Let’s All Relax

Well, especially me…

We are at Road’s End, Lincoln City, Oregon. I can see the ocean from the living room window. When we rented this house last year, I could also see a wall of berry bushes down below. Now, that area is paved parking for the rentals next door. The yard behind has been torn up (removed). I saw a man digging out there, but I couldn’t tell if he was planting vegetation, or some device, perhaps an anchor for some structure.

I’m used to the world constantly changing. I don’t like it much most of the time, but I adjust. With some amount of heartache. All my grandkids keep getting older (as do I) and I never see them enough. I really don’t do the phone very well, and writing seems to be a thing of the past, so we don’t keep up as we should. Not regret, but maybe longing for something that could have been.

Make sure your life is always filled with meaningful relationships and activities. (I include meditation and musings in my list of meaningful activities.) Get out and enjoy the sun and the rain whenever you can. You’ll be so much the better for it. There are a few constants in the world (besides change). But we may just find we get our greatest enjoyment from learning to love the surprises that seem to greet us at every turn. Smile through the pain and confusion. Ask God to hold your hand. He’ll use all the challenges to build you up.

 

I want to love my country again

I wish this country could become the country I thought I lived in when I was a kid. (That country was already gone by that time, but people I knew weren’t really aware of it.) The more educated I become on the subject of our history, including all the efforts of progressive activists over the past century, the more I realize I missed out.

It’s so sad to me that Americans for years have been seduced to seek an “American Dream” that has nothing to do with the original ideal; the one that prompted the Declaration of Independence, the American Revolution, the United States of America, and eventually, the Constitution of the United States. As we’ve all decided to focus only on “pursuit of hapiness”, our liberty has slowly been eroded by those who believe our lives should be controlled at the expense of some freedoms. And every day, we hear about more freedoms we’ve lost.

http://www.theblaze.com/stories/feds-attack-family-farms-again/

We might not have much time left, but I now know I want my time to count for something that matters. When they ask me to give up another freedom, “I WILL NOT COMPLY”.

Time for an Intervention

The founding fathers were some smart guys. They were able to look into the future by analyzing their own experiences and their knowledge of history and past events, and craft a constitution and governmental framework that ordinary citizens could understand and operate. Or perhaps, they crafted it in such a way that it took extraordinary citizens, that, they knew, would have the resources and the freedom to arise out of ordinary citizenry, given the circumstances created by a society and culture born out of the very government they sought to establish.

The founders, however, lived in a different time and cultural surroundings that assumed certain established norms. Over the years, intellectual elites throughout the world have striven to tear down these norms, merely for the sake of separating themselves from the “common man” by demonstrating that these vestiges of the past were merely quaint cultural remnants of a less sophisticated society, no longer needed for the advancement of this new, more progressive society, built on the pillars of science and industry. This new society lifts up man’s abilities and promotes the celebration of all man’s achievements. These people have been talking only to each other for too long. They, being separated from reality for such a long time, have forgotten that those who have not learned from history are doomed to repeat it.

While the new, more progressive society seems an inevitability at this point, some still hope for an intervention. Even though we know from past experience what man’s stupidity and selfishness can bring, we also have seen instances when good people have prayed and God has brought revival and awakening to people who were blind, lost, and on the wrong path. I think it’s time we joined them. This may be the only option we have left.

2010 at the beach

We’re doing what we can for the local economy, supporting the fishing industry and tourism, in search of the best fish’n’chips place in Lincoln County (this isn’t it).

We’ve also been trying to help out Depoe Bay Winery as much as possible, as well as other occasional contributors.

 We’ve been involved in a multitude of activities, including sunbathing, shown here.

All in all, it’s been a wonderful experience. Wish you were here.

