The Battle of Tippecanoe and a Presidental Curse

     I feel that I must warn people about this year's election. Something that has happened during the war of 1812 has consequences today. During the war of 1812, William harry Harrison was the general that led against the Indian nations led by Tecumseh. One of the famous battles in that war was the battle of Tippecanoe, and there is a ruins park in Illinois where the battle took place. Tippecanoe was the capital of the Indian nations led by Tecumseh. Tecumseh was away fighting Americans on the field of Illinois and Indiana, and left the capital to his brother to defend. His brother was considered the Delaware Prophet of Tippecanoe. Well, in revenge on the Indians for their raids on the white settlements on the frontier, William Harrison and the Americans attacked Tippecanoe and burnt it down to the ground. After this battle, the Delaware Prophet prophesied that a president will die in office every twenty years. Americans won the war of 1812 with a draw against the British, but the Indian nations never rose again after the death of Tecumseh during the war.

    Well, if you believe in curses or not, that is up to you to decide, but I will show you the evidence. William Harrison, who fought the Indians in the war of 1812, became president in the 1840 election. Harrison was famous for being the shortest reigning president in our history; for he died in office not too long after he took the oath of office. His vice president, John Tyler, became president, but only for one term. An accident on a ship cruise changed the course of American history during his presidency. There was an update of the Navy and they were showing off the best frigate ship in the fleet. Well. there were two cannons on the ship, and they demonstrated them for a group of invited guests including the president, some of his cabinet members, and some senators. One of the cannons exploded throwing shparal in the air killing some people including the Secretary of State: Abel P. Upshur. Abel was in charge of the annexation of Texas into the Union, but when he died, John Calhoun replaced him and he alienated the Whigs not bringing anyone together.

    Because John Tyler failed to annex Texas because of the death of his Secretary of State, he didn't run for president in 1844. James Polk became president in 1844 because he was for manifest destiny to the west. He started the Mexican-American War, and expanded the U.S. with the treaty of Guadelupe to end the war. The war added the southwest territory which included Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas, but this expansion caused trouble with the slavery issue. The death of Harrison led to a chain of events leading to the civil war with the Nebraska-Kansas compromise, the 1850 compromise, and the fugitive slave act, and eventually the Civil War that gave rise to Abraham Lincoln. Well, he was assassinated toward the end of the war in 1865 about twenty years after the death of Harrison.

    Twenty years later, James Garfield was assassinated in the 1880s, and Abe Lincoln's son Robert witnessed it. Twenty years later, in 1901, William Mckinley was shot, and Lincoln's son was going off a train to meet him when it happened. Twenty years later, Warren G Harding died in office after one of his cabinet members caused an international crisis. Harding was so stressed about it that he died from a heart attack. In 1945, towards the end of World War II, the longest president in our history died in office from a hemorrhage: Franklin Roosevelt. In 1963, John F Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas, Texas by Lee Harvey Oswald about 20 years later from the death of FDR. Ronald Reagan was shot in 1980s, but lived from the attempt, and during George w Bush's term in 2005, Reagan died from dementia. Now is the election of 2024, and already a candidate almost died by assassination: yes, Donald Trump. Both Harris and Trump are endorsed by Kennedys: Robert Kennedy Jr for Trump and John F Kennedy's grandson for Harris.

    I fear the curse of Tippecanoe's prophet will happen again. O Reader, we must return to the true God, so He can turn this curse into a blessing. We must repent of our wickedness, and turn to God. I plead for that, o reader. I plead for our candidates on both sides to follow Jesus who brought all curses on Himself for Paul said: "Curse be anyone that hangs on a tree." Jesus hung on a cross to give us forgiveness for sins and end all curses, and cleanse us from all sin. Choose God, and let all curses be turned to blessings through Jesus.

    

Vice: Gluttoning

     There was a man named Eli who was the high priest and judge of Israel before Samuel and after the judges. He had two sons named Hophni and Phinehas, The two sons took the sacrifices of animals that the Israelites gave to the LORD at Shiloh, and the priests ate anything and everything from the animals. The priests forced people not to cook the meat, but wanted meat raw. They were feeding themselves with what the people gave them for the LORD. According to Leviticus, the priests were suppose to get a certain portion, and it was suppose to be cooked so that there would be no blood to eat. God said to Moses that the blood was the life, so you shouldn't eat it. Eli's sons were getting fat with this food and Eli got fat with them, and this made Israel abhor God's offering. Eli's sons also were having sex with women while as priests: not only were they feeding themselves physically with blood food, but fed themselves spiritually with sex. Eli saw this and did not restrain them--he even did the gluttoning himself because he was fat when he died.

