Try Retweeting This

The following was first posted in July of 2014. If the President wants to retweet something....he might try this proclamation of a national day of prayer and humiliation from 1863....taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org....and stay away from the insipid pretend national days of prayer with no humiliation that we have become accustomed to today:

NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER....AND HUMILIATION

"From the days of your fathers you have turned aside from my statutes and have not kept them. Return to me, and I will return to you, says the LORD of Hosts." Malachi 3:7 ESV

          The following proclamation is taken from abrahamlincolnonline.org.
 
        Proclamation Appointing a National Fast Day

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

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

From Sunny Skies To Surveying The Damage In Fifteen Minutes

This is an odd post. I started out just relaxing on my patio in beautiful weather and typing my thoughts on God's warnings to America.....not even sure that I would wind up posting it....when at 2:50 the weather started to change....and fast. After checking the ominous radar scope....I switched to describing the change in the weather. This whole episode lasted fifteen minutes max. My power came on at 8:00.....and after cutting up the limbs I'm adding this paragraph....and completing here where I left off....where a winnowing is coming in the church....because if the Lord's return is near....as we usually use the word near....then the delusions will just be too great unless one is firmly in the hands of Christ....born again....not just recruited....not just religious....and even here it is only Christ who has the power to keep those who trust in Him....and it is only trust in Christ that will keep.

here is the post that I started in beautiful calm weather....

            As one might read through the Old Testament prophets....either the major prophets....(major in the length of the book)....or the minor prophets....one would read of a nation that not only knew of but experienced the power and holiness of not only their God....but the only true God. The reader would see time and again that same people forget all the commands and the blessings and the miraculous protection that was bestowed upon them by that only true God. One would read of continuous warnings....in Jeremiah's case lasting decades....and one might wonder in true amazement how those warnings could time and again go unheeded.
            The judgments would come in God's timing....and we read an eye witness account of the horror that the people experienced. Interspersed in many of these books are judgments for the far away future....at the culmination of all things. Sometimes one has to have some help in reading as one verse might pertain to judgments of that day....and the next judgments for the future....and the next judgments for the end times....but it becomes clear as we read these books over time.
             Ultimately....after seeing the entire process as it played out with the Israelites....we then see ourselves....not only knowing of God but having experienced his hand upon our nation from the very first time that ships anchored off these shores....and we see hundreds of years that have passed.....just as with Israel and Judah....until we can hear....if we permit it....Jeremiah's and other's warnings of destruction aimed directly at us.
             If this were not enough to shake us up and bring us to repentance....and it hasn't been....there is the New Testament warnings....all the writers and Jesus Himself giving us an almost step-by-step description of a collapsing world before His return. We can see the wars such as there has never been before....and the violence pouring out of the peoples....and the numerous false gods. The miraculous establishment of the state of Israel alone should have told us that the long wait may be over....only the decades remain.
             At seventy years old I've witnessed the step-by-step disintegration of a whole people. I've seen God mercifully bring many into His kingdom.....myself being one of them. I've heard the warnings of many Billy Grahams....that reached deep into a remnant of the people but totally ignored by most. I've seen the church grow blissfully ignorant....and what is known politically as evangelicalism fall head over heels for a false prophet.
            There is not going to be a nationwide awakening in America....at least not one that changes the course of the country for decades....and certainly not a making of America great again. Our hope should be that God might have mercy on enough of the people of this land that we might look to Him as these judgments unfold. There is surely a winnowing ahead for the church....where those whose salvation is real....whose hope in that salvation is only in the merits of Jesus Christ....

here is where the weather suddenly changed

I'm going to digress here for a few minutes. We have a storm warning in our area due in the next fifteen minutes. I look up and the sky is blue other than white clouds passing rather fast. I'm on my patio...and can hear soft thunder in the distance....and darker clouds are moving in swiftly from my left.....the northwest. The temperature dropped a few degrees since I started this paragraph. The winds were picking up but they stopped altogether as the wooden chimes that were knocking wildly against each other but are now hanging limp. I took the opportunity to check the local radar....and a deep burnt orange mass is a few miles away. The wind has suddenly picked up and within a two minute span we have a deluge moving horizontally. We lost power....tree limbs are everywhere. It’s fifteen minutes later and I.....and all the neighbors....are surveying the damage....as sirens are heard all around us. I’ll hopefully look this post over later when the power is back....as I'm posting this on my iPhone.

Addendum: There is a message in this experience. At one moment I was kicked back with my feet up on the table....with blue skies.....and I barely had time to get my computer and books out of the wind and rain.

"Captains Of Our Own Fate"

            How long of a time period was it from the first plague on Pharaoh and Egypt to the last plague? We don't know. It might have have been months....or it might have been longer. A couple of times it seemed as if Pharaoh was weakening....as he might at one time try to make a deal....and at another time actually beg for relief. Even after the final plague....where he let the Hebrews leave....his anger built....and he went out with the intent to destroy them.
            We in America have had judgments from God....of various degrees....over an extended period of time. We've had school shootings....and mass shootings....each shocking us....for a short period of time anyway. Violence has overwhelmed us since the deaths of the Kennedys and Martin Luther King. Columbine caused us to weep....but did we weep a little less as a rifle fired into a crowd from a hotel in Las Vegas....killing far more than Columbine? Two Shuttle disasters set us back in our exploration of space. We were on our knees as our military went to war in Iraq in 1991....but quickly forgot that danger as our mind went back to the economy....and war has followed us since then. The Clintons and Barack Obama....Pelosi and Omar and AOC and everyone tagging along....were a judgment....but only those of us on the Right knew that.....and Donald Trump is every bit as much a judgment from God.... but only those on the Left seem to know that.
            Who would have thought that....short of a nuclear war....we could be brought lower than that which 9/11 had done....but a tiny virus.....whether it proves to be as deadly as were are warned or not....has driven us into darkness....both political parties....all of us....even evangelicalism that looks not to Jesus Christ....but to Donald Trump....who tries to negotiate a deal with God as did Pharaoh.
            There is no indication that these judgments from God are going to cease....or even subside....for we are stumbling around....possibly headed to a world war....of which we ourselves could be lighting the fuse....for an economy....for an election....believing the words of a false prophet...."Together we will vanquish the virus and America will rise from the crisis to new and even greater heights.....(for) In America....we are the captains of our own fate."

            

Memorial Day

         This is a totally fictional account....but on the other hand totally true many times over....we just have no way of knowing about it.

         Somewhere in Vietnam....on a bloody battlefield....there was a young man....black or white it doesn't matter.....a PFC maybe but that doesn't matter either. His company was ambushed and the first hour or so was pure havoc as the company commander tried to rally his platoons into a defensive posture until help could arrive....but some of the men were separated....two men in particular. One was badly wounded. The second could hear the orders screamed out from somewhere on his right to form a perimeter. He could have hurried and joined his company but heard from his left the cries of his fellow soldier....and instead ran towards him....lifted him up on his shoulder....and carried him towards the shouted commands....but both of them were cut done,
         No one knew what happened....no one will ever know of this heroic deed. His body and that of the man he tried to save were never found. His family had no body to mourn over and bury. There was no medal awarded.
         There are thousands of stories something like this over the centuries of America's wars....and hundreds of thousands of lives lost in every way imaginable in war....and therefore hundreds of thousands of grieving families and widowed wives and fatherless children.
          We long ago set aside one day to think about these men....and women. What we could have....and should have done....at the very least.....was to keep intact the country for which they sacrificed their lives....but we are all human....capable within the herd of both extreme acts of heroism....and of....figuratively speaking....sleeping on guard duty as the country is overrun.
          There is a time for war....unfortunately....for there is pure evil in the world. Although we cannot totally prevent war.....we can do our very best to make them fewer....so that there are far less stories like this to cry over. If we would but keep in our minds the horror and sorrow of what war brings....we might be able to make what would otherwise be four wars....only one.....and what would otherwise be eight wars.....only two.
          It's sad to put it this way....but until the King of Kings comes back it is all that we can do....but when He returns....O when He returns....in the midst of what will be the worst of wars....He Himself will command His army of angels....and then....and only then....will there be war no more. Should we not then....as somewhere in this world....on any given day....as we hear of "wars...and rumors of war"....and know very well what may be just ahead of us....should we not pray for Him to hasten in His return...if it be His will....even as difficult as those days will be?

