Way of the Serpent

I recently saw one of the many comic book hero movies that have been produced lately. It has the typical plot of good guy trying to protect the world from the bad guy who wants to take it over. It is actually one of my favorite hero movies. It has a good strong moral message and almost Biblical symbolism.

I thought to myself, as I know other parents have too, I want my child to know the difference between good and evil. Maybe this film would be a good way to demonstrate that. Kid sees good guy defeat bad guy. Sounds innocent enough. As I considered the idea further I decided that my son, who is five years old, would not be ready to watch a movie like this. Good does triumph over evil but the struggle between the two forces inevitably demonstrates itself in battles, deception, personal insults, hatred, killing, murder, betrayal, crime and many more actions that are the result of a fallen world. I felt that my son did not need to gain the graphic knowledge of how good and evil must fight. At least not yet.

In ancient history there is a similar exchange between two individuals that seemed innocent and reasonable but was very much a deception. Consider the Serpent in the Garden when he talked to Eve about the forbidden fruit? The Serpent told Eve that she would be wise like God and know good and evil if she ate the fruit. But what happened? Eve gained knowledge about evil that she did not need to have and so her nature along with her husband's, once they ate the forbidden fruit, became fallen and corrupt.

My son does not need to know the depth of evil for him to be taught good. At his young age he has not yet developed the understanding of distinguishing between the two. He does not know enough about what is good. Nor does he have the strength of character to resist what is bad. How many times in one day does any child succumb to the simplist temptations to hit, whine, throw a fit or take a toy? Their maturity is not developed. Their fallen nature has not been brought to submission by their will. As a parent I have the responsibility to protect my son's heart and mind. I am the gate keeper to his soul. I have been given the privilege and care of training and teaching him. I must know when it is time to share knowledge that unfortunately he must know because of the fallen world we live in. It is that dark knowledge that our souls were never meant to bear.

Parents, do not fall for the subtle deception the Serpent convinced Eve to accept. Guard your child's innocence. They have been given to your care.

It Was only Murder

Today at 12:35am Stanley Tookie Williams, co-founder of the Crips, was executed in San Quentin, California. He had been condemned for murdering four people in cold blood.

Williams supposedly saw the error of his ways and started writing children's books encouraging kids away from the gang lifestyle. It is good that a former gang founder and murderer would try and help others from falling into the same evils that he himself committed. This is notable.

But being a good citizen and respecting the rights of others, especially the right to live, should not be seen as a concept that goes above and beyond the moral base. It is part of the moral base. It is what is expected. Should one be praised for doing what they should already be doing?

Why should we raise up Williams as a noble icon because now he chooses to do good? I have never murdered anyone. Should I be praised and marched all over the media and recognized by celebrities? No, because it is expected of me to treat others morally and to respect their rights.

After Williams was executed by lethal injection, those that supported clemency for him declared in one voice, "The state of California just killed an innocent man," as they walked out of the chamber. Innocent? He is not innocent. I ask anyone to prove he is innocent. He may be reformed, even repentant, but not innocent. His crimes are real. Repentance has not changed the status of murder against four.

We saw rapper Snoop Dogg, himself a former Crip, and others especially celebrities crying out for Williams' clemency. But where were all these stars when Ted Bundy was being taken to the slaughter? Bundy showed great remorse, admittance of his crimes and repentance for the rape and murder of innocent women? This is true Hollywood hypocrisy.

Ted Bundy's crimes were against women and in the eyes of our society this is horrible. And they would be right! But because of all the feminist banter, crimes against women are used as a selling point to draw sympathy and emotion so that agendas can be pushed, instead of seeing true justice served and society protected.

It is not the crimes against women that Hollywood cares about. It is their agenda. It is not the children's books written by a former Crip that they care about, again it is their agenda. Their agenda determines their cause not their morality or standard for measuring right and wrong. Bundy's execution is accepted because of feminism. William's execution is unacceptable because they want to do away with capital punishment. And of course there is the whole glorification of the gang lifestyle by rappers and Hollywood.

