We Are All In This Together

            I've been retired for three years now. I worked in a large industrial setting....and we Christians knew each other.....but also we conservatives generally knew who we all were. It's part of the reason why I have missed my job so much.....the fellowship.....and the friendships.....and in this case the short encouraging conversations with others of a similar political mind....particularly in these troubled days that we live....but yesterday I noticed something where it wouldn't be quite as easy if I were still working today.
            I had a couple of contractors over the house yesterday.....working for most of the day. They were the type young men that if I had known them at work we would have bonded immediately....typical humble conservatives....who loved their family and their country. The one young man had our flag on the back of his shirt....with writing that I never did get to read. At one point the other man gave me a detailed history of how gun manufacturers had evolved in America.....and I found it very interesting.
             So the day was over and they had done an outstanding job.....and were loading up their truck....and I was talking to the one about his business....and how it was good that he was so busy. He made a casual remark....I felt that he had to....for I know these type of men....for I'm from the same material. The remark was short....and it was positive....and it was on President Trump.
             It made me feel good for it verified who I knew these men to be....typical blue collar hard-working Americans who love their country. Four years ago I would have brought the topic of our country up first and we probably would would have had good conversation most of the day....but it is different today. So what do I do in this situation....these are the type of men I admire....this is no time break friendship....but on the other hand I could in no way not say something?
             I told him how I voted for Donald Trump.....and celebrated.....but I don't support him anymore....and I waited. He mentioned the economy and how things were so good for business. Thinking back on it....it was somewhat amusing....as I spoke....and he paused and then spoke....and I paused and then spoke again. That's the way it should be...I believe anyway. I mentioned to him how we had been working for these issues....regulatory and tax issues....for decades.....(I'm quite a bit older than he is)....and President Trump implemented what we wanted him to implement....and that a little humility in this would have helped.
            He said something that surprised me....in this day anyway....for it was humble....as he admitted that he really hasn't studied this too much. I would be surprised if this man hadn't been to a Trump rally at one point....and it made me feel good....to have had the subject broached and still retain a feeling of friendship and like concern for our nation.
           He's been on my mind since then for he had a ten year old son who had been sick at home for a few days....and he was concerned.....so I've prayed for this situation.....maybe you could join me in this.....for this is indeed what it's all about.....working for the same goals....in very trying times!
         


            

There May Be Excuses....But No Legitimate Reasons For Not Seeing Who He is

I was in a discussion with one of our active duty Marines the other day....a member of an elite unit....a family member....I can't remember his exact question but I remember my answer....divided as we are I'm concerned about how we will react as a nation when God's judgment causes us to hit rock bottom....for He has made it abundantly clear to us that we have turned away from Him....and we are now on our own. Will He have mercy upon us....where when all of the politics is moot.....we might humble ourselves before Him.....or will the judgment only harden us more? I fear the latter is the case.....but hope and pray for the former.

