Author Archives: bfrhodes99

The Difference Between Pride and Pride

Posted in Christian values by

During my preteen years, my oldest brother retired from the Army. He lived out near March AFB so he went out there about every other week for groceries. One time, I went with him. I noticed a few places where they had painted large, and I mean large signs, “PRIDE.”

I was a little confused. I had always been taught that pride was a bad thing. Certainly, the Bible has many passages on the subject, none of them depicted it as being good.

To be sure, if pride is not the worst sin, it is close to it. God hates it because it frequently stands between God and men. Invariably, before man will accept Jesus as his savior, God must first deal with his pride.

However, there is another kind of pride. From the time I joined the Marines, it was drummed into my head continuously. This kind of pride drives us to do our best, even without anyone watching over our shoulder.

Yet, as good as this form of pride is, it can be bad too. Any time we think more of ourselves than we ought to, it is wrong and it can stand in the way, even in the military.

Many times, we should use the term, thankful instead of proud. To say that we are thankful for something is to admit that we didn’t earn it. It was something that we received. It is a form of humility.

For sure there are many things in my life that I am thankful for, including my country. Because I am thankful, I do what I can to remain a good citizen.

Pride, however, can lead us astray, and can make us hard to live with. Let’s take the story my father told me:

A man walked into a blacksmith’s shop as he was pounding on a piece of steel. On the floor, the visitor noticed a horseshoe and picked it up. Quickly, he dropped it.

The blacksmith glanced over his shoulder and said, “Kind of hot wasn’t it?”

The man folded his hands behind him and said, “Oh, no. I was just looking at it.

Laughing the blacksmith remarked, “Well, you sure let go of it in a hurry.”

This visitor thought for a second then replied, “Yeah. It doesn’t take me long to look at a horseshoe.”

Now what about the story makes it funny. We can all identify with it. While we might not have ever touched a hot horseshoe, there are things that we did. Then of course, when we suffered for it, we tried to pretend it was no big deal.

In the case of the visitor in the blacksmith shop, he might have blisters on his fingers. He might be in excruciating pain. However, he’ll never admit it. He will hide his pain even to the point of keeping the expression of pain off his face. It would cause too much damage to his pride, or maybe, in the modern vernacular, ego.

Pride is a monster that can hang around our necks and keep us from being what we could be. When it controls us, it stands in the way of admitting what we are, sinners, totally dependent on the mercy of God. It goes against our grain to admit it, but admitting it is one of the first steps to salvation.

And that is the reason God hates pride.

Free Book

Posted in Free E-books by

November 6 & 7. “2 1/2 weeks.” It’s a fun book but it also might provoke a few thoughts.

Also, there is a full listing of all my books on my home page as well as a short description of each. They are grouped by series and groups.

To order any of my books you can just go to Amazon.com and search on the title or my name. In addition you can go to my Author’s page by entering:

http://www.amazon.com/author/story_teller

in the URL box. There is a complete listing there too but they are not grouped there, which might make it more difficult when dealing with books in series.

If you do like 2 1/2 weeks, you just might like “The Coincidence Theory.” This one will really make you think twice about coincidences. You might like the story too.

As a side note, I looked into having “The Prepper” edited professionally. I submitted the first chapter and looked at their work. It was indeed very professional, but they did a poor job of reading my book. In more than one instance, they changed the meaning. In one case, they completely reversed the meaning.

Does anyone know a good reasonably priced editor?

The Hard Part

Posted in Christian values, Liberals, Politcal Opinion by

Often I hear things and I wish I had written it down, as well as who said it. First, I would like to get the quote right and also it is only proper to attribute the quote to the proper person.

This quote, I am sure I will mangle. The preacher said it so elegantly, and I can only hope to get close to it.

At any rate, it goes something like this:

When coming to a difficult decision, the easy part is knowing what is right. The hard part is doing it.

I think back over my life of 72 years and the saying echos repeatedly. How many times, I chose the easy way because it was the easy way. This is especially true being as I am a habitual procrastinator. I always put off till tomorrow what I don’t have to do today. Also, if I put things off long enough, I just might not have to do it.

