Avalon Chronicles #119: The Titanic: Are you on one of the Lifeboats?

      The recent sad story of the destruction of an undersea vehicle with five passengers, seeking a "sightseeing" trip to the deep burial site of the Titanic ship, struck by an iceberg in 1912 off the coast of Newfoundland, has generated an immense amount of attention. The Titanic story came to my attention recently by "accident" in the NKJV of The Evidence Bible (Bridge-Logos 2011 page 175) in a commentary by Ray Comfort. 

    Allow me to paraphrase from the commentary. The sinking of the ship in the freezing cold waters of the Atlantic Ocean has its comparability to the plan of salvation instituted upon the sacrifice on the cross of Jesus, the Savior of mankind, sent to earth by the Creator God to establish a way by which humanity has the Lifeboat of the Savior that takes us from this world, wherein we can live forever and not perish and not sink due to our sins. So many of us know there is a World with all its enticing entanglements of living lustful, hateful, jealous, acquisitive and thieving lives. God provided us an alternative to the Worldly life and that is a life based upon the Word of God. A great moral code, the Ten Commandments, was established by God to the Hebrews seeking the Promised Land after their Egyptian captivity. 

     There will be those, who attribute no value to these timeless truths, embodied in the Commandments. However, living by them does provide us a lifeboat. Obviously, the crew members of the Titanic marshaled rescue of the women and children first. There never were enough lifeboats for all anyway, but, even had there been, there were those on the ship that believed the ship was unsinkable and would not have taken advantage of rescue with the boats. The life jackets they wore were not enough. A life jacket today of only "good works" will not be enough for salvation. Only living a righteous life through true faith in Jesus will be enough to save us. 

     The "ship" carrying many through their lives will sink. There is a way out. That is to believe that the story of Jesus, dying on that cross two thousand years ago at Calvary outside the Old City of Jerusalem, was real and that believing the story told and retold for two millenia is what will be our ultimate lifeboat. 

     All of us need saving from something or other than the ultimate spiritual salvation to guarantee eternal life, but, as we swim our way through life's challenges, I believe my favorite scripture as one to live by is 1 John 3:22: "And whatever we ask we receive from Him, because we keep His commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." With this scripture as a guideline we can keep our head above water daily as we face the traumas and travails of life.

The Honorable Allen B. Clark

Author Soldiers Blood and Bloodied Money

Avalon Chronicles #118: Exodus From Human Bondage The Declaration of Independence of America

                                   July 4, 1776 a Day in History that will Endure Forever!

     A treasured book in my personal library is Unto the Generations The Roots of True Americanism        written by Daniel L. Marsh and published by the Long House Publishers in Connecticut in 1968. Author Marsh, at the time Life Chancellor of Boston University, writes of certain historical events, documents and speeches of America's past. He adopts a rather unique rendering for our nation of these special aspects of our history as they relate to Biblical times, Old and New Testaments. Very compelling is his comparison for the signing of our Declaration of Independence to the Exodus of the Hebrew people from Egypt. A student/reader of the history of this ancient time will recall how Moses gathered up the Hebrews, who had endured 400 years of oppression and slavery under Egyptian domination. They broke free and began their journey to the Promised Land.

    The British colonies in America had developed from the original landings at Jamestown and Plymouth and had blazed trails south and west and established new frontiers of settlers, who had become very independent. One of the historical facts of complete historical significance is that the trails were blazed through lands occupied by many native Americans, who were dispersed to other areas. Over the decades the rule and control of Great Britain became tighter and tighter in governance and especially in taxation. It was not a slavery as experienced by the Hebrews, but nonetheless it was most oppressive. The colonists in America decided it was time to break free and that we did with the establishment of a nation that had never been nor ever would be again.

     Many documents established throughout history are very much secular, but in our nation we developed a different approach. It had its roots in several evangelistic happenings centered around Great Awakenings, when many colonists developed strong personal spiritual roots in the decades preceding our Revolutionary War. Hamilton Long in 1963 wrote Your American Yardstick another classic book in my possession. Recall that fundamental foundation in our Declaration of Independence, "...all men are created...and endowed by their Creator..." He wrote, "The fundamental principle underlying the traditional American philosophy is that the Spiritual is supreme" The adoption of our Declaration of Independence reflected that we have a nation founded upon, "This governmental philosophy is, therefore, essentially religious in nature...it is uniquely American; no other people in all history have ever made this principle the basis of their governmental philosophy."

     What we established in 1776 is unique in recorded history and, if ever lost, would most assuredly never be repeated. Let us ensure that our Exodus to our own Promised Land is permanent!

