RUST ON MY SOUL (12th in Series of Novel)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”
 
For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins" click on the following URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

***************************************************************
RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally)

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)
*************************
In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

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Afternoon
I just finished a month of ushering and taking up the collection. What the preacher talked about in his sermons I’ll never know. We always take the money to the office to be counted before the service is over.

And what pikers! I hope most of the members love their Lord more than their giving indicates. I read somewhere recently that last year Americans spent almost thirty five billion dollars on liquor alone.

Obviously, many think more of their bonded spirits than the Holy Spirit.

And pornography – sometimes I think we are a community of clean sheets and dirty minds.

I’m sick of me, but not sick enough to do anything about it, yet. Maybe one of these days, I will. Maybe someday I’ll treat the cross like something more than a decoration. Maybe the sun will stop in mid-sky, too.

Evening
Some quiet inside. That’s what I want. Outside you can find it at three A.M. I’ve done that.

But inside, where my guts are tied in knots and my mind races a thousand miles an hour in a hundred different directions, there isn’t any. Why? Where? How?

Afternoon

We put on such a flashy front. Most everyone I know buys more than they can afford because we’re told we need it. I can’t stand my job. I’d like to go back to doing what I really like, but I probably won’t. I’m locked into the rat race because I’ve become addicted to the cheese.

The speaker at today’s luncheon came out of the ghetto and he spent thirty minutes trying to make us understand what it was like.

I found my mind wandering; I couldn’t stop thinking about the office that, that rattle in my new car, the economy. Was he really that bad a speaker or could it be I just don’t care?

I wonder how many others had the same reaction. Sorry commentary on mankind.
Evening

I drove angrily this evening. It’s a wonder I didn’t participate in a collision. I’d already collided with the tax auditor.

“I just want proof, Mr. Kettering, that you gave that much to the church. Otherwise, it will be disallowed,” he said implacably.

Where does he got off, questioning m return, that smug little smile rubber-stamped to his bureaucratic face.

“If I say I gave it, I gave it!”

He never really answered, just moved on to other questions. I had lied, of course. Doesn’t everyone?

I’m not going to buy bombs or underwrite waste if I can help it. Besides, what the government doesn’t get, I keep. It’s an arrangement I can live with quite nicely.

TO BE CONTINUED

(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)
Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

********************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

 

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

 

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON Amazon.com KINDLE Reader

SOUNDLESS HISTORY?

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”
 

For Neil's "One a Day Your Spiritual Vitamins" click on the following URL 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*********************************************************************

Try to think of history without sound.

Try to imagine great battles surrounded by complete silence.

Try to imagine diplomats from two opposing countries debating in silence.

Suppose there had never been Roosevelt’s quiet fireside chats,

Hitler’s wild chattering,

Nero playing his fiddle,

Lincoln and his Gettysburg address,

The leadership voice of Washington at Valley Forge.

No shouts at Bunker Hill

Voices of hope echoing off the bow of the Mayflower.

Paul and his words on his missionary journeys,

The voice of the Son of God, his words recorded into the written word.

The voice of Peter saying, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

Christ saying of himself, “He that hath seen me hath seen the father.”

The voice of Stephen dying under a hail of stones, “Lord, lay not this sin to their charge.”

And the beginning of it all, the voices of angels to shepherds on the side of a hill, “Be not afraid; for behold I bring you good news of great joy which will be to all people; for unto you is born this day in the city of David a Savior, who is Christ the Lord.”

The voices of the prophets, Isaiah Jeremiah, Nehmiah and a host of others.

Moses and the Ten Commandments and the voice of God.

The voices of Abraham and Isaac and Noash and his ark.

The sound of rain that fell for forty days and forty nights.

Voices in the Garden of Eden.

The foolish voices of those who had nothing better to do than argue as to how many angels could dance on the head of a pin.

The sounds of great choirs dating back through the centuries.

History is recording sound at this very moment and slightly before and soon thereafter.

What you have been saying on this day and will be saying and your words traveling through timeless space never to be quieted.

In closing, can we play for a moment the WHAT IF game?