That doesn’t work for mowing grass. It only gets taller and more difficult. Nonetheless, I do hope for rain so I have an excuse to put off.

Excuses are the friend of a procrastinator. We can always find reasons, excuses for procrastinaing. Frequently, it isn’t that big of a problem. Sometimes, however, putting things off can have lifelong results. I know. I’ve seen many of them.

Getting back to the idea of making decisions. The other day, I missed an off ramp. I had to go seven miles before I could turn around. It was an inconvenience. I burnt some extra gas and it cost me a little time. On the positive side, I saw some nice scenery.

On the other hand, I have said things I cannot unsay. I have done things I cannot undo. They are things I need to live with the rest of my life. Oddly, I seem to remember them more than any good I did.

Moreover, there are decisions I have made because they were the easy thing. Perhaps, one of the biggest pieces of advice I can give a person is to do that which is right, even if it is the harder thing.

…and, as the man said, knowing the right thing is the easy part.

One more thing… Liberals like to talk you into the easy solution, not the right one, which is a little harder. They want you to take the easy way, the one you will regret. The country you leave your children will be no where near as good as the one you inherited.

Crooked Politicians

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Deceit, Lawyers and Representation, Politcal Opinion, The Squad by

Occasionally, in the old days, a democrat said something well worth repeating. FDR said we have nothing to fear but fear itself. JFK said ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country.

Nowadays, of course, the democrat invents all sorts of things the country can do for everyone. They have become the giveaway party, which ironically began with FDR. It about reached its apex with Johnson and his Great Society. That went over like a lead balloon. We had a higher percentage of poor after than before.

Truman had a pretty good saying, one which few quote. I don’t know the exact quote but it goes something like this. It is easy to tell the honest politicians from the the dishonest ones. The dishonest ones begin their career poor and retire very rich. (By the way, he did not retire rich.)

I know Biden likes to say he started his career as a poor man. I wonder just what his net worth is today. Seems to me that he has two very large homes in very exclusive neighborhoods. Hunter has at least one house that I wouldn’t be able to afford with four life long earnings, even if it were completely dedicated to the house. It sounds to me that they both have a ton and a half of net worth. I wonder where they got it all. I wonder how he plans to build on it.

It sounds like they has all the earmarks of crooked politicians to me.

It is bad enough that he used his office to make his fortune but Biden has also turned the helm of the country over to the squad. That’s not just bad. It is disastrous. Those communists have no intentions of letting us have it back- ever.

What Really Bothers Me About Jack Dorsey

Posted in Uncategorized by

I did watch the hearings on social media, though I could have predicted the outcome. I knew the three men testifying were very much biased. I don’t need a PhD to figure that out. It does bother me a little, but I expected it.

It was not much of a surprise to me that they would lie. It is sort of what democrats do. They can’t seem to help themselves. It did somewhat surprise me when Dorsey said he didn’t effect elections. I sort of figured it was one of his primary goals. As far as I can tell, it is still his main purpose in life.

However there was one thing that bothered me far more than anything else.

I had this uncontrollable urge to get a pair of scissors and cut his beard off about a quarter inch below his chin. I know it was impossible. Not only was there a great distance between us, I don’t think he would have allowed me to do it. Still, every time I saw his face appear on my H.D. TV screen, I wanted to find the scissors and reach into that image and rid him of that hidius growth.

The New Legislature

Posted in Lawyers and Representation, Politcal Opinion by

In 1973, or there abouts, a so-called landmark decision was made by the Supreme Court, Roe vs Wade. Until that point, abortion was illegal in some states and legal in others.

In November, I will be 73. So, I remember the arguments and the demonstrations. Every night it was on the news. At one point, there was a push to make federal legislation to make it legal throughout the country, never-mind some states were strongly against it. In fact, most states had laws against it, at least past the first trimester.