The Honorable Allen B. Clark 

Author Soldiers' Blood and Bloodied Money

      

Avalon Chronicles #118: The Ultimate Father's Day

     17-20 June every year are most consequential and emotional days in my life! Each June 17th I reflect back to June 17, 1967, at Dak To Green Beret camp in Vietnam. An enemy battalion, after ambushing two of our patrols miles west of our camp, was moving toward us. I was ordered by my detachment commander to be ready for evacuation at 9:30 AM  that Saturday morning. I was a military intelligence officer under cover as an infantry officer with an assumed name. I missed that flight because at 4:30 AM, when the fast-moving enemy unit mortared our camp, I was wounded to the extent that I had both legs below the knees amputated. Miraculously, my Father in Heaven saved me on that battlefield through two Green Beret combat medics, who treated me. Otherwise I would have died and never been able to be a father to my loved two daughters. I wrote them yesterday that "To be their father was reason enough to be saved that day so many decades ago!"

     Coincident always in this time frame is Father's Day and my 81st birthday is June 20. Obviously, a special time of year always! Both my daughters called me this morning and others messaged me to have a Happy Father's Day. But, really most significant in my life is wrapped up in the fateful day in 1967, which we combatants, who suffer serious wounds, term our "Alive Day." I woke up yesterday praising my Father in Heaven, who allowed me to continue with life and breath itself. 

     Linda and I had an extraordinary time of prayer and conversation this morning. Actually for the first time ever I focused on gratitude that the Ultimate Father is He in Heaven above. Secular Father's Day is the focus culturally, partially focused as always commercially on gifts, etc. But, today I focused on Him, the Father of Jesus the Christ, and Creator of all in Heaven and this earth below. 

     My favorite dictionary is the 1828 original Noah Webster American Dictionary of the English Language. In looking up "ultimate" Webster wrote "The ultimate end of our actions should be the glory of God, or the display of his exalted excellence. The ultimate end and aim of men is to be happy, and to attain to this end, we must yield that obedience which will honor the law and character of God." A life in obedience to the Father yields many "Alive Days" in life and the ultimate gift of life after death.

Avalon Chronicles #117: 7 Reasons You May Not Hear From the Lord

This is outline from a message Mar. 12, 2023 delivered by Pastor Ryan Binkley at Create Church Richardson, Texas. Commentary is by Allen Clark

1. Disobedient: One of the major ways in which we are disobedient is to sin and not confess our sins. Reflection: "I confess my sins of thought, word and deed, known and unknown in the Name of Jesus and I ask forgiveness." This is the major way to put disobedience behind us. We all pretty well know about the Ten Commandments we should obey, but one must also evaluate that we do those things that, "...are pleasing in His sight." This takes a bit more reflection. 

2. Distractions: This relates to how one spends their time. Do you pray? Do you read your Bible? Do you waste time?

3. Disbelief: This is a major impediment to one's Godly life. This relates to not believing at all there is a Supreme Being that was the Creator of all. This is unbelief that here is a supernatural presence that is available to be connected to us in all aspects of our life. Our Lord is One, who may be called on to assist us in all issues, if we call on him.

4. Disingenuous: I had to go to my Webster's for this definition. I use the original Noah Webster 1828 dictionary, which is the classic. When one is disingenuous, it is reflected in an attitude or behavior that is, "Unfair; not open, frank and candid; meanly artful; illiberal(not free or generous, not noble, cold in charity, uncharitable in judging."

5. Demonic Attacks: When one has unconfessed sin, lack of forgiveness, or an addiction,etc. that allows one to not have the protection of our Lord, then pathways of evil allow the aspects of spiritual warfare to predominate in our lives and demonic spirits have the legal authority to infest us until cast out.

6. Desert Seasons; These are times of dryness, when we are demonstrably not walking a life of faith. These are times we are disconsolate, angry, irritable and not praying.

7. Don't Read One's Bible: Our Lord wants our hearts and minds. The best way for that to happen is to read and study the most important book ever written, the Bible. 

With a personal family legacy of Hispanic heritage I like to end by saying "Vaya Con Dios!"

Avalon Chronicles #116: The Basics on God and Us Mortals

      

     The 1990s television series "Touched by an Angel'" was a recent discovery we made. I had recollected viewing the series intermittently back then, but, have been recently reintroduced to these programs, which star Roma Downey and Della Reese, who are sent to earth as angels to minister to earthlings, who are involved in all sorts of troubled conditions separated from God and his world of peace and contentment and satisfaction. I have found the thirteen seasons, which consists of numerous episodes, to be of immense entertainment, but, more importantly as almost each episode is a story of healing from past hurts and pains with a path to redemption. 

     The episodes each stand by themselves with a story. The following key points are stressed:

                GOD LOVES YOU AS AN INDIVIDUAL JUST THE WAY YOU ARE.

                GOD WANTS THE BEST FOR YOU.

                GOD'S JUDGMENTS ARE THE ONLY FAIR ONES, NOT THOSE BY EACH OTHER.

                OUR LIVES ARE DETERMINED BY OUR CHOICES AND EXPRESSION OF FREE WILL.

                WE CANNOT CHANGE EACH OTHER. WE CAN ONLY ENCOURAGE OTHERS TO MAKE THE RIGHT CHOICES.

