Rebel's Rules

In no particular order of importance or inspirational catastrophic event; and with no claim of originality nor exclusivity:

1.  Tractors don't swim. (Don't ask.)

2.  Loving a woman is like paddling a canoe in a stiff breeze -- both require constant attention, a little bit at a time.  

3.  First reports are nearly always false, but perfect intelligence is unattainable.

4.  That which does not kill you, may make you a cripple.

5.  E-mail kills.  The spoken word is thin as air, the written word is always there. 

6.  The speed and accuracy of an electron is inversely related to the urgency of the task involving the electron.

7.  Power tools don't discriminate.

8.  Low-information voting is not an exclusive province of either end of the political spectrum.

9.  "Please" and "Thank you" are power words.

10.  Trees and trucks are mortal enemies.

11.  Give a man a 4WD truck, a length of chain, and a chainsaw and he will play, not-so quietly, by himself for hours.

12.  Any store that doesn't sell duck calls and stink bait is a waste of bricks and mortar.

13.  Eating during hours of daylight is a sign of weakness.

14.  A mug of strong, hot coffee fuels inspiration.  

15.  Never trust a man who wears a hat indoors.

16.  Never trust a man who wears his hat backwards -- fashion statements are for women.

17.  Never trust a man who doesn't carry a pocket knife.

18.  The bigger the knife the smaller the man.

19.  Never underestimate the destructive potential of a squad of Marines, a three-year old grandson, or a six-month old labrador retriever.

20.  Empires that build walls aren't empires for much longer.

21.  The larger the known universe becomes, the greater God is.

22.  Gardens cause weeds and trailer parks cause tornadoes.

23.  Perception becomes reality.

24.  The best ideas in any organization usually come from the ranks.

25.  An organization is as great as the leader says.

26.  Hope is not an acceptable course of action.

27.  Training is everything and everything is training.

28.  Meetings that last longer than 15 minutes usually devolve into pole vaulting over mouse turds.

29.  Executive actions are indicative of legislative paralysis.

30.  No such thing as an "over-built" bridge.

31.  Change is a dragon; fight it and be eaten; ride it and live.

32.  The line beyond which a word or idea is considered "politically incorrect" incessantly encroaches on common sense and freedom of expression, and is destructive to society-binding customs, courtesies and traditions.

33.  Political correctness is antithetical to diversity.

34.  Pity the man who has everything to live for and nothing worth dying for.

35.  February is twenty-eight days of being pecked to death by a duck.

36.  Never pass up the opportunity to allow someone else the opportunity.

37.  Republics either continue to expand, or contract into irrelevance.

38.  Chewing gum is the devil.

39.  The highest responsibility of the government of a free people is to stay out of the way of the people it serves. 

40.  Limited war limits the possibility of a satisfactory outcome.

41.  Covering wood grain with a coat of paint is a crime against nature.

42.  Nothing calms the soul like a bird at your feeder.

43.  Men and women are different for a reason and equal by reason.

44.  No such thing as a fair fight.

45.  Nothing good happens after midnight, unless you're at home.

46.  Sleep is the reward of the righteous.

47.  One man's music is another man's noise; share accordingly.

48.  There's no such thing as a free lunch, a deep discount, or a pet rattlesnake.

49.  Wherever you go, that's where you are.

50.  The smartest man in any room is the man looking for the smartest man in the room. 

51.  The Pepsi Rule: Drinking more alcoholic drinks in one sitting than you would drink non-alcoholic drinks is alcohol abuse.

52.  A long walk alone is therapy for a frantic mind.

53.  Righteous indignation is a dish best served rarely.

54.  A license to drive should not be issued to anyone without a full-time job.

55.  Never pass up the opportunity to catch the buck.

56.  The "perfect" leader would have perfect subordinates.

57.  Boredom is God's call to prayer.

58.  Understand the present by knowing history; understand history by knowing geography.

59.  Climate and culture are not static.

60.  A man who makes long lists of sophomoric sentences has far too much time on his hands.       

Why Bethlehem?

It's easy -- and wrong --  to think of Christmas as some sort of beginning.

Our first impressions of Christmas, once our eyes are opened to the falsity of Santa, are often of an infant born in a barn -- the beginning of the perfect and sacrificial life of Jesus. 

We Christians profess to believe that the crucifixion wasn't the end of Jesus' life.  But, what if the Colonel told you that the birth of the Messiah wasn't the beginning of the life of God's Son?  What if he told you that the Son of God wasn't born on Christmas?

Over twenty-seven centuries ago -- seven centuries before the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem -- a man by the name of Micah was born in the village of Morashet on the coastal plain southwest of Jerusalem.  A contemporary of the great prophet Isaiah, Micah also spoke out in condemnation of the Hebrew people whose hearts and practices had turned from God.  He accurately prophesied the destruction of the two capitals of the divided kingdoms of Judah and Samaria.  His statement regarding God's requirement of His people is one of the most clear and concise in all of scripture:               

"He has shown you, O mortal, what is good. And what does the Lord require of you? To act justly and to love mercy and to walk humbly with your God."  -- Micah 6: 8 (NIV)

The prophesy of Micah that gets the most attention this time of year is: 

"But thou, Bethlehem Ephratah, though thou be little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of thee shall he come forth unto me that is to be ruler in Israel; whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting." -- Micah 5: 2 (KJV)

The first part of this verse gets all the attention.  It's the part that Herod's scribes quoted to him when asked about the prophesy of which the scriptural scholars from Persia (the "wise men") came to see fulfillment. 

