The house of David

How easy it is to forget the power of music and the true power of real praise to God.

Among youth, music far out sells movies. 

Why?

Simply stated music is powerful and things heard many times far outweighs things that are seen. 

Yet most people will say that seeing is their most important sense. 

So one of the real revolutions that has taken place in the last 50 years is the fact that music is now seen as much as it is heard! 

MTV was the forerunner of this in the United States.

The older I get the less in touch I am with the music that is coming out each year. It seems that rhythm has the upper hand now and what people call music now  that is out in the airways and cyberspace.

This new form of music has certainly captured this next generation as people out in public will notice the subwoofer blaring out the rhythms of Rap and R&B artists of the current day.

When I first came to Christ I was wonderfully indoctrinated into the power of praise for prayer by people I lived with by the name of Terry and Jay. I thought we were going to have a short little 5 to 10 minute prayer time after dinner one night when they told me it was time to go to prayer.

I was mistaken.

Jay loved to cook with lard and you could smell the aftermath of the pork chops that he had made in the kitchen. 

But instead of just bowing for a short little prayer session, Jay proceeded to put four praise and worship albums stacked on his phonograph and prayed into the night on his knees listening to this praise as prayers were uttered to God reverently into the night.

I’ll never forget that object lesson that I was given and there have been times over the last 40 some odd years that I have implemented that very useful tool of having praise and worship while I pray for an elongated period of time.

I’ve heard it said that we praise God for what He has done but we worship God for who He is. Another way I’ve heard it described is praise is the way into God’s presence but worship is what happens when we get there.

In the scriptures it seems like the first ones that really utilized the principles of praise where Moses and his brother and sister, Aaron and Miriam, after they had crossed the Red Sea they broke out in praise singing the Lord is my strength and song and now He has become my salvation. Miriam grab the tambourine and there was dancing and a real celebration. We find later in the book of Revelation that Moses has a song and there is a song also he penned that can be seen at the end of the book of Deuteronomy.

But the first person in the Bible to really cultivate and develop the power of praise and make it into a lifestyle appears to be David.

 He wrote the majority of the Psalms which is the hymnal and praise book of the Bible. A lot of people are aware of that.

Yet as I have been going through the Old Testament again this year I’ve been reading 1 Chronicles to wrap up the year and it is just simply amazing what David does with Israel concerning the house of God that he wanted to build and the house of praise that he did build!

 Here are some of the bullet points:

1- 1 Chronicles 28 and 29 talks about the lavish way David had assembled wealth to dedicate to the Temple of the Lord and the building of it. He accumulated 3,000 talents of gold for the temple and 7,000 talents of refined silver. That is roughly over 1500 lbs. of gold and 3500 lbs. of silver.

Because of David’s example as a leader all of Israel followed suit and gave. In like manner, lavishly as the king did. Precious stones were also a part of this giving.

2- The joy of this giving was contagious and the Bible says the people rejoiced because they had offered so willingly.

3- David recognizes that all of this abundance came from God’s own hand and he acknowledges that and he says that God will try people’s hearts and God delights in uprightness and that David in the integrity of his heart has willingly offered all these things so that now with joy, he saw God’s people who are present there make their offerings willingly to God!

But the clinker here is that God told David’s seer that he was not to build the house because he had shed much blood in battle. 

The Lord showed David that Solomon should be his successor.

4- David gave us all a great gift though when he in 1 Chronicles 25 established the house of praise that he built. 

First of all he had 288 trained people to sing to the Lord with their relatives and they were all skillful! These people were not lone rangers but the Bible says they were all under authority of Asaph, Jedethan and Heman were the leaders of all this army of praise and worship.

They used their voices to sing out. They used, cymbals, harps and stringed instruments. They also prophesied and gave thanks and praised the Lord.

5- in 1 Chronicles 29:10 through 19 you see the long prayer of David and how well he knew the Lord and how he delighted in the Lord and how he in the integrity of his heart kept the commandments of the Lord he feared the Lord and he gave Israel a wonderful inheritance and example to follow.

The Lord Jesus Himself called Himself the son of David. No other king or really other person in the Old Testament was called by this way and honored in this way and I believe it has to do with the fact that David had a heart after God and that he truly pursued God and did everything in his power to exalt God and give God the glory to His name and place God in the highest place. 

Thus the House of David was the house of praise and worship. You can see David’s heart in Psalm 34 concerning praise…

“I Will Bless The Lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth. My soul will make its boast in the Lord. The humble shall hear of it and be glad. Oh magnify the Lord with me and let us exalt His name together. I sought the Lord and He heard me and He delivered me from all my fears. 

6- Two different passages of scripture written in two different time periods refer to the House of David or what the Bible calls the Tabernacle of David.

 Amos 9:11,12 are quoted in

 Acts 15:16-18 and it basically says that God in the latter days will rebuild the Tabernacle of David which has fallen and He will rebuild its ruins and He will restore it in order that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord and all the Gentiles who are called by God’s name says the Lord who makes these things known from of old.

