What Might Be That "Foreign God" Of Daniel 11?

 "To everything there is a season....a time for every purpose under heaven."

               That's a famous quote from the Byrd's song....Turn Turn Turn. I'm only halfway kidding here because we do in this American culture of the day know more about the Top 40....than the Bible....and I'm not immune to that....because I could go on and on about that song....song by Roger McGuinn....who played around with Buddhism as a young adult....(as I did with TM)....as many of us did....then a guru gave him advice to change his first name to Roger....eventually on to the Rock & Roll Hall Of Fame....and then to the every lasting praise of God....he like you....(hopefully)....and me....was given mercy and grace and faith to believe.....and one last thing...he became a self-proclaimed....Never-Trumper.
               So that quote is King Solomon from Ecclesiastes 3....great king and lover of God....gone baby sacrificer....(what a message on wisdom that is to all of us....that wisdom in itself is no guarantee)....a time for this and a time for that and a time for a lot of things....well guess what....this day and age that we live in....is the time to read God's prophetic Word on the Second Coming!!!!!!

                In this post let's go again to the eleventh chapter of Daniel....which timewise....is where we are today. Please read verses 29 to 39....over and over again...day after day....until it takes hold of you....or rather the Holy Spirit takes hold of you on this.
                I am only going focus here on three verses. Verse 37 tells us that the Antichrist will magnify himself. Ask yourself....what person in this world today....magnifies himself.....more than any other person in this world today....and verse 38 is this....

"He shall honor the god of fortresses instead of these....(the gods of his fathers)....a god whom his fathers did not know he shall honor with gold and silver....with precious stones and costly gifts."

                I found the word 'towers' included in the etymology of the word 'fortresses'....but either way....this personage of the Antichrist will indeed have a god....one of power and maybe associated with towers?  I'll mention this also....is it not a world famous news story in how Trump changed the whole Oval Office....to revolve around precious gold? And lastly there is the following verse....verse 39a....

"He shall deal with the strongest fortresses with the help of a foreign god...."

                I submit to you that Artificial Intelligence....AI....as it is evolving every day....may be that foreign god!
                

Surely This Cannot Be As Bad As It Seems?

                I'm going to purposely write the beginning of this post as an innocent....a child....naive at to the weightier matter of the topic. I haven't posted much on the Iran conflict because that is our military out there. Even here I'm giving some benefit of the doubt.
                The United States military took it to Iran with a vengeance at the beginning. It was truly shock and awe all over again. What was left of the top echelon in leadership in Iran was probably crawling for air pockets.....and then came Easter....and the insane texting....and then a strange pause....and now....they are talking about negotiating the Strait of Hormuz....and who knows what else....with those who must have found some air pockets? How do you go from crawling for air pockets to the negotiating table?
                 I'm trying to think of an analogy....here's one....John and Mary are engaged to be married. The wedding day is a week off...the house they will live in is already furnished...and then someone tells you that John quit his job and moved away....and Mary is entering a convent! What....What? What's going on here....they were two love birds just about to get married? It's a poor analogy I  know....but maybe it describes a little bit the confusion on how things can change so fast?
                Something is going on....and it started when he was threatening to wipe out all of the people of Iran....even though half of them or more were probably on his side. How did Iran get the upper hand in this mess? 
                 Normally I would add that....'the books are going to be written....oh are the books going to be written.' What I mean by that is that books always come out....after dozens of investigative reporters pry information out of hundreds of insiders more than happy to say what went on behind the cameras and behind closed doors. This is what happened with the so-called....Russia Hoax....where there are dozens of books out there written by the actual people involved....showing exactly what went on....and that it was no hoax....but in this particular case with Trump and Iran....it may be too late to wait for the books!
                 It does not appear that Trump knows what he is doing. Regime change seems to be gone....even the nuclear issue is still on the table? Trump urged all the people of Iran to come out in the streets and protest....for he was going to rescue them. Some rescue....for how many tens of thousands are probably dead....and he's still negotiating?
                 He made a big mistake with this anti-weaponizing nonsense. Finally someone in the former Republican Party stood up to him! It was a classic case of the guilty....projecting the same crime onto others....in order to sow confusion.
                 Netanyahu recently said that he wants United States aide to Israel to drop to zero. This wasn't a kind gesture....for he is probably tired of Trump threatening to take it away if he doesn't perfectly toe the line.
                 So I'm looking at this day after day....thinking to myself that surely there is some kind of plan....surely this cannot be as bad as it seems?

               God's Word tells us that in this life we will have tribulation.....and persecution....and that we will be hated. Tribulation is not....flying to Hawaii only to have the airlines lose our luggage....nor is it having the water pipes break only to ruin a bathroom or a kitchen or a basement....nor is it in not getting a job that we want. Nor is it living with a Democrat party that calls good evil....(as bad as that is)....nor is it being in a Republican Party that calls evil good....(as vexing as that is.) Everyone is to have tribulation and be persecuted and be hated....but not all of us have all of these things happen to us to the same degree or in the same way....but all of us should wonder why we have not at least experienced them.
                Martyn Lloyd-Jones would explain that these things prepare us for glorification. That is a profound thought and not something that we normally would come up with on our own. There have been times in history when all of this was moot....and there are places around the world at all times when believers are suffering tribulation and persecution and hatred.
                All of this also....will be moot in due time....and that due time is soon. The church in America is the frog in the pot. The water slowly boiled and did us in. We are literally filled with idolatry....little statues and high hills and worship under trees in ancient times....but primarily entertainments today....little desires and high thoughts and vain worship under church roofs.
                If we realized.....how few are saved....if we realized this alone.....we would be shouting from the rooftops....warning our loved ones....and it would result in tribulation and persecution and hatred....but we do not realize that few are saved. We have been lied to by shepherds who over time became nothing but hirelings....who would feed the sheep enough to survive....and herd them into to the sheepfold at night....but they want nothing to do with confronting wolves....only confronting sheep telling them that the wolves are in the sheepfold.
                I'll quote John MacArthur in that in 1948....and the establishment of the state of Israel...."God put the world on notice." Time was short....and it was time to prepare. Today...God has taken home just about all of those....(on a national level....MacArthur and Sproul and just about all of them)....who warned us. Israel....the state whose miraculous beginning started all this in motion....is on the brink....boasting wildly back in September of 2023 of a coming peace....it has....or is beginning to see that the emperor has no clothes.
                 God will have a prepared church....prepared for our glorification....purified through tribulation and persecution and be hated. It is not a happy thought....but it is a medicine that heals.

First He Came For Those In Congress

What I want to do here is paraphrase German Pastor Martin Niemoller's famous poem....as it relates to this president. We evangelicals just sat back and watched as his purges and show trials and corporate boardroom takeovers and primarying eliminated all of those who had ever stood up to him....because this was going to make our country great again....just like Niemoller thought that das Vaterland was going to be great again....but now the veils are slowly being taken off of our eyes....and we are finally seeing who this man is....and when we begin to speak out against him....which will eventually happen....he will surely come after us....who thought that God had sent him to us!

First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist.

