BERNARD MADOFF IS DEVIL MONEY LUST

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


He’s sentenced to 150 years in prison.


Jesus said that the love of money is the root of all evil. Madoff surely loved money as his god. Therefore, fill in the blanks.


His soul is black as any hell pit. He has breathed the demons’ cravings and shared that with his wife and sons. The lengths are limitless to which the Devil will go to dupe the spiritually void worldly crews.


After the first lie, the second becomes easier. After the second, the third slips in quite without fanfare. And from then on out, it’s lie as lifestyle. In Madoff’s pit, lies were tied to money.


However, there are countless others “out there” who are slipping down the same pit; it’s just that their money take is not the lump sum of Madoff’s. They won’t make the news either. Nevertheless, their god is money.


Jesus said that one cannot serve money and God. Jesus knew the parasitic suck-blood creature money can become.


As a child my Christian parents taught us children to tithe. We were told that the Bible states that God’s ownership of our first tenth of any income is to be given back to Him. If we keep it for self, we are stealing from God.


God was quite displeased with Israel for centuries upon centuries. Part of that displeasure was their stealing the tithe for self. Malachi 3:10 accents this in particular.


I have looked back over my life to realize that my parents’ instruction concerning the tithe put money in the biblical perspective. I gave God His tithe. He instructed me in frugality concerning the other nine-tenths. He also gave me peace of mind regarding money. I really did not worry about finances when I was faithful to God’s way of dealing with my money.


Having pastored for half a century, I have watched people struggle with the tithe. Some have obeyed God’s Word. Others have rationalized it away. For the former, they have lived out the divine peace. For the latter, they have slipped further and further away from God’s way.


Preaching on the tithe has gone out of style in today’s preaching-lite messages that tickle. Yet that does not scissor it out of the Bible. No matter the current culture’s spiritual excellence or lack of, God’s holy writ remains intact.


I think of one fellow whose god became his house. He had once been totally surrendered to God’s Scripture. However, over time, I noticed him struggle with full commitment. When he was on the lean side, he was on the shaky side of soul. When he was on the full side, he enjoyed God’s smile.


Finally, his house and its improvements got the hold of his soul. It seemed harmless to him. But I saw the signs early on. It is very difficult however to warn parishioners in such circumstances. They tend to rail back, lash out.


Eventually, the material took over the spiritual. Today he is empty and wandering in spirit.


How many others have come to his sorry state of affairs? Only God knows.


If Madoff had been taught the biblical perspective regarding money, he could have latched onto it, making it a safe lifestyle under heaven.


However, as the world now knows, Madoff never even came close.

AMERICA'S REAL HOPE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


It’s there.


I walked into a huge church in Texas. The parking lot was packed to the gills. Young adults were heading toward the doors of the sanctuary, Bibles in hand.


I was visiting my mother for my home is in Maine. What a breath of fresh air it was to spend a Sunday in Denton. It was far different than the Rock Gardens of God — New England.


I got up early, drove to various churches, parked the car and entered one sanctuary after another. I did not have the time to stay in every church for every worship length; but I stayed long enough to pick up the bulletin and get the feel of the environs.


It was awesome. Sunday is actually like a special day in Denton — God’s holy day. There are citizens there who truly turn off the labor of six days in order to focus on God Almighty. They gather under various denominational labels, but they gather nevertheless.


This particular church where I stayed the longest was filling up. I was taken in by all the young adults — some as couples, others as obvious singles, filing in to take their seats. They looked happy. They were clean cut. They were reverent yet sociable, smiling at one another, embracing a friend, waving a greeting. It was a family meeting, I concluded — a very large, welcomed family meeting. We were all one big clan — at least as long as we were together in the sanctuary with Bible in hand.


The pastor was casually dressed, as were most of the parishioners. In fact, I think I could easily pick out the tourists who chose that church for that Sunday’s worship. They were dressed more formally, like back home. But the regulars were seated in their casual nice selves. Texas weather lends itself to that anyhow.


The singing was from the heart. The announcements were few. The special music was not outlandish but stirring for the soul. The freedom in the air was invigorating. It did not take work to worship; it was a spirit pleasure. “No wonder they build such large parking lots attached to these churches. The people never give up. They keep coming back — not only on Sundays but for special events on weekdays,” I noted.


I wanted to call my friends back in Maine, inviting them to come on along. But then I noted not many empty seats. Practically every seat in the large auditorium was filled. Yes, there were senior citizens there. They were not forgotten. And they fit right in with the younger set. Boys and girls were actually seated alongside their parents. I truthfully witnessed whole families sitting alongside one another! Wonders never cease in some locales.


With that I remembered reading of other worship experiences like this peppered around America. They are there. They are active. They are alive.


Then it was that I put aside the frightening newspaper headlines that had been screeching at me all week long. Thankfully I turned off Dan Rather and Peter Jennings in my head. With that, I realized that there is a tremendous underground of truth at work in this country. That Sunday morning I had become a part of it and didn’t want to leave. It was wonderful.

A BLESSED 4th OF JULY: AMERICA’S CHRISTIAN BASE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


President George Washington wrote a prayer addressed to “O most glorious God, in Jesus Christ” and ended it with this: “Let me live according to those holy rules which thou hast this day prescribed in Thy Holy Word. Direct me to the true object, Jesus Christ, the Way, the Truth and the Life. Bless O Lord all the people of this land.”


President Thomas Jefferson: “God who gave us life gave us liberty. And can the liberties of a nation be thought secure when we have removed their only firm basis — a conviction in the minds of the people that these liberties are of the gift of God? That they are not to be violated but with His wrath? Indeed, I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that His justice cannot sleep forever.”


President James Madison: “Religion is the basis and foundation of government. We have staked the whole future of American civilization not upon the power of government, far from it. We have staked the future of all of our political institutions upon the capacity of mankind for self-government; upon the capacity of each and all of us to govern ourselves, to control ourselves, to sustain ourselves according to the Ten Commandments of God.”


President Andrew Jackson: “I nightly offer up my prayers to the throne of grace for the health and safety of you all, and that we ought all to rely with confidence on the promise of our dear Redeemer, and give Him our hearts. This is all He requires and all that we can do, and if we sincerely do this, we are sure of salvation through His atonement.”


Patrick Henry: “It cannot be emphasized too strongly or too often that this great nation was founded, not religionists, but by Christians, not on religions, but on the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For this very reason peoples of other faiths have been afforded asylum, property, and freedom of worship here.”


President Abraham Lincoln: “The ways of God are mysterious and profound beyond all comprehension. ‘Who by searching can find Him out?’ God only knows the issue of this business. He has destroyed nations from the map of history for their sins. Nevertheless, my hopes prevail generally above my fears for our Republic. The times are dark, the spirits of ruin are abroad in all their power, and the mercy of God alone can save us.”


President Grover Cleveland: “All must admit that the reception of the teachings of Christ results in the purist patriotism, in the most scrupulous fidelity to public trust, and in the best type of citizenship.”


President Woodrow Wilson: “America was born a Christian nation. America was born to exemplify that devotion to the elements of righteousness which are derived from the revelations of the Holy Scriptures.”


President Dwight Eisenhower: “Without God, there could be no American form of government, nor an American way of life. Recognition of the Supreme Begin is the first — the most basic — expression of Americanism. Thus, the founding fathers of America saw it, and thus With God’s help, it will continue to be.”


Further, America’s start was God-grounded. Children went to school to learn their three R’s: reading, writing and arithmetic. Embossing that learning was the Christian faith.


For instance, read from “The NEW ENGLAND PRIMER IMPROVED, For the More Easy Attaining of English, Adorned with Cuts, To Which Is Added ‘The Assembly of the Divines’ CATHECISM (Albany, Whiting, Backus and Whiting) And Sold Retail At Their Store.”


That is what reads on the front cover of The NEW ENGLAND PRIMER IMPROVED.


On Page One of that Primer was the following:


A Divine Song of Praise to God, for a Child
By the Rev. Dr. Watts.


How glorious is our heav’nly King
Who reigns above the sky!
How shall a child presume to sing
His dreaded Majesty?


How great His power is, none can tell,
Nor think how large His grace,
Nor men below, nor saints that dwell
On high before His face,


Nor angels that stand round the Lord,
Can search His secret will;
But they perform His heav’nly Word
And sing His praises still.


Then let me join his holy train,
And my first off’rings bring,
Th’ Eternal God will not disdain
To hear an infant sing.


My heart resolves, my tongue obeys,
And angels shall rejoice,
To hear their Mighty Maker’s praise
Sound from a feeble voice.


The content of instruction in colonial schools was primarily Christian.


Here is an alphabetic listing of statements containing religious and moral maxims that the student was required to memorize:


A: “A wise son makes a glad father, but a foolish son is the heaviness of his Mother”

B: “Better is little with the fear of the Lord, than great treasure and trouble therewith”

C: “Come into Christ all ye that labor and are heavy handed and He will give you rest”


The alphabet guide to spelling was followed by this statement: “Now the child being entered in his letters and spelling, let him learn, these and such sentences by heart, whereby he will be both instructed in his duty and encouraged in his learning:


Q: What is the end of man?

A: Man’s chief end is to Glorify God and to enjoy him forever


Q: What rule hath God given to direct us

A: The word of God, which is contained in the scriptures of the Old and New Testament, is the only rule to direct us how we may glorify and enjoy him.


Genuine allegiance to this nation has to be based on a biblical conviction. That is the loyalty that has enlivened Americans since the start.


Belief in the biblical God has brought to the country’s fore the most committed citizenry known to the planet. It is that faith base that provides the oil for the nation’s machinery. Generation after generation has willingly prayed for this nation, sacrificed for its existence, and treasured its freedoms.


Those prayers continue from the souls of both old and young. This is not a “graying nation,” that is, a Republic supported chiefly by the older persons. There are countless numbers of young Americans who believe in God, pray for the United States and believe that its destiny is governed by a divine wisdom and mercy.


True patriotism is not atheism based. It is not buttressed with a secular agnosticism. True patriotism that lasts and goes deeply to the heart has its endurable foundation when resting on trust in the God of all history.


Atheism believes there is nothing but the material. Therefore, how can such “faith” sustain a penetrating patriotism toward America? A matter-based philosophy is fundamentally a self-centered existence; therefore, though it may mouth patriotism, it is only patriotic when serving the self’s existence.


Agnosticism has no base certainty therefore it is just as bankrupt regarding genuine patriotism as atheism.


The biblical believer as citizen of this remarkable country yearns daily for a God-fearing populace. That believer intercedes for this nation, its leaders, its future. That believer researches Scripture for divine wisdom in how to better serve America.


Numberless organizations and committees are now operating for the good of America’s citizens solely on the drive of a biblical faith. How many do-gooder conclaves reach out daily to the needy, homeless, hungry and forsaken because of serving the God of Scripture? They compose a commendable list.


What is so encouraging is that all of this dates back to our founding patriots. They read the Bible. They prayed to the Lord of the Word. They worshiped that God. They taught their children the precepts of that Word. They molded the laws and institutions of America on the biblical ethic. They dreamed of this country’s future years being blessed by the God of holy writ.


What a heritage the present-day patriot has. What a treasure we have alongside us to counsel our decisions in this complicated time.


Yes, America’s true patriotism is God-based for it is totally reliant on His provisions for our liberties to continue.


For more, read from the NEW ENGLAND PRIMER at http://public.gettysburg.edu/~tshannon/his341/nep1805contents.html

IN JAIL: THAT AWESOME JACKET

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


He murdered a fellow. Would I visit him in prison?


I lived in Walpole, Massachusetts at the time. So being near the famous Walpole Prison was a given. Being a pastor was also a given. Therefore, the call came for me to make a visit to a man incarcerated for killing another.


Now those living in Walpole eventually got tired of being known as the New England village with the prison. So the name was conveniently changed. It moved from Walpole Prison to Cedar Junction. All in a name change!


That day I was on my way to, not Walpole Prison, but Cedar Junction. Just rolling the two words over my tongue made the drive more pleasant — "Cedar Junction." Sounds inviting, doesn’t it?


I had on a new jacket. At least it was new to me. Our church had a free clothing center. So the night before at prayer meeting, Mary Lou said to me, "Pastor, I was going through the clothing that just came in. There’s a really sharp jacket in there I think would fit you."


Sure enough. I tried it. It fit. And it was no shabby piece of thread. Actually, I pictured some rather well to do fellow casting off his attractive jacket for simply another new buy. I got the good part — his jacket leftover — and a clever fabric at that.


Dressed up in my "new" jacket, and off to Cedar Junction, my morning was falling right in line.


When getting to the prison, I knew the rules, having visited numerous prisoners prior. So I shed my jacket, putting it on a hook in the long hallway. Then, giving up my watch and keys and other basic objects, I walked through the metal detector. Fine.


With that, I joined the rather large crowd that had gathered that day. Lots of visitors. The inmates were no doubt eyeing the visiting room in their heads, wondering if they’d get a caller.


I spent some time with Mike, a new person in my book. Of course, I learned a long time ago not to get into detail as to why an individual is in prison. That’s just not courteous. But I never found it difficult finding a myriad of other subjects. Therefore, the time went by quite interestingly — at least for me. And I believe it was for him as well.


After our time together, I once more walked with the others out into the hallway. Now we were on our way to freedom — home or wherever. Anywhere but inside the prison house. Not a very happy environs. Not, for sure.


I noted the woman guard ushering everyone to the exit door but me. Quickly, as if a master sergeant, she pointed her index finger in my direction. With crisp orders she chirped: "Sit over there."


I did. Believe me, I always did what I was told when walking toward the prison, entering the prison, in the prison, and exiting the prison. Yes, even in the parking lot one walked circumspectly. There were armed guards in towers perched skyhiked. So, a word to the wise. . .


Anyhow, I sat pronto on a little bench in the hallway while the female in uniform left me. She strutted to the other end of the narrow confines and then disappeared.


What were they holding me for? Everyone else had disappeared, like water down the drain.
Just me, the good pastor of Walpole, sat there in solo.


In a few minutes, the henchwoman opened the far end door. She peered at me as if I were a worm near ground cover. "Come here." With that, I rose to my feet, walked toward her uniformed authority, and waited for the crime read.


Yet she did not say a word. Instead, she pointed me to a window with a shade. The shade flew up. Another guard — male — sat on the other side of that pane. He had not a smile upon his countenance. Not a one. He stared at me. He called through the speaker system into that narrow hallway.


"Do you know what we found in your jacket?" he bellowed.


"No."


I felt like a naughty urchin at the principal’s office. My knees buckled. My face flushed. My palms turned glassy with sweat. And my heart, young at that time, was leaping out for parking lot freedom.