The legislation failed. They couldn’t get it by congress. I can’t remember for sure, but I suspect the president might have vetoed it if they had. However, those in favor of it came up with an end run. They challenged the laws in the courts.

Eventually, it made it to the Supreme Court. A few men in Black robes invented a right and the Supreme Court, contrary to the Constitution, became a legislative branch.

The democrats learned something that day. “If we can’t get something legal, just go to the courts.” and so it has been evermore. Whatever they can’t get past the House or Senate, they just go to the courts.

There is one problem with that logic. They need to make sure they have the right judges on the court. Without them, it won’t work.

Is it any wonder that they are throwing a hissy fit? In order to enact a law, they must do it the old fashioned way and they just might not be able to do it. The people just might not like it when when they do. (such as Obama care)

Worse yet, some of the decisions just might get overturned. Given the state of the art of medicine, sonograms and such, even Roe vs Wade might get overturned.

Is that such a horrible thing? Maybe the legislatures will have to make the decisions. And, by the way, the legislatures are subject to the people. I think that was the way the founders of the country meant it.

And, by the way, that genius, the one that is going to invent the cure for cancer, maybe he won’t be killed before he is born.

Yep! Biden Stepped in it.

Posted in Biden, Kamala Harris by

You can tell he stepped in something because the instant the debate was over, you could tell he was trying really hard to get something off his shoe(s). However, it is too late. The people have seen him for what he is, at least a little anyway and I don’t think they liked the smell.

Now he’s in a real fix. First, he can no longer say he doesn’t lie. He was caught red-handed. The frackers (of which there are many in the Quaker State) won’t like him because they know he will take food off the dining room table he likes to talk about. Worse, as he tries to shore up the loss of votes from the frackers, he will say almost anything in an attempt to convince them he didn’t mean it.

That really causes problems. The more he says he will allow fracking, the more he will lose from his green-deal base. I don’t know about you but that looks like a predicament to me. The only saving grace he has is that 50 million people already voted. They can’t change their minds. (Sounds like a reason those dummycrats are so much in favor of early voting)

By the way, I noticed one more thing during the debate. I think if it went on for twenty or thirty more minutes, Biden would decide it was nap time and go to sleep right there in front of everyone.

This does create a real problem for Kamala Harris. If they can’t drag him across the finish line, she very likely will not be able to inherit the presidency… bummer.

One more thing. A dam is just about to break and the world is going to find out that Biden, his son and all those millions he got from all those countries. As long as the dam holds past the inauguration, she just might get the brass ring, assuming that Biden is not so badly damaged that he doesn’t get elected.

That seems to be an obstacle getting more difficult to manage every day. They still need to clean Biden’s shoes off without losing too much of his base.

Giving Credit

Posted in Abuse of Power, Biden, Deceit, Politcal Opinion by

I hate to do it, but I must give credit where credit is due. The moderator was actually somewhat reasonable for the debate. The only thing I would hold against her was that she interrupted President Trump over thirty times and Biden twice, maybe three times. I’m not sure which.

Either way, it is over ten times as many. Nonetheless, when either wanted some time to respond, she seemed equally willing.

I do believe Biden really put his foot in it at the end. He made it quite clear that he planned on doing away with all fossil fuel by 2035. That is simply is not going to happen.

First, it would mean really building up the electrical grid system far beyond possibility. I’m not even sure they could make that much wire in that time. If all cars are going to be run from electricity, we are not only speaking of enough for the current but for the vast expansions of cars as well. I would say that in 15 years, we are talking at least an increase of 15 or 20% of autos.

And that’s not all. What about all the houses and buildings that are heated with natural gas, propane or heating oil?

Assuming that the grid could be built up, how do you plan on generating that much electricity. I have a clue for you. You can’t build that many windmills or solar cells.

Besides all that, with his statement, Biden just lost Pennsylvania. They produce a lot of fossil fuel in that state. and, oh yes, they use a lot of it there too. It would take a lot of solar cells to produce the power to run one small steel furnace.

It is just another of many indications that Joe never did anything but politics. I mean, even an eighth grader might have realized his error.