The hill was steep and for a while I wondered whether or not I could make it to the ridge without having to stop for a break and when I had begun looking for someplace to rest, I heard voices coming from somewhere up the hill. It sounded for all the world like a couple of old hillbillies, probably rattling on like they often do about rural issues or the ignorance of young people, but something about this conversation was different – way different – from the typical woodsy talk you’d expect, so I sort of eavesdropped on their conversation as I struggled up towards them.
It seemed as though I heard one of them ask, “Could this early encroach of cheerful autumn clime be mayhap a dire result of the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation becoming weaker due to the fresh water being released from the Beaufort Gyre?”, queried one of the old-timers to my utter astonishment. The other quickly and sternly replied, “Fie on’t, ah fie, ’tis an unweeded garden…” as he wiped the snuff spittle from his chin with his shirtsleeve. By this time, I began to wonder if the hill I was ascending was leading me into a parallel universe, such was the unexpected tenor and topic of their conversation. ” Whither by chance or cosmic nuance, frost shall burst forth soon, for today seems ’tis an unweeded garden that grows to seed; things rank and gross in nature possess it merely.”
A scroungy hound could be heard snorting and complaining of his being relegated to tick food during the exchange as at last the participants emerged into view, sure enough, two elderly hillbillies clad in flannel shirts and bib overalls were there, sitting on ancient hewn blocks of white oak in front of an equally ancient log cabin – all the trappings one would expect of a homestead in this neck of the woods. “Forsooth, yon misty plumes across an indigo cosmos shall later descend upon unsuspecting populace bearing particulates of aluminum, barium, and other such damnable constituents as may cause harm, yet none be concerned, nor shall they come to be forthwith, so it seems,” remarked the eldest of the two as he lifted a large jug to his mouth for a drought.
“Yea, for henceforth that which blooms upon the earth in fields once blessed of provident grace shall come to naught also and alas for farmers those rank weeds assail. Moreover, today few men of stature possess dignity perchance to allay our concerns, giving thought to such perversity as allowing said maladies to thrive for pecuniary gain.” followed the other. By now I was getting close enough to be seen and the old dog let out a half-hearted bark to apprise the old fellows their conversation was being interrupted, and their tenor suddenly changed. “Howdy young feller” the older one, who I came to know as Willie, said to greet me as he pointed to an unoccupied stump. “Take a seat right thar and git a load off.”
At once the world I was travelling through returned to what a hiker would have expected, leaving me even more dumbfounded than when I was listening to their earlier conversation. “Did I just hear you guys quoting Shakespeare?” I nervously queried. “Shake who?” queried Willie as he looked confusedly at his buddy Tom, then back at me.
“No really, I just heard you discussing scientific subjects such as the Beaufort Gyre, and in a totally unexpected vernacular,” I replied. “Looky here young’un, I know it was a hard traipse up that hill, but you need to just sit here and rest a few minutes and try to get your marbles back. We ain’t ever heard of nuthin like that. Here, have a swig of this product, maybe it’ll clear your head.” as he reached the jug over to me. I must admit, I was beginning to question whether the climb up the hill had indeed affected my “marbles”.
Tom slowly fetched a pouch of chewing tobacco out of his overalls pocket and stuffed what looked like a coffee cupful into his yapper as Willie eyed me suspiciously. “Seriously, have you fellows ever read about chem trails and their potential to damage crops and people?” I carefully asked, trying not to rouse any more discomfit than I already had. “Nope, nary a bit of it, and you need to take a pull off that moonshine cause you keep a’soundin’ like a idjit.” By now I was convinced that it was me who was rattled, and I “took a pull” even though the stuff inside was reminiscent of stale kerosene. Needless to say, I shuddered violently as the draught went down which gave the old timers a good laugh. In fact, Tom laughed so hard he ejected half of his chew. The effect of the “shine” on my senses was almost immediate and I rapidly calmed down, assured by now that the exertion of the hike coupled with what may have been the effects of x-ray bombardment from recent solar flaring probably caused me to hear things.
I sat a while and took another swig or two and came to enjoy the conversation and even petted the old hound, but soon I realized it was getting late and I needed to get where I was going. As I stood up to leave, my head was a little cross threaded and I reeled a bit, which of course gave the old hillbillies another laugh, but I steadied myself with my walking stick and after heartfelt farewells, resumed my journey through the Ozarks.
As I walked away, but before I got out of earshot, I thought I heard Willie say, “Mayhap thine opportune drought moored the sensibilities of that stalwart youth, though he may have been taken amok from the effect of ultraviolet radiation of recent solar flares, particularly that of number 3985 with its attendant Coronal Mass Ejection.”
America is being duped again – right out in front of the whole world. We are being led to believe there is an election coming up in which a president will be chosen to “lead” our country and media headlines far and wide are digging in their heels to present this foolishness as being something real. The war in the Ukraine is being relegated slowly to the back burner, and at least what’s left of news stories on the conflict are being shifted to appear as though the events being reported that are related to the war now have some influence on this all-important upcoming election. The piteous events of the Middle East are even being considered now in light of how the conflict(s) will affect – or be affected by – the upcoming American election. In other words, narratives on all of today’s significant, newsworthy events – including wars – in which real people are really dying – are being reshaped to make them seem as merely coincidental to, or at most having influence on, the all-important, all consuming – election.
Americans are once again being fooled into believing that their opportunity to choose between two candidates who have already been thoroughly vetted by political action committees – in service to the wealthy – is somehow a free and fair election. Whoever is elected to fill the position will operate the office at the behest of oligarchs with the nation’s wealth, and regardless of how the candidates bluster and threaten, at the end of the day they will do as they are told. They will staff their cabinet with whomever they are instructed to hire. They will send the nation’s wealth to whatever foreign country they are told to give it to. Remember JFK? Remember Jeffrey Epstein? Do you even know who Epstein is, or what his schtick was all about? I didn’t think so. Americans need to turn off their “reality” TV shows and get themselves educated – otherwise their kids are going to become slaves.
