Compassions In The Dock

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

A Death In Cuba

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

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

Hear No Evil

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

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

Half Price Sale

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

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

"Pour Your Oil In The Sanctuary Lord"

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

On The Playing Fields Of ESPN

The following post is from last December:         

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

Thanksgiving

I've posted this every Thanksgiving since 2010:

Thankful For Weaknesses

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

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

In Awe Of An Empty Tomb

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

In Awe Of An Empty Tomb

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

Colin Kaepernick....You Have Been Duped

Colin Kaepernick is in the news again, this time it revolves around his wearing a t-shirt with Fidel Castro and Malcom X on it and the phrase...."Like Minds Think Alike." This illustrates a little bit the foundation upon which this young man now sits and the subterfuge behind his being snookered. The following post is from October:

          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.

"President Kennedy's Last Official Words"

         Every American, old enough of course, knows where they were and what they were doing when President Kennedy was shot, and every American knows where they were as America was attacked on 9/11. As for me concerning the former, I was in my eighth grade homeroom when one of the Sisters came in crying with the news for us. We all then immediately went home.
         I am one of those who could never quite get President Kennedy's assassination out of my mind. I would return to the subject at least once every year and read the newest book or just sit and reflect on the tragedy of that day. If asked my opinion I would tell people that I was certain of only two things.....that JFK was killed that day....and that Lee Harvey Oswald did not do it. Well, it appears that we finally may have some of those answers, and as it turns out there may have been truths in many of those books that came out over he years. Robert Wilcox is an author who just happened to come across a man who claims that he had a lot of these answers. That man was very old at the time and apparently thought that the time had come for Americans to know that happened to their young and handsome president way back on November 22, 1963. The book is Target JFK, The Spy Who Killed Kennedy, but that is not the topic of this post...for the topic is much more important.
         Many of you remember that magazine sized book Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy. I think that just about everyone had it back in the months and years following that tragic day. In that book the editors reveal what were "President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." John Kennedy was to give this speech but never did... for assassins (plural) ended his life.
         That speech never given concluded with these words, "...the righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it." So the full verse is:

          "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

          John Fitzgerald Kennedy was nominally religious as was I. He would have respected the Bible and truly believed the words that were written for him that he was to give, but he could not have truly understood those words nor the significance of nor the timeliness of those words, nor even seen his own part in attempting to build a city (a country) without the LORD. The 60s were an absolute disaster, the effects of which nearly brought my own life to an end. They gave us our college professors for the next few decades which gave us many of our problems today. The gave us Barack Obama and the Clintons....and two Bush presidents and Donald Trump. They, the 60s, were the foundation of my life apart from Jesus Christ.
          Donald Trump will "labor in vain' as he attempts make America 'great again'....unless we as a people see our own culpability in our troubles (past-present-and future) and seek His forgiveness and mercy; and even then our hope is wisdom and strength through the judgements, and not suspension of those judgements. Looking at America now where half of the voting electorate just cast ballots for known corruption in order to keep God out of society while much if not most of the other half championed a man who apparently could care less what God has written in His Word...looking at us now... and looking at America for the past 150 years... we have been laboring in vain, and even in the constitutional fervor surrounding Donald Trump....we are but watchman that waketh in vain....unless we humble ourselves and look to God and not man for our strength.

Terror, Thy Name Is Jesus

        The cast of a Broadway show, along with the audience, verbally accosted one of the finest men in our government, before and even during the stage performance. Some passengers in first class of an American Airlines flight hissed and booed as a Gold Star family, announced to the passengers as a 'special military family', was permitted to exit the plane first in order for them to make their connection to Dover Air Force Base and accept the body of their son who was just killed in Afghanistan. Whether these passengers knew this was a Gold Star family or not, the booing of an announced 'special military family' was terribly sad and indicative of how far we have fallen as a people. The mayor of Bloomington, Indiana just officially renamed Good Friday as Spring Holiday... supposedly to be more 'inclusive'...but which now excludes probably hundreds of thousands of others in the area in what was their traditional commemoration of the day.
        What we are witnessing is a backlash against God. With either Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton, one very large portion of America was secure in that God would mostly certainly be held at bay. These people now perceive that they have had their defenses against God torn down. It's not that they fear that Donald Trump is a Christian for they do not, it's that they fear that the government will no longer be their ally, which it most probably will not, because of the people who put Donald Trump into office. The following post describes the clash within America that may culminate in a proclamation.