The WHOLE Story

Here’s how it happened…

God created the heavens and the earth. He created this awesome framework for the ultimate purpose of sustaining His most precious creation, Man. He formed Man from the stuff of His creation, and then He breathed His breath into him. He created Man in His image, giving him a heart, and a soul, and a mind, and His Spirit. He set him in the midst of the garden, with a simple set of instructions: “This is all for you, to sustain you, to bless you. All, but the fruit of this tree. If you eat from this tree, you will surely die.”

Now, you’d figure, there’s no analysis to be done here, the God Who made you definitely knows the realities of this world, all the blessings, and all the possible curses. Everything you could ever want; just leave that one thing alone. BUT…

Enter the evil one. The liar. “Listen, Eve, this is just a way THE Man has of keeping the people down, trying to hold you back from your true potential. HE wants all the Glory for HIMself. If you eat it, then you will be just like HIM, knowing Good and Evil.” “Oh, wow, Really?” “Just eat it and see.” Chomp. Chomp. “Honey, come here.” “Uh-oh. Oh, well. Okay.” Chomp. Chomp. And at that moment, they were aware of GOOD and evil, and they died. The light that clothed them until that moment was extinguished, and they knew they were naked.

And, so, we keep trying to hide from God. And He keeps knocking at the door of our hearts. At the moment that tragic event occurred, He was already staging the operation that would rescue Man and reconcile him to God. In the person of Jesus, God visited man in his lifeless state, to accomplish Three Divine Purposes:

• Exemplify and demonstrate selfless Love
• Give spiritual Hope to Man
• Pay the required price for ALL sin for ALL time

After He accomplished these Three Divine Purposes here on earth, He went a step further. He went to the very lair of the evil one, broke down the gates, and loosed all who had been bound by Hell and Death, and took the keys. And by doing this, He has given us all access to Him once again.

Is America also a part of His Big Plan? What could possibly be the reason for all the turmoil and heartache over the past 60 centuries?

If the past 2000 years has been God’s permissive will for the gentile world to demonstrate the futility of man’s attempt to govern himself, even after being given the Greatest Gift he could have possibly received, then the past 200 years could be the penultimate opportunity for man to prove himself, before the final chapter is completed, and the final victory is claimed on God’s behalf.

The Story has been clearly written, and the climax seems to be approaching, just as Jesus laid it out for His disciples. Another few years should tell us, one way or the other, if this is just the natural progression of man’s sinful nature toward another grand “resetting” as in the time of Noah, or if we should “…look up, lift up your heads, for your redemption draweth nigh.”

Hope For a Future

Perhaps you’ve heard the quip, “As soon as a person is born, he begins to die.” This phrase is generally used to indicate the fate of all living organisms; we come into this world destined to leave again, regardless of our best efforts to delay this inevitable eventuality. A recent advertisement states, “Statistics show that one out of one persons will die.” Of course, by the time these statements mean anything to us, a large percentage of us has already decided there are a large number of reasons for remaining here as long as possible.

I happen to believe a Creator put us here, and put in us a will to survive, so that we would be able to have a chance to find out He exists, and to find our way back to Him. So I also believe I have a home beyond this world, and therefore I can deal with the fact that some left-wing radicals are destroying everything I once held dear.

I know that the country I thought I was growing up in, was actually fading away before I was born. When I was studying history in high school, I mistakenly believed that the constitution I was learning about was still being followed very much according to the original intent. I think my teachers believed this as well. It’s kind of sad, really, because it’s like we were all living in a kind of fantasy world, destined to eventually be shaken awake to find that it was a pleasant dream, nothing more.

Looking back, I see that the cues I took from my parents and teachers about everything being so rosy and wonderful probably were coming from residual euphoria over survival and victory through WWII and Korea, which probably led many people to forget about the stuff that had been going on in the first third of the 20th century. Or maybe parents just thought they could shield their children indefinitely from reality.

Reality in our world means that if nothing is actively working to cause things to become more organized, things will become less organized. Buildings will begin to crumble, knee joints will become arthritic, and the generation that remembers why it was important to remain vigilant over our freedoms, begins to die off, without adequately passing on the motivation and determination of spirit that was necessary to keep those freedoms intact.

