144 Thousand Plus

A short time after we moved into our new home in Bellemeade there was a knock on the door. Two young men neatly dressed and bibles in hand greeted me with big smiles and good wishes. Their opening statement was, “Do you know that only one hundred and forty four thousand people are going to make it into heaven?” They claimed that only members of their true church would be saved.

As a preacher for over four decades I have heard that question before and recognized the brand of church they represented. I was in a very good mood that day and decided to play along. I invited them in to discuss the scripture from the seventh chapter of Revelation that they miss-quoted. I asked them to read me all of chapter seven and I listened with interest as they read aloud.

My first question was, “Which tribe do you belong too?” They were not ready for that question and asked what I meant. I pointed out that the 144,000 people were all Hebrews, twelve thousand from each tribe. Since they claimed to be part of the 144,000 which tribe did they claim? They did not have an answer for that one.

I then quoted verse nine back to them about the great multitude that no one could count from every nation and said, “I am in that crowd.” They left the house and no one from their church has ever knocked on my door since.

I was in an even better mood for the rest of the day.

Genetic Melting Pot

So who and what are you? I have been doing a lot of reading about America’s genetic melting pot and thinking about how unique we Americans are. Many of us put a hyphen in our genetic back ground saying, “I am a German-American or an Irish-American. You can list almost any thing that way; Asian, Latin, African, Native and the list goes on and on.

For a lot of us the genetic hyphens are many. Checking my family back ground is well mixed European German-English-Scottish-French and who knows what else mixed together. I just have to make it easy and say I am an American period and not claim the myriad connections of ancient ancestors. I have met people who are more mixed and melted than that. I know a light skinned black man who also claims Korean, White, Cherokee, and South Pacific.    

As the generations of US citizens add up the melting together become more pronounced. All of us who have families living here for a hundred years or more may be quite shocked at how much of the melting has been done in us. I have noticed that the younger generation has dropped much of the bias of my parent’s generation so that racially mixed marriages are more pronounced. The future of the melting process is clear and the idea of racially purity, at least here, is gone.

Lets get over the name calling and claim the title American human.

Evil People

Since the day that Cain killed his brother Able there have been people who do evil things to other people. History is full of horrific misdeeds committed on unsuspecting populations. Hitler was not the first nor was he the last person to try and kill off whole groups of people.

My religion, as most religions, teaches that such persons will face eternal punishment for such evil deeds. Society also provides punishment for evil deeds if the perpetrator gets caught. The ancient Jewish law called for an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth. Some countries cut off the hand of a thief and even will kill one who murders another. Tough penalties are often seen as a deterrent to future crimes.  It deters future crimes by that person but other evil people will still do evil things.

Most of us refrain from doing evil simply because we have a deep seated desire to be good. About ten percent of us are not bothered by a desire to be good and the only thing that keeps us in check is the fear of getting caught. There are those few who think that they will get away with doing evil things. They can not conceive of getting caught or that they are so important or powerful that it won’t matter.

We can never totally stop evil people from doing evil. Always there will be the con artist that tries to seal our money, an angry person who is willing to kill another person or a sick leader who wants to start a war. Society needs to try to stop them but always there will be evil ones who will find a way to destroy our peace and peace of mind.  Our personal response needs to be rooted in our faith so that we  have the internal fortitude to recover spiritually from such actions every time they occur. 

Training ♀ Girls and ♂ Boys

Training Girls and Boys

I have been thinking about how we need to train our girls and boys in this dangerous age where children can be kidnapped and sold in to the slave sex trade for the perverted pleasure of dirty evil men.

Through the ages ♀ girls have needed to be protected from perverts and some cultures keep them hidden away until they are married. The American culture does not do that but most parents warn their girls about the problem. Most women report that they have had to put up with men who hit on them and try to grope them.

Small ♂ boys are also victims of sexual assault and some times by high profile football coaches and priest. So we need to train our boys as well as girls how to defend themselves and how to report an assault. Then parents need to believe their children and investigate.

