The Single Most Correctable Problem

          I have 100 sermons on cassette from Pentecostal pastor David Wilkerson that kept me going the first ten years of my Christian life.....before the Doctrines of Grace came alive in my mind and heart. I have another 100 or so sermons on both cassette and CD from R. C. Sproul, Michael Horton, John MacArthur and many others. I've been so fortunate to have had pastors over the years who were from out of the past. One such pastor wore a black robe....spoke at times in a monotone.....and stuttered slightly.... but when the sermon was over I could do nothing but sit in the pew and marvel at the glories of Christ presented.
          R. C. has recently gone on to be with the Lord who blessed him with such great gifts of teaching and making wonderfully understandable the great doctrines of Christianity. His ministry lives on though in its many resources. You are on the Internet right now. I would be thrilled if you left this page....forever even....if you would but go to this relatively unknown web address.....refnet.fm.....or the more well-known ligonier.org....where right now.....halfway down the page.....you can click and listen to....'R. C. Sproul's Final Sermon: A Great Salvation. The following paragraph is from a 2015 post:

         The single most correctable problem that our nation faces is the Sunday sermon... or the failure to preach Christ when we gather together for worship on the Lord's Day! We are overall a malnourished church and the nation reflects our feebleness. Most readers would probably disagree, "Our pastor preaches Jesus Christ every week" they might say, but is it because they have experienced one and only one paradigm for the Sunday sermon from today's evangelicalism and consequently judge everything upon this grid. Should God move upon the shepherds in these pulpits... then the news media, atheists, liberals and all those who cringe at the name of Jesus Christ will have no recourse but to sit and watch as a nation reverts in an awesome display of humility and reverence to the One who blessed it from before its very beginning.

whitehorseinn.org
gty.org

"....He Is Precious..."

           Our son has a knack of finding something very special as a Christmas gift every year. Nine years ago I knew it was a book as I always get two or three books as Christmas presents. I opened it and was floored. He took my posts up until that time and then put into book form. I've now written nine books.....with one copy of each....all on my own bookshelf....and that's fine with me! After taking the wrapping off of my special present this year there was a manila envelop. He said that I might want to sit at a table to open it?
           Charles Haddon Spurgeon.....does that name sound familiar? If you are a Christian it probably does.....or at least it should. Spurgeon was the nineteenth century Baptist  'Prince of Preachers' from the once great city of London.....my favorite city of those that I have visited.....but of which I have no desire to visit today....for the sadness on what it is becoming might be overwhelming.....for there was no Cromwell this time....no Admiral Lord Nelson....no Winston Churchill....and no Lady Thatcher.
           Spurgeon....born in 1834.....Reformed in his theology....Calvinist in his doctrine....was saved by the grace of God on a snowy winter morning much like what I'm looking at through my window right now. As a fifteen year old he was on his way to church one Lord's Day....merely going to church does not make one a Christian....but a snowstorm had caused a change in his plans....or so he thought. He choose to stop instead at a small Primitive Methodist church that was nearby. The pastor could not even make it that day so an elder....totally unfamiliar with speaking in front of people....had taken the pulpit. As described by Spurgeon it would have been a sermon where people in our modern churches would fall asleep....but God had other plans....one verse....Isaiah 45:22 changed this young man's life.....and led to the salvation of multitudes around the world.....even up to this day....."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none else."
           The Christian church in England had begun what Spurgeon called a 'downgrade' where the gospel was weakened in favor of more enlightened means to be a relevant church body. Spurgeon went against the grain and fought this slide.....and  remarkably.....almost unbelievably.....this great London preacher so influential in English culture and it's Christian church.....was censured by his own Baptist Union! He died in the midst of this controversy in 1892.
           It was Easter morning.....which to the Reformed is but another Lord's Day morning celebrating the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ. My wife and son and I walked from the The Bailey's Hotel in the Kensington section of London, across the River Thames into Elephant and Castle to Spurgeon's...still standing but somewhat altered by the Luftwaffe bombing...Metropolitan Tabernacle....now pastored by a faithful shepherd Dr. Peter Masters. We heard a wonderful sermon that morning.....walked back by way of the Tower Bridge....and stopped for a while at in Trafalgar Square in front of the National Gallery to watch a Christian ministry presenting the gospel over a loudspeaker system from the base of the 169 foot Nelson's Column...to Londoners and tourists meandering around the popular attraction. All told with getting side-tracked a couple of times we probably walked sixteen to eighteen miles that day.
           OK.....all this segue for this.....I opened the Manila envelop and papers fell out. Spurgeon's normal practice was to have someone transcribe his sermon as he preached. He would then go over the shorthand and make corrections. The finished product would then go out around the world to eager Christians awaiting the weakly sermon. There in front of me was one page of an original manuscript from a sermon in 1890.....in the midst of the Downgrade Controversy. The black ink was that of the transcriber.....the purple ink was from Spurgeon's pen and written by his hand. I wasted no time.....it's matted, framed, and on my wall in front of me as I type. My son had done it again!

          The following is the final transcription of but one page of Spurgeon's sermon.....a typical sermon of Spurgeon....this two years before his death......titled "Christ Precious To Believers." (1 Peter 2:7) This original transcript....amended in purple ink in by Charles Haddon Spurgeon....is what now hangs on our dining room wall.....

          "Unto you therefore who believe He is precious," yet the word is not an adjective, not a noun. Hence the Revised Version translates the text, "For you therefore who believe in the preciousness." His very self is preciousness itself! He is the essence, the substance, the sum of all preciousness! Every Believer will subscribe to this. Many things are more or less precious, but the Lord Jesus is preciousness itself,outsoaring all degrees of comparison! How so Believers show that Christ is thus precious to them? They do so by trusting everything to Him. Every Believer places his hope solely upon the work of Jesus.  With regard to the past, the present and the future, he finds rest in Christ. The Lord Jesus is the case into which we have put all our treasures and we prize Him accordingly. All our affection flows toward Him as all our hope flows from Him. Within His sacred name and Person all our outlook is contained. He is...."

metropolitantabernacle.org 

....And Do As He Did

           Everyone reading this post.....and everyone that we know.....are held captive to a certain extent to the mores and methods of this day and age that we live in. Our opinion of government.....or the education system.....or marriage.....or almost anything.......is constructed around our life experiences concerning the subject. We can read history....and even study history....and may have had long conversations with older people who lived their youth in an entirely different time period.....and this certainly helps.....but for most opinions that we have.....we started on a grid....therefore we have an ingrained personal bias....and work outward from there.
           There are people.....usually men....who live the Civil War today in their extended and oftentimes tedious research. Consequently they tend to know more than the rest of us on the 1860s in America. I have had a continuing fascination now for nearly a half a century on the Kennedy assassination......and a similar but lesser fascination on the sinking of the Titanic....and I would certainly proffer an opinion on either....but I would never even think about giving advice on how to play the game of golf.
           It's necessary, I believe anyway, to keep this in mind as we think about our Christian worship and our Bible reading habits. If we do not....then the general consensus of the day may very well be the only thing that determines our conclusion. Worship and Bible reading on one side or the other of the norm will naturally be considered extremes.
           Most Christians of a few decades or more have been in numerous Christian services of one kind or another.....and of one denominational and theological perspective or another....but the message from the pulpit does not vary as much as the actual outward worship might. Our Bible study today is pretty well set in stone. One might have more Bible studies than someone else but they are going to be similar. This has been my 35 year experience anyway
           Common sense and logic should tell us that as the time periods change....and therefore the sermons and the importance of the Word of God vary.....that one must be better in some way and to some degree or another than the other. Would it not therefore behoove us to enter into this study of church history if we truly want to get as close as possible to what God envisions for us?
           If you will allow me to be the Civil War buff on this so to speak.....since I have studied these very issues....and for that very reason.....then please at least consider my findings......and then decide for yourself if they are worthy of looking into. Those findings are these.....
           We live in a very poor age of preaching. We are well over a century past having the gospel preached....and the glories of Jesus Christ preached.....as they once were....in various places....in the 19th century. Our opinion of the Bible has taken on a weaker valuation and we might have to go much further back than the 19th century to find a period where the Word of God was literally reverenced in the lives of Christians.
           I just glanced up at a print of a famous oil painting that we have on our living room wall.....Pilgrims Going To Church.....painted by George Henry Boughton in 1867. You would recall the painting if you saw it.....it's winter in New England....and fifteen or so Puritans....or Pilgrims....are on their way to church......muskets at the ready.....one man even holds his hand out as if to say 'wait....I think I may have seen something.' The sermon that they would hear would most likely make our sermons today seem off center from Christ.....and peripheral as to the cross of Christ. Their Bible reading in the 17th century might seem to us like something out of the movies....where they pour over every word as if the word was just written and delivered by Timothy or Titus.
            I don't mean these descriptions to be critical for we are captive to our time period....just as these pilgrims were captive to theirs......or Jonathan Edwards to his.....or Martin Luther to his.....but Luther refused to remain a captive to his time....choosing instead to be captive to his conscience. Paul essentially said....do as I do....would it not be wise for a pastor today to look at Charles Spurgeon.....and do as he did.....or Spurgeon to have looked at John Owen and.....do as he did....or Owen to have looked at Augustine and....do as he did?  

