"TAKE NOTE: I (JESUS) HAVE TOLD YOU IN ADVANCE"

UPDATE: While traveling yesterday we heard a sermon from a guest speaker. It was something that we do not hear today from our pulpits. In essence the church in America was likened to Judah in the days of the prophet Habakkuk....from which the sermon was taken....for we ourselves are just as rebellious in our own ways. So we watch as God's hand of judgment is on us.....from others who do not fear Him....and we wonder why He might let this happen. So we are to wait....take joy in God's righteousness....in that He is in control....and that He will deal with these enemies in due time.....but that He is dealing with us right now. It was an uplifting sermon in that we know that God is in control....but at the same time very serious sermon....in that as we are told to take joy in our Lord....and wait....we are also to contemplate on the stark reality of what is going on around us.

The following is part of a post from June 2018 titled....Expect The Unexpected....and is my Lord's Day post. Donald Trump is just one of the false prophets that have come along....and his...."greatest economy in the history of the world"....and...."our best days are yet to come"....was a false miracle....that many of the 'elect' had bought into....but this will change in the winnowing that surely must be ahead. Did anyone expect anything like....not only the coronavirus....but its aftermath?    Whatever is ahead....

Expect The Unexpected

         The closest thing that I can think about where the Bible mentions something like this....(expect the unexpected).... would be in that monumentally prophetic 24th chapter of Matthew....."If anyone tells you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Over here!' do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note: I (JESUS) have told you in advance." I chose the Holman Christian Standard Bible for this for or it uses the word 'Messiah' rather than 'Christ.'
        Friends, this chapter....along with Mark 13 and Luke 21 where Jesus answers the question to Him posed by His disciples...."Tell us when will these things be.."....these chapters were indeed for everyone from the day that they were written right up to today.....but they are especially relevant for us today....for we are in that day where the nearness of the return of Christ is so close that false messiahs and false prophets are....and have been for quite a while....literally everywhere.
        Expect the unexpected....expect the false messiahs and false prophets....hold everything....everything up to Scripture....be vigilant and more than leery of great signs and wonders should they come about....for anyone can be "led astray....if possible, even the elect."

....More Passionate Than An Art Lover

Preface: OK....you are a pastor.... in charge of many souls....and I have been listening to your sermons for decades....(I’m speaking a generalization of the American church))....and I either go home malnourished or defenseless every Lord’s Day....and you spend your ‘free’ time doing the lovely things in life God that has blessed us with? Is this harsh? I had a conversation last night with a mature Christian of maybe forty years....and he nonchalantly commented on the next twenty years....this because pastors today have no clue of God’s half century of warnings....and this while we have a genuine false prophet as president that evangelicals are totally blinded to! If one does not believe all the biblical prophesies and exploding evidence of the nearness of the return of our Lord....the least one could do is pretend they desired His return to this fallen world. It has been years since I heard a Christian actually comment on his or her desire for the Lord to return....but in the 80s one could hear it often enough. If this were me with these pastoral responsibilities....with souls under my charge.... I’d be on my knees every moment of my supposed free time....trying to glean from whatever great men of the the past that I could.

I know another man who was quite literally and wonderfully saved only a few years ago. He's already preaching. He was sucked into charismatic theology.....and I know that he's never heard anything but that. Yesterday he was extolling to me the virtues of Rodney Howard Browne....of Holy Laughter fame....and one of Trump's....'advisers.'....a false teacher if there ever was one. The church is awash in ignorance of God.

The following was first posted in June of 2019....and is my Lord's Day post. I listen to on an average of four or five sermons a week from men of the past....and men who preach like men of the past. I don't like to go more than a day without hearing someone such as Martyn Lloyd-Jones or O. Palmer Robertson or D. A. Carson or R. C. Sproul or Michael Horton preach....and that's only a sampling of names....and I'm about as insignificant a layman as you might find....how  much more should preachers....who have such a great responsibility....be making it a priority to glean from what God has given these men!

            His ministry lasted almost a half century before the Lord called him home rather suddenly in December of 2017....and just a couple months before the Lord called Billy Graham back home. Both had enormous impacts on the Church....not only America but in the entire world. Both had warned us in that we were in rebellion to Almighty God....our Creator and our Benefactor....who had been longsuffering towards us....until He began to lift His hand of protection.
            These two men.....R. C. Sproul and Billy Graham....spoke different languages. Billy spoke Southern Comfort....and R. C.....Pittsburghese....which is my primary language......but I'm also fluent in Southern Comfort.
            This morning I listened once again....this time on the treadmill....to Sproul's final sermon.....the last sermon that he gave from his pulpit in Sanford, Florida.  I've listened to it at least six times so far in the past year and a half. I know people who cannot understand how I can listen to the exact same sermon twice let alone a half dozen times.....or how I can read the same book twice....but the Prince of Preachers....the nineteenth century's Charles Spurgeon....said that he estimated that he read John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress.....a hundred times! Maybe that's one reason that he was called the Prince of Preachers?
             Yesterday I finished an illustrated book of Vincent van Gogh's paintings.....interspersed with various letters he and Theo had exchanged. I might have spent a few solid minutes looking at any one of a number of van Gogh's oils on canvas....even though I had seen them many times before. How many times might the average classical music listener have savored the same Bach or Beethoven composition....hundreds? How many times might someone have slowly digested a poem by Robert Frost? How many times might someone have visited Frank Lloyd Wright's Fallingwater? So....should a preacher of such a great salvation be given any less attention. I say no.....but even more attention!
              This particular sermon by R. C. Sproul......his final sermon.....asks the question that if you really understand salvation then how could you drift away from it....and how dangerous that would be....and if you really know what you are saved from......how can you not continuously rejoice throughout your life?  Sproul's voice is gravelly in this his last sermon.....but his passion is like.....or maybe even more.....than those first days way back when in that small teaching center in Ligonier, Pennsylvania.

