Richards Ramblings

Obama or Chaney

2009-05-22T11:41:00.000-07:00

I agree with both Obama and Chaney. How can that be since they are poles apart? I believe the truth is in the middle, but I also believe Obama is naive.

I don't believe in torture, but how bad, really, is waterboarding? It's not like be burned with
cigarettes or having fingernails pulled out, or being hit with electric charges. It's more scary than hurtful. But with that aside, let me say this:

Al-quaida, the Teliban, and their counter parts around the world, are more than terorists. They are religious fanactics fighting a religous war. That means there is no compromise for them. It is death for us or them. They are not fighting for territory or wealth, they are fighting for God, at least their idea of God and God's will. What that leads to is conversion "by any means possible" is acceptabe. That includes committing every crime imaginable, because if it is committed in the name of God to bring people to Islam, then it's okay. The crimes are done for godly ends, in their minds. That belief permits anything and everything. Thus there is no middle ground--for either side--it's believe or die.

The captives at Guantanimo, in their thinking, have God's blessing to lie and mislead. They have God's blessing to murder and maim, so lieing is nothing but second nature to them. You cannot trust them. You cannot believe them. You must make them fear you, and only then will you have a chance at the truth from them, becuase the ony thing they respect is power.

Mr. Obama is naive to think that these are normal people, that kindness will change them. They see kindnes as weakness, and they will kill you. They are brained washed. The alternative to waterboarding, I believe is to try to unbrainwash them. How do you do that, I don't know. But former zealots would be the ones to do this.

Turning the other cheek to a relgious maniac like those in Gitmo, will only result in having your cheek ripped off of your face. Passive resistance only works with people of conscience. These people, like Nazi zealots, have no conscience.

If these were a "normal" enemy, someone who was out to gain something for his country, you might be able to negotaite a peace and make certain concessions. But for these religous zealots there is no compromise, no middle ground, nothing to which we could ascent to. You must convert to Islam or die, and it is their form of Islam you must adhere to. Other Islamic believers are people of peace and understanding.

Islam is not bad, it is the way some believers twist and turn its teaching to their own understandings and ends that has lead to this present evil.

My opinon is that if your religion leads you to do ungodly things in the name of God, there is something wrong with your religion or in the way you understand your religion. By the same token, if your religion hasn't made you more humble and loving, then there is something wrong with you.

Got My First Social Security Check

2008-09-03T14:47:00.000-07:00

Hi, Folks,

It is official. I'm really retired. I received my first Social Security payment, so I must be retired, right? But why don't I feel like it? So many seniors citizens have told me that they are busier being retired than working at their former careers. I thought that it just seemed that way to them. But boy, was I wrong. They are right!

If this keeps up I just might go back to a full time job so I can get a break. My question is, "If you're retired, how do you know when you're on vacation?"

Many of you know I'm pastoring a church here in town at quarter time. That's defined as 15 hours a week. Heck, it takes me that long just to write a sermon. What I have found out is that quarter time really means full time but for a quarter of the pay.

But that's okay. I like doing ministry and never really kept account of the hours I put in and my salary wasn'tmy first concern. I couldn't think of doing anything else with my life. For the first half of my ministry I never took a day off as we are supposed to do and my work day began at 5:30 a.m. Nowadays, I start at 8:30, but sometimes I sneak a breakfast in at a diner and don't get in until 9:00 or 9:30. (I feel like I've done something wrong, so I dock myself one cup of coffee at the office.)

I'm looking into doing some substitute teaching. I'm just waiting for my background check to come back. I've been finger printed so many times it's getting harder and harded to get the darn ink off of my fingertips. But now it's computerized. You just roll your fingers and thumbs across a plate of glass on a computer.

I want to reach out to High School and Jr. High kids in the community. I can't discuss religion, but maybe by being a compassionate presence it may lead some of the youth to ask questions which I can answer. I had great experiences doing so in Russia in the schools there in 1994 and 1995. I could do there what I cannot do here in America and that was to share the Gospel with kids in school.

If I, as a substitute, even mention God (God forbid) they would toss me out on my ear. So, I am asking if you would be so kind as to pray for me so that in my substitute assignments that God may use me in someway to help young people.
I'd really appreciate it. Thanks a lot and God bless.

Rich

Too Busy To Blog

2008-06-20T11:55:00.000-07:00

Hi, Friends,

In 10 more days it will be official, I'll be retired. I had no idea how much work it would be in order to get retired. I had no idea how much paper work would be involved and how much planning I would need to have done.

