New Years Eve Comet

         If New Years Eve revelers look up to the western sky just left of the crescent moon after sunset they may be able to see what has been named Comet 45P. Now those revelers may have to be ringing in the new year at someone's hunting cabin up in the mountains and away from the lights but the comet will be up there and New Years Eve may be the most visible evening. In fact it's up there right now but its hard for even astronomers to take a picture of. You might want to have a good pair of binoculars nearby. The following post is from one year ago today:

Nebulous to Some.....Perspicuous To Others

         Astronomers once called everything outside of our own galaxy...nebula... or nebulae in the plural tense. Today the word is properly confined only to interstellar dust and gas clouds. If a concept is cloudy and hard to decipher we might describe it as nebulous.  When Jesus Christ returns to earth with His mighty angels, I presume that the very first sightings of His army will be classified as some sort of nebulae. As He comes closer and a form of sorts begins to take shape, the classification may change to UFO. At the point when men finally recognize that it is the God King of the Christians and the Messiah of the Jews, this from what the world's greatest selling book has always proclaimed, and as every conceivable means of what would then be clearly seen as punishment wreaks havoc upon the earth, men will call on the rocks to fall on them and end their misery.
           Today it is the concept God Himself that is nebulous, even to most of Christendom, and unfortunately to much of Christianity. Although this is certainly true of God in His infinities, it is much the opposite as it relates to God's very existence and also to what should be our self-awareness as His creation, but only the Christian can see this. God created the physics that we try to disprove Him with and the logarithms that we try to replace Him with. He created the measure that we use in an attempt to prove our own autonomy. He created the mind that we refuse to think with, the sight that we refuse to see with and the hearing that we refuse to hear with.
         God is not nebulous in His holiness or His power or His glory or His majesty or His might. His warnings, His righteous judgements, His love and His mercies are not concealed. We are groping around only because we have run from the light

Your Mission.....Should You Accept It

         Donald Trump as Time Magazine's pick for Person of the Year was expected and President-elect Trump was a very logical pick. Obviously it would have been Hillary had she been awarded the election. Time Magazine likes to throw a curve ball every once in a while and give the award to a group of people or an idea or even an inanimate object. I'll hear the news on who they picked each year but have never actually read the accompanying article for Person of the Year. Well I shouldn't say 'never have read' for back when there was a legitimate journalistic media in America I did read Time. In fact one of the fondest memories of my high school academics was that we had to read one of the opinion articles from U. S. News & World Report every week and give a report on it.
         Anyway, had not Donald Trump been so obvious a pick then I think that conservative talk radio would have been the ticket and here is why. This mass of kinetic energy that covered the landscape with Trump signs from Easton to Boise (east of Easton and west of Boise...eh...not so kinetic), this army of Minutemen, this patriotic, educated and intellectually armed throwback to Valley Forge would not have survived the winters of our discontents had not conservative talk radio been leading the way.
         This was our Publius, our Thomas Paine, our Benjamin Franklin and our John Locke transmogrified into waves of electromagnetic radiation travelling at the speed of light into every kitchen and workroom and automobile in America. The mainstream media, our betters as they perceive themselves to be, tried to keep the truth from us but utterly failed. We went through basic training all the way up to OCS at the instruction of radio and books and our own Constitution...all synchronized by common sense and reason....rare in the cities but abundant outside of them. The only thing that we needed was a George Washington to lead us. Well...we didn't get him.....but we did get Donald Trump. Considering that you could probably count the George Washingtons that America has had on the fingers of one hand...I guess we could have done a whole lot worse.
         These stellar stars that we navigated by through a perfect storm wrapped in a cosmic disturbance that threatened every foundation laid in the latter half of the eighteenth century....these men and women kept the heat on and the powder dry. Their mission now.....a much more difficult mission this time.....should they accept it....is to bring God into the equation...but first they themselves have to realize that God alone rules in the affairs of men....and that is where our pulpits come in. Please pray for the men in them.

Note to those outside of the United States: This is essentially what happened in our recent election. Donald Trump won 83 to 85% of the counties in America and this in spite of a grotesquely biased news media and a couple million votes from people who were not even eligible to vote. This also is why we have an Electoral College system!

Abraham Lincoln's Last Words

         George Washington.....Thomas Jefferson.....Abraham Lincoln. Admittedly when I was in grade school these men were presented in such a way that an adult might brush it off as building up heroes for kids, but we citizens of the United States are the lesser for it if we do not explore these lives ourselves. The fact of the matter is that these men were more than extraordinary and that the word heroes does not do them justice.         
          Is there a man in American public life today with the analytical acumen of Abraham Lincoln? Well you would have to know something about Lincoln in order to understand not only his greatness but his genuine wisdom, and there are plenty of books out there that make these facts very clear. I want to recommened to just one....a 2014 publication titled Lincoln's Battle with God, A President's Struggle With Faith And What It Meant For America. (Thomas Nelson publisher) The author is Stephen Mansfield who has written a number of books and handled many and various topics of faith and America.
         Let me start with this startling anecdote because the author started his book with it. It needs an explanation first because the words are so significant that objections will be made. This testimony came from a pastor in Springfield, Illinois who was informed directly by Mary Todd Lincoln. These would have been Abraham Lincoln's last words. The couple had taken a carriage ride that afternoon and while in the president's box at Ford's Theater, Mr. Lincoln continued the conversation they were having earlier in the day. After the war they would take a rest but not by going back to Springfield. President Lincoln spoke these last words to his wife....and then repeated them..."We will visit the Holy Land......We will visit the Holy Land and see those places hallowed by the footsteps of the Savior."
            There is no doubt that a young and even a middle-aged Lincoln was more than a skeptic...he was an antagonist to the Christian religion and labelled an infidel by many Christians. This was his life and it is documented ad nauseam. How...surely many have wondered.....how could this infidel have made these statements?
        The Christian knows, or should know, that the struggle in coming to believe in God and faith in Jesus Christ can be a long and arduous journey. We might know it from our own life and we therefore can extend great patience to others who appear to be losing in this their journey. The bold and brash statements against Christian churches by Abraham Lincoln in general can be acknowledged by the Christian today but not so easily etched into President Lincoln's tombstone, for the Christian who lives in his or her Bible and prays constantly day and night also understands first-hand what the grace of God can do in the heart of man. Others would indeed have more difficulty in bringing harmony between a young lawyer Lincoln and the 56 year old President.
         So what happened to Abraham Lincoln in the last decade of his life? For the eight years of these posts I have tended to not give normal book reviews. I want the reader to actually read the book. If this one anecdote that I mentioned doesn't pique your interest in this matter then nothing will, but I will add that White House séances are also explored in-depth in the book. Abraham Lincoln's words and thoughts were cherished and preserved after his death so there is evidence upon evidence in this matter of his religious belief....and some of it supports a continued aversion to Christianity while some of it supports a quiet man whose serious reflections on life in general extended to his struggles with faith giving evidence that a great change had indeed taken place.
         Now, There is more to being a Christian than promising words, we know that very well, but we can also see our own weaknesses and can at times at least give the benefit of the doubt to others also caught up in their own weaknesses. I cannot say with any kind of certainty that Abraham Lincoln ever made a profession of faith. I can say that I recognize very well the path that he was on and where that path usually leads.
        You won't be disappointed in this book, and if you are a Civil War buff you won't be disappointed in it either. Stephen Mansfield writes very succinctly leaving the reader plenty of opportunity to meditate on what they are reading to make up their own mind.

"Tall Hats And Gold Watch Fobs"

          Pat Buchanan's latest syndicated article takes on John McCain and Lindsey Graham, leaders of what once, as Buchanan terms..."The War Party." The essence of the article is that these Republican senators want to put 'crippling sanctions' on Russia before Donald Trump has a chance to negotiate with Vladimir Putin. John McCain and the rest of the Republican establishment elites who had been thoroughly humiliated and summarily disposed of during the primary campaign, are fighting for the current 'world order' to continue, a 'world order' that is discussed in detail in recent posts. All other schemes having failed these establishment elites are now using the supposed Russian connection in the November 8th election. Lindsey Graham is quoted  as Tweeting ..."They (Russia) need to pay a price."
          The following was posted before the 2012 elections. Donald Trump does not represent the 'high ground' of humbling ourselves before our Creator but he also doesn't actively or purposely work against the benefactor of all our blessings.

