"Well, hey, there are lots of things wrong with the original 'Last Supper' and there were women dressed as men as models, so aren't they transvestites?"

Yes, there were problems with original. For one thing, all the models are Italian when the original men were all Jews. Also, the models mostly all have long, which was the custom of Italian men in the very late 1400s as opposed Jewish men of the first century who mostly had short hair. And there is possibly a young girl in the painting. The apostle John has a very young and effeminate face with no facial hair. In fact, if you look at the face, you can see a resemblance to Mona Lisa. Leonardo de Vinci painted Mona Lisa ten years later and may have used the same model. Lastly, the characters in the painting are seated at a table while the Bible indicates they were reclining at the table, as was the custom in the first century. So, with the errors in de Vinci's painting, why is everyone so wigged out about transvestites reenacting the Last Supper in Paris at the Olympics?

First, let me address the errors in the painting. Italians were the models used because Leonardo de Vinci painted the original in Milan, which is crawling with Italians. Italians, not Jews. You use what you have. The length of hair was for the same reason. Most of the pictures we have of Jesus shows Him with long hair. No pictures exist of Jesus from His life because Jews did not paint or draw pictures of people, so the European artists painted what they knew. As for the possible girl, it would be very hard to get people to hold a pose for a long time. Perhaps the girl, if she is indeed a girl, offered her services and could hold a pose. And as far as sitting as opposed to reclining, Leonardo would have painted what he knew. He was hardly a theologian.

When I read of the Olympic disgrace, and then saw the video, I was not at all offended that they mocked a famous painting. It is, after all, a work done by a very fallible man. However, they were not attacking a piece of art, no, no. They were attacking the very foundation of our faith. These artistic geniuses who know nothing of a life of struggle, brazenly took our faith and attempted to shred it. Christianity is mocked around the world anyway. And these brilliant minds knew that there would be backlash but all they would have to do was say they were sorry, it wasn't meant to offend, it was just artistic expression. Eventually everyone would forget about it and go on their way.

I read a comment about this by a pastor. He said that if Jesus were here, He would invite those responsible and those who took part to sit with Him at His table. Which is true. However, what this weak kneed cleric failed to point out is that while they were all eating, Jesus would have talked about sin and the wages of sin and the certainty of heaven and eternal judgement. Then, lovingly, he would have asked them to repent. Much of Christendom seeks to appease the world, to get along with them, to look the other way and be easy on sin. I have heard that song and dance as presented by that pastor for decades, and that is the reason churches are dying.  

There will be a reckoning, of course. Both here and throughout eternity. But let's see the difference between these artistic cowards who hide behind their shields of words and expression and the men whom they are trashing.

If you have a print of the Last Supper or have it on your computer, I am going to go from left to right and name the disciples and Jesus as Leonardo listed them.

1.) Bartholomew. Other than the mentions in the New Testament, we know very little other than he refused to quit preaching and would not deny Christ. For this crime he was skinned alive. 

2.) James the Less, as opposed to James the brother of John. His calling was to remain in Jerusalem and preach the Gospel. For this crime, and for not renouncing Christ, he was stoned to death. Stoning was a harsh way to die, for only a crushing stone to the skull would insure death.

3.) Andrew, the brother of Peter. He took the Word to Greece, where he was convicted of heresy for denying the local goddess. He was sentence to be crucified and he requested that his cross be mounted at an angle so no one would compare him to Jesus. His brother Peter was crucified at about the same time, possibly the same day. Neither would have known of the other's situation, yet Peter was crucified upside down so no one would confuse him with Jesus.

4.) Judas Iscariot. Took his own life out of guilt for betraying Christ.

5.) Simon Peter. Although he denied Christ three times the night of the trial, he spent the rest of his life serving the forgiving Savior. As mentioned before, died crucified upside down.

6.) John. The only disciple to die of natural causes. But before his death in his nineties, he was beaten, brutalized, boiled in oil and exiled to a barren island. He gave us the Book of John, First, Second and Third John and the Book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ.     