"Look here." He pointed to a piece of paper on his desk. There in the middle of the paper was a mound of something.


"What’s that?" I asked politely.


"Weed. We found weed in your jacket. You can’t bring weed into a prison. Don’t you know that??"


I could have keeled over and said my final prayers. Weed? The pastor with weed? I figured he didn’t mean dandelions or wild grass.


"I can tell you what happened, sir!"


So with that I proceeded to tell him that I was a pastor at the church in the village, had overseen prayer meeting the night before when Mary Lou told me there was a nice jacket in the free clothing center that she thought would fit me. I tried it on. It fit. I figured that if going to the prison that morning I could try on my new jacket, I’d do just that. And that’s how the jacket came to be on my back, then on the prison hook, and now in his office.


In other words, I had never felt in the jacket pockets. Never. I did not know then there was weed in one of those pockets. Evidently the prior owner was not only some chic chap but also into drugs of a sort or two or whatever. But as for the good pastor, nix.


Would the grouch guard however believe that cock and bull story or what? Yet it was the gospel truth. I knew it. God knew it. But would he buy it? Prayer meeting? Clothing center? Mary Lou? Pastor? New-to-me threads? Nary a pocket felt?


He turned away from me. I stood all alone in the narrow hallway, not even the female guard there to stare me down. He lifted his phone. I could not hear a word. He shut off the system. Who was he calling? He didn’t know my district super. He did not know how to reach my wife. He had no contact related to me in the whole wide world. Who was he talking to?


In what seemed to be an eternity plus some, he put down the phone, opened up a shoot in the wall, shoved my jacket in it, then pushed it through to my sweaty palms.


"I just talked to my superior," he bellowed.


I thought: "And yes, I’ve been talking to my Superior, too."


"He says you can have your jacket and get out of here. If this ever happens again we’re taking you to court." (Several days later I got a letter on prison letterhead from the "superior" stating same. They meant biz).


I grabbed the jacket. Went through several more mechanical doors. And flew for my car. Turned on the ignition and got out of that parking lot as fast as a driver could muster considering armed guards positioned in cages in the sky.


Now there’s an old-time hymn that I’ve sung since a kid. I sang it — car windows wide open — all the way home. It goes like this: "Glorious freedom, wonderful freedom. No more in chains of sin I repine! Jesus, the glorious Emancipator, Now and forever, He shall be mine."


Ask me if I believe in miracles. The answer? I do.


For more: http://conservativeposts.us/

KEEP YOUR HEALTH CARE OPTION

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Do you want Canadian socialized so-called health care? Not.


I have friends in Canada who are still waiting for their medical help. They have been put on lists. They have to wait for the list to shorten so that they can supposedly get some help.


I know one woman who waited 4 years for a pacemaker. Fortunately, she did not die in the waiting.


I know a man who went to a large city hospital for help regarding his lower spine pain. The doctor who met with him treated him “as a piece of meat,” to quote this friend.


I told this man to get in touch with Lahey Clinic in Burlington Massachusetts. He was reluctant for he did not understand our health care in the United States.


His pain persisted. I persisted. His wife persisted.


Finally, he called Lahey. He was given the red carpet treatment over the phone. When he finally drove to Lahey with his wife, he met with the doctor. The red carpet treatment continued. He was welcomed as a first-rate human being who needed first-class health care.


The doctor gave the friend the doctor’s card, urging him to phone the doctor when he made his final decision. “I have 7 surgeons ready to perform the operation you need,” the doctor told him.


Eventually, the pain got so severe that my friend arranged with Lahey for surgery.


Today he is fine. He walks without pain. He works without pain. He is not confined to a wheelchair as he was headed prior to Lahey. He even got a return on his initial money pay-down.


There are those in the US who want government to decide on our health care. That means giving up our option to choose our own. The government voices say that we will still have the health care option in our pockets.


I don’t believe that.


All Americans must fight to keep our health care plans, our health care options, to prohibit government from telling us what health care we will have.


Fight government intrusion on our health care plans.

A VERY SPECIAL GIFT—THE HOLY DAY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


The good God said one day, "I want to give my children a very special gift. It will help them, refresh them, make them happy, lift their burdens and give them a new turn on life."


So the good God set about to craft it. He was thinking of His children's good. He always is.


Even when the good God set before His children a commandment or two, it was always for their good. They did not always get that message. Nevertheless, when they did get that truth, they were set free.


So it was with this very special gift from the good God.


"I want them to put down their weights. I want them to unwind. I want them to go run in the meadows, jump across streams, forget their toil. I want them to be holy, yes, but I want them to understand more than anything else how such holiness unfolds happiness."


This good God timed His gift so that it would keep returning over and over again, never stopping, as long as earth spun upon its axis. How good of the
good God! How pouring-out in His fatherly love for The Precious.


"This gift will long be remembered. Oh, how it makes my own heart glad to offer this present to my redeemed ones.


"Those who have rejected me cannot understand the worth of this gift. But surely my own dear ones will treasure it, hold it delicately and never neglect it. Oh, how it makes my own heart glad!"


How grateful would be the children of the good God. They had such an insightful Parent--looking out for their every benefit.


"I want even their children to inherit this gift. I want all generations to revel in its joy and gladness. How I want the whole world to receive this present. But I know that the whole world will not take to its value.


"Therefore, I must count on my children. I simply must. They surely will hold this jewel to their hearts. Yes, they will will it to THEIR offspring. And so its meaning will bead itself down through centuries of laughter and thanksgiving."


With this, the good God planned it. Is it not always more blessed to give than to receive? So it is with the One who wrote that postulate into being's fabric. HE was almost beside Himself with such holy hilarity.


Recall how you, parents, prepare those dazzling prizes for your own children? You ponder. You purchase. You wrap. You tie the bows. Then you can hardly wait for The Moment!


So it was with the good God.


"This will calm their nerves in rest. My gift will bind their wounds. This present will return them to my love, to worship me fully, to adore my holiness, to share my gift with other redeemed sons and daughters. This gift will draw their families closer. This gift will show to the world that these offspring are different because of their beauty."


The good God, being Creator of His children, knew truly what they needed to make it through each rough-and-tumble week. He knew that they would need to drop everything--hear His music, paint the sky, romp the fields and take in lazy hills. How they would need it!


With that gift, they would enter the very holy of holies, lay their eyes upon His mercy seat, cleanse their souls afresh in shekinah glory, marvel at the cherubim's wings. They would light their lives from golden lampstands, nourish at the shewbread table and mix their thanksgivings with incense from His sanctified altar.


So it was that His smile filled up the all of heaven. Then it was that that smile dipped down to planet earth as the good God lifted high His holy gift for every angel to see!


Think of it: to be the child of such a benevolent Father! So sad for those who cared not for the Father, those twisted in their trenches, vagabonds of their own shriveled spheres, crippling through.


Yet to be the graced child of such a sensitive One! What utter security when leaning upon His sure shoulder.


This Father actually meant for His birthed to pace life in peace. Knowing that His planet had fallen into unbelievable tension, the good God gifted His children with His own unique respite from staccatoed stress.


That very special--holy--gift!


Ah, now was The Moment. Offer it, then, good God. Your offspring of mercy are waiting anxiously. They will surely take hold of it in cascading praise--forever!


As eternity held its breath and nary an angel whispered a sigh, into the hands of His own He gently laid that shining treasure--His Day of Rest.

WOMEN DO BEAT ON MEN

J. Grant Swank, Jr.



Yes, they do.


Have counseled for 45 years. Have been around the block. Have listened to and observed first-hand women beating up on their men. Not nice. Not fair. Not good.


Yet for the man to squeal on the abusive female is anathema. It just can't be done. He's then a wimp, liar or psycho-imaginary. Nevertheless, the facts are that both genders, being severely damaged due to our spiritually fallen sphere, beat up on one another.


But unfortunately for both genders the common opinion is that men beat up
on women and that women don't beat up on men. Not.


Why is this unrealistic appraisal unfair to women? Because anything that is not true is unfair to us all. Only when the truth about women beating up on men is recognized can such females hopefully get help and the next generation of females be knowledgeable enough not to repeat same.


Women pound their fists into men. If the man strikes back, cops are called. Man is hauled off.


Women break objects over men's heads. If the man retaliates in like kind, cops are called. Man is hauled off.


Some women, not ready for body-to-body combat, come up to the man's chest--screaming, ranting--baiting him to take the first swing. If he doesn't, she wins. He's a coward. It he does swing, cops are called. The man is hauled off.


But there are other means by which women beat up on men.


For example, one of many includes verbal beating. It is daily fare in too many men's lives. Sadly, it can be repeated over such a long time frame that it becomes a neurotic way of life for both male and female.


One of the most advantageous places for female verbal beating to take
place is in a vehicle. As the car is moving, she has him pinned in a jail on wheels. Then she lets loose with whatever while he is at the wheel, baiting him with whatever, tempting him to either drive off the road in anger or strike at her in the passenger seat so as to put both lives in danger.


Further, she gambles that she can go and on and on, especially when the two are on a long trip, knowing that there is little chance of him making a U-turn for peace and quiet back home.


Verbal beating also occurs conveniently in the house when no one else is present and the windows are tightly closed. She then rants and raves, once again baiting the male to retaliate.


Verbal beating can take place in public, too. This is the malicious females' most advantageous geography for she concludes that the male will not give up his civil image before others by striking back either verbally or bodily. So she goes at it--and for the big win. Her verbal beating may be subtle or blunt, short or long, loud or soft--or a mix of the aforementioned, but it is verbal beating just the same.


In my counseling, I have found that verbal beating has been more common than the physical, though the latter cannot be discounted for it does occur--and can be exceptionally fierce. However, the big-loud mouth attack is too common. In that, the woman refuses to shut up. She cruelly persists in taunting and badgering. She flails her arms, stomps her feet, and then dares the man to respond with like barbarism. These situations are countless.


The vicious illogic behind this verbal meanness is quite simple: women conclude that since they can't win with body thrusts they will win with tongue sabers. So they go for it--and go for it--and go for it.


Over time, if the male succumbs passively--exhausted--to such mouth battering, the woman concludes that she can build quite an arsenal for numerous occasions; with that, a lifetime can be wasted in combat as the male loses his self-respect, self-esteem and any standing of worth within clan or larger community.


If you are the beaten-up male, what are some solutions?



 Call the battering woman on a reality check. Tell her that her beating--whatever the mode--won't work any more. If she thinks you are fooling, get a restraining order.



 Make an appointment for counseling. See that she goes to it, listens and follows through--also that she does not recreate "reality" to the counselor so as to make her come out the charmer.



 Shutdown. Refuse to communicate on any level until she quits her abuse. No sex. No physical contact of any kind. No talk. Only business matters exchanged such as relating to family schedules, bills, etc.



 Inform others in the clan of what you are going through. Go public to any helpful degree. Tell others that you are no longer going to tolerate the injustices leveled against you. They need to know the facts. If there are those who are suspicious of your data, too bad. Stay with what you know is truth.



 Pray that God will show you the power to live out tough love. He will do that. A woman who beats on a man obviously needs help. Tough love then works from the motive of wanting that woman to seek help.


Tough love is not leveled from selfishness; it is acted out to aid another. Therefore, instead of enabling the woman by submitting to her abuse, exhibit tough love to seek her healing. But remember: no one can force any other person to do anything--especially change. Tough love from you; final choice from her.


Moreover, levelheaded mothers and fathers talk this matter out with their older teens and young adult children in order for the next generation to be super wise concerning the dark side of relationships. If both mother and father understand that women mistreating men is just as destructive as vice versa, then they will explain this to their offspring.

WIN AT RETIREMENT

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Until Norman Vincent Peale hung up his hat for good, he was always trying to change his world for God. Why? Because when he was young he thought himself to be a loser. Then God showed him how to be a winner with life. Once he got hold of those principles, he could not help but try to get out the message--even after so-called retirement age.


“I’m so constructed that age makes no difference. If I get aches and pains at my age, I talk to them. I say, ‘Get with it!’ If you think about age, it’ll get you.” He made this pronouncement when 89.


“I tell everybody to do what I did: Find another career when you’re 65. If you retire and go to Florida and play golf all morning and all afternoon, you’re going to deteriorate.”


Artist Pablo Picasso was still drawing at 90.


Actress Jessica Tandy won an Academy Award at 80 for her performance in “Driving Miss Daisy.”


Environmentalist Marjory Stoneman Douglas was still at it when l00. She is applauded for saving the Everglades.


People who know how to get the juice out of every fruit refuse to retire from life. They may move into another job at retirement age, but they surely do not give up on fulfillment.


My father-in-law moved from Nova Scotia to Connecticut at so-called retirement age. Did he quit altogether? No, he simply transferred his skills from village grocery and lumber mill owner to working in a woolen mill.


In her retirement years, my mother worked as a secretary for the president of a company in Texas.


When Constance Daniels was 91, she organized a clothing and household distribution center in Milwaukee’s downtown.


Lena Genser, at 83, finished high school, then went on to get her college degree as well. At 90, she took up computer programming.


Marian Janes retired from her government position, then became secretary to a college dean of students, followed by church secretary for her neighborhood congregation. Today she spends her time running errands for students and professors. “I am glad I live so near the campus,” she explained.


There is always something you can do if you look around hard enough. God will also lead if you ask Him.


I remember a gentleman telling me that his time was up. He was particularly discouraged with his lot in life. I pointed out to him a job opportunity half-way across the country. I wondered if he would be game. He was. Within a short time, he was gone. Happily, I heard that he realized he got hold of another lease on life.


Mae Anthony’s husband died. She was left alone in her big country home. What would she do with her loneliness? She looked out at a village of 500. They passed by her home every day. The road in front of her property was the ONLY road.


Taking stock of her commodious closed-in front porch, she imagined shelves covered with gifts. It did not take long for her to open a shop. Tucked into every space were the most attractive cups and saucers, birthday and anniversary presents, baby cups and toys, greeting cards.


For years, she increased her friendship circle with that shop. Not only did she make a few sales, more importantly, she broke up her monotony. I have been in her shop and I know the delight which furnished it. One not only bought something, he also spent too much time amiably chatting with the little woman who ran the place.


Porter Collins lived on a busy thoroughfare outside Hartford, Connecticut. A large lawn graced the front of his comfortable home.


Porter was the kind of person who was always sharing something with someone. Therefore, he concluded that he too would build a small gift shop by the road. I knew that he put up that structure not so much to make a little money but to make a host of new friends. He was particularly successful with his friendships!


