Avalon Chronicles #41: "My Tribe of Christians"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Upon my awakening this morning I began my meditation and prayers with the "really big picture." I pictured God, my Father, as the Creator of all. I pictured the farthest reaches of the universe and all the stars in all the galaxies. I came down and focused on our "ball," planet earth. I began to think of our richness and beauty, all created by God. I thought about the time all the way back to Adam and Eve and the Old Testament lining up the happenings of history with the Hebrews to bring the Savior, God's Son, Jesus, into our world to live here and set an example for life, behavior, love, and forgiveness in the New Testament. He was crucified so we could all have redemption of our sins and be able to follow Jesus and live holy lives.
I recalled something Linda found in secular history and I relate that from the best-known Jewish historian of Jesus' time:
Josephus Antiquities of the Jews
by Flavius Josephus
Chapter III: 3 page 379
"Now, there was about this time, Jesus, a wise man, if it be lawful to call him a man, for he was a doer of wonderful works, a teacher of such men to receive the truth with pleasure.
He drew over to him both many of the Jews, and many of the Gentiles.
He was (the) Christ; and when Pilate, at the suggestion of the principal men amongst us,
had condemned him to the cross, those that loved him at the first did not forsake him,
for he appeared to them alive again the third day, as the divine prophets had foretold these and ten thousand other wonderful things concerning him; and the tribe of Christian, so named from him, are not extinct at this day."
Our tribe of Christians is definitely still not extinct. It has continued to thrive despite persecutions and the works of the Devil to destroy us corporately and personally. But, we have stayed in the fight,our tribe lives on, continues to multiply, and each of us of this tribe knows our ultimate gift is Heaven itself for eternal life.
Merry Christmas and may you and all yours be blessed this Advent season.
Saturday, December 20, 2014
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Avalon Chronicles #40: "Battlefield Earth"
Avalon Chronicles #40: "Battlefield Earth"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Immediately after my speech Saturday Dec. 6, 2014 to a political group, Billy, the seventh grader son of the host and hostess, came up to me and hugged me and said, "Thank you for your service and sacrifice for all of us." Of course, I was touched immeasurably and he repeated that sentiment again when he assisted me in taking my books to my car. It was a great lift to my spirit after baring my soul again about my wounding in Vietnam and my healing process. It was an extraordinary evening. I speak at political functions and quote some of the remarks by President Ronald Reagan in his second inaugrural speech Jan. 21, 1985. He said, "History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey....a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, caring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song." Admittedly I was touched emotionally and the entire passage as I spoke brought tears to my own eyes. I finished my quote and closed my remarks. Spontaneously the audience rose up and sang, "God Bless America." This has never happened in the hundreds of presentations I have made over the decades. This old soldier was touched by that outpouring and by what Billy said. Would that all my fellow combatants could be a recipient of these gifts of the heart!
The struggles of our men and women returning from battlefields in ages past to present are not recognized by many non-combatants. Since the first cave people clubbed each other, humanity has been forced, encouraged, cajoled or paid to wage war on others. Various causes or incitements have been evident or manufactured to incur conflict between tribes, nations, and groups. High-sounding and grandiose schemes, propaganda, and many well-founded grounds and purposes have been utilized to inspire young men and women to take up arms to kill each other. Many were in the name of "religion."
Old members of societies come up with reasons to fight and it is the young ones full of strength, bravado, and grit who march to the sound of the drums and charge with the bugles blaring amid battle flags unfurled. Some return in flag-draped coffins buried in the hallowed grounds of our national cemeteries and small country places of final rest. Others return with visible wounds caused by projectiles, shrapnel, and miscellaneous bits of metal, causing losses, scars, broken bones, and amputations. Yet others return with unseen wounds carried in their souls and spirits from the traumas of their fields of battle. These experiences on battlefields coupled with the wounds of life before and after military service compound to significantly impact the lives of our warriors.
Many of our combatants speak only to each other and not to those who were safely tucked in to warm beds at night while they sacrificed, sweated, bled, and suffered the traumas of war on faraway fields, sands, and mountains in places where the people did not always like us. Then they returned to homes where their own did not, nor could not, always understand what they experienced, nor the pain they endured.
The only hope for ultimate healing of our warriors is to recognize that they were strong enough to qualify for military service, were disciplined enough to serve, and were courageous and balanced enough to be a part of something way larger than those protected here and there could ever fathom. It was not voiced, but, in truth, we represented as American military what Presiden Reagan described as the American heritage. Their identity as a loyal patriot must be coupled with a strong identity of faith in understanding that from beginning of time to end of time there will be a continuous battlefield on earth, a struggle between good and evil. Some of us are called into that fight. Only in a belief in a Creator who loves us all can we even attempt to be resilient enough to achieve healing. Jesus, the Son of our Creator, is the reason for my healing. The least we all can do at this season of celebration is to reach out to the warriors we know and offer them our gratitude and respect and not wait until the next Veterans Day.