So what am I saying by all this?

I’m saying we do ourselves a great disservice when all we do is sing a few songs on Sunday and maybe listen to some praise music in the car.

In closing here are some notable truths about praise:

Praise is actually a powerful weapon and it can be used to defeat the already defeated devil who lost at the Cross.

Praise can lift us out of discouragement and bring us into a whole new attitude that gives life and health and peace.

Praise can help the brokenhearted to be healed and to draw closer to the Healer Himself.

Praise is actually the way that we enthrone God and the way that we invite Him to inhabit adoration of Him..

Praise makes it so the defeated devil has no defense against the power of this great practice because God is always worthy of our praise whether we feel like it or not.

Praise can be brought forth by many different vehicles: by shouting, by clapping, by playing musical instruments, by singing, by smiling, by dancing, by leaping, etc

Praise can become a lifestyle where we are so busy praising God and being thankful and grateful for what He has done with His mercy and Grace that there ends up being no time for negativity, complaining, mistrust, a lack of faith, etc… you get the picture, praise is where the action is. Why not join up with people who really praise and don’t just sing songs but lift their voices and are wholehearted about entering into the House of David and living there with God our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

JESUS SAVES

JESUS SAVES

I must have been 8 or 9  when my dad, my older brother Mike and I were on our way to a high school football game in Port Byron, New York. That was a town that drew its name from being on the Erie Canal in Upstate NY.

JESUS SAVES

It is about an hour or so west of Syracuse.

In one of the hamlets on the way to the game there was a small country church with a sign in the front that had just two words on it, “JESUS SAVES.”

I was in the back seat of the car and I remember distinctly asking just what that meant.

To this day I do not remember exactly what my dad’s response was but it seemed that he was either unresponsive or did not know enough about it to give me a solid answer. That remains a bit of a mystery. At that point my dad was a Mason and later became a member of the Shriners.

As a family faith wise we went to a Northern American Baptist church until I was about 11 or 12 and then we switched to the Episcopol church in our small town.

Neither of the above churches talked about, “JESUS SAVES.”

As time went by I remember going to a youth Episcopol retreat on the beautiful Cazenovia Lake. I remember one teenager there who might have been a minister’s son. This also was not a place where I got any explanation.

At 18 I went into the Navy and became a Submarine Cook. By this time I had lost all interest in matters of religion but still remember going to a church service on the boat that was being led by the Supply Officer.

So now as a sailor, I started to get a better idea of what I needed to be saved from.

My sin.

One of the greatest stories I ever heard that exemplified how sin can kill is the story of the snake owner who always wanted to purchase a python for his circus shows which highlighted all sorts of different types of snakes.

In the beginning he brought the snake into his show and the younger python would wrap himself around the handler’s arm and the audience thought it was quite cute so the man continued to allow the snake to be a part of the show wrapping itself around the man’s leg as it grew older.

Finally the man allowed the full grown python to wrap itself completely around the snake trainer’s body, so that no one could see the man. The crowd was totally enthralled by the magnificent show. Then the huge reptile would unwrap itself from the entertainer to the awe of the adoring audience.

One day after months of outstanding circus entertainment, the circus patrons were especially concentrating on the snake slowly wrapping itself around the snake handler, but this time right when the snake had made the man disappear from sight something dark began to unfold. 

The Crafty Creature tightened itself and an ear curdling scream was heard from inside the cage that the black thick snake had created. Just about every bone in the man’s body had been broken and then with one final jolt of the snake’s power the man’s ability to breathe was cut off!

Sin usually starts off with seemingly innocent practices, but soon it can have control over its captive and unless there is some sort of intervention the snake of sin will eventually crush all who get ensnared by its cunning and evil lures. The Bible reveals that all have sinned and are under its influence and destructive power.

The intervention that I found and you can too is the CROSS of CHRIST. 

The good news is that sin’s power was broken. GOD’S SON went to die on Calvary for all of our sins.

Also the defeated devil lost the battle for good concerning the fear of death that he had tried to hold over mankind. This Victory was marked once and for all when JESUS rose from the dead.

If you have been blinded by the defeated devil concerning your need to receive JESUS and follow Him. That can change by asking Him to  open your eyes so that you can see your need for Someone to save you from your sin.

Why not ask Him now?

Because I have found that it is true… that JESUS SAVES.  

Smoker’s Silo Story

A little over 13 months ago I lost someone that was very dear to me. 

Her name was Judy.

Up to that point in my life my long-term relationships with women were either just barely functional or dysfunction junction.

One day Judy looked at me after a long kiss and said you’re my soulmate.

To be honest with you I had no idea what she was really talking about.

But over the weeks and the months that I knew her she showed me what that was and I began to not only love her but I also started loving myself as well. Maybe for the first time!

You see up to that point I had lived a life that was mostly in the cauldron of guilt and shame. Then the Lord Jesus was kind enough to allow me to have had enough time with Judy where my life was transformed. 