Edison retired from full-time pastoring. He and wife, Golda, moved south to get away from snowy winters. However, Edison could not get the preacher out of his system. It was not long until he was back on staff assisting the senior pastor, delivering sermons once a month and visiting the shut-ins.


Cynthia came upon a degree of ill health. She moved into a senior citizens’ apartment complex. Yet she had to help people. That was her nature. Therefore, she let it be known that if children had to be picked up for appointments and their parents were not available, she would be chauffeur--without charge. “Call me. I’ve got an open schedule. I’m glad to be of help!” How the world could use more people like that woman.


If you can still move, keep going. If you can still think, crank up the mind. If you can still pray, come before the Lord. He will keep your life filled with His goodness. It usually happens when you reach out beyond yourself.


It helps to get rid of the cobwebs which incorrect thinking has put into our heads. These spider spinnings need to be brushed away--quickly. One might refer to them as myths; in their place we need the truth about growing older.


For instance, there is an untruth going around that retirement age was set at 65 because job output is poor after that age.


The truth is that there is absolutely no relationship between the two. When German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck established the initial social security system in the late l800s, his primary aim was to stop the spread of socialism by making benefits available to workers. He chose 65 as that age to start the pension payments because few of his countrymen lived much past 65 then. Other countries later used that age already set by Germany.


Another untruth is that age brings serious health difficulties.


Reality is that scores of people revel in good health in their later years. Seeing and hearing may dim and the body reflexes may get a bit sluggish. Yet many other problems given to aging are not related to that bracket at all. Proper diet and exercise help prevent or stop conditions such as osteoporosis and high blood pressure.


Did you ever hear someone recite that memory becomes poorer as one gets older?


The truth is that in their 70s, most persons experience a small smidgen of difficulty in remembering recent happenings. Yet other types of memory--facts, skills, knowledge--are not dented by the years.


What about mental alertness declining with age?


Individuals who keep their minds active do not discover a decline in intellectual prowess unless they suffer from Alzheimer’s disease.


Winning in retirement years begins with each dawn. Say to yourself: “This is the day which the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it” (Psalm ll8:24).


Believe this: “So teach us to number our days that we may get a heart of wisdom” (Psalm 90:12).


If God is the author of life, the last age bracket here on His earth should be brimming with the Lord’s bounty. The believer is soon to be welcomed home eternally. God is waiting for that child of grace.


Consequently, with such expectancy, the last chapters should be exciting. No wonder those who truly experience their faith are bright and beautiful with the divine presence.


Leo was that kind of fellow. He had gone through a lot of disappointment with his children. He had come upon ill health in older years. Yet when you talked with him, you would never have known any of this.


His face shined. His voice was even radiant. One could tell that this man had won! And he was still winning every day he woke up.


His wife, Betty, said, “Leo is one of the most remarkable persons I have ever met.” And she got to live with him!


Betty, a nutritionist, was an outstanding personality herself. She had worked for years in a retirement complex dining facility.


When it came to retire, she took in the lavish banquet, commendations and presents. But it was not long till the residents saw her back on site.


“I can’t stay away from this place. There are too many fond memories and friends here!”


So--without pay--she returned time and again to lift the spirits of her pals.


Probably her most obvious gift to those about her was her hearty laugh. When she laughed, the whole world turned merrier. She’s another one who should be cloned to make this place a more pleasant place to live.

‘GET OVER IT’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


You’ve been beaten up and left for dead. Who did it? The very churchly dancers you had thought you could trust.


They hugged you. They prayed over you. They sent you memos and left messages on your phone machine. They sent you Christmas greetings with nice sayings scribed all over them.


Then they flashed the name “Brutus.” His knife went squarely to your heart. Your blood spilt into the alley as they sauntered away, never looking back, chuckling under their breath that the premeditated deed was done—finally.


When you entered seminary, you never dreamt that such treachery was “out there.” You thought that those in authority over you were to be believed and admired, leaned upon for opening your heart in counseling and camaraderie. And so you told them everything in trust.


You never thought that those wearing ecclesiastical titles of holiness and service actually could be in league with the devil—plotting, lying, waiting for your innocent moment to wipe you out.


Nor did your spouse. If anyone trusted the stalkers it was your spouse. She believed in them all the way, looking into their faces with such childlike admiration.


So did your children. After all, they were taught manners.


But now you all are much smarter than you once were. And bloodier.


So then how do you “get over it”?


You allow yourself to be human with all the emotions stirring about within you—anger, hatred, madness, anguish, disappointment, feelings of revenge, wanting to settle the score, nightmares of getting even.


You are not in your perfect heavenly body yet. You are still very much damaged due to our first parents’ disobedience. A part of all that is having a host of emotions on the dark side. Realize that and so deal with that—in time and patiently.


Go easy on yourself. Bring your tattered self to the good Lord who has been treated unbelievably shabbily over and over and over and over again. If there is anyone who surely can empathize with your state, it is He. After all, till the close of this earth’s stay, God always will be weeping over those who promised to follow, yet reneged. It is His sorry lot.


Dump your weary self at His feet. Cry. Wail. Stomp your feet. Rant and rave. Let go. Only when you do all that can you eventually “get over it.”


I know. I have been there. The memories are horrible. They sting to the depths. Yet I can witness that time is the gift of grace that heals wisely. God has seen to it that the clock keeps ticking and with each tick is the new tissue.


In time, God will put all that madness behind you so that you actually will talk about the horror without raging. Yet that only occurs after time—and with each of us the timing is different, naturally.


Nevertheless, be assured that God will take care of you “getting over it.” He will see to it in His own masterful way.


And when you do “get over it,” you will discover a new ministry. It will be that of caring for others in like suffering, genuinely comforting them along the way, saying to them “I know exactly what you are going through for I have traveled that very same journey.”


In that will be a new joy you had not come upon before. Truly.

SOMETIMES CHURCH IS MORE POLITICS THAN GOSPEL

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When I first went into the ministry, I carried with me the 'layman's view.' That is, I trusted everyone--especially the clergy. And more particularly those who had risen above local clergy to some 'higher position' within the system.


As years passed--and it took some years to pass--that notion started to wear down a bit. Then it kept wearing down more so. Then finally truth broke through so as to lead me to conclude that sometimes 'church' is more politics than gospel, than truth, than Jesus-sharing.


Oh, boy, is it ever!


Now go all the way back--way back--to the first century. It was the same then. Only then it was not so much the church as it was the temple. Now I ask you for a quick answer: Which held sway at the temple: politics or truth? You got it: politics.


In fact, it was religious politics that killed Jesus. Roman politics merely provided the means to see through the crucifixion ached for by the temple crew.


Go back even further than all that. Flip over history's pages into the Old Testament. Now which held more sway: the primitive politics of the local yen or the prophet's preaching of truth? You got it: primitive politics. That's when the local heathen--sacrificing their animals in the name of Jehovah but neglecting their obedience to the divine--hatcheted the prophets for pressing the truth.


Now let's come down through church history to scan the events' tops of things. What about the medieval period when the Holy Roman Empire held power? If you dared to step out of line of the Roman church politic, heaven help you.


It became worse as time moved on into the sixteenth century. Ask Martin all about that one! It was he who bucked the system in order to press for the truth. And we all know what anguish he had to put up with, fortunate indeed that he did not end his earthly stay tied to a pyre for a torch blow.


And then what followed the Reformation is more of the same: step out of line--whether Catholic or Protestant--and you might find yourself burnt alive. Many did.


Now today, they don't burn you alive, they cut you up into little pieces for the ecclesiastical power plays of the 'church'.


It has happened to far too many good people out there in the gospel work. Some are laymen conveniently fed to the political tables for carnal consumption. But far more innocent, pure clergy have been offered up as the sacrifice for political maneuvering within the 'church'.


I know. I was one of those offered up.


The higher-up over my particular station heard a tale told once at a Christmas clergy / spouses dinner. The tale was that I had said that it was time to get rid of the higher-up-one. It was a lie. I never said that. But the higher-up-one believed that. From that moment on, he held it against me, he plotted for my demise. I never dreamt of what was going on.


In time--and it took a few years for him to see his plot through--he left the scene. Another higher-up came into power play. That higher-up one had told me that I was to agree with him to charge an exorbitant amount for a young couple to cough up in order to use his church for their wedding. I could not agree to the outrageous amount demanded. He never forgot it. He set his sights on ousting me, if ever he could.


Well, because he followed the previous higher-up, he now had the power to see through the killing. In the meantime, there were some in my congregation who called the higher-up on the phone, complaining about nonsense things in the church. (Ever had any of those creatures hanging around the holy altars of worship where you hold forth?)


Those phone calls were the ammunition the higher-up ached for in order to bring down the curtain on my ministry. He waited. He schemed. He did his homework in dirty fashion behind the ecclesiastical curtains till the time was ripe.


Then on one Sunday evening, the higher-up and his henchmen showed up at my residence to deliver the sword's shining blade. It took but a brief time to see through the execution.


From that, the truly Higher-Up-One saw through a deliverance from the churchly politics in order for me to continue the genuine gospel work of the true church.


Yet through it all, I came to experience (more than I had ever wanted to know) of what it is true, oh, so awfully true: the church sometimes is more politics than truth.


If only the young, green ones could get hold of that postulate when first walking into that first pastorate. But it can never be. They would not believe it. They are not seasoned yet. Try to tell them and you are labeled the troublemaker, the old fogy, the neurotic senile
wretch.


So those of us who have traveled the journey are left to watch and pray. In time, more are fed to the political slaughter. Yet, once again, such challenges the truly Higher-Up-One to get hold of another bloody mess from which to resurrect a wiser servant.


God be with you if you have ever trekked this painful path. God be near you with a few understanding, TRUSTWORTHY friends who can genuinely empathize with you, intercede for you, carry your burdens for you, and help you through to another daylight of gospel rest.


Believe me, in time, you will come upon that gospel rest--personally and deeply. And for that, you will never ever be the same.

WHEN YOU’VE BEEN BEATEN UP BY THE CHURCH

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When the church beats you up—the superiors you trusted, the laity you gave your blood to, the poor folk you had in for dinner, the church boards you worked with, the fellow clergy you shared do-nuts with, the elders you had believed in—you cry out that God’s left town?


How many times in life do you sit yourself down and say, "Nothing fair is happening. Maybe even logical, compassionate, overseeing God forgot to punch in today."


Oh really?


Go figure, as the teens say today. Go figure what happened with Joe seated in Egypt's jailhouse cell. Nothing was going on. Nothing. Rats ran across the floor. Water gathered flies in the corner bowl. But God had failed to punch in.


Go figure what was going on with Job seated on an ash heap. Nothing was moving but his squirrely wife who wound his ear drums up tight. "Curse God and die!" Nice woman. Really one sweety pie of a gal. In other words, from all appearances, nothing at all was happening in that man's life but the worst of times.


Go figure with Dan being led to the den. Hands tied with rope. Burly soldiers tossing him about the footpath. An empire breathing down his slender throat. And lions salivating all over the cave floor. Obviously, God had forgotten to punch in.


Go figure with Noah and Mom Noah and three sons with daughters-in-law. Nothing really was happening but more sweat pounded into a backyard boat. And for what? For a "rain" that had never been? For "drops from above" that were mere fiction? Noah had ringing in his ears night and day due to the clamor of neighbors' pans clanging ridicule till dawn. Evidently God
had forgotten to punch in.


Go figure with Paul, stoned and left for dead. For doing what? For preaching love, joy and peace. For showing a village how to find their ways to heaven. For befriending Jews and Gentiles alike for Jesus' sake. The end of it all was a ministry of stones pounded into his flesh. God—why don't you remember to show up for work when Paul needs you?


Go figure with you—vacuum, nobody loves you, nothing is going right, friends have betrayed you, enemies are screwing up their ammunition fire for another round, skies are loaded with rain clouds, and a dentist appointment stares you in the face for l o'clock this afternoon!


You poured out your loving energies to your congregation. You put the church ahead of your family. You dove in where angels feared to tread. You lived on a shoestring while your peers were flew off the corporate charts.


For all that, you got the hatchet.


Do you not believe that when nothing works right, God is? Have you committed yourself to blind faith in His doings, whether you can understand them or not, whether you feel anything religious or not, whether anyone else cares about your mission or not?


Do you not reckon that the journey can be a lonely one? The way of the cross? The pilgrimage of an alien here below?


Then look back particularly on one who—go figure—had all the reasons to conclude that Father had forgotten to clock in on that particular Thursday night, moving into Friday's bloodletting as well.


There He hung—messed up, unsightly, belly bellowing to the Calvary winds, flies buzzing about his crusted brow, arms sagging beneath nails punched into his skin, an army of cowardly disciples hiding out in nighttime's shelters. Nothing was going on. Nothing.


Go figure.

THERE IS LIFE AFTER EXPULSION

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Believe me. There really is life after being slaughtered by the religious regime.


There surely is. God sees to it for his faithful servants. Check the Scriptures to discover past survivors' worth before the eternal throne.


When ministering within a denomination, we can become so engrossed in the work that we conclude--unrealistically--that that space is the prime, if perhaps the only, space.


Not so.


The world "out there" existed before your denomination and it surely would continue to exist even if your denomination were dissolved tonight. Yes yes yes.


Now that ample time has passed since no longer being attached to my previous denomination, I have had plenty of new days to discover fresh venues. They were not always come upon immediately nor without pain. But they were come upon.


Further, when looking back on the denominational entanglements, the obligations, the wasted time in endless meetings and sessions, the countless memos and phone calls and letters and such having passed through the mail and cyberspace, I now see how I have been set free free free!


At the time of severing ties, I did not have the emotion to come upon freedom's sense. There were too many other feelings vying for my attention.


But time--that divine gift for healing--has opened up such a new awareness of soul release. No more this and that from the "church heads." No more bowing and scraping. No more tolerating the religious politicos. No more answering to persons' egos who considered themselves into some sort of power. No more no more no more.


Instead, in the place of all that bureaucratic oppression has come sweet freedom. Sweet sweet freedom.


Freedom to serve Jesus directly. Freedom to work for the kingdom without wasting time in others' agendas. Freedom to preach and teach without impingement from the ecclesiastical system.


Freedom to consider myself-in-Jesus as an entity not having to answer to some denominational profile. Freedom to spread my wings in witness, new friendship building, and seeing through creative ministerial challenges.


There is truly life after leaving "the previous."


Others? Have others experienced this same fresh opportunity for individuality before the Father? Of course.


Start and finish your appraisal of the aforementioned by going again to the Gospels. There stands Jesus--an integral part of His Jewish faith but very much separate from that establishment.


