One of my favorite authors is Joseph Conrad. Brooke sparked me to read one of his stories again so I can talk to her about it. It is the tale: “Heart of Darkness”. Reading Conrad is no easy task. So much of the narrative is the record of the inner working of the minds of the characters, in this case the character Marlow.

Moving along the Thames on a yacht, the seaman Marlow shares his African experience with some friends. As a youngster the open spaces on the map of Africa beckoned him. He tries to get hired by a French firm to operate a ship along a river that comes out of the deepest Africa. He is so taken with the idea that he enlists an Aunt to help him get the job. He arrives at the mouth of the great river. He witnesses a group of black prisoners being herded along. We hear his thoughts as the white guard gives the knowing look of partnership to Marlow: “After all, I also was a part of the great cause of these high and just proceedings”. He is not.

At headquarters his reputation is enhanced because of the strings the aunt pulled to get him hired. The management staff puts him in the same category of persons as a man named Kurtz. Kurtz, “a remarkable man” sends in more ivory than all of the other traders combined. An overland hike leads him to the Central Station where he must begin repairs on the boat he is to Captain further into the interior. We read the word “nigger” used to describe a man beaten for starting a fire. After the beating he just disappears into the surrounding jungle. All of these events are shared to give insight to the thinking of the character Marlow.

He learns more of Kurtz from the jealous management of Central Station. Kurtz the “universal genius” has become the focus of the novel. He repairs the boat and off they go up river. Marlow overhears a conversation about Kurtz’s last shipment of ivory that came down the river in a fleet of canoes. Kurtz decided to turn back at the last moment but the ivory arrived. He calls the white men pilgrims. He and the pilgrims start up river with a crew of cannibals. On this journey we get his impressions of the natives on the shores. “The prehistoric man was cursing us, praying to us, welcoming us—who could tell?”

A quote that almost any visitor to the edges of African society can relate to is: “It was unearthly, and the men were—No, they were not inhuman. Well, you know, that was the worst of it—this suspicion of their not being inhuman. It would come slowly to one. They howled, and leaped, and spun, and made horrid faces; but what thrilled you was just the thought of their humanity—like yours—the thought of your remote kinship with this wild and passionate uproar. Ugly. Yes, it was ugly enough; but if you were man enough you would admit to yourself that there was in you just the faintest trace of a response to the terrible frankness of that noise, a dim suspicion of there being a meaning in it which you—you so remote from the night of first ages—could comprehend.” Thus, the foreshadowing of Kurtz’s outcome builds. The phrase, though not in the book, is: going native.

They arrive at a hut with a note urging them to hurry but be careful. Eight miles out, they anchor for the night. The morning founds them surrounded in a fog. I remember a burning around the Mazabuka school during a basketball tournament that riled up a horde of bees. I was walking across a field noticing all of the young men throwing themselves to the ground. I only realized why as the bees began to buzz my head. This is what I thought about as I read of the attack upon the boat. Marlow watches as his crew is scurrying for cover around him while he is yet to realize that they are being assaulted by a fuselage of arrows. The attack inspires some shooting by the pilgrims, the wounding and death by spear of his helmsman. It was the tooting of the boat’s horn that frightens the attackers away. We learn later that it was Kurtz himself who had ordered the attack.

Marlow dumps the helmsman body over board and talks of the bond that the job had created between himself and the helmsman. We get more and more hints about Kurtz. A picture is beginning to emerge of a man left to his own devices who used his Western technology and his natural talents to gain ascendance over the tribes for the purpose of obtaining ivory. This power has created a lock on his soul that leads him into acts and thoughts that are more and more divorced from his European roots.

