"Next Lord's Day At The Foot Of The Cross!"

The following was first posted in November of 2012:

         "Next year in Jerusalem!" It may have been a rallying cry at one time but today its meaning  depends on what Jewish person you poll on the subject. The phrase is still repeated in ceremony two times a year at Passover and Yom Kippur. Even after researching it I still don't have a handle on the importance of these words to the Jewish community of today. I bring this up because I do understand how an individual can incorporate a saying into their life that has great meaning....even if only to that individual.
          If we the American people are ever to awaken to our predicament and our culpability in that predicament, I would think that it would have to begin on a certain day. Even if it would turn out to be a long process it would still have to have a beginning!
         One possibility is that that beginning would be in response to a calamity where the American people would finally be shocked into submission to the God they may acknowledge but keep at arms length.....but another possibility might be that God would have mercy upon us without calamity... and this by suddenly awakening our pulpits that have lain dormant for so long? Pastors would have put aside church growth mentalities, easy-believism and "all the world needs now is love ...sweet love" to preach the Christ of the book of Hebrews, and the salvation of the book of Romans, and the worship of the Psalms, and the judgment of Revelation? The Holy Spirit would then work through these awakened pastors on our cold hearts? 
         As this world hurries to judgment and another Lord's Day has passed with no sign of a quickening of the church, I find myself saying again....as I have for years...'maybe....maybe it will be....next Lord's Day at the foot of the cross.'  
         

The Odd Couple

I'd like to recommend a book that I think you will thoroughly enjoy, learn valuable American history through reading it and even be edified in the process! The following post is from April of 2016:

         These may be the two most celebrated men in the American colonies prior to the American Revolution. Stay with me, for the names may surprise you, at least one of them. Only eight years separated the elder born in Boston in 1706 and the younger born in Gloucester, England in 1714. Both were born to humble circumstances and both had unrelenting passions. They were different in their philosophies of life yet were great friends until the younger died first in 1770.
         The elder, a polymath, was a printer, an author, an inventor, a scientist, and a statesman of world renown among other things. You now surely know that he is Benjamin Franklin. The younger was an evangelist. The University of Pennsylvania honors both as founders. George Whitefield (pronounced Whit-field) was the most celebrated man in the American colonies during his ministry.
         This book is far from just two mini-biographies. It tells a story of Philadelphia in the first half of the 18th century and it provides a very concise and necessary picture of Christianity during that period, including snippets of Jonathon and Sarah Edwards and Cotton Mather, while more detail is given John and Charles Wesley. But the book is more than even this. It shows the similarities of these great men... Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield... while contrasting the passion of the former to improve the mind and thereby the citizenry in general, to the latter whose passion was to to see souls come to Christ. Although it may have at first been Whitefield's enduring labors to raise money to fund an orphanage in Savannah that placed him front and center in Franklin's eyes
          Raised in working-class families but rebellious to the establishment of their time, they would soon travel the world in their own endeavors and eventually change the course of an entire people. Ben Franklin rejected his Puritan Boston upbringing for a gospel of good works while George Whitefield rejected the dour messaging of the Gospel from his youth to unveil the majesties of Jesus Christ to awestruck throngs from New England to Georgia.
          Whitefield published most of his sermons under the auspices of the Philadelphia printer but they forged a great friendship to go along with business, a friendship that Franklin even referred to as love. There's a lesson here for America today if we are willing to learn it. Franklin never became a Christian although he greatly supported his friend's ministry, while Whitefield never stopped  attempting to bring his friend into the kingdom of Christ. Ben Franklin listened over the years as a friend would, while George Whitefield gently but firmly apportioned his pleadings to his friend, not wanting to turn him away but not willing to abandon his soul either.
          The God-fearing liberal of today should admit that this nation is collapsing into anarchy and violence and welcome the Christian message of law and gospel as a stabilizing force even if they have no intention of accepting it, but that's not what's happening. They want to be free of the Bible!
          George Whitefield was often hounded, ridiculed and persecuted by the secular element in society but he saw this as evidence that Satan was not happy with his ministry. We can learn from this, for if we are not being ridiculed for our belief then maybe we are just not very upsetting to the demonic forces being unleashed around us.
         
         The book is The Printer and the Preacher, Ben Franklin, George Whitefield, and the Surprising Friendship that Invented America by Randy Petersen and it was published by Thomas Nelson in 2015. The author referred in his book to Benjamin Franklin and George Whitefield as "the odd couple" and thus the title of this post.
       

Selfies At CPAC

        We're sitting across the table at dinner and my wife asked me a question on plans we have for tomorrow. I may have had a glazed look on my face and my response was something like..."Wha?" I apologized...the conversation went something like this:
"Sorry...My mind is somewhere else."
"What are you thinking about?"
I paused and then answered truthfully...
"Nebuchadnezzar."
Nebuchadnezzar....you're eating meatloaf during a cozy dinner with your wife and thinking about Nebuchadnezzar?"
"Uh huh."
Please pray for my wife. This is what life is like with Special Dog.
         Most any Christian of at least a few years is familiar with the passage of Scripture in the book of Daniel where Nebuchadnezzar was on the roof of the royal palace admiring all that he had accomplished when he exclaimed..."Is this not Babylon the Great that I have built by my vast power to be a royal residence and to display my majestic glory?" A few years ago Donald Trump was interviewed on Face The Nation by the CBS host John Dickerson. I came across the transcripts of that interview last night and a comment in an answer that he gave was a little unsettling...he said, "...In my case, I have made over $10 billion net, net, net! I have created a tremendous company! I have some of the greatest assets in the world!"
         Every shout of USA...USA...USA...such as we hear a lot and such as I heard only minutes ago from the televised coverage of CPAC at National Harbor, Maryland, is wasted breath at best. We also remember, I would expect, what happened to Nebuchadnezzar after his boastful rant? He became a vegetarian for seven whatevers while eating the grass of the field with the beasts. This is no time for shouts of USA USA nor is it a time for let's Make America Great Again. If one can't discern our society of fist pumps for sinking a putt where once we beat our breast in sorrow for offending our God then one might also not discern "strong delusion" when it appears.
        What President Trump may be about to experience in that office he occupies would be more than any man...or woman...can handle without faith in Jesus Christ.....and about a million times worse than any bankruptcy he ever worked his way out of. This is beyond a tempest that we are in, it's a whirlpool...a vortex whose suction is pulling us under while we....our arms outstretched....are taking selfies at CPAC.