Lord's Day Post

            Franklin Graham last year at this time called for June 2, 2019 to be a day of prayer for President Trump....to protect him in the face of political attacks. The next month Trump used the word...'g*damn' twice at his Greenville, N. C. rally. Aside from the profane language itself....you would think that he would hold back on words like this....on a televised rally....if for no other reason than not to humiliate supporters.
            Here are a couple of legitimate questions to at least ponder....'If A Christian believes that a genuine biblical false prophet has entered the sheepfold....deceiving the flock....leading them astray.....prophesying peace and security when God's Word very clearly says the opposite....tempting them with greed and power....building up anger....praising himself like no one before him....would it not be proper for that believer to pray....that God would open the eyes of the flock as to the false prophet who has entered the sheepfold....not by the gate....but in another way....a "thief and a robber" as Jesus described such a person?
            Another question to at least be pondered would be....why is it that Franklin Graham and others....follow Donald Trump....(for that is truly what they do)....but there are yet others....who do not recognize in him the voice of a shepherd or one who leads in the safe way.....and will not only not follow....but will flee....praying yes for mercy upon this man.....(I have two whole posts in the past that are prayers for Donald Trump)....but praying more for those following him into danger?

Is Psalm 91 For Today?

            If you are old enough you may remember this. Iraq had invaded Kuwait....President George H. W. Bush assembled a coalition of nations to expel Iraq....and Operation Desert Storm did just that. It was 1991 when the operation began. There was a grave danger of chemical weapons being used against coalition forces. There was no doubt as to a final outcome of the war....but serious concern among Americans that these chemical weapons would kill thousands of our military in the process.
            You would have to understand the essence of a large segment of the American public at that time. It wasn't a general awakening that had taken place in America over the previous two decades.....and the word revival didn't quite fit either....but it was something special.....and legitimate in terms of a spiritual movement. A fear of the Lord had taken hold in much of America....a great reverence towards God.....multitudes really were 'saved' during a two decade period.....and I was one of them.
            Christians were praying prior to the war.....during a buildup that President Bush had devised almost perfectly....I mean really praying. Psalm 91 was central in our prayers....Psalm 91 in 1991....with verses such as...."I will say to the LORD, 'He is my refuge and my fortress; My God, in Him I will trust'....(verse 2)....and....'He shall cover you with His feathers, And under His wings you shall take refuge; His truth shall be your truth and buckler'...(verse 4)....and....'No evil shall befall you, Nor shall any plague come near your tent. For He shall give His angels charge over you, To guard you in all your ways"....(verses 10 & 11.) A small pamphlet with Psalm 91 seemed to find its way into the hands of most Christians....particularly our military that was over there in the Middle East.
            This....Psalm 91....was a Bible chapter for the day and the time we were in....and the church at that time.....but is it the best Bible passage for today? We are a different church than we were back then. Fear of losing a political election has replaced fear of the LORD. To me Psalm 91 doesn't seem to fit....by itself. Oh it is a true as it ever was....and it will fit once again in the future....probably the very near future....but we are in need of something different today. We need scriptural warnings on what we have become more than we need a reminder that God will protect us. Even here I'm not writing to everyone....for there are still many Christians who have retained that humility in an age of making America great again....but too few of these believers....so warnings have to be in that pamphlet that would circulate today.
             Intent is not the problem. Discernment....or rather the lack of it....is the problem. There are churches today.....most of them small....unaffected by the church growth movement....but not all of them small....but even these churches need the warnings....to understand better the overall condition of the evangelical church....and the people of America....and what may be in our very near future.
             Psalm 91 is for today as it has been for every day since the Holy Spirit dictated it....and there are believers in this world where this Psalm is indeed the Bible passage that is needed....and it can be preached here in America also....if it is wound around the warnings from God's Word....for just as we hear so often....how can a person be told that they must be saved.....without telling them from what they must be saved....how can Christians be comforted....if the true anguish is not first discerned?

Our Own Rebellion In The Wilderness

        A contingent of the people in the wilderness rebelled against Moses and Aaron.....some of the more notable of the men leading the way.....Korah the Levite being chief among them. Moses was taking too much power unto himself they believed. This stunned Moses who told them that they....the Levites....had been given a great honor in ministering to the people....but they wanted more....they wanted to determine the ordinances of the people. They were so deceived in their own minds that they actually charged Moses with taking them....out....of the land of milk and honey....Egypt!
        Moses told them to come on the morrow....and the complaint would be ajudicated.....so Korah gathered as many as were on his side and showed up. God in effect told Moses to stay back....a social distancing in a way....because judgment was coming. Moses pleaded with God for mercy who allowed him to try one more time to convince those who were rebelling to change their minds.....but his pleading was in vain. The earth opened up....and fire came from the Lord....and all those rebelling against Moses and Aaron were consumed. Panic followed in the ranks of those who witnessed it.
        Rather incredibly....the next day....the people charged Moses and Aaron with killing the people of the Lord! They gathered together as a mob. Once again God in effect told Moses to stand back....and once again Moses pleaded with the Lord....but a plague of some sort began immediately to kill the people. Moses rushed into action....pleading with God again....and the plague ceased immediately. 14,700 people had died.
        We today have rebelled against God and His commandments...as we demand an answer to....."Who gave these church people from the past the right to say what God commands and what He doesn't command?" We want a say in what the ordinances of God are! We'll determine for ourselves what a Christian is to do! We want to chose our own leaders....no matter how profane and arrogant they might be!
        Plagues....and judgments....come in various forms. Rebellion and confusion and great division began to consume us in America. We chose our own leaders....both civil and in the church....who would show us new ways governing the people and worshiping God....but the judgments continue....as we continue to challenge God's simple command to repent and return to Him.
        As for our side...we want to make America great again....but what does that mean. Has anyone ever even asked that question? What time period are we talking about....Reagan's? Even he used the phrase....'make America great again.' It seems to be an abstract concept related to financial and military hegemony. It has absolutely nothing to do with God....who for His own purposes....established a witness in this land....and protected us as the gospel of Jesus Christ went forth....from Christians.....not from the government.....although God used the power of America to make a somewhat safe way for the proclamation of the gospel all over the world.
         If there ever was a true greatness here....apart from power....(of which Rome had that greatness at one time....Great Britain at another....and the United States more recently)....and democratic self-governing....it was in our being a conduit and a vessel for God....but that's not the greatness that we want to return to.....and that is why this effort will fail.....for God is not in it....it is rather an affront to God....even though we frivolously and arrogantly use His name all the time.
 
"Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam's error and perished in Korah's rebellion," (Jude 11)

What Did We Expect

One of the complaints about Donald Trump the man is that he has absolutely no wisdom. He looks at China right now and he is not happy. A lot of people are not happy. I haven't been happy for decades....but Trump is mad because what he thinks was a great economy....(with a $22 trillion dollar debt....that he helped grow....and an overpriced insane stock market)....an economy that he claimed was his personal economy....is gone....and his reelection chances are in doubt.....so he is doing what he does best....strike back at someone. What we need to do right now is avoid a world war. That comes first. We have to take our time....get proofs first of all....wait for this election season to be over....if the Lord lets us even do that....and come to a consensus of how we will deal with China. It would not be out of the question for them to move on Taiwan....or someone else....or up the anti another two or three levels....or even strike first....particularly if their back is absolutely to the wall....but this president inflames....purposely....it's part of his modus operandi....carry a big stick....and bang it every step of the way. The following was first posted March 31:

Preface:  The Harris Poll found that 77% of Americans....90% of whom are Republican and 67% are Democrat....believe that China is responsible for the catastrophe upon us....as we are being stirred up for retaliation primarily on talk radio....for political purposes. I have never read The Art Of War...Sun Tzu....but Donald Trump recommends you read it in his Trump 101: The Way To Success. President Xi has certainly read this ancient Chinese general's work. One recommendation in the book....I verified it from a few sources....is that you always leave an opening for an enemy if he is in a desperate situation...."Do not press a desperate foe too hard." We are now pushing for the opposite. We are tempting China to make the next step towards war. I just finished listening to an interview....as I was typing....with an 'expert' on China who spent the first half of the interview warning about what China's response might be....but concluded that we have to go on a war footing with the Chinese Communist Party anyway? Preparing for confrontations with any of our enemies has always been wise....but instigating those confrontations is not....and that is what we are doing right now.

            The plane that I was on left Tan Son Nhut Air Base outside Saigon on the same day that Air  Force One landed in Beijing....February 21, 1972. This was President Nixon's attempt to make war with China less likely....or so he explained it as such. Four months previous....mainland China was admitted to the United Nations as Taiwan was expelled. Four months after President Nixon's arrival in China....burglers were caught at the Watergate Hotel. On April 30, 1975 the Chinese variation of the Soviet T-54 tank rolled onto Tan Son Nhut. China was admitted to the World Trade Organization on December 11, 2001....three months to the day after 9/11.
            Today our relationship with China is like a clematis plant that has climbed in and out of the wires of a trellis. As a matter of fact the whole world is the trellis as China's economy weaves its way up and around and through.
            China persecutes many of its people....and steals intellectual property....and its influence around the world has been spreading as an invasive plant. What did we expect? Its economy is said to need an annual 6% growth to sustain itself. We not only allowed this economic powerhouse to come about....we wanted it to grow....and we continued to feed it.
            If China's economy were to totally collapse....what would happen? Economists attempt an answer on the economic side....but its our intelligence agencies that attempt to answer the sociopolitical concerns....but what good would that be anyway....for President Trump doesn't believe  them. Well he may now with his own appointees in there.
            It would have been one thing if our economy had been suffering and people were out of work in great numbers.....but that wasn't the case as we were constantly told that we were the greatest economy in the history of the world. So why did we pursue a risky tariff war? Was it on principle? Does Donald Trump seem to you to be a man who acts on principle?
            China was being pressured big time. Their communist leadership was moving back to a cold war stance.....and then the virus hit....and if it subsides China will then be taken to task. The Pentagon announced just today that the Marines are changing their training and equipment to focus on a more likely 21st Century war with China.
            If one is building a giant skyscraper hotel....one might be able to go back and forth on almost a daily basis....'OK we'll do it this way" and then "No we'll do it that way". If you make a mistake....worst case scenario you're out a few million bucks...but in world affairs as serious as potential major wars we need consistency. We don't need a novice stomping around saying that he's the smartest man in the room. Do we want China to at least survive....or do we want it to collapse? Let's look to both the immediate and long-term repercussions before answering that.
             What has been getting in the way of common sense is the greed of profiteering....which is short-sightedness. The tariff war was ill-advised. The dispersions cast upon NATO were ill-advised....as were purging of experienced intelligence people because they were not a rubber stamp....and as was the arm-twisting of the Fed....as was a number of other decisions made only to increase profits that were supposedly through the roof already. Whatever decisions will be made on China have to take into consideration what the communist leadership might do if their backs are absolutely up against the wall.
             

Tuesdays With Special Dog

The following is the setting from a post from the fall of 2016. It was supposed to be a series of weekly conversations between two good friends.....at a Starbucks....in Manhattan....but I never did a followup....until now

          OK....we're sitting around a table having coffee...no....let's make it a little more interesting...it's Fifth Avenue in Manhattan on a cold and rainy fall evening. We are sitting in a Starbucks drinking a caramel frappuccino (you) and a coffee (me)....wait, I hate Starbucks coffee.... I'm drinking a latte. There are no orange, yellow and red leaves to look at but with a little imagination the bright red, yellow and orange raincoats on the ladies walking by can be as enjoyable....and the neon lights mirroring off the oil slicked avenue can be as a wide mountain stream reflecting the colors of an aurora in the low hanging clouds. Fast forward to today for their next meeting....

Tuesdays With Special Dog....After The Lockdown

Me......"Hey John......brother......Good to see you again. I've really missed our Tuesday talks!

John...."Yeah....I missed them too.....I've missed conversation with any human being during this virus!"

A waiter shuffles over and sprays and wipes down their small round table. He's wearing a small silver dust mask....and some kind of silver du-rag on top of his head. After ordering....Special Dog looks at John and comments...

Me...."John....does that waiter look a little like Woody Allen's fake robot character in Sleeper?"

John....."It sure does Special Dog!"

Me......"Don't call me Special Dog....anyway....texting is OK but it's not the same....what do want to talk about?"

John....."There's no sports to talk about like we usually do....nothing to talk about except politics really.....so why don't we just go right into where you finish each week up with anyway....the end of the world?"

Me....."Ha Ha Ha....finally.....we get to the serious stuff first."

John....with a serious expression...."What's your take on this world shutdown?"

Me.....after pausing....."Well....number one....looking back on it....one moment we're bragging about our great accomplishments....predicting even greater things in the future.....and then.....out of no where....bam!"

John...."You know what really shook me.....they.....the government....they can do anything they want from now on....under the right circumstances.....we're cooked."

Me...."Yeah....like that proverbial frog in the kettle."

John...."OK....I'm going to cut to the quick.....what do you think is next?"

Me...."I don't know John. I didn't know that this particular judgment was coming. I just know that God's Word has made it clear for a long time that His patience with us was wearing thin."

The waiter shuffles over....Special Dog and John look him over.....as John tries a trick and says to him...."Woody?" The waiter answers...."Yes sir?" John and Special look at each other and John asks...."Are you Woody Allen?" The waiter's eyes under horned rim glasses go wide....."No!"....and begins to walk away....but adds....."My last name is Konigsberg." John and Special Dog again look at each other.

Me....."John....we both go way back in our Christian walk to the early 80s. We knew back then that the Lord must be coming back soon....we knew what America had become.....and now we're ten times worse but we lost all of that discernment. Even with something like this.....we still won't consider ourselves under judgment.....amazing!"