That last part is the most awesome part -- in the Colonel's not-so humble opinion: "... whose goings forth have been from of old, from everlasting."  The Hebrew phrase translated "from everlasting" in the King James version of the Bible actually means "eternity."

Eternity.  No beginning.  No end.

What Micah was inspired to prophesy wasn't that the Son of God would be born in Bethlehem.  The Son of God was never and would never be born.  As John said:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made." -- John 1: 1-3 (NIV)

The truth is the Son of God has had many incarnations.  One of the Colonel's favorites is the encounter with Joshua on the Plains of Jericho, as the "Commander of the army of the Lord" (Joshua 5: 13 - 15).  How do we know that this was the Son of God?  Look closely at verse 15.  This resplendent warrior who Joshua approaches with no little trepidation is no mere angel (although angels are themselves indeed awe-inspiring).  This warrior identifies Himself and then tells Joshua to worship Him: "...take off your shoes, this is holy ground." 

The ground in front of Jericho is not holy in and of itself -- no more so than was the ground on which God told Moses to remove his footwear.  What made the ground on which Moses stood holy was the presence of God. What made the patch of ground between the Jordan and Jericho holy was the presence of the Son of God. 

Still not convinced?  Think this was just an angel sent from God to give a battle plan to Joshua?

Angels do not accept worship.  John tried to worship an angel:

      

       "Then the angel said to me, 'Write this: Blessed are those who are invited to the wedding supper of the Lamb!' And he added, 'These are the true words of God.' At this I fell at his feet to worship him. But he said to me, 'Don’t do that! I am a fellow servant with you and with your brothers and sisters who hold to the testimony of Jesus. Worship God! For it is the Spirit of prophecy who bears testimony to Jesus.'."  -- Revelations 19: 9 - 10 (NIV)

The Colonel believes that the Son of God -- the Word of God (John 1: 1) and the Commander of the Army of the Lord (Joshua 5: 15 and Revelations 19: 13 - 14) -- has existed for eternity.  

He is God.  

As God, He is the greatest being that has ever existed and is exalted above all others.

He is the agent of creation.

He is the sole source of salvation -- the final and absolute sacrifice for our sins.



So..., why be born human as Jesus? 

And, why Bethlehem?

Why not Rome? 

Two thousand years ago, the greatest power in the region (the world, for that matter) was the Roman Empire.  Rome was the epitome of opulence, power, and prestige.  Anyone born of high nobility in Rome automatically garnered the attention of the known world. 

Why not Athens?  

While power and authority emanated from Rome, Greek philosophy and culture permeated and propelled Roman political influence.  Athens was the historical locus of wisdom and higher thought -- the home and soapbox of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle.  Birth in Athens granted one a certain philosophical privilege and provided the world's best incubator for developing one's message.

Why not Alexandria?

Founded by Alexander the Great in 332 B.C. and ruled by the dynasty of Ptolemy (one of Alexander's closest companions in arms), Alexandria boasted the world's greatest repository of human knowledge on the planet -- the Great Library.  Even though partially destroyed during Julius Caesar's warring in 48 B.C., the Great Library remained the foremost center for the studies of mathematics, geography, medicine, physics, and astronomy at the time of Christ.  Access to the Great Library's scrolls provided any serious student the foundation for world-changing invention and scientific progress.

Yet, as Micah prophesied, the Son of God became flesh in Bethlehem.  

The Son of God could have been born of nobility in Rome, of philosophical renown in Athens, or of educational privilege in Alexandria.

The Son of God -- the commander of the army of the Lord -- could have not been born at all.  He could have ridden out of the wilderness at the prime of manhood as the greatest, most educated, most philosophically profound warrior the world has ever known (which He is), and brought the Roman Empire to its knees within a fortnight.

The Son of God -- the Word of God -- could have stood on the Areopagus, spoke God's will in a monosyllabic utterance, and brought all of humanity to it's knees in recognition and worship (which He will).

The Son of God -- agent of creation -- could have used Mousiem bona fides to gain attention and changed the world with the ultimate advances in medicine and physics 

Yet, God sent His Son to be born in the humility of a hovel in a tiny afterthought of a village at a wide spot on the road in one of the most remote and underprivileged corners of the Roman Empire. 

Bethlehem was at the shallow rocky end of deep dusty nowhere.  

God's Son became flesh in the most humble of ways in the most underprivileged of settings, so that His remarkable life and ministry of salvation would spring not from any man-made source, but would be the physical manifestation of love and saving power solely the province of God.

The Son of God most high was born as any of us -- a helpless baby; to live a sinless life -- without blemish as a perfect sacrifice; to die willingly at the hands of men He came to save.          

What really amazes the Colonel is that all of this was God's perfect plan all along.  God showed man His Son at critical times in the life of His people.  God inspired man's prophetic promises of the Messianic ministry of His Son.  God sent His Son to die for man's separating sin.  

