".....Wandering, But Found....."

        How does the Christian of today think? How do we pray....what words do we use? How do we compare what we are as a church with those who took this pilgrimage before us? Are we even on a pilgrimage? Books and letters can help, and the prayers, preserved by the very wise, may help the most. Or have we written the Puritans off and believed what the world portrays them to have been?

The Broken Heart.........May, 2011 

         It was quite a number of years ago that John MacArthur, one of America's preeminent pastor/teachers, offered the free gift of the book Valley Of Vision on his radio broadcast. This book is a compilation of Puritan prayers edited by Arthur Bennett and published by the Banner Of Truth Trust.  The Puritan writers who penned these prayers lived from the 17th to the 19th centuries. I passed on MacArthur's offer of a free book, later had second thoughts, and went out and bought a copy, and I bless that day for Valley Of Vision has been a staple in our household ever since then.
         I've had a few remarkable experiences with the book but I'll relate just one. I gave a copy of the book to a young seminarian who I had just met and who was passing through our town on his way to Michigan.  Months later I listened to the recorded message on our telephone where he had called simply to say that reading those prayers was the beginning in the change of his theology and his ministry. I have also been surprised at how many times someone would tell me in conversation that they already had possession of this book. Imagine that...a book of Puritan prayers! Aren't they supposed to be the purveyors of legalism and dreariness?
         The following is one prayer from Valley Of Vision and if you happen to come across this post on the Lord's Day, reading it would be a wonderful introduction into the past, and maybe, should God have mercy upon us, into the future:

The Broken Heart

O Lord
No day of my life has passed that has not
proved me guilty in thy sight.
Prayers have been uttered from a
prayerless heart;
Praise has been often praiseless sound;
My best services are filthy rags.
Blessed Jesus, let me find a covert in thy appeasing
wounds.
Though my sins rise to heaven thy merits soar
above them;
Though unrighteousness weighs me down to hell,
Thy righteousness exalts me to thy throne.
All things in me call for my rejection,
All things in thee plead my acceptance.
I appeal from the throne of perfect justice
to thy throne of boundless grace.
Grant me to hear thy voice assuring me:
that by thy stripes I am healed,
that thou wast bruised for my iniquities,
that thou hast been made sin for me
that I might be righteous in thee,
that my grievous sins, my manifold sins,
are all forgiven,
buried in the ocean of thy concealing blood.
I am guilty, but pardoned,
lost, but saved,
wandering, but found,
sinning, but cleansed.
Give me perpetual broken-heartedness,
Keep me always clinging to thy cross,
Flood me every moment with descending grace,
Open to me the springs of divine knowledge,
sparkling like crystal,
flowing clear and unsullied
through my wilderness of life.
 

Unbroken Chain

         I've been captivated by a news story I read earlier today. Luke Martin Jr. died this past Sunday in North Carolina. His father served in the Union Army during the Civil War! His father was also an escaped slave who was born in the year that Davy Crockett died at the Alamo! In this day and age America seems almost to be as a bygone dream. Its history of courage and fortitude and reverence for Almighty God encourages only those who are aware of it and drives the same to try to uphold those responsibilities, but to hear of this connection of two men makes it more memory than dream. This man's father was in the Civil War! He was a slave. His history both convicts and confirms that we had faults and evils but God held us together for His purposes. Yes, many people can go back generations to even the Mayflower and many others, myself included, can point to a father who was part of the greatest generation, who served in World War II, but this man, Mr. Martin, brought us within touching distance to Abraham Lincoln and Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain...to Robert E. Lee and Stonewall Jackson.....even to the Birth of Texas. He and his father weathered seemingly insurmountable odds; they were real, a chain of two links that covered three-quarters of the past years of these United States of America!
         That particular link is now broken. Yes, we still have the original Constitution and we can visit Mount Vernon, and surely there are other heroes in every walk of life today who are cut from the same cloth as those planters and harvesters, those lawyers and legislators, those soldiers and sailors, those mothers and fathers that built this nation under the ever present hand of God, but we need the faith in that God who gave them every ability and determination to go on. And we need the humility and discernment that they showed when God's judgement was upon them!
         Luke Martin Jr. must have been a wonderful man as evidenced by the tributes given to him.... an example to us, even a hero. His daughter Fannie Martin-Williams said that "He had a long, full life" and "He enjoyed every minute of it" and "He was a kind, generous man. He was a hard-working man...Everyone respected him. He loved his church; he loved his community; he loved his family...He met no strangers...and left no task undone." Mr. Martin, once a master brick mason, was given awards and accolades over the years including North Carolina's highest civilian honor!
         There was a time when we were all fellow Americans. One needed only to think like an American, to hope like an American and to dream like an American. We were as diverse as one could imagine but there was a unity there. We have since discarded that unity and exalted diversity. There is only one chain that will never be broken, that will uphold us even laden down as we are with sin; that will encourage us in the darkest night and strengthen us in our weakest moments and that chain is the generations leading to Jesus Christ of Nazareth. Everything pales beside it and everything noble, and honorable and good exists because of it.