As our captive media once more turn our national attention to this recurring sham to which the oligarchs (undoubtedly laughingly) refer to as a national election, we could know, if we desired, that they have everything prepared in advance to usher in their choice and impose him/her upon us. Shake the scales off and pay attention – you might just accidentally learn something – the criminals in charge couldn’t care one iota which of the candidates “win” the election!! Both – or in rare cases, all three – candidates have already demonstrated absolute fealty to their owners, and concern for the well-being of America has nothing to do with their being chosen by “the people”. The only exception to this is when a third candidate who might not be on board with the “program” is allowed to pretend to be running, and his chances of getting elected are nil, but by stealing votes from one or the other chosen candidates, ignorant voters of the losing side can prove the depths of their ignorance by getting mad at him. Remember Ralph Nader? I didn’t think so.
One of the more poignant aspects of our electoral process that reveals it’s shamefulness is the way certain elements of a candidate’s platform are used to divide the electorate. I’ll use abortion as probably the most striking example. Before the torches and pitchforks come out, I’ll admit up front I do not support abortion as a method of birth control. I believe, as a Christian that a person’s behavior that leads to an abortion even being considered is the root of the problem, but that is seldom mentioned, even by the staunchest of anti-abortion politicians. The very mention of abortion brings out the wrath of most who identify as “conservatives”. Think about it now, how many years has it been since Roe v Wade, and what have any or all of those anti-abortion candidates once they got into office, done to eliminate it? I’ve listened to too many drug-addled, sinful by every standard, hypocrites emphatically denouncing abortion as though that’s the only prerequisite God demands for entry into heaven and of course, by denouncing it, they have their ticket into the pearly gates. Way too much of this going on, but it’s a great way to divide the electorate and keep ignorant people thinking there’s a difference in whomever they choose.
Although this post is not intended to be an argument for or against abortion, I can’t leave the subject without observing that the most ardent anti-abortion types typically consider themselves to be conservatives, but their hypocrisy invariably reveals itself when it comes time to help feed that hungry child they insisted be brought into this world. As conservatives, they always reject the notion that, even as Christians they have an obligation to provide for the needs of the child. By doing so, they reveal that the humanitarian aspect of saving a child need not be of the same consideration as the importance of trying to control someone else’s life and that’s where they’re really coming from.
Back to the election. The only reason I saw fit to write this post was because of the Groundhog Day behavior of the country at election time. Everyone is supposed to miraculously forget the sins of the nation and join together for this pathetic ritual where we all can pretend that all the ills of the world will be eliminated if we can just get “our candidate” into office, and afterwards, no matter which one wins, we get the exact same results again, and again, and again… But it was fun to pretend we actually accomplished something. Right?
All, however, is not lost. We can accomplish something – something extremely important to the future of our nation – seriously! Look into the movement, Our Country Our Choice. There exists promise for America, but it’s going to take a concerted effort to get back on the right road. The CEO of OCOC is one retired Colonel Douglas MacGregor, an upstanding patriot who sees and tries to help others see what problems we’re facing, and more importantly, how we can begin to deal with them. This is not another sham election, this movement has the potential to actually change the direction of our nation. I joined the organization, and although I don’t necessarily agree with all they stand for, I do agree with their willingness to honestly debate issues without lying or dodging questions. For people of faith, the spiritual arm of OCOC is led by one Pastor Casey Butner, a righteous man of impeccable spiritual credentials. If we can get OCOC on track, Jesus Christ must be involved, and Pastor Casey can keep us on moral compass.
This post was not intended to be a promotion for OCOC, but this group is certainly an alternative to allowing ourselves to believe some fake election is going to change anything. I’m not saying don’t vote, I’m just pointing out the futility of believing a sham election is the answer.
This is the time of year that readers of folkpotpourri know to expect the psychological disorder which I call OCPA, obsessive, compulsive prose of autumn, to overtake this writer again. By now y’all know autumn’s my favorite time of the year, so far surpassing other seasons that it would be unfair to even compare them. I understand that I’d be hard-pressed to render a tribute with even a modicum of word smithery, but this is a free website after all, and everyone knows you get what you pay for, so just indulge me. Besides today is the last day of summer, so it’s technically not fall yet – things are just getting warmed up (to cool down). Anyways, we need something peaceful to think about with all the bad things going on in the world. Here goes:
Random early dogwood leaf
Fallow hickory breezes blow through silent dales as the Celestial palette again waxes encumbered neath thickening shades of pastel grown prepared to cloak brooding gum trees now grown weary of their verdant apparel of yesterday’s springtime blessing. Blissfully now the normally irascible crow cheers this scintillation of the whispered taste of autumn being offered, generous harbinger of the temperate weeks of summer’s wan from haze and endless days of imposing heat. As fall expires, however, this same cantankerous bird will be among the loudest of those carping of the cold.
Waiting for spring
Great white oaks undulate in joyful dance upon azure heavens as they beckon a north wind to bring forth splendid new autumn attire, eager to don whichever hue the Master has granted for what surely will become another fete of autumnal majesty, held but for another day, another week perhaps, but soon, nevertheless. The dogwood has already begun to loudly emerge from the sylvan dressing chamber, cloaked in another gown of magnificent copper and abundantly bespecled with crowds of bright red berries clinging to her laden branches.
Late summer dogwood getting changed – not quite dressed yet but beautiful nonetheless
Such is their eagerness to display this year’s boisterous scarlet, poison ivy wends among hickory tops, singing loudly their familiar, red-shaded aria to herald fall’s arrival. As his leaves become gilded with a tint of gold that only the Master artist could produce, the hickory patiently and silently awaits his turn to sing his fallow song – and sing he will, but anon as crisp wind flies upon the hills. Soon icy fingers shall grasp tender green branches intent upon splashing autumn colors on all.
These are from last year – scenes like this aren’t here just yet.
Halls of indescribable splendor will soon grace somber hills of misty silence, all decorated by the same Master whose unmatched attention to beauty and peaceful serenity of a perfectly decorated hillside compasses this sylvan world. The gaudy black gum and sumac are the appetizer, sufficient themselves to sate any hunger for magnificence, yet they only tantalize – fallow hickory and shades of red and rust of stately oaks, and the highly prized yellow and pastel orange of the maple are the main course. Thank God for the beauty He has bestowed upon us!