In her earlier years Judy was a top executive administrator for the Philip Morris corporation. She also taught me things about the tobacco industry that I had never heard about. By the way big tobacco and other large corporations will keep news like this out of the news so you are uninformed as well.

When I started smoking at age 16 in 

1970 I realized I loved it and then I discovered pot and I realized that I loved that too, so concerning smoking I was double trouble and in some really deep weeds concerning addiction!

And I truly know I never would have stopped either one had it not been for what happened to me in the mid 70s when Jesus Christ revealed Himself to me and I became a follower of His. He being God showed up in my life and unmistakable ways so I either had to follow him or reject him and thankfully I chose the former of those two.

It was He that gave me the power through Grace to stop smoking. I was just hooked on the chemicals that they put into the cigarettes and all the other ways you can be addicted, psychologically, emotionally, etc

Judy informed me that in the large towers in which they kept the chemicals they were all numbered. She actually had access to the names of the chemicals that were inside each silo. Many of them were words so long you or I  couldn’t pronounce. And God only knows what they really did to your body if you were a partaker.

So what am I saying?

 A few things:

Number one without Jesus helping me I never would have quit smoking because I just absolutely loved it so much both cigarettes and joints.

Number two if it wasn’t for Judy I never would have known about how cunning, divisive and vile the tobacco industry really is making cigarettes so addictive through all the chemicals that are involved in big tobacco. Also remember that’s not even talking about what all those chemicals could do for you as far as your ongoing health.

Number three I thank God for Judy because she showed me what real love can be between a woman and a man.

Finally let me just simply close this off by saying to you if by chance you are a smoker, a chewer or a vape person.

If you really want to quit , I know from personal experience that God, the Lord Jesus Christ will help you do it.

Also please realize I’m not pointing fingers I’m just showing you the avenue of love that was given to me so that now I’m pushing 70 and I’ve got hopefully two or three decades ahead of me because I quit.

Fort Niagara

Jesus Christ in me

The Miracle
The Mystery
The Majesty

It was last Tuesday night at the men’s Bible study that the light started to go on!

Simply stated Pastor Jimmy exposed these crucial facts:

1- God is not working on me, He made me new, old things are passed away.

2- God empowers me to live holy.

3- I can’t do anything, God empowers me, I don’t belong to me.

4- The Holy Spirit will help me obey God and make the right decisions

He said a lot more than this but these four statements I’m using to summarize what he said to me and to us men in the meeting.

Then recently I read in the book of Galatians how Paul chided them because they had begun in the Holy Spirit but now were seeking to become mature and complete in their own strength.

That summarizes me.

I had started out in the Christian faith allowing Christ to be God of my life and over time I had taken back over the command of the ship of my life or if you will, being the pilot of my aircraft or if you will indulge me the driver of the car of my life.

It turns out that my enemies are too strong for me:

1- My own sinful nature which includes pride, arrogance, major tendencies toward lust and overindulgence in eating which is commonly referred to as gluttony. Talking too much and not really listening to others. Obligatory praying and not really seeking God. This is the short list.

2- The lying, thieving , murderous defeated devil. Oh but he can still suggest and if I’m not careful I’m listening to him versus the Holy Spirit. It’s important to realize that Satan is not in hell, he’s prowling about to and fro on the earth as is revealed in the book of Job and he and his minions are seeking to kill, steal and destroy in my life.

3- The world’s tug, tickle and dark influence. Growing up in the ’50s ’60s ’70s and beyond I think it’s safe to say that the television has had a major effect on my life and I can see even to this day the desire to tune in much more than I need to. Do I need to tune in at all?

The world’s philosophies contradict the truth that is in the Bible. Unless I renew my mind daily I find that my mind can default to the principles of the world rapidly, which were drilled into me by the television, movies and the secular media that seeks to influence us into the dark lies that lead to hell.

Jesus Christ in me:

The Miracle:

at the appointed time God sent forth His Son… Galatians 4:4

I was born again in January of 1976. The real Miracle as I look back at it is that Christ came into my heart at that point in time and has never left. He said that He would never leave me nor forsake me and He has kept His word! I say that in spite of all the times I’ve turned away, turned back and chose sin.

The book of Romans speaks of this; it’s truly a miracle that when we really repent of our sins and make Jesus Christ the Lord of our lives, He comes to stay!

He sends us His Holy Spirit to lead us into all truth so that we bear fruit and He prepares us to be with Him forever!

Thus doing His will is preeminent and from now on is going to be at the top of my list starting every day asking Him how today I can seek first His kingdom and His righteousness knowing then that all these other things that I need will be added to me.

The Mystery:

He made known to us the mystery of His will… Ephesians 1:9a

I think it’s safe to say that everybody loves a good mystery. I know I do when I’ve read them or watched a good movie that contains one.

Mystery simply means a hidden truth.