They reach Kurtz’s station. The pilgrims go ashore. A young Russian who has befriended the mercurial Kurtz comes on board and shares more insights about Kurtz to Marlow. He eventually disappears into the jungle with some gifts from Marlow after realizing that the pilgrims will not treat him properly. This is where we hear of Kurtz’s exploits with the tribes. The two sides of his existence are illustrated as we learn of the conversations between the Russian and Kurtz that illustrate the higher nobility of man and the base emotions that take Kurtz over even to the threatening with death of the one man who adores him and has nursed him through sicknesses. Marlow confirms this soulish struggle by viewing with his binoculars the skulls on poles surrounding Kurtz’s camp. We learn that they are only the heads of rebels to the rule of Kurtz.

The pilgrims bring Kurtz on a stretcher to the boat. His voice still commands authority over the natives as they bring him to the boat. It is here that we are given the description of the African woman in the finest attire that her society can provide. She comes to the shore before all of her tribesmen and is seeming to give a final cry for the return of Kurtz to her and what he has created.

Kurtz on board with his methods of procuring ivory disgraced in the eyes of the pilgrims waiting to die. Marlow wakes in the night to find Kurtz gone. He goes ashore in the dark and follows the trail and finds him. One word from Kurtz can bring his swift death by the surrounding natives. But, Marlow is able to get him back onto the boat. His description of his thoughts as he brings the man in is worth reading. The next day they take off down the river to a throbbing group of natives who do not have the heart to make an attempt to stop them. It was the sound of the horn that scatters them, all except for the one proud African princess who refuses to cower in fear.

Marlow hears Kurtz’s soul struggle fought out in his delirious condition. His desires for greatness and notoriety, his dreams, his betrothed and his new found African lusts and desires. His final words: “The horror. The horror”. Marlow is forever linked to Kurtz and his legacy. He had been entrusted with some documents by Kurtz before his death. His life will never be the same.

Home again, he has experienced something only able to be described this night on the yacht. He rebuffs attempts by the company to get Kurtz’s documents. He decides to give them to Kurtz’s betrothed. He visits her. She was greatly in love with the man. She was in love with his dreams. She was in love with his noble character. Marlow his friend. Present at his death. His final words. What were they? This woman who reminds Marlow of the African woman on the shore wants to know the final words of Kurtz, her beloved. Marlow lies:  “The last word he pronounced was—your name. All of these events are recounted with an examination of what Marlow is thinking.

We all live lives, thinking as we go. Joseph Conrad catches this and writes about it well.

I am back in Prescott after a good revival in Kingman. Darrel, one of Chuck’s guys gave me a Marine Corp bible in honor of my father’s service. I was very pleased. Pastor Chuck Haynes and family are adjusting to life in Kingman after living in the Midwest for all of their lives. Chuck and I took a drive down Indian Hwy 6 out of Peach Springs to the bottom of Grand Canyon. I believe it is the only road that goes all the way down to the Colorado.

Here in Prescott we invited the church coffee roasters, Steve Garfield and Al Hermann, over for a coffee tasting Saturday morning. It was a lot of fun as we tasted their different roasts and different beans. We had an espresso made from Colin Street’s Mazabuka “Zambia Terranova Estate”. Colin was one of my golfing buddies in Mazabuka. He always dreamed of getting his coffee in Starbucks. Zambian coffee is high quality that is used to bring up the quality of blends but is not a large enough crop to warrant its own packaging and name. Colin, because of his school, clinic, and game park along with an exceptionally good year was able to get his coffee highlighted in all of the Starbucks this last January as their “Black Apron” choice.

The Sunday service had some excitement as one of the older saints had a feigning spell as Sunday school ended. She recovered amidst the excitement of the moment. Mrs. Mitchell came over and put her arm around her giving her some comfort. You have to remember that despite over 1500 churches springing out of this Prescott church, underneath it all it is just some regular folks loving God. Well there somewhat regular. After church we were invited over to Woody and Joan Carter’s for dinner. Woody is a United Airline pilot who has many different interests. He, his son and his daughter treated us to musical rendition of Scottish ballads. Michelle was on the harp, Woody Jr. on the violin and Woody alternating between flutes and a bagpipe.