Tall Hats And Gold Watch Fobs

          There's a scene from Ted Turner's Gettysburg where Brigadier General John Buford, played by Sam Elliot, scans rocky heights and farm land that would in one day become a battlefield and he literally spews out these words as he foresees carnage in the Union army if the politicians and generals play their war games as usual, "afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say 'what a brave charge it was'..... I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.... It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long bloody moment....as if it were already done....as if tomorrow already happened and there ain't nothin you can do about it..." He went on to lay a plan to change that, "We can block that road till the main body gets here, and deprive the enemy of the high ground!"
          There are a significant number of Americans who feel the same way about our nation today. The Republican elite, or Republican Establishment are the "men with tall hats and gold watch fobs" who are playing their political games while bursting forth all around us have been venomous attacks on our Constitution, our national defense, our financial stability, the American Creed and the very essence of our being, that being a nation blessed by God. Packs of wolves split us and devour those that did not have the foresight to prepare themselves for such an onslaught. The high ground in this coming election, should the Lord even permit us to get there, is at the feet of Jesus Christ, humbly prostrating ourselves for thinking we could do anything at all, let alone succeed and flourish as we had in the past, without reverence to and dependence upon Him.
           The GOP elite seek just the opposite! They avoid the One who guided those ships to these shores so many years ago, who gave us the perseverance to blaze out upon the frontier, who gave wisdom to men in founding a nation, who in spite of our waywardness kept us together and strengthened us as Nazism, Fascism, Communism and all sorts of totalitarianism swept this beautiful ball hanging in the expanse of His universe. This is the answer they give...shun Him, and those who trust Him, and let us make our own paths!
          I turn often to those scripted words given to General Buford, for political pragmatism seeks that ridge and unless we block that road we will lose the high ground of our calling and America will no longer exist in its present form. We will have let down our God, our country and our children. The ballot box without our mind stayed on Jesus Christ is worthless and it would do us well to remember David's words in Psalm 18:1-3:

I love you, O Lord, my strength.
The Lord is my rock my fortress and my deliverer,
my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge,
my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.

     

Too Many Choices

         It sounds naive to you I'm sure but I look at it as a wonder first noticed many years ago that just continues to amaze. Do you need some hazelnut oil? How about three-quarters of a pound of pastrami brisket...shaved, or maybe you are in the mood for some wild caught squid or Prince Edward Island mussels? Whatever you want it is at your fingertips at your local supermarket here in the United States! If there is something else that you want, clothes or accessories, and our local retailer doesn't have it, all one has to do is spend fifteen minutes on Amazon and it will probably be delivered the next day. Is it naive to still feel the wonder of this phenomenon decades after it came to be? Maybe it is but if one does not at least acknowledge the overwhelming abundance and varieties available to us then there is something else in the equation....extreme presumption!
         It's possible I guess that my upbringing has something to do with my feelings. In my youth the supermarkets had....pork & beans, potatoes, bread, eggs, milk, laundry detergent and cookies....and about a thousand other things but they were all basically staples..... and we were thankful for that. We were never in want for a string of hot dogs or a quarter pound stick of butter.
         Our weekly grocery shopping would probably not affect me so much if I didn't believe that this smorgasbord of delights was about to come to a grinding halt, for we soon may be thankful once again for a can of pork & beans and a loaf of bread. We've presumed upon our freedoms and more importantly we've presumed upon God. We saw everything that was available to us and thought of them as rights instead of blessings to be sorted through and pruned if necessary.
        To use an old phrase that would be considered ludicrous today....there is the devil to pay... for our failures down the line and from top to bottom, and there are not that many who have not contributed  in some way to the trouble that we are in, and I certainly am not one of them.
         How did we come to fashion a society where half of its people build up their 401s for security while the other half will depend on a social security check and a few bucks in the bank? This is not a 'top one-percenter issue'....it's a 'half will have enough money and have will not' issue. As a nation, how did we let many of our important industries close up and give this valuable business and needed infrastructure to foreign nations....who hate us?  How and why were we taken in so easily by power brokers of special interests who gorge themselves on our dues and the perks from our votes while the rest of the country went to Hades? There are answers to all of these but what is needed more at this time is sober preparation.
         We are now nearing if not in the endgame of this current world order. .... and the moves may be quick and surprising.
      

My Bermuda Cruise....And Dumpster Diving

          I want to ask a favor of the reader. Because of the embarrassing nature of the addendum added to the end, please do not pass this post on to friends or relatives, or promote it in any way, and please do not print it and hang it up at work or any such thing! Better yet...don't tell anyone about this website!


