Though it's brought us nearly 40 deaths from tornados in mid-America already, May is still the joyful month of graduations and yours truly's youngest is finally finishing college at AU in Phoenix. Joseph Grant says it will be on the Internet, so I plan to log on and watch as soon as he tells me where and how. It's surely a strange world now when you have to learn everything back from the kids you reared and helped teach. Since he was # six to be born, I decided my own name was supposed to be used again despite my feeling there were already way too many Joes in America. But we'd given the Allen, my middle name to his older brother, whose first name was for my father. So I used the name of Dick Grant at Ft.Arbuckle, such a beloved uncle. My cousin Glenna told me just yesterday that "Grant" is Scottish. And the motto of that clan is "stand firm." It's on their family coat of arms she said. Wow, how that grabs me for a name. But the Allen in mine is from Amy Hightower. She was one of the Allen girls who came here from Altus, with sisters Ellie Burch of Whitebead and Annie Goodpasture also of PV. So my youngest child will graduate and my oldest grandchild also did so Friday at ORU, Allison Hutchinson. She's the firstborn of my firstborn, Angela. Now she's 22 and set to be married in July. I was pastor in Tulsa back in the 70s at St.Mark's and my members had strong feelings, some for and the rest against ORU. None were neutral. I took a course that Oral taught at the Mabee Center and felt inspired, but would have never guessed my own grandchild would attend and graduate there. I had been a pastor in nearby Muskogee of the Ridgecrest church,'58 to '60. And even then the word was already out that Oral Roberts intended to build a university in Tulsa. But just being from Stratford (biggest peach they ever grew there), he was considered too simple and uneducated in those days to be taken seriously (even though his tent healing revivals drew great multitudes). Then to our amazement, he changed from the Pentecostal Church into the Methodist. I was there at St.Lukes in OKC when he made the switch still looking like a country bumpkin. Then talk about changing your image: his handlers did wonders for him. New hair style, a less confronting approach from the pulpit and an erudite manner in the media.. He began speaking in the tongues of high finance as well as in glossolalia. And the world wide charismatic movement started filtering into main line denominations. So his university got built and also his unfinished City of Faith was begun. Since it would be another hospital, all the others in Tulsa opposed it by claiming there were enough there already. C of F was just south of the 7777 S. Lewis campus and I remember driving by in '77 to take a closeup look. I said "break through from heaven in '77," having just come back myself from a first pilgrimage to Israel. I was thrilled at the towering structure some 900 feet tall. Then he took a lot of ridicule for speaking on TV about seeing Christ standing that tall right beside it. Oh the jokes about a 900 foot Jesus! How scornful they were. And so the City of Faith had financial reverses that caused it to get sold to a giant hospital corporation, Cancer Treatment of America. But his son Richard took over the university as Oral retired and he has brought if clear out of debt, I hear. Back in the earlyt days of the world energy crisis when everyone was so worried about running out of oil, I heard Oral Roberts declare that "there are no shortages in God's universe." I was pastor in Dewey where most of my flock worked for Phillips Petroleum and I quoted him to reassure them. That was when Jimmy Carter was president and he wanted to stop importing it. Yet we still get plenty of oil don't we. Thus I'm proud that my Allison from Broken Arrow has finished at ORU, just as so many Methodist clergy did in the 80s and 90s and still continue; though ORU has always been non-denominational and attracts students from clear around the globe. Agape, Gaudium & Shalom to all(Gal.5:22 in Greek, Latin & Hebrew).

Tornado season has come to OKC again after the terrible strike four years ago. There are dozens injured from the southern part and down to Moore, but no one killed this time, though it's still a dismal prelude to the beautiful celebration of Mother's Day. Just shows that Mother Nature, who can be so lovely and charming, also has beastly and brutish aspects as well. Of course she's only a figure of speech while the mother's we applaud are real flesh and blood. The Bible begins with Adam first calling his wife "woman" because she was taken out of man (ish) and then naming her Eve (life) as the mother of all living, Gen.3:20. Thus she's profoundly a source of our humanity, but not THE source. That's the meaning of "father" in Hebrew (source). And we find a duality in GOD throughout the Old Testament that compares in my mind to Mother Nature, usually gentle and mild yet violent and full or destructive rage at times.

