Now here is the first of 11 youtube vids about the last batch of Moonshine old Popcorn Sutton made in the classic ‘Covert style’ in the hills before he made the ultimate protest against tyranical laws… he committed Suicide… rather than do time in the Boob for the so-called crime of brewin likker. This set of vids is an American Libertarian Classic! As you watch this son of a son of a shinner you will hear HillBilly Libertarian Gems!(His Grand Pa helped build the local Baptist church with his ‘Non-taxible’ income!).
It is in the Best spirit of Civil disobedience and refusal to be subjected by tyranny. He talks about suffering Oppression. He admits he was forced to quit, but his Rebel Spirit against Tyranny never left him, he simply got too old to carry on. He’s an inspriraition!Loved his Good Lady and his two model A Fords. God Bless Him! (What? A Christian praisin a Devils Brewer?… Did not Jesus turn Water Into Wine?)
Tim Wikiriwhi
I post this by way of introduction to The Third Watch. Welcome to the blogosphere!
“Be dressed ready for service and keep your lamps burning, like men waiting for their master to return from a wedding banquet, so that when he comes and knocks they can immediately open the door for him. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them watching when he comes. I tell you the truth, he will dress himself to serve, will have them recline at the table and will come and wait on them. It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night. But understand this: If the owner of the house had known at what hour the thief was coming, he would not have let his house be broken into. You also must be ready, because the Son of Man will come at an hour when you do not expect him.”
Peter asked, “Lord, are you telling this parable to us, or to everyone?”
The Lord answered, “Who then is the faithful and wise manager, whom the master puts in charge of his servants to give them their food allowance at the proper time? It will be good for that servant whom the master finds doing so when he returns. I tell you the truth, he will put him in charge of all his possessions. But suppose the servant says to himself, ‘My master is taking a long time in coming,’ and he then begins to beat the menservants and maidservants and to eat and drink and get drunk. The master of that servant will come on a day when he does not expect him and at an hour he is not aware of. He will cut him to pieces and assign him a place with the unbelievers.
“That servant who knows his master’s will and does not get ready or does not do what his master wants will be beaten with many blows. But the one who does not know and does things deserving punishment will be beaten with few blows. From everyone who has been given much, much will be demanded; and from the one who has been entrusted with much, much more will be asked. (NIV1984)
I note that whereas the 1984 New International Version has
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the second or third watch of the night.
the 2011 New International Version has
It will be good for those servants whose master finds them ready, even if he comes in the middle of the night or toward daybreak.
In the eyes of her family and friends, teenager Taiana Pilitati died a hero.
The 18-year-old from Wellington drowned in Samoa this week while desperately trying to save her 8-year-old sister Vaiola after they became caught by a large wave while swimming in a river.
“She’s a hero. She gave her life [up] for Vaiola,” her uncle Pati Umaga told the Weekend Herald. “Vaiola will grow up knowing that her sister saved her life.”
Her uncle, Pati Umaga, told the Weekend Herald Pilitati saved her eight-year-old sister Vaiola in the river.
“They said Tai was holding on to Vaiola when they were swept away – she was trying to help Vaiola. At the last minute she threw Vaiola towards Tino [an older sister], as she went under,” he said.
No Blog tribute can do justice to such an act of Humanity! I stand in awe. I bow my head.
From The mouth of The Lord Jesus Christ Himself… “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” John 15vs13. In this case…” No Greater Love than this, that a woman lays down her life for her little sister…”
Eternal Vigilance places Taiana Pilitati on our Roll of Self-less Heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in the name of Love.
This letter to the editor was spotted recently in the Press.
Ken Orr’s argument against euthanasia is that ‘‘the state is to provide legal protection for the right to life of every member of the community . . . and not preside over their destruction’’ (March 13). What a travesty of truth. In a civilised and free society, all individuals have rights and responsibilities. The role of a government is to protect those rights, not assume those responsibilities.
If I choose, when my time comes, that I want to die with dignity, that is my right, and one that should be protected by law.
The state is not ‘‘presiding over my destruction’’, as Mr Orr says it is. It is protecting the wishes of a free man who rightly owns his life and death.
A reasoned morality of man qua man is where true human compassion is found, not in Mr Orr’s cold mysticism.
MARK HUBBARD
Geraldine
A travesty of truth? Yes. Rights and responsibilities are two sides of the same coin, not the same side of the one coin! A right to remain alive is not a duty to remain alive. If confounding the two is Ken Orr’s argument, then the best I can say is that I don’t like his style. There’s a fine line between disingenuity and dishonesty, and Mr. Orr should check to see he hasn’t crossed over to the other side. Meanwhile, Mr. Hubbard should check his premises!