There is so much that is hidden to us. For instance, the thought that none of us have ever seen God at any time. He is hidden. That’s a good thing because the Bible says He dwells in unapproachable light and if we actually saw Him in our earthly state we would die immediately! The people who saw Him in the Bible were seeing Him in the spirit.

But the Bible reveals that the wonderful mystery is that Christ is in us and that He is the hope of glory.

Also in Him are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He is the key of knowledge and He is wisdom, righteousness , holiness and everything that we need and He is everything that we desire. What a wonderful mystery that we all need to pursue and discover the truths of this as He would so graciously reveal them to us in His time.

The Majesty:

…we were eyewitnesses of His Majesty.
2 Peter 1:16

As an American I have to be the first one to say I don’t really understand this reality at all.

Why?

Well for starters because I’ve never been under the rulership of an actual King.

We have presidents here and we have a tendency to complain, criticize , compare and be cynical about our leaders.

In other countries where it’s much more clear that they rule as a king like Mr. Putin in Russia and the premier of China, if you say those things over there you could end up in Siberia or a concentration camp in China.

Moreover we can get some kind of idea of what it’s like to approach a Majesty in the way that the Queen or King of England is approached for an audience by one person. There’s a procedure that needs to be followed in order for a person to approach the royalty.

In biblical days as you read in the Old Testament when one would approach the king they would prostrate on the ground until such time as the king would allow them to rise.

Christ Jesus is the King not just the King but the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords!

I know I need to do away with my preconceived notions about Him and the trivial way that I have approached Him at various times. He is the Majesty on high He reigns in every place in the seen and in the unseen, in the various places of the universe, in the different types of dimensions that there are and anything else that I don’t know about which I’m sure is a whole lot.

So now as the song goes:

You alone are my heart’s desire and I long to worship You.

Lord Jesus You are a Miracle, You are a Mystery and You are the Majesty on high.
May You alone be our greatest treasure and be our holy pursuit and may You be the One that we constantly seek.

Humbling ourselves and fearing You Lord, You have the power to cast into hell and You also have the power to grant those who truly follow and obey You eternal life.

Thank You for shedding Your blood on our behalf so that we can truly be forgiven, enter into your family and know You and do Your will.

We bless and praise Your mighty name. The name that is above all names Jesus Christ our Lord!

Amen.

son soldier servant

I am a son of the Savior, soldier of the Captain, servant of the Sovereign

First of all I am a member of the best family on earth, The family of God.

I was born into this family on January 18th 1976 in Vallejo California. That was the day that I got on my knees at the Casa de Vallejo Hotel and invited Jesus Christ to come into my heart. I became born again and I truly decided to follow Jesus.

At that very hour the Holy Spirit came into my heart and made my spirit that had been dead in trespasses and sins alive.

As a son I am a joint heir to Heaven and the New Earth. Eye has not seen nor has ear heard the things that God has prepared for them that love Him.

I love him and I want to spend the rest of my life getting to know Him better, hear His voice and do His goodwill for me.

As I daily do His will and seek Him my confidence grows that I will be with Him forever doing whatever He has for me to do in eternity.

As a son I really know in my heart that Jesus loves me and that He is for me. I can confidently reach out to other people and tell them about His love for them and His wonderful Gospel and how they too can come into His family by repenting of their sins and accepting His free gift of eternal life that He purchased for all of us through His own blood that He shed for us on the Cross.

As His son I am confident that death now is just a doorway into being with Him forever as the Book says to be absent from the body is to be present with the Lord.

I am His soldier. My aim is to constantly please him who has chosen me to be a soldier. What an honor it is to learn to march, to learn spiritual warfare, to learn to salute Him, stand at attention, be alert and prayerful and do whatever the Captain of my salvation desires.

As a soldier I don’t entangle myself with the affairs of this life but I move forward so that in battle I am ready to take on the challenges that are ahead. I defeat the lying defeated devil by the blood of the Lamb by the words of my own story and by not loving my life even to the point of death.

As a soldier I get in shape and stay there. I refuse overeating, I refuse over talking, I refuse anything that gets in the way of giving my everything and my very best to the Captain of the Lord’s armies.

As a soldier there are battles that need to be won. I know that Christ has won the war because I’ve read the end of the Book but the battles between now and then are still to be determined by His army’s obedience to Him. I pledge my obedience as a soldier to Christ the Captain of the Lord’s armies.

I am a servant of The Sovereign Lord. Christ the King has no equal. He sits in the heavens and sometimes He stands but He does whatever He pleases. My honor is to do whatever He pleases and to do it swiftly, with a spirit of excellence, and an attitude that is always grateful to be near Him.

As a servant I get to help other people do whatever they need. I get to listen to the downtrodden and I get to assist the poor, the lame, the outcast and the lost.

As a servant I have the privilege to persist in prayer both in public and in private for whatever the Sovereign Lord would want me to be doing in prayer knowing that He ever lives to make intercession for us His people.

As a servant I get to sing His praise and I long to worship Him in His glorious presence. He is the Sovereign, and absolute Ruler of the universe having made everything and through Him all things are held together. I long to hear on that great day Him say to me, “well done you good and faithful servant.”