Maples adding their touches of color to the painting
He created this excellent world of color for our eyes to enjoy – then he created our eyes such that we can enjoy it!
Spring fed pond with late summer wildflowers
Enjoy autumn as y’all are able to get out, and may God bless all.
As I write this post, it appears the world is really close to the edge of the proverbial cliff and as a lot of observers and commentors are enunciating at an uncomfortable volume, it would only take a slight mistake or one false flag to initiate the nuclear conflagration we all dread. How did we get here? Of course there is no simple answer, but rest assured we all played a part.
I just watched possibly the greatest statesman and leader of the twentieth and probably the twenty-first century, Vladimir Putin being interviewed by a foreign journalist. He spoke as always, rationally and without the rabid venom to which we in the west have become accustomed from our frothing leaders. For his remarkable patience and wisdom, Mr. Putin deserves that new peace medal, The Tolstoy Award that is now being offered to replace the long-desecrated Noble Peace prize that was shown for its real value by its being bestowed on a recent purveyor of drone deaths upon Afghan peasants who had the audacity to talk on a cell phone. During the said interview he spoke of some dreadful things that are about to happen if the west doesn’t back off. As opposed to all western leaders and their spokespersons, I trust what he says.
We have existed as a species on this planet for a short time, geologically speaking. Our presence here on earth has been marked by inhumanity toward each other since Cain killed his own brother, and for the last several thousand years, and since then things have continued to go downhill. Today we, as creatures who purport to be civilized, possess enough nightmarish weapons to literally destroy the earth! Even the savage dinosaurs walked the earth for hundreds of million years. We might have been here a couple of hundred thousand, yet it seems we are on the verge of destroying our planet.
If we could only project our thoughts onto what it might be like as a rare survivor of a nuclear holocaust, we might begin to explore ways we could possibly have helped to stave off such a horror. Just look at pictures of Nagasaki and Hiroshima and imagine that destruction across the entire landscape as far as you could walk on your feeble legs with whatever dwindling strength you might have left – being totally and absolutely obliterated. There are no words to describe the destitution, the terror that would overwhelm your heart.
At first, you consider yourself to be fortunate to have survived the horrendous bombardment of practically the whole nation, indeed, there are a few left who weren’t vaporized and haven’t succumbed to the agonizing radiation – yet, and those people naturally seek each other out to share their misery. Small groups of people, mostly with grotesque injuries, burned, broken, bleeding and scarred, begin to gather although they don’t have any idea where to go or even have much to say to each other – they’ve all experienced their own versions of the same terror. Among the scraggly and destitute groups of people, there can be heard moaning and wailing of common pain, both physical and psychological. Darkness gathers, both emotional and literal darkness of a kind never experienced by humanity. As the reality of where you are and what has happened begins to sink in, you start to realize that you aren’t one of the fortunate ones after all – the lucky ones died in the blasts.
What’s left of humanity, including your children, grandchildren, nephews, nieces, grandparents, and your beloved pets are now microscopic particles of ash drifting around in the frigid wind, it hits you like a speeding train – you will never again see those you love; you will never even know whether or not they “survived”. A million “what ifs” swarm through your fading thoughts as you retch between your knees, vomiting up most of the poisonous water you drank from a noisome, dark puddle, so great was your need. What if we could have formed some kind of movement that could have worked together to depose the madmen who brought this about? Why didn’t we just remove them from power? What if we had not been afraid to speak out for fear of the corrupt leaders and their psychopathic law enforcement people who either didn’t care or weren’t smart enough to see this coming.
You finally realize, now that it’s much too late, that those people you considered to be (especially western) leaders were in reality the most corrupt of all people on the earth, and this was their plan all along. Their cognitive mediocrity would not allow them to understand the implications of where they were taking us and what the results would be. You see, oh so painfully, the results as you try to make out any semblance of civilization around you now. The truth is, and was, that they were wealthy people who, with their vast financial resources, literally controlled the world, and they were not about to give that power up. You can twist this basic truth any which way you like, you can dance around it, you can point into a myriad of other directions as to the causes of the world’s ills, but that little nugget is still the absolute truth – they were willing to destroy the world rather than give up their dominance, and that cop banging you on the head at the protest could never had less of an impact on events other than to help them along – he and his family are now most likely among those ashes flying around, but breaking up protests by well-intentioned people was all he contributed. Who knows, maybe he is one of the “lucky” survivors, sitting somewhere on an old five-gallon bucket with his skin hanging off – wondering what he could have done differently, but probably never would realize how he “helped”.
The cop was a human being, just like everyone else, trying to survive and provide for his family. His part in all of this was foreordained long before it happened. The wealthy who brought all this about were the ones who decided who his boss would be. Somewhere up that ladder, I guarantee you, someone made a lot of money to support the interests of the wealthy, and the strategy was established whereby the methods of “law enforcement” were calibrated to benefit the elite by providing them protection. That protection was purchased in the form of things like civil asset forfeiture, whereby the cops were given permission to practice armed robbery on the citizens without ever charging them. You can bet the responsible legislators for such unconstitutional claptrap were paid handsomely to purchase the police to act as armed bodyguards for the wealthy. Police departments around the country were also gifted lavishly with tactical military equipment, drones, armored vehicles, etc. So much for Barney Fife and his corroded bullet. They were also gifted with a form of authority that was never intended by our founders, but the net effect was that the efforts of the elite paid off tremendously by effectively shutting down any type of organized resistance that might have averted this hell on earth you now witness.
As you look around, all you can see is death and destruction. Along the muddy remnants of what used to be streets you see huge piles fragmented concrete with rebar sticking out in all directions. Closer to the “ground zeroes” even this stuff was vaporized. There are no birds, no animals of any kind. Those guys who used to brag about surviving by hunting and fishing – at least the few of them who are left – are finding out there aren’t enough game animals left to satisfy the needs of all the people who anticipated the same tactics. What few deer out there in the mostly burned-out forests are dying from radiation poisoning or starvation. This wasn’t a very good strategy, but neither was pushing Mr. Putin and Mr. Jinping until they had no other choice than to resort to this madness. They didn’t want to do it, but neither did they want their nations to be subjugated by mad men. Vladimir Putin, whether still alive or deceased, can rest knowing he did everything in his power to avoid this catastrophe. In your heart of hearts, you either already knew this about him, or by looking back at how things unfolded, you’re just now figuring it out.
