On Dying

On Dying      

            By observation, dying is something best not done alone, and yet, it is lonely walk.  When that moment arrives for me I can only hope to have a flesh and blood hand to hold onto as I slip away.

            In the Ridley Scott movie “Blade Runner,” actor Rutger Hauer, playing the robot replicant Roy Batty, has his opponent dead to rights atop a building in the year 2019, in the falling rain, and as his own measured life span runs out, he sits down in front of this cornered opponent.  Hauer’s last lines as the dying robot are spoken here, in the rain: “I've seen things you people wouldn't believe. Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion. I watched C-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate. All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain. Time to die.”  And he dies.

            The most meaningful part of all of this, for me, is that Ridley Scott’s original script had other words for Hauer to say.  Hauer rewrote his script.  When that scene was filmed, as it ended, it is recorded that the crew applauded.  Some cried.

            Those words, “All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain,” those sentiments touch every human being, melting right into the core of who we are.  We have all seen things we wish we could preserve and share.  We have seen things, heard things, thought things gone in the wisp of a moment that no one else will ever see, hear, think, but still carry the scent of eternity with them, and yet they die with us, lost in time, like tears in rain.  More’s the pity.

Born in a Bar? Close the Door to Evil!

By Pastor Ed Evans

As America draws closer to the November 8^th Presidential election, many forces for and against the two leading candidates are becoming more active, more accusatory, more divisive.

Among the voting population there are those who say they will vote for Hillary Clinton, those who say they will vote for Donald Trump, and those who say they cannot vote for either so they will vote for one of the several lesser known candidates.

You, as an American voter, have every right to vote for whom you wish. I and many others have and most probably would again, fight to guarantee you that right. In the same spirit that it has been said that the U.S. Constitution is fit only for governing a God-fearing people -- yes, I am aware not all Americans are going to be God-fearing people – the action of performing as a responsible voter rests only with those concerned, as I am at this critical juncture in our nation's history, with the future of our nation.

Any due diligence applied, any critical thinking, will reveal that only Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump have a reasonable chance at becoming President. I am not nearly as concerned about what Trump says as I am about what Clinton has not only done, but promises to do once imbued with the power of the Oval Office. There can be no compromise, there is no alternative choice. The nation-saving choice rests in keeping evil out of the Oval Office, away from the power of the Presidency, completely away from the nuclear football, or codes. Evil must also not be allowed to pack the Supreme Court over the next eight years; must be kept from continuing to strip the U.S. military of not only new weaponry but also necessary maintenance programs (F-18s are "falling out of the air" due to lack of required maintenance); cease coming up with more PC social experiments in our military that merely degrade the most effective military in the world; stop teaching the next generation that how to make more money is better than learning productive ethics and morals.

As with the rest of life that I have lived and observed in my 75 years on this earth, I have no doubt about the sovereignty of Almighty God; God will do what God intends to do. And while His Son's Sermon on the Mount provides excellent guidance for how we should live into His vision, at no time does God instruct us to open the doors for evil. But as with most everything else, opening those doors or closing them is an individual choice. Choose well. The future of your children and my grandchildren depend upon keeping evil out.  I urge you not to allow them to be caught on the wrong side of evil.

Strangeness in a Strange World

Seems to be a strange wave of anti-voting going on. I keep running into posts by people who claim they are not voting for Hillary, and by not voting at all, they claim that will be a vote for Trump. It's nonsense, of course. Doesn't work that way. But that is their story and they are sticking to it, along with the claims Hillary will never be convicted of anything. Like they thought she was royalty.
I have to believe this is all coming from the Democrat's traditional bag of dirty tricks. Otherwise, why the sudden surge of "not voting is a vote for Trump"?
One poster brushed aside all logical arguments ending with a graphic which declared: "The only people I owe my loyalty to are those who never made me question their's." This was my response:
"...owe loyalty...? That would include all those wonderful young men who paid with their lives and futures for your freedom and mine. I know many of their names firsthand, some who died on the four battlefields on which I served, while I survived. And I owe them and their surviving families a better America, which is why I will not roll over and go along to get along. Trump has been helping and assisting military veterans long before he began running for President. Hillary has consistently disrespected and demeaned military members, not to mention the now available email evidence of her deadly involvement in the death of the Benghazi four. If you are free, if you are in this nation speaking English, having access to all the hopes and dreams of any other American, then you owe posterity the same diligence of purpose in protecting freedom that those who came before you sacrificed to provide to you and your family. "Opting out", like the bended knee before royalty, is not the American way.

COMMENT: Iran's Supreme Leader is Spitting into the Wind

Iran Supreme Leader: The Only Solution For Crisis Is Israel’s Destruction
(http://dailycaller.com/2014/07/23/iran-supreme-leader-the-only-solution-for-crisis-is-israels-destruction/#ixzz38MjeRrjq)

Iran's "Supreme Leader" is spitting into the wind. What the Living God decrees will not be set aside by demi-gods, false gods, and evil men.

