Special Dog's Day

Special Dog's Day

         I don't get many weekdays off anymore but I had one today. I was hoping for rain to use as an excuse not to mow grass but the rain wasn't supposed to come in till much later in the day. Nah....I wasn't mowing grass for this was going to be my day where I would do the things I like to do which usually revolves in some way around a trip to a Barnes And Noble. So here was the plan, Get up early and head off to my favorite breakfast place in nearby Ohio, then head east to the nearest Barnes and Noble and while there visit a Christian bookstore that is not too far away.
        Breakfast was good as usual and it was off to the bookstores where I picked up a new prophesy book on the Antichrist. I also found a good sale price at the Christian book store on the movie Mom's Night Out starring Patricia Heaton. Does this sound odd to you...buying a book on the Antichrist and a comedy DVD? It's pretty normal for me. Need I point out to you my last post? These are difficult days....and there is weeping.....There is also Jesus!
       Purchases having been made it was time to settle into an R. C. Sproul tape on the way home with a large McDonald's coffee in my hand, for I love driving while listening to the radio and drinking coffee. I do have this recurring problem though, I seldom take the time to to get proper directions before starting out on a trip. I made a right turn out of the shopping center and rather than drive five miles and then pay for tolls on the way home I came to a street that I was certain if I took it it would get me back to the original route that my wife and I always come up to the restaurant on.
       Now this may have worked but there was a heavy cloud cover and I often travel by the position of the sun which I could not locate through the rainclouds. OK, it was still simple logic. An eight lane major boulevard was somewhere to my right and the Pennsylvania/Ohio turnpike was to my left. As long as I didn't come to either one I should be heading to the road that would take me home. So I drove on enjoying Sproul's message.....and drove.....and drove....and drove. The road that would take me home should be coming up? Still no sun to see if I was going east or west or south. I knew I wasn't going north....I'm not an idiot! Ah...a green sign coming up.......Salem 1 mile. Salem? How did I get all the way to Salem, Ohio? OK, time to put my home address in the GPS. I started out about 28 miles away from home and what should have been a drive of about 45 minutes but the GPS now informed me that after about a half hour of driving, I was now 37 miles away from home and 57 minutes? Thinking back on it there was this road that I crossed over that looked a little familiar? I went home, felt guilty, and cut grass in a drizzling rain.
       But it was worth it for my wife and I just finished watching Mom's Night Out and its a wonderful film. We had seen it at the movie theater when it came out and that post follows:

Mom's Night Out.....May, 2014

       Roger Ebert began his review of the newly released film Mom's Night Out as "Depressingly regressive and borderline dangerous..." Well it is dangerous, I laughed so hard I thought my jaw had locked. I choked and spit some popcorn into the row in front of us......downright dangerous!
But that's not what the film critic Roger Ebert had in mind. He's worried that mothers who see this might be content to stay at home. It could turn into the domino theory....the next thing you know young girls wouldn't want to pull the trigger on an M-60 for a living or pound their dainty fist on the boardroom table anymore. I don't remember the last time film critics were so concerned about the societal repercussions of films they reviewed, and the concern here was that the film might keep mothers from going...."out on the town."
       Gruesome serial murders are OK but stay at home moms are not. Hideous, haunting demonic creatures are fine but a mom mentioning God isn't. A cadaver is informative but a Bible study is regressive, lip-locking Liposuction kissing is normal but two pairs of lips meeting without any tongue inspection of upper and lower molars is odd.....well....you get the point.
       Roger Ebert gave Mom's Night Out one and a half stars out of four but the 1977 film Looking For Mr. Goodbar about a woman who continually went...out on the town... garnered three stars and the description was "very much worth seeing." Silence Of The Lambs was worth four stars.....well....bon appetit.
       The real issue here is not that the film, Mom's Night Out, is getting panned in some places, the issue is part and parcel of the real regressive and dangerous problem we are experiencing in America today, that being... constant coverups, biased news reporting, lying, academic intimidation, skewered statistical data and the all-encompassing, phobia evoking and fear invoking hatred of the Gospel of Jesus Christ, authority of the written Word of God and all the accompanying guilt that paralyzes with fear at the mere mention of that mythical, destructive, inhibiting bogeyman called sin.

Tough Love

         The following post is from March of 2013. 

Tough Love

         One of our United States Senators, who previously had been a defender of marriage being between one man and one woman, had recently and publicly changed his mind. The reason given was that his son informed him that he was gay. Most families in America have at least one family member in amongst aunts, uncles, nieces, nephews and cousins who proclaims themselves to be gay. The response of many in these families is what they consider 'compassion' emanating from 'love' that leads to a change of opinion on the issue of gay marriage. Going back to that United States Senator, what should have happened was this....the Senator should have been so angry at a culture whose tentacles reached within his own immediate family to take a son away from God that he doubled his efforts in defense of marriage being between one man and one woman and became even more vigilant in anything else that came between God and the people, America, that He had blessed since their beginnings for His own reasons and to His own glory. This was not love that the Senator displayed towards his son but disdain for God. It wasn't compassion being expressed, it was arrogance. God is longsufferring towards each and every one of us but it is not to be presumed upon and He will not be mocked. The Supreme Court can issue a decision either way or in between on the gay marriage issues. God is not waiting with baited breath for our answer rather it should be us waiting to see His answers to our hesitation.

The Gideons

         The following post is from May of 2010. It's my Lord's Day post and I hope that the stark contrast in America from even the tumultuous 60s to today effects you as it did me when I reread this post tonight:

The Gideons

         The Apollo 8 mission in 1968 saw, for the first time, man leave the gravitational pull of the earth and come under the same force of another heavenly body. Frank Borman commanded the mission that included James Lovell and William Anders. On Christmas Eve, on the ninth orbit of the Moon, with the world watching on television, Commander Borman read the first ten verses from the book of Genesis:

In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth
The earth was without form, and void; darkness was on the face of the waters.
Then God said, "Let there be light", and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good; and God divided the light from the darkness.
God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. So the evening and the morning were the first day.
Then God said, "Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
Thus God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament; and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. So the evening and the morning were the second day.
Then God said; "Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together into one place, and let the dry land appear"; and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth, and the gathering of the waters He called Seas. And God saw that it was good. (NKJV)

         There was a Japanese correspondent watching this on television from his hotel and called NASA for a copy of the script that the astronaut was reading. He was asked where he was calling from and told to look in the desk drawer and he would see it in the first ten verses of the first book, Genesis, of the Gideons Bible that would be there. The correspondent was impressed that NASA Public Relations would leave him an advance copy of the script! (this anecdote came from a Sunday supplement section of a newspaper)
         In 1982, as a new Christian, my wife and I were on our first cruise. As we rounded the western end of Cuba there was a storm that rocked the boat so much that the passengers could do nothing but sit in their cabins. Too new of a believer to even bring a Bible with me, I opened the desk drawer and there was the Gideons Bible. I opened it and read the first verses that I came to. It was the 93rd Psalm. As the boat rocked.... I read:

The Lord Reigns, He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed, 
He has girded Himself with strength. 
Surely the world is established, so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.
The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice; 
The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier 
Than the noise of many waters, 
Than the mighty waves of the sea.
Your testimonies are very sure; 
Holiness adorns Your house,
O Lord, forever. (NKJV)

         I'm writing this blog from a motel room and the ever present Gideons Bible is in the drawer. They have distributed over 1.5 billion Bibles since 1908. (as of their website tonight the figure is 2,014,581,853 and counting!), and I am reminded of Romans 10:15b:
How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news. (NIV)

gideons.org

The Republican Party And Its Discontents

         The following post, Darkened Halls Of Power, was written during the primary campaigns of the previous election cycle. I have a difficult time even rereading it for we have fallen so far since even then. Barack Obama is playing his endgame in destroying everything he lays his hands on while his concubines in the Republican Party continue to condescend to and deceive their constituents and punish them with a whip when they step out of line. How arrogant for them to assume that God will not intervene in their plans as they bandy His name about but ignore His commands!
          Folks, you are about to experience yet another schmooze campaign where these people speak, even passionately, as if they believe what you believe. They'll play cutthroat politics, squeeze one of their own in and drop you like a hot potato!


          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!"
         Darkened Halls Of Power

          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 in the film he was talking about the fallen angels....fallen angels... who would help him. (Please see my March 30th, 2014 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."

The Coming Storm

        Their economic system was worse than terrible, although it did always fulfill its promise to bring the classes closer together, but it had to lower almost everybody to near poverty level to do so. By 'almost everybody' I mean that the tyrants and their sycophants keep their dachas and daggers but everyone else suffers. That's Communism! So anyway, they hated us because we were proof that their theories were lies and we hated them because they killed millions of people. Our university professors had a tough time figuring out who had the better argument but religion won the day for both the communists and the professors didn't want any part of it.
         So the 'war' began. Our weapons were a constitution, laws and honor, and they, well they were very inventive in devising ways to torture, murder, maim and deceive. Our strategy was to wear them down, meet them in every challenge and stay on the field longer than them. Their strategy was to establish a 'fifth column" here on our turf in every profession that had access to our minds. They went for the children, families, the entertainment industry, unions, higher education, the media and Congress. We won on just about every foreign battlefield.....wore them down.....and then they quit! We then had a big party. They changed their name and shaved the mustaches so as not to be recognized on their return. One of their own, Barack Hussein Obama, became our king...actually our president but he put a crown on anyway and began to dismantle our Constitution, weaken us internally, and tear down our defenses. A finger appeared on the wall writing Mene, Mene, Tekel, Upharsin but we have no interest in seeing what that meant in the 5th chapter of Daniel.
         I came home this afternoon from a hard day of thinking in the car and turned on the television. PBS was broadcasting a travel documentary on Vietnam and the host almost gushed over North Vietnam's successful war for independence. That's what we have come to! Vietnam did not defeat the one who invaded them! It was Communism that invaded their society. This was not their war for independence....it was their Waterloo.....and they lost!
        Communism played on our weaknesses. If we were to lack vigilance for only a moment they would grab a foothold in our land and never give it up. We gave more than a moment. They took more than a foothold.
        The hedge around us was no longer; not the hedge of armies and missiles but of the fear of God. Our discernments had been ravaged. We could no longer live with liberty for we no longer understood it. We sought to atone for our ignorance by tearing up the evidence of that we which were ignorant of. Truth became an anathema. Jesus became an anathema......"The way, the truth, and the life" became an anathema. Here and only here is our hope, for if we return to Him, He may....He may...have mercy upon us once again, not in returning us to our exalted position but in keeping us through the coming storm.

All By Design!

          America is violent because it turned its back on God and He has left us to our own devices. The ones on the outermost part of society's fringe pick up whatever they can to inflict violence and often it is a gun. That 'fringe' is growing exponentially with our rejection of biblical Christianity and we are experiencing the horrors of it every day. Liberals will never admit this. What they do is blame guns in an attempt to assuage their guilt and culpability in why this fringe is growing......the issue that really needs addressed!
          From an international perspective, the Communist and the New World Order disciples know, and I had written on this a number of years ago, that their only hurdle to world domination is in the mindset of the traditional American citizen. They could do little more than just sat back while Ronald Reagan was in office, particularly as the USSR was collapsing, but they picked up the pace after Reagan left office, broke out into a trot with the Clintons and now it is a sprint to the finish line with Obama. It's now or never for they will never have an opportunity as they have today with one of their own in our White House, That's why we have the push for gun control and the force-feeding and indoctrination of the gay agenda and the high-pressure scam of man-made climate change.  Gun control would render us defenseless, same-sex marriage would destroy the American family and belief in God in the minds of our youth, and climate emissions legislation lowers our economic advantage if we were ever to wake up and decide to defend ourselves. Illegal immigration is part of this also for it gives cheap labor to the globalist, is a source of votes for their lackeys in our Congress on both sides of the aisle, and is a conduit for the propaganda of the Communist. And maybe you haven't noticed but our national defense has been seriously weakened just as the military capabilities of our enemies increased......this all by design!
          Barack Obama stated once again that he would like to see a national debate on gun control. Now what this man really wants is a media choreographed sharing of carefully chosen statistics and then a quick vote while the passions are high and Congress set back on its heels, all under the guise of....."it's an emergency and there is no time to waste!" But a genuine debate would bring to light every Marxist, Communist and Progressive scheme and influential leaders from many and varied fields that have designed the America of today but whose legacy sits back and criticizes, untainted by the disasters that they brought on.
         If you read the following books you could no longer be considered uninformed on a number of issues:

Adios America, The Left's Plan To Turn Our Country Into a Third World Hellhole by Ann Coulter
Liberty And Tyranny, A Conservative Manifesto by Mark Levin
Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progresives for a Century by Paul Kengor, and
Takedown, From Communists To Progressives, How The Left Has Sabotaged Family And Marriage 
                  also by Paul Kengor. My recent post on this book follows:

Evil Days

        Paul Kengor is on a mission for he is exposing Communism and Marxism in America more than anyone else on the national scene. I previously his reviewed his book Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives For A Century. Well, he's done it again in his latest Takedown: From Communists To Progressives, How the Left Has Sabotaged Family and Marriage. What words can I use to encourage you to read this? I was glad to see that it came out in paper rather than hardcover for as a book purchaser myself I know that when you buy so many it's a lot easier to grab that paperback and head to the checkout counter.
         The cover has a wedding cake on it that is cut in two and separated with the groom on one piece and the bride on the other; the implication of course that marriage is being destroyed. The knife  that cut that cake is in the shape of the communist symbol of the sickle! The same-sex marriage agenda is indeed the topic within but time and again the author had to remind his readers of it for Communism and Progressivism are dissected throughout....for these lead up to the literal upheaval in the thinking of Americans on this issue that has taken place in little more than a decade.
         This post will be short. It's not a book review for that will not suffice. You need to read read this entire book, for we have a tendency to read but a little on this or that and somehow satisfy the angst within us on a decaying culture. Friends... this is not politics, nor is this the future, for we are already undone as a nation!
         Paul Kengor points out on a number of occasions that Communism has evolved on this issue whereas it formally opposed the homosexual life style but now, as he writes ...."Marx's and Engels's economic-based communism (has been redirected) to cultural adaptations, from income/class equality to sexual adaptations." He places the Democrat Party right there in the same metamorphosis .... "The entire Democratic Party and both Bill and Hillary Clinton were on board for the Defense of Marriage Act just a decade or two ago." He delves once again into Barack Obama's mentor Frank Marshall Davis. We visit the SDS community of the 60s, Margaret Mead, Margaret Sanger, Herbert Marcuse and many more who were the rage of the college campus back then.
         Kengor's writing is explicit when it has to be. You will put the book down at times to catch your breath. You may very well even stop to utter the prayer.....'God help us.' These are not merely 'difficult times' that we live in, nor are they ...'the times that try men's souls' as Thomas Paine, an atheist, penned. They are 'evil days' as the Apostle Paul wrote about in the book of Ephesians. We are living in....tribulation....and may even be entering what the Bible calls....'the' Tribulation.
         The book is 206 pages and fully footnoted. If you are a Christian anywhere near my age (65) you may very well remember Christian books that came out in early 1980s on Secular Humanism. If so it would surprise me if reading them did not focus the direction of your thinking and motivate you at the time. This book by Paul Kengor will do the same. It will leave no reader in doubt as to what has happened to us and what we are up against....the effort to, as the back cover describes... "take down the natural, traditional biblical family and attack religion in the process."
        

Father's Day

         Tomorrow is the Lord's Day but throughout America it will be Father's Day. As noble as this holiday is, and also Mother's Day, its inception has done a disservice to the life of the Christian. In this household we have always celebrated Father's Day and Mother's Day a day earlier, but that's for another post, for this post is for the holiday as we know it. The following was originally published in 2011:

Father's Day

         Essentially, my only advertising for this website, other than the pens I occasionally leave around, is the bumper stickers on my car. I change the message with each post in such a way that a driver behind me at a traffic light might just be inquisitive enough to visit specialdogg.blogspot.com. I often look in the rear-view mirror and see a man alone in the car, or a woman, or a couple, and lift up a prayer for them as well as praying for wisdom in these posts
         I've appealed many times to the concept of a father's love for his children. The average man is more than willing to take the chance of ignoring God. He has just enough stubborn determination to stay with the crowd for a long time but I want him to realize something, that he is applying this decision of his to his children also. He might respond "Oh, they can make up their own mind later on in life" but the son particularly will most likely make the same decision based on the pattern they saw in the father they loved.
         So, speaking here to these men....How much work have you put into this question of God and man? Might I offer a few possible answers.... You gave it some thought on an occasion or two and were not convinced.... You were dragged to church when you were young so you know what it's all about....or, Carl Sagan didn't buy it...and he was very intelligent. Maybe you are more of a philosopher...if there is a God why is there so much suffering, or... I'm not that bad of a person. I'm not concerned here with trying to answer these questions but rather in saying to you That's it? You are consigning your children to a future of not knowing Jesus Christ because of your own limited experiences or because you stumbled over some questions that multitudes of Christians have trusted God with and thanked Him for ever since?
         Let me take a real leap here and assume that someone reading this might actually consider my thesis, that although they themselves are not being drawn to Jesus Christ, they love their children more than their own life. What are they to do? The first thing is to pray with your children...before meals and at bedtime. How hard is this guys? They will never...ever...forget this! Second...put a Bible, God's Word, on the coffee table and pick it up to read on occasion for them to see. Third...humble yourself before God and admit that praying with your children and picking up a Bible are a mere pittance of what a father should do but plead that God might take that morsel and protect them through it.
         Another Christian reading this might wonder what kind of advice I'm giving with these seemingly insignificant steps? Twenty-five years ago or so, on one of our Pittsburgh rivers, there was a boating accident with a father and small child. The father couldn't swim and struggled as he held his child's head above the water. The child survived but the father drowned. That's what kind of advice this is! Hold your child's head above the water for you love them more than your own life. You might be surprised at what may happen, for you actually may be pleading to God..."I am not worthy... but have mercy on my child!" This plea may not be of your own volition for God may be moving in your heart, for many have come to Christ in similar ways as this. We thought that we were making an insignificant step but God had initiated it....not us. We didn't realize this until later. Take your child by the hand to Christ and see how He may respond......even with you.

note: As I sit here Saturday evening writing this, my wife came up to me with a card and a gift! I showed her what I was writing and we both smiled.

Land Of....The Opportunist

        Let's see...we watch The Middle...PBS Lawrence Welk shows (actually only I watch those), Monk DVDs and a movie here and there. Oh yeah, my wife watches 48 Hours while I try to type these posts a few feet away. It often results in a testy discourse at the end for I can't help but comment on the bias, unanswered questions...even unasked questions, and six or so jurors that always show up at the end for their fifteen minutes of fame. Anyway....I was typing tonight and watching Lawrence Welk. It was a show from the fifties and one of the regulars read a patriotic poem written by Walter Taylor Field (1861-1969.) Titled Flag Of The Free, I'd like to give you the last stanza here:

Flutter, dear flag, o'er the lands and seas!
Fling out your stars and your stripes to the breeze.
Righting all wrongs, dispelling all fear,
Guarding the land that we cherish so dear,
And the God of our fathers, abiding with thee,
Will bless you and trust you, O flag of the free!

        It was a beacon on a hill, it's light telegraphing to those in peril that safety was here if one could only reach it. That light barely flickers today but that's of little concern, for few come here anymore for safety. Most come here not for freedom but for things that are free. The awe and wonder that so many must have felt as they stepped foot on Ellis Island is only a memory or a chapter in a history book or a documentary on PBS. If any hold to the opinion that America is a land of freedom and liberty and of opportunity they are greatly mistaken for our government has become a parasite sucking the lifeblood out of those freedoms and liberties, and we are now more a land of the opportunist.
        Do you disagree with this? If you do then you are defending what once was, not what now is, and I have nearly seven years of posts here lamenting the fact that America indeed was that shining light on a hill but has collapsed under the weight of its own ignorance. Love for this country has permeated my thoughts since.....well, since I matured in my thinking many years ago as to what America was....to how much sacrifice was offered to keep her safe, to how much help we gave the rest of the world by our actions, our money and most of all the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ.... to gold star mothers, to crippled veterans, to aged World War II and Korean War vets who proudly wear a service cap at patriotic rallies and to our military today who are part of a remnant....a large remnant.