The world is dark now and it’s an impenetrable darkness in which no sane person wants to be. The nuclear winter that scientists warned us about is upon us. If there were any greenery, you wouldn’t be able to see it for the mind-numbing dark, but there is no greenery anyway. You don’t have long to live, and you realize it, but strangely that fear of death is no longer a bother for you – at this point, you would welcome the long sleep. At least now you don’t have to listen to those absurdly ignorant politicians and military guys talking about a “winnable” nuclear war. You knew as well as anyone that was sheer idiocy, but not enough people stood up when there was time, a group of people among which you are counted did nothing but watch football and go shopping while the minutes ticked away. Now you must live for whatever time you have in the agony of knowing you’ll never be with loved ones again. You’ll never again sit on the riverbank listening to beautiful songbirds in the exuberance of nature. There’ll never be another cup of coffee poured at your favorite cafe, and the people with whom you shared such times are gone from your life forever.
We can sit by and let the servants of evil do this or we can speak up against it – it’ll be painful, but if we don’t act, it’s going to be too late. This terrible thing is coming folks, it’s just a matter of when. Mr. Putin is on the very edge of his patience. In all of our years on this planet as human beings it looks like our destruction is nigh. Is this the best we can do?
There’s a way to avoid, or to endure, the ever-nearing disaster. Get yourself baptized and get Jesus Christ into your life. Once you realize the hope He offers, you’ll be forever grateful you did.
May God our beloved Creator protect and bless us all.
While strolling through the late-summer countryside yesterday, as I looked over the lustrous patches of early goldenrods, several thoughts simultaneously bombarded my aging senses, not the least of which were things us folks alive regard as certainties. Some of them are indeed certainties, but many we regard as being so may not actually be. As interesting as it would be to hop a ride on that train of thought, maybe for the sake of brevity it’d be better to stay with those we know to be things that will happen. For instance, we have every reason to believe the sun will set this evening, and every other evening for that matter, and as this autumn weather coalesces around the foliage in this holler, we’re going to see some beautiful colors. As most of the readers of this site already know, autumn is an event which stirs the affinity for this aging soul’s eternal attempts to describe nature’s botanical metamorphosis with my own version of insane prose, which as you know will also be forthcoming, although I wouldn’t categorize that obsession with subjects of the degree of certainty to which this post attempts to allude.
As surely as we know the deciduous hardwoods will turn into immaculate subjects of magnificent beauty, some of us also know that an event of even more grandeur, of indescribable splendor will soon grace our senses with an experience we’ve been blessed to KNOW shall transpire. That event will be the glorious return of our Savior, Jesus Christ. We can know this will happen because He has bestowed on us the faith to believe He’s coming back. When folks decide to believe in Him, the process of growing into that very faith begins – and will until we meet Him.
Before I started this post, I prayed that our Marvelous Creator would afford me with words, with thoughts that could accomplish two purposes. The first would be to encourage the brothers and sisters who might, as a result of the horrible, depressing events happening in the world, find themselves becoming discouraged in their own faith, seeing the rampant and overt injustice being perpetrated upon innocent folks, and just generally experiencing the hopelessness with which the stranger visits our souls. To those of you who find your hopes flagging, remember what He told us about having patience. [Rev 14:12] “Here is the patience of the saints; here are those who keep the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus.“ and [2 Thessalonians 3:5] “Now may the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God and into the patience of Christ.” Patience is therefore important for believers – those who choose to keep the commandments, and as hard as it is to practice, we must remain patient, otherwise we leave open another door to the machinations of Satan.
The second purpose of this post is to speak a truth to nonbelievers, to encourage those who do not know Christ to look into that thing which we believers KNOW to be a certainty. The thing of which I speak is the return of Jesus Christ to gather His children and to take up His sceptre, that symbol of Kingship and justice which we anxiously await. To you I say He was here in human form performing miracles unheard of, both in His day as they would also be in ours today – that history of all the things He accomplished during His appearance alone should be sufficient to pique the curiosity of the staunchest agnostic, and give people cause to look into His teachings. Another aspect of His life’s experience is His unassailable wisdom – the human race could probably continue indefinitely just by practicing the humanity, the love and generosity He taught, as opposed to continuing as we are to the cataclysmic ending we can all see coming.
We plainly see the evil that has overtaken the world – we know it’s evil because one of the few decent human traits we all possess is that conscience that allows us to differentiate between good and evil. While it’s true that we as humans are by nature far short of attributes that separate us from spiritual virtuosity, if we but open our eyes we can still understand that human evil, greed, immorality, ad infinitum, are direct causes for our impending demise. Therefore, we should, simply as a matter of the continuity of our species, be able to comprehend the source(s) of our destruction and avoid those behaviors. But it goes deeper than that – without Jesus Christ in our lives we are forever bound to repeat those accursed things. They are the essence of human behavior – behavior that identifies that which we must strive to overcome, which is impossible without His guidance.
There are things we fear will happen that may or may not come to pass, things like the nuclear holocaust most of us fear that could indeed happen if we stay on this trajectory. Just plain conventional war on the other hand, may be one of the practices we humans can’t avoid, although I hesitate to say it has to be a certainty. This site has proposed before, and I see no reason to change that belief, that Satan is at the pinnacle of his power when there is war in our world. War breeds all kinds of sinful behavior – hatred, greed, immorality, and others. We often hear justifications for war – resources, and other forms of wealth, territorial disputes, etc., but these are incorrect – these excuses are among the many lies birthed to accommodate war. Such justifications get the means and ends of war swapped. The reason for war is war. Satan doesn’t need resources – he needs people to be killing each other. When you understand that people always lie to justify throwing a war, you see what the Lord was talking about because Satan was a liar and a murderer from the beginning. Jesus had some choice words for such followers, [John 8:44] “You are of your father the devil, and the desires of your father you want to do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and does not stand in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks from his own resources, for he is a liar and the father of it.”