Ohio sky

Billions

For the love of money is a root to all kinds of evil 1 Timothy 6:10

Well I made it all the way to the middle of the sixth episode of the 7th season, the 7th season being the last season of this series produced by Showtime, Viacom and CBS productions.

 I do love the actor Paul Giamatti and his excellent work in the entertainment business, I just find him outstanding.

He stars as the district attorney of the southern part of Manhattan in New York City and gets ousted at one point in one of the years but then is reinstalled in the seventh year getting ready for the final battle of taking down Michael Prince who who took down Bobby Axelrod who originally raised up this great firm Axe Capital a financial juggernaut in the Big Apple.

To summarize briefly the show consists of very gifted actors  portraying arrogant people caught in the web of financial distortion, financial complication, and financial gain through just about any means.

Talented script writers have them talking on a whole nother level. Trust me a lot of the semantical mumbo jumbo that they utter is way over my head concerning the financial world that truly is a complicated labyrinth anyways.

You get the picture.

Last night as I went to church at World Harvest Church in Columbus Ohio where I have become a member since April, I had a long talk with James, who has started a ministry to homeless people and as we sat there he begin to extrapolate on how and why he doesn’t mess with the world anymore and allow the world to influence him. The only things he allows into his eyes and ears are things that are for the glory of God.

Meanwhile I’m thinking to myself why am I watching this show which is a glitzy, spiffy, intellectual, complicated, at times very difficult to understand, dressed up version of sin?

I didn’t have a good answer to that thought.

Then I got into the Wednesday night service later that evening and one of the first things that Pastor Rod Parsley brought up was are we really protecting our eye gate?

I was reminded of one of the great Psalms in the Bible which says the following:

Psalm 101 

I will sing of mercy and justice;
To You, O Lord, I will sing praises.I will behave wisely in a perfect way.
Oh, when will You come to me?
I will walk within my house with a perfect heart.

I will set nothing wicked before my eyes;
I hate the work of those who fall away;
It shall not cling to me.
A perverse heart shall depart from me;
I will not know wickedness.Whoever secretly slanders his neighbor,
Him I will destroy;
The one who has a haughty look and a proud heart,
Him I will not endure.

My eyes shall be on the faithful of the land,
That they may dwell with me;
He who walks in a perfect way,
He shall serve me.
He who works deceit shall not dwell within my house;
He who tells lies shall not continue in my presence.
Early I will destroy all the wicked of the land,
That I may cut off all the evildoers from the city of the Lord.

Holiness begins with the decision to not allow evil into our hearts in any form or way.

I realized it was time to step up to the plate and not allow anything that is base, vile, evil, and arrogant into my heart.

The Bible says the fear of the Lord is to hate evil, pride, arrogance and the evil way I hate.

Lord Jesus thank you that You have things that are so much better for those of us who follow You. Thank you that you lead me in the paths of righteousness for Your namesake, yeah though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death I will fear no evil for You are with me Your rod and Your staff they comfort me You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies You anoint my head with oil my cup runs over surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.

Back When

Back when I didn’t know anything about anything but I thought I knew everything about everything.

The other title of this article could be:

I’m a nobody that knows Somebody that wants me to invite anybody to follow Him into heaven.

But the Way is narrow and few find it.

I was 18 when I enlisted into the Navy at that point in time my dad didn’t know hardly anything. When I returned after four long years of serving our country it was amazing how much my father had learned in 4 years!

LOL!

Yes I was honorably discharged but while I was in the Navy I was busted from an E-4 to an E-3 for perjury. I remember going to non-judicial punishment which was also called in the Navy, ” Captain’s Mast, ” and I was declared guilty. I don’t remember whether I was fined any money or not but I do truly remember being remorseful.

You see pride, arrogance and haughtiness is one of the most cunningly deceitful elements in the arsenal of the lying defeated devil.

The Bible says, “encourage one another daily lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

There are so many things that look good, taste good, taste good, smell good but they’re not good. Just because they appeal to our five senses that does not necessarily make the pursuit of those things what we should go after.

Sex is like that.

There are so many different forms of it and ways to participate in it that you would think it’s okay to do but God limits sex to the fireplace of marriage only, between a man and a woman.

Learning about sex in pool halls, looking at girly magazines then masterbating when I was younger led me to think I was quite the stud.

Come to find out, I hardly knew anything at all.

So now as you read this are you an astute expert like I thought I was when I was younger?

Many of us would not admit to it but deep down we think we know more than the next person, or would not make the same mistakes that others have. We tend to think we are a little better off than the next person.

Why is this?

We inherited a fallen nature from Adam and Eve.

The cure?

Christ’s blood and our repentance combine to become our solution.

So what is it going to be for you?

You can decide right now to follow Him.

