The Gospel Of Today Is....America Needs To Be....Born Again

            All of the debate today....on all of the issues....is regulated by the various forms of media....radio and cable TV....and social media and podcasts and books and political parties and politicians. It is fashioned and spoon fed to us....so that there is really no debate....only a shouting match....where the louder 'debater' wins....but this was not always the case....for there was a time....up until about ten years ago....when we could actually think for ourselves. So if the topic is.....illegal immigration....the narrative is narrow and only facts that support the narrative are provided. We view this topic as two entities....us....the good guys....and others....who send their bad people to us illegally. In this narrative the solution is short and sweet....get rid of the bad people who came here illegally with their crime.
            The reality is much wider....and there are no simple answers....but it starts with this...we are all responsible in one way or another....to one degree or another....for the culture and the world that....we all created!  
            It started out as an industrial revolution....where a cotton gin was invented....and then trains....and planes....and automobiles. There was the flapper dress or the zoot suit....and then the sports car or the pleasure craft....and sports and games....trivial pursuits....everything and anything that one person or company or corporation could produce and convince us that we absolutely needed it in order to be happy....or to live the American dream. The church itself....the new 'successful' ones....have become more a corporation than the body of Christ...well-run and well-oiled businesses....upbeat family Lord's Day-care centers....with team members....state-of-the-art everything with websites in some cases that would put to shame Silicon Valley.
            When we became so rich that our youth had lots of disposable income....they naturally went after them....our children....and we let it happen....so that we would have more time for ourselves and our own pleasure pursuits. Essentially this is sacrificing our children....but we would never admit to that....as we are too busy condemning others who sacrifice their children. All of this expanded exponentially until today....once again as we let it happen....AI and cryptocurrencies and any technology that can make someone a billionaire....plants its data base....and calls it progress....and freedom. I personally watch FRNDLY cable television because that is where I can watch the Weather Channel....and it seems as if every other commercial is how you can gamble right there on TV. Who needs Las Vegas? How did we let this happen?
            So we have been programmed to believe that the answer to our problem is to get rid of the illegals. We like that answer because we have for ten years now had our diets changed so that we want lots of red meat. We want the rage. We thrive on it. If others are hurt in the process through collateral damage....so be it...they should have been born in the USA....like we were! That's part of the new God Bless America Gospel.
            Somewhere in our psyche still resides a conscience....so any guilt that might rear its ugly head must be assuaged....but if it does we need only to be reminded that we are making America safer....and it goes away.
            There was a day when we were given warnings....similar to Ninevah....and a window of opportunity so to speak....to repent....and we had plenty of Jonah type of preaching....particularly from Billy Graham....and we did turn slightly back to God a few times....during our Civil War....and in the Born Again Revival of the 70s to mid-80s....but today's 'revivals' do not necessarily require anyone to actually become....born again....for today's gospel is based on America being born again....which would then somehow corporately save all of us?            

This Is At Least In The Back Of My Mind....If Not The Front Of My Mind....Even If We Are Talking About The Weather!

                I am the same as everyone else in that I have friends....some very good long-time friends....and many who I have just known for a lot of years....and even new friends....and many acquaintances....and relatives. What might be a little different is that although I might meet them....and the conversation might be perfectly normal....there is no time when somewhere at least in the back of my mind....and often right up front....is that ultimate eternal question....are they in Christ? Have they been born again....born anew....born from above. Have their eyes been opened to God's Word....as what it is....His very Word.....perfect and powerful....to save and to guide.....and to warn.....and to enthrall? 
                What am I missing here? Shouldn't this be the normal with every Christian? Granted....we have a lot of difficulties in this pilgrimage of life....and often we might be overwhelmed by all of our responsibilities....where it would be hard if not impossible to think of everyone that we meet....and wonder....or be concerned about their eternal well-being....but even if it is not until later that night....while in bed....thinking about the day that has just passed....would not these faces come back to us....and would we not wonder if God had given them the greatest of all gifts....salvation?
                 So there are regular readers to these posts that come in for various reasons. Some I'm sure totally reject everything that I write....certainly about Trump.....but they might come in just to stir up that anger or disgust. Some....friends and relatives....come in I'm sure just out of concern for me....not totally rejecting what they read....but also not really accepting any of it either. To these visitors....friends and relatives....know this....I never look into your eyes during a conversation....no matter how trivial that conversation might be....without silently pleading that God might open those eyes....as He did mine....and as He did for multitudes of others!
                 The topic of love might be the most preached on topic? What could possibly compare to having or showing love than wanting someone to receive the grace of God in salvation? You would have to agree with this....or it would show that you do not really believe that there is a heaven and that there is a hell. So....the first part of my concern is that you would know what comes after death....and then to take it an uncomfortable but necessary step further....you have parents still alive....or children....or a spouse....or other people who you truly do love....or do you truly love them....for if you did....and you understand the gospel that is referenced by the delicate gold cross that you wear....then you would never truly sleep well....or never really laugh without some uneasiness....unless that parent that you would do anything for....or that child that you would give your life for....or that spouse that you love more then anyone....was safe....and secure....in Christ!
                  I can prove that I believe what I write....for why else would I attempt such an odd post like this? For what other possible reason could I....year after year....even to the point of ridicule and rejection....plead with God for words to move even one soul....from ignorance....to a revelation that makes sense of everything....except one thing....that being why....why would such a Holy God....give such a wonderful gift....to one such as I....or you?

There Was No....'Lesser Of Two Evils'....For It Was Just Two Evils....And God's Judgment On The Church!

Preface: This is just a snippet of my conversion experience from back in 1982. Since returning from the army in 1972 and attending Pitt....my reading was interspersed with popular....somewhat highbrow books like the Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial Of Death by Ernst Becker....and Eric Hoffer's classic anti-God....The True Believer. Those two books were read in succession before I walked into a Christian bookstore one evening and came out with Josh McDowell's....Evidence That Demands A Verdict. It was like God gave me the best that the world could offer before regenerating me....and saving me! Anyway....for whatever reason....I spent my first decade as a believer....from day one of my conversion....as you might understand since McDowell's great apologetic was the catalyst that God used to convert me....I spent that first decade in apologetics....and the study of cults....as I would put an ad in the personal section of our newspaper trying to get the attention of people that were starting to study with the Jehovah Witnesses Watchtower Society....trying to get them to hear me out before they continued with their....'Bible studies." So I know what a cult is....and what a Christian cult is....a sect that claims to be Christian but denies essentials of the Christian Faith. The following post is from August 24, 2024....as the election heated up. There was no....'lesser of two evils'....as there was no lesser of two evils between Jeroboam and Rehoboam. This has been ten years of Judgment of God upon the church....since we demanded Trump instead of waiting upon God....with the formation of a genuine cult...and much of the church involved in it!      

Rehoboam Or Jeroboam? 