Iowa State Fair

         Well they were all there, all the Conservatives who wanted to make sure that their names remained on the list as potential candidates for the Republican Party nomination in 2016. And there were a couple others there. Utah Senator Mike Lee came to help and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie came in to hinder. It was the Iowa Freedom Summit.
         Ted Cruz is a good man as is Ben Carson and there were some other true conservative minds there, but it was all politics and all done for show. As I watched these folks smiling and waving my heart sank for as capable as many of them are, and even as some of them know the horrors in Washington D. C. at the present time, they are still unaware of the full extent and the nearness of our total collapse.... not just economic catastrophe or terrorism or war but utter ruin reminiscent of the Old Testament Israel.
         If they were aware of this they could not have smiled and strutted their stuff on that political catwalk. If one were aware, he (she) would have spoke low and somber and broke every rule in today's book for presidential wannabees. The mood in the auditorium would have been awkward, applause would have been scant and the press would have skewered them afterwards.
         Folks, we are currently under God's judgement. We have foolishly dug a deep grave for our economy awaiting only the blood clot to move to the heart. Most of our leaders are ethically corrupt. We essentially have no law. The Constitution is ignored and our chief law enforcement officer is an ideological sycophant of our Marxist president who is currently....making straight in this desert a highway for our enemies. Our youth, in general, and certainly excluding some and many in our military who somehow escaped the Kool-aid, are an abysmal failure as to discerning the Pied Pipers that lead them around, keeping them uninformed. We are slaves to our entertainments. Our pulpits have substituted pablum for the gospel while most of those who know the gospel refuse to warn, choosing instead to encourage; but Paul prefaced "encourage one another" in 1st Thessalonians 5 with "the day of the Lord will come as a thief in the night.....So then, let us not sleep, as others do, but let us keep awake and be sober...". Our educational system is a union first and foremost, and a social engineering tool after that, under the stern discipline of those who have rejected the methods of a once great educational system. Our media....the press...is godless, biased and essentially defunct as a defender of free speech let alone a disseminator of truth in current events.
         If we paid attention to God's people in that Old Testament.... if we studied those books as much as we read the latest best selling Christian books, we would know that we are that Israel, we are that Judah; not in some eschatological, connect the dots, revelation of Scripture, but in essence just as any nation that at one time knew its God and then rejected the same. Read these prophets and you will time and time and time again say...."that is us!" How can we escape calamity if God's chosen people did not? God has given America warning after warning, increasing in severity but we cannot see the forest for the trees.
         Yes, we need to spend time in discerning which candidates are honest and God-fearing men and women. We have a responsibility to cast our vote. We have talents to bring to this arena but we also need to change this dog and pony show that has evolved even among Conservatives. The first order of business might be to wipe the smiles from our faces, for they indeed will be absent in the very near future unless we, as a nation, prostrate ourselves before God instead of cheering wildly for our candidates.

"...Your Shepherds Are Asleep, Your Nobles Slumber..."

         It's quiet in the house as I write this, save for the sound of hot air coming from the heating ductwork at my feet. The television is on in front of me minus the hot air for I hit the mute button as Barack Hussein Obama began to speak in his annual State of the Union Address.
        How did we come to this point? It was only twenty-six years ago that one of America's greatest presidents, upon looking over the Oval Office for the last time as president, reached into his desk drawer and grabbed a handful of peanuts and walked over as was his daily custom and threw them on the patio for the squirrels, only this time he left a hand written note....."Beware, the new guy has a dog!" We could trust this man. I think that we loved him. We would stand behind him in any situation for we knew that he loved this country and its traditions, and honored its heritage. The country was as religious as it had been in quite some time, full of this new, albeit theologically frail, breed of evangelical. How did we squander it all in less than three decades?
         I'll give you the first verse that came to my mind in answering my own question. This is Judges chapter 17 verse 6 and I chose the Holman Christian Standard Bible: "In those days there was no king in Israel; everyone did whatever he wanted." Scottish Presbyterian minister Samuel Rutherford wrote Lex, Rex in the mid-seventeenth century and his meaning in this title was that the King was not supreme but rather the law, specifically God's law. Here is where we failed...God law is ignored in America and therefore we have no king. Indeed, today, everyone does whatever they want.
        I purposely didn't hear a single word of that speech tonight for Barack Obama is the apotheosis of lawlessness. May God have mercy upon us and see us as Nineveh in Jonah's time where He asked of Jonah "Should I not care about the great city of Nineveh, which has more than 120,000 people who cannot distinguish between their right hand and their left.....," and may it not be the Nineveh of Nahum's day with the proclamation in chapter 3 verses 18 and 19....."Your shepherd's are asleep, O King of Assyria, your nobles slumber. Your people are scattered on the mountains with none to gather them. There is no easing your hurt; your wound is grievous. All who hear the news about you clap their hands over you...." (ESV)
       I did pay attention to the GOP response by Senator Joni Ernst and you could tell who gave direction to that speech. We need the framework to begin on a legitimate party, to have it in place if necessary, and that... if God even gives time for another election.

Note: the anecdote about Ronald Reagan came from a former Secret Service agent guarding President Reagan, Joseph Petro and the book was Standing Next To History: An Agent's Life Inside the Secret Service.
       
