Manns Medium

  Today’s focus is on this election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden for the office of the President of the United States and while I cannot say that it is not something we should not be focused upon, there are other things going on behind the scenes of this that we refuse to recognize or choose to just simply ignore. Many claim that it is a fight between Democrat and Republican, Liberal and Conservative, the Right and the Left, the Right and the Wrong but that is not the truth, as I see it.   It is and always will be the fight between Good and Evil. This battle has been waging since the beginning of time and it is a never-ending war.   It is a battle that will be and must be fought every day of our mortal existence.   It is one that will never have clear winners and losers because if just a few of us fail to achieve victory in this war, we all fail.   This is not a battle to save the soul of a country, a nation, a world, or a universe.   It is the ba...

Walking in the Footsteps of Slaves By Ronnie Manns A quote attributed to George Santayana reads "Those who are unaware of history are destined to repeat it." And if we combined this saying with that attributed to President John F. Kennedy which reads “Our problems are man-made — therefore, they can be solved by man”, we should then have the recipe necessary to not only correct the issues of this world but end the cycle of repetition.  Above is a picture of Milton House in Milton, Wisconsin.  It is described as recognized by the National Park Service's Network to Freedom as the last, certified Underground Railroad station that can be toured in Wisconsin. The Milton House operated as a stop on the Underground Railroad or "UGRR" from its construction in 1844 through the Civil War. At the Milton House, visitors have the rare opportunity to walk the very pathways of freedom when visiting this unique structure.  Tours are fully guided though the 1844 Milton...

If you have ever wondered why there has been a great uptick in those who claim to not believe in a higher power, wonder no more.  Take a peek at this new article titled “ Church turns out to be sex club ” by Dan Cahill for Odd Chatter dot com, in it he describes just one of the many reasons why those who once may have placed their faith in God is now questioning if there is or ever was a God. The articles states “ Most churches can be thought of as social meeting places, a structure where congregations come together and share a common bond. A “church” in Tennessee, though, has taken togetherness to a whole new level. Nashville authorities say a building registered as a church has actually been hosting late-night swingers’ parties, where lewd acts have been taking place, according to a report by News Channel 5. Freedom 4 All, Inc. originally filed for a permit to run a church at a building located in an office park in Madison, just north of Nashville. Upon closer investigation,...

We have been taught for many years that hell is “a place of evil and suffering where the wicked are punished after death” but what if that was only partially true.  What if the real hell was here on earth and all of the planets and the wicked are those of us who chooses not to follow the path of Jesus at every junction of our earthly lives when we must make a choice between doing what is right and doing what is wrong.  When we choose to do what we believe is right in the eyes of God we live believing in Jesus but when we choose to do what is wrong we become the wicked. Wouldn’t it make sense since so much pain and suffering is endured here on earth and as soon as we make the decision to do what is wrong we are immediately consumed by the fires of hatred, anger, hypocrisy, jealousy, greed, regret and so many other sins. Let’s take for example, the taking of another human life.  The mind has always had a problem with reconciling unnatural acts and there is none greater...

The world is going to hell in a hand basket  simply because of God’s children have grown far too big for their britches.  The arrogance of man has spread from father to son, mother to daughter for centuries, decades and eons.  It is passed down from generation to generation and diluted with a belief that to honor one you have to dishonor another.  The offspring’s fail to learn from the lessons of the parent. God is our one and only father, we were made in his image and thus are only a spirit.  The body our spirit occupies was made from dirt and clay so as the body decay, the spirit remains.  During our existence within this fragile shell, we can grow in spirit and become the child God knows us to be or we can choose to limit our expansion by following the selfish impulses of mortals. God’s one and only mistake was to attempt to govern the behavior of man with 10 rules.  He soon learned that his was not doable and rather than continue to risk t...