    Why do i tell you this story about gluttoning? You see, o reader, everyone of us is capable of gluttoning by choice, and there are consequences for it. Gluttoning is the overindulgence of eating or drinking or sex or drugs or alcohol or other things that could cause you health problems both spiritually and physically. Doing too much of something is a problem for every part of you. Feeding yourself without feeding others got Eli and his son's harsh punishment with God. In Ezekiel 34, God said woe to the leaders of Israel cause they fed themselves with the people's food and clothed themselves with the people's wool--talking about people as sheep. The leaders never took care of the people: never strengthened the sheep and cared for them by feeding them spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically with meat to eat. What is this meat? It's not just physical food, but love and justice and good stories and knowing God. Micah 6:8 said it best: "He has shown thee, o man, what is good; and what does the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with your God." When people, like Eli, feed themselves, are they really doing good?

    Jesus was accused of being a gluttonous man by the scribes and pharisees. Sure, He fed the 5000 in the wilderness of Tiberias, but a lad gave Him 5 loaves of bread and 2 fish and Jesus generously gave to the hungry people by breaking the food into fragments. Jesus told stories about the kingdom of God, and had compassion on the shepherdless people, so He fed them. What were the scribes and pharisees doing? Caiaphas said it best when he said that they needed to kill Jesus, so the Romans wouldn't take away their power and nation, but they lost their power and nation anyways in 70 A.D. The scribes and pharisees fed themselves, and not the people. How gluttonous!

    Eli's sons surely felt the punishment of their glutton behavior because they went to battle with Israel and the ark of the covenant, and Eli's sons died in battle. The ark was taken, and when news went to Eli about the events, Eli fell backwards on his chair, broke his neck, and died. The scribes and pharisees lost their nation when Tidus and an army of romans destroyed Jerusalem and the temple as prophesied by Jesus that not one stone should be left upon another. The only thing remaining at the time was a Roman fort. Gluttoning can be tempting, I know. When you are alone, you want to feed yourself. I know the feeling. But, the truth is: God gives us food to feed others. Spiritually, emotionally, mentally, and physically, We get fed to feed others. I am working on this vice cause i like to be fed, but it's about taking care of others. It's about feeding others--not just yourself.

Virtue: Merit

     There's a saying that Abraham Lincoln said which goes: "Anyone can withstand adversity, but if you want to test a man's character, give him power." Lincoln empowered so many generals during the American Civil War like Hooper, Burnside, Meade, and Grant. But, Grant had the merit to fight the south to absolute victory. Sure, the other generals had their positions and authority and could gather a great army to defend the north from the south like two times in Bull Run, Antietam, and Gettysburg, but none had the merit to fight till the enemy went to total surrender: Grant did. He did it in Fort Henry, Kentucky, Fort Donelson, Shiloh, Tennessee, and Vicksburg, Mississippi to help secure union control over the Mississippi river. Why was Grant's merit worth the notice of President Lincoln? Easy: Grant proved his worth.

    Skip nearly 30 years later in the Spanish-American War in Cuba. Another president named Theodore Roosevelt led ranchers and cowboys known as the rough riders against the Spanish in Cuba, Roosevelt could have been a lieutenant in the army, but he chose to be a second lieutenant because he felt unworthy and wanted to prove his merit. When he was a child, he was an ill child and had to do work outs with hunting, rowing, and boxing to overcome this problem, so it was no surprised he felt unworthy of the army. He felt that way when he became a rancher in the Dakotas because the only experience he had was a politician in New York, so he knew how to talk, but not how to be a cowboy. He wanted to prove himself as a rancher. In the Spanish-
American war, he did lead the rough riders against the weakened Spanish to occupy not one but two hills on the risk of his own life. That charge encouraged the Americans to keep moving forward until Cuba was freed from the Spanish. Because of his merit in the war, Teddy Roosevelt was recognized by his countrymen to be Vice President, and on the death of William Mckinley, he became president. I am not glorifying war, but a virtue in all of us: merit.

