Missing the Mark

Greetings:

“A miss is as good as a mile” we’re all familiar with this saying and have probably used one version or another in our lifetime. The saying originates in colonial times and isn’t even uniquely American, its origins can be attributed to the British Isles as far back as 1614 by: William Camden’s Remaines of a Greater Worke Concerning Britaine.
It’s the impression of coming extremely close to something but not hitting the intended mark; so, whether it’s a fraction of an inch or a mile, a miss is a miss, something many folks today do not grasp.
“What are we missing” you might ask? In short, we are missing a life intended to be free of many of the burdens that have been created both by government and by society. Government is made up of men who make their fortunes by just coming close, in Washington its called compromise. We are preached to by the media how important it is for legislators to make deals that will affect our daily lives and more importantly, our pocket books. The founding fathers didn’t want us to come close to maintaining our freedoms, they intended for us to hit the target every time a bill was passed. They put safeguards into our constitution to ensure it happened. Lately, we have been missing our intended targets with laws like: health care, light bulbs, patriot act, and raising the debt ceiling.
Our society has been missing the preverbal mark every since we start setting Hollywood on a pedestal instead of God. We let professional liars dictate what our children should be taught, what they should eat, and what they should wear. Every child wants to be like their favorite film star, they want to act like them, talk like them and be like them. What is worst, we as parents encourage this; we see it as acceptable behavior.
We are taken back in awe when we hear of mass shootings, flash robberies, child pornography, and homosexuality run-a-muck. Hollywood has never come even close to hitting the mark when it comes to morals; why then do we listen and give credence to liars.
We all miss the mark when it comes to doing right, 1 John 3:4 “Whosoever committeth sin transgresseth also the law: for sin is the transgression of the law”. It is our job to hit the mark as many times we can in a lifetime. Coming close in morals, food and holy days, is still a miss in Gods eyes; coming close in worship isn’t worshipping God. “What does it matter how we worship God as long as we love God in our hearts” this is a common excuse for doing one’s own thing and it totally misses the target with God, “Be perfect, even as your Father which is in heaven is perfect.” (Matthew 5:48).
The mark for us is eternal life with Christ and a miss is as good as a mile even into nothingness and eternal death.

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Problems

Greetings:

So often problems come when least expected and always it seems, unannounced. Problems present themselves in many ways and levels of severity and never they way we would expect them. Problems can be unique to one person or event or cover a gambit of people or things.
When problems arise, we must deal with them; they cannot be ignored nor set aside to be dealt with at a latter date. It sometimes becomes painful in dealing with our problems, and in some rare cases people even enjoy having problems. But, one thing is always for sure, problems never go away on their own accord. They won’t disappear by wishing them away, making them vanish into a puff of smoke, nor can we hand them off to someone else to deal with.
A good example, last weeks bible study was full of problems. Turns out, the upstream is bad in my high-speed service and we transmitted un-viewable data the whole evening. In addition, Frank’s phone rang during the bible study causing a minor disruption; afterwards, my dogs got into a fight and had to be broken up. The problems seem to always be funny when you’re looking back but they are highly stressful at the time we are experiencing them and boy was I stressed last Wednesday evening. The key is to see the humor and the bright side of our problems because good or bad, they will come to an end.
We will be doing Revelations chapter seven over tonight and we hope the problems are gone for now. We will be broadcasting using a different high-speed service, Frank’s phone will be off, and there will be only one dog in the house. You see, problems can be fixed you only need patience, love and enough time to sort it out, but most of all, God’s help in dealing with problems though prayer.

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God Bless
Ron Harmon

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Christmas Cheer

Greetings:

It’s Christmas Eve; there is no doubt about it, the merchants are peddling their wares with frantic vigor. The expectations of the world for peace and harmony, good cheer; brighter days ahead are drowned out by the beating of war drums all over the world. Dictators and despots are clamoring for an opportunity too expands their wealth maybe that is what in Santa’s bag this year.
The poem from Charles Dickens (The Night before Christmas) written in 1821, romanticized this time of year and help give a false impression of a time when all is well around the world; homes are safe and children are sleeping safely in their beds, nothing could be farther from the truth.
The noise you may think you hear in the distant night air isn’t Santa and his sledge pulled by eight reindeer. The noise is wings slicing through the air pressing forward the figure of a metallic angle bringing destruction and death too so many in other countries.
The drummer boys beat so immortalized is replaced by the rat-tit-tat of an AK-47 and the food so generously gorged by many in celebration of pagan deities could go to feeding starving children for weeks and months.
This is a time of year when disparity is rampant and suicide is the answer for some who have lost their hope in humanity. Even knowing the truth about the origins of this holiday can’t turn their minds and hearts back to God, it won’t ease their pain because tradition is their master. You have to sit and wonder, how long an insane world can maintain a sense of sanity. It may not keep a moral course much longer because the horizon is bleaker than the past but no matter, we are encouraged to have a merry Christmas.
Christ will not be insulted in this way much longer; one can feel the change coming. It will be the true Christ that will bring peace, love, and safety to this world but not before society is turned upside down. As for me, I am waiting for the true Jesus Christ, not some fairy tale driven impression of hope. He is our savior, our lord and God and he will save us from all manner of oppressions, most of all, Christmas.