John...."Maybe if we lived in....say Indiana or somewhere....I might just want to start living life again just like before.....but after seeing what happened in the city over the past few months....I think I'm ready to see if I may have missed these warnings that you were always talking about?"

Me....."John.....my situation is even worse than that.....I knew Jesus was near.....this catastrophe didn't surprise me....and it still shook me up! It laid me low. I know these are days of judgment and I still cling too much to this life. I wonder how I'll react when it gets even worse? I'll tell you this....it really increased my prayer life."

John..."Are you referring to that 'peace and security' passage that you talked about last time....where you thought that the 'peace and security' follows some kind of catastrophe....you think this is it?"

Me....."That passage of prophetic scripture is never far from my mind. I know this....we looked at Donald Trump and celebrated peace and security....and prosperity and greatness. We didn't even give this perceived glory to God. We took it for a president and for ourselves."

John...."Laura.....(John's wife).....is reading prophesy all the time now."

Me...."You mean prophesy books that are out there?"

John....."No....thank goodness.....she's reading Jeremiah and Isaiah and Micah and all of them....and Peter and Paul....and especially the words of Jesus about things like this....and uh....your blog."

Me...."I have to think that there may be a winnowing of some sort coming in the church....a long needed winnowing where redeemed Christians from all denominations are set apart by these circumstances....set apart from those who take the faith that they proclaim only so far....and John....I don't think it's going to be pretty."

The waiter shuffled back...."Can I get you another Latte?" John looked across the table to his friend...."Special Dog?"....

Me....."Don't call me Special Dog." 

Waiter...."Excuse me....what kind of name is Special Dog?"

Me...."I write a blog....well more of a bulletin board of posts....a little humor sometimes....under that name."

Waiter...."I write too....a little humor!"

John and Special Dog looked at each other again.

Me....."Have you ever worked in Movies?"

Waiter...."What am I....the mystery guest on What's My line?" That was enough for Special Dog.

Me...."Woody....I would like to tell you about Jesus Christ. Not the Jesus Christ you may think Him to be....but the one who the prophet Isaiah spoke of.....and the Psalms told of....the Messiah who desires very much that Jewish People would search their scriptures anew to see who He is."

Waiter....throws up his hands...."See....I wear a rag on top of my head and people think I'm a Jew. People are always looking at me and thinking....'He must be a Jew!' "

John stood up....knowing where his friend was going.....smiled....and said...."Special Dog....and uh Woody....I think I'll let you two alone to talk....I think you have a lot in common.....somewhere."

John leaves....and Special Dog pulls out the chair next to him and says...."Sit down Woody....please....you see I have this neurosis....I think that everyone thinks I'm a fanatic....and I think that you might be able to help."

Woody sits down...."You used the word 'think' three times in one sentence....you do need help....so why do they....think....you are a fanatic?

Me....."Woody....I think this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship."

Waiter....."Play it again Sam."

We're Not There Yet....But We're Hastening It

           The live streaming worship services that I have partaken in lately have been a blessing upon a blessing. I didn't have to share in the small talk before and after the services....there was no rush to get dressed and out of the house....and it was much easier to just let my eyes wander in the distance as I contemplated something said from the pastor....whereas normally I would let the heavenly concept pass....and possibly forget it later....as I did due diligence and paid attention to the next words our of the pastor's mouth.....if that makes sense?
            As for the small talk....I've always found it out of place before a worship service....and more so afterwards. This is eternal life.....listening to God's Word preached! Oh I join in the small talk.....to be polite....and maybe not to become a pariah....but always feel that I diminished what was happening that day. I doubt if many or any agree with me on this.....but that's me.
            It's disturbing what I see all around me in reaction to the slow opening up of the country during this coronavirus emergency. I witnessed one shouting match today.....heard of another....and read of another....and watched a video where two men my age were throwing paint on each other over a social distancing issue.
           Where are we going with this? President Trump has used the word 'warriors' a number of times in the past few weeks. Talk radio does nothing but foment anger. The other side is no better. What will happen if this virus reignites? What will happen if it doesn't?
           As for the churches....we are looking at this as if our freedom to worship is being taken away. It hasn't been a long time....the situation is in flux....and the stakes are high. As I watch this debate I'm seeing politics and not Christianity. I don't see people wanting desperately to worship their Savior....I see them desperately wanting their life back. A petition was supposedly signed by 1200 California pastors saying that they will have in-church services this weekend in defiance of their governor's order to remain closed. This isn't obeying God over man....this is politics. They are also making matters worse. This isn't Bonhoffer warning of the idolatry towards Hitler....or forming a Confessing Church. This is MAGA agenda stuff.
           There probably will be a day when we are forced to worship secluded somewhere.....maybe out in the woods as John Bunyan was....and possibly soon....but we're not there yet....and we may be hastening it....herded as it were....rather than following a path. What we might do is warn of the idolatry in which we ourselves are involved.

Note: It's about a half hour video. I still have the VHS....and the television to view it....and I have many times over the past thirty or so years. In the video Bunyan preaches in the forest....barred from the pulpit....because of what he would preach if in the pulpit ....and therein is the
Key! You can watch it also if you like by Googling.....John Bunyan, The Preacher, YouTube.

Don Trump

            The American government today operates similar to what two mob families would as they war against each other for control of turf....each having their own specific....'financial interests.'....shall we say. It would be as one mob family has control of drugs and gambling while the other has prostitution and racketeering. That's how these two political parties shape up. The Democrats want control of the voting booth....while the Republicans want legislative gifts to give to their base....evangelicals and Tea Party people and NRA people and on down the line....each to keep their standing and membership up in their respective 'families.'
            They would both show up at the obligatory dinners and celebrations and funerals....and indeed behind the scenes they could yuck it up like there's no problems at all....but that peace only needed a spark....and then came Trump....a godfather wannabe who survived his own troubles with no little help from Russian....'financial interests'....shall we say again. The final result....at least the final result so far....is that Trump took over the 'reign' of the Republican....'family'....and is in the process of purging everyone from both 'families' who are a threat. He's no longer the comical....The Donald....but the Don who will cut one off at the knees over even the slightest provocation.
             The Feds were kept busy at times with both parties but have for many decades had to keep an eye on an American businessman who seemed always to be trying to build a tower in Russia....but nothing ever happened....other than oligarchs pouring money into his American properties....while a Russian mob established itself as the major player in American white collar crime. These intelligence professionals are now being purged and replaced with others who do not have the experience or the analytical abilities or even the desire to look beyond their own personal and political biases....and we are far less secure because of it.
             Most of our news media....if you can still call it news media anymore....seemed to have been given an offer they can't refuse....with an important exception in Drudge. This new 'Don' on the scene has a very effective select group of 'consiglieres' or enforcers in Congress and talk radio. As for us.....regular citizens....we just keep paying protection money....in the form of campaign contributions....reliable votes....and asking no questions.

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

None of us really knew in 2016 who Donald Trump was. Evangelicals generally did not read tabloids. I never saw one minute of The Apprentice in the 15 seasons that it was on. I don't think I heard the word Ivanka until 2015....but after the new president tried to con us with a fake Obamacare repeal and replace bill in March of 2017....I thought I better see who this man is. I've read seventy books on him in these three years. I'm stuck on seventy because of the virus but I have a couple on the way....and I'm rereading the ones on Trump and Russia. Conclusion? This man has not changed one iota in a half century. He has lied his whole life.....and conned and cheated his whole life. He has no empathy for anyone....and no conscience. He is definitely never ever to be trusted. When you see who he is you can see how he just smoothed right into that 2016 campaign. The result? He neutered evangelicalism....and destroyed talk radio and conservatism.