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Immediately after my speech Saturday Dec. 6, 2014 to a political group, Billy, the seventh grader son of the host and hostess, came up to me and hugged me and said, "Thank you for your service and sacrifice for all of us." Of course, I was touched immeasurably and he repeated that sentiment again when he assisted me in taking my books to my car. It was a great lift to my spirit after baring my soul again about my wounding in Vietnam and my healing process. It was an extraordinary evening. I speak at political functions and quote some of the remarks by President Ronald Reagan in his second inaugrural speech Jan. 21, 1985. He said, "History is a ribbon, always unfurling; history is a journey....a settler pushes west and sings a song, and the song echoes out forever and fills the unknowing air. It is the American sound. It is hopeful, big-hearted, idealistic, caring, decent, and fair. That's our heritage; that is our song." Admittedly I was touched emotionally and the entire passage as I spoke brought tears to my own eyes. I finished my quote and closed my remarks. Spontaneously the audience rose up and sang, "God Bless America." This has never happened in the hundreds of presentations I have made over the decades. This old soldier was touched by that outpouring and by what Billy said. Would that all my fellow combatants could be a recipient of these gifts of the heart!
The struggles of our men and women returning from battlefields in ages past to present are not recognized by many non-combatants. Since the first cave people clubbed each other, humanity has been forced, encouraged, cajoled or paid to wage war on others. Various causes or incitements have been evident or manufactured to incur conflict between tribes, nations, and groups. High-sounding and grandiose schemes, propaganda, and many well-founded grounds and purposes have been utilized to inspire young men and women to take up arms to kill each other. Many were in the name of "religion."
Old members of societies come up with reasons to fight and it is the young ones full of strength, bravado, and grit who march to the sound of the drums and charge with the bugles blaring amid battle flags unfurled. Some return in flag-draped coffins buried in the hallowed grounds of our national cemeteries and small country places of final rest. Others return with visible wounds caused by projectiles, shrapnel, and miscellaneous bits of metal, causing losses, scars, broken bones, and amputations. Yet others return with unseen wounds carried in their souls and spirits from the traumas of their fields of battle. These experiences on battlefields coupled with the wounds of life before and after military service compound to significantly impact the lives of our warriors.
Many of our combatants speak only to each other and not to those who were safely tucked in to warm beds at night while they sacrificed, sweated, bled, and suffered the traumas of war on faraway fields, sands, and mountains in places where the people did not always like us. Then they returned to homes where their own did not, nor could not, always understand what they experienced, nor the pain they endured.
The only hope for ultimate healing of our warriors is to recognize that they were strong enough to qualify for military service, were disciplined enough to serve, and were courageous and balanced enough to be a part of something way larger than those protected here and there could ever fathom. It was not voiced, but, in truth, we represented as American military what Presiden Reagan described as the American heritage. Their identity as a loyal patriot must be coupled with a strong identity of faith in understanding that from beginning of time to end of time there will be a continuous battlefield on earth, a struggle between good and evil. Some of us are called into that fight. Only in a belief in a Creator who loves us all can we even attempt to be resilient enough to achieve healing. Jesus, the Son of our Creator, is the reason for my healing. The least we all can do at this season of celebration is to reach out to the warriors we know and offer them our gratitude and respect and not wait until the next Veterans Day.
Tuesday, December 9, 2014
Avalon Chronicles #39: "Holiness is Happiness"
Avalon Chronicles #39: "Holiness is Happiness"
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Reference: Hutson, James H.. Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. Library of Congress. 1998. (RFAR).
About a year ago I became introduced to a series of biographies originally published by Cumberland House in Nashville, Tennessee. The series is titled Leaders in Action. Eleven of them were ordered, read, and have a special position on my book shelves. The stories relate outstanding men of faith in history and I was struck by the lessons of leadership of each, but more importantly of their goodness and virtue, in spiritual terms, their "holiness," the subject of my next few messages.
In my church worship service this past Sunday my minister refreshed us on the Ten Commandments (which require millions of laws and ordinances in our country to expand on for our behavior). Also, one of the hyms was Savior of the Nations, Come, one of whose verses is, "Wondrous birth! O wondrous child of the Virgin, undefiled!" We have all been defiled by others or by our own actions or inactions, but a belief in Jesus the Christ, whose coming procured mankind redemption of our sins and allows us through confession of our own sins to leave defilements behind spiritually, wherein we can be restored to a state of "holiness." We must hold fast to that state despite all the outside temptations and unhealthy inward behavioral choices which we face.