What if someone had looked at the art of Adolph Hiller and praised him for having great talent and he had become a great artist instead of…(and think of who you would add to this WHAT IF game,)

What if someone had looked at you and said “…….” Instead of “………”

What if you had looked at all those you have spoken to, in the making of your history and there’s and had said “…………” or “…………..”

What will you say in the future and to who and why?

And how soon after you have spoken it will become the past…and what you said will have been a blessing or it will have been a ………….

“But I tell you, on the day of judgment men will have to give account for every idle (inoperative, nonworking) word they speak.” Matthew 12: 36

********************************

 

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

 

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON Amazon.com KINDLE Reader

IS THERE HOPE FOR THE FUTURE?

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG
“ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…
To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

********************************************************************

Is there hope for the future of each of us? Of course. We live. We learn and as Yogi Berra pronounced “It ain’t over till it’s over.”

Therefore, may I ask you to do yourself a favor?

Open a bag!

That’s right, your bag of memories…and start pulling them out…your first kiss, your first curse, your first pledge of allegiance, your first real bout with immorality, your first theft, your first prayer and the list goes on and on and already you have said, “But….”

Ah, but you have stopped…you have pulled out a memory that has set your heart to beating like a thousand drums gone mad. Your eyes are on fire.

It is an old hate and you shudder at the realization that it is still alive and that there is still such passion in it.

You were hurt and you have not forgotten and you have not forgiven and it is an open wound that bleeds and festers and makes you ill and has made you ill and will continue to hurt your health if you do not destroy this hate.

And you are frantically searching for another memory. You do not like what it is doing to you, this memory of hateful moment. You want to do something about it but again you don’t want to do something about it. Will you come back and with your hand in the hand of the Lord do something about it? Time will tell.

You have found it…and this is a good memory. It is your child and all the memories of all the raising you have done and how blessed you have been even when you have been wrong sometimes in the raising…for you have loved this child and they know it and knew it and things are good as they should be. And if they are not…the power of forgiveness always stands ready to overcome.

And the memory of the day you confirmed your faith.

Your first love.
Your first …

And as good and bad memories come forth a phrase escapes from your memory,
”Be patient, neither libertines nor saints are made suddenly.”

Is there hope? St. Francis of Assisi wrote, “Start by doing what’s necessary; then do what’s possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible.”

Memories? Memories remind us mistakes were made. It does not mean we have to continue to make them. It does not mean we have to like or be proud of all of them, It does mean that we are granted the great and glorious privilege of learning from them.
2 Corinthians 5:17

“Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come.” 

*****************************************************************

 

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

 

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

 

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

 

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON Amazon.com KINDLE Reader

RUST ON MY SOUL (11th in Series of Novel)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL 

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

**************************************************
RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally)
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

**************************************************
Morning

Lord, this isn’t a prayer. It’s an announcement.

Please get away from the door to my heart!

Sometimes your knocking drives me crazy. It’s not that I have not sinned and need no Savior; it is not that I have all wisdom and need no guidance; it is not that I am completely self-sufficient and need no help.

I‘m not ready, that’s all.

I’ve met a few who are so obsessed with heavenly things they’re no longer any earthly good.

I can’t handle that in other people and I couldn’t handle it in me. At least I’m not ready to try.


Evening

“Tom,” Nancy asked, “do you know how long it has been since we went out to dinner, just the two of us?”

And I knew Nancy’s question was more than culinary.

It asked, “What has happened to us?” Why has it happened? Is it too late to do anything about it?”

So the foray goes on and our confidence grows ragged. Battle traffic, inflationk, property taxes, crime.

I fight for my job and a decent wage.

I try to see that my children grow up without disaster, to keep my marriage on an even keel, to keep my sanity.

It is little wonder that a pinprick can sometimes draw a pint of blood.


Afternoon

I’ve got my name on the rolls and a place in the power, but God in my life? Forget it!

I’ve got enough trouble with this world; I don’t have time to worry about heaven.

And Christian obedience leaves me cold. I’ve never been one to take orders. Being a church member is quite enough without taking it too seriously.
Evening

I made a killing today yet here I sit with a bad feeling in the pit of my being. A year ago I’d have been out celebrating.

Instead, here I am writing in this damn diary again. Is there some moral law that my subconscious hasn’t quite forgotten?