The Colonel is looking forward to the next phase of the plan.  

Free Country

"It's a free country."

Seems the Colonel doesn't hear that refrain near as much as he used to.

"It's a free country," used to be one of the more popular statements used in American discourse.

If the Colonel wanted to do something out of the mainstream of popular culture or social acceptability, he placed his hands on his hips and declared, "It's a free country!"

If the Colonel wanted to do something out of the mainstream of popular culture or social acceptability, his contemporaries shrugged their shoulders and expressed their passive disapproval with, "It's a free country."

Seems a quaint notion today.

It once wasn't so quaint.  "It's a free country," was once the operating principle upon which Americans based the conduct of their daily lives.  It was also the lens through which the free citizens of our republic gauged the actions of those they had placed in government with the express responsibility of protecting their freedoms.  

When the founders of our republic crafted the Constitution, they not only established a strong federal form of government -- as opposed to the inherently inoperative confederation that preceded it -- they also carefully placed limits on the federal government, intended to protect the rights of the two constituents to that federation -- citizens and states.

The founders knew that they had created a form of national government that would inherently seek to increase its power over the individual sovereign states, at the expense of their right to self-determination; and over the individual citizens, at the expense of their God-given civil rights.  The founders thoughtfully debated the tension that would exist between the government and the freely governed, and added amendments to our Constitution -- colloquially known as the "Bill of Rights" -- that specifically addressed concerns about what  a government -- any government -- would or could do to its constituents.

The First Amendment addressed freedoms at the leading edge of the individual desires that had driven men and women who, eschewing comfort and security for the hope of greater freedom and opportunity, left the relative comfort and security in the "civilized" Old World to take up the challenges of settling the New World:

"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances."

The next seven amendments garner the lion's share of attention. The second and third amendments specifically addressed individual rights that had been abused by the British Crown -- maintaining personal weapons and quartering troops in private residences.  The fourth through eighth amendments specifically limit the government's actions, and protect the rights of citizens, within the legal system.

The Colonel thinks that the last two amendments, the two to which too little attention is paid today, are the most important pieces of the entire document.

The Ninth Amendment, "The enumeration in the Constitution, of certain rights, shall not be construed to deny or disparage others retained by the people," is the hidden jewel in the crown from which all the other jewels draw their stability.  The men who put the plan of our government on paper, wise as they were, knew that they could not fathom the depth of freedoms granted men by God.  They made sure, in the Ninth Amendment, to place a fence around  the government -- a moat around the zoo's lion exhibit, if you will -- to restrain the inherent bent toward federal government over-reach.

But, remember, there are two constituents in our Republic's Constitution -- the people and the states.  The Tenth Amendment to our Constitution mirrors the Ninth in this regard: "The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people." 

Why is the Colonel's pedantry on this topic germane today, you ask?

The Colonel answers with a simple question:  Where do you sit as you read this, and why?

Our governments -- people we placed in positions of authority and responsibility at the local, state, and national level -- have decided that, for our protection, they must restrict our freedom.

The Colonel has no problem with a government (the lion on the other side of the moat that is our Constitution) recommending that he self-restrict his own freedom of movement and association. 

But...,

It's a free country.

Tread on the Colonel's God-given freedoms..., tread on the freedoms of his cherished grand-progeny..., tread on the freedoms of the American people... one step further than is absolutely necessary to address the current crisis and the Colonel, and millions like him, will strike back with venom at the ballot box.                  

Shocked and Delayed

The Colonel begs permission to interrupt your holiday festivities (Merry Christmas, by the way) with this important announcement:

December 31, 2019 is not (the Colonel says again, NOT) "the last day of the decade."

The Colonel knows this comes as quite a shock to many of you recovering from other shocks received lately.

Some of you were shocked to find that, despite the fulfillment of your congressperson's pre-inaugural impeachment promise, Donald Trump is still ensconced in the Oval Office.  Understanding just a little bit of our Constitution would have insulated you from that voltage.

Some of you were shocked to see that a college football team, from another state, to which you rabidly claim allegiance -- even though you've never been within 50 miles of the campus, wear a Walmart-bought affinity T-shirt, and proclaim "We whupped y'all!" after every win -- didn't make the play-offs this year.  Don't worry, Bama Bandwagon Boors, there's still a few LSU T-shirts left at your local Wally World -- Chinese sweatshops are crankin' 'em out faster than you can ask, "Siri, where is Baton Rouge?"   

Some of you (like the Colonel his own self) were shocked to see that Ole Miss, whose administration has been so active in the erasure of any name, monument, or tradition that even remotely infringes on the tender feelings of whiny social justice warriors and tyrannical political correctness priests, would, after dismissing one coach for "indiscretions" and his successor for "failure," hire a new coach for whom those characterizations are career hallmarks.  

The Colonel will admit that he is responsible for his own exposure to the voltage in this case -- he started to care about Ole Miss again.  Bad habits are the hardest to break. 

Some of you were shocked (as was the Colonel) to hear that the new "sixth" branch of the military services -- the Space Force -- would fall under the Department of the Air Force.  Hello?!?  Anybody whose ever watched an episode of Star Trek knows that Space belongs to the Navy.