Jonah Or Nahum.....May, 2014

         In the nineteenth chapter of Exodus God gave the the people of Israel specific instructions to prepare for a very special event. He was going to come down to His people at Mount Sinai and He would give Moses the Ten Commandments. In the fourth chapter of Amos God told them once again to prepare. He told them very clearly, through Amos, that He had given them warning after warning in the form of punishments and concluded each time with "Yet you have not returned to me." Then came His ominous proclamation "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel."
         In the book of Jonah, as we all know, God, through Jonah, gave Nineveh forty days to repent. The king and all the people did just that. Over a century later God sent another prophet to Nineveh, Nahum. There was no warning this time, only a proclamation of impending judgement.
         A war is raging in America. You are in the midst of it. Can you not feel the tremors of the battle or hear the thunder of the canon fire? I wrote the following words in a previous post, for much of America despises God and cringes at the mention of His name or any legislation or public policy that even acknowledges His very being: Terror, thy name is Jesus and thy weapon is truth. We will make laws to protect us from you. We will isolate those whom you send to us. We will ban your book. You have disquieted us, your words upset us. We do not recognize your holiness. You are not our king. We will not pay you homage. You are not our God for there is no God. We were your slaves but now we are free. If you desire to live here, you will do our bidding.
          'Prepare to meet your God, O America' would go in one ear and out the other to many in America. For the rest... Lord, send us Jonahs if it be thy will, and give us strength if your message is that of Nahum! 

      

The Late Great USA

The following post is two years old:

        We don't know the exact dates for the writing of the Old Testament books of Jonah and Nahum but a rough estimate might be that they were written 150 years apart. Most people are more familiar with how Jonah eventually relayed God's warning to the great city of Nineveh. That warning being that they had forty days to repent or be overthrown. Nineveh did repent and God postponed judgement. Nahum's message to Nineveh was an entirely different one.....God's judgement was imminent.......there was to be no forty days and no offer to repent this time.
        It would take a whole book to describe what America went through during our Civil War and a far greater talent than I have to do it. I long ago lost track of how many times I have visited Gettysburg. One chapter from the short novel I wrote fifteen years ago, which is available at the link to your left, takes place as the main character visits the battlefield of Gettysburg. There were large revivals in both the North and The South during that war and we did survive as a nation but the downward slope away from God began again after the dust had settled, and we are almost exponentially more rebellious of a people today than we were in the 1850s.
        A little over forty years ago the Christian community in America was awakened once again as to God's warnings to not only us but the entire world. These warnings were only in bits and pieces and much of it contained error in the specifics but much of it was also very sound and straightforward. Hal Lindsey's The Late Great Planet Earth was significant in that it set the stage for multitudes to begin to think about the literal judgement of God upon a wicked world. Billy Graham's 1985 Approaching Hoofbeats: The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse was significant in that it was based on biblical warnings rather than speculations. He wrote of those hoofbeats....."They come as a warning, and grow louder by the day." Today those hoofbeats sound like steel hoofs clamoring over giant copper cymbals.
        In my personal opinion I can see four very specific and very egregious evolutions if you will in our rebellion against Almighty God. In the first we legislated God out of our schoolrooms. Our children would now not only be prohibited from reverencing God in their education but God would be outright ridiculed by many authority figures in their lives. In the second we were given the right through Roe v Wade to destroy our children in the womb before they could impinge upon our lifestyles simply by being born. Third, we turned the children over to the merchants and profiteers, many of them unscrupulous and some predators, almost totally free of oversight as to how their products would affect the children and ultimately affect society through a generation raised on instant gratification and self-esteem. Fourth, the subterfuge of same-sex marriage is viewed as compassion and fairness rather than what it really is, a bold final assault on our children's belief in God! Many polls show the effectiveness of the deceit, not only by the mainstream liberal churches but much of evangelicalism itself. We are choosing politics, our paychecks, our pensions and our entertainments.......over our children and over God's commands.
        The warnings to us were always there in God's Word but they appeared in a different medium four decades ago with almost as shocking an affect to many as did a stomach acid bleached prophet of God.... vomited out of a giant fish, but Jonah's appearance pales in relation to the message given by Nahum of certain coming judgement. I encourage you to read these three short chapters of the Book of Nahum and meditate upon what God had done before. If it does unnerve you, as it should, there is always the seventh verse of the first chapter to at least store away...."The Lord is good, A stronghold in the day of trouble; And He knows who trusts in Him."

