The Earth is a giant Soul Food Buffet.

Each soul tastes a different way.

Not every one goes down the same.

Taste with me and play the game.

There’s spicy soul food, seasoned with temper.

Bringing a flavor you’re sure to remember.

But if it gets too hot, you must cool it down,

’Cause TOO SPICY souls are hard to be around.

Bland soul food is really quite boring

not enough personality added while stirring.

It can’t hurt to throw some uniqueness in there.

Elaborate dishes always get a stare.

Sweet soul food is often a treat.

Drizzles of loving care just can’t be beat.

But, don’t overdo it with sugar, my friend.

You’re sure to gorge out when reality sets in.

Savory soul food with a serious glaze

will be fine if not overly salty in taste.

TOO SALTY souls dashed with harshness are rude.

They’re too hard to take and unpleasant to chew.

Vegetarian soul food just isn’t the same.

It tries hard to be real, but it’s actually fake.

Why can’t it stand truly as what it was first?

We all go for vegetable sides. They have worth.

Burnt soul food reflects just where it went,

neglected and left in the fiery torment.

But, it’s never too late. Mama will come along

and fix up the fixin’s like nothing was wrong.

There are many other flavors at this Soul Food Buffet.

The Earth is the venue, your heart is the plate.

Don’t be afraid to taste all the different souls.

You can’t judge a dish by its cover, you know.

Ever get that feeling,

That no matter how hard you try to explain something to someone that they will redouble their efforts so as not only not listen, but make sure whatever you have to say is neither understood nor employed by anyone else.

That there are people who will work with infinite ingenuity so as to claim the title of permanently unemployed to reap benefits financed by the sweat of others, more easily obtained by their own productivity.

That there is a vault of great ideas, concepts, and plans languishing in a dark recess of a filing cabinet simply because someone either does not understand the brilliance or has yet to conjure a scheme in which they can profit or control the work of others.

There is a plan for the Universe, by which all we can know and learn unveils itself in microscopic portions, almost invisible to the naked eye, and impossible to comprehend individually unless scrutinized by a tormented soul devout in purpose and singular in intent.

There are people who cannot tolerate the well-being of others; even those they never encountered nor ever will.

“But what about you?” Jesus asked. “Who do you say I am?”

Peter answered, “You are the Messiah.”

That sound-bite is from the Bible, book of Mark, chapter 8, verse 29. It asks a simple question:

“Who is Jesus?”

Some say he never existed.

That’s one answer.

Some say Jesus was a good guy—great teacher. Someone to be respected, appreciated, acknowledged.

Others (including me) agree with the Apostle Peter: He is Messiah.

I’ll add this: Jesus of Nazareth is the “Son of God”: Born of a virgin. Lived a perfect life. Sacrificed himself (willingly and unselfishly) on a cross. “Lamb of God” who took away the sins of the world. Died. Buried. Rose from the dead. Ascended into Heaven and will return—some day.

Jesus is a divisive figure. Sentiments vary about him, his message, and the religion that grew up around him. Here are some examples:

– The Great Soviet Encyclopedia (circa 1952) referred to the carpenter from Nazareth as “the mythological founder of Christianity.”

– Voltaire, the French writer, historian and philosopher, addressed the religion Jesus spawned this way: “Christianity is the most ridiculous, the most absurd and bloody religion that has ever infected the world.”

– Penn Jillette, of Penn & Teller fame, offered this observation about the book that Christians study to learn more about their savior: “It’s fair to say that the Bible contains equal amounts of fact, history, and pizza.”

– Mahatma Gandhi was more generous toward Jesus and his mission, describing him as, “A man who was completely innocent, offered himself as a sacrifice for the good of others, including his enemies, and became the ransom of the world. It was a perfect act.”

Gandhi also reportedly said: “I like your Christ. I do not like your Christians. Your Christians are so unlike your Christ.”

– Napoleon Bonaparte’s opinion about Christ was decisive and direct: “I know men, and I tell you that Jesus Christ is no mere man. Between Him and every other person in the world there is no possible term of comparison. Alexander, Caesar, Charlemagne, and I have founded empires. But on what did we rest the creation of our genius? Upon force. Jesus Christ founded His empire upon love; and at this hour, millions of men would die for Him.”

– C.S. Lewis, the popular British writer, came up with what Christian apologist Josh McDowell dubbed the “trilemma”:

“A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said would not be a great moral teacher. He would either be a lunatic—on a level with the man who says he is a poached egg—or else he would be the Devil of Hell. You must make your choice. Either this man was, and is, the Son of God; or else a madman or something worse. You can shut Him up for a fool, you can spit at Him and kill him as a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call Him Lord and God. But let us not come with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great human teacher. He has not left that open to us. He did not intend to.”

When I first read that quote about 50 years ago, it stopped me in my tracks, grabbed me by the throat, and rattled my soul.

