Read....And Maybe Weep

Compare if you will the attitude of those who signed the following document to those who lead us today:

Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day

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

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

Confessions Of A Conservative Radio Talk Show Junkie

           I love radio.....always have.....words with no images. The broadcast history of radio is complicated but Pittsburgh station KDKA's broadcast of the national elections on November 2, 1920 stands out. KDKA set up shop that evening in a shack with some transmitters and antennas on the roof of one of the Westinghouse Electric buildings on the historical Turtle Creek/East Pittsburgh site. It's quite possible that both of my grandfathers were laboring in their jobs on that evening in that building.
           Fast-forward to the 1990s and the Democrat Party led by the Clintons and Al Gore were bent on literally destroying America's heritage. Later on Barack Obama would say on October 30, 2008 that "We are five days away from fundamentally transforming the United States of America." Conservative America's main voice in opposition to this Progressive/Communist revolution was in Rush Limbaugh....and it was a powerful voice! George W. Bush then eked out an election victory to stop Al Gore. In the aftermath of 9/11 Sean Hannity took the lead in defending our troops that were defending us....and this against much home-grown opposition....and it was yeoman's work indeed! Levin...Beck...Savage....and a host of others followed as President Obama began the transformation process.
           Then along came Donald Trump. Where would we be had he not appeared? Well...it's hard to say. Ted Cruz may have won the nomination but would he have won the general election? We will never know but we do know this....had he or some other conservative candidate become the 45th president then the economy would have taken off as it has under President Trump....maybe not quite as fast because Trump does have that super-salesman persona....but regulations would have been eased and the corporate tax rate would have been slashed and the Iran deal would have been torn up. We would have had two new conservative Supreme Court justices....maybe even better ones.
            What's important is that the Clinton machine was stopped. I posted back then that conservative talk radio was going to have to decide where to go and what to do now. My hope....since blown to smithereens....was that they would hold fast to conservative ideals and bring God and humility back into the equation. President Trump came under immediate attack....much of it in my opinion because of his own bad personal decisions and extreme narcissism of which his supporters utterly refused to hold him accountable for....thereby giving him no good counsel. With friends like these...who needs enemies? Talk radio panicked....unfortunately once again led by Rush Limbaugh. All they had to do was hold the President to account on his promises....criticize his slide back into the swamp that he claimed to come in to drain....and therefore....possibly....force him to act like a statesman which would have deprived the Progressives of much of their political ammunition....had they done this then the chaos over the past year and a half might have only been outside of the White House and not within it....but instead they covered up the gross miscues and backslidings of the President....let the towering image of Donald Trump dictate every move that they made.....and in the process let their listeners down who trusted in them to be defenders of truth over political expediency.
            I now have a hard time listening to either Limbaugh or Hannity or Levin or Breitbart for more than a few minutes without having to turn the volume down for a while.....or off....and taking a few deep breaths upon listening to a once great source of information turned belly up. They present one side of President Trump's troubles adequately....but they either ignore or even distort the other side. This is not what conservatives bargained for when our support essentially built conservative talk radio. Alas most of the listening audience must not feel the same way but I will say this.....they may listen in....but they are only a shell of what they once were. There is no more rigorous thinking....only rote memorization on talking points....no more critical analysis.....and no more passion for truth....only glazed eyes upon the amulet oscillating in front of them in the form or tweets.

Note: I caught the last fifteen minutes of Breitbart's nine to midnight radio program. I have legitimate differences with co-host Rebecca Mansour in her admiration for President Trump....but I understand and respect how she came to those opinions. In this short segment that I listened to she stated the obvious on something that was not flattering to Donald Trump. Her co-host immediately took issue with her....this being the standard conservative talk radio fare of today. There was a few seconds of tension but her honesty was a breath of fresh air. I'll go so far as to say it was exhilarating. This is but an example of what is needed to bring the audience back into the conversation.

How Can One But Remind Again And Again

            President Trump was presented with a Bible that more than 100 evangelical ministers signed....an inscription inside read...."History will record the greatness that you have brought for generations." This was at a dinner for evangelical leaders in the State Dining Room of the White House. Are you a Christian....and are you crying after reading that....or at least pleading with God to have mercy upon us? Paula White led the group in prayer. Wild horses could not have dragged me to that dinner. Have we Christians lost all discernment....or just 90%?
          After greeting the group.....the President began with...."Today, we reached the highest level in the history of the stock market. We broke 26,000"....there was applause. He then continued doing what he does literally all the time....listing his accomplishments one by one.....and the evangelical leaders just sat there clapping. President Trump has talked us into believing that successful politics has atoned for our sins as a nation! He also took credit for ending the attacks on communities of faith. He alluded here to the Johnson Amendment. Folks...the Johnson Amendment still stands.....our Congress and President had a chance to end it with the omnibus bill but choose not to. President Trump has tried before to sneak this past us. He issued orders....but the amendment still stands.
           I had been out of town for a few days.....and as I always do when staying at an inn.....I sampled cable television network news.....for I do not....nor ever have....had it in our home. We got back to the room just in time to see a Fox news host interview a famous evangelical pastor on the White House dinner that he attended. I have no idea who the Fox news host is......10 PM....or even what her name is.  She actually asked him some tough questions about President Trump which the famous evangelical leader promptly avoided answering. Folks....secular news people understand what we Christians seem not to understand.....that it is very odd for President Trump to be so applauded by preachers of the gospel of Jesus Christ!
           The following post is a month old. This isn't a trick question......we are aware that before destruction comes.....just before our Lord....our Savior....and our King returns in power and glory and judgment.....that everyone will be saying....."Peace and Security"....or are we?

Note: You can google this transcript very easily. I recommend that you also read some of the articles from 'the enemy of the people' on the dinner....or you can just rely on Rush....and go back to sleep.

How Can One Remind But Again And Again?

            With a beautiful grandson to laugh with and thank God for....they live four hours away....I somehow found time to sneak the warning in on the perilous days in which we live. I always do. I feel that I should remind our son again and again. Not that he doesn't know it but it is of such importance that it's better to be safe than sorry by remaining vigilant.
           They are words that one could easily pass over but they are part of the very Word of God and therefore never to be glossed over. Here they are....2 Peter 1:12, 13...."Therefore, I will always be ready to remind you of these things, even though you already know them, and have been established in the truth being present in you. I consider it right, as long as I am in this earthly dwelling, to stir you up by way of reminder." Peter knew that he was nearing the end of his life.....yet he felt it necessary to remind again and again.....the more important words of truth from God's Word.
            I never tried or even hoped that some readers to these posts would come back day after day as if they were some famous pundit's podcast. I have always been more concerned with how many people hear some of these warnings at least once.....and yes maybe a few more times than that.
             Among those warnings that appear most often are these. In what was nothing short of miraculous, God in 1948 established Israel as a nation unto itself once again. He in effect told us in this that we are not looking at centuries before His return but rather decades at the most. We ourselves began to unravel in November of 1963 but slowly coinciding with the coming decade of violence and rejection of God came the reaffirmation that one had to be....born again....to be a Christian. A flash flood of conversions gave America one last breath of life before the spiral began. I was swept along in that flood. We even had the last president of whom we could at least implicitly trust in Ronald Reagan.....we may never have another one.
             God began a long slow process of warning us that we as a nation......and the world....were going to be judged. We in America underwent judgments one after another in quick succession....assassinations....abortions.....riots.....terrorism.....a communist president....a final blitzkrieg against God's commandment against homosexuality....and now in effect a people that bears little to no resemblance of its former self.....yet these judgments did not even phase us.....in fact we now have a president who boldly proclaimed to the nation that there has...."Never been a better time to start living the American dream."
            Even though God's Word tells us that when they say "peace and security" that "sudden destruction" will come upon them....even though this is very clear.....we are right now celebrating just that....the coming...."peace and security!" We actually think that God gave us Donald Trump to make America great again. We don't care at all what he is like. We have an excuse for everything that he does. All we have to do is compare him to Barack Obama....a former judgment from God. Our economy looks good right now.....and we are totally oblivious that this could turn 180 degrees in one single day!
            I have lived sixty-eight years and some odd months. I was able to partake in the America of our heritage.....before that America succumbed to the same temptations that ancient Israel succumbed to before they were judged by God. I remember that heritage....and weep at what we have replaced it with. I have given nothing to stop the downward spiral....in fact I added to it. I am but one person....one of many....who God for some unknown reason had mercy upon. Even my warnings are tinged with pride and arrogance....but I continue to warn....for if Jesus felt it to our benefit to warn us....and if Peter warned us....and Paul warned us....and John warned us....and Christians ministers such as Billy Graham.....just to name one.....of whom I have no right to even stand beside....if they felt....and feel it necessary to warn those that God gave them to minister to.....then we all have no choice but to at least warn our neighbors and friends....which in reality is all that these posts are....words to neighbors and hopefully friends....wherever they may live!
       