Plus, the Department of the Navy already has experience with managing rouge elements it knows absolutely nothing about.

Looking at you, fellow jarheads.


Fear not, gentle readers, the Colonel is getting to the point of this prattle.

In introduction of that point, a history lesson.

The year was 1999.  As that year drew to a close, breathless (and brainless) commentators, prognosticators, and charlatans began an ever-increasing drum beat of retrospection and prediction regarding the impending end of the millennium.  There was just one little problem.

They were a whole year early.

The second millennium -- the second set of one thousand years, as established and counted by Christian societies (and a Roman emperor) --  actually ended on the 31st of December in the year of our Lord 2000.  January 1, 2001 was the first day of the new millennium.  

Shocking!

Here's even more shocking news:  Each decade ends in a year with the numeral 0 (not 9) at the end.

The Colonel knows that some of you are skeptical of his claim.  So, try this.  Take out ten one dollar bills from your wallet and place them on a clean, flat surface proximal to the reach of your arms.  Grasp the stack of bills in one hand and count them out as if you were paying yourself one dollar for each year you lived this decade.  One dollar for 2011, one more for 2012, and so on.  When you get to 2019, how many one dollar bills will you have counted out?

C'mon, this is easy math -- even for the Colonel.  Doesn't even require taking off your shoes.

The answer is: NINE.

"But, but..., Colonel," you argue, "you started the decade at 2011.  That's a trick!"

Yes, yes he did. And, no it's not a trick, because the first year of the present decade was 2011.

Okay, the Colonel knows this is hard to take at face value.  So, let's try this experiment with the same parameters, but in a different setting.

Let's imagine that we are shepherds working on the outskirts of a wide spot in the road south of Jerusalem, called Bethlehem.  We had a life-changing experience ten years ago, and we have accounted for the passing of the years since by numbering them as each began.  For example, one shepherd says to the next, "We are in the first year AA (after angels)".  We are at the beginning of the tenth year since that startling night.  What year is it?

For the LSU and Bama grads struggling with this, there's a not-so subtle clue in the eighth word of the second to last sentence above.

For the rest of you, congratulations for saying the correct answer, "Ten" out loud and startling those around you (even though your shame if caught reading the Colonel's drivel probably means you're sitting somewhere alone).  

Now let's assume that we shepherds only get paid at the end of each decade.  The not-so bright shepherd (you know, the one wearing the "Feel the Bern" tunic) announces at sundown of 31 December 09, "See y'all (well..., he is from south of Jerusalem) later.  I'm headed to town to collect my wages."  He shows back up at camp at sunrise on 1 January 10 after having made a trip to town to see the boss and complains bitterly to the rest of the lads (and lassies) that "I worked the whole decade of the 00's for that scrooge and he only paid me for nine years!"  

So, what do the rest of us do?  Does the old retired centurion stand up and bellow, "Follow me boys (and girls)!  We're on strike!  Let the boss tend his own stinkin' sheep!"   

Or, do we shake our heads at the utter stupidity of the members of the DSJ (Democratic Socialists of Judea) and go back to poking sticks in the fire?

See, there is no year 0 in our modern calendar.  It begins as 1 A.D. (or C.E.).  So, in the first decade A.D., only 9 years had elapsed at the end of 9 A.D.  In the first century A.D., only 99 years had elapsed at the end of 99 A.D.  In the first millennia A.D., only 999 years had elapsed at the end of 999 A.D.  In the second millennia A.D., only 1999 years had elapsed at the end of the year 1999.  

So, the current millennium did not begin on 1 January 2000.  It actually began on 1 January 2001.  And, the current decade did not begin on 1 January 2010, but 1 January 2011, and will not end until midnight on 31 December2020 / 1January 2021. 

Here's where the Colonel has to admit that what he just told you may not be 100% true.

For about 1600 years the western world marked the passing of days and years using a calendar commissioned by Julius Caesar in 46 B.C.  This Julian Calendar began each new year on 1 January, but during the medieval period western Europe, Britain in particular, began to begin each year in the middle of March (for various reasons associated with either solar cycles or religious holiday associations).  The Julian Calendar did account for the scientific fact that the earth revolves around the sun every 365 and almost a quarter days (365.24 to be more exact), by adding an extra day to February every four years.   

The problem with this quick fix was that over centuries that .01 day (roughly 11 minutes) error added extra days to the actual count of days elapsed.  By the middle of the 16th Century A.D., that .01 day error had badly un-synced the human calendar and actual solar calendar.   A calendar commissioned by Pope Gregory XIII (no relation to the Colonel) in 1582, attempted to correct the flaw in the Julian Calendar.  The Gregorian Calendar included a more accurate calculation that added an extra day to February in years divisible by four...

...unless the year is also divisible by 100.

The Colonel ain't makin' this up, and it gets even more complicated.

If the leap year is divisible by 100, but also divisible by 400, the leap day is added anyway.  

Makes the Colonel want to watch "Catch 22" and "Monty Pithon's the Holy Grail" again.  For the umpteenth time each...