Stephen K. Bannon....Part II

         It's worth looking at the uproar, to put it mildly, concerning President-elect Trump naming Stephen K. Bannon as his chief strategist and senior counselor. Before retirement I listened to Bannon every morning on his Breitbart XM radio show while driving to work. This show was a caller and interview focused format as opposed to Rush Limbaugh's which is more the opinion of the host followed by callers. Interacting with callers tends to expose the host more as to who that host really is. Limbaugh is extraordinary at this. I could understand that if one only heard his opinion that they might be able to remain firm in their opposition to him as a person but to listen to him simply converse with...the rest of us... would mitigate that fear, for it shows very clearly that Limbaugh is a decent man entirely willing to consider the opinion of others and even reverse his opinion if needs be. Stephen K. Bannon was constantly challenged by this on his show and the man who emerged was every bit as honest and forthcoming as Rush Limbaugh.
         As I have written in these posts, I was confident that Donald Trump would overcome the media bias and election manipulations on November 8th, and this in no small measure because one morning Bannon was not on the show...he had been chosen to join the Trump campaign. Similar to Donald Trump, Mr. Bannon has simply articulated what most of us in America had been shouting from the rooftops for many years, only he expressed himself through an intellect and with an honesty that was far superior to our President-elect's. I'm referring to politics and government in this post for if this is not your first visit you would know that it is my opinion that as necessary as this reform movement is in our responsibility as citizens it will not effect God's judgements advancing upon this world, and that America as it stands before God has not changed one iota with Donald Trump... or even Stephen K. Bannon.
          Having expressed this caveat... as to this movement and the coarse that America would take with a President Trump....Stephen K. Bannon does bring to mind a General Patton in ferocity but also a George Washington in love for his country and respect for his fellow man. There was not an iota of anti-Semitism or discrimination in him that I ever came across, in fact the opposite was the case. I do have significant differences with him, particularly as to the eternal... and how it effects the temporal, but certainly not as to the honest, capable and fair-minded man that he is. The fact that the Left is trying so hard to get him out of the Oval Office merely demonstrates how they fear truth, common sense and logic as it pertains effective governing in a constitutional republic.

Who Is Isaac Crockett

The following is a synopsis of a short novel that I wrote many many years ago. It's certainly nothing professional but it was a labor of the heart and can be read at the link to your left:

         Isaac Crockett is the lead singer of one of America's top bands. He is also a Christian. On a visit back home, Ocean City New Jersey, he meets a young lady who is in distress... helps her, and never expects to see her again. Successful and well thought of as he is, Isaac then leaves Rock and Roll behind.
         Anne Wiskovitz is Roman Catholic with a very devout father named Casimer. Surprise, Isaac and Anne do meet again in another short...chance....encounter!  Isaac pursues what he believes is God's call on his life as he struggles with his new found love for this beautiful Catholic girl with a very protective father. During the course of these thirty two short chapters Isaac meets Casimer in his home in Easton, Pennsylvania, makes a visit to an awards ceremony in New York City, is mugged in his hometown, assaulted by the owner of the local professional hockey team, walks the battlefields of Gettysburg as he ponders the courage of these Americans and...well I can't tell everything but I hope you might give it a try.

A Little Explanation

         The following is from an older post and I bring it back occasionally to help explain these posts to new visitors. Not mentioned specifically here but what has been central to these posts and to the domestic problems America faces is Communism....which never went away...it only only changed some of its tactics out of necessity. So, following these two paragraphs is a recent post (October 31st) that encapsulates some of the problems we are facing:

         As I look over five and a half years of posts (now eight years), most of them remain as relevant as if written today. Some indeed are topical but the central themes are the same.....America, prepare to meet thy God....America is in the midst of a coup.....social media dumbs down an already reality intolerant American mind.....the American Christian church believes itself to be healthy but it is mistaken.....and then to Europe and other nations of this world, if we lose this fight... you lose also.....and concerning politics and government.... there is little difference between the establishment wing, or the the elites of the Republican Party and the Democrat Party, both of which truly serve only the secular ruling class of this world.
         As for the Christian posts and message, they can be summarized as.....they don't come any weaker or more unworthy than me.....today is the day for your salvation, not tomorrow......there is no more precious object on this earth, no more valuable possession, than that book gathering dust on the second shelf of your bookcase next to Tom Clancy, Stephen King, Danielle Steel or any one of such authors who you can read forty-five minutes every night before bed.....and.... the majesty, the power and the glory of Jesus Christ is such that the closer you get, the more you know your need of Him as both Lord and Savior, the more you see His righteous judgement, the more thankful you are for His mercy, and the more fleeting this world and its baubles appear!

From October 31, 2016:

        What are they going to do? Their whole life depends on someone like Hillary Clinton being in the Oval Office....well... not exactly like Hillary Clinton... because she's a 45 year work in progress and it took Madam Mao a similar length of years before her husband's cultural revolution ended and her final purges began. So...again....what are they going to do....the globalists....and the Communist puppet Progressives....social media titans.....Russian uranium company CEOs.....Department of Education......lifelong bureaucrats.....Megyn Kelly.....what are they going to do if HRC is finally relegated to the dustbin of history?
 
Learn Your ABCs

         The key players are (A) the Communists...they want to rule the world, (B) the radical Islamists, Al-Qaeda...Isis... and the like....they also want to rule the world, (C) the Capitalist West....they just want to keep their cushy jobs and wish that everyone would stop bickering, and (D) the Globalists....they don't care who thinks they rule the world as long as they are in charge of all the money.
          Barack Obama is part of (A) and (B) but (C) and (D) thinks he is part of them. Hillary Clinton is a globalist but would steal the shirt off the back of (A), (B), (C), or (D). The mainstream news media doesn't think that (A) exists, is afraid of (B), despises (C) and is employed by (D). Higher Education is employed by (A), doesn't think that (B) exists, claims to be a part of (C) and never heard of (D).
          I am a citizen within (C) but my home is what I'll call (E) for Eternal. Our King created the world that everyone wants to either rule, own or fleece. (A) says that it doesn't believe in our King but fears Him more than anything. (B) hates everything so it naturally  year hates our King also. (C) says that our king is their king too but disobeys every commandment the He gives. (D), as I inferred earlier, thinks that they are the real king of everything.
        (A) thinks that they can defeat (C) in a war and rule everything. (B) wants everybody (A) (B) (C) and (D) involved in a war so that they can pick up the pieces and rule everything. (C) aids and abets (A) and (B) but will blame (E) if a war starts, and (D) is fine with financing any war.
The Bible tells us what will eventually happen. The citizens of (E) will be hated by (A), (B), (C), and (D), all of whom will all be destroyed at the coming of the King of (E).

Betrothed

         My wife and I were guests at a lovely wedding earlier today where two young Christians were united in marriage. I have been in the habit for quite some time, and even every Lord's Day in my own church, of entering the sanctuary...sitting down in the pew...opening the Bible... anywhere...and starting to read the first words that I come to on the page. I don't turn around and chitchat with the brother or sister in the pew behind me or look around at all. It's just an idiosyncrasy of mine that fills up the few minutes before the worship service begins.
         So I did that earlier today in this beautiful Lehigh Valley church. Quite frankly it doesn't get much better than this. I flopped open the Bible and my eyes met the 58th chapter of Isaiah. I read the first two verses over and over and over. They read...
        "Shout it aloud, do not hold back. Raise your voice like a trumpet. Declare to my people their rebellion and to the descendants of Jacob their sins. For day after day they seek me out; as if they were a nation that does what is right and has not forsaken the commands of its God. They ask me for just decisions and seem eager for God to come near them....."  I read these verses four or five times and it was then time for the marriage ceremony to begin and I had not thought about this reading of Scripture until now, after midnight, as I sat down in a hotel room pondering what to write as my Lord's Day post.
        The words "as if" were what effected me most as I sat in that pew, for this most certainly is America today. These verses were written to a people who thought that they were a faithful nation. Contextually for us today, it would speak to the church...and to me... rather than those outside of the church.
        We are in need of a humbling for we have forsaken our God. Even our best offerings are tinged with the pleasures of the American way of life in the year 2016. God is at this time bringing judgements upon America and at the same time removing veils over the eyes of many within His church, and has actually been doing so for many years....even many decades. Herein is our hope.... that we come to see ourselves as we truly are, a church in great need of introspection, in perilous times, and to cling to the promise from the book of Nahum...."The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; he knows those who take refuge in him."
        We are today a church betrothed to Christ.....and He is coming for us..... surely it would behoove us to make sure that we have oil for our lamps.

Cape Who Who Boo-Boo

        The main advertising for these posts is the bumper sticker on my truck that has the URL for these posts and a message that I can change daily. The title of this particular post...Cape Who Who Boo-Boo... had a nice response as we traveled east this weekend. I guess that some just had to know what those crazy words meant.

        Round about 10 O'clock on election night my wife asked me how I was doing. As I remember I paused and admitted that to be honest I was allowing myself a little bit of fleshly satisfaction. I knew very well that what I felt confident would be a victory for Donald Trump could not undo what we have already done to ourselves, but the temptation was there and I temporarily succumbed.
        The EPA would get a new director.....as would the FBI...and both will probably be honest public servants. The plague of the politically correct, having done its damage, will dissipate into the departing fog. I wish that I could have been in a typical army mess hall the morning after to feel the blast of morale blow through like a summer breeze. I can almost hear sighs of relief in our law enforcement communities. I let my thoughts wander to a Supreme Court where most if not all of the justices actually studied our Constitution for their decisions. I could see Socialism withering like a month old orchid, and Communism squealing like a greased pig being chased at a county fair. For the first time in almost eight years I could count the days that Barack Obama would have his executive orders pen in his hand, and for the first time in almost 25 years William Jefferson and Hillary Rodham Clinton may be out of our lives!
         You might not know what was going through my mind just to look at me yesterday. I didn't say much, but you may have been able to detect a playfulness in my voice, or my eyes might have been brighter and even my posture might have improved? Yes, I let myself swim in this clear, clean and blue current shimmering in the sunlight....just as when I go on vacation....but every vacation has to come to an end and its time to get back to work....and I am now back to work.....and every bit as before......it is ugly and evil.
         Our pulpits, on the whole, have been a colossal failure. I had a short conversation with Siri the other day. We usually don't get along. What is it with that woman? I gave her a short request to take a note and as I read it on my iPhone right now I wonder what on God's green earth "cape who who boo-boo" means. God's message to us today is clear....Repent....for I am coming with judgement....yet we may as well get 'cape who who boo-boo' from our pulpits for all the unction in the message. These pulpits may very soon come to see that their memo to the world of ....'come and grow with us".... was woefully inadequate and that they should have taken to heed Paul's words of "....woe to me if I do not preach the gospel" of which he previously defined as "Jesus Christ and Him crucified," for many faithful pulpits do indeed emit this glorious gospel today.
         Communism was indeed knocked to the canvas with a hard right in this election but they got back up and are already instigating protests again. The Republican establishment elites are once again doing what they do best....pat you on the back as they lie through their teeth.... while Wall Street investors are now borderline insane.
          Compare these two statements.....'Barack Obama has only 71 days left'.....and.....'Barack Obama still has 71 days left.' We should not dally too long on the former....for I submit to you.... that Communism, Globalism and Islamic Terrorism are concentrating on the latter.
     

Bumpkins...Low-Information Voters...Racists....And Homophobes

         The following post is from late in 2015 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. They represent the type of voter that put Donald Trump over the top and made him our President-Elect.    
         To my readers outside of the United States...you may have seen a red and blue election map where the blue are metropolitan areas across America that supported Hillary Clinton while the vast swath of red that dominates the map are the areas that supported Donald Trump.....if not, please Google this.
         Is the description of the two people in the following post anything near what you have read about Republican voters in America? Of course not. Friends, be wary of our mainstream media for it has an agenda and that agenda has nothing to do with truth, nor is it even vaguely related to our once proud tradition of freedom of the press in America.

Bumpkins...Low-Information Voters...Racists...And Homophobes

         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.

    

Aaah Bach

         I retired six weeks ago...or was it six years ago....no, it was six weeks ago. "I think that I shall never see...A poem lovely as a tree".... I relay this verse not because I love poetry....although I used to be Rod McKuen's biggest fan...but because had I not at least two weeks of raking leaves so far I may have gone crazy. By the way...did you know that Joyce Kilmer was a guy....Joyce was his middle name as his first name was Alfred. Alfred?...I guess I don't blame him.  Anyway, in desperation for things to do I have recently thrown myself into Bach as a last resort! My mini-boom is at my ear as I type. I don't know fugue from fudge but I must say these tunes are every bit as good as everyone has always said.
         I write semifacetiously here. I do know the difference between fugue and fudge. I just prefer fudge. And I have indeed 'thrown myself' somewhat into Bach. And his music is as wonderful as it is acclaimed to be. The following is part of a post from 2010. The last paragraph is the key. We can throw ourselves into many things...politics....fitness....and music... there are important responsibilities and wise pastimes  and good deeds and enjoyments....but there is only one thing that should be all-consuming....only one thing that is  'living and active, sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing to the division of soul and of spirit, of joints and of marrow, and discerning (of) the thoughts and intentions of the heart.'