War itself may not necessarily be one of the inevitable things this post is about, although in reality because of our human fallibility, it sure seems to be. We hear the old saw about death and taxes and for all practical purposes they may be correct, but one thing is for sure – Jesus is coming back for us. He said He would.
[Revelation 14:14-16]Then I looked, and behold, a white cloud, and on the cloud sat One like the Son of Man, having on His head a golden crown, and in His hand a sharp sickle. 15 And another angel came out of the temple, crying with a loud voice to Him who sat on the cloud, “Thrust in Your sickle and reap, for the time has come for You to reap, for the harvest of the earth is ripe.” 16 So He who sat on the cloud thrust in His sickle on the earth, and the earth was reaped.
Some of us are trying hard to stay on the leading edge of that sickle, making sure everyone knows they have an invitation to the Kingdom. To those who see themselves there, keep up the good work. To those who hear the invitation, don’t let it pass. RSVP now! Get to know Jesus, you’ll forever be glad you did.
We get addicted to many things in the course of our lives, and I’m pretty sure not many people are aware of just what all kinds of things there are out there to get hooked on. We look with disdain on videos or pictures of tent villages in our inner cities full of people addicted to fentanyl or heroin, and those folks are indeed in dire straits, but there are countless other addictions which take more forms than one might realize.
If we’re not careful, us folks who write posts or do videos on social media can get ourselves hooked on views or clicks or comments on our work. I suspect this phenomenon is more widespread than we might realize, and although those who are monetized have good reason to want as many viewers as possible, it’s likely that we also enjoy being heard, watched, or read to an extent which we might not want to admit, simply because of our attachment to the world and a desire to be a voice in it. That’s just the beginning. I’m saying this because I’m not monetized, and I still relish views and comments more than you’d think should be normal, so I think there may be more than just the monetary reward at play for the “feel good” of view counts. Therefore, it seems like there’s some kind of compulsive behavior involved in being a voice in social media, I might be wrong, but it’s easy to get plagued with self-doubt when I go for days on end with no likes or comments on my posts so I could imagine what it might be like if money was involved, at least I think there’d be a difference.
courtesy Clipart Library
I’ve known people in my life, and still do, who seem to have an inexplicable need to drive around. They like to go – anywhere – and seem to have an aversion to staying home. Some of them sit around trying to think of somewhere they need to go just to get away from home. I’m just the opposite and really enjoy being at home, in fact, maybe wanting to stay home all the time is an addiction of its own. Is that what agoraphobia is all about? For me, it’s a combination of liking my home environment and being with my four-legged family as well as a nagging discomfort of being around people I don’t know. God has blessed me immensely with the expectation to spend my remaining years out here in the country where it’s peaceful and I’m immersed in the wonders of His creation. That may or may not be an excuse, I don’t know.
The Folkpotpourri Leaf
One of the saddest of addictions is that of excessive eating. With almost all other forms of compulsive behavior a person can just walk away from their addiction, albeit with varying degrees of difficulty, but no one can just stop eating and survive. Thankfully to the Almighty, and from one who’s never suffered this malady, I can only imagine how hard it would be to try and moderate your food intake when every cell in your body is screaming for you to take another bite beyond what you know you should.
We all know those folks who talk too much. Seems like they always have something to say beyond what comes out of their mouths and that makes it really hard sometimes to decipher where they’re coming from. It’s almost inevitable if we’re not careful, we get to the point where we don’t even listen to them because of their incessant babbling, and that’s sad because lost in the yammering there’s always the possibility of a grain of something that’s important to them, and we often miss it. Excessive talking might be less of an addiction and more of a personality trait (or defect), but it would take someone with more education than myself in psychology to make that distinction. Maybe there is no distinction.
It was mentioned in the introductory paragraph, but drug and alcohol addiction are generally the most destructive to addicts and those around them. The severity of the addiction also varies from person to person, but there is an overwhelming need for endorphins or whatever chemical makes them feel good, possibly as a method of escape from the routines or the vagaries of life. Some folks have reasons to want to get away, but most of the ones I’ve encountered simply need endorphins, and again, I don’t know why this malady is so prevalent, but it’s a serious problem when it gets to a point where people no longer have the capacity to stay (or even to get) sober. Drugs and alcohol addictions have wreaked immeasurable devastation to people, to families, to entire cultures.
In my humble opinion, the greatest addiction of today is by far the addiction to one form or another of social media, but the cell phone in particular, and I believe this one has the propensity to destroy us as a society simply by enslaving our minds. Maybe it’s just me, but I get depressed to see someone walking down the aisle in the store with a phone stuck to their ear. I also get a bit concerned when I see someone trying to drive and text.
I only see my grandkids once a year when they gravitate to the Ozarks for the Fourth of July. It’s one of the highlights of my life anymore – I love all of them dearly, but when they’re here, if myself or some other adult doesn’t guard against it, there will be a living room full of people, mostly kids, but some adults too, not talking nor visiting, all with their faces in their cell phones, not even talking to loved ones with whom they seldom get the opportunity to visit. Their families could be sitting right beside them or out in the orbit of the moon, and there would be no cognitive difference. I know I’m running the risk of sounding like an old geezer grandpa, but when I was a kid, the family sat around the living room getting to know each other. The fact that we already knew each other fairly well had no bearing on our ability and desire to be close, to form and maintain family bonds that have endured all of our lives. Of course, as we got grown and moved into different settings, we spend less time together, but as a result of those early experiences in family life, we still love each other and share fond memories when we’re together. Cell phones have the potential to completely destroy the family units of societies worldwide and we all need to reconsider our extensive use of – and terrible addiction to – our phones. They get my vote for one of the top couple of threats to society’s well-being, for even though they brough us great convenience, they are the number one tool being used (especially by young folks) to separate us all and cause us to maintain an unhealthy connection to the malevolence of the world. Wonder what kind of world we’d have if all those folks were walking around with a Bible in their hand instead of a cell phone.