Which Agenda Are You Running On?

          In my 50 years of following politics....from being a passionate youth for Bobby Kennedy in 1968 ....right up until today....I had never witnessed anything like the Donald Trump phenomenon. It was a perfect storm as 'build the wall' people mixed with 'tax reform' people....and 'repeal and replace'.....'stop the Obama/Clinton cabal'.....'killer national debt'....'over-regulated'.....'give our military a chance on the battlefield'.....'anti-abortion'....'pro-family'.....and 'Christian' people....as all these groups coalesced in 2016!
          We all know what has transpired in the last 18 months. We're back in a situation where we think that we need yet another come from behind election victory.....but the passion is not the same.  Conservative radio talk show hosts are yelling at us every day to get motivated.....some sounding just like a basic training drill sergeant to a bunch of raw knuckleheaded recruits. They're searching for answers.....answers that are right under their nose. The 'build the wall' people....and 'tax reform' people.....and most of the other groups....have been sapped of their energy by the real Donald Trump.
          To these radio talk show hosts....you can talk until you are blue in the face....President Trump has proven that he has no real passions that do not directly reflect upon him. He can shout "build the wall" at this pep rallies as loud as he wants but it won't work. I don't see how he can even mention the $21 trillion debt....or Obamacare.....or the swamp. If we are promised anything.....get it all in writing....and read it all....for these folks in Washington are famous for "read the small print" excuses. And to all the Republican candidates running for reelection on Donald Trump's agenda.....which agenda would that be.....the one that he ran on in 2016....or the slimmed down 'profits & power' one that he replaced it with?
           Some of the special interest groups that had coalesced in 2016 are as passionate as ever......the 401k people for example.....but the thrill is gone with Donald Trump for many. His vengeful spirit is disturbing. For every lie to a FISA court judge that we are reminded of to get us moving....there are hundreds little lies and a few whoppers to us from the President to take that wind out of our sails.
          We've all heard the phrase...."God works in mysterious ways." That's really not a correct statement....for God's Word is perspicuous in that the Gospel is understandable to anyone who truly desires to know....(it does not take a theologian to understand Calvary....an empty tomb....and a command to repent and believe)....and God's dealings with both faithful and rebellious people and peoples are very clearly delineated in His Word.....but in a way it is a accurate statement because there are times that just when we think that all is lost....God does work in mysterious ways....but even here never against His character or prophetic word.
          President Trump has shown himself to be unreliable at best....deeply troubled at worst.  If we utterly refuse to admit this....out of pride....then yes....all is lost....but if we acknowledge his failures....and our failures in relying on princes instead of God.....then God may give us more than what we even wanted at first.....more than that mess of pottage called 'make America great again'.....He may give us....(that part of America that does not have a seared conscience)....an Awakening.....and mercies and grace and wisdom to deal with the very difficult days ahead that we have brought upon ourselves.

"A Higher Price..."

           President Trump continues to generate controversy just about every day....only this time it was at one of his pep rallies that are usually bland as to anything new. I've watched just about all the rallies....usually while doing something else to lessen the ache of seeing conservatives so easily taken in.....but I could only last a few minutes with the West Virginia rally.....consequently I missed it.
           Israelis didn't miss it.....here's what the President said...."And you know what, in the negotiations Israel will have to pay a higher price because they won a very big thing, but I took it off the table"....he continued on the Palestinians...."(they) could never get past past the fact of Jerusalem becoming the capital, but they will get something very good next because it's their turn."
           Apparently John Bolton was in Jerusalem at the time......and he must have been pulling his hair out. All the conservative radio talk shows here were fixed on defending President Trump in the Manafort/Cohen mess but Israel was up in arms over these comments. Bolton gave an impromptu explanation.....I didn't even read it because he's winging it. Meanwhile the administration feebly explained it away in that a "higher price" did not necessarily mean a 'high price."
          I've written a few times on this issue. Christians....taken in as usual by President Trump.....think that the Jerusalem embassy move was a wonderful....even a Biblical thing....it wasn't....it was a bad move. Jerusalem will always be Jerusalem to God. A nation's capital is a relatively new phenomenon. This was a purely political move.....President Trump needed the conservative points....his biggest financial benefactor wanted it....and Israel wanted it....but now President Trump is trying to call in some chips.....typical Trump!
          Folks this is serious stuff. Israel is as much in rebellion against God as we are....but suffer as the Jews have over the millenia for their rebellion....God has made it very clear in His Word.....just treat them fairly....don't celebrate their misfortunes....and don't take advantage of their misfortunes.
         America....thanks to President Truman....stood solidly by the new state of Israel. We became allies with them.....and until President Obama we kept up our part of the deal. Israel is a sovereign state just as any other sovereign state....no more no less....but our promises to them are not the same as with any other sovereign state....for God had never totally abandoned them. God keeps all of His covenants....(and the state of Israel is part of that)....and we Christians should be very thankful for that....for He keeps us in the palm of His hand in spite of our dalliances with the world.
         A few years ago a remarkable Christian book came out by a New York messianic rabbi named Jonathon Cahn. It was called The Paradigm....and I wrote a review on it back then. Rabbi Cahn's thesis is that Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump followed....almost to a tee....the patterns in the Bible of Queen Jezebel and Jehu. A short summary would be that Jezebel was wicked....but a strong Jehu....a reformer....fed up with the disaster that Israel had become...did away with the wicked Jezebel and started to get rid rid of Baal worship....and this was good. Christians therefore.....according to this analysis....identified Donald Trump as America's Jehu. This is the downside of the book.....for it left us open to being led astray.
          History cannot tell us much about what happened to Jehu after the fall of Ahab and Jezebel other than this that I've chosen from Wikipedia....."Aside from the Hebrew Scriptures, Jehu appears in Assyrian documents, notably in the Black Obelisk where he is depicted as kissing the ground in front of Shalmaneser III and presenting a gift....According to the Obelisk, Jehu severed his alliances with Phoenicia and Judah, and became subject to Assyria."
          The Bible tells us that Jehu did indeed get rid of Baal worship but he exceeded the commands that God had given to him. His motives were not pure. He continued with worship of the golden calves. We can glean God's ways in Rabbi Cahn's analysis but not use it as a grid for our politics. Donald Trump lacks wisdom and is unstable in many of his ways. He shows absolutely no propensity to learn from his mistakes....and this alone should cause us to seek God's mercy upon us in this very biblical and prophetic time that we live in. 

There Is An Unction

It was last fall sometime. I can't remember what the impetus was....for there are so many. Maybe it was Christians fawning over Donald Trump....a man who cares little about God....maybe it was the latest ridiculous Christian book....maybe it was survey results on the religious views of Americans....whatever it was....I remember just sitting down and pecking out these words....possibly even through tears....pleading God to wake up our pulpits....pleading with any pastor who might read this to start warning his sheep....or let them go to someone who would.....