Aaah Tabletalk

         There was a movie a few decades ago, a comedy, where a man was trying to impress a young lady who was very cultured. Advice given to him was that if the topic of classical music came up, just say Aaaah...Bach and that may get him by. If Old English Heroic Epic Poetry is ever brought up to me in a conversation, I may just say Aaaah...Beowulf.  I read Beowulf in high school. It was a great learning experience. I learned how to read thousands of words straight through and not understand a single thought they conveyed.
         I once held a fancy for a young lady in college who was very cultured, in fact she taught Theater Arts 101 as a grad student. This may have been the beginning of my actually... studying....for I signed up for the class and devoured the textbook to impress her. I even took an acting class and went to plays....Aaaah...Moliere!  The peak of my impressing her was when I cleared up a long standing mystery at the Pittsburgh Playhouse. We were working there for a few weeks, actually just rummaging through the stored old materials of the historic Playhouse for anything that the Pitt library's Special Collections could use. During a tour of the building I correctly identified King Edward VIII out of a dozen characters in an old Al Hirschfeld caricature mural, an answer that had up to then eluded even the director. This young lady looked at me in amazement and said..."You're Smart!" But alas, I'm not cultured. I guessed correctly for I knew it was either the king, later the Duke Of Windsor, or Dagwood Bumstead....Aaaah Blondie!  I'd rather go to a Three Stooges marathon than a ballet. I read everything I had to through high school, but I didn't really read it. But I've since had a metamorphosis, Aaaah...Kafka!  
         Reformed theologian, pastor and teacher R. C. Sproul, through his Ligonier Ministries, publishes a monthly devotional/Bible study called Tabletalk, the name taken from Martin Luther's work of the same title. This booklet comes to our house early so I'm usually a little bit ahead of schedule. Today I was reading the July 15th offering and the Bible verse to be considered was Joshua 1:8.... This book of the law shall not depart from your mouth but you shall meditate on it day and night, so that you may be careful to do all that is written in it. For then you will make your way prosperous....        
      

The Real Question

         The comment was made either by one of the two woman senators from California or possibly Nancy Pelosi. I can't remember who made it and have been unable to find it on the Internet. Here's the situation. It was about a dozen or so years ago and conservatives were constantly bringing up our Constitution to bolster their arguments on the issues of the day. This California senator or congresswoman....whichever.... became frustrated in an interview and blurted out....."What is all this constitution talk?"
         Those days to the present have been a watershed in America's political history. After years of living in virtual ignorance of the importance of a constitution in a constitutional republic... Americans were returning en masse to the document that not only defined our government but was designed to protect it. Today, to paraphrase and use in a totally different context the words of the great Bible translator and martyr for the church...William Tyndale... a common plowboy would come know more about the Constitution than the President of the United States. For the last seven plus years that is exactly what happened in America, and that is part of the answer that everyone is trying to find on how Donald Trump defeated Hillary Clinton....the people found their constitution and fought to protect it.
          This metamorphosis by the way, has not gone unnoticed by the communists around the world who have long since shaved off their mustaches, signed up for Brooks Brothers credit cards to purchase their clothes, and came back to the fight against America with a new motto....'hope and change.'
         So in one respect, but in one respect only, this is has been a marvelous happening, Donald Trump's victory, the results of which have conservatives celebrating from Miami to Fairbanks and from El Paso to Bangor, Maine. I alluded to this celebration in yesterday's post but ultimately not only can Donald Trump's victory not save America, and this if he even remains true to his campaign rhetoric, but it isn't even directly related to our problems. So it should go without saying that he would have no ability to save America let alone making it great again.
         Now, ignore this if you want but I hope that you keep it in mind in the days ahead for it is God's warnings that should have been addressed before Thomas Jefferson's, as important as Jefferson's were! The ultimate question does not revolve around whether we should have voted for Donald Trump. Progressivism's wanton slaughter of babies and indoctrination of our children into atheism alone settled that question. The real question is how we so easily delude ourselves into believing that with all the culpatory evidence that we, all of us in one way or another, are a rebellious people who have basically ignored decades of very clear warnings from God that we either return to Him or perish in our ignorance, that we can add even a single day to our history without first humbling ourselves in repentance before Him. Putting our hope in a man who seems to care so little for God's protection goes against the very grain of Scripture where God, time and again, demonstrated that He and He alone causes nations to either rise or fall.