January / February / March 2009

BULLETIN: This issue is extremely late in going into the mail because of the record-breaking ice storm which shut down everything in and around Marion for two weeks.  The city itself was completely without power, even after it was restored to some parts of the county.

Dear ones,
    It is deeply troubling to ponder the outlook for at least the next four years, as we now have a president-elect who is pro-abortion, pro-homosexual, who supports “gay” marriage, and who, when in school in Indonesia, listed his religion as “Muslim.” It is no less troubling that for 20 years he called a man his spiritual mentor who preaches anti-American (“God damn America”), racial hatred and socialist revolution. No less troubling is the fact that he has been a close colleague and friend of a domestic terrorist who bombed public buildings, including the Pentagon, says his only regret is that he didn’t do more of it, and posed for a picture, standing on the American flag. Perhaps even more troubling is that, when confronted with these unflattering facts during the campaign, he lied about them. And, at a time when we are at war with Muslim terrorists sworn to annihilate us, he vows to do things, unilaterally, that will weaken the ability of our fighting forces to succeed. In addition, he has promised to do all he can to advance the “gay” agenda and the “right” to abortion. ALL of these troubling issues are spiritual. Do they have political implications? Of course they do; but they are all—first, last, and always—spiritual matters. How long will the God of the Universe close His eyes to the shedding of innocent blood? How long did He wait before destroying Sodom and Gomorrah? How long will He tolerate the growing dominance, in our national life, of atheists /humanists who shake their fists at Him? Our nation is the only one in human history founded by Christians, dedicated to the God of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and the advancement of the cause of Christ. Yet our courts and Congress outlawed Bible reading and prayer in public schools, and we allow radical, God-hating groups like the ACLU to bully legislatures, city councils and county courts into forbidding the opening of meetings with prayer. Even the Ten Commandments, which are carved in stone in the Supreme Court building can’t be displayed without threat of lawsuit. And now our military chaplains are not permitted to pray in Jesus’ name. Are all these political issues? You bet they are; but, fundamentally and primarily, and inescapably, they are spiritual issues. And as we watch them cause the intellectual, moral, and spiritual fabric of our culture to decay, we must wonder how much longer our holy God will tolerate us as a nation.
    We can only trust God, ask Him to give us the wisdom to know his will, and the courage to do it.

MY E-MAIL ADDRESS
    To simplify my life a little, I terminated my e-mail service at Long Beach (tcmck@bellsouth.net). The best way to reach me with e-mail is via my office in Marion, same old e-address: wflm@bellsouth.net.

MY NEW BOOK—AT LAST
    At long last my sniper book, a true story of one man’s private war with Grant’s Army and Navy (and Marine Corps), is finished and released. The publisher is Pelican Publishing Company in Louisiana. Their title is “Jack Hinson’s One-Man War”; you can find it on their web site catalogue at www.pelicanpub.com. It is already listed on Amazon (www.amazon.com), and I am already beginning to travel for lectures and book signings, and will be making the rounds of Barnes & Nobles, Books-A-Millions, etc. If you have a Civil war group, historical society, school group, or library/museum lecture series in your community that would be interested in such an event, I enjoy them; contact my publicist at 800-843-1724, ext. 331, or e-mail her at katie@pelicanpub.com. Another contact (which will produce the same result) is Adrian Booy, National Marketing Director, at 800-843-1724, ext. 339.
    The book is being reviewed by the Washington Times; in preparation for the review I just spent a lot of time answering questions for their blog. You bloggers will know how to find it (I don’t).
    I must give God glory for opening doors all along the way during the research and writing of the book, and for literally dropping leads and bits of valuable information in my lap—so many such miracles that I cannot remember them all. Without His direct intervention, over and over, I could not have done it. Several times I reached a point where I believed that I should abandon the project—that it was a mistake from the start; however, it is done, and I believe that we have rescued an important chapter in our history from the brink of oblivion, and it is one rich with lessons in life.
    NOTE: We cannot sell the book through the ministry. It will be, however, readily available through bookstores, Wal-Marts, Sam’s Clubs, etc. It can also be bought directly from Pelican on their web site (and at a discount). There will be books with me at all public appearances, and can be bought there; and I will be happy to inscribe your copies, wherever you get them, but we cannot sell them through the ministry.

