The Summer of '63

         In the summer of 1963 my mother returned to her hometown of Pittsburgh after separating from my father. I was in tow. As she looked for a new home for us I stayed with my cousin and his family. It was a wonderful experience in so many ways. For one thing it was a large house and not a small apartment, and there were plenty of people running all around. There's one aspect of that family life that not only remains with me but I return to it every so often. Every evening as my aunt did her homemaking chores and the rest of us played games or occupied ourselves as normal kids do, the radio played music from the AM station on the kitchen counter....and everyone....young and old....enjoyed the popular songs of the day. This music was the ever present background of our lives...and we all shared it. The same situation existed with the movies. Everyone would go together, especially to the drive-ins.
         We were all nothing if we were all not Americans. We thought alike. By that I mean that we used the same problem solving measures. Everyone agreed on what was good and was bad and what was evil. Oh, yes there were political differences but most liked our president even if they wouldn't have voted for him again. There was a divide in our religious beliefs but it was hardly noticeable in our every day lives even though atheist activists were beginning to make headway in our Supreme Court. We were a God-fearing people....and a patriotic people....as if one of us sneezed the whole nation would say God bless you. Please allow me to ignore in this post the exceptions that did exist and will exist in any population of 189 million people such as we were.
        Something horribly changed right about that time. President Kennedy's assassination, looking back on it, was a sign...the days of wine and roses were over for America. Coincidentally, the Andy Williams song of that name was playing on that kitchen counter radio all summer, and the film of the same name was gathering awards. We have been in a steady decline since then....53 years ago. We are no longer one people. We no longer think alike or reason alike. We are no longer God-fearing, and we are making our own plans...following our own dreams....all the while forgetting God!
       Jeremiah had prophesied judgements against Judah for many years...judgements that would come by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar, and that was just what was happening, but a certain Hananiah rebuked Jeremiah and prophesied that within only two years the yoke of Nebuchadnezzar would be broken and that God would make Judah....great again. Jeremiah had placed a wooden yoke on his own back symbolizing what Judah would go through. Hananiah..."in the presence of all the people"...dramatically took that yoke off Jeremiah and broke it declaring that God would soon break the yoke of Babylon. God then gave Jeremiah a rebuke to give to the false prophet....."You have broken the yokes of wood, but you have made in their place yokes of iron.......Listen now Hananiah! The LORD has not sent you, and you have made this people trust in a lie."
         With Donald Trump's election... we... many of us...the rest have even less concern with God's hand upon us... are confident that America will soon be restored to what it was...even greater...but we have not returned to God...nor have we even consulted Him. We believe our own dreams over His Word which indicates that a nation such as we have become....a nation that once reverenced God but now openly rebels against Him.... will have not a wooden yoke...but an iron yoke placed upon it. My point in this is certainly not against Donald Trump...for I celebrated his win....nor in what he is attempting to do....but rather this; though removing from government those hostile to our heritage and our constitution may have been a necessity, it is not related to how we became the irreligious people that we are nor indicative that we have in any way humbled ourselves, repented, or even sought God's mercy.

Handle With Care

The following was first posted October 10, 2010:    

          At my first holy communion in the second grade, the custom was to receive a Bible. It was my uncle who provided me with one and I remember being somewhat disappointed for it was pocket size and very unreadable. I cannot remember why it was that I desired a regular Bible but the desire was real. In grades three through six we would attend Mass every morning and I did have a missal that was a prized possession. I liked its smell and the thin pages and was particularly impressed by the Latin that was recited from the altar and repeated by us in the pews. 

         In high school. we were given two paperback textbooks, one the Old Testament and the other the New Testament and we studied them for their literary content. I still had no concept of the Bible and no personal Bible of my own. Scan ahead to about 23 years of age where I had come out of the army and started at Pitt. My habit was to stop in the National Record Mart on Forbes Avenue in Oakland and browse their books before catching the bus home. I often came out with a purchase and one day it was a modern language paraphrase of the New Testament. I have this paperback in my hand now and can remember the feeling I had then of holding something special but not really knowing what that was.
         My first Bible was a Christmas present from my wife in 1982. I also have that Bible in front of me now. I told the story before of how she and I, as a new Christian, were on a Caribbean cruise and were forced back to our staterooms during a storm. With nothing to do, for the ship was rocking back and forth (they were much smaller in those days), I opened the drawer in the table next to the bed and there was the ubiquitous motel room Bible. Opening it up, as items were sliding off of the table from the waves, and reading from the place I had placed my finger, I read from the 93rd Psalm,

The floods have lifted up, O Lord,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The Lord on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