    Merit is a choice to prove ourselves: to prove our worth, our dignity, our humanity, our talents, and our gifts. Merit helps us to prove that we are worth something: that our lives have meaning and purpose. Merit helps us to show that we are human capable of great things, of noble deeds, of love, of joy, and other meaningful merits--even though we don't feel worthy of them. One such person whom wanted to prove his merit to Jesus was the Centurian whose servant was sick. He wanted his servant healed, and asked Jesus to heal him. However, he being a gentile didn't feel worthy that Jesus, a Jew, could go under his roof. The Centurian said to give the word, and his servant will be healed. He related to Jesus his merits by saying that he had people over him and under him telling his servants to do something and they did it. Jesus marveled by his faith, and healed his servant with a word. Jesus acknowledged the Centurian's merit.

    Personally, I often consider myself unworthy of a wife because of my family issues, my schizophrenia, my flaws and sins, my sex drive, and my misunderstandings about relationships and marriage cause of the five divorces in my family. All i know is toxicity and dysfunction, but i am working on being worthy of a wife: to provide and protect and lead. I desire to learn about healthy, good relationships and good marriages. I want to feel worthy of being a good husband and father, and that requires merit and character. My character gets tested everyday: sometimes i learn from my failures and sometimes i enjoy my humble successes. Either way I am learning to prove my merit, and you can too, o reader. Perhaps, George Washington will give you a medal for your merit. You never know, o reader, what honor may come.

Jeremiah and America

     While Jeremiah the prophet saw the disasters caused by the sins of Judah and the kings of Judah when they did all sorts of abominations like passing babies through the fire to molech and murdering God's prophets and even defiling God's temple with baal idols in the temple, God gave a prophesy in Jeremiah 30 about a future restoration of a new Israel. In Jeremiah's day, Babylon was fighting to put Judah and everyone that didn't obey God into captivity. Jeremiah saw it and wept: he was considered the weeping prophet. But, God saw the future of Israel to be a blessing and a glory. God referred to Israel as a chaste virgin: a bride. I am not talking about Israel today in the middle east, but all the nations today that are Israel by birthright: the British Commonwealth, America, and the state of Israel. But, for this blog, o reader, I will show you what I learned about America.

    Jeremiah said in the prophesy that Israel would be an outcast, The pilgrims of America's founding were outcasts: they were separatists from the Church of England, The pilgrims wanted to follow the bible, imperfectly, but that was their desire. America was a nation of outcasts, and still is. The pilgrims and all immigrants came to America for religious freedom: Jamestown, Plymouth plantation, Quakers led by William Penn, John Winthrop, and other Separatists. America became Zion, the Christian nation, that gave freedom of religion to all. God brought Zion back home with fear and trampling as Jeremiah said. Jeremiah said that Israel going through travail like a woman giving birth is mentioned in revelation about a woman giving birth to a male child when the dragon tried to kill him but failed. This child was Jesus Christ, and the woman was the church: Zion. The church went into the wilderness to go to a nation that's symbolic of the moon, sun, and 12 stars. This nation was mentioned to Joseph in a dream that he told his father and brothers. That dream was fulfilled in Joseph's firstborn son, Manasseh, whom Jacob blessed to be a great nation: America.

    Jeremiah prophesied about a future return of Israel from his time period in 586 B.C. That happened with the founding of America through Jamestown in 1607 and Plymouth plantation in 1620, but America wasn't a nation until July 4th, 1776. God said that this new nation will be filled with Thanksgiving, and that was started with the first thanksgiving in Plymouth Plantation with the Indians. After a good, fall harvest, Thanksgiving became an American tradition ever since. Presidents like George Washington and Abe Lincoln proclaimed thanksgiving proclamations, and President Franklin Roosevelt officially signed into law the thanksgiving tradition we know today. Governors like John Hancock did thanksgiving proclamations in their states, and the Continental congress during the American Revolution made many pray and fasting proclamations as well as thanksgiving proclamations. American leaders were fulfilling bible prophesy without even knowing it.