CHURCH, NATURE, AND HISTORY DELETED FROM CHILDREN’S DICTIONARY
    For generations, the Oxford Junior Dictionary has been a standard item in the back pack or book bag of British elementary school children. It is aimed at children from ages 7 to 9. In its articles they have learned of nature, their history, and their Christian heritage. But that was then. Today many Britons are horrified and offended to learn that in the new edition the editors have made a radical change in the content, emphasizing a contemporary (not historical), urban (not natural or rural) and secular (not Christian) Britain. Gone are such words as fern, moss, willow and wren; even “goldfish” has bitten the dust. Gone also are words such as disciple, devil, bishop, altar, psalm, saint and sin. One man, headmaster of a leading private school said, “I am stunned that words like “saint,” “heather,” “sycamore” and “buttercup” are all gone…I would rather have “mistletoe” than “MP3 player.” He also observes (validly) that such changes suggest to children, not just words that are used, but words that should be used. Gone also are words from British history like empire, monarch, and duke. New words added include blog, chatroom, celebrity, tolerant, bilingual and interdependent. One concerned mother observed that in this way, these words of nature, Britain’s history, and Christian heritage, “are just being air-brushed out of children’s lives.” (London Daily Mail/God’s World News/World)

DISCOVERED: THE OLDEST HEBREW TEXT
    In a site overlooking the Elah Valley, where young David slew the giant Goliath, Israeli archeologists have found what they say is the oldest Hebrew text ever found; it is 900-1,000 years older than the Dead Sea Scrolls. The text, written in ink on a piece of pottery, has been dated by carbon 14 dating and chemical analysis of the clay in the pottery at about 1,000 B.C., the time of the reign of King David. The previously oldest known Hebrew document, dated at 600 B.C., was a clay tablet inscribed with an awl; the Dead Sea Scrolls are dated at about 100 B.C. (PWB/Israel National News)

THE “ONE SABBATH” MOVEMENT
    There is emerging on the far religious left a political movement calling itself “ONE Sabbath.” Its face to the world is a program to unite all religions to bring clean water to Africa, feed the poor, and end poverty. In reality (although many sincere activists don’t realize it) it is thinly disguised socialist revolution. Its own web site states that its approach to helping the poor is “not a matter of charity, but of social justice.” Up to this point, we might yawn and think, “So, what’s new about this? It’s an old story.” The kicker, however, is that it is built on a foundation of uniting Christians, Jews, Muslims, Hindus, et al; this is the banner across the top of the page on their web site, and in their promotional materials. Read a little farther, and you will find that its cooperating organizations include the “usual suspects”: the left wing of the Christian denominations, plus the liberal branches of Judaism. Predictably, in the forefront are the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church, UNICEF, the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), and the National Council of Churches, Ted Turner’s United Nations Foundation, and Habitat for Humanity. Read still farther, and you will find Unitarian-Universalists (“no Heaven, no Hell, no sin, and Jesus was at best a good man); Islamic Relief, Hindu American Foundation, Bahai, and the Wiccans. Yes—the witches. You can find this and more on their web site at www.one.org.

RICK WARREN ENDORSES “ONE SABBATH”
    So, how should we as Christians relate to this? Doesn’t it sound good to cooperate and be friendly with Muslims, Hindus, Universalist-Unitarians, and other heretics and pagans, in order to feed the children, provide clean water and help Africans with AIDS? Shouldn’t we all just be nice, reach out and love each other? Rick Warren thinks we should; you can hear his endorsement of ONE Sabbath from his own lips on “YouTube.” But what does the Bible say? It says much, but I will settle for four examples that immediately come to mind: “Can two walk together except they be agreed?” (Amos 3:3); “Be ye not unequally yoked together with unbelievers; for what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness, and what communion hath light with darkness?” (II Cor 6:14); and, finally, “And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them” (Eph 5:11).

A BRAVE SAUDI WOMAN DIES A MARTYR
    A young Saudi woman named Fatima heard the gospel over the internet, trusted Jesus as her savior, and was born into the Kingdom of God. She was filled with joy, and shared her good news with her family; it was her death sentence. According to the clear teachings of the Koran, she had to die, and at the hands of her family. In August this new Christian, whose only fellowship had been via her computer, was executed by her brother. Before killing her, he kept her locked in her room for four hours, and during that time this brave young martyr refused to renounce her faith in Jesus, and she wrote a poem. The closing lines of her poem are: “Unto my death I am a Christian—verily—as to my last words, I pray to the Lord of the Worlds, Jesus the Messiah, the Light of Clear Guidance, that He change notions, and set the scales of justice aright, and that He spread Love among you, Oh Muslims.” Fatima now wears a martyr’s golden crown. (VOM)