         As a new Christian, God was gracious to give me this glimpse of His Word through an unorthodox method, one that I would not presume upon now for I no longer pick up his Word without knowing that it is not a mere book but God breathed words to his people. If you are not familiar with this, please consider that when you pick up a Bible to read, that you hold in your hands words inspired by God. Without the movement of God's Spirit on us, they will remain just words but under the power of His Spirit their meaning not only begins to become clear but they reverberate every atom of our being and every neuron involved in our thinking.
         Consider these words from Hebrews 4:12 For the Word of God is living and powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword, piercing even to the division of soul and spirit, and of joints and marrow, and is a discerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart. If one wishes to remain in rebellion to God one would do well to not pick up His Word for, should God will it, it will make very clear the folly and repercussions of holding on to our own autonomy, and it will convict the conscience.
         On the other hand, if one desires to see just what is in this perceived time capsule, as I had for so many of my early years, it will be an illumination that is easy on the eyes, sweet to the pallet, exhilarating to the touch, soothing to the ears and of a pure aroma of cleanliness. It is powerful and will remain powerful even into old age. It is provision for all that we will need on this journey. It is nourishment. It is radiation to kill cancer cells and minerals to build bones. It is exercise, laughter and fulfillment. It is knowledge and understanding, intellect and emotion, humility and motivation. It is oxygen itself to the Christian life but it is kryptonite to Nietzsche's uberman. It will not only cause you to love but define love itself. Its unity will bring division. Discerning its division will bring unity to the mind. So, the next time that you pick up a Bible, please know that if you are not careful, an ax may be laid at the root of your paradigm of life

Tomorrow Is Another Lord's Day

         The blame is twofold. From our side we ignored God and played our games, and we continue to do so. We are culpable! The other side is a different story and we have witnessed it in the actions over many years of people in power who look at the rule of law as something to be ignored. The result is full scale... not only rebellion against God's rule but attacks against anything left that is good. Maybe....just maybe....having witnessed  what we have...and should God will it.....we will dispense as a church with believing that we have any business living as if these are normal times and therefore focus our devotion to His Word....His entire Word.....special end-times warnings all.... as we are called to do.
         This financial system can only hold out until the first large wave comes along and there are a tsunami of them on the way. Putting this as simply as I can, although both sides are culpable, the Left are the ones who opened all the gates, disabled all the alarm systems and decimated our defenses. Yet....they will blame our side alone when the infection appears in the open wounds and many start calling for amputations.  I need to repeat this....these disasters that may lie ahead... that these people literally invited in.... will be blamed only on all those who warned about them for decades. The media will probably support their accusations just as they built up and supported the Left all along.
         Nothing breeds mistakes like chaos all around. God's Word tells us in no uncertain terms that we are to be vigilant, unfortunately vigilance....like beauty....can be in the eye of the beholder. Money talks in industry, and warnings, as we all know, can be overlooked, but it's something else that talks to us at times like this. Maybe we don't want to know how bad it is. Maybe we think that if we just ignore the symptoms that they will go away. Iran won't go away. A twenty trillion dollar debt, 100 trillion if you count everything, won't go away. Evil when unleashed will not go away and we took those chains off some time ago.
         Tomorrow is another Lord's Day. We've trampled the Lord's Days that He so graciously gave us, but that is the past. The sun will rise tomorrow. The tremors that you felt over the recent years were real. Let us live as if we at least acknowledge that our problems are beyond politics and governments and man-made solutions.....wise and necessary as many of them are....for if we admit that then there are but two alternatives.....give up....which we must never do....or say with the Psalmist...."The LORD is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my salvation, my stronghold."
         
         

Transitions

         It's a testament to the genius of our Founding Fathers that this nation remained intact after eight years of Barack Obama. It's a testament to our constitution that even with half of our populace miseducated to the degree that they have no concept of America's heritage and only limited discernment between good and evil that we were able to bid adieu to this Manchurian President. And it's a testament to the longsuffering of our righteous king Jesus Christ upon a rebellious nation whom He not only brought into being, but guided and protected along the way, that we still have the strength to lift the bugle to our lips.  It's also a testament to His faithfulness that even though many others of the other half of America are currently throwing palm leaves in front of a worldly prince for their protection instead of seeking forgiveness and mercy from God that He continues to offer us a port in the coming storm.
          Politics is not the vehicle to take you where you want to go, nor is it the road that you will travel on, and it's not the land that the road is built on. It's a bunch of potholes in that road that need filled, and only the Word of God can put you on the correct path and only it can be a light upon that path to identify those potholes.
         In few hours the pen will be taken out of Barack Obama's hand and this friend of our enemies will be out of power, although his propagandists may attempt to form a media government with him at its head. If the end of this era isn't enough to soothe the pent up frustration from eight years then think of Hillary Clinton whose incarceration will be in the vapid exile of her own mind. These were evil-minded people who took advantage of baby boomers to millennials who frittered away the freedoms that were won on bloody beachheads, the Western Front of two world wars, naval battles from Lake Erie to Leyte Gulf, rolling fields from Concord to Gettysburg, and from Vicksburg to San Antonio Texas to Inchon to the rice paddies of Vietnam, and from Iraq and Afghanistan... and who more importantly led us down paths where our children not only are kept from God but required to accept and live out politically correct and compulsory commandments that are diametrically opposed to God's commandments.
        Should the Lord will it I will breathe deeply in and out at 12:01 tomorrow afternoon...probably give one solitary fist pump as a reflex action... and then continue in preparing for the bill collectors on our mortgaged future and the barbarians already within our gates. I'll also pray for this new president and seek mercies for my own culpabilities, great as they are, in the judgements accumulated over many years of forgetting from whence our blessings once came.

