We Are To Read Only What Is On The Syllabus

Question: The President recently told a group of evangelical leaders...."Now one of the things I'm most proud of is getting rid of the Johnson Amendment." Is it a true statement? The answer follows this post.

       Folks, I have never seen CNN cable news.  I can't remember ever tuning in to CNN while on vacation where I had access to the major cable news networks which I do not have access to at home.  If the ratings for CNN are so low as conservative talk radio hosts remind us of so often....and if no one is watching....why do they highlight the network so much? The answer is that they need to control the narrative so that conservatives do not get too inquisitive as to who Donald Trump really is.
       One radio show this morning ridiculed Chris Cuomo of CNN because of his poor vocabulary. OK....point taken....but President Trump's vocabulary and grammar are notoriously poor....and he is brilliant to these folks? How do these type of contradictions continue so often on conservative talk radio without being recognized and acknowledged by conservatives? The answer is that conservative talk radio hosts have no intention of letting us think for ourselves.
       On the same morning program one regular guest commented that President Trump seemed to have changed in the past two weeks......"He's become a fairly normal President....I'm kind of enjoying it.....and his approval ratings are going up." This commentator's observance is true and I've noticed it also. The reason for this is the Bob Woodward book. President Trump....through his advisors....saw how bad he looks to the American public.....and the world....and has been making an attempt to calm down....probably at the extreme behest and pleading of these advisors.
       The President's approval ratings have edged upwards during the attacks on Brett Kavanaugh but this isn't because President Trump has sounded like a normal president lately....its because Americans are sick of the tactics of the Democrats. As I have mentioned quite a few times in these posts.....the conservative base in America has been fighting the Progressive onslaught for decades....long before Donald Trump made the decision to enter the 2016 primaries. He....President Trump....with his multiple and egregious missteps....and serious character flaws....is given a pass in no small degree because he represents our side of this battle. The approval polls have held....not because of who Donald Trump is....because we do not know who he really is....and have not been given the full story from our only information source on what has actually transpired over the past year and a half....and are not aware that he is not really one of us....but the polls have held because of who opposes him....Mueller and the media and late night talk show hosts and various celebrities and Chuck Schumer and the socialist wave in the Democrat Party and Antifa and Stalinist type attacks on men like Brett Kavanaugh and conservatives being run out of restaurants...and on and on.
          If we would read some of these books on what life in the White House has been in the Trump administration....and who President Trumps really is....his approval ratings would not be where they are....we would still fight the deluded enemies of America but no longer unconditionally support this man who happens to be President in our cause....but we have been indoctrinated not to read anything beyond the prescribed syllabus. We may read Newt Gingrich's Understanding Trump but not Woodward Fear. We'll read Gregg Jarrett's The Russia Hoax but not Craig Unger's House Of Trump, House Of Putin. Christians will take Jonathan Cahn's The Paradigm almost as Scripture but will not apply Scripture's warnings of false prophets and grand delusions and trusting in princes to the news of today. Donald Trump is just such a false prophet....and just such a delusion....and just such a prince who we have placed our trust in.

Answer: If you listen to President Trump you would believe that he got rid of the Johnson Amendment just as he promised in his campaign that he would do. He did not. The Johnson Amendment would need legislation from Congress to get rid of it. What President Trump did was issue an Executive Order essentially telling his Treasury Department to ignore it. The issue I'm bringing up here is not the Johnson Amendment itself.....it is President Trump's continuous telling of lies. He knows very well that he is leading on his supporters to believe something that is not the case. As for us? We don't care....he can lie to all that he wants....we like him. Amanda Carpenter's....(former staffer for both Jim DeMint and Ted Cruz).....recent book Gaslighting America....Why We Love When Trump Lies To Us....takes on this issue in depth. I mentioned her book in a July 25th post titled Gaslighting if you are interested.

We Had Better Start To Tremble

          Apparently Laura Ingraham has known Brett Kavanaugh for twenty-five years and after the character assassination directed at Kavanaugh over the last few days she said...."I tremble for our country." Now do you think that she really trembled? After all that's a pretty strong word. Maybe that's just her way of dramatizing the moment?  Let me tell you folks.....I believe that she trembled.....because that's what I've been doing for a long time. She's just a decade late and a dollar short.
          Being retired as I am I get out and about quite a bit.....and this recurring thought comes back to me as I walk on a beautiful day.....with mothers pushing children in their strollers.....as a motorcycle scoots by ridden by a guy about my age having the time of his life.....with people passing by and exchanging pleasantries.....if this is all you are looking at......then yes....maybe America can again be a Norman Rockwell scene.
          But you cannot judge the health of a nation by what you see on our pristine middle-class American streets....and especially not by the serenity of our gated communities. You could probably get the same feeling somewhere in Iran or Turkey....or all over England or France.....and certainly in Israel. God isn't going to judge the manicured lawns or the clean streets or the Christmas Hallmark scenes. He's not going to judge the animals or the highways or the hillsides or the mountains......He judges people!
          We have 300 million plus people now in the United States. We've been legally killing babies now for almost a half century. Liberty is no longer our calling card....violence is. If there is a Biblical value....it's being attacked. This is a college professor involved in the Brett Kavanaugh attacks....Anita Hill was a college professor.....Angela Davis is a college professor. Folks...this is college in the United States of America! This is what we call....higher....education! Oh yes....you'll get to learn how to put together a spreadsheet on why hamburgers are not selling but you won't get to learn how to think or reason or analyze beyond why people bought their insurance because of the cute goose on its commercials.
          Have you heard Judge Roy Moore mentioned in the last few days? Probably not. Brett Kavanaugh represents prosperity......Moore only represented the Bible. I doubt if conservative talk radio hosts lost any sleep over his demise....but they should have!
         God is looking at a people whose forebearers at least acknowledged Him.....where most reverenced Him....and many worshiped Him.....but now half of us can't stand the thought of God. The rest of us probably read newspapers and books and magazines ninety-nine times as much as we read His very Word given to us....breathed by His Spirit....and preserved in martyr's blood.
         We had better start to tremble. God has been warning us for so long that we considered it old hat decades ago. We laugh at those who relate God's warnings.....nothing new there. Billy Graham is gone folks....he gave his forty years of warnings....as did Jeremiah.
         God has been patient.....with the nation....with me....and with you. His judgments started slow....had been increasing incrementally ....but now seem to be increasing almost exponentially! We are the proverbial frog in the pot! God's Word tells us to '...rejoice with trembling." (Psalm 2:11) That 'trembling' is meant to convey rejoicing in the acknowledgment of what our fate was as opposed to what our salvation is! We don't seem to rejoice with trembling anymore....we just rejoice....and we therefore miss the essence of the word!

Soft Disclosure

           Consider this scenario....you have a good position in a very big company....and your immediate boss likes you very much and is always talking about how you will easily climb up the corporate ladder. The only problem is that this man is a scoundrel of the first order....and everyone knows it. He is not honest in his business dealings and if he doesn't watch out will get caught....and the whole company may wind up in turmoil. No one who really knows him trusts him....they may use him because he has a lot of corporate power....but they would much rather that he quietly slip away at the first opportunity so that they can base their hope on making an honest living and not having to roll the dice all the time.
           Now you really don't know this man all that well. You've heard the stories but really don't want them to be true. You start to tell yourself that it doesn't really matter how he gets the job done....he gets it done....that that's big business....it 's hardball at times. He fires a good man with a beautiful family just because he doesn't like him....and you feel for the man....but wind up defending the boss's reasoning in firing him. This kind of shenanigans goes on and the more that the boss violates ethics....the more that your own ethical belief system starts to seem unimportant....even a hindrance. Two years pass and you are just not the same person that you once were....but the company stock is going up....you've had a number of big pay raises....that's all that matters. You have wound up filtering out all the lies that the man has told....and his arrogance....and his egotistical rage.
           I thought of this scenario as I watched President Trump's latest rally last night in Montana. Those people in attendance were not all that long ago my brothers and sisters in opposing not only the Clinton and Obama and Republican establishment captivity of American government....but in restoring ethics and honesty and transparency and wisdom and sound decision-making to our government in very difficult times. Donald Trump is the scoundrel....he turned this conservative/tea party movement into a cult of personality. This man who promised to drain the swamp....dragged us right down into that swamp. He's mean....and we've become mean. He lies and distorts....we accept and pass off the lies and distortions. He struts....and we worship. He points and we throw the stones.
           All this could not have happened if the Democrat Party had not long ago corrupted itself in every facet of its political existence. Donald Trump uses this. This was his planned deception. He presented himself as one of us....and then over a period of time....through what can be described as a soft disclosure....eased us into accepting him for who he really is....and we have done just that.