First he came for those in Congress
And I did not speak out
Because I was not in Congress

Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist

Then he came for those in our intelligence agencies
And I did not speak out
Because I was not in the FBI or the CIA or the Justice Department

Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did out speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist

Then he came for the journalists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a journalist

Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew

Then he came for the disadvantaged and underprivileged
And I did not speak out
Because I was not disadvantaged or underprivileged.

Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me.

Then He came for the evangelicals
And there was no one left
To speak out for us.

Lord's Day Post On The Lord's Day

                I am wearing right now a watch that upon a quick glance might appear to be a vintage Rolex....'Pepsi'....watch of red and blue....that would sell for thousands of dollars....but I paid $69 for this cheap but reliable competitor's watch....with which I am very satisfied. Wearing this watch does not affect my spiritual life at all....it might very well even help it to wear a watch that costs less than a hundred dollars....rather than a couple of thousand.
                Whatever this is today that the vast majority of evangelicalism considers....the Lord's Day....it is a cheap knock-off on what the early followers of The Way considered the first day of the week to be. Folks....there are hundreds....at least hundreds of books written on the subject of the Christian Lord's Day....and I have a few dozen of them. Someone might be awarded a forensics trophy....after a debate....on what the Lord's Day is supposed to be.....but that is like my wearing this watch of mine....as it might satisfy me....and they might get the tournament cup....but in itself it is just not very valuable.
                 I'm not even going to touch on the debate using Bible verses. Neither side is going to win this....which should tell us something in itself....for God could have made it much more plain in His Word on what Christians should believe about what we know more today simply as Sunday....sometimes....Super Bowl Sunday.
                 I will say this though....to look at the Lord's Day as most evangelicals do today....in contrast to what the day had so often been over the two thousand years since the resurrection....it has fake written all over it. It just makes no sense....and the newer interpretation gives itself to horrific distortions....just one such example of which would be a professional athlete....say a PGA golfer....sinking a long put on the eighteenth green at Augusta.....to win the Master's....and thousands present....and millions worldwide....going bananas in their passion.....because a guy sank a put....and pocketed about 5 million....while leading those millions to live that day for their golf....while he after sinking that putt pointed to heaven....as if God orchestrated it?
                  Among other things....the Lord's Day is to be a hedge of protection....of our minds and our hearts....but we have brush hogged that hedge....ripped out the roots....and covered it with artificial turf.
                  Now the other side....which I obviously would be on....have our own problems....in that some have the used the Lord's Day as a hammer to beat other believers with....and others....like myself.....talk a good game.....but never quite live that day like it should be lived!
                  No....this is one of those things that we will just have to live with....until the Lord returns....but it may be....with some anyway....that those who at least attempt to honor the Lord's Day....may see more clearly the nearness of that day of our Lord's return?

God Uses 'Signs In The Heavens'....Always Has....Always Will

The next Jewish major feast begins next week....Thursday....May 21....and is a one-day feast.....ending on Saturday....May 23 at nightfall. The feast is commonly called Shavuot in the Hebrew....(three syllables)....or Weeks....the Festival of Weeks.....celebrating two things....the giving of the Torah....or the law....on Mount Sinai....and also the first issues of wheat. The term 'weeks' comes from the feast being fifty days from the sabbath after Passover. It is therefore fifty days. Is this beginning to sound familiar? It is celebrated as Pentecost to Christians....when the Holy Spirit came upon the disciples in the upper room!

The Jewish fast of The Three Weeks....begins this year on July 13....and ends on the Ninth of Av....August 3. This is to be three weeks of mourning in remembrance of catastrophes from the past.

Tetrads of total lunar eclipses are not all that rare....maybe a handful each century....at times going two and three centuries without any....but tetrads that happen exactly on Jewish feasts are an extreme rarity....and what makes it more amazing is that historic events concerning Israel have happened during those tetrads which usually occur in a time span of a year and a half. The 1967 Six Day War was during one of those tetrads....as was the establishment of Israel itself as a nation in 1948....and from 1492 to 1494 all of the Jews in Spain were forced to either convert....or leave.

The Great American Eclipse of April 8....2024....was surely a harbinger or an omen.

John MacArthur once said that in May of 1948...."God put the world on notice." This is not date setting! This is....mind setting...."Set your minds on things that are above, not the things of earth." (Colossians 3:2 ESV)

The following post is from June 21 of 2025:

I Always Keep An Eye On The Jewish Feasts And Fasts

               God fulfills prophetic events on the Jewish feasts....and He uses blood moons and solar eclipses and comets as signs. Donald Trump was born on a blood moon. It was an ominous....in retrospect....warning to us. In other words we did not know it at the time but we can look back at it. Do you remember all the fuss about the 2014-2015 tetrad of blood moons? They came and went....and naysayers said....'See....nothing happened during that time"....but once again looking back on them.....right in the middle of them....Donald Trump came down that escalator right smack dab into the middle of evangelicalism.....prophesying nothing but great things for America....only the latest being the coming Golden Age....all of these prophecies being the exact opposite of what God's Word tells us is going to happen!
               No one really cares about this....the reason being that God had judged His church first....and taken away our discernment....and given us what we really wanted. Nationally known ministers....including some of our best ministers....fell under the power of this false prophet. In five days it will be ten years to the day when Trump came down that escalator....and the last ten years has vexed and ripped evangelicalism to shreds. It's been like living the O. J. Simpson murder trial in the news every day for the last ten years! It has brought us down and sullied everything about us...so much so that when they have this military parade in a few days we will be cheering....as if tanks and planes and soldiers are our strength....oblivious that God told Gideon to get rid of all those soldiers....and trust in Him....and also oblivious to....Zechariah 4:6....which used to be a memory verse for us...."This is the word of the LORD to Zerubbabel....'Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the  LORD of hosts'."
                 Returning to the Jewish feasts. The upheaval in the world today....began on October 7, 2023....the last day of the Feast of Sukkot. Benjamin Netanyahu gave a speech to the United Nations on September 22, 2023....only a few weeks earlier....and I posted on it at the time that it was...."wildly overly-optimistic." He boasted about the plans for peace that were in the making....and I added...."Whatever the details are....and we do not know them now....they may on paper be sound....maybe even genius....but they will not succeed. This is like trying to build a house of cards with an oscillating fan that will eventually pass the house of cards and blow them all down." Two months before the Sukkot attacks I reviewed the new movie that was out on Golda Meir....on the 1973 Yom Kippur War....and posted that Israelis should take notice because things like this could happen in the near future.
                  Tisha B' Av....otherwise known as....the ninth of Av....the Jewish month Av....is a solemn day every year for Jews who observe their feasts. God has used that feast in the past to judge Israel....and He will (most likely) do it again. These things are just so obvious as to How God chooses to work. The Ninth of Av this year begins at sundown on Saturday....August 2.....and ends at nightfall on Sunday....August 3. (This year....2026....the Ninth of Av begins July 22)
                  The purpose of God using the Jewish feasts to fulfill prophecy is not for us to expect something on this particular feast or that particular feast....but to strengthen us at the time....such as after the Sukkot attacks....in knowing that God has every day in the future mapped out....which includes the tribulation....and the great delusion....and the rise of the antichrist....and the nations surrounding Jerusalem....and His taking His church up....and His return in judgment on the nations and those who did not believe in Him!

