Stark Contrast

Pauls' letters to the Thessalonians were the first that he wrote that are recorded in God's Word. Looking forward to the return of Jesus was a primary theme. What are we to make of this? How would he have reacted if it was revealed to him that the return of Jesus would not be for another two-thousand years? There has not been a day in the past two-thousand years when Christians were not to hope for the return of their Savior but different ages quite naturally produce different fears and hopes....and even in the same age....different geopolitical locations produce different fears and hopes. Complicating this is that today....in the West generally....what we call progress in scientific and technological areas....tends to turns the minds of even believers away from the Lord's return....when it should do the exact opposite. There is no stopping this stampede to oblivion....and no republican congress or Supreme court or president could even slow it down. Those days told to Daniel....and therefore us....where knowledge will increase are upon us....and add to this Israel....and add to this delusion...and add to this major enemies of America just looking for the right time to catch us unprepared....and it takes extreme effort to avoid the conclusion that Jesus is about to return....extreme effort unfortunately that we are more than willing to exert. Paul's letters to the Thessalonians are as urgent to us as they were to those who read the papyrus....and John's seven letters to the seven churches in Revelation are in our mailbox right now!

Preface: Common sense in its most basic form tells us that there has to be a generation on the earth when the Tribulation begins....and children and newlyweds....and college students etc. etc. etc. Well it wasn't my generation....Vietnam and riots and rock music and drugs and free love were generation. It wasn't my dad's generation.....World War II was his generation.....he enlisted....was severely wounded....and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This is it folks. This is the generation. Somehow we talked ourselves into believing that God doesn't want us to think about this. There is no way that all that has happened in the past hundred years is not related to the return of Jesus Christ in power and glory....with His mighty angels. We should be desiring and praying diligently for our Lord's return....and if we are observers of where this world not only is but where it is going....we should by all rights not want anything to do with what is ahead. Is this all negative thinking? No....it is the opposite....Jesus is coming folks....therefore difficult times are ahead....false prophets and delusion....but ultimately it doesn't get any more positive! The following paragraph is from 2018:

Life in America may be about to change. We simply cannot go on as we are. From a grossly ineffective government along with just about all of its leaders....and this at the most perilous time in our history....to a collapsed culture that mocks God....to new technologies bordering on suicidal invention....to volatility everywhere....to epidemics of greed and lying and violence....to tottering foundations of all that our country was built upon....we will reap what we have sown. The forewarning message of Jonah....an advance notice of judgment if we do not repent....is no longer heard....or haven't you noticed? We have had plenty of time....but have only gotten worse....far worse even from that described in the following post....as we now attempt to circumvent God's commands....and on our own make America great again. 

Stark Contrast....May, 2014

         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 that generation did on December 7th, 1941 but our younger generation today may indeed be another one. Colleges and universities are having their commencement right about now and the hopes and dreams of many wearing mortar boards and gowns are exactly the same as the young couple that I described.
          I'm a news junky and the daily pain from the news of this world has made it such that I could never lose myself in plans or even hopes and dreams. 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.
          The 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture went to the 1942 American film Mrs. Miniver in which Greer Garson also won for Best Actress. It portrays the upper middle class Miniver family who live outside of London in a very nice home on the River Thames. I list this film as one of my favorites in my Profile for this blog.
          Life could not be sweeter for Mrs. Miniver and her family as she is smitten over an expensive new hat and her husband (Walter Pidgeon) outdoes her by purchasing a sporty new vehicle. Their eldest son has taken up the pipe at university and spouts his political views with heartfelt sincerity but naive certainty much like our youth today and very much like myself at that age. War looms on the horizon but is not taken seriously until England declares war on Germany. Life then changes for the family as their son goes off to war and as their own home is damaged by bombs.
          There is a church scene at the beginning of the film and another at the end....and the stark contrast of the two is the essence of the film! Americans would already have experienced the realities of war when the movie came out and the intended purpose of the motion picture was to rally the American public by showing them the courage and stamina of the British homefront in a war they had already been in for three years. Winston Churchill commented on the book and the film in that they did more for the war effort than a flotilla of battleships.
          I highly recommend the film for we are in need of a reality check on what lies before us in America, and our congregations are in need of soberness in our worship services that would eliminate distractions and focus us solely on who we are there to worship.