The following is a prayer for Donald Trump that I first posted in January.

         Lord I lift this man up to you who is to become our president.... for mercies upon his soul Lord and for wisdom that might in turn lead to mercies upon we your children. I see myself in him Lord, not the fame or wealth or great abilities in business but in his blindness and even arrogance. I see myself when I was cast off from your blessings of grace and knowledge of your majesties....I see myself even now in need of the same mercies. Lord, you permitted him to attain that which this world calls great success...show him that it is but a dung heap. He finds himself in a position that he believes talent and purpose has brought him....maybe even fate as he perceives fate to be. Surely his countenance of supreme confidence must dissipate at night when he has nothing to do but lie in bed and contemplate what has happened to him in the last year. Surely Lord the responsibilities must unnerve him. Does he marvel Lord? I pray that he doesn't for he would not marvel at what you have done for he has shown no inclination to consult you, therefore he would have to marvel at what he perceives he himself to have done....just as Nebuchadnezzar had marveled. In whatever is in store for him in this exalted position he is to assume I pray that if it be thy will that his eyes would be opened to the realities surrounding him...the realities of a world that has rejected its Creator and will therefore be judged by its Creator...and the reality that he also has fallen under this prideful self-exaltation and is in need of the mercy of redemption. Cause him to tremble Lord....at your holiness....at his sinfulness....and if it be in thy plans to have mercy upon us then cause him to humble himself before you just as you did so with us.... and that the accompanying eternal and unsurpassable blessings would also be his as they are ours. I ask not Lord for him to be the champion that he projects himself to be, for you alone Lord are our champion...our captain...and our king. I ask not Lord that our nation would merely be granted more time to move further away from you... but that it would, in whatever time you give us, display clearly to the world a refusal to follow the schemes of those whose plans are for building a new world in total antithesis to you its Creator. Lord, this man is not alone in need of mercy for we ourselves have failed miserably. Show us this Lord...and set us apart once again....for your purposes. If you should will it that we return to you then no force on this earth or in the heavens can thwart our return. Lord, this man has advisers all around him. Some acknowledge that only you cause nations to rise and to fall but most do not acknowledge you. Blind this man who will be called the president to those that are blind to you Lord! Give this man no strength apart from trust in you Lord, for any other perceived strength is worthless and deceiving. Then should turmoil come, we shall have perfect peace Lord...not necessarily peace as man views peace...but peace in the midst of travail....our minds set upon you who not only created the heavens and the earth but controls everything and everyone in this your creation.....and if peace should come....as man views peace....we could do nothing but gratefully acknowledge that you have brought order out of chaos for thy glory alone.

What Is Our Trust Centered Upon

The following post id from January:

         Believe me I'm counting the hours until Barack Obama is officially no longer the President of the United States. I believe that it is 64 hours as I write. Someone once asked Martin Luther what he would do if he knew for certain that Jesus Christ would return the very next day. His answer was..."I would plant a tree." And so should we be planting and cultivating until that blessed day occurs. Who governs us is part of that orchard but it is the owner of the orchard that we seek to honor. Well, Donald Trump is being planted in that Oval Office and we should have hope that he sprouts good fruit but we have forgotten the owner of the orchard, forgotten His commands to us, and are looking more towards the fruit of this new tree than the return of the owner by whom the entire orchard exists. The following post was written days after the death of Antonin Scalia almost a year ago:

What Is Our Trust Centered On

        The plan was to put a conservative in the White House and then add two or more originalists to the Supreme Court and take back America. It was a good plan as far as plans go. It's putting our trust in those our own plans where we depart from God's will.
         Saturday we lost one of America's greatest jurists of all time. We had plans but those plans have suddenly been abridged. We are reeling once again but nine Antonin Scalias could not pull us out of this pit if God did not will it. Should God desire to have mercy upon us for His purposes there is no force on earth that could stop those mercies from being extended, and all the power of hell could not destroy us if God does not permit it.
          Do you the reader recall the Biblical text from Exodus 17 where when Moses raised his arms with the staff that parted the sea in his hands that the Israelites prevailed on the fields of Rephidim, and when he lowered them the Amalekites prevailed in the battle? It was also at Rephidim where Moses at first feared for his life and then rebuked the Israelites for not trusting God to provide water! Surely you remember God limiting Gideon to just three hundred men to rout the Midianites. Have not these messages set in? Have we forgotten the word to Zerubbabel...."Not by might, nor by power, but by my Spirit, says the LORD of hosts."? We have departed from God with disastrous results, planned our own rescue, and then found out how brittle man's plans can be.
         The tectonics are shifting friends, the magma chamber has been breached! Trust now in God and in Him alone for as even Nahum in his taunting oracles to Nineveh wrote..."The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and He knows them that trust in Him."       