Bermuda......On The Periphery......May, 2014

          I'm writing this from the promenade deck of Royal Caribbean's Grandeur Of The Seas cruise ship. We are a couple hundred miles off of the Virginia coast on our return from the beautiful and almost idyllic country of Bermuda. This is my favorite deck, the starboard and port sides of which hang the lifeboats, but it's not my favorite for that reason, rather it's the starboard side, stern to bow, where I can light up my pipe and look out upon this great expanse of water.
          I can picture a young John Kennedy impressing the ladies with his charm and good looks as he heads to England with his family on one of the great ocean liners of his day. I can imagine Winston Churchill sitting on a wooden deck very much like this one, peering through the same iron rails off onto the salty brine that was home to his Royal Navy. Surely it must have been the same view...the same feeling of floating on top of what may be the most powerful force on earth. I try to put myself back to the days prior to World War II but I can't see their world without also knowing what was ahead of them, but then again, I can have a similar experience as Winston Churchill's in concerns about perilous times and dangers ahead, actually even much more than he himself could imagine.
          Bermuda itself has an aesthetically pleasing culture and all of the many Bermudians we met were so very friendly, even going above and beyond. As my wife and I were trekking under the hot sun along the road to a beach an elderly couple stopped their automobile and insisted that we hop in and let them take us the rest of the way.
          This relatively flat island nation of only 64,000 people on 20 square miles must import 98% of everything that they need. There is no natural water source and the white roofs over the beautiful pastel colored homes directs the rainfall for collection and use. They have one diesel fueled power plant to supply all of their electricity, and if you plan on moving to Bermuda to work you might want to think again for Bermudians are almost wholly favored for employment.
          Against the advice of almost everyone that we talked to we rented a Moped. I had only been on one once, thirty years ago, on a similar cruise to Jamaica. When we pulled out of the rental station I felt like Gregory Peck with Audrey Hepburn on the back in Roman Holiday but once we were out on the narrow winding, often wall enclosed roads with Bermudians in cars and buses going about their daily duties with familiarity I felt more like Steve McQueen trying to stay ahead of the fast approaching German prison guards in The Great Escape. I prayed most of the ride, constantly going over in my mind on which brake the instructor taught me, in the thirty second training course, to use... and which one he instructed me not to use under any circumstances, and all of this while driving on the wrong side of the road! My wife literally screamed twice. As for me it was a great acting job to calm her down, similar to George Clooney calming Sandra Bullock down in Gravity when George knew that he was in deep trouble too.
          We met so many people and the conversations were very enjoyable. I had great difficulty getting into serious discussions about the world that we live in but I did have one lead-in for a serious talk. I would give my observations and then listen to their hopefully profound responses. Here is how it played out....after returning from an excursion I sat on the bed in our stateroom and turned on the television. That classic 1953 film Titanic had just started and I planned on watching it. Early on, in the middle of a serious scene where Barbara Stanwyck's character was in tears discussing with Clifton Webb's character their soon to be divorce, the screen went blank for a few moments and a Bob Hope comedy started in its place! I couldn't help but wonder if a member of the crew spotted the cable channel's offering about the sinking of the Titanic and hurriedly somehow switched the programming.
         I brought this up at the dinner table as all eyes were upon me and focused on the story of the Titanic. Those people were sitting around dinner tables just like we were, I said, being waited on hand and foot by a very professional staff of shipboard waiters, talking about the same incidentals of life that we were talking about. Life was exciting to them on their transatlantic voyage as it was to us on our luxurious cruise to Bermuda.....until the Titanic brushed the ragged subsurface of the iceberg, then life changed for everyone.
         I followed this concept up with the great film Mrs. Miniver where Greer Garson's character lived a privileged life in a beautiful English cottage on the Thames River outside of London. She was preoccupied with the purchase of a Sunday hat that she desperately wanted. Walter Pidgeon's character of her husband was equally preoccupied with the purchase of a new sporty automobile. Their children had wonderful prospects for the future....but once again... only until England was forced to enter the war. I then mentioned two very different church services from the film, one in the beginning where the family was thinking about anything but God... and the other at the end where, under the blue sky visible through the bombed out roof of the church, everyone gave rapt attention to their Creator. I concluded with....they now knew that the God who could sustain them as a nation could also lift His protective hand from them. After a short pause....the conversation immediately returned to the cruise. Oh well.
          At breakfast and lunch you are seated with someone new every meal and on our last day we met a conservative Presbyterian couple just like us and two very nice ladies from London. We talked about everything from films, to conservative and liberal politics, to health care, to religion. There was a lot of laughter and I think that we four Americans and two British ladies learned a lot about each other's countries.
          While in Bermuda we took an excursion on a small ferry. A young man, a Bermudian of course, gave us an excellent tour through the passageway from where our ship was docked to their largest city of Hamilton. He was very personable and we had an opportunity to talk. I wanted him to walk away from our conversation knowing that we in America are two very distinct peoples, hardly related to one another any more, for our bonding together as Americans is gone, as one side has a very reductionist and revisionist view of American history and almost total ignorance of our Constitution and the importance of it. I wanted this young man to know this as he watched the news or read the newspapers for he will get little if any insight into the American people from the international media. If our republic falls, which it is in the process of doing, because of the greed of numerous special interest groups to secure benefits, handouts and entitlements in exchange for their political support and oblivious to others using them as dupes, and because we have forgotten God, then every honest individual loses and every country eventually falls to totalitarianism. Well.... he had met one of those 'red state' Americans anyway!
          We also met an artist, very accomplished and internationally respected in her work, and we spent over an hour looking at her paintings eventually purchasing a beautiful giclee print of a typical Bermudian city dwelling with an old man and two children in it. This young female artist described her work to the people stopping by and did so always as it related to the majesty of the God who designed and created everything. Our very small collection of paintings in our dining room are all by artists that we have personally met and it is a special joy to look at a one of these paintings in our home and think about the artist who created it, my own mother being one of them.
          So I did have some conversations that included God but for me it was peripheral. I was edified by this young lady but I myself edified no one. It was no surprise that I had difficulty praying on the cruise with all the sights and wonders and activities. Without the Internet, newspapers or radio there was no war, no crises, almost no reality and if one is not careful....no God. So in one way I was greatly weakened by the pleasure trip but through it I did receive a stark reminder, a blessing in disguise, of my own past, of what it was like being only on the periphery of God. Here I was with the wonders of God's creation all around me but my thoughts rarely went to Him. I admired the beauty of creation without considering the majesty of the Creator! It's different here at home, without the distractions, where I can see a marvelously green lawn and thank God for giving beautiful colors to His world and I can smell the freshly cut grass and let my thoughts offer up praises to Him.
          I need reminded often, even daily, of where I once was.... lost....oblivious to God....looking to the baubles of this world as if they were of priceless value....and all the while as I was perishing. I need it for myself and also to help me keep in perspective where others are who do not know Christ. It's not an easy choice for them for they are as tropical fish swimming in the murky water of an ignored aquarium, unable to see outside the glass or even what is in front of them. Only the Holy Spirit can give life to the sea of peoples with no vision and no concerns other than that of a secular life and beautiful world that merely evolved.
          I was where they are and would be there today, if I had even survived, had not God intervened. I know I will think often of Bermuda and pray, for that young man who gave us a guided tour and heard an odd testimony of America, for the friendly people, for the fellow passengers and crew who we came to know and like, and I'll pray at that time for the mercies granted to one such as I to be granted to many of them. I'll think of that young Christian artist as I admire her work and thank God for way-tokens and encouragements and lessons like this, and for weaknesses that can be prisms for His light, and for His strength to press on....and to press on...and to press on.

addendum:
          I took a lot of digital pictures while on the cruise... of the many decks that you could stroll upon, and the pools, our stateroom and a lot of the wonderful entertainment. On shore I took pictures of the beautiful pastel colored homes dotting the landscape and also now had evidence to show of the bluest waters that I had ever seen. There were also photographs of the friends we made including the waiters who were with us all week. In short, it would have been a visual reminder of a luxurious cruise to Bermuda.
          I write 'would have been' for a funny thing happened on my way to the Grove City Outlets which is about an hour drive from our home. I stopped at a rest area on Rt. 79 about two miles before the exit to the outlets. There was an empty bag and wrappings from a couple of hot dogs on the seat of the car, along with some incidentals I had brought along. Among the 'incidentals' was the memory card of my camera for I had every intention of stopping to get the pictures developed. Well, it appears that as I gathered up the papers to throw away I also picked up the Ziploc bag that had the memory card in it.
          I didn't discover that it was missing until this morning. After church I drove all the way back up Rt. 79 to the rest area. The garbage container that I threw everything away in was empty so I talked to the attendant and he kindly led me to a dumpster. Just then a downpour began. I started to pull out the clear garbage bags to see if I could spot the white paper bag inside.....no luck....so I climbed into the dumpster, with my church clothes on, and literally waded knee deep in the bags and bottles and cans and watermelon rinds...and probably a hypodermic needle or two...and well everything else. I did not find the bag I threw away the day before or my camera's memory card.
          I was concerned most for my wife who would be very disappointed but a thought then came to me. We'll always have memories but what is left that is tangible are the necklace and the bracelet of sea glass that I bought for my wife, for her birthday was in the middle of the cruise, and the stunningly vibrant painting we purchased from the artist who, as I wrote above, described the subjects of her work to everyone who stopped "as (they) related to the majesty of God who designed and created everything."
          That which is lasting remains and only that which was fleeting is gone.

The Second Of Four Possibilities

     
          In the following post from three weeks before the election I listed four possibilities for America and the second of the four possibilities is where we seem to be headed. America is indeed already under judgement but most have lost all the skills of discernment to recognize this. I'm reminded for only a moment of Auntie Em.... from the 1939 film The Wizard Of Oz....smiling and knitting in her rocking chair high up in the middle of the tornado. We ourselves are in the eye of a hurricane so to speak...and it is not going to dissipate....and it would benefit every Christian to know this.


The Four Possibilities In This Coming Election

        There are four possible results in the coming election and they are as follows: The American public remains as it is right now and Clinton is awarded the election. That's one. The American public remains as it is and Trump wins the election. That's two. America humbles itself before God but God has Clinton awarded the election anyway. That's three...and America humbles itself before God who permits Trump to win the election. That's four possible results....there are no others.... and that is assuming that God even permits us to reach November 8th or to hold an election.
           Let me expand upon these four results. In the first one America continues to do what it is doing right now, that being that on the one side it wants its corrupt and manifestly incompetent candidate to move into the Oval Office and continue to discard what is left of our American heritage, while the other side continues to put its trust in its own power, and refuses to solely rely on God's power. The result is that Clinton is awarded the election...the judgements upon America continue....and there is no mercy extended.
           In the second possibility....in spite of all the avenues of election fraud being perpetrated upon the American public...Donald Trump still wins. The winners had relied upon their own perceived power up to the election and consequently think that they were proven right....the result is that judgements upon America continue....and mercy is not extended because the people relied upon their own perceived powers.
          The third possibility is that America, under whatever circumstances, and there are many possibilities, repents...humbles itself....sees our failure to trust in God and falls before Him seeking mercy. Hillary Clinton is awarded the election because of collusion of the power-brokers.....judgements upon America continue but God responds to our humility and has mercy upon us in the coming difficult days.
          The fourth possibility is similar....the American public, once again under whatever circumstances, discards its trust in man and trusts only in God.....Donald Trump wins the election.....judgements continue upon America and the world....but God is with us through them.
         