There are other, better, essays in life we should be pursuing. The most important one by far, we have to make sure our kids learn about Jesus Christ so they will have His help to overcome the threat of addiction in all of it’s forms – for at the heart of the matter, most addictions are insidious weapons of Satan.
So here you are, and here you shall remain forever. This place, if you can call it a place, it’s more like a nightmare, is utterly dark – there’s no hint of light, not a pinprick. There is nothing here, you gave up trying to scream, even trying to breathe soon after you arrived, for there is no air. You do not have lungs anyway, no body, nothing at all but your spirit and agony, fear, and memories. Memories of former life on earth, friends, camping trips, birds singing in trees, but alas, those things, those people and events no longer exist but as ever-present after thoughts of that life, forever inscribed into your lonely consciousness. The indescribable loneliness is the worst part, you’ll never again be in the company of another soul – anybody – forever
The agony is unbearable, you never dreamed that a being could undergo this torment you suffer. You incessantly pray to God Who does not remember you, He no longer hears your piteous pleas, though there was a time when He patiently waited to hear from you. There were preachers and even old hillbilly bloggers who tried to warn you of this existence, but you were too busy pursuing worldly lusts and decadent living to listen to them. The Bible you kept on prominent display in your living room was rarely opened. You mocked those who believed in Jesus as though they were crazy; most people did. But where are all of your worldly friends now? Though you will never know, for you’ll never see or hear from them again, you suspect they – at least those who shared your unbelief – are in a similar situation as you, utterly alone in darkness and agony for all of eternity. Some of them – especially your family and friends you loved are painfully missed.
There is no sound where you are, no music, no birdsong, not even the aggravating wail of the ubiquitous sirens that pealed through the city streets – there’s nothing. If you were engulfed in an entire universe of sponge, it would not be quieter. You’ll never hear a sound again, never taste an apple nor even have a single drop of precious water on your tongue. The memory of water is one of the most agonizing, every time you think of it – beautiful, pure mountain springs of clearest blue water!
When you left your former life, you were allowed to experience another existence, one of abundant joy and serenity where angels sang in notes that the greatest composers through human history did not know. Voices of unimaginable beauty sang praises of God with melody that you could actually feel. You had an invitation that was personally sent to you by way of preachers, prophets, your unread Bible, and the Lord Jesus Himself whereby had you accepted, you could have stayed there forever in the indescribable happiness of the presence of the Almighty God and the Lamb. You threw it out with your junk mail, too absorbed in the idolatrous life that the servants of evil kept before you. You don’t remember how long you were allowed to experience that paradise, maybe an hour, a day, maybe a million years, but the whole time you were there, you knew you’d have to leave it, and when you did go you experienced the most horrific realization that a human could ever imagine – you’d never see that place again, though you will longingly remember it forever. The presence of the Lamb of God was too awesome and wonderful to imagine! How on earth could you have passed that up? Then, you were cast into the outer darkness – the privations of incredible agony and torment – a place, or state of mind, who knows? Then it hits you that it will be your prison for all eternity.
God said the former things will be forgotten. Once the harvest was completed and the new Kingdom established, there would be no more thought of those sins nor the people who lived in them. Utterly forgotten, alone in agonizing darkness, all traded away for a few short years of that sinful and immoral lifestyle that you chose. Now, with consummate regret, you realize just what an incredibly short time it was – in which you could have been preparing yourself for the grandest of homecomings in the other place. That unimaginably beautiful, peaceful home of eternal joy and most of all, the presence and the love of God, which you could also feel – it was unbelievable! And you passed up your chance to be there – forever. Now, you are merely one of the former things which has become forgotten – not a soul in all of creation remembers you ever existed, and no help will be forthcoming. But here you are, and here you will be – forever. You cannot even look forward to death to end this torment. This is death, the second death mentioned in the Bible.
If a person, or a spirit were to happen to come before you in this piteous state and offer you a way out of this predicament, you’d absolutely listen and plead for his help. The anxiety you’d experience at the possibility of relief from this everlasting torment and darkness would captivate your attention as never before. You’d be willing to do anything to get help out of this place. You’d be utterly enrapt with hope at the prospect this fellow offered.
When you ask how this can happen, the man says you must be able to travel through time, and if you can do that, you can go back and learn about Jesus Christ and He could lead you to eternal life in that wonderful place you saw. But you know that time travel is not possible – there’s nothing here, no materials to try and build a time machine even if you knew how, so you reply to the man that it would be impossible for you to travel through time. To which he says, “Then there’s no help for you, but if there was some way for you to go back in time – say to the late summer of 2024, you could call on Jesus to save you from this torment”, and suddenly you are reading this post and realize – I’ve actually traveled back in time to the late summer of 2024 and I can go to Jesus and He can make my relief happen before I get cast into that abominable torment and darkness! Thank you, Lord!
This is as real as it gets, folks – we all desperately need Jesus.
Humanity has reached a place where we who are living have never been before. There can be no going back now. It seems as though every successive empire has crossed this Rubicon at some point. Especially for the United States of America, the Babylon on steroids of the modern age. Now and for the foreseeable future, the rest of the world sees the US as probably the most deplorable haunt of evil ever to exist. Our leaders, especially the congress creatures, are corrupt beyond description, and their smiling, standing ovations for the messenger of Satan could not demonstrate their malevolence more clearly. These people are EVIL! At some point in the near future, they will attempt to force everyone to acquiesce to the beast that is arising. Watch for it.
We’ve reached a juncture where citizens the world over are sick and tired of being expected to bow in obeisance to a nation that is committing the gravest of moral offenses for everyone to see. This is no accident – it has been planned for millennia. It was planned in a place which is not familiar to the physical world. We now confront a situation where we must, each of us individually, decide where our loyalties lie – either with the unspeakable evil of murdering and starving innocent little kids or fighting it, or at the very least speaking out against it. There is no middle ground here and looking the other way bestows upon people the same guilt of culpability as those who are actively engaged in the monstrous behavior. Speaking out against the genocide – or for that matter, the gross immorality rampant in our society today – is rapidly becoming a criminal offense, such are the moral depredations of the congressional demons in charge of making our “laws”. Allegiance to Jesus Christ will soon be a criminal offense. Many have, through bribery and intimidation, made the decision to support Satanic behavior of all genres. As a result of the choices of depraved humans, there will be no going back – each congressional vote supporting weapons sales to genocidal maniacs is forever etched into their record, the one that counts. AIPAC money won’t avail them when they have to give an account of their evil votes to the Almighty.