         It sprouted anew at mid-century with Billy Graham and then, sometime in the mid-60s this born again stuff expanded as evidenced by books from writers such as Charles Colson and interviews with Jimmy Carter. In 1982 the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences awarded the Best Picture Oscar to Chariots Of Fire. This film blew me away. Eric Liddell towered above what I always thought a man should be. Couple this with a fine and humble human being, our president... Ronald Reagan, and something indeed was happening in America, but it would not last long.
          I was listening to an old Imperials song (Praise The Lord) on my iPhone earlier. Trust me, Christians over 50 remember this group. It was so powerful... that overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving this Jesus Christ. It was a genuine revival of sorts over those few decades. We need this again today, only 1000 times over, and even then it would just be to plead for mercy upon our nation as this world implodes upon itself.
         One last thing. That 'overwhelming feeling of knowing and loving Jesus Christ'....it never goes away. I didn't have to remember the feeling, only to remember the connection to the song and to those years. Benjamin Franklin wrote of Philadelphia in his Pennsylvania Gazette on June 12,1740 during the First Great Awakening  "...no books are in request but those of piety and devotion; and instead of the idle songs and ballads, the people are every where entertaining themselves with Psalms, hymns and spiritual songs." 
         We'll never go back to where we were, nor should we desire to, for even that Awakening was but a glimpse of God in His full majesty and glory! No, we need to be a country that looks to the fulfillment of all things, for surely the time must be near.
          
          

       

Approaching Hoofbeats

The following two posts are from 2014:
     
          I remember seeing the play Cabaret back in the early seventies at the Stephen Foster Memorial performing arts center on the Pitt campus, and I also remember the extraordinary talents of Lisa Minnelli in the film of the same name but the storyline had an unsettling effect on me even then.
          As I think back on it today it's even more disturbing, for our culture resembles a hedonist cabaret in the last days of the Weimar Republic as totalitarianism watches our antics and plans our demise. As Lisa Minnelli's character succumbs to the death spiral of the cabaret at the end of the film she belts out the title song that I'm sure you are familiar with, of which some of the lyrics are:

Life is a cabaret,
Old chum
Come to the cabaret

Come taste the wine,
Come hear the band,
Time for a holiday

No use permitting some prophet of doom
To wipe every smile away

Life is a cabaret, old chum
It's only a cabaret, old chum
And I love a cabaret

"God Sent Us Barack Obama"

          I chose the New American Standard Bible for this verse from Hosea 9:7... "The days of punishment have come; Let Israel know this! The prophet is a fool, The inspired man is demented, because of the grossness of your iniquity, And because your hostility is so great." Those faithful preachers who weep in their pulpits....who weep for America, for their children and their children's children, and who weep at what the American church has become, are thought of as country bumpkins, fundamentalist fools and worse. Such is the state of the American mind in this age of rampant rebellion and toxic temperance towards godlessness as our nation surrenders on every hill. Such is the hostility to anything that might interfere with personal plans and goals.
          There is no excuse for not seeing the imminent peril our nation faces. There are reasons but not excuses. Our nation's leaders are the beginnings of our punishment. In speaking to a church congregation this past week, New York Congressman Charlie Rangel made this statement..."God sent us Barack Obama." He probably never spoke truer words!
          There has never been a perfect storm as is brewing today and we are rapidly becoming a police state as it is about to hit. Yet we party on. Billy Graham has been consistent in his warnings to America. John MacArthur has been consistent also, but we don't have ears to hear, and we don't have eyes to see. We are deaf to the Approaching Hoofbeats of the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, to use the title of a 1985 book by Rev. Graham
          Fervent prayer, steeped in humility and salted with our sweat is our only hope, our only defensive weapon.

John And Earl

         I wanted to alter the running theme that I have in these posts for a day and chose this post from 2012:

John And Earl

         In the 1990s my wife, son and I had the wonderful experience of befriending two men who were elderly in their physical state but childlike mentally, for they had spent their entire lives in institutions, the last of which was by far the best and provided a peaceful time of repose before they crossed that river into the Celestial City... as Bunyan would write of it. I had written a eulogy for John, he the teacher and me the student, and came across it tonight as I was rummaging through old papers and thought that I would share it with you:

         John's mother passed away when he was very young but the memories remained seventy years later. One was that his mother told him "John, you will be a king one day." John's father remarried and gave all the children away to relatives. Mentally, John remained a child. He did not go with relatives but to institutions where he lived until his death December 30th, 1999 at the age of 79. In 1977 John came to this nursing home to live. He was a source of joy and inspiration to the entire staff, his neighbors, to the various professionals and ministers that he would meet and to all that would be honored to be his friend.
         To know John was to dispel any thoughts that mental acumen is what defines character. To know him also made it abundantly understood that a disability applies only to that particular area affected, for John had the ability to teach, not in the context that we think of most, but by example. He taught us to be dedicated. The overwhelming testimony of those who knew him was that if there were a Christian service at the nursing home, John would not only be there but he would be the first to arrive. He taught us how to be a true friend. One staff member was moved when after saying something critical in John's presence of his friend Earl, John's gentle rebuke of "He's my friend!" had its correctional affect.
         John taught us how to give as he freely gave to his friend from his few possessions. He taught how to forgive unkindness and forget past offences. He even taught us how to think, for upon seeing a picture of his most beloved friend Jesus with a crown of thorns on His head and blood upon His brow... John cried. Whereas I came to love the same Jesus, this reaction was not within my capacity to think or consider. John was a true teacher in how to be thankful of our blessings and look forward to the day when all tears would be dried.
         Today, John is with his Jesus, with his friend Earl and many others whom he loved. He was a soldier and fought the good fight. He leaves us humbly to carry on. He positively affected this world in the task he was given. He contributed in mighty ways. The story was told to his surviving brother and other family members who travelled cross country to honor John, that he once played the part of a king in a play at the nursing home and announced "My mother told me I would be a king one day." John, who never attended school, was graduated to heaven with honors and given a crown. The Bible tells us that we will throw our crowns at the feet of another, something that John would have done even here on earth.