            

"That Their Ridicule Be Silenced...."

        The following post is from January of 2016. The unraveling of America has probably been tenfold since it was written. I never really expected to convince people of God's judgment through these posts....in any large numbers anyway.  What I did hope for is that these visitors....and there have been quite a few.....might remember the website.....to refer to when God convinces them that judgment is here....for it would help to know that there were reasons for what is happening.....and ample warnings had been given.

        When a nation such as the United States of America collapses, a once God-fearing nation that owed its very existence to the benevolence of God, the collective mind of its people not only loses all vitality but it increasingly loses the ability to function at all. We can see this in the present primary season for the election of a president. I have to fight back tears in seeing what is going on. The republic is a shambles...its people unable to mentally compose itself. If there were no other threats to this nation, this campaign alone should be enough to strike fear into our hearts.
        This land of the First Amendment no longer has a news media to inform its citizens. It was once believed that at least Fox News gave a credible witness to what was going on in the world but it has collapsed also. the National Review is in chaos as any of the left-wing magazines. Radio waves are all that gives us news of the assaults upon our nation from within and without. (we have since lost much of this) Our youth have shown no signs whatsoever of any intellectual maturity, therefore no hope that they might buttress attempts to fortify anything of substance that remains.
        We are as a people a drunken mob willing to run a battering ram through any door that holds us back from our personal desires. We bear no resemblance to to either pilgrims or colonists, Washington or Jefferson, Lincoln or the greatest generation. We have besmirched the memory of sacrifices from every battlefield from Concord to Fallujah. Our entertainments are an orgy, our blindness the hangover, and our politics the selling of aborted baby parts stemming from our wild weekends.
        May God humble us by driving the Christian ministers of this nation to their knees, so much so that they take to the pulpits pleading mercies upon a wayward people nearing self-destruction; and may He do so for His name sake alone, for His glory alone, according to His great faithfulness alone.
        May His Spirit blow away the fog that has clouded our vision and give us once again a glimpse of His glory. May we see ourselves clearly as rebellious man....fall on our faces in shame....and then be touched by His compassion to then stand again... only in His strength. Surely the world looks at us as we are and smirks at the faith in God that we once had. May God have mercy on us for this reason if no other, that their ridicule be silenced... and that they may seek mercy also.
         

Been There....Done That....Got The T-Shirt

The following post is from of 2015:

        They knew that if they were patient, gave us a noose and kept us in lattes....that we eventually would hang ourselves. They were right. We have that noose around our neck right now and are jumping up and down shouting and singing Y M C A on the trap door!
        It's known as a Fifth Column but they didn't need an army of them...only a relatively small cadre of dedicated rabble-rousers, a committed fraternity of malcontents in academia, and a varied assortment of carefully placed operatives who were patient in attempting to work themselves up the ladder.. Their expertise came primarily in two areas. They could stir up hate and they could flatter, thus they preyed on the weaknesses of a republic whose citizens found out that they could vote in anything their little hearts desired.
        They knew that a newspaper editor was far more valuable than a congressman. They knew also that an uneducated miscreant could be more effective than a scholar, that unions could be of great use and that a good screenwriter was worth more than a shipload of Valium. They knew Americans better than we knew ourselves.
        It's not that they didn't have opposition, for the American that went through school before the politification of our educational system, or that was homeschooled or was fortunate enough to live within the boundaries of a good school system, was not going to simply believe and obey. The patriot would be a threat to them and their whole effort. The mother who did not buy into the lies of feminism would not relinquish their children to the state, and the father who lived for his children would also fight to protect them. No, they could never convince Americans to give up, they had to make enough of them believe that they were winning when they were losing, and that good was bad and bad was good.

Been There....Done That....Got The T-shirt

         This is my resume. I have almost a half a century of experience as an adult to write these posts. I was part of the 60s generation. I saw JFK in person and shook Jimmy Carter's hand....twice. I've been a Democrat and a Republican. I can compare the Cuban Missile Crisis with Communism today. I was Pentecostal in the beginning. I lived about a third of my adult life without Jesus Christ. I've been in the military. I've been a union member for over 35 years. I've been in college in the early 70s and the late 90s. I've studied world history and American history and church history. I've heard every imaginable form of Christian preaching and have the past to compare it to. I've lived through lean times where we struggled to put food on the table and fat times where I feel guilty after paying so much money at a restaurant. The following post is from June of 2916:

          It's really rather amazing....the older one gets the more complete a picture appears of life and this world that we live in......it's more complex but paradoxically more clear at the same time. Now age in itself guarantees nothing as to wisdom for it is just a help that may be utilized or may be wasted. I have many legitimate memories of the 1950s and the accompanying lifestyle of my parents and their friends with their entertainments... all culminating in those '13 days of October 1962.' The 60s were something else altogether and I lived it as part of that generation that spawned idols and tragedies as America deteriorated in the process. I experienced the Vietnam years...from Vietnam...18 months anyway.
          I know what the 70s felt like. I've experienced lean times and fat times. As I grew up I watched my mother struggle to put food on the table and now I buy more food than I need. I backed political candidates from both sides of the political spectrum as both a teenager up until now a senior citizen. Most importantly I once knew not Jesus Christ and I still tremble at that. I once thought that this life was the only thing that mattered and certainly did not want to even meditate upon what would happen when it was over. I now know that there is meaning in life and that meaning is in Jesus Christ......and somehow He painted us into the picture of calling others to Him. There is now not only 'meaning' to life but 'life' to life. I don't think that I can adequately convey the difference in these two periods of my life but combined together they offer an additional perspective.
         There is a downside to experiencing this world over so much time...as one sees decades pass with no lessons learned. I've lived on both ends of a fifty year spectrum and we are far far worse off in just about every imaginable way today!  As every year passes I see more and more how frail and weak man is and would wonder how he lasted six-thousand years if I did not already know that the answer to that is that nuclear weapons have only been around for 70 of those years. Wisdom is rare and truth is obsolete today. I read simple letters of correspondence written centuries ago and marvel at how we have digressed in language and analysis and thought in general. We are taken in by every scam hatched in the nursery of our narcissism and greed. We have a Communist president and could care less about it because we have no idea what Communism is.
         No, man has not progressed even though he constantly grades himself with an "A+." Every evidence points to a cataclysmic end to Western Civilization but this courtroom takes no prosecutorial evidence...only testimony from the defense on how they are the true victim. There is no judge, no jury and no oaths to take.
        I take you back to the rise of the Persian Empire and the book of Ezra. God had moved mightily upon the heart of Cyrus The Great who decreed that the Jews could return to Jerusalem and rebuild their temple. The 70 year Babylonian Captivity was over. Tens of thousands of Jews returned and began the work only to be delayed because of opposition from the peoples who had since taken up residence in the area. Eventually their permission to build was verified. Ezra then returned and found that the people had fallen away from God as if nothing was ever learned! Great remorse was offered to God and reforms were instituted. Nehemiah would return as governor of Judea shortly after and once again great remorse had to be made and reforms instituted. Finally the walls of Jerusalem were rebuilt! I can see a similar progression in our own nation....America. It is as if we attempt, albeit through much opposition, to rebuild what we once had but just as the Jews had done, we utterly refuse to separate from the surrounding pagan culture. We are indistinguishable in our conversations, our entertainments and our pastimes. Yet we in the church also grade ourselves with an A+! We would be more than satisfied and consider it a great victory to have a Republican Party led government where little change would be required of us.
         Should God send an Ezra or a Nehemiah to America there would indeed be rending of garments, but He has instead sent Jonahs and now Nahums who are ignored.   

