The Color Of Money

              It was 2015.....and we were facing more than the prospect of a Hillary Clinton presidency. Rush and Levin and all of our long-time conservative media were in top fighting form. We wanted....for a change....a successful businessman in the White House....and we wanted something more than milquetoast republican establishment candidates. If it were ten years prior to 2015....when Trump came down that golden escalator....we in the church would have rejected him immediately....but the spiritual revival of the 70s and 80s had waned....as all spiritual revivals do....and we were ripe for the picking by a wolf in sheep's....(albeit a ram sheep's)....clothing!
              Looking back on it....it's a disgrace that we in the church let him just come in and walk all over us. There is no excuse. Hillary is no excuse. R. C. Sproul and Pat Robertson should have spoken out more....Piper and Keller must have thought that this fad soon would pass....and John MacArthur....the greatest defender that we had against false prophets....fell for the mother of all false prophets. This movement grew so fast that before the everyday pastor could get a warning out....half of his church was following the false prophet....so they choose not to warn!
              Trump's first term was just disaster....and we have had disasters in the White House before....but January 6th took all of this out of the political realm and put it into the spiritual realm! I watched everything unfold on that incredibly evil day. The man had lost his mind. He was done....there was no question about that....and then....wonder of wonders....he wasn't done. His political career was resurrected....and he came out....as Revelation 6 describes the rider on the white horse...."conquering....and to conquer."
               Within the year Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul had died and gone to be with their Lord. It was January 1 of the new year of 2023....and John MacArthur was taken seriously ill. I followed his health....and listened to his powerful sermons....(streaming)....over the next two and a half years before he also went on to his Lord and Savior. He had made mistakes at the end....but we are all frail....and none more so than me!
                Trump's actions in this second term resemble how the National Socialists operated in Germany of the 1930s. This is textbook tyranny that we are witnessing....but then....we are no longer into reading textbooks anymore....for we prefer the flattery that we get from podcasters.
                I'm not really surprised about what this man has morphed into....for after playing Trump biographer over the past decade....it is apparent to me that he is now merely showing his true colors....and they are not red...white and blue. They are just shades of green....the color of money.
               Trump is not the successful smart businessman that his supporters think that he is. Technically....because of his father's inheritance strategies....Donald was a millionaire in his early teens....and he was given a big financial head start in the world of real estate. He has probably had as many failures as successes....and was really in dire straits when NBC picked him....because of his celebrity....to star in their new TV show. This new Trump in the White House today....is accumulating wealth so quickly....that he doesn't appear to even be concerned about the legality of it all! It is brazen....as the dictionary puts it...'done out in the open....with no shame or guilt'....brazen....corpulent....greed.
               There seems not to be a day pass without a new mind-boggling news report. The spiritual eyes of evangelicals have been blinded by God. I've said this many times....God judged the Democrat Party first....and they have since collapsed into absurdities....culminating with Biden and Harris....and what they have today....but then we in the Republican Party were judged....(just as Judah followed Israel into rebellion)....with Donald Trump....as we became greedy...,compassionless....and even....believe it or not....racist at times.
               May God have mercy upon us. We rejected the warnings to us from His messengers....and from His Word! We thought too highly of ourselves....which turned into full-blown pride. Ichabod....the glory has departed the church. If it be His will....and to His glory alone....may He apply what would be a needed balm along with discernment on how far we have fallen....because it will be difficult when we finally see what we have done!

                

              

It's Readily Available Now.....So What Is Preventing You From Watching it?

Preface: The following in italics is a post from July 17....below it is an update from today"                  

                  "There is an anecdote that I remember from the past about George Whitefield. It would be hard to describe the popularity that he had at the time. He arrived in Philadelphia for the first time in 1739. Here is the anecdote....when Whitefield had arrived at a certain town or area....word of it spread literally like wildfire....and the population also literally dropped whatever they were doing....got on their horse or their wagon....and literally once again....sped to see him! The anecdote described what appeared to be dust storms along the countryside....as men and women and families would almost race each other....similar to what it must have been like in the Oklahoma Land Rush!
                What are you doing this evening....as the smoke from Canada wildfires makes it hard to breath here in Western Pennsylvania? Well....you have the opportunity to be blessed....maybe even eternally blessed....by sitting down with your family to stream that wonderful recent film....A Great Awakening!
                It looks like the film is now available on a number of streaming platforms. My plan....Lord willing....is to order the movie right now on DVD.....so that I can watch it again and again and again....which I have done on so many other movies....such as Amazing Grace....and Chariots of Fire....and C. H. Spurgeon, The People's Preacher....and Jeremiah....and Risen....and so many other Christian films!"

Update....August 15....The film indeed is available on a number of streaming platforms. Recently....while visiting Lancaster's....Sight and Sound production of Joshua....(it's wonderful by the way)....I picked up the DVD of....A Great Awakening....since they made the movie. Yesterday....while visiting relatives....I asked for and received permission to purchase the video from Prime on their television set.....$15. There is one scene from the film that I would like to relate. A young George Whitefield is preaching at one of the established churches in our colonies. He's not welcome....as the ministers do not like this new gospel that actually addresses the heart....and one of the ministers tells him...."I do not like your being here!"....whereas the young Whitefield replied...."Neither does the devil." I hope that God might have mercy upon me in that I might be able say that also....after so many people do not like the overall message that I put out in these posts.

We Have No Way to Get Supplies In....Or Messages Out!

             As we all know if we have read Revelation diligently....Babylon the Great will be destroyed in one hour....and all of the merchants of the earth will weep and mourn ....for...."the merchants of the earth have become rich from the excessive wealth of her luxury." Revelation 18 also speaks of cargo that was sent all over the world....and lists quite a few examples of fine cargo that includes what you would expect in gold and silver....but also....in verse 13...."slaves and human lives." Does that wording sound familiar? It should.
              As for identifying Babylon the Great.....as a country or just a system.....that has not been revealed to us as of yet.....but we should know enough that when we see the ever-increasing group of ultra-rich such as all of these tech and AI CEOs.... Musk obviously being number one on that list....we should rightfully feel confident that Revelation is talking about us.... right now.
               When we have had major economic collapses in the past....we always eventually read about how much wealth was lost. Well....we read in Revelation 18:17...."for in one hour such a great wealth has been laid waste! (This is the wealth of the whole world folks) And every shipmaster and every passenger and sailor....and all who make their living by the sea....stood at a distance....and were crying out as they saw the smoke of her burning."
                As I mention many times in these posts....we in the church have no leaders or evangelists of renown left. Oh there are plenty of solid pastor/teachers out there....David Jeremiah and others....but none that can stand up and make America take notice. The church has never really been in this situation since the Reformation....as there was always a Luther or a Calvin or the Puritans or Edwards or Whitefield or Spurgeon or Lloyd-Jones or Billy Graham or John MacArthur or a Sproul or a Wilkerson or a Robertson.
                Christian bookstores are gone. The average person today has nowhere to find Christ....and everywhere....including churches....to stumble across a facsimile of what used to be the gospel! We sit around in our little cell groups or Bible studies and cannot see that the people that....(mostly because of a collapsing culture)....are drawn to larger churches....are hearing enough from the pulpits to sign a pledge card....but not enough to fall before a Holy God in remorse and conviction. We are no longer evangelized....'born again' is an outmoded expression....as we are now merely recruited!
                The warnings that are out there are that we may lose our freedoms and even out country. That is what pushed people to churches....but we have no warnings on losing our eternal soul....and no warnings of false prophets or compromised gospels! We have no warning that we may have fallen asleep in the lap of luxury.
                God has taken all those men home who did warn us....and were able to stand up and make America take note....and keep us in the church at least awake. He has taken them all home. He took the Christian bookstores and the major ministries away....for today we have but circled the wagons....and have no way to get supplies in....or messages out.
                 We had our Jonah moments over the past seventy years or so....and we responded from time to time....but there is no longer a 40 day-type of warning as given to Nineveh. This is Nahum's time folks....to the same city....prepare for what is ahead.
                  Mystery Babylon is great tribulation language. Whatever Babylon turns out to be....its collapse changes the whole world....so we can forget our 401s and our bank accounts. There will be no constitutions....and probably not even any capitalism....and we are not being told this....because the glory of God has departed from the church....for a time....and for a purpose....that the chaff and the grain would separate. That is going to be a painful process....and it is surely coming....and already starting!