Flash Flood Watch

        "King Charles I was ruling England without calling a Parliament which were the people's representatives. Taxation, questionable financial dealings and forced loans were some of the issues of contention between the king and his opponents. One adviser, the Earl of Essex, was accused of tyranny. Another adviser, Bishop Laud, came down with a hammer on dissent and attempted to enforce a state controlled church upon the people. The situation deteriorated and the First English Civil War followed. At this time, Oliver Cromwell arose out of obscurity in Parliament. Love him or hate him, he is considered one of the greatest military leaders in history. The leader of Parliament's army in the beginning was the Earl of Manchester. He was a moderate and Cromwell was unsure if his heart was in this conflict. Manchester, on his part, criticized Cromwell for bringing too many of the common people into service of the cause. Cromwell's response was If you choose godly, honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them...I would rather have a plain russet-coated captain who knows what he fights for and loves what he knows than that which you call a gentleman and is nothing else."
        This paragraph is from a post published three years ago. Republican elites consider us commoners. They want our votes but conspire in tandem against our candidates. We, on the other hand, see them as absolutely worthless, and that is a generous description. These establishment elites have relegated Almighty God to being merely a 'social issue' that can be bartered away!' God is about to show them the folly of their ways in the whirlwind taking form in the turbulence surrounding us but this is seen only as a coming summer thunderstorm capable at worst of but setting their plans back months or even a year.
     
         As I typed in the period of this last sentence, I was somewhat startled as my iPhone trumpeted an emergency weather alert for our area. Thunder and lightning have been lighting up the sky for an hour and the sound of heavy rain pelting the chimney cover has been echoing down to where I sit. I responded to the alert to find out that a Flash Flood Watch is in effect until tomorrow but cannot help but relate this to the warnings that God has given to us for over forty years, and I'm reminded of the words of Jesus in the 16th chapter of Matthew..."...When it is evening, you say, it will be fair weather: for the sky is red. And in the morning, 'There will be a storm today, for the sky is red and threatening.' You know how to discern the appearance of the sky, but cannot discern the signs of the times?"

    

America And Israel........Redux

           An estimated 180,000 people marched yesterday in the annual Gay Pride March in Tel Aviv......Israel. Tel Aviv is a hot spot and every year people attend the festival from all over the world and its mayor would like a referendum on gay marriage in Israel just as Ireland recently had done.

America And Israel
           It's been sixty-six years since the Jewish people miraculously became a state, and in their own land at that, and for a purpose related to the Second Coming of Jesus Christ. They've survived wars brought upon them and many other serious problems which were of their own making. The dangers that they are facing right now, and there is certainly no pun intended here, are of biblical proportions. Their greatest ally, a nation also born miraculously and for the purpose of disseminating the Gospel of Jesus Christ throughout the world as its power is a stabilizing force in that world, and a nation for whom Israel's existence today is indebted..... has fallen....not militarily, but the defensive walls have collapsed inwards and its demise is happening right now. Israel does not seek God's protection and we no longer feel the need of it. In any and all decisions that we make in this dangerous and chaotic world.....we are on our own. The following post is from 2013:

         There's a story in the 19th and 20th chapters of the Old Testament book of Judges that we in America might want to consider. It records disastrous events in Israel revolving around.... an outrageous crime.... a coalition army..... and civil war. It is also very reminiscent of the Biblical account of the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah.
         The crime was a murderous rape of a traveler's concubine by a mob of men, a mob that first demanded that the traveler himself come out to them to be sexually assaulted. The men of this mob were from the tribe of Benjamin  The coalition is the remaining eleven tribes of Israel that form an army to bring the guilty men to justice. The tribe of Benjamin refuses to give the men over and a civil war erupts within Israel.
         Israel apparently did not first seek out God's wisdom in the matter! Their own council would suffice! Instead they only asked God which tribe should lead the attack.  God gave them the answer that they wanted...it was Judah, but Israel's much larger army of 400,000 men was then routed by the 26,000 men of the tribe of Benjamin! It was only on the third attack did God say that he would give victory to Israel who had already paid dearly in the loss of life while the tribe of Benjamin was eventually so devastated that from that time on they were known as the smallest of the tribes.

You Might Try This....

         I wouldn't even know where to go to get an answer. What books of the Bible do Christians most read and/or study today? What are the most popular books for Sunday Schools? I won't even offer an opinion on this but I would expect that the least read books of the Bible are the Old Testament prophets, both major and minor.....major and minor simply describing the length of the books. Now I know that the book of Isaiah is often studied for the Messianic prophesies, and the stories of Daniel in the lion's den and the Shadrach, Meshack and Abednego in the fiery furnace are often taught but aside from the 'read through the Bible in a year' plans do we venture any further in our reading with the contemplation that we might read Galatians, Ephesians or even Romans and Hebrews? Has Jonah and the Whale become a children's story instead of a dire warning of judgement and a call to repentance?
         I'm not saying that there are not differences in all the books of the Bible, for the four Gospels are....'the four Gospels,' and Romans contains essential doctrine and  Paul's pastoral letters and all the other books are God's very Word but the Old Testament prophets are God's Word too....and possibly greatly neglected at the very time when they are needed the most.
         You might try something to test this out. Add these books into your daily Bible reading. For example, start with Isaiah and read about three chapters.  Think upon each and every verse. Could these only have been meant for the people of Isaiah's time? Could they be for another time period also. What you will often find in books such as Isaiah and Daniel is that one chapter may differ greatly from the next in many ways. Study Bibles can be helpful here. You may find God speaking in one chapter and then find the prophet speaking in the next. You may find specific prophesies for the Israelites of that day and then find words for a time period far in the future... in the last days.
         As with every book of the Bible there are numerous commentaries available, some wonderful and some not so wonderful. You can find prophesy books that are very very specific in what will happen in the future and who will be involved.....once again, many helpful but unfortunately many very unhelpful in the more than speculation given and even outright error taught.
        Those books with odd names such as Obadiah, Nahum and Zechariah can and should move us with the same reverence as James and Jude. My hope in this post is simply to encourage reading these books and also that the reader might, as I have, see ourselves as the objects of the writer's warnings from God....not so much as 'this nation is America today' but rather....'this rebellion against God is the same as America's rebellion against God.'
        

Blessings From Whom?

         Chris Cuomo, television journalist and son of former New York Governor Mario Cuomo, was today (Feb. 2015) in what was described as a "heated conversation" with  Alabama Chief Justice Roy Moore. Here is a portion of that as reported by CNS News: "Our rights do not come from God, your honor, and you know that! They come from man.....That's your faith, that's my faith, but that's not our country. Our laws come from collective agreement and compromise." The CNS News article went on to quote the Declaration Of Independence in "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness....That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed..." 

