CORNERSTONES

By Tom Gaskins Jr.

One person said, "I have read many a book in my life, but never one like this!"

Tom moves from some of the simplest of entities in our life to some of the most complex issues of today. "It's some of those simple things that hold great value for us." He admonishes, "Follow truth, not people."

He tackles such a wide variety of topics that you never know what's coming next. You may view your IQ differently than ever before! He tackles abortion, not in debate but with one simple question! He touches on alcohol, drugs, and tobacco, not in a condemning way but with thoughts he hopes will stick in your mind.

This book does not come across as a preach-at-you book, rather, a passing on of thoughts to encourage you. "Don't let anyone think for you! It's your life. You're the one who has to live it and leave it!"

Shootings, voting, fairness-he takes them on. Oh yes, he tackles faith. He suggests you must have a TBS to have a Bible faith. A what? A TBS? You'll see!

It's a thought provoker, highly entertaining, out of the box. Surprisingly, he somewhat minimizes politics. Tom maintains it is E-C-O-N-O-M-I-C-S that we need to understand. Like what works and what doesn't work.

He addresses what he calls the "what's one vote" disease.

He calls evolution a hoax and backs it up.

He says we need to pull out the Golden Rule, dust it off, and hang it back up.

The most stirring section may be "Finding God within Your Skin." You will never look at yourself in the mirror the same ever again!

He takes you into areas of thought where you've probably never been before, like down into the inner chambers of your heart…where no one goes…but you and God.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.
• Release date: May 7, 2021
• ISBN: 9781098076238

Book preview

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CORNERSTONES

Tom Gaskins Jr.

Copyright © 2021 by Tom Gaskins Jr.

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods without the prior written permission of the publisher. For permission requests, solicit the publisher via the address below.

Christian Faith Publishing, Inc.

832 Park Avenue

Meadville, PA 16335

www.christianfaithpublishing.com

Cover by Don Smith

Printed in the United States of America

Table of Contents

A Paper on Smart

Alcohol, Tobacco, and Drugs

Our Economic System

Evolution

The Providence of God

Finding God within Your Skin!

Our Faith

God’s Umbrella of Grace

God’s Riches at Christ’s Expense

Hot Topics Continued…

Pick Up This Musket!

This Book Is Dedicated

To those who carefully read it, see it as a tool to reach people, giving our nation, our civilization a lift; and to those who will actively use it to that end and also to those who understand the value of the concept of personally being seriously involved…like one person, one day at a time.

Acknowledgements

I seriously doubt that a book has ever been written that the author did not wisely hand the manuscript, or portions thereof, to one or more persons to ask for suggestions, corrections, deletions, you name it, before going to press. This book is no exception.

Therefore, may I express my deepest appreciation to my son, Jim Gaskins, who showed no compunction to help keep his father on the straight and narrow, who made a wise suggestion or two!

And the deepest of thanks to Don Smith, our preacher at the Lake Placid (Fl) Church of Christ, who helped me in finding some verses and contributing a number of valuable thoughts to the Faith section.

I must add a note of genuine appreciation to my friend Marilyn Pankake for her typing, critiquing, and putting up with my endless changes and add-ons.

Finally, I must pay tribute to Jason Smith, son of our Lake Placid Preacher, Don Smith, who truly pulled the rabbit out of the hat by going over word for word for necessary corrections and retyping the entire book. This fellow does this type of thing, preparing investigative reports for trial, a place where no mistakes are allowed! And in his spare time, he saved me! My many, many thanks to Jason!

Cornerstones

Most of us know that a cornerstone is a special stone, set aside and selected to be placed at the corner when building a building, a stone of significance usually signifying the name or purpose for building the building. Have you ever stopped to think that we have cornerstones in our own personal lives?

This presentation we call Cornerstones was actually put together over a period of years. This is an understatement, but looking around, we saw disturbing developments on the national scene. So rather than sit back, wring our hands, and talk, talk, talk it to death, we decided to take a look at the big picture and do something.

Too many are sitting around, kind of casually and somewhat weakly, and softly saying, Somebody ought to do something. Well, folks, that somebody is you and me.

To be straightforward, I guess you could say this was put together to help improve our civilization. Yes, we know; that is, as we say, a tall order, like biting off more than we can chew! Nevertheless, right in line is the well-known saying, "A better world begins with me."

This is not a perfect document. I am not a perfect writer. Any of you can find fault if that’s your aim, but I do hope you will see it as a tool to reach people and encourage others to do so as well.

With these thoughts in my mind, let me warn you, we are going to tackle some big ones! Okay, I know; we are supposed to sit back and let someone important, someone smart, someone of notoriety, put something like this together. Okay, I’m for it 100 percent. Nobody is stopping them. It’s a free world, go for it.