             Saul was the first king. God didn't want the Israelites to have a king but they persisted. It didn't go that well....and then God gave them David....and established a kingship that would last forever through our Lord Jesus Christ....and then came Solomon.
              The book of Ecclesiastes may be the most difficult book in God's Word to get a grip on....even more so than Revelation....for in Revelation it is interpretation that we struggle with....prophecy....but in Ecclesiastes we struggle with the author....Solomon....who as with other kings of Israel who did the things that Solomon did....we read something like...."and he did evil in the sight of the LORD." Well Solomon did that evil also....but he repented.
              Solomon had a heart for God....God gave him great wisdom....Solomon used that wisdom....but then the glory got the best of him....and he spiraled downward....until he was a mess....but then that same wisdom that got him in trouble....was enough to make him see why he got in trouble. Still....if Ecclesiastes was written near the end of his life....he must have looked like someone who had been on drugs....worn out. He had been freed from that drug....vanity....but the effects of years of abuse were still in his words.
              It wasn't an election per se....but it was a choice....Jeroboam....one of Solomon's officials....or Rehoboam....a genuine son of David....kind of like Harris or Trump....where we lose both ways. So ten tribes followed Jeroboam who actually fashioned two golden calves...."Here are your gods. Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt"....(1 Kings 12:28)....and Judah and Benjamin stuck with Rehoboam...."The people engaged in all the detestable practices of the nations the LORD had driven out before the Israelites....(1 Kings 14:24.)  The northern kingdom lasted 209 years before Assyria took all the people away to who knows where....and Judah lasted 345 years....ignoring the warnings of Jeremiah and other prophets before the Babylonians took them away....and destroyed the temple and the walls of the city.
              So what is this....vanity....of which Solomon learned the hard way? There are a lot of opinions here...."nothingness....meaningless"....are two words often bandied about. When I see the word vanity....as we use the word....which may not be the way that Solomon used it....I see....'self-centeredness....pride....I'm the only one that counts.'
              Whether or not that is what Solomon meant....it certainly describes us today. Everything from selfies to Facebook or politics is....vanity. It is all about us. Nebuchadnezzar looked over his kingdom and boasted on what he had built....and we know what happened to him next....and it appears that Solomon did much the same thing....and God brought him to utter confusion....and God will do this to us if we lose perspective....in fact that is where we are today.
              Not everyone takes that path...."and did evil in the sight of the LORD." It does not appear that Spurgeon did.....nor Whitefield....but maybe Billy Graham did as he wasted so much time early on with politics and palling around with presidents....wasted time that he regretted later on. Either way it is the same road that we are all on....and the same river that will be crossed....and the same Celestial City....and the same glory and honor and praise to Jesus Christ at the end....and we can all thank God for these mercies and that promise to keep us!
              So back to Jeroboam and Rehoboam....there was no lesser of two evils there. Should Jesus tarry....we may yet see a wise and God-fearing leader in America if but for a short time....but as for now.....Lord have mercy upon us for what we have become! 
           

"Life! Life! Eternal Life!"

                The general consensus of the crowd....or we can call it the world....is that person A won the hypothetical debate....therefore person B would have lost the debate. Person A therefore might be elated....or maybe just satisfied....while person B may be downcast....or at least deflated. That is the logical construct that the world runs on. We may not always win....we may even always lose....but we must at least.....want to win. In a footrace it would be relatively easy to determine who wins....but in a academic debate the winner is often....though not always....chosen through opinion....the opinion of judges....but if we move into the realm of politics....there is no judge.....and not even the crowd....or the world....or even the electorate....determines who wins....but the media....using and/or manipulating appearances....tell us who won or lost the debate.
                With me and these posts....that logical construct does not come into play at all....at all. There is no winner in my mind....so I am not trying to....quote unquote....win anything. Even the appearance of losing means nothing to me. The only thing that matters is that there are X number of people who might read my posts....they generally do not know me....I generally do not know them. I see people who are unsaved....the total number in the world is probably nearing eight billion of those. And I see people who are....saved....(I purposely use those words....because using them is not keeping up appearances)........but are unknowledgeable of so many important things....having accepted the compromised modern gospel of the day....and are lacking even in basic discernment on the day and the age that we live in!
                  I am 76 years old....and believe that the Lord Jesus....King Jesus....waits with His myriads of mighty angels....whose swords are already unsheathed....they only waiting for the command from He who sits upon the White Horse....(of Revelation 19....not Revelation 6.)
                  It is as if the train whistle has blown....with the sound of the air brakes releasing that pent-up pressure....and all I can do is turn on the train platform to the people and shout...."The train is leaving....follow me!" There is no 'winner' or 'loser' in that situation....only those who depart the City of Destruction....for the Celestial City....and those who refuse to leave!
                  I don't offer rebuttal to these posts....for Fox News gives that 24/7....7 days a week....52 weeks a year....and talk radio reaches everyone inclined to tune in....and hundreds if not thousands of podcasters and authors have loyal and dependent followers. 
                  I type fast....and I have typos that I do not catch....but it matters not....because there is no grade given to this....it doesn't even matter if anyone reads what I post....only that as the ship is sinking that I shout out as if someone is out there....that there is only one lifeboat that will save....but it is big enough to hold everyone who raises their hand and prays...."Lord....I am a sinner....and deserve to be cast away from Thee forever....but I heard from a man wearing a robe....and holding up a book...and he said that Thou has called everyone to a feast....even those as low and dirty as I am....and there is a white robe waiting....and forgiveness......and mercy! I believe what that man said is true....because something like scales have fallen off of my eyes....and wax oozed from my ears.....and although I cannot see Thee....I see the glory all around Thee....and I hear the praises....and I find that I am shouting those praises along with others! Thank you Lord for your mercy of salvation on one such as Me!"
                   Do you by any chance think this post ridiculous....maybe laughable? Maybe it is....but guess what....that doesn't phase me....for I can only continue to shout as I run...."Life! Life! Eternal life!"

Note: The quotes in this post...."City of Destruction"....and...."Celestial City"....and...."Life! Life! Eternal Life"....and from John Bunyan's....Pilgrim's Progress....and if you have never read a Christian book....that would be a blessed place to start. There is a song within that book....that I use in my 'Profile' of this website....and the last stanza of that song is this:

"Hobgoblin, nor fowl fiend, Can daunt his spirit; He knows, he at the end shall life inherit. Then fancies fly away, He'll fear not what men say, He'll labour night and day....To be a pilgrim

DISPATCHES

Tuesday March 24....Last evening the television offered an old 1953 film....Titanic....that starred Barbara Stanwyck and Clifton Webb....and a young Robert Wagner. Watching it brought back a memory from June of 2014....of a post typed in a deckchair on the promenade of Royal Caribbean's....Grandeur of the Seas....on the return from Bermuda. I had earlier sat on our stateroom bed and turned on the television....and started watching that same 1953 movie. About twenty minutes into it....(according to that post that you can read for yourself if you want to go back that far)....the screen went blank....and Titanic was replaced by a Bob Hope movie. I have no doubt that someone at the entertainment controls thought it not a good idea to play....Titanic....while on a ship in the middle of the ocean. Either way....that truly is us.....for we as a people....and as a church....do not want to face what might be just ahead....even though much of God's Word precisely tells us in detail of these things....so that we might repent....and pray....and repent of that we have brought upon ourselves.

Donald Trump's....rise...fall....and rise....demonstrated for all with eyes to see....one colossal weakness in man. With all the intellect....and zeroing in closer....even among many of those who have actually been....born again....with all that....we can look at Trump....at eleven years of the....'let Trump be Trump'....and not fall to our knees in repentance for one of the most egregious mistakes that Christians have made since Jesus ascended to the Father and sent the Holy Spirit! It just has to be end-times related. It just has to be part of the great end-times delusion. It is so extraordinary in weakness....that when we finally see what we have done....it may separate the chaff from the wheat....and beckon the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior and King.

Today....a good man in Robert Mueller....died....a man who saw a serious problem in the national security of our country....a kompromat candidate such as America may never have seen....who became our president and the de facto leader of the free world....and Mueller did his best under extreme pressure....and against powerful elements in his own party....and was in fact too lenient....and after his death was announced....the kompromat candidate....with psychological disorders so extreme that the word....madness....is legitimate conjecture....his social media response was...."Robert Mueller just died. Good. I'm glad he's dead. He can no longer hurt innocent people!"

The Save America Act is really the Save Trump Act.

The Western Wall....or the Wailing Wall as it is known....is that portion of the temple mount in Jerusalem that had survived the Roman destruction of Jerusalem. The exposed wall is approximately 50 yards in length....of one giant limestone block on top of another. Surely you are familiar with all of the photos of it. There are a number of live 24/7 webcams of it....and I check in.....probably once every three or four days....and sometimes many days in a row. A renovation of the tiled area where the people stand has just been completed....and it is a remarkable sight. I hope you are familiar with what is called the....Olivet Discourse....in Matthew 24 and Mark 13 and Luke 21....where Jesus answers the question from His disciples on what will be the signs of His coming. He began by pointing to all of the temple structures....and saying that not one stone will be upon another. There is a little disagreement in that some say that the Jesus meant all of the stones....even in the temple mount retaining wall....and others say no....not the retaining walls. After forty years of having this in the back of my mind....I tend to agree with the former. There has always been the possibility of radical elements in the Jewish community attempting to destroy the Dome of the Rock....in order to build the third temple.....and now with this war....and rocket fragments actually falling near the temple mount days ago....there is the possibility that the Wailing Wall could be targeted....while there has always been the possibility of a major earthquake in that highly geologically volatile area.