McDONALDS JOINS THE HOMOSEXUAL TEAM
    The Board of Directors of McDonald's restaurant chain has adopted a policy of joining the homosexual movement as an advocate. The chain donated $20,000 to the National Gay and Lesbian Chamber of Commerce. That amount of money is peanuts for McDonalds, but that isn't all of the story; they have also placed a high-ranking executive on the homosexual group's board of directors. This is the corporate equivalence to a marriage. (WND)

SOLOMON THE WALKING CONTRADICTION
    The amazing contradiction of Solomon’s life, and its great tragedy, is that in his latter years he abandoned his own inspired wisdom, and lived in opposition to it. God had warned him repeatedly to take care not to do this, and even warned him to avoid the most likely means of his downfall: pagan women. God, of course, was right about that; but Solomon took 1,000 women, most of them pagan, beginning with his first wife, who was Pharaoh’s daughter. Embracing these lovely women, he eventually embraced their pagan gods, and worshipped them to his everlasting shame. His imperfect life, however, does not negate the truth of what he wrote.

TIME-TESTED WISDOM
    “Religion is indispensable to private morals and public order...and no man of sense will attack it.” (Cicero, Roman philosopher and statesman)

 TED BUNDY AND PORN
    Twenty years ago, serial killer Ted Bundy was executed in Florida. On 23 January 1988, shortly before his execution, Bundy, a new Christian, gave his last interview—the closing statement of his life—to James Dobson. He chose Dr. Dobson because he knew that the establishment media would edit out all Christian content from his interview. He took full responsibility for what he had done, but said that what fueled the sexual violence of his murder rampage was pornography. Hear his final words: “Pornography can reach out and snatch a kid out of any house today. It snatched me out of my home 20, 30 years ago... I’ll tell you, there are lots of other kids playing in streets around the country who are going to be dead tomorrow, and the next day, and the next day, and next month, because other young people are reading the kinds of things, and seeing the kinds of things, that are available in the media today.” And, remember that 20 years ago, in Bundy’s day, hard porn was not available on the internet, in hotels, in public libraries, e-mail, and even cell phones; these sources did not exist in his lifetime. It is much worse now. (FOF)

THE SUPREME COURT LETS THE CHILD ON-LINE PROTECTION ACT DIE
    On 21 January the Supreme Court declined to revive the law that would have protected children from on-line pornography. Without comment the court declined to review the decision of a lower court, which has blocked enforcement of the law. The Child On-Line Protection Act (COPA), which was passed overwhelmingly by Congress in 1998 has been challenged in lawsuits by the ACLU (Mukasey vs the ACLU) and others ever since. Now it is dead. (ONN/WSJ/BP)

THE PROFIT FROM PORN
    Income from the sale of pornography in the United States alone is greater than the combined profits of the National Football League, National Basketball Association, and Major League Baseball combined. (ANS/AFR)

INAUGURAL PRAYER BY “GAY” BISHOP
    The president-elect invited homosexual bishop Vickie (and, yes, that really is his name) Robinson of the Episcopal Church USA to pray at his inauguration. The openly “gay” bishop had said that he would not bring a Bible to the inauguration, and that his prayer “will not be very Christian.” Pastor Rick Warren, who also prayed at the inauguration, has praised Obama for inviting Robinson to pray there. (ONN/BP/CT, et al)

WORDS OF WISDOM FROM A GREAT MAN
    “You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom. What one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government cannot give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody else. When half the people get the idea that they do not have to work because the other half is going to take care of them, and when the other half gets the idea that it does no good to work because somebody else is going to get what they work for, that, my dear friend, is about the end of any nation. You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” (The late Rev. Dr. Adrian Rogers, Memphis)

QUOTABLE QUOTE
    “I don’t feel old. I don’t feel anything until noon. Then it’s time for my nap.” (Bob Hope)

MARTY’S CORNER
Tom White, director of Voice of the Martyrs, wrote an excellent editorial called “Where did Evil go?” which said that the word “evil” is no longer a part of the American vocabulary. Calling someone or something evil today will jeopardize your “social standing.” Churches have sought after sophistication and comfort in the last 50 years, eager to become mega-churches. They do not want to lose members by appearing to be uneducated so they shy away from talking about satan, the devil, and evil, failing to use the inerrant word of God. Intellectualizing a term that should be spiritual is a trick of satan’s because it hides the spirit behind the term. Even the word “inerrant” is obsolete.
The word “evil” is in the King James Bible 613 times and in 569 verses (in the NIV 456 times in 437 verses); yet our ears are tickled continuously with empty words that are supposed to make us “feel good.” But, God is timeless – He changes not. The fact is that evil is rampant and there are evildoers seeking to destroy us personally and our nation collectively. We need to pray for discerning, be vigilant and seek His wisdom as we face the days ahead. Luke 12:56 tells us Hypocrites! you can discern the face of the sky and of the earth; but how is it that ye do not discern this time? 3 John 1:11 gives us our marching orders: Beloved, follow not that which is evil, but that which is good. He that doeth good is of God: but he that doeth evil hath not seen God. And we are asked in Psalm 94:16 Who will rise up for me against the evildoers? Who will stand up for me against the workers of iniquity? Ask yourself that question and go forward, knowing that For evildoers shall be cut off; But those who wait on the LORD, They shall inherit the earth (Psalm 37:9).