"Dave....My Mind Is Going...."

Preface: In 2010 I posted a long book review on  Nicholas Carr's....The Shadows. It's much too long to bring back but I have chosen just a few paragraphs. The reason is this....evangelicals want to make their country great again....and do not want anything more than a token reminder now and then about judgment of the last days. Carr's book does not mention this....(although he did include some Bible verses)....but he does inadvertently address the issue in that the coming and even present world that he describes....is not a world that we should look forward to....and 'making America great again' or not....we are in line to enter a horror movie. In this scenario....do you see how we in the church today are strenuously laboring to restart the ship's motor....to get to the scheduled destination....not realizing that if we finally get to that destination....and step on shore....and see what is before us....we will turn in a panic and attempt to take the skiff back to the ship....and as far away as possible from this future dystopia as possible? A lot has changed and been discovered in the sixteen years this book was published....and it is all even far worse than what the book describes! If there is to be a Last Days revival....there will have to be....mouths in the pulpit that finally begin to speak....and ears in the pews that can hear what previously has not been spoken....and eyes to see and discern what is going on....and noses to smell the stench....and hands to lift to God seeking mercy....and feet to run....to run as fast as we can from the false prophets....and to the ship whose Captain is our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! I recently went back to Pitt's Hillman Library....after its remodeling....where I had worked as a student fifty-some years ago....and I walked from the fourth floor down to the bottom....five floors....looking for books....any books? We do not need books anymore....we need links....to information. We today would hardly know how to process....let alone read through academic and scholarly books. We no longer need to know how to analyze anything. Others do that for us!

           "Nicholas Carr begins and ends his book The Shallows, What The Internet Is Doing To Our Brains with thoughts on HAL from Stanley Kubrick's 2001: A Space Odyssey. "Dave, my mind is going...I can feel it. I can feel it" were the computers last words as the astronaut disconnected circuits. Carr follows with I can feel it too. Over the last few years I've had an uncomfortable sense, that someone, or something, has been tinkering with my brain, remapping the neural circuitry, reprogramming the memory.

               Marshall McLuhan appears throughout the book with warnings from years ago that we would experience the dissolution of the linear mind and that we were breaking the tyranny of text over our thoughts and senses. Carr writes The Net's cacophony of stimuli short circuits both conscious and unconscious thought, preventing our minds from thinking either deeply or creatively. Our brains turn into simple signal-processing units, quickly shepherding into unconsciousness and then back again....If our brains are computers, then intelligence becomes indistinguishable from machine intelligence.   

                Numerous experiments are referenced showing that the hypertext-laden usage of the Internet is producing that cognitive overload. Carr writes research continues to show that people who read linear text comprehend more, remember more, and learn more than those who read text peppered with links. He quotes a certain Rhodes Scholar in that he is comfortable admitting not only that he doesn't read books but that he doesn't see any particular need to read them and cites a digital expert in that we have been emptily praising  great writers of the past. Carr asks Why bother, when you can Google the bits and pieces you need in a fraction of a second. 

                Memory is outsourced as Carr quoted another author.. 

                I want to add Carr's experience in writing this book as he was without the Internet as he worked on it: The dismantling of my online life was far from painless. For months, my synapses howled for their Net fix. I found myself sneaking clicks on the "check for new mail" button. Occasionally, I'd go on a daylong Web binge. but in time the cravings subsided, and I found myself able to type at my keyboard for hours on end or to read through a dense academic paper without my mind wandering. Some old, disused neural circuits were springing back to life, it seemed, and some of the newer, Web-wired ones were quieting down. I started to feel generally calmer and more in control of my thoughts-less like a lab rat pressing a lever and more like, well, a human being. My brain could breath again.
             
                Carr's brief sojourn in the Bible was profound in these verses:

Their idols are silver and gold,
The work of men's hands.
They have mouths, but they speak not;
eyes have they, but they see not;
They have ears, but they hear not;
Noses have they, but they smell not;
They have hands, but they handle not;
Feet have they, but they walk not;
Neither speak they through their throat;
They that make them are like unto them;

Tuesdays With Special Dog

                Do you like those Progressive Insurance commercials about the older man who is always trying to steer others from becoming like their parents....always going down rabbit holes? I do. I know what the commercial is alluding to....for I see this in people all the time. Maybe I'll switch over to Progressive because I like their commericals?

                It was a Tuesday....and I was meeting with someone at a Starbucks....as I often do....with the sole purpose of it being a Bible study....the particular topic this day was....the Antichrist. Joe was already sitting down at a table....immersed in his computer open before him. I thought that he might be prepping for our talk...

Bob......."Hi Joe

Joe........."Oh hi Bob."

Bob........"What are you looking at?"

Joe.........."Did you know that cats have nose prints just like humans have fingerprints?"

So much for preparation.

Bob........."OK.....the Antichrist....let's get started...."

Joe..........."Right....so are you going to tell me who the Antichrist is?"

Bob.........."No....we're going to talk about what to expect that the Antichrist will do."

Joe............"Well I know who the AntiTrump is....it's that guy on the Internet.....Special
                   kind of dog or something like that.....he leaves stuff around my campus all the
                   time!"

Bob..........."Joe....that's me....Special Dog."

Joe............ "Ooooh.....sorry....some of the guys actually read it."

Bob..........."No problem....'some of the guys'....is all I can hope for. It's not so much that I am anti....Trump....as much as....
                     anti deception....and anti false prophets....that kind of thing."

Bob looked at Joe who was staring out the window....

Joe............"Wow....it's 97 degrees out......and that guy is wearing a hoodie!"

Bob..........."Joe....Joe....the Antichrist?"

Joe............."Right....go ahead."

Bob..........."First of all....the Antichrist is going to fool a lot of people. That means
                                  that he will use great methods of deception and....Joe?

Joe was going from one pocket to another

Joe............"Sorry....my hearing aids are in one of my pockets."

Bob..........."Oh I'm sorry....I didn't know that you had hearing problems!"

Joe..........."I don't....I just have these with me at all times in case my hearing starts
                  to go."

Bob needed a few seconds to let that one sink in

Joe............"Here they are....wrapped up with my migraine pills."

Bob..........."Oh.....do you get....

Joe............."No.....just in case I ever get one?"

Bob............"Well maybe all this is good....because you like to prepare for bad
                     things....like maybe the seven years of tribulation coming up?"

Joe..............."Well I don't ever think about that....I mean it could be another twenty
                       years or so."

Bob.............."You're not concerned about wars and earthquakes and famines and 
                       pandemics.....but you have hearing aids in case you go deaf at Starbucks?"

Joe................"Well doesn't the Bible say something like....we're not going to know 
                        nothing at all....just be ready to be zapped up....even from a Steeler
                        game....or Bruce Springsteen concert....or something like that?"

Bob..............."Hmm....where do I start with this one? Let's just go back to the
                        Antichrist....so people.....even many people in the church.....are going
                         think that this man is sent from God....as a good thing....a blessing even"

Joe..............."I just thought of something."

Bob.............."What's that?"

Joe..............."Did you know that the name....of the first mate....in Moby Dick....
                        is....Starbuck....and then there was captain....Ahab....and Ishmael!
                        Do you think that Melville was coding something to us about the Antichrist?"

Bob..............."Joe....you are going down rabbit holes."

Joe................."Yeah....I tend to do that. I forgot to take my ADHD medicine this morning.
                           Well it's not really medicine....it's more of a vitamin and mineral formula.
                           Did you know that there is an island off the coast of Greece.....where a 
                           certain...."

Bob................"Joe?

Joe.................."Where a certain olive grows..."

Bob................."Joe!"

Joe..................."Yeah?"

Bob.................."I have an idea....Let me just send you a video that you can start to watch...
                           and if a squirrel jumps on your window sill....you can take a break....and 
                           listen again later?"