                 PRAYER WORKS. HE ANSWERS.

                 A TURNING TO GOD, NOT DRUGS OR ALCOHOL OR SELF-PITY, WHEN TROUBLED OR CHALLENGED, IS THE WISEST DIRECTION.

                 Allen B. Clark

                 www.combatfaith.com      www.combatfaith.blogspot.com 

Avalon Chronicles #115: The Gift of Joy and Rest

      Today on the first day of this New Year in the ninth decade of my life (and that sounds so old) Linda and I discussed "The Joy of the Lord." She and I are both reading the words, thoughts and teachings of Derek Prince in separate works. She wrote this, imparted to her from today's meditation and study. 

     "Joy is the energy source from and given by the Holy Spirit. As Jesus said, 'The wind blows where it pleases and no one can see where it comes from or where it is going.' So it is with the 'energy' the 'joy' given by Jesus by way of the Holy Spirit. Joy lifts up, gives strength and creativity and brings healing. Joy is the energy source of the Lord. His joy is imparted to the spirit of man."

    The flesh can know pleasure. The soul can know happiness. The spirit can know the "Joy of the Lord"

                                                                        Derek Prince

     In his book Through the Psalms by Derek Prince he writes about David, who faced
"...tremendous pressures, surrounded by enemies on every side, his very life threatened." In Psalm 4:6-7 it is written by David, but God: "You have filled my heart with greater joy than when their grain and new wine abound."

     David amidst all his travails and circumstances knew "...the blessedness of untroubled , restful sleep." With all his stressors he was renewed with a joy and peace that came "...not on circumstances, or on material provisions, or on the fragile promises of men, but, on the eternal, unchanging promises of God's Word." Prince wrote David was able to sleep peacefully and "...he could awake without anxiety, without fear, without the torment of sleeplessness."

     One of the major scriptures I recollect and attempt to live by to impart my needed joy and bring on restful sleep is I John 3:22: "And whatsoever we ask, we receive of him, because we obey his commandments and do those things that are pleasing in His sight." This relates to confession of sins, obedience and discipline in our daily lives. God listens to my prayers and addresses my needs, but not necessarily my wants. This is the spiritual formula to achieve joy and sleep peacefully.

     

     

Avalon Chronicles #114: 2023 Looking Back and Forward

      For my Christmas greeting this past year I began to say, "May your Advent season be blessed." Christmas has become so secularized and defined as a rushed time to send cards, buy and wrap gifts and attend end of year social gatherings. We have focused so much on Santa Claus and do not even recognize or know anything about the true origin of Santa. William J. Bennett wrote The True Saint Nicholas Why He Matters to Christmas. The secular Santa Claus is based on a true historical figure, Saint Nicholas, a Christian bishop from Myra, Turkey. Interestingly enough is the story of the original Saint Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church in Lower Manhattan. It was destroyed on September 11, 2001, when the South Tower fell. The church is in the process of being rebuilt today. It is up from the ashes of that horrendous day in our nation's history. Christmas has evolved so far from its true meaning 

     Much of earth's history is that of ashes. In Genesis 3:19 the Bible expresses the phrase "dust to dust." In the 1662 version of the Book of Common Prayer for the English Burial Service the Priest shall say, "...we therefore commit his body to the ground; earth to earth, ashes to ashes, dust to dust;" This past Advent (Christmas Day) I reflected on my blessings for the year in my safe and secure and warm home. I thought about the trouble and turmoil experienced by the people in Ukraine and having been a wounded soldier myself, I was immeasurably cognizant of the suffering of the combatants on both sides of the war zone. I realized how many have been and will be committed in burial services to the dust and ashes of the earth.

     I opened my 1828 original Noah Webster Dictionary and read the definition of Advent, "A coming; appropriately the coming of our Savior,...It is intended as a season of devotion, with the coming of Christ in the flesh, and his second coming to judge the world." Jesus was sent in the flesh by his Father God to be an example of how lives should and could be lived as expressed so elegantly and wonderfully in the New Testament. The Old Testament is a history of pain and sorrow and suffering and misery of mankind. It saddened me to think of our world today and how little has changed even after 2000 years since the Advent. Christianity came upon the world and millions have followed Christ's teaching, but, today the evil one, Satan, has his hooks on so much of the world and so many people. I question why we have not made better progress in putting an end to the horrors of our history. The enemy has been relentless. Our faith has not always been so relentless!

    It is for me only to play my own small part as a member of the earth's cast, but I am secure in my conviction that the end of the play will be a great crescendo of the orchestra to announce the conclusion, "Jesus the Christ will prevail" and as Webster said and we learn there will be a second coming for the Judgment. I will seek to be proven not guilty of denying the eternal truth that the person of Jesus, who was birthed 2000 years ago, was a true and believable event for a person that we, who now know, must proclaim until our own remains become ashes.