THE CONFEDERATE BAPTIST: August 2011

Like the old saying goes, "I'm Southern by the Grace of God!"

I've always counted myself blessed to have been born in the South. The main reason is, SOUTHERN HOSPITALITY. The South is known world-wide as being probably the friendliest place on earth. Why is this?

The reason is simple. It's because it's the BIBLE BELT. You see the South for ages has been the place where there has been more GOSPEL WITNESS than probably any place on earth. Settlers to the South were usually true Bible Believing Christians. If they weren't, they at least believed in and read the Bible on a daily basis. Immigrants who came to the South were usually quickly converted, or at least learned that the SOUTHERN WAY was to go to Church on Sunday, so they went.

In the South, people readily ask each other, "What Church do you go to?" And, no one seems offended by this question. (You ask that of people of up North and see what kind of response you'll get. They'll usually get offended that you would ask them such a question!)

The plain simple truth is the Old South has been gospel saturated for hundreds of years. And that saturation of the Bible and Bible Teaching is what lead to the SOUTHERN VALUES, or the moral living, politeness, and hospitality of the Southern folk. In other words, the more people read and believe the Bible, the more moral, upstanding, pleasant, and kind they are, PERIOD!

I've always liked this. I've travelled a lot. I've been to New York City six times in my life, and I've been to 49 of the 50 states, and I'm telling you there's nothing like the South. Dixie is the greatest place on earth!

It's hard to find those Southern Values in any other place. Up North they just don't smile, and say, "How you doing?" or blurt out just a simple "Hi!" as you walk pass someone on the street. No, up there they ignore one another on purpose!

The other thing about the South is how people will wave to you when you drive by them. That just doesn't happen up North around "city-folk." But down South you can drive for hours without seeing another human being or another car, and you are so glad you do when you see one, you can't help but lift a few fingers from off the steering wheel to wave to oncoming traffic when they get close. That's the South! They're so nice, they'll not only talk to you, they'll wave to you when you are passing them at 65 miles an hour!

So back to why the South is so nice and friendly. It's because of the values of its forefathers, people who were usually religious, church-going, and God-fearing.

I believe this is what's missing today in society and even in America. For moral people make for good people.

Sadly, even the once great South isn't what it used to be. I remember even as a child (and I'm only 37 years old), that you could drive up to Winn-Dixie or Piggly Wiggly (Grocery Stores in the South), and you could leave your keys in the ignition of your car with the windows open. (Just try that today, anywhere! Your car will be gone before you know it!).

I also remember leaving the front door of your house unlocked. Folks from a generation or two back used to tell me that they would do one better then that. They'd always leave their front and back doors OPEN in order to get a breeze through the house (as that was before air conditioning). Can you imagine doing that today?

My how times have changed!

But with the changing of times have come the changing of values. People not only in the South but world-wide are growing even more immoral every day. It's common to hear of people getting into fist fights, gangs to engage in gun-fights, etc. Crime is everywhere!

And even though the South is catching up with the times, it's still not as bad as the rest of the country, or the rest of the world. Southern Values are still in our blood, even though our youngins (a southern term) don't seem to be as dogmatic about it as we were.

To many Southern folk, fornication is still a sin. Adultery is something that is not only not right, but something that should have the death penalty on it!

I'll never forget the time I was speaking with an old Southern woman and she told me that she had never heard about or known about what "homosexuality" was. She said it wasn't until she was about 75 years old that her husband explained it to her. After he did, she just about fell off her chair, and then said, "What? There's people that do that? Why? That's just plum gross!"

Yep, we Southerners still know right from wrong. Or at least we haven't been "edumucated" (Southern slang for educated) into accepting certain modern things that the world says we should tolerate.

Sadly, however, many of the next generation Southerners are chosing evil rather than the light.

I think the reason that the South was once so moral, in comparison to the rest of the world, is that it not only was a BIBLE Society, and the Bible breeds morality, while Evolution and higher Education breed immorality, but because the South in the most part is an agragarian society. That is, there are many people in the South who have learned how to live off the land.

When you plant crops, you have to pray a lot. That is, you have to ask God to let them grow and to keep off the pestilence, hurricanes, etc. That's your livelihood, and if you don't get to harvest that years crops, you won't have anything to sell to the market.

Compare this with the city-folk up North. What do they do that's ever outside their control? They usually don't have to rely on God at all. Instead, they learn from an early age what people call "Street smarts." In other words they learn how to fend for themselves and get what they want. Usually, this leads to them becoming immoral in later years, as they get accostumed to getting what they want in any means necessary.

So maybe this is a strong reason why there's a difference between Northerners and Southerners.

And if you've ever lived down South you'd know why the Southerners are so nice, friendly, and giving towards others. It's cause they have it to give.

I've got a neighbor in Alabama that's a good example. He plants watermelons every year. He gets so many there is no way he can eat them all. So he puts them in the back of his pickup and just takes them all around to the neighbors and gives them away. (Boy are they good!) He also gives them away at Church.

Why does he do this? Cause if he didn't, they'd just sit on the vine and rot. This way he feels good, as he's helping others. But in return, people don't forget his kindness, and often they'll stop by his house and bring him some tomaters (Southern term for Tomatoes), squash, turnip greens, etc, as they too planted more than they could eat so they decided to pass on the blessing to someone else.

To Southerners, what God gives them really is a blessing from God. But up North, everything a guy gets he usually brags about getting by his own means. See the difference? One gives God the glory, the other steals the glory for himself. (And up North people usually are quick to get welfare, and they get used to getting something for nothing. It's no longer a gift from one individual to another, it's an entitlement they feel like they deserve, and they get angry if they don't get it!)

Anyway, it's not just the watermelons that make me glad to be a Southerner. It's much more. It's my heritage. I can say I've come from other Southerners who were nice, godly, people who loved others and gave what they could to help them out. I've also learned a lot from others who are not only willing to pass on their blessings, but to teach me hands-on how to do things in order to prosper myself. Their attitude isn't to look at me as a "Mark" (A Northern term for people you can try to milk for something), rather to someone they can impart knowledge to in order for me to pass it along to someone else. And they've instilled in me the desire to teach as much as I can to others so they can do the same.

In the South it's about being self-supporting, and independent, and teaching others how to be the same.

Yep, I enjoy being a Southerner. And I wouldn't trade it for anything in the world. I feel blessed to be who I am.

But sadly, I wish I wasn't alone. I wish my SOUTHERN VALUES would not just be mine, and not just be regional. I wish they would be national. I wish they were AMERICAN VALUES. I wish they were even more, I wish they were AMERICA'S POLITICAL VALUES. In fact, I wish they were even more than that. I wish they were GLOBAL VALUES!

I wish the whole world would just be cordial, hospitable, and righteous. But I doubt that will ever happen.

So, I guess I'll just have to be content knowing I'm part of an elite group known world-wide as the "friendliest" most "hospitable" group of people on the planet.

Thursday, August 25, 2011

The 1602 Valera Purified New Testament now Available

Monday, August 22, 2011

Southern Values

Saturday, August 20, 2011

My Books Available Online