I am looking forward to the week home. I have several projects that I need to finish this week including my part of the James Tembo web site. The pictures are from our trip to the Colorado.

Joan and I took a drive in the country when I came back from San Antonio. We searched for Perkinsville. This is the town that Jerry Perkins from the Wickenburg church is from. We drove over unpaved roads, stopped and had a picnic in a dry stream bed and generally enjoyed all of the views. We could tell we were angling towards the other side of Mingus Mountain towards Jerome when we came into a green valley. It must have been the Verde River. That was where we came to Perkins Ranch. I am not sure if that was Perkinsville or not. It was getting dark when we came to a fork in the road to go to Jerome or Chino Valley. We chose Chino and home for ice cream with Howard and Lorraine who were visiting from their new home in Indiana. Remind me to take my camera next time. We will go again and finish the trip to Jerome or take the same back roads up to Williams.

I just finished preaching for Les and Sally Uptain in San Antonio. The church reminded me of my early days in Wickenburg. God is building his church one person at a time. Les has retained that commitment to one on one evangelism and it shows in the church. Each night church members brought visitors. Les has also retained a passion for life that was contagious to be around. He is slightly ahead of me in years, but probably looks younger. The key was when he assembled his music group together to sing some songs. Passion blasted out on his bass and his vocals. This passion carried over to Eddie his lead singer, the drummer and the lead guitarist. It was old fashion rock and roll and I wasn’t the only one there enjoying it – so were all of the young kids. It is great to be saved and in church.

I started reading “World Chaos” “Its Root and Remedy” “An Inquiry into the Deeper Reasons and urgent Lessons” by G. H. Lang. I happened upon this book published in 1948. It discusses history and philosophy in the light of what just happened with Hitler and Germany. Once, I started I realized it was not just a small bite size theme. So I haven’t given myself to it yet. This post is to refer to this film by Alfred Hitchcock, a documentary on the killing camps of Germany. Warning: it is very graphic. I think God is lining me out for something. I was thinking about Pastor’s Mitchell’ guide wanting to come to America for peace and wondering if he could come to a land that could repeat Germany’s errors in relation to the Jews? Just wondering.

In the conclusion Lang writes: “An old man of seventy-three years now lays down his pen. Over many years I have written much on many subjects, but little on Affairs public. Perhaps in this I have failed in my duty as a teacher of the Word of God. I am not an expert upon public matters…in these pages the reader is offered some results of the observation and reflection of almost sixty years of this transit through time into eternity which we call life, but which all the journey through partakes painfully of the character of its end—death.”

I have not been preaching an end time’s sermon, yet I include some indicators of the times we live in sprinkled in my sermons. I read this article describing single, young females as an international trend.  I wonder if this can be another indicator of a generation that will reject God and welcome the Anti-Christ and his mark.

1 Tim 2:14 And Adam was not deceived, but the woman being deceived, fell into transgression. NKJV

Wherever, these SYF’s go the SYM’s will be sure to follow.

I have just finished reading Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Israel. The book discusses the impact of blogs upon the business world. What got me interested in the blogs was following the 2004 election. Christmas in Cambodia and Dan Rather brought out an inflated power of blogs. I believe there are over 20 million and counting blogs now. In politics the era of unaccountability is over. “Be sure your sin will find you out” will follow every public leader in any arena. The book goes to great length to explain how blogs will expose the good and the bad in every business. Rather than fight against blogs, businesses need to find a way to live and prosper with them. So blogs help businesses to be more transparent and honest, which is good for the business and their customers. My business scriptures start with:

 Prov 16:11

11 Honest weights and scales are the LORD's;

All the weights in the bag are His work. NKJV

Prov 20:10

10 Diverse weights and diverse measures,

They are both alike, an abomination to the LORD. NKJV

The concept of honesty in business is “His work”.