It doesn’t bother other people I meet in business. Or does it? Could there be other spiritual Dr. Jeckylls and Mr. Hydes like me?

Edgar is in electronics and it must pay well. His pool is better than mine, his car is better than mine; his wife is more beautifully dressed than mine. (Better not tell Nancy that,)

His nose twitches without shame at the sweet smell of success. Yes; I’m envious of his outer successes, but it’s that inner feeling of content which he exuces that I so desp0erately want and need.

That’s where my real envy zeros in.

“God made me rich.” It was blatant but he seemed honestenough.Is that his secret to success?

Has he found a way to apply Christian ethics to the marketplace? I’d be ashamed to ask God to co-sign the last deal I made.

Is one of the best-kept corporate secrets the fact that even successful men have souls, and that when they are not properly fed they suffer from spiritual malnutrition?

Is Edgar completely honest and above board and still making a profit? Is he paying his workers more than the going wage and still making a profit? How can he be so foolish and wise all the same time…or is that what it is all about?

*********************************
TO BE CONTINUED 

(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)
Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

*********************************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this blog and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

  Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON Amazon.com KINDLE Reader

COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN, COMPLAIN

 

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

 **********************
For some people life is an ongoing battle.

From the time they get up until they lay down they fight their fellowman and they fight their God.

Their car won’t work right and they complain about the mechanic who tried to fix it.

The streets are crowded and they complain about all the people “Who should have stayed at home.”

When business is bore they complain of boredom. When business is good they complain of being overworked.

When their children sing songs they complain that they are being too noisy. When they are quiet they find fault with them for not having enough get up and go.

Others waste their minds; those wonderful God given instruments that are made so interesting when we fill them with knowledge rather than fill them with nothing. The philosopher Seneca wrote “How well it would be, if men would but exercise their brains as they do their bodies, and take as much pains for virtue as they do for pleasure.”

Negative! It is an attitude that destroys.

Can you imagine how different your life would be without complaining?

What if Thanksgiving for you weren’t a Day in November but rather an attitude that ignored the calendar but not the attitude?

Therefore…“Do all things without complaining and disputing, 15 that you may become blameless and harmless, children of God without fault in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation…” Philippians 2:14,15
*****************************************************************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

 

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON KINDLE



A JOURNEY CALLED SORROW

REMEMBER WEEK a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICk AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG
“ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…
To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL  

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

************************
If you would drive a man to madness, convince him that he is soon to become completely alone. He will not long think with reason or act with sanity. Grief does this – lonely, sometimes bitter, often afraid man looks out into the dark of night and cries “Why?”

There is no complete getting over loss. What was is always missed. It is called memory. Perhaps it was sweet, perhaps it was bitter, but we always carry a little of yesterday with us.

No one reacts to grief the same way. In such moments of pain, our individuality still persists. Some weep, some sit in shocked silence, still others chatter incessantly. Often there is anger at the doctor, or God, or even at the deceased

The bereaved often need someone to briefly blame until they get their thinking straight.

Primary to easing grief is to be able to frame three words, “He (she) is dead.”

These words can cut like a knife but it is therapeutic surgery. It is learning to live with a reality.

It is giving God “the opportunity to deal with all of your sorrow at once instead of in bits and snatches.”

There is more guilt after death than at any other time. Often a husband or wife will feel guilty because with time, they are beginning to feel better, as if it were a denial of a great love, rather than God’s healing of a great pain.

God can heal…now can’t he? Therefore, reach out and take your misery to His creative hand, reach out and let him began give back your life in the form of spiritual maturity.

Pray a thanksgiving prayer, “Thank you God that I had her (him) even for this little while.”

“Thank you God for love that now is a pain but was a blessing and what a blessing it was.”

“Thank you God. But for your creative hand our love would never have been.”

Find someone else in need of loving care. Be ambassadors of the memory of the departed.

Do not mourn in solitude for weeks on end. The four walls of your home at first are a protection. Do not let them ever become a prison.

Walk early so you can be there when the sun rises from the horizon. Walk late so your can feel the healing of the stars.