    

       

Night At The Museum

          I hope to have the television on tomorrow night without the sound so I can see the faces of those present as Barack Obama gives his annual Speech from the Throne. I hope that it is long, and that Obama speaks slowly, that the heating system breaks down and that Capitol Hill cafeteria quiche bubbles, froths and spumes in the stomachs of Republicans, giving them gas, as a copy of our Constitution equally lies moldering somewhere in what has become a rather large domed sepulcher. The invitation to give a State of the Union Address need not have and should not have been given for the Constitution does not require it. The following is part of a recent post on the State of the Union Address and on our running maddeningly to Havana in search of the filthy lucre that trade with Fidel can bring:
      

         Today, with the stroke of a pen, a communist nation was given a new lease on life. Over four and a half years ago I wrote a post titled 'Hold In Abeyance.' Barack Obama had only been in office a little over a year but it was obvious that he was indeed a Manchurian President intent on laying low this heritage that he despises. That post ended with these words:
         "The Executive Branch has often been a bully pulpit to one degree or another but it is taking on the appearances of a throne. Even the most Federalist of the Founders would call for a suspension of reform until the public was fully informed of what is transpiring and on the other side Jefferson himself would be shouting the loudest."
         How on earth can these men and women in Congress show up and listen once again to the carefully crafted lies and flatulent oratory in the State of the Union Address. Why haven't they pounded on their desks in that illustrious hall and demanded impeach....impeach! Why haven't they dumped tea or signed a new declaration of independence? How many years can they merely protest into cameras and preach to the choir before they realize that this is an endgame we are facing?       

         There is a shroud of ignorance over our Capitol and much of the nation at this time in our history as to the level and imminence of dangers that we face. Utter chaos rules everywhere. To those who cheer the victory for Fidel Castro and the now daily assaults on our constitution....you have sold your birthright as sons of liberty and daughters of freedom for a mess of pottage that will be vomited up in due time!

Heaven Is For Real......The Book Is Not

           The author admitted that the story of going to heaven was not true, and the publisher will stop selling the book and related items. That's the news story today. The 2010 book is The Boy Who Came Back From Heaven, the author Kevin Malarkey and his son Alex Malarkey and the publisher Tyndale House. The following post is from 2011 and it is about a different book but the same Christian literature genre:

            Why bring back this post again and again? It's not the most important failure in the Christian church today but this type of nonsense is part of the fabric of the contemporary church and helps to keep it from learning its own faith. Why look to church history? Why try to understand doctrine that requires labor and perseverance to understand when such evidence as is in this book tells you that you are on the right track? Heaven Is For Real is a litmus tests of sorts. If you fell for this story there is something seriously wrong. Run back to it if you want; it's an easy road and there will always be another storyline or prophesy teaching to keep you intellectually sedated. These are hard words and most readers are probably gone already but not you. Why? Maybe it's because there has always been a nagging suspicion that something just wasn't right?
        The church in America is primed for books like this for it is part of the culture and the culture is anti-intellectual, narcissistic and obscurantist as to any consequences to ignoring American history and most importantly church history. This is why we have Barack Obamas and Joe Bidens. This is why we have Benny Hinns and Joel Osteens.      
         What this book and movie will do is keep many of its Christian readers and viewers in the doldrums with no real wind for their sails, and this with a tempest of all tempests looming on the horizon. It will make them think that they are tacking a right course. We are in need of a safe harbor and these types of books, and they are many, are shoals and reefs amidst the pounding waves. Let me reiterate, if you missed this easy one.....what else have you missed!

