It Would Be Of Some Value

          The post two days ago was pure politics, and whenever I publish one like that I like to come right back with that which overshadows politics and governments and armies and war and everything. We have to be involved in electing our government.....it's a duty. At times there is genuine hope that good leaders might lead to years of prosperity and security....most times this is the case....but this is not one of those times!
         You have a right to ask for evidence to support such a bold statement.There's a lot of repeating from older posts here so if I haven't convinced you by now, then this post will also do nothing to cause concern but if you are new to these posts, you may see that our situation is more than serious, in fact we should be in hospice care! I'll try to be as concise as possible.
         We have purposely kept our children away from God for over a half a century and now we are purposely turning them against Him. Friends, God will not continue to let this happen.....not in America of whom He nurtured, defended and guided for four centuries. Please don't brush this statement off. Consider it with an open mind and you may see the impact of what we have done and continue to do. It doesn't get any worse than this.
         We legalized aborting pre-born babies over forty years ago, the total number of lives taken is over 50 million....are you bored already.....God is about to wake us up to what we have done. This isn't turning precious children away from Him. It is violence...violence of which God responded to 'in the days of Noah,' and will respond to again.
         We have turned to other gods. We worship Eros. We sacrifice to Moloch. They are no longer statues...they are now images on a screen. Feminism is a pagan god. We are sons and daughters of Narcissus. Lying is no longer wrong. It's so normal that it's no longer even discernible to many. Honor is no longer valued.
         Maybe you are a pure empiricist...and this is your experiment? Look around you. Look at our cities....look at our debt....if you dare- - imagine where AI can take us if it goes bad. Gauge the power and potential of our sworn enemies and put the results on a grid with our declining defenses.
         This is our only hope today, that God will reveal to enough of us our extreme folly that we might humble ourselves before Him, and that He might then have mercy upon us in what is ahead. Politics plays a part in this and thus we strive to rid ourselves of the leaders that God has permitted us to put in power, but in itself....without a national repentance....it is worthless. With repentance it would be of some value.
        

        
         
       
        
        
         
         

"You're A Better Man Than I Am, Gunga Din"

July 2016:

         You can say what you want about my opinions and conclusions but I have been consistent. A friend gave me his honest opinion recently with this..."Special Dog, you've been saying these things for twenty years!" The message intended was that I have thus been proven wrong. My response was a pause....a gentle look urging him to consider further what he just said....and one word...."Exactly."
         This awareness that our nation is in the midst of a suicide attempt goes much farther back than my own thoughts. Allan Bloom's 1987 The Closing Of The American Mind woke a lot of people up as did Neil Postman's 1985 Amusing Ourselves To Death, Christopher Lasch's 1979 Culture Of Narcissism and Richard Hofstadter's 1963 Anti-Intellectualism In American Life!
         Even more than these books, Christian books from the 70s, 80s and 90s by authors such as Francis Schaeffer, Harold Lindsell, John MacArthur, Billy Graham and many others gave specifics on where we were heading. They predicted a collapsing Christian church and a new world order with spot-on precision.
         God warns His people before judgment, this much is very clear in Scripture, and those warnings usually take place over many years. No warnings... or warnings right before judgment... are what would be odd. Christians in America have no excuse for not considering the evidence all around them. They would have to be living in Hillary's world, or at least never venture outside of their local newspaper for their news not to be cognizant of a world gone mad.
         It gets much worse friends and you have to know this!  Should the Lord already be mounted and  summoning His holy angels then we are heading into Tribulation. More bad news....there is no rapture beforehand! If this doesn't shake you to the core then you're a better man than I am Gunga Din! God may indeed have some semblance of mercy upon America but it won't happen without many in this nation rending its clothes and falling on its knees.
         As I mentioned in a post of only a few days ago...should the Lord tarry for quite a number of years, you would not, if you knew where we are headed, look forward to living in this society that is rising menacingly as the Tower of Babel... before our very eyes.
        

"...You Don't Pull The Mask Off That Old Lone Ranger..."

         The upper echelon globalist! They're on the same planet as the rest of us but we would never run into them, we don't read a lot about them, and they rarely run for public office although they are quite fond of holding high positions where they are elected by their peers.
         Their world is alongside of ours...but not part of ours. You can't call us their pets because they don't really like us. We're not their employees because there's a certain amount of liability involved in having employees and they accept no liability. We're certainly not family members. They are all related to one another through some sort of mystical bonding that transcends mere human fertilization.
          How does the song go.....'you don't tug on Superman's cape'? Well that's just what America is doing right now in Donald Trump, for the globalists are the ones who pick United States presidents, not us! We are given a acceptable lineup to pick one from and that's it. That explains why the Bush family showed its true colors in this campaign season. George W. and Hillary came out of the same pod.
         I'm not kidding around with these comments folks. We're living on their planet. They're not stupid. As a matter of fact on many issues they are smarter than we are. They fully understand that a nuclear conflagration is not only inevitable, it is imminent! We won't even face that. Consequently they have to have a one-world government where if anyone is to ever use nuclear weapons it will be them. America turning back to its constitution takes that power out of the globalist hands and perish the thought of Americans ever returning to their God.
        They need to redistribute the world's wealth, except theirs of course, to lessen the chance of third world nuclear nations taking matters into their own hands. This is where the nonsense of man-made global warming comes in....it takes America's wealth and passes it on to other potential trouble-makers. Is your local coal-fired power plant struggling for existence because it is being forced into some unrealistic utopian 'air quality' regulations? It's all about a manageable world order folks and has nothing to do with anyone's cardiopulmonary health.
         So what's my point? This information is readily available if one can only pry themselves from the mainstream media for a while and stumble across some real journalism. My point is that not only are these not normal times but that we are in a critical few months that elevate the danger considerably. These globalists have had a window of opportunity in Barack Hussein Obama and they took advantage of it but that window is closing. Hillary keeps it ajar for a while but politically speaking Hillary is toast. All she can do is attempt to rally her troops. No reasonably sane independent voter would choose to vote for her. No, winning is out but cheating is still in and that is her only hope. The globalists will help her as much as they can but if they see her losing then look out Loretta!

Seven Letters To Us!

         It's simply the conclusion that I have come to. There are plenty of commentaries to reference and I have done so over the years but ultimately everyone has to make up their own mind on certain Biblical issues. The Book of Revelation begins with a majestic encounter that the Apostle John had with the Lord Jesus...the "Alpha and the Omega"...and "the One who is, and who was, and who is to come." Chapters four through twenty-two hold the apocalyptic literature that Christians have meditated upon for almost two-thousand years, but wedged in between, in chapters two and three, are the seven letters to the seven churches. It is difficult for me to look at these chapters as not having apocalyptic considerations.
        These seven churches truly existed within that small area of Asia Minor which is now Turkey. What is obvious is that these churches, as they are described, also exist today in some form. What is not so obvious is how the messages pertain to the Christian who is informed only verses beforehand..."Blessed is the one who reads and blessed are those who hear the words of this prophesy and keep what is written in it, because the time is near."
        I can see traits from my own Christian walk in a few of the churches and none of them are complimentary. I can see many traits in the churches of America....some condemning and some adulatory. I can see a mixture in many churches. I can see these same things in churches all around the world! It seems a perfect syllabus for preparation, and being the very Word of God, it would be perfect wouldn't it?
       It can only help, in my opinion, to pour over these two chapters on a regular basis, and implore of God for the blessing promised, for if we should be convicted that we are primarily the church in Ephesus then we can return to the love that we had at first. Surely many can take comfort in the exhortation to Smyrna to prepare for the persecutions ahead, and this may even be for us in America. Pergamum, where Satan's throne is, should have us examining all of our doctrine not explicitly laid out in Scripture. Who was that woman Jezebel in Thyatira? Is she still around? Are we still tolerating her? Is our reputation as a church one of "being alive" as was that of Sardis, but are we in fact "dead?" Should not the great encouragement to Philadelphia be a pregnant joy to all of us? And if we are in fact spiritually related to those in Laodicea then finding that out would be devastating, but hope is given even there!
        Summing this post up...considering that two chapters in the twenty-two chapters of the Book of Revelation address churches, both faithful and errant, how can we not wait in expectation for veils to be removed here as we do in the rest of this awesome, frightful and most Jesus Christ exalting and triumph exulting book of hope?