Joe..................."Odd that you mention squirrels. I have one in my yard that absolutely will
                          not eat peanuts! Can you imagine that?"

Bob.................."I'm trying not to."

Note: The problem isn't that we all have ADHD....it's that we just are not that interested in the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior and King....Jesus Christ.

IS DONALD TRUMP THE ANTICHRIST?

"Preface: I purposely gave this post a provocative title to bring attention to what I consider a serious problem. Donald Trump's megalomania is obvious to anyone willing to look at how he acts. Combine this with an almost sadistic penchant to seek revenge on even the lowest person on the totem pole....and I have to wonder what he would do if he indeed did pull this election out....or even in the two remaining months if he lost? Yes the pandemic was judgment from God....but it is where the church is going that may be the more serious judgment. I have studied cults and biblical prophecy for nearing forty years....and history a lot longer than that....and I can now see in Donald Trump how a dictator actually takes over a nation....and it is frightening. I can actually see not only why but how Trump's army of believers are deceived."

               The above preface/paragraph....as well as the post below....are from October of 2020....during the pandemic and weeks before the November election. This was six years ago....and I wondered what Trump would do if he retained power. After now having witnessed what I was so concerned about....these 2020 comments may have been somewhat prescient....particularly the "two remaining months if he lost"....(remember January 6?)....but they nowhere near described what we have witnessed with our own eyes for not only the past 18 months of his second term....but the five and a half years of escalating authoritarian purges and beatdowns with a megalomania that alone should have driven every single solitary Christian to their knees for not fleeing from this man long ago.
                So do I think that Donald Trump will turn out to be the....Antichrist? Whoever the Antichrist will be....he will retain power for quite a while....miraculously retain power.....and that certainly has been Trump. He will build statues to himself....and exalt his name above everyone else on earth....and that surely is Trump....and he will make a covenant....and then blatantly break it....and that is what Trump is showing himself to be....not a promise keeper....but a covenant breaker. He may turn out to be the Antichrist....and he may not. What is most important is that evangelicals put him where he is! This is great delusion....and it is a falling away....as Trump is at least a false prophet who has prophesied to us for a decade now....peace and prosperity....and greatness beyond measure....a Golden Age....and American Age....and we bought it all....hook....line and sinker....because it is what we wanted more than the return of our Lord and Savior and King to a violent....fallen world....with evil technologies alone that should make all of us cry out....Marantha....Lord Jesus Come! Here is that post from October of 2020:

Is Donald Trump The Antichrist?

              It was nothing less than incredible to watch as Mikhail Gorbachev....the General Secretary of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union....brought about the end of the cold war through reforms such as glasnost and perestroika....and then to see the Soviet Union itself collapse. I remember a speech that Gorbachev gave in Israel....as he was cheered as a hero and man of peace....this may have been 1992....when a dove alighted upon his shoulder....in Jerusalem!
              Then there was the 2008 Democrat convention stage in Denver's Mile high Stadium....(nickname)....that was shaped like....and resembled....the Pergamon Altar of Zeus....thought by many scholars to be the Throne of Satan....mentioned in Revelation 2:12. Google the two....'Pergamom Altar' and 'Obama 2008 acceptance speech'....to see for yourselves. Added to this was the giant statue of a white horse that rears up on top of the stadium.
              The Apostle John wrote in 1 John 2:18...."and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come." Opinion here of course....but an opinion held by many....the final antichrist is probably walking around today as an adult. There has been so much written on this. Some scholars are absolutely convinced that he will be of Middle-Eastern descent. I don't think that anyone can be absolutely sure.
              So what about Donald Trump? I bring these examples up....and this post title....primarily to get your attention. I think that maybe it worked....but there are a couple of nagging concerns that I have about him. One would be that after seventy-plus books (115 now) on every aspect of his life....and every part of his life.....what comes out most of all about him.....is that he is totally vacant on any real ideological beliefs....with no evidence of a conscience whatsoever....the emptiest man that I have ever seen in American political life. Whether it is abortion or America or anything....there is really nothing behind the professionally crafted words. (He has a half century of experience in his resume' as a master con man.)  And if there is nothing there....then there is plenty of space to be filled by something. That's one concern.
                Another would be that after having studied 'Christian cults' for many years....even putting personal ads in the newspaper to meet with anyone interested....and therefore being familiar with a typical charismatic leader that is able to lead otherwise intelligent people into disaster....I've never witnessed personal magnetism in the form of outright lies as I have in Donald Trump....at least not to the extent of the number of followers.
                I've never seen or read about anything in America quite like the total allegiance to a hero....no matter how much evidence to the contrary may be out there.....than that is happening today with Donald Trump. I've seen it in the history of a number of other countries....but not here. Rush Limbaugh is a total convert....as are many others. Fox network executives are totally under his spell....with their best reporters becoming a discouraged smaller minority all the time. Do we even remember let alone have any concern for the comment that Donald Trump once made where he could shoot someone right on Fifth Avenue and would not lose his supporters? Don't you think that this might have been a clue?
                My hope remains that if it be God's will that He might humble Donald Trump as Nebuchadnezzar was humbled by madness....but Beltashazzar is the more likely role model....and I'm not even sure that Donald Trump would be concerned about fingers writing on a wall....as he'd probably just call them a hoax.

It Is Time To Tremble....In Reverence Before a Holy God....And Humility In What We Have Brought Upon Ourselves!

"It is 3 AM....and I was tossing and turning. A few minutes ago I reached for my iPhone....just to check the headlines....for it had been six hours. Trump apparently had finished speaking three hours ago....a little late because of the storms....the one headline had it that lightning had struck the Washington Monument. I had been praying all yesterday....and this is normal for Saturdays....that should it be God's will....that He would have mercy upon these men in our pulpits....and that the Holy Spirit would awaken them....in that they have not fulfilled their responsibilities to strengthen and warn the sheep of wolves in sheep's clothing! Had they heard or read Trump's words....in that this nation is the...."crowning achievement of human history?" If so....did they tremble?"

"But this is the one to whom I will look....he who is humble....and contrite in spirit....who trembles at my word."  Isaiah 66:2 ESV

               The above short post is from a month ago....after Trump finally gave his speech after the storms. I use the Latin noun....gravitas....occasionally. When our son was very young I tried to initiate him into the use of Latin words because they were so often used in important biblical doctrines. This past spring our nine year old grandson corrected me on the pronunciation of a Latin word. The definition of gravitas is....high seriousness. 
                I've related this humorous anecdote often. Billy Graham was speaking before a southern seminary....being given an honorary doctorate....he told a story of a man who went south on a hunting trip....and stayed at a hunting lodge.....and asked for a dog named Preacher....because he had heard that it was a good hunting dog. The owner of the lodge said...."Preacher? Preacher? No....we don't have a dog named Preacher"....on which the man said that he was sure that he heard that they had a good hunting dog named Preacher. The owner then remembered and said...."Oh yes....we did have a good dog named Preacher....but then someone came down  here and called him Doctor.....and he ain't been a lick of good since!"
                You see....Billy was being given the honorary title of Doctor. Everyone laughed. Billy Graham was a down-home....old-time religion type of preacher....but he had more gravitas than any preacher in America....or the world for that matter! everyone respected his words and his opinions. Today....with the passing of Graham and Sproul and MacArthur and many others.....we have no one in the church that could speak to America who has that....gravitas! I'm going to repeat that for the emphasis that it deserves....we have no one in the church that can speak to us with....gravitas....where everyone hears and at least listens!
                Biden and Trump....and all of these preachers of renown leaving us and going back home....this is all God's judgement on America....and upon you....and upon me....for we in the church let all of this which has happened to us....happen....as we may have been vocal evangelicals....but we considered ourselves....exceptional....American Exceptionalism....and an exceptional church with giant congregations and podcasts and Christian cruises to every part of the world....and popular Christian entertainers....and ministers in the Oval Office....laying hands on the most powerful person in the world....but we were and are anything but exceptional....in fact we are Laodicean....thinking that we are rich....when we are destitute of discernment and wisdom!
                  What we need right now is a man of gravitas....to make news in America....not calling us to some worthless political election coming up....in fact calling us away from hoping in that election....and striking needed fear in us for what we have become....all of us....left and right and in-between! 
                   For you see....we are as on a riverboat cruise right now....admiring God's creation as we slowly glide through the water....arranging deck chairs as they say....with Country or Christian or whatever type of music wafting throughout the ship....drowning out the roar of the great falls that are close.....of which the billowing mist alone should have had us rushing to the bow to see what it was!
                    It is time to tremble....and we need someone of note to tell us that....but we have no one....because God had given us such men for fifty years or more....and we ignored their warnings! Our pulpits need to stop comforting us and begin to warn us! There will be a need for comforting in the future!