The book talked about which corporations were allowing their employees to blog and which were not. Surprisingly, Microsoft is leading the way with an open policy and Google still keeps everything behind the corporate groupthink message. They talked about one church in Grapevine Texas. This got me to thinking about where our fellowship would fall in terms of accepting or suppressing blogs. When I returned from Zambia I thought I would find our pastors and fellowship using blogs. That has not been the case. As far as I know, I am the only blogging pastor in our fellowship. (Would love to know of any others) I have tried to promote blogging but I am not sure it goes with the nature of our fellowship. I am sure that will change.

Pastor Mitchell had a birthday the other day, he turned 78. He was in a good mood at breakfast. He was bouncing around some ideas and I was enjoying catching and throwing some ideas around. He was talking about the weariness that goes with the constant reality of spiritual warfare. At one point he referred to Goliath’s promise and I was able to chirp in that he was lying and got a laugh. He then referenced Ariel Sharon. He said that must have been what happened to him; he just got tired of fighting. He mentioned a guide on the Israel tour who said he was tired of fighting; he had been in 3 Israeli Arab wars and just wanted to go to America and live in peace. There was just a touch of weariness in Pastor Mitchell’s demeanor.

I do think about the future of our fellowship. I wonder if we will allow Pastor Mitchell to be the honored and anointed elder statesman of our fellowship or if we will swallow him up with rebellions, divisions and personal assaults. The reality of age doesn’t go away. I think about some of the issues that I have involved him in concerning my ministry, and know I would not be here now except for his wisdom and grace. Yet, the years will go by and we will have another man take his place some day. I want to think that we would rally around whichever man takes his place as leader of the fellowship. What are we pastors thinking as we look into the future?

Judg 21:25 In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did what was right in his own eyes .NKJV

Self preservation is natural and necessary, but will be able to trust God during the times of decision.  

In our last conference Scott Lamb preached a great message about the infiltration of lying into our public discourse as normal. He used this as a sign of the times we are living in. I have been struck by the young boy paraded out by the democrats to give the rebuttal to President Bush’s veto of SHCIP. Here is a link that examines the truth behind this move.

The link also recalls another child paraded before us by Hillary Clinton to accomplish similar goals. The bible says: “Be sure your sin will find you out”.

Here is a part:

Politicians unquestioningly embraced the Bushes and their tale of need. Hillary cuddled with seven-year-old Jennifer for the cameras; their mugs were splashed on the pages of USA Today and newspapers across the country. Shamelessly coached, Jennifer gave the Clintons a lucky silver dollar “to bring you good luck so everyone can have good insurance.” In another pre-programmed, kiddie-sized soundbite, Jennifer dutifully told the press: “I pray every night that I can get better - and that everyone can have insurance.”

Jennifer’s mother reveled in the relentless media attention and generous outpourings of public sympathy. Dropped by the family’s health insurer, out of a job, and in allegedly dire financial straits, Mrs. Bush poignantly appealed for government relief from the burden of Jennifer’s mysterious illness. “It’s strangling us,” she told one reporter.

But who was strangling whom? Several years before Hillary deified Mrs. Bush and elevated Jennifer to poster-child stardom, suspicious medical professionals had already begun questioning the mother’s role in making her “beautiful little angel” sick. Nurses complained that Mrs. Bush was force-feeding her child with unnecessary seizure drugs that made her vomit. Independent specialists conducted extensive tests on Jennifer and found no evidence of digestive disorders. When Jennifer was separated from her mother for treatment at a Cincinnati hospital, the starved child feasted mightily on pizza, hot dogs, and chocolate bars. Meanwhile, authorities discovered that while the Bush family claimed poverty because of Jennifer’s health problems, they had splurged on trips to the Bahamas and Disney World, house remodeling, and a new Harley-Davidson motorcycle.

Dr. Eli Newberger, a professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School, concluded that nothing in Jennifer’s extensive records indicated “that the child has any underlying illness except the suffering she has had to endure as a result of efforts to portray her as needing urgent care.” Jennifer was removed from her family in 1996 and has been healthy ever since.

