An Eclipse of Christ

From time to time I have to sit back and reassess what I’m doing with this blog. Politics is not and has never been the reason for starting this. I’ve wanted to use my words and my reasoning in presenting the gospel to whoever might stop by. The number is still under ten in how many people I have actually told that I write a blog and then given them the URL. Ninety-five percent of the advertising that I do comes from the magnetic bumper sticker on the back of my car. I change the phrase with the blog; for example, the one on the back of my car right now says Jefferson....Deist...? I can go to the statistics and tell how well the particular phrase did that day. The best day that I ever had came from the phrase The Blob From Pittsburgh (March 29th, 2012) so I have re-published it a few times  The worst days (in numbers) are when I have religious themes, the very reason for this blog. If you notice at the top of the page there is a link called Next Page. This is how my foreign visitors arrive, after clicking onto next page after next  page they eventually come to mine.. I can tell the number of pages visited and what countries they were from. Other Blogspot bloggers of course know this. The most informative statistic is on the My Profile page for it tells me how many stopped by and then where interested enough to go to the profile. I began by writing one “Christian” blog a week hoping that the political, cultural and current events blogs would keep people interested enough to read the only one that really mattered but those current events began to dictate where I would go with the blog. The two always seem to meet as America increasingly rebels against its Christian heritage and increasingly is weakened in its defenses of that heritage and of America itself. In the sixth blog I wrote this on the financial collapse of 2008, “I seem to be hoping that it (the Dow) just stays where it is (yes, recession) long enough to give us, as a people, enough time to get our bearings again and maybe readjust our thinking on what brings happiness and satisfaction in life.” Two days later I wrote about how we evolved into a visual oriented society as opposed to the written word. The next day I wrote on immigration and concluded with these words, “Legal immigration is a blessing. When I see a Latino who by their speech gives the impression that they may have only been here for a short while, I don’t for a second stand in judgment of whether or not they are here illegally. Those who have come here legally honor us by doing so and I won’t dampen that because of the actions of others…” Two days later I commented on the Israel/Iran issue in, “ Israel has a decision to make, and soon.” That was December of 2008. A week later I wrote for the first time about United States Presidents and their Christian faith. I wrote two blogs on that day and the second was on the media. A few days later came this short blog:

May God have mercy on us. The American public has no idea how far we have fallen. This economic collapse occurred , primarily, because politicians wanted to keep their jobs by appearing compassionate and making unsound legislation on home loans. They learned nothing by the collapse and have heavily mortgaged the future of our children. We have the attempted selling of a Senate seat in Illinois (Blago,) the abortion of an election in Minnesota (Al Franken) and the nepotism being considered in New York (Caroline Kennedy). We have a new president coming in whose career has been nourished by the most corrupt political regime in the country. We have labor legislation ( Card Check) that may be passed that sends us back to union thuggery and radio legislation (Fairness Doctrine) that will hamper our truest source of news, both purposely and deceitfully misnamed. A leading evangelical, Rick Warren, will give the invocation at Barack Obama’s inauguration. America will be in a Super Bowl zone after Christmas and then proceed to March Madness followed followed immediately by baseball. Visual and celebrity entertainments will continue to tranquilize us. Yet the Congress today gave itself a raise.

Today, three and a half years later, our military and national defense are routinely weakened; we still think that the stock market can bring happiness and satisfaction in life; the “visual” in life has culminated, as of now, in Facebook...made a twenty-eight year old the 29th richest man in the world, and its new IPO is being touted as a possible financial savior for California. Christianity is still under attack, more than ever; immigration is still a political football; Israel’s decision is still pending; there definitely will not be a Christian president inaugurated in January of 2013 (if the Lord permits us to get that far….a phrase I have often used in this blog,) and…..the Olympics are just ahead. As I write this an annular eclipse is in the western sky. The moon, at its furthest point from earth, blocks the sun, only leaving a ring of fire around the edge. Americans, most of us anyway, are no different than other peoples and cultures that decayed and disappeared. Christ has only been partially blocked from the American public and many look to Him only through a filtered lens. As sure as the moon will quickly pass out of the way, His full-orbed glory will be evident, either in judgment or a glorious awakening. As for now, we have fallen asleep in Delilah's lap while our source of strength is being sheared. There's a book that came into my life many years ago and I read from it just about every day of my life. It’s called Valley of Vision, a Collection of Puritan Prayers and Devotions (isbn 978-0851512280) edited by Arthur Bennett. Every once in a while I put one of those prayers in a blog and the following is the first prayer in that book and the first one that I added to the blog in January of 2009:

Lord, High and Holy, Meek and Lonely,
Thou hast brought me to the valley of vision,
Where I live in the depths but see thee
in the heights;
Hemmed in by mountains of sin I behold
Thy glory.

Let me learn by paradox
That the way down is the way up,
That to be low is to be high,
That the broken heart is the healed heart,
That the contrite spirit is the rejoicing spirit,
That the repenting soul is the victorious soul,
That to have nothing is to possess all,
That to bear the cross is to wear the crown,
That to give is to receive,
That the valley is the place of vision.
Lord, in the daytime stars can be seen from
deepest wells,
And the deeper the wells the brighter
Thy stars shine;

Let me find thy light in my darkness,
Thy life in my death,
Thy joy in my sorrow,
Thy grace in my sin,
Thy riches in my poverty
Thy glory in my valley.