    America had a history of merriment throughout her history with her music like hymns from Longfellow and Emerson and Whitman to songs like Yankee doodle, Battle Hymn of the Republic, O Susanna, my old Kentucky home, and others. America had best remembered the history of her heritage through song. The pioneers like Daniel Boone, Johnny Appleseed, and Davey Crockett would sing merrily as they traveled west. Songs like Star Spangle Banner by the Poet Francis Scott Keys or the song America the Beautiful filled America and the world with merriment. President Ronald Reagon knew the author of the American heritage song being God, which fulfilled Jeremiah's prophesy in chapter 30.

    Jeremiah said that this new Israel would increase and not be small. America from her founding had abundance of children: Men would have many children through one wife. When she died, the men would have many more through another wife. Women would teach the children about God through the bible or other American literature. Books like uncle tom's cabin, the scarlet letter, or the last of the Mohicans, and the adventures of huck finn had biblical themes in their books, and the women taught them. Women would teach virtue and morality as well as reading and writing and math. If you look to the original sources, America had the best education system in the world since Plymouth plantation. When America stopped teaching religion and morality and virtue, we endure the consequences. 
But, since our founding, God fulfilled Jeremiah's prophesy by making America the third most populous nation on earth.

    Another thing that America does is that we have a constitutional republic that chooses our leaders from the midst of us in the nation--which fulfills Jeremiah's prophesy written in Jeremiah 30:21. The framers of America at the convention of 1787 argued about making America a Monarchy under George Washington, a democracy like Greece before Alexander the great, or a republic like Rome before Julius Caesar. America has a unique republic of balance between all branches of government as well as between the people and the states, but we still get our governors and nobles from our midst. A lot of the founding fathers like Roger Sherman and George Washington were self-taught, and Abraham Lincoln was a self-taught circuit riding lawyer. The uniqueness of America is that our noblemen and women as well as governors could come from rags to riches. It's part of our American Spirit, and it fulfills Jeremiah's prophesy. Anyone can be great in America, which is a freedom no other nation has.

    I don't know about you, o reader, but God made this nation into who we are as a people. But, we have forgotten our heritage and who we are as a people. We have forgotten the American Spirit of the pioneer. We have lost the song from neglect and walking away from religion and morality. Who are we, America? Do we still have the Spirit of adventure singing the song of merriment with thanksgiving to God? Or, are we miserable, divided strangers in a land of immigrants? Who are we, o America?

Virtue: Patience

     You would think that patience is not a virtue in this instant gratification culture of ours when everything can be granted instantly, and no one has to wait. It is normal not to wait and have everything you wait for here and now. I am no exception to this folly: there are days I ask God to give me a wife here and now, but He doesn't. A lady would come into my life, and I pray she's the one He's chosen, but like David's brothers when God chose someone after His heart, He refused them. This left me with heartache, but I am learning patience; for I believe God has the best for those who wait on Him. What I didn't realize until now, about all the waiting, is that there are benefits to patience.

    I will relate a personal experience that can show you what I mean. A proverb comes to mind about my experience that says: "Whoever is slow to anger has great understanding, but one who is quick-tempered displays folly." (Proverbs 14:29). Recently, I had been promoted to a shift manager at my work, and I had never been tested as a leader before. One day, I was at the cash register when a Mexican man came in wanting to order a pizza, so I tried to communicate with him, while placing his order, by asking him what he wanted. He only wanted a medium pizza with part of a deal we have, but he had to order two items to get the deal. He thought that it was two pizza toppings, and not a separate item like pizza or breadsticks. With my schizophrenia, I had a hard time giving clear communication, so we were misunderstanding each other. I was getting frustrated, but I stopped and took a deep breath and told myself to have patience. Everything cleared up, and the man was satisfied with his order: I displayed slow to anger to help the man like Jesus would have done. I hope, O reader, that this personal experience would show you the benefits of patience.

    A lot of bible people had patience. Abraham was a son of one hundred years and Sarah was a daughter of ninety years when they had Isaac. Joseph's dreams started at seventeen, but didn't happen until he was thirty. Joseph had to prepare with what God had in mind for him while as a slave and in prison before being second-in-command to Pharoah. David was anointed King of Israel when he was a teenager, but he didn't perceive himself to be king until he was thirty and had a lot of trauma and preparation to be king with a heart like God's heart. After Moses fled from his great father, the Pharoah, to go to Midian, he was a shepherd for forty years before God called him from the burning bush to save the Israelites from slavery in Egypt. Many people were called for God's purpose, but had to wait before their purpose was realized.

