"You Can't Handle the Truth"...Well, I know you can't earn the Truth...for sure!

In the Letter to the Romans in the New Testament "library" , Saint Paul puts emphasis on this thought: Putting our trust and faith in Christ Jesus...is NOT a new message........

 In Romans 4:3 Paul reminds us of two Old Testament men who practiced the Christian faith...by simply putting their trust in what God says.
 1. The prophet Isaiah referred to Abraham as a "friend of God" (Isaiah 41:8)....and later Isaiah identifies Abraham as a "righteous man" (Isaiah 51:1-2). Why?... Because of the Genesis 15:6 which reads: " God accepted Abraham...because Abraham believed what God had said. God accepted Abraham as a friend...because Abraham accepted what God had spoke to him.  Furthermore, God Himself called Abraham righteous...because Abraham simply believed Him...NOT because Abraham had somehow earned his righteousness...or his friendship with God.
2. King David had also learned a secret to knowing God...knowing Him is something we CAN NOT earn. In Psalm 32: 7-8 David writes: " You are a hiding place...for me! You not only preserve me in the midst of trouble, You surround me with Your songs...You so gently put in my heart...Your songs of Deliverance...accompanied with Your songs...of Victory!
 It is You O Lord...who has spoken to...me! You look at me "eye to eye" offering Your advice and promising to "shoot it to me straight"...saying " I will point out to you the road you should follow. I will counsel you...I will advise you, and because you have accepted Me to be your Teacher...I am committed to watching and keeping My loving eyes upon you!"
 David too confirms our relationship with God is not determined by our own actions.

 Now Saint Paul seems to elaborate here in Romans...Romans 4:4-5 writing:

 " When you are hard at work and the day comes for you to be paid for your work, you certainly don't refer to you hard earned wages...as a gift! Rather, it is an obligation ...something that has been earned.
 Yet, in the Kingdom of God, if we are to be considered Righteous in God, and become a friend of God (like Abraham), this CAN NOT be made possible through any hard efforts of our own. We can only  begin a relationship with God...when we come to the end of ourselves and willingly surrender our lives coupled with a lifelong commitment and a genuine belief that by putting our complete trust in Him and making this statement of Faith: "We recognize we are sinners in our selves and our only hope of restoring a true friendship with God is by putting our trust in His Beloved Son, knowing we are unable to do any of this...on our own." It is at this precise moment we realize God forgives each of us...sinners as we are...because of our acceptance of His Dear Son.
 This type of faith which is required of each one of us is not based on "a blind leap into the unknown", as many would have you believe. Rather, it is based on this fact: God really does have...a Real Son..and this Son, His Only Dear Son has completely redeemed us...with no added efforts or works of our own.
 Upon making this decision to accept...His Complete Work..and have this Work of Christ implemented into our daily lives, we now inherit an inner confidence that gives us the strength to trust God...and He is found faithful to keep His Promises, including never to forsake us as His very own, and provide for all our needs."  

   Another thing about "earning your way to a relationship and friendship with God"....it doesn't "fly too well" with Jesus. In the Gospel of Saint Luke, Jesus spoke another one of His many parables saying....

                                                       A Gleaning from Luke 18:9-14

 " Two guys arrive at the Temple...and they went inside...to pray. One of the guys was a religious leader within the community...a Pharisee, while the other was a man whose vocation was despised by many...for he was a tax collector.........

 The Pharisee, after entering the Temple, found a place where he was alone...not to be in seclusion, rather, so when he began to pray he would have the center of attention and be heard and seen by others.
 Then, clearing his throat, he announced to others the following (the Pharisee thought this to "be in prayer"): "Oh God, I have come here to give thanks!...to You! For you see O God, I am grateful!...grateful I am not like the others you see around here.
 I have judged  myself  "not guilty" in reference to being a GREEDY person ( could you not see the Pharisee looking directly at the tax collector?), No...I am not one to... be given to EXTORTION...taking money from good and honest people. Furthermore God (in case God was unaware of his "accomplishments" lol), I have also found myself deemed"not guilty" in reference to dishonesty or unfaithfulness in my marriage ( two common accusations given to the tax collectors of that day)...like some other people I know. I am also grateful I refuse to swindle others, cheat people, or come to You...here in the Temple...acting like You are pleased with them....when they are full of sin. In fact God....I don't remember the last time I actually sinned...against You. And of course You are aware I continue to fast twice a week...and everything I earn?...why of course...one tenth of it...I give to You! Amen 