Enrolled, Cajoled, And Controlled

This post is from November 22nd:       

          OK, let's explore how this whole thing happened. We'll start with John Dewey. No, he's not part of Duck Dynasty's legal team...Huey, Dewey and Louie, he was a bunch of things back in the early 1900s but most disastrously....an educational reformer and was sometimes called the Father of Modern Education. He helped reform education into a politicized reeducation camp for anyone who may have been initially instructed by God-fearing parents. At Fox News as I write is an article titled "President of university founded by Jefferson asked to not quote Jefferson." You can read it for yourself and weep at the insanity, or for a more detailed description of the disaster in our educational system you might read my post from October 31st titled Crimes Of The Educators from a book reviewed there of that title..
          So, it took about a century but our youth are now primarily under the control of employment specialists in full academic regalia. This is why our youth have no idea the horrors of communism or even understand what communism is. They are enrolled, cajoled and controlled, and this at a time when we need young people to stand up for their country, but they mostly sit back and watch others march, if not marching themselves, to a socialist ethos.
       The Democrat Party was hijacked. Former Senator Jim Webb entered the primaries in this past election but found out just how much....or rather just how little....the Democrat Party from his youth  still existed.
       As for the media.....let me paraphrase the first words of the 1970 film Love Story....What can you say about a 326 year old profession that died? That it was once honorable and courageous? That it once loved its country and its constitution and all of us? I watched network news from about 9:00 o'clock on this past election night and heard the commentators offer the most inane comments on why Hillary Clinton was not winning. Not once....not one solitary time did anyone mention the Pay-to-Play of the Clinton Foundation or the daily stream of WikiLeaks that showed the corruption in the Democrat Party and Mrs. Clinton! Folks...this is still America....and no cadre of communist rabble-rousers can by themselves turn us into a banana republic ripe for a Marxist takeover.....but we can do it to ourselves and are in the process of doing just that....Donald Trump notwithstanding.
      Speaking of Donald Trump.....as I have penned in these posts many times....this groundswell of patriotism began long ago while Mr. Trump was still firing people on his television show. Trump added nothing except his bravado but ultimately he was the horse that would carry the mail. We celebrated.....well I should only speak for myself.....I celebrated more the departure of the other miscreants and misfits leaving than his arriving. Apparently on yesterday's television show 60 Minutes he actually advocated abolishing the electoral college....in the future of course. This comment alone....but there have been others...shows that he will need full time guidance because the wisdom will not be coming from within Mr. Trump.
       So this is somewhat how it happened...how we find ourselves counting the days until Barack Obama leaves office and then hoping against hope for Donald Trump to become another Ronald Reagan. I try to block this from my mind but when I look at Donald Trump I see King Saul. Conservatives demanded a king, figuratively speaking. God relented and gave us what we demanded, but it wasn't a king that we needed, or a champion, rather it was the King of Kings. 
        Stephen K. Bannon was front and certain in the news today as he was named President-elect Donald Trump's chief strategist and senior counselor. I tried my best in posts over the last few months to contact Mr. Bannon about this issue of Donald Trump's religious beliefs, or lack of them. I included these words... "he (Donald Trump) will need to at least regretfully admit that he has never given due reverence to the God who had blessed this nation from before it was even a nation, nor has he done what our forefathers and Founding Fathers had done in acknowledging the providence of Almighty God in our welfare."  Pray for this man Donald Trump throughout the day, for he is surely heading into battle and has not sought nor even considered God's hand in the destiny of nations.

"For There Is Born To You This Day.... A Savior..."

         For the longest time in America it was essentially a Macy's type of Christmas....and I loved about every minute of it. My wife and I went out to dinner last night and I specifically wanted to go to one of the cheaper steak houses....for I wanted a little trip down Memory Lane. I need to give a little explanation here:
        Christmas in Pittsburgh in the early 60s was a simple thing. There really weren't any fancy gifts to give to the kids. Oh we thought they were great but compared to today they were very simple. As for myself, some years we had a Christmas tree and others we didn't and I really didn't take much notice to that. The real big thing for me was our annual bus trip downtown...for their was no such thing as a mall. Hopefully it was snowing and it seemed like it usually was. We would trek from Macy's...excuse me, Kaufmann's on the Mon River side to Gimbals by where the U. S. Steel Building would eventually go up, to Hornes down by the point, while stopping in many stores between them, but my fondest memory was the new and exciting steak restaurant at the point called the Flame where from the street you could see the flames cooking the steaks....and it was cheap....cheap enough for anyone to afford. So last night I wanted just a little bit of that memory....and I got it....and a good steak also.
        Jesus was in Christmas back then....if only as a baby. A number of movies at the time showed pretty clearly what Christmas was to us....Holiday Inn and White Christmas being two. You probably will not remember this film but it was very typical.....The Apartment with Jack Lemmon, Shirley (I am God) MacClaine and Fred MacMurray. It revolved around a national insurance company and some of its managers and lowly Jack Lemmon who provides his apartment to them to meet with young woman. A company Christmas party was prominent in the story.....gifts....drinking....a party....and plenty of fun. This was Christmas in America in 1960. Jesus was still there....somehow....and we just assumed that all was well....but as the years passed even this changed.
        They started taking Jesus out of Christmas. At first we began to use other words such as Xmas and holiday. More years passed and certain institutions, including our government, started to ban any religious significance for the day.  Conservatives in America were outraged and 'putting Jesus back in Christmas' became some what of a battle cry. One thing led to another and the conservatives won....we have Donald Trump as our President-elect! So we can go back to our baby in a manger and the company Christmas Party... with gifts...and drinking...and plenty of fun....all of this of course leading up to New Year's Eve and Times Squire....only Guy Lombardo and his orchestra are long gone....replaced by Lady Gaga, Katy Perry and Beyonce.
        Here's my point folks...you know I always have a point....Jesus has been out of Christmas in America.... and maybe this was a good thing... for it was becoming a mockery of the birth of our Savior. Now before you get too upset, yes there were...moments. Some of the hymns that were composed over the centuries were magnificent in exalting the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ, and many Christians throughout America simply gave thanks on this day for the fulfilled prophesy of the birth of Christ that would thirty years later lead to Jesus ministry of three years where He would proclaim to us the glorious gospel of salvation. Yes there were moments in our modern Christmas in America but in the last thirty years or so even those moments were few and it has been as if we have forgotten altogether the birth of Jesus.
         This is therefore my hope! Jesus was taken out of Christmas...we no longer took joy in.the angels singing praises in the heavens while the shepherds could only watch and listen in awe...and Simeon was no longer there to proclaim...."for my eyes have seen Your salvation..." We have gone through our Christless Christmas period and should God will it...it may be time for Jesus to be put back into Christmas! The international news of this world is moving as a speeding locomotive...without brakes... down a mountain. That news may bring with it a sobering....and we may indeed put Jesus back in Christmas....but not in mere words such as 'Christmas parties' or 'Merry Christmas'....and not only as a newborn baby...as glorious as that was...but in the hope of the returning Savior....the King of Kings and Lord of Glory!

Pulpit.....Not The Podium

         The following preface is from February of 2014 and the post below it is originally from 2009:

         Radio host Mark Levin will be honored in two days at the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC). He is to receive the inaugural Andrew Breitbart Defender of the First Amendment Award. Mark Levin deserves to be honored. His books and his radio program have been invaluable to an America under siege and I have written of them often but our problems are deeper than even the tyranny in our midst.
         During those first years after a burden of sin appeared on my back and I came to the cross of Calvary and found redemption in what Jesus Christ accomplished on that day over two thousand years ago I found myself frequenting Christian conferences. They were a time of great joy and I'm so thankful for them but if one is not careful one can live only for the conferences and seminars and begin to live vicariously through the speakers and come to depend upon their efforts to sustain one's enthusiasm.
         Only a reformation in American Christianity holds any hope for us to survive as a nation. God's Holy Spirit is the only one who can transform us by the renewing of our minds. It is only upon the imputed righteousness of Jesus Christ that we can depend. Should God have mercy upon America it will be through our pulpits that He reforms us and there is scant evidence at the present time of such mercy. The vast majority of my brothers and sisters in Christ would disagree with that assessment but that same vast majority has been given little to compare with present day evangelicalism.