Viewed as a nefarious "Papist Plot" in many quarters, the Gregorian Calendar was not uniformly adopted across the western world.  By the time Britain (and her far flung colonies) got around to adopting the Gregorian Calendar (nearly two centuries after its introduction), the British Empire's calendar was out of sync with the rest of the western world by nearly two whole weeks.  

An act of Parliament adopted the Gregorian calendar in 1752, and the British had to jump from 2 September to 14 September to adjust to it.  

The Colonel kids thee not.  

While lots of British subjects were unhappy with the loss of those 11 days for a variety of reasons that you can well imagine, Ben Franklin is reported to have remarked favorably about the idea of going to bed on the night of the 2nd of September and not having to get out of bed until the morning of the 14th.  

The Colonel kinda knows the feeling -- when he hit the rack last night he was 22.  When he woke up this morning, the Colonel was four weeks shy of his 64th birthday.

And, if you think that the calendar we are using today (it's the Gregorian Calendar, by the way) is keeping perfectly modern track of time..., well..., you're wrong.   The eggheads that make their living studying the numbers tell us that, if we keep the Gregorian Calendar until then, by the year 4909 (in which the Colonel might not be still be pestering you with his posts) a twenty-six second error per year will result in the Gregorian Calendar being one full day ahead of the solar calendar.
    
Anyway...,  the Colonel's bottom line, regardless whether we've kept track of the actual count of days elapsed since the inception of the Julian Calendar (and it's minor Gregorian modification), is that all of you breathlessly celebrating that "last" this and that "of the decade" are a year early.

The Colonel thinks he'll settle the matter in his own life by burning all the calendars within reach of his frost-nipped and tendinitis-ravaged finger tips.

Oh, and a year-long nap might be in order, as well.

See you next decade!        


                     

Why the Shepherds?

Ever wonder why Jesus' birth was announced to a bunch of shepherds?  

You've read and heard Luke's account of the birth of Jesus countless times, the Colonel is sure.  The Roman emperor, Octavian -- or, as he called himself, Caesar Augustus -- wanted to know how many folks made up his empire, and commissioned a census.  It was billed as a matter of determining the tax base, but the Colonel suspects, from what he knows about Octavian, that it was just as much a matter of Octavian's egotistical desire to know the extent of his dominion over humanity.

At any rate, Luke tells us that in order to be counted, citizens of the empire had to return to their cities of birth.  So, this man named Joseph, whose wife Mary was expecting to give birth at any moment, took his new bride back to his ancestral home.

Bethlehem.

The city of David.

Bell and Gore hadn't invented the telephone and internet, yet, so Joseph had no way of making reservations for a place to stay in Bethlehem.  When they arrived after traveling nearly 80 miles from Nazareth to Bethlehem, they found the tiny village so packed with folks who had, like Joseph, left the farm to work in the big city, that there was only room to sleep in a stable.  

Now, English translations of the original Greek in which Luke's account was written use the phrase "because there was no room in the inn."  From what the Colonel has studied about the size of Bethlehem two thousand years ago, he is apt to believe that there was no inn at all.  It's possible that the home of Joseph's family in Bethlehem had no private room in which Mary could give birth.

Anyway, Mary gave birth to Jesus in a livestock shelter and used a feed trough for a cradle.  Pretty humble for the King of the Universe.  

The Colonel believes that we have these very intimate details of Jesus' birth because when Luke began writing his Gospel and the Book of Acts for his patron, Theophilus, he interviewed Mary.  The events of Jesus' birth were so dramatic and wondrous that Luke tells us that "Mary treasured up all these things and pondered them in her heart." (Luke 2: 19)

As memorable as giving birth in a stable was for Mary, an even more memorable occurrence was the visit shortly thereafter from a bunch of shepherds, and the story they told her.  

Can you imagine the incredulity of Joseph and Mary when these shepherds told them their story?

Luke tells us that the night of Jesus' birth, these shepherds were keeping watch over their flock in the fields outside of Bethlehem.  (Luke 2:8)

Now, humor the Colonel and put yourself in the place of these shepherds.  

It's dark. 

Pre-Edison dark.  

Dark enough that the brightest light you can see is the Milky Way splashed across the sky overhead.  

It's so quiet that you can hear your hair grow.  

You're sleepy, but your job is to stay alert and keep your flock safe from predators and thieves. 

Your senses are heightened in the dark and quiet -- eyes dilated to take in as much ambient light as possible and ears attuned to the slightest rustle from the sleeping sheep, or the footfall of a predator.

Now just maybe you can understand the abject terror the shepherds felt at what happened next.  Luke tells us -- and the Colonel believes that Mary told him what the shepherds told her -- that an angel of the Lord suddenly appeared to the shepherds and "...the glory of the Lord shone around them." (Luke 2:9) 

Imagine going from hidden in pitch black dark to spotlighted by the brightest light you have ever seen.  And, oh, by the way there's an angel in front of you.

Not a winged, chubby baby.  Angels don't look like that.

The angel in front of you is a fierce, inhuman creature, unlike anything you have ever seen before.

That the shepherds didn't scream and scatter like a bunch of adolescent girls at a haunted house shows just how terrified they were.  

