"Do Not Trust In Deceptive Words...."

Will this be the Lord's Day where pastors begin to weep in their pulpits over what America has become? I don't think so....not this week anyway as Franklin Graham will have so many pastors dedicating their service to Donald Trump's successful 2020 campaign....but maybe next week as America continues to crumble. I have some advice for these pastors....forget what you learned about preaching in seminary or Bible school. If it has produced what we have today then it must have missed the mark somewhere. Try this....put down the paint brush for sprucing up the vestibule....and the softball glove to show everyone just how cool you are....put them down for a while and listen to a sermon every day on the computer from men from the past....one sermon every day. What? Are you already done with your learning? If not....then Martyn Lloyd-Jones might be a good place to start. A month of this and you may not be able to go into the pulpit anymore without pleading the mercies of God upon us....individually....and as a people. The following is an older post from earlier this year:

"Do Not Trust In Deceptive Words...."

           It's probably the #1 response that I get from Christians that do not want to hear 'negative' talk about God judging America....they say that you just have to trust God. Then why do they not also trust God's warnings? The following was first posted a few years ago:

           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 by these gates to worship the LORD!' " Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD. the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'

           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!'

Note: Were the words I chose in the preface to this post too strong? Maybe so....there are good seminaries and horrible seminaries....but ultimately there is little to no unction today for preaching the blood of Christ for the salvation of souls. We don't need the blood anymore....we just need commitment. Consequently our nation is so far gone that as Martyn Lloyd-Jones would say....we can't see the wood for the trees....on anything.

How Can One But Remind Again And Again

The following was first posted in January:         

           With a beautiful grandson to laugh with and thank God for...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. (sixty-nine and some odd months now) 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!
       

Purge Radio

Preface: What we need right now is a prominent conservative Republican to come out and say that it would healthy for the Republican Partly to have a conservative challenger to President Trump in the primaries....that a spirited debate would reaffirm issues that are important to conservatives....and that not to have actual primary debates would further insulate the conservative base. Unfortunately for all of us....anyone bold enough to do this would immediately come under intense and unrelenting attack.                         

            Purge radio......(formerly conservative talk radio)......is currently hammering Michigan Congressman Justin Amash. One particular host this morning fumed while promising to set his network in action to primary Amash in the next election. These folks have one mission nowadays.....to expunge as much negative information....which is just truth.....and which is most of the information.....on anything and everything about who Donald Trump is and what he has done since becoming president. They have been sucked into Donald Trump's powers as much as Tzarina Alexandra was taken in by the powers of Rasputin.
            We are not traitors because we hold a different opinion on what might be obstruction of justice. We have a right to prefer a different nominee in 2020 than Donald Trump. It is our opinion that what we see happening right before our eyes is not only similar to Watergate but worse. This is power grab and a cover-up of immense proportions with potential executive branch tyranny written all over it. Don't kid yourselves conservatives....this is the establishment....this is the swamp! These folks on radio are not concerned one bit about Joe Biden or any of the other twenty or so candidates......they are concerning about us......conservatives who have not bowed down to kiss that ring. They simply have to keep a lid on us until the 2020 nomination is guaranteed....so Congressman Amash must be belittled and ridiculed....purged....before someone actually listens to his opinion....and hammered so bad that no other rogue congressperson would dare criticize the President.

UPDATE: It was the very first time that I had heard Robert Mueller's voice....that I remember! Well he did it right.....in announcing that he would give a televised statement.....and then he gave it an hour later......not three or four days later as had been done previously by others. It was also wise in that AG Barr was not standing behind Robert Mueller because the AG has lost a lot of credibility with a lot of people! Mueller stated that if he was to take questions that his answers would not go beyond his final report. Here he's saying that if he expounded beyond the report it would be as if his answers would imply.....'gee....we didn't think about that before." So what did Robert Mueller say in his nine minute statement? He essentially said....this is serious stuff....you want answers (?)....go to the report.
             

DISPATCHES

Franklin Graham continues his foray into the heart of politics as he enlisted 250 Christian.....'leaders'.....in a prayer rally of sorts for President Trump. This letter could have been constructed in a way where we were simply to pray for our leaders....but instead it's a prayer for the political survival of a man who is to save us....a 'prince' as God’s Word would describe him....and a prayer at odds with those of us who think this man a judgment upon us....even a false prophet as he proclaims peace and security upon a nation he often calls a...."glorious nation under God." We have been praying for President Trump Reverend Graham....and we pray also God's mercy upon us.....and for wisdom in these treacherous times....wisdom and mercy that neither of us deserves. One more thing....conservative leaders are in the habit of characterizing Ivanka Trump as just one of President Trump's....'children'....but this woman is an experienced and hardened progressive operative who would oppose just about all the issues that Christians have defended for many decades if given the opportunity....and President Trump definitely wants her to have that opportunity some day!

Update: President Trump played golf Sunday morning and then stopped by an evangelical church service where the pastor prayed for him......(it was a good photo-op).

Note: At the bottom of this post is a prayer that I wrote for then President-Elect Trump in December of 2017. It's been almost two and a half years since then.....and I've read almost three dozen books on Donald Trump since then....and have seen him as president. It became apparent early on in reading those books that he not only a con artist.....but a guru.....a religious leader of sorts.....leading his own cult. It's interesting that Rush Limbaugh in 2009....upon observing Barack Obama at one of his rallies in Houston....likened it to a cult.....but today that same phenomenon with Donald Trump....is nothing short of great! If I were to describe Donald Trump in one sentence it would be that he is a man who in whatever area or sphere....it really does not matter.....politics....riches....celebrity.....he needs adulation and total attention upon him....even if its bad news.....he craves the attention. Our prayers should include this entire situation.

The day after Donald Trump would win a second term there might not be any stopping him. He would no longer need any conservatives.....Rush Limbaugh would even be expendable. Who knows who might wind up in his cabinet....and how much power over any congressional oversight he might  have by then....and he would probably be pushing either Don Jr. or Ivanka to succeed him. We need someone to step up right now and challenge this new establishment powerhouse headed by President Trump....for we are being kept in in the dark by talk radio. We need a debate on whether Donald Trump should be the nominee....but they don't want to give it to us because they know that once the microphone is opened up the myth will be broken.

Drudge is headlining a story about the actor John Voight....where he put out a two-part video saying that Donald Trump is the greatest president since Abraham Lincoln. Mr. Voight does not have the slightest idea who this man is. I don't care if he spent a dozen weekends on the golf course with him....and palled around with him at Mar-a-Lago for a dozen more....unless he actually picks up and read some books on who Donald Trump has been....his whole life...(how he operates....how he cons people...and what are the only things that are important in life to him)....he will continue to be taken in. The only similarity that Trump may have have with Abraham Lincoln is that Lincoln's actions directly precipitated the Civil War....while Trump's pressuring other countries so that we get every single solitary penny that rightfully belongs to us.....and his listening to the hawks in his current cabinet in trying to foment revolutions and bring governments to their knees......and his ignorance on the dialectic and the savagery of communism.....may very well be a direct cause of another great war.