Google if you are interested....R. C. Sproul's final sermon.

"I Shall Not Seek....And I Will Not Accept...."

The following was first posted last October but the sentiment goes further back than that. I urge anyone that knows that four additional years of Donald Trump would be nightmare within a nightmare to contact their Republican representatives in Congress....as I had with Senator Pat Toomey....and tell them to pressure President Trump to bow out of the 2020 race.....for the good of the country! There would be a nominee 'drafted'....and that candidate would beat Joe Biden....should God even permit us to get there.

          Donald Trump divides and destroys....this because whether it was a tower project or some other big 'art of the deal'....or personal relationships....or politics....there is a malignancy in him. He turns what might be good...into something that decays before your eyes. The conservative movement is worthless since it threw in with him....talk radio is dead....(Rush's numbers don't indicate health but rather the extent of the malignancy)....and evangelicalism has at best been neutered. The chaos that is all around us today only needed a spark....and Donald Trump is more than a spark....he's a blowtorch. His mental instability concerns our military....to put it mildly. He gives opportunity to our enemies to exploit this chaos....and they are doing just that. We need to move on and attempt to pick up the pieces in the aftermath of this violent wind in the form of Donald Trump.

           I had just turned eighteen....was a senior in high school....and in my usual spot at our hangout....a deli/novelty toy store run by a man who everyone in the neighborhood knew and liked....and who in our case....(my mother and I)....would tally our food debts up on the back of a cardboard counter display. I was the only teen there on a Sunday evening as most of the others were probably home studying or finishing up homework for Monday morning class. It was March 31, 1968....four days before Martin Luther King Jr. was killed.....and two months before Bobby Kennedy....and a few more months before the Democrat Convention riots in Chicago.
           President Lyndon Johnson took the television airwaves with a speech to the nation primarily about peace negotiations and the failed Tet Offensive in Vietnam. He then stunned the nation....and me....at the end of the speech with these now famous words ...."With America's sons in the fields far away, with America's future under challenge right here at home, with our hopes and the world's hopes for peace in the balance every day, I do not believe that I should devote an hour or a day of my time to any personal partisan causes or to any duties other than the awesome duties of this office-the presidency of this country. Accordingly, I shall not seek, and I will not accept, the nomination of my party for another term as your president."
           This is what we need today from President Trump!  Over the course of his life Donald Trump has cultivated division. He exudes within his character and personality that which tears apart and isolates. He himself thrives upon it. He likes to crush and he likes to hurt in response to being disrespected. Even large numbers of those who flutter around his flame are eventually burned in the heat. He brings out the worst in all of us.
            The fact that he has a large contingent of true believers only supports this in that people take sides. You cannot have division unless people take sides. Republican members of Congress need to do what they should have done a few years ago....tell Donald Trump in no uncertain terms that his unceasing lies and his out-of-control narcissism and his viscous attacks on Twitter were not going to go unchallenged.... and that he was only a president....not a sovereign.
            He will then of course attack these Republicans in Congress as traitors and enemies of the people....and his talk radio generals will attempt to lead an insurrection....(Rush is already trying to do that)....but the result would be poll numbers so low that even this president might be forced to give the speech given by LBJ. The result would be that someone would be 'drafted' at the convention....and without almost half of America despising a Republican presidential nominee....he (she) would certainly be favored over Joe Biden.
            Having said this....and hoping for it....and praying that God might open the eyes of his church if no one else.... on the real Donald Trump....and free us from the bondage of @realDonald Trump....I know that this may not be the case.....and that Donald Trump may take us through this year.....and be the one who has to deal with wars....wars that he is right now instigating through his total lack of wisdom in anything not monetarily profitable.
             Is there a chance that God might change the destructive nature of Donald Trump in the coming days? Yes....and we should pray for that....but right now we are praying for what we perceive to be a martyr.....when in fact he is a false prophet. Not only does our Congress need to step up....but our pulpits need to realize that they too were taken in....albeit with good intentions.....but nonetheless deceived....and enamored with a 'prince'....as they neglected the clear and lucid and discernible warnings to us today from God's Word. 
             

Conservatism Itself Will Save No One

UPDATE....Thursday morning.....this tweet minutes ago...."These horrible and politically charged decisions coming out of the Supreme Court are shotgun blasts into the face of people what are proud to call themselves Republicans or Conservatives. We need more Justices or we will lose our 2nd Amendment & everything else. Vote Trump 2020!" May God have mercy upon us and open our eyes to this man.

            The following blog entry was written on November 30th of 2008! We conservatives went more than a few election cycles....telling God to stay in the bullpen....while voting for whatever Republican was thrown up there because....well for one thing we needed Supreme Court Justices. That's part of the reason we won't even read anything out there on the real Donald Trump. Well....his great nominee wasn't so great today was he? He'll have to alter that...."I gave you two great Supreme Court judges!" We cannot depend on the Supreme Court....and we sure cannot depend on the biggest con man ever to take that Oval Office. 2008 was wonderful compared to where we are today as a people....and a Republican Party....and yet we are still using that tired slogan that this is the most important election ever. I'll vote as long as I'm on this earth....Lord willing....but only God can protect us in this coming storm.....a storm many of us saw coming for decades.....and others even longer.