                                                                                  

Special Dog's Idol Factory....Downsized....But Still In Business

                The average idol that a family might have in their house in ancient Israel would have been about 4 to 6 inches tall....small enough to fit into the palm of the hand. The Oscar....is 13.5 inches tall....with eyes that cannot see....and ears that cannot hear....and a mouth that cannot speak....holding a sword that cannot cut.
                I have had many and various idols over my long life....and still do. They are hard to do away with....and I will never be totally free of them. Some of them I try to hide from God....some of them I try to tell God that they can be of use to the spread of the gospel. Some of them I keep and congratulate myself because they used be twice or ten times as big.
                Calvin described man's mind as an idol factory. My son was an idol at one time....now he's just a hero....(yes our children can be powerful idols)....as was my physical fitness....my hair....(believe it or not)....and even my smile....before God marred its appearance....thankfully.
                 We need the preached Word to identify the idols in our life....for therein is the two-edged sword that can cut...."living and active"....(unlike Oscar or a gold medal or a house or a car or an ounce of gold)....that pierces....continuing in Hebrews 4:12.....of the ESV...."to the division of soul and of spirit....of joints and of marrow....and discerning the thoughts and intentions of the heart."
                  We need that preaching as a lamb needs a shepherd....but as Jesus warned the people....they had "grown dull....their ears hard of hearing....and their eyes they have closed" ....(Matthew 13:15 NKJV)....they didn't....nor do we....desire to hear any more than we do....for if we did....we would be healed....little by little....of the idols that we collect....as a dog might collect fleas.
                  

Burger King Church...."Have It Your Way"

                I am one of those people who feed the birds and the squirrels. If I see a bird out there in the winter I might throw some bread out.....but I spread some peanut butter on it because the white bread alone might fill their stomach but provided few if any of the nutrients that they need. In other words....bread alone may do more harm than good.
               We all are familiar with when Jesus mysteriously told Peter three times to feed His lambs and feed His sheep. We sheep....we lambs....are to be fed primarily by the preached Word of God. It is meant to be a....means of grace. It is an absolute necessity....or else we can spiritually die.
                Just by the nature of the way I spend my time....and it's been pretty much the same for over forty years now....I have become very familiar with the average preached sermon in America today....and folks it is white bread.....with an occasional spread of peanut butter on it.
                Look for yourself....visit the websites of some of the bigger churches in your area....and more likely than not you will not even find a link to the sermons....and if you do....those sermons are by and large either Bible studies....where the pastor preaches what we should be learning for ourselves....or they are therapeutic....alleviating pain and encouraging.  
                This lack of preaching does not show up in sunken facial features or bones showing through the skin....but quite the opposite actually as without the needed mortification in the sermons....we might very well spend all of our free time at Planet Fitness....building as I called it over thirty years ago....the Church of the Fit and Buff.
                The church today treats the epidermis....that protective layer of skin that has no blood vessels to provide nutrients....and ignores what is below....but it is what is below that provides the nutrients. So our sermons today address only that which appears bothersome on the surface. I'll give one example of a plethora of areas of which we constantly need self-examination....that example is this....we look at this world and we identify the evils....fair enough....but we need also to identify the evils that we have added to the situation. Yes....Trump is a cluster of evils....but we built the culture that gave us Trump. What evils lurk within us? We are blind because our spiritual eyes lack the nutrients that the preached Word provides!
                 Does Burger King still use the phrase? I don't know....but the popular commercial a half century ago centered around the words....'Have It Your Way.' If you didn't want tomatoes or pickles on your burger....then they were taken off....so in today's church....if we don't want this or that....or we ain't coming to church....then they are taken out.
                 Church attendance and personal ministries and even being generous and helping others....and even evangelizing....can be nothing but a clear skin....even a beautiful skin....protecting a diseased body....with a spiritual heart may not even be beating.
                 I'm not advising people to leave their church because they probably would not be able to find a pastor who can preach as men of the past....but I am....and always have in these posts....strongly recommended....even pleaded for....literally begged in some cases....Christians to supplement their brick and mortar churches with CDs or Internet sermons from....as I have always labelled it....preachers from the past....men like Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Ryle and Bunyan and Whitefield and Edwards and so many more....and Preachers today who preach like preachers from the past...men like MacArthur and Sproul and Piper and Paul Washer and Michael Horton....and so many more.....spread thinly across America.
                 These posts are littered with sermon links that you can easily go to. Please consider listening....which may include watching....one or two of these each week. If you do....you will see what the fuss had always been about concerning the weak preaching age that we live in.
               

A False Prophet....Giving A False Prophecy....About Another False Prophet

                   The video below is from the inaugural National Faith Summit in Atlanta in October of 2024....shortly before the election. According to Jonathan Cahn who speaks in the video....there were 3,000 "faith leaders" present.....and that the administrators put Cahn last in line to speak to ensure that Donald Trump would be in the sanctuary and seated by then.

                   In the message....the author of numerous prophecy best-sellers over the past decade....gave what he himself has said was a 'Word from the Lord." So in effect....this was a false prophet....(Cahn)....giving a false prophecy....about another false prophet of a coming golden age for America....(Trump)....in an event hosted by yet another false prophet in Paula White....Donald Trump's chief spiritual advisor! (Please....please....at some point....Google and view Paula White calling on angels from Africa and South America to aid Trump in the election....this on November 5, 2020)
                   Please watch the video below and take note of the method that Jonathan Cahn employs as a crescendo builds to a level of screaming the prophecy....as he points to June 14, 1946 and Trump's birth as the "beginning of a mystery"....(although that specific date was also a blood moon but was this not mentioned)....and his "destiny"....as a...."trumpet of God"....and a "warrior king"....and looking at Trump sitting in the front row....Jonathan Cahn prophesied...."The glory of the Lord has risen upon you!"
                    Brothers and sisters in Christ....this is what we have brought to the White House. This is what we proclaim as the work of the Holy Spirit. These are our shepherds.
                   

Playing With Evil

Preface: I watched part of yet another Trump rally yesterday....with its concert theme....as the entire time his eyes move from the teleprompter on the left to the one on the right....words written by Stephen Miller and others....carefully crafted exaggerations and outright lies mixed in with a portion of truth. Take away the teleprompter and Trump's speech is awkward....even juvenile....often disjointed....even flailing....as was the time four or five years ago when at the end he tried to add his own words in the benediction....what came out was...."And we pray for God." The people in the back....behind him on the television screen....always appear the same....chosen for their looks or what they are wearing....cheering things that could not be proven....nor would they have any inclination to ask for proof anyway....for this is a mass psychological movement....aimed primarily at evangelicals....who demanded a king as other nations had....instead of looking to the King of Kings!            