He worshiped in the temple but was not subject to the temple clique. He said His prayers, but frequently on the hilltop. He ministered, but with no obligation whatsoever to the chief priests and scribes. He taught, but without any reporting in to Jerusalem's religious elite. He healed, but
with no checking in with the religious rubric of the higher echelon.


Jesus ministered, not through the system, but in spite of the system. Jesus ministered, not by way of the establishment, but directly by the Father's nudging.


No wonder Jesus could say to His own: "I set you free--indeed." His freedom was self-experienced; then it was related to His own. It was a personal thing with Jesus. He daily lived out His own liberation from the Jewish powers-that-be. His freedom was in being a love slave to Father only. In that also was His pastoral exhilaration.


Likewise, in that is our exhilaration. There is that legitimate high which comes from having daily direct ministerial contact with the One upon the eternal throne.


After all, such is our Protestant championing rally cry, is it not? Then let us who have been set free from the system live out to the full our heritage.


In so doing, we will be in league--surely so, more than we had ever thought possible--with the Savior Himself.

MY BOY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


I stood at the kitchen window and looked out into the backyard to find my boy there. I had been reading in the living room, but l5 minutes had gone by with no tremors, so I thought it wise to check to see if my tyke was still in the land of good behavior.


He was.


He maneuvered his plastic, red wheelbarrow around the yard. First he filled it with dirt from the fence side. Then he emptied it by the back steps. Then that same dirt was loaded again and taken near the sandbox. All the while, he kept talking to himself. I am sure he was talking over some grand details of construction. That is just the way he is.


My four-year-old looks like he should be in first grade. He does not take after me, for I am his father by adoption.


One of these days, he will have delight in looking down on my weary head. Yet adopted or not, he is my boy--completely, l00 percent--maybe even more so, if that is possible.


You see, I have two wonderful daughters, but I have only one son.


He trots about in his red running shorts and tank top. One would think he ruled the earth. He has lined up on the back steps an empty, plastic pancake syrup bottle and an empty soft drink bottle, both of which he sneaked out of the kitchen. I dare not touch either of them, for somehow they both fit into that construction job.


We returned last week from vacationing on Cape Cod, but my boy did not get his tan from the beach. He is multiracial, and so those smooth, brown limbs come from birth. How handsomely he gestures to his willing subjects lined up by the woodpile. His world is thus far safe from any knowledge of a nuclear age, creeping world starvation, prejudice, inflation, murder and rape.


I left the kitchen window and went back to the living room, wondering what the future holds for that moldable clay.


In a flash, he will be asking for the keys to the car, choosing his own clothes, testing the ropes of parental discipline, wrestling with his own urges for independence, questioning the standards of his father, questing into the realms of the invisible.


I have but a bit of time.


Now it’s a wheelbarrow with a bowl of loose dirt. Soon it will be the motorcycle.


Now it is the confines of the backyard fence. Soon it will be the world.
Now it is the afternoon nap, still enforceable. Soon it will be arguing over night curfews.


I am determined to take advantage of this day to get to know my boy better. I will not allow this hour to be thrown away. At least I have this opportunity to balance fatherly discipline with love.


The battle for the buck will not come between my boy and me. Nor will rat race mania. Not even all those meetings at the church building. Ah, no.
Well, here it comes--another interruption. He stands now beside this typewriter with a balloon in his hand. But this one just burst and now there are tears.


How can I write an article and take care of a balloon burial at the same time?
Easy. My boy comes first. The typewriter will not up and away, but one of these days my boy will do just that.


But right now he is here with me, viewing the remains of a blue balloon.

WHEN THE FATHER SINGS

J. Grant Swank Jr.


"Sing, daddy!"


This command came from my four-year-old daughter as she descended the stairs to the living room from our family room.


Then we lived in a large house with rooms that were sprawled out. In the mind of a child, the whole complex must have appeared a bit mystifying. But more—the interweaving of the stairs, halls, and nooks must have seemed to be filled with ghosts.


Now, when this tyke of mine decided to traverse an unlighted part of our home, she would call out, "Sing, Daddy!" In that way, she could hear my voice while she was walking through the dark. Somehow that brought her comfort so as to dispel the fears that otherwise could have lurked around each corner.


To any logical adult, a father's melody would not have thrust through the meanest foe; nevertheless, to a trusting child, Daddy's song brought the strength needed to make it through. Each time Heidi instructed me to wind up with music, I was reminded of how frequently I do the same thing.


I am a child of God.


There are times when I am forced by life to go into dark corners that I simply do not want to scout out. However, having no other choice but to proceed, I cry out, "Sing, Daddy!"


And He does.


However, there have been times when in my independent streak I have charged forth without thinking things through or asking for help. Those impulsive moves have driven me further and further into my own oblivion. Yet all the while I was sure that I was making the reasonable choice. On and on and on. . .my move, my way, my logic. It was a blueprint that wore well. It was a pattern that had all the points already figured out. It was so fail-safe.


Ever been there?


There was a move I knew was right for all of us. It was just the geography best for the family. We would be near kin and yet open to fresh adventures. What a challenging assignment for the gospel work! All seemed to add up to be heaven's will. Variables had come in line to reveal the divine plan.


Ever been there?


But no. It all unraveled before our eyes. Zap. Done. Back to square one. Not easy. But fact.. There was no wrestling with the obvious. What thought to be heaven's move was nothing more than our misperceptions mixed with wishful weavings.
Has this happened more than once? Yes. And you?


So when crippled at the end of the jaunt, I have counseled my inner heart to be wiser next time so as to ask Father to sing. That is humbling. It is also being patient with a scope beyond me. It is yielding to the One. It is learning the Way of Submission, not a popular take in an egocentric, headstrong era.


"Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. . .Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life; and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever." (Psalm 23:4,6)


When I sincerely permit Father to sing, my fears are eased so that I know I'm not journeying alone. The sound of His voice makes all the difference in the world.

HAVE YOU TOLD DAD THAT YOU LOVE HIM?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“I’m sorry, Bud.”


And then he’d stop mid-sentence. He had forgotten where he was in the sentence.


I was phoning from the East Coast. He was seated in the health care unit of Good Samaritan Village, Denton, TX.


“That’s okay, Dad. I understand. It’s not easy. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s okay. We’ll keep talking and when you forget what you were about to say, I’ll fill in for you.”


It was such a debilitating experience. My Dad was an orator. He presented seminars to personnel in the US Department of Agriculture. He taught music in public schools. He delivered sermons as a lay preacher. He taught Sunday school classes. He spoke to college groups.


Now he forgot where he was in mid-sentence. Not once. Not twice. But over and over again. Short-term memory loss.


So I picked up on another topic of conversation. He grabbed hold of it. Then he’d stop mid-sentence. “I’m sorry, Bud. This is not easy for you.”


“It’s okay, Dad. It’s enough to hear your voice. Don’t worry about whether or not you can recall what you wanted to say.”


That’s the way it was call after call.


He was in his own room at the unit. He looked out his window to see things that weren’t there.


“You know I have hallucinations,” he told me one morning.


“You do?”


“Yes, I see animals out there under the trees but I know that they are not there. It’s the medication. And sometimes I think. . .”


Another sentence left incomplete.


My mother lived in their lovely apartment in the independent living segment of the Village. She spent most of her days however in Dad’s health care room.


One day she confided in me something that she would not want the world to hear. But it was time to share it with the oldest child.


“You know, they call these the Golden Years. Well, to tell you the truth, I don’t find them very golden right about now.”


I was glad she said that for I knew it to be true. There were matters Mom would tend to for Dad that were heavy and burdensome. She herself was in her 80s. It was not easy caring for the spouse when she herself was the other elder spouse.


I went on telling Dad about what was going on in our home. What we were up to. Where we were going. He responded with a smile. I could see it over the phone. I knew he was smiling. I could picture his kind face shining back at me.


And then the conversation would come to an end. It was hard to close out. But it was hard continuing on, too. Those broken sentences.. Those apologies. Those realities of what truly was going on in an educated, talented, committed man’s life.


He was genuinely the best Dad I could have ever had. I grew up in the best home my parents could have ever provided for us. We had the finest.


What I am so thankful for is that when I talked with Dad, I actually told him all that.


“Dad, you gave us your best. You and Mom gave us your best every time. Not every child can say that. But I can say that and mean that.


“Dad, I love you.”


Now it’s been some years since we talked over the phone.


One of those days, the phone rang for me. But it was not Dad. It was Mom. She related that Dad slipped away to be with Jesus in the morning.


I will tell you the honest-to-God truth. I was elated. I was so happy. I was so filled with joy that I cried and I cried and I cried some more. And I’m not one who cries much.


I cried because I knew that Dad would have no more incomplete sentences. That was all over and out. Never again. And for that I was grateful for my wonderful father who walked through The Door.


Since then I have often thought of those conversations. Oh yes, I have reminisced about so many scenes from childhood on up to the present: picnics, vacations, family dinners, birthdays, moving from Maryland to Illinois to Texas and on and on..


But when it comes to the incomplete sentences, I put it on hold. I remember especially his courage with a smile shining all the way across the miles.


“It’s the aging process,” he would chuckle. And there was always a chuckle when he said that. “It’s the aging process.” It was fact. But Dad lifted that up above fact to make it something to take realize.


I’m just so glad that before he left us, I told him up front that I loved him.. I am so very glad I did.

GODLY SPIRITUAL FATHERS

GODLY SPIRITUAL FATHERS



J. Grant Swank, Jr.


One may not think that we could look to Peter for a sermon on Father's Day. But that is exactly what I propose to do. Yes, this Peter who once betrayed Jesus has now become stalwart, courageous and holy before God. We find these qualities especially in Acts 5.


You recall the incident: Ananias and Sapphira, husband and wife, have lied to the Holy Spirit by keeping back funds from property sales for themselves rather than give the moneys to the work of the Early Church. Spiritual father Peter then is directed by heaven to discipline the two in hopes of warning other adherents not to repeat the same deceit.


In verse 3 alone, there are evidences of Peter's spiritual fatherhood. It is this Peter who is now fathering the Early Church through some difficult times. The particular focus is on Ananias and Sapphira, two who tried to hoodwink God and the church community.


From verse 3, we see that Peter as a spiritual father is the MOUTHPIECE OF GOD. Peter speaks the truth of heaven when he confronts Ananias in a lie. Peter's discipline of Ananias is clear, clean and easily understood. Peter speaks in simple language.


Peter is not attempting to be unkind to the spiritual child Ananias. Peter instead is expressing tough love, that is, trying to bring a man to his senses, to his conscience, away from his conniving self into an honest self under heaven.


Satanic fathers have no idea as to how to be mouthpieces for God for they have no knowledge of God. Instead, fathers of the lie compromise, speak with forked-tongue, deliver blurred messages and engage in double-talk. They are self-serving and worldly. No wonder disciples of deceit find their dwellings where satanic fathers live for it is most comfortable there when one is blind to the truth.


From verse 3, we see that Peter as a spiritual father is the DIVINE QUESTIONER in that his paternalism acts itself out with a question rather than a declarative statement: "Ananias, why have you done such and such?"


This is a rhetorical question for Peter already knows the answer. He is asking the question in order to prick Ananias' soul. Compare God using the same type of communication style in Eden after Adam and Eve sinned. God asked: "What have you done? Where are you hiding?" and so on. Once again, God asks not because He does not know the answers but to prick the consciences of our first parents.


Spiritual father Peter is seeking to prod, to poke, to stir up a sense of morality in Ananias. He is going to demand accountability from the fellow. Peter is confronting Ananias with this kind of questioning in order finally to be redemptive. Can spiritual father Peter catch hold of Ananias' soul for honesty before it is too late?


Satanic fathers know nothing of such motives. Instead, there are no poking-about questionings, no calling to accountability, for all is OK and anything goes. This is under the guise of not being judgmental--a most popular cliché in our time when everyone writes his own religion.


Further, in verse 3, we note spiritual father Peter not afraid to acknowledge the reality of SATAN. He uses the word itself. He speaks of the Devil in his opening question to Ananias.


Why?


Because a spiritual father will always maintain a keen perception of right and wrong, heaven and hell, truth and the lie, mercy and judgment. Therefore, Satan cannot be dismissed, treated as if he does not exist.


Compare John the Baptist.. When he confronted Herod sleeping with a woman not his wife, John went to the heart of right versus wrong. Compare Jesus when confronting the hypocrites. He went to the heart of truth by declaring to them that they were the offspring of the father of lies.


Satanic fathers have no inclinations to speak of the Devil. Such talk is considered harsh, unchristian, uncivilized, unkind, discourteous. It is rude and unloving, brash and forward, cutting.


Therefore, satanic fathers are sweet-tongued, deceitful in their over-concern with "manners," and in so being, dupe their disciples with a veneer of respectability which is damning.


Also, Peter, the spiritual father, comes through in verse 3 as MARRIED TO THE HOLY SPIRIT for Peter loves, adores and serves nothing other than Holy Spirit's pure truth. Note how Peter speaks in the same sentence of the Devil and the Holy Spirit, one in contrast to the other, one in contest with the other.


Peter defends the Holy Spirit against Ananias' "mush religion," his pretense, his counterfeit piety. Peter will not tolerate the misuse of holy matters, the play acting of "holy" when all along the deed is of hell.


Satanic fathers use Holy Spirit-talk of love and goodness and kindness as a cloak for their shenanigans. They delight in speaking of light and hope, but it is with the motive of tricking their disciples in never coming to the actual truth. Such paternalism is therefore hypocrisy at its zenith. It is a most popular form of religion void of God.


Moreover, spiritual father Peter in verse 3 ADDRESSES THE PERSON by speaking his name: "Ananias." Peter is not asking a question of the mob. He is positing a question to an individual. He is looking into the eyes of one person.


Christianity is always an individualized religion. It is a "by name" religion. Therefore, Christian ministry is always directed to a person's conscience. A good father always knows his offspring by name, singling each out for attention.


That means that no one can hide from the eye of the Father God. And the spiritual fathers for the Father God are under especial commission to see through that same vision. They must see persons individually--in need of personal attention, redemption.


The Gospels reveal Jesus as the particularizing prophet. He singled people out. Individuals meant everything to Him. "For God so loved the world. . ." True. But that world then reduced itself by the incarnation addressing the world by individual circumstances, names and places.



Satanic fathers know nothing of the individual. They play act that they do, but they don't. Instead, they care not for persons but instead care for their own popularities. That is why they delight in speaking to the masses. In that, they themselves can lose their own consciences in irrelevancies. All becomes blurred in the ministry of the satanic father. All becomes a mist rather than a particularization.