              I agonized for a long time over how the Christian is to deal with politics. I read books on the subject and certainly went to Scripture. I've been on both sides of the issue. Edmund Burke wrote "All that is necessary for evil to triumph is for good men to do nothing." Burke was not a Christian, and I am not "good," but the concept and the logic still hold weight. 
              Our nation is crumbling fast and most of us are the proverbial frog in the kettle. The local news from the metropolitan city that I live near started their telecast last night with three different killings among young black people. Yesterday's paper had a picture of two beautiful young children joined at the head while the surgeons were dismayed that nothing could be done for them. Every day the sufferings of people are there to remind us of the fallen condition of this world. We say that we yearn for Jesus to come back but do we? Martin Luther once said when asked what he would do if he knew that the Lord was coming back the next day, "I would plant a tree."
               In the final analysis, we cannot quit on this nation. If people's sufferings are to be alleviated, if we are to return to at least being a "God-fearing" nation we have to seek God's mercy and try our best to be good and responsible citizens. This blog title has the word "conservative" in it to get the attention of who it is meant for but conservatism itself will save no one! Our hope is not in princes or their military power. Christians, who have been relegated to being part of the "religious right," must remind themselves of this every day. This does not mean that we do not support a political party or ardently work for its success but it does mean that we never alter our ethical beliefs or compromise that which is our only hope, the gospel of grace of our Lord Jesus Christ!
              We lost our moorings in this long before we lost this last election. (2008) Our churches are social gatherings with political causes meant to assuage our guilt of not knowing who we really are in Christ. Our pulpits mention Jesus every week but rarely preach His cross for they have lost faith in the power of preaching Christ and prefer to give biblical advice on how to live. I stumble into church every week to hear the atoning power of the blood of Christ and of what He has done for me and how He will keep this poor wretched sinner despite my gravitation to dally with the world. More than anything we need to pray that ministers enter their pulpits, look over the congregation and set forth to lay out the glories and majesties of Jesus Christ present in every book of the Bible. Only having done that can they begin to exegete the passages on how we are to live.

Kicks Just Keep Gettin' Harder To Find

            I wanted to return to a topic from a post at the beginning of June....titled The Problem Is Not In What We Have....(alluding to the problem is in what we value)....because this 2020 republican campaign is being driven in part with the accusation that Democrats run the cities and therefore are responsible for all of the problems that the cities bring to America....and that we would not have violence plagued cities such as Chicago and New York if we were in charge. We Republicans are told that we outside of the cities are the wise people.....not perfect of course.....(we evangelicals carry that pious explanation with us at all times)....but we are essentially good people who love their country....obey the laws....work hard.....and raise wonderful families where the children do not riot in the streets. What we essentially do here is take principles of government that are meant to promote peace and security and order....and violently hammer everyone else over the head with them.
            If we were to take the issues up individually....the best example of course would be the 'defund the police' nonsense going around....of course we are correct....and one can go from one issue to another and mostly be correct....but this is really nothing more than building imaginary Republican led cities on a rotting foundation that we originally helped construct. It's doesn't take into consideration the full reality of the situation.
            OK.....here it is....in all of its greed and ugliness....we on our side have the resources and the inside track for living in 'safe' areas....often gated communities....and taking advantage of things like 401Ks. It's a good life if one handles it with a modicum of wisdom. As for the others....hey.....stay in your cities....and act like us! I came out of poor conditions where we could hardly keep the electric on....but I had one valuable coupon that I could....and did....redeem....our little apartment happened to be just over the city line. Most everyone around me was solid middle class.....which today would be lower upper class. They pulled me along until I was on my feet.
            We grew rich on investing in our toys....convertibles and now iPhones and the like....that in the process dampened our discernment and distorted our value system....and we never looked back to see what was happening to those left behind....who were drowning in this quest for fake happiness....not to mention that their need for the same toys....only made us richer....and now we have the audacity....the unmitigated gall....to use a phrase from a teacher at my prep school type high school that I was able to attend because I had that coupon....to condemn those who did not have a coupon.
            Yes...the Democrats took advantage of this situation....they took the mess that we helped them create and made it much worse....but now they get all the blame....where in fact we are all to blame in one way or another and to one degree or another. We Republicans do not have real answers to the problems.....because we are not seeing the real problems....which run deeper than just what we see in the news.
            How do the lyrics of the 'Rock' hit go....."We built this city.....we built this city on rock and roll?" Well we built these cities....and profited as they grew. We partook of the entertainments....but "kicks just keep gettin' harder to find!' From Hippies to Yuppies to me and you....from the Jersey Shore to the loneliest farm house in Peoria we built these cities. It doesn't have to be Chicago or New York. There doesn't have to be riots and looting. The abandoned storefronts are evidence enough that we just stacked up the bills. We are in the midst of a reckoning. May God show us not only how the things we mistakenly valued....devoured us....but how of much more value are those things that are free....and that would unite instead of divide....and are right before our eyes.....if only we would open them.

Here are a few paragraphs that I wanted include from that earlier post....and following this is a older post titled....Annie Get Your Crown....that speaks more to our current reality....where whether we are Republicans living happily....as of now....in suburbia.....or we have homesteads in rural areas....or even live in urban areas....we need first and foremost to find the real family values....Jesus Christ...(being careful not to confuse this with most of today's evangelicalism)....His Word.....our condition....His grace offered....of which we can ignore to our eternal peril....and His almost indescribable blessings of real joy....not the fake joy of materialism and making America great again! Only then maybe can we address the issues that tear us apart....and until then it is only a band-aid....and one that is rapidly peeling off.

This from that earlier post....