                 I've used a lot of different words to describe Trump over the years....despicable and vile....destroyer and deceiver....and he is a genuine biblical false prophet and as the Apostle John described those who are always out there....an antichrist....but I don't think that I've used this yet....evil. We in evangelicalism....in the church....even in leadership of denominations....and some Christian colleges....are playing with evil.
                 His megalomania is like nothing that I have ever witnessed....or hardly even read about....it actually seems worse than Nebuchadnezzar at his worst. He is a sociopath....driven by seeking revenge on those who do not give him the obeisance that he demands be given to him. He actually thrives on hate. That which has vexed and tormented the remnant in the church over the past decade....he thrives on!
                 This appears to be the falling away in the church that God's Word warned us about....or at least the beginning of it. Trump used to spout all the time about draining the swamp....which in retrospect is almost surreal....for as it turned out....the Trump family swamp is the most fetid of all the swamps....and Christians have been lured and dragged and tricked into wading in....and as of today....not coming back out.
                  Discernment is all gone....as we started out thinking that we were protecting the freedom to proclaim the gospel....an honorable goal....but eventually we fell in love with the greed and the pride that was hand-fed us by Fox and talk radio....once proud media that was led to contravene the implied laws of journalism....and reported only that which aided the leviathan that was born on a blood moon....and appeared out of nowhere in the 2014/2015 tetrad of blood moons.
                  Trump's god....by definition a being that neither depends on anything....while everything depends on it....is riches....money....and the power that goes with it. That is the god that we evangelicals have latched onto....unawares of it of course....but without excuse.....because the evidence is and has been all around us....but we chose to rely solely on Trump's narrative....and block out that which we were told was....fake news.
                   A couple of years ago I posted on a comment that Trump's former Chief of Staff General John Kelly had made at the time. That comment sums everything up. General John Kelly....after answering a question about his time with Trump....finished with this...."What can I add that has not already been said....There is nothing more to be said....God help us." We in America should be saying just that....'God help us'....instead of the overused and abused....'God bless America.' There are ten years of very clear evidence that Trump is a terribly troubled man....and of his many grotesque antics and comments....the latest would only have been from yesterday....as he spoke to a Republican conference and boasted...."Only I can do this S#%T."
                   This has never been....as the reason always given to us to vote for Trump....that he was the lesser or two evils. These past ten years....Trump.....and Biden....and now this new Trump....have been ten years of God's judgment on not only America....and not only the entire world....and not only on evangelicalism....but on Christians. God's judgment came to the church first....just as His Word tells us that it would do. 
                   One of my prayers for Christian friends who have been totally taken in by Trump....is that God....as He lifts the veils....which He is doing right now....and shows us what we have done....and who we have put in power....that He would also supply and apply a great balm....for it will be a bitter pill to swallow that will come with the revelation.....for we all are responsible for what we are....and all in need of that balm....some sooner than others.

The Shepherds Conference....I Think That The Pillars Were Shaken During That Sermon

                For the better part of the last half of every year I look forward to this Shepherd's Conference.....that should God will it....pillars might be shaken during that conference! So I waited especially for tonight....Friday.....March 6....where Paul Washer to preach.....because he has a tendency to preach to believers as if they were in trouble....and in need of some stern thoughts. Let me segue to yesterday....and my wife asked me if I would like to go out to dinner tonight....at one of her favorite places....and  I immediately said yes....and she immediately made reservations....and then I remembered that just as the dinner would be served....Paul Washer would take the podium....or in this case the pulpit. I said nothing....and we enjoyed our meal....and as we finished I told her in detail about Paul Washer speaking right then....and smiled....and started the live-stream as soon as we got into the car.....and those pillars must have shaken during that sermon! Thank you Lord for all of these faithful men....bless them....and send them out that they might bless us through the blessing that they received tonight!

UPDATE: Well the video is up....and here it is....the video provided includes the hymns sung before Paul Washer speaks....as beautiful as they are....please slide the bar over to '14:00 minutes into the video where Paul Washer begins...that is if you like....

                                                                       

'Donald Trump, Please Go Home'

                       It's a movie that you have probably never seen....because it was involved in law suits that delayed the normal release and handling of the film....but if you are as old as me....you may have read the best-seller that it was based on by William Peter Blatty....(author of The Exorcist)....but this book was part satire/part spoof....and the film is a comedy.....so that is strange to begin with. It stars Shirley Maclaine....and Peter Ustinov....and Richard Crenna.
                       His nickname was....Wrong-Way....Goldfarb....because in college he ran the wrong way with the football for 95 yards....then he became an Air force U-2 pilot....and flew the wrong way....was supposed to be over the Soviet Union....but crashed in a fictional Arab country....which started an international incident. The 1965 film is....John Goldfarb, Please Come Home.
                       The king of the Arab country....(Ustinov)....is kind of like what Trump was like at one time....who just spends all his money on toys....and big ideas....the idea that the movie revolves around is that the king wants the now hostage Goldfarb to form and coach an Arab football team....and then blackmails the United States Secretary of Defense....(Richard Deacon....or Mel Cooley from the Dick Van Dyke Show)....to have Notre Dame come over and play the Arab football team that doesn't appear to even know what a football is.....another tie into the Trump administration....that doesn't appear to know much about anything.
                       This Trump administration is totally different from his first administration. In fact Trump appears to be a different man....under a different power even....as he has come out from day one...."conquering....and to conquer"....as the rider on the white horse is described in Revelation six. 
                       Trump is still planning a UFC 'cage fight' on the White House lawn....
(can you even believe that?).....maybe next year a televised exorcism might be planned on the Ellipse....(bring your Trump bible)....where all the demonic activity of the past five years began? As an odd piece of trivia....in the 1951 classic sci-fi film....The Day The Earth Stood Still.....The alien spacecraft lands right smack dab on the Ellipse next to the White House!

JOHN PIPER HAS A WONSERFUL TEACHING ON TODAY'S....(MARCH 9).....EPISODE OF DESIRINGGOD.ORG....TITLED....YOUR MAIN CALLING IN THE END TIMES. PLEASE LISTEN TO THIS TWELVE MINUTE VIDEO!

                                                                           

And Along Came Anna

                Simeon....from the second chapter of Luke....was a devout man....who did not just sit there....and tell everyone that the Messiah will come in God's timing....and go about his business as if the coming of the Messiah could be hundreds of years away....for as Luke wrote.....it was revealed to him by the Holy Spirit that he would see the coming of the Messiah before he died. The Holy Spirit led Simeon into the temple on that day just when Mary and Joseph brought the baby Jesus to the temple. He would have had to have been old....and waiting a long time. Maybe the people tried to discourage him....maybe he heard a lot...."Oh Simeon....you have been saying that the Messiah was coming for a long time. You're wasting your life away!"
                So as Simeon gave his prophecy....along came Anna....who was a prophetess....and she was really old....older than me....and she spent all of her time her whole life in the temple....fasting and praying every day and every night. It's impossible to perfectly interpret the description of her age that Luke gives....but she might have been over a hundred years old! And there had been no prophets in hundreds of years....so why is Anna called a prophetess....and why did Simeon give that prophecy about the child Jesus? Well I think it was because during both of their long lives....the Messiah was getting nearer and nearer....and God was speaking again....and the demons were becoming more active....just like they are today.
               The Holy Spirit leads Anna to that part of the temple just as Simeon finishes prophesying....and she starts telling all the people about this child....all the people who also were also waiting for their Messiah.... or as God's Word puts it...."the redemption of Jerusalem.
               Somehow today....we have been led to believe that it's not a good thing to always be looking for Jesus to return! It's even worse than that because we are told that there is no way that we could know even if we wanted to know! There is no indication that Simeon was more than just a devout and just man living in Jerusalem who wanted the Messiah to come.

              Expect to see this friends....as the horrors of AI begin to unfold....and the new world order.....whatever it turns out to be....begins to take shape....and love grows ever colder and colder....and the rule of law more and more rare....and even greater delusions appear than what we are subject to now....expect more Christians to become as Simeon and Anna....in that they....as was the case with Simeon....wanted only to see the Messiah return to restore righteousness.....and as in the case of Anna....told everyone how that redemption of....'Jerusalem'....was nigh! 
               May God....should it be in his good and perfect will....have mercy upon our shepherds tonight even as they sleep....for if they do not begin to speak out that our Lord and Savior and King is near....then as Luke reported later that the stones would cry out.....the sheep may cry out from the pews! I've read that sheep do not make many noises....and usually only when they are in danger or not being fed.

Moderation In Everything.....Except.....Seeking Glory For One To Whom All Glory Belongs!