7.) Jesus Christ. So full of love that He left heaven to be born here on earth. So full of love that he allowed Himself to be beaten and mocked and crucified to be the blood sacrifice for the ages. So full of love He set aside the weight of death and rose to glory to prepare a place for all those who believe. The Savior of all who will accept His grace.  

8.) Thomas. Ridiculed for ages as the one who doubted the Resurrection. But once his faith was restored, he wound up in India, carrying the blessed Word. He was killed there for his faith.

9.) James, brother of John. First disciple killed for his faith and the only disciple, other than Judas Iscariot. whose death is recorded in Scripture. Acts 12:1-5.

10.) Philip. Went to Hierapolis in Antioch, Greece. There he established a Christian community which became to0 large and threatened the worship of other gods. When he refused to back down, he was arrested, tried and crucified.

11.) Matthew. A despised tax collector, he came to Jesus and became one of the disciple band. He traveled to Ethiopia where he formed a Christian community in the capital. He was confronted in the house of worship there. He could have denied Christ and lived, but he would not back down. He was stabbed to death in the house of worship.

12.) Simon the Less, as opposed to Simon Peter. He took the Gospel to Babylon where he created a worship center. Most likely this was the group of Christians Saul (who became Paul) was charged with rooting out and killing. Simon was seized by a crowd and was beaten to death.

Now, let's just say that Christ was an imposter and all his followers were just fools. Even so, all those men, except Judas Iscariot, died noble and heroic deaths. Even if they were wrong, those participants and those who were responsible for that Olympic display, would not even be worthy to bring glasses of water to such men. But they WERE NOT WRONG! JESUS, SENT TO SAVE, GATHERED THE BEST TO SERVE HIM! He even chose the betrayer, so that He could be betrayed. Against all that, those people committed a sin that will be with them forever. Even if they repent, what they did will never leave their minds.

Always remember; mockery is the last tool the deceiver has when all else fails. Jesus wins!  

I should have gone off to college in the Fall of 1974. I had graduated high school in June and I knew where I was going to school, but I lacked the funds. So, I opted to work six months and then go to school and work while I was there to pay for more college. The months of June through December I worked in a factory and salted some money away. 

The church I attended had a large bus ministry and I was asked to drive a bus on Sunday mornings to pick up kids for church. I was only 18, but I had been driving the farm truck since I was 11, so I guess I was a good fit.

These church buses were not the sleek designs you see now. These were old school buses that were slated for the junk yard. Paint them up and make them look good and put them on the road and your church had a bus ministry. The bus I was assigned was from the 1950s and had seen better days. We had two guys serving on the bus, one was the bus captain and the other was his assistant. My two guys were in junior high. Yes, sir. We were a professional group. Saturday mornings we would drive the bus around the route and the captain and his assistant would run up to houses and remind the kids we would be around in the morning. For some reason the mothers were all for their kids getting on a rickety old bus driven by an 18 year old and being driven 20 or 30 miles away. The church had 10 or 12 such death traps on wheels and we regularly had 400 kids in our junior church. My bus went the longest distance, picking up kids as far as 30 miles away.

I cannot say I enjoyed it. A bus with screaming children was not fun. But I was assured by the associate pastor that I was doing the Lord's work. Still, I was counting down the days until I could leave for school. 

And so it was, the second Sunday of December, I found myself driving down Lakeshore BLVD in Mentor on the Lake trying to navigate through white out conditions. A storm was blowing off Lake Erie and my wipers could not keep up. At that time radar was not what it is now and therefore weather forecasting was not what it is now, and this storm just seemed to pop up out of no where. Still, mommies put their little darlings out by the road and the big red bus picked them up. Lakeshore crossed over State Route 44, and I needed to get off onto Rt. 44 to get back to the church in Perry, Ohio. Now there is a nice, gentle curving off ramp from Lakeshore going down to Rt. 44, but then it was a sharp right turn. The heater in the old bus didn't work, but I was still sweating bullets. No one should have been out in that, much less an old bus loaded with kids and driven by another kid just a few years older. 