"...The Fruit Of Her Hands"

The following post is almost five years old and I feel more strongly about these words every day:       

         I'd like to write a little bit about my wife. I'm sure you would agree that it would take a special person to put up with Special Dog. The topics of these posts are basically my everyday conversation. Well, they're at least my thoughts while the conversation is going on. This may explain some of the things that I do...this for example: Last week I had an eye doctor appointment after work. Now I always wear a turtle-neck piece, a dickie, under my shirt...winter or summer. I dressed quickly to get to my appointment and pick up my new glasses. I chose a very wide frame and wondered if it might be too wide for as I tried the glasses on everyone seemed to be looking at them. When I got home my wife said "I hope you didn't go to the optometrists like that?"  Actually I'm used to this kind of comment from her. I started checking my clothes. The back of the dickie was hanging out. I demonstrated it for the guys at work the next day and one shouted "Superman!."
          My wife has a profession while I have a job. She has served our community and supervised employees for 35 (just about 40) years now. She is the best at it in my opinion and I think that opinion is shared by many others. Quite a few young women worked for her over the years and went on to the same profession, a testament I think about how she takes pride in her work and that that desire to serve the community is taken up by others because of it. She makes a little bit less than I do in my blue-collar job but has enormous responsibilities. It's a work of love with no union necessary.
        She never missed a beat in raising our son. She is always thoughtful to others and is often tearful as elderly friends and patrons, people of the community, pass away. She's the financial manager of the house with one exception, for I'm extremely conservative on 401K investments because of my greatly diminished hope for a secure future for this beloved country of ours. We opened a bookstore in the 90s and she was there for me 100% even though she didn't think that it was the best idea. I don't even want to imagine what our financial situation would be like if I had to pay the bills every month. The first years were not easy. People want miracles as proof that there is a God but oftentimes the miracle is that God had a shepherd's hook pulling us in and often a rod when we act up. He brought two lost people together for a purpose and I will forever be thankful!

The (Red) Elephant In The Room

         There was an odd report in the news the other day. John O. Brennan is the Director of the CIA. While speaking as part of a conference panel Brennan added a little anecdote in response to a question. As a college student in 1976 he voted for Gus Hall who was the Communist Party's nominee for president. So...our CIA director once voted for a communist for the President of the United States!
          Now there are some extenuating circumstances. Mr. Brennan says that as a college student it was simply his way of "signaling (his) unhappiness with the system" The year was 1976. It was just one year after communist tanks rolled into Saigon! Many of us had done some incredibly stupid things in our youth and I'm probably in the record books somewhere.....but voting for a communist for president? Four years later he was accepted into the CIA after admitting to this indiscretion on a polygraph test. I guess that he gets an A for honesty but he gets an F in Political Science.     
          Communism is responsible for the deaths of well over 100 million people (sorry for the previous typo!) in the last 100 years, including tens of thousands of our own military in Vietnam and Korea, and a young Mr. Brennan has a hissy fit in college and votes communist? Oh well, he's an Obama appointee so you can almost expect anything.
          We talk about race and we talk about the police concerning the turmoil in our inner cities but communism is the elephant in the room as the ultimate source of the violence.          

     Ignore Communism if you wish......but know that that's exactly what they want you to do. The following post was written in 2015:       

         As best as I can recall, Alexandr Solzhenitsyn tells this story of his conversion. He was a prisoner in the gulag system that he would eventually expose. He became ill and a doctor, a fellow prisoner, worked on him throughout the night. That doctor openly talked about his Christian faith while he worked on the future Nobel Prize winner in Literature. A guard came by and warned him to stop. When Solzhenitsyn awoke in the morning he asked for the doctor but was told that he was dead, killed for his testimonies of Jesus Christ. This was the beginning of Alexandr Solzhenitsyn's gift of literature to the world from the eyes of a Christian. He later wrote the following on the condition of his country...Russia.
         Over a half century ago, while I was still a child, I recall hearing a number of old people offer the following explanation for the great disasters that had befallen Russia: "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened." Since then I have spent well-nigh 50 years working on the history of our revolution; in the process I have read hundreds of books, collected hundreds of personal testimonies, and have already contributed eight volumes of my own toward the effort of clearing away the rubble left by that upheaval. But if I were asked today to formulate as concisely as possible the main cause of the ruinous revolution that swallowed up some 60 million of our people, I could not put it more accurately than to repeat : "Men have forgotten God; that's why all this has happened.

         Communism is not just a political and socioeconomic system. It's a cancerous cell inflicted upon the human race for a purpose. Is this an outrageous statement made without warrant? Are100 million lives and counting not enough to warrant such a statement? Communism instigates hate and violence for the sole purpose of societal upheaval so that it can take power. It works tirelessly and patiently to perpetuate ignorance upon which it thrives. It leads decent people into committing crimes. It plays upon the weaknesses of societies, not too help them but to subjugate them. It lures the poor and the rich alike. It sets first the focus of its attack on whole professions.....professions that in turn can protect it through naivete' and vainglory (journalism) prevent it from having to deal with a God-fearing people (higher education) and propagandize and tranquilize the rest (entertainments industries) while it only has to send a relatively small contingent, in comparison to the entire population, of trained and professional operatives to help set up a shadow government ready to take power when all government and law collapses.
          It's been written that the Devil loves it when people laugh at the very thought of a Devil. In like manner Communism flourishes in its mission precisely when people consider it a toothless old bogeyman. They, the Communists, are more than thrilled knowing that the great American circus of electing a president has started as this endgame progresses. The last thing they want is for they themselves to become the focus of attention. Slowly but surely that is just what is happening!

America Expiring

The following post is from a Saturday evening in October of 2011:

America Expiring

          Tomorrow morning, throughout much of America and possibly even most of it's churches, ordained ministers will either climb into pulpits or stand behind lecterns to lead congregations in "worship" services. The original Hebrew and Greek will be deployed in some as well as pastoral helps of various kinds but mostly it will be a Christian variation of Oprah presented to the worshippers. Expensive sound systems will enliven the atmosphere and the results of lessens in elocution will be on display. The name of Jesus will be heard a few to a number of times, mostly as part of the message where the congregation can apply WWJD to their own life. Songs will be sung and either the choir or soloists will be given polite applause. It may be "pot luck" Sunday where little if any of the Christian faith will be discussed at the meal and after the services each person will shake the hands of the minister before they leave the church building, dutifully fulfilling the "rite of worship" and leaving them free to enjoy the football game or gather with family, confident that God's generous blessings of such activities has been earned for at least another week.

Meanwhile, the nation gasps for breath, wounded and bleeding, while wolves slowly pace back and forth looking for the right moment of total defenselessness to move in on their prey.

          When a church has grown through invitations such as or similar to these: "A friendly, loving congregation" or "Come grow with us" the ensuing sermons must therefore fit the invitation or charges of "bait and switch" will follow and the sanctuary will need a swinging door. Neither these ministers, nor their congregations, know the folly they are engaged in for they either have nothing to compare it to or their one experience with a church that actually preached Christ crucified showed them exactly where they do not want to be.
          As de Tocqueville strongly implied, the strength of America was in it's pulpits and conversely today our weakness emanates from there too. God has given us foolish leaders; He is purposely allowing our defenses to decay and our prosperity to whither. He is giving us what we want and may not let us see that it was "fool's gold" that we mined until it is too late. Our one hope is in Him extending mercy to us one more time but imagine that as a Republican platform!
          There indeed was a great fish that swallowed a man only to vomit him alive on a shore, and that man went on to give a warning to Nineveh, the America of it's day. That nation heeded the warning but years later another man was sent to Nineveh and this time not with a warning but a proclamation of impending judgment. Our prayer today, in America, should be "God let us hear from Jonah and not Nahum but if it be Nahum, give us strength to go on."
          There are many warnings today that a Trojan Horse has come into the church but others think that those who spend their time warning are to be pitied for they miss the blessings that God is so desirous to give. My response to this is that the real blessing is knowing the extent of His mercies to us and the real pity is in the Christian church that adamantly refuses to even consider that it may be a Laodicean church. It was that word "Laodicean" that a young American of Indian descent, Kavya Shivashankar, won the National Spelling Bee with in May of 2009. The definition she was given was "lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics." Sit back and be satisfied with the state of the church and the church of state if you want but if you truly listen, there is a crescendo in a dirge rising over this land that we once loved, once protected and once attributed to the blessings of Almighty God.