Walk where you can hear the roar of an ocean or the tinkling of a stream or the whistle of the wind through the leaves.Walk in the sunshine. Walk in the rain.

Give nature its chance to heal.

Psalm 46:1 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in times of trouble.

 *****************************************************************
 If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

 

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON Amazon.com KINDLE Reader

RUST ON MY SOUL (10th in Series of Novel)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com 

******************************************************

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.

************************************
Morning

My boss is old school. His style of speech is like some ancient rusting machine gun, erratic but rapid, loud, and by sheer dint of repetition, effective.

He remembers what he did to succeed.

“It will work, D.I.” My charts were color-coordinated, my presentation well-rehearsed, my examples many and right to the point.

“No,” he pointed to the wall. There, framed, was a single sentence that perfectly spelled out his philosophy’’

I LISTEN TO NEW IDEAS BUT I PREFER THE TRIED AND TRUE.

I am paid well to do my job and endure this kind of frustration I earn every cent of it.

If I could order a new boss from a catalogue, what would the order designate?

Would he be young and energetic? But would I then feel threatened?

Would he be open-minded and enthusiastic toward every idea I brought him? But would this bore me and make me wonder who should be boss?

D.I…lurched forward as he spoke. He is never really relaxed.

“Your proposal has its good points, but you have a tendency to go off the deep end. You ought to know by now what my reaction would be to this sort of thing.”

“Thanks, but I had to give it a good try. I owe that to both of us. Is that all” He was already on the pone as I left his office.

 
I took my carefully prepared charts and filed them away. There will be another day, another year. A different package but the same idea. I never give up. I’ll be back, D.I. I’ll be back.

Evening

Vanity has become a chip on my shoulder, a hole in my head and a thorn in my side. I demand praise and refuse criticism.

Sam Gregory describes me perfectly, “He walks with himself along the broad space of his thought. He silently utters his own praises.”

 
I’m no illiterate. I’ve read enough and remembered enough to be better than I am. But I’m not ready to be humble and I don’t really believe the meek will inherit the earth. What I want is God’s blessings but not His admonitions.

Afternoon

I haven’t written anything in several days and it’s Sunday again. We’ve surprised ourselves and been fairly regular churchgoers. So, how has it been? Worse!

When I readied myself for church this morning my preparation was magnificent. I filled my stomach with hot coffee and pancakes, my mind with world affairs, football statistics and the comics, and the receptivity of my soul by bawling out Nancy and the kids for being so slow.

That’s why I had such a fine spiritual experience, that’s why I gave with joy when the offering plate came by, that’s why I’m spilling over with sarcasm.

I’m soul deep in weariness, a crying clown in the circus of life. “Toot!” goes the clown and waves a flag that reads, “To hell with it all.”

“Toot!” If the audience of my peers could see me they would gasp in amazement, for they perceive me, I think, as a giant in the circus, all strong and tall and muscular of mind and spirit. “That Thomas Kettering can handle anything.” That’s what they think.

“Toot!” goes the clown and waves another flag, “I wish it were so.” I only wish it were so.

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this blog and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

HIS 9TH BOOK “THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN” IS AVAILABLE ON KINDLE

WHAT IS THE PURPOSE OF LIFE?

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLIKC AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG
“ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…
To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL 

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

**********************************************************************

“In the visible world the Milky Way is a tiny fragment. Within this fragment the solar system is an infinitesimal speck, and of this speck our planet is a microscopic dot.

On this tiny lump of impure carbon and water crawl about for a few years, until they dissolve into the elements of which they are compounded.”

What would be more logical than suicide? What would be more preposterous than keeping alive?”

H. L. Mencken, one of the great atheistic pessimists said that and the letter T must be added as an initial to his name, for it stands for tragedy. Tragedy when a man faces each new day’s horizon without an horizon improvement CALLED faith.

There are two kinds of fools in this ole world. God’s fool and the godless fool.

The pessimistic atheist Schopenhauer, the top man on the pessimistic totem-pole, never married, slept with a loaded revolver, refused to trust a barber enough to get a haircut, and had an illegitimate son, yet refused to recognize him.

He lived his atheism. It made him a miserable, selfish, bitter, fearful old man, who died in the same condition.

