Sunday August 21, 2005

Today is the 50^th birthday of Roy Rockabilly..

He lifted up the dusty lid of his piano which was sitting like a ghastly apparition in the living room for a long time, and started to touch the white and black keys with his trembling fingers. He was not crying, because the tears had already dried up since his wife Martha departed, several years ago.. he was not trying to play any particular melody, instead, he just yearned to hear how the keys used to sound… soon he abandoned the futile attempt and shuffled his way to the back yard porch .. as he was about to reach his rocking chair, he just remembered that he left his coffee in the kitchen.. so he pulled himself back to the kitchen, got his half full coffee mug and looked again to see that he had cleaned the mess he created on the floor and the kitchen table while making his coffee with his shaky hands. On his way a second time to the back yard, he looked again at the piano.. leaned on it for a while to rest… and closed his eyes trying to remember how it was when he was in his prime, playing those keys like a wizard.. “today is Sunday, I would be leading the choir in church in those glorious melodies” He thought. A fleeting smile crossed his face and he mumbled, “they all but forgot about me now… nothing lasts forever, and I guess, nobody is indispensable… they must have found a much better person.”

He finally reached his rocking chair and sat there sipping his coffee and watching the few birds landing on the grass near the pool.

It was a bright sunny morning, though rain was in the forecast… he thought, “well, I have already lived on this earth for half a century. It is a landmark which I should celebrate.. should I get a cake? Alone? Nah…. I once heard someone say a banquet for one is the most miserable thing that can happen to that person… or.. oh, it was I who wrote that in my notebook.”

The phone rang, his heart sank into an ocean of pain. He was almost sure that the caller was not anyone he wanted to talk to… it turned out to be a person from his old school collecting donations for the “Alumni reunion party.” After he hang up, he thought of some of those friends from school… especially that one who made it big … big investment banker, big house and big family… and oh, how the big friend tried everything to avoid him because he thought that “poor” old Roy would envy his success.

“enough of that already,” he thought, “ever since Martha died four years ago, or was it five ? anyway, everybody started disappearing one by one for one reason or another. As if they were all coming to see my wife and not me.”

He noticed his notebook sitting on the table nearby, where he left it the day before.. He reached out and picked it up.. he had recorded most of his notes for the presentations and compositions for the church service in that notebook. Ah, chucks, he realized that he left his glasses in the bedroom upstairs… yet he thumped through the papers and opened it at one of the pages … bringing the paper close to his face, he read the words before him with a heavy heart… “Many of us deal with our friends and even with God Himself, like we deal with the plumber. We only call upon them when we badly need them in an emergency.. once the emergency is over we totally forget they even existed… you do not call upon your plumber to ask about his health, watch a sports game together or go out to dinner… that is unless that plumber happens to be a dear and beloved true friend”

A sad smile lingered on his face for a while when he remembered that Martha’s brother is still suing him for some inheritance which he never asked for or even wanted. He was advised to pursue the matter for the sake of his daughter. Oh, where is Rosie now? She had left to join her band of musicians who were trekking around the country, playing in different venues and dreaming of stardom, riches and fame. “She only calls when she needs some money..” he recalled.

A couple of squirrels came close and stared at him for a moment and then ran away. This time he uttered the words out loud “OH, I wish I could see them better … darn, I forgot my glasses on the nightstand upstairs”

After a while, a mild breeze stirred the leaves of the only tree in the yard, and a slight spray of rain shower began to wet his face and clothes although the sun was still stubbornly sending his golden rays through the gathering clouds. He kind of enjoyed the freshness surrounding him, so he started rocking his chair gently… and slowly noticed a beautiful lady dressed up in the old-fashioned white and blue silk garments with her shimmering cloak flowing around her and gracefully catching the golden rays of the sun … she was approaching him and stopped at a distance with an outstretched arm inviting him to join her… he was amazed, and completely taken aback by the magnificence surrounding her, so he hesitated.. then he tried to pull himself out of the rocking chair, and again was surprised how easily he could move… he was pleased to see everything clearly now… a feeling of euphoria and elation slowly replaced the heaviness and gloom…

The squirrels were much closer and stood there mesmerized looking at him… oh.. what? looking at him..? he … was looking at himself .. he was asleep.. ? is he dreaming? Now one of the audacious squirrels jumped on his knee and caused the rocking chair to tilt forward… whoa… his body leaned forward and gradually slipped out of the chair and onto the ground.. he did not wake up, and did not feel any pain… !!!

Sunday, September 26^th, 2005

Rosemary Rockabilly got out of her car and walked gingerly towards the grave of her father. She was carrying a single red rose, and she was not crying.. she just stood there and her thoughts were racing in her head, “you dumb old man.. you just left and .. you just left all these problems for me…the house, the car..” Then she noticed the stranger standing on her right side crying bitterly over another person’s grave. She was astonished. It seemed like her stare was noticed, and the weeping lady turned to her saying, “I am sorry… I brought all these flowers and just realized I never brought him any flowers when he was alive… when he would really enjoy them and see how much I loved him. I was cruel and self-centered while he tried very hard to reach out to me… now it is too late … too late.. I am sorry” she kept sobbing and crying.

Rosie was still carrying her red rose in her hand.. she was completely stunned.. she let the rose drop to the ground and backtracked her way slowly towards her car.