The Marred Beauty Of Diversity

        
         How did we get to the point where so many immigrants or refugees come into our country, not with respect and appreciation but with an attitude, as if this is but a frontier and they have come to stake their claim, as if the people of America have no business inquiring of their intentions or plans or anything, and as if the government has no right to expect or demand their allegiance?
         Immigration is a jewel in America's crown...but it has become tarnished beyond recognition. Yes, Washington and Jefferson and Franklin and many others are examples of the quintessential American, but not because of their Anglo-European ethnicity! It was because of their courage combined with brilliance and their fortitude interwoven with character. Americans have displayed those qualities many times over the past 200 plus years and most often in otherwise ordinary Americans, and quite often in immigrants! That's part of how America became what it was. Peter acknowledged the welcoming of outsiders, as recorded in the Book of Acts, as he spoke to the Roman centurion Cornelius..."...I see very clearly that God does not show favoritism but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him."
         One cannot walk the streets of America without seeing the faces of immigration. We have long since forsaken even taking notice of a man's ethnicity. Mario's is Italian...Stan's is Polish...Zhao's is Chinese....Juan's is Mexican....who cares! Our little ethnic neighborhoods in just about every major city further unify us...for that is our  heritage....we are one out of many! The beauty of these diverse faces is the beauty of America itself. George Washington's stern features point to our founding. Thomas Jefferson's handsome stare belied the brilliant polymath within. The sincerity and wisdom that can be seen in Abraham Lincoln's eyes haunt us but none of these men are with us today...only the history of their actions....and that history is being shredded by the abuse of immigration for political and even more nefarious purposes.
        They can call us all the names that they want. Lies and slanders permeate the core of communism, which is a driving force in America's collapse. Those immigrants coming to America because they want to be part of us, live and benefit from our laws and our constitution, and who have every intention of being faithful to and defending the principles that they have heard so much about, these immigrants and future citizens are not receiving the respect that they deserve....and we are being slandered with xenophobia. The truth being ignored at best is that we welcome them with open arms! When they take that oath of citizenship, with patience and according to the wise steps required of them to take....then they are as much American as you or I!
        You probably have never heard of Zuhdi Jasser....Dr. Zuhdi Jasser? Along with being a medical doctor specializing in internal medicine he is a former lieutenant commander in the United States Navy and is the president and founder of the American Islamic Forum for Democracy (AIFD) in Phoenix, Arizona. When I first heard this man speak on the Muslim in America I was struck with gratitude for his contributions to this debate. There isn't an iota, or a sliver of a wisp of difference in this man's love for our country and mine. Take the time if you would to listen to an interview with him by Mark Levin. You can find it easily on YouTube.

A People Of The Easy Way

        What the 'sit while the national anthem is played' protests demonstrate is that America, as we have always known it, truly is no more. Half of America, to use a general approximate, knows little about our nation's beginnings and could care less. They are products of an educational system that purposely produced citizens with few ties to the past, weak allegiances and little outright love for America, and all this is documented. If our military should be attacked in the South China Sea or the Korean peninsula for example, where the aggression is so pathetically obvious that even CNN calls for retaliation, it will turn out to be another case of 'fly the flag for a couple of weeks or maybe months and then get bored and turn your ire on America itself.' We don't have the staying power...we don't want the staying power...and will will abandon those who do in a New York minute.
         It is becoming de rigueur in America to claim that we should have never gone into Iraq, and try to find someone below the age of 60 in public life that saw our efforts in Vietnam as honorable and just. People can't defend America because they have been taught to always accuse America. The hard road is to say "give me more homework...let me hear from the other side." Consequently we take the path of least resistance.....the easy way. We have become a people of the easy way...a people of the loophole and a people of the easy way. Whether in private life, corporate life, the professions or in government, ethics are passe, integrity does not pay off and honor puts you where Ted Cruz is today. Whether it is Iraq or the gay agenda or safe spaces or the bathroom nonsense going on in high schools or the smearing of Thomas Jefferson or revisionist history, we oil that squeaky wheel and go on our way.
         Our sports have consumed us. You may remember how shortly after 9/11 the rallying cry was "This won't affect our NFL football games....we will not cower before their threats!" (I put that in my own words obviously) That was freedom and liberty to them! That's the extent of patriotic fervor in so many today! The very first post that I wrote back in October of 2008 was on the topic of cable television. If we only had an a la carte method of choosing our stations! By now many would have been weaned from the societal horror that this medium has become and the rest limited in their options because there would be less money in the ventures!
         How has Islam become the poster child for tolerance in America? Why has the gospel of Jesus Christ, from which everything good in our history has blossomed, become the enemy while a religion of polar opposites has been embraced blindly? How have the Harvards and the Penns and the Yales turned into the Godless intern factories that they are today without an uproar? (All nine colonial colleges were established as Christian educational institutions!) How did a man with little to no paper trail from his past become our president? How can a woman with the paper trail she has even be considered for president? The answer to these and all the other mystifying questions regarding America's intellectual breakdown and socialist and even Stalinist swoon can be researched from our history, of which has little value to the student today with its revisionist codes, and analytical reasoning which is being phased out along with the Lincoln penny.
        The definitive answers to the above questions are in God's written Word to us. The gospel is a threat to the satiated mind of the unbeliever....Islam poses no threat to the mind. Harvard, Penn and Yale glorified God in their dedications.....higher education today demands that we only glorify man. Barack Hussein Obama and Hillary Rodham Clinton never have and never will address the intellect, for the intellect can demand truth, it can reason and use logic, and most disconcerting of all it will eventually look to the heavens and acknowledge its Creator.        


     

'Reserved'

          Our corporate hope in the turmoil ahead is in the pulpits that will be filled only hours from now. These men need your prayers! At this time they do not see what is being required of them. What it is that blurs God's written Word to them, God only knows. Those prayers need your blood and sweat and tears. A great rendering of God's warnings to us is needed or we will be caught unawares, and a great resuscitation is needed if we are to cast the baubles of this world aside.
           Lord, endue these men with the power of your Holy Spirit, that we might see more clearly our grave predicament, that we might know the foolishness of battling the evils of this world alone, and that we might call out....that our pulpits might call out....Come Lord Jesus....finally recognizing the times that we live in, the evil of these days, and that the comfort and surety of..."The Lord is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble" is reserved for "....those who take refuge in Him"... for... "with an overwhelming flood he will make an end of Nineveh"....a city, to our great shame, that we have come to resemble.

Classified....For All Who Have Ears To Hear

         There is an upside to having your posts monitored and that is that you get to write to an individual one on one, and he or she has to read what you write because it is their job. So this post is addressed to that certain someone who may be in that situation. I presume that I can be a little bolder than usual since this is work related.
         Since I have your ear I want to bring up the gospel of Jesus Christ and I'll make it very short with only a couple of questions and comments. Here we go! Do you realize that you will indeed stand before God some day? If so, have you thought about what will happen when you do? I'll pause for a moment for you to consider this. Please don't ignore the question. What do you have to lose?
         You are obviously a college graduate and must have put a lot of hours in working on a major. A quick estimate here....how much study and how many books did you read in your major? I'll guess that it was at least hundreds of hours and dozens of books. And you have been rewarded for all that work or you wouldn't have the employment that you have today. Here's the kicker, and you'll know where I'm going with this. How much time have you spent....time spent with the same intensity that you gave to your college studies...in studying not only God's Word....the Bible....but reading primary sources? My guess is that you spent a few hours...on a few occasions....over a number of years...with no primary sources.
         You consider yourself a logical person right...and pretty smart...smart enough to be given an assignment where analysis is required. I myself was an analyst when in the service. I even had a Top Secret clearance. (By the way...Hillary should never again even be allowed in the same room with classified material) So analyze this. How do expect to understand anything of the majesty and wonders and righteousness and judgements of Jesus Christ if you didn't apply yourself to His inspired books with even 1% of the effort that you did in preparing for a profession? I could ask this question to almost anyone. It can't be done. It's no wonder that you have no idea what can drive a person like Billy Graham for seventy years....or causes an Eric Liddell to give up fame and fortune for a peasant village in war-torn China....or give courage to a martyr about to be burned alive....or hope incomparable and joy unspeakable to a washer woman who spent most of her life cleaning the floors of the rich and famous.
        Friend, you probably think that you will be alright when you stand before God....most everyone does who is in your position, but had you put the time into studying God's Word that you did getting a college degree then you would have come to a completely different conclusion.
         That's all I have. You did your job and I did mine. Think about these questions when your head hits the pillow tonight. I hope that your career goes well... for you worked for it. I hope that you will dwell on integrity in your work, and treasure honor as a reward, and mostly that logic...simple logic....informs you of the mistake that you may have made.