"Only one life....'twill soon be past....Only what's done for Christ will last." C.T. Studd                

                 It is by anyone's estimation a beautiful day in Western Pennsylvania....73 degrees....as a break from a brutal winter....with storms coming in later in the day. My wife is on the patio on a lounge chair....and I am fighting the temptation to do the same thing. 
                Those 5,000 plus men left the Shepherd's Conference last night....one last sleepover probably and then the trip home....and I was praying for travel mercies for them....and that this would not turn out like a typical Christian conference....where the vacation is over and it's time to get back to the grind of scheduling and sermon preparation....but that there would be a new unction....clinging to the mind like the demon of laziness....that hopefully last night was cast out into the outer darkness!
                This is part of our fight....a gut-wrenching struggle to tell ourselves....and believe....and act on it....that the world....as the Beast from the Sea....even as I type and you read this....is not resting....that the world can have these poppy fields....sleep-inducing days....but I will struggle with this post....trying to draw something out of nothing....putting one ragged 76 year old step after another.
                 All I have is this....a sermon of Charles Spurgeon....from 1886....read by who-knows-who....on a topic related to the above. How much time do you have left before you stand before the Lord of Glory? How much time do I have left....a year....a month....a day....an hour? How much time before this life of delusion and greed and pride and ignorance that America....and the church....are drowning in.....how much time until....well God's Word puts it this way...."Now when these things begin to take place....straighten up and raise your heads....because your redemption is drawing near." (Luke 21:28 ESV)

                                                           

                

Mind Setting

Preface: I thought That I would bring back this August 15 of 2023 post...seven weeks before the October Sukkot attacks in Israel. Any Christian....reading his or her Bible as if they really believed that it was the very Word of God....would have known....or should have known....many years ago....that war was coming....and that a false peace was coming. "For you will hear of wars and rumors of wars..."....we don't know how many wars....or even how many times they will falsely say "peace." There are at least a hundred very specific verses in God's Word that identify the day and the age that you and I live in. John MacArthur....who is mentioned many times in the posts preceding this post....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)

For Whom The Death Knell Tolls            

               Many of us....possibly most of us.....but certainly not all of us....have some kind of defining characteristic on how we lead our daily lives. My wife's would be in that she is always making a note of something that she has to do. She is famous for it....and it works out very well. Jonathan Edwards was famous for that also as he would take long horseback rides....to meditate...and when he returned it looked like it had snowed....for all of the white pieces of paper that he had pinned all over his clothing.
               Well I also have a very strong characteristic. I need to at all times have a constantly updated view on the big picture of things. I need to more than occasionally go over the many possible changes that life can present. For example....there may not be any imminent household expenses....a new furnace....or a new roof....but provision has to be made anyway for those possible emergencies. That characteristic dominates these posts.
               There is war ahead. One has to be able to step back to see this. It can't be stopped. The dies have been cast. If there is another virus....we have already shot ourselves in the foot....vaccinations are bad....scientists are bad.
               When Jesus said that...."If a kingdom is divided against itself, it cannot stand. And if a house is divided against itself, it cannot stand"....He was letting us know what it was going to look like at the end. When He said...."Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth"....He was describing this world today....for as much as we say....'God bless this' and 'God bless that'....our faith has dwindled down to nothing more than those trite phrases. The carnival barkers have our attention today.....pointing to the clowns....or the bearded woman....or the world's strongest man....or the world's smallest man.
               AI alone....is a death knell! Drone warfare is a death knell! Our division is a death knell! Hemingway's famous words were...."For whom the bell tolls....it tolls for thee." Only God's Word gives us hope...."Jesus said to her....(Martha).... 'I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in me, though he die, yet shall he live. And everyone who lives and believes in me shall never die."

'I Know Him......You Don't......Stay Away From Him'......What else Can I Do?

                 The person reading this might be too young to have heard a story like this.....but at my age it has come up occasionally over the years....maybe in a movie or on TV or in a book or even in real life. It's a story of two brothers....(in fact I did a post on this once.....maybe I can find it)....where one brother is a normal young man....but his brother has been bad his whole life....always telling lies....caring only about himself....hurting people and laughing at other's misfortune.....with absolutely no compassion at all. Well they grow up....and the first brother is the only one who really knows what the other brother is like. They live in the same community....and the second brother has become 'successful'....and has deceived just about everyone in that they have been taken in by his outgoing and confident personality....and they begin to be friends with him....and even admire him....as he takes on positions of authority in the community or even in church. All this time the first brother can only sit back and watch his friends and/or the community and the church be taken in....for he cannot come out and tell people to stay away from his brother....for who would believe him anyway?
                  In that post that I wrote some time ago....Trump is that second brother....and I am as the brother who knows him.....because I spent the last ten years reading about his whole life....(110 books)....and his relationships with his family....and watching maybe fifty of his rallies....and checking just about everything that he said over that ten years....and applying everything to my extensive knowledge of cults. In reality it is not just me that knows who Trump is....but multitudes across America....even across the political spectrum. The older Democrats know Trump very well because they both came from the same culture....the liberal....Studio 54....tabloid celebrity culture. This is why they so often ask how it is possible that evangelicals can accept this man? They do not hold to our religious beliefs....but they know what they are....because we have told them all the time.
                   So I ask the same question....only I know the answer. What the average Democrat or the liberal 'Christian' does not realize is that the Christian is on a very perilous journey. There was....(and is)....a children's book from maybe thirty years ago with the title....Dangerous Journey. I gave it to our young son....and our son later gave it to his young son. This pilgrimage that we are on is fraught with dangers....to the left and to the right....and if we do not stay on the straight path....then we will pay for it. Bunyan told about this gloriously in Pilgrim's Progress. We might wind up in a legalist bondage....or taken in a trap....or decide to take and easier path and wind up in total depression....that can even be a fatal depression. We may have to go through the Valley of the Shadow of Death.....and we definitely have to go through Vanity Fair....in fact we live in Vanity Fair. We in the church had few shepherds to protect us....and little to no preaching to strengthen us....and no warnings of Trump whatsoever! Thus Trump came in....a wolf in sheep's clothing....and today our bodies are strewn all over the place. 
                     So that young person today....for example....has absolutely no way to discern the dangers of Trump. The church grid that they may have been raised on is not a sound biblical grid. The talk radio grid today is not the same that it was thirty years ago....nor is FOX NEWS the same....'fair and balanced'....news media that it once was. 
                     When Trump talks of a golden age....or "winning....winning....winning"....or getting what is rightly ours through tariffs....or telling us how all illegal aliens must go....(except those maybe whose IT skills make them useful to us getting richer)....we suck it up like a stray dog at a fishing hole on a hot summer day. We think that this is great....making America great again....even though we know little to nothing about what greatness is. And we think that we are not only patriots....but valiant Christians....fighting the good fight....against the evil darkness of progressives and wokism. We actually think that what we are doing is part of revival!
                     We brought all of this upon ourselves.....as we played around with our entertainments and our sports. We passed through Vanity Fair....and bought properity.....and built our home on it. We hired the pastors and the teachers that we wanted. We put a carving knife to the gospel....getting rid of everything that we did not like....and thus we are where we are....cheering a man....who the Apostle John described as an....antichrist....an enemy of the gospel!
                      Here is an axiom....a tyrant cannot help but do some things right....but he is still a tyrant. To some of us on our side of this mess....we know who Trump is....and what he is....so when he does something that should be done....we see it like it is....pouring a tablespoon of honey into a glass of tainted water....it doesn't change the water that will make the one who drinks it sick....but all that the rest of us see is the honey! 

DISPATCHES

He Or She Has Gone Mad....It's still an idiom although archaic in its psychological use....but it appears possible that Trump has for some time now....gone mad....most likely around the interim between the 2020 election and the horror of January 6. The alternative is severe demonic influence. A leader need not be loved....but he or she would have to have some level of respect by the majority of the citizenry....but half of America has absolutely no respect for him at all. The world may tremble at his threats.....but they also have no respect for him as a leader. This in itself....whether the premise is accurate or not....is an extremely serious situation. If the reader here only gets their news from Fox or talk radio or like podcasts....then they will not hear of the almost daily mad rantings....one recent one of which was that he might continue to bomb Iran...."just for fun"....a statement of madness if there ever was one.