The Apostle John....writing to believers....in the fourth chapter of his first letter....wrote this...."Beloved, do not believe every spirit, but test the spirits to see whether they are from God; because many false prophets have gone out into the world." When John writes..."every spirit that confesses that Jesus Christ has come in the flesh is from God"....he's not pointing to people who just puts words together along these lines....but he's describing people who obviously understand and believe the full doctrine of Jesus Christ.  So when Donald Trump reads a statement that his speech writers give him....it means nothing. The Apostle went on to say that there was already a spirit of antichrist in the world....and that...."they are from the world; therefore they speak as from the world, and the world listens to them." Yes....the world....in this case multitudes in America including many if not most evangelicals....listens to him....to Donald Trump....and accepts him. John summarized this passage by acknowledging that there is both...."the spirit of truth and the spirit of error." Can you honestly say that you have tested this spirit of Donald Trump? If so...have you tested him by the Word of God....or by your 401k statement?
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PASTORS AND DONALD TRUMP

The following is a portion of a post from last November....six months ago....under the above title. It's still there....so I'll only leave this here for a little while. I'm certain that some will be upset because I don't seem to be very loving concerning pastors. To explain my words here let's both of us turn the situation around. You....or I....are a pastor. Is it what we would want that no one in our congregation ever does anything but unconditionally honor us? Would you feel that you are anointed so no one can ever tell you that you may have gone off course? I know I wouldn't....and I don't think that you would either. These are just men....susceptible to the same cultural and societal influences that you and I are....particularly on a large scale that sweeps over the entire country. This is a weak church age. If you would know what preaching was like in church ages in the past....you would see and maybe weep over what our preaching is today....and this doesn't even include the Joel Osteen type of apostasy sweeping over the church. Maybe I didn't write this as lovingly as I should have....but our overall discernment is in ICU. Make America Great Again and the man behind it more than anything took that discernment away.

"Thus says the LORD, 'Cursed is the man who trusts in mankind. and makes flesh his strength, and whose heart turns away from the LORD......Blessed is the man who trusts in the LORD....and whose trust is the Lord. For he will be like a tree planted by the water, that extends its roots by a stream....and will not fear when the heat comes; But its leaves will be green, and it will not be anxious in a year of drought....nor cease to yield fruit'." (from Jeremiah 17)

Pastors....will you wake up yet....you like to tell everyone how you trust God....why then don't you also trust His warnings.....if you even bother to consider them? So many of you....Franklin Graham as an example....defend Donald Trump....instead of God's half century plus of warnings to us as a nation....his own father's warnings to us. Are we as this president says...."one glorious nation under God"....well are we....please answer that....an America whose "best days are ahead of us"....that is going to keep on...."winning winning winning".....that's what he says at every rally....to people in your congregation....who you are responsible for? Would you please at least consider that these may be the ravings of a false prophet....and that you may have been taken in? This as a profane man....and an arrogant man....who lies as naturally as he breathes. Oh but you say....he is a Jehu....a Cyrus to Israel? That's your excuse for overlooking who he is. Look around....he has no loyalty to anyone. You have the responsibility of these souls in your congregation....and are failing miserably in preparing them for that which God has explicitly warned us. Fall on your knees as you may have at one time....and pay attention to what God warned us of....and not Rush Limbaugh and his..."talent on loan from...GAWD"

There Is A Wedding Reception Coming....Lockdown Or No Lockdown

             The labor pains....or "birth pains" as Jesus described them in the 24th chapter of Matthew....are increasing at what should be to us an alarming rate.....only the latest being the sudden news and speculation from North Korea....check that....today's proclamation that we will destroy Iranian gunboats. The Parable of the Ten Virgins from Matthew 25 is what comes to my mind. This is one eschatological passage that we all know. I'll give some slightly nuanced thoughts on it. The bridegroom....Jesus Christ....delayed.....and that is exactly what He has done for almost two-thousand years now. Five virgins....the "foolish" ones....took no oil. They had some in their lamps....but they weren't hoarders....they weren't fanatics about it.
              The other five....the "prudent'....their lamps were going out too but they brought along some extra oil in flasks. The bridegroom returned but by the time the others went to find some oil and came back the door was shut....(too late to read about this 'born again' thing)....and the bridegroom uttered those terrible and devastating words...."Truly I say to you, I do not know you." Then Jesus warned us....you and I...."Be on the alert then, for you do not know the day nor the hour."
              The virgins were to go out to the approaching bridegroom with lit torches to light their way. It must have been real dark.....just like today. The church....at least those who can take out their copy of beliefs and dust it off....knows that the bridegroom is coming back someday....but who knows when that might be. Worst case scenario they think is that the bridegroom comes back....they don't have any oil....(they are not born again yet)....they'll make their way to the wedding somehow. Surely they'll get in....their tithes are paid up!
               We have not taken the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior seriously for quite some time....even though He has consistently and increasingly given us warnings that He is really near. It's the twilight before the darkest night in this nation's history....including the Civil War and World Wars....God is judging us....two peoples in one nation....sniping at one another for thirty years....and verbally ripping each other to shreds for the last three years....neither willing to repent for fear of the other getting the upper hand. Paul pleaded with the Corinthians in the sixth chapter of his second letter....please read it again....not to let all they have heard from him to be in vain. The fields are ripe folks....night is approaching....today is the day...."now is 'THE DAY OF SALVATION'."
     
             

One Locust Plague After Another

            It's a debated issue but I don't think that we can pin the prophet Joel with any certainty to the time period that he lived. Calvin and others commented that this was not important. Joel speaks to all of us in every age. The message....first of all....is that judgment from God comes first to the church. The Day of the LORD is near. Quibble if you want over the word 'near' but I see it in the sense of...'get ready.' The second message is one of 'restoration.'
             In only the first 'Day of the LORD' that Joel writes of....the people had moved far from their God....and judgment was upon them through the locust that destroyed their food supplies. About a month ago there were news reports about a serious locust plague coming upon certain nations in the Middle East....and then a few days ago I saw more reports of the same.....and wondered how they could be the same thing. Well they were not the same thing. The farmers thought that they were over the locust threat only to have more swarms of....as some reports have it....twenty times as large.
              There are many commentaries on the book of Joel....as on all the books of God's Word....but I personally have found O. Palmer Robertson....in all of his writings and his sermons....to be not only reliable but....as in the case of his book The Flow Of The Psalms....more perceptive than most scholarship. These words of his in his book Prophet of The Coming Day Of The LORD caught my eye...."So long as you perceive your calamity as coming simply from nature, you will expect the plague to stop 'on its own' just as you assumed it started 'on its own'.....this chastening judgment of God's people progresses from one object to another. It falls on the fields, then on the beasts and finally on man." That is what we are seeing today in America and in the church. The key word in Joel was 'repent'.....and that is precisely what we have not done as we see this virus as merely the latest locust to be overcome. The author writes these words that also caught my attention...."Who today would think that Christianity has as one of its basic goals the bringing of a whole congregation to the point of weeping repentance?" O Palmer Robertson wrote this book in 1995. I think that you would be blessed by reading it or listening to any of his YouTube sermons.
            The author writes of another Day of the LORD....from Joel....in the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ...in that "the Messiah has been established on His throne"....and of Peter's referencing Joel's words on the day of Pentecost....but there is yet another Day of the LORD...."great and terrible"....and that is still ahead of us.
            We have more 'locust plagues' coming. Judgment has come to the church in the person of Donald Trump where all discernment was thrown to the wind....'tell us more of these great wonders ahead of us.' The best that could happen from a political perspective would be for President Trump to be forced to drop his quest for a second term. Not only is he a great delusion but a great obstruction as he dominates the lives on both sides this turmoil. We need to get by this so that we might look at what has happened to us.....and free of Donald Trump....humble ourselves before God....so that the last....Day of the LORD....is not only once again in our minds....but that we might act accordingly....and use these current locust plagues to awaken us....and lead us to prepare.

