Rain Upon us...and Reign Over America

What happenned yesterday in the Supreme Court's decision on Obamacare was truly a shock. The shock was not so much in the outcome but in the manner that that outcome came about. As if we do not have enough problems in this country, we can add to them a Chief Justice who instead of settling an issue, which he could have... for either side, compounded the problems, set precedents, greatly added to the distrust that we have in our Supreme Court and in doing all of this failed to protect the American public from excessive overreach of government. Either Chief Justice John Roberts is brilliant...a jurist of exceptional prescience as to the dangers ahead for our judicial system...or he is the weakest of minds to have ever worn those robes. I had written recently that conservatives are of the mindset that all we need is a Republican president and one or two Supreme Court justices and we will be ok. Other than a Jim DeMint or possibly a Ron Paul any future president would be entangled by intrigues that would leave him (her) anything but independent if he (or she) even desired such independence. The Supreme Court is in a war of its own and in no way can be relied upon to defend the Constitution. A theme of this blog since the beginning of 2009 has been that our attention has to be focused on the Congress which was orginally meant to be "the most dynamic branch of government." The Congress should have the upper hand. Chief Justice John Roberts cannot be defeated in an election....Congressman John Doe can. Presidents are indebted to their money lords, not to those of us who make up a well-managed fiefdom, senators have to leave the environs of their life support to return to their own states...to us. As of now, we do not have a grasp on the magnitude of the dangers that we as a nation and a people face. Obamacare is an example. In normal times it would be a disaster. Today it’s a pimple. We cannot, with mere human effort, extinguish the threats to our national defense and domestic tranquility or come anywhere near restoring sovereignty in our own economy. Our defenses are down, our enemies are strengthening, our will is gone, and our store of wisdom is depleted.  We have essentially told God that He has no business in our affairs thereby sealing our fate and depending only upon His timing for our judgement. Dependence upon the presidency or upon the Supreme Court is a dice game and yesterday proved that.  Both the executive branch and the Supreme Court can be overruled…by the Congress which in itself cannot be overruled except by the people; this in theory and dependent upon the fealty of all branches to the Constitution. The ruling elites in both parties are closer to each other than they are to us. They contend more to be captain of the ship than to save the ship. They hold the power and manipulate us into thinking that we actually have a say in governance our own country.  Once again in normal times we could afford to at least try to outmaneuver the owners of this casino located in Washington D. C.. Today we do not have that luxury for they are drunk with power and taking us swiftly over the falls whose mists they are blind to, whose roar they are deaf to and whose location they are ignorant of. We, the people, can give notice to every senator and congressperson that they are employed by us and not by Speakers of the House and Senate or Party Whips. The President would find that his powers truly are limited and the Supreme Court would deal with a Congress that increasingly closes the loopholes that they can take advantage of. The Karl Roves would be out of a job. But the people need discernment, fortitude and strength which cometh only from God. The answers that we seek are found only in humble reverence and repentance at His feet. There's a Biblical lesson in the life of Joseph that we not only have to be aware of but dependent upon. His brothers had sold him into slavery but God made him great in his new land of Egypt. Everyone is aware of this story. In a time of famine the brothers came to Egypt for food…to beg from the brother whose identity was hidden from them. When this was revealed to them they were sore afraid but Joseph told them this…”…as for you, you meant evil against me; but God meant it for good, in order to bring it about as it is this day, to save many people alive.” There are those that hate God and despise those who believe and trust in him. Their actions are meant to hurt and quite frankly they are doing a good job; this because we are few, we are weak and we are undiscerning. They have often meant evil towards God's remnant in America but God has meant it for good. How that good will be played out I do not know. It may strengthen his church while America collapses or is defeated, or it may strengthen America as we, as a people, return to Him in a marvelous awakening and reformation of the church. Either way would be perfect…either way will bring Him glory but the latter should be our hope. This truly would be a grass roots movement but grass needs water and only an outpouring of God's Spirit can bring this about.