The man who ghost-wrote The Art Of The Deal....Tony Schwartz....(Trump wrote none of it...and Schwartz regrets ever ghost-writing it)....said he wouldn't be surprised if Donald Trump never read a book straight through in his entire adult life....and WH aides have said that the president doesn't like briefing reports longer than one page....or is that fake news?)

I doubt that Rush Limbaugh would read House Of Trump...House Of Putin....The Untold Story of Donald Trump and the Russian Mafia.....and....Trump/Russia....A Definitive History....by Seth Hettena....even if someone were to offer him a million dollars. He doesn't need the million dollars.....but he needs the continued ignorance. Our intelligence agencies had every right to pay close attention to every business dealing that Donald Trump had with Russians and to be leery of any association with Vladimir Putin.

You watched as this transpired....as did I. President Trump was praising Paul Manafort for not 'flipping.' At the time I'm saying....."you cannot do things like this Mr. President!" Manafort agrees to cooperate with the investigation......while the President continues to give very obvious hints that there might be a pardon for him. Then.....Manafort  starts lying to the investigators! The result of all this was Mueller became the bad guy in the eyes of the judge and Paul Manafort received a very light sentence. Manafort's change of heart significantly hurt Mueller's investigation. Why didn't people in the White House put a stop to these tweets that had obstruction written all over them? Surely they could see what was happening....but that's the problem with the entire two years plus of the Trump administration.....no one stood up to the President.....not cabinet members.....not Republicans in Congress....not talk radio....they all just let him act on impulse. I had written from day one that had talk radio taken a firm stance with the President from the beginning......he might not have.....might.....not have.....gone off the rails in so many areas.
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The following is a prayer that I posted for the then President-elect Donald Trump in December of 2017....the second post here was is from last at this time after we visited the Billy Graham Museum:

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

I Led Three Lives.....(The Billy Graham Museum

We had passed by it at least thirty times over the years.....the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte......always hurrying to get to the beach or too tired to stop on the way home.....but we took the time this past week turning a fourteen hour drive into a sixteen hour drive.....but it was well worth it! The following post is from July of 2016....a year and a half before Billy Graham went on to be with his Lord and Savior.

        A blurb on the back of the book reads this way..."When I die, tell others that I've gone to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-that's where I am." Those last three words are the title of Billy Graham's Where I Am... subtitled Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond...his latest, and as he himself describes it, his last book.
        There was a television series that ran from 1953 to 1956 titled I Led three Lives. It was narrated by a man who, as Wikipedia describes it, was..."a white-collar worker, (had a) secret life as a Communist agent and...even more secret life as an FBI operative helping foil Communist plots." It amazes me that I can remember watching this on television for I could have been no older than six! As a sixty-six year old blue collar union worker (retired and now 68), husband, father, and Christian, I have lived three lives also.
        My youth was normal in many ways. Sports, girls and beer occupied the majority of my free time. I wore God on a chain around my neck. Today, as a Christian, I often mentally and physically visit the places of my youth because to me it has always been...'once a friend...always a friend'...and until I hear of our "common salvation" I will continue to take the opportunity to pray for that someone that I knew personally.
          I led the life of an evangelical in my middle years.  I was born again....born anew....from above....and I desired to tell as many people as possible of a merciful savior, the wonders of the Bible, and the majesties of Jesus Christ. I led the life of a pilgrim, had left the city of destruction, fell face first in the slough of despond, entered through a wicket gate, had my burden fall off at the foot of the cross on Calvary, ran into Giant Despair a few times, stumbled and took wrong turns at times, and lived and worked in Vanity Fair, but could not see the Celestial City nor even the river before it.
        I see that river today and can faintly hear the rejoicing emanating from the beautiful city beyond the river; this simply because the more one walks toward the light, the less one hears the barkers and minstrels of Vanity Fair.
        My descriptions are but feeble attempts I'm sure, so I plead with you to obtain a copy of Billy Graham's book for he has walked much much farther than I and he sent this epistle of sorts back for our encouragement...and with a strong warning, for it is obvious that he had met multitudes of people in his pilgrimage, many of whom gave woeful testimony of their self-destruction.
        Reverend Graham's ministry began in 1947. His book Where I Am, was published in 2015, sixty-eight years later. He seemed to write it as a last will and testament....with no holds barred. He has nearly seventy years of experience with presidents and kings, and movie stars and the working man to draw from. His outlook changed somewhat over the years. He, like Solomon from Ecclesiastes, looks back upon this life and can not only see more clearly the vanity but feel its heat and smell it odorous perfumes.

         Billy Graham's vision and hearing are impaired at his advanced age but his spiritual senses have only heightened. This book is in no way a theological treatise nor is it devotional or biography. It is more of a letter to the churches...a report on the enemy territory that he has passed through...with each and every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today...he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time, both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends...listen to this elder brother...for God may have prepared him specifically for this book!

         

Keep Looking To The Skies

            The polls vary but generally half of Americans believe in alien life....and this figure is up considerably in the last few years. Church attendance is going down and it's common knowledge now that young people are departing from the religious beliefs that they were raised with. Ask your own children a few questions about extra-terrestrial life. We as a people are half-way expecting that something exciting will some day in the skies. Well...that's going to happen....but not in the way we expect it might. The following preface might be a year old....the short story after that a few years old:

           This much we....Christians....know very clearly from God's Word. God created this entire universe....and whatever it is beyond what we can see.....for the purpose of placing his creation of man. There had to be one particular planet.....the earth obviously was it. So it is not the argument that we so often hear of.....'billion or trillions of planets...what the odds that we are the only life in the universe?' It is not a mathematical equation that we are dealing with. It would be perfectly natural and even expected that the secular-controlled mind would look for and expect life on other planets. What is disconcerting is that there are Christians that get sucked into the delusion.

          God's Word is very clear as to what He has done in His creation. There is zero chance...I'll get mathematical here....zero chance that God created beings other than man and angels. We also know that a third of the angels were fallen. We see the results of that every day in the pain and suffering in this world....and throughout history....and the sin in our own lives.

          These fallen angels hate their creator. Led by Lucifer.....the memory of whom Saul Alinsky dedicated his famous book Rules For Radicals.....they see the same signs that we Christians see and must know that their time of judgment is near. We know very well that they can take on the appearance of apparitions. The Apostle Paul warned us emphatically of this....while God's Word also warns us emphatically of a great delusion that will come. Man himself will continue to be divided on this.

           The following is a very short story from a few years ago. I don't read science fiction and I'm sure that my descriptions are inane but there is a message I tried to convey here:

Keep Looking To The Skies

        The scientists remained busy in their work as chaos enveloped the entire world. Their mission had been to find life in the outer reaches of the universe and then communicate with them. It was a project that was given every conceivable help in its mission. There were no budgets, no rules and no hindrances of any kin. Mankind, science to be more exact, was certain of two things....the human race is self-destructing and if there was to be any help it would have to come from intelligent life outside of our own.

         A nuclear war had devastated most of the inhabited world. Over population would no longer be a concern for most of humanity had either died in the war or through starvation and disease. There were factions posing as governments who still struggled to control what little resources were left on earth. The scientists at this super telescope had not found any help in time to avert nuclear war but they were permitted to continue for there was progress of sorts being made.