My Marathon

The following is from 2010:

         I used to run and my favorite place to do so was the track for it was hard to get lost on an oval track, but all too often I forgot what lap I was on, for as I ran I was always thinking on life with its challenges and opportunities. I ran my first and only marathon back in the early 80s but was totally unprepared for a 26 mile run which itself was complicated by soaking the motel bed with sweat the night before from a bug of some sort. I could take no water after the eight mile mark for I would swallow it and it would come right back up. At the half-way turn I knew it was over. At one point an EMT ran up to me to see if I needed some assistance. At another, a mounted policemen barked at me to hurry up so they could open the streets. It was a flat course but the last 13 miles were uphill. I can't remember my exact time but I finished second to last. An elderly couple waddled across the finish line before me to the cheers of a small crowd. I felt a sudden burst of exhilaration and could have passed them and finished fourth from the last but the crowd would have booed me. For some unknown reason I ordered a photo of me running. Dixie cups were strewn all around without a runner in sight and my head was down with the bill of my cap covering most of my face.
         The Apostle Paul likens the Christian life to a race in Hebrews 12: 1-3 Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before Him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.  
          My marathon has some similarities with my Christian walk. I came out running fast, certain that I was prepared for battle, but I have since stumbled at times and at other times been reduced to a crawl. There were times that I could take no nourishment because of discouragement... and the photos in this race are memories meant not to embarrass but to elicit praise for mercies given. There is indeed a crowd of witnesses cheering on even the last runner. In retrospect, I have fond memories of that marathon because I finished. I have a great hope that I will finish this race for it is not in my hands. If it were I would not only never finish but would never have embarked upon it to begin with. My particular prayer is simply never to stop, rather to press on, for even a crawl is moving forward.
       

Tuesdays With Special Dog

          OK....we're sitting around a table having coffee...no....let's make it a little more interesting...it's Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on a cold and rainy fall evening. We are sitting in a Starbucks drinking a caramel frappuccino (you) and a coffee (me)....wait, I hate Starbucks coffee.... I'm drinking a latte. There are no orange, yellow and red leaves to look at but with a little imagination the bright red, yellow and orange raincoats on the ladies walking by can be as enjoyable, and the neon lights mirroring off the oil slicked avenue can be as a wide mountain stream reflecting the colors of an aurora in the low hanging clouds.
          We already talked about the weather, and the election, and the weirdo walking by in sandals, checkered Bermuda shorts, and a tee-shirt that reads 'HARVARD LAW.' We still have some time, and since you brought up all the other subjects, I get my turn. I'll name you 'John.' Is that Ok? Or 'Mary' if you have two of the same gonosomes. I guess that today you can go by whatever you feel like...

Me......"John, whatdyasay we talk a little Bible prophesy?"

John...."Oh...this is where you tell me the world is coming to an end. OK."

Me......"I don't think I ever put it that way, No, I just want to bring up one verse. It's one of those where we don't know the exact meaning yet. It's rather one of those that we are to think about until it does become clear."

John....."What's the verse?"

Me......."Ist Thessalonians 5:3...'While people are saying, "There is Peace and safety," then sudden destruction will come upon them as labor pains come upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape."

John....."As I said....the world is coming to an end."

Me......."OK, I'm serious now John. You've read it many times. Whatdaya think it means?"

John....."I think it means that there will be a time when everything is just hunky dory, (John or Mary are probably in their late 60s) and that's when Jesus will come back."

Me......."If that's the case then it would have to be quite a few years if not decades from now, for there certainly is no peace in the foreseeable future....right?"

John....."That's my take on it Special Dog but I gotta a feeling that you don't see it that way?"

Me......."No I don't quite see it that way John. And quit calling me Special Dog! I've been mulling this verse around for a number of years. John, I'm seeing a perceived peace after a catastrophe....probably a war....but maybe something else"

John....."OK but what's the point.....years from now or.....oh.....I get your point. Your interpretation does away with the extended time period?"

Me......."Yeah that's it... but again...it's not an interpretation....just thoughts over coffee."

John...."Your drinking a latte!"....sorry....go ahead."

Me......"There's a pretty big distinction there John. I have a gut feeling that one of the problems that we have in the church today is that this verse....and another one actually....Luke 12:40 I believe it is...Jesus is speaking to Peter concerning a parable He had just given..."You must also be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected." John... we will cede the possibility that if a nuclear war or any major catastrophe comes then maybe Jesus is indeed at the doorstep....but since we can't see catastrophe coming....we can't see Jesus coming soon either! But...if something does happen and then the dust settles....and the long sought after one-world government comes about...it's then that most everyone will surely say 'peace and safety...at last'.....and it may be that time that these verses are speaking to?

John...."OK, let me get this straight...you think that the 'peace and safety' comes after a war....and not before as everyone right now presumes?"

Me......"I'm just postulating John...something to think about....as I said, it may not be a war. I'm looking at this verse...these verses...as something that God gave us to meditate upon. We need to be prepared right now...this I do bring up just about every time we meet....but we also need to be prepared for certain contingencies!"

John....looking at his watch...."Well, nice as always Special Dog..."

Me....."Don't call me Special Dog!"

John..."Same time next Tuesday?  Providing we haven't had a war by then?"

Me....."Yeah...same time next Tuesday.....Lord willing!"



      

Facebook.....Redux

         I have had a running thread of posts on the topic of Facebook over the years and I critically referenced Facebook many more times. Negative articles and news stories about Facebook come up so often that we now appear immune from the warnings. I do bring the following post and preface back occasionally along with a particular news item that piques my interest. Britain's The Telegraph published an article today in their Technology section by Jane Fae titled Facebook is imposing prissy American censorship on the whole rest of the world. It's a detailed article that can be Googled if you are interested but one part of it hit home with me. The author wrote that Facebook is attempting to "edit our common history" and follows that with this..."Yet, incredibly for a nation that has so recently focused on 'taking back control' (Brexit), and frets about the loss of Christmas tradition, this issue scarcely registers on the national rageometer."
        That sums up my feelings also. American conservatives and especially Christians should have recognized Facebook for what it is long ago but the opposite has happened as otherwise wonderful national ministries gleefully remind us to follow them on Facebook! This is an issue that should be front and center with conservatives but it would require 'sacrifice' to take a stand. Folks...if we can't say no to something like Facebook now, how are we going to....all of a sudden....protest when the issues begin to dictate our very lives....which is inevitable!

June, 2015

         It may not be the greatest tool 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.
        
        

Colin Kaepernick....You've Been Duped

If you agree with these sentiments please pass this post on!