The Ichabod Award

The following is from a few weeks ago....Florence Foster Streep:
  
         Florence Foster Jenkins was a New York heiress, socialite and philanthropist whose love and passion for opera resulted in those around her encouraging her to sing on stage herself even though she had no singing ability. I watched the recent Meryl Streep/Hugh Grant film Florence Foster Jenkins and a couple of times walked out of the room...for the embarrassment portrayed was so thick. In what is sometimes thought of as the irony of life or a quirk of fate, Meryl Streep herself seems again to be acting out farce, only this time in the realm of politics.
         Here is Ms. Streep, not only an accomplished actress but one of the finest actresses in film today, being given the stage to display what she obviously considers to be her keen intellect for social justice, but as in the case of Florence Foster Jenkins she has become a living witness to how so many celebrities ply their particular craft so well yet cannot comprehend the most basic concepts of liberty or our constitution or communism or tyranny in general.
         This week's Lord's Day special televised event is the Grammy Awards where America will hear from celebrities in the music industry. Sunday in America has become a day of dual religious worship services. The morning hours are usually reserved for Christian services while the afternoon and evening are set aside for other religious services such as the Super Bowl of the Academy Awards.
         America itself has been nominated for an altogether different award to be announced in the near future. Judah and Israel were past winners, as was Rome and Germany and England and the Netherlands. It's the Ichabod Award.....given for outstanding achievement demonstrating renunciation of Almighty God...the gift of wisdom...and the hope of glory.....for the glory has surely departed.
    
    

The Third Great Awakening

        There's a lot of talk about it right now in the news and on the talk shows. Yes, it's extraordinary in one way but in another it's more than extraordinary....it's something else altogether. I'm referring to how President Trump has put the mainstream media in their place. From a conservative point of view I can tell you that all across America people are cheering him on. No one deserves a comeuppanse more at this point in time than those who have taken upon themselves the responsibility of journalistic news yet have failed miserably while utterly shaming the profession, but that's only the 'extraordinary' aspect of this.
         Drudge is highlighting an article right now where NBC newsman Chuck Todd thinks that President Trump is going too far in his criticism of the press. Either Chuck Todd is a liar or there is something else going on here, and I do not think that he's a liar. I've seen him only once folks, on election night, and he did a decent job in analysis on what was going on. That's why I'm using him as an example. There must be an explanation on how he would be so wrong. How could an intelligent person such as Chuck Todd appears to be, witness the free ride that Barack Obama was given for eight solid years in scandal after scandal, and lie after lie, and then have any complaint whatsoever on how this new president is chastising the press for their what can only be called willful obstruction? This isn't politics, it defies reason, it's something that is...more than extraordinary!
           So what? He lied or he's just incredibly wrong...what's the difference? Well there is a difference with what I believe are consequences of biblical proportions. Friends, for eight years we have watched half of America fall for the dumbest statements, biggest lies and support the most corrupt individuals America has ever produced. We ceased being amazed many years ago. How on earth could our president in essence arm Iran with nuclear weapons that may one day be used against us? How could this be? How could half of America vote for someone like Hillary Clinton? How could we actually pave the way for terrorists to enter our country to kill us? This is but three examples of which there are probably hundreds! How could this be? How could this possibly be? This is what we asked ourselves.
         The only explanation for such lunacy is that God purposely blinded them not only to our enemies but also to the simplest forms of logic and common sense.... and this as a form of judgement! We are expiring as a nation...Donald Trump and all of our man-centered grand schemes notwithstanding.....and we did it to ourselves! We are indeed...as a nation....'sinners in the hands of an angry God!' When Jonathon Edwards preached his famous sermon by that title in 1741, during what has become known as the First Great Awakening, people actually moaned and cried as God opened their eyes to the reality of hell. Today we don't moan and cry over the blindness of half of America. We are more likely just to react with anger. May God show us that the blindness in half of our nation is not political, which in turn only causes us to react politically, but that it is judgement from Almighty God!!! For then....we might moan...and we might even cry....and we might then repent....and maybe God would have mercy upon us in the days ahead.
         

Yale Lapdogs....Best Of The Show

        Yale President Peter Salovey said this in a recently released statement "As a national leader, Calhoun (John C. Calhoun, our seventh Vice President serving under both John Quincy Adams and Andrew Jackson) helped enshrine his racist views in American policy, transforming them into consequential actions." He added this... "Yale has changed magnificently over the past 300 years and will continue to evolve long after our time; today we have the opportunity to move the university forward in a way that reinforces our mission and core values."
         This was part of the statement given by the President of Yale as he announced that the name of its Calhoun College would be changed. I'm sitting in my recliner in the early morning sun sipping Gevalia coffee and reflexively chuckled out loud when I read his choice of words....."changed magnificently." Here is the third ever institution of higher learning in America (1701) that was founded to train ministers in the Gospel of Jesus Christ that has since renounced that heritage and become a bastion of Progressivism, anti-God thought and social engineering, yet its president describes this fall from wisdom as magnificent change! The phrase should be... ignoble plunge... and a more appropriate transitive verb would be devolve not evolve.
         They already have a new name for the college but a better one would have been Joseph Stalin College after Stalin's penchant for airbrushing people out of older historical photos. The Ivy League still fills law firms, corporate boards, government bureaucracies and university faculties across America but it is but a shell of what it once was, where if one would put that shell up to one's ear the only sound would be a ethereal even eerie echo of the turmoil of 1917 Petrograd. As a trainer of young minds and bulwark for American liberty, Yale University today could not hold a candle to any one of the numerous Christian colleges dotting the American landscape, but alas....the core values of higher education today have little to do with absolute truth, strengthening young minds or building character.
         Change a name...maybe tear down a statue or divest from Israel...but that's not where the stench is coming from. It's emanating from the musty books on your shelves....Das Kapital...The Communist Manifesto....and The Humanist Manifestos. It's sticking to the heels and soles of jackboots that wander on and off your campuses to cause trouble, and it's coming from the whitewashed tombs of ivory towers while the academic regalia worn by those involved in the war on capitalism through global warming hysteria often reeks of manipulated data and falsified research. A more suitable change for the university would be to replace the bulldog as a mascot with any one of a number of small....coiffured....best in the show...lapdogs, for that is what the Poison Ivy League has become....lapdogs fit for Kings and Queens and globalist elites.....and mascots for every ideology that seeks to end this American Experiment.
 