          A very special code was developed and sent into space in every direction. This code was so advanced that even its creators could not fully understand it. The hope and expectation of the scientists was that any intelligent life outside of the earth that would pick up such signals must therefore be more advanced than ours and would be able to explain our own code to us, understand our primitive attempts, and discern our objectives even in the midst of our own confusion.

          As if wars would not have been enough, the cosmos picked a terrible time to erupt upon earth. Asteroids appeared only at the last moment before striking our planet. The earth itself remained on its axis but every people group in the world was in a tailspin. The combination of nuclear explosions and asteroids striking the planet caused many earthquakes but they did something even more devastating, as the earth's tectonic plates began to move once again over the earth's mantle. It had always been assumed that the first continental drift took long periods of time but here one could measure the movement every day. The Americas were heading back to Europe and Africa. Greenland was returning to its original position as was Australia. Even Antarctica was drifting northward.

         There were tyrants and dictators and mass murderers in the aftermath of war but there was one particular man who had success assuming power over much of the world's people but he himself was now almost ignored in the sulfur filled atmosphere and little light on earth.

         Remarkably, the scientists kept to their work. Had they made no progress they too might have panicked and their work abandoned but something was happening. They were picking up signals that were not chaotic or coincidence and were placing these signals over the grid of the code they had constructed even though they had no specific formula for decoding them, for they were depending upon the aliens for this.

         Word was leaked to what remained of humanity that distinct signals were picked up from outer space and this was received with great joy and expectation with no fear whatsoever. All were now focusing on a future once again and not the cataclysms they had been experiencing for a few years. One person was not enthused about this...that was the man who had assumed control over most of the world's people. His time had come to rule and he wanted no help from any other intelligent life. In fact he alone showed fear at the reports of the scientists.

         The signals coming back to earth were distinct and powerful. Scientists determined that the first signal received was the letter 'I.' They put forth the possibility that it could be a pronoun. The same message came in every three hours. Computers and scientists worked on the decoding. There seemed to be three words and then a pause and then another word. The second word was deciphered as....'am.' Scientists were now sure that the 'I' was a pronoun and that the message was beginning with 'I am,' with two more words to be decoded.

         Those on the telescope had discovered a cloud formation coming from the direction of the signals and it was becoming clearer the closer it came. The determination of everyone involved was that aliens not only were responding with signals but they were approaching also. The information was leaked to the listening world. Panic was decreasing as hope was spreading. The only exception to this, once again, was the leader who continued to demand that all eyes be on him. This leader had prohibited scientists from giving out news but others set up a continuous broadcast from the telescope and laboratories.

         Who would  these aliens be who were coming to help? What would they look like and just how would they help? Surely they were the long expected rescuers! Man would survive after all! He had determined long ago that he was the measure of all things and now he was to be rewarded.

         Scientists were decoding the last two words. The first was 'coming.' "I am coming'  was the message followed by a pause. The fourth word was more difficult. Its letters made no sense. Perhaps it was a name of the approaching alien but such a powerful intellect would have known that we could not decipher its meaning.

         The cloud formation became even more clear in its approach. It appeared to be spaceships. The form of spaceships could not be seen but what else could they be? It now could no longer be described as a cloud. Light was all around it with a intensity that seemed to be brighter than the sun itself.

         Peoples all over the earth, when told of the sightings, began to make images of the approaching aliens and pay homage to them. The earth still stank of sulfur as cosmic bodies still pummeled it. Winds and hail tormented many parts of the earth but the people shouted joyfully to the skies that previously frightened them.

         Scientists all over the world were put to the task of decoding the last word. An answer seemed to have been discovered but this was not leaked to the people. There was great disagreement within the science community. Some scientists were seen leaving the laboratories in a panic and this panic began to spread to the people.

         One pale-faced scientist appeared before the microphones and described the lights as they were getting nearer the earth. He described them as looking like horses! The world was dumbfounded. Then word came from the decoders who were closing the laboratories and hastily leaving. The last word was from an old language of the Middle East. It was actually many words within one. The final interpretation was....'I am the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end.'

          

Hath God Said

             It seems to me that you could take many different time periods in America and ascribe an 'essence' to it. For instance.....'liberty' might be that essence in the 1770s.....or 'brother against brother' during our Civil War. If this theory of mine is even somewhat correct then the Gilded Age....and the Great Depression.....and December 7th, 1941......and many more specific time periods might be given an 'essence' label.....and who really knows if the essence chosen would be the correct interpretation....for one might describe the time period one way while another sees it differently.
              Having said this upfront......if I were to ascribe an essence to today......it would be in 'leading others into temptation.' That seems to me anyway....what we do most today......either in political correctness or entertainments or legislation and even in our educational system. We are passionately dedicated as a people in leading others....away from God. We almost seem to preface our argument with.....'hath God said'....before we lead them astray. Hugely popular...award winning films today....are more and more becoming something that is purely an inducement and enticement and temptation to many....of all ages in America....and this almost as if to challenge the movie-goers first with....'Hath God Said.'
             Jesus addressed the importance of not leading others astray in the eighteenth chapter of Matthew and the ninth chapter of Mark. If I am even nearly correct....or partially correct in the thought behind this post....then it would seem that Jesus would be saying to us in America....."it would be better....to have a great millstone fastened around (our) neck.....and to be drowned in the depths of the sea."
             We wouldn't therefore be....'one glorious nation under God'....as our president often describes us....would we? Also if this were true....you would think that pastors might want to relay this message from our Lord to us from the pulpit......wouldn't they?

A Book That The Church Needs To Read!

            I was in a bookstore today for my weekly....'Tuesdays at Barnes & Noble'.....to look over the new releases....and see if there's anything that I can't live without. My wife has to laugh at me at times as I seem to often interject myself at bookstores in other people's conversations and even thoughts. The Christmas before last....2017.....I overheard a lady that I did not know....ask the clerk about a book she was giving in a book exchange. I made a comment on the book....and here it turned out she was buying it for my wife. Another time a lady looked perplexed in the aisle for quite a while. I just had to ask! She was looking for a woman's devotional. I was able to introduce her to a wonderful woman's devotional. Now how would I know the answer to that? A few weeks ago the clerk was trying to find a book for a patron.....'It should be right here?" he kept saying over and over. I couldn't take it anymore and asked the clerk what book he was looking for. When he told me the title....I said follow me....we walked to the other side of the aisle and I pulled the book out for him...."It was misshelved"....I told him....."I noticed it earlier."
            OK...enough boring anecdotes. I had given away my copy of John MacArthur's recent....Christ's Call To Reform The Church.....and thought that I'd pick up another copy. Well....they didn't have a copy.....but just thinking about the book again reminded of this older post....so I thought it a good time to bring that post back:

A Book That The Church Needs To Read

           My wife and I were having lunch the other day with missionary friends who were home on furlough from Africa where they have served 27 years so far! I was asking the husband about the spiritual condition of the churches that they had been visiting since returning home....and while on that topic I mentioned to him something that I've brought up often in these posts. We no longer have Billy Graham Crusades on television in America whereas in times past his crusades were broadcast a couple of times a year. We only had a limited number of channels available back then so just about everyone at one time or another stumbled across one of his crusades....and heard the gospel of Jesus Christ preached marvelously! Just about every person in America would either hear of what happened on Calvary two thousand years ago.....or they would have to just keep turning that dial. It is a big deal that we no longer have this source of the gospel for everyday Americans!
           There's yet another blessing that we no longer have in America.....and I mentioned this to him.....and he knew exactly what I was talking about. Not that many years ago there were six Christian bookstores within a short drive my my home. Today there are none. I don't even know where I might find one in Pittsburgh. Here's my story....36 years ago while my wife was shopping in a department store I just walked aimlessly around the shopping center only to come across one of those Christian bookstores. "Should I go in?" I asked myself? Why not? I walked out with the classic apologetic Evidence That Demands A Verdict by Josh McDowell. That aimless walk turned out to be a major development in my life. Americans in general no longer have these bookstores.
           The 1980s and most 1990s were a wonderful time as far as the publication of excellent Christian books. It would be hard not to find an exceptional Christian book in one of those stores. Today it's the opposite in Barnes & Noble as it would be difficult for someone such as I was in 1982....just browsing....to discern a good book....the few of them that might be there....from all the not so good Christian books....and that description I think is somewhat of an understatement. These two examples...televised Billy Graham crusades and Christian bookstores....combined with the abysmal preaching and modern easy-believism that is literally everywhere today....are a big part of the reason that America is without basic Christian discernment as it is today....while stumbling in the dark for answers!
            Now for the point of this post: John MacArthur was one of the men who wrote some of those wonderful books from the 80s and 90s. Well.....he's written another.....maybe his best....that's saying a lot....and I am hoping that this is a sign of what might be to come! The book is Christ's Call To Reform The Church. I devoured it....underlining everywhere.
             Folks.....we need to concentrate today....right now....on the seven letters to the seven churches of the second and third chapters of Revelation! Now the average Christian might be above such a suggestion as this...."easy-believism....abysmal preaching....why our churches are doing extremely well....just check out the attendance figures"....they probably left this post a few paragraphs back....but you didn't. Pick up the book friends. You won't be disappointed....and it may be a turning point in your life.

B. D.

The following, poorly structured though it may be, is an attempt at poetry which I like to re-publish every Memorial Day. It is a distant and quick reflection of my first two and a half years in the army which began in September of 1969.

B. D.

Good-byes outside the Federal Building, hearts bursting with pride,
new friends, for a day or two anyway.
Where you from?
Meal tickets, cough, sign here, raise your hand, get on the bus,
a few hours to digest what happened.
Here's your bunk, here's your hat. It won't be too small tomorrow.
Lights out...lights on, get up.
Raise your left hand. The foot below that is your left foot.
Milk never tasted so good, nor liver.
Smoke'm if you got em.
Lights out, shut up. Lights on, get up.
"Hey new guy!" Eight weeks is a lot of seniority here.
March, run, push, carry, salute, stomach in, chest out.
Congratulations, pride, get on the bus.
Seven to three and turn the lights out when you want.
Boston ain't bad but a bald head would be normal today.
Home for the weekend, cab driver not impressed.
Here's your test, here's your test, here's your test.
Congratulations, another stripe, get on the bus.
Farewell party, pack light, good-bye.
White building, no windows, no news, no TV, just wait for your name, it could be a couple days.
Get on the plane.
Heat, aroma, concertina wire, dust, sun, water buffalo, silk, Pabst Blue Ribbon,
reel-to reel, abacus, burn detail, pretty Asian girls, 12 hour days...forever,
pills, mail call, piasters, conical hats, nouc mam, Mama San, number 10, dinky dow, tuk tuks,
maps, files, briefings, frequencies, "They're on the move," sleep, maps, files.
Whistle!
Bunkers, jokes, heat, siren.
Sand bags, guard duty, Asian Elvis, Buddha, kids, chocolate, Budweiser.
Whistle,
bunkers, no jokes, heat, siren.
Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, Fourth of July.
Sydney, Kings Cross, moneys gone, get on the plane.
Monsoons,
maps, files, briefings, frequencies.
Whistle,
bunkers, slop, siren.
Short-time calender, "I hear they don't like us?" Protests, daydreams, maybe college.

Whistle

I remember you.

The Art Of The Retirement

            Whether it has been in real estate or casinos or the entertainment industry or Mar-a-Lago or even horse racing and golf.....Donald Trump has generated revulsion towards himself. How does he handle this? He pokes and prods and jabs and taunts as if saying...."You don't like me....well how do you like me now"....which makes it worse.....and so he again responds....'Oh you don't like that either.....well how do you like this?" This is what Republicans want to give us an additional four years of!
            In 2015/16 we conservatives knew very little about Donald John Trump. I know that I write this often but we have to understand it. He would say things that shocked us......like....."Look at that face! Would anyone vote for that? Can you imagine that, the face of our next president? Who would vote for that face?". All that about Carly Fiorina.....and we just brushed it off because Hilary Clinton had to be stopped. By all rights we should have dumped him that day....Hilary Clinton or no Hilary Clinton....and this was far from an isolated instance as it was a regular....almost a weekly occurrence.....and still today....from day to day....we don't know what tweet storm he will be ranting on.
            Yet not only do conservatives....(well I can't really call us conservatives anymore.....for we are not)....not only do they want us to get on board for a second term.....but they don't even want to hear any debate about what President Trump says that he did compared to what someone else might say....that's how low we have sunk. Criticize Trump and all of a sudden we're Never-Trumpers or worse.....even though we celebrated in November of 2016.....even though we were fighting for conservative causes while Donald Trump was....well he was being the Donald Trump that the tabloids know.
            I mention this often also in these posts....when it became apparent that Donald Trump was not who he said that he was in the primaries.....I began to read about him. It's well over thirty books so far.....a new one every couple weeks....most critical....some neutral....and some pro-Trump books.....and whether  Donald Trump is castigated or glorified in the book......it's the same  Donald Trump......vacant....he has no real belief system....he's shifty-sometimes disguised as genius....self-absorbed....(described as a genuine mental illness in some books....as kind of funny in the glorifying books).....and purposely stirring controversy while loving every minute of it!
            OK....you like Donald Trump.....you think he's a great president.....you certainly have that right....but you cannot just ignore the very real problems he brings along with him. You expect people to just accept his lying as you do.....and ignore a narcissism that may distort reality....and you are more than willing to subject the American public to four additional years of gut-wrenching daily news bombs like we have had for the past two years.....and what do we get for it? We got tax breaks and executive orders on stifling regulations....and judges....that any conservative candidate would have accomplished....and a booming economy that they would have at least come close to! But we also got a couple trillion more on the national debt that President Trump could not care less about.....and we got the Trump/Kim reality show. We got Ivanka the Terrible! We got the Obamacare repeal scam and the wall fiasco. We got Jared who shouldn't be entrusted with a pizza shop start-up given responsibility for much of the world. We got cabinet members fired in tweets! We got dozens of rally-type worship services.....and a thousand 'God bless Americas' the aroma of which must be a stench in God's nostrils....and now we are getting stonewalling and a cover-up that looks like Watergate on steroids....and we are in a trade war.....tariffs....something you might do if your economy is hurting.....but we are told all the time that it's the greatest economy....ever! Why take those risks now?
            I do not believe that President Trump is going to be nominated for a second term....this because he makes a big mistake about every month....and one of them is going to be something that even Rush can't get him out of. That's not the issue.....the issue is....'one'....when will this happen and will we have enough time to get another candidate....and 'two'....will he get this reelection out of his mind in time that when really challenged on the world's stage....that he is not making decisions just to get elected. We don't need a comeback folks.....we need a retirement. Cannot this man be satisfied with becoming the 45th President of the United States?
            I want to hear about what the FBI did also. I want to hear why men with illustrious careers and respect in the FBI may have been so opposed to Donald Trump as to jeopardize those careers. I want to know why Putin wanted this man in office so bad. President Trump may indeed have been subjected to unfair and illegal actions from a Deep State.....but if this happened he did not handle it well at all....and what he's doing right now with stonewalling only makes matters worse.
         