          NFL quarterback Colin Kaepernick has determined that he will remain seated during the playing of the national anthem before games because, as he sees it, the anthem honors a country that oppresses black people and people of color. Like so many others, he has been lied to and then bought into that lie. This is the communism that few are concerned about, a communism whose near century long mission has been to destroy our American heritage in order to bring about chaos and pave the way for totalitarianism.
          Black people are not oppressed as Mr. Kaepernick charged. Merriam-Webster defines 'oppress' as "to treat (a person or group of people) in a cruel or unfair way." The more accurate word would be...repressed...."kept under control by force," and this not by America but by those who despise what our flag and our anthem truly represents! This is the crime of today! Colin Kaepernick's outrage is legitimate but misunderstood and misplaced, directed at America where it should be directed at those who are trying to destroy America.
          The reader might object to my statement that blacks are not oppressed in that this young man is black and I am not... shouldn't he have a better understanding of this? On most things...yes...on this issue...no! Blacks at one time were oppressed...to America's great shame. Tens of thousands of Americans died carrying our flag into heavy canister shot to rid us of slavery, and many more worked tirelessly to eliminate Jim Crow laws.
          Mr. Kaepernick....Communism, Progressivism, and all of their dupes of which you are now rubbing elbows with, have repressed black communities for the better part of a century for their own nefarious gain. They lie to you and condescend to you to a despicable degree. They want you to do exactly what you have chosen to do with your actions and comments.  I've been lied to also young man, most recently by the elite establishment types in the Republican Party who try to repress the opinion of anyone who does not buy into their continuous schemes that serve only to perpetuate their power. Oppression is indeed rearing its ugly head but it is directed to anyone, of any color, who refuses to cede to these usurpers all of their God-given rights and constitutional liberties.
        There are hundreds of thousands of marked graves, carefully manicured in our nation, that represent sacrifice against an enemy that you just aided and abetted through your ignorance. There are thousands of unmarked makeshift graves in Europe, and on rocky beaches in the Pacific, and in the dense jungle of Vietnam and rocky terrain of Korea, and many other foreign soils, and thousands more watery graves whose sacrifices represent what you chose to dishonor.
         Hey, I was about as confused as you at your age.....and not nearly as talented although old friends have reminisced on how I could throw a football in my teens. I thank God that nothing ever came of it for there are few things as pitiful, in my opinion anyway, than a grown man making millions running over the goal line with a football in front of a rapt audience that could exceed tens of millions, on the Lord's Day no less, and then pointing to heaven! At least you have an intellectual passion, grossly misdirected as it my be at this stage.
 Go back to your roots young man, and I'm not referring to Africa. You have the intellect...put it to use! Recalculate your blessings and from whence they came. Consider again your own tattoos and think about adding another...."Romans 12:2"...Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

       

I Gave Up The NFL

        There was a time when men who followed professional football were as tough, as least mentally, as those playing the game for good money but not millions. I grew up with those type of men all around me. Just about all of them WWII veterans who were union men, working for Westinghouse, who loved their country, and who built thriving communities with their little Cape Cod houses. Professional football was synonymous with toughness. It has become a mixed bag today because the NFL has been 'hacked' by the Left in America. They, the Left, know where they can strike at he core of the American Creed and they are doing a good job of it.

I Gave Up The NFL

         I know that it is possible because I'm living proof of it. To this day I can name more than half of the starting offense and defense of the 1965 Buffalo Bills. I was a typical Steelers fan in the 70s and celebrated in the streets of Pittsburgh after a Super Bowl win, but I don't think that I have watched more than a few series of downs in 30 years. So I know that it is possible to give up the NFL. On another topic...I haven't had more than one beer in a single day since 1979....that's 37 years! Both of those streaks are part of what saved my life. Let me begin with the latter.
         I began abusing alcohol at a high school graduation party. To this day when I drive west on Pittsburgh's I-376, I glance up at the cliff that I rolled over while in a drunken stupor. If I told you all the stories it would take all evening. I had a gun put to my head, drank a half bottle of vodka on an inclined top of a 100 ft. water tower, and finished off a six pack of beer on the median... lines... of a busy four lane highway after dropping the six pack while riding on the back of a motorcycle. It actually gets worse but I'll spare you. All of this was before I was married....thank-you Lord!
         In 1979 my father was dying of Cirrhosis of the Liver and and I quit alcohol cold turkey. I became a Christian in 1982. Somewhere in the mid-1990s my Christian beliefs underwent a radical change. I no longer believed that a Christian could not drink a beer...rather that Christians cannot drink to excess. I had a beer...and enjoyed it.... but wary of my past I resolved never to have more than one beer in a single day. I usually love that one beer, in fact I might have one before I finish this post, and I have never even wanted a second. Thank-you Lord!
         I have shared this anecdote before. The year? Probably 1974 or 1975. The place? The Pitt campus. I wound up wrestling with another guy in the middle of Forbes avenue, stopping all the traffic. Flash forward about 14 years. Christians are holding a protest march against the blasphemous film The Last Temptation Of Christ. I'm one of thousands who silently carried a candle down that same Forbes Avenue, pausing only at the King's Court theater where the film was showing. I was with a friend and the significance hit me when we walked over the spot that ten years previous I had stopped traffic as a drunken bum. Thank-you again Lord
         As for the other 'streak'...had I continued to be a professional football fan as I had been there would be no Special Dog posts today. I wouldn't know that we had a communist president, I would probably have a Facebook page, I wouldn't read the Word of God every day, at least not in rapt amazement at every verse, I might vaguely believe that the Second Coming must be near but I certainly would not see so clearly God's impending judgement upon our nation, nor would I say with any kind of sincerity...come Lord Jesus, and I would not, many times throughout the day anyway, wonder in amazement how God could have had mercy on one such as me, or continue to welcome me into His marvelous graces each and every day.
        Continued alcohol abuse might have ended my marriage and may even have ended my life. NFL football, to the degree required of a true fan in today's America, would have stunted my discernment.... for the average person, of which I consider myself to be, can only process so much information, and can only give so much time to the areas that he/she desires to become knowledgeable in. Even more significant than the time and passions involved in being a professional football fan is that it has taken over Sundays in the fall and much of the winter. Christians have to play word games to justify a worship service followed by a day of professional football.
        Athletics are wonderful. Dedication and perseverance in training to win any race or any game is honorable, but only in moderation in relation to what the chief end of man is....that being "to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever."

"Basket Of Deplorables"

     
The following post is from late last year as the primary season was beginning and depicts two very typical conservative Christian voters....as I know them to be anyway. I'll call them Mary and John. I bring it back under the present title because of Hillary Clinton's latest attack on anyone who doesn't march in lockstep to her robotic commands:

         Mary works full time. Her children are grown and no longer live at home. She is a reader, mostly non-fiction but with occasional novels of a romance or detective nature. She is always busy with either cleaning house or working in the garden or exercising...often trying to lose a little weight. She and her husband spend Fridays and Saturdays with close friends, usually playing cards, and often trying to help new friends fit in who have recently started attending their church. It's a big community church with laughter always ringing through the halls from the children's areas on the lower level to the upper level classrooms.
         Probably half of the books that she reads are from Christian book publishers and her major passion is conservative talk radio. She hardly ever watches the evening news other than that of the local station and she wouldn't know Chris Mathews from Chris Rock...matter of fact... neither do I!
         Mary and her husband are good stewards of their money. He makes about $70,000 and she supplies an additional $45,000 or so. Their major expenses are vacations, improving the house and always having a new, safe and reliable automobile. They write a check for the church every Sunday and regularly support no fewer than a half a dozen ministries, most Christian but others such as the Wounded Warrior Project and even the Humane Society. She will write a check at the drop of a hat if someone is in need and has done so dozens of times, never expecting repayment. She supports political candidates and causes.
         Mary has a bachelor degree in Psychology, earned about thirty years previous, and a masters in teaching which she uses in her profession as a second grade teacher in their church sponsored elementary school. She can quote Alexis de Tocqueville and Charles de Montesquieu and knows a lot more about our Constitution then her brother who teaches political science in college.

         Mary is a bumpkin.....easily led astray by shysters....unable to think for herself and....well....just generally a low-information voter...... according to those who don't know her anyway, or only that her first choice for president is Senator Ted Cruz. That's all they really need to know.

         John is big into sports. Softball takes up most of his free time....in the spring-summer and fall anyway. He's a reader also...just about all non-fiction. He has a sharp mind and the facts remain with him long after reading a book. He builds homes for a living and volunteers for Habitat For Humanity. He tends to specialize in a few areas of study. He is very knowledgeable in American history but economics is his biggest strength. He understands fiscal issues and monetary theory. He was...Tea Party...long before there even was a Tea Party.
         John is color blind. His best friend is black. His favorite economist is Thomas Sowell.  He and his wife have adopted two sons....one Black and one Asian. John has seen a lot of the world as twenty years of his life were spent in the military. He and Debbie, his wife, travel often. They love Asia, they return again and again to Europe, they do short term ministry in Africa every year. John's brother is a homosexual who John sees every week, and John prays for him every day of his life.

         John is a racist, a homophobe and a callous xenophobe with no compassion........according to liberals anyway.......for John supports Donald Trump for president. John's knowledge of economics has led him to see that our nation has very little time left before a dictatorship picks up the pieces amidst the anarchy brought on by a bankrupt government. He's not sure that Trump can do anything but at least Trump knows business. If Trump can't make it, Ben Carson is John's.... the racist.... second choice for president.

Night In America

   
         Americans are in a purple haze over what is happening in this general election cycle. They can't see the forest for the trees, as the saying goes. Some view it as exciting while others consider it absurd but there is a world of power and intrigue revolving above the political world that Americans are familiar with. We are now only pawns in this once constitutional republic and have been so for quite some time.
         Donald Trump is not an option to these Dungeon Masters for he would strengthen America's military should he be elected. This would set them back decades in their goals. Folks, they're not going to let this happen. Thus I have this what should be disturbing news for you that another world exists......a shadow world if you will....and you and I are seen as but indentured servants with an implemented contract.....they don't take questions....and could care less about your grievances
           If our enemies believe that Hillary will win this election they may....may....consider holding off a while and let our downward spiral continue, but barring voter fraud that would need be almost unimaginable in scope, Hillary Clinton will lose soundly, for America is on to her life history of lies, greed and incompetence. So this shadow world knows that something has to be done, but what are the options? A last minute stand-in for Clinton would be a possibility but these people won't take a chance on...possibilities. Manipulating the outcome is becoming less a possibility each day. The only other alternative is a manufactured emergency situation that precipitates cancelling the election until a future date. With that, Obama stays in office...the Progressives are happy...the Republicans rant and rave but do nothing as usual ....Russia is Happy....and communists everywhere are happy. The radical Islamists would shout 'death to America' for appearances but be quite satisfied. Whatever the option chosen, this window of opportunity for our enemies is closing fast.
            That's my political assessment. My overall assessment of where we are is far bleaker. The America of our first 200 years or so is gone. We are now officially a godless nation heading towards hedonism and paganism. The existing remnant of a bygone America, you and I, are too few and too weak....and a few decades too late. God sent us Jonahs after Jonahs with warnings but we ignored them. His message to us today is in the book of Nahum and it's not a warning...it's a proclamation. It is no longer... repent... but rather... prepare.
        The Ninevites were negligent, distracted, celebrating and arrogantly profane when their enemies attacked them. They were caught unprepared in the night. Well, it is night in America and if we are not celebrating something we are bored. If one doesn't agree with my assessment then the natural reaction is to say 'Go Trump...make America great again," as Christians will implore... 'God bless America." For those of us who know that we have had more than ample time to repent and the best we could do is Donald Trump.....our prayer is.....'Have mercy on us Lord in the trying times ahead...for thy name's sake alone....and for thy glory alone, For thou art our rock and our fortress and in thee alone we trust!'

Get Over It

         Our son and daughter-in-law travelled to Vietnam earlier this year. You could hardly call it a vacation. At one point they lived for days in a village home without running water. At another they were riding in a beat-up vehicle on a goat path along the very edge of a mountain. Yet another and they were forced to walk through darkened Hanoi streets in the early hours of the morning trying to find their travel connection. I knew that they would bring back souvenirs so I made a special request. I wanted something very cheap....made in the South....and sold by someone my age or older. I just wanted a renewed connection to the South Vietnamese people. I received more than I imagined....a bamboo flute and an ink drawing of a Vietnamese woman weighed down with a bamboo shoulder pole, both created as they watched!
         I bring this up because their trip generated more than a few conversations between friends and myself. You see, to me it is still Saigon and will never....never.... be Ho Chi Minh City. I guess that my hesitation to embrace Vietnam as it is today shows through in my expressions and probably even in my words. The response that I usually get is..."it's time to get over it." They don't quite understand......the issue is not Vietnam....the issue is Communism. You don't get over Communism!
         As I have described previously in these posts....the Vietnamese people did not win their great war for independence, as this communist government now boasts. The people of Vietnam lost any hope for independence, first in the North, and then in the South. The communists butchered their way past France and then past us.....millions died!  Their communist comrades worked this side of the globe on the Western news media while their communist leaders from Russia and China supplied them with all that they would need.        
         Wikipedia begins its definition of cancer with this..."Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body." Communism also comes in many forms as it can show up in aggressive revolution or benign propaganda (scientific-economic or in education). Its cell growth can occur on a college campus, or a union hall, or in inner city community activism, or even in a church denomination or constitutional republic.
        Today....in America.....Communism once again plies its murderous trade...stir up division and hatred.....promise 'justice' but deliver injustice....lie and deceive whenever the mouth is opened....ridicule whenever challenged.....and strong arm anyone who gets in the way. The Vietnam War ended....but the struggle with Communism did not.

        

Are You Not Hearing

The following was first posted in July of 2015: 

         I surely don't want to get in the habit of hearing a joke and then putting it in these posts. I think that I've only done that twice throughout the years but I smiled at one today and want to use it to segue into the message of this particular post that is more than serious. It seems that a man went for a checkup to his doctor and while there told him that he was concerned that his wife may be losing her hearing. The doctor suggested that he perform a little experiment to see how much hearing loss she had. He told the man to come to about ten feet of his wife and ask her a question. If she doesn't hear him go a little closer and ask, and if she still doesn't hear him move closer. And if if she still does not hear him, go right up to her and ask the question. The man went home and his wife was standing at the kitchen counter preparing dinner..."Hello honey, what's for dinner?" He moved a little closer and said "Hello honey, I'm home. What's for dinner?" Still nothing. He came closer still..."Hello honey, what's for dinner?" Finally he went right up to her and tapped her on the shoulder..."Hello honey, I'm home. What's for dinner?" She turned around and said "For the fourth time......pot roast."
        God is speaking. Are you not hearing? I'll tell you what I'm hearing, and many many others I might add, one of whom is Billy Graham who has been warning America for decades that God's judgements on our nation have begun and they are increasing in intensity!
        Our financial system is headed for a total collapse over the debt and/or various bubbles we have created by merely whitewashing the outside of tombs that are full of, as Jesus said in Matthew 23:27 "....bones of the dead and everything unclean." And this is the least of our problems! We have torn down every hedge of protection, opened every gate in the wall, accommodated every pagan custom, customized the Gospel of Jesus Christ to fit our desires, set up Ashtoreth poles, sacrificed our children to Moloch and worshipped the golden bull market...excuse me...golden calf. Yet we party on oblivious to the words mene, mene, tekel, upharsin etched into the newly built 'wall of separation between church and state.'
        One cannot hear God's warnings to us amidst the din of applause, the cacophony of the marketplace and the fortissimo of our entertainments. Even in the quiet of our meditations we run from the sound of His voice. We do not hear because we do not want to hear. We plug our ears at the mention of His holiness and shout down those who would read verbatim from His Word, and just such words would be these from the first chapter of Proverbs:
         " If you turn at my reproof, behold, I will pour out my spirit to you. I will make my words known to you. Because I have called and you refused to listen, have stretched out my hand and no one has heeded, because you have ignored all my counsel and would have none of my reproof, I will also laugh at your calamity......."
       