(Suppose, for the sake of argument.) You don’t own your life. God does. Your life is God’s property and He’s entrusted it to you. You are His servant. You have a responsibility to take care of God’s property as you would your own.
Think of your life as if it were a car. Except you can’t trade it in for a new one. So you look after it. You service it regularly. You keep it in good running order. If it breaks down you get it fixed if it can be fixed. You drive it until it grinds to a halt.
But what if your life still “goes” but is in no way, shape or form “roadworthy”? What’s the right thing to do? A good and faithful servant doesn’t leave rubbish lying around, cluttering up the place. Your life is rubbish now. I say dispose of it. Drive your life to the dump. Or pay someone to take it away.
(Old abandoned cars are sometimes photogenic. Dying in pain is never pretty.)
Memories are all that’s left behind
As I lay and wait to die
Little do they know
That I hear their choice of life
End it now, it is the only way
Too cruel, that is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope – Why don’t you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don’t want to live this way
Once I had full control of my life
I now behold a machine decides my fate
End it now it’s all too late
What has now been days, it seems like years
To stay like this is what I fear
Life ends so fast, so take your chance
And make it last
End it now, it is the only way
Too cruel, that is what they say
Release me from this lonely world
There is no hope – Why don’t you
Pull the plug
Let me pass away
Pull the plug
Don’t want to live this way
This is the eighth in a 13-part series wherein I give you Hell, a little booklet by the inimitable Dr. Jeff Obadiah Simmonds.
The image of God as a destroyer is hardly a popular one today. Personally, I think it is a much more Biblical idea than the image of God as one who tortures His enemies in hell for ever and ever. This makes God into an evil tyrant. Amnesty International does a tremendous job in opposing the use of torture in the world today. (They deserve our support for doing so.) But the torture of some African dictator or Middle East extremists would be nothing compared to the horror of a mass torture of billions of souls in hell, which lasts not for days or weeks, but for trillions of years and on into eternity. This view of God is, I believe, completely unbiblical. There is not a single instance where God commanded torture. Such forms of punishment are always evil and satanic. Crucifixion—one of the most ingenious torture devices—was the invention of the Romans, not a punishment devised by God. Christ endured the cross, but his suffering lasts for a few hours. The fires of hell would be greater torture still, and would last forever! God would not permit or tolerate the existence of such a place, since God always came to the rescue of the oppressed and the suffering.
We must be clear that we are not saying that God would never send anyone to hell because He is a God of love and will forgive everyone. This is simply not true, for God will judge those guilty of injustice or evil by destroying them. But, given that God’s judgement comes upon such nations for the suffering they inflicted on others, God is hardly likely to inflict such suffering Himself.
The doctrine of hell is often based on the idea of God’s justice. This is understood to mean that because God is just He must punish sin. However, “justice” really means to act with righteousness. When we talk about social justice we think of concern for the poor, the widows and orphans. Specifically to do justice is to side with the oppressed and the victims and to alleviate suffering and remove oppression.
This, indeed, is central to the Biblical doctrine of the justice of God. While God does indeed punish sin, God’s justice does not cause him to inflict suffering but to alleviate it. God is concerned with justice—that those who cause suffering and affliction are opposed and overthrown.
It would therefore be contrary to God’s character to become One who causes affliction and suffering. Yet the usual view of hell is a place of eternal torment. However, just as God sided with the Hebrews who were suffering in Egypt, and as He sided with the outcasts in first century Jewish society, so too the character of God would demand that He side with those who suffered in hell, if indeed it was a place of endless torment and suffering.
One evangelical writer says:
Everlasting torment is intolerable from a moral point of view because it makes God into a bloodthirsty monster who maintains an everlasting Auschwitz for victims whom he does not even allow to die. (Pinnock [1990] 253) How can Christians possibly project a deity of such cruelty and vindictiveness whose ways include inflicting everlasting torture upon his creatures, however sinful they may have been? Surely a God who would do such a thing is more nearly like Satan than like God, at least by any ordinary moral standards, and by the gospel itself. (Pinnock [1990] 246-47)
“Human Beings act according to their Ideology.
Religion is what separates Man from Beast. Theism elevates Man, whereas Atheism Devalues him. To deny the reality of Moral/Spiritual truth is to reduce Individual Man down to a mere Beast.”
Tim Wikiriwhi.
“DECIDE TO SURVIVE. Skills, fitness and fortune all play a key role in the fate of the survivor. But ultimately your survival depends upon one thing: your will to survive. SO KEEP FAITH in yourself and faith in the Almighty. They can be your greatest ally and Strength.
God Speed.”
Bear Grylls. Priorities of Survival: Pocket Guide.