 Meanwhile, the other guy, the tax collector that had entered the Temple about the same time as the Pharisee, was merely standing off at a distance from the Pharisee. This tax collector was in such fear and awe of God that he was afraid to even allow his eyes to look up toward heaven.
 Instead, the tax collector was beating on his own chest...in sorrow...standing in the shadows, his face now in his hands, afraid to look up...and praying: "God...be gracious and merciful to me...for I know I am but a wicked sinner."

 Jesus then commented on the parable He had just spoke saying: " After these 2 men had left the Temple and returned home, let Me say this. It was NOT the Pharisee whose prayer was pleasing to God...nor would He accept this type of so-called prayer. Why? Because the Pharisee was not saying a prayer to God at all...he was simply announcing to others who would hear him...of his proud and personal accomplishments, along with putting himself above others.
 The tax collector?...Yes, his prayer was heard...by God! And God not only heard this man's prayer, He accepted his prayer...for God considers this type of prayer...a righteous prayer!"


 I have found there are many today...who do not see themselves ungodly, nor do they see the necessity...to be Born Again........just sayin'

"Bonnie and Clyde"...in the Public Eye, they were "Livin' the Dream"

Bonnie Parker and Clyde Barrows were the most famous gangster couple in U.S. history.  Their public popularity was rejuvenated once more with the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967. The movie starred Warren Beatty and Faye Dunaway and the movie did win an Oscar....

 The popularity of Bonnie and Clyde rose to national attention during the Great Depression, in the years 1932-1934. The national press...the newspapers, magazines, newsreels, and such reported to the public the ongoing saga of Bonnie and Clyde in a romantic and almost light-hearted way that began to capture American hearts...when in reality numerous robberies and murders had actually taken place.
 In the end however, Bonnie and Clyde had lost much of their public appeal after the Grapevine Texas incident off of Highway 114. Two police officers lost their lives to the Bonnie and Clyde gang, where it seemed the inner relationships between members of the gang had become quite divisive and Bonnie herself was given notoriety of being a cold-blooded killer after a report emerged she was unloading a gun over and over into the chest of one of the slain policemen in the Grapevine incident. It was later learned this report could have been and was most likely false, but it was too late...the public now demanded the popular duo be apprehended and receive the Death Sentence.
 In May of 1934 it turns out Bonnie and Clyde did indeed meet their death, betrayed by one of their own friends...and when the "dust had settled", there were at least 13 murders including 2 policemen that had met their fate at the hands of this outlaw group who was known as "The Bonnie and Clyde Gang".

 "Bonnie", her full name being Bonnie Elizabeth Parker, was born on October 1st, 1910, and died on May 23, 1934.
 "Clyde", his full name being Clyde Chestnut Barrow, was born on March 24, 1909, and died on the same day as Bonnie when their car was rattled with bullets by the police on a dirt road in the state of Louisiana...with trees adorning each side of the road.
 During the Great Depression in the United States, numerous outlaws and gangs began to make their way to public attention, forming gangs and roaming the countryside robbing and killing to sustain a living. The economy of the nation was quite low, many out of work and life being hard in general, coupled with national Prohibition, a national ban on the sale, production, and transportation of alcohol...made the general American way of life hard to face during these times.
 "Bonnie and Clyde" were among those who became popular outlaws, including the members of their gangs...a common thing most outlaws needed... the need to be accompanied by others around them in order to have success in their choice of lifestyle.
 The Bonnie and Clyde gang included: Buck Barrow, Blanche Barrow, Raymond Hamilton, W.D. Jones, Joe Palmer, Ralph Fults, and Henry Methwin.

 Buck was the older brother of Clyde, and he and his wife Blanche accompanied Bonnie and Clyde...until....