Oh pastors....there is an unction
         .....if you do not know what it is I cannot explain it to you
         .....but if you have seen it in others then you must go to the Lord and plead for it
         .....for you are a shepherd
         The wolves have returned to the valleys
         .....they prey on the sheep
         .....they have slaughtered whole flocks
         .....the sheep do not fear them
         The streams are poisonous....many of them
         .....drinking from them brings illness
         .....bathing in them causes distempers
         .....even smelling the water sickens
         You surely have read of those shepherds who tended the flocks before you
         .....maybe that is why you desired to be a shepherd
         .....bring back to mind the fear you had of such a great responsibility.....but also
         .....remember His calming hand upon you....when He said He will strengthen you for the task
         Walk the valleys by yourself
         .....listen for the echo that still reverberates in the clefts
         .....look up to the heavens
         .....picture the host of heaven that once sang out in praise to His glories
         Fall on your knees.....call down that unction.....to proclaim His majesties
         .....cry out for the sheep.....for they are God's.....and you are their shepherd
         .....plead for words....for magnificent words....for words with power
         .....He will hear you....not for your sake....and not for the sake of the sheep
         He will give you that unction....that His name will be glorified among the people once again
         .....but you must seek it.....you must pant for it
         .....the wolves will then know you....and circle you....they are ignoring you now
         .....but the sheep will follow you....for they will recognize the voice of the Good Shepherd
         

Whose Words Would More Accurately Reflect The Bible?

The following post is from last month:
   
           Is Donald Trump a false prophet....a false prophet such as both the Old and New Testaments speak of? Billy Graham and other very sound men of God have and had warned America for many decades that if America does not turn to God's then judgment is coming. Donald Trump has said consistently that America's best times are ahead of it....now that he is in charge.....and that there has never been a better time to be young and an American. One would think that one of these two would have to be a false prophet. Where are our pulpits on these arrogant statements?
           Donald Trump presents himself as some kind of prophet. We have to either laugh it off or take it seriously. He presents himself as someone who is telling us where this nation is going. He's not telling us what others are saying....he's not even telling us what could happen....he's telling us what he is going to do. Others may call it positive-thinking or even politics but when it captures the nation's attention....or at least half of the nation's attention....and gives that half its hope....then he is in some very real sense a functioning prophet!
           God said concerning the Edomites in Malachi 1:4...."They may build, but I will tear down" and again in the 127th Psalm to those in Jerusalem or anyone who builds...."Unless the LORD build the house, they labor in vain who build; unless the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain." How many times has Donald Trump said ....both as candidate and president.....We will make America great again.....hundreds of times?
           Christians have chosen Donald Trump as some sort of messiah but Jesus Himself said in Matthew 24.....that chapter that is directed to those on earth when He returns....."False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders in order to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." Peter said of them...."and in their greed they will exploit you with false words." Is there not a fair amount of greed in what we call....winning? Yes we want people working but we have gone way beyond that....we want the money China is taking from us....all of it....and that the EU has that is ours....and NATO. We are constantly told how wonderful this economy is yet we want every dollar that's ours! That's just fair! The Apostle John told us to..."test the spirits to see whether they are from God" yet we utterly refuse to test the motives or methods of Donald Trump. Does he not flatter us by telling us how smart we are....and how great we are? Where are our pulpits on this?
            It seems as if most of the church in America.....in either faddish doctrines or in an unrecognizable weakened and ineffective gospel.....has been the fulfillment of Paul's words to Timothy in his own 'pulpit'..."the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching, but having itching ears will accumulate for themselves teachers to suit their passions." He then told Timothy to be sober-minded. Would you call these constant pep rallies and outrageous tweets meant to inflame being sober-minded?
            Whether Donald Trump proves to be a false prophet or not....we are not helping him....we are at the very least indulging him in his fantasy that he is a statesman. At a rally in Pittsburgh a few months ago he said concerning the slogan Make America Great Again...."I can't say that (now) because I already did that!" Did any Christians upon hearing this in that airport hanger think back to Nebuchadnezzar's...."is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" What is Mar-a-Lago if not a royal residence.....what is the purpose of the gilded Trump Tower if not to display glory and majesty?
             Not only has America not shown any signs of humbling itself before God....it has actually moved further away since the 2016 election. At first we just wanted to survive but now we want riches....and we will overlook anything and everything that Donald Trump has done or is doing now to give him the opportunity to get us those riches. We once just wanted the Clinton/Obama regimes away from our White House....we got that.....by prayer and a lot of hard work....but now we want more.....we want glory. We're not on our knees anymore. Our pulpits show no signs of waking up. So whose words more accurately reflect the Word of God....those of Billy Graham and others like him....or Donald Trump's? We may build...but God will tear down.

Pastors...why are you not warning....or even informing your people? Is it because you trust in God so much? Then why do you not trust in His warnings?

The following was first posted last year:

           The seventh chapter of Jeremiah begins with this: The word that came to Jeremiah from the LORD, saying "Stand in the gate of the LORD's house, and proclaim there this word, and say, 'Hear the word of the LORD, all you of Judah who enter in at these gates to worship the LORD!' " Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel: "Amend your ways and your doings, and I will cause you to dwell in this place, Do not trust in these lying words, saying 'The temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD are these.'

           John MacArthur called it a "self-deluding slogan." R. C. Sproul made mention that the phrase, repeated three times, certainly should call our attention to its importance. God gave Jeremiah the words to warn the people of Judah, for they thought, as MacArthur put it, that "the Lord would never bring calamity on his own temple." 

           Thanks to Donald Trump and our own lack of vigilance to say the very least.....we have constructed our very own....the temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD....for it is....God Bless America.....God Bless America....God Bless America.....or worse yet.....USA....USA....USA!

        "....When you offer blind animals in sacrifice, is that not evil? And when you offer those that are lame or sick, is that not evil? Present that to your governor, will he accept you or show you favor? says the LORD of hosts. And now entreat the favor of God, that he may be gracious to us. With such a gift from your hand, will he show favor to any of you? says the LORD of hosts. Oh that there were one among you who would shut the doors, that you might not kindle fire on my altar in vain....I have no pleasure in you, says the LORD of hosts, and I will not accept an offering from your hand." (Malachi 1:8,10)

          

Dear Rush....

Dear Rush....The following was a post from March of 2014.....when we were united against politicians who just used us.....flattered us....then lied....and come election time would tell us that this was the most important election in history....and then the cycle would begin again. It's just a little reminder to you....of the way we were....that we wanted what was right....and not what politicians told us that we just had to have. I do not know how many of us we are right now....it may be a relatively insignificant number ....but I do know this....that number can only go up....because every day more conservatives find out that candidate Trump was a figment of his own imagination. We are united with you today in wanting America to protect our Constitution and defend America against enemies from within and from without....but you want to do it through the shady dealings of Donald Trump's mind....some bullying....a lot of friendly deception....and a fair amount of just plain greed.....we won't go there....we will never go there.

The Republican Party And Its Discontents....March 2014
         
             .......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.

House Of Trump....