Let me draw on my childhood appreciation of dandelions, which I then considered beautiful. Nice lawns didn't interest me. So those little golden blossoms were a delight. And when they turned to the gray puff balls my joy increased. Just to blow one and see it scatter in the wind seemed a miracle then. However, from my adult perspective, I hate the XX##^/ things because they just multiply in that "miracle" and spoil my lawn. They will take over if you let them, so they are truly ugly intruders instead of joyful delights. Even the name dandelion comes from that jagged shape of it's leaf, "lion's tooth." I make it a rule to let none escape, but kick out each one when first seen. Now I've become so proficient that you should let me onto your infested lawn and I'll do this dandelion dance, which goes to the Hokey Pokey tune: You raise your left foot up and kick your left heel back, as you hit that weed that's growin' with a heavy lethal whack. You raise your right foot up and kick it with a shout, till those little yellow blossoms in your yard go flyin' out. So you do the hokey pokey; and you shake it all about, cause that's what it's all about.

But going back to the paradox seen in Mother Nature that compares to the divine nature of GOD the Father Almighty, I refer again as done before to 1Chr.21, which is the first mention by name of the adversary: "Now Satan stood up against Israel, and moved David to number Israel." In 2 Sam.24 we read the previous account of this same event, "And the anger of the LORD was aroused against Israel, and He moved David against them to say 'Go, number Israel and Judah." The later writer has gained a fuller awareness of divine/human relations. The agent of the LORD's wrath can be another power, namely Satan ("adversary" personified). The book of Job explores at length this more complete understanding and prepares for the New Testament's full disclosure of who spoke through that serpent who first talked to Eve in the Garden of Eden. While Satan is not as real as GOD Himself (THE ground of all being), he is a reality to be reconed with. This is not theological duality (which would be heresy) but the extended reality of the Gospel. Thus all Scripture is a growing revelation, so it's very last book is so appropriately named "The Revelation of Jesus Christ"(but not with an "s" as some folks mistakenly say it).

The church sign on W. Grant sums up what Holy Week was all about "The Resurrection assured what Calvary secured." May I rephrase it "Easter assures what Good Friday secures."   And that can apply to each Friday and every Lord's Day. Hallelujah! The new president of PV's Ministerial Alliance is Robert Kanary, and new pastor at Christian Life Pentecostal is Neil Barlow. We welcome him to Pauls Valley.

Two high school have caught the nation's attention lately, one in the Chicago area and another in Atlanta. Girls up north brought shame and disgrace on themselves in that utterly gross beer brawl for hazing of the juniors by seniors. And right before Mother's Day, ugh! There are just not vile enough words to describe what happened as the kegs of beer (bought by parents) poured forth into such slutish stupor. If anyone claims it;s a mild and harmless beverage, that disproves their case. No bunch of sows in a hog waller ever could match what was done to the younger class girls all smeared with human excrerment and brutally beaten. Then down south a senior prom for whites only was held as if we were back in the Jim Crow days. Because it wasn't school sponsored, the seniors considered it their own private affair. But Bill O'Reilly got word and exposed their racist attitude that still exists, bringing shame on them and their entire school. And according to O'Reilly, on even the governor of Georgia, who had no comment and did nothing.   