Chariots Of Fire

Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day in America. Will God move on our pulpits.....or will they remain dormant....virtually powerless.....unable to be a help to America....at least powerless compared to what they have been at times in history when God was awakening a people for His purposes. If God begins to move tomorrow....we will probably hear about it in the news....and it won't be complimentary....whole churches....whole areas....even whole denominations....falling to their knees and trembling all of a sudden.....at what America has become....and then rising almost as if at the sound of a trumpet....announcing a coming King. Where would it start.....the Bible Belt.....the Southwest....a surprise maybe.....the Northeast or the northwest? Maybe everywhere? Unless the men in the churches humble themselves.....and seek u power as they did on the very first day that they walked into a seminary or a Bible school....unless they finally admit that something may be wrong in their preaching.....we will move into Monday.....thinking that we are essentially a faithful church....unaware that our Post Office address is Laodicea. The following post is from 2017: 

        What should a church do in order to grow? Just what is church growth anyway? Is it limited to numbers or can a church grow in other ways? Should church growth be pursued at all costs? Should it even be our primary focus? Should a big church be considered a success while a small church is to be deemed a failure?
        While on vacation I was given a rather fancy laminated advertisement for a local church. The key word highlighted was 'contemporary.' They wanted to make sure that the recipient of the invitation knew one thing...that their worship services were very....contemporary....nothing dull and boring here. I looked up the church's web site....it was very nice....very professional.....and yep.....it was contemporary all right. I read over the 'what we believe' section three times to see if the gospel of Jesus Christ was there. It wasn't. There was no cross...no sin...no resurrection....but there was a lot of....worship...discipleship....and ministry. I've seen many many church web sites over the years just like this that seek to grow with the gospel of 'come and worship with us.'
        But enough of the user-friendly churches....what of the rest of us?  Well, we do vacation Bible school....that's certainly good. We often go door to door....''A for effort there. We cheerfully welcome visitors....no problem with that. We do a lot of things right.
        Growth of a Christian church through numbers is God's job. Whether there is one new baptized member a year or ten thousand new baptized members...that is not to be our focus. It's to be our hope....but not our focus. Our focus should be in having the gospel of Jesus Christ proclaimed from the pulpit each and every Lord's Day.....both for the benefit of the saved and the unsaved in the pews....and for both the church member and the visitor who comes through the front door.  If we fail to preach Christ crucified then we move towards the contemporary church. If we preach only how to live then we move closer to the psychologist's couch. If we are ashamed of the cross then we may indeed build something...but it won't be a Christian church.....and if Sunday School lessons come from the pulpit then we will be nothing but a 501 (C)(3) Sunday school.
        The church does not produce revivals or awakenings or reformation! They are produced by God in part for the benefit of the church and the world. Other than prayer we are not involved in God's 'timing' for revival's and awakenings and reformation. When they come we may think that our prayers have brought them when in fact God's Spirit moved both upon the redeemed with a great evangelical fervor and with regeneration upon the unredeemed who then came to faith and redemption.
        There is a difference between motivation and fervor. Motivation breeds numbers only....fervor breeds that which God gave the fervor to breed....revivals....awakenings....and reformation. I do not sense a fervor today....only motivations....but I feel tremors that surely must precede fervors. I see the enemy all around.... but surely it is as it was with Elisha in that "...those who are with us are more than those who are with them"....and that "the mountain (is) full of horses and chariots of fire...." It may very well be a good time to prepare for revival....for awakening....and for reformation....not to strategize for it....but to prepare for it.     

We Christians Can't Fall For Delusions....Can We?

The following post is from March.....we have indeed fallen for the great miracle working delusion of Donald Trump!

          Donald Trump is a false prophet that much of the church itself has fallen for. I say this not for one comment that he has made....or even ten comments.....although there have been many and they are continuous....but for the giant image he has built...of which we did the heavy labor. He is everything that we should not want in a president. He is as one of those who Jeremiah would have railed against.....he is a Nebuchadnezzar...."Is not this great America, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence and for the glory of my majesty?" He gives false hope....and false tidings....glad tidings....when God proclaims judgment is at hand....and he does not bring glory to God....but leads many of God's people astray in their vanities.
           Evangelicals....and Christians who actually read God's prophetic word to His people....who might on any given evening settle back and read Jeremiah or Isaiah....or Revelation....or believe it or not....the minor prophets of the Old Testament....and who might meditate on the Olivet Discourse. We know all about false signs and wonders....false prophets....and false miracles....and great delusion in the very last days....but we have relegated these things to something that will be so easy to spot....that others are the ones that have to worry about it. We don't concern ourselves that we might actually be part of those who could fall for these delusions....for we'll recognize them immediately because it will be so obvious....for we are Christians....God's church....so....what are the next games on tap for March Madness? Do you get my drift folks?
            If we want scriptural proof we just go to Matthew 24:24...."For false Christs and false prophets will arise and will show great signs and wonders, so as to mislead, if possible, even the elect (that's us)" So there you have it....we won't be fooled....it's not possible for us to be fooled....or might there be something else here?
            Evangelicals might sit down in a group of Christian friends when this topic comes up. Someone might jump in with...."you know...it does sound like it's saying here that maybe....we ourselves....might have to really be observant....extra observant....that Jesus might not be telling us not to worry....but  the opposite....be vigilant....why else would He follow Matthew 24:24 with.....'Behold, I have told you in advance'....and how about verse 26....'If therefore they say to you, 'Behold, He is in the wilderness, do not go forth, or, 'Behold, He is in the Oval Office.' do not believe them'." OK....the text says 'inner rooms' not 'Oval Office'....but once again I think you see where I'm going with this.
           If we as a church were thinking with discernment....we would recognize that this age that we live in is not exactly an age where sound thinking abounds....that it's actually the opposite....and that we....though we wouldn't like to dwell on it.....are part of this age.....and susceptible as anyone else. Delusion is here folks.....and Rush Limbaugh is part of it....we're all part of it to one degree or another. This is a time to get sober-minded....and fast!
           It's not as much for political reasons that I write posts on....'release the report' or 'four years only'....as that we do not want a false prophet in our White House....a man who lures us in with claims on how wonderful things are going to be....better than they ever were....and how great he is....and how great we are...."America is one glorious country under God!"....(really?)....when we should be able to look around at the world....at America....and ourselves....in the light of God's Word.....and see that these may be the ravings of a false prophet.
           There may be a winnowing ahead for the church folks....where many Christians begin to distance themselves from Donald Trump....while others fall even further under the spell.