August 17, 2018:         
         
            We did not know enough about Donald Trump during the primaries to make a wise decision. We knew the celebrity and that was it....he builds big gold and marble ornamented towers in New York City.....he owned a lot of gambling casinos.....he had a couple of beautiful and glamorous wives.....he likes to brag about himself.....and he had a very popular reality show on television for many years. We hadn't spent the last few decades watching Oprah....reading supermarket tabloids....or going to sleep with late night television on at the foot of bed.....so how were we supposed to know who this man has been his whole life? It's humbling today in that Progressives....who can't put more than two sentences together without abandoning logic or common sense.....know more about Donald Trump than we do!
            Conservative talk radio had us mustered....trained....and ready for battle....but Ted Cruz....(who I supported)....and the other Republican candidates....just seemed to be sitting there waiting for orders....so the orders finally came.....'Go Home....you're putting us to sleep!' Donald Trump meanwhile rushed to the front of the regiments......riding up and down the lines....waving his sword.....and once again you could not hold us back. He yelled...."Charge!".....and the rest was history.
            The Progressives led by Hillary were bringing it on but we.....led by our captains of horse....conservative talk radio....went right through their lines like a hot knife through butter. The battle was won and winter was setting in so both sides retreated. There had been plenty of biographies out there on Donald Trump during the primaries but they were typical celebrity bios and we didn't have time to read anything anyway. Candidate Trump was erratic but this was chalked up to the fog of war....but it never subsided after the big win. After he brought Ivanka the Terrible and her consort Jared into the Oval Office it was finally time to do that reading....but the snows thawed early and we were engaged once again as the Progressives mounted a new offensive led by late night talk show hosts....SNL and CNN.
            Our captains of horse were diverted by a new threat.....a special counsel looking into Russia's involvement in Donald Trump's victory. They charged again....only this time it wasn't against Hillary.....someone that they knew.....but something that they were unfamiliar with.....why in the world would Putin want Donald Trump as our President? This was my original question also....but the new books began to come out.....in-depth studies on who Donald Trump really was.....and what his relationship with Russia had been for the past four decades. I read the books.....a lot of them....apparently conservative radio talk show hosts had not the time nor inclination to do so.
            We knew that Donald Trump was a bit racy but didn't know that he was raunchy. We had an idea on the art of the deal but no idea on just how soulless that art can be. The clues were there that he was mean and vengeful but we passed on them. We knew that Donald Trump lost a lot of his fortune at one time.... and also knew that he built it back up....but had absolutely no idea that post-Soviet Russian money played a part in that. We didn't know these details.
           Donald Trump had purposely and effectively turned us against any information from anyone outside of his control. Our captains of horse were sent into hand-to-hand combat just to keep them out of the way....and that is where we are at today. Folks....we need to read....our captains of horse need to read....that used to be our forte!

Two highly recommended books on the issue of Russia are:

Trump/Russia...A Definitive History....by Seth Hettena....and
House Of Trump...House of Putin....by Craig Unger

Note: House Of Trump...House Of Putin is #5 in its first week on the NYT best seller list!

MAGA And Donald Trump Are...."Broken Cisterns"

           "For my people have committed two evils:
            They have forsaken Me,
            The fountain of living waters,
            To hew for themselves cisterns,
            Broken cisterns,
            That can hold no water."

         That's from the second chapter of Jeremiah. There's 52 chapters in Jeremiah.....66 in Isaiah. Do you think that God gave these books and the rest of the prophets only to Judah and Israel....that for us they are only something where we might glean some good history and maybe an idea or two? We in America might want to look at England to see how a once honorable and mighty nation can fall without a whimper? The church in England.....not the Church of England but almost the entire church in England collapsed after many warnings....given over many years at the end of the 19th century....by men such as Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle....and the nation followed afterwards.
          These books....and all of the Old Testament.....are every bit as much for us as they were for Jerusalem and Judah and Israel. How do I know this? We've forsaken God.....and we have hewn for ourselves broken cisterns. "Make America Great Again' is a broken cistern. This 2nd chapter of Jeremiah is but one chapter of many chapters from numerous books that God gave to us to read....and thereby to live....and sometimes to prepare for judgments about to take place. Jeremiah himself follows with 36 similar chapters to this! When is the last time that you read Micah....or Malachi.... or Zechariah....or any of the prophets? We have no excuse! The Bible is probably ten feet or so away from where the readers of these posts sit.
           We are no different than God's people in that day. Yet we consider ourselves so advanced....as they probably did! Our brains function the same way....we have the same evil desires....we think that we can put God somewhere that He cannot see us as they did....and guess what.....they thought that God wasn't angry with them either!
         So where does Jeremiah take us in just the rest of chapter two? (and folks this is no special chapter concerning us in America.....it's just the chapter that I happened to be reading as I started back into Jeremiah again....I could have been reading any of the other prophets and written this post) Well God said that in their time of trouble....Judah's time of trouble in this case....that they will cry out to Him to "Arise and save us".....but God would say to them......"But where are your gods that you have  made for yourself.....for the Lord has rejected those in whom you trust, and you shall not prosper with them."
           Friends....open these books with the genuine desire to hear what God is saying to us....and you will see just how far we have fallen....and you might even weep like Jeremiah...in fact you haven't really read Jeremiah unless you have wept....but you may also see something else that will astonish you. You thought that God was great and powerful? Think again....the god you thought so great....(in far too many cases in America)....was our own man-fashioned god.....not so weak that he can't save us when we die....which we think is too far ahead to even really worry about....but then again not so strong that He might really mean what He said to Judah and Israel.

Cause For Concern

           So let's go over this again....Paul Manafort was recruited by a political party in the Ukraine because of his expertise in taking up the case of despots and oppressors....he was recruited to help the Ukraine's pro-Putin candidate....pro-Putin candidate....and Manafort had been in business as a lobbyist with longtime Donald Trump ally Roger Stone.....but President Trump says....hey....the guy worked for me 100 days and I fired him.....and we believe that to be a fair appraisal of what happened....to top it off....President Trump bashes NATO unmercifully.....which coincidentally Putin despises with a passion......and we conservatives still think that the Mueller investigation is a witch hunt.....and we're supposed to be the smart ones.....and conservative talk radio defends Paul Manafort as if he's Oliver North.....and they're supposed to be the honest ones?

Folks....please consider this latest tweet from our President......"Study the late Joseph McCarthy, because we are now in period with Mueller and his gang that make Joseph McCarthy look like a baby! Rigged Witch Hunt!"

          This reference to 'McCarthyism' is something that Progressives use all the time. So how can our supposed champion use it? The answer is that our President has absolutely no concept whatsoever on what Communism is! I doubt if he knows anything more than the name of the House Committee On Un-American Activities....or even cares about it.....or is aware of how many communists were later proven to have been in our government....or even has a clue on how Communism had infiltrated our society for the purpose of tearing it apart.
           This latest tweet is what must be only one of a thousand little bits of evidence over the past year and seven months that Donald Trump has no ideology....only a plan that is based on bullying and leverage. On his comment on Mueller....how many of those tweets have we heard....a couple hundred....I don't blame him one bit for becoming unhinged with this investigation.....for he was up to his neck in dealings with Russians.
           What is unsettling is that although he is ignorant on history......he is knowledgeable on money....so he certainly knew that tens of billions of dollars were in circulation after the fall of the Soviet Union.....much of it through the Russian Mafiya.....and he went after some of that money through continuous attempts to build in Russia....and when that failed to market his name through Russian investment in his properties....of which much of that investment was for the purpose of money laundering.
            If Robert Mueller has half of the information that is coming out on Donald Trump's business dealing in Russia over many years....and he probably has twice as much....then President Trump does have reason to be concerned.
           Compounding the problem is that candidate Trump entered our sphere.....Americans who were trying to end the Clintonian/Obamian Captivity of America. We feel that we now have to close our eyes as to who Donald Trump may really be....for if we don't do this then we will just enter into a new phase of socialist catastrophe.
           This is the crux of the problem. We relied on a man and not on God....therefore the man cannot be permitted to either fall or fail. The mistake was ours. Two wrongs do not make a right. The rallying cry has been....'let Trump be Trump.' I agree with that....but not for the same reason....we cannot change him....for he has been the same one-dimensional figure for forty years....but we ourselves can try to change....to repent of our original mistake....and to seek God's mercy....and His guidance.