             We have 401s with hundreds of thousands in the bank....bare minimum....and no mortgage....on a home that we own.....or if we are younger we are certainly on our way there....and they have a couple of thousand in the bank at best....and we cannot understand why they are not happy....and don't make wise decisions.
             Our side works hard.....they earned the money.....but that's not the only issue. One can pay a thousand a month for cable and Internet and phones....and then struggle to have the rent money.....and we condemn them for this.....as if we played no part in structuring such a society.....but we did....as we looked only after ourselves as people like Donald Trump became billionaires on our weaknesses. We criticize their playing the Lotto to get rich quick but we play the same Lotto on Wall Street.
             The problem is not in what we have.....but in what we value. I would much rather live in a row house....with good neighbors.....in a community of love.....than a million dollar home right on the beach....where my safety and happiness depended upon the stock market and keeping the lower class in their cities. The only answer to our problems is in Jesus Christ.
              None of the past is coming back....and it was far from perfect to begin with. We are living in the culmination of history. When Jeremiah gives us the LORD's admonition....."Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls"....we were not told to find a golden age....a making America great again.....but we were given the same admonition as in Matthew 6:33.....Jesus speaking....."But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Their response then.....in Jeremiah....was...."But they said, 'We will not walk in it'"....and that is also our response today.

 ANNIE GET YOUR CROWN.....April of 2017:

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

Malachi Speaks To Us Today

         The following post is from January 16 of 2018. I reference Billy Graham in it. He would go to be with the Lord five weeks later:

        The Old Testament 'minor prophet' book of Malachi....'minor' as in length only....was written approximately 400 years before the death, burial and resurrection of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ......a nice round number.
         Many of the people had returned to Judah and Jerusalem. It was the period of the Second Temple....the walls were rebuilt.....but the people had promptly forgotten all of the miracles and blessings they had seen and been given since Abraham and Moses. Their worship was lackluster and contrived....their feelings possibly neither hot nor cold....their small society collapsing in unfaithfulness and distrust.
         Seven times in the four short chapters of fifty-five verses God takes issue with things that the priests of Israel were doing.....and seven times they seem surprised by God's accusations....."How have you loved us?"...."How have we despised your name?"....."How have we polluted you?"...."Why does he not....accept our offerings with favor?"....."How have we wearied him?"....."How shall we return?".....and....."How have we spoken against you?"
         I'll use Billy Graham as an example but there have been many others including R. C. Sproul who has gone on to be with his Lord and Savior. Billy Graham had warned America.....over many decades....seven decades as a matter of fact.....and increasingly in intensity.....that it had taken God lightly....that more than mere church attendance was required....that God's judgment was nigh and already at work in America.....and that it was time to return to Him.....and it is as if each time America responded to one of God's messengers....."If his love is so great, why do we still have problems?"...."We say 'God bless America' all the time, how have we despised his name?"...."What's wrong with our worship services?"...."What's wrong with our prayers?"...."How has our interpretations of his Word wearied him?"...."What do you mean....we have to return?".....and....."How have we been arrogant...and what have we said against God?"
         Folks, we are as these Israelites.....we can't fathom that God could be so angry with us! God's response to us through His many messengers was in reminding us of His faithfulness to America from its beginnings.....and how we long since placed worship far below our own more pressing personal desires.....and that we either construct our faith for material gain or merely play church for appearances....and that we have treated American Christianity from its Puritan beginnings with disdain in fashioning a new and 'exciting' method of worship along with a more equitable body of doctrine....that we now only give Him a small portion of our life.....and that we now actually call what is good bad...(and this in the church itself!)....and what is bad good.....and that have honored and institutionalized the criticism of the Bible from both the modernists and the postmodernists....for we obviously have no trust in the historical Christian faith anymore.
          It's almost as if there is a silence in the church today....a silence amidst the din and cacophony of our worship extravaganzas and bellowing false teachers broadcasting to millions. Malachi
concludes by giving the Israelites....and us....God's direct warning and hope in...."For behold, the day is coming, burning like an oven, when all the arrogant and all the evildoers will be stubble....but for you who fear my name, the Sun of Righteousness shall rise with healing in its wings. And you will go free, leaping like calves from the stall.

We Are All Rioters

Searching on a different topic....I came across a post from 2011 titled....We Are All Rioters....this after England had experienced major riots. We conservatives tend to look at street rioters as the only rebels in this equation....for we are the good guys....who obey the law....but rebels and rioting come in many forms. Some are law abiding....proper to a T....very conservative.....and even church goers. When we build giant churches that are heavy on entertainment but light on warning of God's judgement....we are rioters. When we fill giant auditoriums to listen to rich 'Christian' teachers who tell us how to procure Christ's powers to be healthy and wealthy....we are rebels....when others of us....(and I need to examine myself here)....who pay close attention to doctrine but may forget our first love....we are looters....and when we let Donald Trump preach to us....with false prophesies of peace and security and greatness ahead....and lead us away from our trust in Christ....we are nothing but a mob. The following is just the last paragraph of that post.

            "We all riot every time when we rebel against God. We all loot when we fashion a gospel of our own making....a god of our own liking...and a christ of our own creative imaginings. There will never be a shortage of rioters until Christ comes again. Only God's grace can make it such that the rioter is isolated where he does not feed on the (passions) of the majority....nor is egged on by others of like minds....nor lives in total darkness where the light of the gospel cannot point the way. Both Britain and America teeter on the edge where riots will be the least of our worries. As bleak as the situation is....and it has never been bleaker....not during the Civil War....nor on December 7th, 1941....and not as Rebellion became our middle name as our visible collapse began in the 1960s....our only hope is in the omniscience and omnipotence and mercy of Almighty God. One way or the other America and Britain will prostrate itself before Him, either in fear as He comes in judgement or in thankfulness as His Spirit melts our collective hearts."