It’s been suggested that there may be a tipping point beyond which it will be impossible to return to a free, self-governing state in this country. I would suggest that, according to the bible, that fact is absolutely assured. So, am I concerned about the condition of the economy, and the state of our political system, and the trends in media and the arts, and of the social decline we’ve seen over the past several decades? My human side is, definitely. But there is another part of me that longs for the consummation of those things spoken of in God’s word, that will one day result in the end of things here on earth, and the creation of a new heaven and earth.

Progressives and secular humanists have long hoped to move us from a faith-based society to one where man is supreme, and God’s influence can finally be eliminated once and for all. Believers have watched for years as this has been happening, and have remained relatively silent, except for a few prophets and other activists willing to speak out against the trend toward removing all evidence of God from our social experience.

I hope we can save some vestige of our historic tradition in this country, of faith in God, and freedom to worship openly. this will give us the opportunity to share our faith with more people who can then find their way back to God. However, if we fail, perhaps this will be because the time has come to wrap things up. I would not be disappointed if that were true.

Talk about what you Can do, not what they can’t

I pretty well know by now, the many problems and related scary prospects for the future, that the Socialist congress and white house have given us. I think it’s time for conservatives to stop whining to each other about what’s wrong, and to speak plainly about what they plan to do instead. Please.

Happy Holidays

I have a rather mundane job. Three or four nights a week, I go to work at 6 p.m., where I examine partially processed silicon wafers on their way to becoming pieces of integrated circuitry until 6 a.m. Sounds exciting, huh? Sometimes, there’s not a lot going on, so staying awake and aware becomes a challenge. A co-worker is very helpful in this regard, sharing his quirky wit throughout the night in small doses of social commentary or offerings of personal observations of other co-workers, etc.

The other night, we were discussing politically correct versus non-PC ways to wish people well during this time of year. It was noted during this conversation that it may not be proper to use the ‘Happy Holidays”greeting, since the word “holiday” comes from the word combination of holy+day. Therefore, I have begun using this greeting along with the traditional “Merry Christmas” referring to the holiday commemorating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus the Christ, also known as Messiah.

What About “The Good Ol’ Days”?

I remember events from when I was, maybe, say, five years old or so…

I think some of it I remember because my parents had a Super-8 movie camera and a projector, and the oldest of my siblings and myself were often featured in home movies, usually participating in some family function or another.

But it’s not so much the events from those times that I now enjoy reminiscing about; it’s a memory of a feeling, or a sense of well-being that surrounds the memories I have of that time. Or perhaps, to some degree, it’s an awareness that time has left us here at the dawn of a new millennium after speeding us past all the simple, wholesome days of Mayberry and Ozzie and Harriet and “The Beav”, into a sophisticated, progressive, harsh environment of greed and selfishness and hostility to all points of view other than one’s own.

I’ve been thinking lately about how it really only takes a single generation to shed a time-honored tradition or a moral standard, or a belief system, given the right circumstances. Those circumstances over this past century (which spans several generations, and therefore several episodes of devolvement of the standards we once knew) have been a motivated progressives’ push, and a general populace who were happily going about their lives, unaware that the world around them was being prepared to be fundamentally transformed when the groundwork had all been laid.

It seems ridiculous to talk about a conspiracy, and talking about it actually does open one up to ridicule, but that’s just another part of the groundwork, when it comes down to it. “Oh, you’re one of those kooky conspiracy nuts!” Don’t want to be labeled with those guys. It’s probably nothing, anyway.

When we finally become aware that we’ve been duped for all these years, the façade just falls away, and we can start to see the manipulation for what it is. To a large degree, we participate in our own deception, allowing a sly and calculating Shylock to lead us to a conclusion which we would not have reached, had we been aware we were being lead along this path.