     

Tuesdays With Special Dog

The following post is from the fall of 2016.....with a few obvious updates....it's my Lord's Day post and then I'll put it back in the pack a little:

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

John....."I think it means that there will be a time when everything is just hunky dory, (remember...we're retired...and this is New York City) and that's when Jesus will come back."

Me......."If that's the case then it would have to be quite a few years if not decades from now....for everyone.....conservatives and Christians....are celebrating the peace and safety that President Trump  has miraculously given to us."

John....."Well Special Dog....you gotta admit....?"

Me......."I don't quite see it that way....and quit calling me Special Dog! I've been mulling this verse around for a number of years. John, I'm seeing a perceived peace after a catastrophe....probably a war....but maybe something else."

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

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

John...."Your drinking a latte."

Me......"There's a pretty big distinction there John...."

John....."What between coffee and a latte?"

Me....."No....let's get serious....between seeing Jesus possibly returning soon and seeing it as two or three decades from now at the earliest."

John...."Jesus could return tonight."

Me......"My point exactly. That would put a crimp in your big retirement plans wouldn't it?"

John....."What do you mean by that?"

Me....."I mean you're pretty excited....talked about it a lot tonight....but didn't say anything about Jesus or salvation or anything like that. None of us really do?"

John....."Except you."

Me....."That's probably because I'm the one most in need of His mercy."

Me again....."John, Maybe that's why He warned us so about a time of peace and safety.....because our thoughts are far from Him at those times?  There's another interesting verse along these lines....Luke 12:40 I believe it is...Jesus is speaking to Peter concerning a parable He had just given..."You must also be ready all the time, for the Son of Man will come when least expected." We think of Him when we have troubles.....a nuclear war would have us thinking about Him.....or some other major catastrophe.....but since we see peace at hand so to speak....and North Korea denuclearizing.....and we can't really see any other catastrophes that we can't handle.....we also can't see Jesus coming soon either....and worse yet.....I don't think that we particularly want Him to return just right now....what with all the good news....but if something does happen and then the dust settles....and the long sought after one-world government comes about....it's then that most everyone in the world.....hopefully except Christians.....will surely say something like....'at last....peace and safety!"'

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

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

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

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

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

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

GOP Gives Up On Keith Rothfus

        The Hill as I type has a picture of my congressman (Keith Rothfus) heading its web page in an article titled Republicans Start To Pull Plug On Members. Conor Lamb....we've all heard of him.....who is currently a congressman in a district that will soon be redistricted....is now running head-to-head against Congressman Rothfus who represents a district that also will soon be redistricted.
         As one who has studied the Kennedy family for half a century and at times early on almost worshiped them.....Lamb to me has the appearance of a young Jack Kennedy running for Congress. I knew from day one that he would be difficult to beat....for appearances trump truth. ('trump truth'....now there is an oxymoron) Keith Rothfus is low key....steady but low key....and now the Republican Party is giving up on him. The good news is that President Trump probably will not be bringing his traveling salvation circus to our county for a Rothfus rally.
         Congressman Keith Rothfus does not have to distance himself from President Trump....and probably wouldn't want to anyway.....but he shouldn't get all tangled in him like Ahab to the white whale either. Attacking the liberal party of Conor Lamb is not the best answer....if there even is an answer. Raising that tattered but dependable conservative banner...(before Ivanka modified it for her accessories collection)....that all of us conservatives have raised for a long time....and raising it high enough for everyone to see....is the best hope that Congressman Rothfus has in retaining his seat.
         

Neither Blessing Nor Cursing

The following are two posts from May of this year (the second post) and May of 2017: This is but one issue with President Trump that needs cleared up a bit. He did not move our embassy because
he keeps his promises....he keeps promises only when he has to....he needed some points at the time... and he also thought that it might be useful in Jared's peace agreement plans:

Biblically speaking....acknowledging Jerusalem as Israel's capital and moving our embassy there is not blessing Israel....nor is it cursing Israel. The official delineation of a nation's capital is but a relatively recent political convention. Jerusalem is Jerusalem whether it is acknowledged as a capital or not. Evangelicals are thrilled....some even ecstatic over this political move. What moves me is that God will....and maybe soon....open the eyes of many Jews as to who their Savior is.....and to the glory and Majesty of Jesus Christ....just as He has opened our eyes to our sin....and our redemption through the blood shed on that hill in the city at the epicenter of world news today! The following post is from May of 2017 and the post following that is from earlier this year:

          On June the 7th 1967, an Israeli paratroop brigade captured the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. There is a documentary/movie just released depicting that battle. I saw that film tonight, appropriately titled The Battle For Jerusalem, in a one night only showing that was in select theaters across America.
          At 6 p.m (EST) on May 14th, 1948 the British mandate over Palestine expired and eleven minutes later President Harry Truman directed, over strong internal opposition, that the United States officially recognize the new state which would be later be called Israel. We are nearing the 70th anniversary of that date. We are also coming up on the 50th anniversary of the day that Israel took control of the old city of Jerusalem, vowing never to give it up again. I was seventeen years old during that which came to be known as the Six Day War.
          It has been nearly 2000 years since the vast majority of Jews rejected the very Messiah that they had been waiting for. God then let them go their own way and their house was left desolate. There will be no lasting peace in Jerusalem until Jesus descends on the Mount of Olives in the same way that He ascended. What we are doing now is merely attempting to hold off wars until they can no longer be held off. Neither nation....America or Israel....has God's protective hand upon it today.... for both nations are in full rebellion to Him. If we miss this....which unfortunately we have....we go forward in merely our own strength.
          The film that I mentioned at the beginning of this post showed God's miraculous dealings with a new nation.....and a people that He has not completely forsaken.....a people whom He will cause to call out to Him in their most difficult hour. God's people today....the redeemed.... are those of any background....both Jew and Gentile.... that have come to a saving knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.
           Moses related these words that God had given to Abraham..."...I will bless those who bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee..." Has this not proven out many times? America had blessed Israel simply in that it treated Israel fairly. Under Barack Obama we in essence cursed Israel. We pretended to be their friend while greatly enabling their enemies.

           The Battle For Jerusalem portrayed very accurately God's faithfulness....not at all in that Israel is the economic and military power that it is today....but in that He gathered again as He said that He would....those who once looked to the coming of their Messiah but rejected Him whom they looked for....and will make known to them this their Messiah upon His return! We cannot know in detail what will happen in the days just ahead.... but we are confident of and rejoice in the end of all things.....and for this....all praise is to be given to this merciful Savior....faithful and blessed Mediator.....and coming King!

Israel....Blessing and Cursing....

         The United States with Harry Truman as its president immediately recognized the state of Israel on May 14th, 1948 after the provisional government led by David Ben-Gurion proclaimed Israel to be an independent nation. This was an example of another nation 'blessing' Israel. Failing to do this would have been an example of 'cursing' Israel." As for 1948, God was regathering Israel who is today as rebellious to God as we are. The 70th anniversary of this is only weeks away and although we may interpret this any way that our conscience leads us....to not see the prophetic implication of the new state of Israel.....and the 70 year period....is to miss for whatever personal theological bias....something that should be not only obvious......but a source of rejoicing that our Lord's Return must be near!

          President Trump announced in December that we would be officially recognizing Jerusalem as Israel's capital and that moving our embassy from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem would signify that. This is neither blessing nor cursing Israel....nor does it have anything to do with it being God's special plot of land. What it may do is have significant prophetic significance.

           To my evangelical brethren.....God could care less what city Israel calls its capital.....Jerusalem is Jerusalem to him....capital or not....and He also takes absolutely no pleasure in the Masonic architecturally designed, obelisk and near-temple structured fetid swamp of our capital with its hideously designated Washington National Cathedral as our 'National House of Prayer.' What he has done is that he has placed a hook in the mouths of Israel's enemies. Populist President Donald Trump is but a world leader placed where he is for a particular purpose.....a purpose that the evangelical misconstrues as making America great again."

           America had to one degree or another continued to bless Israel through the Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson, Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, H. W., Clinton, and W. administrations. We began to curse Israel under President Barack Obama. Whether President Trump blesses or curses Israel will depend on, one....how truthful and transparent he is right now with Israel's government.....and, two.....if he keeps America's commitment as an ally.