Even though Ted Bundy repented, he still had to pay for his crimes. Repentance does not remove consequences for ones actions. Neither does the good of Williams remove the consequences of his crimes. He is no different than Bundy. Both committed the greatest of all sins against another person and that is taking innocent life.

Blame America!

It seems to me that the only goal of the media lately is to promote America bashing. It is the politically correct and open minded thing to do these days. It is amazing how everything becomes America's fault and responsibility. They blame the growing violence among warlords in Somalia because of the Black Hawk Down incident. When does it become the responsibility of the African nations, instead of America, to end their corruption and violence?

They steal the food and charities they receive, keeping it from their own people, starving them to death. This is not America's fault or responsibility. You can't blame America for their evils. In places like Darfur, Sudan they are trying to wipe out an entire ethnic group through burning villages, smashing in toddlers' faces, castrating men, raping women, burning food and looting possessions. But where is the world to say this must stop?

America makes a misstep and all of a sudden the liberal elites swoop down to bring shame and blame. They will continue to vomit on America till they completely convince the world that America is the source of all evils in the world. If a child in North Korea is eating a dead corpse laying in the street, because he is starving to death, then it must be America's fault.

NASA's Return to Flight STS-114 mission

Today at 10:39 a.m the Space Shuttle launched from Kennedy Space Center after a 2 1/2 year wait since the Columbia disaster. I was watching the Yahoo live video feed up till the last minute and then went outside with all my co-workers to see a small flame streak across the sky leaving a trail of vapor standing from the earth declaring success! It was nostalgic watching the shuttle as it rose slowly from the earth bringing back the memories of my childhood growing up here on the Space Coast. Today the crew of ST-114 broke the barrier of despair that has hung over Nasa and the space industry. It is exciting! There is hope and we must not give up even when we have walked through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.

Georgians Are More American than Americans

President George Bush spoke in the former Soviet republic of Georgia. He was greeted by one of the largest crowds he has ever spoken to. There was estimated to be between 100,000 to 300,000 gathered making it the largest gathering in the country since its independence in 1991.

You could see Georgians waving American flags and dressed in red, white and blue. You would have thought it was the Fourth of July not a gathering in another country. If Bush would have visited another country say France, Germany or the Netherlands he would have faced large protests. But in Georgia the people and government were very excited about having President George Bush visit them. The American National Anthem was even played to honor America and our tradition of supporting freedom.

But I fear that our current generation of Americans lack the understanding and appreciation of what freedom is. They would rather care about their bling bling and criticize our military than to serve and love our nation defending our belief in freedom and God.

The Georgians are my kind of Americans. May they live long in Freedom and never lose knowledge of the tyranny they came from.

National Day of Prayer

Today is the National Day of Prayer. It is a time to remember our God and His love toward us. It is also time to be reminded that He truly is sovereign and righteous. You might notice that from time-to-time Google will modify its logo to commemorate different holidays and events such as Earth Day, National Library Week, Happy Valentine's Day or National Teacher Day which they did two days ago. But you will not see them represent National Day of Prayer which has been invoked and supported by several of our Presidents. I understand the world not honoring God or acknowledging His sovereignty but let not Christians forget. If we don't worship our God and seek his face then who will? Don't tempt God to raise up the rocks from the ground to praise His name because we have failed to bow our hearts to Him. Many churches nation wide are participating in this event with prayer meetings. Take the time to attend one.

By the way here is the link on Google's site where you can view the different logos.

Coffee's Love for Me

I absolutely love coffee! The illusion of peace and tranquility that it gives me every morning is unmatched. It is a world all its own drawing me deeper into its realm of good. No matter what circumstances I will face that sip of warmth stabilizes my senses and deepens my consciousness. Don't take my word for it. Drink two cups every morning and a cup or two in the afternoon and you too will know what I mean.

The Good Samaritan Is Dead...Almost

Last night my sister came over for the evening to hang out with me and my family. A few minutes after she left our house she calls on her cell phone to tell us about a car that was stopped at the intersection of Minton and Emerson. The driver was slumped over in his SUV. She didn't know what she should do. I advised my sister, being a woman, not to approach the car but to call 911. She did. I also jumped into my car since it was nearby to see if I could help.