Pray:

Lord JESUS I decide now to turn from my sin. I invite You into my heart and I receive Your life to follow You all the way. I win over the lying defeated devil by the blood of the Lamb, the word of my testimony and not loving my life to the death. In Your Name. Amen

Columbus 2023

Kane and Abel Review

Like any book there are many ways to approach it. I’ve chosen two distinct ways to review this book: first by the characters and secondly by the themes of the book itself.

I’m so thankful for this book because it’s the book that I’ve been enjoying while I moved into my 70th year, my beloved wife to be, purchased this book for my 69th birthday and I have been savoring it and enjoying it ever since. I have not been speed reading but rather using my imagination to see the characters and see the themes of this great book written by Jeffrey Archer. Which by the way is his best seller of all time.

As you can imagine there are two protagonists that this great story centers around and intertwines with.

William Kane and Abel Rosanovski

William comes from pedigree old money.

Abel or Wladek as he is known, and named  early in the book comes from literally nothing in Poland.

It is both interesting and outstanding that these characters only meet for a short instance but that instance is truly a defining moment of the book and brings this wonderful tale to a great culmination.

The author truly knows how to bring you into intimate relationships both quickly and adroitly. I came away feeling like I really knew these characters and wanted the best for them.

I like the way he really honored many of the women in this tale of fiction. Williams’ wife Kate is a home run. Intelligent, stunningly beautiful, a wonderful mother and a wise counselor to her husband.

Abel’s daughter Florentyna  turns into a treasure to William’s son Richard. Wonderfully adept at sales and was always a loyal daughter even when her father turned rank concerning her upcoming marriage.

Her dating with Richard is my favorite part of the book because you think you’re getting set up for a Romeo and Juliet implosion and instead Romeo and Julio rise above the Montagues and the Capulets.

The book has a great deal to say about how both William and Abel rise to the ranks in their respective careers. There are enough twists and turns to keep one very interested.

One other character I would like to highlight is Henry Osborne. He is both Tartuffe and Judas rolled into one…

And his end is similar to that of Judas.

Finally looking at the positive and negative traits:

Love and Hate- Mr Archer shows wonderfully through both time and the characters and the events of the 20th century the aspects of Love and Hate, War and Peace. Thankfully we know from the good book that love never fails, as we see portrayed at the end of the story.

Loyalty and longevity- both of these are traits of godly character and good behavior. 

Trust and swindling- thankfully Mr Archer approaches his book ultimately from Judeo-Christian ethics, we reap what we sow. Unfortunately for both Able and William because they chose not to forgive one another and rather embraced their foolish pride they lost years and years of enjoying their children’s loving marriage and Richard and Florentyna’s children. 

Ultimately Love and Trust are the things that really matter.

At the end of the story though Mr Archer may have given us a window into his own private faith, he pens on page 635, “to a God, William had never believed in.”

If the g in God had not been capitalized I might have thought Mr Archer was agnostic or atheist. And I have not researched this to know which way he confesses in public but because the g is capitalized it may truly be an indication that Mr. Jeffrey Archer believes in the God of the Bible.

A Treasure and a Wonderful Read

TVOLOGY

TV- the TELEVISION


“He thought of the telescreen with its never-sleeping ear. They could spy upon you night and day, but if you kept your head you could still outwit them. With all their cleverness they had never mastered the secret of finding out what another human being was thinking.” George Orwell 1984

On March 25, 1925, the Scottish inventor John Logie Baird made the first-ever public display of moving visuals on television.
Jun 28, 2023

The first “television” system broadcast was a straight-line by Philo Farnsworth on September 7th, 1927.

Television’s popularity grew because of the visual component that was missing from the radio. This visual component provided another dimension of entertainment for the American people that beat the radio by a landslide.

RCA introduced television to the American public at the 1939 World’s Fair in New York City. Before the fair, they published a brochure for their dealers to explain television. The opening ceremony and events at the fair were televised, and NBC began regularly scheduled broadcasts.

Television swept the nation during the 1950s, with the number of sets increasing from one million in 1949 to fifty million ten years later.

World War II had ended and this new popular form of media literally took over the United States!

Perhaps no phenomenon shaped American life in the 1950s more than TELEVISION.

At the end of World War II, the television was a toy for only a few thousand wealthy Americans. Just 10 years later, nearly two-thirds of American households had a television.

The first Golden Age of Television is an era of television in the United States marked by its large number of live productions. The period is generally recognized as beginning in 1947 with the first episode of the drama anthology Kraft Television Theater and ending in 1960 with the final episode of Playhouse 90 (although a few Golden Age shows and stars continued into the 1960s). The Golden Age was followed by the network era, wherein television audiences and programming had shifted to less critically acclaimed fare, almost all of it taped or filmed.

A black and white (monochrome) TV is much simpler than a color set. It only has to process and display a single, luminence stream. A color set not only handles the luminence, but also the chrominence (RGB) information, which adds to complexity. Because of that, B&W TV came first, followed years later by color TV.