The Great Divider....Whatever side of the policy debate you fall on....you must surely at least agree with this....nearly everything that Donald Trump touches....he divides....families....friendships.....churches....whole denominations....countries....alliances....even within NATO....the CIA....the FBI....ideologies....(conservatives for example)....sports teams....the entertainment industry....the news media....even within major news corporations....the Justice Department....the State Department....the Department of....Defense to War....the medical industry....the armed services....generals....Supreme Court justices....and he thrives on every minute of it....and yet....extraordinary and astonishing as it is to hear when he says it....he claims to be....a unifier....and even more extraordinary and astonishing to hear....evangelicals....believe it!

'Be Careful What You Wish For....You Might Just Get It'....So your technology identifies a target....and then someone far away pushes a button....(if AI isn't doing it)....and an unmanned projectile is sent to destroy the target....while technology again films the target and then the explosion....and everyone cheers just like when a touchdown is scored....but before we cheer too loud we should consider that it is just a matter of time....until those unmanned and unstoppable projectiles are used against us. The lesson is that we must have....humility....and the fear of the wrath of God!

NATO....Here is but one example....only one....example of the spiritual blindness that God has brought down upon evangelicals in America: There was an alliance....a vital alliance....NATO....not perfect but it served its purpose for three-quarters of a century....an alliance that Putin hated with a passion. Trump has attacked that alliance....and those allies....in one way or another for decades....and has finally effectively destroyed it. A war came....Trump attacked those allies for not doing enough or doing it fast enough....as if none of the aforementioned Trump attacks on Nato and economic threats on member states ever happened! Only a man like Trump....who has his whole life....had no capacity whatsoever....to deal with or even identify truth....only a man like this could actually make an accusatory statement like that....and only a church under the judgment of God....could accept it without at least seeing the absurdity of it. 

This Is the Generation....Whatever A Generation Turns Out To Be....We just do not know how many years there are in a biblical generation. It may be 40 years....as in the approximate time from the ministry of Jesus to Rome's burning of Jerusalem....or it may be seventy years as in the time on the Babylonian captivity....or it may be something else altogether....but for this example let me just use a 50 year jubilee cycle. We know that it has been just a little over 6,000 since Adam was created....6,000 years divided by....say 50....is 120. There have been 60 centuries since man was created....and anywhere from 150 to 120 'generations.' Where am I going with this? Do you play the Lotto....with a couple-of-million-to-one chances to win? Or maybe you take on a chance at the fire hall to win an automobile....and there will be thousands of tickets sold? Well....speaking in terms of generations....the 'chances'....(although there is no such thing as 'chance')....the chances of your generation being the one that sees the coming of the Son of Man...are only about 120 to 150 to one. Do you know what I'm trying to say? To hope to win a lotto is unreasonable....but we do it. To hope that this is that generation....is reasonable....but we laughingly ignore it?

God....Signs In The Sky....And Jewish Feasts....I touch on this topic below....but readers here know that I not only pay attention during Jewish feasts and blood moons and solar eclipses.....but that I actually believe that God often....and regularly....uses these means to act....and to warn us of His acts....or that we can look back at them in retrospect to learn. For Example....Donald Trump....who was born on a blood moon....came down that golden escalator right smack dab in the middle of evangelicalism....(only to proceed to decimate it)....he came down that escalator in the middle of the famous 2014/2015 blood moon tetrad. More recently....Hamas attacked Israel at the end of the Jewish feast of Sukkot....or the Feast of Tabernacles. Well we just had a rare blood moon....and a Jewish feast....Purim...as this current war started! I took screen shots of the headlines on news media sources just as the blood was in totality....one headline was...."WAR SPIRALS." These things are not even surprising anymore.

Either Humble Ourselves....Or Be Humbled By Others.....It might be wise if we all did some thinking on what could happen to a person....or a government....when it came to the point that all you had to do was put coordinates into a computer....and then push a button....even from hundreds or thousands of miles away....and send off a ballistic missile. We are getting in the habit of doing that...and then posting the video for everyone to enjoy. One problem is that the person pushing the button never sees the blood and mangled body parts. Another problem....for the man at the head of the government....is that he might begin to feel like God. Another problem might be over-confidence....for you can easily take out a naval vessel....and even a nuclear research site....but a biological warfare research site is another story. If we do not humble ourselves....then it will be much worse when we are humbled by others.

The Art Of War...and....The Art Of The Deal....Trump....during his first campaign....listed Sun Tsu's....The Art Of War.....as one of the books that he had read. Whether or not that is true....one of the axioms that Sun Tsu warned of in his book was never to back an enemy into a corner.

Fiery Red Horses....You probably saw the news of all the celebrations of the Chinese lunar new year.  So what is the animal this year? Well it's the horse....but a little more detailed than that....for it is the year of the fire horse....thus the celebrations all had some sort of fiery red horse. It's the first time in 60 years for this fire horse. The Chinese Zodiac has only twelve animals....but each animal has five modifiers....so every animal comes along every 12 years....but every animal with a certain modifier....every 60 years! Of course God's Word speaks of a red horse also....in Revelation chapter 6....as the red horse follows the white horse that came out...."Conquering and to conquer." Revelation 6:4 NKJV...."Another horse, fiery red, went out. And it was granted on the one who sat on it to take peace from the earth, and that people should kill one another; and there was given to him a great sword."

Signs In The Heavens....A 'Ring of Fire' eclipse occurred early this morning primarily in Antarctica. Only about 2% of the world's population saw it. There will be a....'spectacular'....as NASA has labelled it....Blood Moon on March 2/3....and there will be a total solar eclipse on August 12.....visible primarily in Greenland and Iceland and Northern Spain.

Aliens Are Not Real....Here Are What Is Real!   They asked former president Obama if aliens were real.... and he said...."They're real." Here is what is real...... Demons are real!..... Bible prophecy is real!...... End-times...."signs and wonders so as to deceive.... if possible.... even the elect".... are real!

We Knew There Would Be A Falling Away....We Just Didn't Know That We Would Be Part Of  It......The following is from an October post....OK.... we know this.... that before the Lord returns.... there will be a falling away.... (1 Thess 2:3).... that is the church folks..... us.... there will be a falling away.... in the church! Matthew tells us the same thing.... in the words of Jesus.... in the Olivet Discourse.... 24:10...."at that time many will fall away." I submit to you that what we see in the church right now..... with Christian nationalism reigning over the gospel of salvation.... is part of the falling away.

"And If Any Man Shall Take Away From The Words Of The Book Of This Prophecy......The following is from a January 15 post....What about...."Not by might or by power but by My Spirit?" (Zechariah 4:6) What about "come out from among them and be separate?" (2 Corinthians 6:7) What about all the admonitions to stay vigilant and awake and alert? What about all the warnings of false miracles and false prophets and a great delusion and a falling away that is coming.... so strong of a delusion that even the elect.... that is you and me folks.... that even we can be taken in.... if it were possible.... which means temporarily.... which is already what has happened to so many!

Love has grown cold on our side.... and lawlessness abounds!

Veils Are Being Lifted.....Like Pages Blown By The Wind Of An Open Book....If an interviewer would ask of a research scientist....in any field of science....if after say fifty or sixty years of research....and numerous accolades from the scientific community....maybe even a Noble....if  the interviewer would ask if everything has been discovered that can be discovered....that scientist would obviously be taken aback....and probably say that only the surface has been scratched. The Christian's study into biblical prophecy would be similar to that. In both science and prophecy.....God removes veils according to His perfect timing....for His perfect purposes. There were many times when scientists had to admit that the textbooks would have to be revised. I've seen that quote numerous times over the decades....and with prophecy....speaking from my own experience....there have been times when I had to change an opinion and admit to it....and there will be more times like that. That is not necessarily bad....but a glorious reality....as the revision is usually seen to be much clearer....and therefore much more glorious. Veils were lifted slowly over the centuries.....even millennia.....but they are flying away today like pages blown by the wind of an open book.