DISPATCHES

As I have mentioned many times....I am on the major Internet news sites dozens if not a hundred times a day....and this ever since the beginning of Internet news....and I warn Christians about Fox all the time because it has become in the past decade so unbalanced....as it seems that they must have one department whose only job is to find something that appears positive about Trump....and put it up front....and another department to search for a video of some minority....or what's really good is a good of minority youths on a rampage....and put that up front to keep conservatives stoked in their anger.

The Jerusalem Post is reporting that after Prime Minister Netanyahu's and President Trump's phone call yesterday....that it was described that Netanyahu's "hair was on fire"....he was so mad.  The following paragraph is from June of 2017. Whether I started a post and just never completed it....or had a change of heart....I just do not know. I came across it because I did remember in a post telling Benjamin Netanyahu never to trust Donald Trump. Maybe this was it. Either way....here it is....from almost nine years ago....a short time after President Trump visited Israel...met with Prime Minister Netanyahu....visited the Wailing Wall....and touching the stones....of which Prime Minister Netanyahu thanked him for the gesture. This paragraph was written before reading 112 books on Trump....watching fifty plus rallies....and observing him just about every day....so in retrospect....in light of what I know now....I went light in my warning!

"Mr. Prime Minister.....Mr. Netanyahu.....big....big....big mistake! Do not trust President Donald Trump! Smile....work with him....you have no choice....sign whatever worthless piece of paper he comes up with.....but don't place your trust in that piece of paper! I understand full well the situation that you are in, I just don't know if you understand it. It seemed like an answer from God......Barack Obama's heavy hand was gone and this 'make America great again' president was going to have Israel's back once again, but it's a lot more complicated than that. Yes, President Trump would like Israel to be safe and to succeed, and this is indeed a big improvement over a President Obama, but Israel is as important to Donald Trump as repealing Obamacare, or immigration, or tax reform......in other words the importance of them all are somewhere below the importance of Donald Trump's business plan for the world."

On the proposed ballroom....we don't need it. For a man who has belittled and threatened just about all of our allies....to say that he wants to properly honor them with dinners in a beautiful ballroom....is absurd to begin with. Trump already changed the Oval Office into a gold monstrosity. We don't need a grand ballroom for the billionaires to be repaid for their loyalty....and others to be bought off with invitations....while the rest of les miserables gets to peek in the windows via Fox. Build the security compound if they need it....and that is it.

I have a lot of differences with Congressman Thomas Massie....but always thought him to be an honest and strong individual. He made this statement in his concession speech...."By the way....after 18 months of a blackout of not letting me on Fox....they finally let me on four hours into the election." I've given this warning many times to evangelicals....'Flee Fox!" That is hard to digest considering that it had been a hero of sorts of a news media for so long....but it....along with so many other things in America....has changed....it's been....I don't think that 'enslaved' is too strong a word....by Trump! It tells you none of the poison of Trump....while embellishing and obediently repeating what it is told to say. It's Baghdad Bob in Desert Strom....reporting that the enemy....our military....had been destroyed....as American tanks rolled in the background of the video feed! I'm viewing Fox twenty or so times each and every day....because I have to....along with every other major news outlet. If you can do that....then go for it....but go in with the protection of continuous prayer for wisdom and discernment....for if you are not vigilant....it will consume you! I have been a news hound for going on sixty years now....and throughout the course of conservative talk radio....(until it collapsed)....and with mobile news since Friday. ...January 29....2007....the first day that an iPhone went on sale. I watched Fox evolve....and then succumb. I witnessed once good radio hosts abandon their own intellectual gifts of analysis. I am witnessing now other major news sources....once liberal based....be corporately taken over....and thus changed....and I've seen other news sources....once horribly biased in their own right....see what their antics had produced in Trump....and now try to return to a legitimate journalism that they once had....many....many years ago.

May 19....9PM...Id est quod id est....it is what it is....Rep. Thomas Massie is the latest victim of Trump revenge....and MAGA is surely celebrating....but this is one of those times when you might want to be careful what you ask for....or in the case of the evangelicals....what you pray for....because what with all the grifting....and the Trump statues going up everywhere....and the obvious dealing with the devil type of foreign policy negotiations....there may very be a long hoped for ray of light into who this man really is....a sad and woeful realization by even supporters....that something is terribly....terribly wrong....with where all of this is going. So they seized the day again....yes....but unless I am wrong....more and more people are getting a first realization....of the great mistake that they made.

May 19....Trump sued the IRS in an attempt to get a few billion....saw that was going nowhere....so his Justice Dept and IRS negotiated among themselves....the result being that he would drop the suit but be given $1.776 billion....to keep in a fund....to give to supporters who incurred expenses or for their pain and suffering. There will be a five-person committee to see who gets the money. There is no transparency as they probably do not even know the details. This is something that only dictators would dream up. 

This news is very recent. Apparently as part of the agreement between the IRS and the Justice Department....the IRS cannot pursue any tax issues with Trump....or his family....or his businesses. This man in the White House is so sure that Republicans will do nothing that they are not ordered to do....and that all he has to do is shout...."Wokism wokism wokism!"....and voters in fear will automatically vote for whoever he endorses....that his financial dealings....and increasingly so in since the second inauguration....are almost even beyond comprehension....in the boldness of the appearance of gross corruption! And all the evangelicals said...nothing....for they have for ten years now chosen the power and might of politics as their answer....and a man who tells them that that the best is yet to come as their prophet.

As of right now....the Republican Party is utterly destroyed....and NATO is not far behind....which Putin wanted....and all of this resolved around the concerns that our intelligence agencies had about Trump possibly being some kind of long-time kompromat....of first the Soviets and now Putin. We....conservatives and evangelicals....when we still had our minds....were worried that it would be Obama who would fundamentally change the United States of America....but it turned out to be Trump! Do you the reader remember this defiant quote from Trump back in January of 2016...."I could stand in the middle of Fifth Avenue and shoot somebody...and I wouldn't lose any voters....OK?" This quote is now referenced to as....The Fifth Avenue Principle"....where it is possible that the devotion of political supporters can be so strong that the government official could do anything he or she wants....and not worry about prosecution or even investigation.

It is a form of what is called....'gaslighting'....and is also what is known as....'projection'....where the guilty party projects the same crime that they are guilty of....if it is a crime....onto someone else....to confuse the whole situation. That in essence is what happened with what is today well-known as...."the Russia hoax'....where Trump was guilty all over the place in his long-time dealings with Russian money....and Putin....and before Putin...but to essentially neuter the whole topic....he deflects the guilt on those who investigated him....and so far it has worked almost to perfection....which is why we have had ingrained in our psyche....Russia hoax....Russia hoax....Russai hoax....Russian hoax!

