Today we mourn the passing of a beloved old friend, by the name of Common Sense. Common Sense lived a long life but died in the United States from heart failure at the beginning of the new millennium.

No one really knows how old he was, since his birth records were long ago lost in bureaucratic red tape. He selflessly devoted his life to service in schools, hospitals, homes, factories, helping folks get jobs done without fanfare and foolishness. For decades, petty rules, silly laws, and frivolous lawsuits held no power over Common Sense.

He was credited with cultivating such valued lessons as knowing when to come in out of the rain, why the early bird gets the worm, and that life simply isn’t always fair.

Common Sense lived by simple, sound financial policies (don’t spend more than you earn), reliable parenting strategies (adults, not children, are in charge), and it’s okay to come in second.

A veteran of the Industrial Revolution, the Great Depression , and the Technological Revolution, Common Sense survived cultural and educational trends including whole language, and “new math”.

But his health declined when he became infected with the “If-it-only-helps-one-person-it-is-worth-it” virus.

In recent decades, his waning strength proved no match for the ravages of well-intentioned, but over-bearing regulations.

He watched in pain as good people became ruled by self-seeking lawyers.

His health rapidly deteriorate when schools endlessly implemented zero-tolerance policies. Reports of a six-year-old boy charged with sexual harassment for kissing a classmate, a teen suspended for using a swish of mouthwash after lunch, and a teacher fired for reprimanding an unruly student only worsened his condition.

It declined even further when schools had to get parental consent to administer aspirin to a student, but could not inform the parents when a female student was pregnant and wanted an abortion.

Finally, Common Sense lost his will to live as the Ten Commandments became contraband, churches became businesses, criminals received better treatment than their victims, and federal judges stuck their noses in everything from the Boy Scouts to professional sports.

Finally, when a woman failed to recognized that a steaming cup of coffee was hot and was awarded a huge settlement, Common Sense gave up the ghost.

Common Sense was preceded in death by his parents, Truth and Trust; his wife, Discretion; his daughter, Responsibility, and his son, Reason.

He is survived by two stepbrothers: My Rights, and Ima Whiner.

Not many attended his funeral because so few realized he was gone.

–Author unknown

This is my newest addtion to the digital library I am accumulating.  At present, On Alternative Medicine, A Look at the Facts is only available as a pdf of the whole booklet, but I hope to soon add html files of the various chapters.

On the same subject, you will want to check out Pharmakeia 2000 A.D. (pharmakeia is the Greek word used in the Bible for “witchcraft”), which explores another area of occult activity in a more subtle form-herbology.

To calm a few nerves, I will immediately state that not all herbology is witchcraft, but…

Will you acknowledge with me that very, but very, little herbology is totally disassociated from other known occultic practices?

A perusal of the two above articles will be a place to start your journey into the facts about “alternative medicine”.

The Fire

These latter days are days of fire;

The flame engulfs the world entire;

And Satan rules; but there is One

Whose purposes are not outdone…

In hell’s abysm, long ago,

The flame was kindled, and it’s glow

Has daily since been stoked and fanned

By a fireman who has shrewdly planned

The ultimate defeat of grace,

And the grim destruction of the race.

Behind the gleam is a whirlwind’s breath,

A searing blast that burns to death,

It sweeps the multitudes away,

But… only the stubble, wood and hay!

After the blast, the gold’s still there,

In heavenly luster, pure and rare.

God’s saints have ere been tried by fire,

They humbly brave the tempter’s ire,

The flames of lust and greed and hate,

And passion… hell’s most luring bait;

When tried and tried and tried again,

They come forth purer, stronger men.

By fire and whirlwind set apart…

The consecrated, pure in heart.

Though seven times hotter the flame be made,

They walk therein, all unafraid,

For it is there, in the furnace heat

That they their Lord and Savior meet.

The chaff and hay will soon be gone;

When fire and wind at last have done

With faithless men, and churches cold,

And false religion, and false gold…

God’s purpose in this last day flame

Is men that glorify His Name!

–James Troyer

Just recently I became aware of some Wesley video sermons, which revived an idea I had to do some audio recordings of some of John Wesley’s sermons in audio.  Check them out if you prefer audio to reading.  The text to his sermons are readily available on the web.

After that Jesus adds the words, “Verily, verily, I say unto you, The hour is
coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God;
and they that hear shall live. For as the Father hath life in Himself; so hath
He given to the Son to have life in Himself.”

As yet He does not speak of the second resurrection, that is, the resurrection of the body, which shall be in the end, but of the first, which now is. It is for the sake of making this distinction that He says, “The hour is coming, and now is.” Now this resurrection regards not the body, but the soul. For souls, too, have a death of their own in wickedness and sins, whereby they are the dead of whom the same lips say, “Suffer the dead to bury their dead,” — that is, let those who are dead in soul bury them that are dead in body.

It is of these dead,
then — the dead in ungodliness and wickedness — that He says, “The
hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son
of God; and they that hear shall live.” “They that hear,” that is, they who
obey, believe, and persevere to the end. Here no difference is made between the good and the bad. For it is good for all men to hear His voice
and live, by passing to the life of godliness from the death of ungodliness.
Of this death the Apostle Paul says, “Therefore all are dead, and He died
for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves,
but unto Him which died for them and rose again.”