The Narrative....Is All That Matters Today

  

           Preface: It seems that all we have heard from the Trump Party over the past month...(I am not part of the Trump Party....for I am a longtime conservative republican evangelical)....is the low percentage of fatalities....(or high survival rate)....in this latest strain of the virus. That which is seldom addressed is that if the number of positives increases tenfold....then however low that percentage might be....the number not the percentage would increase tenfold....as it would a hundredfold....and a thousandfold....and so on. The various authorities that chose to do so....restricted close encounters....to limit positivity....while not knowing exactly how contagious the virus is....and all this to keep the number of deaths lower than what they might be if no or fewer precautions were taken. This is all Fauci and Redfield and Birx are asking of us right now....but we continue to fight them.

            I commented to my wife before she retired for the evening that tests were going to show that President Trump has the virus. It seemed probable as the President and Hicks and about thirty others were on the helicopter. Well....that was indeed the case....along with Melania.
            It's been my habit lately to get up a little later in the morning....usually 8 or 9....since I haven't been going to bed until 2 or 3. So I settled in this morning with coffee and the computer and the radio. Now this is something that suits me well....as I can tune in late to Breitbart or Hannity or Levin on SiriusXm....and dial the time back to the beginning of the show.....and continuously move it forward as I desire. So I tuned it back to the start of the show....and here is where I was surprised this morning....as the host was jovial.....at times chuckling....and used the word 'narrative' three or four times....the meaning being that when the President gets well then the whole episode can be used as a positive on the election.
            This has been the problem that Donald Trump has brought to dealing with the pandemic.....talk radio took the ball and ran with it but it all originates with the man who dictates everything. Whereas we could have had at least a unified response with everyone on the same page....we instead had turmoil as the advice of the people who should know seemed to be more often than not at loggerheads with the people whose primary concern was the coming election.
            Bob Woodward's book Rage did a good job of giving Trump's thoughts as the pandemic began and then worsened. Woodward's approach was more than fair....and Trump appeared in a good light as he took the advice given to him on closing China and Europe....but he quickly became impatient....as it became obvious in his conversations with the author that it was time to move on to the campaign for reelection....and that is the 'narrative' that the Breitbart host was talking about today....not how easily this virus is spread....or the national security issues it might present....but how it just might turn out to the President's advantage.....and that is a truly sad state of affairs.

Every Christian A Green Beret?

            When I was in my teens....that would be the 60s....the army's Green Berets were almost mythical to me. Here were men who would deploy in small groups to small villages....where they could speak the language....and they had all kinds of skills to teach these villagers how to defend themselves....and of course they wore that green beret....that President Kennedy approved for Special Forces to wear to distinguish themselves. I would never have made the Green Berets even if I had the courage to try....but then few could....how did the song go....100 men will test today....but only 3 win the Green Beret?
              I bring this up....for what else...to apply it to the Christian walk. Every soldier in Christ's army should at least hope to be the equivalent of a United States Army Green Beret. What I mean by this is that we need to learn our skills to survive and to help others.....which in this case are the doctrinal truths in the Bible. We need to know the language of the people....so that we can communicate the gospel of Jesus Christ correctly....on a theological landscape of many strange dialects. We need to know how to carry another brother out of harm's way if necessary....and as for the green beret itself....being a peculiar people is to be our distinguishing uniform.
            Maybe you think that I'm being overly dramatic here? Was Paul being overly dramatic when he wrote...."Put on the full armor of God, for you to be able to stand against the schemes of the devil."? There is a J. C. Ryle message that I encourage you to Google-up and listen to....for it is on this topic....and if you listen to it you'll know that I'm being anything but overly dramatic. It's not read from one of Ryle's sermons but rather it's a chapter from his well-respected book Holiness. So just type in....J. C. Ryle....Visible Churches Warned. I know that you will be edified.
              

DO NOT READ.....AMERICAN OLIGARCHS!