Our Only Purpose.......April, 2012
      

         This blog has had a few streams of thought throughout it. Sometimes I repeat a blog and at other times I just try to express my thoughts in a different way, with different words. I can't expect visitors to read through as if this were a book but I want to keep certain themes fresh in people's minds. So the following thoughts are not new. I often try to appeal to the reader's love for their children. It's too easy for us to be willing to accept the consequences in our own life for rejecting God, or in just avoiding Him, but we are also making decisions for those who we love more than our own lives.
         America is in the process of rejecting God! Constitutionally that is OK for we have that right. The same Constitution that was constructed by men who acknowledged God's hand upon their endeavors gives the right to reject that hand. The framers knew that man himself was weak, prone to error and subject to the lure of greed, corruption and power. They knew this not only from observing others but from observing themselves and they knew this first from reading the Bible. They knew that ministers were subject to the same temptations. Nearing the end of the 18th century, George Washington feared that we were falling away from dependence upon God.  Thomas Jefferson, for his part, knew that there would be difficult times ahead where some would try to circumvent our Constitution. God indeed had a plan for our country but it was, and is, not quite the same plan often mentioned today in evangelical circles. Yes, He would bless and protect us but not for our own sake and not for our own glory. Rather we were that nation, at that time in the history of the world that would accomplish His purpose through our existence. If we are now done with Him then the more glaring evidence would point to His being done with us! We are no more important than that and all the patriotic expressions, of which I also so often have relied upon, will come to nothing.
         When one is involved in a project and that project suddenly becomes an exercise in chaos, does not one usually stop to reaffirm the original goal? Our goal in the United States of America can be found in the Preamble to our Constitution: We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution, for the United States of America. Please notice how some of these words were capitalized in the original document, this apparently to emphasize their importance. The framers looked to secure the Blessings of Liberty.....even to their Posterity!
         Choose to stand in front of Almighty God with your pride intact if you want, but won't you, for your children's sake, at least allow them the same blessings our Founding Fathers recognized, our great-grandparents started their lives here with and our parents used to build a secure future? And to the Christian.....the critics of Jesus Christ and His church are many. Does that surprise anyone? Have we not been forewarned? There are Christians reading this blog who suffer persecution daily. Should we not daily pray for them, humble ourselves and express thanksgiving to God by valuing these freedoms, using them for His glory, and seeking to secure them for our children?

Gimme That Old Time Bookstore

        You remember of course the movie You've Got Mail starring Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan who owns a small bookstore that is put out of business by a chain bookstore owned by Hanks that just moved in to the neighborhood? My wife and I had a small bookstore back in the late 90s. I didn't get into this for the profits but rather for the evangelistic opportunity. Consequently we didn't make much profit but did indeed disseminate some great books.
         WorldNetDaily ran an article today titled Christian Booksellers Implosion by Jim Fletcher. He describes an industry, Christian books, that is imploding under its own unethical standards which include promoting books that are anything but Christian. I've written a number of posts on just such books that Christians gobble up unaware that the message inside is anything but biblical. You can easily pull up the article at wnd.com if you want the specifics given by Mr. Fletcher.
         There was a day when you could walk into a Christian bookstore and find quite a number of good, even great books. I still go in these few remaining stores all the time and at the very best it is pablum upon pablum intermixed with a very few books, usually classics, that are good. Most of the store is Christian wall hangings, curio fillers, music, movies and children's items. These things serve a purpose and our son was well stocked with James Dobson's Adventures In Odyssey, Bullfrogs and Butterflies and Psalty but the concept went from being a nice addition to the main course.
         The books in our store were 100% quality Christian literature. I've really never seen a store like it if you would permit me to say that... with one exception, Cumberland Valley Bible Book Service (cvbbs.com) of Carlisle Pennsylvania which is really and Internet business that you can also go in and browse. It's really a sad situation, what I describe here and what this article describes. I'll give you juts one example of the books that sell and I'll add a post I wrote on it at the end......Heaven is For Real.
         There's a link on this page titled Isaac Crockett.....Novella. That's a short novel that I wrote pre-9/11 about a bookstore. I think that I adequately explained in that story how a Christian bookstore could be a great force in the community, but those days are gone. It was tough to get Christians to buy good books fifteen years ago and it would be harder still today. Isaac Crockett is a rock star and a Christian who falls in love with a Roman Catholic girl and the story takes place primarily on the boardwalk of Ocean City, New Jersey. I'm trudging along on a sequel right now that is post-9/11, post John Paul II and post-America as God had blessed it, used it according to His purposes and now withdraws His hedge of protection as we are as the great American jurist once wrote...Slouching Towards Gomorrah.
         There was a rash of sound Christian literature published in the 90s and maybe a little before that and a little after. They actually made you think but they are few and far between today. Or maybe they're not but rather the bookstores don't carry them. I'm in Barnes and Noble all the time also. It's a great period for Current Events books thanks to Barack Obama who motivates but the Christian section is.......horrid......I can't think of a milder word. Even that is only three sections of shelves that in my local store is followed by New Age and preceded by True Crime.
         No, the bibliophile is being replaced by the electronic reader. Departing is the smell of the page, the caress of the book itself and the precision of underlining a profound comment. As for the Bible, the Word of God itself, one needs a physical book. No, not in a spiritual sense, for God's words to us would (pierce) to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow....if relayed to us on a billboard, which they are and of which I am always thankful for when I see them, but we need the book as one of the few remaining links to a Christian age not infatuated by what we are able to do but humbled by what we are able to discern.

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

When The Power Is Gone

          A certain extremely good and effective conservative radio talk show host was taken off the air about a year and a half ago. He recently returned to radio but in a format where like minded conservatives had to sign up to listen to him on the Internet. This was disappointing because as many as possible need to hear him and his analysis of what is transpiring and not just what were regular listeners to his former show. The conservative who merely tunes in to these radio programs in order to constantly say 'yeah that's right!' is not much help beyond the support they give as listeners. In a similar vein, If these posts resonate with you...please pass them on.

