In 1989 the ranch was foreclose
on by its mortgage holder. During the
preceding years it had gone into bankruptcy and receivership. A lot of the items left behind were sold to
pay off debts.
When Sheila left and it became
clear, that fall, that the ranch was going to go down, our county Treasurer
posted notices on the portable items that were taxed by the county, such as the
trailers, so that they had to have the taxes paid if/when sold, before anyone
could take possession.
I remember meeting with one of
the bankruptcy trustees on one of my trips down to the ranch. He said he was impressed with the quality of
the workmanship – everything was built to code, even if they had built it
illegally.
The Rajneesh had used a lot of
local (meaning The Dalles and Madras) businesses to purchase needed items; it
was one of the ways they were trying to endear themselves to people.
To begin with they paid cash on
delivery, once they established their willingness to pay, they had some of the
items and work done on credit. There
were several businesses that lost a lot of money because the Rajneesh didn’t pay
them. If I recall correctly, some went
out of business because they couldn’t sustain the loss.
One business that did not; was a
Propane dealer in Madras. He was a
friend of my dad. One day, he and I had
a conversation about his contacts and business dealings with the Rajneesh.
He had several propane tanks on
the property. He rented them to the
Ranch and was paid every time gas was delivered – which included the rental on
the tanks.
He was in his office one day
when some Rajneesh came in wanting him to help them with heating the ‘green
house,’ turned meeting hall.
There are formulas for
determining what is needed to heat a building and where the best location of
those heaters would be – it changes only so much as the type of building, how
high are the ceilings, what is the insulation and other issues that need to be
factored into the answer.
When he asked them the size,
they said, ‘two acres.’
He said, he thought about that
for a couple seconds then said, “I don’t know, I have never been asked to figure
heat by the acre before.”
Of course that broke down to
almost 90,000 square feet and he was more than happy to help them with their
heating of the ‘green house,’ it brought in more money for him. And since it was cash on delivery, he was
never at risk of losing any money.
When the Rajneesh declared they
were closing the ranch, he had his crew go down and get all the tanks back to
Madras. It took a bit of time and more
than a trip or two, but he got them all back.
From the Fall of 1985 until Fall
1988 there was a small group of Rajneesh left at the ranch to do
maintenance. There were not very many,
so they could only concentrate on a small area – that area was the house,
outbuildings and immediate area surrounding Rajneesh’s compound.
The Fall of 1988 all the legal
work for the foreclosure had been done.
The ranch was to be sold on the steps of the Wasco County Courthouse.
The week before the sale, some
of the Rajneesh invited the public, mainly news media, to come down to the ranch
for one last meeting with those that were still there and a few that would come
from outside the ranch.
Bill told me about the meeting
and wanted to go down one more time. We
left that morning and drove down to the ranch.
While we were there, waiting for
the Rajneesh to open the area up for the meeting, I received information that
there was someone close to the area with a gun.
They had already called the Sheriff’s Office.
One of our deputies was close by
and made contact with the person, I stayed outside for a few minutes – we had
radio contact with each other – to make sure he was okay. He was.
The man was a hunter on BLM property.
The rest of the people, and
Bill, had gone into the meeting area. I
came into the room and saw Bill sitting back in a corner and joined him. He admonished me, “Don’t ever leave me alone
with these people.”
After all he had gone through I
couldn’t blame him. I had told him what
I was doing, but he didn’t hear, went into the room thinking I was just behind
him and then he realized I wasn’t.
I don’t really recall just what
all was said, the speaker was upset that they were losing the ranch; upset that
Bhagwan had been forced off and some general statements of other complaints.
There was no apology,
however.
The following week, at the
appointed time, I stood on the court house steps and sold the property – back to
the mortgage lender.
But that was not the end of the
history of the ranch itself.
John
10:17-18 Therefore doth my Father love me,
because I lay down my life, that I might take it
again.
