parton! The grand lady of country music who wrote the song Coat of Many Colors about her poor mother sewing her a coat out of different pieces of cloth because that’s all she had. She goes to school and the other kids laugh at her, just like this audience laughs, but Dolly sings that every stich was sewed with love. I wonder what did Dolly think of this song, did she watch it live backstage or was she busy and didn’t see it at all? Now I know that you know where I’m going with this and you would be right. However something happened the other day in the Arkansas Legislature that changed my focus on this post. It’s about the poor, reading, and the school lunch funding. But as it turns out, Dolly Parton is still important to this cause. Dolly Parton started the Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library in 1995. The program mails out a free book each month for children from birth until they are five years old. The books are chosen by experts in the education and writing field and are age appropriate for the child. I can tell a personal story about Dolly’s Imagination Library. My niece has always been a big fan of Dolly and when she gave birth to Mollie (her big brothers named their new sister Mollie Dah! Mollie is the girl train on Thomas the Train) my niece enrolled Mollie in Dolly’s program. Every month Mollie received a book, but somehow our sweet Mollie thought the books were coming from her daddy. We couldn’t ever get Mollie to understand that they weren’t coming from her daddy so after a while we just let her go on and believe that.
Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library is an example of showing love, that’s right real love to the poor kids of America. The Republicans in the Arkansas Legislature are not showing love to the poor kids in Arkansas they are showing what’s really in their hearts. That’s the hatred Republicans have for the poor. They claim that by taking away the little funding (money) they have their helping the poor. Because just like today’s song and the audience agreement they believe giving any money to those poor, fat people is stealing from them!
Yes I have a story to tell about Porter’s interview, where this singer makes fun of his big fat wife, and the audience thought that was so funny! My sister was a church secretary for several years serving at three different Southern Baptist church’s including our current church we attend. At the first church my sister served at the pastor came into her office one day and told her that there was a needy family that the church was going to help out and he needed my sister to find out what size of clothes the family needed. My sister got the information and put in on the Pastor’s desk. The next day the Pastor came back in and told my sister that he got some else to help that needy family, we (our church) wasn’t going help them. What changed we were going to help them one day and the next day not. Well my sister got the clothes sizes and it turned out the woman was very large, so that explained that. If fat people came to the church the Pastor would give them a box of food but as soon they were out the door, complain or say something demeaning about those fat people wanting free food. So there was no doubt what happened here as so as the Pastor found out it was a big fat woman, he handed them of to someone else. By the way he never did use that as an illustration in any of his sermons! I’ll have more to say what “good” people think of fat people in a later song. I haven’t decided on a song for tomorrow but it may be Dolly’s Coat of Many Colors.
I first heard this song about twenty years ago when our church choir did a Fourth of July cantata. Unlike what I could find on the internet our choir wore white shirts with Fourth of July ties and when we sang flag waving American we all had little American flags that, guess what, we waved during the song. I guess our choir leader was the only one to think of that! On You tube there’s a church choir singing this song and their dressed in orange, I guess they were celebrating Home Depot day!
As of yesterday it matters which American flag you wave. Like a whole lot of people , Nike was totally oblivious to what the Betsy flag means to white supremacy groups. Before I talk about the Betsy Ross flag I want to talk about the meanings flags have. In my neighborhood when it comes to flags the Buddhist temple, literally down the street from my house, has all us beat. The picture below is the entrance to the Temple the brink flag posts go around the entire 1/2 block parking lot. There are probably over hundred posts with a different flag on each one. I don’t know what’s the meaning of any of these flags. But if I walk around the parking lot along each of these flags, there’s a house on the corner and in it’s back yard, whoever lives there, has a large Confederate Flag. I’m pretty sure what’s the meaning of their flag next to a Buddhist temple.
As you can see there’s not a picture here. As it turns computer stuff keeps chancing and I don’t remember anything from all those computers classes in my late 70s high school days. So since both Google Images and Bing Images have changed how you get an image to my blog, I guess there won’t be any pictures today. It took me 2 or 3 days how to figure out how to do the old way. So I just drove down to the Buddhist temple to take my own pictures of it, but there are some day they have their flags out and today is apparently is not one of those days. You can go to Google or Bing Images, type in Buddhist Temple Fort Smith Arkansas and it’s one of the first images.
If you go to Bing Images and type in KKK Betsy Ross flag, the first image that appears is a couple people in KKK “uniforms” and a 13 star Betsy Ross flag. When I first looked at this image said it was placed there 19 hours ago. On down there’s a picture of teenagers at a high school football field with the band practicing behind them holding a MAGA flag along with a 13 star Betsey Ross flag. Now I’m just guessing here, but what I think may have happened is whoever took this photo may have found it a little strange that these kids were holding a 13 star Betsy Ross flag and after the news yesterday, figured out why they were holding a Betsy Ross flag and put on the internet. That’s just my guess, but hate groups such as the KKK have always had “secret symbols” that only the members knew the meaning of. It turns out the hate groups have “hijacked” a nation symbol instead of freedom, they of turned the 13 star Betsy Ross flag into a symbol of hate. If it wasn’t for Colin Kaepernick, an American patriot, who Trump says disrespects the flag what greater disrespect for the flag than turning our American flag into a symbol of hate? The Nike shoe would had sold tens of thousands pair of these shoes unaware that many people that purchased them knew the current meaning of the Betsy Ross flag. It’s also very unfair to the people that would had purchased the shoe unaware of it’s meaning.
I have learned that symbols are very important to racists and they are proud and will defend their symbols. Back when Trump first took office I did a post on Face Book that I thought I would get a few comments like This is interesting or I never thought of it like. I posted a picture of President Trump sitting in the oval office with a view of the portrait of Andrew Jackson that Trump placed on the wall. I wrote on my post explaining how white supremacist admired Andrew Jackson because it was Jackson that made America white again with the Trail of Tears. The United States Army marched Indians tribes from their homeland in the east to the Indian Territory, after all the Indians weren’t U.S. citizens they were the illegals of the 1830s. Then I went on to explain how just as much that the white supremacist loved Andrew Jackson they hated Abraham Lincoln because he freed the salves. Not long after I posted it I had a very long comment from one of my Face Book friends I new from school who is now a personal injury lawyer with a lot of commercials on local TV. He went on with three very long comments about how evil Abraham Lincoln. Then another friend took exemption with his hate filled comments. This other friend of mine is a teacher at the same Jr. high where I first meet this lawyer friend. What subject did he teach? American History! The lawyer had no idea, but even if he did schools in America teach Fake History! Their comments went back and forth for several comments. You may ask if this lawyer was on TV all the time why would he steam out so much hate for the whole world to see, wouldn’t that hurt his law firm? Oh no his clients agree with him and would be proud to pay him in all twenty dollar bills! And that’s the sadist part, Andrew Jackson was admired so much he’s on the twenty dollar. Maybe they will put Trump on the three dollar bill. Trump most admired president was Andrew Jackson, and Hitler’s most admired president and who he would justify removing Jews from Germany, he would say he was doing the same as Jackson did in America. But the Trump base has no problem with Trump and Hitler having the same favorite president. If anyone thinks Trump put Jackson on the Oval Office wall for any other reason than racism you are mistaken, because any white supremacist can tell you why! That’s why standing up against racism is so important and never give racist the benefit of doubt, because they know what they are saying.
Please share this with your friends, not knowing these symbols can give people the wrong idea of what your values are.