THE MESSIAH’S LAST TWO WEEKS
    The Synoptic Gospels (Matthew, Mark and Luke) devote an average of 43 percent of their space to the last 14 days of Jesus’ life, while John’s Gospel devotes 68 percent of its space to the last two weeks (an example of John’s emphasis on the divinity of Jesus, the Lamb of God).
    Putting this all together, of the gospel accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus the Messiah, 56 percent of the total text is devoted to only 0.1 percent (one tenth part of 1 percent) of His life and ministry, and we should ask ourselves why this is true. All of His life was important: His virgin birth, sinless life, and His miracle-laced three years of teaching and preaching ministry. So why the extreme emphasis on His final two weeks? It seems to mean that the last two weeks of His earthly life were the culmination of His purpose, and the accomplishment of achieving redemption for all mankind. Those weeks included many of His declarations about himself, His death, His burial, and His resurrection, fulfilling all the prophecies. In this sense, the final two weeks of His life were—by far—the most important two weeks of His life. (An excerpt from the coming Study Guide to the Bible)

A LESSON IN LIFE
    Often, when my plan or expectation is met by the frustration and disappointment of a closed door, it is because I am knocking on the wrong door. I have learned that he sometimes bumps me around, in order to get me going in the right direction, toward the right door.

ENGLISH AS SHE IS SPOKE
    I love our English language, and I hate the herd mentality. In both ways, I am vexed by the growing use of the word, “issues” as if it were a synonym for “problems.” The word “issue” has a number of valid meanings, but “problem” is not one of them; the most common meaning of the word is, “a matter under consideration.” But what bothers me most about this is the way more and more people, including those in the mass media, use them as if they were synonyms. I don’t know where it was first misused, but multitudes, with their brains turned off, and their desire to sound like “everyone else” in overdrive, hasten to misuse the word in this way. The unthinking, herd mentality is such a sad thing. In a sense, all problems might be thought of as issues, unless they are settled matters; but not all issues are problems. Think about it—and don’t be one of the fashionable sheep.

A LESSON IN LIFE
    "Never try to teach a pig to sing; it wastes your time, and annoys the pig." We can waste a lot of time and energy trying to reach people with the gospel—people who don't want to be reached. It never hurts to witness to people; but we will waste precious resources trying to press in on those whose hearts aren't hungry. There are always those who are hungry, and it pays to concentrate on them. "No man can come to me, except the Father which hath sent me draw him " (Jn 6:44). (with thanks to Jim Spencer of Through the Maze Min.)

MILESTONES
Married   26 Oct 08 - Anna Merle Rouse and Bill Anderson in Semmes, Ala. Anna Merle is a longtime, dear Christian friend, and widow of the Rev. Bertist Rouse, founder of International Gospel Outreach, a man who taught me much about being a Christian.

Died        27 Jan 09 - Betty Howard, longtime Christian friend, in Marion, Ky., from a head injury suffered in a fall. Betty and her husband Billy were close friends in our early Christian days.

A FINAL WORD
    Treasure and use each day as if it were your last, and never give up hope; God has a limitless supply of new beginnings, and He makes beautiful things out of broken pieces.

    You are precious,

(Sources: AP-Associated Press; BAR-Biblical Archeology Review;BBC-British Broadcasting Corp.; BP-Baptist Press; Fox (Fox News); FOF-Focus on the Family; FRC-Family Research Council; HC-History Channel; IMG-Israel My Glory; JP-Jerusalem Post; LAT-L.A. Times; Mil-Military Magazine; NR-National Review; NM NewsMax.com; NW-Newsweek; NYP-New York Post; NYT-New York Times; ONN-OneNewsNow; PBS-Public Broadcast System; PWB-Pastors' Weekly Briefing; RTLGC-Right to Life of Greater Cincinnati; USAT-USA Today; USNWR-U.S. News and World Report; VOM-Voice of Martyrs; W-World Magazine; WND-World Net Daily;  and WT-Washington Times.)