Legitimate Or Not....It's Too Late To Stop It

        All of the investigation into the Justice Department's and the FBI's possible complicity with any 'deep state' conspiracy is needed and necessary....but as bad as it may turn out to be....it will not change what the Mueller probe may find. That's what is mystifying about President Trump's year and a half long scorched earth warfare against the Mueller investigation. This is not a situation where a mistake by the district attorney gets the charges thrown out of court. Even if it were to be proved that the Mueller investigation was not legitimate to begin with.....no one is going to ignore what it comes up with. Mueller will release his findings and they will either clear President Trump or will implicate him in something. So yes it is important to find out exactly what happened but nothing will erase the investigation itself.
         Conservatives and various Tea Party types and libertarians have been involved in a political battle with Progressives for well over a decade.....several decades actually but about a decade as to the intensity of the emotions involved....and the seriousness of the attacks on our Constitution. The most recent incident or issue is the Stalinist type tactical assault on Brett Kavanaugh. We have lobbied politicians for a wall protecting our Southwestern border....and to address the national debt....and to repeal Obamacare....which by the way a conservative Supreme Court Chief Justice totally messed up....and a host of other issues....all this while Donald Trump really didn't have a systematized opinion on much of anything other than America not losing any money or profits to any other nation.
         Candidate Trump saw the political landscape and then positioned himself squarely in the center of power.....the conservatives and Tea Party people. He sucked them all in like an industrial vacuum cleaner and then thought that he would just wing it and be himself in the Oval Office....bring in the establishment....anyone really who could help set the economy roaring....even if only for a while...and a few social conservatives to keep the base happy. He was counting on an Eric Holder but got a Jeff Sessions instead. Many had advised over the past year and half to just let the Mueller probe do what it was going to do. It's a bad situation...the research into it has been intense and at times disturbing....highly-placed individuals may wind up in jail....but you are not going to stop it before it releases its findings....and if you did succeed in stopping it....then there would be a bigger problem.
         What the constant tweeting has done is construct an ogre that is seeking to devour President Trump thereby making the President the hero in need of our full and undivided attention in defending him. He....by virtue of the absolute necessity of making him out to be a champion in need of support lest the Progressives take power and impeach him....has been effectively insulated to the point that not one blemish is allowed to be photographed where in reality its not only a blemish but warts and deformities that mar the real visage of Donald Trump.
   
   
       

Jeff Sessions For President?

         The above photo is of my hardhat from 2012 to my retirement in 2016. There were a number of very influential conservatives who encouraged Senator (at the time) Jim DeMint to seek the Republican nomination for President but he chose not to.....and really who could blame him. Over the years in the Senate he more than paid his dues to conservatism as the elites in the Republican Party made life in the Congress difficult for him. More recently the Heritage Foundation of which DeMint had served as president....summarily dismissed him. (I cut all ties to that organization) Jim DeMint is now the chairman of the Conservative Partnership Institute. It had been my hope that President Trump would have brought Jim DeMint into his administration but that would have taken wisdom of which Donald Trump has little to none.
         I find it real difficult to look ahead to future elections although it has to be done. The problems of the day are so immense that I have to force myself to look past the present. Having said that....Jeff Sessions would be a good challenger to President Trump in the 2020 primaries.
         Candidate Donald Trump deceived his way to the nomination in 2016. He is a one-dimensional man and apparently has been his entire life. He simply cannot tell the truth naturally. Bob Woodward's Fear relates how President Trump's own lawyer....John M. Doud....didn't want him to testify under oath in the Mueller probe because of this. He is vindictive to a tee....appears to be soulless....certainly does not care about the Christian Faith beyond the votes that he needs....and is narcissistic to an extreme and dangerous degree. He takes sole credit for everything whether others were involved or even if there is credit due anywhere.
            Donald Trump is also a destroyer in that if he's not actively seeking to destroy someone who doesn't bow down to him....Jeff Sessions for example....others are being destroyed simply by coming into his orbit. The conservative movement is now unidentifiable thanks to Donald Trump....and there is no longer any genuine conversation or exchange of ideas on conservative talk radio which has become nothing but 'Donald Trump rally-redact radio.' We are too busy toasting each other shouting...."peace....security....and prosperity"....to notice the tremors below our feet.
         There would probably be a challenger to the President in the primaries but this person or persons would most likely come from the establishment.....as all the conservative Republicans across the country have failed us and turned a blind eye to the multifaceted flaws of Donald Trump so as not too offend the MAGA voters....or to 'let Trump be Trump' and just get the most that we can out of him. This challenger that we need would have to take President Trump to task on what has really transpired....not just on what President Trump says that he did....and there's enough information here to last the entirety of the campaign!
         So that challenger would start with something like..."So let's go over what you really did on the wall....and immigration....and Obamacare....and tax reform....and the national debt....and a dozen other promises....not what the spin has been....but what actually happened day by day....tell me again how Xi Jinping is such a great guy.....and how you so respect the mass murderer Kim Jong-un....and why Emanuel (God with us) Macron is so perfect....and what was going through your mind as you brought Ivanka and Jared into your inner circle....and how 'there's never been a better time to be young and American'."
        Jeff Sessions has over decades consistently upheld conservative views....at times under extreme criticism and duress. Would he consider challenging a sitting Republican President....that is should Donald Trump weather the impeachment threats.....of which we all are opposing? My guess....probably not....but it's worth bringing up....in hopes of waking up conservatives....and Christians....as to who Donald Trump really is....and how we directed our hope away from God....away from His Son Jesus Christ....to a man who despite his vain professions of belief....is not only areligious or irreligious....but essentially profane in his attitude....and even at times blasphemous as was Nebuchadnezzar...."Is this not great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power....?"
        

Fire Ants

          Drudge has a USA TODAY article and video up right now titled...."Watch: Island of fire ants floats through flood waters after Florence. The following is part of a post from May of 2011 when our national debt was $14 trillion.....and many of us were up in arms about it. That debt is well over $21 trillion today....and the Senate just passed an emergency short-term funding bill of of $854 billion....that still funds Planned Parenthood....and they won't have to deal with such an unseemly issue before the voting starts.....yeah I'm motivated. The House will vote on it and then it will wind up on President Trump's desk.
          John Wayne's first major film Stagecoach truly is one of the best films ever made. There is a scene where a passenger on the stagecoach....a banker who had just skipped town with his bank's money....ranted about the national debt being $1 billion dollars a year....and the country needing a businessman for president! Well I guess he was wrong on that count.
          There's a humorous scene in that beautiful film where the Indian wife of the proprietor of one of the relief stations takes his horse at night and leaves. The passengers try to console him...."You can always get another wife." He explains....."I beat her and she never gets tired!" "Your wife" they ask. "No my horse. Yes, I can always get another wife....but I'll never get another horse like that." That's about what we have become....we can always get another god....but not an economy like this.

Fire Ants

          A proverb of Solomon is...."Go the the ant you sluggard! Consider her ways and be wise." There's a new report in a scientific journal where it has been determined that fire ants survive floods in the Brazilian rain forests by using air pockets in their bodies and clasping  on to one another, in other words forming a living raft upon which they can even save their young and their food, No, we may not be able to stop the flood coming upon us but we can ride atop it, for the Creator of the ant and of man are One and the same. Providing that God should even have mercy upon us to even survive as a nation, there would be more satisfaction in life living through hard times in acknowledgment of Him than living without Him in what we would falsely consider prosperous times. There is our answer!