Every single human being regardless of where, when and to whom we are born, possess a God-given super power.  While this super power is evident and dwells within us all in the same exact and identical manner, it is the honing, the harnessing and the mastery of it that allows us to shape and know when to exert this power.  We and we alone control this super power because it is a part of us, a vital part of the very essence and spirit of who we are.  While others possess this same power they will come to realize that they cannot control, manipulate or direct the power of others.  This failure to control, manipulate and direct other’s power appears to be one of the main causes behind the frustration and the anger which comes when we finally are forced to accept it.  This super power encompasses every aspect of our lives from the simple and mundane tasks to monumental discoveries and enormous achievements.  This super power is sculptured by the knowledge w...

I have been very much aware that there has always been a question of how man was created and while some say by God others say by evolution.  I never really had a particular stance on either because it was nothing I had ever seriously considered until my daughter asked me this morning if I thought that we really did evolve from monkeys.  It was then that I began to seriously consider where I stood and in an effort to insure that I always give my children or those seeking answers the best and most comprehensive that I can, I was struck with a thought. My Bible tells me that man was created in the image of God and it tells me that God is a spirit so if what my Bible tells me is true then man could never be an evolution from ape unless of course God was an ape.  If that was the case then why would not my Bible inform me that God was an ape and not a spirit?  So if I am to believe in the words of the Bible, then it is highly unlikely that man was ever an ape.  S...

Many a Christian leaders wishes to tell people about sinning and how one is worse than another but many times those ideas are based upon what they heard or the piecing together of certain fragments from the Bible to make their assumptions appear true.  Now the Bible does asks us to accept another person’s truth and considering all that God has done for us, this request should be quite easy to do for him.  So when I hear Christian leaders spew information about how homosexuality is worse than greed, bearing false witness and so many others, I have to accept it but that does not mean I have to like it or agree with it.  It would be safe to say that I do not. There are a host of sins that mortal man and woman can and often times commit.  This is what is meant by no one being sin-free.  We can be free of sin however if we make up our minds that we will sin, but we will never be controlled by sin.  Being controlled by sin means that you cannot complete a si...

Racism began as a thought, and idea based on a belief and reinforced by Genesis Chapter 1 verses 26 through 31 where it is written “Then God said let us make a man someone like ourselves to be the master of all life upon the earth and in the skies and in the seas.” “So God made man like his maker, like God did God make man. Man and maid did he make them and God blessed them and told them multiply and fill the earth and subdue it, you are the masters of the fish and birds and all animals and look I have given you the seed-bearing plants throughout the earth and the fruit bearing tress for your food.  And I have given all the grass and plants to the animals and birds for food.  Then God looked over all that he had made, and it was excellent in every way.  This ended the sixth day.” This passage was what they used to justify taking control of the earth, the sky, the seas and all else God had made except man in his ultimate betrayal to God took this one step further....

When you attend school, people wish to say that there you can gain book smarts but when you education comes from the streets, people say you are gaining streets smarts.  Depending on who you talk to or at the time you talk to them, one would push one over the other and there has even been behavioral test conducted to see which actually came first, the chicken or the egg.  For some reason we think that life is so complicated that we must have a pre-programmable gene within all of us that causes us to act a particular way at a particular time.  Though I can respect these experts’ thoughts and ideas, I have to vehemently disagree with their assessment. This pre-conceived notion to do evil is not a part of our make-up but a direct result of our environment and the choices that we make.  If you make a statement that you believe in a particular thing and you fail to live up to that statement is not a result of anything other than you making a statement you that you fa...

For years I have struggled with this question and was never able to even provide a decent answer to those who would ask.  I never was sure why evil exist and I would simply say that possibly it was because of the “yin and yang” theory.  For those of you who may not be familiar with this theory, it is the theory of in order to know well, you need to know badly and opposite things must exist to help us better understand the difference between them.  That was then but today, I have a much different theory and one that I believe matches better than the previous theory. The reason this question was so very hard for me to answer was because as you read Genesis of the Old Testament, you see God creating the worlds and everything in it.  You hear how happy he was and you read that it was good.  Also in the Old Testament, you hear the multiple of stories depicting God’s love, compassion and caring ways so it makes sense to ask the question, if God truly so loved the...