I came up to the turn off. Usually, I would slow all the way down, almost to a stop, to make that turn. Mess up and you were going to go over the embankment and pancake into the road below. So, I gently began to brake to keep from sliding. And the brake pedal went to the floor. The brakes had failed. It seemed the bus was picking up speed. I began to down shift and the bus continued to pick up speed. (Just so you know for future use, bald tires do not work well on ice.) I was still s little ways from the embankment, so I turned the wheel hard right, hoping I could sideswipe a tree and stop. (Just so you know for future use, bald tires do not turn well on ice, either.) The bus would not turn. The edge of the embankment was protected by a chicken wire fence and that was not going to stop the bus. With nothing else to do, I straightened the wheels to try and keep the bus from rolling and whispered (I thought I whispered, but they told me later I yelled it) HELP US, JESUS! We went through that chicken wire like it was nothing. We blasted through the snowbank like a snowplow and we hit the bottom of the embankment. However, a snowstorm is a double edged sword. It created the accident, but it also provided a cushioning affect with the deep snow to slow the bus down. We bounced up onto Rt. 44, slid hard right and stopped. We were perfectly in our lane and pointed in the direction we needed to go. The kids were cheering and begging to go do it again. I just slipped the bus into gear and started off. The rest of the way back I slowed, and finally stopped, using the gears.

We got there safely and I let the kids out, all of them still jabbering about Mr. Larry's shortcut. The man who was in charge of all the buses, THE BUS MINISTRY DIRECTOR, came up to me. I told him what had happened and why the bus was dragging about 30 feet of flimsy fence. "HA! You had quite the ride! I knew those brakes were leaking but I was hoping it would be better weather before I fixed it." "Wait! You knew the brakes were bad and you let it go! Look, here are the keys. I am going home. You can drive those kids home in a different bus. I am going to call the county sheriff's office and tell them what happened and if they see that bus number on the road, they need to know it is not safe!" For me to fly off the handle like that was very uncommon. I had a hard time talking to people older than me without blushing, but we could have had a bus load of dead kids. As I walked away, THE BUS MINISTRY DIRECTOR shouted after me, "You are grieving the Holy Spirit, boy." 

Did the Lord save us all that day? Yes, He did. We were innocent in that none of us knew there was a problem. Was the Holy Spirit grieved? Yes, He was. The Lake County Sherriff's Department was out the next day and found problems in all buses but one. Cost the church a large, undisclosed amount in fines and repair costs. 

The point is, never take the Lord for granted. Do not go ahead and do stupid things believing God will bless anyway. I am pretty sure that director didn't consult the before letting a dangerous vehicle out like that. He just assumed that the Lord would provide.

The Lord blesses faithfulness and righteousness and subservience. But the Lord draws the line at stupidity.

Blessings.     

  

  

November 22, 1963, that evening. My mother, a stanch Republican, wept at the kitchen table. My father, as hard a man as I have ever known, sat in a chair and stared out a window, occasionally wiping his eyes. When the news came through earlier in the day, I was in the back seat of the car because I was home sick and was going with my mother to the bank. We pulled into the parking lot and people were staggering around or just stopped, leaning against their cars. It was strange. Complete strangers hugging one another, talking in hushed tones, looking to the sky for answers. At that moment, we happened to be in Chardon, Ohio and church bells began to ring. Deep sorrowful notes. That evening the lead anchor on TV barely got through his newscast because he kept choking up. Government leaders at every level needed a day before they could face reporters and the reporters willingly allowed them that day.  

July 13, 2024. News people took on somber faces, but there was a feeling of satisfaction. Government officials said the appropriate words, but one New England government bureaucrat posted on social media, "We abhor such violence, but if you are going to take the shot, don't miss." In spite of the fact that two were dead and others wounded, the media people were all rushing around trying to get a different angle on the tragedy. On one of the news feeds that I read (I read both liberal and conservative feeds because I want both sides), the big news was fifth in line after the death of a Hollywood near celebrity, the misadventures of the royal family and other world shaking events. And, of course, people pointing out that the weapon used should have been banned.