Note: We in America are obviously 100 times worse off than when these words were posted. I was warning often but even I would have been hard put to envision the complete collapse of both sides in this divided country....where the Progressives become nothing but budding Bolsheviks....and conservatives become the cult following of a political carpetbagger....and bon vivant playboy par excellence....Donald Trump. Folks we in the church need to examine ourselves on the collapse of America....for until we see that our dalliances with culture and entertainments and greed added to this collapse....we will be of no help. We need terribly to move on from Donald Trump...and pray that God would awaken our slumbering pulpits.

R. C. SPROUL'S DAILY AUDIO

I've posted on this before.....and reposted on it a number of times....R. C. Sproul's 26 minute teaching from Jeremiah 7.....and the words.....The temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD.  Well as I type that message....at ligonier.org....is the daily audio.....titled....Jeremiah's Temple Speech. If you have never heard R. C. then today would be a good day to start. The warning from Jeremiah as R. C. Sproul explains is also to the church. I've added to this in my posts that we in the church seem to think that we are similarly protected by our words....God Bless America....God Bless America....God Bless America. Sproul explains that repeating.....The temple of the LORD....the Temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD....was no guarantee to Judah that Jerusalem and the temple would never be destroyed. Please consider listening to this audio.....and make up your own mind....and you might want to consider taking a few days to read through the entire book of Jeremiah. You will need some help as to the structure of the book.....but a good study bible can assist you there.

Update: since this is a new day....the daily audio will have changed.....but you can still listen to it by Googling the title.

When Bible Studies Become Problematic

            The following post is pure opinion from what I have experienced and observed over the past thirty-eight years. Let me begin with Sunday Schools. They are an eighteenth century phenomenon that served a very distinct purpose at first....to educate children in England who had no other means of learning to read and write. Today....generally speaking....they are a one-hour class....one day a week....that may require and hour or two of study in the previous week. The topics are....generally once again....light....avoiding controversial but vital doctrine. The teachers are pretty much anyone who wants to be a Sunday School teacher. Parents today.....generally.....shirk their duties to teach their own children.....and Sunday School provides the easy way out.....allowing them to avoid the difficult at times study of God's Word....freeing them up to work on being....good parents. To make matters even worse....many families.....maybe most.....choose the church to attend.....because of the Sunday School.....or the youth program.....or the entertainment.....or the overall feeling of being part of a cool church. The result......America 2020.....and Donald Trump.
              As for Bible studies in general.....having had Christian bookstores as a second home over the past few decades.....when we had Christian bookstores....the Bible Study curricula was almost all secondary in what the Christian must know about his or her faith. The deeper topics were available....if you wanted to order them. Are the average Bible studies today helpful? Of course.....but at about the lowest level that the word 'helpful' can be used.....and this can go on for two and three decades in people's lives. The result....we can be outraged at Supreme Court decisions but have no idea how far we ourselves have contributed to the collapse of the culture that we mourn over.
             We have no tangible concept of when Jesus might return....other than it might be as soon as twenty years from now. His return right now would definitely put a crimp in our personal plans. This is because our preaching and our Bible studies and our personal Bible study has settled in at a lowest common denominator. We are not a peculiar people....we are Republicans. There is no cost of discipleship....'born again' is an outdated phrase....and any television teacher is good as long as he or she is positive. Joel Osteen is not Bible study....it's Bible torture.
             So.....everyone is mad at me.....everyone that is except those that know there are major problems here in the church. We in America are in deep doo-doo. There is no 'deep state' but there is deep doo-doo. We are as J. I. Packer once described North American Christianity....."three-thousand miles wide.....and one-half inch deep."
             The Word of God is not to be scheduled in for an hour here or there when there is no soccer practice. It doesn't matter if one is an intellectual.....or a very simple and common person like myself.....the Word literally feeds every day of the week if one will let it.....if one desires it to. One can in effect study the Bible almost every hour of the day....this by just bringing to mind what we know to be true....this if what one is doing allows one to multitask. This is in a way greed.....lust.....for more and more.....as if it were gold....(but it is better than gold!)....and not only that but it gets stronger as the decades roll on. Find something else in life that has those qualities and benefits?
              When persecution hits us here in America......which it will surely do whether it be sooner or later....all Christians will be living in their Bibles. I can picture....and surely you can also....somewhere in the heartland of America in the 1800s....a family....working on the homestead throughout the day....and now it is evening....they actually showed sincere and vocal gratitude for the food they would eat.....and the father would then teach them God's Word....to the best of his ability.
            I'm sure that there are errors somewhere in these words that I just typed.....but then again the message....the warning....of us neglecting the depth of God's very Word to us is not in error. We need in the church to be more than stirred up. Maybe we need a little earth shaking.....a few timbers rattled.....just to see if we are alive. We are going to find out just how far we missed the mark....and I will certainly find out where I missed the mark....and believers will be but a remnant. May God give us one last great awakening....so that remnant might be sizable.....and all for His glory....everything for His glory!

            Folks....after a post like this I usually add a conciliatory note. There are certainly good and strong Bible studies all over the place.....and Sunday Schools. If you or your church are one of these....do not....I beg of you....rest on your laurels.....for your country is in shambles for lack of knowledge of God and His ways and His commands and particularly His warnings on the last days as false teachers abound....and false prophets and fake miracles threaten to lead even the elect away! Evangelicalism has fallen head-over-heels for a false prophet. Even if we were on the right political track we would in effect be trusting in our own powers....forsaking....."The LORD of hosts is with us; the God of Jacob is our fortress." Psalm 46:11 