There are some specifics that should be noted about this article.  First, note the author and his relationship to Iran: “Reza Kahlili is a pseudonym for a former CIA operative in Iran’s Revolutionary Guards, who also serves on the Task Force on National and Homeland Security and the advisory board of the Foundation for Democracy in Iran.
Second, the "Iron Dome" is not a "dome" to be pierced.  Iran knows well what it is.  And the threat to Israel and to U.S. warships is an empty one.  The U.S. military has not been sitting on its hands relying on old armament.  Thanks to our own news media, Iran knows well that what they are boasting of has not a chance against the U.S. Navy's newest armament.  But you don't have to know all there is to know to understand that tyrants of the Middle East have always made a habit of claiming more than they can accomplish.  In Texas terms, all hat and no cattle.  Other than that I would quote the word of the Living God: "Some trust in chariots and some in horses, but we trust in the name of the LORD our God."  Psalm 20:7

Come Home

by Pastor Ed Evans

            I got up late that morning.  Working on a project the night before, I stayed up late and slept in the next morning. 

            Nearly one o'clock, I got up, showered, took my daily ration of pills, made coffee and sat down in my favorite chair to enjoy it.  The house was quiet and to break the silence, I clicked on the television.  Up came a program about The Gaithers.  The quartet with some of my favorites was in the middle of a song.  Don't recall which one. 
But the program was nearly over.

            The scene was a small country church with large, lit candles up and down the main aisle, with the

             They began to sing their last song, "Come Home."  As I listened to their harmonizing a special poignancy filled me and I wondered why this song should mean so much to me.  Then, as I listened to the words, I understood. 

            My Lord had died on a painful cross, on a hill named Golgotha, naked before His enemies, to free me from the sins that passed for the life I had led.  And even now, if I claimed I never sinned I would be lying, and even those my Jesus both knew and covered for all time through His blood.  Then, before a disbelieving world, and in consensus with prophecy after prophecy throughout ancient times, God the Father raised the Son from the grave, so that we have a living Savior who knows our life in the flesh, knows our emotions, our hurts, and our hopes.

            And now, down through the empty halls of time, whatever happened to me, whatever happened to you, comes the call of the Savior, "Come home....come home."  While there were times I was not faithful to Him, He was forever faithful to me, and the song "Come Home," was His call to me, across the ages, "Come home ... come home."

            Wherever you have wandered, wherever you have lain, for personal reasons, for what you believe are very logical reasons ... it doesn't matter.  It's not so someone else wins, or He wins, not even so you win.  He loves you, He cares about you.  You know what you have done, He knows what you have done, said, left undone.  But ... He's not accusing you, the one who loved you first is simply saying, "Come home ... come home."

            Perhaps coming to Guild of Christ at http://www.guildofchrist.com/, or one of the Facebook online church pages, Guild of Christ or Christian Church Online will help you get home.  Another good spot is my friend Pastor Bernie Lutchman Jr's blog, The Write Stuff, at http://bernielutchman.blogspot.com/.  They are places of worship built around praise, prayer and communion with the Living God.  Not home, but they are on the way home.

            We all have some sense of where home is.  Home has different nuances for each of us.  But through it all, there is one home for all of us, and that is where our Lord Jesus Christ is at.  Wherever Jesus is, there is home.  And so there is special poignancy to His call to you and to me, "Come home ... come home."

Our Military Intervention is Too Costly?

     Some people complain that our current fiscal problems are the result of America fighting wars on two fronts (more than that if you consider the rest of the world and non-military action).  But frankly the cost of our military intervention world-wide is miniscule compared to the actions, and inactions, of our President and Congress.

     However, it is an historic ploy for leaders of nations in jeopardy to distract their citizens with a common enemy. Obama is unique in that he attempts to divide forces in America while praising our terrorist enemies and attempting to make each of us the enemy of another within our own borders. The election in 2012 must be a cease and desist order to the Democratic Party that has climbed in bed with this anti-American president in order to promote their own socialist agenda. In the end, Obama has disappointed even them, but they continue to support him in hopes, as Pres. Reagan once said, "the alligator won't eat them. But eat them he will."

Telling One Another 'Ghost Stories'

     For some time now there has been speculation and wild schemes batted about concerning martial law, detainee camps, black ops.  I guess what would really scare the people who are busy telling one another such "ghost stories" is that military members such as myself know by name hundreds whom we know we can trust, who know hundreds of others, who can be armed, who know how to contact and track one another, and who have sworn an allegiance for a lifetime to protect the Constitution of the United States and, as a brotherhood under arms, one another.  
It's the kind of networked organization that wouldn't be tracked.  
Not because they can't, but because the Feds wouldn't believe its potential, and the LEOs wouldn't, for the most part.  
Just ordinary guys and gals who believe in the spirit of freedom and American self-reliance.  In them and Almighty God I trust.  All others pay cash.