Without God one looks at the Universe and one’s gaze sees everything while seeing nothing. Can write the word God but won’t, can think the word God and call nothing more than another noun.
And a heavenly Father reaches down but the person is not reaching up…

And sadness is great so great and the need is so great and I pray for those who are so caught up in nothingness. And I trust you do the same.

God? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Genesis 1:1
If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

WHO WOULD YOU RECOMMEND YOURSELF TO AND WHY? Or How Alive is Your Conscience?

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLIKC AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG “ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…

To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL 

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

****************************************************************************

For those with sense of humor I share the following “I used to be perfect but I gave it up. It made people nervous.”

Of course, I am not perfect nor or you nor are any of us. Nevertheless, this does not mean we should not be consistently persistently actively engaged in a mental, emotional and spiritual self improvement program.

How? Well, start paying attention to that part of you that takes up more room than all the rest of your insides.” (Mark Twain’s comment on conscience)

We don’t too often. Listen long or well to that inner voice or if we listen sometimes we turn down the volume to a whisper.

And into this brief discussion steps the Apostle Paul, “Faith without works is dead. Show me your works and I will show you your faith.”

You know, perhaps it should be a custom to have a funeral when a conscience dies. A person having experienced such a death set a funeral date and invite friends as well as self.

Really? Well yes…really.

Because without a conscience a person is lost. An analogy? How does a plane flying to Europe find Europe? It either takes off immediately behind another plane and follows it all the way or it has its guidance system and faithfully follows that.
How not to get lost in life? Have your own guidance system that is in tune with God and his word. Not following anyone else if your guidance system says they are aimed in the wrong direction.

A question! Would you like to know how to judge your conscience as to whether it is alive or dead and dying? It is a rather valid method if you will try it.

Ask yourself, “Does my conscience when it speaks to me say, “I ought” or “I must.”

What was it Luther said, “Here I stand” Not “Here I slouch.”
**********************************************************************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

 

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

RUST ON MY SOUL (9th in Series of Novel)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”
To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”

CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL

http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com

 ***********************************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) 

INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
************************************************************

 
Noon

“Mirror, mirror on the wall…” I played that game this morning. I took a good look at myself in the bathroom mirror and it was, as always, truthful. It reflected the outer me with blatant accuracy.

“You’re getting old,” it said, “Old.”

I’ve put on too much weight and the jowls are losing their battle with gravity ---old. The hair from my balding pate seems to be settling in shaggy, grey eyebrows ---old. My grey eyes need not just reading glasses but bifocals to unfuzzy the world ---old.

My stamina is a shadow of its former self and expresses its weariness in the forward slant of my shoulders --- old.

There is a nervous twitch to my neck, and my cheeks are rosy more from hypertension than good health.

As to the inner me, the mirror gives hardly a clue. What little seeps through reflected from the eyes of my soul, is distorted by excuses and self-serving autobiographical rewrite. I don’t know which side of three score years and ten I’ll pack it all in, and I don’t want to know, but as my mortality creaks louder the sound has no solace in it.

How could it?

I am no more prepared to die than I am to live.

Morning

I’m an early riser. I watched the grey of night take on a morning glow. Toast, two eggs, bacon, a cup of coffee and the miracle of another morning. In the morning news only the names and nations change as wars and rumors of wars parade across the headlines.

The editorials always speak with such assurance of opinion. The editorial cartoons could have been printed twenty years ago, or probably twenty years from now, and still be on target.

Just update the names, places and faces to indict the guilty.

Well, good morning, Tom. Where are you going today? Not far. I’ll still back down the same fifty feet of driveway, motor a quarter of a mile to cross the same wooden bridge, and drive past the same fade store fronts. Not far. But how far do I want to go?

I’m dissatisfied with things as they are but I think I might be more uncomfortable if they changed too greatly. I just read something that I find very unsettling. A seventeen-year old girl wrote.