 It was April of 1933. Buck and Blanche were involved in a shootout with police...in Joplin, Missouri. Two police officers, Newton County Constable Wes Harryman and Detective Harry McGinniss, were both killed. Buck and Blanche has joined the Bonnie and Clyde gang...for a little over 4 months.
 In June of the same year, Buck was in another shootout, this time in Arkansas.  Buck received a head wound, which was treated at a local hospital. 5 days later, Buck was yet involved again...in another shootout, and this time Buck was shot in the back.
 Buck was again put in the hospital and died on July 29th, 1933 from a series of complications.

 Blanche, the wife of Clyde's older brother Buck, had also received wounds from the gun battles with police, and in one incident shattered glass had lodged in her eye. She later lost her sight to that eye.
 Blanch was captured and extradited to Missouri in the summer of 1933, and on the day of her capture...Blanche was 5' 1" and 22 years of age ...and weighed a mere 83 lbs. She was sentenced to 10 years in prison.
 Both Bonnie and Blanche seemed to like writing poetry, and in 1933 Blanche had wrote this poem entitled: "Sometimes".
                                                         Sometimes

 "Across the fields of yesterday
 She sometimes comes to me.
 A little girl just back from play
 The girl I used to be.
 And yet she smiles so wistfully
 Once she has crept within.
 I wonder if she hopes to see
 The woman I might have been." Blanche Barrow 1933

 Blanche Barrow lived to be 77 years old, and died from cancer on December 24th, 1988. Blanche was not happy with how she was portrayed in the movie "Bonnie and Clyde" in 1967. Although Estella Parsons played the part of Blanche Barrow, and won an Academy Award in a Supporting Role, Blanche Barrow herself commented: "That movie made me look like a screaming horse's ass!"

 The Saga of Bonnie and Clyde has been examined, studied, and researched from various views and angles, leading to many numerous, well documented, and detailed articles on Bonnie and Clyde, and the members of their entire gang.
 During the lifetime of Bonnie and Clyde, the depiction in "the press" was at times in stark contrast to the reality of their lives on the road. Like many people who are in their early adult years, the national attention was attractive, and they seemed to be overwhelmed by their publicity.
 It does appear Bonnie Parker herself was portrayed in a much different manner than what her life was actually like. Though it has been recorded she was present at perhaps as many as 100 felonies that occurred, with their public image being almost immortalized with great bank robberies, the truth was many of the robberies that took place were those of small "Ma and Pop" stores and rural gas stations...something that Clyde Barrow catered to.
 Evidence seems to conclude Bonnie was not the "machine gun-wielding killer" the national press and dime store novels had depicted of her. One member of the Bonnie and Clyde gang, W.D. Jones commented he was unsure if he had ever seen her fire a gun...particularly at any police officers.
 And in her now famous photo where she is pictured with a cigar clenched tight with her teeth, it turns out this photo was nothing more than a "playful snapshot" that was found in an abandoned hideout by the police. Bonnie was a chain smoker, and smoked Camel cigarettes as her choice of brand, but she was not known to any of her gang as a "cigar smoker".

 It appears that if the truth be told of the real story of Bonnie and Clyde, it was a much different lifestyle that what had been depicted in the newspapers and what had at least for a while captured the American hearts.
 Other outlaws of that era, like John Dillinger, with his "movie star looks", and Pretty Boy Floyd, his nickname itself had turned him into a seemingly American idol, was not the same criteria that made "Bonnie and Clyde" famous.
 For Bonnie and Clyde, it was that young and wild couple, portrayed as a couple with an attitude, given to sex and a lifestyle that was almost magical...breaking through the hard reality of how people were actually living, facing hard times, and searching for a time when the American Dream...would come true once more. The bottom line: Bonnie and Clyde gave what the world seemed to be craving: A wild life wrapped in sex appeal!

 Yet, in all reality, Bonnie was the key element to the ultimate success of the "Bonnie and Clyde Gang". Without Bonnie, Clyde Barrows would have most likely been dismissed as just another gun-toting punk who needed apprehension...if the public would have even taken notice of him at all.