Pulpit....Not The Podium   

         One of the running themes in these posts is the need for America to humble itself before God, before God humbles us before our numerous enemies. Yesterday, Texas Governor Rick Perry hosted a major prayer event in Houston of upwards of 25,000 people with that very message. One might therefore expect the writer of these posts to wholeheartedly rejoice in this but that's not the case. I agree with the diagnosis, but not prescription of a media event.
         We are falling apart in every way imaginable. Our Congress is clueless which is a description far too generous to use on our White House. Our culture is in chaos. Our media is in denial while our enemies are certain of our collapse. Pep rallies are not the answer especially when politics is part of it. I'm not questioning the intent of the organizers or Governor Perry for I know what it is like to finally figure out that America is collapsing because its reliance upon God has vanished, because we have gone our own way,  and God is permitting us to reap what we have sown.
          I have probably written a dozen times on the need for America to humble itself before God and I hope in those posts that I made it known that I was talking about myself as much as anyone who might read it. Ultimately, we do not have to see America's sins clearer...we have to see more clearly the one sinned against (God.) A deficient view of the holiness of God can result in feelings of a satisfactory repentance and the consequent projection upon others of the need to do so also. A heightened view of the holiness of God will hardly get one off the hook so easily.
         The Puritan mind could see clearer... God and His character, hence repentance was an everyday occurrence as they humbly approached God for all their needs. The secular mind of today sees the Puritan mind as a lifelong quest to quench joy in anyone and everyone and the evangelical mind is a product of these times, on display in Christian bookstores, Christian music concerts and events, and fundraising telethons, and is much more susceptible to a good gimmick than what is really needed.  
         The podium, the bookstore and the blogosphere can indeed address our inflated view of our minds and ourselves and the turmoil that lies ahead but only the pulpit can effectively deflate that view, soften the heart and ease the burdened soul through the proclamation of redemption through the blood of Christ as written in God's Word. The speaker on the dais and the soapbox tends to point out every culprit except the one standing on the dais and the soapbox and those gathered together to listen.
         We attended a Lutheran church (Missouri Synod) this past week while traveling. I scoured the local church websites looking for a Lord's Day sermon topic on Christ and, as I had done in the past, wound up choosing the Lutheran church, for the atonement is at least always present in the liturgy if not the sermon. As it happened, a "retired" minister was filling the pulpit for the regular pastor. In essence, his sermon was "Christ is the only answer." A worshipper came up to my wife and recommended that we should come back next week when the regular pastor is in the pulpit but I think that we were blessed with the right day, the right minister and the right message. In our storied past, calls for national days of prayer and fasting have been corporate, where the composer of the call was in need of repentance as any of the represented, but ultimately the pulpit is what God utilizes in calling individuals and nations to repentance. Unfortunately for today, our pulpits are in need of awakening. Such is our extreme dilemma.

Once again I would like to recommend refnet.fm as a resource for a comparison of our church age today and that of times past.

Compassions In The Dock

         The following dialogue was first posted this past April after visiting a college campus and reading some of the editorial comment from the last few issues of the student newspaper. I'll leave it up front for a day and then return it to where is was. If you have high school or college age children, would you consider sharing this post with them?  They think that they been been adequately informed of the news of this world...they have not, and they consider their education to have been superior to ours.....but it has been inferior!    
         They'll be educated to perform all necessary functions in a society but history will be amended to squelch patriotism, while reading itself has been taught through methods designed to inhibit individualism. Curriculums in all the humanities have been chosen for the same reason. Truth? Well truth is anything that anybody wants it to be...except of course for people who believe that truth is actually verifiable. Has this method and these schemes been successful everywhere? Of course not but enough so that that we are two peoples within one nation...a nation adrift in a sea of chaos and violence that sets the stage for their end-game.
          Our youth should be informed....at least once...warned at least once.... that they have been manipulated to come to the conclusions that they have come to, and they should thus be given the opportunity to research on their own the ideologies that have been using them...and abusing them...for their own despicable purposes. 

         Old Main, on this her Christian college campus, always put her in awe. The newer buildings might be more impressive but they lacked....they lacked.....history and tradition. Julie always felt a little bit nervous when she spoke one-on-one with Professor Miller. It's not that he was mean or overbearing or arrogant but that he was so confident in what he had to say....but then he was the professor and she the student. Still she wanted to show him she had a mind also and that just by being young did not necessarily make one naive or unknowledgeable. Professor Miller's door never had any little post-it-notes, comics or articles on it like most of the other professors. She wished that it had for she might mention one of them to break the ice. She knocked twice.

Come in!
Julie opened the door with confidence...no slow turning of the handle with a peek inside and some inane remark like 'Oh Hi!'
Professor Miller...do you have a few minutes by any chance?

I sure do young lady.
Julie walked in and just as confidently closed the door behind her.

You said that your door is always open to discuss something from class in a little more detail.
She waited for a response but he only smiled.....that confident smile!
In class yesterday when you were speaking about the economics of mass migrations....
She paused but still no comment that would have helped.
Well, John Venesales made a few comments on what is going on in Syria and Europe today....and the refugees travelling all those miles with their families.....and then running into opposition from the people...
Professor Miller's hand went up to his beard as if to stroke it and his smile softened a little as if to show interest. This was good...she thought.
Well, he went on for about five minutes and when he was finished everyone in the class thought that you would comment on what he said but you only kind of nodded your head and continued with your lesson.
Still no comments? This wasn't going as well as she hoped.
So I was wondering if you might have disagreed with John. You see, I feel the same way as John. I have.....a passion I guess....to see that these people are helped....and so many do not want to help...This is not America!
He wasn't making it easy. So she just blurted out her question.
Professor Miller, what are your thoughts on immigration of Syrian refugees to America?

Professor Miller picked up a pen that had something written on it and seemed to read it. He then closed the book he was reading before Julie came in.

Julie....it's good that you have this....passion.....this compassion. I would though have some questions for you. Do you also have compassion upon a nation of 300 million people that can't tell it's right hand from its left and is rapidly squandering all of its liberties and freedoms... a nation that has now formally rejected it's benefactor....the God of all creation...and our Savior Jesus Christ, and will have to navigate the troubled seas of this world without His hand of protection, without his guidance and wisdom? Does your compassion extend to America's children who have some very difficult times ahead of them....quite possibly just like those children in Syria. 
The professor then paused for only a moment and continued...
Are you as passionate for families in our nation whose children have, in effect, become wards of the state...a state that tries to keep those children from God and then dares God to judge it? Julie, do fifty million plus aborted babies at least equally disturb you, or does Planned Parenthood bring out the same disgust? Do you lose sleep at night over these things. Do they bring you at times to tears? God is ridiculed in the public square and kept from our children. We are rudderless and lack vigilance as our enemies conspire against us. Julie....this....this is America.

These questions unnerved her a little even though Professor Miller talked slowly and was very calm. She had two pages of facts about the refugees that she was ready to give but her professor had changed the direction of the conversation..
Professor Miller...what has all this to do with accepting Syrian refugees into America?

The professor was very deliberate in his answer...
Unfortunately very much Julie. We have enemies who are committed to our destruction. Your anger on this issue is at us but it should be on those who cause this suffering. You should direct your concern to 300 million people who are arrogantly daring God to judge them, and your care, should we fall, to an entire world that would no longer have America, imperfect as we are, to stand up to totalitarianism and tyranny. Can you imagine for even a moment what terrorists may be capable of Julie....can you see yourself walking amidst the carnage of terrorist attacks as those on 9/11 only on a much larger scale...or even visualize a distant smoke engulfing an entire city? Can you see Christians persecuted  as they once were in the Soviet Union....or even Rome? Can you imagine even for a moment...an America lying in virtual ruins....their leaders shaking with fear at what wasn't supposed to happen.....and your family and all of your loved ones shaking with fear along with them?

Julie was not giving up...disorganized as her thoughts had become.Professor Miller, I have faith in God. He is in control of all things. I do not fear what may happen in the future.
With this Professor Miller waxed melancholy...
Ah...would that I had your courage, but I weaken at what I see coming to our nation.....but that wasn't my question. Can you....Julie Beatty....picture these things in your  mind? Can you almost smell the smoke? Can you close your eyes and hear the cries?  Can you see the faces of total despair on your neighbors and your loved ones?

I can see the faces of despair on the Syrian refugees!

And you are to be commended on this. I see those faces also but you are avoiding my question. Can you see your loved ones in despair, their country lying in ruins?