“I’m tired of puppet instead of people.
I’m tired of cynics who call themselves realists.
Of people bored because they are afraid to care.
I’m tired of people who have to be entertained.
Of girls, proud of knowing the score, and snickering about it.
I’m tired of sophisticate3d snobs.
Tired of people with nothing better to do than glue their days together with alcohol.
I’m tired of people embarrassed by honor, honesty, love, faith, patriotism…
…tired, yes, very tired of things the way they are.* (Ann Landers Column)

Afternoon

I’ve decided a lot of people in church on Sunday morning are spiritual auditors. I ought to know. I’m one of them. We audit a course called Christianity. We listen to the lecture but never take the test.

We don’t mind the visit but we’re not interested in earning a degree. I audit everything! How much is it worth? That’s my number one question.
TO BE CONTINUED
(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)
Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

************************************************************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this blog and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANAC FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

GODLESSNESS…THY NAME IS HAVOC

REMEMBER EACH WEEK a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG
“ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…

To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*******************************************************

 

From the long ago to the immediate now history is full of what Godlessness is responsible for. Sodom and Gomorrah, Ninevah and Baylonl the pillage of Rome, the rape of a new land by the Spanish Conquistadors, Napoleon with his greed, Kaiser Wilhelm, Adolph Hitler, Saddam Hussein and the list is endless.

Where there is no God there is no peace. Where greed and a lust for power exert their influence there is hell.

Proverbs puts it this way, “Righteousness exalteth a nation but sin is a reproach to any people.”

 

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

 

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”

 

THIS WILL LET YOU SEE HIS TELEVISION SPECIALS AND FILMS

 

…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)

WHO REALLY ARE YOU?

REMEMBER a continuing addition to my novel “RUST ON MY SOUL” will be added until the entire novel has appeared. (Published by Bridge Press, 1985) (Distributed Internationally)

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLICK AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

BELOW ARE.SOME RECENT POSTINGS ON MY OTHER BLOG
“ONE A DAY YOUR SPIRITUAL VITAMINS”…
To view them go to “Google Search” type in “Neil Spiritual Vitamins”

Or click on following URL

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

*********************************************************************

Who are you? Why has history, time and God chosen to fill a certain very small portion of space with that protoplasmic entity called you?

Your name is Fred or Mary or John or Jane or something like that. You sign it to checks at the bottom of letters. You introduce yourself by it. It identifies you.

But who really are you?

Someone has said that you are three persons.
Who I think you are,
Who you think you are,
And who you really are.

The Bible says you were made by God.
Jesus said you are a child of God.
The cross says you were worth dying for.

When you were a little boy or girl, did you ever ask questions like,
“Why am I Johnny instead of Bobby?”
“Why was I born short instead of tall?”
“Why can Jannie sing so beautiful and I sound like a sick frog?”

You are older now (most likely) but still the questioning continues. This eternal desire to understand as much as possible the scheme of things and how we fit and how we can and should grow fitter.

There is biology by which we can study the living cell.
There is psychology by which we can probe the id and ego.
There is physiology by which we can study the function of bodily organs.
And there is theology by which we can study man’s relation to God.

I think the 23rd Psalm in it’s own very special way aims in the right direction toward better understanding.

To paraphrase…it says…
“You, give yourself a chance.
Stop long enough in some green pastures or by some still waters to think about your existence.
Don’t scream out the question “Who am I?” as you rush through life at 70 miles an hour. That’s no way to get an answer.

Give God a chance to restore your tense and nervous soul.

Let God speak to you of how life relates to the now and the hereafter, that you will not fear this world or fear either the valley of the shadow.

Let God be with you and you can take anything. Run from God and by yourself you can take nothing.
********************************************************************

If this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

DO YOU HAVE A BLOG OR FACEBOOK? IF YOU ENJOY THESE WRITINGS COULD YOU
CALL ATTENTION TO THIS BLOG? IF YOU DO, THANKS IN ADVANCE.

CLICK ON THE TOP RIGHT SIDE OF THIS SCREEN WHERE IT READS “CLICK HERE TO WATCH NEIL AS WESLEY, LUTHER, FRANKLIN & LINCOLN”…His presentations have been called equal to Hal Holbrook and were presented all over the world.

RUST ON MY SOUL (8th in Series of Novel)

GO BACK TO APRIL 9TH AND START THE SERIES.