Fire Rescue arrived just before I did. Luckily the man was ok. He either was drunk or had passed out or fallen asleep. My sister had told me that other cars had pulled up behind the stopped SUV and would honk and getting no response would just zip around the vehicle and drive off to the club, work or Wal-Mart.

If you pulled up behind a car, honked because the light was green, and there was no response, what would be your first assumption? ...I would think that it would be that something is wrong! Nope, the masses felt it was not their business and didn't want to bother with it. It would have inconvenienced them. It would be too risky. They would be late to the new club that opened up in Orlando. Who knows why, except they didn't care to stop and find out what was wrong and if anyone needed help.

This has the Good Samaritan story written all over it! Go here (Luke 10:25-37) if you don't know what I am talking about. The Bible also talks about the love of most growing cold. Where is the care for your fellow man? Well, I guess Darwinism has succeed to eliminate compassion and good will. It has produced a wonderful society of survival of the fittest. Beautiful!

Back in September 2004 after one of the hurricanes a neighbor of mine had fallen off his ladder and hit the cement ground near his pool. He was incoherent and barely conscious. Since the phone lines were down I had to jump into my van and drive to the fire station nearby. But as I turned the corner out of my neighborhood the van died. Earlier in the day I had run into some deep puddles and water was in the engine.

I jumped out of my van and started flagging down the first car I saw. I was standing mostly in the road waving. They zoomed around me and kept going. The next car came and this time I stood in the middle of the road and would you guess it they veered into the opposite lane and kept driving. I was furious.

This time when the next car came I made sure they couldn't go around me but they were already stopping. They told me there was a cop already in my neighborhood and we were able to get help.

The point of this is obvious. Maybe it is Americans, Floridians or maybe Palm Bay folks or just people in general but today there seems to be very little love or care about anything other than self. The first two cars were like the priest and the Levite that walked on by the man who had been beat up by robbers. The third car, like the good Samaritan, stopped and helped. Praise God that there are still good Samaritans...Almost.

Public Schools

As I was pulling up to the intersection of Eau Gallie and Croton, on my way to work this morning, there was a cop watching traffic to make sure that drivers were abiding by the school zone speed limit. He was good at what he did. He was barely finished writing a ticket for one driver, who was probably unaware of the school zone, when he jumped out into the road pointing vigorously to another passerby directing them to pull over.

Man, such care taken to protect our children from being smashed on their way to school. Impressive isn't it? Not really...It makes me angry. Our society is quick to convict 5 miles over the intended school zone speed limit to "protect" our youth but don't care to raise them to respect authority, love one another and believe in God enough to have any kind of morality to guide their conscience.

My sister, Sheree, is a teacher for the Criminal Justice Center at Palm Bay High School. Just the other day she gets to school and the entire school had been vandalized. The doors to the Criminal Justice Center were spray painted with the words "666 I will die here." Yeh, I think that says it all. Our American youth have lost all sense of respect and morality. And I blame the parents who don't believe in God or allow God to make any difference in their lives. Without faith you have nothing to believe but your own definition of morality which can be anything. Who teaches our youth right from wrong? It seems nobody does!

When I talk to my sister about being a teacher at Palm Bay High, I get the impression that it is just a high level baby sitting job. Everyday she has to deal with rude, disrespectful and lazy students. It is a very hard job with little money and little success in truly educating the next generation. They won't listen and many of them could not care at all about you. This stems from the lack of training and care from many parents. They don't know their right hand from their left. There is nothing that they believe in and so have nothing to pass to their children.

At this point I will not let my kids go to public school. I want my kids to know morality and to actually know what the Constitution is and who the presidents are and why we fought the wars we fought. I don't want them looking over their shoulder wondering if they will get beat up or shot at, which by the way is one of the major concerns students have in my sister's classes.

When will we wake up and see how we are raising the next generation of Americans?