 

 

When There Is Little To No Water To Drink......Go To Where There Is Water!

               I'm sure that most parents would rather have their adult children live close by....but if they do not....then those times of the year when they are together can be special times....as opposed to seeing your son or daughter every day....and just saying...."Hey....what's up?" Our son knows that when we do get together for a day or more....that in that time....I will at some point strongly give the same advice. I say it to our son so often that it is down to three words...."Remember son....incorporate!"....and he will know exactly what I mean.
             As a matter of fact....I do not personally know a single brother or sister in the Lord that I would not give this advice to. Let me explain that advice....just about all of us that I know have wonderful pastors.....good men who sincerely desire to serve the Lord in the best ways that they know how to. The problem is in what they do not know.....because of the church day and age that we live in.
             As spiritual children of God....we need spiritual food....nourishment. I imagine that a man can live for months without food before he would die.....but spiritually we can live most of our lives without this spiritual food....and maybe not die....we might physically even be a perfectly healthy person....but we would be susceptible to all of the wiles of the enemy....and have little to no discernment....and be easy prey for wolves in sheep's clothing!
             Bible reading is spiritual food....certainly....sufficient for all of our needs....but God designed it that there is one primary and indispensable food....and that is the preached Word! They call it a means of grace....but we tend to accept that and pass over it without really knowing what it means....or the importance of it! There is a needed power in hearing God's Word preached that is greater even than reading the Bible. If this were not so then we would not even need preachers....for we could just stay home and read God's Word for ourselves.
              That being said....it is not a contradiction that we go to God's Word to verify what the preacher is telling us....but this man...this shepherd (hopefully) is given a gift....in preaching with power! To a certain extent we all are in our own way to seek this gift...."Pursue love....and earnestly desire the spiritual gifts....especially that you may prophesy...." (1 Corinthians 14:1 ESV) When I am doing what I do....and when you are doing with others what you do....hopefully we are partaking in the commands of that Bible verse from Corinthians!
              This post is getting a little bit too long....so to summarize....when there is little or no water to drink....go to where there is water! Incorporate into your weekly and even if possible your daily routine....preaching from....(a phrase that I have used so often over so many years)....preaching from preachers of the past....or those preachers today who preach like preachers of the past. Spurgeom sermons on YouTube and other venues....and sermons from Martyn Lloyd Jones....and John MacArthur....and John Piper....and Michael Horton....and Sinclair Ferguson....and Derek Thomas....and Paul Washer....there are so many....are easy to find and listen to....and if you do the work....and search for them....you will find them. INCORPORATE their sermons into you spiritual life! 

Also...go to ministries such as....ligonier.org and gty.org and whitehorseinn.org and refnet.fm....and park yourself there....for sermons from....preachers of the past....and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past....would eventually give you the discernment to go to ministries like this anyway! 

DISPATCHES

Friday....August 14....I have been a news junky for over a half century....and I had been with Fox since its inception....and it was fair and balanced....but all of that is gone....as the have before my reading eyes changed so much that today it is not news....nor is it journalism....it is choreographed politics. We have only basic cable in our house so I do not....nor have I for decades....received into our home Hannity or any of the other prime time shows....but I am on their Internet cite fifty times a day it seems. What is most sad about this is that this is the Christian's primary source of....supposedly news....which means that are essentially kept in the dark. That said....I watched a clip of a Fox news host interviewing Vance. This wasn't journalism but a public relations event between Trump's proxy....and Trump's proxy news service. Vance began talking about fraud....and referenced doctors getting rich through deception on transgender surgeries. Well-enough....but as I listened I could not help but wonder how a man can work for another man who is the king....(in more ways than one)....who is the king of attaining vast riches through deception....and not worrying about how this making of money will affect the citizens of America? Then....the interview went to Iran. This is why I looked for the clip of the interview. Did Vance really say that the number one goal in the Iran war right now is lower gas prices....and the number two goal is stopping Iran from getting nuclear weapons? Yes....that is exactly what he said....and this is why....there are 82 days left before the midterm elections....and Trump will need lower gas prices....or those fraud and deception issues in gaining vast wealth....will be relentlessly directed towards he and his family businesses. 

Tomorrow....August 12....the solar eclipse that will start in northern Russia....and touch Greenland and Iceland and eventually Portugal and Spain....will begin around noon tomorrow....Eastern time.....and last in different areas until around 8PM. Solar eclipses can only happen during a new moon phase....when the moon is between the sun and the earth. Lunar eclipses can only happen during full moons. Tomorrow's solar eclipse will coincide with the latest Perseid meteor shower....the viewing of which will be easier to see because there is no moonlight during the new moon phase.

Update....So the solar eclipse was spectacular. The next event will be a partial blood moon....occurring at its maximum here in the eastern United States a few minutes after midnight....August 27/28. This partial will be 96.2%....so it is supposed to be very effective. The next total blood moon will be on New Year's Eve 2028....and the Middle East will be in the middle of it.

There are 147 days left in the calendar year....and what with the five weeks recess right now....and the whole pre-mid-term recess for October....and the various holiday recesses....there are only 35 days that they are scheduled to be in session. Either the Majority Leader or the President can call the Senate back into an emergency session. They might not want to put the suitcases in the basement.

It's known as the...Saturday Night Massacre....October 20, 1973. I remember it well for I was 23 years old. Archibald Cox was a Watergate Special prosecutor. President Nixon ordered Cox to cease in his attempts to get Oval Office tapes. Cox refused....and then Nixon ordered his Attorney General Elliot Richardson to fire Cox. Richardson refused....and resigned. Nixon then ordered Deputy Attorney General William Ruckelshaus to fire Cox...who then also resigned. Robert Bork was then the Solicitor General. Nixon ordered him to fire Cox. Bork intended to obey the order and then resign....to stop this mess. He did fire Cox but Richardson and Ruckelshaus talked him into staying so that someone of integrity was left in the Justice Department. Todd Blanche had chosen clients in the past such as Paul Manafort....and was himself chosen by Trump to defend him in the Stormy Daniels case. Blanche started in the administration as the Deputy Attorney General....and fired Pam Bondi on Trump's order....this because she was not aggressive enough in going after Trump's enemies. 

Most of the readers here....not all....would not be familiar with a major television event that happened in November of 1983....a two hour film called....The Day After....that depicted a nuclear war between the Soviet Union and the United States. The film centers around families in Lawrence, Kansas and Kansas City, Missouri....and the farmland around those cities. The TV event was a really big deal....and we all....just about....sat around the television that evening. The film was brutal....and stark....and at times numbing....but necessary for Americans to at least consider. President Reagan watched it....as did just everyone else in Congress. The USSR even broadcast it. Lamentations gives a similar depiction in just what it looked like in the dystopian aftermath of the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem. You can boot this up on your computer in a minute....and watch it if you so desire.

So the reflecting pool....the Fourth of July celebrations in general....was one of those things important to Trump....along with the Ukraine and Iran....but it turned out to be PR disaster. Someone other than Trump had to get the blame....so that blame went immediately to vandalism. Interior secretary Burgum made the charges...and DC US Attorney Pirro....a longtime Trump worshiper....brought indictments....and Trump was happy in his element of righteous rage. MAGA was fed the raw meat....and resting in the sun on the Ellipse....but then Pirro looked over the evidence....and saw that there was none....and whatever the real motivation might be....to her credit....she came out and admitted that the whole thing was botched....and dropped the charges....on the man....the enemy....raked over the coals for a month. Trump predictably hit the ceiling on hearing this....but Pirro showed up with proof of the botch...and who knows if Trump will fire Pirro or Burgum or find another way to get at the 'vandal?'