So, what has happened in America between John F. Kennedy's killing in Dallas in 1963 and Donald Trump's near killing in Butler PA in 2024?

In June of 1962 the Supreme Court ruled that organized prayer in school sponsored by the school was unconstitutional. By January of 1964 the ban was fully implemented throughout the country. The ruling grew to eventually, in most schools, ban the Bible anywhere in a school building. During the 1960s there were multiple riots in various cities where many died as well as three major assassinations. In schools, dress codes were eliminated. The ability to punish a child was severely curtailed. What once had been referred to as the theory of evolution became the fact of evolution. As society changed, so did the churches. What had once been condemned as sin became accepted. Rarely does a church stand for anything, but rather goes along with the ebb and flow of society. Denominations began to put their theological differences aside and join together by their social justice beliefs, thus causing a breakdown in the theological fabric of the churches. The sense of right and wrong that had governed society crumbled before the wave of evil that swept the world and is still plaguing us today.

And now, the finger pointing has started. The Secret Service is at fault! Well, you fail to secure a relatively small area and a shooter gets to within 130 yards then, yes, you share the blame. The Democrats are to blame! Again, you formulate hate of a man then, yes, you share the blame. The Republicans are to blame! Here you widen the gap by backing such a divisive man then, yes, you share the blame. But who is really to blame?

We have covered all the bases, right?

Not really. The real culprit in the degrading of society at every level, the real culprit in increasing violence, the real culprit in the lack of God in our institutions, are CHRISTIANS. 

What? No, wait! We are the ones who are being wronged!

When was the last time you prayed earnestly for the president? When was the last time you prayed earnestly for your school system? When was the last time you prayed earnestly for the churches? When was the last time you shared your faith with an unbeliever? When was the last time you delved deeply into the Word of God?

What did Thomas Crooks, the 20 year old who shot Trump and killed another man, know of God? Oh, he probably celebrated Christmas, but with Santa rather than Jesus. He probably enjoyed Easter, only with a bunny and colored eggs rather than a risen Savior. I have been to Butler PA on multiple occasions. Churches everywhere! Vacation Bible Schools, Sunday schools, Youth programs.....did young Thomas ever once hear of the true Jesus? Of course, he could have been in church every Sunday of his life and still laid on that rooftop with a rifle. But, did any Christian ever share the Gospel with him?

A Christian has three jobs. Pray. Study the Word (not some quicky devotional, but the real Word). Share the saving power of Jesus. Until we truly begin to do our three non-time consuming jobs, we will continue to watch our world seriously go to hell.  

    Both of my parents were from Kentucky. Actually, from the same little town. Even went to the same little church. Since my father was older than my mother, they didn't connect. They knew each other in a vague sense. But when my father returned from WWII, that gawky little girl who was the daughter of the Sullivans from up on Bender Hill yonder had just reached adulthood, and everything changed. After the war, two of my mother's brothers and their wives and one of her sisters and her husband moved to the same little town in Ohio to find work. The men all farmed and worked in factories and were making more money than they could have in Kentucky. It wasn't long before my parents did the same thing. This little town, Perry Ohio, sits on the shores of Lake Erie and is extremely cold in the winter. Kentucky folk didn't usually come that way. But now, there were four families of hill folk (commonly referred to as 'hillbillies') residing in the township.

    Even though I thought I talked just fine, I found out when I started school that I talked funny. My friends from down the road never said anything about the way I talked, and my family all talked the same way. But I swiftly found out that I was different. For instance, there is no such word as 'heared.' The correct word is 'heard.' I slurred some words. It was assumed that I had a speech impediment and I was forced to take special speech classes. All I was doing was speaking Southern. I just did not know it was a foreign language in Northeast Ohio.

    So, I grew up bilingual. Not only was I fluent in both Midwestern and Southern, but I was also very familiar with the lifestyles of these two very different lands. When we went to visit the Kentucky folks, we went when the tobacco was coming in so we could lend a hand. In other words, we worked on vacations. It is totally different in the hill country, but I was at home there as well as in the great frozen North.