Thus all, without one
exception, were dead in sins, whether original or voluntary sins, sins of
ignorance, or sins committed against knowledge; and for all the dead there
died the one only person who lived, that is, who had no sin whatever, in
order that they who live by the remission of their sins should live, not to
themselves, but to Him who died for all, for our sins, and rose again for our
justification, that we, believing in Him who justifies the ungodly, and being
justified [made just] from ungodliness or quickened from death, may be able to attain
to the first resurrection which now is. For in this first resurrection none
have a part save those who shall be eternally blessed; but in the second, of
which He goes on to speak, all, as we shall learn, have a part, both the
blessed and the wretched. The one is the resurrection of mercy, the other
of judgment. And therefore it is written in the psalm, “I will sing of mercy
and of judgment: unto Thee, O Lord, will I sing.”

-Augustine, The City of God

Jesus said:

“I am come that they might have forgiveness, and that they might have it more abundantly.”

Is that really what He said?  No, of course not.

Forgiveness of committed sins does not save a man from his sins, in the same way that washing the mud off a pig does not save the pig from getting dirty again.

Only the life of Christ, His blood transfused into us, can save us from the corruption of spiritual death, which we all inherit.

The blood of Jesus gives life into the human spirit once again.  With Life Eternal now in us, we can be saved from sin.

That is why Jesus said, “I am come that they might have life!”

Saved from sin by the blood!

Deut. 12:23

This is a potent little phrase, taken out of one verse.

How is a man saved?

By the blood, of course.

What does “saved by the blood” mean?

Salvaged by the life of Christ!

Christ saves (salvages, rescues from ruin) me by putting his blood (life, Spirit) on the altar (my heart), thus cleansing it (purging, catharizing) it from sin and self.

His life conquers my death!

Ok, the picture is falling together in my mind.  As soon as the Lord opens my eyes for a few pieces that are still missing, I hope to be able to post here the complete story of redemption (purchasing back a lost possession-again by the blood, life, of Jesus) and salvation by grace (I didn’t deserve His Spirit that freed me from the power of sin, it was a free gift!)

For it is not possible that the blood of bulls and goats should not take away (remove from the heart) sins, but the blood (life of Christ poured into me) could indeed sanctify my selfish heart!

More later, God permitting.

The promise makes prayer bold, for God’s word cannot fail. Fulfillment is as certain as past events are fixed, and the future becomes a present to such faith.

Prayer, when it prevails, has about it a boldness, a holy audacity, which reminds us of the prophet whose plea was “Do not disgrace the Throne of Thy Glory!”  When a saint understands that prayer has three intercessors—the interceding Spirit within, the interceding suppliant, and the interceding Christ before the Throne—he feels himself but the mere channel through whom a current passes, whose source is the Holy Spirit in his heart, whose final outpour is through our great High Priest into the bosom of the Father. He loses sight of himself in the thought of the divine stream, its spring, and its ocean. How can he but be bold?

Prayer becomes no more mere lame and timid asking—it is claiming and laying hold of blessing, as a returning stream from the heart of God, pouring back into and through the heart of the supplicant. While he calls, God answers—there is conversation, intercourse, and intercommunication. Prayer is not only speaking to God, but hearing Him speak in return. As a Japanese convert said, it is like the old-fashioned well, where one bucket comes down while another goes up—only in this case it is the full bucket the descends.
A true missionary has to learn such prayer, and it is such prayer that brings him the conscious presence promised by his Master, with its outcome of divine wisdom and strength. It is such prayer that brings to our aid that consummate preacher, the Holy Spirit, whose divine oratory convinces and persuades—who has the power of revelation, demonstration, and illumination—who can flash instant light into the darkest mind and command life to the dead.

-A.T. Pierson

From a letter by John Wesley to Joseph Cownley, an early Methodist  preacher.

I see a danger you are in, which, perhaps, you do not see yourself.  Is it not most pleasing to me, as well as you, to be always preaching of the love of God?  And is there not a time when we are peculiarly led thereto, and find a peculiar blessing therein?

Without doubt, so it is.  But yet it would be utterly wrong and unscriptural to preach of nothing else.

Let the law always prepare for the gospel.  I scarce ever spoke more  earnestly here [he was in Ireland at the time of writing] of the love of God in Christ than last night.  But it was after I had been tearing the unawakened in pieces. Go thou and do likewise.  It is true the love of God in Christ alone feeds His children.

But even they are to be guided, as well as fed.  Yes, and often doctored too.  And the bulk of our hearers must be purged before they are fed.  Else we only feed the disease.

Beware of all honey.  It is the best extreme; but it is an extreme.  I am your affectionate brother,

John Wesley

Let us beware how we foster the spirit of caste. Charles Darwin pronounced the Patagonians (South end of Argentina and Chile) the missing link between man and the monkey, and thought that not even the lever of Christian missions could uplift them…
But…

Admiral Sulivan, who lived on the Falkland Islands for a time, attended the annual meeting of the South American Missionary Society in 1881. While there, he stated that he had informed Darwin of the great changes that had taken place in his Patagonian “human monkeys”: of kindness shown to shipwrecked crews by the converted natives, and how chicken houses remained unlocked, without even the theft of an egg. He stated that in reply, Darwin had candidly confessed: “I could not have believed that all the missionaries in the world could ever have made the Fuegians honest.”
So remarkable is the testimony of this great naturalist—who was, however, no “supernaturalist,”—that with his oft-quoted testimony we close this brief sketch. He had said after his visit to Patagonia, “Nothing can be done by means of mission work; all the pains bestowed on the natives will be thrown away; they never can be civilized.” This was Darwin’s opinion until proofs of the facts confronted him. Then he candidly admitted he was wrong, and added: “I had always thought that the civilization of the Japanese is the most wonderful thing in history; but I am now convinced that what the missionaries have done in Tierra del Fuego, in civilizing the natives, is at least as wonderful.” From that time, Darwin himself regularly donated to the mission society’s funds.
-Taken from the book The New Acts of the Apostles by A.T. Pierson