We Have His Back....But Who Has Ours

             More and more conservatives come to realize every day that Donald Trump is not who he said that he was on the campaign. Exacerbating that problem is that we have a genuine coup attempt in progress from rogue elements of our government. Everything within us wants to concentrate our efforts on the Mueller putsch and the FBI cover-up....and we have to do that....but those threats are far from the sum total of tremors rocking our Ship of State today....and one of them is a president....who if we do not attempt to keep him on track....may become a tyrant himself.....for the potential is there.....particularly if he exchanges his conservative base for one with a bigger tent!
            We all celebrated on November 8th of 2016. I litter these posts with warnings that politics and princes are not the answers to our corporate national problems but even I let myself go in celebrating that Hillary Clinton was gone....forever.....unless she's in the news going to jail....but this battle was not over....and there's the rub.....we turned on a dime and gave up all our intellectual weapons in favor of cheering on a knight.....on a white horse......who was never on a horse before.....and couldn't wait to get back on his golf cart at Mar-a-Lago.
             Which brings me to Ivanka Trump.....Ivanka the Terrible.....whose personal beliefs are so far from ours that if her father is ever completely won over to her side then we will have Hillary Clinton on steroids in the White House. We are therefore protecting Donald Trump and at the same time incubating a clone of Hillary Clinton.  How did she get in.....she told us that she was only going to be daughter? Well, she takes after her father folks....she knows what's necessary to sell a product! We have to simultaneously protect this President....and protect ourselves from this President!
             Let's be thankful that the Clinton/Obama captivity of the White House has finally come to an end but refocus on the Republican establishment and a man who may tweet like a conservative but quacks like a globalist....walks like a globalist....and hangs around with other globalists.
         

The State Of Our Union

           Article II, Section 3 of our Constitution states of our President, He shall from time to time give to Congress Information of the State of the Union and recommend to their Consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient. The President is not required to appear in person and give a speech. In fact, Thomas Jefferson refused to give this report as a speech for he considered it too close to the Speech from the Throne in the monarchical traditions.

         I've been writing posts with words such as these prior to the annual State of the Union Address for the past eight years, and I feel no differently with Donald Trump as president. The event is a sham....as is the National Prayer Breakfast coming up a week later. The pomp and circumstance of the spectacle is nauseating, and the political ploys are an insult. In 2016 I watched Barack Obama's speech with the sound turned off. I only wanted to see what Republicans would clap even once for the man who purposely left office with our national defenses in such a terribly weakened state.
        There may have been a place for such a speech in the distant past as there may have been a place for the National Prayer Breakfast but we have fallen so far as a culture and society that these events are no more relevant or respectable than the Grammys or the Academy Awards.
         We are a people lost in a technosphere of games and toys and gadgets and Facebook and Tweeting and sound bytes that challenge our limited communicative skills. Our dignity is gone with the wind. Our future is one of mistrust...violence....surveillance....robots.....artificial intelligence....and fakery. This is the state of our union!
         There was a nation like us once before.....blessed of God....but who no longer "incline (d) their ear, but stiffened their neck"....a nation that...."did not obey he voice of the LORD their God or accept correction." This would be....according to Jeremiah....."The generation of His wrath."
         Maranatha.....Come Lord Jesus!

Fifty Years Closer!

The following post is from 2010 but recalls a January and State Of The Union Address fifty years ago. The 18 year old of today is in a similar situation as I was in....only there is no foundation left to withstand the storm already visible on the horizon!

The Future Ain't What It Used To Be....August 22

           It was just my lot to be 18 years old in 1968. It was a remarkable year in its disasters. President Lyndon Johnson gave his State Of The Union address on January 17th and began with Vietnam, He (the enemy) continues to hope that America's will to persevere can be broken. Well...he is wrong. He talked about the cessation of hostilities in the Middle East and prospects for peace. American's living standards were rising for a seventh straight year but violence continued to plague our cities. He addressed means in alleviating that but then cautioned this does not mean a national police force. He proposed a surtax that would only cost the American people one penny on the dollar and that tax to be repealed in two years. He concluded this short address with If ever there was a time to know the pride and excitement and the hope of being an American..it is this time. Less than a week later North Korea seized the USS Pueblo which would remain a crisis for the rest of the year.
           The next week would see the beginning of the Tet Offensive that began in Nha Trang, Vietnam. North Vietnam would not only be defeated but destroyed in the weeks that followed, but so would the American public's will to persevere. You would remember the photo I'm sure....a Viet Cong, who had just summarily executed the family of a Vietnamese police officer, was caught and also summarily executed....this in front of a lens that would result in a Pulitzer Prize winning photo that would prove our inhumanity towards man in this war. One day later Richard Nixon would announce his candidacy for President.
           The week of  February 11th saw 543 Americans killed in Vietnam. On The 27th of that month Walter Cronkite pronounced the Tet Offensive as a draw. On March 12th, Eugene McCarthy won the New Hampshire primary and four days later Robert Kennedy entered the race. On March 31st I was standing at the counter of my favorite hangout, Ted's Variety and Dairy Store, eating a snack and watching President Lyndon Johnson's speech on the television....he pronounced the Tet Offensive a failure, but the huge loss of life, on both sides, and the emergency situation of a projected $20 billion deficit for the following year, and in the need to prove his intentions for peace, he concluded with Accordingly, I shall not seek, and will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your President. 
            Five days later Martin Luther King's lifelong quest for equality of opportunity for everyone came to an end in Memphis in an act of terrorism. The beginning of May saw Paris in flames from student riots and on June 4th....my hero.... Robert Kennedy....was shot. Songs like Arlo Guthrie's Alice's Restaurant "inspired" the youth. Before August was over the Prague Spring in Czechoslovakia was crushed and violent protests rocked the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. In Mexico city, in October, hundreds were killed in student protests and riots and two weeks later the summer Olympics began in the same city, and also saw protest. On November 5th Richard Nixon was elected by 500,000 votes and the unemployment rate was 3.3%.
           Now it is 42 years later. Peace talks will start again soon in the Middle East. We are leaving Iraq with the promise to keep their government secure, as we did in Vietnam. Socialism succeeded in putting one of its own in our White House and top positions of our Congress. Globalist elites artfully pull the strings of  their puppets who many gullibly believe. Student protests are now citizen protests. The deficit is over a trillion dollars. Our Justice Department has lost the trust of the people and Homeland Security often seems more worried about citizens trying to help our nation that those trying to hurt it.
           We have placed two unqualified young judges on our Supreme Court, presidential appointees usurp the responsibilities of the Congress, and there is talk of policies perilously close to a national police force. We are being torn apart as a people with government sector employees, bailout recipients and entitlement beneficiaries on one side and most everyone else on the other. We have a young president who has given us two autobiographies but no personal records. Our foreign policy has the discernment of a Neville Chamberlain in Munich and we cut military weapons systems to replace monies burned elsewhere. We have a "foot in the door" health reform that Americans will despise when they see what it is and what it has done. Our Constitution is being held hostage by political correctness. Yogi Berra was right in that the future ain't what it used to be but, Biblically speaking, the future is closer than it used to be for it proclaims a Second Coming of Christ and in a linear time paradigm, we are 42 years closer than we were in 1968. (now 50 years closer)

Talk Radio's Miscalculation

         The main accusation that came from Michael Wolff's book Fire And Fury was that Donald Trump was like a child where everything was about him. We already knew that but the book addressed the issue with White House staff anecdotes and quotes. How did we handle this difficult character description....we....who supposedly occupy the higher ground in this civil war/revolution/collapse of the United States of America...it's culture....and it's society? Did we admit that we were concerned also that he was often easily persuaded by whoever was with him that day....and then deal with that? No....we showed that there was really very little difference between us and them as far as transparency and ethics go. We set up a straw man and proceeded to beat it down....which was easy to do.
         The straw man was the accusation by some that Donald Trump was insane. We obscured the genuine accusation that Donald Trump acts like a child at times.....and that he thinks he's a genius....it's in the genes don't you know....we replaced this accusation that could not be so easily destroyed with one that could....that he was said to be insane.....and we gave him a really hard Rorschach test.....to prove that he wasn't! Good job conservatives.....you play the Democrat game very well.
         We were critical of Barack Obama when he puttered around the golf course as America burned. Candidate Trump tweeted his outrage. So now President Trump golfs way more than Barack Obama ever did. Do we protest? Of course not....he needs his exercise.
         The Democrats gave us eight years of talking points in the media where they all seem to miraculously choose the same words. We called it time after time after time......and now we do the same thing!
         We would get frustrated beyond measure when Barack Obama or Bill Clinton would do something dramatic to steer the attention away from something not so complimentary in the news. President Trump is the king at this as he throws us a really big bone to chew on....then almost immediately yanks away our supper dish.
         We wanted Barack Obama's birth certificate and academic records! What was he hiding? They want Donald Trump's tax returns. Outrageous......that's his own business!
         Folks, I listen to conservative radio talk shows almost throughout the day. They're very picky on who gets on the air.....and the caller better stick to the topic that they gave the call screener. They don't want the real probing questions about President Trump....not all of the talk show hosts by any means.....but certainly Rush Limbaugh. How many calls does he even take! And they're usually..."Oh Rush what an honor to talk to you....you changed my life....mega-dittos on every single word than comes from your formerly nicotine stained lips.....tell us more on how wonderful Donald Trump is.....and how the stupid things he says are actually genius!"
          Mitch McConnell used to be the opposition during the campaign.....now he's a pretty smart guy. Ivanka was a persona non grata once.....no longer.....and stay away from Jared.....stick to the Russian issues.
          On this latest government shutdown 'victory'....your celebrating too soon folks! And ignoring the fact that President Trump initially said "send me a bill and I'll sign it." This is classic....let's laugh at the departing army and have a party!
          We build up this stock market rocket.......but no longer even mention the national debt! What are we going to do when this baby comes crashing down along with all the other good economic news? Well, we'll blame somebody else of course! Obamacare is no longer very important....nor is true tax reform.....nor is a genuine wall....nor it seems is even North Korea! What's really important is the 2018 elections and Donald Trump's reelection! How blind we have become. This conservative movement was not as vigilant as it was believed to be. Here also......as in the Christian church in America....there is only a remnant.

              The miscalculation that was made by conservative talk radio......once again much of talk radio....by no means all of it....was that it was presumed that if they actually held Donald Trump's feet to the fire that we....who were not very smart without their guiding hand....might make big mistakes after thinking for ourselves.

Our Grave Miscalculation

The following post is from May of 2017:

          One of the keys to analyzing the Trump presidency is in not only realizing but keeping at the forefront of our mind that this remarkable political upheaval that occurred in 2016 culminating in Donald Trump's win was a decade long process, and actually much longer, where many, multitudes even, of politically perceptive and determined Americans fought a bitter battle on two fronts, the one against the Clinton globalist camp, and the Obama Marxists, and the other against the Republican establishment. Where was Donald Trump during all of this? Well he was firing people on The Apprentice, building casinos and towers, and horsing around with other celebrities vying for that coveted lead role in 'Lifestyles Of The Rich And Famous.'
         I for one do not believe that he even thought about actually winning the nomination let alone the presidency at the beginning. It was rather a strikingly bold move to bolster the Trump Brand. He may not smoke but he somehow tossed a smoldering stoogie onto a bonfire mountain of anger ready to be lit. To his credit he didn't bat an eye and grew a lot in this new world that he only previously dealt with in business negotiations. To his discredit he never discarded the Trump Brand. In other words the concerns of you and me and every conservative that put him in office are not his top priority.
         For now... all President Trump has to do is give a speech to some military personnel, throw in some of tried and true patriotic vitriol and then tell us that some decision he made was great when it was not great.... and we will believe it. He did that today with a speech after his foreign tour.....we were told that it was a 'home run!' Well it wasn't a 'home run.' He strengthened the Saudi military.....confused the Israelis......had a secret meeting with a 'liberation theology' pontiff and told the G-7 that he hasn't made a decision yet of the Paris Climate Shakedown! This looks more like four outside balls and a walk.
         Conservatives are in a pickle....the mother of all pickles! They invested everything in this man, They're avoiding like the plague the reality of who Donald Trump is turning out to be, They should have busted a gut at the very mention of Jared and Ivanka getting anywhere near the Oval Office but they said basically nothing as he filled his administration with the very establishment that half this battle was with.
         So what should conservatives do? They should do what we all should do and that is admit that we as a people have walked so far away from God that just about every sound this world produces is heard clearer than God's commands and even offers of mercy if we but turn to Him....not re-turn...for contrary to accepted opinion we do not come under God's admonition and invitation of 2 Chronicles 7:14.  We cannot return because we in America were never His people to begin with. Pilgrims and Puritans did indeed come to these shores with the hope of making a shining city built on a hill, and Christians throughout these past four centuries were used by God to bless this nation and through this nation the entire world, but we as a government and a people progressed no further than being a God-fearing government and people and have since even adjudicated that away!
          It's this grievous miscalculation that makes us think that a simple move like electing a supposedly conservative president would restore us to God's good graces. God has been warning us with increasingly clear and powerful judgments for over a half a century. He's sent messengers to us in the likes of Billy Graham whose evangelical messages we liked but whose dire warnings we ignored.

         We've brought this looming disaster upon ourselves and when we saw how bad it was we then looked to ourselves to get out of it. I hope that I never leave myself out of this call to repentance for my dalliances rival those of the best. As for Donald Trump....pray that God might give this man that which he presently does not possess....wisdom and a fear of God that leads to wisdom.

When It Happens.....You Will Know

          It's roughly twelve hours until men climb into their pulpits or stand behind their lecterns for the weekly American Christian worship service circa 2018......but will God show up? The men will show up.....the Bible will be referenced in various ways.....a sermon will be given according to any one of a number of preaching styles.....but will God show up?
          How will you know? How many times in our life have we watched a movie or television show where a young man or women.....boy or girl....talks to a parent or a best friend about love. How are they to know if it is love. The mother might smile and put her hand on her daughter and say something like......'when it happens....you will know.'
          Now I don't really know if that's the best way to describe it. I think that multitudes of people think that they love God in the same way that multitudes of young people thought that they were in love with another person but a year later they could hardly remember the feelings they had for the one that they....loved.....but what do I know.....my favorite poet for much of my life was Rod McKuen.....and I originally learned what love was....or thought I learned..... from old Hollywood movies.
         I will tell you what I do know.....when the Bible.....the Word of God.....written to you.....when it is opened up to you with the glories of Christ.....the need for redemption.....the precious blood shed on Calvary......and the empty tomb of a risen Saviour.....you will know it! You will know it! We're not talking about emotion here folks.....we're not talking about the coolest feeling you ever had in your life.....we're talking about jumping off the stern of the Titanic as it begins it's dive to the bottom of the ocean.....hitting the ice cold water and remaining conscious long enough to call out to God.....and then waking up in a bed on the Carpathia......saved.
         The power of God in the preached Word is similar.....you will know it. You will know that you are in the presence of a Holy God. The words spoken......whether they be spoken with great elocution....or in stuttering....or with a mountain twang.....it makes no difference.....they will penetrate.....you will not have merely heard sounds......you will have felt them.....you will be as lifted up into the heavens.....in the presence of angels. Your will know that you are in the presence of the King of Kings. You will then sit there afterwards and reflect upon what you just heard.....and your mind will never have been as clear. Thanksgivings and praise will be pumped from your heart.....through every artery in your body......and you will reflect in wonderment at your being permitted to enter into the presence of God's glory. May God have mercy upon us in America....where the glory has long since departed from so much of our land.

addendum: Folks, maybe you think that I'm off my rocker in describing a sermon in this way.....it's a logically constructed supposition anyway.....and then maybe you think this because you have never heard men preach Christ where the power comes from the words......and not the voice....nor the eloquence nor the lofty speech.....for these men are rare these days.  I'm one of the few who think that the letter to the Hebrews.....author unknown.....is not only a sermon....but quite possibly a model sermon. If these words.....and other Scriptures verses on the glories of Christ.....if they can transfix on paper....why would they not be a natural choice to bring to the pulpit?
        

Winter At Dusk

        It's winter....and it's dusk....and I was just about to get in my vehicle...just for a ride....with the radio on....and with a cup of coffee. This is as good a time as ever to bring back this post from late 2016:

Winter At Dusk

         The living room-dining room-kitchen and breakfast room in our 109 year old house are arranged in a circle. It's five minutes to midnight and as I write my wife is walking fast in circles....around and around. On the last pass I asked her to read these two sentences I had just written but she put her hand up and said..." I can't right now. I only have five minutes to get my 10,000 steps in!" This steps counter/calorie counter app is driving me up a wall. Earlier she asked me to take her iPhone as I walked the dog. Isn't that cheating? She said that she was just kidding but I know someone who attached his Fitbit to the dog as it ran around the yard.
          Oh well, we all have our peculiarities. A few hours ago I looked outside and it was beginning to snow.....the first snow of the season. Dusk was setting in and there would be less than an hour of light left. I hurriedly put on my boots, grabbed my truck keys and told my wife that I was going for a drive and would not be long. She knew what I was up to. The scene outside, bleak and dreary to most, was too beautiful to pass up.
          Now, I can enjoy summer and we often go on car trips just to see the autumn colored leaves but the chill of gusting winds over barren hillsides, particularly at dusk as a blue hue settles over the valleys, is the most beautiful and calming of sights....and feels. I love the brisk walk to the vehicle, pulling the coat closer to me as my breath is visible. A chill like this, even frigid weather, makes me feel more alive, for one can become lost in a daydream on a sunny summer day or walk aimlessly while creating thoughts in the fall but one cannot but become alive in the winter chill. One can admire the creation of God in a sunrise or sunset or in the multi-colored grandeur of a flower garden but one actually converses with the Creator in the starkness of a blistery winter evening.
          The leaves have not only fallen but have disappeared by now and I can see what was hidden over the summer....houses with warm families inside....buildings and shacks.....rocks and streams that I never knew were there. I was now on our parkway...sipping a McDonald's coffee. I'm sure that even Thoreau would have stopped for a latte, had it been available to him, before heading off to Walden Pond
          The clouds are ominously dark and fast moving over a slate gray sky. In weather like this there always has to be some place to go....someplace warm.....with friendly people inside.....and maybe a fire.  One does not waste a beautiful evening like this with a trip to Walmart. One saves that trip for the sun...or the darkness of night. No, the gusting winds, bare trees and earthen colors are a wake-up call that one is alive, that God created a reality behind the beauty of autumn leaves or the dazzling colors brought out by the sun, and one cannot see His warnings if one only gazes at the creation and does not feel it.
           Darkness came quickly and I texted my wife that I would be home in fifteen minutes. I know that she will hear the text for the iPhone would mostly assuredly be in her pocket as she finds something to do where she has to walk.

Note: I bought my wife an Apple watch so she doesn't have to carry her cell phone around the house!

A La Carte

           My wife and I were just strolling through the mall.....it was June of 2007 I believe....we passed the AT&T store and I wondered if they sold a device that I could pull up the news on....I'm not a big techie folks. The salesman looked at me strangely.....I'm well familiar with that look....and said...."Well, today is the day that a new phone called an iPhone goes on sale."  I had no idea what it was...."OK, I'll take one." When I finally traded it in for a new one a few years ago the salesman looked at it as if it were a Model T Ford. Then his amazement turned to my contacts......"I have never seen so few contacts on an iPhone!" He didn't know of course that I have a feather quill pen and ink that I use occasionally in my attempt to get as far away from this ill and deluded age that I can.
            I spotted the evil of Facebook immediately. It was an idol of narcissism.....and a potential for tyranny of the mind....on a worldwide scale. If you want to pass your opinion on today to just about any radio talk show host or columnist you have to go on Twitter. This was made for Donald Trump whose limit for forming new thoughts is about twenty words at a time. I will never partake of either Facebook or Twitter but that leaves me at somewhat of a disadvantage as I struggle to come up with email addresses.
           A few decades ago I put together a newsletter that I titled A Pilgrim's Progress...and just mailed it out. I wrote a lot of letters-to-the-editor but they started to limit the number of words also. People were talking about something called blogs so I thought that I'd give one a try. I got a 'follower'....what's this.....a follower.....I don't want followers....don't follow me.....follow Christ.....I just want to get an idea out there and let people do with it what they want. I deactivated the 'follower' button.
          So it's not really a blog.....it's more of an electronic pamphlet. My only advertising is my bumper stickers.....pens....and my hat....a ballcap with specialdogg.blogspot.com on it. The hits to these posts are approaching 80,000 and the visitors to my profile are over 5000. That's probably not a whole lot in an age where a YouTube of a cat taking a nap in a boot can generate a million hits.
          The following is my first post back on November 27th of 2008. If we had mandated a la carte cable television back then it would be a markedly different country today.

A La Carte Cable     

         If only it were just a "vast wasteland!" Unfortunately, television sculpts and molds the American mind. We have become a society that learns from visual sources rather than the written word and we are at the mercy of the cable package. There is a bill in the Senate on giving us the right to choose our stations but its purpose was to lessen our cable bill. Some say that it will not do that. I don't care. I want to support only stations that have prefigured the effect on a society into its programming. Boycotts cannot do the job. Give us a year of a la carte and some networks will respond. In my mind, this is not a minor thing. I can see a major improvement in how our society forms a consensus on many issues simply by weening itself from what television throws at us. If you agree with this please talk the issue up and contact your representatives and senators.

Steve Bannon's Miscalculation

         Very quickly here.....Patton wanted to go into Russia.....and MacArthur wanted to go into Red China. Eisenhower put an end to the former.....Truman put an end to the latter. Strengths and eccentricities warred within both generals.  On a similar note but a different scale.....Bannon wanted to go after the establishment elites in the Congress.....and Trump put an end to that.
         The conservative movement over the past almost four decades....particularly over the past decade....was a coalition made up of different types of Americans,....and we are finding that out now....in spades. If Donald Trump was who he said that he was he wouldn't have establishment elites and globalists all around him.
         Oliver Cromwell knew that the treasonous king had to go. He would first take on the elitist leaders of the parliamentary army if he had to. I think that in like manner Steve Bannon came to find out that he would have to go through Donald Trump if he had to. He didn't want to....he wanted President Trump to be who he said that he was....but it didn't turn out that way. In retrospect he should have left the White House much sooner.....and challenged from the outside where President Trump was going. Instead he was forced out.....and then chose to continue to support the President.....in hopes that he would show some true resolve.
        The following was first posted four years ago. The Cromwell element of the conservative movement has....as of now....been isolated. We are forced to sit and watch what is happening.   

The Republican Party And Its Discontents
         
             .......Mr. Boehner...and Mr. McCain...and Mr. Mitchell....and Mr. Graham....and Mr. Rove...and Mr. Bush......we are not alone. We are Americans who trust in their God and recognize His hand in all of creation, His omniscience and omnipotence in forming this people, His power in sustaining us though we often strayed far away, and also His warnings to us after years and years and years of our increasingly ignoring Him..... the continuance of which you are advocating..... your third and most egregious mistake. You have become impervious to common sense, to wisdom or to any light in your darkened halls of power.
          America's future does not lie in these elections that the Republican Party is selling more than its birthright for; and the winners of these elections will have no power that God does not permit and no wisdom that God does not give, for His purposes and to His glory! Our duty is to elect God-fearing leaders and pray for God's mercy knowing that His will is perfect, and that it may or may not include the United States of America as a source of stability in the world or even an entity in itself.
          Celebrate your polling figures all that you want. We'll celebrate a risen Savior and a returning King. Yes, we'll follow Luther's advice to 'plant a tree,' to continue to work, even if we knew for certain that Jesus was returning the very next day, but you might want to take notice of Oliver Cromwell's words to the 'establishment' of his day in:
          "I had rather a plain, russet-coated Captain, that knows what he fights for, and loves what he knows, than that you call a Gentleman and is nothing else."
          Folks, if you are concerned that evangelicals are being drawn in by men who wouldn't darken the doorway of a church unless there is political gain.....and that our real hope is now in an earthly prince and not Jesus Christ.....then please pass these posts along......for the real dangers of the day cannot be dealt with in executive orders.......but will require wisdom.....which comes from humility and a genuine and reverential fear of the Lord.

Note: Consider this before dispatching all of us as 'Never-Trumpers'.....there is no way to know if Ted Cruz would have also won a general election.....but this much we do know.....we who did not particularly like or trust Donald Trump....showed up in force on November 8th, 2016 to push him over the top. Had Ted Cruz won the nomination would those who are not real big on God or 'social issues' shown up? Quite possibly not!

The Big Switcharoo

The following was posted on New Years Day:

             It's a great example to use if one is an instructor....something to take great care to watch out for.....and then something to nip in the bud if it appears. A politician...a CEO...anyone really who assumes a position of power by making promises....and then after assuming power is afforded an excuse to go in another direction....this is what has to be watched out for. This is what happened with Donald Trump....but there were only a few of us who spotted it.....and therefore we were unable to nip it in the bud. Repealing Obamacare, building a wall, and giving us a fair tax system would make America great again.....this is what we were told.....something had to be found to subtly change the perception of those promises without the switcharoo of agendas being detected.
            Candidate Trump did not really care about the first two promises...and the third was a nuanced promise. The only thing that the typical CEO is concerned about on healthcare for his employees is in what it will cost the company....not necessarily in what it will cost the employees. They were hammered by higher healthcare premiums and Obamacare and passed it on to us by increasing the percentage of what we had to pay. Therefore it was not Obamacare per se that they were concerned about but rather how to adjust the salary package and/or union contracts of the employee. President Trump did not have to actually repeal Obamacare, he only had to get out of the promise. He did that by blaming the Congress....repealing the mandate only cemented the perception of repeal. Problem solved.
            The Wall was just as big a problem for him, compounded in that he could not as readily blame the Congress. No they weren't going to give the money but he said that he would get the money even without Congress if he had to. He hasn't as of yet been able to get this monkey off his back so what he has done is skillfully redirect the conversation.....CNN being the most often used whipping boy...but not the only one by far.
            Tax reform was the least difficult promise to deal with. No, he had no intention of actually reforming the tax system....but he did have to reform the corporate tax rate.....that was essential in his primary agenda....kept from us in that it was his primary agenda..... which was in making America's corporate base strong once again. He accomplished this in the tax bill that he signed. In the process he turned the sow's ear of an unfair American tax system into a silk purse of a corporate tax reform bill for 401k Americans to put their stock market hopes into. The rest of Americans are just plum out of luck.
             So the campaign agenda was successfully changed to an administration's agenda without anyone really knowing what happened. The President was able to do this so easily because his base in the campaign was diverse in that some were driven by principle and honor while others were driven by the desire for financial gain. On the tax issue the latter has been stoked to such a degree that the legislation that was passed is heralded everywhere in conservative circles as a great achievement and a promise kept. If only everything could be this easy for him!
           Obamacare in place was not a threat to the primary agenda....and Donald Trump was actually torn on whether illegal immigration was good or bad. A genuine fair tax system would do little to help his primary agenda. President Trump has thus used his Twitter account to redirect our attention in these sticky matters. Jerusalem as Israel's capitol was a great tool for the President's agenda. Evangelicals think that this is important to God so they are totally buffaloed. Taking a few bucks away from the United Nations makes President Trump look like a real leader. Tactics and decisions such as these tend to camouflage the switcharoo.
            What about all those federal judge appointments. Folks...we got those judges. Had Donald Trump come up short on that and not even Rush Limbaugh could have saved him. What about the relaxed business regulations and the Dakota Access Pipeline? That's the real agenda stuff....he wants that too. What about the Paris Climate Accord? We had to struggle to peel back Ivanka's fingers on him before he finally did something there. What about the military being strengthened.....it's not! Eleven months into his term and he finally presented a national security strategy that would include "modernizing and maintaining the U.S. military." On this the President this past week called for a "great reawakening." He's alluding here to Ronald Reagan but it's not a 'Reagan Reawakening' we need as much as another 'Great Awakening'....big difference! That would start with humility and repentance....neither of which is in the Gospel according to Norman Vincent Peale.
           Everything is appearances today, but appearances, as we all should know, can be deceiving. I listen to the same conservative caller mindset to conservative radio that I have listened to since Donald Trump was nothing but a well-known and flamboyant moneymaker for NBC's The Apprentice (for fourteen seasons!) and they have not as of yet caught on to Donald Trump.
           Everything will be moot of course. External factors from the world stage will take over from appearances. Evangelicals will find that God was not behind Make America Great Again. Conservatives will see that they have been used. A great winnowing will occur in the church....circumstances will force this. We will reap what we have sown.   

Neither Wise Nor Helpful

        We....all of us conservatives....have this in common.....we want President Trump to guide this nation through these treacherous straits with a steady hand....but there are differences in how we approach this. We all have criticized Progressives.....Democrats.....for 25 years on how they utterly refused to hold Bill or Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama or Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid or Al Gore...up to any standard of truth. Speaking for myself it was mind-boggling how they could give these people a free rein and a free reign. November 8th of 2016 was a great day for America in that this globalist and communist ideology lost its seat of power in Congress but the principle remains in force.
         I wrote the following in a post from before the 2016 general election...."A recent CNN report quoted (then Senator Jim DeMint) in 'I don't have the support inside Washington or even inside my own party'." The report continued. "DeMint took hits from leaders in his own party when Republican incumbents and establishment-favored candidates were brought down by his tea party favorites. This summer, he proved to be one of the most intransigent members of Congress, refusing any compromise with the Obama administration in debt-ceiling negotiations." Senator DeMint is quoted again in, "I was lectured in front of the whole Republican Conference saying, 'DeMint, you don't understand how this place works. It's not about principle, it's about the numbers'."
         And this...."Thomas Jefferson wrote...'In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current' ".... and lastly this...."Abraham Lincoln wrote: 'Important principles may, and must, be inflexible'." That very thought is an anathema to many professional political strategists of today.
         To hold true to these thoughts is to hold our own party leaders accountable when they stray from principled leadership. Most have no problem with President Trump on this.....but many of us do. To attempt to deny us our right to challenge on this is neither wise nor even helpful to the president of whom we both hope for wisdom and success. The post that these quotes came from concluded with this.....
        "Should God give our nation more time even though it is very obvious that we are seeking answers from anywhere and anyone but Him, and should Donald Trump become our 45th president, he will have ample opportunity to fall to his knees in prayer for guidance as our 1st president had done so many times. Whether he would do so or not would remain to be seen. He has shown from his many statements on religion that he knows not the power nor the holiness of God. We need to resolve to offer fervent and continual prayer that this man comes to realize that the art of the deal is temporal and fleeting but "The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom." (Proverbs 9:10)"

The Artlessness Of President Trump

        We had all heard the comment a few weeks ago for it was all over the news.....A Marine general had told his troops in Norway to prepare for a "big ass" war. Two days ago a foreign correspondent had asked President Trump about the comment from one of his top generals and the president apparently didn't know anything about it. Now I'm sure that there is more than one take on this but my take is....how could that be....none of his many advisers informed him about it? If you didn't hear about this Marine general's comment.....no problem.....but you're not the President of the United States.
         President Trump's unwise, at best, comment at the DACA meeting on how he would sign any bill put before him is another example of the concern from those of us who are neither trying to form a Trump funeral cortege.... nor on the Trump gravy train. So this morning President Trump's impromptu comments have him in trouble yet again.....and talking without thinking is the culprit once again. The president is also quoted today in that he said...."I probably have a very good relationship with Kim Jong-un." What kind of statement is that? These things are not the straightforwardness of Harry Truman folks....it's the artlessness of Donald Trump.
          The media jumped on the immigration comments as racism.....conservative talk radio is doing what they do best nowadays.....they defend President Trump no matter what he says....no matter how ridiculous it is. I'm reminded of the old Stealers Wheel lyrics...."Clowns to the left of me...jokers to the right." Those of us in the middle are concerned about the lack of wisdom of the president and the lack of sound conservative thinking from those around him....but every word of criticism that we give is interpreted as 'neverTrumpism.' President Trump didn't draw North Korea to the table....the South Korean President unwisely gave them another opportunity to obfuscate, deceive and delay. The President is once again tweeting strong conservative immigration demands on DACA.....this after his mental miscue in the DACA meeting. Folks....did the President just speak hastily in that meeting or did he show his hand to the Democrats and also to us? Either way he was hammered by Ann Coulter and Mark Levin.....and then quickly changed his story....yet the rest of conservatism is unable to pick up on this.
          The real importance on all of this is that North Korea and Iran and God knows what else will be dealt with by a man who is struggling to codify his thoughts and contain his words. Friends, pray for this man....not in any of this MAGA nonsense....but that he might someday realize that Communism is alive and well not only in China but in the American media.....and that Norman Vincent Peale may not have been a good teacher after all......and that he....Donald Trump....might see his need to humble himself before this God who he up till now has ignored.....and pray for America whose judgments are evident in the chaos and pandemonium in every area of society.......pray for the pulpits to get off their high horse and shed some tears.....and pray for yourselves....as I pray for myself.....that God might have mercy on us who played in the world.....played in church.....and now are forced to watch in the news the results of our failures to take God's warnings seriously.

Malachi.....Messenger Of God

         The Old Testament 'minor prophet' book of Malachi....'minor' as in length only....was written approximately 400 years before the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ......a nice round number.
         Many of the people had returned to Judah and Jerusalem. It was the period of the Second Temple....the walls were rebuilt.....but the people had promptly forgotten all of the miracles and blessings they had seen and been given since Abraham and Moses. Their worship was lackluster and contrived....their feelings possibly neither hot nor cold....their small society collapsing in unfaithfulness and distrust.
         Seven times in the four short chapters of fifty-five verses God takes issue with things that the priests of Israel were doing.....and seven times they seem surprised by God's accusations....."How have you loved us?"...."How have we despised your name?"....."How have we polluted you?"...."Why does he not....accept our offerings with favor?"....."How have we wearied him?"....."How shall we return?".....and....."How have we spoken against you?"
         I'll use Billy Graham as an example but there have been many others including R. C. Sproul who has gone on to be with his Lord and Savior. Billy Graham had warned America.....over many decades....seven decades as a matter of fact.....and increasingly in intensity.....that it had taken God lightly....that more than mere church attendance was required....that God's judgment was nigh and already at work in America.....and that it was time to return to Him.....and it is as if each time America responded to one of God's messengers....."If his love is so great, why do we still have problems?"...."We say 'God bless America', how have we despised his name?"...."What's wrong with our worship services?"...."What's wrong with our prayers?"...."How has our interpretations of his Word wearied him?"...."What do you mean....we have to return?".....and....."How have we been arrogant...and what have we said against God?"
         Folks, we are as these Israelites.....we can't fathom that God could be so angry with us! God's response to us through His many messengers was in reminding us of His faithfulness to America from its beginnings.....and how we long since placed worship far below our own more pressing personal desires.....and that we either construct our faith for material gain or merely play church for appearances....and that we have treated American Christianity from its Puritan beginnings with disdain in fashioning a new and 'exciting' method of worship along with a more equitable body of doctrine....that we now only give Him a small portion of our life.....and that we now actually call what is good bad...(and this in the church itself!)....and what is bad good.....and that have honored and institutionalized the criticism of the Bible from both the modernists and the postmodernists....for we obviously have no trust in the historical Christian faith anymore.

         It's almost as if there is a silence in the church today....a silence amidst the din and cacophony of our worship extravaganzas and bellowing false teachers broadcasting to millions. Malachi concludes by giving the Israelites....and us....God's direct warning and hope in...."For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evil doers will be stubble.....but for you who fear my name, the sun of righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings, You shall go out leaping like calves from the stall."

Warnings

         It's an interesting word.....alert. One can be alert...as in alert for deer while driving at night....particularly here in Western Pennsylvania....or one can alert someone to something. I've often had to flash my high beams to alert an oncoming car to deer on the side of the road. It's kind of ironic in that if an electronic alert of some kind is installed somewhere, anywhere, it may actually make the people less alert, because they could then ignore real dangers only to rely on an electronic alert....a radar detector for someone with a lead foot might do this.....I wouldn't know.
         Everyone knows by now.....it's the lead story on all the news sites.....someone pushed the wrong button in Hawaii and an alert.....which was a false alert.....was sent out to everyone that an incoming ballistic missile was on the way. There was a lot of panic and confusion. Now.....this will probably lead to checks and double-checks on similar systems all across America.....but will pastors in America run checks and double-checks on their ministry.
         We....Christians in America....in general....we believers in Jesus Christ do not have an electronic flashing alert sign to warn us about what is just ahead.....it would be too complicated anyway.....too many twists and turns.....too many surprises....and a delusion....that God has in store for us.....but this is a great blessing in that we are not left to ourselves to just wait for an alert....for He has given us the most wonderful gift in His Word.....and His Spirit to open it for us.....and men to proclaim the glories of His Son when we meet together.
         What His Word does is give us warnings.....love running cold.....and violence everywhere.....and truth splattered with the mud from the paths that we've chosen to walk. We have the History of Israel and Judah to hold up as a mirror. We have commands to stay.....alert....vigilant....and sober-minded....away from the paths where we are sure to get stuck in the mud.
         We have all failed to one degree or another. We failed to stay and to warn others, particularly from the pulpit. Maybe Hawaii in some way will awaken us to the futility of relying on a sudden alert when we should always be....alert....and vigilant....and then again....maybe not.
         The following was last posted this past September 11th. The main meteorologist from The Weather Channel would describe the movement and wind speed of the approaching hurricane but time and time and time again he cautioned about the storm that might stall over the area....and cause flooding that would be worse than the winds.
         We in America and in the American church have been given an alert in the form of a watch...the potential for trouble is there....stay tuned.....where what is needed is a warning where trouble has been sighted......therefore prepare.