Bob Woodward's....'Fear....Trump In The White House"

           I doubt that many conservatives will read Bob Woodward's new book Fear....Trump In The White House....and that is truly sad. President Trump is neither likable or trustworthy but there is no way that the average conservative will see this unless they open their eyes. They may not read the book but everyone else around the world will....and they will see the insecurity....and they will see the chaos. I think that the President himself will read every word in the book.....highlighting and taking mental notes....steaming and threatening....and generating more quotes for future books.
           Woodward tried to cut President Trump an even break but his daily antics wear you down. Liberals were probably pulling their hair out for the first twenty chapters or so....but it seems as if the author gave up half way through the book which would in effect be halfway through President Trump's time in the White House so far. The specifics were obviously new to me but none of the antics and juvenile character traits were. These people who gave the interviews were worn down. Bob Woodward could not have made up these stories. Why would these people in the White House bare their souls like this if not that they are worried....not necessarily that they might be fired in a tweet by the President from the golf course....but worried about America?
           I've mentioned many times in these posts that the President's first mistake was to bring the two progressive jet-setters into the White House.....Ivanka and Jared. They have caused nothing but dissension while leading the President in the wrong direction on a number of occasions. We are still reeling from the disaster of Donald Trump Jr and Jared putting their minds together! This was a monumental and colossal failure on the President's part....and it was right at the beginning....and he still refuses to do anything about it....and we conservatives no longer even bring it up.
          President Trump needed to have all conservatives in his cabinet.....and as advisers.....and on his staff. Rex Tillerson would have been a good Secretary of State....for Jeb Bush. Peter Navarro and Gary Cohn would have been a good matchup....on a fight card at the Garden....but not in the Oval Office. Reince Preibus was just a poor choice for Chief of Staff....my hope was that Jim DeMint would have been offered that job....but I never heard his name mentioned for anything. There were too many generals brought in.....Donald Trump doesn't even like generals.  Steve Bannon had his hands full just dealing with Jared and Ivanka.....he lost....they won. Lewandowski and Scaramucci were just bad choices. Manafort was never vetted during the campaign. Giuliani is just a dis...traction whereas Hope Hicks was just an a...ttraction. General Kelly should have stayed at Homeland Security.
          Senator Lindsey Graham played the President like a fiddle....stroking his ego and sweet talking him. All of these people know what conservatives do not in that President Trump is very shaky....doesn't really have any interest in learning anything....and puts everything on a money-making grid.  Everyone is clinging for dear life to the good economic news. Read the book and you will wind up praying more....maybe even if you are an atheist.

         

This Is What Would Motivate Me

Well we heard President Trump's opinion on the subject at the rally last night in Missouri...."Get out in 2018, because you're voting for me in 2018." This is a big part of the problem. I want to vote for a representative of 'we the people' in November.....not a representative of Donald Trump. I want a representative who will vote his or her own mind....not President Trump's chaotic mind. The egotism alone in this statement is stunning....and the gullibility of his true believers is truly sad.         

          I'm waiting for that Republican Congressman seeking reelection this November to stand up and say...."I'm running on the same agenda that conservatives have opposed the establishment with for the past ten years and even much longer than that. This is not the agenda that President Trump has settled into.....but the one that he ran for president on. I never have nor ever will take my marching orders from a Republican Speaker of the House or Republican President of the United States. They have their job....I have mine....and that is to support good legislation....no matter who sponsors it.....and oppose bad legislation.....no matter who sponsors it.....and with no compromise based on political expediency. If I should lose this reelection bid then I will return to life outside of the Congress of the United States and support those who have the same ideals and who were fortunate enough to secure their seats in the House of Representatives. This is not about me or my future but the United States and its future. It is not about President Trump but about a government that Abraham Lincoln described in his Gettysburg Address as...."of the people, by the people, and for the people." I will support my party and its leadership when it is in the right....and oppose them when they are not. I will support President Trump when he is in the right.....and call him into account when he transgresses either his promises or that which is right....so help me God!

This is what would motivate me.

The Greatest Treasure On Earth

          Thirty years ago there were five Christian bookstores within a few mile radius of my house. Today there are none. Whereas once someone with a little time on their hands might very well stop in a Christian bookstore just to look around, as I did in 1982, now he cannot. There are no Billy Graham crusades to stumble across as you work the remote. Genuine news is becoming harder and harder to come by....as even foxnews.com is rapidly turning into a tabloid.  Almost gone is the rigorous and challenging intellectual life on America's college campuses, replaced by safe spaces, censorship and Doublespeak. Conversation is primarily done on Twitter....and when the voice box is actually used the result is dull and boring. Even conservative talk radio no longer stimulates thought. The American mind has officially closed up....put out of business by artificial intelligence.
          Could The Closing Of The American Mind be written today? Could The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind be written today? Probably not, for they accomplished their purpose, albeit in a losing cause. The battle was won on November 8th but the war was lost. We had an opportunity in the past year to humble ourselves before our Creator but chose another road. We are the high and mighty right now....we conservatives....but we may soon find out that that which we hoped for.....political power.....was not the answer. Where do we then turn.....another political savior?
          I submit to you that we will by then have had our fill of trusting in men and princes and ourselves. When that happens.....should God will it.....we will put a Bible in front of us as if it were the very first time. We'll open it and immediately hope will fill our heart. "What is this....I've seen these words before....why are they now penetrating a part of me I didn't even know existed?" We will devour the words....stare at them....pause and look up to heaven as they sweeten the palate....lift them to our face to take in the beautiful fragrance where there should have been mustiness!
         At  sixty-eight years old and thirty-six years bringing up the rear of God's army marching towards heaven, I now dwell on Bible verses...and even on individual words. Why have I been so fortunate to have been given this treasure? Of course I know the answer....in that God ...".... giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." So, why are you reading this post when somewhere in your home is the greatest treasure on earth? Please go to it...."Take up and read"!

The Greatest Treasure On Earth.....July of 2014

          America is shipwrecked, taking on water for decades, adrift and sure to sink if the director of the universe and of all that exists does not intervene, but Americans view this unfolding disaster with detachment! I see it every day in people's faces...."This can't possibly be as serious as it appears! Surely the cycle will return to one of prosperity and....normalcy!"
          The further one's mind is from God on a daily basis the less one will feel imminent judgment. The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, simply an aid to innocuous bible studies and Sunday School lessons, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven...should heaven really exist.
          In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved...all given because of faith, faith in the One who took our sins to a tree on Calvary. If my words seem overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not literally captivate you as God's Word to you, overwhelm your objections and gratify beyond your wildest expectations then you might never have truly discerned the words therein. 

Consider Micah.....And Jonah....And Nahum

Tomorrow evening begins Yom Kippur....the holiest day in the Jewish year. I was listening to a conservative radio talk show just a few minutes ago where the host is Jewish. He mentioned that it is tradition that the book of Jonah be read during observance of the day. I thought that I would bring this post back from August of 2016. Consider if you would...reading Jonah and Micah and Nahum for perspective on judgment and future restoration for Judah and Israel....and also God's judgment on Nineveh over a century after they were first warned.

Consider Micah

          Would you be interested in partaking in a little biblical meditative exercise? Before I explain it let me give you a preface: I've written a number of posts over the years on two small books of the Old Testament....Jonah and Nahum...and always in this context....Jonah was told by God to go to the great city of Nineveh and give them a warning that would extend for 40 days....repent or be judged. Nineveh repented....and Jonah wasn't particularly happy about it. Possibly 150 years later another prophet addressed Nineveh....Nahum. God gave him no warning to give....only a declaration of impending judgment. My point is that this whole process of warnings and then prophesied judgment took well over a century as God was very patient. We need to understand this as it relates to the warnings God has been giving to America for a long time! This is not a sign of His failure or inability to keep His promises, it's a sign of His patience!
           The exercise, should you want to do it, is to read the book that is between Jonah and Nahum....the book written by the prophet Micah. Now these words from Micah, once again words of judgment...but also of hope, were to specific people, the people of Judah and Israel, but these books are to us also, certainly at least as examples for us to consider what happens when a nation blessed by God then rejects Him. The book is small but take an evening reading it and contemplating each verse, and possibly referencing different translations and a Study Bible to help with the changing context. Put America in there.... as if....as if....it were written also to us, just to see if our history of blessings and then rejection of our Benefactor is not strikingly similar. And if our rebelliousness is similar, would not the judgment be similar also, and would not the patience extended before judgment be similar...a patience that we may have used up!
            I'm confident that as you read through Micah you will see many instances where we followed the same path as rebellious Judah. You may even be astonished at times.