Suicide By Terrorism

          It appears that God may have determined the method of America's demise.....suicide....suicide by terrorism. One would think that Progressives would have nothing in common with Islam. One would think that women's issues alone would be an unbridgeable chasm, and it would be actually if it were not for the truly unbridgeable chasm that exists between Progressivism and the Bible.
          It doesn't really make sense anymore to call someone politically liberal. Hubert Humphrey was a liberal as was Walter Mondale but the label began to become meaningless during the Clinton administrations. The 'Progressive' is now the more suitable term....he or she being an entirely different political animal....feral and often rabid.
          Don't get me wrong...Progressives go to church...in fact they have some of the largest and most beautiful churches in America. A critic of Norman Vincent Peale once said something like this...."Paul I find appealing...Peale I find appalling." Today a similitude of the man-centered religion of Dr. Peale is found appealing while the Christian gospel proclaimed by Apostle Paul is found to be appalling.
          Abortion and homosexuality are two banners flown by liberal Christianity but the Bible could not possibly be clearer on both. Something had to give.....either one's own personal religious preferences or the historic Christian faith had to go. Well, the historic Christian faith was given the old heave-ho....abortion and homosexuality were no longer a problem. The Progressives then became the dominant political force, many of whom do concede that Islamic terrorism might in some way be a danger to America... but not necessarily a danger to Progressivism, liberal Christianity, agnosticism, paganism or atheism which are far and away the more personal and dearly held possessions to be defended at all costs!
          America cannot defend itself adequately while nearly half of its people and government either ignore or actively aid and abet the enemy. As recent news stories on Middle East immigration testify to....any defensive measures this government might take and any offensive measures it might be forced to take would be hamstrung by those whose enmity with God and His Word is far greater than enmity with someone who merely wants to kill them.....thus we are in the midst of a suicide.... a physician-assisted suicide if one considers the Democrat Party to be some kind of healers.....a physician-assisted suicide by terrorism.

A People Of The Easy Way

The following post is from this past September 18th:

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

Tuesdays With Special Dog

Tuesdays With Special Dog..... Fall...2016:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Obama And Israel....Redux

The following was first posted December 26th after the United States chose not to veto an anti-Israel resolution at the United Nations:

       Barack Obama is a destroyer. He has sent his band of weasily sycophant messengers over the entire earth for eight years. We will not escape what he has done and what he will continue to do, for we have long ago discharged our Protector and left the safe confines of our Fortress. We ourselves bear the brunt of the blame, for we are drowning in the manure tank of our entertainments. This president's latest assault on America...and Israel...revolves around the United Nations...a moribund cartel of anti-Americanism of which our only purpose in membership is using the power of the veto. May God have mercy upon us although we deserve none.

Obama And Israel....Rolling....Take 100....Action!

        In order to get a foothold, Communism needs a citizenry void of the gospel of Jesus Christ...or near void of the gospel. Gospels that are essentially liturgical will not stop it nor even be able to discern it. The dead Lutheran liturgical church of Germany actually celebrated Nazism while the living gospel in German Lutheranism saw the horrors coming and did everything that it could to hinder it but were unsuccessful, and many of the ministers and Christians paid for their attempts with their lives..
        American Christianity, a better term would be American Christendom, is too weak to pick up on what are essentially communist efforts to destabilize America, while even genuine Christian churches lack discernment on God's warnings to America that have been clear and abundant for a long time. The Democrat Party is void of the gospel of Jesus Christ and consequently was incapable of discerning Communism or even Marxism in Barack Obama, or any one of a number of evils that have been perpetrated upon us. It has become a conglomeration of special interest groups and ultra-liberal denominations. How else could Hillary Rodham Clinton have gotten that nomination?
        So when the stage was set after more than a half century of Progressive education (useful idiots as Lenin would see them), the play (an American tragedy) could begin, and the second act is now concluding. What you see going on in our cities, on our campuses and on our streets is communism at work. Barack Obama's constant accusations of racism are pure and unadulterated communist tactics. The singular purpose is to create serious divisions which would then lead to chaos, whereupon emergency measures have to be taken to restore order.
        Russia experienced two revolutions in 1917. In the first a provisional government was set up after the Tsar abdicated.....in the second the Bolsheviks summarily disposed of the 'moderates' and the world has suffered terribly since then because of Communism. This is the tentative plan for America....the Progressives are to push out the racist 'Tsar' (figuratively speaking) and then they themselves are given the old heave-ho as Communism....in whatever name it chooses to adorn itself with....joins in with the other nations that have long ago been taken over and have the same ideology.
        If this is successful in America then even the blathering professors in our universities will rue the day they paved the way for the totalitarians. As for the editors of print and broadcast medias...find a new profession fellas....and ladies....'thanks for the help'.... they'll be told...'don't let the door hit you on the butt on the way out,' and that's a mild scenario.
       Jerusalem is a stumbling block in the plans of Communism. This may at first sound odd for throughout the past century Jews were very important pieces in the communist puzzle. The Rosenbergs would be but one example, but as in German Lutheranism and American Christianity, Judaism has its dupes and its faithful.
        Barack Obama despises Israel and would like nothing better then to see it be humbled. Do you recall the meeting between Obama and Benjamin Netanyahu in May of 2009? George Bush had held off attacking Iran because of the coming US election but that election did not go the way that it was supposed to. Obama, in an attempt to placate Israel and stop them from attacking Iran and ending their nuclear weapons program, told them to give him until December of that year....2009....to do something with Iran by using other measures. Netanyahu was forced to accept the proposition. It is now seven Decembers later and Obama has done about every thing he could....not to stop Iran....but to help them! Vendetta and treachery are but two words that can describe Barack Obama's actions in the United Nations in the past week alone.
        This is but one temporal enemy the United States faces...a catastrophic financial collapse leading up to the Globalist power play for a new world order is yet another. Donald Trump has thrown a monkey wrench into the plans of both the communist and the globalist. There's no time for a fourth act. The script is now a work in progress and they may be forced to ad lib before it is all over.

A False Preposition

       Abraham Lincoln spoke these words in 1858 to the Illinois Republican State Convention upon being nominated as their party's candidate for the United States Senate.

          "A house divided against itself cannot stand.
          I believe this government cannot endure, permanently half slave and half free.
          I do not believe the house to fall...but I do expect it will cease to be divided.
          It will become all one thing or all the other."

      The three synoptic gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke record the words of Jesus that Abraham Lincoln was alluding to...these are from Matthew 12:25   "Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand." ESV

       The strategy prior to this past election was this...'America will be great again if we reverse the course of our government,' The presupposition being that we were great before going in the current direction so if we reverse course we will be great once again. This is perfectly logical but the veracity of the argument itself depends on whether or not we indeed were great prior to the previous administration or even to the beginnings of the Clintons. The answer to this I believe is that no...we were not great even in the 1980s under Ronald Reagan. The greatness that God had bestowed upon America was for a purpose...that we would both be a nation of people that proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ within our nation and to the entire world... and that we would, through the power given us, provide a semblance of security in the world for the Gospel to spread.
          Friends...the presupposition is incorrect. It is but a wish and the whole matter therefore reverts to where it should have been at the start, and that it is Bible. What does the Bible say about America? It doesn't say anything to America specifically, at least as far as we know right now, but it does speak volumes, biblical books to be specific, Old Testament books of the prophets to be more specific. Have you read these books? They're on God's reading list given to you. They speak woe to a nation that has acted such as we have.
         This is not just a political division...far from it...one has to actually look into the hatred of the faces, and hear the comments from this large vocal group in opposition to God's Word to even come close to seeing that this division is more of the civilized and the uncivilized. As it happens, I am attempting to occupy my mind by typing this in a hospital waiting room while the television show Inside Edition is on right above me. To the credit of the producers of this show they are actually showing the troubling comments, comments that were cheered, from a number of celebrities. These are descriptions that the mainstream news media will not give us. In addition to this the program had some short clips concerning an active duty Secret Service agent who unbelievably posted on none other than that pox upon America and the world...Facebook...comments that indicated that she would not do everything to protect our new president!
         The phrase...a divided nation...does not do justice to what has happened to us. We cannot possibly stand as we are now. To paraphrase Abraham Lincoln...we will either have a general awakening and God will be with us in what is to come....or....divided as we are... we will be united apart from God's hand upon us.
     

Many See....Most Don't....But All Will

The following is from July of 2015:       

        Vadim Borisov was an historian in Russia who coordinated efforts to protect and restore Alexander Solzhenitsyn's literary works in his own country. He was also one of the contributors to From Under This Rubble (1973) edited by Solzhenitsyn. His contribution to the book revolved around the concept of an inherited "national consciousness" as opposed to individuals and whole nation's peoples being born with a clean slate and therefore subject in their development to the state.
         He quotes a "famous dictum" of V. I. Lenin's in " Socialism's aim is not only to abolish the fragmentation of humanity into small states and to end all distinctions between nations, not only to bring nations closer together, but to bring about their fusion." A large sign at a Leftist inspired protest of a Donald Trump event the other day read "crossing borders is not illegal...borders are illegal." Borisov writes that this new society... "intends to destroy historical memory and make history nonexistent." Our American heritage is becoming less and less valued, slandered and viciously attacked.....and that's exactly what the Communist wanted, instigated and now rejoices in.
         Returning to Vadim Borisov....he referenced the Bible and the words of Jesus in "go ye therefore and teach all nations" and Psalm 86 in " All nations whom thou hast made." His writing is a defense against the Communist view of the individual being soulless and subject to design of the state. This is much more than a political discourse that he presents. He, and other writers in Solzhenitsyn's editing, pleaded for a restored Russian people...one of a "plurality of personalities of a single mankind" and with all glory...."laid at Christ's feet."
         The author references our Founding Fathers in America who propounded the "eternal rights of man and the citizen," and writes that that has disappeared as "rationalism, positivism and materialism, developing in opposition to religion, successfully destroyed the memory of this absolute source of human rights."  He does admit that some culpability also belongs to the church itself and takes culpability back as far as Peter the Great, then states that the nation (Russia) ultimately "degenerated into Marxism with its theory of class hatred." Marxism, he writes "became the pure embodiment of national nihilism" with banners such as "the proletariat has no fatherland."
         I'm writing this post because the Leftists in America are taking us where Russia has been. They don't want us cognizant of who we once were. Borisov writes: "Within a short time the Russian people had been brought to a state of almost total ignorance of their own history, deprived of their national culture, almost deprived of their reviled and persecuted church..." The author was also prescient in his concern that many saw science and technology as the answer to the ills of mankind and asked this question..."What guarantees are there that men will display reason and goodwill?" The answer, as we have found out, is that they will more often not display reason and goodwill. Thus we have the potential dangers of artificial intelligence, the scams of global warming and the personality-less, mind and culture-numbing narcissism of social media.
         This "new society" that is envisioned by these theorists seeks a "reconstruction of the world".. and a "universal man." Look closely folks......these thoughts are in the news often. Vadim Borisov wanted to make sure that "nationalism" is not confused with a "national feeling" or a national consciousness....nationalism being something that is "antipersonel," whose adherent "acknowledges such a value only in the nation on whose bosom he happened to be born.."   This 'nationalism,' in Borisov's description, is an "ideology" and a "tool" with great destructive potential as history has so often shown.
           America is in a very similar situation today to the predicament that Borisov wrote of Russia in 1973. We once had a national consciousness only we refer to it more as the American Creed. It defined us. The people that we once were, who were of this American creed, would not have fallen for the inane politically correct mantras that have ravaged our intellect and turned us into a genderless, leaderless, Socialist and godless society. Many see and recognize the horror of this....most don't....but all will....and in the not-too-distant future.
  

