The weak, and those unwilling to make the struggle, soon resign their liberties for the protection of powerful men or paid allies; they begin by being protected, they end up by being subjected.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (A Man Called Noon)

    “The struggles of fools weary them, for they don’t know how to go to the city.”
              –Ecclesiastes 10:15(HCSB)
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David is in the midst of great depression.  He may have composed that old ditty at this time, “nobody loves me, everybody hates me…”.  He was alone and undone.  There was no one to help him; even God seemed to have turned His back on David.  Yes, Psalm 22:1-10 (HCSB) is a pitiful scene of despair and no hope.

         1 – My God, my God, why have You forsaken me?  Why are You so far from my deliverance and from my words of groaning?
         2 – My God, I cry by day, but You do not answer, by night, yet I have no rest.
         3 – But You are holy, enthroned on the praises of Israel.
         4 – Our fathers trusted in You; they trusted, and You rescued them.
         5 – They cried to You and were set free; they trusted in You and were not disgraced.
         6 – But I am a worm and not a man, scorned by men and despised by people.
         7 – Everyone who sees me mocks me; they sneer and shake their heads:
         8 – “He relies on the Lord; let Him rescue him; let the Lord deliver him, since He takes pleasure in him.”
         9 – You took me from the womb, making me secure while at my mother’s breast.
        10 – I was given over to You at birth; You have been my God from my mother’s womb.

David is crying out that God is not even there.  He is complaining that God helped his fathers, but that He is not listening to his pleas for help.  David has trusted in the Lord, but nothing seems to be happening.  People are mocking his faith and His God.
    David didn’t know he was penning the words that Christ that would speak from the Cross.  The sins of the world would soon make Him cry out to God, but seemingly God had abandoned Him also.  Where was God when Jesus was on the cross?  Try to imagine the agony, not just the physical pain of Jesus on the cross.  John Row said, “Here is comfort to ‘deserted’ souls.  Christ himself was deserted.  You may be beloved of God and not feel it.  Christ was.”  The “only begotten Son” was now deserted.  What was going through the mind of Jesus, all alone?
    Jesus “who for the joy that lay before Him endured a cross and despised the shame and has sat down at the right hand of God’s throne.” (Hebrews 12:2, HCSB)  He knew what was on the other side.  He knew that the death, hell, and the grave was no match for Him, but still, He was rejected, despised, depressed–alone.
    Perhaps you find yourself in that situation of being alone and depressed.  We all do to some extent, somewhere in life.  Perhaps we are not looking at our situation in the right perspective.  Often God has already given us the means for help and He waits to see if we use them.  The devil would try to get up to murmur and complain, to turn away from the help that is available.  Look at verse 10, how wonderful it is to serve and know God “at birth”!  That’s the purpose of baby dedication, to see the baby serving the Lord from birth, being given over to Him rather than the world.

         “What thou, my Lord, hast thou suffered was all for sinners’ gain;
          Mine, mine was the transgressions, but thine the deadly pain.
          Lo, here I fall, my Savior!  ‘Tis I deserve thy place;
          Look on me with thy favor, and grant to me thy grace.”
                  –Bernard of Clairvaux

There’s two things that I really dislike, one is arrogance, another is stupidity, but when you put men together who are arrogant about their stupidity…now, that’s something that I can really put a hate on.”
              –Lou Bradshaw  (Cain)

    “…we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope.”
              –Romans 5:3-4 (NKJV)
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I’m so tired to the arrogance of those demanding political correctness and holler “racism” at every word that comes from the mouths of certain people or people of certain persuasion.  The above quotation really put it in a nutshell; these folks are arrogant about their stupidity.  I was accused of racism twice in my 39 years of being an educator.  One was when I called a group of “mixed race” kids a bunch of little boys.  One father was upset that I referred to his son as a boy; I was informed that he was a young man.  To make the story short I told him that his son needed to quit acting like a “little boy” and start acting like a young man.  The other time was in the classroom and a student said I made a racist remark.  I can’t even remember what it was, it was that insignificant.  I told them to go talk to some people who had really faced racism.
    So now we tear down statutes of great men.  Why?  Because they owned slaves.  Get rid of everything Jefferson and Washington as they were slave owners.  For sure get Jackson’s face off the twenty dollar bill!  Those Civil War statutes have got to go; tear them down.  They weren’t put up because they were slave owners; they were put up because of their ideals, their character.  I’m a historian, so put aside the nonsense about the past and look at the person.  For the past five decades or so we have tried to point out the faults of people; prior to that we looked to their accomplishments.
    The following are rules of guidelines that Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson kept in his private book.  It would be good for us to include them in our lives.

         –Through life let your principal object be the discharge of duty.
         –Disregard public opinion to be at peace with all men.
         –Sacrifice your life rather than your word.
         –Endeavor to do well everything which you undertake.
         –Never speak disrespectfully of any one without a cause.
         –Spare no effort to suppress selfishness, unless that effort would entail sorrow.
         –Let your conduct toward men have some uniformity.
         –Resolve to perform what you ought; perform without fail what you resolve.
         –A man is know by the company he keeps.  Be cautious in your selection.  There is the danger of catching the habits of your associates.
         –Seek those who are intelligent and virtuous; and if possible, those who are a little above you, especially in moral excellence.

    “Jackson’s Christian character, humility, and confidence were shaped through his fear of God and reading the Bible.  His creation of maxims for himself was evidence of his daily walk with the Lord.  Through the wisdom and knowledge of God, Jackson chose to live a holy life governed by the Word of God and the leadership of the Holy Spirit.” (Terry Tuley, Stories of Faith and Courage from the Civil War)
    Since I started with a list by Paul in Romans about character, and then gave a list from Stonewall Jackson, let me finish today with words from Peter.