…[In February 2000], Kathleen Bush – Hillary Clinton’s once-proud and loud sister in arms — was sentenced to five years in prison on two counts of aggravated child abuse and one count of fraud. She also pled guilty to a separate count of welfare fraud for misrepresenting $60,000 in assets on Medicaid forms. “There was probably more abuse in this single case,” lead prosecutor Bob Nichols noted, “than in all of the child-abuse cases I’ve prosecuted in my life combined.”

“Be sure your sin will find you out”.

I am just finishing a great revival for Dan and Peggy Jamison in Oroville, CA. I had preached here about 10 years ago and was blessed to see two men again, Chris and Clint, doing well in the church. This church is a sanctuary church, a place where lives can be restored in an atmosphere of love. Many rough lives are getting some smooth edges. The church is attracting folks from the recovery houses that populate Oroville.

There is a connection between sin and losing individual freedoms. The power of the state to intrude and control your life once your alcoholic or drug sin has been discovered by the state is scary. Programs, half-way houses and all that goes with it can serve to get a person started in the right direction, but those very same programs serve to keep them tethered to their addictions. Breaking free through Christ calls for breaking free from an overbearing system that robs the individuals of dignity. It can be a slow process.

Yet, the system has no choice but to take these actions because sin has caused such a disintegration of the basic family structure. I preached my child training sermon for the first time in a while. The sermon was well received and I think some parents and children were helped. Afterwards, I discovered that in CA no one is allowed to spank a child with any instrument. A family that is not captured by the system could probably discipline their children God’s way without any interference from the state.

A family that disciplines properly has children who respect their parents and understand that their spankings were caused by their refusal to do what their parents said. Disciplining children properly brings about an atmosphere of love and respect that most likely will continue from one generation to the next. The state would never have reason to interfere.

I have a first reaction to laws that prevent parents from disciplining their children. I want to claim that it is something connected to my religious beliefs. But, the Muslim religion calls for some violent acts. So if my religion allows me to avoid the laws of the land then so would a Muslim’s. So we have to live in a land where the letter of the law can sometimes negate the spirit of the law. The reason we have to endure this is because sin has destroyed families, marriages and the basic motivations of parenthood have been marred by sin.

Joan is taking a British Literature class and is reading Chaucer’s “Canterbury Tales”. We came across an interesting twist in one of the stories. The wife of several men shared her story about a knight of the round table who raped a maiden and Queen Guinevere told him to travel and find out what women really want before being sentenced. An old woman tells him the answer. Women want to be the boss over men (“sovereignty over husband and lover”). When he returns to the court with his answer all of the women of the court agree that he truly has found out what women want.

Chaucer probably got this thought through observation but I imagine he was also familiar with the biblical base of the statement. We find it in Gen. 3:16: “…Your desire shall be for your husband, And he shall rule over you." NKJV

I first heard James Dobson in one of his early film series take this passage on. Although most men would like to believe that it is talking about a wife sexually desiring her husband, what it really is referring to is the issue of who is in charge. The curse from the garden which Chaucer alludes to is that women will always want to be the boss over their husbands but “he shall rule over you”. It seems in subsequent film series Dobson hasn’t been as adamant about this point.

That specific Hebrew word translated “desire” is also used in the passage about Cain and Able. God admonishes Cain to do what is right but then warns him that if he does wrong: Gen 4:7 And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it." NKJV

We see the same tensions of who should rule over whom. Wife wants to rule but man will. Sin desires to rule but we should rule over it.

This brings us to Hillary Clinton. Who is the boss in the Clinton marriage? I was struck with Mrs. Clinton’s response when she was informed that her statement about torture did not match her husband’s. Basically, her response was that she would straighten him out when she got home.

President Clinton traded leadership in his marriage for his extra-marital affairs. This opened the floodgates of the curse from the garden working in Mrs. Clinton’s life. The culmination for her is the total reversal of roles as she enters the White House.