Heaven Is For Real......The Book Is Not.......May of 2011

         Well, I'm way behind on this one. A few days ago I heard about the new book sensation, Heaven Is for Real. I picked it up and read it in little more than an afternoon then went to the New York Times Best Seller list and in some sort of Freudian Slip I went to fiction and started scrolling backwards. Well, I was back into February and no Heaven Is For Real. Then it dawned on me...non-fiction, for I had trouble even putting the book into that category. Indeed, according to what I then read, it had been Number 1 for 12 weeks and has only slipped to Number 2 this past week. What can I say? It's sad that this is what Christians read, what they so easily fall for, what they are totally unprepared to discern.
         For those not familiar with this book, as I wasn't until three days ago, a pastor's son has an out-of-body experience on the surgery table and is taken to heaven. This loving father is certainly sincere but he also erred in discernment of what happened. There are two ways to address this, the first being to list the ways that the book is not Scriptural but I think that it's more important here to address this genre of Christian literature. You're probably not too happy right about now, if you have read this far, but if you can read on a little bit further I'd like to give you some things to at least think about.
         You wouldn't want this story to be true! If it was legitimate, then maybe the hundreds of similar stories that came before it could be legitimate also and even if only a portion of them were legitimate you would then be living a Christian existence where personal testimony, experiences, imagination, the paranormal and even chicanery would rule. You would have given up our bulwark of strength in the reasoning mind that God gave us and of reading God's Word under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, and this for a mess of pottage. You would have given up order and precision for the chaos of emotive evidence. When I was about 16 years old, a man came up to my friend and I at a shopping center and showed us some very nice watches.... supposedly they were inventory that he was trying to get rid of...right! Well I bought one and it worked perfectly for about the same number of weeks that Heaven Is For Real was Number 1 on the best sellers list. The book will be gone soon, possibly they will make a movie of it, but then another incredible story will come along.
         I have another thought to ask you to consider; I submit to you that, on a scale of excitability, all the thrills that you may have had reading this story do not compare with even the shortest verse in God's Word....."Jesus wept." (John 11:35) I'll even go further than that...even if you could take the trip that this little boy supposedly went on, the excitement of thoroughly understanding even one of the great Doctrines of Grace as they relate to our own salvation, of a lost sinner deserving of condemnation but pardoned through absolutely nothing in or of ourselves, of God's choosing us in spite us and keeping us despite our many frailties, then it would make that trip even less than trivial, to be discarded for the real joy of seeing Jesus through the eyes of faith according to His Word!
         Friends, this is not a discerning age for the world or the church and America is at the precipice in no small measure because of it. Maybe you think that it is a discerning age and we are just fine. J. I. Packer once commented, to the best of my memory anyway, that the term giants often used to describe the Puritans was inaccurate for they were normal men, it was only that we are in a church age of Pygmies that we see them as giants.
         Please do not take my statements to where I never would take them, that being that there is nothing valuable being done in the church today for there is. One need go no further than missionaries of the true gospel, than servants who give and give and give with no concern for their own well being, than pastors who literally wear out dealing with the challenges of this age, than the faith shown by you and multitudes of others in living in a world that mocks its Creator and rejects its Savior, but we are also called to handle the Word of God correctly.
         A glass can only hold so much liquid, our time can only be portioned out on so many things and this age is a candy store of diversions, a haberdashery of excuses to wear and a fitness club to make us think that we are healthy. The book of Jeremiah tells us to ask for the old paths, where the good way is... (Jeremiah 6:16.) Even the wonderful authors of today mine the works of those who came before us. One has to mine gold or at least pan for it. It doesn't usually wind on Best Seller lists.

Recommended: A 24/7 Internet radio ministry at www.refnet.fm

President Approval Polls

         A couple of new polls were released and they made news because of the disparity in the results. A Gallup poll showed a 46 percent approval rate for Barack Obama while a Reuters/Ipsos poll came in with only 37 percent approval. Any insight into polls like these is not to be found simply in the figures as mentioned above. For instance in the case of Barack Obama there are going to be core groups who will voice approval whatever this president does and however many disasters he constructs.
         The Afro-American community has been steadfast in their approval and I can at least see why and even empathize with them. Having a Black man become the president of the United States was a shot of adrenaline into that community. This has softened the impact of the many failures, lies and the incompetence that would follow, and losing all of this would be very difficult to say the least! Whatever figure in the above polls that is closest to the truth, you can see about ten percent or so coming from this sample
         The Gay community provides another substantive addition to approval ratings, the hardcore feminist will never leave a Democratic president, and there are still many union members who believe that Barack Obama is on their side, when in fact he is not on their side, rather the side of a Communist and overall Leftist agenda that seeks desperately to bring the economic power of the West down in order for third world nations to rise, nations who cede allegiance and power as they fall for the lies fed them, often over the barrel of a gun.
          The division between the government employee and non-government employee sectors of America is increasing on a daily basis as the latter pays more and more to the former's nest eggs, and amnesty supporters are another large faction that this president courts.
          If we could determine the above figures with the accuracy that polls inaccurately claim to have, and then add these figures up, they would be very close to that 37 percent approval rating in the Reuters poll. This would leave a very small percentage of Americans apart from these special interest groups who approve of this president and are not outraged with his radical agenda. In many states these figures are enough to continue to elect Democrats or their non-but near-identical twin 'moderate' Republican brothers and sisters.  The news media is loaded with these groups as is academia and these alone are enough to subdue defections and hold the groups together.
         I may watch the upcoming State of the Union address......but with the sound off. I'm not looking forward to it. If I were a congressman, as I have written before, "wild horses couldn't drag me there," but I need to see these Republican faces, to have their reactions etched into my memory should God even give us time for another election.
         As I have written on a number of occasions, we are two peoples in America. The only remedy for such a radical disunity is in that which causes yet another division, resulting in those who are God-fearing and those who fear the concept of God. The Gospel of Jesus Christ is the only thing capable of dissolving these groups, humbling the prideful, convicting the greedy, leading us to repentance and bringing any kind of unity to America!