Lastly, spiritual father Peter shoots STRAIGHT ARROWS. He says quite factually and compassionately to Ananias: "Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit." No garble. No side-stepping. No diplomatic bridges which would compromise tough love. It is right there on the line--"Satan has filled your heart to lie to the Holy Spirit."



The word "lie" is an unpopular term in any age. It must not be spoken outloud, especially when addressed to an individual. No. That is being unfeeling, barbaric, rough-edged. It is not Christ-like. A Christian would not speak that way to another person. Of course not.


But spiritual father Peter did. And he did so because the Holy Spirit told him to speak that way. And because Peter was married to the Holy Spirit rather than popularity, Peter obeyed.


Why would God have a spiritual father address a spiritual offspring in such terms? In order to cut through to truth. God is Truth. God cannot tolerate skirting the issues.


Satanic fathers shoot crooked arrows for they are into game playing, protecting their own turf, waiting in the wings for applause, entertaining being entertained. And so they confuse their hearers and play up to their disciples and tickle ears. They in turn cover up truth with the lie. In that, they reveal Satan as their pater.


In every age, in every place, God calls forth spiritual fathers who are given over completely to TRUTH.


By being filled with divine honesty, these heavenly messengers are sent forth to care lovingly for their children in hopes of directing them finally to glory.


May their tribe increase in this compromising time. May their courage rise with the threats to their standings. May the Spirit of heaven inspire them onward, regardless of the cost.

DAD: BOND WITH YOUR SON-IN-LAW

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Yes, a son-in-law can be a tremendous boon, if dad recognizes the gift. Do not take him for granted.


Any relationship worth its salt takes work. Then work at bonding with your son-in-law.


Here are some practical pointers:


CUT HIM SOME SLACK


We’re all human. Your son-in-law is included in that grouping. So, though you want perfection for your daughter’s husband, you won’t find it. You’re not perfect, dad, in case you hadn’t noticed.


So when it comes to the new gent woven into your clan, look for the human element in him. You won’t have to look far. But when you find it, weigh the minors and the majors. If there are minor flaws, then cut the fellow some slack. Somebody cut you slack back there a few years ago. Recall?


By cutting him some slack, you give the young man some time in order to do what you hopefully did—mature with the years. No one can be older than what he is; therefore, fast-pacers included, we all need time in which to find our better selves.


HAND HIM AN APPRECIATION NOTE


But, you say, “I don’t know how to write a note.”


Then make it short but make it, nevertheless. Three sentences will do when put on a blank card and handed to your son-in-law.


The other day I recalled how fortunate I am to have two terrific men known to me as my very own sons-in-law. Therefore, I wrote them each a note and enclosed a small money gift.


The smiles on their faces were more than payment to me for the simple gesture of putting on paper what those gentlemen mean to our family—and particularly to me—the father-in-law.


In addition, the notes did favors for my daughters. Anything that the dad-in-law does that is positive related to the son-in-law will serve well the daughter. So if you want to do something really nice for your favorite “little girl now grown into womanhood,” do something really nice for her husband.


LISTEN UP


Open your ears when your son-in-law has something to say, and particularly when he doesn’t have anything to say.


Men don’t talk that much, so they say. But a lot of men defy that postulate. Nevertheless, it doesn’t finally matter. Whether that son-in-law is verbose or clammed-up, listen up.


Listen to him when he says something, no matter whether you consider it important or not.


Listen to him when he just sits there staring out into space. Non-verbal communication is indeed communication.


When two people can run on at the mouth endlessly, that is quite a bit of bonding. In addition, when two people can sit quietly with nothing to say with the tongue, that is quite a bit of bonding, too.


So, in either case, learn how to keep your mouth shut long enough to listen up to what your son-in-law has to say—in one form or another.


ADVOCATE FOR HIM


Sometimes there are those in the clan who say cutting things about your son-in-law. This can happen especially when there is jealousy from other men. Or it can occur when women decide it is time to discover the flaws in the males of the family.


Unless it is importantly deserved, don’t foster “bad mouthing” your son-in-law. When someone starts to complain about him, griping about this-or-that trait, speak up as his advocate.


You will always win on the side of defending the son-in-law when you know that he is just as human as the rest of the clan, when you know he’s in the right, and when you know that what is said is just plain petty. Being his advocate will return to you in goodness.


PRAISE HIM


I watched my son-in-law constructing his own home. I couldn’t do the things that he does. I don’t know how.


His father is deceased—died years ago in a car accident. So he has no biological dad to pat him on the back. The job? It’s mine. And am I ever pleased to know that it is mine.


So the other day as I watched him climbing to the top of the roof for one pounding-nails job or another, I waited till he climbed back down to tell him what a fantastic job he was doing—money saving wise, pounding nails wise, design wise, and all the other facets of construction that are Greek to me.


The look on his face was well worth my stumbling compliments. We all need praise. We are nurtured by it. And your son-in-law is no different.


I had an aunt who used to think that to praise a relative was to make that one proud. So we never got an ounce of praise from her. But we learned that when she was talking to others outside the family, she bragged us up all the time. She simply had a notion that speaking praise face-to-face could ruin a good life.


She was so wrong. Don’t go the route of my aunt; go the route of learning how to praise sincerely and you will feed another’s soul for growth.


REMEMBER HIS BIRTHDAY


Men don’t remember birthdays, usually. Now there is a postulate that’s just not accurate. No one has made a firm study of that. Yet it is a well-publicized hypothesis.


Nevertheless, whether it is true or not, you be the one to remember your son-in-law’s birthday with a phone call or card or gift or whatever. Just remember.


MAKE SHORT PHONE CALLS


An impromptu phone call to your son-in-law at the close of a workday is a good thing. Try it.


He may not like the phone. Many men don’t, so they say. And if your son-in-law is one of those, then fall right in step with short talks. But a short talk—“How’s things? What’s new? Just wondered how you two are doing’” goes a long, long way to keep the bonding bound.

THE PERFECT FATHER?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Not too long ago I heard the preacher tell the congregation all that a father is to be. He made us priest and king and prophet and disciple and companion. Then there were all those scriptures to support his tally. It was neatly outlined. The delivery was impressive, too.

The only thing is that when he neared the end, I felt like David strapped down with Saul's armor. I couldn't get up from the pew. Whew!

I glanced around to see other fathers in a similar mindset. They, like I, were trying not to show it. Throughout the concluding hymn we men were wondering how we could bring it off. How do we match up to be "The Perfect Father"?

I know I'm supposed to take the children to church regularly and teach them the Bible, the ways of prayer, and the salvation path early in life. I know also that it is probably more important for me to live the truth than talk about it.

But what formula applies when spit-spats seem to increase within the family and the halo slips a bit off center?

It is in those moments that I grapple with the priestly, prophetic, and kingly hats, only to find them slipping off my brow. And then I glance to right and left, hoping the world isn't watching. After all, as a Christian father, am I not to live out the perfect example?

I must confess that I'm not always up to it, whether the church is glaring at me or not. And the longer I live, the more I reason that few others are always up to it either. It has taken some time, however, to actually accept that as fact.

I guess the attractive pictures on religious magazines, the ones with a handsome man surrounded by beautiful offspring and that gorgeous woman for a wife really did brainwash this naive mind.

At times, I would gaze at those perfect families seated on the sofa with the thick Bible positioned in the center and ask if they ever dropped French fries--catsup and all--on their laps. No, that could never happen to that family!

Nor could that lovely wife ever argue with that handsome husband with the large smile and dimpled chin. How could it ever be with such sweetness abounding?

I have seen those same perfect families walk into church. On some Sundays, especially in spring, with the buds just starting to bloom and the birds tweeting in the trees, I can see them still. They slide down the center aisle to take their places, with hymnals held high.

So, it really happens, I think.

But enough years have gone by that I know neat dads and perfect families don't always come in such attractive packages. With that, I heave a sigh and recoup.

You see, being a good father isn't a matter of appearances. It's not even whether or not you could jump into that slick magazine cover with the perfect family.

When you stand before your Maker, He won't ask you to smile or show off your family. Instead, you must be able to face Him honestly and say, "I did my best--even in the worst of times."

The other evening, I had a tussle with my seven-year old son. We were not seeing eye-to-eye on a matter. It was time for him to get ready for bed, and I felt as if the evening had been rather botched up. I didn't like the feeling at all.

After he climbed into his pajamas and then curled up under the blanket, I sat on the edge of his bed and started to pray, as I usually do. It was hard to find the right words, but I made a stab at it.

Should I turn the prayer into a mini lecture, trying to get in one last punch? Don't the pros tell us that during sleep the brain keeps on absorbing the last thoughts that are planted on the mind? Well, this would be my chance!

Or should I turn tender and love the little fellow to pieces? Would that be copping out? Or would it be wisdom?

His face was turned away from me. He was wondering as well what approach Dad would take! After all, this was not the first time the day's endings had wound down to this.

Then I caught his big, brown eyes turn a bit more to size up my expression. With that, I wilted. After all, he knew he had done wrong earlier. But there was the look of hope in his face.

Could there be mercy in the court?

I closed my eyes to pray, Dear Lord, thank You for my boy. You know how much I love him. He means the world to me. Now we thank You for this night's sleep. Be near us all. And may tomorrow be a good day. In Jesus' name, Amen.

He swung his body around toward me and hugged me tightly around the neck. His eyes were closed tight. There was no more reason to glance in wonder.

"Daddy, do you love me even when I am bad?" he asked in my ear.

"Yes," I answered. "I always love you."

So, with that he said one of the most encouraging statements known to mankind. It isn't novel or new. Yet it's powerful, that's for sure.

"You're the best daddy in the world."

It was then that I promised myself something. Yes, there's still much room for improvement as far as my being a father is concerned. And yes, I've goofed from time to time.

Yet that night I told my memory to hold on to one thing as the years kept passing by. It was the innocent testimony of a little boy to a father who was sincerely trying.

"You're the best daddy in the world."

Don't forget it, I said to myself as I turned out the light.

Don't ever forget it.

CHRISTIAN PULPITS MUGGED BY LIBERALS AGAINST BIBLICAL TRUTH?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


If you’re a Christian today, you’re a part of the spreading disease oozing around the planet. It’s just as natural as breathing — the spread of the dreaded disease by being a Jesus follower.


Further, if you’re a Christian pastor true to biblical data, you’re all the more a disease spreader. You are in fact at the top of the hated list for extermination.


So it is that Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) goes after especially the biblical preachers. Of course, liberal Democrats can get into pulpit after pulpit and give forth with their misinterpretations of Scripture. They yuck yuck. Grin as if on Sesame Street. Give forth with an Amen or two or three. Quote Scripture out of context. That’s all okay. After all, they’re applauded enthusiastically by those black folk. Why, that’s American. That’s down-home cozy. That’s just being neighborly.


But let a biblical orator give forth with scriptural revelation and the AU is on the church steps following the benediction. It can be that swift. Somebody gets hold of the sermon and the pastor is blackballed. It’s nuts. It’s demonic. It’s simply more of the intrusion of evil upon our lives, encroaching upon the sacred environs more and more.


Amy Fagan reports for the The Washington Times that “a fight is erupting. . .between conservative churches and liberal watchdog groups that are going to the IRS and accusing ministers of violating the law if they speak out about political issues and candidates.”


Of course what was especially interesting this past election time frame was that so many of the political issues were not so much political at the core. They were spiritual from alpha to omega. And they continue to be.


That’s the case with killing womb babies and endorsing sodomy as a legitimate lifestyle. That’s the case with euthanasia as well as writing one’s own religion, e.g., desecrating Communion by defying biblical teachings while partaking of the elements. And so the beat goes on: politics and religion — two hot categories shooting off the charts.


So why should not the biblical pastors give forth? It’s their mandate from the divine. They are the prophets in the land. They must speak out regarding morality and ethics, particularly when so many politicians and apostate clergy today are championing immorality and the unethical. To be silent is to become party to evil, being the cowards of the wimp brigade.


Of course the biblical preacher is going to craft a sermon dealing with present tense sin in public life. He’s going to explain to his congregation God’s stark truth. It is the fight of righteousness against demonic activity. It’s as old as God exposing the snake in the Garden. Do the liberals really think they are going to stop the parade of truth in America — around the world, actually?


Therefore, they may seek to jail the pastors, fine them, embarrass them and whatever, but all the more truth tellers will remain wedded to their mission — broadcasting the divine revelation at all costs. That’s what genuine Christian ministry is all about — not accommodating or compromising or baptizing worldliness as Christian lifestyle. It’s preaching “Thus saith the Lord. . .” and then letting the preaching chips fall where they may.


It has become so severe a situation that Rep. Walter B. Jones of North Carolina (Republican) is introducing a bill to “allow all religious leaders to speak out on politics and even endorse candidates from the pulpit if they choose.”


It’s about time. Three cheers and a sanctuary full of prayers for Rep. Jones.

THE BOTTOM LINE ANGST OF LIBERALISM

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When are liberals going to discover conscience? Don’t they get it?


A levelheaded individual has convictions that are reasonably down-to-earth. Fuzz won’t cut it. Nor does braggadocio nor money-alone nor egocentricity nor strut-and-sway nor prance-and-preen. Nor does being-on-Hollywood’s-side. Nor does ad infinitum weeping and wailing at how dumb conservatives are.


So liberals are losing big time in an era of logical-practicality-is-a-must.


The same goes, not only for politics, but religion. Theological liberals have one main line: “We’re not conservatives.”


That means: “We’re not Billy Graham.” Or “We’re not evangelicals.” Or “We’re not Bible-carriers.” Or “We’re not virgin birth holders.” Or “We’re not personal religion enthusiasts.” Or “We’re not Jesus cheerleaders.” Or “We’re not morality advocates.” Or “We’re not absolutes defenders.” Or “We’re not clear-with-convictions citizens.” And on and on.


Liberalism—theological and political—is basically a postulate of “knots” ("nots"), though liberalism’s p.r. puts out just the opposite. However, once thinker figures out that the liberal line is honestly understood when flipping its “logic coin” to reveal the liberal lie, then thinker gets to liberal reality.


For instance. . .


Liberals say they are pro-choice when actually they are pro-murder.


Liberals say they are for open dialogue when actually they are tolerant only of liberal diatribes.


Liberals say they are for first amendment rights when actually they are for killing off religious faith.


Liberals say they are for separation of church and state when actually they are for gagging the church.


Liberals say they are for inclusive language when actually they are for championing radical feminism.


Liberals say they are for female clergy when actually they are for every pulpit to be womaned by radical feminism.


Liberals say they are for ethical this-n-that when actually they are for amoral rule.