Don't know about you, but as much as the Colonel's flight or fight reflex has a trained bias toward the latter, he's not sure he wouldn't have been leading the choir of adolescent screamers and scatterers.

The angel's reassurance to the shepherds is one of the most quoted of all passages in scripture:

"Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people.  For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, which is Christ the Lord. And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger."  (Luke 2:10-12)

As if this angel's appearance and message wasn't traumatic enough, the shepherd's then saw "a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men."  (Luke 2: 13-14) 

Because the Colonel believes that Jesus was the incarnation of God's Son, and that God's Son is the Commander of the Army of the Lord, he believes this "multitude of the heavenly host" was the Army of the Lord.

The Colonel can't prove that, and far more learned men than he may scoff at the notion, but the Colonel likes to think that the Army of the Lord wouldn't have missed out on singing in this cantata.

But, why are a ragtag group of lowly shepherds the recipient of these "good tidings of great joy." Why the shepherds?

Why not the High Priest at the temple in Jerusalem?

Or, some other literate person or group of people.  Why not make this angelic appearance and announcement on the steps of the temple at high noon on the day before the Sabbath, when all of Jerusalem would be in attendance?

Two reasons, the Colonel thinks.

First, he believes that the angel of the Lord and the multitude of heavenly hosts appeared to the shepherds at the very moment of Jesus' birth.  And, the Colonel believes the shepherds were chosen to receive these good tidings for their symbolism throughout God's word.  God didn't just pick the shepherds on a whim.

God does nothing on a whim.

God inspired David to write the Psalm to demonstrate the loving care God has for His people -- like a shepherd cares for his sheep.

Jesus' Himself used the shepherd analogy numerous times to teach regarding God's love and the purpose of Jesus' own ministry.   

Secondly, but perhaps most importantly, the Colonel believes God picked the shepherds for what they were watching.  

Just up the road a few miles from the fields outside Bethlehem, stood the temple in Jerusalem -- the only acceptable location to which all Jews were to bring their most important sacrifices.  From the beginning of His relationship with man, God demanded a blood sacrifice to atone for sin of man.  

Not just any sacrificial animal would do.  It was supposed to be one without blemish.  An animal of higher value than the rest.

And, in remembrance of the Passover lambs whose blood marked the doorposts of the Hebrews and excluded them from the plague of the death of the first born in Egypt; young, defenseless sheep were the traditional sacrifice brought to the temple in Jerusalem.

It's entirely possible that the shepherds outside of Bethlehem were watching over flocks from which came lambs for blood sacrifice.  

The Colonel likes to believe so.

The Colonel believes that sacrificing a lamb only temporarily atoned for a man's sin.  He believes this because a Jew didn't just sacrifice a lamb once -- he did it every year. 

The Colonel believes that God sent His messenger angel to proclaim to shepherds watching over lambs, whose sacrifice was a temporary atonement, that the Lamb of God was come whose sacrifice would be final.        

Cataclysm's Ark

A little over six months ago, a Category 5 hurricane came ashore just to the east of Panama City, Florida.  Directly in the path of the eye, on a sliver of land protecting a shallow bay, was Tyndall Air Force Base.  

"Was" is the operative word.  The base was completely destroyed.

Hurricane Michael swept north and over the working class/retirement community of Callaway, nestled just inland of Tyndall, and the results were cataclysmic. 

Upon retirement from the Air Force in the late Seventies, the Colonel's in-laws settled in Callaway, and built a modest home in a new neighborhood carved out of a sandy pine barren.  They joined a very small church located at the entrance to their neighborhood and leaned in to build, and reach the lost.

Carlisle Baptist Church, named for an early benefactor, had very humble beginnings; and, from the Colonel's close association with it over the last forty years, never lost its humility -- even as it grew from a dozen folks meeting in a tent to a campus with a beautiful worship sanctuary, and a half dozen other buildings providing office, education, and recreation space.  

Perhaps the signature building of the complex is the unadorned two story cinder block, metal-roofed -- the Colonel searches and the best descriptor is -- "ark" that houses classrooms, a commercial kitchen, and a basketball court-sized gym.  

"Is" is the operative word.  The ark is the only building standing.  The only building on the complex that did not have catastrophic damage.  

The "ark" was/is, in the Colonel's not so humble opinion, not a pretty building.  It sits tall, squat, ungainly, and out of place on the corner at the neighborhood's entrance, looking for all the world like a beached...

well..., 

ark.    

The Colonel and his bride -- the comely and kind-hearted Miss Brenda -- attended Easter Services at Carlisle last week.  The Colonel spent the intervening week trying to figure out how to put into words what he saw and felt.  

He's still not sure he can.

It's been six months since 150 mph winds flattened Callaway and blew away the pretty part of Carlisle Baptist Church's campus.  

It still looks like it happened yesterday. 

The skyline of tall pines and oaks is gone.  The tallest features on the landscape now are enormous debris piles.  The color blue (tarps covering holes in walls and roofs) dominates the palette. 

Many homes are abandoned.  Some have already been bulldozed.

It is as near a post-apocalyptic scene as the Colonel has seen, outside of photos of 1945 Japan and Germany.  