Our boys also need to be trained from an early age to respect girls. All too often our boys grow up learning that they are expected to “sow their wild oats” before they get married. They often continue that after marriage. Many feel that it is their god given right to have sex with any girl they can. When these boys become old men they often wind up paying prostitutes for sex they can not get any other way. Many times the prostitutes are sex slaves who work for a pimp that totally controls them.

Train your sons from an early age to respect women and girls as children of God that they must protect and never harm or degrade.

Slave Trade in Kentucky

A ten year old girl is walking alone heading home from visiting a girl friend down the street. A van with darkened glass pulls up and two men jump out grab her and put her in the van. She is beaten, rapped, and drugged. They take her to a city like Louisville where she is sold to a pimp and forced to have sex with a lot of men every day.

Today at my church’s Men’s Fellowship meeting our program was a social worker Marissa Castellanos who works for Catholic Charities Human Trafficking program. The sad fact is that human slave trade is second only to the drug trade for making money by criminals. The statics are staggering and the salve trade is not just for prostitution but also for domestic servants, hotel house keeping and restaurant staffs. As a pastor I was aware that this happened but the numbers presented today are appalling. I thought that most of the human trafficking victims were from over seas but half are American children and young women.

Awareness is our key to dealing with this issue. First we must all be aware that it happens and report what we see. The HOTLINE number is 1 888 373-7888 use it to report or get help. Second make our girls aware what could happen and train them to avoid walking alone and what to watch for. Girls who run away are often targets for the slave/sex trade recruiters. They never think about that possibility when they run away.

 The problem is world wide and much of the coffee and coco we consume is provided by slave labor in Africa and other places. There is a web site to check on which companies are using and selling products that come from salve labor, www.free2work.org and those who use free trade products.

Slavery is illegal but there is a lot of profit in buying and selling slaves and it will take all of us being aware and willing to report when we see it. 

Please pass this information on to others.

The Retirement Challenge

There are people who retire and think, “OK now I can sit back in the easy chair and relax. I worked hard all my life and now I can coast.” I have to admit that it is nice to be able to relax and do things I enjoy but the idea of doing nothing with my life after retirement is just not the way to go. I have witnessed too many people who retired and sat and then began to die. To suddenly go from very busy to not busy at all is hard on the heart and all your other body systems.

The challenge in retirement is what do I do with me now. When it is possible to live to over a hundred years we have a long time spend in retirement. Having planed financially for the day of retirement so that I could live comfortably with out working for a living, I need to refocus my life. Some ten years before retirement I received a book from my pension fund that asked an important question. “What do you do after retirement?” It was an encouragement to start the process of refocusing my life long before I made that great change.

Spending a few weeks just relaxing and shifting gears was about all the time I needed. Being a Pastor of a church is to be on call twenty-four/seven and being a member of every committee and group in the church. That is a lot of meetings. Then suddenly no committees and no need to be out of bed and ready for work at an early hour. Sunday was real change to be able to sit in the pew with my wife and worship instead of directing worship. Nice!

The challenge was now what? I could focus my involvement in thing I enjoy. I volunteered to do many things in the community and the church and that for me was the key. I am still busy but on my terms. In church I may do a lot of ministry but without committees.  In the community I became a mayor and chaplain for the local fire department. As I love to write my daughters got me involved in blogging and I love it. Life is good in retirement when you meet the challenge to be active and alive.

Manana

The Mexicans have a word for that MAÑANA ... Put it off till tomorrow and you will find that mañana never comes.

Many of us want to do things only our own way and NOT GOD'S WAY. We are like the eight-year-old girl who had been sent to her room for punishment. After a while she reappeared in a very happy mood.

"Well, Mamma," she said, "I've thought things over and I prayed."

That's fine," said mom, "Now that should help you be a good little girl."

"Oh, I didn't pray to be good. I asked God to help you put up with me."

If you want to live God's way, then now is the time to become the Disciple that is filled with a fiery passion for serving the Lord.