Mount Vernon and Monticello or Calvary

I put about 800 miles on our car over the weekend on a trip to Mount Vernon. A few weeks ago it was Monticello. Behind the wheel of an automobile is one of my favorite places to be for I can listen to radio, a talking book or just meditate. All this for about ten cents a mile or ten cents a minute. What is going on in the minds of these thousands of people that I came in close proximity to? For most, it was probably the days work or the coming, or just completed, vacation. Maybe it was a little bit different for the people in line at the homesteads of George Washington or Thomas Jefferson? Maybe they too felt the necessity to go back in time, to get a clue as to how we came to be where we are today as a nation? Maybe my thinking was not so much alien to some of these folks.  We stopped for a little while in Gettysburg on the trip back. It's very likely that the common thread of thinking in America will change in the very near future for we are in trouble and have brought that trouble upon ourselves. The sermon from the church that we visited today was on the love of God. Now this topic is usually fodder for liberal Christian pulpits that use God's love as an excuse to ignore everything else that God is...but not today. This Baptist pastor, I am Presbyterian, took great pains in describing that love, a love that should be completely incomprehensible to us....that is if we truly know ourselves. You did this for ....me? Why...?  How could you love me...even now after I profess you as My God, my Savior? I don't even love me! But He does! He does! The ubiquitous words God bless America do not relate to our love of God but to our love for America. God bless this land that we love, but what have we done that proves that we love this land? We build our own lives and our own houses as America decays and God's house lay in ruins, and we cast aside his architectural plans at that. We rush home from church, ignore the rest of the Lord's Day, and immediately pursue our own pleasures yet have the gall to say "God bless America" in the time we allot to discussion of the newspaper's headlines. We came to be the nation that we are today because our love to God had long since grown cold. He has been long-suffering and given us ample time to return to Him but we closed our ears....and now we find ourselves in the predicament that we are in....or rather we will soon find that out. So I travelled back in time this weekend, not two centuries but twenty centuries to be reminded that if America is to survive it will be because we will have come to show love to God, not America.

Brother Rove's Travelling Salvation Show

       It wasn't supposed to go like this. Not only was the deck stacked but there were aces up sleeves and no rules to follow. How could it miss, for Barack Obama would appoint cabinet members and they in turn would rule, often beyond the limits of their authority, with strict adherence to Obama's wishes... and the Czars...twenty to thirty new cabinet level operatives, many of whom had no accountability to the United States Congress... and two Supreme Court seats filled through a political culture that was partying in the afterglow of a coronation? Surely the media would stay on board and the indoctrination centers (a.k.a. universities) would permit more than enough frolicking to discourage any real examination leading to legitimate protest. This President gig was to be easy! Golf a little, party a little, sign an executive order, golf some more. No, it wasn't supposed to collapse as a house of cards...but it is! It's now become apparent to many that one has to actually know something about something in order to be President of the United States. Even the Obama Girl recognizes that the emperor has no clothes. Our allies now know what they are dealing with but more importantly our enemies are fully aware that one must strike while the iron is hot. Folks, it is every bit as bad as this....and more!
        But Lo! What light through yonder window breaks? It's an old fashioned revival as Brother Rove's Travelling Salvation Show is offering Mitt Romney's Magical Elixir brought in by Conestoga wagon. It removes taxes, grows hair (look at Mitt's for proof,) cures the gout, builds muscles and balances bodily humors (Tea Party Bile, Social Conservative Phlegm and Choleric Libertarian Paranoia.) He guarantees that this cure-all tonic, if imbibed today, will last at least until November 6th! That's all that's needed folks for then it is back to business as usual! Take this tonic and you'll get a job! Mix it in with a liter of soda pop and you will feel free as a bird. Pack up the babies and grab the old ladies on this coming hot August night in Tampa. 
       God seems to have left us to our own devices for that is what we wanted...no... demanded. I used to cringe when our Pittsburgh Penguin play-by-play announcer shouted "Hallelujah Hollywood" after a goal and I do the same with Neil Diamond's lyrics in Brother Love's Travelling Salvation Show for that hallowed word means praise Yahweh. Therein is our only hope and we trifle with it, ignore it, and seek our own salvation on our own terms. Guest preachers fill the Sunday morning pulpits of Meet The Press and Face The Nation. Wisdom has abandoned us, replaced by Rasmussen polls. How bleak is our future! How rudderless we have become even as a tempest of Biblical proportions builds in the East.

I, Even I Only, Am Left.....?