The Star-Spangled Banner

The following post is from October of 2013:

The Star-Spangled Banner

         I've researched this time and again and cannot come up with the particular person's name. It wasn't too long after the terrorism of 9/11, maybe a year, that a famous American rock star returned from touring in Europe. As he travelled around the United States after being out of the country for a while he was aghast at how many American flags were being flown in front of individual homes. I can't remember his exact words but in essence, seeing so many flags flown.....seeing such evidence of nationalism....of love of country....well, he said that it made him ill! I think that his remark made me ill, for I may not remember the quote verbatim but I have never forgotten his admittance of revulsion at seeing the Stars And Stripes flown in front of so many homes.
        Let me set the scene for you that I experienced tonight. The setting was a church....in a fairly conservative community.....a community where even today many American flags are flown on the front porches of people's homes.....mine being one of them.  It was a benefit where classical music artists, both professional and students of the musical genre, donated their time and extraordinary talents with the proceeds in the form of donations going to a very good cause. Just about all of the people were seated and chatting with neighbors and friends who sat around them. Two very young, pretty and talented girls set the ambiance for such an event by playing their violins very softly. So softly that the music was barely discernible over the conversations and laughter.
         They played one piece after another and included in this was the Star-Spangled Banner. One by one the people in the audience turned to the two young violinists and stood up until all in attendance were standing. The girls must have thought that the main concert was beginning and they stopped playing. The audience laughed at this to ease the violinist's embarrassment and someone must have told the girls to begin playing again. They did, and we softly sang along... the words penned by Francis Scott Key during another period when our nation was under attack. It was an emotional moment for me, a stark change of tempo and attentiveness, so natural, yet so almost out of place today depending on the venue, an audience picking up on the faint notes of our national anthem and immediately standing and singing along. It was a beautiful moment really, and an encouraging one!

Book Challenge

         I'm not a fan of Mark Zuckerberg and have written a number of posts over the years on Facebook and my disdain for the concept. It has taken narcissism to heights never before imagined outside of possibly Biblical prophesy. I think that the good, if there is any, is outweighed by the bad by probably more than ten to one, but today isn't one of those posts. I hate to admit it but there may be one thing that I actually like about the boy wonder, multi-billionaire and Chairman and CEO of Facebook.
         For the last five years he gave a challenge to himself for the coming year. One challenge was to wear a tie to work every day of the year, Apparently he wanted to get away from the tee shirt persona that Facebook had been tagged with. Another year he vowed to eat only meat that he himself had killed. He challenged himself  in yet another year to meet one new person a day who did not work for Facebook, and last year he determined to learn Mandarin.  I've read where he is serious in these challenges and actually gave a 30 minute interview in this Chinese dialect.
         Considering the negative effect that Facebook has had on an already self-serving culture, I am still a little bit skeptical about these challenges although on face value they seem the opposite of his social media ventures. His latest yearly challenge was announced last week and it's the most interesting yet but with both great potential for good and great potential for harm. His challenge to himself and to anyone and everyone who so desires is to finish one new book every two weeks.
         Friends, we have become a culture hypnotized by the pixels on many and various screens. We tend to learn differently from the image than from the written word. I can see this very clearly in politics and in Christianity. Ever since John Kennedy turned the tide in his race with Richard Nixon because his was a handsome clean shaven face shown to Americans on television while Nixon looked like he needed a shave, we have increasingly become entranced with looks in choosing our leaders. Both the Clintons and the Obamas were attractive couples that had absolutely nothing of value to offer aside from magazine covers. In Christianity, we often fall for the smooth talker on the television with an expensive or stylish suit and an impressive set and celebrity guests, over the invaluable treasure troves of older Christian literature that lay out the majesties of our God in ways that upon reading these books the mind cannot but be humbled.
          Mr. Zuckerberg asked for suggestions and received 50,000 responses but what books will he pick? Most will probably be of the Oprah variety.  Actually only one good book would be needed to help the readers. Case in point: I have related this story before. I believe that it was 1982. I had read two classic non-fiction works in succession. Both were powerful arguments against belief in God. Both books captivated me. One, I tore in two in order to be able to have some of it in my back pocket at all times. The books were Eric Hoffer's 1951 classic The True Believer and the other, Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize winning The Denial of Death. I'm convinced that God put these reads on my agenda when He did because He wanted me primed to reject anything about God before he put Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict in my hands.
         
Note: There is a sizable amount of criticism on the Internet for Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict. Way too late! I opened God's Word after reading Evidence and have praised Him for His grace and mercy through His Son, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, thanked Him for His blessings, and never closed for any amount of time, His words on a page, in book form, God breathed and opened to me by His Holy Spirit, for 33 years now!

        

In Taking That Oath Of Office

        Our new 114th Congress took their oaths of office yesterday. These were some of the words in that oath... "I do solemnly swear that I will support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic; that I will bear true faith and allegiance to the same..." What was going through their minds as the oath was read? How many actually concentrated on the words and not the tradition?
         A number of years ago I was confronted with a dilemma. I was to make a profession of faith, with certain vows, to become a member of what is now the church I am a member of. I looked forward to professing aloud my faith in Jesus Christ to the entire congregation, but I more than hesitated in agreeing to the vows, for I was to use the words 'I promise' five times. I can promise many things, things that I am quite certain that I can fulfill, but the promises in these vows required something greater than I perceived myself alone capable of. My membership was delayed for quite some time as we prayerfully sought an answer to my concerns. The result was that it was read to me, and I repeated... "Through God's grace....I promise." The addition of "Through God's grace" satisfied my concerns.
        I do not have a problem with the vows as they stand in our church. The problem was in my supra sensitivity to making a promise in such great matters. Maybe this is so because I had broken so many promises in my life? I may have jury duty soon and if I do, there would be no one in that room taking the oath more seriously than I will. The following few paragraphs are taken from a 2012 post:

        The Declaration of Independence ends with these words, "And for the support of the Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor." Have we strayed as a nation from valuing our honor above our lifestyles, our personal security, even our futures? I do not doubt that these fifty-six men meant what they signed onto in this document.
         Christianity itself is grounded on an oath...an oath taken by God alone. He led men of Old Testament times to know the importance of a covenant in order to covenant with them. Today we often witness the repercussions of a broken oath in a courtroom or before Congress, the result being an indictment of perjury, but even here do we look beyond the legal ramifications to what the signers of the Declaration of Independence referred to as... sacred honor?
            God knows us more than we know ourselves. Therein is the key. To the politician, to the lawyer, to the juror or witness....whether it be an oath or just a statement to another person, we should know that God records our words. Herein would be but one step in America's recovery, that our elected and appointed leaders take that oath very seriously, and also in the vein that it was meant, for how can one consider the Constitution to be a 'living document,'  its meaning subject to change through time and personal preferences, and then take that oath? For the intent of the writers thereof is not subject to the readers interpretation.  


       

Phew!

        There was a big sigh of relief in our nation's capitol today as John Boehner will stay where he is at and continue to do what he does. That sigh of relief came from Barack Obama and his comrades in arms and from the Jebusites. To the Republican House members who voted for Mr. Boehner, there may never have been a House vote on leadership in the history of these United States, as clear and easy to discern as this one today, and you utterly failed. Why did you go to Washington?  How will you assuage your guilt when you see the picture in tomorrow's newspaper of John Boehner kissing Nancy Pelosi and realize that it wasn't a nightmare? Will you craft some patriotic verbiage for your Capitol Hill web site.....stand on the Capitol steps for a photo op in a show of defiance against Barack Obama.......or possibly summon all of your pluck to wait for the camera to be pointed at you in the upcoming Speech from the Throne and......frown.....vociferously?
         Can we trade places? You can keep the salary and pension, the parking space, the secretary and the spa pass! I'll let others serve on the Joint Committee for Usufruct, Saxicolous and Abligurition while I defend our Constitution and our heritage.
        Do you remember these words from the past... "Is life so dear, or death so sweet, as to be purchased at the price of chains and slavery? Forbid it, Almighty God!-I know not what course others may take; but as for me, give me liberty or give me death!"?
        Or can you recall these God-breathed words as we legislate against Almighty God..."And if it is evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell. But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD."
         Some of you who let America down today may have simply got caught up in the intoxicating aura of Washington D. C.; you indeed have a passion for freedom and liberty and would give that last full measure in defense of our nation! You will have other opportunities to defend our Constitution and uphold our laws, for they are continuously under attack. That is if Jesus Christ continues to tarry and we do not suddenly reap the trouble and calamity that we have sown for so long!
       

Rally Around The Texan!

        Texas Congressman Louie Gohmert announced that he will mount a challenge to John Boehner for the position of Speaker of the House. Rally around this man folks!

        A number of the networks today carried results of a recent poll where, as Breitbart described it, "Republican voters overwhelmingly want members to remove Boehner as Speaker."  It's unlikely for sure that conservatives can oust John Boehner but if I were one of the Republican elites trying to continue the tragicomic play staged in the halls of our Congress I might just think that dumping Boehner would be a good thing, for conservatives are ready to fight first and leave if it's not a fair fight...which it would surely not be...so, I might give up John Boehner in hopes of replacing him with another, newer, fresher elite model. Sure, it would be a chancy move, for a true conservative might somehow become Speaker, but some of the elites might know just how bleak their future is in Boehnerland.
        My advice to anyone challenging John Boehner is to promise to rescind the invitation given Barack Obama to give a State of the Union Address this year and simply tell him to "send over the report." I'll add a post below on just that subject:        
        The 114th Congress will take their oaths today and the vote for Speaker is scheduled for Tuesday. There is time, two days, to contact your Representative and please consider forwarding this post to them or your favorite radio talk show host or a forum that you may be active in..     

Just Send Over The Report!........December 2013

          The 2014 State Of The Union Address is scheduled for Tuesday January 21st.  For the past few years I wrote a post in advance of that speech calling for Republicans to use that opportunity to protest by either refusing to applaud anything said from that throne, or even better... to refuse to attend.  I hope to bring this post back regularly, should the Lord will it, over the next month.
          Please think ahead on this! Barack Obama, the man who is systematically and deceptively tearing this nation apart, both within and without, will once again take advantage of the State Of The Union address and, with the media concealing everything about him and revealing none of his schemes, will take over all of the main networks to give him yet another opportunity to deceive those who do not really care what he is doing as long as he fulfills his bargain and gives them what they want for themselves. The Establishment brand of Republican will grumble for the cameras but have a good time afterwards. We should suspend this speech until such time that we have a president, either Democrat, Republican or another party, who we can at least trust his/her words. Even then the pomp and circumstance of this speech should be done away with forever.

          Article II, Section 3 of our Constitution states of our President, He shall from time to time give to Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. The President is not required to appear in person and give a speech. In fact, President Thomas Jefferson refused to give this report as a speech for he considered it too close to the Speech from the Throne in the monarchical traditions.

         We are ten months past the last State of the Union address where Barack Obama was feted with applause once again but we are now openly in the midst of a coup where every day, every hour, every minute, even every second, more Americans are becoming aware of it.
         I'll give one very recent quote from a Democrat Senator on Harry Reid's new filibuster rule..."There's no reason that changing this to majority rule on appointments will create ill will.....people of good will find ways to work together here." In a way he is right. The filibuster change alone would not be enough to demand an open rebellion, but add to that a purge within the military, a consigliore in the Justice Department, disdain for allies and subservience to enemies, golfing and shooting hoops while America sinks in the muck and mire of a politicized everything, czars directing whole agencies in scripts out of Atlas Shrugged and enough lying and spying to choke uncle Joe Stalin himself.....yes, add to this filibuster... cohorts in the media marching in lockstep, judges sent out to circumvent our Congress, domestic military preparations to control an unwilling citizenry and bribes in the form of dispensations to the biggest lie of all....the Affordable Healthcare Act.....and it is more than enough and way past time that Republicans formally refuse to shake the hand that shreds our Constitution.

Note: Two days after this post John Boehner invited Barack Obama to give the State Of The Union Address on January 28th with these words: "....we welcome an opportunity to hear your ideas, particularly for putting Americans back to work. It's my honor to invite you to speak before a Joint Session of Congress on Tuesday, January 28, 2014 in the House Chamber of the U. S. Capitol Building."

The Earl Of Boehner.......2013

          In the beginning of the English Civil War the Earl of Manchester was Oliver Cromwell's superior. Cromwell considered him slow, indecisive and lacking enthusiasm in opposing the tyranny and incompetence of the king. Manchester, for his part, was more concerned with Oliver Cromwell recruiting men of 'low birth' for his army....uh, that would be men like me. Cromwell's philosophy was different as shown here in a quote from a letter to others in the Parliamentary forces, "I beseech you be careful what Captains of Horse you choose....a few honest men are better than numbers....If you choose godly honest men to be Captains of Horse, honest men will follow them."

          The 1970 film Cromwell starred Richard Harris as Oliver Cromwell and it depicted a confrontation between these two men. The Earl of Manchester was delaying in his charge against the king's Cavaliers. Incensed, Cromwell rode up to him and promised something like this "Manchester, I am going defeat this king's army, even if I have to go through you first!"

The following is a post from last year:

The Republican Party And Its Discontents

          Why would the elites of the Republican Party use 'a scorched earth policy in the war on its base? Conservatives have been the largest block in the party since the early eighties. It's been a stabilizing force, a breath of fresh air and a taste of sanity in a world run amok, not to mention the primary reason for many Republican victories. Ronald Reagan was a part of it, the leader...yes, but also a part of it. It's by far the most passionate and dedicated block.
          What may have precipitated the turn on the conservatives is that they began to see just what the establishment wing of the Republican Party really is. Angelo Codevilla is a Professor Emeritus of International Relations at Boston University. His opinion is that the Republican Party operates as nothing more than "junior members of America's single ruling party...the UniParty," and that there is little difference between them and the Democrats. He is absolutely right!
          Politics has blinded these elites as to the level of danger that our nation is in. They talked a good game for so long that they have come to believe the power of their own verbiage and loquacity..... thus conservatives have become expendable. They'll be replaced with deserters from the Democrats, independents and anyone else who the elites can promise something to.....emulating the same essential strategy as those Democrats who they oppose before the cameras but hobnob with in the sanctity of their inner rooms.....and surely conservatives wouldn't really go far away and let Hillary become president!
          Well, they are as wrong as they could possibly be. Their very first mistake is that they believe that they themselves matter. Our problems in America are far beyond legislative fixes and the Republican Party does not have the wherewithal or the dedication to stop the hemorrhaging in our nation and society even if there was a remedy. So with either the Republican elites in charge or Hillary.... America unravels. The threat of Hillary Clinton is moot.
          Their next mistake was to think that conservatives will eventually fall in line. We have been burned badly. Our nation is collapsing before us. Barbarians are at the gate and inside the gate, even inside the beltway.
          In the trailer for the film Noah, Russell Crowe playing Noah defiantly answers the leader of an approaching horde who mocks him for attempting to stop them all by his self with.... "I am not alone." Silly me, I thought he was referring to God at his side but he was talking about the fallen angels....fallen angels... who would help him. (Please see my March 30th review of Noah)
Well, Mr. Boehner...and Mr. McCain...and Mr. Mitchell....and Mr. Graham....and Mr. Rove...and Mr. Bush.....we are not alone either. We are Americans who trust in their God and recognize His hand in all of creation, His omniscience and omnipotence in forming this people, His power in sustaining us though we often strayed far away, and also His warnings to us after years and years and years of our increasingly ignoring Him..... the continuance of which you are advocating..... your third and most egregious mistake. You have become impervious to common sense, to wisdom or to any light in your darkened halls of power.
          America's future does not lie in these elections that the Republican Party is selling more than its birthright for; and the winners of these elections will have no power that God does not permit and no wisdom that God does not give, for His purposes and to His glory! Our duty is to elect God-fearing leaders and pray for God's mercy knowing that His will is perfect, and that it may or may not include the United States of America as a source of stability in the world or even an entity in itself.
         Celebrate your polling figures all that you want. Rally your corporate execs and political professionals. We'll celebrate a risen Savior and a returning King. Yes, we'll follow Luther's advice to 'plant a tree,' to continue to work, even if we knew for certain that Jesus was returning the very next day, but you might want to take notice of Oliver Cromwell's words to the 'establishment' of his day in:

          "I had rather a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else."