         The following was written in 2009 ten months into Barack Obama's first term. I could not write many of these sentiments today...but I obviously did at one time! Hopefully it will be the last time that I bring this post back:

Some Things I Like About BHO

         You would not have to read very far into this blog to realize that I believe that Barack Obama was unprepared and possibly unqualified to be President of the United States, that his method in taking office was deception, his foreign policy lowers the defense of this nation, his domestic policies are too close to the beginnings of a totalitarian state and that he represents a Socialist takeover of America. Is there not anything good that I can say about him? Actually there are some things.
         I do not wish ill of this man... our President. I've mentioned before that the optimism I perceive on the faces of the black community, particularly the children, tempts me at times to overlook some of these serious problems, tempts me greatly but ultimately fails to convince. Here are the things that I like about Barack Obama: He came from a dysfunctional family, and survived. One does not have to be poor during their youth to be disadvantaged. He was a bright and motivated student that accomplished much in academia. He is a faithful husband and loving father of two beautiful children. His speech is polite and constrained and at times he can be charming. I do not doubt his compassion, rather his wisdom. I want him to utterly fail in instituting his agenda but succeed in dealing with threats to this nation both foreign and domestic. I want him to learn and grow into a job that Saul Alinsky did not prepare him for, and I want him to retire from office in three years with the respect any former President should receive.
              

Inauguration Prayer Service

         The Washington Monument had reopened on May 12th 2014 after being closed for almost three years due to damage from the Virginia earthquake of 2011. It was closed to the public again this past August after recurring elevator problems and is projected to remain closed until 2019. Adding to this they have been having unexplained problems where the lighting on the monument has been going out.
         The Washington National Cathedral that was severely damaged in the same earthquake is in the news again also as an interfaith prayer service will be held on Saturday (January 21) with President Donald Trump, Vice-President Mike Pence and the president's cabinet in attendance. Sacred texts from various faiths will be read.  Oh...it also made news in 2014 as it offered weekly Muslim prayer services.  I thought that I would take this opportunity to revisit an older post from August of 2011 on these two iconic structures in our nation's capitol. After this I'll add yet another post where you will understand the title after reading of how dramatically America has changed.

Message In An Earthquake?

          I think that I was four years old, that would have been 1954, when my mother took me on the short trip from Baltimore, where we lived for a short time, to our nation's capitol. There was an elevator but for some reason we walked the 897 steps to the top of the Washington Memorial. My only memory of the visit is stairs surrounded by walls, that memory bolstered somewhat by stories over the years of that excursion.
          Our government felt that it needed a 'federal city' back at the beginning of the 19th century, apart from the jurisdiction of the surrounding states. Ground was chosen and the commissioners named the city Washington, and Columbia was designated the name of the district.
          Construction on the marble and granite obelisk dedicated to our first president began in 1848 and after a long delay of some 23 years was completed in 1884. The partially built obelisk stood at about 150 ft during the Civil War and when construction resumed the marble used was a slightly different shade and the contrast can be seen in many pictures today. That height today is 555 feet and it was once the tallest building in the world.
          A rare earthquake measuring 5.8 hit the region on August 23rd of 2011 that caused severe damage and over 150 cracks. Another historic Washington D. C. edifice, the Washington National Cathedral, which Congress had designated the "National House Of Prayer,"was damaged in the earthquake. The neo-gothic Episcopal church also had a delayed completion with construction starting in 1907 and the last ornamental finial put in place in 1990.
          I published a post at the time of the earthquake wondering if God was giving America something to think about, a warning of sorts in an earthquake. America is in full rebellion against God. Its cultural elites mock and ridicule those who know Him and trust in Him. Increasing numbers of politicians are running from Him in fear of losing their exalted station in life. Even sports is suffocating under its own weight, an idol increasing yearly in size such that it totters and sways from the winds of political correctness.
         The Washington Monument has been closed for 984 days, give or take a day, and reopens with a ceremony today.