Preface: This post and the paragraph right above it are from this past March:

That America right now has a choice of Joe Biden or Donald Trump to move into or to continue to occupy that Oval Office is judgment on us from God. It's is what we want....it is what we deserve. This chaos in America did not begin three weeks ago....nor did it begin when Donald Trump was inaugurated. When we start trusting in ourselves....in our own powers....chaos takes root. The very last words that John Kennedy was to give in that speech never given in Dallas were...."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'." The full verse in Psalm 127....in the King James Version that Kennedy was quoting....."Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

            I use the trunk and tailgate on whatever vehicle I'm driving for advertising of these posts....and have done so for at least a decade. The URL will be there along with a message that I change often....for the past few months it has been.....TRUMP....FOOL ME ONCE...NOT TWICE....with an ichthys fish symbol below 'ME' to show that I am an evangelical.
            OK.....having laid some groundwork here....Mark Levin's Liberty & Tyranny was published in 2013. It was one terrific book directed at Progressivism's destructive agenda which is really tyranny. So the message that I choose for my tailgate was.....DO NOT READ LIBERTY & TYRANNY....as I was trying to draw attention to the book. Well I received a message on my company email from a lady whom I did not know....(it's a big place).....she very politely told me that she disagreed with me telling her or anyone what not to do....so she was going right out to buy the book I told her not to read. I went out of my way to find her....(I never used company email for personal communications)....and introduced myself....and explained what I was trying to do. She might have been a little bit embarrassed but we had a nice conversation. So.....DO NOT READ AMERICAN OLIGARCHS....The Kushners, the Trumps, and the Marriage of Money and Power....by Andrea Bernstein!
             I know that regular visitors here are sick of hearing this....but I have to repeat it often for new visitors....I'll try to make it real short....we evangelicals knew hardly anything about Donald Trump in 2016....other than the outrageous celebrity on tabloid covers and television. When he as a newly inaugurated President threatened on Twitter to work against the reelection of the Freedom Caucus....the most dependable caucus that we had in the Congress....because they would not rubber stamp his fake Obamacare repeal and replace bill....I started reading....sixty-five books so far....(seventy-five as of today) books for him....books against him....and books just about him. Folks....if you don't read about Trump....you will remain in the dark....which is where he wants you....but if you do start to read about him....you will see that we have been duped.
            I could easily recommend here a dozen books on where to start.....but I'll use American Oligarchs....for this book will not only take you through the rise of the Trump empire....and Donald Trump's rise to the White House....but the rise of the Kushner empire as well. You will see Jared and Ivanka as they really are. Give yourself a week to read it.....and that is if you are a fast reader.....for you may have to put it down at times out of sheer discouragement....over the mistake you made in not seeing during the primaries who Donald Trump was....and in continuing to support him for the past three years even though there was warnings and evidence all around us....and in not trusting in God....but in man....in ourselves....and you might even see how not only have we not changed him....as some of us had hoped....but he has changed us.....evangelicals and conservatives....for we are no longer rigorous thinkers....no longer vigilant....but just followers....taking orders.....mesmerized....believing everything told us without examination....and ready to lower the boom on anyone who so much as questions our wonderful leader.

Prepare To Stand Alone

I wake up every morning and the first words in my mind....and often spoken out loud are...."Lord....I pray your hand upon this day." If I go three or four days without hearing a sermon from some great preacher of the past....or present....I can feel discernment slipping.....my mind wandering.....and my resolve weakening. I was at the gym this morning.....listening to a sermon from the past. I'm not a fitness fanatic....I'm a great sermon fanatic....and the gym serves my purpose in this respect. Today it was J. C. Ryle's How To Be Saved....first preached maybe 150 years ago. Ryle certainly did not know as he jotted down sermon notes....with a steel point pen probably....under a gas lighted fixture....or possibly it was electric....nor even would he have imagined....that 150 years later a poor needy Christian would devour his words through some magical invention perched on top of his head. On the wall about three feet to the right of me is an original page of one of Charles Spurgeon's sermons....framed and matted....this one from 1890....with a purple ink splotch on the page that dripped from his pen.