            Right now I can't see any way that I would again cast my vote for Donald Trump. The general argument against this would be in the possibility of any one of these Democrat candidates becoming president. On the surface it seems like a persuasive argument. Under the surface it gets uglier. After all the reading about Donald Trump that I've done.....and four years of observing him....I'm convinced that his multiple and serious psychological disorders absolutely eliminate him in my mind as a man who should be dealing with China or Russia or Iran or North Korea or any matters really of national security.
            I have never in my almost seventy years witnessed such a pathological narcissism. I don't know that I've ever even read about anyone who believes himself so important. I don't know that I've ever come across a more vindictive person.....and I know that I have never seen a more natural liar.....literally dozens of times seemingly every day.....most small insignificant lies.....but many whoppers that point to additional psychological problems. He's been this way his whole life. At one time.....as a supposed adult.....he would contact the writer of a financial magazine.....using another name.....telling that writer how rich Donald Trump was.....so that he could be included into the magazine's 'richest' category....and his claims were dubious to begin with....and this is but one story of dozens....all the same....all about him.....all signaling a troubled individual.
            I look into his eyes on television and see a vacant stare....as if nothing is behind those eyes. I can picture a Roman emperor.....young and crazy.....thinking only of his own glory. This is what 53 books on Donald Trump will do to you.....books on his youth....his celebrity....his businesses....Mar-a-Lago.....golf....for it's obvious who he was in every decade of his life....how he has perfected deception and manipulation.....and then he builds this candidate and runs for president of the United States....and we believe him!
            If all this weren't bad enough.....add to it this power that he seems to have over the minds of his supporters.....who should have long ago seen who he is and moved on. There was a poll released today.....of republicans.....where a majority thought Donald Trump was a better president than Abraham Lincoln. This is almost incomprehensible....two men....one whose character is impeccable....and humility and wisdom legendary.....where even today it is amazing.....but the other man is totally despicable in all his ways. This poll should be a blaring alarm as to how ludicrous our thinking has become.
            So where does this power come from? Is it all just mind control technique.....repeat repeat repeat.....the big lie.....and flattery? Possibly....but I don't think so....for this is a bona fide delusion....even within the church....and dominating evangelicalism. This points more to a mass populist almost hypnosis. It's happened before. I won't mention names but you surely can come up with a half dozen on your own.
            What is most disconcerting of all is that pastors....who should be watching out for the sheep....are often the most deluded of all.....but this needs to be said in connection to that....our pulpits.....on the whole.....may not always compromise the essentials of the gospel....but they have compromised their responsibility to stay ahead of the culture. Their preaching.....when compared to days past.....may be exciting and motivating in a modern context....but as for the preaching of the gospel and the cross of Christ....and therefore the power of God's Word....it is by and large abysmal. The church....influenced by unemployment statistics and the hope for a perceived return to greatness for America....along with a corresponding rejuvenation in the church....has failed to differentiate between God and country.....certainly not the first time in history that this has happened.
            Time will tell about Donald Trump on whether God would move upon his heart....but it is absolutely irresponsible to give him four additional years as president when every day today is just one big fight to defend him from some stupid thing that he said....or some decision he made that caught his people or his generals by surprise.
            May this Lord's Day be that day when God moves upon all of our hearts.....laying us low....and none more than me....which is where we belong as to the nation that we all have in one way or another constructed. May He give an unction for souls to the men in those pulpits. May He make us a peculiar people once again. May He instill in us a godly reverential fear....able to see our condition....with spiritual sight....seeing ourselves once again as pilgrims in this world.....sojourners.....with our hope not in a king....but in the King of Kings....who surely is at the door with righteous judgment.
            

A Few Dollars More

Preface: That iconic symbol of Wall Street is a 7000 pound bronze bull....about 16 ft long and 11 feet high. I've never seen it....for although having seen a fair amount of the world I haven't been to New York City since the 1964 World's Fair....even though The Big Apple is only 399 miles from my house....according to Siri.  It signifies a bullish economy prepared to trample anything in its way. Why did the Israelites feel it necessary to pressure Aaron to construct a golden calf? Was it just to be like the pagan nations and nothing else? We use the word 'idol' often in Christian circles and in churches. We know enough to at least try to avoid having our own idols....usually of riches or fame of some such thing....but we don't seem to have a healthy fear or an extended knowledge of what idolatry might entail. One biblical verse on idols that I don't think we have paid much attention to would be Revelation 9:20....speaking to the very last of the last days...."The rest of mankind, who were not killed by these plagues, did not repent of the works of their hands nor give up worshiping demons and idols of gold, silver, bronze, stone, and wood, which cannot see or hear or walk," (ESV) Consequently we can hear sermons on.....and have Bible studies on the idolatry of money and riches....but in our haste to proclaim that the idol itself cannot hear or talk or walk....we also denude it of any power behind it...and not knowing that power....we may become more susceptible to it....in this case our passion for the accumulation of riches....via our 401s or Wall Street investments.

          This is an odd Lord's Day post. I'm somewhat surprised that I never read Atlas Shrugged back in college in the 70s....for Ayn Rand was a charismatic cult figure on campuses back then.....and because I would read similar complex but popular books such as Gravity's Rainbow and The World According To Garp and The Greening Of America....and Future Shock....but I did....very young....probably about twelve at the time....see Gary Cooper in The Fountainhead....the final scene of which eerily stayed with me over the years....where Howard Roark's new wife rises in the open elevator to the top of the soon to be greatest skyscraper in the world....while Roark waits godlike....arms on in hips.....at the top.
           In retrospect....opinion here of course....Ayn Rand's capitalism as connected to her philosophy of Objectivism is the worst capitalism of all....and it has reared its ugly head today through America first....which is really America Only....which is why we can threaten and browbeat and throw tariffs at will on anyone from whom we can get a few dollars more.
           Philosophers have rejected Ayn Rand's system but from time to time over the decades during and after her life she would again become very popular in certain sectors of American life....at one time conservatives and at another time Libertarians and at other times college students and protesters....and again at other times intellectuals....as Alan Greenspan was more than an admirer of hers....evidenced as he invited her to the White House when he was named President Ford's chair of his Council of Economic Advisers...(a photo exists of Rand and Greenspan and President Ford that is available through a quick Google search)
            This philosophy....this system of hers....effects man in many areas of life and government but essentially it is using an inductive logic from the reality that our senses perceive where as Wikipedia puts it...."the moral purpose of one's life is to pursue one's own happiness." So for example...altruism in any form is a waste of time. It's really as bad as it sounds. Compare this to the Westminster Shorter Catechism answer to the question "What is the chief end of man?"...."Man's chief end is to glorify God and enjoy him forever."
           As a child during the early days of the Soviet Union Ayn Rand's family was persecuted. She escaped....it took a while but she became famous for her writing. She was an atheist who could not tolerate anything to do with God....and she despised William F. Buckley....as the feeling was returned.
           In many ways Donald Trump could have been one of her heroic characters.... he could have been Howard Roark at the top of his Trump Tower....but in some other ways she would have despised him. Trump said during the campaign that he read The Fountainhead....and listed it as one of his favorite books....but more likely he...as I....saw the film.
           "Lord open our eyes to this man"....it's not a prayer that I utter while purposely taking time for prayer.....but rather uttered at different times throughout any day when I hear some new news about President Trump...."Lord....open our eyes to this man....open my own eyes to myself....have mercy upon your children if not all of America....that at least we might look once again only to you....having learned a lesson on how easily it is to be taken in by the philosophies of this world."