I like to watch The McLaughlin Group on PBS each Sunday afternoon. That John McLaughlin must be Irish or Scottish and has Catholic views. But he's always in charge of the show. Sunday's got on to the subject of gambling as they discussed the word out that William Bennett was a compulsive gambler. Of course the political impact was a top concern. Could Bennett be any longer credible as a moral teacher to the nation? Pat Buchannan, also Catholic, accepted Bennett's apology and felt he could weather the criticism. Margaret Carleson was tougher on him. But McLaughlin said he should not have apologized: "It's only 15 percent of the vote in that right wing Puritanic Evangelical sector that is so critical. Gambling is no vice any more than drinking." To me, that sounded like 17th century England, where Popery condoned all sorts of indulgence while Puritans held out for ethical behavior. Two queens in that era, both daughters of Henry VIII, were Mary and Elizabeth. Mary's five years or rule were the bloodiest ever to repress "heresy," while Elizabeth's were severe but not cruel. She's remembered as England's greatest ever queen. And she held to a middle course of Anglicanism rather than the radical course of Puritanism. So John McLaughlin can have his permissive views in America about liquor and gambling by saying they are legal, but most Protestants (and all evangelical pietists) will not endorse it'. If gambling and drinking are not vices, then is prostitution or womanizing or abortion or scams or swindles? Or is everything to be tolerated? Even the religion of Islam sees these influences as moral depravity. and that's surely part ofthe reason their radicals hate America so much. They don't know that there's strong disapproval among us of the widespread Vegas Delusion (spiritual VD). We are getting rid of old plagues such as polio, and fighting hard against AIDS and now SARS. But the moral VD goes unabated, sad to say. In fact it keeps growing as on line casinos outdo evan Las Vegas   Come Lord Jesus, the sooner the better!

One of the laws that clearly illustrates how all laws in a democracy are supposed to be for our safety and welfare is the "buckel up" rule. It's good to see our police out enforcing it with their "click it or ticket" campaign because seat belts save so many lives, just as failure to use them result in deaths. This proves that all laws don't have to safe guard our personal choice. Just look at how many of God's laws in the Bible were for Israel's good, despite individual differences. That persibak freedom notion is used by gambling and liquor interests all the time. But the individual isn't the final measure of value. The entire body politic is of primary importance for without it's survival, there'd be individuals to have rights. The question for each one to ask himself is "what sort of nation would America be if every citizen were just like me?"

These are just some thoughts that are not being sent in for my column. I'm hopeing editor Mike Arie will use that bit on president Bush that was forwarded to me on the Internet. It expressed the admiration that I feel for him far better than I could have written it. So I'm thinking of all that's come upon us as a nation since GW Bush became our leader: 9/11, declining marker, budget deficit again, Enron and WorldCom debacles, Wall Street cheaters, wars in Afghanistan and Iraq so far, rempant pornography, on-line gambling even more than Las Vegas, video game/violence and other vicious vice calamities, When I pray about it, Bush isn't the one to blame. He's reaping what was sewn ahead of him. It was a long party during the ninties but the fling is finally ended and we had to confront consequences of all that big hoax. Now we see it's inception with JFK, who had his intern affair as Bill Clinton's idol. So this terrorism that we're fighting seems to me like the wrath of Yahweh as divine judgement on our follies. We were once the role model for humanity, but now we are sought only for material benefits that can be gained from us. When other nations admired America, they were not just after some sort of aid. Now everyone wants in on our opulence but not our behavior. We assume that our support of Israel has brought about alQuada's hatred toward us. And that is probably true. Yet the widespread immorality in our land fuels anger in those self righteous Puritanical Muslims. Thus, as much as we need to defend ourselves, we must also get right with the GOD Whom we claim to trust, and live by His standards. We need a resurgence of HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD. That takes a lot more than church attendance. It means time spend on our knees before Him. Or better still, on our face the way the Muslims pray. Jesus assumed that prone position when He faced the crucifixion that night in Gethsemane, which means "wine press." He was under such pressure that his sweat became like drops of blood." And it was all alone since even his closest apostles, Peter-James-&John, had gone to sleep. But angels came and ministered to Him. I can recall a phrase from my early years in ministry of "praying through." The old timers claimed it was common to pray all night long pleading for revival. And it come in those days when camp meetings were even more important as sporting and entertainment events are now.

My son up at Tulsa sent met this about ways to let good things happen in church:

Thought you might like this:
The minister was preoccupied with thoughts of how he was going to, after the worship service, ask the congregation to come up with more money than they were expecting for repairs to the church building. Therefore, he was annoyed to find that the regular organist was sick and a substitute had been brought in at the last minute. The substitute wanted to know what to play. "Here's a copy of the service," he said impatiently. "But you'll have to think of something to play after I make the announcement about the finances." During the service, the minister paused and said, "Brothers and Sisters, we are in great difficulty; the roof repairs cost twice as much as we expected, and we need $4,000 more. Any of you who can pledge $100 or more, please stand up." At that moment, the substitute organist played "The Star-Spangled Banner." And that is how the substitute became the regular organist! So two "good" things happened as the preacher raised the funds and the organist got a permanent position. Neat story, son.