May 18....Yesterday in Washington D. C. there was what they labeled....Rededicate 250....an all day rally of charismatic worship songs....and choir pieces....intermixed with short patriotic speeches by whatever ministers where chosen....and government officials who had taped messages to be shown up on a large screen. (There didn't seem to be a whole lot of dedication to this rededication) Trump was golfing at the time but sent the video of him reading a passage from the Bible. Of course Franklin Graham was there....on one of the videos....and I could not help but wonder as he read 2 Timothy 3:3-5....from the ESV....did it even enter his mind for a fleeting moment....that he was actually describing Donald Trump?  Here is what he read...."But understand this....that in the last days there will come times of difficulty....for people will be lovers of self....lovers of money....proud....arrogant....abusive....disobedient to their parents....ungrateful....unholy....heartless....unappeasable....slanderous....without self-control....brutal....without love of good....treacherous....reckless....swollen with conceit....lovers of pleasure rather than lover of God....having the appearance of godliness....but denying its power..." Is that not Trump's resume? There are three more words in the ESV from 2 Timothy 3:5....but Reverend Graham did not read them...."Avoid such people."

Saturday....11:30 PM....United States Senator from Louisiana Bill Cassidy came in third in the primary.....the other two....will go to a runoff. I have a hard time saying the word.....republicans.....anymore....so instead of that....MAGA is celebrating everywhere tonight....and well they should....for they have been victorious once again in getting revenge on republicans who in any way fell out of favor with Trump....and Cassidy fell out big time....for he voted to impeach in the insurrection impeachment.....and recommended that Trump should not run in 2024....and even declined to endorse him in the election! Conservatives....and evangelicals....should be concerned....even weeping....but they are not....because they have long ago.....ten years to be precise....abandoned their responsibilities to think for themselves....or believe and trust in God's Word.

America today is doing what so many of us wanted over so many decades....for our military to actually exert itself in the causes of protecting America and suppressing tyranny and extending liberty and freedom to those who do not have it....only it is not turning out as we might have expected....for instead of the driving force being honor and integrity and care for others around the world....it is greed and powermongers and a tyrant of our own....with little to no care about any collateral damage or what innocents might get in the way....and then it is all brought to us on video....so we can glory in the death and destruction.

The Trump administration may indict Raul Castro....which would clear the way....in their minds....for what is called a....snatch and grab....leading to a regime change. Trump needs a PR win in Cuba....not only before the mid-terms....but before the July 4th celebrations. This has nothing to do with freedom or the lives of people....maybe with Rubio but not with Trump. Everything is PR.

That Trump took tech billionaires to China is indicative of how with him....there is no professional experience and wisdom needed in things like the CIA or the FBI or the Justice Department. To him....anyone can do these jobs.....and he only wants loyal people there who will not investigate him.

Medicaid cuts....and foreign aid cuts....are taking its toll. I've been a conservative republican for forty-four years now....but we lied to the American people when we looked the other way....and in essence....played dumb....and said that there would be no cuts to Medicaid. The Trump administration....(can you even believe that someone like Elon Musk as given a role in this?)....the Trump administration went into USAID with a sledgehammer. These demolitionists didn't even know what USAID's responsibilities were. All that they knew was they had the support of Trump's base behind them to destroy as much of the hated civil service that they could.

Eventually....Trump money making schemes using the power of the presidency will catch up to him. As with this and everything else about how Trump has conducted himself in this second administration of going out...."conquering....and to conquer"....what is most incredible about it is that evangelicals threw away all of what they knew from God's Word to be warnings and admonitions....to go after money gold and silver and other things that perish.

Trump went into Iran with shock and awe....but then in his texts on Easter weekend....shocked even evangelicals....in how inhumanely he could think. Something happened at that time....and this thing is one royal mess....but surely there is a plan hidden from us....and maybe even hidden from Trump's military planners...for there is really only one goal....Trump succeeds above everyone else.

This paragraph is from a post earlier this year: "It is generally perceived by evangelicals that since America was once good....and since the Trump Party is trying to restore that goodness....that God's blessing upon America at this time.....economically and domestically in general and in its national security....is directly related to the success of this Trump administration. The irony and the incongruity here....is that the very Trump administration that they are trying to sustain and empower....is intent on making the poor and the disadvantaged fend for themselves....in order to increase the coffers of the treasury....so that more military might can be produced....in order to conquer more oil fields....and develop more resort areas....for even more profits....and all of this done as opulence is celebrated throughout the White House and now imperial environs of what was once the people's city.

I have related a number of times....my experience with January 6, 2021....the following from an old post is just one of them: 

"I remember January 6, quite well....and I posted about that day....on that day. First of all what did MAGA people believe was going to happen? Did they really expect the Congress was going to ignore election results and refuse to put Biden in office. This was a sick plan to begin with. I turned the television on just before Trump began to speak on that morning and was upset on how evangelicals were waving their arms and hands in the air....in praise....as Leonard Cohen's very distinctive song melody....Hallelujah....was playing over the crowd. Hallelujah is transliterated....not translated....let us praise Yah. This is not a Christian song. It is essentially an anti-belief song....extremely secular.....and evangelicals were swaying and praising to it because its melody is mesmerizing and Trump picked it. Trump also used it at the 2020 RNC Convention. So I listened to a few speakers and then Trump came on....and as I posted at the time....I had to turn the television off....because the whole thing was so...."unsettling"....was the word that I used at the time! It was making me ill watching it because he was stirring up the people for something that could not be good!"

Too Big To Fail?

                I received today a fund raising email from probably the most important ministry in America from a Reformed Theology perspective....which if you have read much in these posts.....you would know that I consider that a biblical perspective. I don't have to mention the name but it should be easy to guess. I have probably recommended it in these posts a couple hundred times over the years. The email offered a link for a reply.....which I did reply....both praising their efforts but also giving a personal opinion....of which I would hope that all ministries desire feedback.
                Most of the email was in describing all of the various resources that was offered. It also gave some statistics....one of which was in that it estimates that over the course of the ministry there had been 50 million visits to the main website!
                As I mentioned....I offered well-deserved praise in my reply....and as for the opinion....I posed a couple of questions on why most of our most effective ministries do not emphasize more the nearness of the Second Coming....and also why the sheep were not warned of a false prophet that has become dominant in not only America but in the church?
                I sent off the reply....and later the statistic of 50 million visitors came to me....millions a year....and thus another question....which I pose to  you but it will not go to them....'has the thought ever occurred to them that they have had fifty million opportunities....and a couple of million opportunities a year....to both....come out and tell the readers that from everything that God's Word tells us....including all of the caveats to keep working as normal....that the Second Coming is near as a major league baseball team rebuilding its team....if not a lot nearer....and that millions could have been warned strongly about the false prophet in our midst....with evidence on how he has changed evangelicalism to a pursuit of greed and power?
                All of us need strong challenging questions like this. I get them often....and I am thankful for that....for if we cannot handle the difficult questions....and still be confident in our beliefs....then there is yet another problem!
                I did mention this in my reply....that after forty some-odd years as a believer....I have witnessed many of our own ministries become what appears to be....too big! How can that even be possible.....for they proclaim the gospel....how can they become too big? Well....it can and has happened....as it appears that when they become so big....they also become too cautious....fearing that this great growth might stop or even collapse....ultimately they believe themselves to be too important to fail.
                 It seems like what Gideon was told to do by God is no longer relevant to us today? I also mentioned in my reply on how Facebook was a curse from day one....but instead of warning against it....it seems that all the churches use it....and there is this....this wonderful ministry that this post is all about....as they mentioned the many and various resources that they have and use....proudly stated on how AI....artificial intelligence....which may turn out to be directly related to the antichrist....is being used more and more in their ministry.
                 The first time that I heard about Martin Luther's odd and even awful thoughts on Jews....this later in his life.....I was more than sad.....even discouraged....for a short time....and the same thing about other great blessings from God in the form of preachers....and how they were not perfect. This continues even up to today....but I am no longer discouraged.....because all I Have to do is look at myself....and I see the failures.....and the stumbling....at times flat on my face....but then I see the mercy and the grace extended....and the great design of God in that all those that He chooses and calls may be truly frail...but ultimately it is that frailty that brings glory to Him!
                  So maybe....as wonderful as this ministry I am referring to in this post is....even if it missed opportunities....and even made mistakes....it is a great blessing to the church....even in its at times falling somewhat short! May it be that way with me....may the Deceiver see that even in one such as I....the lowest of the low.....God can hold on to....and use in some way....to bring all the glory to where it belongs....to the throne of God!