Note: That this is a very weak age for preaching......and that on the whole the pulpits of America have let America down....and bear much responsibility for what we have become as a nation....which is not now a glorious nation under God which our false prophet president tells us....this is not a popular message to pass on....but it is time to start defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ....first....not ministers first....and not churches first.....and not America first. If they are ministers of the Gospel then they will stand under the scrutiny....and not only stand under the scrutiny but demand that their message be scrutinized so that they remain faithful to the Gospel of Jesus Christ!

           Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day and many of you know that you will be disappointed, confused and confounded once again as you walk in hoping for the glory of God to be on display but walk out wondering if there ever was anything to this hope.
           I have what could be very helpful advice for you. Yes....go to church and offer your worship to our Lord and our Savior and our King.....partake in His wonderful sacraments....and sing His praises....and fellowship with others who know Him as Lord....but rise earlier than usual to listen to one of the great sermons of the past....before you head off to church....then as you listen....use that time to pray for the man in your pulpit. Pray that God would show him that which he may not even be aware of.
           Simply Google......to begin this experiment.....'Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons'......and pick any one of the sermons that come up. There are more than enough of such wonderful sermons available from Martyn Lloyd-Jones and others to take you throughout the year.....and beyond.....or until the Lord awakens the men in our pulpits.....or until He returns in person....in power and in glory!
            

O What A Time Period It Was!

The following post is from 2018:       

           There's no specific day that I can remember when I came to faith in Jesus Christ.....but O what a time period it was! The gospel was everywhere. I was a coal-fired power plant operator and if I wasn't covered with coal dust then I was ankle deep in lime slurry. New Christians seemed to be everywhere. We had prayer meetings after working a midnight shift! Christian bookstores were everywhere. Billy Graham crusades were on television.....and the books.....the books actually addressed the mind. (and preachers had an unction back then)
            One major weekly magazine named 1976....'The Year of the Evangelical.' Our President said that he was 'born again.' Charles Colson....one of the Watergate conspirators....became born again. The 700 club was a force with which to be reckoned.  R.C. Sproul was introducing the church to the holiness of God which had a transforming effect on Bible study. Sound biblical ministries were everywhere on the radio. An astronaut (James Irwin) who walked on the moon could only see God's glory in the heavens....and one of the best and most fanatical basketball players ever to play the game....(Pete Maravich)....after coming to Christ....regretted that his life up until then had been more basketball than the Bible. Christians were actually reading and studying John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress....I've read it a dozen or more times and listened to it on cassette an equal number of times....Charles Spurgeon read it 100 times in his day! David Wilkerson preached the glory of Christ like George Whitefield. Christian music was simple yet profound. A wonderful and humble man was our President. (today we have a narcissistic nightmare) Nightline type of television shows would choose Jerry Falwell to interview....and he would keep his head up....smile confidently....look straight into the camera....and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior! (today it's his son....and that apple rolled down the hill)
          I remember that time period.....and I came in late....I remember it as Jews must have remembered their temple......and I often feel like weeping at what has become of America since those wonderful days. No longer are there Christian bookstores in just about every community....no more Billy Graham crusades.....no more R. C. Sproul......Bunyan's book is never read....but we're really not aware of any of this....and when you're not aware of something.....you don't know what you are missing.
          How had all this started? Well I don't know....but I know this....God started it....and if it happens again....then it would be He that starts it again. I know what we need though. We need an unction in our pulpits.....tears if necessary.....we need to dust off our grandparent's books if they are still stored away somewhere. We can still listen to Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul on our computers....but there is one thing that we must understand.....our beloved nation is crumbling fast.....chaos is everywhere....our enemies are taking advantage of it....and politics cannot save us!!! If we could only see the mist from the falls that are just ahead....and hear the roar of the water that will soon crush us....then we might look to what is our only hope....cast off our unbalanced dalliance with politics....and call out to Him whom we have presumed upon....."Have mercy on us Lord.....for thy name alone....and for thy glory alone!"

The Stockholm Syndrome And Us

           I've posted numerous times that Donald Trump is in effect a destroyer. He destroys. He destroys enemies of his but even those who fly too close to his flame are destroyed. Michael Flynn and Michael Cohen would be examples of this....as would be to a lesser degree so many who joined his administration only to be raked over the coals before being cut loose. The conservative movement in America is pretty much non-existent right now. Conservative talk radio is a one-sided farce. Evangelicalism has gone full-blown 'politics can save us.'
           The issues of the successful 2016 campaign are long gone as everything revolves solely around protecting a man who has deceived us to such an extent that we may be showing symptoms of what became known as The Stockholm Syndrome where the injured (or deceived) wind up defending the person who took them captive (Donald Trump)....utterly refusing to testify against their captor (this is why Justin Amash is being hammered)......and ultimately becoming one with his philosophy (in this case power....greed....the end justifies the means....and in other words become just like our captor.)
           This time that we live in is so difficult and dangerous that we need a president that does not have a reelection on his mind....this is particularly and glaringly the case with Donald Trump. We need to humble ourselves before God whose warnings we ignored....trusting in Him even as we find ourselves repenting over thinking that we could do our own way....our MAGA way.

           The following post is from October of 2018 and was titled....We Are No Longer Aware Of Our Condition:

           There was a time in the recent history of the church when Christians knew that America was in trouble....not with earthly enemies....but with God. Preachers warned of this. Billy Graham and others wrote on this....and we all knew it deep down within. We looked around and all that we saw was rebellion....decay in the culture....and corruption in the government....and a growing easy-believism within the church. Time passed....a few decades....and this knowledge of our rebellion just sort of slipped away. We experienced 9/11....the wars that followed it....turmoil at home....and then Barack Obama....a socialist.....who we found to be a Marxist....and is probably a communist....was in our White House.
          We were giving the farm away so to speak and Hillary Clinton seemed destined to continue the charade of Progressivism's distorted view of American patriotism. There was a large remnant....a small minority overall but a large remnant within the church in America that knew that God was judging us by giving us these leaders.....but then along came Donald Trump. He along with Rush Limbaugh....the single strongest voice within Christian conservatism's earshot....told us....no convinced us....that everything was going to be alright.....better than alright....great....exactly the opposite of what God's Word tells us!
          So here we are today.....ten times....just to use a generic exclamation....ten times worse than we were at the height of faithful Christians ministers warning us....and yet all discernment of God's judging us as a nation is gone. We are much more in rebellion to God....and aware of it much less! We are in a far worse condition than we were before because we are not only not aware of God's judgments that should be evident every day but cannot even remember how far we have fallen as a nation in rebellion to God.
         We project everything that is wrong onto the Democrats. After all....we're the good guys....trying to get conservative Supreme Court justices....trying to get the heavy hand of government away from our families....and trying to restore the Constitution back to its proper place. It gets worse folks....we think that we are winning.... we think that God is blessing us because of our faithfulness....just look at the economy! Forget that God said that when a rebellious nation such as we are starts to think that peace and security and good times are ahead....that sudden destruction is at the doorstep.