National Prayer Breakfast

 We conservatives have been so distracted that we think that the New England Patriots victory in the Super Bowl was some kind of win for America....as if Tom Brady winning the MVP equates to a message from God or Roger Goodell getting booed redeems our national soul. According to the Smithsonian Magazine..."On the morning of February 2, 2017, more than 3,500 political leaders, military chiefs and corporate moguls met for eggs, sausage, muffins-and prayer." This was the 65th such prayer breakfast. I would imagine that God would take more pleasure in five elderly souls meeting for prayer on a snowy Wednesday evening in Muskrat Hollow Bible Church than this political show. My last post referenced the film Bridge On The River Kwai and the last words of that film apply today ...."Madness ...madness!" The following post is from January 2010:           

National Prayer Breakfast...January 2010:

         I have been to quite a few church sponsored men's breakfasts over the years. They were enjoyable as Christian men gather, usually on a Saturday morning for pancakes or eggs while one of the brothers shares a testimony or another conducts a bible study. I have also been to larger gatherings where men are part of a denominational or theological fellowship with the same agenda of a meal and devotions. The first Thursday in February will bring us news reports of the yearly National Prayer Breakfast held in Washington D. C., originally called the Presidential Prayer Breakfast, that every United States President since Ike has attended. Senators, Congressmen, Cabinet Ministers, business leaders and leaders from around the world will be in the audience of well over 3000 people in what has been described as a gala event. Actually, the whole week will see events organized by a group of Evangelicals who are known as The Fellowship or more informally The Family. The original intent of the Breakfasts may have been to invite influential leaders in government and business, enjoy some food along with a gospel message and hope to introduce some to Jesus Christ who may then become Christians and effect our nation because of their new beliefs but it has evolved...and is problematic....to put it mildly.
         Jeff Sharlet is the author of a book called The Family, The Secret Fundamentalism at the Heart of American Power, published in 2008. He took the Family to task as he described a network that works behind the scenes in the affairs of our government and other governments around the world. One of its criticisms would be that we (the United States), in many cases because of the influence of the Family or the Fellowship, support murderous dictatorships that would later, hopefully, support our agendas. The response from the Fellowship is that these dictators were murderers before they became our friends. The book describes an ideology, or theology, that promotes a muscular Jesus whose followers are going to take the reins of our own government for Jesus. The author did extensive research but his conclusion was tainted by a lack of understanding of the gospel itself. 
          Sharlet gained the trust of a member who recommended him to stay at an Arlington property of the Fellowship called Ivanwald. Much of his information came from conversations with the brothers who were trying, in their way, to help him. I've had an interest in a few of the topics Mr. Sharlet spent extensive time on. One would be the 18th century theologian/pastor Jonathon Edwards, and another would be Confederate General Stonewall Jackson. Sharlet obviously did his biographical homework but he never came close to the essence of these men. Both are used as examples of this Fellowship ideology in previous times, but both men, in my opinion, would have rejected these gospel expanding strategies and the gospel contained within them. Edwards was lumped with 19th century revivalist Charles Finney who deserved the critical review he received. Sharlet used personal conversations and documents that he viewed to describe a Christianity that seems unnecessary compared to Jesus as a King.
         I've seen no responses from Fellowship members on the 2008 book and realize that Jeff Sharlet's criticism would be expected on most Christian ministries today, and his take on that of Jonathon Edwards was proof of this, but he does understand a "political action fellowship" when he sees one. My question to the Fellowship would be what god is prayed to at a "National Prayer Breakfast" that is so ecumenical that many of its speakers are there for any reason except the gospel? I had this concern long before the book. Another question is whether or not they know that the gospel cannot be legislated. Many things that emanate from the Bible can, but not faith in Christ, which can be distorted, and is distorted here.
         A genuine reformation or awakening must come from a people who were moved upon by God's Spirit, where Christian leaders in government or business would be summoned by a Christian people, not recruited by a well-meaning fellowship because of their political potential. Some of the ministries closely associated with the group are sound endeavors and not all of the individuals involved interpret the Evangel the same way but the clandestine agenda of the Fellowship obscures as much as it promotes. The National Prayer Breakfast may have had a proper place at one time, but no more.

Tempests And Doldrums

           As I have mentioned on a number of occasions, if these posts that I write, and these thoughts, are not out of the ordinary, then I would have worked an awful lot over these past eight plus years but offered very little for the reader to meditate upon, for he or she already has readily available what has become standard fare Christian websites.... but out of the ordinary in itself guarantees nothing.
          The 1990s produced a number of evangelical books that challenged the reader to think through issues. One particular book, The Scandal of the Evangelical Mind by Mark Noll, challenged evangelicalism itself to get serious in its analysis on just about anything. We've been in somewhat of a lull since then. Maybe it's that we are back to normal after an exceptional decade.
          The following post is from 2014. You may vehemently disagree with it but if nothing else it may challenge you to think about what I'm saying. 

Tempests And Doldrums......December, 2014    

          May God have mercy upon our nation. From small vessels bearing cramped pilgrims we developed into an empire. We surpassed every empire this world has ever seen in not only power and might but in knowledge and scientific skills. More than that even as God used us a conduit for the Gospel of Jesus Christ to every corner of the earth. We fought Him all along the way, this is true, but we were a very large piece in His grand design, and he would use His rod and His staff on many occasions to both chastise us and to gently but forcefully bring us back.
          As I sit here in my study and pause, my eyes lift to a photograph on canvas on the wall in front of me. The camera is on the teak deck. The thin rails give the impression of a much older vessel. I stare right into the sea as billowing waves heave the ship at about a 40 degree list. Clouds dominate the sky but the sun found an opening as the shutter was clicked. In the foreground, barley visible, are rolling hills where possibly a safe harbor awaits. I look at this photo often and wonder in awe at the power of God's seas and the safe harbor of His grace.
           We in America are on a ship but it may as well be anchored in Boston Harbor next to the USS Constitution for it no longer guards our freedoms and liberties. I've related this story before. Fifteen years ago, sitting in a classroom of mostly younger fellow members of our cohort working for a degree in Higher Education, we were discussing the issues of the day as they related to colleges and universities. I remember standing up for emphasis and warning that a division was coming within America. Two different peoples were emerging, two different methods for thinking, two opposing opinions on what truth is and what it is not. If anyone agreed they did not speak up but unfortunately I was right. Our American Creed is not even a memory. Our heritage is almost spat upon. Our traditions are deemed useless in a world that mocks God.
       As it often seems to happen as I write, the XM radio plays something that relates to the topic at hand and in this instance it's classical music and Edward Elgar's Coronation March written for the coronation of Great Britain's King George V in 1911. There is no pomp and circumstance in this piece. The music seems to roll along with the hills and the ship in my photograph. 1911! A new century was underway, a century that would hurl England into two World Wars within three decades. Bombed....but never into submission....no, it would lose in other ways, even as we are losing now.
       Charles Haddon Spurgeon, the Prince of Preachers, had warned them but they would not listen. Their pulpits were not vigilant and the gospel was being modernized. Today, over a century later, England is surrendering....surrendering to confusion. Awash in chaos, their heritage trampled underfoot by foreigners who take advantage of a malnourished liberal tradition; they fight back but there is no Churchill to rally them, no Thatcher to prod them and face down the enemy's threats and lies, and although many faithful preachers-no Spurgeon...Ryle...or Martyn Lloyd-Jones to call down fire from on high on their (our) arrogance!
       Some see the world today as simply a new paradigm, that the world will indeed go on. Others actually see it as progress, but all the evidence, if allowed to be submitted, shows a crumbling Western Civilization.... puzzle pieces added almost every day where a frightening picture of our future is beginning to appear. It's one of a dystopian society ruled by Herbert Spencer's 'survival of the fittest' and birthed by Charles Darwin's On The Origin Of Species. In the background, behind the robotic movements and hollow faces of the people, above the gay-colored storefronts that have absolutely nothing to sell that can enliven that people or that can inform, and movie theaters with films that preach the chimera of a nation adapting without God, is an onrushing sandstorm obliterating all vision and discernment....a tsunami that sucks in the surf before it exposing a soft underbelly of a nation that once acknowledged, reverenced and relied upon its benefactor and at least tried to navigate by His written Word.
         Twelve hours from now men and women will fill the pulpits of America. Well-exercised healthy specimens, pastors of the First Church of the Fit and Buff, tolerant of everything except that written Word; they will smile and preach peace oblivious to two previous millennia of pulpits that extolled the glories of Christ, warned of hellfire and offered salvation bought on a bloody cross.
        Not all pulpits have decayed. Many of God's ministers shed tears throughout the week and reach out as if to grab the hem of the cloak of their Saviour seeking power from on high to awaken those given into their charge. Seeking a revival, even a reformation and seeking mercy, their work is not in vain. Christians in America are as strong and faithful as they ever were but far, far fewer in percentages. Almost isolated, often ridiculed, sometimes persecuted, they sense that the King of Kings is mounted, that His mighty angels are silent, awaiting the voice of thunder that beckons them forward. May God have mercy upon America. May He use us one last time, according to His will, for His purposes....and for His glory alone!

Willful Ignorance

         Two movies stick out in my mind because of their strikingly similar endings. The first is Life Is Beautiful (1997) in which Roberto Benigni was awarded an Oscar for Best Actor. Wikipedia describes it as a film about a "Jewish Italian book shop owner, who employs his fertile imagination to shield his son from the horrors of internment in a Nazi concentration camp."  The second movie was Not Without My Daughter (1991) with Sally Field and Alfred Molina, once again according to Wikipedia, the film " (depicts) the escape of American citizen Betty Mahmoody and her daughter from her abusive husband in Iran." 
          I'll give a 'spoiler alert' here if you haven't seen these films and would rather not know how they end. The striking similarity in these endings was that in Life Is Beautiful, the father and his son were finally freed from the concentration camp by American soldiers. Not knowing who was about to enter the compound but hearing the noise of machinery, they breathlessly wait only to see an American Sherman tank turn the corner flying the Stars And Stripes that were purposely highlighted by the director. Not Without My Daughter ended in the same way. The mother and daughter had just been smuggled out of Iran by jeep into Turkey. The camera pans Betty Mahmoody's field of vision as she scans the city that she is left in.....and there it is....the Stars And Stripes flying outside the American embassy....mother and daughter are safe as the film ends!
          Folks, this is what America has been both to its own citizens and to others around the world, and this America is what our own people are tearing apart with fake tears, false compassion, political lust and willful ignorance.  Lord have mercy on us!