Whether or not Michael's ground zero will ever recover is an open question.  A significant portion of the area's population is gone. The stores that are open (and there are more destroyed and closed than open at this point) are hard pressed to find workers.  Workers are hard pressed to find housing.  Repairs to repairable housing is moving at a snail's pace, for a variety of reasons not the fault of the residents. 

The one sure way to invigorate rebuilding would be the rebuilding and reopening of Tyndall Air Force Base.  But that depends on massive Federal funding, so...

In the gap stands the brave and faithful members of a small church with one building left standing.

The Colonel spoke briefly to the pastor -- a young man whose family the Colonel has known for 40 years; who grew up in Callaway, surrendered to the ministry, and led two churches before returning to pastor his home church just months before the hurricane flattened its buildings -- before services that Easter Sunday morning. 

His spirit and leadership in the midst of the challenge of his life is amazing.  He told the Colonel, "Not having any church buildings has forced us to look outside of our buildings."

Carlisle church has done just that. From the moment they were able to make their way past the abatis of fallen trees blocking every road, they converged on their one standing building -- their ark -- and made it a rallying point for hope and relief for the entire community. As supplies poured in from outside help, the ark's gym became a distribution center.  When power came back on, the ark's kitchen provided hot meals. 

Carlisle is ministering in a community in which hope is in very short supply.  

Can the Colonel tell you about their Easter services?  He wishes he could.  

All he remembers is wiping away tears for a solid hour.     

Why the Cross

The Colonel doesn't care near as much for Christmas as he does Easter.

The Colonel cares not one wit on which of Santa's lists his name appears.  If his name did happen to appear on the "good" list, the Colonel assures you that nothing in his own character and conduct landed it there.  The only redeeming quality of the man curmudgeoned before his time is the fruit of the Holy Spirit.

And that's why Easter is the holiday that means the world to the Colonel.   

Like every other man who preceded, and will follow, him, the Colonel's sin and imperfection separates him from his Creator.  The Colonel fervently believes that his God is so Holy, so perfect, that He cannot allow sin and imperfection in his presence.  Nothing the Colonel could ever do in his own strength and personal conduct can ever bridge the great gulf that separates his sinful mortality from God's perfect and holy immortality.

The Colonel believes that God loves him despite his possession of the blackest, most sinful heart any man has ever possessed.  The Colonel can not, even in the wildest delusions about himself, come to any conclusion other than that he is just as imperfect and bent toward evil as any man who ever lived.  And yet, he can come to no other conclusion but that God loves him. 

Allow the Colonel to explain why he believes God still loves him in spite of his sinfulness. 

Man is God's greatest, most beloved creation.  God placed man at the head of His earthly creation -- privileged to the fruit and responsible for stewardship.  But, as beautiful as all of creation may seem to man, it is not perfect.  It is corrupt and transitory.  

So, why would a perfect God create imperfection?  

The Colonel doesn't pretend to know the perfect mind of God, but he believes that God created man for a relationship built on man's free will.  God didn't want man to love Him because he had to.   

When God selected Abram (and later renamed him Abraham), from whom to establish His People, He was not picking a perfect man to father a people special in their own right.  The only thing special about Abraham and his descendants is that they were chosen for one purpose and one purpose alone -- to reveal God to man. 

Abraham's descendants -- God's chosen people -- endured four centuries of captivity in Egypt.  At the time of their exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were a nation of millions -- and still they needed a Savior God to free them.  It was the overwhelming power of a Savior God that liberated the Israelites, a people as stubbornly sinful and rebellious as any who ever existed.  God miraculously saved them from captivity and miraculously sustained them on their return to the land God had promised to them.

Look, for all the "flowing with milk and honey" descriptions of the land between the Euphrates and the Nile, the "Promised Land" isn't any more special -- in its own right -- than any other territory on this big blue marble.  The Colonel has trod on a goodly percentage of God's creation, to include the "Promised Land," and there isn't anything to recommend that sliver of land at the western end of the Mediterranean above any other.

Except that God chose it, and a people to populate it, to reveal Himself to man.   

On the way out of Egypt, God established a covenant with the people He chose for the express purpose of revealing Himself to man.  He provided His Law -- the Commandments -- as His expectations of the people He chose for the express purpose of revealing Himself to man.  

God expected man to follow His Commandments to the letter, but knew that he couldn't.

The Colonel knows that just don't make sense.  Not to man, anyway. 

Just as God chose Abraham's descendants to reveal Himself to man, He provided His Law to reveal His perfection and man's imperfection.  No man, save the human incarnation of God's Son, has ever perfectly kept the Ten Commandments. 

The Colonel hasn't even come close.  In fact, he has swung and missed at every one, in thought and deed (no difference in God's perfect vision), of the slow-pitch softball offerings of the Ten Commandments.

Seriously.  The Ten Commandments don't require anything that man would consider Herculean effort.  There's no requirement to slay dragons, no demand that one fly like an angel, no need to perform miracles -- just demonstrate by your actions that you love God and love your fellow man.

Search your heart.  What is your score?

(Rhetorical question.  Please don't tell the Colonel your failings -- he has more than enough on his own conscience to be burdened with yours as well.) 