"Trouble Ahead....Prepare To Meet Thy God."

               My favorite class in high school was civics....and the teacher was a Brother Michael....probably senior year....and he had a requirement in that every student had to read one current event column from each of four weekly magazines....Time....Newsweek....U.S. News & World Report....and I can't remember the fourth....pick one column....and describe it in class. This was 1968 folks....and I have been regularly reading these type of columns ever since....and in a way....I write one now in these posts....only it is almost daily....for going on two decades. 
                I know that we are in a podcast age today....but I am stuck in the written word age. Picking one columnist.....at random....Ann Coulter....she may have written a couple of thousand columns over the decades....(and there are many other columnists)....(and I don't read her anymore because she went back and forth too many times)....but she might have a couple....many....excellent and needed columns every year....the problem as I see it is that these columnists have to give something new for the reader all the time....to keep their jobs.....and their very best and most needed columns get buried for no one to see again unless the columnist writes a book of their best columns....and even that book is a one time thing.
                For all I know....Coulter may have thirty thousand and ten regular readers....which would be about thirty thousand more than me. I am the most insignificant blogger....(and it really isn't a blog anyway)....of all bloggers. One thing that I do that is different is that I bring back topics and issues and old posts....ad nauseum....because I am not trying to impress anyone....but trying to warn as many as I can....as often as I can! There are thousands of readers here who may never come back a second time....but they have heard at least once....the warning that I try to give....and those type of warnings tend to stick somewhere in the back of the mind....that can be recalled at a later time....and they have heard the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ as least once...as I lead them....the readers....time and again....to the sermons of men like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and Sproul!
                 So here is a short summary for America....ALL IS LOST! It is over folks.....two-hundred and fifty years....just about on time. Every area of our society is damaged. This is not the America that I grew up in....nor is it the evangelicalism that I was saved in. We cannot analyze anymore....nor can we distinguish between propaganda and journalism....nor stammering and debate....nor even....good and evil!
                 We....each one of us almost....have a very good opinion of ourselves....or our churches and our pastors....and our discernments......and even our honesty....and that is the problem! In the secular world....we are never going to accumulate any wisdom....until we first seek truth over riding a hobby horse....seeking to learn first before we pontificate. In our Chrisitan life....we are never going to have any discernment....until we admit that we are starting with no discernment in or wisdom in ourselves at all....at all....and only God gives discernment according to His perfect will!
                  So here are some of those.....ad nauseum....comments from over the years. AI is a death knell. There is no stopping it. Drone warfare is horror. Joe Biden and Donald Trump were and are two judgments on us from God. There was no....lesser of two evils! The Democrat Party fell first....and just as the southern kingdom followed the northern kingdom in catastrophe and judgment in ancient Israel....so have we have become that...."treacherous sister"....that returned to God only "pretense." (Jeremiah 3:10)
                   There is no turning back! Jonah gave Nineveh a window of opportunity....and they repented....for a time....and so did we....for a time....but as I posted years ago....it is the prophet Amos....(who no one reads)....speaking to us....relayed to us by Billy Graham in one of his many books that warned us...."Trouble ahead....prepare to meet thy God!"

Note: I even used this title before!
                 

Special Plea

                Roughly six years ago....Blogger.com changed its Nav Bar....to the exclusion of its previous/next link. What that meant to me and these posts is that where at one moment people all around the world who were on Blogger Christian posts....might....and did....randomly come here....now that is all gone. So I have a plea here....for any readers who  might agree with the sentiments that I post....which may only be one in ten....I really do not know....but if you do....and you have some kind of communication with brothers and sisters in Christ.....or even certain churches....in other countries....would you consider passing the web address....specialdogg.blogspot.com....on to them? Thank you for considering this!

The Problem Is In Our Perceived Goodness!

               Tim Keller said that the problem that we Christians have is in our...."goodness"....more than our...."badness." What he was saying here is not that the badness is not there or is not a problem.....but that our perceived goodness....and our...."self-righteousness".....causes the badness! He said that it changed his ministry and his life when he saw this to be the case.
                I have posted a lot on the condition of the church today....on what many of the men in the pulpits mistakenly consider their vocation to be in this modern world....and on their preaching....and on us in the pews....particularly in our grand failure to have identified a false prophet....and consequently not fleeing from him and all that he is about.
                The preaching is not telling us the depth of the sin in our heart....because it is unable to....or the heights of the glory of God!  It's definitions may answer correctly a catechism question....but it cannot cut to the core....because it does not know how deep that core goes...or how high that height of God's glory is.
                 We therefore not only do not know the true condition of our heart....but we also do not know our outward condition....the true condition of our lives.....and of the church. Consequently we cannot see the mistakes that we have made. So when we read Old Testament prophecy....the few times we do that....maybe only once a year in a 'read the Bible in a year plan....we in no way see ourselves in ancient Judah or Jerusalem or Israel....or for that matter....Assyria or Babylon of Greece or Rome....but we should....because we are there....and those prophets are also speaking to us today....no....they are shouting to us today!
                  In Collin Hansen's 2023 book on the life and ministry of Tim Keller....Tim Keller....His Spiritual and Intellectual Formation....he added this that probably would not be picked up by the average reader....at least not as much as I picked up on it. I'll explain that in a minute....
                  The author was listing the men that played essential roles in the formation of Tim Keller's ministry. Among those names was Edmund Clowny and Jonathan Edwards and R. C. Sproul and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....but then he put particular emphasis on a man named Dick Lucas....who I am familiar with because he was at times back in the 1990s a guest on Michael Horton's radio program....The White Horse Inn. What I remember most about those radio episodes with Dick Lucas was the power of this man's thoughts on the glory of God. Anyway....Collin Hansen wrote this...."Keller listened to so many Dick Lucas sermons that Kathy....(Tim's wife)....told him to be careful....because Tim was going to sound like a parrot."
                  That in itself is a needed warning....but what hit me was that Tim Keller had listened to....as the author put it...."So many Dick Lucas sermons." In these posts of almost eighteen years....I time and time and time again....tried to encourage readers to incorporate into their lives....listening to sermon from....as I always put it...."preachers of the past....or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past!" It is therefore not surprising to me that Tim Keller also gleaned from preaching of the past....and apparently quite often!
                   One last thing....while typing this I remembered a radio interview....of only a year or so ago....on Pittsburgh's Christian radio station....with Kathy Keller....where she was asked if she looked forward to seeing Tim in Heaven....which would be a quite natural question....(I wrote a whole post on this at the time....in January of 2025)).....and her answer was profound....this is what I wrote....'It's not so much that I look forward to seeing Tim in heaven....but I want to see Jesus.' And then she repeated the sentiment."
                    You see....it is our perceived...."goodness"....that makes us think first of a loved one in heaven....before the King of Kings....before the one who took the punishment for us....or else we would not be in heaven to see anyone! This 'goodness' that we see in us....negatively affects our doctrine and even our evangelizing loved ones....because we see a "goodness' in them also....so surely....God would have mercy on them.
                     Preaching....on Christ and Him crucified....and on the holiness of God that even R, C. Sproul or J. C. Ryle could only touch on....and yet it sent us to our knees....regular throughout the year....year in and year out....can cut to our core....so that we might cast away any thoughts of self-righteousness....and look past the answer that the world gives to the problems in our country....and to turn our full-attention and affection to the Lamb! So please....consider incorporating the sermons of preachers from the past into your daily life!