    And then I married a city girl from the city of Cleveland, and I found out that she had no clue about life. Milk came from the dairy aisle in the grocery store. Chicken was over in the meats section. It never occurred to me that someone could grow to adulthood and not associate the food you ate with actual animals. We were married five years before she quit calling cows 'moo-cows.' She gagged the first time she ever ate rabbit. I didn't even try to introduce her to squirrel. She once yelled at a cow for daring to relieve itself in front of her. That would have been funny except we were at the county fair to see our 4-H kids and their projects. But she really didn't know.

    Now in my so-called 'golden years,' I am pausing to reflect back on my dual childhood. It has come to me that others may not know how to survive in the South, so I have put together this aid to prepare you for what is to come once you cross the Ohio River. Pay attention.

    THINGS YOU NEED TO KNOW IF YOU INTEND TO SPEND TIME IN DIXIE:

1. A possum is a flat animal that sleeps in the middle of the road.

2. There are 5,000 types of snakes and 4,998 of them live in the South.

3. There are 10,000 types of spiders. All 10,000 of them live in the South, plus a couple no one's seen before.

4. If it grows, it'll stick ya. If it crawls, it'll bite cha.

5. Onced and Twiced are words.

6. It is not a shopping cart, it is a buggy!

7. Jawl-P? means: Did you all go to the bathroom? As in, Jawl-P before we left the house?

8. People actually grow, eat, and like okra.

9. Fixinto is one word. It means I'm going to do something.

10. There is no such thing as lunch. There is only dinner and then there's supper.

11. Iced tea is appropriate for all meals and you start drinking it when you're two. We do like a little tea with our sugar. It is referred to as the Wine of the South.

12. Backwards and forwards means I know everything about you. As in, 'I knows you backwards and forwards.'

13. The word jeet is actually a question meaning, 'Did you eat?'

14. You don't have to wear a watch, because it doesn't matter what time it is, you work until you're done or it's too dark to see.

15. You don't PUSH buttons, you MASH em.

16. Y'all is singular. All Y'all is plural.

17. All the festivals across southern states are named after a fruit, vegetable, grain, insect, or animal.

18. You carry jumper cables in your truck for your OWN truck.

19. You only own five spices: salt, pepper, mustard, Tabasco, and ketchup.

20. The local papers cover national and international news on one page, but require 6 pages for local high school sports, motorsports, and gossip.

21. Everyone you meet is a Honey, Sugar, Miss (first name), or Mr (first name)

22. You think that the first day of deer season is a national holiday.

23. You know what a hissy fit is.

24. Fried catfish is the other white meat.

25. We don't need no dang Driver's Ed. If our mama says we can drive, we can drive!!!

    There now, that should get you past Louisville or Cincinnati, at least for a few miles. Go and enjoy.

America. Land of the free. Home of the brave. 

A child, old enough to vote but still a child, told me not so long ago that he was a proud Democrat. I thought at the time, and I still think the same, that it was a stupid statement. That thought didn't run through my mind because I am not a Democrat. That thought was there because we have, Republican and Democrat, a seriously messed up government. We expect our elected officials to lie every time they open their mouths. We expect this because we have been lied to for a long time. Even so, though we know we will be lied to, there is a sizable group of Republicans and a sizable group of Democrats who will vote a straight ticket. And that is the biggest part of our problem. People who are not really sure of who is even running for the various offices will vote for the R or D.

Now, some of you will be getting angry at me right now, so let me say, I have no loyalty toward any political party. People divide along party lines. Several years back, one of the men who worked with me at the funeral home, got all fired up at me because I shared this view with him. Actually, he brought it up. He kept getting louder and louder and, since there was a funeral underway, I had to drag him outside. According to him, I was disloyal to the cause. So, I asked him, what does the Bible say on the subject. That stopped him cold. I showed him that those that have charge over us are placed there by God and we are to pray for them. Being a good Catholic, he didn't know much about the Bible, so he could not even begin to try and refute me. You see, that is how I judge candidates, by how they stand for the Lord. And during campaign season, all of them are Godly, family candidates. At least according to their words.