18 No man taketh it from
me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power
to take it again. This commandment have I received of my
Father.
No man taketh it from
me,
I
have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it
again.
What would have happened if
Jesus, after walking around down here on earth and seeing all the corruption
first hand, decided mankind wasn’t worth saving?
I know, He was well aware of it
since He Himself was God, but still...
Christ was a willing participant
in His death. He could have prevented
it.
He could have refused to come
down here in the first place.
He could have decided, once down
here, that we were not worth His death and gone back to heaven.
He could have decided, after His
agonizing prayers to God the Father that He didn’t want to go through the
physical pain He had to go through and called down angels to take out those that
arrested Him.
He could have done whatever He
wanted to destroy those that put Him on trial, that beat Him, that put Him on
the cross.
He could have called out to God
to condemn those that were torturing Him.
He did not do any of that.
He CHOSE to go through all of
these things.
He CHOSE to become the
sacrificial lamb for all mankind that would accept Him.
He CHOSE to DIE a physical
death.
I lay
down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me,
What would have happened if
instead of being the sacrificial lamb He went back home?
All mankind would have been
lost, forever. Our only hope was that
the only begotten Son of God, gave up His life for us.
We look at the thousands of
Jewish people that were held by Abraham in his bosom – they were not in
heaven. They were in limbo, waiting for
the Christ to free them.
They would still be there.
And us, most of us were not of
the Jewish faith, nor our fathers, their fathers, and so on for millenniums
before us.
The Jews were God’s chosen
people. The Jews had at least a hope of
not facing hell – the rest of us, unless we accepted the Jewish faith, did
not. Few people converted to the Jewish
religion, they were a minority whose were persecuted and destroyed at every
turn.
Why would a non-Jew want to
enter into such a religion that required submission to a God that could become
angry when you transgressed? Who,
through the ages, became the scape goat for what was wrong in the world?
If Jesus had decided to forgo
His execution and go back to heaven, I would not be writing this.
I would not have received the
forgiveness of sin that comes only through His sacrifice.
I would not have the Holy Spirit
to guide me and to lift me up, holding me tight so that I will not fail God.
But, of course His decision was
to do what He had been sent to do; to obey His Father that we all should have
the opportunity for eternal life with Him.
Hebrew 2:3-4 How shall we escape,
if we neglect so great salvation; which at the first began to be spoken by the
Lord, and was confirmed unto us by them that heard
him;
4 God also bearing them
witness, both with signs and wonders, and with divers miracles, and gifts of the
Holy Ghost, according to his own will?
Yet to billions and billions of
people in this world they are, indeed, neglecting this great salvation.
Some because they have not heard
of His Saving Grace.
Others, who have heard, do not
understand that this is offered to them, free.
There is no cost to obtain salvation although there is a cost in living
for Christ.
Some because of that cost of
living for Christ decide it is too high a price to accept salvation – they would
rather relish their life in sin than turn their life over to God.
Some, because they hate God and
all He represents.
Some, because they feel the sins
they have committed are so heinous that God would never forgive them.
Some, because they feel that
salvation is something that is earned, not given freely.
They do not realize or do not
care about the state of their soul nor the depth of God’s love.
If a man is stranded in a deep
well, and someone throws a ladder down for him to climb out – few would not
accept that gift, they would accept it and climb out of their hole.
It is up to us to share Christ’s
magnificent gift with mankind. While
Jesus is the ladder and God is the one that sent it, we can stand at the top and
encourage the one in the well to come up.
Better still we can follow the
path the ladder takes, showing trust in its strength and meet with the person
where they are, and encourage them to climb out of their hole, into the
light.
At the very least, they need to
hear the truth so they can make a decision to obey God, or not.
In love, Christ CHOSE to die for
us, I
lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from
me,
May we choose to declare and
share that great love with others.
Living our life so they can see Christ abiding within us and desire to
listen as the Holy Spirit touches them.
Later, Art :-)
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