Read And Maybe Weep....July, 2015

          The following proclamation, taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org, was written by our Senate in 1863, and placed on the desk of President Lincoln to sign. I first posted it last July. Ted Cruz and maybe three or four other Senators might be able to pen such a proclamation today but it would evoke hoots and howls of derision if placed on our president's desk and the media would unmercifully castigate its authors.
           Each and every thought in this proclamation may have you ask...who were these people? The answer is that they were Americans....we are no longer America! Maybe you read the news bulletin of a few weeks ago where we were informed that 53 of 76 highly ranked colleges and universities, including Harvard, Yale and Stanford, do not even require history majors to study American history....and we often wonder why Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton can get away with the things that they do!
           Read every sentence.....please.....the game doesn't start for another ten minutes....and The Bachelorette has probably been preempted by news on the latest terror attack. Read and maybe weep as I do, for this was America. We are now a nation of prodigals, mesmerized by the image on our Facebook page, our intellects hamstrung by Groupthink, and our individualism purposely eroded by a century of 'Progressive' education. May God have mercy on this nation that historically must rank no higher than the first quartile in its ability to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ and discern God's warnings in His Word and the signs of the times, yet considers its church services rather spiffy and its discernment fine and dandy in God's eyes.
         

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day

Washington, D.C.
March 30, 1863 Senator James Harlan of Iowa, whose daughter later married President Lincoln's son Robert, introduced this Resolution in the Senate on March 2, 1863. The Resolution asked President Lincoln to proclaim a national day of prayer and fasting. The Resolution was adopted on March 3, and signed by Lincoln on March 30, one month before the fast day was observed. 

By the President of the United States of America. A Proclamation. Whereas, the Senate of the United States, devoutly recognizing the Supreme Authority and just Government of Almighty God, in all the affairs of men and of nations, has, by a resolution, requested the President to designate and set apart a day for National prayer and humiliation. And whereas it is the duty of nations as well as of men, to own their dependence upon the overruling power of God, to confess their sins and transgressions, in humble sorrow, yet with assured hope that genuine repentance will lead to mercy and pardon; and to recognize the sublime truth, announced in the Holy Scriptures and proven by all history, that those nations only are blessed whose God is the Lord. And, insomuch as we know that, by His divine law, nations like individuals are subjected to punishments and chastisements in this world, may we not justly fear that the awful calamity of civil war, which now desolates the land, may be but a punishment, inflicted upon us, for our presumptuous sins, to the needful end of our national reformation as a whole People? We have been the recipients of the choicest bounties of Heaven. We have been preserved, these many years, in peace and prosperity. We have grown in numbers, wealth and power, as no other nation has ever grown. But we have forgotten God. We have forgotten the gracious hand which preserved us in peace, and multiplied and enriched and strengthened us; and we have vainly imagined, in the deceitfulness of our hearts, that all these blessings were produced by some superior wisdom and virtue of our own. Intoxicated with unbroken success, we have become too self-sufficient to feel the necessity of redeeming and preserving grace, too proud to pray to the God that made us! It behooves us then, to humble ourselves before the offended Power, to confess our national sins, and to pray for clemency and forgiveness. Now, therefore, in compliance with the request, and fully concurring in the views of the Senate, I do, by this my proclamation, designate and set apart Thursday, the 30th. day of April, 1863, as a day of national humiliation, fasting and prayer. And I do hereby request all the People to abstain, on that day, from their ordinary secular pursuits, and to unite, at their several places of public worship and their respective homes, in keeping the day holy to the Lord, and devoted to the humble discharge of the religious duties proper to that solemn occasion. All this being done, in sincerity and truth, let us then rest humbly in the hope authorized by the Divine teachings, that the united cry of the Nation will be heard on high, and answered with blessings, no less than the pardon of our national sins, and the restoration of our now divided and suffering Country, to its former happy condition of unity and peace. In witness whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the seal of the United States to be affixed. Done at the City of Washington, this thirtieth day of March, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the United States the eighty seventh. By the President: Abraham Lincoln
William H. Seward, Secretary of State.