My allegiance, my loyalty, is first toward the Lord. Second, it is for my country. It is not now, nor will it ever be, given to people who will say whatever it is they believe I want to hear. My loyalty to the Lord led me into a lifetime commitment to His service and my loyalty to my country led me to the Federal Building in Cleveland and where I took the oath and joined the armed forces. But if the Republican or Democrat national conventions were held across the street from where I live, I wouldn't cross the street to attend.

But I love this country. This America, flaws and all.

History lesson: The Revolutionary War pitted the British colonies in the NewWorld against the most powerful nation in the world at that time. A group of men gathered in Philidelphia over July 3, 4 and 5. They signed a document that declared independence from England. In so doing, they signed their own death warrants. Some lost their lands, some lost their families, some lost their lives. Why? Because they loved the very concept of their new country. What led the rag-tag colonists to fight a hopeless battle? They loved the concept of their new country. They loved it so much that they died for it. And they won. They wrested control away from England against all odds.

But it wasn't over, even after the treaties were signed. For years, the British navy harassed American cargo ships. They would run down an American ship and force them to stop. Then they would board the ship and inspect the cargo, sometimes taking the cargo but almost always taking abled bodied American seamen to serve on the British ships. This led to the second war between the two countries, known here as the War of 1812. Again, the Americans came away victorious. But again, soldiers and sailors died to secure that victory. 

When you read these histories, especially those written at the time or shortly thereafter, you see the passion of the combatants, the undying love of country that drove them forward. Those in political power considered it a privilege to serve in that capacity, rather than the current feeling that it is a cushy career.

In 1814 the British launched a naval siege of Fort McHenry, the fort that protected river that led to Baltimore. To have seized Baltimore would have gone a long way to have secured a British victory and probably returned America to a colonial possession once more.  

A young lawyer by the name of Francis S. Key had gone aboard a British ship, the HMS Tonnant, to see about the release of an American physician who was falsely accused to harming British prisoners. Key managed to secure the release, but they were detained by the British because they had heard the plans for the attack on the fort. So it was that Key stood at the rail of a ship and watched the 25 hour bombardment of the fort. 1,800 shells and some 700 rockets were fired at the Americans and the Americans fired almost as much back. When the bombardment ceased as darkness came on the scene at the end of the second day, the outcome was still not known. But as dawn broke, a massive American flag with stars and stripes flew above the fort and the British ships were forced to withdraw. Key was so moved that he wrote a poem of four verses. A few more verses were written later by different people, but the words that Key penned expressed his pride and love. Most of us just know the first verse of that poem. It became our National Anthem. But these are the four verses that Key wrote (Just a quick note. Verse 4 is not to be sung in schools since it mentions God. We sure have come a long way, haven't we?);

1.) O! say can you see by the dawn's early light,
⁠What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming,
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
⁠O'er the ramparts we watch'd, were so gallantly streaming?
And the Rockets' red glare, the Bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our Flag was still there;
⁠O! say does that star-spangled Banner yet wave,

⁠O'er the Land of the free and the home of the brave?

2.) On the shore dimly seen through the mists of the deep,
⁠Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
⁠As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam,
In full glory reflected now shines on the stream,
'Tis the star-spangled banner, O! long may it wave

O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

3.) And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
⁠That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion,
A home and a country should leave us no more?
⁠Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave,
From the terror of flight, or the gloom of the grave,
And the star-spangled banner in triumph doth wave,

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.

4.) O! thus be it ever, when freemen shall stand,
⁠Between their lov'd home and the war's desolation,
Blest with vict'ry and peace, may the Heav'n rescued land,
⁠Praise the Power that hath made and preserv'd us a nation!
Then conquer we must, when our cause it is just,
And this be our motto—"In God is our Trust;"
⁠And the star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave,

O'er the Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave.