It didn't start out this way but the National Prayer Breakfast held every first Thursday of February since 1953, as it functions today, is an abomination. It's a huge gala event attended by numerous members of Congress, movers and shakers, and always a special guest. Today's guest was the Dalai Lama. And of course the President of the United States is always there. I published a post on its more benign beginnings, its founders and its secretive nature on January 10th of 2010 if you are interested in particulars, and that post mentions a book that you could read if you want to know a lot more.
Merry-Go-Rounds, Treadmills, And The Doldrums......August 3, 2013
I believe that it's Jay Leno who has a regular skit where he and a cameraman go into the streets and ask passers-by very simple questions. They then edit the footage to show the people who are clueless to some of the most basic facts of everyday life. I know of at least two Christian ministries that do a very similar thing. One of those ministries will go to Christian conventions and ask the conventioneers, sometimes even attending ministers, very basic questions about the Christian faith. The result is the same as in Jay Leno's skits as a mind-boggling lack of knowledge is displayed.
Shortly after I became a Christian I developed a strong interest in Christian apologetics, the defense of the Christian Faith, from objections to Christianity and also from distortions of it. Had I been interviewed at the time, I would have shown the same ignorance as the aforementioned interviewees. I was very capable in apologetics but clueless in many of the doctrines of faith, the very truths of my redemption...my salvation!
In those early days I was always going to Christian bookstores and probably accumulated a couple hundred books. Looking back on it now, there may have only been a dozen or so of them that were not fluff and were theologically sound. Once in a while a book would affect me unlike the others. It would address my mind as well as my emotions or my interests. I began to notice that many of them had this little robed figured of a man on the spine which meant that it was published by Banner Of Truth. Apparently I was reading in something called Reformed Theology.... whatever that was, and there was this broader scope of Reformation Theology....whatever that was. I heard about a conference on this....stuff....and attended. Omitting a few details here, I wound up at a Presbyterian church (it could very well have been Baptist or Lutheran) which was out of the Reformation of the 16th century. That was probably three decades ago. Since then I opened my own Christian bookstore that sold only Christian books such as those with the little robed man on the spine. I have since closed the bookstore, tried my hand at a little novel which is on this blog, wrote newsletters, letters-to-the-editors and finally these posts under the title Special Dog's Conservative Bark.
I talk to liberals every day. I hear what they say, look into their eyes and it's as if they walked into an amusement park, took a ride on the Merry-Go-Round...and never got off! Round and round they go...up and down. They think that they are observing the world go by but it is only them going in circles. I talk to evangelicals every day...and look into their eyes. It's as if they walked into a gym and got on the treadmill.....and never got off; thinking they have travelled far, they are often about as knowledgeable of the Christian faith and Christian history as when they first came into the gym.
There is a nautical term called the doldrums describing areas near the equator known for calm and listless seas where a sail-powered vessel might languish for weeks. America has been in a state of the intellectual doldrums for quite some time. How else can one describe the ascendancy of Barack Obama, a man schooled in socialist and Marxist philosophies, with no paper trail to verify his intellectual abilities or ideological beliefs, who openly proclaimed that he intended to fundamentally change America while many responded with a ho-hum OK, who lowers our defenses while our enemy's militaries grow in might, who oddly seems to consistently back the wrong side in international disputes, who plays golf by day and parties at night while utterly failing in every endeavor other than in that promise to fundamentally change America, and who ignores our constitution and the rule of law.
How else can one explain a Republican Party made up of people who supposedly circled the wagons in defense of America, but who were then led by the nose by those who have found a niche in Washington D. C. where they sit in judgment on anyone and everyone who might threaten the stability of the nest they built high above the plebeian rabble who trusted them and put them in office.
How else can one explain a Christian church where the cross of Jesus Christ is considered too morbid to preach, where the protective hedge of doctrinal truth is cut down and false teachers abound, and where abortion is considered more of an irritant than the willful taking of human life.
When the winds pick up we are going to find ourselves heading into a maelstrom. Only God can take us to a safe harbor but we have made it very clear to Him that He was to stay below deck, out of sight and out of mind.
Prayer is our only hope; humility is the direction we should set our course for; and only when the breeze rustles the pages of Scripture in the open book before us will we know that God's Holy Spirit may be filling our sails to guide us safely through the tempest.
Merry-Go-Rounds, Treadmills, And The Doldrums......August 3, 2013
I believe that it's Jay Leno who has a regular skit where he and a cameraman go into the streets and ask passers-by very simple questions. They then edit the footage to show the people who are clueless to some of the most basic facts of everyday life. I know of at least two Christian ministries that do a very similar thing. One of those ministries will go to Christian conventions and ask the conventioneers, sometimes even attending ministers, very basic questions about the Christian faith. The result is the same as in Jay Leno's skits as a mind-boggling lack of knowledge is displayed.
Shortly after I became a Christian I developed a strong interest in Christian apologetics, the defense of the Christian Faith, from objections to Christianity and also from distortions of it. Had I been interviewed at the time, I would have shown the same ignorance as the aforementioned interviewees. I was very capable in apologetics but clueless in many of the doctrines of faith, the very truths of my redemption...my salvation!
In those early days I was always going to Christian bookstores and probably accumulated a couple hundred books. Looking back on it now, there may have only been a dozen or so of them that were not fluff and were theologically sound. Once in a while a book would affect me unlike the others. It would address my mind as well as my emotions or my interests. I began to notice that many of them had this little robed figured of a man on the spine which meant that it was published by Banner Of Truth. Apparently I was reading in something called Reformed Theology.... whatever that was, and there was this broader scope of Reformation Theology....whatever that was. I heard about a conference on this....stuff....and attended. Omitting a few details here, I wound up at a Presbyterian church (it could very well have been Baptist or Lutheran) which was out of the Reformation of the 16th century. That was probably three decades ago. Since then I opened my own Christian bookstore that sold only Christian books such as those with the little robed man on the spine. I have since closed the bookstore, tried my hand at a little novel which is on this blog, wrote newsletters, letters-to-the-editors and finally these posts under the title Special Dog's Conservative Bark.
I talk to liberals every day. I hear what they say, look into their eyes and it's as if they walked into an amusement park, took a ride on the Merry-Go-Round...and never got off! Round and round they go...up and down. They think that they are observing the world go by but it is only them going in circles. I talk to evangelicals every day...and look into their eyes. It's as if they walked into a gym and got on the treadmill.....and never got off; thinking they have travelled far, they are often about as knowledgeable of the Christian faith and Christian history as when they first came into the gym.
There is a nautical term called the doldrums describing areas near the equator known for calm and listless seas where a sail-powered vessel might languish for weeks. America has been in a state of the intellectual doldrums for quite some time. How else can one describe the ascendancy of Barack Obama, a man schooled in socialist and Marxist philosophies, with no paper trail to verify his intellectual abilities or ideological beliefs, who openly proclaimed that he intended to fundamentally change America while many responded with a ho-hum OK, who lowers our defenses while our enemy's militaries grow in might, who oddly seems to consistently back the wrong side in international disputes, who plays golf by day and parties at night while utterly failing in every endeavor other than in that promise to fundamentally change America, and who ignores our constitution and the rule of law.
How else can one explain a Republican Party made up of people who supposedly circled the wagons in defense of America, but who were then led by the nose by those who have found a niche in Washington D. C. where they sit in judgment on anyone and everyone who might threaten the stability of the nest they built high above the plebeian rabble who trusted them and put them in office.
How else can one explain a Christian church where the cross of Jesus Christ is considered too morbid to preach, where the protective hedge of doctrinal truth is cut down and false teachers abound, and where abortion is considered more of an irritant than the willful taking of human life.
When the winds pick up we are going to find ourselves heading into a maelstrom. Only God can take us to a safe harbor but we have made it very clear to Him that He was to stay below deck, out of sight and out of mind.
Prayer is our only hope; humility is the direction we should set our course for; and only when the breeze rustles the pages of Scripture in the open book before us will we know that God's Holy Spirit may be filling our sails to guide us safely through the tempest.
