Native American Pow Wow

Have you ever been to a pow wow? It was custom for a group of traveling Native Americans to set up camp in a park near the water. They would open their trailers or canopies to display crafts and foods. There were feathered headdresses, silver and turquoise jewelry and silk screen tee shirts. In the evening, there would be a bonfire of sorts and the performers would show the visitors various Native American songs and dances. The men with long feathered headdresses would beat their feet to the drum beat and chant, "HEY, ya, ya, ya ya" It was exotic. It was charming, it was spiritual.

Have you heard the Muslim call to prayer? The single voice carrying over the city in that mournful, sing song chat. Isn't it charming? Isn't it exotic? Isn't it far more spiritual than anything we see at home? Does it make you want to participate in this exotic ritual? I can understand that it would!

Have you ever heard the Jews at the wailing wall? The prayers being sung in a different tongue. It too sounds so exotic, so charming, so spiritual.

To these people I have mentioned, these things are not exotic or charming. They are common, everyday events but yes, they are spiritual. They are all in the same genre as a Christian sitting on a park bench singing:

"When peace like a river attendeth my way, When sorrows like sea-billows roll; Whatever my lot, Thou hast taught me to say, 'It is well, it is well with my soul'.

My sin - O the bliss of this glorious tho't - My sin, not in part but the whole, Is nailed to the cross and I bear it no more: Praise the Lord, praise the Lord, O my soul!

And, Lord, haste the day when the faith shall be sight, The clouds be rolled back as a scroll, The trump shall re-sound and the Lord shall descend, "Even so" - it is well with my soul.

Alimony and child support

"But when they said, 'Give us a king to lead us,' this displeased Samuel; so he prayed to the Lord. And the Lord told him: 'Listen to all that the people are saying to you; it is not you they have rejected, but they have rejected me as their king. As they have done from the day I brought them out of Egypt until this day, forsaking me and serving other gods, so they are doing to you. No list to them; but warn them solemnly and let them know what the king who will reign over them will do.'

Samuel told all the words of the Lord to the people who were asking him for a king. He said, 'This is what the king who will reign over you will do: He will take your sons and make them serve with his chariots and horses, and they will run in front of his chariots. Some he will assign to be commanders of thousands and commanders of fifties and others to plow his ground and reap his harvest, and still others to make weapons of war and equipment for his chariots. He will take your daughters to be perfumers and cooks and bakers. He will take the best of your field and vineyards and olive groves and give them to his attendants. He will take a tenth of your grain and of your vintage and give it to his officials and attendants. Your menservants and maidservants and the best of your cattle and donkeys he will take for his own use. He will take a tenth of your flocks, and you yourselves will become his slaves. When that day comes, you will cry out for relief from the king you have chosen, and the Lord will not answer you in that day." But the people refused to listed to Samuel. 1 Samuel 8:6-19 (NIV)

It was at that time the Bride of God, Israel, took a divorce from God. It was from that time on that God has sent alimony and child support, but the marriage cannot be repaired, in this life. It would be an abomination according to the law for God to take back his bride. But, I think we read in Isaiah that God indeed says he will take her back. The Bible student should be sure to understand what that would mean for God to offer that.

But, it cannot happen as long as we keep looking for to humanist efforts to cure our ills. I am not speaking only of Jews by birth. I am speaking of all who are accepted in the Temple because they obey the laws of God.

Gradual Destruction

I was walking in the neighborhood and stopped to rest against the wall in front of the Annie Merts Center. While I was there leaning against the wall, I saw a young woman about my age trying to help an older woman exit the car parked at the curb. I say, "trying to help" because the older woman was resisting everything the younger woman was doing.

I started thinking. Mr. Hatfield's daughter Gwen and her husband Donald had a hardware store over in Vidalia, Louisiana. Things were not going so well and Gwen asked Daddy to come to help. Donald was doing things that were out of the ordinary. The stock on the shelves was accumulating dust and spiders were building webs all over the store. Mr. Hatfield did what he could to clean up the store and encouraged Donald to "snap out of it".

Since then, the store has been closed and Donald has died. You see, at the time Mr. Hatfield went to Vidalia to help, they did not know that Donald was in the early stages of dementia. There was no help for Donald and the destruction was gradual.

When this country was started, the foundation was the Constitution and laissez faire Capitalism. (An economic theory from the 18th century that is strongly opposed to any government intervention in business affairs. Sometimes referred to as "Let it be economics.") Under these principles a man could put his family into a wagon and travel into the wilderness to the west and establish a trading post at the mouth of the Tennessee River. People had the freedom to shape their own future.

Over the years people have been meddling with the simplicity. Politicians have added restrictions and taxes to the point where the concept of the United States of Americans (yes I meant to spell it that way) has been suffering gradual destruction. Politicians have ever been working to benefit politicians. Don't be surprised. It follows the early principle. But the American small business man has not been minding his own business. It may have been too long and just saying, "snap out of it" will do no good.

One of my favorite verses comes to mind. "Make it your ambition to lead a quiet life, to mind your own business and to work with your hands just as we told you." 1 Thessalonians 4:11 NIV

Pick up your pitch forks

I was eating breakfast the other day up at Mullins, you know, Mullins Restaurant on Andrew Jackson. I overheard the folks in the next table talking about when it would be time to pick up the pitch forks and assault Washington DC.

That started me thinking. I have heard that sort of thing before. I understand the anger that prompts such talk but what would a civil war in these times look like? Think about Venezuela or Afghanistan. In the movie, The Outlaw Josie Wales, we saw the Missouri Redlegs come riding in on horseback to do their deeds. And the men who were attacked rode off in a pack, on horseback to defend their way of life.

So we don't have horses. We will probably see three men in pick up trucks with Bubba Joe in the truck bed along with a 50 cal. machine gun on a try pod. It will look like the rebels in the countries I mentioned. The only difference is we have people of larger size.

As soon as the rebels begin their work, we will become instantly poor. Bubba Joe can't just fight on Saturday afternoon and go back to unloading trucks at Wal-Mart on Monday. Things just won't get done. Commerce will slow to a crawl and there will be shortages everywhere. It will not take long for the American landscape to be nothing but blown out buildings and rusting hulks of vehicles littering the streets.

This is really what the person means when he speaks of taking up the pitch forks. I do not sit here and tell anyone which way to choose, but I felt I should paint the picture so you can decide if what you want to do is worth what I have described.