He’s got worms in his craw where the sand should be.”
              –Alan LeMay  (The Searchers)

    “But people who aren’t spiritual can’t receive these truths from God’s Spirit. It all sounds foolish to them and they can’t understand it, for only those who are spiritual can understand what the Spirit means.”
              –1 Corinthians 2:14 (NLT)
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Maybe you’ve known people like that–their insides are full of worms.  Instead of doing the right, instead of being steadfast, determined, and caring, they want everything for themselves no matter whom else it hurts.  They’ll worm in here and worm in there, until something that was once good is now full of their worms.
    People who are very anti-Christ have these worms.  They know it all.  They think the Christian is foolish, moronic, but they can’t see the truths of Scripture.  They mock God, they say there is no God, oh, but God says He will not be mocked and the day that they need Him, that is when he will mock.

         “How long, you simple ones, will you love simplicity? For scorners delight in their scorning, And fools hate knowledge.
         23 Turn at my rebuke; Surely I will pour out my spirit on you; I will make my words known to you.
         24 Because I have called and you refused, I have stretched out my hand and no one regarded,
         25 Because you disdained all my counsel, And would have none of my rebuke,
         26 I also will laugh at your calamity; I will mock when your terror comes,
         27 When your terror comes like a storm, And your destruction comes like a whirlwind, When distress and anguish come upon you.
         28 Then they will call on me, but I will not answer; They will seek me diligently, but they will not find me.
         29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the Lord.”
                     –Proverbs 1:22-29 (NKJV)

In truth, those individuals are not to be hated for who they are or for what they do.  Instead, they should be pitied.  Their arrogance will bring them down.  They will slide down their own slippery ways.
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    We’ve traveled some this year and next week we’ll be heading back home.  I enjoy traveling this vast, wonderful country of ours.  I found the following from some of my reading this year.  Don’t forget about those wormy people, but take a moment to reflect on the creation of God.

         “You can’t live under this sky, having it as a sort of next-door neighbor all the time, and not lose a lot of pretensions.  What good are high places to a man if he’s not satisfied?  Why fight for something you’ve got no heart in?  And what more could any man want than this?  Look at the prairie sweeping off there.  It’s mine to ride on.  I sleep sound at night.  I go out in the morning and look at the sun coming up and I feel as if the day was made for me and nobody else.  A fellow loses himself and his troubles.  Time doesn’t count.  Everything marches along slow and a man lives slow–which is the way folks ought to live.  What’s better?”
                     –Ernest Haycox  (Free Grass)

Don’t matter how you look, don’t matter how you feel; you showed up on time, and ready to work.  That’s the kind of man I need.”
              –C.M. Curtis (Return of the Outlaw)

    “Seek the Kingdom of God above all else, and live righteously, and he will give you everything you need.”
              –Matthew 6:33 (NLT)
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Some of the thoughts for today are by Gen. Jerry Boykin and Stu Weber.  Ponder over them.

“If you forget the lessons of the past, you’ll suffer in the present as well as destroy your future.”  Our Founding Fathers were historical thinkers and one aspect of their thinking was theological. That cannot be ignored.  Look for example at the Declaration of Independence.  It is based on a theological notion.
    “The founders held certain theological principles to be so utterly true they declared them ‘self-evident’–so true that they didn’t countenance any debate or argument, and any fool could grasp their realities.  Those principles stated that humans are ‘created’; that humans are ‘created equal’; that they’re ‘endowed by their Creator [yes, with a capital C in the original document] with certain unalienable rights,’ rights that are not derived from Washington, DC, or any other earthly government or authority.
    “Our founders also regarded freedom as a sacred and righteous cause; they therefore appealed to God, ‘the Supreme Judge,’ and expressed their ‘firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence’ for their cause and its sustenance.
    “Given those convictions they were willing to die on the hill of their Declaration: ‘We mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes, and our sacred honor.
    “Our founders believed, according to their own words in the Declaration, that the major purpose of our national government was to ‘secure these rights’ that are sourced in God.”
    We have certainly come a long way from the thoughts, practices, and principles of the founding fathers.  “We’ve forgotten our roots; we’ve lost sight of where we came from as well as where we were originally headed.”
    It is vital that we understand our history and also its theological history as well.  The devil, with men as his instruments, is taking an axe to the roots of our foundation.  Solzhenitsyn stated, “To destroy a people, you must first sever their roots.”
    There are those who are doing their best to nurture the truth of America.  To give proper nutrient so that people will understand the underlying root system of our country.  But look around, there are those who are trying to dig up the roots; those who are trying to take an axe to them.  For example, just look at some of the words of Cory Booker, a supposed leader in our Congress.  By your actions or inactions, which side do you fall on?

         “I am sure there never was a people who had more reason to acknowledge a divine interposition in their affairs, than those of the United States, and I should be pained to believe that they have forgotten that agency, which was so often manifested during our revolution, or that they failed to consider the omnipotence of that God who alone is able to protect them.”
                   –George Washington

When a man starts out to do violence there’s only one way. You got to defend yourselves.”
              –Louis L’Amour

    “It is a terrible thing to fall into the hands of the living God.”
              –Hebrews 10:31 (NLT)
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    “The assassination of character can be more deadly than that of a bullet.”
              –D.C. Adkisson

Ponder that for a while.  A bullet may take limb and life.  The pain and suffering of this world is over.  However, character assassination is sinister. A person has to live the rest of his days with that.  His legacy is destroyed.  Folks, I will also say that there is a judgment day coming.
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    I worked twenty-two years at a school whose mascot was a “Warrior.”  In those years I taught and spoke several times about the concept of a warrior.  Very few people understand that concept.
    First, a warrior is someone who lives their training.  All soldiers are given rudimentary training, but many of them become clerks, work in supply or transportation, some of in the medical view, and so on.  In reality there are only a few who become warriors.  Every hour of every day they are living their training.
    The second thing that depicts a warrior is that they are constantly confronted with death.  The first part of that is death to self.  Selfish desires are put aside for the higher cause.  Paul, that warrior apostle, wrote that he died daily.  He further wrote,

              “With eyes wide open to the mercies of God, I beg you, my brothers, as an act of intelligent worship, to give him your bodies, as a living sacrifice, consecrated to him and acceptable by him. Don’t let the world around you squeeze you into its own mould, but let God re-mould your minds from within, so that you may prove in practice that the plan of God for you is good, meets all his demands and moves towards the goal of true maturity.”
                        –Romans 2:1-2 (Phillips)

    To the warrior, life and death are ultimate issues.  Karl Marlantes said that “Warriors deal with eternity.”  In battle they will decide the death of their enemies.  And, their enemy may decide their death.  Death his something all around a warrior.  
    In this day it is hard to find someone who can fit that bill.  Living is about Christ.  Dying is about Christ.  All things are to be done in light of who Christ is.  Duty completely replaces self and selfish desires.  General Douglas MacArthur stated the following:

              “The soldier, above all other men, is required to practice the greatest act of religious training–sacrifice.  In battle and in the face of danger and death, he discloses those divine attributes which his Maker gave when He created man in His won image.  No physical courage and no brute instinct can take the place of the Divine help which alone can sustain him.”
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    There was a movie made several years ago whose title is somewhat prophetic–“It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World.”  The world in full of hate and is moving further and further toward the chaos that Nietzsche predicted.  We are seeing possibly the first-fruits of a world gone mad.
    When a senator and his wife is forced from a restaurant because of their standard and then another senator is applauded for the vileness that comes out of her mouth, folks, there are sinister forces at work.  Man will choose either light or darkness; good or evil.