You Don't....Really Know How It Can Be Done....Until You Have Lived Through It

               I remember the diligence that I paid in class....listening to Professor J. J. Zasloff at Pitt in 1973....for he was a world renown expert on Southeast Asia. Just last night I ordered on Amazon a particular book that I wanted....on Southeast Asia! So it has been over fifty years of interest in and studying not only Vietnam....but Russia and Germany and England and Israel and the world actually.
               I had....previously to a few years ago....thought that I had at least a handle on how a Generalissimo or a Fuhrer or a Comrade Chairman could come into power....but in retrospect since Trump....it was only theory. In Trump I have witnessed first hand....since he took office in his second term a little over a year ago....how it takes a daily....morning....noon and evening....every day of the year....barrage or blitzkrieg of in essence purging....of everyone and everything and every symbol and every picture and every remembrance of whatever it was that came before.
               I just started book number 110 on Trump....an oral history of January 6.....2021....in fact that is the subtitle of the book.....Storm The Capitol. Whether you call them the proletariat or the patriots....or Les Misérables....their minds have to be kept occupied all the time! That is why Trump is tweeting....or whatever it is called today....everyday....and almost every hour of the day!
               I could go on in my description of this....but to my evangelical friends....who have been totally taken in by this tried and true combination of intimidation and agitation and flattery and distraction....do you at times have trouble even recognizing yourself anymore? I talk to you and hardly recognize the person I once knew. Your compassion is muted....and you are constantly trying to find excuses for a false prophet....an actual enemy to the Lord  you once served with passion as you now serve princes and power.  Does that sweet love of Jesus....that first love of the gospel....seem only a distant memory....replaced by demands for what is yours....and anger....and laughter at ridicule directed others? If you but decide to renew your mind....and turn it to Christ....this bondage will be broken....should God will it....and vision and discernment will return....along with hearing to recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd....and identify the wolf in sheep's clothing!

Yes.....What You Saw Last Evening....Was Indeed....The State Of The Union!

Preface:  It's 9 in the morning....and after all is said and done concerning the State of the Union....those who watched the shameless demonstration....witnessed a severely psychologically ill man....yet a potent manipulator....do what ultimately he does best....and that is destroy. The Democrats....for roughly forty years now.....since they no longer became Democrats as those my age grew up to know....a party that visibly rejects the God of the Bible....they seem to sit there in shock more than anything else. They played a game for decades....and were devoured by a spiritual force that actually gave them their power to begin with. As for the Republicans......"Faithless Israel has proved herself to be more righteous than treacherous Judah....(Jeremiah 3:11)....for as bad as the Democrats turned out to be over the past few decades....it was us that went beyond mere idolatry....to an idolatry of greed and power that uses God as its banner. We went beyond abortion and LGBTQ....to in some cases....'worshiping'....a blatant false prophet....who tells us exactly what we want to hear....and laughs his way through the deception and delusion. The following....preface and paragraph from a 2023 post....were posted last evening about 9:30:

                 Preface: I wanted to post the following paragraph from May of 2023 right now as I sit with the television on in front of me.....muted....and Trump about twenty minutes into his speech. I've been in the exact same situation before....many times....mostly over the past ten years....when I watched our president.....whether it was Trump or Biden....or Trump again....enter this hall....and witnessed one standing ovation after another....and felt....deep in my heart.....disillusionment....at how far a nation can lose its way. I'm looking now at the  woodwork on the walls of the first level....and the gray wall-papered balcony....and wondered on which one....should Almighty God command it....would fingers of a hand appear....writing...."Mene....Mene....Tekel....Upharsin?" Woe are us....who in almost unimaginable pride....especially considering the circumstance of a nation either in utter rebellion to God....or blasphemous presumption....to act like this....and celebrate like this....and cheer as a kingly speaker claims that we have entered a golden age....when the King of Kings has made it clear for anyone with eyes to see.....and ears to hear....that before this judgment is over we will throw our worthless gold and silver into the street! Later tonight....Lord willing....I will go over the transcript....and read the commentary....and probably fast forward through a recording of the speech.....but for now....I can only pray for God's mercy on us.

From a post titled...."Thank You God....For The Winds That Warn Us"

                    "Our pastor began his sermon as he stepped into the pulpit by thanking God for the gorgeous day. Probably nine out of ten pastors in Western Pennsylvania began their message with that comment. There is nothing wrong with it....in fact thanking God for his blessing in the weather is wonderful....and I have said the same thing many times....but today the words hit me a little bit differently. My thought was that I would rather have had a windy day....with cloud cover....and ominous darker clouds on the horizon. I would rather see the brothers and sisters in Christ hurrying from car to church....grasping more firmly the hands of their children and anything they might be carrying....and only upon coming through the door of the sanctuary breathing a sigh of relief and thanking God for the reprieve of being in the church. The 'gorgeous' day....with the Antichrist....[whoever or whatever or wherever he might be]....plotting even as I type....and the world barely holding sway against world war....and the church of Jesus Christ....so many of us....thinking about their day's activities as they sit in the pew....in these troublesome times we do not benefit from a....'gorgeous' day. I would rather the pastor have the opportunity to  begin with....'Thank you Lord for the winds that warn us of the approaching storm....and the reminder that only in Christ is their shelter from that storm.' " 

Addendum: Trump added this in his concluding remarks...."and when God needs a nation to work his miracles....he knows exactly who to ask." This blasphemous comment alone....should send the Christian to his and her knees....seeking mercy and forgiveness. 

Professional Idolatry

                  "It's been a brutal winter so far in Western Pennsylvania....-5 degrees as I type at 4 in the early hours of Monday morning....after tossing and turning for hours over the condition of the American church....but then it has been a particularly rough weekend....as the Olympics began....in Italy....and people rushed home from church to sit in front of the TV....until the Super Bowl began....and here it is 4 AM....but 10 AM in Milan....so we can turn on the TV as soon as we wake up to see what skier or skater is making news! So It's like a lost weekend."

The above paragraph is two weeks old. The Winter Olympics closing ceremony is going on as I type. From what I read....the gold medal hockey game was one of those classics....an overtime win for the USA....and I'm guessing a little bit here....but that game winning goal was probably scored....with millions of American evangelicals at home literally jumping out of their seat in joy....just as tens of thousands of pastors were in their pulpits giving a benediction....something like this...."The Lord bless you and keep you...the Lord make His grace to shine upon you and be gracious to you...the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace."

I take it also that Spring Training games started two days ago....with opening day in late March. March Madness starts in a few weeks...and the Masters kicks off the 2026 golf majors in early April. The Stanley Cup playoffs take up most of March and April...and on into May....and we will start hearing about the Summer Olympics about that time. Sport itself is good. It can be restful.....or character building....but this isn't sport in America anymore. It is professional idolatry....if I might attempt to coin that term....and it has reached this peak just as Jesus is about to return in righteous judgment. There is nothing new under the sun. We didn't invent this ignoring of God's warnings....but we are definitely an inductee nominated for the Hall of Shame.

Tens of thousands of our American service members are in the vicinity of Iran right now....kept busy with PT and meetings throughout the days....to keep their minds active...and quell the natural fears that come as they wait anxiously for the call to fight....or to go home. Just yesterday....while weeding out my books....I pulled a copy of Edward Gibbon's two volume The Decline And Fall Of The Roman Empire....to give to a library's book sale....for there's nothing more to learn from it....or to put it more succinctly....we never learned anything from books like this....nor from Isaiah nor Jeremiah nor Daniel nor Revelation....nor anywhere else in God's Word.
                 
The word is....ICHABOD....the glory has departed. I used it many times as titles to posts. Evangelicals do not want Jesus to return. They want their country back! They are ignorant of....and it wouldn't matter anyway....that that country they want back....is the same one that God's faithful shepherds had given warnings to for the best part of the twentieth century. Let me say that again....in a different way....to try to make it understandable....when we say that we want to make America great again....that same country that we want to go back to....was under God's judgment! We have been on a....fool's errand....sent off to bring something back....a 'Christian nation'....that did not exist....and if it were possible to go back to an America when there was legitimate revival....and a genuine holy reverence to a God that we would prostrate ourselves in the presence of....or collapse in fear of His holiness....we wouldn't want to go back to that....for that was an old outdated gospel....before we became so enlightened!