Garvin county High School graduates were pictured in our weekend edition of the Democrat and are out finished by now. But it made me think of life's final graduation from this earthly school. We call them funerals instead of commencements. But for souls reborn from above, the final committal at the cemetery is truly a commencement of eternity: "...looking forward to the general resurrection with the return of our Lord Jesus, at Whose coming in glory and majesty to judge the world, the earth and sea shall give up their dead and the bodies of those who sleep in Him shall be changed and made like unto His own glorified body...". And even more than a graduation diploma we'll receive a crown and coronation conducted by our Lord, just as St.Paul claimed for himself "Finally, there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord the righteous Judge will give to me on that Day, and not to me only but to all those who have loved His appearing" 2 Tim.4:8.

The soldier "crowned" heroine in our Iraqi military venture, Jessica Lynch, was suppose to have been rescued out of extreme danger. But now British reporters are claiming she wasn't at much risk, and she says she has no recollection of the episode. Pentagon officials are denying any doubts that have been raised and call reports ridiculous that say only blanks were fired by coalition forces during the rescue to add drama to the operation.. I certainly hope these reports of fakery are firmly refuted because they are an insult worse that the political jesting over our president making himself a photo opportunity by flying out to the Abe Lincoln carrier for his speech to the world. In politics such folly has to be endured, but for soldiers who have put their lives on the line for this nation it's an abomination.   Also, I had heard of so many persons named Muhammad doing terrorist things, that I wondered if any ever would be on our side. And now there's the one who helped with Jessica's rescue. He has come to this country to receive benefits we've offered for his brave help. Though he's the first I can recall with that name. Of course we've had Muhammad Ali, the boxer, but I've never admired him since he quit being Cassius Clay to become a black Muslim claiming "I'm the greatest."

Hwew's some Memorial Day thoughts as I reflect on giants of our western civilization:   Today's the birthday of my own denomination, May 24, 1738. It was a miracle within John Welsey at a place called Aldersgate in east London. I've been there and tried to sense that "witness of the Spirit" that he wrote about in his diary: "I felt my heart strangely warmed and that Christ had taken away my sin, even mine. And that He had saved me from the law of sin and death." It was a change of heart that others wanted to experience, so societies were formed with strict discipline in conduct and only one requirement to belong: "a desire to be saved from your sins and to flee the wrath to come." To me it sounds like AA, "a desire to stop drinking." In derision they were called "Methodists." But it was part of an evangelical awakening that completed the Protestant Reformation of two centuries before.

I noticed "Science Facts" showing that it was during this same week back in 1543 when the Polish astronomer(also a priest, artist and very capable) Nicolaus Copernicus broke with Ptolomy's ancient earth centered universe by proving all known planets rotate around the sun. He got to see the first copy of his "Six Books Concerning the Revolutions of the Heavenly Orbs" on that very day when he died, May 24, He was a Catholic who dedicated his work to his pope, Paul III. So his own death saved him from the contaversy it later created for Galileo, who recanted to avoid being burned at the stake. And the Protestants also rejected his "new" view as contrary to Scripture; though it had been first proposed by a Greek thinker, Archaleus, nearly a millennium earlier. Never-the-less, the idea of a flat earth continued until that famous voyage of 1492, just a few years before Copernicus. And the heliocentric began to replace their geocentric world view. Subsequent astronomers have shown that niether the sun nor our own milky way galaxy are the center. Since Einstein's shown now that everything in creation is moving, then relativity rules our universe, with no fixed point that can be determined scientifically. His theory hit the 20th century about as hard as that of Copernicus in the 16th (or Newton's gravitation in the 17th). Einstein was a mathmatician, but the idealistic philosophy of Immanuel Kant in the 18th reducing everyting to reason had prepared the way by destroying metaphysics as mere speclation. Thus there was no place left in man's mind for God or angels. Higher math was the new language replacing theology; and I see the 19th century as atheistic madness (Chas.Darwin, Sigmond Freud, Karl Marx, Fredrick Nietsche and August Comte were it's exponents). Psalm 14 states "The fool has said in his heart 'There is no God.'" And it's repeated over in several places. So just such folly led to colossal disaster in the next century (WWs I & II, holocausts in Armenia and then Europe, plus a Cold War with WMD threats now replaced by another one against global terrorism. When I was in seminary back in the fifties we were heard of facing "the ontological shock." Back then it meant having your fundamentalist world view blown apart by modernism.. And that seemed to be the purpose of a seminary education. Here in the 21st century it's clear that the shock has gone into every facet of our existence. Where once a "modernist" view held things together, there's now constant fragmentation that can only be healed by Christ Himself Who is the way, the truth and the life. And Who will soon return. I even found myself praying for the pope recently, that the man now as great as that former Pole, Copernicus, would openly affirm this basic truth of the Gospel, called "the blessed hope" in our Bible. I've never heard him mention it yet but pray that he will before he dies or the Lord does return. It's one truth all Christians could and should agree upon.