God's Barn

       The World Economic Forum is meeting in Davos, Switzerland for their annual meeting as I write and these people are shaken to the core. They didn't expect Brexit and they certainly didn't expect Donald Trump, and there are other major populist movements threatening their total hegemony in government and finance. Folks, I cannot overemphasize the panic within these communities. Up till now they, the ubermenschen of world finance, allowed appearances of democracy in Western nations but firmly held onto the controls of electing leaders within those nations, but now the worst possible scenario is taking place...the people are actually making their own decisions.
        Do you believe in the existence of secret societies? Of course not...you are much too cosmopolitan and sophisticated to buy into conspiracy theories. Sleep well for you may be rudely awakened in the not too distant future. Every year the American public reads the sterile reports of the annual meetings of groups like the Bilderbergers, and Davos and the Bohemian Grove and many others groups. We are conditioned to believe that they are just board meetings of the sort of various business communities trying to plan wisely their financial interests. Well, it's more than that....not always nefarious or evil....although at times it is.....but always perceiving itself to be supremely in command of the secular world order that nations operate within.
         There are numerous examples of how this upper echelon has directed depressions and even world wars but I'll give you just one example because I am not a novice in this nor an amateur. The United States government covered up the Kennedy assassination in a grand scheme to place the blame on a single individual, a nondescript and faceless vagabond recruited exactly for that purpose. This took place....and it's just one instance of their absolute rule that we essentially play no part in it other than being dupes and puppets who vote and count the ballots....and sometimes we're not even allowed to do that.
         It was reported today that Bill Gates is worth 75 billion dollars and Mark Zuckerberg is not that far behind. So let's hope that this meeting in Davos is simply trying to find ways to mitigate what is going on in the world, for the alternative would be an attempt to delay or vandalize in some way this incoming administration who the people themselves chose. Actually there are many efforts to delegitimize this new administration through some extraordinary pressures from the Progressive Left. Let us hope that that is the extent of it. Let's hope that these people are merely trying to make the best of the events that are transpiring.
         Having scantily described this upper echelon of families, corporations, secretive clubs and their overbearing hold on the governments of various nations, although not having mentioned Communism that seeks for itself the same powers, I will add, as I hope that I always do, that although they believe that they are in the only control room for world governments... they can only do what God permits them to do. They have no power whatsoever apart from that. So where we are going and what will transpire will seem to be orchestrated by them but it is actually orchestrated or allowed by God. He will permit only that which furthers His plans for this rebellious world that contains within it His redeemed. A completely new world order may be ahead. This is certain should this happen....God's people will understand....not necessarily in detail or all at once....but enough that it will have a twofold effect...it will lead to a winnowing of the chaff and the wheat on the threshing floor....and the grain will be kept in God's barn.
        
  

The Negative Power Of Positive Thinking

         What is the difference between pessimism and realism as it pertains to one's outlook for the coming year 2017? Some would say that you have to look on the positive side and that there's nothing you can do to change what will happen anyway, and some might try to use Bible verses to support that opinion but God's Word tells us to be in a state of constant watchfulness.
          My position in these posts has been that if one is not observant, vigilant and aware to begin with then any conclusions drawn will essentially be uneducated opinions and useless if not grossly misleading. Bear with me on this please. How....how can any individual fill their mind up with what are essentially entertainments and then expect to have even what should be normal discernments on the age that we live in? Is the following advice something we would tell our children...."Sure, go ahead and play all that you want. All you need to do is study enough to pass."? But that is what we ourselves are doing, and we're really not even studying enough to pass.
          We are living within a paradigm of life whether we like it or not or even if we realize it or not. Sometimes it's called the American Dream. It is totally accepted without any questions asked for one does not question the only thing one has ever known. This is what we have to break out of! Picture a man who has had enough of this society and culture that we live in. He moves to some cabin up in the mountains and purposes to live a simple life and let others continue in the rat race. There are plenty of people just like this. They have broken away from this paradigm of life. Unfortunately there is no spiritual blessings in this for it is a totally secular decision but it does exhibit what I'm alluding to in this post which is identifying a problem and then avoiding its suction-cupped tentacles.        
         The violence on earth is running totally amok....on the very edge even of nuclear catastrophes? I lived through the Cuban Missile Crises and it wasn't anything compared to what we face today. This one aspect alone should, to any clear thinking individual, cause grave concern. To the Christian it should awaken them and actually cause them to hope for the return of Jesus. Oh, everyone assents to hoping for His return but the evidence of actual desire is scant.
         The children should be the key in all of this. As bad as this world was in the previous century at least the children in Western societies had an opportunity to be taught about their Creator and their Redeemer. That opportunity is fading fast even in what should be the most Christian nation on this earth. Will God permit us to go on like this? I for one do not think so! What am I missing here? Is this not simple logic after reading about God's dealing with Israel and Judah?
         What does the evidence show on how we are taking all this in? It shows that we haven't a clue and more than that it shows that we really don't seem to care. Paradigm paralysis has set in and hardened. Our minds are confused as to what is going on and we have determined not to enter into the murky investigative processes of God's Word as it relates to times just like this. What that really boils down to is that we don't trust that God will clear up the murkiness....but He will....and He has....but one has to want to see. Are these times no worse than other ages? If that's your mantra....go for it....but perspiratory prayer is what is needed and positive thinking does not tend to stimulate the sweat glands.
         So what am I....a pessimist.... by dwelling on the return of the Lord Jesus Christ? In my mind the time is short where ten year old girls will be used as human bombs, where genocides pop up as commonly as measles outbreaks, and where children, even our children, are taught that God is a myth. Are we not to be a peculiar people? OK...you roll your eyes....for I seem peculiar to you... but is not even that giving credence to my point? A horror film is being played out upon the earth. Come Lord Jesus, but if Thee are to tarry..... keep us waiting and working and hoping for Thy return...for as in all prophesies of Thy Word..."If it seems slow, wait for it; it will surely come; it will not delay."