          “But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness to godliness brotherly kindness, and to brotherly kindness love…  For he who lacks these things is shortsighted, even to blindness, and has forgotten that he was cleansed from his own sins.”
                   –2 Peter 1:5-7,9 (NKJV)

Don’t you dare be stupidly arrogant; keep filled with the Spirit and follow God’s Word.
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Today in the Texas Revolution:  The Mexican army arrives on the west bank of the Nueces River.

The promised land is always a distant land, aglow with golden fire.  It is a land one never attains, for once attained one faces fulfillment and the knowledge that whatever a land may promise, it may also demand a payment of courage and strength.”
                   –Louis L’Amour  (Bendigo Shafter)

       “The Lord your God, He will thrust them out from before you and drive them from before you; and you will possess their land, just as the Lord your God promised you.”
                   –Joshua 23:5 (NASB)
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         “You are the light of the world. A city set on a hill cannot be hidden; nor does anyone light a lamp and put it under a basket, but on the lampstand, and it gives light to all who are in the house. Let your light shine before men in such a way that they may see your good works, and glorify your Father who is in heaven.”
                   –Matthew 5:14-16(NASB)

    My Mom would often recall in a somewhat complaining tone that her job at the house growing up was to trim all the wicks on the lamps.  She said she hated that job, I don’t know why, maybe her fingers would get smudged with black.  It was done so that the wick would burn evenly without any hot spots.  There would be a small, bright flame with a properly trimmed wick and no smoke.  Also the oil in the lamp would last longer with the wick properly trimmed.  
    Notice the importance of a trimmed wick.

         “But at midnight there was a shout, ‘Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him.’ Then all those virgins rose and trimmed their lamps.”
                   –Matthew 25:6-7 (NASB)

Remember the story?  The ten virgins were waiting the coming of the bridegroom and fell asleep.  The shout came at midnight, and all immediately trimmed their lamps.  They took care of the wick so they would have a clean, bright flame.  But, no matter how well the wick was trimmed, if there is no oil it will only burn for a few seconds.
    If we get careless with our lives, compromise and involving ourselves in the world, the Holy Spirit will not be there when it is time to light the lamp.  The lamp still looks useable, the wick is trimmed and ready for the flame, but there is no fuel, the Holy Spirit has left, to fuel the wick.  As long as the Spirit is there, the wick will burn.  Don’t live such that the oil is no longer available.

         “A lamp produces light when it has oil and a trimmed wick.  One may light the wick without a supply of oil, but it will burn away and shadows will gradually come.  If a mouse attempts to eat the wick while it is still smoldering, the heat of the dying flame will turn it away.  When it knows fire is no longer in the wick, it knocks the lamp to the floor.  An earthenware lamp will be shattered, but a brass lamp you may repair.
         “If the soul is careless, the Holy Spirit will gradually depart, until it grows cold.  Then the enemy chews on the soul, and wickedness breaks it apart.  If a good person who truly loves God stumbles into brief carelessness, our merciful God will caution him to watch more carefully in the future.”
                   –Orsisius

Don’t let the rats chew on your life.  Stay alert, make sure you are made of quality material, guard the truth, and keep oil in your lamp and the wick trimmed.  Remember the old Sunday School song, “Give me oil in my lamp, keep me burning, burning, burning…”

Man can tell you any fur-fetched thing comes in his head, and you’ll cleave to it for solemn fact from then on.”
              –Alan LeMay  (The Searchers)

    “If we say that we have fellowship with Him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.”
              –1 John 1:6 (NASB)
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There are dark, evil sinister forces at work in our country.  They go about in the guise of being servants, leaders of our country, and more enlightened than the rest of the people.  They have traded principle and honor for political correctness and traded the truth for a lie.  They are attempting to perpetuate stupidity upon the land and have brought confusion and derision.  I would say they are the forerunners of the Antichrist, the man of lawlessness who will know no boundary.
    Not yet–no, there are still some who haven’t bowed to the forces of evil, not bowed the knee to Baal.  But we are living in an age where we must be alert and diligently teach our children God’s holy word so that the enemy cannot dupe us.  Remember those who have gone on before; the lives they lived, the lessons they taught.
    We live in a country that has been blessed as no other in history.  God blessed us beyond measure and still the people complain.  However, there were a few who would go forth and sacrifice their own lives to help us secure God’s blessing.  Before this month, Armed Forces month, is over take time to be a person of resolve.

             “In the long and honored history of America
              There are names that shine like beacons in the night
              The Patriots whose vision gave us meaning
              Who kept the lamp of freedom burning bright
              In the long and honored history of America
              There are those that paid the last and final price
              Who are called upon by chance, or desperate circumstance
              To make the ultimate sacrifice
              A grateful nation bows its head in sorrow
              And in thanks for guaranteeing our tomorrow
              The last full measure of devotion
              That’s what they gave to the cause
              The last full measure of devotion
              And though they cannot hear our applause
              We honor them forever and keep alive their story
              Pay tribute to their lives and give them all the glory
              The last full measure of devotion
              Beyond the call of duty were their deeds
              The last full measure of devotion
              They gave themselves to serve the greater need
              And for those who did survive
              And came back home alive
              They join in praise of comrades who were slain
              And highly resolved, most highly resolved
              That these dead shall not have died in vain.”
                     –Larry Grossman

To add to that I would say, now is the time to live your life so that it is not in vain.  Take up your cross and follow Jesus daily.  Stand when the enemy attacks, and continue to stand to defend your family, and your country.