It should go without saying that never again will citizens of the world regard the US as a benevolent, honorable nation. Among others of Satanic persuasion, our illustrious “intelligence” agencies have ensured that all nations, even our so-called “allies”, though to some extent might endure us, none shall respect America anymore. That once honorable ship has sailed, never to return. Her epitaph includes every type of malevolent behavior imaginable – torture, a government sponsored illicit drug epidemic that is destroying our once-admired cities, biological weapons and their preventive measures, both apparently designed and applied to eradicate populations, state-sponsored armed robbery by “law” enforcement in the guise of some sort of voluntary-sounding “asset forfeiture”, as well as laws being enacted against moral stances we take against the new-age immorality – we have sunk to the very bottom of the cesspit and demons dance with delight in the darkness of our demise.
At this writing, there are new efforts afoot to tie Saudi Arabia to the atrocities of 9/11/2001. Lest we get a movement going to objectively examine the events of that day, a renewed effort is being exerted to impress into the public that the Saudis, or at least “terrorists” from that country, committed the offenses. This is being done with their usual slyness of speaking of lawsuits or some other distraction that is supposed to be happening, so to make it seem to the gullible public that the involvement of Saudi terrorists is a foregone conclusion, which it is not, Saudi involvement is referenced once more. The powers that be will do ANYTHING to keep the 9/11 attacks from being properly investigated, for the public might find that it was a false flag executed by a “friendly” nation – one which exerts tremendous and inexplicable influence over our government. There can be no doubt our founding fathers would be immensely disgusted at what we have allowed our country to become.
We can’t go back, no matter how much we’d like, to the days of “Leave it to Beaver”, or the innocence of being aghast at seeing President Nixon in trouble for some petty (by today’s standards) nuisance behavior in the pursuit of partisan advantage. Neither can we go back to the days of saving up for a vacation overseas where everyone we meet in foreign lands wants to hang out with us because we’re the much-admired Americans. Foreign folks don’t really want to be seen as friendly to us anymore.
We are now realizing we have stepped into the ring with a merciless opponent. We suffered body blows as we found our president had committed immoral acts with an intern. We took devastating uppercuts of guilt and shame to find out our soldiers were involved in torturing prisoners of war. We winced in pain and shock when we found that our intelligence agencies were running drugs that wound up in our cities and using the proceeds to illegally finance a war, one in which our government was openly supporting one side and secretly supporting the other. Due to a plane crash in Nicaragua in October, 1986, a creature named Eugene Hasenfus who was in the employ of the CIA was arrested by Nicaraguan authorities and the whole scheme was exposed to the world. We were smitten to the canvas when we watched the collateral murder of Iraqi journalists and the further attacks on the ambulances that came to rescue the victims. In an unbelievable exclamation point to the obituary of press freedom, we lived through the US government persecutions of Manning and Assange when they exposed that event to the world. Now we have become acclimated to the infamy of our leaders, even to the extent that nowadays most folks seem to accept malevolent behavior as normal for them.
Americans were shocked when we found out that not only were there no weapons of mass destruction in Iraq, but the president, an office in which we once placed our trust, knew all along there were no such weapons, and the true purpose of the Iraqi invasion was to advance the interests of our “ally” in the middle east. The late Colin Powell, once a well-respected former general, joined ranks with the professional liars as he held up his famous vial of “anthrax” in front of the whole world. The United States has truly become a nation of liars and thieves in its upper echelons. They even have the temerity to act like it angers them when some soul calls them out on some given lie, no matter how absurd and obvious to the whole world it may be. Jesus said Satan is the father of lies, so who do you suspect they are serving? [John 8:44] You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies.
General Powell being taught (how to lie?) by something evil
Americans watch in disbelief and embarrassment as our delegates to the United Nations sit before representatives of the world’s nations and spout lies and fabrications that offend the intelligence and/or moral sanctity of the entire assembly. Rarely a glimmer of truth passes the lips of any American or Israeli “diplomat”, yet when given the floor they rave on as if all in attendance were morons who might actually believe a word they say. No one does, but they carry on as though those listening are somehow obligated to give them the benefit of the doubt. When they are challenged as to the veracity of whatever lie they are telling, they feign incredulity and pretend to be enraged that someone wouldn’t believe their too-often ridiculous narratives.
The only person in attendance who didn’t think this was absurd was the guy holding the placard, but then judging by the cognitive mediocrity of his audience…
Those “leaders”, regardless of whether they are the puppets in office, or the ones higher up the food chain who pull their strings, do not realize nor care that they have brought us to this point where we can never return to whatever normalcy we had prior to the onset of this genocide. Maybe it goes back to 9/11 or even further, and maybe that’s what they wanted all along – to alienate America from the rest of the world because it’s a fact that no nation has any obligation or reason to trust or befriend America anymore. We lost that trust when our leaders showed the world their true lack of decency by instigating color revolutions and/or stealing assets from nations who would not bend the knee to the empire. How can we blame Saudi Arabia or China or anyone else for unloading US debt when they know now that the US is capable with no compunction of sanctioning them and seizing their money and/or property at any time simply because they disagree with US policy? We can never go back, but that’s where their true master, Satan has brought the world. His game is destruction, and he doesn’t have the first hint of a conscience, even and maybe especially toward those who serve him. He dumps them for bigger and better things. It happens all the time; Sheldon Adelson is no longer in operation, I seriously doubt that anyone misses him, and I do not envy his soul! The day will come when the devil turns each and every one of his followers over to their own destruction, such is his loyalty to them, but as long as they are still breathing, they don’t seem to know it. The empire is only just beginning to crumble. For now, they hide behind their ill-gotten wealth and live high on the hog. We are told in the Bible that [1 Peter 5:8] “Be alert and of sober mind. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour.” His followers are no exception, when the time is right, he’ll happily destroy them, or gleefully watch on as they destroy themselves, his whole purpose is destruction – no conscience, no loyalty. He has already given them what they wanted, riches and power in this life, and nothing else will be forthcoming because his time here is short, and he has other depredations to which he must attend before the end.