"....I Would Plant A Tree...."

         The following post was written November 30th of 2008 and was my fifth post. I've written other posts with the same theme....politics will not save us. The anecdote about Martin Luther was his view that we do not have the luxury of ignoring our responsibility as citizens even as we look to the triumphant return of the King of Kings, the Alpha and Omega, the Christ...the Son of the Living God! I might write a post that has a strong political viewpoint and then write the next post on the majesty of our Lord and Savior. This was by design from the beginning because we in the church have lost much of that Puritan fervor for God in every aspect and detail of life, in every breath taken, in every thought and every blessing received....this alongside of a fervor for constructing a government whose primary purpose is to honor God. We can be pietistic where we shun involvement in earthly affairs of a nation or we can raise banners of the 'religious right' but forget the ardor of our first love. We can proclaim Jesus but have trouble speaking of Him. We can stand up for him but cannot prostrate ourselves before Him.

         I agonized for a long time over how the Christian is to deal with politics. I read books on the subject and certainly went to Scripture. I've been on both sides of the issue. Edmund Burke wrote "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Burke was not a Christian, and I am not "good," but the concept and the logic still hold weight. Our nation is crumbling fast and most of us are the proverbial frog in the kettle.
         The local news from the metropolitan city that I live near started their telecast last night with three different killings among young black men. Yesterday's paper had a picture of two beautiful young children joined at the head while the surgeons were dismayed that nothing could be done for them. Every day the sufferings of people are there to remind us of the fallen condition of this world. We say that we yearn for Jesus to come back but do we? Martin Luther once said when asked what he would do if he knew that the Lord was coming back the next day, "I would plant a tree." In the final analysis, we cannot quit on this nation. If people's sufferings are to be alleviated, if we are to return to at least being a "God-fearing" nation we have to seek God's mercy and try our best to be good and  responsible citizens.
         This blog title has the word "conservative" in it to get the attention of who it is meant for but conservatism itself will save no one! Our hope is not in princes or their military power. Christians, who have been relegated to being part of the "religious right," must remind themselves of this every day. This does not mean that we do not support a political party or ardently work for its success but it does mean that we never alter our ethical beliefs or compromise that which is our only hope, the gospel of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ. We lost our moorings in this long before we lost this last election. Our churches are (too often) social gatherings with political causes (or charitable causes) meant to assuage our guilt of not knowing who we really are in Christ. Our pulpits mention Jesus every week but rarely preach His cross for they have lost faith in the power of preaching Christ and prefer to give biblical advice on how to live.
         I stumble into church every week to hear the atoning power of the blood of Christ and of what He has done for me and how He will keep this poor wretched sinner despite my gravitation to dally with the world. More than anything, we need to pray that ministers enter their pulpits, look over the congregation and set forth to lay out the glories and majesties of Jesus Christ present in every book of the Bible. Only having done that can they begin to exegete the passages on how we are to live.

New Year's Eve Prayer

        The tradition among Jews began in the Middle Ages. At the end of the Passover Seder, this phrase is recited.....next year in Jerusalem! It made very literal sense to the Jews of the Diaspora for they were dispersed around the world. It was a prayer of hope that they would someday return to Jerusalem, their home. Today it is often an awkward saying, for anyone could make plane reservations and travel to Jerusalem and many already have. So how is this phrase to be dealt with today? Some are forced to expand the meaning of Jerusalem to... Jerusalem with a rebuilt temple. Others spiritualize the phrase as meaning a time of inward peace with God. Still others ignore the meaning of the phrase altogether.
         Christians have somewhat of a similar phrase, originating in the Bible, penned by the Apostle Paul at the end of the first letter to the Corinthians.  Paul wrote in verse 22 of the 16th chapter, the Aramaic phrase marana tha, or Our Lord, come. It came immediately after a searing condemnation, possibly of false Christians.... "If anyone has no love for the Lord, let him be accursed." The meaning of "Our Lord, come!" seems very clear, it's a plea for the return of our Lord Jesus Christ. It seems to me to be an appropriate prayer as the hours and minutes tick away on December 31st. And if Jesus does not return in the next year then the prayer would be for the following year, and the following years after that if necessary until He does return.
        There is a verse in the letter to the Hebrews that sobers and convicts me every time that I read it. It concerns Christians suffering persecution throughout the world......"remember those who are in prison, as though in prison with them, and those who are mistreated, since you also are in the body." (Heb 13:3)  It is my habit to read the news headlines throughout the day, therefore I'm greatly saddened throughout the day! The advice often given to me would be accurate..."quit paying so much attention to the news, you'll feel better." I won't take that advice. Instead I will endeavor to remember "those who are in prison" and to pray with more consistency in the year to come....marana tha....Our Lord, come!