In a nation claiming to be so Christian, we surely ignore the most glaring thing of all.  If you are truly a child of God then you were made in his image.  His image is a spirit; a spirit has no skin color so why does this one fact escape us all?  It does so because that’s the way evil wants it and as long as we are willing to be led by the nose by evil, then that is the only way we will see it.  The differences in skin tone are due to pigmentation, pigmentation necessary to protect your body from external factors period.  What defines you is not the outside or anything else evil wishes you to believe.  What defines you is how you conduct yourself day by day as a child of God but before you make any attempt to feed the hungry and house the homeless, you need to perform one very important act first. The first thing you must do to become a much better you and pleasing to the God you claim to serve is remove that beam from your eye first.  In other w...

Yesterday, the wife and I were talking about the shootings in Dallas and she said something that got me to thinking and something that had never occurred to me.  She mentioned how our generation and the generation before us used to exercise the art of peacemaking.  She remarked that those of us who sought peace first would always be the first responders to any crisis and begin immediately to look for a peaceful solution to the issue.  We never waited until it was too far gone and we never stopped to pose for a picture or camera while doing it.  She mentioned how we would always try to find the common ground before racing toward the high ground.  She then said something that made me sit up in my chair; she asked if possibly our generation and those before who sought peace first was a dying breed. I got to thinking more and more about what she asked and this morning came to a conclusion.  Many of us who had and have children wanted to raise them to quest...

Many those of the Christian circles and some even with very little belief in God may say that God never makes mistakes and while I used to think that was true; I have discovered that he did.  The only issue with that is God was powerful enough, wise enough and loving enough to correct that mistake.  This is something we have yet to have full faith in saying about man. In the beginning, God demanded full obedience and was not afraid to wipe the slate clean and start over if those he created forgot to be thankful to him who created them.  We see the evidence in the story of Noah and of course the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah and the Walls of Jericho.  This was also evident by the Commandments Moses envisioned God wanted him to deliver to all his children and thus began the “fire and brimstone” preaching that so many stories have been written about.  It was only after destroying these places and losing so many good souls caught up in the sinfulness others tha...

We are conditioned to think that the life we live on earth ends when the body stops functioning but the older we get the more we come to think that life has a much higher purpose.  Some of us even go as far as to try and understand the true meaning of life but what we find is life’s meaning is still up to the individual about what life means to them. I believe that the only life that ends when the body stops functioning is the earthy life but we are more than just simple flesh, we are a spirit made in the image of God and only God has the power and authority to end this life.  Life is not this existence within these man-made bodies but the existence of the spirit that inhabits those bodies.  You see, man can end your earthly existence but they can never take your real life.  They can stop your heart from beating but they can never stop your soul from living, only God can do that.  To leave this earth and graduate to a body made by God himself for our pa...

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earths as well as man by breathing life into a pile of dust.  He crafted and created us in his own image as a spirit but because he wished us to hold domain over all else that he created, a vessel was necessary to carry this spirit from place to place.  His design was the boiler plate and identical in all aspects for man and woman.  As he sat back pleased with his design and creation, these same men and women began to stop appreciating what he had done for them and began to seek self-gratification.  They moved around this planet and all others from place to place seeking that place where they felt most at home. This migration to different areas caused our adaptable tissues to conform to that particular region and some developed deeper and more  pigmentation  within their tissues than others.  Some found food a plenty and ate quite well while others found food hard to come by and ae less.  Each...

Remember the sermons preached by pastors all over this country about the power of satan/evil?  Each one spoke of how powerful evil was and how it compared to the power of God.  It was designed to make you fear evil in hopes that it would drive many away from evil and keep them on the path of goodness.  So much for that thought and yet we still continue to push this long outdated and frankly false lie.  Evil has no power except for the power we give it and if we give it we can certainly take it back but many of us feel better about ourselves when we are able to allow evil to use us because this takes away our responsibility for the choices and decisions that we make.  At least that is the false lie we keep telling ourselves because we all know that nothing we do here on earth will ever go unnoticed and each and every decision we make will be used against us on judgement day. Evil resides on the hearts of man and only that particular man or woman can exer...