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The Closet

Greetings:

We’ve been going through a lot of our old stuff recently and we’ve come across lots of items we had totally forgotten about. It’s like finding them for the first time all over again but with a special appreciation added in for the heart. It’s amazing what we pack away with intention of displaying that particular item somewhere in the future and then forgetting all about the wonderful memories it holds.
We all have closets full of vacation memories and knick-knacks we’ve collected over the years, photos, and items of loved ones that have pass away. Somehow they don’t seem make it to the counters of shelves to be appreciated when ones eye wonders upon them. They stay hidden by forgotten love; they were put there by fondness of what they hold captive within us, our lives.
It’s funny; we seem to treat our belief in God much the same way. We have great love for God when we first find him and we have all the intentions of displaying him in our lives. A lot of us put God in the closet because of turmoil in our lives, thinking it is only briefly. Life continues on and time allows us to forget what matters to us most and what is stuffed away in the closets of our minds.
Isn’t it time we go through our preverbal closet and re-examine our lives with the first love of Christ in mind. Isn’t it time remember the fondness of the days we were so blessed and give thanks to God we are able to have those blessing. As in our house we only see what is in full view, unless we open the closet, Christ will stay neatly tucked away from our lives.

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Instant

Greetings Everyone:

I’m sitting here writing the update having my instant coffee and contemplating a bowl of one-minute oatmeal. I’m checking the weather on the computer to see what the conditions will be today, while I’m at it, I can see what kind of funds I have available to me as well.
Our lives these days revolve around how fast we can get something or how quickly our needs can be fulfilled. We don’t always realize we are smack in the middle of the instant society but we are contributors nonetheless. The designers of products thrive on one aspect of a new product or service; will it improve the gratification level for the common person.
We need food; we drive through and get it. We need money; we drive through and get it.
Need your prescription filled, you can go through a drive through and acquire them. I told Virginia that one day the world will have a drive through church, don’t laugh, one may be heading your way soon.
The younger generation is caught in an instant society built by machines and gadgets that service their every desire. They have an enormous amount of time available to experience the world. Unfortunately, they are trying all the wrong things in which to find pleasure and fill the void.
Paul wrote that in the end times, men would be without self-control and lovers of pleasure; is there a better way to describe instant gratification.
How are we too compete with society today in winning over the minds of our youths to Christ when he gratifies the heart and the world affects the physical mind. The sensations of the eye, ear, taste, smell, and touch are too much for the hearts of the more willing of our children. The heart is where the true love of Christ resides, and the instant he is let in, the faster the world will start fading away; this is only the beginning. The process of bringing a child into the fold of Christ takes a lifetime to be instilled into their hearts. One day, one hour, one minute can’t compete with the world; God can’t be experienced or appreciated instantly, it takes an eternity of love.

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Transformation

Greetings Everyone:

In hearing the promises of the Presidential candidates the last couple of months being expounded upon and dissected by the media, it has become clear to me the candidates have seen a different direction they want to move the country in. I remember the last election, and the same could be said about the candidates then as well. The main theme at that time was a new transformation of this nation into something like a utopia state; instead, we have been transformed into a depressed nation. I hope we have learned as a nation at least for a while that transformation isn’t necessarily always a good thing. Transforming something means to changing it, we missed that point in the past election because if we had given it much thought and considered the source, we would have realized the kind of change they had in mind for us. This country is being transformed into a nation where its leaders are rejecting everything with God branded upon it. At the same time they are embracing lawlessness in the form of promoting illegal aliens, homosexuality, corruption in every level of government and spending with no regard to the future of this nation.Mans idea of transforming something is often flawed and misguided. Mans motives are rarely on the side of God; most often they are strictly self-promoting. We will be transformed into a utopia nation once more by a great leader one day, but that will be done by Christ in the millennium not before then. No man can give us what we seek in peace and harmony no matter how great they sound, only Christ can transform us into what we seek.

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Misdirection

Greetings Everyone:

It seems Europe is playing the “Lets make a Deal” game once more and many are quick to say prophecy is being fulfilled because of the consolidation of nations over debt. It could be the beginning of the prophecy spoken by Daniel, no one can deny what is happening in Europe is currently and will continue to affect the whole world, especially toward the end of days.
The greatest of magicians will tell you plainly the key to a great illusion is misdirection. Magicians are masters at getting you to look one way, all the while doing what is necessary to complete the illusion somewhere else. Satan is the greatest of magicians; he is renowned for his trickery throughout history. Satan has tricked the Christian world into believing many things that aren’t true, why would the prophecy about Europe be any different?
Many events of far greater impact are occurring thought out the Middle East at this very moment; events that threaten Israel’s very existence as a nation. If we focus only on Europe, we may fall into the Magicians illusion and miss what is really occurring that truly fulfills prophecy.

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Creativity

Greetings Everyone:

There is so much to comment on, whether it’s the Presidential race or the European financial world collapsing. For a uninvolved outsider looking in, it would look as if we lived in a dying world made up of greed and exuberance and we are too focused on getting the brass ring to notice the music’s stopped playing. If nothing changes in the way we conduct our commerce in the world; then, the future is dismal and bleak for the world and the US.
The quality of life is degrading rapidly as well, it’s reflected by music and entertainment in the world today; you can’t trust watching a PG 13 movie without expecting to hear the F-bomb at least once. It seems there is very little in the way of creativity in society today. If it doesn’t blow your mind or your eardrums it’s of no use to our younger generations.
Will we soon be like the old communist regimes, where people wore the same type of clothing, worked where they were told, and received an allotment of food daily only to sustain their lives in order to live one more day. Are we creating a land where creativity isn’t allowed; a land where dreams are stifled to the point of death and you hope is striped away? Are we willingly embracing this way of life by allowing our lives and culture to be formed by influences from the entertainment word and those we look too as authority figures?
Great men and leaders, creative men, and women of the past looked for more than simple appeasements to make the world around them better; they looked toward God and his hand in their lives. The presence of God in their lives is reflected in music and literature of their day, even the inventions and discoveries that made mans life better were often times inspired by scripture. To be inspired by God is no accident, one must be familiar with him and his word, and there you will find who we are and who we will be, in the future.

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