Of course, not everyone agrees with Lewis.

Here’s an excerpt from an article at Infidels.org written by Jim Perry:

“The argument which (Josh) McDowell calls the ‘trilemma’ is popular among amateur apologists for Christianity. It was first popularized by C.S. Lewis, and has become even more common since McDowell reworked it. It is logically weak, but it is rhetorically powerful—as its popularity and recurrence attest—and so worth considering in more detail than it might otherwise merit.”

Later in the article Perry writes: “…this argument is flawed. First, it relies for impact on a premise which is both ambiguous and controversial, which is the question of just what ‘Jesus’ claims’ were. Second, it makes unwarranted extrapolations from the general idea of saying something known not to be literally true to the worst sort of malicious lying, and from believing something which is not true to raving lunacy.”

(See more at https://infidels.org/library/modern/jim_perry/trilemma.html.)

Why bring this up at all?

Am I a trouble-maker? Rebel-rouser? Religious fanatic who wants to ram his beliefs down somebody’s throat?

Nope, nope, and nope.

(Let’s face it, if I tried to do that, you’d be offended, resentful—and rightly so.)

I’m just a retired guy living in Florida, taking his last lap in life, and feeling that, at this late date, it’s time I made clear my position on Jesus. Do I think I can persuade everybody? Nope. That’s neither my job nor my intent. I just want to be able, when I step into eternity, feel like I made clear what I believe.

Where did I come up with such a crazy idea?

From the Apostle Paul, writing in Romans, chapter 10, verse 9:

“If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved…” (NASB)

This little write-up is my way of declaring, publicly, that I believe that Jesus is Lord, the Messiah, the son of the living God—and that he rose from the dead.

What about you?

Let’s say that, today, you bumped into Jesus at the beach or the mall or at your place of work. You chat a bit, then he looks you straight in the eye, and asks, “Who do you say I am?”

And your answer is . . .

NEXT TIME: “What is Faith?”

There is no ham in hamburger. As a child, learning this made me cry. Why not call a hamburger a beef burger or just a burger? Changing the definition of words to serve an advertising purpose or a political purpose serves no purpose. The Wizards of Smart waste their talents in the race to the bottom to befuddle and confuse when participating in such an activity.

In lieu of a formal manifesto, holding an audience captive, I offer a few examples of diametrically opposite nomenclature and the confusion it causes.

The Affordable Care Act: Not a piece of legislation designed to lower the price of or provide health care, but eliminate competition and overburden with regulations for purchasing health insurance.

Undocumented Worker: If I have employment, off the books, in which no taxation agency or regulatory arm of the government knows of my employment, I am an undocumented worker. If I enter a country without following the written laws for entry into the country, I have broken the law. I am an illegal alien.

All Beef Hot Dog: Watch what goes into hot dogs, if you dare. The chemicals and the additives are not beef. Hooves, ligaments, and mechanically separated animal parts are not beef. The casings may have once been close to a bovine, but proximity does not make it beef.

Transients: Transients are people in motion. Transient is not a description of ownership. I can travel from NY to LA and be transient whether or not I own or rent a place to live.

Second Class Citizen: To be a second class citizen, you have to be a citizen first. Just because someone does not like me, attacks me, or will not give me the time a day does not mean I automatically have citizenship.

All Natural: All things natural come from Nature. Plastic is polymerized hydrocarbons, found in nature. Uranium 235 is found (.72% by abundance) in Nature. Nature has unveiled itself to mankind cyanides, foams, harmful bacteria, insane viruses, persistent and toxic chemicals, and deadly portions of the electromagnetic spectrum (gamma rays, x-rays, UV rays). Thus, all that is natural does not inspire safety, or health.

Retarded: If I impede the flow of a liquid, the motion of an object, or the progress of a person from one point to another (added weights, slippery surface, added obstacles), then I have retarded the object's progress. I have committed no heinous offense other than being a difficult person. Thus, some words can be uttered when properly used without a chorus of politically correct police ranting and filing lawsuits.

Child at Risk: A young human in endanger of harm, not a young human that has committed a crime. If you are about to fall off of a ladder, you are a child at risk. If you have stolen a ladder, you are a thief.

Organic: To a chemist, organic is a compound in which a carbon to hydrogen bond exists. Gasoline is organic. Water is not. Go to the local farmer's market and scan for a laugher near expensive fruits and vegetables. The word was co-opted for easy to digest advertising, not for any semblance of correctness.

Homophobia: Phobia is a suffix for fear, not hatred, not for lack of understanding, and definitely not for disagreements. The word is so constantly misused, misunderstood, and misapplied that it has nearly lost its intended meaning.

All of these miss their intended mark. Each one says one thing when it is used to say another. With instant internet access and dictionaries, it is irresponsible to continue sickening those that know the difference.