Today's Wordle Is......HEART

                I have family and friends that religiously....every day....play the Internet game....Wordle....and they often forgetfully ask me how many times it took me to get that day's Wordle....of which I have to remind them that I do not do Wordle....but I do Revelation 13:18....and not every day because that would point to fanatically wanting Jesus to return....what with all the increasing violence and demonic activity in the world....and that all of our pastors warn us not to get too fanatical about wanting Jesus coming back....or in reading too much prophecy....because only they can explain to us how none of it really means anything anyway!
               
                That verse in Revelation reads....in the NKJV...."Here is wisdom. Let him who has understanding calculate the number of the beast....for it is the number of a man: His number is 666." It's funny how in God's Word....a verse like this can initially sound so simple in its meaning....I mean it can't get any more plain....but in reality have no practical significance whatsoever!

                So I give a few minutes to this....not every day....but just about every day. For instance....one day I might calculate that since the very first Apple computer in 1976 had a retail price of $666.66....and that maybe 666 had something to do with computers? It didn't hurt that the logo that the two Steves....(Jobs and Wozniak)....chose was an Apple with a bite taken out of it....pointing to maybe....Adam and Eve and the garden?
               
                Another day I might conjecture that computer technology at least would like to go the way of carbon nanotubes over silicon nanatudes....because so much energy would be saved...and energy is the big deal today with data centers....and also that carbon has 6 protons and 6 neutrons and 6 electrons?

                And yet another day I might point out that if the letter A is given the numerical value of 6....and the letter B is given the numerical value of 12....and the letter C is given the numerical value of 18....and so on done to the letter Z....then the word in English....COMPUTER....would equal 666?

               Or I might point out that King Solomon....at the height of his riches....was getting 666 talents of gold every year....(1 Kings 10:14)....and that his riches were so great that this seems to be the beginning of his downward spiral? And that maybe....maybe....riches and power and fame has something to do with the Antichrist?
               
               Well these things have no real meaning of course....I only use them to show what 'calculating' might mean in that Revelation 13:18 verse. We all know that God wants us totally in the dark as to when Jesus will return.

                In reality....AI is mind-boggling. If you Google even a subjective question....in a nanosecond it will have eliminated all of the incorrect nuances....and discern the intent of your question....and give you a fairly spot-on answer....and all of this is new technology....and in a month it will be all new again....as it speeds forward to infinity.....and beyond!

                As for Wordle....and other daily games like it....a crossword puzzle or some other mind game....they can be a healthy exercise for the mind....and maybe even help when studying prophecy....but only God gives the necessary wisdom to discern His Second Coming....and He does so only in His perfect timing....and only to hearts that are devoted to Him! So if one is devoted to games like Wordle....or Pickleball....or other such pastimes and ventures....at the expense of being interested at all in the glorious return of our Savoir and King....then don't expect too much discernment of what is happening in the world....or on Donald Trump....or anything really.

Lord's Day Post

Preface: We went today to see the movie....The Sheep Detectives....a week after going to see the animated....Animal Farm.....which gives you an idea of the type of films we enjoy. It was fun...definitely not Christian oriented....but it made the viewer love sheep. We listened to Chapter One of W. Philip Keller's 1970 classic....A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm on the ride home....so the film presented no Christian themes....but it inadvertently may lead the viewer to meditate upon our Good Shepherd....who gave Himself for His sheep...and is coming soon to take us home with Him....forever!

This is a post from July of 2024:

       It's really a magnificent book! First published in 1970....I think that by the mid-80s most Christians read it....W. Philip Keller's....A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm. Keller led....at the very least....an interesting life....as a scientist at times....a pastor at times....a photo- journalist....and a sheep rancher & shepherd! I would never question his qualifications to speak about sheep after reading that book of his. They were not only possessions.....which he points out that he owned them....he paid for them....he raised them....they knew him....but he loved them!
              This isn't a theological treatise....and I don't know how effective of a pastor the author was.....but he knew sheep....and he perfectly correlated this to us....and himself....fellow sheep....following The Good Shepherd.....and The Good Shepherd.....watching over us!
               Folks....this book is up there with John Bunyan's....The Pilgrim's Progress....not in the great doctrines of the church....along those lines A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm is no where near the level of Bunyan's masterpiece....but on that one topic....sheep....and shepherds....it is so encouraging and informative! So many times I wanted to just thank and praise God for this wonderful design of sheep and the Shepherd that loves them....stubborn and timid....and quite frankly....stupid....as they so often are. You can easily read it just by Googling it up.
              I could write much too long of a post on the many things that W. Philip Keller wrote about sheep. I won't for your sake....but I have to give an example or two. Keller writes on how the flock will be on the way to good water....but they will often run off to drink from muddy or fetid ponds. He tells of a beautiful....perfectly formed female sheep that he once owned....that was just a delight to look at....and of who He as a sheep rancher and shepherd loved....but that ewe just had it in her to run to the fences and try to get into other pastures....even though those pastures were not as good.....and other sheep would follow her! Well Keller had no other choice....to keep the other sheep from harm....how do I put this....they probably had lamb for dinner one evening. One last humorous example....a friend arrived by car one day....and her tiny Pekingese pup jumped out and barked....and the entire flock of sheep ran for the hills in fear. Well....I been there....how about you?