There are thirteen friends and former fellow workers and family that I know of....that died because of Covid. Fauci and Redfield and Deborah Birx are professionals at the top of their field....and did yeoman's work in a most difficult situation. They wanted testing....Trump did not.....the professional's opinion vs the politician's need. What we are viewing with Fauci is a show trial....just one of many things to be ashamed of in America today. Trump took the fifth more than 400 times in his civil fraud investigation....but our taking the fifth....and our whistleblowers....are good things.

The latest absurdity....apparently there is a public golf course in D. C. where the average golfer can go for as little as $17 a round. Trump wants to turn it into a world class golf course....and he wants to start soon. He has done things like this his whole life....as when he said that the East Wing would not be touched by construction on the new ballroom....and then the bulldozers showed up. The bicyclers are angry also because the new course would take their bike path. Folks....it's not only on things like construction....for this quick maneuver before anyone gets the chance to complain is pure Trump. 

Europe....Ten....(10)....countries joined together on Monday.....July 13....2026....and formally established what they call the....Integrated Anti-Ballistic Missile Coalition. Those ten....(10)....countries are Denmark and France and Germany and Italy and Netherlands and Sweden and Norway and Spain and Ukraine and Britain.

Paul Washer gave the Session 10 talk at John MacArthur's....Shepherd's Conference....back in March of this year. He raised some eyebrows of the 5,000 plus men in attendance when he somberly but matter-of-factly said...."John MacArthur is dead." He then paused and repeated that statement...."John MacArthur is dead." You might just be eternally blessed if you listen to that message. Just Google....2026 Shepherd's Conference Session 10, Paul Washer. On second thought....I'll add it here for you...

                                                                    

Regime Change

 Let me start with this from a July 5th post....

 "This current conflict (with Iran) started on February 28....just before the Purim holiday that began two days later. What followed was a month of....shock and awe....and then came Passover....April 1-9....coinciding with Easter.....Sunday....April 5.....and texts from Trump that should have cast doubts by everyone on his sanity...."48 hours before all Hell will reign down on them. Glory be to God." This was an Easter message....the second is too vulgar to put up here but it does end with an odd mockery...."Praise be to Allah." Something happened somewhere! Maybe powers that be....whoever or whatever those powers might be....got a hold of him and said....act like you are sane or leave now? At one moment he was threatening the entire population of Iran with extinction....a population....half of which probably supported him....and the next moment....right up to today....he was just trying to get out of this conflict?"

               In another post I wondered how it could happen that after a month of shock and awe....where at one moment the Iranian leaders were as if crawling around under the rubble looking for pockets of air to breath....and almost the next moment....those same leaders were controlling the narrative and events? It haunted me. What had happened that this war would change course so abruptly?
               Maggie Habeman is definitely one of the best Trump biographers out there....although there are a couple of others. In her new book....Regime Change....she gives a day-by-day account of Trump's second term....beginning in the transition period....and ending at publication....just as the current war with Iran began.
               It doesn't appear that she has missed much since the day of the second inauguration. If I didn't already know who Donald Trump was.....after ten years of intense observation and well over a hundred books on his life....I would think that for the uninitiated....reading this book straight through with no time to come up for air....that they would become totally discouraged and disillusioned with the state of our government. This man that leads the former free world is that bad....every day of his life is one misanthropic and megalomaniacal adventure after another. There is no break in the absurdities. I wonder how long the few relatively normal cabinet members and advisers from his administration can last....without succumbing to severe depression over what they had gotten themselves into?
                So does Haberman's book give any hint as to what happened on that Easter weekend....even though the book essentially stops there? I think that it may. From the way that Haberman presents it....most of the people involved in the decision making in that situation room....were very concerned about the potential problems with a war....but Trump....possibly emboldened by the successful Maduro capture....and Benjamin Netanyahu's optimism....made the call to go for it.....and it was by all estimates going very well....until Trump went off the deep end that Easter weekend. It appears possible that he was more than ready to blow boats out of the water....and send bombers....but nothing more than that?
                   He went from shock and awe to not only diplomacy....but absurd.....back and forth diplomacy of....'they're agreeing to peace/we're going to blow them to hell'....all the while compromising more and more of his initial demands....and giving the Mullahs more and more breathing room....and probably causing great concern to Israel over all of this?
                   So here he is....right back where he started....only in a worse position....as this Iranian regime has proved beyond the shadow of a doubt that it will be as murderous as it ever was!

They Want Ideas......Here Is One

                There are reports out that our military has asked analysts and even military personnel for creative ideas to pressure and punish Iran. I don't have my top secret clearance anymore....it probably expired fifty-four years ago....but I have an idea. Here is where you have to get creative because Trump will never do it. Go to Nato and Europe and admit that a great mistake was made in calling Europe every name in the book....over years....purposely tearing apart a strong alliance that had lasted for seventy-seven years....and then come together in this effort! Trump threatened them and hammered and tried to humiliate them every chance that he got....but things were good for him then....and he could never see more than a few months down the line....nor does he care what happens after he is out of office. So figure out a way for Trump to apologize....without looking like he is apologizing....and maybe they can do a little apologizing themselves....because they have made as many mistakes as we have.

                    I thought this a good time to bring back a post from August of 2019:

Good-bye Langley

              You are an analyst for the CIA. You're 64 years old and set to retire at the end of the year so you have seen a lot in your career....and developed a sense of spotting trouble when something is not right. Today Putin is being pushed in Russia....and he has a nasty habit of pushing back. Hong Kong may explode. The trade wars may back the Communist Party of China into a corner that they will have to fight their way out of. Both Russia and China have fiercely been stocking up on gold. The Mullahs in Iran are more than willing to go to war....along with their surrogates....provided there are other wars going on. Meanwhile.....Kim Jong-un just commissioned his newest submarine and is testing ballistic rocket systems right and left.
              You've got a memo already typed up and ready to push the send button....a worst-case scenario....but no one to send it to....for everybody above you is focusing on Venezuela....on the possibility of a blockade.....for 'humanitarian purposes' of course....certainly not oil. You wonder if you should have included Venezuela to get their attention. You delete the memo from the computer and roll up the printed copy....tossing it the waste can....to be burned later. You decide to vacation out instead of waiting until the end of the year.
             They all shake your hand on your last day. You buy a comfortable cabin in the remotest section of Cook Forest, Pennsylvania where there is no WiFi or cable television. You bring a book that you've always meant to read.....page one....by the time that you have read through the book of Daniel you wish that you had sent that memo....by the time you've finished Revelation you think about....and utter the words out loud of the second thief on the cross....from the Gospel of Luke you believe....for you know no other way to put it...."Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."
i

Lord's Day Post

                I recently had the blessing of spending significant time with a believer from another country. I had always known this person to be a praying Christian....but after getting to know her....it became apparent to me that there was a gift of intercession here. The words were simple....unadorned by elocution or vocabulary....but trusting and believing....in a sense that I don't ever recall hearing before....not even by preachers of the past....or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past....although I have read of such blessed believers. This person's prayers had been answered a number of times in her life....in extraordinary though very basic ways....in maybe a healing....or in the basic needs of life. This has a special meaning to me....because I know that she is praying for me....and I wish that I could pray for her with the same gift!
                I have witnessed in the past a believer....believers actually....with an obvious gift of service. R. C. Sproul....had an obvious and extraordinary gift for teaching.....and Spurgeon for preaching. I'm being very particular here....because in my life I've witnessed many more pretensions and pretenders to spiritual gifts.
                Corrie ten Boom had a specific gift. Joni Eareckson Tada has a gift of faith that is too humbling for me to even attempt to expound upon.
                The spiritual gifts are for the church....this I have had read....and understand and believe. I cannot expound much on the gifts because I do not have a gift of teaching that it would require.
                 I do know this....few preachers today have a gift of preaching God's Word. I know this also....they cannot see that they have no gift....so they are not burning the midnight oil on their knees imploring of God enough of the gift to be of any help to the people that will sit before them on a Lord's Day morning....trusting them.
                 I know this also....everything good begins with introspection. You....I....anyone....cannot look outward....before looking inward. The pride has to be found and taken out of the house....as in the ancient Passover....when the night before....in this case the night before they would enter their pulpits....a search has to be made....and the leaven....if there be any....particularly of pride....found and disposed of.
                 So this day that I am writing and posting this....is the day before the Lord's Day. And I will as I always try to do....pray for my pastor....and our son's pastor....and the pastors of many friends....and plead with God that if it be His will....and in his perfect timing....that this might be the day that He has mercy upon these pastors....faithful though in many cases sleeping men....and thus have mercy upon all of us who will sit before them....expecting and hoping to be fed....that which we so disparately need!