 Bonnie provided the much needed ingredient for national popularity...that being sex appeal. With Bonnie choosing to join Clyde in his outlaw escapades, it changed the entire complexity of their "wild and mad" lifestyles, turning  a couple of small-scale thieves who murdered lawmen...into nationally known criminals who led a very adventurous lifestyle...with no restraints, not subject to legal or moral law, and free to roam the countryside...wherever they pleased."

"Our Thoughts...and Sin" There seems to be a connection....

"It's that if I ever go looking for my heart's desire again, I won't look any further than my own backyard. Because if it isn't there, then I never really lost it to begin with (speaking of heart's desire). Is that it?"    Dorothy speaking to Glinda, the Good witch of the North at the conclusion of The Wizard of Oz. Glinda responded: " That's all it is."

 Our thought process...chasing after our heart's desires...thinking correctly or thinking wrong, is this a part of the Born Again experience?...the time we acknowledged to God the sin in our own lives, asked for forgiveness, and invited His son to come and live in our hearts.
 What is this "Born Again" experience? What happens when we decide to do this? What's gonna' happen?

 Finding contentment in life, searching for purpose to why we are here, and embracing this faith to why we call ourselves...Christian, all these thoughts can often times daunt our minds as we walk through our daily lives and choose a lifestyle we find ourselves in each day.
 It seems it all begins in our thoughts. As I had mentioned in previous articles, the ancient Hebrews believed our thoughts originate...in our hearts. The Sacred Scriptures seem to indicate that as well. Our hearts, the Born Again experience, sin....it all starts or so it seems...in our thoughts....the "Thoughts of our Hearts".

 Here is an interesting quote. It is from the Sacred Scripture, and it is from Jesus who is doing the Sermon on the Mount. In this particular passage He seems to indicate we all have a "type of master", He leaves no room for being a "master of my own destiny" thing. 
 Yet, if we choose to follow Him, we find our individual freedom. This freedom we all seem to cherish and want, freedom to make good and healthy choices in life, freedom to express ourselves in our own unique way, and freedom that is only available to us when we respond to this experience of being..."Born Again".

 C.S. Lewis, the great novelist, poet, academic, literary critic, lay theologian, and most importantly...Christian, had some unique comments concerning those who choose to follow through and actually experience being "Born Again". In fact, from my personal perspective his conversion to Christianity was one of those "Pauline" types, much like the conversion of Rosaria Champagne Butterfield...you just didn't see this one coming.
 Here are some quotes from C. S. Lewis on this "Born Again" experience:

 " I believe in Christianity as I believe that the sun has risen, not only because I see it (referring to the sun), but because I see everything else."

 " If we find ourselves with a desire that nothing in this world can satisfy, the most probable explanation is: we were made for...another world."

 " You never know how much you really believe anything, until its truth or falsehood become a matter of life and death...to you."

 "Christianity, if false, is of no importance...and if true, of infinite importance. The only thing Christianity can not be...is moderately important."

 "The problem with mental pain: Mental pain is less dramatic than physical pain, but is more common and more hard to bear. The frequent attempt to conceal mental pain increases the burden. It's easier to say "My tooth is aching" then to say "My heart is broken."

 " Relying on God has to begin all over again every day...as if nothing had yet been done."

 " The more we let God take us over, the more truly ourselves we become...because He made us...He invented us. He invented all the different people that you and I were intended to be. It is when I turn my life to Christ Jesus, when I give up myself...to His personality, that I first begin to have a real personality of my own."

 And now here is a Gleaning from Matthew 6:24

 "We as humans are not able to serve 2 masters...at one time. It becomes a contrast which usually results in loving one and rejecting the other. Oh, we might "pamper" or cater to the one master we really don't care for or give much attention to..from our hearts, but in the end we end up giving our adoration to one and...despising the other.
 It's really not possible to give your heart and your daily thoughts to the Lord Jesus, while at the same time giving your heart and daily thoughts to things like pursuit of riches, the possessions in life you so firmly grip, having resentment and unforgiveness toward others, gossip, and all those things we anchor our trust in....outside the Sacred Scriptures and nurturing our friendship with Him....the one we say is our Lord...the Lord Jesus Christ."

Well, my thoughts...sin....Jesus...looks like I might need a ...part 2.