When The Power Is Gone

          One news article within the last few days speculated on the problems that many of Barack Obama's force-fed programs may encounter through lawsuits after he has left office. I view this a little differently. First of all I think it unlikely that this will come about, for America's problems are irreversible, its enemies are chomping at the bit and know very well the window of opportunity left them and most importantly God's judgements on our nation have already started. I've written before that our collapse did not begin with Barack Hussein Obama, that he only finalized it.....but what a finale! 
          Simon Wiesenthal was a Jewish survivor of an Austrian concentration camp and went on to dedicate his life to finding Nazi war criminals and bringing them to justice. The example of Simon Weisenthal is more in line with the problems that Barack Obama will face when he leaves office, not merely the reversal of things that he did.
           At this moment in time Barack Obama holds all the cards. He has his thumb on the military, the Justice Department and every cabinet department, law enforcement and intelligence agency in our government. His small coterie of like minded 'advisors' direct the Democrat Party and much of the media. "Fellow travellers" of his Marxist ideology head governments around the world while 'dupes' dance in America's entertainment industry and educational system to his piped, rap rendition of The Internationale; but should we survive this tsunami heading our way he will be out of the game and the spotlight will be turned on all of these people who unquestioningly followed his directives as our nation crumbled. More books will be written than those about Watergate and all the other '...gates' combined, and quite a number of 'Simon Wiesenthals' will pursue every avenue to explain just how one man can bring a nation to its knees.
         We'll find out the details on why the better military minds were pushed to the background and lesser minds promoted. We'll get the 'who-what-when-where and whys' on decisions made that weakened our military capabilities and why issues such as 'women in combat' and 'gay rights in the military' were our top military priorities. We'll view the ugly picture up close of how a United States president can let an enemy grow and strengthen while constantly criticizing our allies. We'll see where the money really went from the bailouts. We'll find out what went on in secret meetings with Islamic governments. We'll hear more from Israel, if they still exist, on how they were pushed into a corner.
          CEOs will have changed, Senators will be gone and the EPA will become an open book as to their true motives. It will be for all to see how this man-made global warming scam, complete with the heavy-handed threats on even challenging it, was designed and what the true purposes were.
         Barack Obama knows all of this. He's not seeking a legacy but a resume for some other position in this New World Order. He is right now probably the most thoroughly disliked government leader in the history of the United States of America... the forty percent or so of sycophants, wannabees and politically correct vigilantes who trawl CNN and MSNBC for their  'news' who support him notwithstanding.
        All of this will indeed happen.... if and only if.......America somehow survives this catastrophe in the making. May God have mercy upon us in the trials and tribulations ahead.

Facebook Brings The News

         It may not be the greatest device ever used against America but it's close.....Facebook.....and social media in general. It has become a monster given life by our necessity to view ourselves as something special and our persistence in trivializing life itself: It feeds on our egos. Calling it a Trojan Horse does not do justice. We dragged it in and in return it attacks our discernment therefore it idles us and now it is going to......well, I'll let the following post from last month explain what is next:

Facebook Brings The News

        "This nation is running, not to the sound of the trumpet that calls us, but to the roar of the mouse. Whereas it was once said that 'the pen is mightier than the sword,' it may soon be replaced with 'the logarithm is mightier than the pen'."
         This was the last paragraph of a post written back in 2011. It was a book review and 'mouse' referred to the hold that social media has upon the American mind. There has been numerous studies done in many countries on the negative affects that Facebook has on its users, from living in a virtual world, to bullying, to a faux concept of what friendship is, to an epidemic of narcissism, to privacy issues, to urban violence. We are repeatedly warned yet continue to follow the Pied Piper.
         Most everyone should be aware by now, particularly from the publicity around the 2010 film The Social Network, of how Facebook got its start and then grew into a Leviathan. We should also know about the various charges and lawsuits of one sort or another thrown at Facebook, often followed by apologies and promises, but this hasn't fazed us either. Facebook and the whole concept of social media in its many adaptations has been a curse, but a curse packaged in the glitter and metallic glow of silicon. Probably every Christian ministry that I have recommended in these posts, and also the many conservative organizations that I try to support, have their own Facebook page and end their.emails with "share on Facebook and Twitter.". My guess is that they believe that they can take something that is not good and use it for good but God doesn't need help, and we have gone down that 'this can be used for good' road before, more often than not with disastrous results.
         Here's a test that I think many Christians would fail. Estimate the number of hours that you put into reading Facebook pages and updating your own and then compare that to the reading that you do in God's Word, church history, biographies of Christians throughout history and and really anything edifying to  our Christian pilgrimage in this world.....and that's just one test.
         I cut articles out of the paper on a weekly basis referring to Facebook or social media. The Drudge Report carried two just today. The first was titled "Belgian Watchdog Raps Facebook for Treating Personal Data 'with Contempt'," and the second was "Zuckerberg: OCULUS headset will be size of glasses." I published a post last May that was primarily on the topic of OCULUS. The following are a few paragraphs from that post
       Prominent psychiatrist and Fox News contributor Dr. Keith Ablow wrote an opinion piece that Fox News titled "Facebook Twists Reality Again And Risks Ruining Your Children." Those are pretty strong words. According to the article, Facebook recently acquired, for $2 billion, a company called Oculus VR (virtual reality). This company is working on and taking pre-orders for a head mounted display, a headset, designed for immersive virtual reality.
         Dr. Ablow writes that "millions of people---lots of them teenagers---will be able to put on an Oculus Rift headset" and (he) quotes Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg in that they will "enter a completely immersive computer-generated environment" and feel like they are "actually present in another place" and say it's "different from anything they've ever experienced in their lives."
         The problem according to Dr. Ablow is that since this is just a "gaming headset" it will not have be approved by the FDA, where if it were a "pharmaceutical or a medical device" it would "demand rigorous clinical trials in volunteers" before being approved. Are there unexpected side effects "like depression or attention deficit disorder or anxiety or delusional thinking?" Dr. Ablow writes that if there is we won't have that warning because after all....it's just a game!
         Today's post is on another article from yesterday's paper. The title in our local newspaper was Facebook to post full news articles. The latest innovation is called Instant Articles.  Rather than merely giving links (that take time to load) to news stories, Facebook partnered with a few major news outlets to let them put whole articles on Facebook (that load instantly.) As a result of this, paragons of honest and informative news such as the New York Times, NBC News and the BBC have been chosen to provide the 'news' for tens upon tens of millions of Americans? It appears to be a 'win-win' for Facebook and these nine media outlets. The only losers are the American people, our nation as a whole and freedoms and liberty everywhere.
         I bring the up problems with Facebook and social media fairly often to friends and I haven't had many empathic responses but I'll end this post with another warning that will probably be ignored........social media dumbs down, tranquilizes and nourishes our already rampant narcissism and is in no small way responsible for the lack of discernment on the part of Christians as to how far America has rebelled against God and how He has been calling us back for decades now with dire warnings of judgement to come......but hey, there's a positive side to social media too.....we can see all the latest pictures of the grandchildren!

Note: A number of articles have appeared on the Drudge Report, all negative, since the post was first published on ten days ago and the latest, today, was titled Facebook addiction linked to depression.
        