We can bet the billions of dollars spent on marketing over the years have not been wasted, at least from the marketers’ point of view. We have all been blissfully semi-aware of the in-depth psychological studies of consumer spending habits and cues we take from different sales pitches that give them access to our souls more and more every day. Although the primitive attempts to deceive with subliminal messages were quashed early on, their persistence has paid off over the years, as unscrupulous pitchmen with tongues trained in the art of psychological manipulation have perfected their arguments and continually sought the precise phrases that would grab our emotions at the deepest level, even deeper than those subliminal messages that reached our subconscious minds years ago.

There are more sad parts to this tale of woe. We allowed these various messages to be continually planted in us over the years, for the pleasure of easy, comfortable, convenient and effortless entertainment, from the comfort of our very own recliners. We’ve allowed ourselves to be conditioned to respond, like Pavlov’s dogs (google it, if you don’t know who that is) every time we’re asked to buy this, or vote for that, or like this, or dislike that. And we’ve been convinced over the years that it’s more important to make sure we keep putting one foot in front of the other and plodding along through whatever kind of existence we’ve achieved, than to stop and take stock of what we’re doing and why we’re doing it. Therefore, it’s more vital that I consider the price of gasoline, because if it goes up another five cents a gallon, I’m going to have to cut down on my cable TV service so that I can afford to get to work, than it is that I consider whether I’ve been told the truth about the school bond levy to pay for books and new curriculum to help my kids become better adjusted in this brave new world we’re entering. And if a sadder tale could become even more woeful…

For years, even where we’ve resisted much of the manipulative tactics of those con artists, although we may have had a few spirited conversations about the evils of being overly influenced by the world and its evil devices, we perhaps did not make enough of a point to our children or give them sufficient tools to counteract the effects of those devices. In fact, how many times did we use the boob tube for a babysitter, and pooh-pooh the “prophets of doom” who would try to convince us that someone in that box was trying to sway us to their evil views? Too many, I would suggest. How many times did we agree to allow them to partake of the fruit of that sullied world, telling ourselves that they had the sense to avoid temptations that, deep down, we knew they would succumb to?

The unfortunate fact of the matter is that many of us, most of us in fact, did not, and I would assert could not, see most of the consequences inevitably proceeding and even abounding from our lifestyle choices over the past fifty years. My father used to like to make the point that his mother saw unbelievable amounts of change in her life, having lived from a time where transportation was horseback or horse-drawn, to watching men land on the moon; actually, that’s all about vehicles and propulsion. What about the change from looking someone in the eye and telling him what you believe, to hiring a lawyer to go and convince him of something totally different? Seriously, that’s the kind of change that causes a little ball of nausea to form in my lower gut, and a huge lump to form in my throat.

“Progressivism” suggests progression, not progress. And the progression I’ve seen over the past several years has been the most vile, corrupt twisting of the moral standards we once knew.

“But don’t you care about women who just made one little mistake? Should they have to pay for that for the rest of their lives?”

“Don’t you care about those men and women who happened to be born this way, and have this love for another person of the same gender? It’s not their fault. Don’t they deserve to have the same opportunity to share a life together that regular married couples do?”

“How is it fair that huge corporations can pay CEOs huge bonuses even when they fail, and then charge unreasonable prices for their goods and services to make up for their losses? And don’t we deserve a share of the proceeds if they succeed? After all, it’s our money that’s making them rich.”

“This politician said he’d take care of me if I voted for him. I expect to have everything he promised me. Don’t I have enough to worry about, what with the earth overheating and the ozone diminishing?”

The thing I hate most, is that as we’ve gotten further away from having things taken care of at the most local levels, and as we’ve relinquished more and more of our responsibility to governmental agencies, so that we could spend more of our time in front of the TV, those things we used to do as a matter of course, such as helping out a neighbor or cleaning up the street in front of our house, we now watch going undone, and either point a finger of accusation at an irresponsible overspending government for trying to step in and take up the slack (usually for the benefit of garnering a few more votes) or merely complain about the conditions the way they are, and make excuses about why we can no longer do anything to remedy them.