The first RCA color TV set, the CT-100, was produced in early 1954. It had a 12-inch screen and cost $1,000, as compared with current 21-inch black-and-white sets selling for $300. It was not until the 1960s that color television became profitable.

I was born on September 7th 1954. Yes I’ll be the big 7-0 next year! Baby Boomers were born from 1946 at the end of World War II to 1964 so I was right in the middle of the Baby Boomer era.

The first TV that I really remember was a color TV set that you had to get up out of your chair to change the channels on a knob that was on the TV set.

I believe it was somewhere in the mid-1960s.

My first traumatic encounter with our television set took place on November 24th 1963. I remember it was a really nice Sunday and we were going to go to Selkirk Shore State Park in New York on Lake Ontario for a nice picnic and a time of swimming.

A man who had been accused of shooting John F. Kennedy was being transported to another location when a Dallas nightclub owner by the name of Jack Ruby pulled out a gun and shot him dead right on live TV! My eyes probably got as big as saucers and I ran to tell my parents!

Since those early days I have truly loved television and probably like every other American since then have lost track of the amount of time that I have been in front of one.

My brother Mike who is older than I, was a big influencer in my life. He always seemed to have spending money and I didn’t. One day I realized it was because he had a paper route and I didn’t. So when I turned 12 I started to deliver the Post Standard which was the Syracuse, New York local paper.

My father was good buddies with the owner of the Zenith TV store in town Elwood Kenny and after I saved up the whopping amount of $16 Mr. Kenny sold me a old old 1950’s TV which took about 2 to 3 minutes to warm up before you got a picture.

In  those days TV was still very innocent and most of the present day evil had not found its way into the American airwaves so my parents allowed me to have the television right in my bedroom upstairs.

I will never forget on Thursday night at 8:30 p.m. on September 8th of 1966 I turned on my used 1950’s tube television and behold there was the first ever episode of Star Trek it was entitled,” The Man Trap.”

I was hooked.

Television had sunk its deep tentacles into my soul and not only did I become a Sci-Fi buff later but also a virtual connoisseur of the new form of entertainment that had invaded the United States.

Let me start by saying this is not another, “throw away your TV article!” Nor am I out to curse the present day darkness that appears in regular fashion on our screens.

This essay is simply to allow the reader to do a few things:

1- recognize the Wonder of the era that we live in with advanced technology on steroids!
2- understand that the television itself is just a medium that reflects the society that is broadcasting on it.
3- consider new viewing habits

Television in the 1970s:

Commercial television of the 1970s was awash with references to sex. In the wake of the sexual revolution and the women’s liberation and gay rights movements, significant changes were rippling through American culture.

Television in the 1980s:

Although the era of network television dominance was coming to an end, it was replaced by cable analog. Along with it, multimedia technology began to develop. The first remote controls, home theaters, and VCRs appeared in the homes of many Americans. Cable television was becoming the most popular source of information. Together with the remote channel changer, it revolutionized the world. It was in the 1980s that the so-called TV “surfing” came into being. It’s about quickly switching between channels in an attempt to find interesting content. Nowadays, the term is more often applied to searching for information on the Internet.

Television in the 1990s:

The programming of the 1990s is not easily categorized. Many complained about the increasing amount of violence, sex, and profane language on television during the decade. Few would argue the point, but there were also more documentaries, instructional shows, news, and religious programs on TV than ever before.

Although the number of cable channels and cable subscribers continued to climb in the 1990s, network TV actually made a resurgence. The networks grew in numbers, adding FOX, WB (Warner Bros.), and UPN (United Paramount Network) to the big three of ABC, CBS, and NBC.

Television in the 2000’s:

More than anything else however, it was the growth in popularity of reality television with shows like Survivor and Big Brother that challenge players in both mental and physical endurance and shows like the Amazing Race and American Idol that keep the audience rooting on contestants to finish strong and strike it rich.  America’s fascination with television, fame and riches had completely taken over American society and our television sets.

I must say that for me up until a few years ago I would never want to admit that TV didn’t really affect me very much. When the reality was quite the opposite.

What do I mean?

When we think of TV we normally don’t think of why it exists in the first place. I know for years I  just thought about the entertainment aspect of it and the shows and the sporting events that I was going to be watching.

But television, like just about everything else on the planet can be summarized in this one small phrase when it comes to why it exists, MONEY.

Yes I know it can be a hard pill to swallow but money is more important than television!

I hope you agree with that statement because it’s true.

In Great Britain they call them adverts.

In the United States we call those things that we love to hate commercials.

Why?

Well simply said because they interrupt our beloved entertainment.

I remember in the ’80s and in the 90s going to my in-laws and it was so cool because they actually had cable and paid for HBO.

Why did I like HBO so much?

Two big reasons:

1- no commercials
2- the racy R rated shows

Unfortunately for me it’s taken a very long time to figure out this one overriding concept about television.

The producers of television do not care so much about my personal well-being and wants as they do about making money!

No I know that last statement does not come as a shock to any well-adjusted intelligent American, but it’s easy to forget that truth especially when you’re watching something like Network News.