 

Almost Too Wonderful To Comprehend

            When an absolutely brilliant mind....let's say in physics....writes or lectures on their topic.....the average person can to various degrees understand what is being explained....and even be amazed....but unless that subject also happens to be their profession then they cannot fully rejoice in the beauty of the workings of the human mind. For example I can read Einstein's theories....in the more simple books that are out there for us.....and marvel at the complexities discovered.....but cannot fully marvel at the beauty.
            I can read John Locke or Thomas Jefferson's writings....and because I.....and anyone else so interested.....can understand the concepts of freedom and liberty.....I can marvel at the beauty to go along with the logic and reason. I can understand and appreciate Thomas Sowell on economics....for I have somewhat of a background in that.....but I'm still limited because economics is not my life or my profession.
            The life of the Christian should be God's Word....the Bible....but even here time and experience come into play. One doesn't have to have been a Christian for forty years but then again the time span to understand the absolute beauty and precision of Christian truths has to be at least a few years of in-depth study.....where once again in-depth study should be the norm for all of us. It doesn't by any means have to be seminary related but it does have to be reading related.
            Having given these three paragraphs as a preface.....the mind of Presbyterian theologian, scholar, author, teacher, philosopher and pastor....and I can't resist-fellow Pittsburgher....R. C. Sproul ....causes not only amazement.....and is not only understandable.....but can be rejoiced in for the gift and the beauty that God had given to him to bless us.
            R. C. had gone to be with our Lord and Savior in December of last year. I used the present tense in the previous paragraph because he remains with us through his radio and book and tape ministries. Every Christian with the foundation of the Christian faith in place should be able to not only basically understand what R. C. Sproul teaches.....but to bathe in the clear and pristine intellectual waters of God's truth upon a regenerated mind. The beauty of Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior....and as Prophet, Priest and King.....His omniscience and glory and wisdom and love.....and His glorious appearing in the clouds which will dry every tear of His elect....and the sure hope of heaven afterwards....is meant for every Christian!
             The Reverend Billy Graham went to be with our Lord and Savior within the last six months. His gift from God to us was not in doctrinal truth. The beauty was not in the precision that God could give to a human mind....but it was every bit as much a gift....and every bit as beautiful to behold....only it was in the power of the proclamation of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Therefore....The gift given to R. C. Sproul along with the gift given to Billy Graham....working together.....along with countless numbers of other faithful men and women here with us today or from times past.....as it relates to the undeserved forgiveness and salvation of sinners....the Gospel of Jesus Christ....is almost too much to comprehend of the goodness and faithfulness of God....and almost too much joy to take in....but remarkably once again.....God somehow enables us to receieve it all and rejoice.

ligonier.org
billygraham.org

Caught In The Revolution

The following preface is from this past December.....the post following it from August of 2017:

         There are many great paintings that I have never even seen in books....and obviously many pieces of great music that I have never heard.....but not that many in comparison I suppose.....of great films that I haven't seen sometime in my life. How David Lean's Doctor Zhivago escaped me for so many years I don't know, but since reading Helen Rappaport's two recent books Caught In The Revolution and The Romanov Sisters I had this intense desire to see the 1965 Academy Award nominee for Best Picture. It did not disappoint.
          How this film did not stir up Americans to consider their freedoms and build a defense against Communism I don't know....maybe it did for some. Soviet Russia wouldn't permit the publishing of Boris Pasternak's book from which he was awarded the 1958 Nobel Prize for Literature, or would it permit the filming of the movie in Russia. William F. Buckley thought the book a great anti-communism story.....but other anti-communists didn't like it because it didn't actually promote capitalism. The Sound Of Music beat it out for Best Picture but among the five Oscars won were Best Adapted Screenplay, Best Original Score, Best Cinematography and Best Art Direction. The screenplay was perfect and the cinematography (filmed in Spain) wonderful.....even on my tiny television.
           But enough of the film as film. Whether it was Pasternak's book or Rappaport's books or any one of a number of other resources, the evil of the Bolsheviks hovers over the reader. The people had a case against the Tsar but the Bolsheviks used them and then Satan used many of them to support a Bolshevik murderous rampage across all of Russia.
           Why is this important? I don't think that I've ever posted a book or movie review without a message behind it. The message here is that deep within human nature is a special kind of violence and a special kind of deceit that if tapped into produces Lenins and Stalins and Hitlers and Mao Tse Tungs.....and will eventually produce an Antichrist. Radical Islam and school shootings and genocides come from this lake of fire. The stench of that noxious body of fire wafts over America like the smoke from those California fires that continue to burn as I write. There is a whiff of sulfur in many of the protests today....and in politics.....particularly the coup against a sitting president that is in progress. It shows up in anti-Semitism.....it was there on The Night Of Broken Glass in Germany.
            Conservative radio talk shows have been mostly keyed on Russian collusion for a long time, interrupted only by terrorist attacks, North Korea, special elections, Al Franken type of stories and the 153 successes of President Trump as World Net Daily labels them. Globalism is mentioned often....we've had a primer....but Communism has not been delved into to the degree that Americans desperately need it to be.....the reason being......to understand why an attempted coup can even take place in America....and just why our educational system....kindergarten through graduate school.....has failed us by producing multiple generations who haven't a clue what real freedom and liberty are and how much was sacrificed to build a heritage that half of us couldn't care less about.
            As bad as this situation is...it gets worse. We.....conservatives....are excited. You can do politics when you are excited but you can't get on your knees. Christians have been taken off course by Donald Trump. They can see neither the extent of, nor the imminence, nor the deserved causes, nor our own culpability in what is only the beginnings of judgment that we are experiencing.
            We have not as yet had a legitimate primer on the Communism that puts people in the streets throwing rocks and spewing hate, attempts to destroy the electoral process through illegal immigration, destroys marriage, has hijacked education that successfully and purposely dumbed-down entire generations, and most importantly either rejects God altogether or attempts to relegate Him to that of a mascot.
            There is reality beyond a stock market and an armada. That reality is that we......all of us with very few exceptions of whom I am not one.... have presumed upon God in one way or another for a long...long...long time. The liberal thinks God is a pushover...if God even really exists....the conservative thinks that God is somehow pleased with our efforts of economic nationalism.....and the conservative Christian thinks that God gave us Donald Trump to make America great again.
            God will wake America up I believe.....but whether that is before or after our calamities overtake us I have no idea....but my prayer....and the prayer of many others.....is that it is before and that it is soon.....if that be His will....for it may not.....but whatever His will.....it is perfect.....and therein is our hope.....and assurance.....and faith.....even if the vivid scenes from Doctor Zhivago of the revolution and civil war.....or the terror of the first-hand accounts from Caught In The Revolution....even if these be what is in store for this nation that once reverenced God and was blessed and used by God to bless other nations

Caught In The Revolution

          They appeared on page 160....the most demonstrative and frightening words in the book. That book being Caught In The Revolution, Petrograd, Russia, 1917-A World On The Edge by Helen Rappaport, told primarily through the dispatches, diaries and correspondence of American, British, French and others who were present before during and after the February revolution right on through the October revolution to the end of 1917. The first eight chapters takes the reader through the extreme tension of a nation at war with Germany, and an imperial government almost at war with its own people. The violent February revolution had then taken place....huge crowds were in the streets of Petrograd.....a million man march to be specific....and they were now peaceful in the streets. Hymns were  actually sung....God was acknowledged.....but tremors of a greater revolution rumbled. The words that I alluded to above were these:
         "I say! There's an amazing fellow over there on the other side of the Troitsky Bridge, an excited English resident told Negley Farson one day in early April: He's talking rank anarchy! Immediate peace, no annexations, the Dictatorship of the Proletariat, world revolution! Never heard anything like it in my life!...Advocates the soldiers coming back from the front and overthrow of the Provisional Government....now! Doesn't he know there's a war on?"

         Lenin had returned.....the extreme radical "maximalist" who had been exiled in Europe......who few knew anything about.....but who had worked feverishly "sowing the seeds of discontent from a distance, via a network of underground archivists across Russia who illegally circulated his seditious political pamphlets...calling for a people's revolution led by a dedicated intellectual elite." All the French ambassador seemed to knew about Lenin was that he was instructing others to "kill all people who have property and refuse to divide." Russia had its revolution....a provisional government was in place....but the Bolsheviks were just beginning to be heard from. Blood-thirsty lyrics were now sung in the streets to the tunes of hymns..."We will pillage! We will cut throats! We will disembowel them!"
         One diary noted on Lenin..."Utopian dreamer and fanatic, prophet and metaphysician, blind to any idea of the impossible or the absurd, a stranger to all feelings of justice or mercy, violent, Machiavellian and crazy with vanity." Another observer noted as the Orthodox Easter approached..."the (church) bells were ringing" and it was as if "the Russia of old (were) rising again with Christ." This would not last. Yet another well-known French socialist observer noted that these..."...were not socialists at all but what we call in France Anarchists and Communards."
         Caught In The Revolution had taken the reader to the the very middle of numerous mobs and violent outburst in the streets during the February revolution. Peace only lasted for a short while before the Bolsheviks stirred up revolution once again, this time against the provisional socialist government. The terrors were returning with an even greater vengeance. One commentator could see the evil in the eyes of marching factory girls..."...placid Slav faces lighted with a look of perfect ecstasy"...and a huge black banner with a skull and crossbones on it as if...flaunting invitation to indulge in all sorts of beastliness."
          July had arrived and the Bolsheviks were looking for their opportunity to overthrow the Provisional Government. The second revolution was starting. One observer noted that unlike the February revolution there was no..."cheering, with people singing and shaking hands..." Evil was noted on the faces of soldiers and sailors lured into rebellion by the Bolsheviks. Satan had taken direct command. The tide turned against the Bolsheviks when it was learned that they were receiving funding from the hated German General Staff. A day of mourning for the dead was held, similar to the one after the February revolution, crosses and icons were seen throughout the throng of mourners. What was noted among the observers was that the new prime minister of the Provisional Government, Alexander Kerensky, was a strong orator but did not seem to have the fanatical devotion that Lenin displayed. An arrest warrant was out for Lenin.
           The Russian army was involved in a terrible war throughout both of these revolutions. The war on the German front had taken its toll when the tsar led them and now it was taking its toll when Kerenesky led them. Many journalists who were present at the beginning were deciding to leave, one commenting...."I see Russia going to hell, as no country never went before." Meanwhile the Tsar and his family, now prisoners, were moved by the Provisional Government to Western Siberia until they could figure out what to do with them. (when the Bolsheviks took over they knew what to do with them...they murdered the entire family. I recommend to you Helen Rappaport's earlier book The Romanov Sisters for an equally vivid and intoxicating account.)
           The various embassies knew that this coming revolution would not be as the last and were preparing evacuation scenarios. The world was now watching with intense interest and new journalists appeared in Petrograd including Somerset Maugham and the socialist American John Reed of whom Warren Beatty fashioned his film Reds. Reed thought that what he was experiencing was "thrilling" and wanted to meet Lenin. One journalist whose writings appeared throughout the book wrote that he was sickened by this American "playing revolutionary."
            Anarchy and misery were everywhere on the streets of Petrograd come October and people were buying revolvers for protection when they ventured out of their house. Peasants in the country were killing landowners. Lenin was plotting in Finland while Trotsky was rallying the Bolsheviks in Petrograd.
            Kerensky had many opportunities but was considered by all observers to be weak. The Bolsheviks simply took over the government in late October but Moscow did not fall as easily.  One observer wrote in November...."These crazy people are killing each other just like we swat flies at home." And yet another observer wrote..."I never knew of a place where human life is as cheap as it is now in Russia." Rappaport supplies this testimony from one of the witnesses..."....a typical example of the mindless, arbitrary violence ....two soldiers bargaining for apples with an old woman street vendor.....Deciding that the price was too high, one of them shot her in the head while the other ran her through with his bayonet. Naturally, nobody dared to do anything to the two soldier murderers who went quietly on their way watched by an indifferent crowd...." Anarchy, murder and hate were everywhere.
          Lenin's first order after taking full control of Russia was to abolish private ownership of land. Freedom of the Press came next. Everyone knew that Russia was lost.....its beauty marred by the empty faces. The embassies had one last Christmas celebration....but there was no joy....only remembrances of what once was.

Note: Helen Rappaport's latest book in this series is now out......The Race To Save The Romanov's. Her previous two books books were Caught In The Revolution and The Romanov Sisters. I highly recommend all three but especially Caught In The Revolution because we may be playing out this very same scenario today in America.

           

Brave New 1984

The following post is a few years old:     

         It's pretty common to hear the word 'Orwellian' and '1984' nowadays. There's been discussion over the years on who was more accurate in describing what they saw as the coming tyranny....the drug em' up and keep em' sedated tyranny of Aldous Huxley's Brave New World or the newspeak, censorship and thought police of George Orwell's 1984, but these two scenarios are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
         There is a world that is in bloom before us, only it's not a spring of tulips and daffodils. It's a beast of a world full of algorithmic tyranny, robotic revolution, genetic experimentation, drugs, censorship, thought police and many user-unfriendly inventions and discoveries.
          Orwell's 1984 is a hard book to read, in my opinion anyway, because there are so many similarities to our world today. Only the Word of God can explain how the heart of man is so "desperately wicked" that it can so easily and blithely....without guilt....reverse facts and rewrite history as did Orwell's Big Brother....and we see evidence of just this all around us today. The surveillance in Oceania from 1984 was probably at one time too unbelievable to even really fathom but it would hardly raise an eyebrow as to being impossible or unbelievable upon reading it today. Winston and Julia....both godless...are entirely believable as they wander about hating the tyranny they live under but having absolutely no where to go for truth.
          There's one passage in 1984 where Winston is desperately trying to find out what London was like before the revolution. He spies a crotchety old man at a pub and fills him with ale attempting to coax information out of him....but fails. Thinking back on this....and letting my imagination go a little bit...I can come up with my own passage in which someone secretly...for it would have had to be secretly....comes up to Winston and hands him what in Orwell's 1984 would have been banned and destroyed....a Bible....but he has a different set of questions...."May I tell you of God's Son....Jesus Christ...My Lord and my Savior....and His offer of eternal life if you should but believe in Him?"
           Aah but George Orwell was an atheist as was Aldous Huxley. Ironically it may have been their atheism that enabled them to envision the dystopian worlds they wrote about....for without God there can be nothing but tyranny. And that is also our problem today.