It All Began With A Blood Moon

Preface: The first paragraph below is from January of 2025....just prior to Trump's second inauguration. At 76 years old....I've witnessed conservative revolutions....1980 with Reagan....and the 1994 Republican Contract with America....and the great Tea Party success of 2010....and on the other side....Bill and Hillary in 1992 and Barack in 2008. I saw John Kennedy in person....and was one of a multitude of young people who loved Bobby. All of it combined....cannot match the rise....and fall....and rise again....of Donald John Trump....born on a blood moon in June of 1946. It all began in that 2014/2015 grand tetrad of blood moons....when he came down that golden escalator to a group of cheering paid actors....and staff....and bystanders and tourists. A pandemic brought him down....and he brought others down with him....in a fiery crash on January 6 of 2021....gone....a sad spectacle....but he almost immediately rose from the ashes....and it isn't politics this time....but something more....something demonic....to have so much biblical evidence that this movement is not of God....and not see it....nor is his purported defense of Israel sincere....nor his concern for freedom of religion....or the press....or anything. The additional paragraphs are from February of this year:

              We believe that great things are about to happen because Donald Trump will be back in the White House. All gone...is God's fifty years plus warnings to us that judgment was coming....all because we have Trump and a Republican Congress....and new cabinet members. All forgotten are the decades long judgements....one after another....building to a crescendo....as we are about to celebrate the dawn of a new....Golden Age in America! We in effect....blew off God's warnings. We are far more godless of a people....both on the left and on the right....than we ever were. On the right....including evangelicals....we are drunk with the promise of economic gain....and national glory....and have been steered away from Jesus Christ....but God will not be mocked.            

               We are not sure of the exact relationship between Nebuchadnezzar and Belshazzar although the terminology in the fifth chapter of Daniel used the word...."father"....for Nebuchadnezzar. Babylon was under siege from the Medes and Persians....but apparently Belshazzar felt secure enough to hold a great feast....in Nebuchadnezzar's South Palace....only a short walk away from where Nebuchadnezzar....(and later Belshazzar).....lived.  A thousand of Belshazzar's lords were invited....about the same number that Trump said would be full-capacity for his new ballroom. The square footage of Nebuchadnezzar's South Palace ballroom was about half that of Trump's new ballroom....but they also probably used the adjoining palace courtyard....of approximately the same size.
               Well you all know the story....Belshazzar brought in the vessels that Nebuchadnezzar took from the temple in Jerusalem....that were apparently stored away.....and they drank from the vessels....and partied. Fingers of a hand then appeared on the wall of the ballroom....and Daniel....who was probably in his eighties by then....interpreted the words....and that very night....believe it or not....the Medes and Persians came in under the city walls....because they had diverted the waters....and historians descriptions of what the conquerors did to the Babylonians....was graphic....and terrible.
               We do not know what a day brings....which is why we should always try to preface remarks on the future....even if it is just a day....with...."Lord willing"....or...."if God wills it"....but if Trump eventually gets the new and glorious ballroom that he wants....and he holds his first feast for a thousand or so dignitaries....some present might want to keep an eye on the walls....for fingers of a hand....writing something....might appear....telling those in the feast....(and all of us really)....that after a half century of intense warnings by many men......not the least of which was Billy Graham....that our days also have been numbered....and we also have been found wanting....and our kingdom also....has been divided and given away!

No....But He Is Nearly Perfect....The Other Way

                  It was forty years ago. I had been saved within Pentecostalism....and there were some outside Charismatic influences. We were attending a Full Gospel Business Men's Fellowship....dinner with a speaker. These were enjoyable and edifying times....most of them....some were not. In this one particular dinner....the speaker asked if there was anyone who wished to come forward to have hands laid upon them....and to be....Slain in the Spirit. I had witnessed quite a bit of this back then....was merely inquisitive....and decided to go forward. The speaker....put his hands on foreheads and the people would gently fall backwards into the waiting arms of someone prepared for just that. He came to me....and put his hand on my forehead....and nothing happened....so he pushed a little....and still nothing....then he pushed harder....appeared frustrated....and moved on to the next person.
                  The Charismatic church in the 1990s was awash with this kind of nonsense....as people in American churches were laughing and barking and moving spasmodically in the mere presence of someone that they believed to be anointed by the Holy Spirit. The chief anointed 'minister' in what was known as the Laughing Revival....was one of those seventeen ministers laying hands on President Trump in the Oval Office in 2017. If you have never watched the video of....Trump's pastor....or so they call her....Paula White....praying....this after the 2020 election loss....but before January 6....praying for angels to come to help Trump....then you certainly should take the time....for it shows the horror of the charismatic presence around Trump....who uses it as it benefits him. Just Google....'Paula White....angels video.'
                 There is a female minister in Los Angeles....who calls herself an apostle....(many call themselves such)....and she is in the news because when she speaks....people shake uncontrollably....and then may fall to the ground. The news editors must have a short memory....for this kind of stuff had been old news....a long time ago.
                  Why does someone fall down....or begin to laugh uncontrollably....or shake....when in the presence of one of these 'ministers?' Well for one thing....they want to experience whatever the experience of the moment might be. They think that it must be a good thing.....the Holy Spirit descending upon those affected. There would have been no warnings to these people....and if there were any warnings....they would have been willfully ignored.
                  The principle is also the same....or at least very similar....to evangelicals and Trump. They wanted something so very bad....they wanted their country back....and he promised it to them....but it has been ten years of false prophecies of glory! They don't shake or laugh out loud or fall over....as they just stare and smile into the eyes of the man with the gift....and believe what he says. They think that they are honoring God....and it is very hard to get through to them. They will in defense of Trump....admit that he is not perfect....but what they do not realize is that he is almost perfect....in that for at least sixty of his eighty  years....he has as if lived a life as a single-cell organism....with no concern for or connection to anything else in existence....other than himself....and that which benefits him....able to change shape at will. Take today for instance....at the funeral service for a departed statesman....the words may have been there at times....for he knows what must be included in his eulogy....but the only importance of those few hours was in how it affected his own political future.
                   How can I be so sure of what I'm saying? After knowing almost nothing about him before the 2016 election....other than his money and his comical celebrity....and immediately after seeing him begin to change shape upon entering the Oval Office....as if he had no real ideology at all....I began to study his life....through as of today 115 books about that life....and after fifty or so rallies....and hearing literally....literally....thousand of lies....and observing his actions almost every day for the last decade....as if there was no such thing as objective truth....or common decency....I can easily recognize that which God's Word warns us of....and commands us to have nothing to do with....and to even flee from! 
                   His psychological disorders are numbing....considering his position as President of the United States. It is not just an ego....but a metastasized illness that affects every waking moment. No....this man's traits are nearly perfect....perfect in their self-servitude....and disastrous to the evangelical that is has been blinded to who he really is. 
                   One last thing as I just finished watching the funeral service of that departed government leader.....in what is called....our National Cathedral....which in reality is nothing but a pagan temple. There were hymns....and clerics in robes....and many Scripture readings....and testimonies....but what it was....was a temple ceremony for a false worldly religion....with a false gospel....and a false hope in salvation. May God have mercy upon us...for we have ignorantly yet willfully....drifted with the current....seeking our will....and conforming God's will to ours....while relying for change on might and power....not the Holy Spirit....and becoming in essence....the Church of the Lowest Common Denominator.
                    When we as God's children....are dealing with a genuine biblical false prophet....a man whose very career is based on greed and threats and lies and ego....an enemy of the gospel....not a friend....and who leads God's children away from trust in Christ....to trust in ourselves....we then do not have the right....nor can we if we seek God's glory alone....use frivolous statements of defense....such as....'well he's not perfect.'

