Are You Ready?
June 09/25
When my generic family finally decided to settle into a normal life for the second time when I was about 11 or 12 years old, I started to attend church and all the other rituals that go along with this lifestyle. Sunday school and young peoples, choir practice and of course Church at least once a week. My church was the focal point in my life, that is where the boys were that I wanted to associate with and later this was the hunting grounds for a girlfriend and hopefully my mate for life. It worked out just as planned, Our Young peoples was very well attended as we being the smaller congregation than the one Presbyterian, one Anglican and two United churches in our lovely town, we attracted many from these other churches for fun and fellowship. We had our own Baseball team and would travel to other towns for great fun and we did win our share of games as well. Joan and I started quite early in life and hosted on behalf of our BYPU “Baptist Young People Union” a 4 course turkey dinner. We were not allowed to sell tickets as our elders were very stodgy back then so we just called the ticket a donation of .90 cents. We did get around the old geezers and a few snickers were had by our parents and our minister. We hosted over 50 kids from our town with a 30-pound bird and while we did not make a profit, “that would not have gone well” we did break even. This was accomplished without the need of a computer or cell phones.
WW2 was won by our brave soldiers and the world was a much more civil place. Calmness seemed to cover us with a desire to work hard and make a better life for ourselves and families. Our school classrooms were up to 50 kids in a class and one teacher could easily handle the class as the strap was the final threat. Detentions were not much fun as that meant in my case, I would have to work doing school jobs and be late for my after-school job. In spite of the punishment, I did get the strap twice and had many detentions. I wore the badge of honour getting the strap and it really hurt. However, it was worth it. My marks were average and I was happy about that as I did not have to work very hard but school was my place for devilish fun.
Reflecting on these times in my life seems rather mundane but I wanted to set the tone of the time. It was in the late 1940’s and early 50’s. As life progressed into the 60’s and 70’s, our civilized growing up years faded away. My family and their friends find it hard to understand what we old guys mean when we say, it’s not the same world. Everything we did was harder by virtue of the fact that we did not have all the tools we have today. We worked harder to do the same jobs as today. We also did much of the work ourselves. Always with a sense of accomplishment and at a lower cost.
I have a great deal of sympathy for our children today. What a confusing place we have created. Not only is there little stability, it is a very unsafe place to be. A child’s life today is threatened even before it is born. As a child, growing up children are threatened by big pharma and even what used to be our most trusted family friend, our medical doctors are liable to want to stick our kids with all sorts of untested vaccines. Boundaries are blurred in so many areas that in years gone by, were quite clear. Our education prioritizes buildings and teachers before the students. Our language is foreign to anyone older than 70. Many churches that once were abuzz with activity taking their part in the community are shuttered or burned down. Too many young people are sitting in front of a video, TV, computer or cell phone screen rather than outside busy at a part time job or doing some kind of sport activity. We are lied to regularly and every day someone has tried to scam us with another plan to steal from us. How many times do you think God sees us and is saddened that we are not living better lives. Are we living the lives we were put here for? Most of us could do better. Our deeds are known by many but our thoughts are only known by ourselves and our God. Good thoughts and good deeds are good but will not get us into Heaven. The secret is just believe in Jesus as the Son of God and that he died a horrible death for all of us and for our sins. When we believe that, we are saved from this world’s destruction going to happen in what we call, “the last Days”.
I was pleased and surprised on my Sunday evening religious programming on Vision TV to see a new face by the name of Rabi Schneider. Obviously, the Rabi is a Jew and a religious man of God. He was preaching from the new and the old testaments of the Bible. Traditional Jews do believe in Jesus but rejected him in his day and are still waiting for the Messiah. Rabi Schneider is preaching that the world will enter a time of turmoil and quotes from Matthew 24 verse 6. Quote – “And you will hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.” The key verse is that all believers must not be troubled and to be at peace and not afraid.
Yes, no one in his right mind can say that there is no such thing as climate change. The climate has been in flux and change for millions of years and there is nothing man can do about it. Fossil fuels, weather we burn them or leave them in the ground will make little difference in God’s scheme of things. I feel that God put them there to serve his purpose and if we can get enjoyment from them in the improvement of our lifestyle, that will please God our Father. Carbon is what makes plants grow, why would we want to disturb this, one of God’s miracles?
I was very impressed with Rabi Schneider and his message and hope to see and hear him and others of his faith in the future.
Paul D. Scott rantingsandraves.com & Substack
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