Fear Of Failure

I wrote the following post for everyone but also with pastors in mind. What has come of your calling? Has peace and safety taken the place of preaching Christ and Him crucified? Have you become little CEO's just trying to keep the company intact along with your position in the Christian community? Is there no longer a risk involved? Are you now of the establishment class warding off those of us who say that something is wrong? Tell us more of the glorious appearing of Jesus Christ. Tell us more of how one has to be born again and not just a church goer....or is this not really mandatory? Were all those verses like  "I never knew you; depart from me, you workers of lawlessness" and "For the gate is narrow and the way is hard that leads to life, and those who find it are few"...were they just scare tactics that don't apply in this modern age....or were and are they God's truth? Our nation is collapsing before our eyes in no small measure because few are willing to risk losing in the eyes of the world. This is not how this nation was built and this is certainly not how the Reformation changed the face of Western Civilization.


         It's not talked about much. Maybe it is because it is not recognized or possibly the issue hits a little too close home. We in this present culture have an inordinate fear of being proven wrong. So in order to avoid this we tend not to make bold proclamations, and we tend to stay close to the accepted opinions. Oh we make all kinds of bold statements on issues that cannot be proven wrong, for there is no risk there. For instance, one might defend or attack either Hillary Clinton or Donald Trump. First of all, both opinions are held by very large groups. If the evidence amasses against one's opinion while part of large group all one would have to do is withdraw into that group and the feared humiliation would be negated. Secondly, in this age where truth is not recognized as such or even diligently sought after, the evidence can simply be ignored and false evidence given in rebuttal. This happens all the time in politics.
         Part of the problem is that we lack confidence in many of our opinions because we know that we haven't done all the homework related to it. We may have done a lot and formed a strong opinion but the possibility exits that we may ultimately be wrong. No one likes to lose in this culture. Everyone is to be a winner. That's why Facebook was created...you present yourself as a winner whether it's true or not. That's why everyone has to get a trophy. That's also the reason for many of the street murders in our nation....someone 'disrespected' someone else!
         What's missing is the relationship of the individual to God. You see, God knows all of our innermost thoughts. We can't hide them from Him. Even if we successfully blot them out of our consciousness....He knows exactly what we blotted out! This is good. This is wonderful! This is a great blessing, but only if it is understood.
        Has someone wronged us? OK, there are pains associated with it but the Creator of this universe, the Living God, and the Blessed Redeemer of all who trust in Him knows the truth. This concept has to be grasped for within it is a 'peace ...which surpasses all understanding.'
        This problem of the fear of being proven wrong, as I perceive it, is especially endemic in this culture and this age that we live in. There are other cultures in this world where this problem does not exist. There were times past in our own nation where honor far exceeded failure. One could fail and still have honor!
         I mentioned in the beginning of this post that this issue is not talked about much. To be more specific, it is not labelled as such, for the 'fear of failure' is indeed addressed. We are strongly encouraged not to fear failure....even to reach for the stars....or go for the gold. This advice can be very helpful but the Rx is too isolated and circumvents the real problem. There are much more important matters at hand than success and winning. The fear of failure when it involves standing for what is right...or even what one believes to be right...and particularly when it addresses the Gospel of Jesus Christ....this fear is essentially telling God that man's opinion is more important than His!
         We will be wrong at times. Everyone will, but God knows why you believe what you believe. He knows if your opinion is self-serving. He knows if pride is involved. He has even provided a way if you should find out that your motives were not what you thought they were. Everything is to be for His Glory! Keep this in mind always and cast that fear aside and go boldly knowing that God can pull you in gently with a staff when you exceed your limits and He can lovingly bring you back with the rod if necessary when you have erred.

We Are Failing Our Children

The following post is from March of last year:              

          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 cannot 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. 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 but 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 told to us 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 will 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 to be programmed to function as vassals of what is becoming a malevolent state, congratulating ourselves on a job well done.

          Oh, the love is still there, and we would still sacrifice everything, but it is too late even if we were aware of what has transpired, for 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 their liberties, even their 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, and no evidence that we prostrate ourselves in reverence at the mere mention of the name Jesus.

1962

         I've been bringing this short story back every year during the high school football season. It was penned decades ago. I don't go back quite as far as Tommy Wilson but the aura of lettered sweaters in the story was still the same when I was in high school.

!962

         Tommy Wilson walked into the apartment where he and his mother lived...beat and worn out. She had been holding dinner late every night so that Tommy could go to football practice immediately after school and then work for two hours at Spinoza's Market.

"Welcome home Johnny U!"
"I'm on special teams mom...Johnny Unitas is a quarterback."
"Oh, well excuse me...any new bruises today?"
"Yeah, my right shin."

         Tommy was a senior at Catawaga High School in Buffalo, New York and he was going out for football for the very first time. He was on a mission. You see, Tommy was in love with Mary Burns whose family had moved to Buffalo the year before from Tennessee. Her father was an airline pilot and this is where the job was. Tommy and his mom didn't have a lot of money. He would have wanted to buy a class ring for Mary so that everyone would know that she was his girl but he couldn't afford it. What he finally decided on was going to take a lot of effort. He wanted to make the football team and earn a varsity letter, and then put it on a  sweater to give to Mary. 
         All the guys who had lettered had given lettered sweaters to their girlfriends. Tommy had to not only make the team but play in 10 quarters to earn that letter. The coach told him that the only way he would get into games was on the kickoff teams and that only if he proved that he could tackle. Tommy had given more effort than anyone on the team, flying down the field and literally throwing his body at the opposing players. Working at Spinoza's would earn him the money for the sweater that would cost $37.50. That was the plan anyway.

Mary: "Tommy, I'm really worried about you. You get hurt almost every practice and you work so hard at the market after that. Are you sure that you want to do this? You know football doesn't mean that much to me."
Tommy: I have to do this Mary. Football will be over in December and I can slow down."

         Tommy hadn't told Mary about his plan or the importance of others knowing that she was his girl. Mary was a Christian girl from the South who always talked about the "Lord."  Tommy didn't understand half of it. He never talked this way about God and didn't know anyone else who did.

Mary: Tommy, the Bible says that you must be "born again." You should think about what that means and try to understand it!"
Tommy: Mary, I believe in God. I may not be perfect, but who is....except maybe you?"
Mary: "You know I'm not perfect Tommy. I'm far from it since I know the Lord and still cannot live as I should."
Tommy: "Well, you seem pretty close to perfect...in everything...to me."

         Dave Thomas was the Flyers head coach and he was not particularly happy that Tommy expected to win a letter. This was his second year as head coach with the Flyers and he was determined to succeed and make coaching his profession. Catawaga had never had a winning season. They were 0 and 10 the year before he came and 4 and 6 in his first year. Come "hell or high water," as he would constantly remind them, they were going to have a winning season this year, and that meant 6 wins. The assistant coach, Mark Offen, was a "coach" second and a history teacher first. He admired the spunk of this lightweight senior, who for some reason just had to win a letter. His efforts probably stopped Coach Thomas from cutting Tommy.

Coach Offen: "Are you alright Wilson?"
Tommy: Yeah coach. I forgot to hit with my pads and not my head/"
Coach Offen: "Sit down for a while."
Tommy: "Do I have to coach? I feel OK."

Coach Thomas came over as Tommy headed for the sidelines.

Coach Thomas: "That kids going to kill himself and get us all in trouble."
Coach Offen: "I'll keep an eye on him Dave. He'll be alright"

         Tommy liked to walk Mary up to this new hamburger joint called McDonalds. It was only 19 cents for a burger and that was all he could afford on his budget. Mary carried a Bible with her at all times and liked to sneak in about ten minutes of Bible reading every time they were together. Tommy was glad he didn't  live in the South for they took religion all too seriously. The next day would be the first game and he didn't know if he would get in, for the coach gave no clues. When the game started, he was not on the field for the kickoff, nor for the three other kickoffs in the first half. Catawaga was winning 21 to nothing when they took the field for the second half. Coach Thomas barked out orders and yelled Tommy's name for the kickoff team without even looking for him. 
         Tommy's first experience in a game was not encouraging. He ran down the field and was belted by someone twice his size, but he had one quarter in for his letter. He was not called on in the final quarter of the game. The following week was grueling in practice. Tommy hit every opposite colored practice jersey he had a chance to hit.  Coach Offen patted him on the back but Coach Thomas never acknowledged him. The Flyers were 1 and 0 going into the second game. Again Tommy did not play in the first half. For the kickoff starting the second half his name was called and he flew down field and hit the first jersey he saw, who flew into the ball carrier enabling his teammates to make the tackle. Tommy had contributed! 
         He was in on the kickoff again and this time the kick was real short. Someone in the middle had picked up the ball and Tommy had a chance to hit the ball carrier for the first time. Just as he was about to make the tackle he was blocked hard and thought he heard his finger snap. The trainer wrapped it up and the doctor later said that it was separated and would keep him our of football for three weeks at least. Tommy now had three quarters of the ten he needed but half of the season was over when he was given the OK to play. The Flyers were 3 and 2 so the coach was not on the warpath as he had been. The 6th game saw Tommy get in to play but only in the 4th quarter. He now had 4 quarters of game play with 4 games left.