Julie played along and paused as she pretended to imagine what he requested. She wanted to say "OK yes, I envisioned them in my mind....now what?" but could not tell this lie. She continued with her pause. Maybe she should just refuse to imagine these things.
I know that these things can happen.
That also is not what I asked.

There was no way out of it. She had to actually try to imagine what he said but the professor helped her out.... 
Just think of one thing.....an America where God was outlawed. Put yourself right there. Look around you...at the children...maybe at your own children. You are not permitted to work anywhere without denying your faith in God. But of course you will not deny it so you will not work, nor will your future husband. Those of us who say that this influx of people has to be halted at this time...see these things I've mentioned very clearly as being at our doorstep. These people who want to destroy us.... have found an answer to one of their biggest problems...how to get in her! They play upon the compassions of America...many of which are insincere and  even fabricated compassions...politically motivated...and they laugh as their schemes succeed. They know that our media is no harm to their plans whatsoever. They know that we are asleep as a people...many if not most drunken with entertainments. They are the only ones in this equation who have no compassion upon refugees. In fact they are the ones who produced the refugees.

Julie wanted to respond. All of the facts that she read in the newspaper and heard on the nightly news were floating somewhere in her head. She identified some of them but they no longer seemed to have the power of persuasion they previously had.
Professor Miller....your concerns over the Syrian refugees are....are....overblown. Its a... fear... that overwhelms you.
There was that smile again...that confident smile.
Julie.....if that's what you truly believe then yes you have to act on those beliefs. But I caution you to take this issue and read as much as you can on it before you come to your conclusions... and by that I mean you have to hear and actually meditate upon opinions.....opinions of people that you have already relegated to being.... compassionless. I caution you again in that you will get little to no useful information from what was once an honorable and capable news media.

Julie smiled at her professor...
I hope that you don't mean people like Rush Limbaugh or Mark Levin! 

That would be a good start! It's going to take time Julie. Don't rush in before you are fully prepared. You have faith in God? Does not that faith include His hand upon your mind in that you can honestly inquire? 
With this the professor paused once again before continuing...
Julie.....you seem to accuse us of having no compassion. That's a serious charge. I can tell you this, that we, many of us, have sweated bullets for decades on what we have seen coming....on what is now here...a populace that year by year lost the ability to think through things...whose discernment seemed to vanish more so with each Super Bowl, with each new television season...with each new springtime. If we err on this Julie... it would be because our compassions have overwhelmed us....not our fears. Our faith in God is no longer theoretical.....it is already being tested and has been for quite some time.

Julie got out of her chair without saying anything and was intent upon leaving the conversation at this point but looked one more time at her professor and asked...
Professor Miller....why didn't you mention thoughts like these in class yesterday?

David Miller stood also....
In a macroeconomics class? I'd much rather that one of my students, a student with fire in her eyes, came in and demanded an answer.
His smile came back as she turned to close the door....and she liked it this time.

Do What Is Right....And Trust In God

         If you or I have an acquaintance or maybe even a family member who at one time had murdered another person, decades could pass and the heinousness of that crime would never leave our mind. I'm not talking about forgiveness....that's another topic altogether....I'm talking about acknowledging in our mind that a crime has been committed. In the sickness of our society today we can easily forget, tolerate and even at times applaud such crimes. Many do this in the case of Fidel Castro. We can rationalize it as... well that was war....when it wasn't war....it was communist terrorism....it was murder!
        Castro put to death thousands of human beings....."no problem.....I don't have a functioning conscience to inform me of this."  Communism has done this to tens of millions for a century...."no problem...I don't have a brain to think this thing through." Che was a murderer...."no problem....he looked cool with that beard and beret."
       This travesty of the human intellect will not go unnoticed by God but it still doesn't matter to us what others may have done in the past for...."political realities have made these murderers acceptable... even at times laudable," but If they have become acceptable to us then their crimes have become acceptable to us also. If I support abominations because they are beneficial to America then I am at fault also. Our government has done this in the past and we are collapsing in no small measure because we have lost the unction...in all matters... to simply do what is right and trust in God...as difficult as doing what is right is at times to even discern.
         'It's impossible for a society to function in any other way' you say? First of all...no it isn't impossible....secondly, even if it was impossible we do not have to be a part of it. Fidel Castro has murdered, he has tortured, and he has imprisoned for Communism. He may not be a mass murderer on a scale of Mao or Stalin but he is a mass murderer none the less and we should have been as disdainful of even his shadow landing upon us as fearful of the crimes themselves applied to our account.
        I may make this look easy...but it is not easy and I understand that. If we lived in a barbarian's country as Paul did under Nero it would be one thing but we have a responsibility to a civilized government that we not only live under but one which through the Founding Fathers whom we cherish... we chose for ourselves.
       

A Death In Cuba

        Castro is dead. I'm not wasting any time in this particular post describing the life of Fidel Castro. If you don't know about who and what he was...shame on American education and our media... because this man greatly and negatively effected America in the last half century.
         I opened the iPad and Castro's face was filling the screen. I paged down very slowly to see why he was the headline on Fox News. Surely it wasn't because football player Colin Kaepernick is back in the news from wearing a Fidel Castro t-shirt, and it probably wasn't because a new book is out Target JFK: The Spy Who Killed Kennedy by Robert Wilcox, where Cuba is prominently mentioned in the book? (I read this book, almost non-stop, in 12 ours...amazing that it has come out at this time)
         For a split second I hoped that he was not dead! This because generally when men like this die the mainstream news media does their thing...which is further destroy their credibility as journalists while furthering their reputation as dupes for various enemies of America.
         I continued to scroll down slowly and saw that Fidel Castro had indeed died. A short prayer came to my mind and it went something like this....."Lord...wake us up in America after the death of this man as to Communism!" That was it.
         How will the mainstream media portray Castro's death over the next few days?  What will Obama say? What will Trump Say? How will Limbaugh and Mark Levin handle it? We shall find out, but my prayer will continue to be that somehow in God's mercy that the dialogue that follows will portray Communism for what it is so that we might see that it is alive in America today... in riots in our streets...on some of our college campuses...and in the many dupes of Communism from the media to entertainment to college and university professors...to some unions...and to our politically correct culture.       

         The following post is from August of 2015. A recent poll showed that many Americans have no idea what happened on July 4th of 1776, so they surely are oblivious also to what happened during the last century in Russia, China, Korea, Vietnam, Eastern Europe and Cuba. Our Progressive education has failed us and set us up to be totalitarianism's latest mistress.

Hear No Evil

         What you see happening on the streets of many of our metropolitan areas in the form of violent protests is Communism at work.  I submit to you that there is no concern whatsoever for any individuals or racial equality from the orchestrators of this chaos  This is not only a communist tactic....it is communist DNA.....instigate unrest that will lead to chaos that will result in an emergency situation where governmental powers must be 'temporarily' incorporated under one authority....all for the good of the nation of course!
        The Bolsheviks played their cards well in the unrest against the Tsar, and when the day that they waited for came... they seized it.... then banished all other opponents of that Tsar. Tens upon tens of millions of deaths later and Communism is not only on the move again, it has succeeded remarkably well in none other than the world's bastion of freedom and liberty...the United States of America... for Communism is a dialectic, and if pressed, it will outwardly change but never inwardly.
        Cadres of communists infiltrated America in the early 20th century under the banner of Progressivism in what they knew would be a long struggle. They accomplished much, so much that one United States Senator saw their presence in our government and did the best that he could to warn us. He was right and proven right when documents were released after the fall of the Soviet Union but it was decades too late to help him, and even today the name Joe McCarthy is used to bully those who continue to warn against Communism.
        Barack Obama was the picture perfect Manchurian Candidate, mentored by a communist and used by radical opponents of freedom and liberty. He has turned out to be a destroyer of the first rank! Is our mainstream media communist? No, but they are dupes sui generis, oblivious to who pulls their strings. Communists in America, operating often under the nom de guerre of Progressives, escape scrutiny under the protective umbrella of... fairness and equality...an umbrella ribbed with gross distortions of those honorable concepts.
         Our youth have not been educated in the horrors of Communism let alone the tactics and origins of it. America was once more noble than corrupt and we were taught as such, but today we are far more corrupt than noble, where the corruption of today is presented as noble.. and what is noble viewed as corruption! This are all part of Communism's insidious planning.
        To those Americans who ride whatever hobbyhorse gives them a few extra dollars in their wallet or pension at the expense of others... these people are not your friends and once you have helped them achieve power you will be no better off than the Soviet worker laboring on a five-year plan...and don't even think about expressing an opposing opinion.
        Should America humble itself before God, should it hear the trumpet of the approaching King of Kings and seek forgiveness for being taken in by the most base and vile impostors ever to tear at the fabric of America, then Communism will crumble under the weight of its own lies and deception. The Gospel of Jesus Christ would then have returned to our pulpits for therein is the only hope for this presently disenfranchised, dismembered and disoriented people awash in narcissistic and trivial pursuits.