         I am not a fan of The Weather Channel because of its political leanings, but I had it on in the background over the weekend as I sat in my living room chair reading and typing these posts, and from what I saw they called this storm in Texas right.
         I don't know any of the personalities on The Weather Channel....couldn't give you a name.....but the main moderator of all the various reporters sloshing around in their rain suits and hoods seemed to keep much of the focus on the Houston area and the potential for serious inland flooding. It caught my attention....why was he emphasizing this so much when a Cat4 was about to hit land on the coast?         What the percentage is of economists and investment professional... don't know, but they are out there; some are very big names, and they have been warning everyone who will listen that a market crash is coming....that one....may be the worst crash ever....and two....there are no fixes available this time around.
        Has anyone heard of Stephen Hawking? I think so. He's is one of the many who in increasing numbers are warning about the extreme potential danger of artificial intelligence.
        Political science professor, author and expert on Communism Paul Kengor has warned Americans in books, numerous articles and interviews for years that Communism is behind much of the upheaval in just about every aspect of our collapsing society and nation.
        Some warnings go unheeded and people wind up suffering. Some warnings go unheeded but nothing happens. There are some warnings that people take seriously and are spared suffering while there are times when when people heed a warning but nothing comes of it. This is all common sense. Ultimately the wise consider legitimate warnings and then make the best decision that they can, while those who are not wise do not consider warnings at all if those warnings might conflict with their plans.
        There is only one source of warnings that we should never doubt nor ignore. It's said that Jeremiah, the 'weeping prophet', warned the people of Judah and Israel for forty years but this description is incomplete for he has been warning readers of God's Word with at least general principles now for over 2600 years. Isaiah warned and continues to warn...as did Daniel.... Jonah..... Nahum..... Paul.... Peter..... John....and many others.... Jesus Christ has warned us....nations and individuals.....and continues to warn us.....and will continue until He appears in the clouds with His army of angels but by then it will be too late to heed any of His warnings.
   

North Korea

             Both North Korean and South Korean athletes entered the opening ceremonies of the February 2006 Winter Olympics in Turin, Italy under the Korean Unification Flag. A New York Times headline on October 9th of that year announced that North Korea had conducted its first nuclear test becoming the eighth nuclear weapons state. 
            Today, after three decades of diplomacy, sanctions and warnings, South Korea announced that a North Korean delegation would be welcomed to the Olympics to be held in the South from February 9th to the 25th. Russia can't come...but Communist North Korea can. Barack Obama announced his 2008 run for the presidency on February 10th of 2007....Hillary Clinton announced on February 20th, and John McCain on February 28th. We had bigger fish to fry than a rogue nuclear state
             Iran was an even more pressing problem in 2007. George W. Bush may very well have addressed that issue had not the big campaign for president been in full swing. We do remember McCain's "Bomb bomb bomb....bomb bomb Iran" do we not? I wrote this in a 2010 post..."We sat back and let our enemy North Korea get nuclear weapons.....would we sit back and let another enemy Iran get nuclear weapons? Well we did just that. We long ago made a Faustian pact but now there may be the devil to pay."
             Kim Jong-un's father Kim Jong-il was in power from October 1997 to December of 2011. His father Kim Il-Sung had led the new communist state since 1948. I wrote this of 'The Great Leader' in that same post.... "(He) was raised in a Presbyterian home and his maternal grandfather is said to have been a Presbyterian minister. He was once photographed warmly greeting Billy Graham and invited him twice to speak in North Korea! He died of a heart attack in 1994...the year of Reverend Graham's second visit. Billy's wife Ruth attended school in Pyongyang in the 1930s as her father was a missionary surgeon in China for 25 years...she visited North Korea in 1997.  According to Reverend Graham, Kim Il Sung told him that his mother used to take him to church and tell him Bible stories. Communism destroyed North Korea and it destroyed this family also......the world has gone cold and dark.  There is a cacophony of silence in this maddening world....almost as the calm that precedes the storm."
            The heart goes out to the general populace of the North Korean people who are kept in the dark.....away from the light of Jesus Christ.....the Light of the World. The heart also goes out to the South Korean people who are no better off than we are in navigating a raging sea of social gospels and waves of crossless Christianity. To not recognize the downward spiral of humanity at this time is more than unfortunate for we cannot pray as we should. This is part of why the Trump ascendancy is meaningless. It does nothing more than support the crossless Christianity that inhibits our prayers....and it tightens the spiral of our demise by bolstering our own self-dependency.....away from humbling ourselves before our Creator....our only Sustainer.....and our Judge.

Where Is Our Trust Centered?

The following post is from February of 2016 shortly after the passing of Antonin Scalia:

         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."       

"....Inherit The Wind"

"He who troubles his own house will inherit the wind." (Proverbs 11:29) Eminent eighteenth century English Baptist theologian, pastor and scholar John Gill described this verse thusly...."He that troubleth his own house....his family, his wife, and children, and servants, by being bitter to the one, and by provoking the others to wrath, and continually giving out menacing words to the rest; or through idleness, not providing for his family; or through an over worldy spirit, pushing on business, and hurrying it beyond measure.....such an one.....shall inherit the wind." This describes two competing segments in the American public square today. Many are trying to tear the country apart at the seams to further their illicit agenda, while others just want money money money enough to win as many of those in the middle over to their side to further their careless agenda.

         The following post is from the first week in December. Nothing....not looming war with a nuclear communist dictator....not the prospect of a coming military draft (think about what that draft will be like folks!).....not the insane greed on the stock exchange floor....not war like none before it in the Middle East....not a society that essentially has lost its ability to discern the most blatant of conspiracies.....not even a globalist coup on the United States....nothing can match the excitement of the college football playoffs.....or dent the determination of losing of few pounds to look better in a pair of slacks. Apparently none of these things can wake up the American pulpit either.

          It is heartbreaking. I lived through the assassinations and youth rebellion of the 60s and the chaotic turmoil of Watergate and treachery on our part in the last days of South Vietnam. There was a respite with Ronald Reagan and a legitimate revival in America of which I was a part of in the 80s. I, along with half of my fellow Americans, watched as Bill and Hillary Clinton weakened the foundations of America and then we watched the towers fall on that day. We saw the American military at its best and then the American public at its worst as it hindered their efforts for mere political pottage. We were civilized as we sat through Barack Hussein Obama's piece by piece dismantling of our defenses. And now we are in total collapse.
          We elected a president but the other side, it now being their turn to sit on the sidelines, are not civilized. Enemies are all around us but the mind of the opposition party, and even some of the party in power, would rather die by suicide then accept any responsibility in what they have done. As for us, those of us who could be considered somewhat of a remnant of America's past, we haven't lost our mind yet but we have precious little wisdom to resort to.
          The stock market climbed 255 points higher today....which is near insanity considering the turmoil that is everywhere....and which we are not only a part of but celebrate it as proof of our strength and self-autonomy. Two years ago we were proud and defiant...with a hint of humility....but that all proved a chimera as we gave up our principles while celebrating our great victory. Is there an area of our society that has not collapsed? The earth is quaking and bellowing while we fixate on a non-existent global warming threat. If a young person has any intellectual motivation to learn truth, the university will sap it right out of them. Our historical record being recorded right now is nothing but a cheap tabloid.....even our obituary being written pulp fiction. Children have to watch this. May God have mercy on us for subjecting them to it.
           God warned us for a half century. He was patient and long-suffering but we laughed and called his patience impotence....his long-suffering weakness. We would not turn to Him. His evangelist to us, Billy Graham, struggles with his vision and hearing in his 100th year, but we are totally blind and deaf to an apocalyptic vision in front of us and a demonic cacophony of threats from every side.
           A winnowing may be coming to the church in the form of a delusion. The searing breath of the Holy Spirit leaving only those who trust only in the Lord Jesus Christ and pant as a deer for water at His return.
                 