Just Random Thoughts

           If all that we do is rant about the Progressives....then we are not upsetting the real enemy....they are fine with us ranting on politics. Donald Trump is no real threat to this enemy....nor are the Trumpsters. The enemy has no love for these Progressives that they merely use....but touch that which is behind the Progressives....and the enemy will come after you. Call out the heretical doctrines of liberal churches....and the sea will remain calm....but if you seek to awaken faithful pulpits....a tempest will arise.  If you leave your loved ones alone in the darkness....they will love you....if you shine the light in that darkness....you will be alone. Generic Bible studies are no threat to Satan's kingdom. Teaching on what it means to be 'born again' will bring blowback. You cannot judge the strength of a church by its size....for size is not even in the equation. There will be times when you want to turn around and go back....times when you are afraid....even times when you are convinced that you are a failure. There is a cost to discipleship....but the rewards are far far greater....one of the most wonderful would be looking into the eyes of someone who has just had those eyes opened to the glories of Christ!

"No.....They Can't Take That Away From Me"

There's an old old George Gershwin song originally sung by Fred Astaire in one of his movies....and later recorded by Frank Sinatra and Pat Boone and others. Some of the lyrics go like this...."The way you wear your hat....the way you sip your tea....the memory of all that....no no....they can't take that away from me."

          Well they can't take away the memory of what happened at Valley Forge....or Gettysburg....or Guadalcanal.....or the I Drang Valley......or Fallujah....or anywhere that our military did what is has always done....that being upholding the honor of the flag they took with them. They try.....oh do they try. They attack our traditions.....our families.....our government....our constitution.....our educational system.....our political system....our courts....our free press....even our faith.....particularly our faith. Who are 'they?' They're communists.....some are just 'fellow travelers' with communists.....many are just dupes of the communists. They might have high cheekbones and bushy eyebrows or rounder faces or a Latin complexion....or they may look like the all American boy. They may be young or old....smart or stupid...male or female.
           They made headway through espionage and playing upon the imperfections of a democratic capitalist society. Today they control the thinking processes of nearly half of America....they want that memory....but they can't have it. Memories are etched into the human mind.....that's why they attacked education so thoroughly....to keep our memories from the younger generations.
           You have to hand it to them...their plans were nearly perfect......they know more about us than we know about ourselves.....but that's where their expertise ends.....they know about gods and religion and the power that it can have....but they know nothing about God.....and the omniscience and omnipotence that is His. They know that man has many weak areas....so they exploit those areas using miscreants and malcontents to do their pernicious bidding. They simply thought that if they take God out of the mind then the power will be gone.....which is true....but they were and are unaware that man does not seek God.....that God calls man.....and when He calls them particularly.....they come.
           So they have an advantage over us right now.....and they may indeed win the day......but neither they nor us nor anyone nor any entity will determine what happens to us.....either good or bad. No coup of a sitting president or 'make America great again' Madison Avenue campaign can have any effect without God permitting it for His purposes. Polls mean absolutely nothing....impeachments mean nothing.....capitals (Jerusalem) mean nothing.  Should God let us continue to dally with our own perceptions of autonomy then they will get that victory they've been working on for a century.....but should God's plan in these the most terrible of times be for us to return to Him.....then there is not a snowball's chance in Hades that all their well laid plans will not totally collapse let alone succeed.
           Written into the Christian faith is a paradox. Yes we have to turn to Him once again....but we could never do that in our own strength. What we can do is humble ourselves before Him. Trust in Him and not ourselves. How do I know this? Memory. I remember what I have read in His Word to us. The many sacrifices made by our brave military...so very often the ultimate sacrifice....could not possibly be forgotten by us who have remained vigilant. They can kneel on the football field all they want....bang their drum all they want....and sing The Internationale all they want....we still have a functioning mind....memory....the words written on a page in sixty-six books....and God who is faithful despite our forgetting that from time to time.
           

Memorials

        You may remember that the Washington National Cathedral and the Washington Monument were badly damaged in the Virginia earthquake of August 23, 2011. Three of the four grand pinnacles of the cathedral...each weighing 50 tons....collapsed. Gargoyles were damaged with one decapitated by falling debris. Today....seven years later....they are only half way finished with the repairs. That earthquake was a message to us from God.  The Washington Monument was closed for three years for repairs. It reopened but is closed again due to chronic elevator problems and not expected to be open to the public again until 2019. I wrote these words in a preface to this post a few years ago...."I love America and that sentiment is written throughout these posts but I love it as the gift that has been given to Americans and to the world. It is the Gift-Giver that deserves our adoration! God will either save America for His purposes or He will let us fall in our own delusion. He will not be mocked nor can we convince Him to see it our way. We will either prostrate ourselves before Him or He will prostrate us before our enemies." I bring this post back today in light of the most recent 'Christian' funeral service at our 'National House Of Prayer': The following was first posted February 16, 2009:

Memorials

         I visit Washington D.C. occasionally, even though it is essentially a giant Masonic symbol complete with an Obelisk in the middle. There is a similarity here with the temples of ancient Athens. As you walk up the steps to the Lincoln Memorial, Abe's eyes stare down at you. In fact, written above  President Lincoln's marble statue are the words "In this temple, as in the hearts of the people, for whom he saved the Union, the memory of Abraham Lincoln is enshrined..." I'll walk slowly and reverently in the "V" shaped Vietnam War Memorial. There was controversy with this architecture at first, for being cut into the ground seemed to give an aura of defeat to it but there is no defeat at that memorial, the defeat in Vietnam is in the halls of Congress and universities. I'm solemn when I walk around the new WWII Memorial and currently I'm having a difficult time reading through a book on the Bataan Death March...man's inhumanity towards man! The Korean War Memorial is also a favorite.
         My father is buried across the Potomac in Arlington National Cemetery. When there I also visit Robert Dean Stethem's grave site. He was the heroic young Navy diver that terrorists murdered during a TWA hijacking in 1985 and then threw his body out of the plane and onto the tarmac. I also  find myself looking up at Robert E. Lee's home that was confiscated during the war and think of those who lost their lives in that conflict.
         The Apostle Paul walked among the temples of Athens and came upon an altar with the inscription..."To the unknown god." He then said to the Athenians..."what therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you." Our temple to the unknown god is the Washington National Cathedral, the site of state funerals for Presidents Eisenhower, Reagan and Ford. Congress had designated it a National House of Prayer. Our memorials of brick and stone have a place but it is in front of our pulpits where we should worship.  Should we ever realize this, the Washington National Cathedral would become an oddity with more relevance to ancient Athens than the founding of the United States of America.

The Ichabod Award

The following was first posted a week ago 

          My first contact with the Bible as such was at my First Holy Communion while in the second grade in Cheektowaga, New York where I was born nearby at Sisters Hospital and where we lived until my parents separated and my mother and I returned to Pittsburgh where both my parents were born......East Pittsburgh and Braddock to be specific. It was the custom to be given a Bible by the adult standing up for you at your first communion. I was hoping for a big Bible and disappointed in the tiny pocket size given to me.
          My second experience was three or four years after that in the same Catholic elementary school....and not with the Bible itself. Students did not report directly to their class in the morning but rather were encouraged to go to Mass in the new modern church. Catholics were not to eat anything in the previous three hours before communion so we were given a treat of a glazed donut as we got to our classrooms....which I really enjoyed.....and looked forward to. Half the students had to sit in silence while the rest of us dunked our glazed donuts in tea! It may be my fondest memory of my early schooling! I did not own a regular Bible other than the pocket one given to me at my first communion in which the writing was too small to read. I did have a Daily Missal which I treasured. The words themselves did not mean anything to me. The thin....delicate pages....the red Latin phrases....and the bold print on the important words.....that was what mesmerized me.
          My third experience with the Bible was in Catholic high school in Pittsburgh. It was in two paperback volumes.....the Old Testament and the New Testament.....and it was more of a textbook than the Bible as we know it. I admit that I didn't like reading it. I don't know that these experiences would necessarily be duplicated today.....but that is what I experienced.
          My fourth experience with the Bible was probably in the winter of 1973. I commuted to Pitt after getting out of the army and would usually stop in the National Record Mart on Fourth Avenue in Oakland to browse while I waited for the Port Authority Lincoln Coach to come. One day I bought a paperback titled.....Reach Out....The Living New Testament Illustrated. The letters for Reach Out on the cover are superimposed over pictures of smiling young people, and inside there are a dozen or so similar pictures scattered here and there. The effect of that book....small though it was in retrospect....stays with me today. It was the first time I actually read the words of the Bible to see what they had to say. I was moved.....tremendously....only for the moment....but enough to stay with me to today. That book sold for $2.95....and is next to me as I type.
           I was....Born Again....sometime in 1982. My wife had given me a hardback New King James Version of the Bible for Christmas that year. I also have that Bible next to me. There's not a word highlighted....underlined.....or any notes or comments anywhere in the Bible.
           A year later....1983....I went out and bought a leather bound New King James Version called The Open Bible....that also is next to me. My wife was at a Christmas dinner gathering with the neighborhood ladies this evening and told me that they all talked about how their husbands never throw things out. This Bible has assorted color highlighting all through it......underlining everywhere....and tiny notations that I wrote from the first page to the last.
          I have written a number of times in these posts over the years on how the Bible.....the Word of God.....is more valuable than anything else on this planet! None of those words were exaggeration. In fact I'm ashamed that I couldn't write more accurately how wonderful and powerful this great gift given to us is.
           One great American malady today is that.....because of various reason that I won't go into in this post.....we seem to think that our primary knowledge of God comes from simply meditating on Him......in our free time. I was talking to a dealer in precious metals the other day....and played the dummy....because I am a dummy in the specifics of precious metals. That should be how it works friends....if someone has done the homework.....then it should behoove us to at least listen to them....but that's not what we do in America on religion. Nothing has to be learned here......history is superfluous......we just think about God......and come to our conclusions.
           Moses gave the Hebrews the Law that God had given him to give to them. First century Christians had special gifts available to them to guide them while the entire Word of God was being compiled. This is where we go folks....to the Bible! Let others laugh and ignore the greatest gift given to man by God. My hope....and my prayer.....is that you might read this post......dig out that Bible from wherever it is.....and accept this gift. If you do this then you will be the one marking up your Bibles and keeping some extra Bibles on hand to give away at the slightest interest shown by friends or relatives.
          

