Thursday, November 16, 2017

It was summer of 1946.  World War II had ended on September 2, 1945.  Most of the soldiers had returned from the battlefield.  The service flags had been removed from their windows.  Rationing stamps were a habit of the past.  Sugar, gasoline, tires, and other things were consumer goods again.  I was living with my grandparents in Stratford, Oklahoma.  They lived on the corner of West Smith and North Willow Streets.  Smith Street was Highway 19 which connected Stratford to Pauls Valley, which was 18 miles to the west, and Ada, 18 miles to the east.

On that day there was a lot of excitement in town.  Stratford contained less than 2,000 residences, yet we had two good doctors.  The usual description was that about sixty percent of our population was made up of “old age pensioners.”  My grandparents were on the verge of entering that category.  The excitement that day was being generated by one of the physicians buying the first new automobile since 1941.  He had traveled to Pauls Valley to drive it home.  The yards were full of people waiting to catch a glimpse of this new car.

We waited.  It was an activity we had learned during the war.  One waited to hear from a loved one serving in one of the two theaters of conflict.  One waited to get an item that was rationed.  Although folks depended a lot on their Victory Gardens during the war, sometimes there was a waiting line at the one of our two grocery stores.  So, we waited.  Then, there was a shout.  “He’s coming!  He’s coming!”  Toward Pauls Valley you could see a tiny dot slowly becoming recognizable as a vehicle.  Whether it was a Ford, or Chevrolet I did not know.  It was a two-door coup.  It was brand new.  I’m sure it had that “new” smell, that is soon replaced by the scent of the owner’s cigarette.  It was the only brand-new car in Stratford.  Its purchase and appearance indicated that things were getting back to normal.  It also signaled that a new day was dawning.  The war had pulled us out of what was labeled “The Great Depression.”

With every change in society comes both the good and the bad.  In 1946 we were deeply patriotic and religious.  When the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, the United States went from a pacifist position to one of “where do I sign up?”  My dad was in the Navy and I had uncles in the Army.  Even children supported the war effort.  We did without things!  Our boys in uniform needed them.  We collected scrap metal for the war effort.  There were Bonds to buy to finance the war.  There were constant prayers for our service men and women.  It was quiet time for children and grandchildren when Gabriel Heatter, Edward R. Murrow, or one of the other notables gave us news from the front.

From the dawn of the public-school system until 1962, prayer was an important part of school activity.  Thanksgiving and Christmas plays were expected.  Christmas parties were permitted.  In 1962, the U.S. Supreme Court banned prayers in the classroom.  In 1963, the reading of scripture was stopped.  In 1980, the 10 Commandments, in all forms, were removed from State government buildings.  In 1992, ministers were no longer allowed to give the invocation or benediction in graduations ceremonies.  In 2000, prayer was removed from school football games.  The nation was being acclimated to humanism.  Man was being made the center of worship rather than God.

The Constitution is based upon the Bible.  However, 1962 introduced an erosion of ethics and morality to destroy that way of life.  Liberals began chiseling away at our biblical foundation.  We were being adapted to accept humanism at our religion.  In 2008 the Executive office began supplanting Christianity with Islam.  Executive orders allowed Muslims to practice what was off limits to Christians.  But these rulings also allowed the transgendered to use the bathroom of their choice!  Same sex marriages flourished.  Illegals was accepted and supported.  People wanted a free ride and expected it.  Kidnaping and selling children and young women to the slave sex market became big business!  Interstate 40 was the delivery highway for illegal drugs supplying the Eastern USA.  Citizens were turned against the police.  Godlessness was becoming the national symbol.  Our country was being driven toward bankruptcy and a classification as a Third World country.  Then something unusual and inexpiable happened.

It wasn’t supposed to happen.  The Democrat nominee had bought her nomination with millions of dollars.  This would not be revealed until November 2017.  Ballot boxes were corrupted.  She was supposed to win.  She had to win.  She was going to win!  The news media knew she was going to win and had already put her in office before all ballots were counted.  The Democrat Party knew she was going to win.  Hollywood knew she was going to win.  Voters on the left knew she was going to win.  Voters on the right were afraid she might win.  Anyone who was someone made their comments telling the world that her opponent would not and could not win!  A strange and contradictory thing happened.  She didn’t!  She lost!  At first, her loss was blamed upon the Electoral College.  Objectors claimed she won the popular vote.  Investigations proved she did not after the illegal ballots were discovered and disqualified.  She lost the electoral vote as well as the popular one.  How?  She had money behind her.  Powerful allies supported her.  Even the two past Republican Presidents voted for her!  Yet, she lost.  Liberals did not understand it.  They choked on their previous, prideful prophecies.  Mouths dropped open.  Words were lost.  The proverbial rug had been pulled.  Sadly, they refused to see the real “how” and “who” that brought about her defeat.

This nation attempted to kick God out in 1962.  He has been patient with us for 54 years.  But, God acted.  He took a former Democrat and made him President in November 2016.  Since elected, he has been lied about and his family had been grossly ridiculed.  The liberal news media even makes up news that is false to discredit him.  The last administration’s hounds have pursued him.  The things he has been charged with. his opponents have been found guilty of!  Yet, he continues to move this country toward God and greatness again.  He has had to put up with his own Party trying to discredit and derail him.  Yet, they too have failed.  Some don’t believe God is working in our history.

“For if their purpose or activity is of human origin, it will fail.  But if it is from God, you will not be able to stop these men; you will only find yourselves fighting against God.” (Acts 5:38-39).