        I would only ask one thing....that someone out there says...."OK....I'll at least consider the possibility that what is written here is correct.....and ask of God to show me if we as a church in America have lost sight of where we stand before Him."

The Last Convert Of John Harper

How many signs do we need? Oh but we're too sophisticated today aren't we? Our biggest fear is that somebody....somewhere....will call us a date-setter. The following post is about 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 put in my mind 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 with the possibility of accepting 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 of the past but we do sometimes learn when we are in them....and this world certainly has disasters ahead of it. May the church begin to prepare.....and be encouraged with the same words that Paul gave those on his stricken ship.....only to us 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,"
       

         

Zen And The Art Of The Deal

Update...Friday AM: AG Barr said today that the answers he is seeking on the origins of the investigation of Trump have been...”inadequate”....this as a full-blown cover up of Donald Trump's very questionable deeds over decades is in progress. Conservatives.... you are building a tyrant of potentially monstrous proportions in Donald Trump! Evangelicals....God has apparently given President Trump to this faddish and prosperity gospel church in America....as a judgment....not as a MAGA boost. It is time to fall on our knees seeking forgiveness for our dalliances with entertainments and greed and now gross power grabs through a well orchestrated deception by a man who excels in nothing in life more than manipulating people to his own benefit.

           After about twenty-five months so far of continuous lying......well over ten thousand documented individual lies so far......some big.....most small.....there is not a single thing Donald Trump could say that I would believe without verification....not a single solitary thing.  His whole life has been this way.....but we have been indoctrinated into not reading books about him haven't we?
          Trumpism has taken on a religious tone. In the beginning....(no pun intended)....it was issues oriented....but then the rubber was to meet the road....and there was no tread on Donald Trump's tires....but fear not little flock....this was now a messiah.....not a politician. Rush Limbaugh was the first to take charge of the masses of worshipers. Gone were the saffron robes with this cult figure....Golf shirts were now the robe of the day....while the incense of cigar smoke....and the golden temples scattered across the Eastern seaboard.....and the meditative green walkways....(known today as fairways)....calmed our anxieties.
           Om na ra.....Trump Trump Trump.....Om Na Ra.....Trump Trump Trump.....it was dizzying the similarities between Eastern meditation and American conservative talk radio. Chakras and runes have been replaced by bull markets and quarterly statistics.....crystals by gold. Nebuchadnezzar's statue has long since fallen.....as has Dagon's.....but a new one is being hoisted.....with a head of gold.....but feet of clay.....in which we are to turn (on) and worship every day....on an AM dial....from noon to three.

Sproul, Jeremiah

Google if you would.....'Sproul, Jeremiah'.....that's it.....just 'Sproul, Jeremiah'.....and a 24 minute teaching video will come up. If you don't have time for something like this.....then you probably would not have gotten anything out of it anyway.  God will give us the essence of our real desires. The following are two older posts that relate to R. C. Sproul's video:

"Do Not Trust In These Deceptive Words"   

           It's probably the #1 response that I get from Christians that do not want to hear 'negative' talk about God judging America....they say that you just have to trust God. Then why do they not also trust God's warnings? The following was first posted a few years ago:

           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 by these gates to worship the LORD!' " Thus says the LORD of hosts, the God of Israel, "Amend your ways and your deeds, and I will let you dwell in this place. "Do not trust in deceptive words, saying, 'This is the temple of the LORD. the temple of the LORD, the temple of the LORD.'

           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!'

"Build The Wall".....Catchy Phrase

          The Second Temple had been built under Zerubbabel but many of the older people were in tears because it didn't have the grandeur of the First Temple. Ezra had returned to Jerusalem from captivity a few years later along with more of the remnant. His first task was to offer burnt offerings to God for bringing them home safely. His second task turned out to be listening to the officials as they told him how the people of Israel who had returned earlier had not separated themselves from the peoples of the land or from their abominations. Today we tend not to fully understand what or how terrible those abominations might have been....just as we now do not understand the severity of our own abominations....but Ezra did know....and he rent his clothes and pulled some of the hair from his head and his beard. He then laid it all out before God in humiliation and repentance....for the people had done this before and God had judged them. Were now a remnant returning from captivity....because of the former judgments....to do that all over again?
          Nehemiah as we all know returned a little later yet....and set out to.....build the wall....catchy phrase....'build the wall'....to rebuild what remained of the walls and gates. Folks we need first in America to rebuild God's house. Whatever it is that we have today in much of evangelicalism should bring tears to those who have read about the church in days past.....and we need to build a wall around it again. The Lord's Day had been one hedge of protection for the church but we ripped it out by the roots and brush hogged even the stubble that remained....then covered it with artificial turf.
          We are not separated....we are not even a peculiar people.....we are no threat because the gospel of...."come in....find your own ministry....and grow with us" does not send fear into the powers and principalities that are arrayed against us. We are today many more people in American churches than were Jews at the time in Israel....but we have too few Ezras to turn us back to God....what with the loss of men like Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul. We have too few Zerubbabels or Haggais or Zechariahs left to reform the church....maybe a MacArthur here or a Horton there....and yes others....but not enough....and too few Nehemiahs to build a wall....(not that wall)....if any. We are in a captivity of sorts in America but do not realize it. We do not even know that the grandeur of the church is not in the size of the building but it is in He who we are there to worship and proclaim as our Lord and Savior....a grandeur that even Solomon's Temple could not give! We've been given ample opportunity to return.....even commands....but we prefer to stay in Babylon.
  

Four Years Only!

           Two local Florida panhandle radio stations announced that they will begin broadcasting hourly two-minute speeches by President Trump from now until the 2020 election. Folks....we are in the process of constructing a tyrant of major proportions. There is absolutely no excuse for us not to see through this man Donald Trump to who he really is. There are explanations.....reasons why we were so blinded....but no longer any excuses.....for excuses absolve in a way the offender.  We could legitimately use those excuses for quite a while after the inauguration.....but they are all expired now.
           Donald Trump has serious character conflicts at the very least and possible psychological disorders. He lies like no person in  the public eye that I have ever witnessed.....and he does so with the greatest of ease......apparently totally devoid of any guilt on what he is doing. His narcissism is not just a funny eccentric thing.....it can be earth shaking if it is not controlled. His spirit of revenge and retribution lies dormant only until that opponent of his gets close enough to whack.
           Our FBI had legitimate reason to be very wary of this man who they saw in action in dealings with Russia for many decades....for that is their business....to keep tabs on Americans dealing within Soviet and Putin governments. Investigating their actions if it appears that they exceeded legal limits is not wrong....investigating their actions while covering up.....through the power and pressure of the presidency......Donald Trump's very apparent obstruction of justice.....is not only wrong....it is Stalinist....it is Soviet police governing. These folks doing this for the president....Barr and others....may want to remember that Stalin himself did away with most....most of the men who supported him on the way up when he no longer had need of them. Meadows and Jordan may want to remember how Donald Trump once threatened their very House seats if they did not obey him!!!!
           Folks.....this man is not normal.....his grandiose view of himself combined with his lack of respect for laws and restrictions and truth itself....will metastasize to infect the very freedoms that he proclaims himself to be a savior of....this if given the opportunity. The only thing I can tell you is to ignore his media generals advice and read the books about him that they call the 'fake news'....read....read....read!
            I don't want to see him impeached.....or even forced to resign....but we cannot deal with this type of megalomania for six more years without seeings severe repercussions. He is even now entering into a war-mongering phase....which should be distinguished from war when thrust upon us. It is time to put this MAGA nonsense behind us and wake up. We need to force Donald Trump to change his mind on seeking a second term....and to do that we need to withdraw our support of him....for that only feeds his ego.
            

