Another Side of Marcus Arelius

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I know you and your ways

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Better Come To God Today

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This Will Be Your Final Call

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The Hand Is Writing On the Wall

DON’T LAUGH AT IT; DO IT

OK we’re going to “simocast” with the blog for a while here. This morning I was out on the patio and I was just thinking how blessed I was to have a High Definition TV right in this room here and how in congrewous it was. I was wondering whether I really “deserved it” from a divine perspective. God gave me an answer from TV as soon as I got back inside. They were talking about paying off mortgages early to save intrest payments and should people do it. Suffering or going without in this life is rather similar from a spiritual standpoint to “paying down a mortgage early” in this life. The answer is that you should not do it if you’re buying your first house because that money could be put to much better use in the here and now paying off things like credit cards so those payments don’t escalate. And so there is your answer. Don’t think of the bye and bye when you won’t need the money as badly as you need it now. Last night I had another of those Burt Lombard dreams. As you know “Burt Lombard” is sort of a ficticious identity I assumed when I became a born again Christian though there are only a few snail mail letters to the media where I actually sign it Burt Lombard. “Burt Lombard” was born February 20^th. 1957 and is from Cincinatti, Ohio, just like Steve Johnson. In this dream I was on some sprawling religious “Campus” with lots of gardens and walkways and buildings and lots of stairs to go up and down. Most of the time I was with a croud people going somewhere for an activity. This was like an “Amazing Prophecies” campus or something where everybody believed in the Rapture of the faithful. I was getting that “Burt Lombard” feeling. You know a little bird has been whispering in my ear that I didn’t exactly get my new HDTV through prayer and fasting. (With my recent illness, maybe the fasting part a little) I have to ask myself “Would you have gotten that TV from parents five years ago?” As you know their usual modas opperandi is when they say No they mean No and sometime when they say Yes they mean No. This TV was a “No” as recently as a couple of weeks ago. They said I couldn’t get one. Hence we have a case of water actually flowing upstream. I remember when I was waiting outside the Dentist’s office on an overcast day in June of 2005 and I was talking or perhaps arguing with a representative from the Orion Federation. And they told me that there would be a fundamental change in relation between me and my parents when it came to economics in the coming future. The Federation wants me to give credit where credit is due. If something could NOT have happened five years ago the Federation just wants me to open my eyes and see what has changed. I’m thinking of that scene in the Jim Jones movie where Reverand Jones comes to Father Divine and says “I’ve been having money problems at my church. What do I do?” and Father Divine looks up to heaven and says “Just look to Father and ask. Just- - Ask. Father will provide”. You know, I’d like to be in his position. As some elder spokesman for a religion and people come to me and ask what should they do and I just gaze upwards to heaven and say “Just ask Father”. It’s a wonderful feeling to be able to offer people reassurance and know that your words actually have traction.

Another answer I got from the television was one day I was listening to a preacher who made the statement “The night time is for sleeping”. The truth of this statement may not be readily apparent. Jesus in John 7 or somewhere says in response to people who were worried about muggers and robbers, “Are there not twelve hours in a day. If you walk in the light you are protected” or some such thing. “My father works and I too must work. The night is coming when no man can work”. I thought of this saying “The night is coming”. What does it mean? Does it mean that after Jesus gets crucified a horrible persecution will be unleashed so that nothing can be accomplished? Actually what it means that as long as you’re alive it is Day, and when it is Day you work and do the Lord’s service. When the night comes you sleep. In Thesselonians and elsewhere sleep is associated with death. Elsewhere St. Paul says, with perhaps false hope, “The night is far spent. The night is when people party and get drunk. But you are children of the Light”. I kind of think what he means is that the rapture is symbolic of the Dawn. So Jim Morrison is right in a symbolic sense. The rapture comes at Dawn, spiritual dawn. And we also know that as far as Genisis is concerned the dawn of a new day comes at Sumset. I would like to throw out this possibility for you. That the Rapture just might come at St. Patrick’s day at sunset. This is after we go on Daylight Savings Time.

I want to talk just a little about George’s Bush’s speech last night. If Rush Limbaugh were true to himself he’d say to put a sign on the front of your TV saying “This man is a confirmed liar” or some such thing. I guess what any Born Again Christian needs to know by instinct is “How to have Faith”. In this case – how do you have Faith in somebody who has proved unfaithful in the past? How do you develop anew that trust you may have had five years ago? People say “I know already Bush isn’t doing this build-up right”. If we take him at his word, and I trust the president WANTS us to take him at his word- - he wants us to know that he has talked to Meliki and how Meliki has pledged not to do what he’d done before and allow the Shiites to run rampant, but to work in an even-handed way to end sectarian violence. Once we clear an area can the Iraqi government and their own police force be trusted to maintain order? Can we “work together” to deligate duties so that we are all in concert getting a single job done? I think we can hope for that and pray for that. Bush believes if he just had another 22,000 troops he could properly deploy them so that all the bases were covered and there would be no “pup-ups” of violence like John Mc Cain talks about. How does John Mc Cain feel about this speech? Certainly from his statements Mc Cain wanted several times the number of troops we are going to send. Personally if I were president, and I’ve said this before, I would get on TV and tell the American people “I’m looking to You to help me to decide whether to further pursue this war. If we are going to prosecute this war properly we will have to reinstitute the national Draft. Your young men will be at risk, and there will be no deferments. Rich and Poor alike will share in this burden. Are you up to the task? With a Draft I can send the extra two hundred thousand troops we need to meet the required total number of $350,000 to insure that we get the job done. War should not be a thing where only a few people in the country sacrifice and the rest don’t care. The solution to a War is not to “Go Shopping” but rather for mutual national sacrifice, just like our grandparents did in World War II. Are you up to the task?” I’d ask for cards and letters to the White House telling me what to do. And if it was a thumbs down on the draft then I’d end the war and bring the troops home for some long needed rest and relaxation.