Lord's Day Post

           We are in need of a new 12" Teflon skillet. I'm getting tired of scraping the one we have now. Three and a half centuries ago one would probably call in a 'tinker'....a handyman who fixed pots and pans. John Bunyan was one such tinker. On a drive today in the Ohio countryside I pulled up a YouTube of Bunyan expert Derek Thomas giving one of his lectures on Pilgrim's Progress. Thomas related that the great Puritan theologian John Owens once said to King Charles II...."Could I possess the tinker's (preaching) abilities, please your majesty, I would gladly relinquish all my learning."
            I came across this exhortation to preachers in a sermon of Charles Spurgeon's....(who by the way by his own testimony had read Pilgrim's Progress 100 times during his lifetime)....that book titled....Jesus, King Of Truth...."I have sometimes, when hearing sermons, wished the preacher would come to the point, and would deal with something that really concerned our soul's welfare. What concern have dying men with the thousand trivial questions which are flitting around us? We have heaven or hell before us, and death within a stone's throw; for God's sake do not trifle with us, but tell us the truth at once!"
            If you leave church tomorrow feeling like something was missing....but you have no idea what it was....please consider grabbing your laptop and listening to this one sermon by Charles Spurgeon. Simply Google....'Charles Spurgeon....a blast of the trumpet against false peace.'

"Pressures?"...."Check"...."Temperatures?"...."Check"....."Born Again?"......"Check!"

Preface: The following post is from the beginning of February. The 'hits' to these posts usually come in the 'ones....and twos....and sometimes but not often threes at a time." This enables me....and it is one of the most important things to keep me going....it enables me to pray for almost every person that either stumbles across or purposely comes to these posts. There may be a 'hit' from Romania....or Turkey....and I pray for that person....whoever they might be.....God knows....for they are someone I will never meet. Praying for blessings.....and salvation if they are in need of that....is a gift and a blessing and a great joy that God has given us. So....If someone reads a post.....maybe on Donald Trump...and really were not happy about it....that's not important to me. What is important is....has that person come to know Jesus Christ....having been 'born again'.....'born anew'.....adopted.....redeemed.....whatever term you want to use. Thus there are posts such as the following.....and without them there would be no posts here at all....for I surely would not have spent eleven plus years only on politics....important as it can be.....especially today. Here's a hint before you read this post....the person who has been born again.....knows that they have been born again. They may not use that term.....and initially they may balk at the thought....but if they look into it....and consider it....they'll say....."Oh.....yes I have been born.....again....and I praise God every day.....and almost every hour of every day....for it.
       

             It seems that the blind men healed in the synoptic gospels of Matthew and Mark and Luke 'regained' their sight....for one of them at first saw men....as trees....walking....and Bartimaeus was made...."well"....but the man in the ninth chapter of the gospel of John....the gospel that focused on Christ's divinity....was blind from birth!
             Ponder this scenario with me for a few moments if you would....a man....or a woman....was raised in the church....faithfully attending throughout their youth....but maybe they go off to college and lose that faithful attendance....or not attend at all....time passes.....they get married and have a family....see the futility of life....and decide to return to God....once again faithfully attending church....maybe even becoming an officer or a Bible Study teacher....or maybe even a pastor?
            My own experience was this. I attended church fairly faithfully in my youth.....and even into my time in the army....and college....but I was still....as everyone is....blind from birth to Jesus Christ....and to myself....not in need as simply 'regaining' something! Long story short....I was born again....and the earth shook....and the Bible came alive....and I had to tell people....but I never....even through valleys....and taking the wrong path....and times of despair....and finding myself too at home in Vanity Fair....I never lost the knowledge of the immeasurable grace....and only temporarily lost the unimaginable joy....of knowing that I was once dead....but that I was now alive!
            Simply as an exercise in examining ourselves as we all should do....I would ask you to consider....to double-check....that you may had not only....'regained"....the sight you once had....that you were not only made 'well' once again....with a sight that is not regeneration....or being born again....or leading to eternal life? Hopefully you'll just say....'Yes....I know what you mean....and I was born again"....but if not....if the born again part has always dismayed you....take heart....for it is right there before your blind eyes....for you will be given sight for the first time....if you but go to Him even now....for He turns no one away.

The Tracks Of My Tears

Folks....you could easily go back thirty-five years....and much longer than that actually....and in the Christian community you would have heard from many....great concern on God's imminent judging of America. We lost all that discernment. Here we are today looking at this rubble of America on television....and reading about it.....and we can't put two and two together.....God is judging America....all of us.....not just the other side! What you'll hear from our pulpits is that we need to pray for America....nothing on self-examination....nothing on repentance. Why....we're ready to send that rocket ship of a stock market up again. Bottom line....the church once knew of God's warnings to us....it no longer does. The following post is from early in 2015.

         Smokey Robinson was one of the writers and was originally recorded by The Miracles on a Motown label. If you are a Linda Ronstadt fan you're certainly familiar with it but most likely you remember the Johnny Rivers version that went to #10 in 1967. It was The Tracks Of My Tears. Some of the lyrics are these:

People say I'm the life of the party
Because I tell a joke or two
Although I might be laughing loud and hearty
Deep inside I'm blue
So take a good look at my face
You'll see my smile looks out of place
If you look closer, it's easy to trace
The tracks of my tears.