Habakkuk 2:3

God's Will Shall Prevail

         Donald Trump announced today that his 36 year old son-in-law Jared Kushner will be his third senior adviser. This is nothing but irresponsible. The Trump team said that he was a 'tremendous asset' in the campaign. What does that have to do with the Middle East which the Trump team also announced as part of what will be his responsibilities? The media is focusing in on possible nepotism violations and conflicting business interests but these are not the main issues. The issue at hand is Donald Trump's Twitter Diplomacy and whether or not Mr. Trump is living out The Apprentice instead of building on statesmanship. Cheering him on without honest scrutiny is not wise.

God's Will Shall Prevail.....December 24, 2016

         I doubt if Christian conservatives want to spend too much time reading about Donald Trump's professional life. It's not that he hasn't been successful for he has. It's also not that there have been certain bankruptcies in his empire for that's part of big business today. It's rather that it's been a lot of gambling casinos and celebrities and beauty pageants and that kind of thing. It has to be sobering from a Christian perspective.
         Donald Trump indeed has strengths. I don't think that anyone can deny that. He pushed himself to the limit for a year and a half....and at 70 years of age! But friends I'd ask you to consider this....his campaign could not possibly have come at a more opportune time for him. Tea Party and Christian conservatives had been waging an intense war for over a decade while Mr. Trump was sipping mint juleps at Churchill Downs. All they needed was someone to circumnavigate the political wasteland of presidential campaign politics and stand up and tell it like it is. Ted Cruz had the opportunity to do this as did any one of the other conservative candidates who threw their hats into that circus ring....but none of them did that....not to the extent that Donald Trump did. Every one of them had a huge advantage on Donald Trump but everyone of them held back... read too many pundits... and worried about being ridiculed.....everyone except Donald J. Trump. That is why he succeeded!
          I wrote a post a few years back on how Al Sharpton said this to a church gathering....."God gave us Barack Obama." He probably never spoke truer words...for President Obama was indeed given to us....as a form of punishment. Well, God also gave us Donald Trump. Most Christians would agree with that....but they think that God had mercy upon us and gave us Donald Trump to help us restore America to greatness.
         I'd ask you to think about this for a moment....God supposedly gave us a gambling casino magnate and a profane billionaire as a reward. Think further on this.....a reward for what? We as a people haven't shown any inclination to rely upon God's mercy let alone fall before Him seeking forgiveness for what we have become. Have you seen any of the recent polls on the religious beliefs of Americans? And yet this is the nation that God is going to have mercy upon....and will do so by giving them a celebrity's celebrity to rescue them?
      You'll interpret these words so far as being a diatribe against Donald Trump. It's nothing of the sort. Not many of you celebrated his victory on November 8th more than I did but not for all the same reasons. I hope to applaud any successes that God gives a President Trump, and to pray for him ardently, but not to be cranked up to clang my cymbals for him. This is not a time for celebration, forget the inaugural balls, it's a time for intense national introspection.
       We on the conservative right are already beginning to compromise. We've been sucked into the euphoria of the departure of the Clintons and the Obamas and the promises of greatness. Donald Trump has been audacious as he moves every day to jump start common sense and reason in our government but we have missed what else he is doing. He named the CEO of a global energy company as our new Secretary of State and we hardly raised an eyebrow. There appears a conflict of interest in this appointment for we are trying to get away from huge corporations influencing our foreign policy. Ben Carson should have been named to this post. After a year of campaigning we know who he is and this man has the words... intellect, wisdom and statesman... written all over his academic regalia.
         The entire primary battle had been fought against the Republican establishment, yet we are now condescendingly instructed that Donald Trump has to bring the other side in. Fine....Undersecretary to the Deputy Director of costume balls, Easter eggs and golf outings sounds like a good place to start for now! If they can handle that then Ambassador to California might be available. (They speak the same liberal language) But we won't be able to get legislation passed they say! The ship is pitching, yawning, rolling and about to capsize and you are worried about who is seated where in the grand ballroom. Wake up and pray to God man....and perhaps He will have mercy upon us in this tempest.
         An anecdote comes to mind from the Clinton administration. Bill Clinton was in the middle of his Monica troubles and was starting to lose his composure. Al Gore...his Vice-President....looked at him....his boss.... and said..."Get with the program!" I don't want their program. I want transparency... not translucency where we don't know who is wielding the gavel.
          A little history.....Abraham Lincoln was elected President of the United States on November 6th, 1860. South Carolina seceded from the Union six weeks later. Lincoln was inaugurated on March 4th, 1861. The Confederacy bombarded Fort Sumter 39 days later. Donald Trump's administration is starting out with very similar challenges experienced by President Lincoln who is recorded to have said during the war..."I believe in His (God's) eternal truth and justice. I believe the will of God prevails; without Him all human reliance is vain...."