Charles Haddon Spurgeon was England's brightest light in the 19th century yet he is probably remembered by only a few outside the faithful in the church in England today. He may very well have been the greatest preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ in modern times. His church which seated thousands was filled to capacity while his sermons were transmitted around the world every Lord's Day. The following may sound unbelievable but believe me similar disgraceful episodes have happened many times in church history; Spurgeon's own denomination censored him late in life as he stood firm against liberalism entering the church. He, like many others including even Martin Luther, suffered at times from depression. I remember a broadcast many years ago by America's greatest teacher of Christian doctrine, R. C. Sproul, where signs of despondency were evident in his voice as he related criticisms of him in various areas of the church, and I heard the extraordinary apologist of Christian truth, Hank Hanegraaff, fighting despair over similar criticisms. I have come to believe that criticism and temporary depressions are to be expected by men, and women, who go beyond what would be considered polite polemics in defending their Christian Faith. As an aside, I came across an article just today on the Drudge Report, taken from the Daily News titled "You're Not Special...Teacher's scathing graduation speech to self-absorbed generation. An English teacher, the son of historian David McCullough Sr., gave the high school commencement speech at Wellesley High School and here are some of the words he spoke to those students: "You are not special, you are not exceptional...Yes, you've been pampered, cosseted, doted upon, helmeted, bubble-wrapped. Yes, capable adults with other things to do have held you, kissed you, fed you, wiped your mouth, wiped your bottom, trained you, tutored you, coached you, listened to you, counseled you, encouraged you, consoled you and encouraged you again. Yo have been nudged, cajoled, wheedled and implored. You've been feted and fawned over and called sweetie pie...But do not get the idea you're anything special. Because you're not." I include this for two reasons; I broached the same subject in my last blog although far less eloquently, and I include it in this blog for this reason also; the article stated that he ( David McCullough) "drove the point home" with these words, "Think about this: even if you're one in a million, on a planet of 6.8 billion that means that there are nearly 7,000 people just like you." That one of 7,000 struck a chord with me and it relates only to the beginning of this blog on Christian ministers and teachers who, because of their efforts to defend truth in rebellious cultures, suffer periods of depression. Maybe you are one of them? The chord that was struck came from the book of 1st Kings chapater 19. Elijah had been faithful with much opposition yet the threats of his enemies were finally weighing him down enough for him to consider giving up. Elijah complained to God that "I, even I only, am left, and they seek my life to take it away." God informed him that there were at least 7,000 others left... "all the knees that have not bowed to Baal, and every mouth that has not kissed him." In an interesting passage that relates to today God sent Elijah back to anoint two kings and Elisha to replace him as prophet. The ESV Study Bible comments on this thusly, "A new political and religious order is to succeed the old, and this order will bring about the final victory over Baal worship." Is this not what we are hoping for today? But that was Israel and this is America. God may indeed awaken the American people once again. He may give us leaders who look to Him or He may allow us to fall, deservedly so, under the weight of our rebellion. Either way His will is perfect! And either way the message to any and all Christians brought to the point of despair, whether it be a Spurgeon, a Sproul, or you, is to press on! Hanegraaff is not alone in his work of apologetics, nor is John MacArthur nor Michael Horton as they teach us. How the faithful pastors today must fall to their kness and weep at times. They are not alone for they have us to uphold them in prayer. You are not alone for you have me...and I am not alone for I have you! Praise to God for designing it this way, and for giving us Luthers, and Calvins, and Spurgeons,and Bunyans, and shepherds who hear His voice, proclaim His glory and feed, and thus nourish, their sheep!

Did I Mention that I Was An idiot?

         Last Saturday, on the spur of the moment, I went to the high school track and ran for the first time in a few years. My 62 year old knees are still hurting but the bathroom scale went down seven pounds in one day! It was 92 degrees and I was wearing my ever-present mock turtleneck under my tee shirt. I had no water available to me at all and had just finished a kraut and cheese hot dog as I pulled into the parking lot. Let's see, are there any other excuses I can use.  Oh yeah, I'm an idiot.  It was a good time just the same. This is the same track that I have run on for the last thirty years. I won't mention how far I ran but I'll give this clue; you can count the number of miles with the fingers on one hand and have enough fingers left to give the Boy Scout salute.
         I used to love running the track on the hottest days, so hot that steam was rising from the rubber. As I ran last Saturday I had one particular blessing in that as I looked off into the hills I meditated on the glories of Christ and the blessings he had given. The blessing came in remembrance, for that is what used to sustain me in my long runs many years ago.
         Well I had another enjoyable day this Saturday. I bought my large McDonald's coffee and started to drive. I'm one of the few people who actually likes getting lost. I prefer to consult the position of the sun over my GPS and just enjoy the new sights. Did I mention that I was an idiot? But the following was the real blessing of the day: I stopped in a local restaurant of the small town I was passing through. There was only one other customer there. A ten year old boy, I later found out was the son of the owner, came over to me and started up a conversation. He pulled out a simple diagram he was working on. It had the picture of a battery, wires connecting it to a relay and wires going on to an alarm. He was designing a "detector." Possibly, he added, it could be used on the front door of the restaurant? I asked him if he was going to go to college when he was older. His response was "No," that he wanted to be an electrical engineer...another Edison in the making maybe? The other gentleman brought up robots and the boy proceeded to describe the difference between gemenoids and mechanoids! I hope I have those terms right. And of course the maverick, or the renegade robot. This conversation made my day.