First it took me a couple of months just to reach my decision to investigate retiring. I had to find out about how much I would receive from Social Security and my pension from the church. But still I did not know whether I could afford to retire. So, I consulted a financial advisor who was a great help. I would recommend her to anyone.

The first thing she did was to have me sit down and figure out what all of my expenses would be in retirement. I was surprised at how much I would need as a minimum amount. That made me question all the more whether I could afford to stop working. But she looked at my few investments and guided me into mazximizing my benefits in retirement by rolling over as much of my pension as possible and drawing on an innuity that I did have the good sense to set up years ago.

Doing all of this made me take stock of how foolishly I had handled much of my money over these years. A divorce didn't help at all, either. And I also realized that it had a greater cost to probably both of us than each of us ever realized at the time we went through it. (How I wish I had used my head a lot better back then than I did, but we can't go back, can we?)

At any rate, what I started out to say was that all this preparing to retire was a lot of work. (I advise you to start planning now, the younger the better.) And all this time consuming chore took away time from doing other things such as tending to my blog.

So here is what I have learned during this time:

1) Don't expect the future to take care of itself no matter how generous God is. God expects us to cooperate with the grace He provides us. It's one ting to rely on God for your future, but it's another to rely on God and plan for your future. The latter has much more of God's blessings than the former.

John Wesley called it "cooperating grace," that is, our working along with the grace God bestows. If we do work with God our plans work out a lot better and go a lot farther than just hoping that the future will be fine. My advice: plan as you would if you knew that the future will be bleak, and put it all in God's hands. You'll be amzed at the outcome.

2) While planning for the future, don't forget to enjoy the present. Some people can get so caught up in securing their future that the present becomes such a chore and only a means to enjoy the future. Instead of living today they put off living until then. But the truth is "then" may never come. Now is all we are sure of. If the future is to come, it will come. The quality of it however, does depend on our prpearing for it, but not at the cost of today's joys. Today has enough cares of its own. And if by the grace of God we live to have a future we won't know how to enjoy the future either if today is spent on what might be instead of what is. Plan, but don't forget to live.

3) Less philosophicly, seek help in planning your future. Seek God's help at all times in all things, of course, but seek practical help from professionals. The best thing I've done in preparing to retire was to seek the help of a financial advisor. I just wonder how better off I would have been if I had sought out such a person a long time ago?

4) Don't let things go. Wheter it's the future, or your house, or your health, or your spiritual life. TAKE CARE OF IT NOW! Things don't take care of themselves. Take care of it before it falls into disrepair, whatever it is.

5) Lastly, "Work as if everythng depends on you and pray as if everthing depends on God."

A Month of Holidays

2008-02-12T10:08:00.000-08:00

February is a holiday month. We begin by waiting for the ground hog to predict the end of winter. We commemorate two of our greatest presidents, George Washington and Abraham Lincoln. We set a date aside to celebrate an old Saint of the church, St. Valentine as a special day for lovers to remember each other in special ways.

From the 17th to the 23rd we observe Brotherhood and Sisterhood week. Of course, Lent begins on Ash Wednesday.

Lent is a religious season designed by the early Church as a time for each of us to look within. It is a time of self-reflection, self-denial, and self-preparation for Holy Week. It is a time to particularly realize the passion of Christ in one’s life. We might call Lent: Forty Day’s of the Cross.

On Ash Wednesday the cross is a faint shadow. Some denominations burn last year’s palms to make the ashes, and the worshippers are marked on the forehead with an ashen cross. Then as the days pass, as it was with Christ’s ministry, the cross looms ever larger and foreboding.. Just so, the sacrifice and agony of the Lord should become more present to the worshipper in each day of Lent.

When I walked through the Garden of Gethsemane on a long-ago visit to the holy lands, I was especially touched by the suffering of Jesus’. The original olive trees among which Jesus walked prayed are still living in the garden. These trees are between 2000 and 2500 years old. And what is most striking about them, in addition to their age, is how gnarled their trunks are. They bear wrinkles and scars of these last two thousand years having a weather-beaten appearance bespeaking the agony of Christ as he seated blood over his decision to bear the cross on our behalf. The trees speak of God’s agony as God watches over this weary, war-torn world. There is not even peace in the land where God promised peace at His son’s birth.

I was moved not only by the thought that my Lord and Savior walked in this very place and perhaps touched these very trees, but also by the thought that the outward appearance of these ancient olive trees must look like the heart of Christ as he agonized over his death on the cross for me and you. His disciples who he had asked to watch with him, fell asleep. He was left alone to agonize (Luke 22:39-46).