Seems like more and more of these yachts are finding Davy Jones’ locker these days
We live among people who support genocide, the merciless slaughter of the most innocent people imaginable. They are being murdered by the thousands with American weapons as the world watches on in astonishment at this heretofore unseen evil. Sane and decent people cannot fathom the depths of evil being committed – most are shocked that there are creatures on this earth who purport to be human beings yet are capable of inflicting such horror on other human beings. To support such unimaginable malevolence is to irrevocably concede one’s humanity, deny one’s conscience, and when that happens there’s no going back, for they have purchased their ticket and taken their seat on the train bound for hell and it only makes one-way trips.
To good people of moral standing and spiritual aspiration, y’all hang on – it’s going to get worse for us for a while, but then one fine day, it will get better – the Day He returns, and He will. Hang on to Jesus with all your might, He knows where your heart is. He is the ONLY Way to win this battle, and He always stands beside us, even in these dark times. Do not fear nor give in to these monsters – they have rejected Jesus and are headed for destruction, and only God knows the terror without mercy that awaits them. Don’t expect mercy from them, they do not know what it is, yet we must be merciful ourselves at every opportunity – that’s one of the preeminent things that separate us from them. We truly become what we were created to be – God’s children – when we are able to forgive and to love even our enemies, and becoming God’s people is the only way we can reclaim our humanity. [Matthew 5:44,45] But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, 45 that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous.
Christians cannot support the evil that’s happening in this world, don’t even think about it, and don’t let them get to you.
A lot of folks don’t claim to be spiritual, so one might consider it a waste of time to do posts about Jesus Christ, but I’m beginning to realize that people who don’t know about Jesus are more likely to pay attention to the conversation than those who’ve heard of Him but allow the behavior of hypocrites to influence their opinions, about religion in general, but more specifically, Christianity. This is especially applicable to people who insist on following after the ways of this world.
For a lot of people, the antics of charlatans who, in the name of Christ, set about amassing personal wealth and worldly possessions, has negatively influenced their regard for the spiritual which has a bearing on the fate of their eternal souls. After seeing the sacrilegious behavior of some of the “evangelists” in business today, it’s hard to blame someone who hasn’t experienced first-hand the providence of God if they reject religion outright, but there are other ways to seek Him. In fact, this post has set out to proffer a different view altogether from that which some have become accustomed.
The Almighty God has given us a lot of choices, a lot of forks in the road on this journey we have before us, but one thing that gets overlooked regarding the choices we make is that we are allowed to believe what we want to believe. God gave us, as human beings, the freedom to believe what we will – it is an inalienable right – we believe what we WANT to believe, and disregard that which choose not to believe. That said, whatever choice we might make to believe a thing does not in any way make that thing correct, nor does it make a given belief false, that is beyond the scope of this conversation. We can truly believe the highway ahead is straight and decide to drive 100 miles per hour, but there may be a right-angle turn ahead that we can’t see, so although we are allowed to believe it’s straight, the curve we fly into proves our belief was wrong – the point is that we were allowed to believe what we did, regardless of the veracity of the belief.
In the same vein, we are allowed to believe that God doesn’t exist if that’s what we want to believe. The important thing is that it’s what we want to believe. A person cannot get away with, “Well, I wanted to believe in Jesus, but there just wasn’t enough evidence.” This person did not want to believe at all – the allure of the lusts of the world established in his heart that he did not want to believe, otherwise he’d have to change his lifestyle and become the righteous person Jesus expects His followers to be. If he had truly wanted to believe in Jesus, he could have – as mentioned earlier, God allows us, and has wired us, to be able to believe what we want to believe.
The evidence for God’s existence is at a nominal glance, a reasonable expectation for the rational mind to be able to accept that He is real, but the absence of it is too often used as a justification for not wanting to believe. If we choose to look into the covenant that Jesus has given us, however, we find that essential requirement that God demands, faith, must be exercised in order to find Him. Therefore, if there was evidence of God’s existence, we wouldn’t need faith to believe in Him. So what comes first, faith or desire to believe? I believe it is the “want to”, because when we stand before the judgement seat, we won’t be able to claim we didn’t believe because there was no evidence – if we come to that unenviable point as unbelievers, it is because we wanted to be unbelievers, and God allowed us to be so.
So, if I’m a person who has just stepped into the world and have heard there is a God, what is my motivation for wanting to know more about Him? There’s a reference book that’s several thousand years old that explains what we can expect in the hereafter, after we die, a subject of great interest, which incidentally isn’t understood or explained anywhere else. We live our lives here on earth and watch people die over and over again, never hearing from them anymore, and the staunchest atheists, who practically demand that you don’t believe in God, can’t give you any hint of what happened to them, A big problem for people in this world today is that there are more and more unbelievers, and in our interminable efforts to be like everyone else, we reject the only Truth out there. That person who seeks understanding can listen to the prophets who came before, he can listen to old bloggers on the internet, he can listen to the words of Jesus Christ Himself, but the key to all of this is that he first must want to know the truth. If he wants to believe, God made him so that he can. The first step in the right direction is to decide that believing in Jesus is what you want to do, then let Him do His work. There will come a point where you understand in your heart that you made the correct choice.
The truth of the matter is this: We shall all, each and every soul who has ever lived on this earth, come before the judgement of Jesus Christ. Does our disbelief condemn our souls so that we will hear Him say, “‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels.”? That ensuing departure from the everlasting glory of His presence will be the most unimaginably painful, heart-wrenching event to ever be endured by a human soul. Or conversely, will He tell us, [Matthew 25:34] “‘Come, you who are blessed by my Father; take your inheritance, the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. “? I don’t know about everyone else, but I’m opting for the latter!
