This is a new blog that Dave wrote last year
The right way of doing things demands the most difficult tasks, decisions, and efforts be performed and implemented by everyone involved in the problem solving solution. Therefore the right way will always be severely criticized and ridiculed by the people who do the least to fix the problem. Lazy unproductive people never enjoy or appreciate being exposed to those people around them.
The loudest mouths usually are the least productive people. It is for this very reason that there never has been nor will there ever be a statute erected in honor of a critic.
There is an old and true statement that says: “To become successful, all that is required is to observe the masses and do the opposite.”
The vast majority of people in the world today are lazy and unproductive, particularly the younger ones. They are unmotivated to perform at the higher levels of productivity, and they are always looking for the easiest, minimal, manner and way to perform in order to receive the maximum possible benefits.
They are, for the most part, uneducated about the proper manner and way that God Almighty designed and prepared them to live and work here on earth.
They are untrained and/or unguided in proper social manners, behaviors, and graces.
You simply cannot do right if you do not know what, why, and how things are right or why they are wrong.
Now remember we have already agreed that any and all topics of discussion within this blog are acceptable as long as they are proper, clean, and provide good benefit.
May I say to you that the world in which we live today is all messed up, out of balance, and trying to be operated and maintained exactly opposite of the manner and way that it was originally designed to operate. Hence, we continue to have to tolerate the big unresolved problems against which we as nation and as individuals are being faced with over and over without significant resolution. You ask, “Why?” I will tell you why…..
America, our nation, was discovered, founded, and established as a Christian-Judeo nation. Our spiritual roots run strong and deep. This is all confirmed within the Word of God, The Holy Bible. We (America) are indeed a Christian Nation! Period! If you disagree with that statement of truth then all I can say is that you do not really know the true history of our Nation! Now that shouldn’t come as a surprise to most of you. We have kicked God our of our public schools and have allowed our Christian heritage to be rewritten and laundered to exclude the parts that reference the real price that was paid for your and my personal freedom and liberty.
Freedom and Liberty has a price tag. And everyone who is free indeed has already or will pay full price for their purchased freedom.
This freedom was bought and paid for throughout the history of the world with human blood, spilled on battlefields around the world. You and I are free today only because someone else was willing to sacrifice their own life so that we could be free. That is why those precious souls making such a sacrifice should never be dishonored or forgotten. Never! There is simply no justification what-so-ever for anyone who calls themselves American to ever think or believe they can defile our heritage in any way, shape, or form!
The reason why we are struggling so badly in America today is because we have non-Christians trying to organize, administer, finance, run, and maintain a Christian nation and its government. By definition that is an impossible task. The old saying is still true: “There is no right way to do the wrong thing!”
If you do not know or understand the Word of God, the Holy Bible, then there is no possible way you will be able to live in accordance with its teachings.
Confusion, anger, disagreement, and lack of knowledge, wisdom, and understanding, are the things that make up the mess that exists in our country today.
If you do not know the “Truth,” then you will never be able to recognize it and properly react to it even if it slaps you in the face!
If we are ever to solve the challenges and difficulties that we face as a nation today, we have no choice but to do things God’s way. Of course, the nonbeliever’s mind simply is incapable of grasping that type of concept. Hence, the battle continues. The spiritual battle between God and Satan continues to rage on a daily basis. The same old,…same old disagreements and infighting…continues. It should be remembered that you cannot successfully fight a spiritual battle on a physical (fleshly) plane.
You indeed have the right to do as you choose in America, BUT, thoughts, deeds, and actions all carry with them consequences…intended and unintended. All your rights carry with them great responsibilities. Both of the selected attributes,…need careful examination and determination before putting them into action in order to solve situations that exist in our country today.
There is a true reference to support what I am trying to communicate to you. Permit me to retell this great story from out of our American past. It all occurred in Topeka, Kansas, in March,1900. This story is told by Nino Lo Bello, author and journalist of the time.
When Jesus Christ Ran the Newsroom
“The plan was simple: For one complete week, this Kansas newspaper would be edited as nearly as is possible by the very same standards and precepts Jesus Christ would have used. Absolutely no one could have predicted the results!
It was perhaps the most eagerly anticipated publishing event of all time. Even before the first issue came off the printing presses on March 13, 1900, the paid circulation of the Topeka Daily Capital in Kansas, had exploded from 20,000 to a staggering 367,000. Orders for copies came in from every state in the Union, from all the South American countries, from Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, and cities as far away as Moscow, Russia, and London, England. In just one day’s mail, “The Daily Capital’s” circulation department received 100,000 new subscription orders.
“By what “hocus-pocus” did a small newspaper in the heart of America engineer such worldwide attention? The gimmick was very simple. Publisher, F.O. Popenoe had decided to put out a newspaper edited for one week as nearly as possible by the standards Jesus Christ would have used.
Popenoe couldn’t have conceived of the idea without the right editor in mind, and that man happened to live right there in Topeka. He was the Reverend Charles M. Sheldon, a Congregational minister who enjoyed international fame as the author of “In His Steps,” a religious novel published in 1896 that had sold 23 million copies, second only to the Bible at that time. In fact, it was Sheldon’s book that gave Popenoe the idea for a Christ-edited newspaper. Sheldon was a natural for the job, and he agreed to do it without pay, provided that any profits from the venture go only for philanthropic purposes.