Our Stricken Ship

 The following post is over a year old: 

          I have a few peripheral fascinations in life and one of them would be the Titanic. I never saw the James Cameron film. Oh I did pay for a ticket and sit in one of the comfortable seats with every intention of watching the movie but I walked out about a half hour into the film as its message started to unfold. I watched the 1958 black and white A Night To Remember when I was a child.....and I watched it again for the umpteenth time last night.
         With a little research I came up with this quote from the main female character in the Cameron film..."....there was a man named Jack Dawson and that he saved me...in every way that a person can be saved." It reminded me of a real life quote from the sinking of the Titanic. I've written about this before. John Harper was a British Baptist pastor and passenger on the Titanic. He was headed to America as a guest preacher and possibly to accept a call at a famous American church. He was travelling with his six year old daughter for he was a widower. After he placed his daughter in a lifeboat it is reported that he shouted "women, children, and the unsaved into the lifeboats."
         It is also reported that as he swam up to other people, and as hypothermia was setting is, he challenged them with the gospel of Jesus Christ. There was a meeting of survivors in Ontario, Canada a few years after the disaster. One man stood up and testified how John Harper swam up to him twice as he was holding on to debris and said "believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved." John Harper with no life vest for he had given it to another sank to his death. The man giving this testimony was rescued by a returning lifeboat. He told the gathering this..."I am the last convert of John Harper." Yes, I walked out of Cameron's film and will never view it.
         I believe that the sinking of the Titanic was a message to Britain and to America. Everyone thought that the great ship was unsinkable. Two world wars followed. The space shuttle Challenger had a multi-cultural crew...male and female...scientist, military and civilian...Caucasian, Asian, African-American...Christian, Jewish and Buddhist. Those iconic pictures of the breakup of the Challenger are still hard to look at.
         We don't seem to learn from disasters but we do sometimes learn when we are in them and this world has disasters ahead of it. May the church include preparation in its everyday duties and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship... only as they point to eternal life...."Yet now I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship."

My wife and I made our annual pilgrimage this past Saturday to to an Ohio craft show.....a three week-end event that is attended by thousands. It was elbow-to elbow at times and I spotted a man with a t-shirt that read.....MAKE AMERICA GRATEFUL AGAIN. I took the time to tell him that I agreed with the message. The following post is from last month:

We Don't Want To Hear It.....It's As Simple As That

            We don't want to hear about God judging America. We just don't want to hear it. It's as simple as that. We are a people that want to get for ourselves what we want for ourselves....what we feel that we deserve. The old days where Americans actually felt some kind of thankfulness not only for those who worked and sacrificed for centuries to give us the nation that we once had but thankfulness to God for blessing this land with spacious skies and amber waves of grain....that's no longer us. Half of us....or at least close to half of us....can no longer think through existential issues....our progressive educational system having insured that we are to be followers and not leaders....producers and not thinkers.
            We cannot grasp the problem of a now twenty-one trillion dollar deficit. If we ignore it it will go away. Go to usdebtclock.org for an up-to-the second accounting. Give the terrorist what they want and surely they will be happy and let us alone. Communism is just a name from the past....and whatever it was.....it doesn't really exist anymore. In fact if any threat to America does grab our attention for more than a few days we just go full-steam into our entertainments....that's where reality is....cable TV shows and professional sports and celebrities....or on our side we could just go to Donald Trump or Rush Limbaugh....and if we want evidence that we are all right all we have to do is check the Dow Jones Industrial Average....and then go outside for a walk....the birds are still chirping....the squirrels and rabbits still play and chase each other around....and no one seems overly concerned.
          I can see the total lack of vigilance in the long-term decisions that younger people make. There's no room in those plans for emergencies.....or for war....or even for another Great Depression. They don't show the slightest concern that the world governments have emergency plans to change the entire structure of money and the way that we buy and sell....that is if this emerging New World Order even lets us have all of our money. Although I admit that whereas we used to laugh at such suggestions of a New World Order....today many don't laugh....they know that the plans are real....they just relegate the possibility to years down the road.....and they won't take the time to read up on it.
           On our side of this mess we search for churches that exude happiness in a world of turmoil. A giant church with a latte bar and exercise classes does the trick. Don't believe me? Go and read their church websites. There is little to no mention of repentance on them for that would be church growth killer. Their listed 'beliefs' are given about as much weight as directions to the church....and their sermon titles are charmingly unobtrusive. Ask them about the omission of any warnings and they will tell you that you just have to trust God! You mean like trusting Him when He give us warning after warning for decade after decade?
          God sent Jonah to Nineveh with a warning. The Ninevites repented. A century or so passed but God then sent Nahum to the same people. This time there was no offer of forty days or even four years. It was a proclamation of imminent judgment. God sent Jonah after Jonah to America for the past half century....all the warnings were ignored....and the message of Nahum is to us now....read it if you will at your leisure.

         This is a time of preparation.....physically but more importantly spiritually.....but you won't hear that message in too many of our pulpits....why....as I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.....we don't want to hear about God judging America....we just don't want to hear it....it's as simple as that.

DISPATCHES

Whether you are for or against President Trump....one thing that we have learned in this whole mess is that Russian entities were and are deeply involved in compromising the security and privacy of our computers. This is not 'low level' serious.....it's 'high-level' serious. Donald Trump's dealings with Russians were not just here-and-there business inquiries and ventures over a few years but serious and continuous big-money deals over decades. At first Donald Trump wanted to build a tower in Russia....and he tried a few times....but when these efforts fell through he turned his attention to getting Russians to spend their 'new' money in the United States......by investing in his properties. (some of this was honest investment....some of it was most likely laundering on the part of the newly made oligarchs) Donald Trump and his family have been feted many times in Russia....over many years.  Eric is quoted as bragging....."We have all the funding we need out of Russia." All of this says absolutely nothing about Donald Trump......but it does legitimize inquiries and even the current Mueller investigation. We cannot play around with this. I would assume that the investigation is more.....'have Russians tried to dupe Donald Trump' than 'has Donald Trump tried to dupe the American public'....but either way....under no circumstances....should this probe be aborted or hindered. Seth Hettena explores....very fairly.....Donald Trump's relationship with Russians and Russia in Trump/Russia, A Definitive History.

The wars are coming....the unraveling is too far advanced to stop them. What you do in a situation like this is prepare....physically and mentally. What you do not do is aggravate the situation. If you do that then you lose the upper hand and become part of the chaos instead of establishing your feet solidly on the ground while keeping your mind clear. What do we think that China or Turkey or Iran or Putin are going to do when our increasing pressure pushes the dictators into a corner.....crumble and change....get on the Trump train? Apparently that is what we think. The concepts of 'America first' and 'America only' are differentiated by a fine line. Here is where wisdom comes in....the lack of which has been our complaint against this administration all along.

Senator Ted Cruz responded to a reporter's question in that he would welcome President Trump's endorsement in his close reelection campaign....and implied that he is actively seeking that endorsement. This is what you do folks....you admire someone greatly....as I do Senator Cruz....he does something that you do not agree with....and you challenge him on it....you do not do what the Democrats did with the Clintons and Barack Obama.....and as we conservatives have done with President Trump....that being ignoring their errors and outright lies.....all for the good of the party. It's not the endorsement itself that is problematic....it's the absurd....manipulative....and deceptive pep rallies that would accompany the endorsement. If President Trump wants to endorse you Ted....fine....but don't go on that stage and be part of that carefully designed and choreographed assault on the intellect.

I was probably one of the first to jump off the Trump train when he threatened to destroy members of the Freedom Caucus after they set up a roadblock on the fake Obamacare repeal and replace bill in March of 2017. We had about thirty members of the House who we could get behind and depend upon ....and Donald Trump threatened to work against their reelection campaigns! This alone should have been enough for any conservative to step back and admit that we have a problem here! Today we actually lie about this and put all the blame on the Republican Congress for not supporting the President....but this President didn't really want to put in the time and effort to get support on something that he personally had no passion for to begin with.

Here's a President Trump quote from last week's rally in Ohio...."I can destroy their careers because they said bad things about me and you fight back and they go down the tubes and that's OK." Donald Trump is a destroyer.....oftentimes purposely but also oftentimes simply because of people coming into his orbit. Concerning this woman Omarosa.....I don't know much about her at all....never saw The Apprentice....but I know this....she came into Donald Trump's orbit.....won something or other.....became famous....then crashed....and is now destroyed. General Kelly who fired Omarosa.....he came into Trump's orbit.....and is fighting for survival....as is Jeff Sessions. Sarah Huckabee Sanders came into his orbit.....a pleasant Christian woman....and she now just repeats what she is told to say....not exactly a stellar communications position. The entire conservative movement has been hurt.....as have been our intelligence agencies. How did Mike Flynn make out.....or Spicer.....or even Marla....or dozens of others? President Trump is now trying to destroy Harley-Davidson. This is the plan....do what I say or I will attempt to destroy you.....what's even worse.....even if you appear to succeed.....you will probably be dragged down somewhere along the line.