Note: For a far more erudite description of Communism in America please pick up a copy of Dupes: How America's Adversaries Have Manipulated Progressives for a Century by Grove City College Professor Paul Kengor. This book is usually on the shelves at Barnes and Noble and can be found in many libraries, and my review of it was last posted on July 24, 2015.  Professor's Kengor's most recent book, Takedown, is even more unsettling, and there is a review of it on the same day.

Half Price Sale

         The Christian walk is difficult, most of us can agree on that. From the earlier days to the later days there is a challenging, to say the least, array of twists and turns. There are so many of them that it doesn't really make a difference that some Christians are exposed to certain trials while others never experience them but have there own set of difficulties throughout life. There's plenty of roadblocks to go around and detours to navigate.
         I know for a fact that this is not a matter of survival of the fittest, the most determined or the most faithful, for if it was I would have fallen in the valley of the shadow of death long ago. The new Christian has to know this....I do believe....and I have to remind myself of this often. In the course of evangelizing, an honest inquirer, if he is properly evangelized, is surely going to know that this pilgrimage is going to be difficult to say the least.
        We trust in God not because we are gullible people. We trust in God because from the very beginning He proved Himself. The burden of our sin was off of our backs as His Word said that it would be. The joy has been consistent and increasing, non-existent only when we ourselves depart for a time from God. The Bible, God's very words to us, remains and will always remain, full of mysteries and hard to conceptualize passages....but at the same time we will be given more in the way of clarity as time goes on!
        Let me take a guess at where you are at. You would like this Christian thing to be true but it would take a lot of proof before you would commit yourself.  Consider two meetings that Jesus had with individuals....almost one right after another. In the first a rich young ruler, probably a very nice young man, asks Jesus what he would have to do for eternal salvation. You probably know the answer that Jesus gave.....sell everything and give it all to the poor. Shortly after this Zacchaeus appears. I picture him looking like Danny DeVito. Jesus is walking by and Zacchaeus wants to see him but can't so he climbs a tree. Jesus calls him down and says that he wants to eat at his home that night....Zacchaeus got excited and later told Jesus  "I'll give half of what I own to the poor..." Jesus responds positively to him. What's up with this? Jesus drives a hard bargain with with a nice young man and then goes easy on a crooked tax collector who only promises to give half.
        Are you the rich young man my friend. It doesn't matter if you have money or not, if you are asking for worldly proof then you will wind up walking away sad like the rich young ruler did. This young man wanted to follow Jesus but did not Trust in Him. Zacchaeus is Louie on television's Taxi....not exactly someone you want your daughter to marry. The proof comes later...the change will come later....trust is to come first. Louie...excuse me....Zacchaeus....crooked tax collector that he was....trusted in Jesus that everything would be all right. The rich young ruler, loved his riches...yes, but he also did not trust in Jesus that everything would be all right.

Ponder this verse if you will....Psalm 34:8...."Oh, taste and see that the LORD is good! Blessed is the man who takes refuge in Him." And this verse also....Psalm 91:2 "I will say of the LORD, He is my refuge and my fortress;  in Him will I trust,"

"Pour Your Oil In The Sanctuary Lord"

        Have mercy on us Lord. We took credit for what others had done. We looked over this land of wealth and prosperity and said 'look what our hands have built!'  We took chisel and hammer to the tablets that you gave us and broke them in pieces. We tore up the documents that our fathers had worked so long and so hard to write and said 'they are but fetters and we don't need any directions.' We thus scuttled everything our forefathers put in place for a nation to run orderly, honestly and wisely, and now we stand on the ruins gazing off into the distance often arrogantly but in the case of many...ignorantly...proclaiming that 'we...can make it great again' without seeking first your mercies and forgiveness.
         We took the day that you commanded us to keep holy and set it apart for our games. We took our children that are precious in your sight and let others raise them who care nothing for you. We bought them toys to pacify them, and when they got bored and demanded more we gave them 'smart toys' that were to be tools of education but turned out to be doors of perception where upon entering they are introduced to the very deceiver that you warned us about.
         We look into a mirror, not to see what is there, but to see what is missing. If we see sin it is in the form of wrinkles.  If we see nothing we marvel how there are no imperfections. You Lord have become as a pet, an alabaster statue of a pet that needs little attention other than dusting off once a week. You are placed in a corner whose bareness called out for a knickknack. Your book has long since become outmoded fashion. It no longer fits in with the decor.
         We are blind but a virtual reality has given us eyesight into a new world called Utopia. We have enemies on all sides of us but they wear masks that we compliment them on. In times past we would be considered The Almost Christians but we are unaware of this for the past has been locked up and the key thrown away. We are in need of a mercy that only your pulpits can accurately proclaim, but those pulpits now only soothe, play music and enchant us with witticisms and advice. Thunder no longer emanates above them, glory no longer fills the buildings, grace no longer rains upon the roofs, and angels no longer protect at the gates.
         Pour your oil in the sanctuary Lord that we may sweep out the dust. Do this Lord because the building that we have let become rundown bears your name! Do it for your glory Lord! Have mercy upon us for your glory alone Lord.
 

On The Playing Fields Of ESPN

The following post is from last December:         

          At the end of a long day of solo Christmas shopping, and after waiting for the waitresses to finish their line dance in the aisle, I settled into a comfortable booth at Texas Roadhouse for dinner. I like a noisy restaurant with music. I've related this story before. A few years ago while on vacation at that stately Hilton Head Island off the coast of South Carolina, my wife and I ate lunch at one of those old fashioned diners with all the neon on the outside, and checkerboard linoleum floors and round swivelling chairs at the ice cream bar on the inside. This one had individual jukeboxes at every booth. It was a little too quiet so after ordering I put some quarters in the machine. I picked a Frank Sinatra song first and could see the robotic arm of the main jukebox move sideways and pick out a record (actually a CD). The song started and I quickly began flipping the song menu to see what this crazy song was.....Don't cha wish your girlfriend was hot like me...by some.....group.....called the Pussycat Dolls.
         Was it my imagination or were people looking over to see who chose this? The song ended and I hurriedly chose a different tune to show the folks that I was somewhat normal.....the arm moved...the song was chosen.....Make this place sizzle like a summertime cookout. Prowl for the best chick, yes, I'm on the lookout! (folks, trust me, I Googled these lyrics just now....I didn't memorize them, and some of them I can't even write in this post).  My wife was laughing as I looked around for some hidden Candid Camera. Now you may not believe this but I did it again.... Andy Williams this time...but the jukebox from Hades struck again. We ate quickly and left.
         But I digress.....I love a steakhouse milieu. As I type this I'm looking over at our television. It sits in the far corner of our living room and has only a 21 inch screen. When it's on, one almost has to strain their eyes to see the people's faces. In my booth I looked up to see the ubiquitous giant television screen that restaurants have and as always I was impressed at what technology can do. Let me describe the show that was selected.....it was sports.  The set and all the colors were a feast for the eyes. The main commentator must be a very important man for his desk sat alone and elevated, made of clear Plexiglas. He spoke to three other men whose images sort of hung in the air as spirits to be summoned at will. If there was a sound, I could not hear it but a caption of what they were talking about was at the bottom. Apparently there was someone who is important and was upset because the coach had rested him in the fourth quarter of a football game. One of the images would  be summoned in a close-up as he spoke, followed by the main host, then another image and back and forth like this as they opined on what must be a very important issue, the player who was upset. The caption changed and now American men across the country were viewing what would put their reasoning skills to use pondering if someone named McCoy should shake Chip's hand! Again the images came close as this most important problem in America today was being massaged to bring peace between McCoy and Chip.
         The message in this post is a serious one. I tried to preface it with a little humor but it is actually life or death. I'm writing here to the American male fifty years of age and older. We remember America as it once was; at least we were educated at a time when we were proud to see that striped flag with the white stars over blue in the upper left corner. John Wayne was a hero then. George Washington was an even greater hero. We, as children, felt secure and thankful for those heroes on beachheads in the Pacific and forested hillsides of Europe. We had generals like George Patton and Douglas MacArthur, and soldiers like Audie Murphy and Sgt York. We still have the soldiers but the generals have been somewhat hamstrung by the most unimpressive of presidents we ever sent to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. Our weak Congress almost makes us wish that we had a king and our tyrannical king makes us wish that we had a Congress! Yet we glory on in our sports teams. The origin and meaning of the phrase may be somewhat in doubt but it still holds its sway in our minds....The Battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton...but if a similar phrase is to be constructed in the future it may read....American liberty and freedoms were lost on the playing fields of ESPN. 
        I know very well the allure of American sports. I stood shouting on the wooden benches at Pitt Stadium and paraded through the streets of downtown Pittsburgh after a Super Bowl win. I was for many years not vigilant for my country, my soul or my country's soul. I thus share in the responsibility of America's failures that have resulted in the politically correct and suicidal culture that rules us today. I testify here that the thrills of those days were more than a waste of time for they have repercussions. All one can do when confronted with the evidences of serial dereliction of duty is to make amends with an extreme dedication from that time forward. All one can do when one sees oneself, in all one's abysmal iniquity, is to fall before the One offended and seek mercy and pardon.
          I testify also that all of the emotions combined in a life based on sports is not equal to but a moment of feeling the grace of forgiveness found at the foot of Calvary, and that all the excitements combined of winning cannot compare to understanding the caption written on the rider of the white horse in Revelation 19:16.... KING OF KINGS AND LORD OF LORDS.