This One Book Could Undo Eight To Twenty Years Of Progressive Miseduation

          Conservatives are split on the single issues that happen to be most important to them. Some, like myself, want honesty, integrity and a reverence of God in their leaders. Some want a wall...plain and simple. Some want tax reform or the repeal and replacing of Obamacare....and many want their Second Amendment rights protected at all costs. As I see it we elected a man who said that he wanted a wall...that real tax reform was needed....that Obamacare would be repealed and replaced....and that second amendment rights would be protected but who has shown that he doesn't really care about any of those things.....if he can get them fine....if not....he has a totally different agenda to work on.
          So what do we do....just put all of our chips on the 2018 primaries? Folks....think about this for a few moments....the NRA endorsed Luther Strange in Alabama. It ignored the rest of us.....for one lousy vote.....as if you can really trust these people in our Congress anyway. They're politicians.....and they got a mighty lucrative job.....we have two strikes against us before we even come up to bat!
          Hillary Rodham Clinton was sent packing because of the power of you....the voters.....and because of those in various media professions such as conservative talk radio.....and also because of the few in Congress who actually deserve the courtesy title The Honorable Congressperson so-and-so. Donald Trump applied for the position he now has....we gave it to him. Some of us have got what we want.....so they say to the rest of us....see ya later bye. That leaves those of us who are left.....and what that number is-we will find out.....and Donald Trump will find out.....but we still don't have a unifying issue....an issue that no wall or tax relief or health care or gun rights will trump....but there is indeed just such a unifying issue.
           If you knew what Communism is.....then you would recognize that unifying issue....for Communism not only effects all of the other concerns.....it caused all the other concerns! You don't know what it is because communist infiltration of our education system.....primarily through John Dewey....has not only ignored the murderous history and hateful and lying ideology of communism....but it purposely neutralized it.
           'No borders' is communist inspired....the progressive tax is communist inspired....abortion is communist inspired....gun confiscation is communist DNA.....racial strife is their handiwork....taking away your rights-your property-and your purpose as a parent.....all of these things and more are straight out of the rancid spewing of the mind of Karl Marx. The design was pecked out in the morbidity of Lenin's hate. The methods emanate from Stalin's murderous torture chambers, firing squads and infernal Comintern.....and the decay of our culture was but a communist detour through the orgiastic nature of our fallen state.
           Our only hope is in mercy extended by God. Therefore Communism must at all costs destroy faith in God. Everything else is subservient to that objective! Read this one book....and in your case....eight to twenty years of Progressive education will prove to have been worthless to Communism that inspired Progressive education!

THE POLITICALLY INCORRECT GUIDE TO COMMUNISM......by PAUL KENGOR

Cromwell.....Oliver And Thomas

         The English Civil War was not going well until they put Cromwell in charge......Oliver.....not Thomas.....then the Roundheads went on to win. The king was beheaded on charges of treason and a commonwealth and parliamentary government was formed as a republic.  I wrote the following about a year ago...."England flourished under Cromwell's rule but he died of natural causes only five years into his Protectorate. With this powerful man gone and not even a near-equal to replace him, Charles Stuart's son victoriously returned to London and in 1660 became King Charles II in what was called the Restoration. Oh, there was a parliament at this time also... it was sometimes called the Pensioner Parliament because generous pensions were handed out to those who helped Charles II become king.
         The great plague of London followed in 1665 and the great fire of London the year after that. England then lost a naval battle to the Dutch.  The people were divided between the strictly religious of the Cromwell era and the sporting minded Loyalists in power. Is this beginning to sound strangely familiar to you?"       
         Wikipedia describes the influence of Thomas Cromwell in the reign of Henry VIII this way..."Until the 1950s, historians discounted Cromwell's role, calling him a doctrinaire hack who was little more than the agent of the despotic King Henry VIII, as is borne out by the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica, when it says, 'his power has been overrated.' Geoffrey Elton, however, featured him as the central figure in the Tudor revolution in government in The Tudor Revolution (1953). Elton portrayed Cromwell as the presiding genius, much more so than the king, handling the break with Rome and creating the laws and administrative procedures that reshaped post-Reformation England. Elton wrote that Cromwell had been responsible for translating royal supremacy into parliamentary terms, creating powerful new organs of government to take charge of Church lands, and largely removing the medieval features of central government." Thomas Cromwell...was beheaded...." The king later expressed regret at the loss of his chief mentor." 
           How similar to today are the intrigues.....the Royalists have returned.....only we are in need of a reformation and an awakening....not a civil war. We had our Cromwell....a little bit of Oliver and a lot of Thomas....in Steve Bannon.....who has alluded to the similarity to Thomas himself. One thing is certain......God's judgments are upon us....increasing in intensity!    
           I also wrote roughly the same time as my previous quote....."When you own the gavels you rule the people and when you own the media you own their minds. This past election cycle was actually won by those with principles but the establishment has the gavels and the media.
          We have something else.....those of us dismissed as religious purists....we have the sure hope of our salvation and the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in great power and glory! We'll do our best with governments and justice while we are here, meager as our efforts may be, but there will be a day when righteous rule covers this earth, and He with the gavel will be the purest of the pure purists!"
                  

All Is Lost.....Or Is It

           The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven.....should heaven really exist. In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved.....all given because of faith, faith alone....in the One who took our sins to a tree on Calvary. If my words seem overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not literally captivate you as God's very Word to you, you must find out why!

          The following post is political and temporal yes, but only in as much as we are citizens of a nation who God blessed for a purpose, which may very well have completed its course.

All Is Lost....Or Is it.....January 2013:

          It was heroic at times and trying at times but always set apart be a common creed....life as an American in these United States of America. God blessed this endeavor from the beginning as pilgrims left their homelands where tyranny had enveloped even the church, and they saw this new land of America as a new beginning for them and an extension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the new world. The long distance from the heavy hand of the king of England encouraged them to see beyond being merely a colony or an extension of England to being a nation unto themselves.

          Liberty is a powerful force, and freedom empowers one to reach beyond what would otherwise be available. In the mid-eighteenth century, after the First Great Awakening, the Gospel began to wane as great political minds filled the  void and and a secular government.....that nonetheless proclaimed its dependence upon God.....came forth. Economic growth followed as the frontier was conquered but we faced an enormous stumbling block, the separation of two peoples in two different geographic areas over the issues of state's rights and slavery. God's heavy hand of judgment came upon a nation that had forgotten who had bestowed upon it its blessings. We turned to Him momentarily but a brand new frontier of industrial growth drew us away again only this time our educational institutions followed. An already weakened church was at the time under full scale attack from European theological liberalism. God's judgments now began to come upon the entire world in wars and economic collapse. We retained the sense of being American, of being free and of having liberty and defending the liberties of others while the Gospel went throughout the world.....and then we hit our peak.

            We were the most powerful nation on this earth both economically and militarily. We had a creed that bound us together as Americans. We had heroes and causes and confidence. There's a scene in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One where a girl asks the young Brando what he was rebelling against. His answer was "What do you got?". This became the hidden mantra of the 60s generation....my generation. Everything was available to us and little of it was good. America found itself in smaller wars, trying to do what it had done before the mantle was gone. We were then a lost generation when a former 'B' actor in Hollywood revived the memory of that which was good in us but the rebellious generation of the 60s had produced our college professors and they in turn trained our media, the source of most information and news. Our creed that once bound us together was being hacked away at. We were not not only ignoring our heritage, we were attacking it, ashamed of it. Old heroes are old news. Heroes today are created for a purpose irrespective of what they might have done....good or bad. We were no longer "one" as a people but groups, each one out only for themselves.

           God had watched all of this. The Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical which ultimately became the Karl Rove evangelical. (and today is the make America great again evangelical) Our pulpits, no longer capable of preaching Christ, preached whatever they thought would bring people in. The Democrat Party fell first, taken over by Progressives and then Communists. The Republican Party fell next, taken over by political machinery without a soul. Our country essentially lies in ruins, the demolition notice just hasn't been served. Yet most of the people party on, but that's not unusual, for our history is replete with empires that fell while its people were oblivious to its nearing demise.

           All is lost! Or is it? From the vantage point of observation and reality it is. Common sense and truth are utterly impotent in the postmodern mind. The blessings of capitalism became the god of capitalism and then a scourge of globalization. Our culture is in shambles. We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. God's hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done....and who we have become....a people who have forsaken their God. Should God open our eyes and revive us, there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening.

          This is our hope. It always has been our hope. Apparently we have to reach bottom to see this and we are not there yet. May God have mercy upon us once again and do so entirely for His glory alone.