By Cameron

By Cameron

“The simplest truths often meet the sternest resistance.” - Frederick Douglass

By Mark

I am not a big fan of capitalism or Wall Street. I see them both run by the engine of filthy lucre. To my eyes they are not much more than controlled greed.

But when the greed goes uncontrolled, when the lust for money overpowers any vestige of morals and integrity that it hasn’t already killed off, that’s when things go from bad to worse.

When over the last years our banks and lenders and corporations and even individual borrowers saw nothing but how they could profit monetarily, and willingly looked the other way when unscrupulous or unwise methods were used to obtain that money, is it really a wonder the USA followed its god down the toilet?

The good thing about all this is that maybe - just maybe - this sudden loss in revenue and jobs will cause many people to reevaluate what life is truly all about. Maybe many will for the first time find some lasting and profound priorities that they would otherwise have not seen having been blinded by the darkness of greed.

This all might result in some sort of spiritual revival. Wow. Wouldn’t that would be great. Maybe the vast majority of Americans who claim to follow God but don’t, actually will now.

Maybe in losing all the false gods in our lives, we will rediscover the one, true God.  Someone say “amen!”

By Cameron

So. Yesterday we moved all of our domains, and their corresponding websites, to a new web host! Our previous host was being bombarded by hackers and it was simply way too much to keep up with. So we’ve moved to a (hopefully) more secure host in order to eliminate that issue!

If you encounter any issues - especially security issues - please e-mail me immediately. I opened and searched some 2,000 files for malicious code - but I still may have missed something. I certainly hope that you don’t get any more “this page hosts malware” warnings. That’s so embarrassing for us and we take it very seriously! BUT! The good news is that if you do, you can e-mail me and I can fix it with no worry that it will come back (like it has been doing over the last six months).

I hope you experienced no inconveniences from the site(s) being moved. I think it went pretty smoothly! Now it’s time to work all of the bugs out so please - PLEASE - e-mail me if you have ANY issues with the site so that I can promptly resolve them.
Thanks for checking out Sword and Spirit’s The Hilt!

PS - my e-mail address is:
cameron@swordandspirit.com

By Cameron

By Cameron

Nothing defines humans better than their willingness to do irrational things in the pursuit of phenomenally unlikely payoffs. - Scott Adams (Dilbert)

By Cameron

This is going to be an interesting year!

By Cameron

And maybe a little bit for me. I’m having trouble processing this. My hands tremble as I type.

In the interest of semi-anonymity (this is the Internet after all), I’ll not use my friend’s first name. But his last is Armstrong, and his father is the senior pastor of the church I’ve attended since I was in eighth grade.

I’ve known him since he was ten or so. He is around the same age as my younger brother, Graham. He and Graham were inseparable during their high school years. They both attended the church’s private school and were kind of the big men on campus. Both on the football team, both got into cheeky trouble and mischief, and you could bet that when one of them was caught doing something, the other was guilty and soon-to-be caught as well. But their lives diverged.

I knew him more of my brother’s best friend, although we spent a lot of time together. I was working at the church where the school was and saw him often. A few years later, I had a group of friends that, by coincidence, overlapped with his and Graham’s. So during my brief flirtation with the party scene, he was always around. And despite our bad decisions we remained good friends. I could always count on a phone call when he was in town just to say “Hey, Cam. I’m heading your way. It’d be  great to see you.” 

The problem is that I quickly grew out of the party scene, as did my brother, Graham. I lasted only a few months. Graham lasted a few more. But our friend stayed. He became that guy. He was always bright and witty and good-looking…the life of the party. Everybody wanted to know him and be associated with him. But he was losing his real friends. His temper and arrogance (and he had plenty of both) were making enemies of friends. After enough encounters with his dark-sided self, Graham kind of let him go. They were still true deep friends, but had little in common anymore. I had even less in common. I was never as close with him as Graham was and never encountered his dark side. To me he was still like a wayward little brother.

But even still, once or twice a year, I’d get the call. ”Hey, Cam. I’m heading your way. It’d be  great to see you.” And we never got together. We’d run into one another from time to time. And no matter how different our lives were (and by this time they were very different), there was always a hug and a sincere “I love you” exchanged. Always.

As I think of it, I can’t really recall the last time we saw each other. It had to be the funeral of a mutual friend who had tragically committed suicide. A fact that sends my hands into more severe trembling. I remember the hug. I remember the “I love you.” Wow. That must’ve been the last time.

My friend was stabbed and killed last night. So far I have none of the details, but will add them as they become available.

It’s tragic that the last time I saw him was at a friend’s funeral and the next time I see him will be at his own. I hadn’t realized that until just now. 

But I’m at least a little comforted to know that during what would be our final encounter, he knew that I loved him. I guess the last words you’d like to have with anybody is “I love you.” So I can consider it a privilege that those were mine to him and his to me.

He leaves behind his mother and father and little brother. The Armstrongs. Please pray for them. I can’t even begin to imagine the horror they feel as they struggle through this.

UPDATE:

I just got word that our dear friend Hugh Ross’s son was with my friend last night and was also stabbed. He is in the hospital and “it looks like he is going to make it.” I knew that they were friends and had just asked Mark to alert the Ross family (since they new my friend and would like to know what had happened to him) when I got the news. Please pray with us also for the Ross family .

By Cameron

The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter. — Winston Churchill

By Mark

I always used to think that if only we had a man like Abe Lincoln resurrected, that he would bring back to the presidency what has been sorely lacking in the last generations: integrity, high morals, strong leadership, etc.

Yes, Mr Lincoln was flawed but he was a role model of a leader, and a man I would love to hang out with if only to see him work. Sigh…

Then I realized recently - and sadly - that it would make no difference. We would first have to vote him in and that ain’t happening.

America today is too d*** self-centered and arrogant and pleasure-seeking and egomaniacal and just plain stupid to vote for a man like Abe. Really, can you see a man in a political ad that looks like Mr Lincoln? He was way too ugly to get himself elected today. And he was kinda homely. Ble. And he was folksy, like Mrs Palin. Minus ten from all pundits and from people on both coasts. And charisma? C’mon, you ever read anything about him and his amazing charisma? And worst of all…

He was honest.

Nope, Mr Lincoln had his moment and he shone brilliantly. He was here for such a time as that. But today he would not have made it into a primary, let alone be his party’s representative. We cannot see past our own self interests and “give me everything - now!” attitudes to see that we would need him.

Maybe what we need is not a Mr Lincoln, but a nation of such a character that would actually vote for him if he should appear again.