Jeff Sessions had been a reliable conservative Republican Senator since 1996. He was one of the minority that voted against both Sonia Sotomayor and Elana Kagan nominations. He was a source of stability and confidence for the conservative movement for two decades. It was August of 2015 when he shocked a lot of people and put on the red MAGA cap....and his endorsement of Donald Trump in February of 2016 was a big boost to the Trump campaign. I would much more readily believe him than someone who is known to have little collusion with the truth....and has already....in only a year and a half.....betrayed conservatives a number of times

The MAGA Base Is Dependent On A Weakened Pulpit

           From the late 70s onward....up to maybe ten years ago....when we talked about the Republican conservative base....the Evangelicals would be the first group that came to mind.....and they indeed were the biggest grouping within conservatism. That political assumption has of late been blown out of the water. The MAGA people are now not only the biggest group....they dominate everything. Republican candidates running for either a first-time election or reelection have tied themselves....chained themselves.....to President Trump and to MAGA.
           The 80s were something special. I've written whole posts on this. I related in a very recent post how in the early 80s we had prayer meetings....at our workplace....in a coal-fired power plant......after a midnight shift! Folks....after working a midnight shift in a coal-fired power plant you want to go home and go to bed. I retired a year and a half ago but to this day an old sticker announcing a Billy Graham Pittsburgh crusade.....from 1973.....still sticks....what's left of it.....on duct work in a highly traveled work area.
            Jerry Falwell....love him or hate him.....was a frequent guest on news shows. Pat Robertson was a few years away from his own candidacy for president. Billy Graham was everywhere. Gideon Bibles were in every hotel and motor inn room....not so today. Christian bookstores were everywhere....try to find one today.
            It's not the same Evangelical base today. Those who came to Christ in the 70s and 80s are only a small part of who the Evangelical is....and they are at least in their fifties. The church building didn't matter back then....the unction to preach Christ and the passion to hear Christ preached is what mattered. Controversy concerning truth was not avoided. We defended the truth of the Gospel and the truths within the Gospel.
            Yes we were political....Ronald Reagan actually used the phrase 'make America great again' in 1980 but try to find someone who can even recall that. We were trying to make America productive again in the 80s....and God-fearing again. Today we have become consumed by the quest for greatness. Can you imagine Donald Trump running against Ronald Reagan in 1980 or 1984....or even George H. W. Bush in 1988? Actually he was very well-known back then and his name was mentioned. Democrat voters might have been interested....Evangelicals would not have.
          Where its stands right now is that the Evangelicals are not the force that they once were. They vote more MAGA than gospel....which brings everything back to....(where it has always been).....the American pulpit. Should God will it....and should an unction to defend the gospel and to save souls....not recruit or cajole souls....but save souls.....should that return to the American pulpit.....there would be no economic statistic....no summit....no pep rally.....no series of tweets....and no powerful conservative talk radio host.....that could sustain the level of unconditional....unconditional support the President now receives. We would not be looking forward to November elections as much as looking forward to the next Lord's Day.
          Politics is not for the pulpit. Christ and Christ alone is thereunto reserved. Preach Christ in the fullness of all that is written about Him in the Bible....(and that is in effect all of the Bible)....including the judgment He will bring upon His return....and not only will the Evangelical return....but return in the classical definition of what an Evangelical is.....and their numbers would be added to as God wills it....and America would then at least be informed that we can do nothing without Christ....are nothing without Christ....and our hope should be in nothing but Christ.
          

Annie Get Your Crown

The Following was first posted in March:

          Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
          Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
          God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
              Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
               Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
               What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.

We've Got Grievances

           We have debt that cannot be paid off....$21 trillion and going up every second....and it's over $100 trillion if you take into consideration the unfunded liabilities....Social  Security, Medicare and federal pensions....but according to many people.....ignoring that debt can be forgiven for now because our economic outlook.....thanks to President Trump....is so wonderfully good. Yet...having been eased of our burden for the time being.....or so we suppose....we are going out and demanding that everyone pay us the last cent that they owe us. Where did I hear a parable like that before? That's what we have become.
            The quote is attributed to Abraham Lincoln...."He who represents himself, has a fool for a client." President Trump's tweets....which have alienated....angered....and disgusted so many have been in essence the president representing himself. The President's self-defense is not even necessary because conservative talk radio has dedicated it's mission to defending the President.
           There's a scene from that great film Gettysburg where a troop of Maine mutineers were handed over to Col. Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain for punishment. They had signed up for only so long.....and were determined not to stay past that time. Chamberlain....level-headed....calmly asked their representative for an explanation. Private Bucklin....in that thick Maine....'you can't get they-yuh from he-yuh' accent....answered with this....."We've got grievances....I'm tired Colonel. I've had all this army and all these officers, this damned Hooker, this damned idiot Meade, all of them, the whole bloody lousy rotten mess of sick-brained, pot-bellied scabheads that ain't fit to lead a johnny detail, ain't fit to pour pee out of a boot with the instructions on the heel."
            The Pew Research Center released some interesting figures from an in-depth series of surveys over a couple of years. It found that about one-in-five voters who....although they may not have been Trump supporters....warmed up to him after he got the nomination.....but now they have had enough of him. If I might serve as a representative of that group....."We've got grievances....We're tired. We've had all of this Republican Party and its leaders.....this  rambling Ryan....this mouth full of marbles McConnell....all of them....the whole sordid sick bunch of hero wannabees that couldn't keep a campaign promise if it was never to pee on their hands, and now we got this Trump who couldn't construct a five word grammatical sentence if you spotted him four words and told him the fifth was an article, couldn't tell the truth on an application for a driver's license."
            I wrote this a few years ago....before Donald Trump...."In the beginning of the English Civil War the Earl of Manchester was Oliver Cromwell's superior. Cromwell considered him slow, indecisive and lacking enthusiasm in opposing the tyranny and incompetence of the king. Manchester, for his part, was more concerned with Oliver Cromwell recruiting men of 'low birth'....uh, that would be men like me. Cromwell's philosophy was different as shown here in a quote from a letter to others in the Parliamentary forces. 'I beseech you be careful what captains of horse you choose...a few honest men are better than numbers....if you choose godly honest men to be captains of horse, honest men will follow them'."
          Conservative radio talk show hosts were our....captains of horse.....for many years....but now they are not capable of telling the difference between a royalist and a roundhead. To paraphrase an oft used phrase....."if it quacks like a duck....walks like a duck.....has feathers and hangs around with other ducks....it's a duck.....Donald Duck! We are tired of the tweets that are meant only to stir up anger....the choreographed pep rallies that would make Leni Riefenstahl proud....the constant lies told as naturally he breathes....the Air Force One jet-setting to golf courses....the taking credit as if other conservative primary candidates would have been no better than Hillary Clinton....the pretending to be one of us....the narcissism that would make Narcissus look humble....and the 'art of the deal' that only works till everyone catches on.
           The fringe element of society has expanded. The tight cluster of buckshot in the center of the target has become less dense in the last few decades. More people are having trouble thinking logically and acting rationally. Sunday...the Lord's Day....was a hedge of protection for us since our beginnings as colonies. We had one day to recoup and renew...to catch our breath....and maybe to meditate on God and His Word. The NFL tore that hedge down....that paradise....and put up a parking lot. It is not surprising at all that that institution is in disarray....and has become a spectacle instead of a spectator sport. The more men that give up that pastime means that more men will at least have the opportunity to meditate on their Creator.