      

Doeg And Musk

                There are names in the Bible that are very poetic....Mephibosheth has always struck me that way....and other names are just difficult to pronounce....Zerubbabel might be one. Some are comically simple such as Lot or Job. Some names have a grandeur about them such as....Solomon....and others....to me anyway....are ugly. Doeg would be one of those....pronounced...dough-egg. Doeg? I just don't like it.
                 Well the name fit the man Doeg. He wasn't an Israelite.....as a matter of fact....he was an Edomite....the people that came from Jacob's brother Esau....and were usually enemies of the Israelites.
                 Israel wanted a king....and would not take no for an answer....(just like wanted a powerful leader)....so God gave them one....Saul....who started off Ok but eventually descended into the pit of hate and revenge towards....David....a man after God's own heart.
                  Segue to David fleeing Saul....to Ahimelech....the High Priest....at Nob....seeking provisions for his men. Ahimelech may not have been aware of the whole situation....and provided David with those provisions. 
                   Doeg was Saul's chief herdsman.....apparently a high profile position....and he was at Nob the day that David arrived. David knew he was there and was concerned....and true enough....Doeg went back to Saul and reported on Ahimelech giving provisions to him....apparently without telling Saul that Ahimelech may not have known the whole story between Saul and David.
                   King Saul ordered his men to go and kill the priests at Nob....but they refused such a horrible command....(oh that some today would refuse such orders in this administration)....so Saul turned to Doeg and ordered him to go and kill Ahimelech and everyone else that was there.....of which Doeg did do just that....everyone....women and children and all.... a slaughter! David was told of what happened and blamed himself. Psalm 52 speaks of Doeg. I was reading that Psalm last night....and that is what precipitated this post. Here are a couple of verses from that short Psalm...

"Why do you boast in evil....O mighty man....Your tongue devises destruction....like a sharp razor....working deceitfully....You love evil more than good....and lying rather than speaking righteousness You love all devouring words....You deceitful tongue....here is the man who did not make God his strength....but trusted in the abundance of his riches....and strengthened himself in his wickedness." (1a, 2, 3, 4, 7 NKJV)

                    Doeg is an odd name....flip a couple of letters and it would be doge. That's what came to my mind anyway....doge....a medieval ruler in parts of Italy....or from what I read....a meme of some sort from a while back....or maybe a computer game....or then maybe the insidious creation of Elon Musk....that went out at the command of the president....for probably no one else would have or could have done such a task....and under the claim of government efficiency....brought a lot of pain to a lot people who lost their jobs....and also pain to people around the world who lost vital health benefits because of the....in some cases....slaughter such as at USAID!
                     Yes there are changes that need to be made in many of our government policies....foreign aid and immigration are but two....but you do not do surgery with a  chainsaw....and if your own leaders would defy or even question your commands....it might be a good thing to at least take seriously their hesitations.

                 

The Difference Between The Noun....'Awe'....And The Adjective....'Awesome'

                The church has lost the awe of what it means to be born again. You may still hear the phrase from time to time....and you may even hear the story in a sermon of Nicodemus's late night secret visit to see Jesus....but somewhat as with a grade school student when called upon for an answer to a question that they do not know....he or she may be able to string enough words together....well enough that the teacher has to accept the answer....but it is only head knowledge at best.
                 If we realized what the word 'lost' means....and what the word 'saved' means...along with the incalculable and eternal difference.....and consequently realized that it was us that was once lost....and us that are now saved....it would by every rule of logic and common sense....turn us into what the world calls....fanatical Christians....who want nothing to do with this world....but only to live truly as a pilgrim in a world headed to destruction....but you see....that is not us!
                 We have over time....talked ourselves into believing....or let ourselves be led into believing....that this salvation thing was just an everyday occurrence....made so easy....that all one has to do is believe.....(a simple act with no corresponding emphasis on just what the word 'believe' might mean)....and then they can sit back and expect all the blessings to begin!  
                  Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle both....circa 1850 to 1900....lamented....and preached on....and warned with a passion....that the gospel was being lost in the church at the time....and the gospel was indeed disappearing in the church at end of their long ministries. Spurgeon called it....The Downgrade.' 
                   The church underwent a resurgence of the proclamation of the true gospel in the latter half of the last century....led by men like Martyn Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and Sproul and Billy Graham and others....call it a minor awakening or a generational revival or whatever you might want to describe it as....but it faded as revivals always do...and these men were taken home....almost to a man!
                    Thirty years ago an alarm was sounded with the growing popularity of the megachurch and the user-friendly gospel....John MacArthur especially defended the gospel....but we lost that battle! We were hit in short order by 9/11....a disastrous economic collapse....then a pandemic....and each one shifted our emphasis away from defending the gospel to defending the constitution and protecting our way of life. Trump weakened what was left of evangelicalism....as we are essentially today the....Trump evangelical....which is no evangelical at all! 
                     No one has to be born again....they only have to be recruited....and then sign on the dotted line. There is no power in the pulpits. You can literally skip over any verse or passage or whole book in God's word if you want to. The Sunday worship service is a pleasant time....and if it's not a pleasant time....then we will go somewhere else where it offers a pleasant time!
                     So what is next on the biblical agenda? Surprises are next. The unexpected is next! That may sound odd coming from someone who 'expects' that Jesus is at the very door....and can recite one fulfilled sign after another fulfilled sign of His return....but we will need real faith in the real near future....and real warnings....of a real holy God.
                      There is a difference between the noun....'awe'....implying an almost paralysis before a holy God....'that sermon had me in awe of a holy God'.....and the adjective....'awesome'....which is how the church of today looks at God....'that was an awesome sermon.'

We Underestimated The Wiles Of The Devil

                It was 2015....and Hillary was most likely going to succeed Barack Obama as president. We conservatives had been stoked to a fever pitch by Rush and Mark Levin and Hannity. I was there. As some of you reading this were. This is a first-hand account. We had plenty of decent candidates but they were either milquetoast or perceived to be milquetoast candidates....then along came a man who poured blood into the already shark infested water.
                He was vile....and comical as we always had perceived him. In one instance he appeared to mock a reporter with a disability that gave him spastic movements of his hands. This was only one incident of many....in another he said this about another candidate Carly Fiorina...."Look at that face. Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that....the face of our next president?" He later just denied having done these things. That is what he has done for eleven years now....just lie and deny. There came a week....I remember it well....when Rush and then Sean and then Mark....were forced to admit that....yes.....he does lie. So the lies of the man were just openly put aside....for the greater glory or the goal at hand.
                 This was the beginning of the final collapse of evangelicalism. As did Thomas Jefferson in his own personal bible....we just cut out all of everything God told us about people to flee from. We were a people of the book. We no longer are. Everything about holiness and separating from the world is gone. This falling away began long before Trump. The two top Christian female singers in the world had divorced their husbands....and we as if just said....'aw....that's so sad....but we still love your music that brings glory to God!'
                 So we were ripe for the advent of a man who bold-face lied every day of his life if not every hour of his life. The liberals were as the Northern tribes of Israel after the divide. They burned their sacrifices to Molech....abortion....and set up idols everywhere in the land....and God later judged that nation....and that political party....but we followed....just as the Southern tribes later fell into their own idolatrous worship....and now God has judged us.
                 We are a shell of what we once were....and even then we were a shell of what we should have been. The glory has departed from the evangelical church in America....in spite of all the big churches and the constant Bible studies. It is the preaching today that is milquetoast! The evangelical church today that continues to support this man who has given one false prophecy of peace and prosperity after another for a decade....has fulfilled the prophecy in Revelation of the Laodicean church. It at least partially fulfilled the prophecy of a falling away that would come.
                  It is a difficult concept to come to grips with....when we....you and I and all of us....who may have decades of legitimate Christian worship and even sound teaching behind us....when we...ourselves....turn away from our own past! There was no vigilance in us to catch what was happening to us! We underestimated the wiles of the Devil. We overestimated our own strengths.
                   So here we sit....fully ensconced into a false hope....following a false prophet....unable in spite of the overwhelming evidence that this is a man such as God's Word....throughout....warns us....even commands us....to turn away from and have nothing to do with!
                    Woe are us....but somewhere in the confines of our memory....is the knowledge that God is not only a God of righteous judgment....but a God of mercy that continues to call us back to Him. Rock Bottom? How many times have I thought that we were at rock bottom....only to slide off and continue to fall? But that real rock bottom is coming. May our merciful God then display a mercy that we do not deserve! May He not only open our eys....but apply a balm so that we do not collapse into total despondency at the realization of what we had done! May we be tossed up...and the wind take away the chaff that suffocates us....and may we then fall as grain that will spring to life....a repentant and encouraged people....free from the delusion that is right now all around us....free to worship in spirit and in truth....finally free to admit our part in what this nation has become....and turn for salvation to the Captain of our souls....and the coming King of all Kings!