One infraction of God's Law makes one imperfect and guilty of sin.  A sinful, guilty man cannot enter into God's presence of his own accord.  God just won't allow it.

So, all of mankind falls far short of the glory and perfection of a Creator God who loves them above all of His creations.  It doesn't make sense to this man.  And that's the point.  The Colonel ain't God.

From the very beginning of His relationship with man, God required a significant sacrifice to demonstrate a man's sincere remorse for his sin -- the life blood of the best of the beasts for which God made man responsible.  But, this atonement was always temporary and ultimately insufficient.

Why?  Because any sacrifice of even the very best, any lamb without outward blemish, of God's imperfect creation was..., well...,

...imperfect.

What's so imperfect about a lamb without any blemish?

Simple.  It is mortal.  It will not live forever.  If it was truly perfect, it would be immortal.

In God's perfect timing, He sent His perfect Son into the world as a human.  This was the Messiah, prophesied about and promised to His Chosen People -- again, not because they were special in their own right.  It was not the first time (nor the last) that God's Son would appear on Earth.  

The disciple with perhaps the closest relationship with God's Son incarnate preambles his gospel with the following revelation from God:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning. Through him all things were made; without him nothing was made that has been made. In him was life, and that life was the light of all mankind. The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it."  (John 1: 1-5) 

Let's unpack that.  

God's Son -- His only Son -- has existed (and will exist) with God for eternity in either direction mortal man my look in time.  Man refers to Him as God's Son because there is no other way man can comprehend the concept.  There is no God Mother of God's Son -- none mentioned by God; none referred to by God-inspired scripture.  God's Son was with God at Creation -- indeed, He is the Agent of Creation.  

The Colonel's journey with his Savior God has led him to the following conclusion about the Bible's account of Creation -- it isn't about the Creation; it's about the Creator.    

God's Son is God's Agent of Eternal Salvation.  Outside of the Son, there is no eternal life -- no means by which sinful, imperfect man may escape the sentence of mortality and enter, completely pardoned of all sin, into the eternal presence of God.  

Remember the blood sacrifice requirement the Colonel mentioned earlier?  That sacrifice of a superficially "perfect" animal only temporarily atoned for a man's sin.  The sacrifice had to be repeatedly made, and still did not completely pardon a man's sin.

A truly perfect sacrifice was required.  And because imperfect man was (is) incapable of making a truly perfect sacrifice, Perfect and Holy God had to make that truly perfect sacrifice for the forgiveness of the sins of His most loved creation.  The truly most perfect and greatest sacrifice God could make was to allow His Son to set aside His perfectly holy, most-high divinity and be made low. 

How great was that fall?  

God's Son is not only the Agent of Creation; He is the Commander of the Lord's Armies.  Check out the account of Joshua on his commander's recon in front of the great fortified position known as Jericho found in the fifth chapter of the book of Joshua.  

Moses is dead and buried on the eastern side of the Jordan River.  Joshua has taken command, led God's People across the Jordan, and now stands on the Plain of Jericho scratching his head and trying to figure out how his light infantry army is going to reduce and capture one of the most impregnable fortresses ever faced by a military force.  Joshua sees a resplendent warrior standing at a distance and cautiously approaches, asking, (the Colonel paraphrases) "Hey, soldier!  Are you one of my men, or do you belong to the army of Jericho?"

The resplendent warrior's answer is a curt, "No!"

The Colonel can only imagine the look on General Joshua's face at that answer.  The warrior saw the look and then changed it, "I am the Commander of the Lord's Army."

What does it mean to be the Commander of the Lord's Army?  It doesn't take a military genius to figure out that chain of command.  But, lest there be any doubt as to bona fides, the warrior facing Joshua commands him to remove his sandals because, "you are standing on Holy Ground."  That's the same thing God told Moses to do when He appeared as the burning bush.  Mere angels don't do that -- mere angels cannot and do not accept the worship of man. 

In the 19th chapter of the Book of Revelations, the Commander of the Lord's Army returns with the entire army of Heaven at his back.  The Colonel used to take a perverse pleasure in believing that he would be fighting in that final battle against evil..., until he realized that the entire army of Heaven doesn't lift a finger to help the Commander of the Lord's Army.  One word from the Son of God's mouth destroys the army of evil.

That's the nature of the sacrifice made by God, whose Son loves mankind with the same perfect heart of His Father.  The lamb offered by God was indeed perfect, but it was not just a lamb.  

The most familiar verse of scripture -- the eternal hope of mankind -- is John 3: 16, "For God so loved the world, that He sent his only begotten Son..."  But, when you realize that God's "only begotten Son" left heaven as a perfect, immortal, holy king (and the greatest warrior) to become mortal flesh in a form without any inherent social privilege, to live as a mortal man, and to (in the prime of life) willingly go to the cross..., well..., that's a true sacrifice.

And on that cruel cross, God's Son, made manifest in the body and soul of Jesus of Nazareth, gave up His sinless, perfect, holy life-blood to cover the sins of mankind...

Forever.

God created man for voluntary relationship.  God's requirement for that relationship is the voluntary acceptance of the sacrifice of His Son.

The Colonel is beyond grateful that his own earthly conduct has no bearing on his eternal salvation.