Liberals say they are for sex education when actually they are for a sexually active
culture.


Liberals say they are for safe sex when actually they are for sexual amorality.


Liberals say they are for the family when actually they are for family-as-relativists-define-it.


BUT. . .


When conservatives say they’re for life, they’re for life, not murder.


When they say they honor honest dialogue, they enter courteously into intelligent exchange.


When they say they’re for separation of church and state, they mean they’re in favor of no state-run denomination.


When they say they’re for first amendment rights, they mean they’re for free
religious expression.


When they say they’re for family, they mean they honor God-given absolutes for marriage and home.


When they say they’re for sex education, they mean abstinence as the baseline.


In other words, theological and political liberals don’t really mean what they say; they are masters at double-speak.


When theological and political conservatives speak, they really mean what they say. Why? Because conservatism is based on conscience—plain and simple—a conscience formed by eternal absolutes.


So that brings us back to Hartpootlian’s wailing comment. He speaks truth, even as a wide-eyed but sad Democrat.


In other words, when a double-edged tongue lets loose, flip it over to find a lie. However, when a single-focused tongue lets loose, believe what you hear.


With that, single-focused tongues end up on the right side, for both earth and eternity.

WHEN LIBERALISM FALLS OUT ON ITSELF—PROSTITUTES RIGHTEOUSLY CLAMOR

J. Grant Swank, Jr.



You know you’re in big-time trouble when French prostitutes point the Jerry Falwell finger of righteous anger at the competing choir on the other side of the aisle.


You see, the girls are collecting political clout against a new law that would fine them, punish them and send them a-scurryin’ for lounging about the city streets.


Not good.


French Minister Nicolas Sarkozy is cutting right through current legality of French prostitution. Pioneer fellow, that he is. His “security bill” would lop six months jail time plus 7,500 euros ($7,500) on each gal’s head.


Why?


He explains that insecurity runs the streets because of these females hanging out like they do. As we read, the Senate debates this new proposition.


Those for the law loudly proclaim that their cozy neighborhoods are tawdry with condoms on avenues the morning after. Their nice children are at risk, and just the sight of a female body prancing about for the obvious is not becoming to polite people.


Enter Claudia—lady of the evening member of the France-Prostitution Board of Directors. She and her esteemed collection lobby against the proposition by seeking to create civil dialogue while uplifting the profession’s sympathy in the eyes of the populace.


Now comes the righteous finger of anger pointed determinedly across the aisle.


Claudia claims that the metro insecurity comes about, not because of her likes tramping the streets, but because of her gender from eastern Europe and Africa taking over their trade. “The insecurity problems are caused by the prostitution rings. . .It is a modern day slavery, sexual slavery and that’s where the crime is.


"The organized crime rings that bring girls into this sexual slavery are out to make money and don't care about any destruction they leave behind," she said. "We (the stable supply of established French prostitutes) have worked for thirty years to become part of the community."


The plot thickens.


The French Green party assists the prostitutes in their cause against the Sarkozy law. Anne Souyiris, Green Party mouthpiece who is her group’s liaison with the women of the avenues, lets loose with such compassion as seeking to unite neighborhood folk, local authorities and prostitutes. Nothing like having a well-oiled bridge to cross on—female-manned at that.


"The professions of sexuality are very beautiful professions if they can be exercised in liberty," Claudia says. "But they become sordid and ignoble if they are not voluntary.


"We can support the police in their actions to help them identify these crime rings that enslave unwilling victims, and the government should let us do our work, which we do freely and as law-abiding citizens," she claims.


So 300 masked prostitutes (what was that all about? Mardi Gras, here we come) from across the country marched recently before the Senate with protestations at the propositions. Another lively frolic (demonstration) is planned for mid-December.


Now all that brings us to philosophy and politics and morals. Bottom line: when a society becomes so ultra-liberal so as to permit legalized prostitution, then there develops still another societal rung lower than pimping and propositioning. In this case, it is white slavery.


That then opens up the door for righteous indignation, finger pointing and blame throwing. Those with the index finger in horizontal position, tautly spiking the air, are after all the ones in the righteous know. That deflects attention to their wicked stance so as to paint their wagons white while the gals on the other side of the aisle must be hauled off to where they were dragged from.


Liberalism, when following its rope to its nth, always falls out on itself, whether in theology, philosophy, politics or neighborhood tussles with prancing donkeys in the streets.

'FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT'

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


The nearly l20 gathered in the Upper Room were "filled with the Holy Spirit" (Acts 2:4)!


When the Holy Spirit comes upon a disciple, there are various occurrences which are primary and wonderful.


First, the infilling is a GIFT, not an achievement. All that God does in a believer's life, from alpha to omega, is provided by divine grace. There is nothing which is trophied as an accomplishment by the human vessel.


When one receives salvation, it is by divine grace. Even the prevenient grace which precedes saving grace is emptied out upon the human heart by God Himself. So it is with the infilling. It is an act of grace executed by heaven's powers so that the homo sapien may enter into the holy of holies provided here on earth.


Second, the infilling is bestowed by a PERSON, not an institution nor ritual nor ecclesiastical title. The origins of the sanctifying presence are from Him--the Third Person of the Holy Trinity. Therefore, one may be filled by the Holy Spirit anywhere and at any time the Spirit deems it appropriate.


Consequently, no attention is focused upon churchly leaders nor rites nor liturgies nor assemblies. All of these are extraneous to the marvel of the infilling presence. God is a jealous God; therefore, He deserves all focus--totally so--for He is the fount of the sanctifying experience.


Third, the infilling is an introduction to the HOLINESS of God. It is a holy come-upon by the divine. Why? Because the Indweller is nothing but holiness. There is no sin nor carnality within the divine nature; consequently, when He sets up residence within the human life, that housing is evidenced in the holy life. "Be holy, even as I am holy."


Therefore, the competing spirits of this existence are left to their unholiness. These spirits are the spirits of self, worldliness, Satan, carnality, bigotry, hypocrisy, and so on. No other spirit in planetary sphere can compare with the HOLY Spirit, for all others spirits are less than holy; in other words, they are of this fallen scope.


Fourth, the infilling is MULTI-DIMENSIONAL in splendor just as the Holy Spirit is infinitely creative in power, peace and purity. These many facets of the Holy Spirit's personality have no allowance for evil; however, within the eternal awareness of His being, the Spirit is everlastingly imaginative--far beyond human speculations.


Consequently, when the Holy Spirit explores the human personality for kingdom fulfillment, there are endless doings which the Spirit will come upon. That is why it is faulty to circumscribe the Spirit's work within the consecrated life. That is why it is unbiblical to narrowly define what and how the Spirit is to achievement His plans for and through the dedicated soul.


One must permit the Spirit His perfect freedom to do what He wants to do, how He wants to do it, and when He wants to perform it. Openness is the anticipatory key which opens up the infinite possibilities to the loving Spirit's chartings for good.


Fifth, the infilling is DURABLE for the Holy Spirit is God! There is no start nor finish to God. There are no boundaries to God except those which would contradict His holy nature, such as wickedness. There are no "wearings thin" with God.


Therefore, when the holy work is begun in the consecrated heart, durability can see through the experience to heaven's gates. There is the possibility that one can remain true to the indwelling Spirit if one wills such tenacity to be lasting. It is true that the human still deals with foibles, shortcomings, eccentricities, mistakes in judgment and performance--but one does not have to backslide into sin if one determines holiness to be set. It is a matter of persevering with one will in control--that is, the DIVINE will only.


Sixth, the infilling is ADEQUATE for the Holy Spirit is all-sufficient. His chief historical proof of such is His raising Jesus from the dead. If there is a power who can raise the dead, then there is nothing which is impossible to that mighty presence. Yes, the Spirit of God is a match and more for any trial in this existence. There is nothing too difficult for Him to conquer--again, in His time and manner.


Consequently, in the indwelt soul, "all things work together for good to those who love God and are called according to His purpose". What is His purpose? It is holiness. That is the chief desire of a holy God for His children of grace. Therefore, there is no testing which God cannot overcome. It is then a matter of faith on the part of the indwelt. One simply believes in the adequacy of the divine, no matter what may arise to threaten, even martyrdom.


Seventh, the infilling is ATTRACTIVE in that the Holy Spirit is handsome in His nature and evidence. All the beauty of creation is from the workings of the Spirit who first brooded upon those creation waters. All that is good, clean, delightful and happy finds its source in the Holy Spirit.


It is the unholy spirits which are violent, ugly and repulsive. They promise fulfillment, peace, prosperity and all the other human desires for this world. But they cannot produce lastingly any of these offers. That is why Satan is a deceiver, the Father of Lies. Therefore, when one is indwelt with the spirits of worldliness, self, lust, avarice and so forth, one is overcome with the grip of emptiness, finally controlled by these spirits.


Eighth, the infilling is HUMBLE in that all focus is upon the Provider. That is why the sermons and testimonies following the Day of Pentecost all point to Jesus, the One whose death upon the cross made Pentecost presence possible.


"Wait. . .until you are overcome from on high," Jesus commissioned His own when ascending into heaven. It was Jesus who purchased our salvation and sanctification upon Calvary. It was Jesus who breathed His last by taking our sins upon His sacrificial head, becoming scapegoat for rebellious humanity. It was Jesus who rose from the grave. It was Jesus who returned as our Intercessor to the right hand of the Father in glory. It was Jesus who predicted that the disciples would be indwelt by holiness. It was Jesus who then was lifted up by the Early Church as the Supplier of the Pentecost Spirit.


Consequently, all self-glory in the work of the holy kingdom is anathema to the truth of Christianity. It must be abhorred. It must be exposed and put away immediately. There is no room for pomp and circumstance when it comes to the fleshly leadership of any Christian institution. All of that will pass as dust. Therefore, only the adorable beholding of the Sanctifying Savior is tolerable in any labor for God.


Humility is the most rare gift to be found in any generation. Yet it is absolutely imperative that believers come upon that gift in order for all ego attention to be driven from our midst. It must be a conscious effort. It must be prayed over. It must be set forth more publicly from every pulpit. It must be written across our hearts daily. We are nothing; He is everything. "For without Me, you can do nothing." And without Him, we indeed are nothing.

JESUS: LIAR, CHARLATAN, MADMAN OR GOD

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When it comes to Jesus, born of Mary, there are these choices a person has. Jesus was a first-class liar. Jesus was a charlatan of mega-proportions. Jesus was a crazy person. Jesus was the Messiah, the Christos, The Anointed One, God incarnate.


Take your pick. When it comes to most TV “specials” regarding the personage called “Jesus,” they usually top out on Jesus the nice fellow, the prophet, the visionary, the social example, the self-deceived religious fanatic. That, the writers say, is the historical nub of it. All else is religious pie-in-the-sky manufacturing by first century storytellers.


When Albert Schweitzer wrote his doctoral thesis concerning who Jesus was, he concluded Jesus to be a well-intentioned male Jew of the first century who believed himself to be divine, though he was not. It was this Jesus, according to Schweitzer, who earnestly believed that if he gave himself to the ultimate sacrifice of death on a Roman cross, this would usher in the eternal kingdom. Thus was Schweitzer’s definition of Jesus — not God but instead a nice Jewish man who lived with his own illusions.


Though Albert Schweitzer was regarded by many in his time as a Christian, he was not really a Christian. He himself knew that. A Christian, according to Scripture, is one who has faith that Jesus is God. Schweitzer did not hold to this. Instead, near the close of his life, Schweitzer joined the Unitarian Society since they permit members to believe whatever they want about doctrine. Therefore, believing Jesus not to be divine fit in quite well with both Schweitzer and Unitarianism. It was a hand-in-glove fit.


When I attended Harvard Divinity School, most of the professors there did not believe Jesus to be divine. They held to a variety of definitions regarding the carpenter from Nazareth. Whatever position was held was all right with the school as long as the faculty held high degrees of learning — whatever added to the academic prestige of Harvard. In other words, biblical exactness did not matter; degrees earned from where mattered — as well as the books and articles published far and wide.


Those who hold that Jesus was a madman don’t have much to write about for since a deranged individual is just that, that pretty much settles it. Whatever comes out of his or her mouth is taken by chance and by golly. It may edge on the side of myth and high rhythm. On the other hand, it may be nothing more than babble and crumble. Therefore, if Jesus were a madman, then his talk about the kingdom, angels, miracles and the Father would have sprung from a mind hanging between winds.


Those who hold that Jesus was a charlatan of the first order then play games with the miracle stories. When I sat in the theologically liberal classrooms of Harvard, I was taught the demythologizing of Rudolf Bultmann. That meant that I read about the feeding of thousands with loaves and fishes, only to have that miracle explained away. You see, I was to realize that that was only a religious lesson told to inspire listeners to believe that there’s more than what one sees when lunchtime comes. Or something like that. Anyhow, whatever the Bultmann rewriting of history was, I didn’t take to it and consequently left it behind me in the dust of theological liberal mumbo jumbo.


Those who hold to Jesus being a liar have a near-criminal type on their hands. In other words, it’s not that difficult to dispense with Jesus when concluding that his mouth is filled with deceit. Whatever he says is immediately discounted. Whatever he does isn’t believed as fact. And therefore, his life is a wasted one of subterfuge midst smoke and mirrors.


But when one comes to Jesus as God, then one has got hold of the New Testament gospel message. That’s what the collection is all about. Jesus came to earth to reveal God in flesh and bones. Therefore, Jesus has a given name being “Jesus” but his divine title is “Messiah” (Hebrew) or “Christos” (Greek) which means “The Anointed One” or the long-awaited divine incarnate personage.


Matthew 2:21, 23 states concerning Jesus the Christ, or Jesus Christ: “And she will bear a Son; and you shall call His name Jesus, for it is He who will save His people from their sins. . .’Behold, the virgin shall be with child, and shall bear a Son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel,’ which translated means, ‘God with us.’”


Jesus Christ then is “God with us”. He is God come in human personality. He is deity spilled out in the molding of a mortal, an earth child.


Luke 4:12 states Jesus’ words to one who contested Him. In His response to him, He refers to Himself as “God.” “And Jesus answered and said to him, ’It is said, You shall not force a test on the Lord your God.’”


Luke 5:20-25 records Jesus referring to Himself as God who can forgive sins. “And seeing their faith, He said, ‘Friend, your sins are forgiven you.’ And the scribes and the Pharisees began to reason, saying, ‘Who is this man who speaks blasphemies? Who can forgive sins, but God alone?’