How much his Church today is like those first disciples. For the most part his church sleeps while Christ continues to sweat blood over his creation. We as individuals and as a church cannot continue to give God our second best or a back-handed effort. We can no longer remain asleep while family life, community, morality, and moral responsibility continue to decline. We need to realign our priorities and commitments The first priority being Jesus Christ and his will for our lives. He still agonizes over what we do or fail to do.

So let us permit this Lenten season to be a time of recommitment and deeper dedication to the Lord of the Cross and the God of Resurrection. Let us not let Jesus agonize alone anymore.

EASTER'S COMING

2008-02-07T07:40:00.000-08:00

Hi, All,

Yesterday was Ash Wedesday. It's a pity that many Protestants don't take the day very seriously like our Romanish brothers and sisters do--Catholics, Episcopalians, and Lutherans. We Methodists, Baptists, and other anabaptist traditions acknowledge Lent, but the practice of Ash Wednesday seems to be lost on us for the most part.

Ash Wednesday is a day of repentance. I liken it to Rosashana, the Jewish Day of Atonement. At the Jerusalem Temple, the High Priest would hold his hands over a peffect lamb, one "without spot or blemish." As he did this he would confess on behalf of the people of Israel and himslef of all the sins they committed thoughtout the year. After the sins were cast upon this perfect lamb, he would be driven into the wilderness taking upon him the sins of the people.

Two men waited there to receive the lamb and throw him to his death over a cliff. This was done so that the sin-bearer would not return to the city bringing with him the people's sins which would be revisited upon them. This animal was known as the "Scape Goat."

Jesus of Nazarreth was our scapegoat. He is "The Lamb of God that takes away the sins of the world." He is the perfet human who bore upon himself on the cross of Calvary, not only the sins of the Jews, but of the whole world; one time for all eternity, for all humanity.

There is no sin so heinous that God will not forgve, nor is there any depth to which God's grace will not go to redeem any and all who who are in need of redemption.

This is reason alone we should take Ash Wednesday and the whole season of Lent seriously. We need no more to make sacrifices to win forgiveness, Christ accomplished that on our behalf. But we are called to be "Living Sacricifes," that is, to live lives worthy of the death fo Christ and for what he has done for us.

Are you carrying your sins upon you? Is your heart heavy with sorrow? Are there secrets of which you are ashamed? Turn your burdens over to Jesus. His yoke for you is easy and his burden is light. He died for you no matter who you are nor how low or unworthy you feel. He knew about you before you were conceived and He died so that you would not have to.

Have a blessed Lent,
Richard

Already with a new blog site!

2008-01-31T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hi, One and All,

I put up a blog the other day, and I don't know if you received it. But I already had trouble with it, so I have done up a new one.

My purpose is the same, and that is to be in dialogue with you about spiritual matters, personal troubles, your neeed for prayer, and whatever might strike your fancy. I only have one rule: If you don't criticise my spelling I won't criticise yours. That's any easy one.

Lent is fast approaching us. It is a time to look inward to be honest with ourselves on how we are doing in our walk with the Lord. So, how are you doing in your walk? Hopw goes it with your soul? I'm ready to listen.

My soul is doing well. Last weekmhowever, I contracted a bacteria (probably in the men's, locker room at the gym) which infected my left foot. It was the most excruciating pain I have ever experienced. I had a kidney stone and gall stones that never hurt like that. I went to the emergency rook at Lady Of Lourdes in Camden at 6:00 am after suffering all night and the night before. The last thing I thought about was the well being of my soul.

I had cellulities, and infect of the cell beneath the skin. It is a form of Elephantitis. MY foot was red and swollen. I could hardly wall and tyhe pain was most terrible. I was lucky that Milt Eisenhardt was availabvle to fill in for me on Sunday. He's a great guy.

Bearing up under the pain as best as I could, I could help but thinking of Jesus' pain when spikes were driven through his feet when they nailed him to the cross. My pain has made me take a second look at his. My pain came unexpectedly. His pain came willingly. And thoughe my pain was more than I could stand, he bore pain beyond pain, on the cross. I wish I could say it was a comforting thought. But it wasn't. It did not relieve my pain and stress. But it gave me hope, "that this too shall pass."

Are you in any sort of pain, now? Physical, emotional, business-wise, or relationship-wise? If you are please answer back, and we'll talk. It might help.

Richard