Month: October 2021

There is nothing like an autumn morning
Stirring hearts to lofty heights
When heretofore the laze of summer
Extolled the virtues borne of rest
Beaches, sun, expanse of seas
Lying down on sand and grass
Restoring mind and soul and body

Precursor for the time of waking
Icy mornings, falling leaves
Recalling other autumn rousings
Seasons of return to learning
Holidays and gatherings
Speaking of the wonders 'round us
Striking color, yet approaching
Starkness, bare with bark unclothed
Still, there is nothing like an autumn morning
Stirring hearts to lofty heights.

Picture Jesus and His Apostles, Peter, James John and Andrew, sitting on the Mount of Olives the first of several hills well known to Him. They must have been at an elevation high enough to view the Temple Mount. The Great Temple faced the east and sat in the center of a platform about 40 feet long, nearly 11 feet high on walls 12 feet thick. According to the the Gospel of Mark it was two days before Passover (Holy Thursday) and the Tuesday after Jesus entry into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday.

Jesus was teaching His Apostles in preparation for what was to come both in the near and the distant future. Here in Jesus teaching we also find words for our present time and guidance in answer to the question ‘What can we do?’

But concerning the day or that hour no one knows, not even the angels, nor the Son, but only the Father..,It is like a man going on a journey; when he leaves his servants in charge each with his own work… you do not know when the master of the house will return … and what I say to you I say to all: Stay Awake. Mark 13: 32-36 ESV

We each have our own work and must do what we can and are called to do as we pray and stay awake until His return.

‘”I fear all we have done is to waken a sleeping giant and fill him with terrible resolve.”

You may or may not be familiar with this quote. No one knows for certain who said it or when, but it has been handed down to us that it came from the diary of Isorohu Yamamoto when he conceived the plan to attack the US forces in Hawaii which took place on December 7, 1942. The United States was the ‘sleeping giant‘ the quote refers to. The attack by the Japanese on Pearl Harbor accomplished what the Prime Minister of Great Britain,Winston Churchill. could not. The US retaliated with amazing speed and six months after Pearl Harbor dealt a blow to the Japanese forces at the Battle of Midway.

What does this have to do with us today? Although an attack on the actual soil of the USA in North America is being waged, no planes of foreign enemies are bombing, no armies or ships are seen encroaching on our border and shores. The attack is not so much physical warfare as war on our traditions and culture, our moral values. It is a spiritual battle in our very midst. We in this great land of the free have been sleeping just as when we ignored the atrocities taking place worldwide in WW11.

Have we learned anything at all from what happened as the prophesy purported to be from Yamamoto proved correct? Is it possible to win over the forces that threaten our freedom, kill our children through abortion, indoctrinate through our schools and media, etc. Will the USA of today rally to take back the country founded on the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness, One Nation Under God.

We are a divided nation and presently there are nefarious dividers from within. But must we be brought to the point of defeat before we waken? Perhaps when the opposing forces push us too far, increase taxes too much, cripple our economy to the breaking point, take away our right to property and to protect ourselves, pass laws to eliminate unwanted children and the elderly, etc etc, we will awaken to reality we do not wish to see.

What can we do?