                                                                    

               

  

Out With The New......In With The Old

                 The church is in the middle of God's judgment against it. Roughly four decades ago the liberal church led the Democrat Party.....slowly but surely....into a woke and progressive oblivion. The Republican Party struggled for a while until 2015....when it began to die. The Billy Graham evangelical up until the 80s....had started to politicize and became the Ralph Reed evangelical....who later had morphed into the Karl Rove evangelical....and then....because of the threat of what the Democrats were offering....in fear and rage followed a false prophet to become the Trump evangelical....which is no evangelical at all!
                 One could look at this as when Solomon died....after having squandered all the wisdom that God gave him....returned to God in his old age....but who would replace him as king? This is so similar to the path that America had taken.
                 The tribes split....and the ten northern tribes chose Jeroboam....who pronounced to them...."Here are your gods....Israel....who brought you out of Egypt"....as he had fashioned for them two gold calves! (1 Kings 12:28)
                 That is half of America today folks....led by the Democrats.....but don't celebrate too soon....because the two southern tribes chose Rehoboam. How did that work out? 1 Kings 14:24 gives us the answer...."The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites." We had gone the way of Balaam and politics. Later....Jeremiah....and other prophets....warned Judah.....just as Graham and MacArthur and others had warned us....Jeremiah telling them to seek the old paths....or the old ways....of which they wanted nothing to do with.....nor do we want the cross and the blood anymore....but rather the statue and the flag.
                  The gospel is unrecognizable in America today....for no one anymore has to be born again....and we in the church have no idea how far we have fallen in this....for we cannot see outside of our bubble! One by one....God took away the prominent ministers who faithfully proclaimed the gospel....and had warned us for a half century! There are serious problems in some of the few larger faithful churches that remain. This chaos is the result of an increased demonic activity in our country....predictable as the Second Coming is near....as the demonic was stirred up when Jesus came to His own in Bethlehem of Judea two thousand and some odd years ago!
                   We have megachurches....with every possible ministry that you could imagine....impressive state-of-the-art websites....family churches today....with no preaching....for the glory has long since departed.....ICHABOD. No one knows any of this....because no one remembers what the glory of preaching was like!
                    This false prophet....literally destroyed the Republican Party.....for there is a new party today....bearing little to no resemblance to conservatism of the past....and although they shout God's name all the time....they are more the seven sons of Sceva....than followers of the Lamb....for this false prophet played his flute....and we followed.
                    AI has already taken over. Birth pangs....leading to the tribulation....are literally everywhere. The antichrist is an adult....if not an eighty year old adult....but we are not looking for him! We want our entertainments! We do not want to hear anything about Jesus returning! We want a Republican congress! We want power! We want warm weather and smooth sailing....but a maelstrom is coming fast....and if we do not turn and search for those old paths....'out with the new....and in with the old'....we will be taken by surprise when the volcano....so to speak....blows its top.

           

"Only One Life....'Twill Soon Be Past....Only What's Done For Christ Will Last"

                    There are a couple of days a week that I have some duties to perform....and today was one of those days....and I was a little worn out as I got into my truck....and thought that I might just drive the twenty-five minutes home in quiet....and then I thought again.....for it has been my habit for many years now....maybe 90% of the time....to listen to a sermon on any ride of any length at all....from as I like to put it....either.....men from the past....such as Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or men today who preach like men from the past....such as John MacArthur or R. C. Sproul or John Piper. So...I Googled a sermon....let's see....maybe Jonathan Edwards today....and picked the first sermon on the list....and as I often do at times like this....I had to laugh.....for the sermon was on not wasting our precious time. Here is that sermon if you are interested....

                                                                            

Note: From a passion for the game....cricket....to a passion as a Missionary for Christ....the title is the last poetic stanza of his famous poem....One Life....C. T. Studd (19th century)

"All Is Vanity"....Is The Same As Saying...."All Is Idolatry"

"She tempts people by promising great power and wealth to those who serve her." Those are words from Ligonier Ministries on Mystery Babylon from Revelation 17.

                The two great lights in not only London and England....but by extension the whole of Christendom....this in the latter half of the 19th century....were the Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon....and the Anglican ....Bishop J.C. Ryle.
                 Ryle may be most well-known for his book....Holiness....but he also wrote and preached extensively on the Second Coming....not just in a scholarly textbook fashion....but with a passion....warning his listeners....and pleading with them to take 'end of times' prophecy seriously....or suffer the consequences of not knowing what to expect.
                 One thing that J.C. Ryle tried to instill in the reader and the hearer was that idolatry was the key ingredient in all of our sin. Everything that was not worship of God and His Christ....was idolatry. Now driving to the mall might not be thought to have anything to do with worship....but that car we drive to the mall might be worship and therefore idolatry....or that which we are going to purchase might be worship or therefore idolatry!
                 At one moment we tend to look at these examples as....'Gee....another thing that we cannot do'....whereas we should see them and ask...'Oh my....am I worshiping this thing as an idol?'
                 John Calvin said...."The human heart is a perpetual idol factory." Anything can be an idol....wonderful and good and blessed things can be turned into idols. This is no small thing....in fact it seems to be the essence of Mystery Babylon!
                 That which evangelicalism today has fallen for....as it pertains to Christian Nationalism....can be described as a....falling away....from the truths of the gospel and the gospel itself....and is centered around pride and greed. All of this America First stuff is ultimately idolatry....all of the...."Winning, winning, winning" and the new golden age we are promised....is idolatry! Everything about Trump's rise was based squarely on idolatry! We evangelicals were led in this direction....and we just followed the pied piper..
                   In that Mystery Babylon whose destruction will come in one day....it may entail all that we hold as idols today? I recall something else that J.C. Ryle wrote in one of his books....at a different time....on a different subject....that in his extensive experience at being with many older people at the time of their death.....he stated that...."Old people tend to die....as they lived." In other words....the nearness of death....and no longer the need for possessions....did not free people to look to God....for they now had possibly a new idol....pride....in their refusal to admit that they may have been wrong....their entire life!
                   Idolatry is our problem in America and the church today. Idolatry is my problem. These posts can be idolatry....and I am sure that at times they have been. It is an insidious sin within us.  J.C. Ryle was an extraordinary preacher and man. It is amazing to think that both he and Spurgeon preached to London at the same time. Another area that he is well-known for is his preaching on the...."Old Paths"....from Jeremiah 6:16

"Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads....and look....and ask for the ancient paths....where the good way is....and walk in it....and find rest for your souls....but they said....(which is also us today)....'We will not walk in it'."

                        If you are a student driving home after the semester and the year has ended....may God give you traveling mercies....and may you consider listening to the words from J. C. Ryle...

                                                                         

                                                                             

   

Birds Of A Feather

             The saying goes....birds of a feather....flock together. Ted Turner and Pat Robertson were definitely birds of a feather....and may have flocked together so to speak in their youth....for both were raised in upper class households....had elite schooling....both fulfilled their military commitment....and then both went on to found literal empires....Turner in cable news....and Robertson in Christian cable television.
              Ted Turner gave a lot of money away as a philanthropist....but as far as I can tell....maintained his belief that leaned towards universalism to the end. He supposedly became a 'born again' Christian in school....through the preaching of Billy Graham....but like well over 80% of those who go forward at crusades....it was only a temporary moment of emotion..
              Pat Robertson on the other hand....shouted the gospel.....from the rooftops....until he went to be with his Lord in 2023 at the age of 93....Ted Turner died today at the age of 87.
              Here is something that might shock the reader here....and then again it might not. CNN is probably the most vilified by the Right....and by evangelicals....of all the news networks....and over the past decade or so I would have agreed with that vilification.....but in an odd quirk of fate....my opinion here only....it seems to be the best news network out there right now!

               I'll give you a few minutes to come to grips with that statement from a 44 year conservative....repubican....veteran....Tea Party....evangelical! 