Three weeks ago last Thursday there was a beautiful picture of the night sky above Wacker Park with an "orange Haze" extending from the horizon upward. I looked only a moment at it to discern Jacob's stairway that we used to call a ladder. King James translators were not aware of the ancient Sumerian ziggerats (pyramids) that existed in Mesopotamia. So they called it a "ladder." Then the old camp meeting song "We are climbing Jacob's ladder" made that seem quite   valid. But the New International Version as well as most recent translations have corrected it to compare to the long stairway up the side of that kind of pyramid in Haran up which the priests would ascend to confer with El, god of the Sumerians. Hebrews borrowed imagery for their faith in Yahweh and Jacob saw this part in his dream. Thus it was a "stairway to the stars" or the way to heaven or shalom (no coincidence that he dreamed it near the later site of Jerusalem). The stone he'd used for a pillow was set up vertical and anointed as Bethel which means "the house of God." And the LORD had told him that the land on which he slept would be his and his descendants (same promise given to Abraham and Isaac). So that dream has kept Israeli settlers out on the West Bank that now to be cleared for a Palestinian state by 2005. Now it appears that only their removal can stop the terrorist suicide bombers from Hamas and other such groups. So even Aerial Sharon is now going along with the Bush road map to peace. What else can he do? Maybe just wait for the Palestinians to fail miserably at statehood since they're so divided between Arafat and Abbas. We may get some "peace in our time" but that's all until the Prince of Peace returns in glory and majesty to judge the world. You know WHO that means

I went up to OKC for the opening of our annual conference Monday evening. It's really an awesom Comunion service each year. First the names of all deceased clergy and spouses are read from the past twelve months. Then the bishop and district superintends take the elements (bread and juice) before serving nearly a thousand of us in the congregation, both clergy and lay delegates. It's was good to see so many of the bothers and sisters I've known across the years. But I'm glad we were all wearing name tags.

Dough Taylor had our program and presented the speaker at Rotary last Friday, associate pastor of PV First UMC, Perla Goody. She told about the ministry to Hispanic that is now being provided including the recently started cost free clinic for those having no health insurance. It's announced in this paper each month on a Saturday morning. Several PV churches join together in this work. There are also classes to teach them English, which Perla feels is the biggest help that can be given. "You just can't function in America without knowing it's language." She told how her own father insisted the family use English, though her mother spoke Spanish when he wasn't around. Now she's grateful that he set the rule that caused her to be reared knowing English. I think Americans say Hispanic rather than Mexican today because many are already US citizens (Mexican meaning citizen of Mexico) or wanting to become such. So Hispanic's a more accurate term.

There's a building in WW being used again that has been empty for a while. It was first there for a church house I've been told.   Then it was a pizza place, next a flower shop and then Home Health Care and now it's become a liquor store. I stopped by on my route at the old Liberty Baptist building that's being torn down just south of SORC. One of the crew said it was a sad undertaking and I told them about the changed use of this WW building. She said "Well I guess this isn't as sad as that must be" and I agreed.   But a glad sight is rising up beyond the east side of WW where the steel frame of a new sanctuary for First Baptist is taking shape. It's a wonderful location and will be inspiring to behold as you drive all the way out on Kerr boulevard. going east.