“But Jesus, aware of their reasonings, answered and said to them, ‘Why are you reasoning in your hearts? Which is easier, to say, “Your sins have been forgiven you” or to say “Rise and walk”? But in order that you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins, He said to the paralytic, ‘I say to you, rise, and take up your stretcher and go home.’ And at once he rose up before them, and took up what he had been lying on, and went home, glorifying God.”


John 1:1-2, 14 refers to Jesus as the Word with the Word then being God. “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He was in the beginning with God. . .And the Word became flesh, and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, glory as of the only begotten from the Father, full of grace and truth.”


John 5:18 states: “For this cause therefore the Jews were seeking all the more to kill Him, because He not only was breaking the Sabbath, but also was calling God His own Father, making Himself equal with God.”


“. . .equal with God.” Jesus was intentionally regarding Himself as deity and claiming same in public.


John 10:30 states: “’I and the Father are one.’” Jesus is speaking. He is telling His audience that He, Jesus, reveals the Father — they are “one and the same.”


John 16:28 states the words of Jesus: “’I came forth from the Father, and have come into the world; I am leaving the world again, and going to the Father.’”


John 17:5. Jesus prays to the Father, referring to His existence in the godhead prior to the existence to the planet: “’And now, glorify Thou Me together with Thyself, Father, with the glory which I ever had with Thee before the world was.’”


After Jesus’ resurrection, disciple Thomas exclaimed that Jesus was God. When Thomas made that witness public, Jesus did not counter his remark but let it stand for Jesus regarded it as truth. John 20:28 reads: “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”


So then who is Mel Gibson’s Jesus in “The Passion of the Christ”? Jesus is God—God become human, the biblical message. For that, Gibson is withstanding much criticism. Why? Not only because there are those who believe Jesus to be a liar or charlatan or madman, surely not divine. But also because the devil is extremely angry that “The Passion” is going to be seen by millions.


They are going to see the biblical truth told in movie venue. They are going to sit before the eternal data—God became mortal to save the repentant souls of their sins, giving them the hope of heaven. Satan does not like that. All the demons of hell do not like that. Therefore, the stir now taking place around this splendid movie.

ETERNAL SECURITY IS ONLY FOR THOSE WHO OBEY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


The popular Calvinistic teaching of eternal security is colloquially referred to as "once saved, always saved." That is, one cannot lose one's salvation once being saved by the grace of Jesus Christ.


In other words, once one becomes saved, he cannot be "unsaved." He is locked into salvation / heaven forever, even if he should so decide at some point that he does not wish to go to heaven.


Further, once one is saved, free will ceases for one then becomes automatically locked into salvation regardless of one's daily free will choices.


The above teaching is biblically false.


Scripture does not teach a "lock in" of salvation / heaven. Scripture does not teach that free will ceases at the moment of the born again experience. Scripture does not teach that on-going salvation is automatic.


(Those who oppose Calvinism are referred to as Arminians / Wesleyans in that Dutch theologian Jacobus Arminius (l560-l609) countered Protestant reformer John Calvin (l509-l564) on this point and English evangelist John Wesley (l703-l79l) popularly furthered the Arminian position in a significant way.)


Eternal security, so-called, is usually supported with corollaries such as "All believers sin in word, thought and deed every day". . ."Once born into the family of God, one cannot be unborn out of the family of God". . ."Nothing can separate a believer from the love of God, even one's own sinning lifestyle after being born again".


The favorite verse of the eternal security proponents is "And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand" (John l0:28).


Eternal security, so understood by Calvin and propagated by Calvinists, is not according to Scripture; further, it is very dangerous to eternal destinies in that scores of souls have believed it and gone to hell because they continued in a sinning lifestyle while believing they were going to heaven.


First, eternal security proponents do not understand Scripture's definition of sin: James 4:l7 states that to know good and not do it is sin. Further, I John 3:4, 7-9 states that sin is breaking the laws of God. In addition, this latter passage states that "he who commits sin is of the devil. . ." Therefore, to "sin in word, thought and deed every day" is not of God but of the devil.


Understanding the biblical definition of sin, then human foibles, lapses of memory, rough edges of one's personality, the need for growth in character and refinement are not sins. They are evidences of our fragile, spiritually fallen mortality--clay, dust, smoke vapors--to use biblical imagery.


To sin, therefore, is a conscious disobedience of God's way of life: "to KNOW to do good and to do it not is sin". Sin is knowable when committed. Conscience flags the mind immediately upon temptation in hopes of warding off the committing of sin. Free will then concludes at that point whether to disobey or obey the Spirit's move upon
the conscience. To choose disobedience is to sin; to choose obedience is not to sin.


In other words, sin is NOT UNknowable. It is NOT UNconscious. It is NOT vague in that we simply slide into it throughout the day without being aware of sinning.


Therefore, one can be tempted all day long and still not yield to sin. Temptation in itself is not sin; yielding is sin. Jesus was tempted but did not sin. One can, by an act of free will, maintain the obedient lifestyle toward God. When one does do that, one is living out the holiness lifestyle provided by the indwelling Holy Spirit.


On another point: being born into the family of God is an act of one's free will. Being born into a biological family is not an act of one's free will. Therefore, one can activate one's free will out of the family of God. Being born into the family of God is spiritual, not biological; therefore, the analogy of biological to spiritual at this juncture does not hold up. What is true of biological family is not necessarily true of spiritual family.


Further, one can activate free not to be separated from the love God; however, one can also activate one's free will to be separated from the love of God.


About no one taking the believer out of the Father's hand, that is true as long as the believer activates free will to remain in the Father's hand. Countless persons have withstood unbelievable torture and yet remained true to God. However, one's own free will can remove one from the Father's hand. "No man" can take me from the Father's hand, but I myself can take myself out of the Father's hand.


Countless Scriptures point to the possibility of losing one's salvation if one so chooses: Ezekiel l8:24-26; Matthew 24:l3; Luke 8:ll-l5; l2:42-46; John 8:5l; l5:l-6; Acts l:25; l4:2l-22; Romans l:l8-23, 28, 32; 2:6-8; 6:l2, l5-l6, 23; 8:6, l2-l4; ll:20-22; I Corinthians 9:24; l0:12; l5:1-2; Ephesians 6:l3; Colossians l:2l-23; Galatians l:6; 5:l, 4; I Thessalonians 3:8; I Timothy l:l8-l9; 4:l; 5:ll-l5; 6:l0-l2; Hebrews 2:l-3; 4:ll, l4-l6; 5:8-9; 6:4-6, ll-l4; 8:9; l0: 23, 26-29, 35-39; James l:l2, l4-l6; Il Peter l:l0; 2:l5, l7, 20-22; 3:l7-l8; I John 2:3-4, 24-25; 3:6-9; 5:ll-l2; II John 9; Jude 5; Revelation 2:7; 3:5; l6:l5; 2l:7-8.


Why does eternal security fill churches? Because it allows one to be saved and sin at the same time; therefore, this preaching is popular, though it is not biblical.


Why does holiness teaching not fill churches? Because the holiness lifestyle is the most unpopular concept known to spiritually fallen human beings; therefore, this preaching is not popular and never will be, though it is biblical.


What are the dangerous results of eternal security teaching?


(l) Persons continue to sin while professing to be believers, thereby endangering their own eternal destinies because a sinning lifestyle is of the devil and not of God.


(2) Persons besmirch the clear biblical gospel message.


(3) God's call to holiness is negated for one cannot live in the Spirit's provision of holiness while at the same time sin in "word, thought and deed every day."


(4) Scripture becomes distorted. The biblical passages revealing the falsity of eternal security as popularly taught are not researched, taught and preached.


(5) Scores of persons live with a false doctrine which they themselves cannot accept in their inner thoughts but must not publicly refute for fear of being ostracized by eternal security proponents.


Eternal security proponents fault Arminians by stating that Arminians are forever fearful of their state before God, that is, Arminians cannot be sure of their salvation.


The truth is that Arminians are quite sure of their salvation in knowing that as long as they obey God they are assuredly saved by heaven's grace. Furthermore, If they do lapse--sin--they have an Advocate, Jesus, who is ready to forgive that sin once that believer repents, confesses and then endeavors to go on with life apart from sin.


In other words, a believer is eternally secure as long as he is obedient to the heart of God. Such is the true biblical understanding of eternal security. Obedience is the key; obedience flows from free will. Free will then is the major component in deciding one's eternal destiny as well as one's present state before God.


Salvation is not automatic, locked in.


Salvation is received by faith as God's gift and then is maintained by activating one's free will in obedience to the commandments of God.


"Work out your own salvation in fear and trembling" (Philippians 2:l2) does not point to an automatic, once-saved-always-saved, free-will-ceasing lifestyle. Instead, it underlines one's active, alive, accountable daily walk with God.

I TOLD HIM ABOUT JESUS. HE CUT OFF HER HEAD

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


We met in an inner city store—small and quaint.


He, dapper, was dressed in expensive casual duds. I figured him to be in his mid-20s. Sure enough, I was right.


We shook hands. I asked him if he had a degree, for I assumed he did in that he appeared suave, educated and of cosmopolitan mindset.


He answered, “I went to hell’s hole.”


That snapped my attention, obviously. I asked the definition of “hell’s hole.” He said, “Lynchburg Virginia.” Of course, that translated as Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University.


Why do you call Liberty University as “hell’s hole,” I wondered. He answered, “Well, you might imagine a woman had something to do with it.”


Ok. I let it go at that. But he did add that he spent two years in the hole. Must have been quite the young lady.


“So you were reared in an evangelical home, right?” I queried.


Not at all, he replied. His mother deserted him. His grandmother reared him. He did not get along with his Catholic father.


“So why did Catholic father send you to a fundamentalist university?” I asked.


“He just wanted me to go somewhere.”


Good enough.


All the while, he had no idea that he was talking to an evangelical minister of half a century. So I told him.


He remained cordial, though learning the data about his new acquaintance.


“So what do you do for work?” I ventured. He double-talked an answer.
Therefore, I let that go.


“Do you have a business card?” he asked. I handed me my pastor’s card. He noted the email address on it.


“I’ll send you an email,” he offered. I thanked him, shook his hand, wished him well, and so we parted but not before I told him briefly about Jesus.


When I got home, there was an email from the fellow. It was quite strange in that he talked about the universe, the frequencies set loose between the sun and moon as well as planetary influences on worldly events.


He signed off with: “Service over self.”


That was a threesome that he had verbalized as a farewell to me in the store. I thought him to be a humanitarian of high quality, though not that interested in biblical theology.


I replied to his email message by stating that I believed Jesus to be God, the Savior, that I held that when a mortal confessed his sins to Jesus salvation came to the soul and heaven was in the offing.


The fellow responded by stating that he did not believe that Jesus was an historical figure but if we imagined Him in our heads that Jesus was indeed present.


I answered him with the biblical line—that Jesus actually lived, died on the cross, and rose again.


He responded with more universe-studded gobbledygook and signed off with “Service over self.”


We did not email correspond after that.


However, I did visit with him several more times in the store, every time being most pleasant. He proved to be a likeable young adult with an interesting philosophy. He also was concerned about the shop for he donated items to it without expecting anything in return. It was one of those kinds of
shops.


I knew his good looks brought him many beautiful women. And I learned later that some handsome men found their ways to his confines as well.


One day while several of us were seated outside the shop, a gorgeous female approached. The young fellow immediately stood, approached her, giving all signals that they were close friends now meeting on the sidewalk. There was the warm embrace and kiss.


So it goes when young and attractive.


The other evening I watched the city news. There was this new friend’s photo on the screen. The bottom line: he had strangled a young woman. With that atrocity were other details most gross, one being that he sliced off her head and so forth.


Today he sits in a jail where I once served as substance abuse counselor. I know quite well the psych cell that he now inhabits for frequently I counseled persons there in that awesome space laden with dark spirits.


I think back. I at least told him about Jesus. I don’t have any idea what he will do what that detail.


“Service over self.” I wonder what he meant by that, finally.

VISITING JESUS IN PRISON

J. Grant Swank, Jr.,


I checked in at the front desk--my identification papers approved, my car keys passed in, my tag given me to wear when walking down the halls.


"It is a pleasant start," I thought. So it continued when meeting other personnel.


Then it was a matter of waiting at those electronically controlled doors.


Finally, I came upon a happy woman seated in a small office. Out her cubicle windows she could see in all directions, even around corners with help from surveillance cameras.


"How's it going?"


"It's going ok!" she responded cheerfully.


I made my way into a small room where there were copies of the Big Book, some hymnals, and various translations of the Bible. Someone had scrawled on the board: "God is love."


Chairs didn't match; but that didn't matter. There was a table for resting a book or two. There were a couple of windows that welcomed the morning's sun.


I waited. And I waited some more.


Then finally my friend appeared--head bowed, shoulders stooped.


"Not having a very good day?" I inquired.


No answer at first.


"I'm dealing with a lot of problems right now. One has to do with another inmate."


Ooops. Personality conflicts?


"Did you make it to Bible study last week?"


"Yeah. And the week before that."


"Good."


Conversation wandered back and forth. Slowly John began to brighten up a bit.


"Are you praying and reading your Bible as we talked about?" I asked.


"I'm trying. Some days are better than others. And I go to the services, too. There is one group that comes in here where the singing is really lively. I never miss when they come in here."


So we continued.


Talk centered on family (not close to my friend; some hostile, in fact), job possibilities upon his release (dreams are highly spun; practicality awaits), God (sometimes feeling near, sometimes not), plans for going faithfully to AA meetings upon release (determined). . .


"I have some Bible passages I want to share with you. I think they fit what's going on in your life," I offered.


We read some Psalms together--specifically 37, 91 and 27.


"These are vitamin tablets for your spirit," I explained. "Read them often, in small doses, throughout each day until they kick in."


There sat before me a very complicated personality. (Yet, aren't we all?) He had done some really nasty things? (But then again, haven't we all?) His future was unpredictable? (Of course, the same could be said for most of us.)


"You have half your life ahead of you," I pointed out. "With God, you can be disciplined to create a whole new 'you.' 'In Christ, we are new creatures. . .' That's the key--leaning on the Lord all the way home."


"I know," John responded with a deep sigh.


Would he make it? Time would tell.


In the meantime, I counted it a privilege to be his friend.


Jesus said, "You visited me in prison. . .As you have done it unto one of the least of these, you have done it unto me."


Sitting alongside John, I was seated alongside Jesus. What an honor.


As I left Maine Correctional Center / Windham, I smelled spring's freedom all around me. One day, John would do the same.


In the meantime, he counted on a Christian friend or two to draw close to his heart in hope.


Maine's Lakes Region is replete with singing firesides, boating thrills, flowering gardens and evening parties. Tucked in among these happy frills are those who cannot reach such borders yet. These persons are called "incarcerated."