    Jesus was zealous for His Father's work at twelve years of age, but didn't start His earthly ministry until He was thirty in earth years, but He waited from the foundation of the world to be one with man--that's a long time. All the time Jesus was on earth, He was tempted at every turn yet without sin. His patience with the woman caught in adultery was astounding. The Pharisees caught her in the act, and brought her to Jesus with the immediate attempt to stone her, but He waited. Jesus went on the ground and wrote. When He stood up, He said: "he who is perfect throw the first stone.". Then, He patiently went back to the ground to write; all the Pharisees dropped their weapons and walked away leaving the woman and Jesus alone. Jesus told the woman in hopeful patience to go and sin no more. Jesus' patience saved a woman's life, and that's how God is: slow to wrath.

    Paul says in I Corinthians 13 that love is patience and kind, and Jesus showed that to everyone He came in contact with. I don't know about you personally, O reader, but His example of patience is something I desire to imitate--even if it is hard to do so with all the temptations in the world. I hope there is a good reward for waiting patiently on the LORD--come quickly LORD Jesus.

Virtue: Humility

     I want to go on before starting this subject about humility to show you, o reader, my intent for writing about virtues and vices. The purpose is for self-improvement: to war against our vices and strengthen our virtues. I know it's hard to do this, but all character creating takes patience and time as well as desire and effort. There is great reward in doing this, and it is something within your power to do. I want to work on myself personally, so I can be a virtuous man, and have the joy of a virtuous life that God offers man, but it takes hard work to strive for excellence. Now, I will start with humility.

    C.S. Lewis says it best when he said that humility is not thinking less of yourself but thinking of yourself less. What he meant is that humility isn't about bringing your self-worth down but lifting other people's self-worth up. Paul said in Philippians that we should esteem others better than ourselves. In the same writing, Paul talked about Christ humbling Himself from being God to being a man: not just any man but a slave. We don't picture the all-powerful, majestic God being a slave, but that's what Jesus Christ did. The best example of this is the Passover ceremony: Christ got a towel and went on His knees to wash the apostle's feet. This is significant cause not even a slave did such a thing: the custom of the day was to provide water for guests to wash their own feet. Jesus did something not even a slave would do. That's humility. Notice that this Passover was the night before His crucifixion, and all Christ did was serve the apostles.

    It's true what Jesus said that those who are great need to serve; when He said this, He brought a child to them. Why? What lesson can we learn from a child in humility? The most innocent of children are humble: Children are curious and teachable and are willing to learn through examples of adults. Children are good imitators: Children idolize heroes like dad or mom or heroes they read about. Even Solomon said it best in Proverbs 17:6:"Children's children are the crown of old men, and the glory of children are their fathers." Children want to be like their heroes--just hope it's a good hero. That's why Christ came to show us the example to live by, and children can imitate it. But, it takes humility to see a hero beyond yourself: proud people only see themselves as heroes and no one else--it's sad but true.

    A Hero of humility is Esther: she stood out when Vashi's pride made her lose the queenship. Esther did not decorate herself with jewels and gold, but only asked what the eunuch suggested and that gave her favor. When she was told about the Jews being slaughtered by degree, she chose to fast for three days and risk her life to see the king. Even though she was hungry and scared to death, she made two banquets for the king and her foe--sacrificing herself to feed her enemy. That's humility. Eventually, when Haman's plot was revealed when Esther petitioned for the life of her people, her humility prevailed cause Haman and his sons were hanged: saving the Jews.

    Humility is a sacrifice: you have to shallow yourself and pride for the sake of others. Jesus said that whoever wants to be His disciple must deny himself. Moses did that all the time when the children of Israel tempted God ten times in the wilderness. God wanted justice, but Moses wanted mercy, so he pleaded for Israel. God, in His infinite mercy, often repented from His just wrath cause of Mose's humility. God, when Aaron and Miriam confronted Moses about his Ethiopian wife, God said that Moses was the meekest person on earth at the time. But, even Moses had his pride cause he wasn't able to go into the promised land cause he did not do what God said at Meribah. God told Moses to speak to the rock, but instead he used his staff to strike it in prideful anger instead of speaking humbly to the rock to give water. His mistake was for our learning.

