Lamar Howell's Weblog

One of the saddest things Jesus ever said was when he told his disciples that the world could not hate them. How ironic that later they made decisions and took stands which brought about their martyrdom. I wonder if I would do that.

I know I’ve been despised and disdained for something I have said or done because of Jesus and the gospel, but I’ve never been hated by anyone that I know personally. That is too bad, and is an indictment against the way I live for Christ.

The American christians I know are not hated either. Continue Reading »

The National Day of Prayer should be a time when we all stop and do serious business with Almighty God. It is not a time for people of different religions to try to get in the spotlight so government or anyone else can endorse their particular brand of religion or definition of God. Nor is it the government’s place to try to make everyone feel good by being inclusive on a national day of prayer. Everyone should already feel included unless we think that we don’t need God or that our nation doesn’t need prayer or that our individual lives don’ t need circumspection. We should stop trying to fit God into our agenda. He is so much bigger than that, and a symbolic nod to everyone’s “god” is not what the National Day of Prayer is all about.

When the astronauts of Apollo 13 radioed “Houston, we have a problem,” every psychologist, chiropractor, mechanic, wedding planner, and EMT did not converge on NASA offering their services. Everyone on Earth knew to whom the appeal for help was made. Same thing here. In our hearts, we know to whom we are appealing and why. Let’s be honest about the day of prayer and not turn it into another feigned attempt at multiculturalism.

Yury Khorshunov’s story wrapped me in the arms of Mother Russia

Mrs. Khorsunov was Yury’s mother, and what she did endears me forever to her, to Nizhneudinsk, Siberia, and to the soil of Russia itself. Here’s his story: In March 1946, Mrs. Khorsunov was on her way from home after her work as a conductor on a train which regularly delivered prisoners to the Siberian wasteland. The driver of a sledge passed her with a load of dead prisoners. He told her one of the prisoners was still breathing and asked her what he should do, since it would be wrong, according to his Orthodox faith, to bury someone alive. Continue Reading »

Nostalgia

Nostalgia is the rarest of emotions.

The richest and choicest enclave of the soul,

the thickest and least stirred of any waters.

No one goes there willingly.

Something, someone—a friend in the guise of a foe—

takes the heart where the mind dreads to go.

Then somewhere in between you feel forced to stop

and nurse a lump in the throat,

you gulp at empty space for a full draught of an unsatisfying drink.

An invisible force sucks the breath from your chest,

and a haunting memory of a shadowy experience,

something ethereal but powerful,

grips the frontal cortex.

 It only lets go when you stand up to breathe.

It hangs like a smoke ring over your head, then withers.

Nostalgia is when the creditor takes stock of your debts,

the Clockmaker tinkers with the gears of an unfinished timepiece 

and the child within comes back for the forgotten promise.

Nostalgia is what I most dread longing for.

DO NOT click on this link. Move mouse over the link and a small photo of John and Yoko will appear. Click play on that photo. Then sing to these lyrics

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M6S5YF2-0ho

IMAGINE

Imagine there’s no heaven

 I couldn’t if I tried

No hell to be saved from

No Son of God who died

Imagine all the people

Living with no faith

Imagine there’s no

country

That hasn’t heard the news

Every race and language

All religions too

Imagine all the people

Streaming to the cross

You might say that I’m a dreamer

But I’m not the only one

 I know that one day he will join us                                                                

and make the whole world his kingdom

Imagine no possessions

laying royalty down                                                                            

Choosing pain and hunger                                                                    

Thorns for his crown 

Imagine just one person

Saving all the world

You might say that I’m a dreamer                                                            

But I’m not the only one

I know that someday He will join us

And make the whole world His kingdom

Think I’ll stand on the street corner with a sign that says, ‘The End is Near!” If I hear one more announcement about digital TV and ordering a convertor box, I’m going to go postal!

If I were a visitor from another planet, I would think that the highest priority among humans is to make sure they don’t lose a television signal for a microsecond. That broadcasting in digital is the pinnacle of truth, that receiving the signals in colorful plasma is the ecstacy of human experience, that a hand around a black rectangular  box which controls the oracle is the power of one’s very destiny, and that the idea of it’s loss is a thought more untenable than an apocalyptic event.

Would it be sacrilegious to stand with a cross and a sign that says “Get Converted over to DTV before the analog world ends!”

Now that is a thought! Maybe the end of television would indeed be the end of the world for so many of us. What could be more tragically final than no TV? There was an survey done a few years back which determined that the majority of Americans would rather spend six months in hell than six months without a TV. Which makes me wonder, how much relief could one get in hell by having a TV to watch? I’d rather be in hell with a TV than in my comfortable living room without one? Oh my Gog and Magog!  What was I thinking!!!!?????

Meet me at the corner of First and Church. We gotta help get the message out. The end of the analog world is near.