The Treadmills Of Our Mind

            I tried to get back into running last summer but my knees made that impossible as they just could not take the pounding anymore....but I got on a treadmill for the first time in my life and lo and behold I like it.
            I half-way remember a thought of mine from many years ago about treadmills...it went something like...."all that walking but you don't go anywhere and you don't see anything." Well this morning....as a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon ended....and I took those headphones off and stepped off that treadmill....I thought about that maxim....and was forced.....happily....to retract it....for a sermon like that takes me right to the oracles of God.....and I see even more of the glory of God.
            No I had not gone anywhere as I stepped off the treadmill from the same spot that I stepped on it....but I had just heard the gospel preached.....I'd say preached wonderfully but that would be redundant....for when the gospel is truly preached.....it is always wonderful!
            I also shed a couple hundred calories.....and in return got some good aerobic exercise. I stayed in the same place the whole time......didn't advance as much as twelve inches.....but was much better for it. Sometimes you have to admit that you made a mistake and go on from there.....you don't quit....you don't pass the blame....and excuses don't help anything.
           We made a mistake with Donald Trump. We just didn't catch on to him. Everything sounded so good. Well not everything....truth be told a lot of Donald Trump not only didn't sound good....it sounded bad....real bad.....but we didn't even blink....we were driven....and it mattered not anymore who in fact was driving us. Now....two years later....we have a genuine tyrant in the making who will send his henchmen after you if you ever have the audacity to investigate him....while ordering others to cover up his own misdeeds! Welcome to Trump's America....power....greed....and reckless driving.
            Rush Limbaugh was invaluable for almost three decades. We went through eight years of Bill and Hillary....a few years of President Bush being hammered unmercifully....(and this for defending our country)....and then we went through eight years of the Marxist Barack Hussein Obama....but nothing stopped us over that twenty-five year period....we were down at times and picked ourselves right back up....but victory proved our undoing.....for when Donald Trump didn't turn out to be who he said that he was.....it's as if we gave up....as if we had absolutely no idea how to fight that battle. We didn't challenge him....we had nothing left....it's as if the war ended....and we were led away captives....to a new master over our mind.
             So we are in effect on a treadmill right now. Limbaugh fell in love with his own reflection in the pond and is worthless. The people around the president are obviously afraid to say anything....and as a people we are tone deaf as to what is truth and lies an in-between. It's those of us who know that we are in trouble.....that are on a treadmill so to speak....who can only sit and watch the greivous mistakes and errors of judgment being made....but we can use that time to seek God's mercy....to ask Him to show us very clearly our culpability....America's culpability....that we might look only to Christ....and warn others as we ourselves had first been warned.
         
         
         
           

Storm Warning

Preface: Folks I want to bring back this point as often as I can. From the day that Donald Trump announced his candidacy to the day he became our president we conservatives really knew very little about him. We knew he was brash and super-rich....that he built big buildings.....and once owned casinos.... and now owns golf courses.....and that he was married three times....and that he had this hit television show....but we are not city people so we didn't really understand Donald Trump....and we were too busy trying to stop Hilary Clinton to investigate who Donald Trump really was....and most of what we did know of him....he told us himself! We never did set about to finding that out.....even after he started showing different colors....but some of us did.....and I did.....and now over thirty books later what I found out was that there isn't much to Donald Trump....and never was....he's just a showman....who has to find something new every once in a while to keep the gate receipts up. Our new president had no interest in a wall or Obamacare or a national debt....this and a lot of other promises were just part of the show....and as for being such a big supporter of our military (?)....the best thing any president could do is to desire wisdom and not glory. The times they are a-changin' folks....for there are real enemies out there....not just competitors:

Storm Warning

           Are you better off if you don't know what's going on? Sometimes it almost seems as if you are. I'm in the news and in books from a few minutes after I wake up....to a few seconds before I go to bed. It's just what I do. I read....and I sleep....and I eat a little in between.
           I obviously like to write.....and I like to concoct phrases.....play a little bit with vocabulary.....but try as I have since sitting down here to type....I cannot come up with anything to describe how bad off this country of ours is....and yet our president.....whom we want for another four years....six more years total....tells us how great and wonderful things are.
           I've been around for a while....and watched a lot....the Cuban missile crisis....JFK's assassination....1968.....Vietnam....Watergate....as well as all the other disasters since Bill and Hilary moved into the White House....but what we have now is pretty near indescribable. We had a genuine Marxist president for eight years....Queen Jezebel almost replaced him.....and surprise of surprise....what we have now is probably worse than the two combined.
           Donald Trump is worse because he sucked us in with a power and greed con that we just couldn't say no to....in the process destroying the conservative movement and obliterating Christian discernment on what we really need. At least we knew what we were up against with Obama and Clinton. I don't think there is an honest bone in Donald Trump's body. His lies flow as smoothly as Shakespeare's sonnets. Have you ever read.....Commander In Cheat.....probably never heard of it in this cloister and partial news blackout....(all the news that is critical of Trump)....that Trump and Rush herded us into.
           President Trump stands at that lectern in his rallies.....and buffaloes those people....because most everyone is as if hypnotized....which in reality is being blinded purposely by God from seeing who this man is.....for this is who and what we wanted. We came close to showing some humility in the years that led up to the last general election but MAGA put an end to that....we had no real faith anyway that God could pull us through this mess simply by trusting in Him. Gideon and people like that were for some other time. God doesn't do that stuff anymore.
           Am I being a little bit over the top on this? Just stay tuned.....God has given us more signs than anyone should need.....and much more than we deserve. And if He does continue to tarry....then what we have ahead of us is no answer to prayer. There are three...maybe even four or five potential war fronts boiling over all at the same time. Artificial intelligence is going to be a monster. As for the Church of Jesus Christ on earth in America....just look who sells the most books and what kind of teaching and worship fills those big churches up. The earth itself is having tremors....the skies are showing ominous signs....we have a crushing $22 trillion dollar debt that our president could not care less about....and to top it all off....common sense and logic and reasoning and all that stuff is almost gone....prophetically replaced by that proverb from God's Word...."There is a way that seems right to a man, but its end is the way to death." (14:12)