    Humility is hard because it requires selflessness. Only with the Spirit of the humble Christ can God teach us to be humble as Christ is humble. God's Spirit works in us to write God's ways on our hearts and minds, and sometimes it requires lessons from experiences of others or self to really solidify this foundation. Christ is the vine, and we are the branches, and without God, we can do nothing. But, Being humble is doable with effort and love.

Vice: Pride

         I like to think that I am immune to this vice, and have the virtue of Christ, but that's not realistic nor accurate. We live in a world where satan, the source of pride, entices us humans with what John calls the pride of life. What is that exactly? What is so prideful about life? I thought life was good or if we choose: evil. Well, satan is an angel once at the throne of God with Christ and the other archangels praising the Father on His throne. Ezekiel described satan as an anointed cherub and was considered perfect when he was made and ordained as the morning star, but he had pride and trusted in his own beauty and intelligence and power. Because he was proud of himself, he thought he could rule better than God, so enticed a third of the angels to take the throne with a betrayal and a coup, but to no avail. There's a proverb that says: "Pride goes before a destruction, a haughty spirit before a fall" (Proverbs 16:18). This is surely true for the enemy and any prideful person; for the enemy was exiled from God's throne to fall to the earth. That was how he could entice Eve in the garden.

         The serpent appealed to the woman's pride that she would be like God and not die when she ate of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When this happened, our ancestors gave up dominion to the enemy to rule because of their pride. A whole lot of consequences happened to Adam and Eve including the sting of death. Many years later, Herod the tetrarch was so proud of himself for his speech, after killing the apostle James, that the people thought he was a god, but never gave glory to the true God so an angel struck him and he died and was eaten by worms. Goliath pride himself of his stature and his warrior skills until he was beheaded by a shepherd boy with a sling and a stone.

          There's all sorts of things to be prideful about. Naaman the Syrian was prideful of his rivers in Syria until he was convinced by a servant to go to the Jordan, as Elisha said, to be healed of his leprosy. Uzziel, the king, was proud of his office as king and thought he should be a priest, so he went into the temple with a censer for incense, but to his shame, he was rebuked by the rightful priests and became a leper till he died living the rest of his life in shame. Uzziel proved the proverb: "First comes pride than comes shame, but to the humble is wisdom." Nabal was prideful of his wealth that he scorned David's servants for the good deeds they did to protect Nabal's livestock--with no reward. If it wasn't for his wife, Abigail, Nabal and his men would have died by David's hand, but the understanding wife convinced David to not do it and blessed David and his men with food and wine for their labor. What happened to Nabal? He had a feast in his house and got drunk. When he learned the truth from his wife, his heart became a stone and God smote him. There's pride in one's race like the Egyptians that wouldn't eat with Joseph because he was a Hebrew, and that pride led many generations later to a Pharaoh with so much pride in his race that it took nine plagues and the death of the first born by God to let the children of Israel go.

            Those are just a few examples of pride, and the consequence is evident. Pride can also make you not teachable like King Saul against the Amalekites. Saul heard the instructions by God through Samuel but because Saul thought he knew better than God because of pride in his ways, He didn't do what God said to do. God said to do an herem to everything in the city of the Amalekites because of God's promise to Moses that he would have war with Amalek from generation to generation because of what they did to Israel in the wilderness by attacking the weak and the infirmed. Saul killed the Amalekites, but spared Agag the king and the spoils for offerings to God, but this was not what God wanted. God wanted to do right for Israel, but Saul didn't do it. Because of Saul's pride and stubbornness, he lost the throne of Israel as king, and many generations later, an Agagite name Haman tried to get revenge against the Jews through the King of Persia. If it wasn't for Esther and Mordecai, the Jews would have been massacred. God saved the Jews through humble Esther, but it wouldn't have ever been needed if King Saul wasn't so prideful and just obeyed God.

                Jesus said that whoever humbles himself shall be exalted, and whoever prides himself or exalts himself shall be abased. That's what happened to King Saul and so many others. If we are not careful, O reader, we could be abased because of our pride--me included. I pray we learn these lessons about this vice, and make war against it to not do it again. On my next blog, I hope to talk about the virtue of humility.