Praises And Thanksgiving To Our God

         This past January our son's wife gave birth to a beautiful and healthy baby...their first...and our first grandchild! I will only say here that there were life-threatening complications for our daughter-in-law, that prayer was offered up continuously by many for many days, and that God is ever-merciful, and we are so very grateful and praise Him for His many mercies and great blessings! post back for I am thankful that..."in 1982 He had mercy on the lowest of the low, loved the most unlovable and redeemed the least worthy of it."

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.
   

Grand Finale

         I've never liked fireworks. My neck begins to ache after about a half an hour and I begin to develop a headache from the booms before that. Yes they are beautiful but I can enjoy the effects of a simple kaleidoscope even more. I do go to fireworks displays on occasion because my wife likes them, and this past New Years Eve was one such day. It was cold and raining and I think that was the evening that I lost a $500 pair of eyeglasses. My toes were numb, my neck ached and my head throbbed but it turned out to be a special evening because of some of the thoughts that came to me that elicit great hope even today 28 days later.
         They're all the same, fireworks displays that is, as a single rocket is launched and the crowd gives a soft 'ooh'. Another rocket is launched and another 'ooh.' The rockets come a little faster and before long two or three rockets are launched at the same time. If I'm fortunate...it's a short show....but it never seems that I'm fortunate....and I'm glad that I wasn't fortunate on this past New Years Eve. Maybe forty minutes into the show there was a pause and everyone knew what was next. Now I don't know how many rockets are launched in a typical finale or even how many rockets are launched during the whole show but the finale is always the highlight of these fireworks displays and even I tend to like them.
         Throughout the evening in question my mind was where it always seems to be....on our nation that is on the brink of God's judgement....on the church that does not quite grasp this....and on the multitudes who need to know an accurate version of the gospel of Jesus Christ. I love to look into people's faces when they're not looking at me. Are they hurting? Are they happy? Do they know Jesus Christ, and if not have they any idea that they are eternally lost?
          Somehow....somehow I associated the brightness of the rocket bursts with an individual soul being born again. You see this is not as many imagine it. One must try to wrap their minds around an eternal soul that is dead. This is not an oxymoron...eternal...but dead...for the soul is dead in that it cannot have faith to live. When a soul....an eternal soul.... is regenerated it must of necessity excite more energy than even the splitting of the atom. I'm writing figuratively here to demonstrate that even one soul saved can easily be likened to a fireworks rocket's burst. The light must be brighter than the sun....and the thunderous voice of God saying...upon faith proclaimed from a regenerate soul....'your sins are forgiven'....must drown out the most powerful even deafening roar of fireworks rockets.
         This is what I was thinking when the finale came. Boom...boom...boom....I can't type at the speed that they came. I could see a time in the future....hopefully the near future...when with power greater than an interstellar storm the Holy Spirit will display...His own finale....and many will be Jews who will see....not only their Messiah....but their God.
         So this is what I envisioned in the grand finale on that cold and rainy evening. I may even look forward to the next opportunity to go to a fireworks display.

addendum: I didn't write this because of our evening watching fireworks or even my thoughts that night. I wrote it to put into the mind of to whom it may concern that the enormity of salvation is such that if one is not every day aware of what had transpired then that one must find out why....without delay.

also: upon reading this post my wife informed me that fireworks displays are not as long as I described them. Hmm...they sure seem that long.
        

Peace Of Mind

         Peace and safety.....peace of mind....peace and safety.....peace of mind? Just how related if at all are these two concepts? The only specific mention of 'peace of mind' in God's Word is in 2 Corinthians 2:13 and that comes from the NIV.  The other translations use the terminology 'spirit at rest.' Paul is uneasy because he hasn't heard from Titus. "My spirit was not at rest" is how the ESV translates it. Earlier in his ministry Paul, when writing about the turmoil at the end of the Last Days, used these words...."While they are saying 'Peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them..."
         I do know this...most of the church...and most of conservatism....are feeling a heightened sense of peace and safety....or....peace of mind... since Donald Trump began to put an end to the insanity of surrendering our country to our many enemies. To us it is...win, lose or draw but there will be no more surrender. This is indicative of the America that many can remember but is unrelated to righteousness in the eyes of God.
         It's not that we are en masse discounting the dangers that are still there. It's not that everyone is brashly predicting peace and safety either, although some are. It's that there is an overwhelming presence of a peace of mind....almost tranquility along with an absence of uneasiness....and this....as those dangers are not only still there but possibly and probably heightened. Let me explain my thoughts on this:
         We have a man as our president who in many ways is aggressively and directly challenging what can only be described as evil. This alone may elicit a response from our enemies. We have a mainstream media who will make every attempt to bring this man down, which only motivates our enemies more. Little has changed as far as our rebellion as a people against God but we are acting under the assumption that only the other side was in rebellion, when in fact we are all culpable, albeit in varying degrees. God's warnings over many decades addressed us corporately. We see a President Trump as somewhat of a vindication. His election is an honorable attempt to rebuild some foundations and we should take it as far as we can but it is also in some ways a continuation of waywardness, and it is most certainly not a vindication of what God rightly accuses us of, nor will it alone stay His hand of judgment upon us or upon this world.
         Our hope is...as Merriam Webster defines it..."to cause to feel regret or contrition...to feel sorrow, regret, or contrition for..." The word defined is 'repent'....nothing else will suffice. We need as a people to turn around....in our hearts....in our minds....and in our actions. Should our Lord tarry in his return then His hand would once again be upon us in these troublesome times. Should His return be imminent then He will be with us in whatever lies ahead. We had an inkling of our need to turn to God under the previous administration but that inkling is all but gone in the euphoria of the present moment. The need to repent is no longer on the back burner anymore but entirely off the stove. So in conclusion...we are doing what we had to do...but it may actually hasten the day of decision that was approaching...of which we are now even less prepared for.