Job Figures

           Eliphaz.....Zophar.....and Bildad the Shuhite....(shoeheight)....(the shortest guy in the Bible)....and Elihu....and of course Job....(Hebrew pronunciation Jobe).....those are the 'Job Figures" that I'm alluding to. Everyone knows the story....'with friends like these'.....but I only have a comment about the end of the book.....when God speaks.
           Job and three of his visitors talked and then argued.....just as we do....but thirty-eight chapters into the book God entered the conversation and lowered the boom on Job....and Job's response was pretty much immediate....and it was marvelous....and wonderful....and so much meant for all of us....as he in essence said....'I erred.....Thou art God....I repent....I'm listening now'....and God....also marvelously and wonderfully....extended great mercy and blessings. That's where we are at in America folks. It's time to listen.

Addendum: The temperature today was in the 50s but I spent the afternoon on my deck reading.....trying to get a little bit of sun. I have posted a fair amount lately on our national prayer days....and on all the comments we hear about praying from celebrities and politicians....and yet the total lack of any remorse in those prayers. We pray now as if God will rush to our aid so that we can get right back to what we were doing. Anyway....these verses from the ninth chapter of Daniel struck me even as I was squinting in the sun. Daniel had...."observed from the books"....that there would be seventy years that Jerusalem would remain desolate. Here are only a few verses of his prayer after he sought the Lord God with prayer and supplication and fasting and sackcloth and ashes. I would ask the reader here if they had heard lately or read about anything remotely similar to Daniel's prayer....but they do sound very similar to the words in the 1863 petition of our Senate....signed by President Lincoln....in the middle of our Civil War. (Those petitions are highlighted in a post just a few below this post.

Verses 4-6....."And I prayed to the Lord my God and confessed....We have sinned, committed iniquity, acted wickedly, and rebelled, even turning aside from Thy commandments and ordinances. Moreover, we have not listened to Thy servants the prophets who spoke in Thy name to our kings, our princes, our fathers, and all they people of the land." (Does not Billy Graham for one come to mind as one who has warned us....or maybe R. C. Sproul to the Reformed....or maybe John MacArthur? One might want to read his book.....Ashamed Of The Gospel)

Verse 8.....Open shame belongs to us, O Lord, to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, because we have sinned against Thee."

Verse 10-11....."nor have we obeyed the voice of the Lord our God, to walk in His teachings which He set before us through His servants the prophets. Indeed all Israel has transgressed Thy law and turned aside, not obeying Thy voice; so the curse has been poured out on us.... yet we have not sought the favor of the Lord our God by turning from our iniquity and giving attention to Thy truth."

Can I Get A Witness

           I like to hear the testimonies of conversions. Personal testimonies were the norm in my early Christian walk as a Pentecostal. Today as a Christian whose theology is what would be described as 'Reformed'....testimonies are really not given as formally....not as often anyway....but rather in a conversational setting. We tend to avoid anything that might possibly take the emphasis away from Christ and put it onto ourselves....but on occasion I've waxed sentimental in these posts....and today is one such day.
            Both sides of my family were Catholic. My uncle was a priest in Tennessee and would take me to ballgames and other fun things when he was home. I attended Catholic schools through high school....and was married to a Protestant girl but in the Catholic church. Oddly enough my great grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. One of his sons....my grandfather.....was a wild youth who eventually settled down to marry a Catholic girl. He in turn became a devout Catholic....as did his four sons and their families....as I eventually reverted to Presbyterianism.
            My mother had a St. Anthony statue by her bedside right up until the last couple years of her life in a nursing home. She never said a negative word about the Catholic church.....until about a year before she died.....and a year into the papacy of Pope Francis. Out of the blue one evening while the nightly news was on in her room.....she looked at me and said...."Special Dog....we have a bad pope."
           I attended Our Lady Help of Christians grade school in Buffalo, New York up until the seventh grade. We were encouraged to attend Mass before school which I took advantage of because if you went to communion then you could have a delicious glaze donut to dunk in a cup of tea to begin the first class while the others had to sit there and study something. Somehow....and I don't know how because we did not have much money....I had a daily missal which I treasured. The ultra-thin pages with red and black type....and Latin....mesmerized me....but I did not have a Bible other than the impossible to read pocket New Testament given to me by my uncle at my first communion.
         I occasionally attended Mass while in the army.....and then again while attending Pitt after the army. One evening.....I remember it well.....while waiting on the bus after classes I stopped in the National Record Mart that was a few feet away from the bus stop.....and I bought a Living Bible paraphrase of the New Testament....I still have it today. Although other than being touched by the solemnity of what I was reading.....I remained in darkness as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ....as did my future wife raised in Presbyterianism.
         In 1981.....now married for five years.....My wife for some reason bought me a hardback Bible for Christmas.....I still have that Bible also. We were attending church regularly at the time.....and after Mass I would gather up all the Catholic newspapers in the back of the church and take them home....spread them out on the dining room table....and devour almost every word. Something was happening.
         This was 1982 folks.....wonderful and marvelous things were happening all over America as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I stumbled across the 700 Club on television.....(becoming a member of the 700 Club and actually vacationing a few times down at their Founders Inn in Virginia Beach). There were also men at work who told me about being 'born again'.....and there were Christian bookstores.....wonderful Christian bookstores.....something we do not even have anymore because of the Internet. One day while my wife was shopping at Penney's.....I strolled the concourse of the shopping center and stopped out of curiosity at one of these Christian Bookstores. I had my rosary in my pocket.....which had broken.....I asked the lady at the counter if they sold rosaries on which she politely said no. I then browsed around and walked out with Josh McDowell's classic Evidence That Demands a Verdict. An explosion of intense curiosity was set off within my mind. I still purchase and give away that book today!
          I wanted something so badly of which I knew not what it was that I planned to attend a Catholic charismatic service on Tuesdays at a local Catholic church. Twice I drove to the church....arriving purposely a little late....and stood outside the doors with my ear to the crack.....listening to the music and the voices but not going in. Out of frustration I called the 700 Club to ask if they knew of a church near me where I could hear this of which I wasn't even sure what it was. They recommended an Assemblies of God about a mile from our home. We were members there for about ten years....and I will always thank God for that church and the wonderful Christians we met there. We were active in the church....often entertaining overnight visiting ministers....once a leader of an apologetics ministry....another time a newspaper editor from Timisoara, Romania.
           I was inquisitive about the veracity of the Christian faith from day one.....studying particularly apologetics....and researching what are known as Christian cults in order to defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ....even putting an ad in the newspaper to reach them. In 1987 on a short term mission down in Paraguay....while walking through  a small town one evening.....I saw a Baptist church offset a few yards off the main sidewalk of the town. It was hot....over 100 degrees....and the door of the church was open....I saw about a dozen worshipers sitting in a circle praying....a heavenly golden light contrasting the evening darkness....no music.....no laughter or gaiety.....just a soberness in what they were doing. I knew immediately that I wanted that. When I returned home my attention moved towards church history and I eventually wound up in a small Baptist church....about twelve members....no piano player....and no kids....(our son was about eight years old)....and the pastor was leaving! Somehow we stayed. A new pastor was called who would become a friend for life. Here was a man who owned a successful sign business in North Carolina.....who being 'born again' in his mid 50s.....decided to go to school to become a Southern Baptist pastor. A few years later I attended a Soli Deo Gloria conference (Reformed literature-Puritans in particular) that I heard of on Christian radio....and met there a man who would become our pastor for about the next twelve years....and also became a friend for life. He spoke with a little bit of a stutter.....and in a monotone....and whose sermons would be considered to be dull today in this church culture that demands practical sermons that are uplifting....but the words coming from his mouth....oh the words....about the glories of Christ....they were words from out of the past in the church. If you are upset at who I have become....blame him.
             Eventually although working full time.....my wife and I opened a Christian bookstore.....and an odd Christian bookstore it was....very odd.....actually one-third of the books were everyday secular books....but carefully chosen....one-third were children's books.....and one-third were Christian books....but all from a 'Reformed' or 'Reformation' perspective. We had customers from all around Pittsburgh thanks to radio commercials that we made where I spoke about the bookstore as the sound was heard in the background of a hammer pounding a nail......this referencing Martin Luther hammering his 95 theses on the castle church door at Wittenberg.....but locally we did not do as well.....and although having this store was a great blessing.....we closed after two years.
           So here I am today.....so thankful that God would take the least of the least.....and the most unlovable of all.....and bless him with a salvation almost indescribable in its wonder.....and a son who is raising a wonderful Christian family. I'm still me....same personality....(hey there's still time....Lord willing)....and looking to that day when either Christ returns with His powerful angels in kingly glory....or when I am resurrected.....probably the last in line of multitudes to enter the Celestial City.....but thankful in that God will take glory in having mercy on someone such as I.
           There you have it. I'll keep this up for a few hours.....a day or so.....and then try to hide it somewhere in past posts.....only keeping it there....as I do with a post titled 'Thankful For Weaknesses'....that I simply have to bring back from time to time to tell someone....anyone....of how Jesus Christ offers them an eternal salvation if they would but take themselves off of that pedestal long enough to read God's Word to see who should be up there.