Mary: "Tommy, you played really well last night. you hit that big number 70 real hard!"
Tommy: "But I didn't move him Mary. I can't expect to get a letter if I can't help the team."
Mary: " Is that what this is all about...a letter? Why is it so important?"
Tommy: "Well...uh...I just have to win one. That's all."

         Tommy had a fairly good week of practice but did not get in the 7th game at all and they lost. The team was 4 and 3 and Coach Thomas hardly even practiced Tommy the next week. He, thought he heard Coach Offen mention his name to Coach Thomas once. He couldn't hear what was being said but could tell neither coach was happy. Game 8 went well from the start and the Flyers were up 30 to 0 at the half. There were 10 quarters left and Tommy needed to get in 6 of them. It seemed impossible but he kept on giving everything that he had. He was on the kickoff team starting the second half and Coach Offen slapped him on the back with encouragement. Tommy ran down the field fast but not as fast as he had been, for he now realized that he had to have an idea of where the ball carrier was. The runner picked up about 20 yards when he found himself charging straight at Tommy who lowered his head and dove for his legs. the runner went down and Tommy's teammates were slapping him on the helmet, but it had cost Tommy, for he felt his finger hurting again but did not tell anyone. The Flyers put in their 3rd team for the 4th quarter but their was no scoring and no chance for Tommy to get in.    
         The next week was the opposite. Tommy got in on the first kickoff but the Flyers were down 28 to 0 at the half and he did not get in again. There was one game left and Tommy needed all 4 quarters!  He was actually learning the game of football with one game left in his career. The team now had 5 wins and 4 losses and had to win the last game for the winning season. Tommy thought it was impossible to get in for all 4 quarters. Coach Offen told him to make the plays and he'll get in. It seemed as if he had talked to Coach Thomas or something. He was in on the first kickoff and hit one blocker and knocked him down. The runner came next and Tommy latched on to his legs for the tackle. Tommy got in on kickoffs in the second and third quarters but Catawaga was losing 28 to 27 in the final quarter of the season and the Flyers could not move the ball, nor could the other team. He had played in the first 3 quarters but there were only 5 minutes left in the game, then 4...3...2. Williamsville, their main rival, had the ball on their own 10 yard line with a one point lead and only 15 seconds left on the clock. 
         Tommy had tears in his eyes. He looked up in the stands and saw Mary looking at him and smiling. She pointed up to the sky and Tommy knew what she meant..."the Lord was more important than football." He began to feel guilty that his team was going to lose, and his coach was not going to reach his goal, but the only thing he cared about was himself. The game was just about over and Coach Thomas angrily called out...."Wilson!". Tommy jumped up and looked at him. The coach told him to go in for Davis in the defensive backfield! Tommy had only played that position in practice when they needed a body. He started running out on the field and everyone was yelling to him that he needed his helmet. He finally reached the defensive huddle. 
         He now had his 10 quarters in!  Why would Coach Thomas do this, especially as they were about to lose? His teammates were oblivious to this. They only had one more play on their mind. The quarterback took the snap and handed off to the fullback who broke through the line coming right at Tommy who ran straight at him and hit as hard as he ever hit anyone. Tommy was knocked on his back but heard shouts. He had caused a fumble and everyone was running after the ball. One guy fell on it only to have it squirt out and towards Tommy. He picked it up and tan towards the goal. He was hit short of it but before he fell was hit from behind by a teammate and then another. He felt his feet hit the ground and pushed one more time in the scrum with players in front but more in back. He fell but held on to the ball and could still hear yells. What had happened? 
         The referee was pulling players off until he saw Tommy and raised his hands signaling a touchdown!  Everyone was pulling at him, slapping him, yelling at him. He had scored the winning touchdown. The Flyers beat their rival and finished the season with 6 wins and 4 losses. Tommy was in a bit of shock. As he walked back towards the sideline he saw Coach Thomas and Coach Offen talking. Coach Thomas was just smiling and shaking his head up and down.

Mary: "Tommy, you were unbelievable! You were the hero, and you'll get your letter!"
Tommy: "Mary, I'll tell you later why I had to have that letter."

         Two weeks later was the football banquet where the varsity letters would be given out. Everyone had two tickets for the dinner to give to parents. Tommy's mother and Mary would be at his table. the Flyers colors were white and red. Tommy had bought the white wool sweater at Anderson's Department Store and was ready to have the letter put on the day after the banquet. His mom had picked up Mary in their 1957 Ford Fairlane and met Tommy at the banquet who had gone early for instructions on the ceremony. Tommy was the only senior to be given a varsity letter for the first time, a 10 inch red 'C'. 
         Coach Thomas said a few words about every player that came up to the podium. When he came to Tommy, he had this to say, "Quite frankly, I never expected Tommy Wilson to earn this letter. It is nearly impossible to earn a varsity letter as a senior without ever having played a down of organized football. In fact, I'm ashamed to admit it, I was a little bit annoyed at his determination. But Coach Offen had faith in Tommy's abilities, abilities that I did not see. He nearly twisted my arm to get him in all four quarters of that last game. Come up here for your letter Tommy. You deserve it as much as anyone on this team." Tommy was red faced and looked over to Coach Offen and smiled as he returned to his table. He gave his varsity letter to his mom and held Mary's hand tight.

Mary: "Well, Tommy, I'm so proud of you, and you have that varsity letter that you wanted so much!"
Tommy: "Mary. I never told you why I wanted this ... this letter so bad. All of the other guys have something to give their girlfriends to show everyone that they are going steady. They give them their class rings to wear around their neck or they take them to the prom and I can't afford these things. I worked for that letter to put on a sweater and ask you if you would wear it for the rest of the year. I'd be so proud to see you in it, knowing that you would be showing everyone that we are in love with each other."
Mary: "Tommy...I had no idea that you felt that way. I'm in shock...and I have to tell you what came to my mind as you told me this. Tommy...everyone will one day stand before God and He will look at them to see if they belong to his Son Jesus. And do you know how The Father will know? All those who have trusted in Jesus, and trusted in Him...alone... to save them...they will be dressed in white...the righteousness of Christ! We will stand before God after a lifetime that is filled with sin, yet the Father will not see that for He will only see what Jesus has done. That is why Jesus came here to be one of us, to live the perfect life and pay for our sins. Tommy, if we trust in anything that we ourselves do then we are taking off that robe....that sweater....of righteousness and will reveal our sin. God may have given you this determination to win a varsity letter to demonstrate this to you. When we are "born again" we see this."

       Tommy could not say a word. The Mary that he loved so much was the Mary that loved Jesus so much. He sometimes felt jealous over this. How wrong he had been. For the first time he understood what Mary was trying to tell him. He felt that God must love him to show him this. He had doubted before because he had grown up without a father. He felt tears forming in his eyes and turned his head. His mother was returning to her seat. She had his sweater in her hands and the varsity red letter "C" was sewn on. She had secretly brought the sweater with her and returned to the car to sew it on. Tommy looked lovingly into his mother's eyes and took the sweater and turned back to Mary. She had stood up to remove the little vest she was wearing. Tommy offered her the sweater and she carefully put it on. As she sat down and said "Thank you," Tommy looked at her with wet eyes and said "Maybe we can both put on something white tonight with the letter 'C'? They held hands as the principle turned the microphone on and said:

         "Well, the Supreme Court recently ruled that God cannot come into our schools. Maybe someday we will have to comply...but not tonight. Heavenly Father. Thank you for......"