Remember them in your intercessions today. Remember them with a visit to where they sit. Please.

WHERE’S DAD?

J. Grank Swank, Jr.


Forty percent of American youth and 80 percent of all minority children are born out of wedlock. What happened to the vows at the altar?


Right now, l million teens--l2 percent of all "women" aged 15-19--become childbearing each year. Of those, 70 percent have no husbands.


So Jodie Foster peered from PEOPLE with headline sporting: "And Baby Makes Two!" No dad, and proud of it. After all, according to Ms. Foster, I'm my own woman!


Remember Murphy Brown? Then U.S. Vice President Dan Quayle got it on the lip for criticizing Hollywood's unwed mother du jour back in 1992. After his watershed speech at the Commonwealth Club of California, forty-one percent of TV watchers tuned in to see Ms. Brown for themselves; commercial earnings shot off the charts and Candice Bergen walked off with an Emmy.


This is not a Kodak Moment: photos of millions of innocent children growing up without father's hugs, prayers or guidance. Through divorce and the current fad of single-parent-by-choice lifestyle, cuddles--who did not ask to be babied--is HERE. But she/he is here at a cost--a heart ripping cost that lasts a lifetime.


The majority of the children growing up in single-parent homes--most overseen by mothers--are dirt poor. Most of them are untended during working hours. Take stock: "Untended" translates into "ready to get into trouble."


To pick up the angst in all this, click on "Helping Your Kids Cope with Divorce" on MSNCB's home page. How far can you go on reading "Why did Daddy Go?" before you want to chuck The Present System?


"The sad news today and hereafter," writes researcher Kathleen Parker, "...is that nothing's likely to change. The New York Times has reported that unmarried pregnant teen-agers are 'beginning to be viewed by some of their peers as role models!"


Today 70 percent of Americans between ages 18 and 34 report that there is no moral problem with having babies outside of marriage.


And with that, I do hope that secular feminists are happy--fulfilled. They have worked the machine to a desperate close.


Sad, isn't it?

READING

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When Sir Robert Walpole was dismissed from all his responsibilities at his work, he retired to Houghton and walked into the library. When pulling down a book and holding it some minutes to his eyes, he immediately and rather sullenly put it back on the shelf for another.


He held that volume about half an hour, then looking out for a third book, returned it instantly to its shelf. He then began to cry, saying: "I have led a life of business so long that I have lost my taste for reading and now--what shall I do?"


What is it to realize that one has stunted the mind?


Busyness. Running about. Watching television. Traveling here and there. Daydreaming. Talking on the phone. Browsing through the malls.


Where has been the reading? Where have been the books?


Is that the vacuum in your life? You have been doing, but you have neglected reading.


Is there anything you can now do about it?


Certainly. Start reading.


An older woman was visiting with my wife and me for an extended vacation. She caught sight of a book which she said she would enjoy reading. I told her to borrow it. She said that she would try to get through it by reading now and then during her several week visit.


My wife and I had already read the book. Therefore, we started to chat with our friend about one particular chapter. It had been one which our friend had also just finished.


We two were amazed when he heard this woman relate details which were just the opposite of what was in that chapter. Therefore, we pointed out the falsities. She became adamant that she was correct.


The nub of it is that we were able to show her on the page the correct detail.


It was then that I realized that this friend was reading belaboringly through this book. The reason? She hardly read. Her life was consumed basically with television.


Consequently, when she did find a book which she thought she would like, she had not developed the skills to read it comfortably.


Yet if you have lived years without reading, it is never too late to start developing those reading skills.


Our family has another friend--a non-reader--who was laid off her job. She was offered a government-sponsored scholarship to learn a new trade, one in which she had had no previous knowledge. Nevertheless, she took the challenge.


All of a sudden she found herself in a classroom, studying volumes, preparing for exams, having to learn pages upon pages of new data, memorizing terms, writing papers, and conversing before students in class.


At first it was overwhelming to her. Yet, she persisted. She thought that she was going to fail the courses; therefore, she gave hours upon hours to reading.


At the graduation, she was the top in her class. She could not believe it. Because she thought that she was going to fail, she gave extra, extra effort to her reading. And it obviously paid off in the end.


It can be done. A non-reader can turn into a reader. It is worth it for there are worlds of knowledge and wonder out there in books, books, and more books.


If you have not been reading, be patient with yourself at first. Get hold of some book which is easy reading. Then progress to more difficult material. But at least make a start.


Set aside a certain time in the day when you are going to read. Then add to your relaxed reading, studying. Studying is researching a subject, delving deeply. There is a lot of work to this; but it is your opportunity for growth.


A friend sets aside each September as his month to read a brand new book through within the month. It is usually a bestseller. He does not often bother with the bestseller list; but in September, he tries to come upon some book from that list.


Another friend of ours sets aside each summer to research a subject she has never come upon before. The summer we visited her cabin in Maine, she was pouring over volumes relating to the BOOK OF REVELATION. She could not tell us enough about what information she had mastered. It was as if she had just returned from visiting a foreign country and wanted to share with us her experiences.


Read early in the morning. Read in the middle of the night when you cannot sleep. Read all Saturday morning. Read with the phone off the hook. Read for an entire Thursday evening, refusing the temptation to wander about the shopping mall.


Put on your calendar times to read just as if they are appointments to be kept. Keep them, for they are important. You are keeping an appointment with yourself--your mind.


When you really get into reading, you will discover that you open up your social life to more people--those who have likewise come upon the pleasures of books. You need this kind of exchange. You will come upon exceptionally stimulating personalities. They may be growing older, but their minds are keen. And their vocabularies are challenging. Their concepts are fresh and deepening.


Bored with life? Tired of the group you have been seeing for some time?


Then start reading avidly and meet with others of like interest. You will not be sorry for the exploration. Instead, you will ask yourself why it is that you did not take up earnest reading many years before.

WILLING IT

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


When cartoonist Al Capp no longer tossed Moonbeam McSwine and Fearless Fosdick around Dogpatch, he dried out his pen in Cambridge, Massachusetts.


No more surprise antics from Lonesome Polecat and Joe Btfsplk. Gone was Li'l Abner chasing Daisy Mae. Pipe-smoking Mammy was silenced, even in the face of Pappy.


Abruptly, Capp quit. He became a hideaway, racked by emphysema and discouraged by changes in the culture around him.


In November l979, this genius died at age 70. In his last years, he turned so inward that it became alarming to others.


On the other hand, that same year a congressional committee listened in fascination and admiration to a panel of eight centenarians. Some of them were in wheelchairs. They were gathered to pass along their secrets on how to live beyond age l00.


Their remarks focused on two principles: stay active and have a worthwhile purpose.


"Teach people to have a hobby," advised Harry Lieberman of Great Neck, New York. He started oil painting at 80. His work was then exhibited in l0 museums around the world.


Mr. Lieberman warned that without something productive to do, people would become bitter. He himself almost fell into that trap. After retiring, he spent six years idle. He had been in the confectionery business. Then he stopped at age 74. "Those were the worst six years of my life." In year seven, however, he came back to life by viewing his future differently. He willed life to change for the better.


And it did.


Representative Claude Pepper, Democrat from Florida and committee chairman, stated that the purpose of the hearing was to look into the "centenarian explosion." People were living longer!


Pepper, at 79, was then the oldest member of the House of Representatives. He told those present that when he was born, life expectancy of children born that year was only 49.


Dr. W. L. Pannell, 100, still practiced medicine in East Orange, New Jersey. With conviction, he told the congressmen: "Try to keep up activities. Exercise your mind and body."


When comparing Al Capp's reaction to getting older with those over l00 before the House Select Committee on Aging, one realizes that it comes down to the human will. One wills to give up or one wills to go on--with gusto!


Mrs. Winona M. Melick lived in Long Beach, California. When interviewed by the press, she was l03. Though hard of hearing, she had a keen mind and her voice was energetic. She told the press that she enjoyed visiting friends, reading, writing voluminous letters and exercising daily.


On Saturdays, she had her hair styled. She also admitted to having it dyed brown. "That helps. If I had gray hair, I would look older. I feel like I am about 65."


She had wrestled with three bouts of cancer and won out each time.
She walked seven blocks to and from church every Sunday.
To hear her speak, one knew that she was overcome with a strong will to live.


When maestro Eugene Ormandy reached his 80th birthday, he was treated to an elegant dinner where he was toasted by close to 400 friends and members of the Philadelphia Orchestra.


The All-Philadelphia Boys Choir sang in his honor. Fireworks lit up the sky over the city's waterfront. The white-haired conductor and his wife, Gretel, beamed.


Birthday greetings were given him from all around the world.


"If this is 80, then it feels very good, but I only feel half as old," he said.


His blue eyes were as bright as ever as he took in the large violin-shaped birthday cake delivered to the head table.


How many people do you know who are old in their attitudes? They may be young chronologically; but they are worn out in their minds.


Yet how many people of years have you come across who are bright and effervescent? They are bubbling over with enthusiasm. They enliven the room when entering it.


Mary Hammond was one of those bright stars. She was legally blind but she saw through everything. And how! No tricks got past her.


When she was in her 70s, she started to attend our church. She was at every service. I noted that when she was ill and could not get to church, the service was not the same. There was a spark missing.


We let her know that, too.


After I left that pastorate, I often wondered what that congregation ever did for "living it up" before Mary came along. She was one of those marvelous additions to any group.


I think that overcoming troubles, getting on top of things, always resides in the human will. It is not the emotions nor the intellect as much as it is the will.


One can be low emotionally, but then when the head talks to the will about looking up, getting on the move, the emotions change for the better.


When one is confused in mind, a person can will to get out, change the scenery, be with happy people, and in short order the head is
"unconfused."


These are simple games to play; but they work. Scores have proven them to be true.


I know a friend who lost his wife in a tragic auto accident. His loss was felt deeply for that couple was very much in love. They adored one another.


Yet, facing reality head-on, Alby trusted his wife to be with God. He believed that at sometime in his future, they would be reunited. In the meantime, he also reasoned that his wife would want him to get the most out of every day.


Down through the years, Alby had never been a quitter. And so he was not about to change his attitude. In the years which followed his wife's death, Alby lived out his characteristic zip. He woke up every morning with the will to enjoy that day more than all the days that had gone before. Most of the time he won the game of life superbly. His friends watched on admiringly.


Our family friend, Kathy, has suffered from lupus for years. Most of the time her body is ravaged with pain. She is under doctor's surveillance continually. Her husband left her. She had to bring up her two children practically alone.


Yet Kathy is an active member of her local church, president of the mission society, board member and secretary of the state lupus chapter, editor of its newsletter, a free-lance writer and counselor to others suffering terminal illnesses.


A highlight of any of her friends' days is to go with her to the local coffee shop. She is the life of the party.


"I am determined to live every day to the limit. God has given me this moment. I give it back to Him for whatever He desires. Most of the time I have discovered that He wants me to use this illness to bring hope to others. That is my fulfillment," she says.


All of these successful people are winners because they have locked their wills into overcoming problems. They may be getting older, but they are not old.


Take a personal inventory right now of your outlook on life. You are either purposefully willing a positive attitude or lapsing into a negative attitude.


Upbeat attitudes do not just happen. Downbeat attitudes DO just happen. They do not need forethought nor ambition. They come about simply by "letting down." They
sneak in when you are not aware. They can overcome your mind when you are lazy in thought, lacking motivation, not thinking through your reason for living.


Yet when you determine to think about human existence, then it is that you can will to be positive. You size things up. You take stock of why humans are on the planet. You then look about you to discover what God has in store for your productivity.


This need not be outlandish. Most of us are here to do good in the unknown ways. Our deeds do not make headlines. They do not bring you attention.


This in itself is a blessing. The best acts are those done anonymously.
Therefore, ask yourself the following:


(l) Do I wake up every morning with a positive outlook?


(2) Do I filter negative terms out of my talk?


(3) Do I seek to help other people?


(4) Am I happy within?


(5) Am I a pleasant person to know?


(6) Do I laugh, smile, convey a cheerfulness?


(7) Do I refuse to give into discouragement?


(8) Do I have a practical faith in God?


(9) Does my faith play itself out in everyday life?


(10) Are others attracted to God because of my faith?


(11) Does my faith really make a difference in my outlook?


(12) Can I find faith in God in the face of death?


(13) Do I adapt to complicated situations?


(14) Am I basically a positive thinker?


Life is what you make it. Untold numbers have had to confront poverty, sickness, disaster and the awful surprises of everyday. Many have been buried beneath their circumstances. However, scores have faced the most difficult situations and proven that God can provide previously unknown resources. Their practical testimonies underline that the invisible heavenly powers are available to those who believe.

THE GLOBE SHOULD HAVE BLOWN UP BY NOW

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


That’s right.


There’s enough evil in the world and enough nuclear blow up on the planet that by now we should have been blown to smithereens.


However, we are still here. Explain why.


It is because the God of the Bible made this creation and maintains it. One day and hour He will leave the right hand of the Father’s throne in heaven to return to His turf.


Because this is His property, He sees to it that it is still here. That’s the Alpha and Omega of the question: Why is the globe still spinning?


God has deemed it so. God is God. God has decreed that though the human population is wicked and the nuclear pantries are full to overflowing, no mortal will have the say as to what occurs on His property. The deed belongs to Him.


If there is any proof that there is a God it is that the world is still here. That is empirical evidence.


Realists should conclude that with the nuclear presence off the charts, we should have disappeared a long, long time ago. With that, realists should likewise conclude that there must be a reasonable postulate as to how we are still breathing in this sphere.


But often those who claim to be realists take on the titles “agnostic” of “atheist,” boasting on not believing in a God of Creation. How ignorant. How far into denial. How out of touch.


The globe’s very existence points to some overarching Power who keeps it going on no matter what the threat. That Power, for the rational mind, is the God of Creation.


“O give thanks to the Lord of lords: for His mercy endures forever. To Him who alone does great wonders: for his mercy endures forever.


“To Him that by wisdom made the heavens: for His mercy endures forever.


“To Him who stretched out the Earth above the waters: for His mercy endures forever.


“To Him who made great lights: for His mercy endures forever.” (Psalm 136:3-7)


The psalmist goes on and on in verse after verse exclaiming what believers already have experienced, that is, that God’s mercy extends into the everlasting.


Part of that divine mercy is that with which He has clothed the globe. It is outlandish mercy that keeps us breathing here. It is the love of God that maintains the lines of creation, keeps the seasons revealed and opens each day to another dawn.


“O give thanks unto the God of heaven: for His mercy endures forever.” (Psalm 136:26)


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