        

Vigilance Reprobari

         The following was originally posted on April:

         Jews around the world celebrated the festival of Purim this past March 4th and 5th. Purim is a remembrance of the deliverance of the Jews from the lies and intrigues of the king's royal vizier Haman in the Persia of most probably Xerxes I, the story of which is the Old Testament book of Esther. The Obama administration's dialogue with Iran on an agreement which essentially gives legitimacy to Iran's nuclear program and secures a day of tragedy for Israel was nearing completion at the time. Some commentators including Israel's Prime Minister Netanyahu brought up the similarity in hatred for Jews by Haman then and Iran today. The implied message is that God will today save Israel from such an enemy as He did with Haman.
         Scripture tells us that God will indeed defend the Jewish people who come to recognize their Messiah well into the Tribulation period whether that period be very soon or for some time to come. It also speaks of wrath upon all those who hated the Jews simply because they were Jews. The miscalculation here as to the former is that the Israeli people today are not as those described as suffering near elimination in the time of Haman, for the people of Israel today suffer from the same blindness to God and His Word that America does. The warnings of Scripture to them are as terrifying as the warnings to us and ignored to the same extent. Neither Israel nor America should expect God's intervention. Without repentance, we... Israel and the United States...  are on our own!
         This is what makes Iran's unequivocating hatred for the two of us worthy of extreme concern. I should say here that by Iran I mean those ruling the people at this time, for those Iranians not eagerly looking to Armageddon as a catalyst for the return of their  'Mahdi' are in just as extreme straits as we are. In fact the whole world is at a precipice right now in this perfect storm where the Middle East is on the brink of nuclear warfare, a maniac stills rules with nuclear weapons in North Korea and Vladimir Putin does not hesitate in bringing up the possibility of a nuclear confrontation. All this while the world's bastion of freedom and bulwark of strength grovels under the tyranny of a communist Manchurian President who is bent on our downfall.
         I'm inclined to believe that our sacrifices of worship today in America, for the very most part, are a stench in God's nostrils. This statement probably offends some if not most if not all readers but surely there is ample evidence of just such circumstances in Scripture and those in question then were offended also. Shouldn't we at least consider the possibility that we are as they were? We attend church and then retire to the mayhem of a football or baseball game, or we rush off to afternoons with the extended family with God no where in our minds. We probably read 100 times more of the sports pages or a popular novel over the course of a week than God's Word and when we do read Christian literature it may as well have "Got Milk?" written on the cover.  And yet we say or sing or plaster on our bumpers 'God bless America' as if that is a password to God's heart.
         No, we are on our own....and blissfully ignorant of it. The people in Israel today should be, at the very least, as vigilant and trepidatious as those who prepared for the worst at the moment when Israel in May of 1948 became the State of Israel....yet in reading their newspapers I see the same vapidity in their editorials and letters-to-the editor that we in American metropolitan centers have honed to perfection. These are perilous times that demand vigilance but we have responded with haughty disdain for any warnings, our motto being Vigilance Reprobari or Vigilance Rejected.

We Have Failed Our Children

         These posts are turning into more of a journal and the reason is that this ship of state is so rapidly sinking that the posts seem to be merely recording the events as they happen. There is no order, not even signs of order, developing out of the chaos that has engulfed us. If you cannot discern this chaos then your mindi has adapted to it. We have watched so many disaster films over the decades and seen so many movies of dystopian societies that we have essentially rendered ourselves subservient to a world of pulp fiction. To observe what is going on with any kind of accuracy one has to have the ability to stand back but standing back, ignoring the hype and separating ourselves is something that is anathema to us, for we just don't want to miss out on anything that otherwise we would be observing. Facebook may be the prime example of this. The following are parts of two older posts:

          Edmond Burke once penned these words to an acquaintance, "The people never give up their liberties but under some delusion." We in America are, and have been for quite some time, living under a delusion. That being that we are a capable...intelligent people, secure in our liberties and confident of our ultimate preservation as a nation and even as a world power. Yet we have no wisdom; and intelligence without wisdom is as a ship without a rudder.
          We are drifting wherever the winds take us, with no meteorological forecast, no lifeboats, no anchor, no experienced crew and hull breached. Taking on sea water we have thrown overboard the food and drinking water to lighten the load but kept the exercise equipment. If I might paraphrase that Walt Whitman poem:

O Captain! my Captain! Our fearful trips' begun;
The ship is sinking in the mist, and there's no where to run;
The game is on, the song's begun, the people all exulting,
But O heart! heart! heart!
O the smiles upon his face,
Where on the deck my Captain sits,
His mind in some other place.

We Are Failing Our Children

          There are horrendous exceptions of course, there always were and always will be, but a parent's love and protection for a child is a foundation of human society. We can't even say that it is something that elevates us above the animals for we have all seen heartwarming videos of animals protecting their offspring.
           Those who traveled to America in search of religious liberty and freedom sacrificed greatly for their children... beginning with the voyagers on those three ships.... the Susan Constant, Godspeed and Discovery, that weighed anchor at what would become Jamestown in 1607; and American parents have not ceased sacrificing since. How many mothers and fathers have worked two and three jobs and gone without even the basic comforts of life in order for their children to survive and someday live in a land of opportunity, with liberties and freedoms, a land that reverenced and trusted in Almighty God, the giver of all that is good? How many gave up their own goals in life for a new goal, the happiness and safety of those children? We've worried about them and prayed for them and taught them everything we thought they needed to know. Need I go on? We did do these things and continue to do them but ultimately we have failed them miserably!
           I'm writing here about the collective whole of American parenting today, specifically as it concerns our children's future. It's an area that we neglected to protect. We didn't think there was a real danger here. America's enemies worked while we slept. They were patient while we sought instant gratification. They grabbed leadership in education while we were more concerned about facilities for the sports teams. They became professors while we became financial advisers. They taught in liberal seminaries and read Rules For Radicals while we golfed and read The Godfather.       They became activists while we watched television. They took over unions while we filled the stadiums and arenas. They allied themselves with every special interest group that voted while we worked on our abs. They cheated while we played by the rules. They lied while we told the truth. They studied the game of chess while we hopped around on a checkerboard shouting out 'King Me!'
No, we have failed them! We let them take God out of everything. We'd sooner defend our enemies than the Bible. Our culture is toxic and our reasoning is warped. We believe anything that they say because that's what we have been programmed to do. We reach, as a child in a crib, for every mobile that Silicon Valley extends over us. We can provide our children with any piece of sports equipment they could ever want and chauffeur them anywhere to use it. Their clothing stores have overtaken ours. Then finally we send them off to college, congratulating ourselves on a job well done.
          The love is still there. We would still sacrifice everything, but it is too late, even if we were aware of what has transpired. Our government has become an oppressor, our Constitution is ignored and our user-friendly churches are powerless. We have failed our children. We failed to protect our liberties, even our minds. We failed to protect our Christian heritage. We are undone and have but one hope left but there are no signs that we are anywhere near humbling ourselves before our Creator, no evidence that we are prostrating ourselves in reverence at the mere mention of the name Jesus.