TO SEND THIS DAYS BLOG TO A FRIEND JUST CLIKC AT THE BOTTOM OF THIS BLOG ON “TELL A FRIEND”

To view my other blog “One A Day, Your Spiritual Vitamins”
CLICK ON THE FOLLOWING URL 

 http://oneadayyourspiritualvitamins.blogspot.com/

***************************************************************

RUST ON MY SOUL (A Novel) (Published by Bridge Press in 1985 & Distributed Internationally) (A new Series that began on April 9th and will continue every Tuesday thereafter until finished) (Thursday & Sunday will continue to cover a variety of subjects as in the past)
***************************************
INTRODUCTION (Repeated for those new to the series)

In an old loose leaf notebook, Thomas Kettering wrote when there was a cry from his heart. He wrote when his inner longing spilled over into the reality of his days. He did not write every day, only when he felt he must. How often he wrote or when is not important. The journey is what counts, for it is a diary about all of us, to all of us. “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step,” and even a stumble is a step.
************************************************************************
Morning

“Touch that butterfly and I’ll knock your block off!” I remember the first time I said that. My friend, Walter, looked at me as if I were past crazy and well on my way toward lunatic. “I meant it, Walter.”

Walter was down in the dust with a welt fast growing under his right eye. He stayed there no longer than it took him to roll over and tackle me. It was a miniature war, by miniatures.

“Nerd!” It was over and Walter walked away. The butterfly, free and without restraint, had long before flown skyward.

My butterfly kingdom wasn’t much of a realm and I wasn’t all that great a keeper, but in between adololescent rowdiness, miniature football, tree climbing, bike riding and a dozen or more other activities that filled my days and as much of my evenings as mother would allow, I fought the butterfly killers.

They protested that they only wanted to preserve the fleeting loveliness by pressing the wispy bright wings between book covers. But I called it murder, and took on the first of many childhood causes.

What happened to the idealistic lad? When did he lose that zeal for tilting at windmills?

I stopped at the vegetable stand on the way home from the office this afternoon and the owner, hot, tired and seventy, dropped a gm into our conversation. “Life ain’t all you want but it’s all you get, so stick a daisy in your hat and be happy.”

Happy. I wonder what it would take to make me really happy these days?
Evening

I have never been content to crawl, or walk, or even run. I leap toward my goals. I’ve never been one for the lethargic acceptance of life as it is.

In my youth I sprinted with my dreams. I was a Tarzan high atop a tree, a pirate sailing in a cardboard skiff, an intrepid explorer among the savages of Africa.. Even then my dreams were big.

Bigger than life. Bigger than God. No, not that! The first star at end of day growing brighter in a darkening sky, the magic thaw of spring, the fogs of autumn muting the russet of the leaves. No, even as a boy I knew better than to do anything but be left in a state of awe at the creative purpose and power of Almighty God.

But the rings of that ladder called success, how they beckoned. Oh, how they beckoned. And now I’m here. But is here where I wanted to be? I have good enough reasons for my choice of destination, or must I now seek new reasons since, ready or not, I have arrived.

It is a threatening sky tonight and the stars are seldom to be seen. Is there another race of people up there looking down as I look up? Were they to, born to die? To live and question, prosper and weep, hold on to whatever answers they can find and wonder, as I wonder, who they are in the scheme of things?

TO BE CONTINUED

***********************************************************************

(Complete book available on amazon.com) (great prices)
Neil is also the author of THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN (His last book)

 

TWO MORE OF HIS BOOKS ARE AVAILABLE ON AMAZON.COM "POOR RICHARD'S ALAMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY ( A book written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in our time and wrote such a book)

 

And a copy of this novel "RUST ON MY SOUL" if you want to buy it rather than read it in segments.

 

if this site or the One A Day site has met any of your needs share it with a friend. Just have them go to “Google Search” and type in “Wyrick’s Writings”

 

Or…go the bottom of this article and click on “Tell a Friend.”

And, yes, maybe they will back track a few weeks to read other of my musings.

 

 

Three of Neil’s books are still available on amazon.com. THE SPIRITUAL ABRAHAM LINCOLN, RUST ON MY SOUL and POOR RICHARD’S ALMANACK FOR THE 20TH CENTURY (Written as if Ben Franklin had come back to life in the 20th Century and wrote yet another Almanac)