"Let Right Be Done"

            House Manager Adam Schiff yesterday gave an outstanding nine minute summation that I encourage you to Google and view if you haven't already seen it. His and my politics surely differ....to put it mildly....but I recognize here a strong intellect and a determined courage....particularly in light of the three years of our attempt to destroy him on talk radio. He knows Donald Trump....where his supporters do not....and it was so evident in his summation where he referenced the concept of doing....'Right.'
            The following 2017 post references my second favorite film after Chariots Of Fire.... that being David Mamet's 1999 The Winslow Boy....where the chief legal protagonist....an opposition member of Parliament in the film based on true events in England at the turn of the 19th century....in his summation....passionately proclaimed a Petition of Right....."Let right be done." The republicans will now take the offensive....and no doubt rally the base....while seeking a textbook legal verdict....but as one line from the famed barrister in The Winslow Boy put it...."Easy to do justice....hard to do right."

            It remains my second favorite film of all time.....the 1999 adaptation of Terence's Rattigan's play The Winslow Boy directed by David Mamet.....a short summary of which is....a London banker's son is accused of petty theft while at the national naval academy and expelled....precipitating his family's all-out defense in the Parliament and national media.
            The film begins as the family.....minus the fourteen year old son.....returns from church in this Edwardian England. The dismissal of the boy is not known yet. The stately father is commenting on the sermon as they enter their home....he seems profoundly interested in the sermon topic of Pharaoh's Dreams in Genesis 41 where....in the first....seven healthy cows are observed....followed by seven ugly and gaunt cows who appear and devour the healthy cows. The scene is then repeated in the second dream with seven good heads of grain being devoured by seven withered heads of grain. The meaning of this of course is that God...through Joseph...is informing Pharaoh that there will be seven good years to prepare for seven years of famine.
             As the film progresses the Winslow family sticks together as they suffer financially and even in their personal lives in support of the youngest son. We have had....here in America....adequate time to prepare for what we have brought upon ourselves. We have not prepared....and will be as the Winslow family where paintings and furniture slowly disappear....and difficult personal times accompany their defense of what is right.
             If your heart seems to stop for a moment every time a new abomination envelops our nation....as it does mine....you might consider preparing for what is ahead as did Pharaoh as he believed Joseph. Some possibilities might be to purchase that needed and dependable vehicle now instead of later after your 401k is hard hit. Another might be to take the advice of most financial advisers and put some gold in your portfolio. It is very possible....some believe even probable....that the government....whatever government this is that replaced that of the Founders....will feel forced to limit your money withdrawals when financial catastrophes hit. Live like many Floridians who are always prepared for a major hurricane to take their power, food and water away for weeks if not months. You might accumulate items that could be used for barter.
             You may think that this kind of thinking is a lack of faith in God but it is rather the opposite....it is faith that the Word of God is true. Do we not live as in the days of Noah? Has violence not overcome us as a nation? Are there not false prophets and teachers everywhere as Peter warned....saying...."Where is the promise of his coming?" We don't really believe in Noah's flood so how can we take seriously God's judgment on the world?
             Spiritual preparation is far more important than physical preparation but both are scriptural and therefore to be heeded. Peter finished his 2nd Epistle with these words...."You therefore, beloved, knowing this beforehand, take care that you are not carried away with the error of lawless people and lose your own stability. But grow in grace and in knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To Him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen."

