Loneliness was necessary to gain consciousness of the soul.”
              –Zane Grey  (The Call of the Canyon)

    “After dismissing the crowds, He went up on the mountain by Himself to pray. When evening came, He was there alone.”
              –Matthew 14:23 (HCSB)
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There are strange things happening in the land.  Take a look at the following Scriptures and ponder them.

         “Behold, the days come, saith the Lord God, that I will send a famine in the land, not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of hearing the words of the Lord.”
                    –Amos 8:11 (KJV)

         “Professing themselves to be wise, they became fools….  And even as they did not like to retain God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not convenient….”
                    –Romans 1:22, 28 (KJV)

         “And for this cause God shall send them strong delusion, that they should believe a lie….”
                    –2 Thessalonian 2:11(KJV)                   

We are seeing the beginnings of this now coming to pass.  The Word of God is pushed aside and shunned.  Postmodernism has been very successful in undermining the truth.  Their purpose is deconstruction.  Deconstruct the government, the laws, morals, standards, values, even language.  The old saying, “it is what it is” is no longer valid, for it is not what it is, only what a person wants it to be.
    Here is a textbook definition of “postmodernism.”  
          “Postmodernism refers to an intellectual mood and an array of cultural expressions that call into question the ideals, principles, and values that lay at the heart of the modern mind-set.”
It really is hard to define, because that definition might be false – that is why it is referred to as a “mood” or “expression.”  One of its leaders, Richard Rorty says, “we should simply give up the search for truth and be content with interpretation.  Aim at continuing a conversation rather than at discovering truth.”  That’s where they have a hard time with Christians and the statement of Jesus, “I am the truth!”
    As stated, they have done a good job.  Look at the Millennials and those of Generation Z.  Almost postmodern to the core.  The belief of their leaders (i.e., Rorty, Derrida, Foucault) is to work on the younger generations and don’t worry about those of my generation, Boomers, as we are on the way to the grave and will soon no longer to be a threat.  Look at the words of this article by Angela Johnson.
           “People who are pansexual can be attracted to people who identify as male, female, androgynous, trangender, or intersex, taking it a step further than the traditional view of bisexuality.  Of course, sexuality varies from person to person, so these definitions are by no means set in stone–all that matters is what a person means when they claim that label.”  She goes on further to show a study by J. Walter Thompson Intelligence that 82% of Generation Z said “they did not care about a people’s sexual orientation, and 81% said they did not think gender defines a person as much as it used to.”
    Now go back and look at the Scriptures at the beginning.  Hmmmm.  By the way, Johnson said in her article that “Facebook alone offers nearly 60 gender options for users to choose from when assembling their profiles.”  I didn’t know that.  She asserts that “As we know, gender if fluid, and there are more genders out there than the typical binary we’re used to.”  Where, my mercy, will this take “us”?  Sorry friends, God created “male and female,” none other.
    Guard the truth!

A mind, like a home, is furnished by its owner, so if one’s life is cold and bare he can blame none but himself.”
                 –Louis L’Amour  (Bendigo Shafter)

    “And if it seem evil unto you to serve the LORD, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were on the other side of the flood, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell:  but as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD.”
                 –Joshua 24:15 (KJV)
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Call this a POT-pourri of Thoughts, or maybe a Plethora of Ponderin’s, maybe even better yet Miniscule Musings.  Nothing real special today so here are a few things that have floated through my wearisome mind.
    November, great month.  It’s the beginning of the holiday season.  November 11 will start off with a great thanksgiving and gratitude to our veterans.  After that it rolls through the New Year.  All regard a thanksgiving attitude, but November is when we normally think of being thankful.  Now is the time to start counting your blessings, being thankful for them, and showing an attitude of gratefulness to those around you.  You never know what they are going through and you just might be that special light in their day.
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I mentioned a while back something of the life of evangelist Sam P. Jones.  I came across some of his sermons.  Here are a couple of great thoughts from one of them.

         [In regard to putting one’s light under a bushel].  “Sometimes it is the bushel of neglect.  Sometimes it is the bushel of willful transgression.  Sometimes it is the bushel of avarice.  And thee are a thousand bushels that will be furnished you at any time you want one to turn down over you light.  And at any moment, if you put a bushel over your light–if your light was burning and you have taken and turned a bushel and put over it–you will find your light is out.  And don’t be foolish enough to think that the man that removed the bushel put your light out.  It was the bushel turned down over it that put the light out.”

         “Good Lord, give us a strong, sinewy, muscular religion!  Not this little, effeminate, weak, sentimental, sickly, singing and begging sort!  My Lord God, give us a religion with vim and muscle and backbone and power and bravery!  A great many people think that Christianity is just a little hot-bed of effeminacy–fellows crying ‘Peace! Peace! Peace!”
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It used to be customary for good friends, almost like family, to come over on election night.  We would watch the returns and eat popcorn.  Sometimes if my cousin was living with us he would bring some fried chicken hearts and they would be placed on top the furnace for us to grab from time to time.  But it’s no longer fun.  A person can’t stand to listen to the pundits, that is the media-mouths.  Now, I just watch the returns.  
    A word of warning to Texans.  The urban brand is on the land.  Look at the map.  Texas is primarily rural, yet the control is coming from the large cities.  I don’t know if any have to run to the security shelters at the colleges.  I know if the election had gone with a “blue wave” conservatives wouldn’t have been happy, but they wouldn’t have shrieked and pulled their hair.  They would have gotten up this morning and gone on with their daily chores.  See, there’s more to this than politics!  Figure it out!