What good is the rose on the grave…!!!?

In a recent article, a news commentator wrote, “Christians must get ready for a fierce wave of persecution.” He was not far off the mark. But, he was not merely referring to the ferocious violent persecution occurring against Christians all over the world in the form of Crucifixion, beheadings etc., for he was trying to alert us to the fact that the war against Christianity is now waged on all fronts, especially – and most dangerously – in the area of ideas and intellectual morality.  As we approach the end of the second decade of the twenty-first century, Christians are still, largely unaware of the pernicious growth of what can be labeled the liberal far left. These are far more devastating than the previous challenges of idolatry, Atheism and communism, which have never been completely eradicated, but instead are flourishing in the convoluted environment created by this new craze of extreme liberalism. Needless to say that there are several faithful Christians who are trying hard to ring the alarm bells to the danger threatening the very underpinning of modern civilization which was admittedly established on the solid foundation of Christian principles.  The irony though, is that any time a Christian activist tries to alert people about this impending danger threatening to undermine the very core of the sound classic social structure of society, he is immediately attacked savagely by the watch dogs of this new demonic ideology. Indeed, the media at large – news papers, TV, Movies …etc – are advocating, supporting and promoting this new wave and any one who would not fall in line, would be branded anti progressive and ignorant or even worse…. It is sad to say that they have become very clever in this strategy and achieved a great deal of success in brainwashing a large segment of society, especially in academia, as I have explained in my article about “bastardization of nations”

The present battle lines are drawn. It is no longer a fight between good and evil, where each side used to be clearly identifiable (because we used to have points of reference). Instead, on the one side you find those who are advocates of the pure Christian principles, maintained and preserved by the sacrifices and martyrdom of thousands of believers in the course of the past two millennia. On the other hand, you find stealth extremely liberal, newly revived Gnostic teachings, (with science representing the higher god in some cases) wrapped up in what looks like a modernistic version of the same principles (compassion, freedom etc) though completely devoid of its soul and power… thereby, confusing the majority of people between what is authentic (good) and what is counterfeit (also claimed and promoted as good). The ultimate goal is to undermine, and finally eradicate any traces of the true original Christian faith, i.e. Christian Orthodoxy.

The new teachings – blatantly promoted by many scientific and educational institutions – hail the heretics, both old and new, like Marcion of the second Century AD, all the way to the contemporary Jesus seminary, as reformers and free thinkers, while calling the faithful fathers of the church – old and contemporary – tyrannical and closed-minded bigots. They try to tinker with the Holy Bible itself, claiming that the heretical writings excluded from it were unfairly thrown out by a powerful authoritarian church. They are trying to force their views of ordaining women and gays into the priesthood on all churches, as they reinterpret the scriptures to match their twisted ideology. They shamelessly try to tell us that the “Lord’s Prayer” should read, “Our parent who is in heaven…” or “Our father/mother who is in heaven…” in other words, the long-held standards of what is normal are being gradually and surely replaced with new norms which defy reason and stand against nature itself. ***

And then comes the role of the media. A challenge which our early fathers did not have to deal with at the current scale before the introduction of printing. While we can use the same tools to defend and refute the claims of these same media, unfortunately, for one reason or another, we have not yet perfected the use of these tools to be nearly on an equal footing with the venom of Hollywood, TV, news papers, and worst of all, social media like facebook, and the internet. Only recently facebook – after getting under some scrutiny – have adopted a system of censorship, which claims to clean up the postings of users, while in fact it started a campaign to brand any conservative Christian page or posting as violent, spam, or any other manufactured excuse, while allowing the real offensive and dangerous postings, like those of the holocaust deniers, to be published with no restrictions !!

If you are religious, and especially if you are a religious Christian, opposing their agenda, you are called an extremist, a fundamentalist, a racist, a sexist or even a terrorist. Thereby, they make no distinction between a person lobbing bombs on innocent people in a market place and another who would pray for the salvation of those who persecute him. In other words, they shall accuse you of every vile thing they themselves practice freely without the slightest hint of shame. They demand tolerance for their ideas and behavior but never acknowledge it for any opposing views.

Modern liberalism and Gnosticism which are now spreading, unchecked and unopposed like wild-fire always preach equality and open-mindedness as long as you agree with them, yet they will vehemently and violently jump to attack those who disagree with their new creed of lawlessness and depravity. The question is, how those Christians confront those attacks?

Make no mistake, retreat is not an option. Because the slightest hint of weakness, recoil, or fear will further embolden the anti Christian hordes of godless institutions who are not bound by shame or any sense of true morality. If we hope to defeat this plague, we have to be prepared for it. We need to educate ourselves to be ready to respond appropriately to their endless waves of attacks. And follow the advice of that ancient Chinese general who wrote the art of war, to learn everything we can about those adversaries and their wicked devices. Complacency or retreat will only mean you are conceding your faith and the faith of future generations to the hordes of evil.

*** 2 Timothy 4:3-4 ( For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine; but after their own lusts shall they heap to themselves teachers, having itching ears;  And they shall turn away their ears from the truth, and shall be turned unto fables.)

“Inspired by the book “Spirit Wars” by Peter Jones”

*** originally written and published 2010