The following is the end of that post from two weeks ago....a paragraph from that I began this post"

                  "We lost our power for a little while over the weekend....and I have a solar-battery generator.....but we did not have to use it. Folks....brothers and sisters in Christ....God's Word speaks of the battery power more as oil in a lamp. How is your oil? Maybe you had better go and get some more....or when things start to unwind....as Jesus is returning....you may find yourself in a pickle....or on a pickleball court?  Here below is where you can go to get some oil! This is only one of six parts of this series. You can easily find the other five parts. This teaching series by R. C. Sproul was listened to or watched by just about all evangelicals back in the 80s....and that is one reason why there was as strong movement of God at the time."                                             

O Say......Can You Hear....

              Preface: God gave Daniel visions of things that would happen in the end times....and they made him physically ill....even incapacitated for a while....but God strengthened him. Few today have experienced that temporary incapacitation....because not many have any idea of what is ahead....because even less have desired to know what was ahead. The following post is from last November:                  

                   For what it is worth....my forty-three years of hearing sermons have produced this opinion. Expository sermons....explaining the true meaning of the text....necessary and helpful and a blessing as they can be....is like basic training. When the LST is loaded with troops and tanks....and the command to weigh anchor is given....and the secret destination is heard by those on board....then the Holy Spirit must guide the chaplain....or in our case the pastor....on what to preach. I've found that a rigid schedule for preaching months at a time....on one book....inhibits that guidance....and in the case of the church in America....prevents us from hearing the warnings that are needed to hear....in our particular time and in our particular place.

                   Charles Spurgeon's primarily topical preaching enabled him to listen to the Holy Spirit on what to preach....and hence he became known as the Prince of Preachers. The blessing of his preaching is as strong today as it was in the latter half of the nineteenth century....as pastors and believers everywhere still read his sermons....and as I just this morning....before our own church service began....listened to a sermon of his from 1877.
                   Ready or not....we are out of basic training. We are on that LST....and we have to know what is ahead. My father was on a ship like that in 1944....on the way to Okinawa....when kamikazes attacked....and he was seriously wounded and spent months in the hospital. We can and usually are....'green'....as the inexperienced are described on something like this....on a spiritual beachhead so to speak. I personally know a few Christians....usually missionaries....who are no longer 'green'....because of what they have already been through....but not me.....I'm still green....and I need this preaching....and these warnings....and this preparation for that spiritual beachhead that I know to be just ahead....for word got out....for anyone with ears to hear! (O Say....Can You Hear)
                   In 1969....after my basic training in the army was completed....and in the midst of my training in signal intelligence....they gave us what was called a....dream sheet....to fill out.....asking us what our preference would be for our first duty station. We all laughed but filled it out anyway. I think that I may have written in....Germany. That sounded good. I'd like to go to Germany. They sent us all to Vietnam. We may put one thing on our Christian dream sheet....but word has gotten out for those who have ears to hear!
                   So there is a pastor out there who is on....oh say....week nine....of an....oh say....thirty two week series from....oh say....Ecclesiastes....or 1 Samuel....or Philippians....if they would but just put down that schedule that they made that fit in nicely....between the end of summer and the beginning of the new year....and plead with God for words and warnings that their sheep need....they might just winding up preaching on....oh say....the ninth chapter of Daniel....and Daniel's prayer....which is a prayer that we in America need to pray....right now!

 "Then I turned my face to the Lord God, seeking him by prayer and pleas for mercy with fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...." 

Daniel 9:3-12a

Addendum: My habit is to Google a Spurgeon sermon....and scroll down the offerings until I come to a sermon that I had not already heard....which is taking longer and longer since I have heard so many. So a few days ago I was doing this and clicked on an 1877 sermon titled....Remember Lot's Wife....only for some reason that particular YouTube had no volume? I tried it again a few days later and still no sound....but by now I really wanted to hear that sermon. So early this morning I found a different offering of the same sermon....with a different man reading Spurgeon's sermon....and this one worked fine. The sermon was so good that I'm adding it hear if you are interested....

Note: Martyn Lloyd-Jones preached sermons often in a series....and he was an expository preacher....but I noticed that he would often deviate from that schedule when he felt the

 necessity to preach on urgent matters.

The College Chapel Service

      

Preface: I got my BA from Pitt back in 1976. Twenty-four years later I went back to college to work on a degree in....Higher Education. I wasn't looking to change jobs....I wanted to know more about what college was like....circa 2000....because our son was beginning to think about college. I have visited college campuses every chance I get since then. Sometimes I talk to people....and I always gather up as many student newspapers that I can. Today was one of those days. Most of my posting has to do with how evangelicals need to supplement their weekly sermons....with sermons....from preachers of the past....until God might.....if it be in His perfect will....awaken the men in our pulpits today. As for the college age evangelicals....they are being heavily recruited by politicians....in the name of the Christian Faith. They need that chapel service from the past. They need something to keep them reverent and sober-minded....for that same reason....until the Holy Spirit might move mightily in our pulpits again. The following post is from January of 2025:                                                              

             Last evening my wife and I dined with some Christian friends....a husband and wife....and I discovered that the gentleman....who is a couple of years older than I am....was a graduate of Wheaton College! My mind went back to an extraordinary episode of....desiringgod.org....John Piper's ministry....where Pastor John....twenty-two years old at the time....was in the audience of 2000 students....this was in a Friday morning chapel which was mandatory....and the date was September 22, 1967....where the college president....V. Raymond Edman....spoke for eleven minutes....and then collapsed and died at the pulpit! I texted the above link to my friend this morning....and I'll wait to see if he had matriculated to Wheaton at the time....or if he was a year away?
            The eleven minutes of Dr. Edman's sermon were profound....and in retrospect they were breathtaking....in that Dr. Edman spoke of one day standing before the King of Kings....and in eleven minutes he himself would do just that! Why would God do something like this?
            Yesterday afternoon while rearranging books in the many bookshelves of our basement...an old yellowed paperback fell to the floor....a book that I had read forty years ago....Through Gates Of Splendour....a first-hand account by Elizabeth Elliot of the martyrdom of her husband and four other missionaries in the jungle of Ecuador. Why did God permit that? Well...that book probably had sent thousands of people to their knees while reading it....and many others to the mission field....as it humbled me greatly yesterday in just reading parts of it. John Piper's telling of the death of V. Raymond Edman in the pulpit....with his commentary on the topic that Dr. Edman was preaching on....probably  greatly encouraged and motivated and humbled just as many believers today? Maybe it will even do so to you?
             On the topic itself....Dr. Raymond Edman was describing how he once met Ethiopia's king Haile Selassie....and how extraordinary measures were taken to be given an audience with this king....so he was asking the Wheaton student body back then in 1967....(and it is the same today)....how it was that Christians enter into the presence of the King of Kings....(college chapel in this instance)....often laughing and joking....not taking seriously who we are meeting with? 
             I personally don't have much of an alternative....because we are with an elderly loved on the Lord's Day....a loved one who needs 24/7 care.....so we stream our services....but in a way I thank God for that....because I don't have to deal with the gaiety and the laughter....(honest and good as that at any other time may be)....that the average American church service gives us both before and after what should be a meeting with the....KING of KINGS!
             The glory has indeed today departed in much if not most if not all of evangelicalism....particularly when politics is involved. We nonchalantly summon God in our prayers....and we throw around....'God bless America'....as if we believed that we were the new Israel...and folks....believe it or not....there are those who believe just that! There are few warnings anymore....no burning bush....nor taking off of sandals for the holy presence that we are in....no mortification from the sermons....and no falling prostrate before a Holy God! May He have mercy upon us and restore to our pulpits the awareness of what happened on that sandy beach in Ecuador....and in the Wheaton pulpit....and may He do this for His name and His glory alone!