After watching it for so many years I watched a growing tendency in me after the 6:30 to 7:00 pm daily dose, that I would easily become irritable, negative, critical cynical and complaining about the state of the affairs of our nation and just about everything else!

Why?

The simple answer is because that kind of content sells.

The not so simple answer is because the people and the corporations who own network television have also an agenda that does not necessarily coincide with nice family values.

All of it simply amounted to the realization that I had to turn it off, if I wanted peace in my life, especially after the last election that got verbally brutal and abusive by both parties.

Back to George Orwell’s 1984:

“The rise of smart home devices and personal assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa, Google Home, and even Siri, have become the modern version of a telescreen. With these devices being willingly brought into one’s home, privacy which was once considered a fundamental right has become a luxury that is increasingly difficult to attain. Nonetheless, while there are significant differences between the surveillance systems in 1984 and those in today’s society, the similarities are cause for concern. So, the next time your Siri goes off for no apparent reason, it might be a slight reminder that Orwell’s ideas in 1984 are nearer than ever before.”

The rise in streaming services, including specialized services that only stream one network’s content, such as NBC Peacock or Disney Plus, forces services to compete on experience and catalog. Today, there are nearly 300 streaming services available in the United States, focusing on everything from telenovelas (Pongalo) to horror movies (Shudder) and even content targeted at equestrians (Horse Lifestyle).

Choices that I’m making now to improve the quality of my life are ones that you may want to consider:

1- Less TV and more time outdoors
2- Less TV and more time with other people
3- Less TV and more time reading. I’m talking about fun reading, page turners!
4- Less TV and more time traveling
5- Less TV and more time for cooking a homemade meal, writing other articles that I would like to do, finding new hobbies like disc golf and learning how to draw people’s faces.
6- Less TV and more time for that one real special person in my life that person’s name is Cecilia.
7- Less TV and more time to invest in having my faith grow in Christ the Lord and taking time to really worship Him and see Him at work all over the place and be involved in that work.

George Orwell’s “Telescreen”

Monologuers

“So did Art come up for air when you were talking with him?” Cil inquired.

“Barely.”

“Well what did the two of you talk about?”

“That’s just it, it wasn’t the two of us talking, it was him monologuing, and I was his audience.”

Cil was Bruce’s steady and they had met online, and got sweet on each other when they used to go to the beach together and sip local wine.

Bruce continued, “I believe he touched on about 17 different topics. But the one he spent the most time on was the fact that his son went from being an enlisted Air Force serviceman to an engineering officer trained in Colorado springs and flying Huey’s around the Capitol and Baltimore. “

” Well honey wasn’t any of it interesting to you? “

” Yes he really got my attention when he started talking to me about his son. He was proud as a peacock that his son had gone through enlisted ranks and had become an officer in the Air Force.”

Bruce just screwed off the top of a bottled water having remembered to gulp another one down and stay hydrated.

” Didn’t he ever inquire about anything about you? ” Cil was busy surfing with her tablet, she was an excellent reader and knew her way around cyberspace.

” One of the ways that you really know someone is a monologuer is that they will rarely come up for air when they’re speaking with you and they have learned how to breathe in such a way where they don’t have to stop talking. ” Bruce was massaging his bald pate.

“So how did you get away from the jabber talker? ” Cil asked.

” It wasn’t easy, baby. I found the only way to get away from people like this and not have to listen to endless blather is to start physically moving away from them in a stealthy type way.” Bruce also loved to sip his Sumatra coffee till noon and he had just reached for his Tumbler.

” Doesn’t the good book have something to say about babblers like this? Cil had just closed her tablet and was really starting to tune in.

” As a matter of fact, yes it does. “

” Well are you going to just sit there? I want to hear what the Bible has to say about this. “

” I may have to Google this because a lot of these type of verses are found in the book of Proverbs and I can never remember where anything is in that book. ” Bruce spouted out this admission with a slight bit of humility in his voice.

” Well lucky for you buddy I’ve got all day so come on start digging. “

” Okay Jose, hold your horses will you? “

Bruce read the following verses to Cil:

” Fools have no delight in understanding, but only in airing their own opinions. “

Proverbs 18:2

” Whoever guards his mouth preserves his life, he who opens wide his lips comes to ruin. ” Proverbs 13:3 

” The wise of heart will receive commands, But a babbling fool will come to ruin. Proverbs 10:8

” In the multitude of words sin is not lacking, But he who restrains his lips is wise. ” Proverbs 10:19

” But let me tell you what happened, this is really the good part of our interaction.

 I gave him a copy of my book, ” The Scientific Accuracy of the Bible. ” He looked very interested in reading it and I’m glad because the seed will need to be planted about Christ in his heart through the book because I wasn’t afforded any time to talk to him because of his extended monologuing.

 So let you and I pray for Art that he’ll find Christ and walk with Him and lead his wife into a relationship with Jesus if she doesn’t already know Him. “