Thanksgiving

I've posted this every Thanksgiving since 2010:

Thankful For Weaknesses

          Thanksgiving is far and away my favorite day of the year. There's no gift exchanges, blessings though such things are, to divert attention from the day, and no pagan bush to drag into the house to be decorated. There are no myths involved, in fact the historical testimony is so strong that even the revisionists have a hard time trying to distort it. As I write this, today's Wall Street Journal is beside me. Every year since 1961 on this day before Thanksgiving their top editorial has been a reprint of the beginning of a first-hand chronicle of the Plymouth Colony's voyage and arrival in their new land. This is part of the heritage that elements of our society are systematically trying to erase. One particular day has since been set apart for Americans to corporately and individually give thanks to God for blessings bestowed.
          Taking advantage of this opportunity, here are some of the things that I am thankful for: I'm thankful that God took a twelve year old boy from a broken home and planted him in an apartment on a modest street amidst fine and decent fellows who would become new friends. I'm thankful that he permitted me to attend a very good high school, rich in tradition and academics, where I would at least experience, although hardly partake in, a scholarly atmosphere, and also how He somehow provided tuition. I'm thankful that in my immaturity He gave me the wisdom to join the army and had mercy on me even as I abused the needed maturing process. I'm thankful for a college degree even though my interests were far more social than academic, and that while working at the university I would meet my future wife. I'm thankful for her patience, love and being my best friend. I'm thankful for thirty-four years of employment from one company and the friends and coworkers there.
          I'm thankful that God instilled in me, somewhat later in life, an insatiable desire to read, to study and to analyze. I'm thankful that in 1982 He had mercy on the lowest of the low, loved the most unlovable and redeemed the least worthy of it. I'm thankful for the gift of a son who I have watched grow far beyond my own intellectual capabilities and do so without the path of rebellion that I chose. I'm thankful for the perfect match of a wonderful young Christian woman to be his wife. I'm thankful for failures.... for they make it impossible for me to think that I am something that I am not. I'm thankful that after I fall down, He gives me strength to get up. I'm thankful for heroes, particularly of the Christian faith but also of our nation, for their lives are blueprints that can be deciphered for at least an attempt to emulate. I'm thankful for faithful pastors and the sweet fellowship of other beneficiaries of God's redemption. I'm thankful for a house and a home for our son as he grew up, with loving family all around. I'm thankful for automobiles and money in the bank to keep them running.
          I'm thankful for vision to see this beautiful world, for taste to enjoy tomorrow's meal (Lord willing,) for the hearing of the preached Word and of music and voices, for feeling....both physical and emotional, and for discerning aromas of both warnings and pleasure. I'm thankful that there is no sixth sense, that our knowledge of the future comes not from ESP but from such as the ESV (English Standard Version of God's written word to us.) I'm thankful for being born an American, for freedom and liberty, but even more so for the opportunity to show gratitude for the efforts of those who sacrificed for those freedoms and liberties and, although in an insignificant way, to pick up the banner  they once held aloft.
          I'm thankful for my weaknesses for they give opportunity for God to show His strength. I am thankful most of all that God reached into humanity to adopt a multitude as His family and that He opened my own eyes to see... first myself, and then the cross of Calvary, the empty tomb and the clouds in which Jesus both ascended and will return. I'm thankful for angels all around us. I'm thankful that even though we play no part whatsoever in the salvation of another that we are painted into the picture to the glory of God alone. I'm thankful that, in the same vein, we can pray for the salvation of others and rejoice with them. I'm thankful for many books but especially one, John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress, the last stanza of a song within which reads:

Hobgoblin, nor fowl fiend,
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.

In Awe Of An Empty Tomb

         The following post is from this past March and I'm bringing it back for a short time. The accent to belief in God is everywhere in America but knowledge of Him is scant and often erroneous. An easy-believism has settled in that not only does not have specifics as to what it believes....it often disparages any attempts to ascertain doctrinal truth. The ubiquitous 'God bless America' has become our new liturgy. We will surely find out that believing in a creator is important only if it humbles us before that Creator and leads us to regeneration.

In Awe Of An Empty Tomb

         I have three books sitting next to me on the table as I write and I wasn't in the bookstore looking to find another but the title sort of jumped out at me and then after reading the rather incredible bio on the author...I bought it, a trade paperback, and went home and read it. The title and the author's name do not matter for this post is not so much about scientific calculations as it is about gospel miscalculations.
         I will say this about the book....it was very good. A top tier scientist in America was defending through scientific inquiry not only the existence of God but the omniscience of God. It was remarkably well written and I'll probably pass it on. In fact I had a good friend in mind when I bought it, for this is a topic that is keeping him from considering the Bible.
        So where's the problem? What I saw in amongst this author's professional litany of eloquent, often profound evidence on the existence God, was a few troubling statements that indicated that something was terribly missing. Nor could I find that which was missing on the author's large web page. I'm purposely being vague because the point I'm trying to get across is that the doctrines of creation and salvation are not....six of one...half dozen of the other. One might err on the first but dare not err on the second!
         I felt that I needed to write this post. All Christian belief is in vain if one is not born again or born from above. All the assent a human mind can give to the existence and even majesty of God is worthless without regeneration. What saddened me in the book was that knowledge itself seemed to be pursued, even glorified, as much or more than the God that that knowledge affirmed.
        So...to the college student that does not lack in theological confidence even though there has only been a few short years since they were building with Legos.....to the engineer who can build a bridge of steel but not one from sin to redemption....to the lawyer who understands the law, who can at times seek mercy for a client, but has never seen his own need of mercy.....to the scientist who feels that a great intellect in the study of the heavens automatically transfers to a study of heaven....to these and anyone who has not at first trembled before a Holy God....who do not open a Bible as one would a treasure chest....who do not run back every day to see the jewels....who do not know that love for your neighbor includes weeping for them to come to a saving knowledge of Christ....to these readers....they should know that today is the day....that tomorrow may never come.....but that a judgement will!
        Know this also...He turns no one away who truly seeks Him. You need not fear that.....rather fear the heart of fallen man....and take the new one that is offered.....by grace alone....through faith alone....in Christ alone!
        Golgotha was under the vast and magnificent canopy of stars on that day..... yet even the grandeur of the universe pales in comparison to the emptiness of a nearby tomb!