DISPATCHES

Voted For Him....Celebrated....Fool Me Once....Not Twice

After reading this verse tonight I wanted to bring it to you for your consideration. It's from the book of Lamentations....(2:14)....(ESV)...."Your prophets have seen for you false and deceptive visions; they have not exposed your iniquity to restore your fortunes, but have seen for you oracles that are false and misleading."

Four additional years of the torment bordering on torture that Donald Trump loves to give everyone who does not bow down to him is unacceptable without at least trying to stop him. You call this Trump Derangement Syndrome....well let me tell you my story. I knew little of Donald Trump other than his boasting and his money and his wives. I not only voted for him but celebrated.....until almost immediately I saw there was a big problem here and that he was not who he said that he was. I started reading about him. I am just about up to sixty books now.....sixty books!!! It's so obvious now that it hurts. He's pulled this kind of scam his whole life. You think that he has accomplished a lot? I think that that boast could easily be dispelled but there is no avenue to challenge his claims to greatness. Talk radio drank the Kool-Aid and the mainstream media isn't going to challenge him on conservative issues

Some Democrats....and the rest of us either Republicans that can correctly be identified as Never-Trumpers....and those like myself who voted for Trump and celebrated....have known or now know who Donald Trump really is. This is a man with serious psychological disorders....a pathological narcissism unlike anything I have witnessed in my 69 years....a lifelong history of lying....where I'm convinced that Donald Trump in his own mind no longer can discern truth from lies....and a vengeance mechanism emanating from boundless self-adulation that kicks in immediately upon a perceived offense. We know that he has not only no ideology but no moral foundations. Therefore he has no real beliefs....and can easily go back and forth....and back and forth again and again if the political situation calls for it. So when we see a decision made as was made with the attack on the Iranian commander....we cannot possibly disassociate it from a man who has proved time and again to us that he can never be trusted. Just as the radical progressivism of today has become a severe judgment upon America....Donald Trump brings his own set of severe judgments from God upon conservatism....and evangelicalism....whose religion has become more flag than cross.

Concerning the Ukraine.....President Trump's favorite phrase is...."read the transcript." This morning as I was listening to a Charles Spurgeon sermon....while pushing myself on the treadmill....he used the phrase...."read the text".....referring to his biblical message. So my message in response to Donald Trump's "read the transcript" would be...."read the text".....the Bible text....the text of the Bible....that which you have ignored for your entire adult life....and so flippantly joke about. This is the Word of God that tells you right now that as of right now you will appear before Jesus Christ as one who mocks God on a daily and hourly basis....but Mr. President....God will not be mocked. This is the message that every one of these CEO ministry heads and megachurch pastors that flutter around you should be telling you....for you won't step foot in a church with a pastor who has not been vetted as to being totally inoffensive. I don't know who is fooling themselves more....you....believing the hokem that God....(should He even really exist)....raised you up and anointed you because you are so special....or those who think that they are ministering to you.

The Golden Globe Awards are but another major television special where evangelicals by watching it make a mockery of the Lord's Day. We found the excuse in evangelicalism that we needed so that we can go to church in the morning and spend the rest of the day in entertainment. My home television has only been on once on a Lord's Day in the last thirty-eight years....and that was ten minutes for an emergency. Does that make me holy? NO! It just shows that I know the Lord's Day to be a hedge of protection that God has given us....and it would have been a source of discernment in America had Christians held true to to God's Word. It's probably part of the reason that I recognize Donald Trump as a false prophet but evangelicals do not

Donald Trump would have absolutely no idea how evangelicals might differ from one another....for he has no idea on anything at all concerning the Christian Faith....and has demonstrated no desire to learn. So when a Paula White latches on to him he probably just thought....'that's cool'.....but when James Dobson and Franklin Graham join....well these guys are A-team members....the evangelical vote has got to be in the bag. Most of the news sites had as one of their headlines something like....."Trump says God is on our side." Now on this one....millions of evangelicals probably squirmed in their seat....for we have acknowledged forever that you don't make statements like this....but once again....Donald Trump hasn't a clue.....and apparently does not have the advisers to stop him from making such statements.