The announcement of the “Christ newspaper,” hit like a thunderbolt and, as expected, produced a torrent of vicious criticism. “Our Lord was put on the cross once, and now He is being crucified all over again in a sensational stunt to get attention,” was one of the milder comments. Fist-fights broke out on the streets of Topeka when the subject came up.
Sheldon’s rebuttal was very simple, “Jesus was a working man, he boldly said, the greater part of His life was passed in a carpenter’s shop, and the tables and benches in many a Nazareth home were doubtless made by His hands.”
As editor, it was agreed that Sheldon would have complete charge of the newsroom for the entire week, and he immediately posted a number of rules. The word “news” was to be interpreted exactly as “news” was treated in the Bible. Not a single word of profanity was to be used at work, nor could anyone smoke a cigarette or pipe while on duty. Drinking was totally taboo.
Some forty newspapers sent special correspondents to cover the debut issue, and one famous humor columnist wrote, “from behind the veil of the temple, the Shepherd heard the voice of the shop foreman demanding three inches of charitable admonition and six lines of fiddle-dee-dee from the Throne of Thought.” That the experiment would fall on its face was the foregone conclusion of every ink-stained veteran covering the story, and when the first issue finally appeared, it was universally categorized as deadly, dull, and an utter failure.
But ordinary people everywhere were scrambling to buy a copy of “the newspaper Christ edited.” In some places scalpers were peddling initial issues for as high as five dollars a copy, and “The Daily Capital” immediately became a collector’s item. Newsstands were demanding more deliveries.
The lead story on the front page of the first edition was rewritten from an Associated Press dispatch on a famine in India, and read like this:
“The Capital knows of no more important matter of news the world over this morning than the pitiable condition of famine-stricken India. We give the latest and fullest available information on the progress of the scourge in the following articles.” “If every reader of this newspaper will give ten cents to a relief fund for this terrible Indian famine, we may be able to save thousands of lives. Will you do it? Let us all have a share in helping our brother man. For these starving creatures are a part of the human family which Jesus taught us to love when He taught us to say, ‘Our Father’ ”
Reverend Sheldon signed it and published detailed letters from missionaries describing the plight of the Indian people. The response was simply astounding: readers contributed a trainload of corn and $100,000. After the British Secretary of State for India heard about what happened, he announced that his government would underwrite all transportation charges for any food items sent from America. It was reported in “The Daily Capital,” and the statement brought in another $ 90,000 in cash and tons more of grain.
Years later, during one of his many lecture tours, Reverend Sheldon commented: “Sometimes when people would ask if the paper was not a failure, as the press commentary at the time said that it was, I have replied that if it accomplished nothing more than saving several thousand Indian children from starving, I would always feel that it was a great success.”
As the week went on, Sheldon made liberal use of articles from other publications that fit his editorial concept. From well-known writers of the day he received essays and manuscripts gratis. Two nationally known artists contributed cartoons for which they asked no compensation. One judge dished up an editorial that was read from many a pulpit the following Sunday.
Curiously, church matters did not get special attention in the pages of the newspapers.
Prominence went to social issues that affected people’s lives. Sheldon gave feature play to articles on prison reform, Prohibition, Socialism, the banishment of war, and women’s suffrage. The clergyman-editor turned down any advertising he found questionable, and moved the rest of it to pages 6, 7, and 8.
He left out scandal, sensation, and gossip and played down crime stories. Because the Bible reported crime briefly, that was precisely how “The Daily Capital” treated the subject. Omitted were stock market quotations and other Wall Street reports that the editor condemned as a form of gambling.
When the son of a Kansas senator committed suicide during the week, Sheldon merely published the story briefly with a note of condolence. The decision was based on the fact that the story of Jesus’ betrayal by Judas received the equivalent of only one-third of a newspaper column in the Gospel. Sheldon also ignored the feverish preparations in nearby Kansas City for the Democratic National Convention. He looked down on politics in general and politicians in particular. As for gossip and social news, he dismissed them in a single line at the bottom of one page of an eight page broadside: “If you want to know who ran off with someone else’s wife in Hollywood, turn to page 9!”
The story that pleased Sheldon the most was the one he printed on the front page of his last edition, that of Saturday March 17. It was Christ’s Sermon on the Mount, and it occupied two full columns. What shocked Sheldon the most was that he got letters for months after from people who said they that they had read it in the paper for the very first time.
As for publisher Popenoe, he was gratified by the fact that complaints and ridicule ceased after a while, and letters of praise continued to descend on Topeka by the bagful for a full year after the experiment ended. Many readers asked if a newspaper along the same lines could be established on a permanent basis, while others continued to send money for sample copies. It was two full years before “The Topeka Daily Capital” closed the books on “the news paper that Christ edited.”
One of the by-products of the Reverend Sheldon newspaper was the lampooning by a competitor, the “Atchison Daily Champion, the oldest newspaper in Kansas. Editor H. H. Brooks announced he would publish his newspaper for one week exactly as “the Devil would run it.”
When reporters asked Sheldon for comment, the clergyman responded with one of the best put-downs of his era: “Apropos the infernal edition of the “Atchison Champion,” let us remember that it has been going to the devil for the past ten years, and it is a fair presumption that it has arrived at its final destination down below!”
Let us all be reminded that when God is on your side, you never need to worry about how things will go for you. “When God is for you, no man can be successfully against you.”
Peace and Love to All of You……………………………Poppa Bear