It Would Make No Sense

The following post is from February of 2014.    

          I cannot remember what it feels like not to know Jesus Christ as my Savior, my Lord and my King. Oh I remember what it is like to trample underfoot the grace that He bestowed upon me, sinner that I am, for I would only have to go back hours if not minutes for that, but I cannot remember how I 'thought' prior to 1982. I know what wasn't in my mind but cannot remember what was there. I can recall my fourth birthday party where my older cousin Buzzy hid behind a door to scare me. I remember putting a full carton of my lunch milk into the milk crate, spilling it all over the kindergarten floor at North Hill Elementary School, and then not owning up to it as Mrs. Martin had us circle the crate until the guilty party fessed up. It's not for lack of memory powers, it's for lack of something else.
         I remember what it was like to be....religious. I remember sitting in the pew before grade school, holding my daily missal in my hands almost entranced by the Latin words coming from the altar. I remember trying to converse with God on long walks in the rain while in my teens. I remember attending Mass in Vietnam on those Sunday mornings when I didn't have a hangover. I remember walking over to St. Paul's Cathedral for evening Mass after finishing work at Hillman Library at Pitt. I just cannot remember the name of Jesus as anything more than a distant personage who must surely be revered as someone very important but for reasons as distant in understanding as the heavens themselves where Jesus lived.
         Someone won over $400 million dollars in the Powerball yesterday but that experience cannot possibly rival receiving the grace poured out from the cross of Calvary. I have a Bible hanging on the side of my locker at work all of the time for anyone to read. I doubt that it is picked up very often. Here in that Bible is something that should make the $400 million jackpot appear as a worn penny on the street in value but it goes unrecognized. Bibles are everywhere in America but can't even compete with an iPhone in perceived value.
          Arminianism is the most prevalent theology in evangelicalism today. In this doctrine man responds positively to the Gospel and is born again. But this is not what Scripture describes. In the Gospel according to Jesus Christ a dead person (spiritually dead) is made alive!!! He then responds to the Gospel that he truly hears for the first time. For ten years I thought that I made a decision and God responded by pouring His grace out upon me... that I wasn't as dumb as I look! Then I saw what really happened, that for some reason known only to God, he said..."You....the lowest of the low....believe, repent, be baptized and follow Me!" It was He that opened my eyes, that made me see my previous 32 years. I saw the filth and the rebellion, the pride, the hate, the ignorance and the arrogance.....and then I saw a King before me... the King of Kings! My heart stopped beating and a new heart began to beat. My lungs collapsed. I could draw in no air for the majesty I was in the presence of. I yelled as John Bunyan's pilgrim..."Life, life, eternal life!"
         If I sit and meditate and try as hard as I can to remember what it what like before God opened my eyes...I start to tremble. Something wafts through my nostrils...an odious smell...and then it disappears. I perceive that God will not let me return any further then the address where I see the outside of the building but cannot go in. I never want to go into that building but I also never want to forget it for therein is my only remembrance of what life was like without Christ and what I was rescued from, and every time I see it I yell once again...."Life, life, eternal life!'. My desire is that you hear what I heard....the words "You.....the lowest of the low.....believe, repent, be baptized and follow Me," for it makes no sense that God would have had mercy on me but that I could tell you of it!

Note:
          If you are searching desperately for this Jesus Christ that you have most certainly heard of but cannot for the life of you figure out what He is all about, I'll give you a few book recommendations that I believe can help....because they were blessings beyond measure to me. They are available in soft cover, inexpensive, and you can order them from many places including Amazon, cvbbs.com, or Barnes & Noble.
          I also want to recommend three Study Bibles that can give direction as you read God's Word. The first is for the person who really has little or no knowledge of the Bible at all, for it answers questions you may very well have in amongst the Bible verses themselves. The second is for the person who wants short and clear helps with many of the verses that they will read but will not be so in-depth as to intimidate. The third is for the person who considers themselves ready to dig deeper into the doctrines of the Bible.


Putting Amazing Back Into Grace by Michael Horton
The Holiness Of God by R. C. Sproul
Scripture Alone by R. C. Sproul

1) The Evidence Bible....isbn 978-0-88270-905-5...soft cover
2) MacArthur Study Bible...Large Print...it's so easy to read!    cvbbs.com
3) The Reformation Study Bible....from R. C. Sproul....Ligonier.com