Woodward's 'Fear'

Bob Woodward's book Fear should go on sale in about two hours, I didn't put in a reserve at our local Barnes & Noble because they have 120 copies coming in. There is no open conversation on conservative talk radio anymore. The narrative is scripted....the guests all carefully hand-picked....and the microphone cordoned off. Woodward will be lionized in the media....and 'lyinized' on conservative talk radio. The best thing to do is read the book and make up your own mind.

NOTE: I did purchase the book and I'm 77 pages pages into the 357 pages. Donald Trump's term as President has just begun. Although I'm sure that the meat of Bob Woodward's thesis is still ahead, it has been fair so far. It brings back to my mind how I felt in early 2017. I wanted this man to succeed....to see that this that he had gotten himself into was not the same as building a personal empire....that it was a time for humility. I was in the drive-thru at McDonalds on the August morning in 2016 when Steve Bannon did not appear as host of Breitbart's morning show.....for he had been tabbed to take charge of the stalled if not floundering Trump campaign.  I knew that it was going to be a horse race from then on in. I think that Woodward's book's shows very clearly that Bannon's entry turned the campaign around. The following post is from this past May:     

              There are a number of Donald Trump biographies that have come out in the past few years....and an equal number of 'how Trump won' books that are largely biographical. Some of these books are mostly salacious.....Fire And Fury would be such a book.....some are very legitimate biography.....Emily Jane Fox's recently released Born Trump would be one such book. And some are just pure pro-Trump which would be the opposite of Michael Wolff's Fire And Fury. I've tried to read only the books that appear to be legitimate biography....with the exception of Wolff's book. I had done the same thing over the years with Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.....and as far back as Ronald Reagan and Jimmy Carter.....and I may have read more on the Kennedys over the past forty-five years than all the others combined.....and I should add this that my reading of biography over my life on all genres surely is more than all the political books combined.
              Returning to Donald Trump....this is an unlikable man if you understand who he is....a man cloistered over his life in one castle after another....who has princes and princesses running around and who would at times pick a new queen.  He's a man of appearances more than substance who is in love with his own image....and whose religion is positive thinking.
              In Hans Christian Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes two weavers tell the emperor that they have made clothes so fine that only those who are really competent can see how wonderful the clothes are. In the case of Donald Trump....Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity are the weavers.....the clothes that they have made every day for the past year are supposedly so beautiful that only those who are really smart can see them. Conservatives don't want to appear stupid so they tell each other how beautiful the clothes are....but there are many of us out here who do not just want to be part of the crowd....we didn't oppose both the Marxists and Republican establishment over eight years by being mindless followers and we're not going to start now. We don't see any fine clothes....only Trump brand underwear and sock garters.
             We are not the 'never Trump' movement. We are the never again Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton movement.....the never again Republican establishment movement. Conservative radio talk show hosts are in denial that we exist. They are on a party cruise right now heading right into a tempest....with a captain who thinks that his ship is unsinkable. We had hoped from the beginning to see in a President Trump some evidence of humility that might lead to wisdom. He's going to be tested....and right now we are of no help to him as we only feed his ego and admire the clothes that, in the main, do not exist.





          

A Song Of Remembrance....And A New Song

The following post is from August of 2015.....Barack Hussein was President......Hillary was the odds on favorite to succeed him.....and Donald Trump had two months earlier thrown his hat into the ring. Things were bad.....and they're a lot worse today....except for the stock market and the economy....which are dependent upon the stability of this government and also other governments.....a stability that does not exist.. Other than that we are just as violent if not more....and we are not even as concerned as we were before....for a man told us that things were going to be better than ever....and we believed him rather than God's Word. There was at least a flow of information available to us in 2015....mostly from talk radio....but that information has since been condensed to a defense of a President who greatly miscalculated the blowback to his taunting and narcissism.  

A Song Of Remembrance....And A New Song

         With history as our witness, it is not an anomaly, nor is it inconsistent, nor is it even odd. When a nation or an empire is overrun, destroyed, or even just collapses, it often if not usually happens in what could be called a 'caberet' or 'gladiator games' culture. Its entertainments had consumed it. In such a society, vigilance can be non-existent. That nation's or empire's discernment, not only as to its enemy's intentions but even the existence of an enemy, can also be non-existent. We are such a nation and such an empire.
          Where did it begin and what precipitated our fall. It began roughly six-thousand years ago in a beautiful garden in what may now be the war torn and terror ravaged nation known as Iraq...or that garden could have been almost anywhere before the flood of Noah's day. We are fallen creatures capable of, over time, unlocking mysteries of the world around us. We can visit the moon. We've done it a few times and then we got bored with it. We can send a camera through arteries. We can replace a diseased heart with a mechanical pump....for a time anyway. We can carry almost all the information known to man...in our pocket. We can do everything accept make a spray starch aerosol can that won't plug up.....but the Artificial Intelligence that we are about to perfect will have their robots to do that.
         You and I have a front row seat to the fall of the most powerful nation that ever was.  Who needs Will Durant or Edward Gibbon or Charles Beard or Josephus?  We can watch it on the telly, that is until the telly loses power. Or we can see it on stage. We've already sat through two acts. In Act One we jumped up on the throne with God and in Act Two we told Him to get off.  We are though, going to want our price of admission back because we thought we were going to see a delightful comedy with a happy ending, but it is a tragedy.
         The violence has overwhelmed us. It is now but a long list of nightly news stories that may or may not be read.  Our intellects have atrophied. The mechanical functions well but we have no wisdom to speak of. Yet we are giddy. Our sports teams win and that's the only international relations that we care about. We are as children who when frightened the parent places a toy in their hands and the pop-up clown causes us to laugh, the rattle gets our attention and the spinning mobile above our heads puts us back to sleep. We retreat into our enclaves where there is only minimal violence but those enclaves are receding as the snow cover at winter's end.
         Oh, but we had the finest minds at the beginning! They could reason. Their sentences, written with quill and ink, displayed a magnificent logic. Their conversation, as we read in their letters, were beautiful prose, flowing, didactic and profound. Though shorter on average in stature they towered above us.  Amused by their clinging to something called honor, we place them under a microscope and label them worthless if any imperfection is found.
         God has given us weak leaders and cunning enemies. The Song Of Moses from the 32nd chapter of Deuteronomy was to be a witness against Israel. They would rebel....God would remind them of it.  Moses wrote....."For their vine comes from the vine of Sodom and from the fields of Gomorrah; their grapes are grapes of poison; their clusters are bitter; their wine is the poison of serpents and the cruel venom of asps."
         But all praise is to be given to Him who as the Psalmist in Psalm 40 sings...."He put a new song in my mouth, a song of praise to our God. Many will see and fear, and put their trust in the Lord."
     