               I didn't say that it was great....just that of all the rest....ABC and CBS and NBC and FOX Trump Network....it was the closest today to actual news....other than Drudge. What I don't like is that you have to subscribe to get a lot of it....(which I don't....but I may some day?) Fox news is sad because it was once the very best....and fair and balanced....but Trump did to it what he does to everything that gets too close to him....he destroyed it's integrity in telling the whole truth....and nothing but the truth!

The College Campus

                 It was part trip down memory lane....and part meditation.....as I was on a college campus today....only for a few minutes.....leaving my books of the bible book markers....hoping that they will be picked up and a few students will wind up visiting these posts. This is the first warm day we have had in a while in this second year in a row of chilly to cold springs. I only had to walk a hundred yards through the campus....and a hundred yards back to my truck....but oh the memory as I thought back fifty some odd years where I was the same as these young people that were sprawled out all over the grass....catching some sun....with an open laptop or book next to them....(only in my case without the laptop....and possibly without the open book.)

                Life was so good back then....not in reality because the Vietnam War was still going on....and Watergate was roaring....and the job market for new graduates was not good....but to a young man as I was....(I was a little older than the average student because I had just got out of the army)....with nothing to do but get adequate grades and head off to the Wooden Keg to drink pitchers of beer while talking philosophy to other guys also missing the real point of higher education....it was idyllic....or so it seemed at the time.
                At 76 years old....walking slow....with papers in my hand....I sometimes wondered if students think that I might be one of the professors. I liked it....as fake as it was. One of the students on the grass studying for finals called out my name....and I went over to tell them that I hoped that God would give them the calm and the ability to do well in their finals.
                 As I looked around at all the students enjoying the sun....If I took a snapshot....(and actually turned it into a glossy photo)....and compared it to one of the photos that I might have of my days on Pitt's campus....I don't think that one could readily tell which photo was 2026....and which photo was 1973! The grass and the walkways would be the same....as would students in t-shirts and shirts. OK....if you looked closer the computers might be a giveaway....and there surely were not as many guys with shoulder-length hair....(even I....only months out of the army....had hair to my shoulders)....and for those walking to and fro....the backpacks might be a giveaway....for we tended to just carry our load of books around campus....or stuff them in a bag.      .
                   So it was a bittersweet jaunt....across the campus. I felt happy for those students....enjoying what I still remember as a really pleasant way to spend time between classes....(although today was in-between finals....so much for a pleasant experience)....but knowing what I know about the day and the age that we live in....a day and an age far more dangerous than even when I was young....there was a bit of heartbreak in that short walk.
                   The most simple logic should tell all of us that when Jesus is at the very door in His glorious return in power and righteous judgment....and from what we read from God's Word....there will be just as many young people....with all their dreams. There will be that generation....of young families....and college students....with a new and exciting life just ahead of them. It wasn't my generation...and it wasn't some of the alphabet generations that we have had in the past thirty years....(Gen X and Gen Z etc.)....but it looks to be this  generation....whatever the current title might be.
                    If we only look at this as I have described in these few paragraphs....then it might very well be considered sad....but if we look at it as Christians should....whether as old as me or as young as these students....there is a glory ahead....a glory beyond anything we can imagine....even with all that God's Word tells us! 
                    I will....Lord willing.....after I publish this post....go out and mow my grass. God's word is very clear in this....keep working....and even keep planning....and yes even keep dreaming....but all of that work....and those plans....and even those dreams.....are baseless if the glory of our Savior is not front and center! Even the dream of a family....should be in raising that child or those children to know and love Jesus! If we stay centered on Jesus....keeping oil in our lamps....with some to spare....and stay vigilant and awake....we can do our everyday tasks....and make plans....and dream dreams....secure and confident in the design of our God....to give us at times both pleasant meadows....and dark valleys....knowing that He is with us....and His way is perfect!

        
           

Special Dog's Commencement Address

Preface: I posted the following in May of 2014....and have been bringing it back every year since then!

Special Dog's Commencement Speech 

               Once again another year has passed and I wasn't invited by any college or university to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden....(Vice President at the time)....was to be the commencement speaker at Harvard University but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage.  The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name....Special Dog....they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to a give a commencement speech....then I woke up. So I sat down and penned the speech that I would have given had I in fact been invited by Harvard to give their commencement speech. Maybe next year! Here is that speech.... 

               

"A little bit of trivia.....President John Kennedy would be 97 years old today....(he would be nearing 106 today)....if he were still alive....but his 46 year old face in the last year of his presidency is what we remember. I had the privilege of seeing him in person as Senator Kennedy and then presidential candidate Kennedy passed by our Catholic grade school....as they herded us all out to wave to him. (This is 1960)

I recently viewed an old interview with then Governor Ronald Reagan that was taped on June 5th of 1971. The interviewer asked Governor Reagan if he was going to run for president in 1972. Reagan replied....'No....Lord willing I'll complete my second term as governor.' That would make two United States presidents....in a row....Carter and Reagan.....who could naturally use the phrase....'Lord willing.' Abraham Lincoln spoke a very similar phrase in his second inaugural address. No surprise there. 

(Today we tell God what we are going to do....'We're going to keep on winning....winning....winning!')
           
Your parents would remember this....well maybe your grandparents....that magazine sized book....Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy. I think that just about everyone had it back in the months and years following that tragic day in November of 1963. In that book the editors reveal what were....'President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas.' John Kennedy was to give this speech but never did... for assassins (plural) ended his life.....SPOILER....it wasn't Oswald.

That speech never given by our 35th President concluded with these words....the last official words of President Kennedy....The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain. That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this....Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. So the full verse is:

Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

John Fitzgerald Kennedy was nominally religious as was I. He would have respected the Bible and believed those words....but he could not have truly understood their significance,....nor timeliness....nor even seen his own part in attempting to build a city (a country) without the LORD. The 60s were an absolute disaster....the effects of which nearly brought my own life to an end. They produced college professors for the next few decades who gave us many of our problems today. They gave us Barack Obama and the Clintons....two Bush presidents.

(and Donald Trump....Joe Biden....and now Trump again)

It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated....one of them was John Harvard....and I wanted to see some of the places where scenes from the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn on the grounds of Cambridge was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location. That inn was a 16th century English pub where students, Dons and travelers discussed the works of Martin Luther, and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation. 

Young people...find your own White Horse Inn!

(hint...try....whitehorseinn.org)
            

Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941....a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window....or maybe a coffee shop....with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for....and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
             

And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold....if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
             

Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941....but your generation today may indeed be another one. Love is disappearing in the world....no....worse than that....it has been hijacked by greed....tortured by pride....and what is left is directed to ourselves....and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
           

Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A political election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provides every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. 

If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America....that vision is from God....and He will also give the balm....supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world....and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen....and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen! Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17." (end of the address)

One does not have to be a PHD, or a celebrity, a statesman, general or financial wizard to relay God's wisdom to graduates. I certainly didn't plan it this way but my later adult life....whether while working or in personal relationships....has been one of taking joy in training or teaching when I was able. The greatest joy of a father is in conversations with....in my case....a son....passing on what I have learned....taking advantage of so much experience and so many mistakes....and most of all pointing him to the most blessed and beautiful majesty and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!


"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."