Special Dog's Harvard Commencement Address

I almost missed it. I usually bring this post back every year around commencement time.....with a few minor changes.....live streaming being one this year:          

          Once again another year has passed and I wasn't invited by any college or university to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden was to be the live streaming commencement speaker at Harvard University but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage.  The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name....Special Dog....they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to a give a commencement speech. 

Special Dog's Harvard Commencement Speech....Live  Streaming....May 26, 2020

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           It's a great honor to be invited to be your commencement speaker. Let me tell you a little bit about myself. I'm five foot nine and three quarters inches tall. But enough of me. It's you I am here to talk about. You are no longer a student here. Do not try to use the gym anymore. 
           Our President told us last year that this is the greatest time to be young and American....that's one line you won't hear again. Everyone look up to the sky right now.....the first one that sees a drone spying on us gets a free Happy Meal. I hear some grumbling out there. Watch what you say for your iPhone is taping you. Just one more piece of bad news and then on to the good news. Well there's no good news but let me get this out of the way anyway. There are no 'safe spaces' in basic training. 

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          Today you are graduating from the sixteenth grade. Congratulations! This is that special day when everyone gets to write something obscene or against America on the top of their mortarboard. Most everyone here is 22 years old......which means that you only have four years of living in your parents basement before you must figure out what corporation you are going to be a slave to for the rest of your life. Retirement will probably be about 77 years old when you get there. That's only a tad over a half century away.....about 1/120th of the history of the world since Adam was created. It'll go fast. 

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           I'm losing my audience.....maybe I better get serious. A little bit of trivia.....President John Kennedy would be 102 years old today if he were still alive.....103 in a few weeks....but his 46 year old face in the last year of his presidency is what we remember. I had the privilege of seeing him in person as Senator Kennedy and then presidential candidate Kennedy as his limousine passed by our Catholic grade school....and they herded us all out to wave to him.
            I recently viewed an old interview with then Governor Ronald Reagan that was taped on June 5th of 1971. The interviewer asked Governor Reagan if he was going to run for president in 1972. Reagan replied...."No....Lord willing I'll complete my second term as governor." That would make two United States presidents....in a row....Carter and Reagan.....who could naturally use the phrase...."Lord willing." Today we tell God what to do....'God....bless America'....it's more of a 'trick or treat' really but the evangelicals buy it and that's all that matters.

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             Every American....every American old enough of course....knows where they were and what they were doing when President Kennedy was shot. As for me....I was in my eighth grade homeroom when one of the Sisters came in crying with the news. We all then immediately went home.
             Many of you remember that magazine sized book Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy. I think that just about everyone had it back in the months and years following that tragic day in November of 1963. In that book the editors reveal what were...."President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." John Kennedy was to give this speech but never did... for assassins (plural) ended his life.....SPOILER....it wasn't Oswald.
             That speech never given by our 35th President concluded with these words....the last official words of President Kennedy...."The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it." So the full verse is:

             "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

             John Fitzgerald Kennedy was nominally religious as was I. He would have respected the Bible and believed those words but he could not have truly understood their significance, nor timeliness, nor even seen his own part in attempting to build a city (a country) without the LORD. The 60s were an absolute disaster, the effects of which nearly brought my own life to an end. They produced college professors for the next few decades who gave us many of our problems today. 
             President Trump will 'labor in vain' as he attempts to make America great again....unless we as a people see our own culpability in our troubles (past-present-and future) and seek God's forgiveness and mercy....and even then our hope would be wisdom and strength through the coming judgments....and not the suspension of those judgments. 

12 watching

          It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated....one of them was John Harvard....and I wanted to see some of the places where scenes from the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn on the grounds of Cambridge was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location. That inn was a 16th century English pub where students, Dons and travelers discussed the works of Martin Luther, and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation. Young people...find your own White Horse Inn....or....try whitehorseinn.org!

4 watching....my wife and three others

       Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941 a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window, or maybe a coffee shop, with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for, and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making.....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
          And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
          Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941 but your generation today may indeed be another one. Love is disappearing in the world....no....worse than that....it has been hijacked by greed....tortured by pride....and what is left is directed to ourselves, and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.

1 watching....I don't know who that is....my wife turned on the television
        
          Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A President's election will give but one night of elation but the certain expectation of the coronation of the King of Kings provides every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America....that vision is from God....and He will also give the balm....supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world....and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen. Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17

If only one graduate reads this post.....it's worth it!