In the meantime, it is my goal to write down a few simple, everyday common sense thoughts to help some folks as they work their way through this grand life we’ve been given. At the very least, I don’t think I’ve hurt a thing in the world by trying!

When I mentioned tackling some big ones, may I just say, if you stop to think about it, we—each of us—do that practically every day. Sadly, we let some of those big ones tackle us!

Looking at the big picture, I believe you would have to say we are taking a look at our civilization and what it is that keeps it stable. You have no doubt heard of the rise and fall of the Roman Empire. Believe it or not, it rose just one person at a time, one day at a time. And then it fell just one person at a time, one day at a time. Have you ever stopped to think about that? But isn’t that true? So wouldn’t the same apply to us, the United States of America, our civilization, just one person, one day-at-a time?

With that simple thought in mind, will you join me and let’s—you and me—put our own personal shoulder to the task and lift!

Again, when I mentioned dealing with some biggies, I mean biggies! For example, you will see a paper on smart which, along the way, expanded to discussing and bringing to mind what I describe as some entities on life. Sure, a lot of what we’ve said on the subject you have thought of many times, but seriously, truthfully, have you ever seen them somehow, somewhere, put together in one thought package? I haven’t; help me. Where? You’ll see.

From there we tackle (I like to use the word tackle) things like evolution. What? Yes, evolution. I, to put it simply, believe the big push for evolution is a hoax. Stay tuned. We’ll see!

Also, we tackle (there we go again) the subject of finding God within your skin. I know you are probably thinking, What on earth is he talking about? You’ll see; stay tuned! Hear me out!

We’re not going to talk about politics. Politics is so often shallow. It’s too often an avenue for someone to gain a position or a group seeking power. What we are going to look at, even though briefly, is economics, like what works and what doesn’t work. That’s what affects us. That’s what causes our civilization, our country, any country to rise or fall.

Then as well as other things, we are going to look at our cornerstone called faith. I’m simply going to deal with some TBSs. Some what? TBS (The Bible Says)—not me, mind you, but the Bible.

As there are other topics we will tackle, here is something I want us to keep in mind. I believe it is fundamental to say we are all made up of what we’ve been told, what we’ve read, and what we’ve thought out on our own. After sifting through it all, we have accepted some things, discarded some, then hopefully moved up and moved forward. Let’s make it every day simple. If you build a house of rotted boards and inferior materials, you won’t end up with much of a house. So it is with our lives. Let’s build them with good thoughts, good ideas, high standards and see what we end up with. Wouldn’t you agree that would most likely be a happy route to follow? Don’t you think for a minute that I am setting myself up as the standard? I know my faults.

Now let me just ’fess up, folks! Have I always done that (the above)? No. And in all probability, neither have you! It is those of us that learn from our mistakes—it seems to me anyway—that move forward and move up. Why not give it a try?

And that is all we are trying to do here. Help us move forward and move up. Like do our part to help our civilization rise, not slowly sink. Yes, as you will see, we tackle some other cornerstones as well.

Now to be bedrock honest with you. You want to know the real reason I put this all to pen as we say? Yes, it was to help you. No doubt about it. If we’ve said something on these pages that helps you, just why isn’t that a good thing? But there is another reason every bit as important as the first. It is to help you reach people. Have you ever felt the need to reach people, reach someone but felt inadequate, then frustrated?

Think that one over. When you’ve finished reading Cornerstones or while you are reading it, think of someone (or someones—plural) who Cornerstones would benefit, someone you just might reach by handing it to them. It’s a tool. See it as such. Use it. And don’t be ashamed to tell them as much. You see, they just might see the need to do the same.

Near the end of Cornerstones, you will see we’ve given you names, addresses, phone numbers, additional resources, etc., etc. should you want to look more deeply into what’s presented here.

Sadly though, and I do mean sadly, too many people in general, including the brethren, are out to drift—drift through life, drift through the church. They are not out to win, just fish and knit and drift. Their backbones have slowly softened and their will greatly diminished by things that are giddy, senseless, often degrading—TV out of Hollywood, New York, you name it. You ask them to stand up and be counted, and they are incensed. I know; I’ve already experienced this. And that also, sad to say, will be the reaction of some to Cornerstones. Taking the path of least resistance, letting things take care of themselves, don’t stir it seem to be the order of the day with some. Although I’m not real sure times have changed. Remember, it was Jesus who was looking for that one person. Fast forward, the marines are only looking for a few good men!

The question we will all answer is, Where do I stand? Or is it more like Do I stand?

When I was in a Christian college, Harding College, a number of years ago, the president of the college, Dr. Benson, made a statement in chapel one day that stuck in my mind, and I believe it is so worth passing on to you. He said, "What the church needs are men of vision, not with a vision but just vision." You can digest that in your mind if you see fit. I might add though, what the country needs is more men (and women) of vision!

There is one major thought I would like to present again as we begin,