The messages will flow from great men of faith in the Middle Ages such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox to later men such as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Patrick Henry, William Wilberforce, C.S. Lewis, and Derek Prince.
In our America of today political correctness has the upper hand and in our increasingly secular and Godless society the mere mention of anything spiritual, and especially Christian, brings down disapproval from many circles of society. However, history relates, during the early years of our nation after the American Revolution, that there was decidely a different attitude toward expression of faith in our land. Some may call it related to a civil religion, but I will call it a bugle call to virtue.
As James Hutson wrote, the sanction of certain religious initiatives by the federal Congress (plus an even wider latitude for state legislatures) meant that both:
"....politicians and the public had an unarticulated conviction that it was the duty of the national government to support religion, that it had an inherent power to do so, as long as it acted in a nonsectarian way without appropriating public money. What other body, after all, was capable of convincing a dispersed people that a 'spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens,' would, as Congrees declared on March 19, 1782, 'make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people?' This conviction----that holiness was a prerequisite for secular happiness, that religion was, in the words of the Northwest ordinance, 'necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind'---was not the least of the Confederation's legacies to the new republican era that began with Washington's inauguration in 1789." (RFAR).
As I was conceiving and writing this message a short verse only from some song of my childhood kept coming to mind, "If you wanna have a happy life,..." which I complete it with "live a holy life." It is my personal proposition that the best legacy to pass on to our descendants, our nation, and our world is one wherein we reflect holiness and virtue, and perhaps the happiness which emanates will keep us off pills, out of hospitals, and more attuned to all we influence.
by Allen B. Clark allenbclark@aol.com
www.combatfaith.com www.combatfaith.blogspot.com
Reference: Hutson, James H.. Religion and the Founding of the American Republic. Library of Congress. 1998. (RFAR).
About a year ago I became introduced to a series of biographies originally published by Cumberland House in Nashville, Tennessee. The series is titled Leaders in Action. Eleven of them were ordered, read, and have a special position on my book shelves. The stories relate outstanding men of faith in history and I was struck by the lessons of leadership of each, but more importantly of their goodness and virtue, in spiritual terms, their "holiness," the subject of my next few messages.
In my church worship service this past Sunday my minister refreshed us on the Ten Commandments (which require millions of laws and ordinances in our country to expand on for our behavior). Also, one of the hyms was Savior of the Nations, Come, one of whose verses is, "Wondrous birth! O wondrous child of the Virgin, undefiled!" We have all been defiled by others or by our own actions or inactions, but a belief in Jesus the Christ, whose coming procured mankind redemption of our sins and allows us through confession of our own sins to leave defilements behind spiritually, wherein we can be restored to a state of "holiness." We must hold fast to that state despite all the outside temptations and unhealthy inward behavioral choices which we face.
The messages will flow from great men of faith in the Middle Ages such as Martin Luther, John Calvin and John Knox to later men such as George Whitefield, Jonathan Edwards, Patrick Henry, William Wilberforce, C.S. Lewis, and Derek Prince.
In our America of today political correctness has the upper hand and in our increasingly secular and Godless society the mere mention of anything spiritual, and especially Christian, brings down disapproval from many circles of society. However, history relates, during the early years of our nation after the American Revolution, that there was decidely a different attitude toward expression of faith in our land. Some may call it related to a civil religion, but I will call it a bugle call to virtue.
As James Hutson wrote, the sanction of certain religious initiatives by the federal Congress (plus an even wider latitude for state legislatures) meant that both:
"....politicians and the public had an unarticulated conviction that it was the duty of the national government to support religion, that it had an inherent power to do so, as long as it acted in a nonsectarian way without appropriating public money. What other body, after all, was capable of convincing a dispersed people that a 'spirit of universal reformation among all ranks and degrees of our citizens,' would, as Congrees declared on March 19, 1782, 'make us a holy, that so we may be a happy people?' This conviction----that holiness was a prerequisite for secular happiness, that religion was, in the words of the Northwest ordinance, 'necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind'---was not the least of the Confederation's legacies to the new republican era that began with Washington's inauguration in 1789." (RFAR).
As I was conceiving and writing this message a short verse only from some song of my childhood kept coming to mind, "If you wanna have a happy life,..." which I complete it with "live a holy life." It is my personal proposition that the best legacy to pass on to our descendants, our nation, and our world is one wherein we reflect holiness and virtue, and perhaps the happiness which emanates will keep us off pills, out of hospitals, and more attuned to all we influence.
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