These will help also...
24 hour Internet radio.....refnet.fm

A Hymn And A Prayer

         A news story on only the latest research into the sinking of the Titanic is on Foxnews.com as I type so I thought it a good time to bring back this post from December of 2014. In that Fox News story the Titanic had a fire in one of its coal bunkers that started 10 days before the ship departed for New York. It's theorized that the Captain was sailing fast so as to get into New York harbor, have the passengers depart and then fight the fire before "inevitable explosions" would occur. Does this sound odd to you. I worked in an industry with coal bunkers for 36 years and the whole story is indeed possible. The theory continues in that the hull may have weakened, for the iceberg struck just below that particular bunker.
        Relating this to America, and also to the ending of the following post from 2014, the above researcher, Senan Molony, labelled the sinking of the Titanic a "perfect storm of extraordinary factors." We are in such a perfect storm today. A sitting president's attempt to sabotage the administration of an incoming president is part of it. Two United States Senators (McCain and Graham) who are playing with fire in an explosive atmosphere is part of it, and the Democrat's "damn the American people....full speed ahead on stopping the opposition party" is part of it....and the media, for their part, laughs as torches are set to the funeral pyre.....the macabre irony being that the laughter emanates from the top of that pyre. It is indeed a perfect storm.

Recent preface to Damn The Torpedoes....April 2016:

      The doors had closed as they were designed to but six of the sixteen watertight compartments were already flooded. Unfortunately they were not totally watertight for they had no ceiling, and water overflowed into adjoining compartments. They effectively sealed the compartments for a time but some engineers today believe that this actually spelled doom for many passengers, for the weight of water in the bow of this ship prevented an even balance that might have given the ship as much as six hours more time before sinking. Others believe that higher compartment walls might have saved more lives. The RMS Titanic sank 104 years ago today.
         There was a hymn sing on the ship a few hours before it brushed the iceberg. The last hymn sang, and particularly the last of four stanzas of that hymn, are interesting in retrospect. The hymn is Lead, Kindly Light. It was written as a poem in 1833 by John Henry Newman. Hours before this epoch disaster, and in the last hymn that was sung, worshipers began with....

Lead kindly Light, amid th'encircling gloom, lead Thou me on! 
The night is dark, and I am far from home; lead Thou me on.

         The words continue through the first three paragraphs in a reflective mood of the author.  Years later hymn author Edward Henry Bickersteth felt compelled to add another stanza which reads....

Meantime, along the narrow rugged path, Thyself has trod, 
Lead, Saviour, lead me home in childlike faith, home to my God. 
To rest forever after earthly strife in the calm light of everlasting life. 

         Lord, forgive us for forgetting Thee. Have mercy upon us for Thy name's sake alone. Help us navigate this tempest that we have brought upon ourselves.  Instruct our dull minds. Restore our faith in Thee, and then use us in whatever capacity brings the glory that is Thy due.

Damn The Icebergs....December 2014:

         The mood on the bridge was somber. The Captain never said a word as the chief engineer detailed the damage to the hull from the iceberg. All of the ship's officers were present. Muffled voices from somewhere on the decks below were the only sounds. It could have been a painting or a photograph. The scene almost had a Civil War flair to it as some of the uniformed men faced left, some straight ahead, some with a hand neatly placed between buttons on their coat. The Captain turned from looking out over the calm sea, picked up his cap from a table and carefully placed it over his grey hairs, walked over and opened the hatch as the muffled voices became loud shouts, and stepped out into the chilly North Atlantic air as reserved as he had done thousands of times before. 
          As the hatch swung shut the voices once again became muffled and the officers seemed to breath for the first time. The First Officer spoke, "Gentlemen, I promise you that if I am made captain after this voyage I will restore the promise of this great ship." The Second Officer took two steps into the middle of the gathering and spoke next "If I might interrupt sir, had you followed my advice we would have come to a stop hours ago at the first sight of icebergs." The Executive Officer cut him off  "Stopped.....stopped! I would never have taken this route. Records are all you men are interested in...Fame!"
         Everyone in the room was now shouting out allegations. They had all moved closer together and the scene was uncomfortable to watch for the one person not blessed by birth into the elite culture of the ship's staff officers. Throughout the entire meeting....the details, the captain's humiliation and the officers fighting over who might replace him.... was a lowly ship's mate standing at the wheel, holding firm onto it as was his duty even though all engines had stopped. He turned suddenly to face the others, his face red as the ribbon across his cap just below the word HMS Inviolable. What was there to lose? Would they reprimand him and send him to his quarters? "You are all daft! The ship is going to the bottom! None of you will live till morning!" The First Officer stared intently into his young face "Going down? Nonsense. This is His Majesty's Ship Inviolable. It is unsinkable!" At that point a pair of binoculars had slid off of a table and crashed onto the deck of the bridge. The lights flickered and a horrible groan emanated from the bowels of the ship. The officers, every one of them, for the very first time, realized what was indeed going to happen.
         This invented scene is emblematic of our political process at this present time as our ship of state's officers are, one by one, promising how things would be different under their watch. 2016 presidential elections? Get the lifeboats out first gentlemen and should God have mercy upon us to even allow us another national election without great catastrophes to our homeland then it might be appropriate for you all to at least attempt to slither back... in but I'll tell you now not to apply for we would need new faces at the helm and on the bridge.