"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

If We Would Only Look

The RMS Titanic set out on its maiden voyage 108 years ago today....so I'll bring this earlier post back for the day....maybe a few days.  The SS Californian did not pick up on the calls for help from the Titanic....or understand why the flares were being set off....but war was to follow....and the torpedoed Californian itself went to the bottom three and a half years later:

If We Would Only Look.....May1, 2019

             It is the height of presumption for talk radio to think that they are just going to spend the next year to eighteen months directing the conversation....away from everything negative about Donald Trump.....to those things that can be spun to his benefit......and that the nomination will proceed as expected and then on to the general election. God may have something to say about that! The same goes for all these wonderful economic statistics that they are planning on using to keep this president in the White House. These folks think that everything is just going to go on as usual.....maybe a bump here....or a flat tire there.....but that's about it.
           Many of the rich and famous boarded the Titanic for her maiden voyage. It would be a mere twenty-six months before a man named Gavrilo Princip would set the world aflame....but those passengers would only have days before their world fell apart amidst the icebergs on a clear night in the North Atlantic.
           The ink was barely dry on the disastrous Treaty of Versailles which many believe led to the rise of Hitler before the Flapper style and the Roaring Twenties burst onto history. Give us a week or so and we can forget even the most horrendous of headlines.
           What apparition has blinded us.....what potion tranquilized us....what amulet was waved before our eyes....so that we cannot see an entire world run amok? God is not watching us....'from a distance'....as in that Grammy award winning song sung by The Divine Miss M. He knows your thoughts before you have them....He knows my sins before I commit them. He's not waiting anxiously for us to turn to Him. It's us that should be waiting anxiously....to see if His patience with us has ended.
           He has given us the plan....the design....and the story that goes along with it.....from beginning to end....clear when it needs to be clear.....mysterious when that benefits us.....but always a hedge.....always protecting us......always guiding......and warning and encouraging often at the same time. We know very well that it is abridged.....that we could not possibly understand the unabridged text....the full explanation of things....with these merely mortal minds....but to ignore that which is wonderfully given would be to our eternal regret.
          So we do not have the luxury of making our plans without consulting His plans....whether it be personal plans or the making of a president....for if we would it would stop us in our tracks....for they would reveal to us if we would but look....that which we have become....that what we have done....and how our vision became clouded.....and where we are headed if we do not humble ourselves on this very day....but we won't consult Him.
          No....we prefer to edit His story....to add a pleasurable chapter. All of the prophets therefore....and all the warnings given to us throughout God's Word....are for someone else....for God surely could not be angry with us!  How ironic though....for even that mistake is documented for us in God's Word....if only we would open our Bible....or that drawer with the Gideon Bible in it....so close is that guidance....so near that light upon our path....yet so far away.
'
         

I See More Ahab Than Jehu In Donald Trump....And More Jezebel In Ivanka Than Even Hillary

The following post is from August 5, 2019:

             I did not watch the Trump rally in North Carolina the other evening. It was a little after midnight and I was about to turn in when I saw the Drudge headline on the rally....President Trump Told a Businessman: "You're Going to Vote for Me or You're Going to be So Godd*m Poor" (VIDEO). He apparently was relating to the rally crowd a conversation he had with an unfriendly businessman. I don't think I believed it at first....that he spoke that way on a national platform....it must have been second-hand information....but I clicked on the link and watched the video clip from the rally....about a half dozen times....looking at the expressions of different people behind him each time. Most of them laughed....one young man remained expressionless....and one woman's jaw dropped just at that moment....as another women in the lower left corner actually lifted her Trump sign to cover her face. (You think I misinterpreted this? Google the exact title and watch the video for yourself))
             Pastors read Drudge....hopefully many saw this story....but I don't think that Donald Trump is worried one bit. His narcissism is so advanced that he thinks that he can do or say anything. The firestorm for most of the next day was on the words of the crowd in the rally....send her back....not the words of Donald Trump....Godd*m....of which he used twice in the speech. Far too many Christians believe that Donald Trump is a modern day Jehu because of similarities in some character traits and timelines as put forth in Messianic Rabbi Jonathan Cahn's popular book The Paradigm....but what the book has done is given us an excuse to ignore who Donald Trump is. I see more Ahab than Jehu in Donald Trump....and I see more Jezebel in Ivanka than even Hillary. Things are moving very quickly. Prayer and contemplation should dominate the Christian's morning...noontime....evening....and thoughts on our bed.
             We are living in denial....worshiping that bull on Wall Street. This is more than just a question of trying to be civil with one another. We need a general awakening in America. We can pray that this once God-fearing conservative movement humbles itself for what we have become....all of us...so that we seek His guidance as we once did in this nation long ago....and no longer rely on a fake promise of prosperity and security built on one thing....the survival of the fittest. May God open our  eyes to the delusion for which we have fallen. May He have mercy upon our pulpits....for if the cross of Christ is once again put before us we could not so easily fall for wolves in sheep's clothing.....masquerading as angels of light.

Love Can Come With A Cost

              The following....somewhat rewritten....was first posted in May of 2019. I haven't seen the friend who I write about in the post since I retired but I treasure....literally treasure such memories....and the getting to know new people....and hearing their stories and sometimes their dreams. I'm reminded at times like this of the popular song from the early 50s.....They Can't Take That Away From Me....recorded by many singers but the one in my memory was from Pat Boone.

              It was about five or six years ago....and I was working for an entire week with one man....for the first time....in a quiet spot....so we could talk while we worked. This man was funny....interesting.....(a rugby player)....and very outgoing....so I was free to open up a little also. He talked a lot about his father....and I enjoyed every minute of it.....then somehow.....God became the topic of the conversation.....funny how that happens to me so much. Anyway I had to find a way to say some serious things....by trying to slide them in sideways. I'm usually pretty good at this.....but this guy was smart....he knew what I was doing....even though I wasn't even sure what I was doing.....and he looked at me and said....."So you're saying that my father is in hell?" His father was not even mentioned....hell was not mentioned....everyone knows that you can't talk about hell today. I admit that I did want him to face.....sometime in the future......not exactly right then....that his loving and wonderful father must be born again just like all of us. There was a pause....I didn't try to get out of it....but I don't think that I pursued it any further either....the thought was planted in his head....and that's what I wanted.
                This is a tough issue folks. Thinking about a loving parent who had died....without Christ....that's too much to ask of many of us. We'll change the gospel before we admit to that.
                 I loved my father. He passed away in November of 1979....and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. I was lost in my sins at the time and therefore utterly useless to him in the matters of his eternal soul. I do not know my father's thoughts or the people he may have talked to before he succumbed to the disease that took his life.....but I do know this....Jesus Christ is the way.....and He is the truth.....and He is the life.....and no one comes to the Father except through Him....and one must be born....again....born from above....whether they realize it as such or not.
           Discipleship comes with a cost. The least of this cost is that you may become a persona non grata on occasion....it may even be forever....this because you mention Jesus Christ so often....but letting your loved ones alone....and headed to hell.....without even trying....is an odd love....a love that must be investigated.....to see if it really qualifies as love.
           Consider this....a dream maybe....you are lost and without Christ.....hanging by a rope over 'you know where'.....that rope begins to unravel....a Christian passes by.....you know him.....you always gave him the impression that you were a Christian even though you didn't even have the slightest idea what that really was....so in your need you shout out...."Friend....tell me about the Gospel of Jesus Christ!" He sees you.....waves.....and walks on by. You look up and the rope continues to unravel...."What must I do to be saved" you shout again....but no one responds.... they just smile and wave back....they assume that you are fine....the rope then breaks and you fall......it gets colder and colder.....the evil all around you makes your skin crawl.......you shout......"Nooooo!".....and then you wake up.
            So the next time that you think about loved ones....and know that they are holding on to an unraveling rope also....remember this dream. Love at times comes with a great cost.....are you willing to pay it?