DISPATCHES

Fox News has an article by J. Warner Wallace on its front page as I type concerning a new Pew Research Center Report just released on why people....particularly the young....are leaving the Christian church. My main emphasis at one time was on encouraging people that I would come to know to go to church where they would hear the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My emphasis today is more in encouraging people to read the Bible....for most likely if they go to church they will leave saying....."What's the big deal?".....and I wouldn't blame them one bit.....or on the other hand the music and excitement in the church....or a great youth program....might get them to stay and join....where they won't become evangelized as much as recruited. Our local newspaper devotes two pages one day a week for advertisements from local churches. The typical message might be something like....."Come be a part of our church family"....or...."Come grow with us." Preaching with an unction to save the lost is at a very low point in America. Billy Graham is gone.....and those days are past. We are all social and political Christians now. The author's conclusion is that Christians must first know what they believe....and then instruct others in the verities of the Gospel....so that they won't leave....but this can be putting the cart before the horse. To the person reading this that is somewhat confused....but interested....there is one particular man that I mention often in these posts who can speak to your questions through the preaching....and teaching....that he left behind in audio and video recordings. Please go there to see what I'm talking about.....ligonier.org.

I recommend that you visit Jim Rickards Daily Reckoning (dailyreckoning.com) for opinion on the strategic financial moves that many countries are making as they deal with the bold moves of the Trump administration. In his latest article he mentioned Newton's Third Law of Motion...."for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction." Mr. Rickards has been harping on...for a long time now....China's and Russia's (and other country's) hording of gold in an attempt to break the dollar hegemony of the United States. President Trump is indeed making many bold and threatening moves all over the world....but these people are playing the same game only covertly....for they admit that they are now at a disadvantage.....and their moves therefore are a little longer term....and at times even in coordination with other countries who have been strong-armed by the Trump administration.

Steve Bannon and Raheem Kassam have teamed up in Europe to fire up a national populist movement. Some of the results of this you can read in our papers just about every day.

The approval polls for President Trump are interesting to watch....especially as they trend on a daily basis. (realclearpolitics.com) updates the figures from a select group of polls every day. Rasmussen gathers figures every day....others not so often....but the grouping stays the same and much can be gleaned from the combined statistics. What we have been seeing is that even a major negative story on President Trump only effects the total survey a little bit....just as a positive story effects the total survey a little bit. As of now anyway....most people have their mind made up on either their positive or negative opinion of President Trump.....and major news stories only effect the total by 3 to 5 percentage points....as I see it anyway. This may change if many in the Christian community distance themselves from President Trump....whose approval numbers would then take a serious hit....which in turn could bring a winnowing within the Christian community....with the more politically minded evangelicals on one side....and the more Biblically minded on the other side.

Breitbart's new motto should be..."half the news that's fit to print." Limbaugh, Hannity and Levin operate under the same motto. They are on a mission....protect President Trump at all costs to transparency by reporting only on the positive.....with no negative reporting.....and not even any serious analysis on the positive that might dampen its effect on the reader's opinion of President Trump....and as they do this they....albeit being far more on the side of truth than the Progressives....criticize the mainstream media for the very same one-sided reporting. The result is that few.....those who take the initiative on their own....have a balanced view on what is going on.

Analyze this.....In the beginning of 2017 President Trump encircled North Korea with an enormously powerful armada of warships. This was his best hour. Kim Jong-un and whoever....Ivanka (?)....then had the good idea of a summit which President Trump may have seen as an advantageous to him reality show. Now President Trump is saying to Kim...."there's no hurry." This mess is not strategic thinking as most Trump supporters would portray it. It is the natural result of a mind that can change on a whim and be all over the place.

Here's a question for you to ponder....had a conservative won the Republican nomination....and the general election....and cut our taxes and the corporate tax rate....and eliminated restrictive business regulations....all of which would have happened....where would the economy be today? I think that the answer would be that the economy would be pretty close to where it is today....probably not as good but pretty close. Yet in listening to President Trump....he did this all by his self....and we buy into this description.....the result being that the President is taking on a superhero status among his supporters that is downright dangerous.

Former President Barack Obama finally came out of hiding to campaign for Democrats in the November election. This will not help us conservatives who are trying to reel President Trump in on his many and serious eccentricities.....as he will rally the troops to fever pitch against the Obama administration policies....therefore leaving little room left for critical analysis of his overall administration....which is always the plan.

The Temple Institute in Israel announced that a pure red heifer was finally born....signaling to them the coming of their Messiah as the birth was necessary to for a Third Temple to be built. Many fundamentalist Christians believe that the Third Temple must be built before the Second Coming. There is no need for a sign like this as the Bible gives many signs that the return of Jesus Christ must be near.....signs that align with the overall prophetic message in the entire Bible....and with the character of God described in His Word to us. Of more importance should this red heifer meet all of the requirements of the Jewish religious authorities is one of a political nature....as such a sign might stir some in Israel to take matters into their own hands as to a possible third temple.

Television viewing of the NFL continues to slide with the opening of then new season. What is most important in this continuing Colin Kaepernick saga is that if more and more men are not following football on the Lord's Day.....then according to Special Dog's First Law of Television Viewing on the Lord's Day.....more and more men will be available to ponder the Word of God.....and their eternal soul....and that of their families.

If They Really Want To Motivate

         We've got millionaire football players essentially spitting on the flag that gave them the opportunity to be millionaires.....We've got celebrities that have to make you wonder how in the world they can even memorize lyrics or lines that made them celebrities. We've got university history professors that are dumber than the dumbest student that ever took one of their revisionist exams. We all have known for many years what we are up against. So what have conservative radio talk show hosts been doing every day and evening of every week....for well over a year? They're telling their listening audience....who have to be zonked out of their mind by now.....what we are up against. Great plan! That ought to mobilize the troops.....more like lobotomize them.
          What did all that 'make America great again' hype get us? Do we really think that a few more bucks in our pocket are going to make up for a nation where half of its people hate God....and half of the other half fool themselves about who God is and what He demands....and half of what's left think that God sent Donald Trump to us as a blessing.....a man who lies and misleads and manipulates when he isn't poking someone in the eye just to keep everyone angry and agitated all the time....and a man who purposely attempts to destroy enemies......and even whose supporters tend to self-destruct simply by entering his orbit?
          So if these Republican congressmen who are seeking reelection want to mobilize and motivate American voters who already know that this new lethally toxic wave of Democrat voters would do nothing but turn us into another Venezuela.....then they should give us the only thing that truly motivates....truth....not Donald Trump's version of truth but God's truth! That being that we have fallen as a people....not just one political party or ideology....and that our future does not depend upon our trusting in Donald Trump or any man....but putting some teeth into the phrase that we so like to bandy about.....'In God We Trust'....and taking some personal responsibility for what our nation has become.
          Senator Cruz is a good man and deserves our respect and certainly the vote of Texans.....but he made a big mistake in seeking President Trump's endorsement. Does this fine Senator think that God cannot keep him in office without his seeking President Trump's blessing....or does he all of a sudden think that he is so important that God's will cannot be done without him in office....so he simply has to seek this President's hypocritical support.  All of these Republican candidates have two months....maybe....should God allow it....to tell their electorates to search their conscience on how we....all of us....have brought these catastrophes upon ourselves....that we cannot just blame an opposition party.....or depend upon politics alone....or numbers in the Congress....to change America for the better....but we have to petition God to return His hand upon our government and the decision making of Americans in not only the voting booth....but every decision that we make in life.

Note: Please consider sending this post to the Republican congressional candidate in your district. They are not going to hear this from the pulpit even if they attend church every week.....and conservative talk radio isn't about to go in this direction. Also....please read how our nation's leaders responded to God's judgment back in the middle of the Civil War. It's an older post that is about seven posts back....titled "Read....And Maybe Weep"