"Shaken....Not Stirred"

            I'm thankful to say that my dependence on talk radio for news and information....a dependence that turned into more of a bondage as the news and info dwindled....replaced by President Trump talking points....has itself dwindled down to a 'tune in.....and click off' within minutes....as every morning and afternoon and evening it is the same ole' same ole'....obscure....attack....and repeat..
            For a couple of years now I wanted to know more of this Christopher Steele and Fusion and Orbis et al but all that talk radio would give its listeners was rants on how evil they were....and how it was a conspiracy from the start....but a book finally came out that more than gave a general synopsis....(there are plenty of those books)....for this one.....Crime In Progress....Inside the Steele Dossier and the Fusion GPS Investigation of Donald Trump....was written by the main protagonists on the Fusion side....Glenn Simpson and Peter Fritsch.
           I think that I related this way back at the beginning of these posts....eleven years ago....on how my love of reading may have begun in army basic training at Fort Dix back in 1969.....as when we were finally permitted to go to the base PX....I bought a couple of Ian Fleming James Bond books to pass the little free time....and I don't think that I stopped reading since.
           I give that anecdote here because in maybe the first third of Crime In Progress I felt like I was reading a James Bond book....something like Goldfinger....(any idea why I picked that title?)....but having completed it I would have to put it in the category of All The President's Men (Bernstein & Woodward.) Should the Lord tarry....and society continue as it is.....there might very well be a major movie out someday titled Crime In Progress.
           So....if you are like me and just wanted the other side of the story on the Steele Dossier....this is it.

I thought this a good time to bring back this recent post:

Good-bye, Langley

             You are an analyst for the CIA. You're 64 years old and set to retire at the end of the year so you have seen lot in your career....and developed a sense of spotting trouble when something is not right. Today Putin is being pushed in Russia....and he has a nasty habit of pushing back. Hong Kong may explode. The trade wars may back the Communist Party of China into a corner that they will have to fight their way out of. Both Russia and China have fiercely been stocking up on gold. The Mullahs in Iran are more than willing to go to war....along with their surrogates....provided there are other wars going on. Meanwhile.....Kim Jong-un just commissioned his newest submarine and is testing ballistic rocket systems right and left.
             You've got a memo already typed up and ready to push the send button....a worst-case scenario....but no one to send it to....for everybody above you is focusing on Venezuela....on the possibility of a blockade.....for 'humanitarian purposes' of course....certainly not oil. You wonder if you should have included Venezuela to get their attention. You delete the memo from the computer and roll up the printed copy....tossing it the waste can....to be burned later. You decide to vacation out instead of waiting until the end of the year.
            They all shake your hand on your last day. You buy a comfortable cabin in the remotest section of Cook Forest, Pennsylvania where there is no WiFi or cable television. You bring a book that you've always meant to read.....page one....by the time that you have read through the book of Daniel you wish that you had sent that memo....by the time you've finished Revelation you think about....and utter the words out loud of the second thief on the cross....from the Gospel of Luke you believe....for you know no other way to put it...."Jesus, remember me when you come into your kingdom."

"But realize this, that in the last days difficult times will come. For men will be lovers of self (Donald Trump?), lovers of money (Donald Trump?), boastful (Donald Trump?), arrogant (Donald Trump?), revilers (Donald Trump?)...." (2 Timothy 3:1)

Rockin' On.....Trustin' In Jesus

            I won't identify any of the people in this anecdote but you would recognize the names. The well-known Pentecostal preacher decided to see for himself.....and attended a Christian concert of the most popular Christian singer of the day.....(this was in the 80s....and I had been to one of this Christian entertainer's concerts back then....and remember the preachers testimony as accurate)....somewhere in the middle of the dancing and wild 'praising' the preacher was so distressed at what he was seeing that he ran down the aisle yelling...."Ichabod....Ichabod"....'the glory has departed.'
           Today....Fox News reported on it....65,000 18 to 25 year olds are gathering in Atlanta for a three-day praise and teaching conference. I caught a few of the videos so far and it was typical of any concerts today with some laser lights and pyrotechnics and giant screens....but I would say to these young people.....'that's not where it's at.'
           The intent is certainly there....and there were some good speakers on the agenda. The news reporting so far is anything but in-depth so I'll continue to read up on it in the week ahead....Lord willing....and I may have to retract some of this opinion....but if there was not a warning there for these young people.....a warning on what America has become....on what we have become....and what lies ahead....then it's probably just another.....'show the world how cool Jesus is.....and how well we can rock.....even though it's a different 'Rock.'
          It's a coincidence....18 to 25 years olds at the Christian conference....but if we have war ahead of us and the draft has to be reinstated then it will be these same 18 to 26 year olds called up first. At the very least this generation has the right to know what is in store for them! The bottom line is that we are in TrumpWorld now.....he just predicted a great year ahead....we're not worried.....we're not concerned.....we're just rockin' on....trustin' in Jesus....but unfortunately not trustin' in His warnings.