        I have a page link to the left of what you are reading that is just about all humor. Not a day goes by without some laughter. There were a lot smiles today as my wife and I went to Living Treasures which is a popular...and wonderful...animal park here in the Pittsburgh area. Both of us just watched  in amazement the wonders of God's beautiful creation. I marveled at small monkeys, two of whom were only a couple of weeks old, who cared for each other so tenderly. One baby was on its mother's back while the father seemed to be picking small insects off of it.
       Right now I'm typing and then looking up to a movie on television....Impossible....and then typing and then watching the film again. I've mentioned the Christmas Day 2004 Tsunami a number of times in these posts and I've watched videos of that disaster. The surf had receded and people walked in the wet sand picking up shells oblivious of what was bearing down upon them. This is America today!
       Impossible, with actors Naomi Watts, Ewen McGregor and Tom Holland, is a depiction of that terrible day and it's based on a true story,  I believe that there's a 'tsunami' coming to America. God doesn't use that word but the essence is the same and we are picking up sea shells unaware of the roar all about us. The news is only somewhat bothersome and we will cover our ears should a rotating siren happen to point our way, but it surely is only a test, then we can be at ease again.
        Soon, Pastors all over America will be once again in their pulpits, but they will ignore the button for the siren. In fact they probably do not even know where it is, for it has been replaced in importance by state-of-the-art speaker systems with the sweetest resonance to carry their voices with words of comfort and encouragement.
        Life goes on, there's work to do, and I personally continue with the balancing act...glorying in God's handiwork, accepting His blessings though I don't deserve them, smiling often, but..... if you look closer....it's easy to trace.....the tracks of my tears....over what America has become.

It's What Might Be Next That Concerns Me

         We're familiar with this....the Left...in its many forms....has hijacked America. All we have to do is read the latest news to see how far we have fallen as a people in common sense and reasoning and vigilance and discernment. Once again...to conservatives reading these posts....we know this....and lament it! What we do not know....this in my opinion of course....is that the charismatic church....has also hijacked America....or more accurately American evangelicalism. It is that bad.
          They have 'prophets' running around everywhere....all of it nonsense at best. Joel Osteen....a false teacher....has risen to the top of the bestseller lists. They have an extraordinary influence on evangelicalism in general through the mediums of Christian television and magazines....and books....and radio. In fact they are almost our only supply line today since Christian bookstores were put out of business by the Internet.
         They are newsmakers. They thrive on coming up with something new and exciting....supernatural....the latest being a march in Washington D. C. this September....40 days before the general election. (does that surprise anyone?) They had been a force in choosing Donald Trump in the 2016 primaries....and are a guiding light since then as to how evangelicals have dealt with a very obviously troubled individual in the White House in Donald Trump.
          This is a great delusion that America is under today....and we brought it upon ourselves over decades. Evangelicalism was at one time a legitimate defender of traditionalism in America. We were to a large degree humble....and patient....and then came Donald Trump....where the charismatics latched onto him....and he latched onto them. It was a marriage made not in heaven.
          The prophets are still at it....just changing the narrative a little.....and this is what troubles me....because they seem to be looking to some kind of miraculous events that will propel Donald Trump to even greater heights....(or depths).
          The charismatics are not alone....for the mega-church pastors have become the Paul Reveres of this mess. Why? They think that they are defending American's religious liberties. It doesn't matter that those liberties are used in a cheap grace....too often gnostic....easy-believism church age. It wasn't always like this....but as I had written in a previous post....the Billy Graham evangelical....became the Ralph Reed evangelical....that became the Karl Rove  evangelical....that is today the Donald Trump evangelical. What is next?
          My hope was that Donald Trump would be forced to abandon his efforts for a second term....that he would take these remaining months to make decisions for America not based on a reelection....and that we would give him a pardon for any future indictments.....and that he could return to Mar-A-Lago....having achieved the ultimate office of President of the United States to add to his resume.
          We also see this everywhere today. We cannot express an opinion....for it might offend someone....often taken totally out of context. Well this political correctness is in the church also. There are men and women all over the place it seems who claim to be prophets.....and evangelists claiming to have saved millions of people....even tens of millions.....at rallies somewhere.....and we're not supposed to even question this? There is more involved here than one man running for president....or even the results of such an election....for there is a possibility that this weakened church age....spurred on by the quest for the supernatural....that even much greater delusion is in store for us.
          Folks....I'm just a blogger.....not even a blogger....more of a pamphleteer....with a very limited readership....but there appears to be a winnowing coming in the church....as these many extraordinary and varied problems will eventually become too much for Christians to endure who just want to live a peaceable life. Surely the Lord is near. I heard just this afternoon one of these 'prophets'.....prophesy on what will happen in the next decade....and it was all good....and the audience nodded their heads and smiled. Try this if you will.....Google.....'Charles Spurgeon sermons, YouTube'.....five or six will appear on the first page....pick any one. I put this here so that some might hear what a sermon was like in the days before this modern age....and cleave to it....seeking more....all the while being weaned off of that which has overtaken us in these confused and diabolical times.

Addendum: Charismatic Christians can be some of the most dedicated and loving Christians that there are. I have had wonderful fellowship with them at various times....and a number are friends....but that is not the issue. The gospel of Jesus Christ is the issue. The faithfulness of our adherence to God's Word is the issue. The weaknesses and susceptibilities of all of us is the issue. Faddish theologies tend to get worse....not better....as time goes by. Even the more faithful to biblical truths need to continually examine themselves.....and even to continually reform if necessary....to insure that they remain in the faith....but entirely new interpretations from 2000 years of well-documented and perspicuous doctrines that are proven by God's hand upon His church are not only suspect but we are warned of such false teachings.
          

No....Our Best Days Are Not Yet Ahead Of Us

The following was first posted February 5th....four short months ago.....before the economic shutdown....and before the social unrest. Why can some Christians see something as biblically obvious as Donald Trump being a false prophet....as others have remained blinded to it? Our flag hangs about twelve feet from where I'm sitting. We have a bell tower in town that plays various compositions....one of which is our national anthem. There have been times when I would be shopping and it would play. I would then stop....remove my hat....and face that sound until it was over. Love of country....especially America....is a good thing....but we evangelicals let it move in front of our love for our Savior. We Christians let a salesman dictate to us what we need....and we bought it....sight unseen....and now that we see the property....we somehow blame others for the swampland that is ours. Even this morning Donald Trump continues to inundate us with the words that we will become greater than ever....for it is all that he has. We need to move on....repent of our dalliance with greed and power....and move on.