So being politically conservative in this day and age, means arguing against the very things we used to strive to do: feed the hungry, bring justice to those who have no voice, help the sick and destitute, and offer hope to those who are perishing. And we barely know how those things have been co-opted. Or have they been abrogated? Did we gradually give away our responsibility, for “freedom” from the hassle of mundane social causes, or did a coup take place, gradually over many years and decades, as more and more people were being convinced by left-leaning progressives that they were being disenfranchised, and needed to join unions and activist groups to fight against the injustices brought upon them by greedy so-and-so and fascist such-and-such?

It’s probably better for ourselves, if we simply admit our laziness and force ourselves to do the right thing, until such time as we may actually be able to recondition ourselves to behave responsibly. Unfortunately, there’s no guarantee that it will ever result in a beneficial outcome. There are certain people laughing at us even now, that we would actually be bothering to try. And they may very well be completely accurate in their belief that they have already taken us beyond that tipping point. Still, we have an absolute duty to behave responsibly, even if we know we will not gain or benefit in any way from doing so. It’s part of what our Creator asks of us, as members of His society. We who want to belong to His family, once we do join His family, are called to do even more. But at the very least, we should all behave responsibly. And “Love covers a multitude of sins.” But it doesn’t let us off the hook from behaving responsibly. And did I mention that we all have a responsibility to behave in a way that a responsible person would behave, living within a civilized society?

So go forth, and behave responsibly. And, if you are called to do so, behave generously as well. (I mean it; if you are called to do so, and you don’t, it will be very painful. Trust me. Been there, done that.)

Propagandize, but in a Good Way

Here’s the tragic thing from my viewpoint. We’re criticizing Obama for his propagandizing of our youth through his speech directly to the public school students, seemingly trying to recruit the youth like Hitler, or to mobilize them at any rate into a mob, maybe more like the palestinians being indoctrinated in the refugee camps. Sounds like the speech will be to encourage them to participate in helping to make this country better, in a generic sense, or something. This should have been a social conservative agenda a long time ago. This was President Kennedy’s (and, dare I say, Jesus’) plea years ago, and it’s absolutely legitimate. Yes, our free market and open commerce have created more wealth and a higher standard of living for a larger percentage of humanity than any socialist/statist venture could ever accomplish. Unfortunately, when you have people involved, you have greed, selfishness, and corruption in general.

 

I believe that the reason God established this nation (That’s right, that’s what the crazy man said) was to push HIS agenda, through physical aid, but not specifically for the purpose of physical aid. And that happened for years and years. It’s still happening through many humanitarian relief and mission efforts throughout the world. But not on the scale it could be, if we dropped our striving to achieve personal wealth or power.

 

Some of our founders, and other students of our type of democracy, stated many times that our success rested on the goodness of our people. I believe when prayer and the Bible began to be restricted from public life, and when abortion was legalized, there entered into the American psyche a sort of “anything goes” mentality (some would say, a spirit of deception, greed, violence, etc.). Never has that proven to be as true as we see it demonstrated today.

 

I must applaud Obama for one thing: we are finally talking about it. Should we help the elderly in our community? Absolutely. Should we be of service to our country? Without question. Should it be for the glory of the state? Definitely not. As we have progressed through the industrial revolution and made amazing strides in so many aspects of modern convenience and comfort, as well as having gained a better understanding of the world and of ourselves, we have brought a standard of living beyond the imagining of many in the world. What a shame that we’ve wasted it and squandered it on our own selfish pleasure.

 

I believe this could be the only way that true conservatives might have a chance to return this country to some kind of sanity. Begin talking honestly about our failures, and some ways we can begin walking back toward those ageless standards of decency that so many of us used to agree to, that made this country a wholesome and happy place to live.

 

Talk about this, and encourage all those in your influence to do so as well.