Addendum: I pulled up an old sermon by David Wilkerson to listen to tonight. that's right....in amongst Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and MacArthur and John Piper and even Michael Horton....I listen to David Wilkerson sermons occasionally. I have a hundred sermons by him on cassette in my basement....that I listened to....probably forty years ago. What the Reformed may not know is that David Wilkerson probably has more Puritan in him than they do. Let me give you an anecdote about the author of....The Cross And The Switchblade....that I have related in these posts a number of times. It took place in the mid-80s....and Wilkerson decided to go to see for himself the most popular Christian singer in America....a female....and as he watched her and her band....he described the scene as her husband played his guitar....with the stem of a rose in between his teeth. David Wilkerson said that he saw demons on the stage....and he ran up the aisle.....shouting to the people...."Ichabod....Ichabod....the glory has departed." I knew that he was at that concert....because I saw the same concert....with the same man playing his guitar with a rose between his teeth....but I thought that it was great! I later came to find out that David Wilkerson....on that day anyway....was right. If David Wilkerson were alive today....there would be no holding him back in warning the church. I'll choose a sermon of his from 1999 to add to this post. David died and went to be with his Lord in 2011.

                                                                        

Amazing....Burnt Timbers From Nebuchadnezzar's Destruction of Jerusalem And The First Temple!

                     It was over a few year period....roughly thirty-five years ago....that my wife and I and our son would get in the car and drive for about forty-five minutes to what was then....Borders Bookstore....in the South Hills area of Pittsburgh. Barnes & Noble grew after the liquidation of Borders. I might return with a Christian book or a current events book....but every time I would come home with a newspaper copy of the Jerusalem Post....which sold for $5 at the time. Today I visit the Jerusalem Post Internet site multiple times every day!
                   So today the Jerusalem Post and Haaretz and The Times Of Israel are all reporting on an archaeologist find....in an on-going dig in the City of David....of large timbers that were burned in the destruction of the Temple and Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar in 586 B.C.! This is really pretty amazing....for these burnt timbers....probably from a roof they say....to have survived. The reason given is that plaster in the house may have melted over the timbers....preserving them....but what is really amazing is that this find came days before the solemn fast known as the....Ninth of Av....(the Jewish month of AV)....or Tisha B'Av!
                   On this day in history....the first temple was destroyed....and the second temple was destroyed....and before that....it was the day that the twelve spies returned to report to Moses....and told him that that people they saw were much too strong to go against. The people heard this....and panicked....and regretted ever leaving Egypt. God was not happy....to say the very least....and the Jews were condemned to wander around the wilderness for the next forty years!
                   So this day....the Ninth of Av....is a most solemn day! Those who honor that day....(not all Jews do so)....as part of the tradition....are not even to exchange pleasantries with each other! Well....this discovery came days before the Ninth of Av....or....Tisha B'Av!
                    The following paragraph from a July 2020 post describes my feelings on this...."The dates of the future feasts of Israel are always only a click away for me or anyone who feels that surely major prophetic events will occur on these days. This isn't date setting for we do not know the years....but we do know that God's future plans for the Jewish people will most likely revolve around their feasts. To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us." On another occasion I described it this way...."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)"

                      Tisha B'Av 2026 begins about forty eight hours from now....Wednesday at sundown....July 22....and ends at nightfall the next evening....Thursday....July 23. Jerusalem time is seven hours ahead of us....so sunset on Wednesday is 7:43 PM....or 12:43 PM our time in Pittsburgh.

                   

Put It All On The Grid

                The video was about 50 minutes as I remember. It began with some well-known celebrities telling the viewer to watch the video before the government forced it off the air. Then it went to Bill Gates....right there before you...looking right into the camera....talking about how he had wished that he found this discovery before his father had died. The video then for the next thirty minutes or so was more scientific....as it took you into state-of-the-art labs....and introduced you to prominent doctors. The real problem of Alzheimers was discovered....and Big Pharma was doing everything it could to keep you from knowing about it. The video then takes you to an island and a certain honey only found on that island....and streams of water on that island with a certain kind of chemical.....that when mixed....as all the island's inhabitants did....it cleaned up the brain! Wow! Then the pill was introduced into the video. His research team had through great expense of his own....developed a pill....and once again with Bill Gates paying for most of it....you can order it for about $249 for a six month supply! The problem was....the whole thing was AI generated....fake! That wasn't Bill Gates. I had watched similar videos before with different celebrities....and different miracle cures....and they also were all fake.
                 Now this is not new to us....as almost weekly we see or hear about some AI generated singer or actor or song or some such thing. We are astounded....and shocked numb at times....but as outraged and disgusted as we may be....I do not think that we are anywhere near considering the potential disasters of where this is going.
                 There were clues as I watched that video....that this video was defying logic and common sense.  If Bill Gates can promise to give a hundred billion dollars away....why would he still be charging $49 a bottle for a month supply of this miracle cure? And if only this one small island produced this certain honey....that could not be synthesized....then how could he plan on selling millions of bottles of this....supposedly from now on in? But forget all those nagging questions because there was Bill Gates right before you....what more proof do you need?
                  The latest Time magazine has a two-page article on AI. One statement in the article I have heard before...."AI systems were created by people. But our ability to create them does not mean we know how they work." The jest of the article was whether or not AI can have emotions. That was uncertain....but....they have found that when AI is given a task that it cannot solve....it can show signs of frustration!
                  The Type A....(I just made that up)....Bible prophesy student....can make statements such as....."Jesus might not return for another hundred years." The Type B....Bible prophecy student....me....knows that it is time right now to prepare. We know this....there are going to be false miracles....and great delusion....so much so....that even Billy Graham....if he were still with us....the elect....if possible....could be totally taken in by the deception. 
                  We need to know this! We need....desperately....to begin to put every single seeming miracle....every hero....every movie script...every new prophecy book.....every political platform and every politician's promise and every new Bible teaching....on the grid of God's Word to us....and we need to be praying fervently throughout the whole process....for does not God's Word tell us that Satan can appear as....an angel of light....and that the Devil prowls around like a roaring lion....looking for someone to devour!
                  So Trump says that our best is yet to come? Put that prophecy on the grid of God's Word! What does God's Word say about that?  We are one glorious nation under God? Are We? Put it on the grid! Are we being given a narrative that stirs our anger? Put that on the grid also. Are we being told how rich and powerful we are to become....glory be to God? Check that boasting out with God's Word!
                  Is someone like me who is saying...."Ichabod....the glory has departed"....seeing similarities of American religion....even evangelcalism....with the idolatry of both Israel in the North and Judah in the South....am I the one that is delusional? Put down the trivial and the fun and the games....and set out to find these things out for yourself....keeping in mind the last words to us from God's Word....Revelation 22:20, 21 ESV...."He who testifies to these things says....'Surely I am coming soon'....Amen....Come...Lord Jesus!' The grace of the Lord Jesus be with you all....Amen."