"Truly, truly, I say to you, he who does not enter the sheepfold by the door but climbs in by another way, that man is a thief and a robber." (John 10:1 ESV) Donald Trump did not enter the sheepfold by the door....yet he leads evangelicals astray.....he is a 'thief and a robber.'

DONALD TRUMP.....FALSE PROPHET

            President Trump concluded the State of the Union address with these words:  "This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Epic, the American Adventure, has only just begun. Our spirit is still young; the sun is still rising; God's grace is still shining; and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come. Thank you, God bless you. God bless America."
            Brothers and sisters in Christ....the redeemed of Christ....those born again....do you not recognize these as words of a genuine biblical false prophet....a false prophet such as we have been warned of time and again in the Bible....of which we acknowledged their existence.....and felt assured that we would know them if they approached us....but we did not know this one! We let down our guard. We thought it would be easy to spot a false prophet....but it wasn't easy....for this one came with words of patriotism....and words that defended life.....and religious freedom....words at times pointing to the glory of God....but these are merely words written by speechwriters who know what the evangelical wants to hear. We wanted it to be true....and ignored all the plenteous evidence that it was not true. We got sucked into greed....calling it liberty....and a lust for power....calling it freedom. He dragged us into his swamp....and we still did not recognize him....but these words above from the State of the Union address....words that everyone today is exalting as such a great speech....surely we can see that they are as bogus as the words of the serpent in the garden...."Hath God said?"
             Pastors....it should be obvious that President Trump has entered your realm of preaching and teaching. This here is not politics! Will you not now warn your congregations of what this man says....and repeats on a regular basis....in front of tens of millions....using God's name....words which runs contrary to God's Word....leading us astray? Will you not now defend your sheep? Will you not even defend the gospel of Jesus Christ? Will you just sit back and let your congregation be devoured without so much as a caution?

Note: Google....'John MacArthur, YouTube, beware of false prophets' for a very good primer. Interestingly....he broadcast this message in May of 2015.....a month before Donald Trump came down that escalator.

The Problem Is Not In What We Have

My favorite Peanuts comic of all time had Linus running up to Charlie Brown and describing the big win in the game.....and how everyone on the team was jumping around and yelling and so excited. Charlie looks at him when he is finished and asks...."And how did the other team feel?"

          I had been posting on the threat of communism and communist tactics in America for years....all the while wondering why few on our side would dare mention the word. There was one post only three or four years ago where I applauded Rush for actually using the word....but today all these folks act like they have been warning about communism all along.
           Without law and order you have chaos.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Bolsheviks to come to power.....and you give opportunity for groups such as the Nazis to push aside all the other political parties to take power. I've posted often on this also....but if we just go out and condemn the other side without any introspection at all on why these destructive forces are able to get a foothold.....then we not only do not help the situation.....we make matters worse.
           The middle class is disappearing today. There is only us with the money and 401s.....and the others with a few thousand bucks.....where we just want them to stay in their communities and not cause trouble....and be satisfied with their iPhones and hundreds of cable channels....(we'll come in for a ballet or a stage play....once in a while.....and of course we'll show up regularly at the stadiums....as we pass quickly through their communities to get there.)
            We don't understand what their life is like....and we don't really want to......we just want these problems to go away. I remember what it was like to have the electricity or the phone turned off...but we didn't live in a two-class society back then. The middle class had nice homes and a nice automobile but they lived on the street right next to us. They didn't have any expensive toys. What they had over us was a house over an apartment.....and a bank account.
            Socialism is not the answer....no one knows that more than I do.....but capitalism as it exists today.....Donald Trump's capitalism.....is ugly and greedy and uncaring and at times criminal. We have 401s with hundreds of thousands in the bank....bare minimum....and no mortgage....on a home that we own.....or if we are younger we are certainly on our way there....and they have a couple of thousand in the bank at best....and we cannot understand why they are not happy....and don't make wise decisions.
            Our side works hard.....they earned the money.....but that's not the only issue. One can pay a thousand a month for cable and Internet and phones....and then struggle to have the rent money.....and we condemn them for this.....as if we played no part in structuring such a society.....but we did....as we looked only after ourselves as people like Donald Trump became billionaires on our weaknesses. We criticize their playing the Lotto to get rich quick but we play the same Lotto on Wall Street.
            The problem is not in what we have.....but in what we value. I would much rather live in a row house....with good neighbors.....in a community of love.....than a million dollar home right on the beach....where my safety and happiness depended upon the stock market and keeping the lower class in their cities. The only answer to our problems is in Jesus Christ.
             I'll include with this post an older post titled 'Annie Get Your Crown.' A society that honors Jesus Christ could not have come to the point where we are at. Bolshevism and fascism and anarchy would find few if any takers....and you could probably count the number of billionaires on your fingers and toes. We might invest in someone's company or even a corporation but we wouldn't be investing in spreadsheets.....dropping some stock symbols while picking up others at the drop of a hat because the some artificial intelligence tells us that the odds are better.
             None of the past is coming back....and it was far from perfect to begin with. We are living in the culmination of history. When Jeremiah gives us the LORD's admonition....."Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls"....we were not told to find a golden age....a making America great again.....but we were given the same admonition as in Matthew 6:33.....Jesus speaking....."But seek ye first his kingdom, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you." Our response then.....in Jeremiah....was "But they said, 'We will not walk in it'." And that is also our response today.

 ANNIE GET YOUR CROWN.....April of 2017:

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