The following post is from April of 2017....and is my Lord's Day post:

"Prepared To Stand Alone"

         I think that I can say accurately that I have not only enjoyed but have been thoroughly edified by every word that I have ever read by Iain Murray....and I've read quite a few of his books....including his latest....J. C. Ryle, Prepared To Stand Alone.
        Great Britain was blessed by two great preachers in the last half of the 19th century. The word 'blessed' may not do justice to what their ministries did for Great Britain during that period, and all of Christianity, not only in the last half of the 20th century but right up until today! England's church was in the initial stages of collapse. The ministries of both of these men, and many others of course, not only kept the church afloat but provided an invaluable warning and prophesy of total collapse of the church that should speak to us today....for that collapse did indeed occur. The sermons and the writings of both men, thanks to the 'electric telegraph' as J. C. Ryle described it, enabled their work to compass the world.
        Ryle attended Eton, that famous boys boarding school that has produced 19 British Prime Ministers. You may have heard the phrase...'the battle of Waterloo was won on the playing fields of Eton.' There is some doubt as to the veracity of this statement but J. C. Ryle's education gives support to it as his experiences at Eton produced a man who later was uncompromising on the gospel of Jesus Christ....wise....tolerant when appropriate....but uncompromising on the essentials of the faith which are many.
        Ryle then matriculated to Oxford where he excelled and would probably have moved on to a life of service in Parliament had not he visited a church on a Lord's Day morning where a Bible passage stirred something in him that would agitate until a Christian and hero of the Christian Faith was born. That passage was the second chapter of Ephesians which includes...'By grace are ye saved-through faith-and that not of yourselves-it is the gift of God." It's interesting in that the other great preacher in England, Charles Haddon Spurgeon, had a similar experience of conversion where a disjointed unconventional service in a blizzard did produce but a single verse of Scripture that would change a young man's life from the moribund to the extraordinary. That single verse was Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth; for I am God, and there is none else."
        J. C. Ryle was raised in a family that he described in this way..."My father's house was respectable, and well-conducted, but there really was not a bit of religion in it." He continued..." The plain truth is, that for the first 16 or 17 years of my life, there was no ministry of the gospel at the churches we attended....we had no real religious friends or relatives and no real Christian ever visited our house" and "for about the first 18 years of my life, neither at home, nor at school, nor college, nor among my relatives or friends, had I anything to do good to my soul, or to teach me anything about Jesus Christ." This in spite of the fact that his family did attend church and actually give occasional homage to God in their home.....so similar to America today.
       Ryle became a minister more out of financial necessity than anything else. His father was not happy with his decision...."the consequences of this change were very great indeed...it caused great uncomfortableness in my own family, and made my own position very unpleasant indeed. In fact no one can tell what I had to go through, in hundreds of petty ways....It made an awkwardness, and uncomfortableness, and an insensible kind of estrangement which no one can comprehend but those who have gone through it. I had the constant uncomfortable feeling that on account of my religious opinions I was only a tolerated person in my own family and somewhat alienated and estranged from all my old friendships among my relatives."
        It should be noted that these words come from a rather informal autobiography that he penned primarily for his children. Other than this book J. C. Ryle was not into exalting himself in any way. He experienced many sorrows. His father lost all of his money, necessitating the young man quickly choose employment.... he sacrificed to help his father with his debts....his first wife died young and his second of three spouses died after ten difficult years of illness. Although he doesn't mention it as such, the greatest disappointment may have come after decades of ministry, when as the church was collapsing into much doctrinal error, this stalwart of the faith was criticized ridiculed and isolated for his persevering proclamation of the true gospel of Jesus Christ. He was not a preacher at a small church at the time but the Bishop of Liverpool in the Church of England! So the beginning and end of his ministry was similar to Charles Spurgeon's, for the great Baptist pastor was also isolated, censured and relegated as inconsequential in the modern church of his day.
        The American Christian of today would do well to pick up this book and read for we also may be called to 'stand alone' if necessary. Our church has gone modern, our gospel is diluted, and our nation is suffering as a consequence.
        J. C. Ryle, Prepared To Stand Alone by Iain Murray is much more than a biography. It is, just as every tract that Ryle wrote and sermon that he gave, an evangelical call to faith in Jesus Christ. If the reader here is a young person then this is a book you must read! If you are of middle-age it will strengthen your resolve for the days ahead, and if you are really old like me...it will fortify that which hopefully you already know, that "Jesus Christ is the same yesterday and today and forever."....that this life is short and in the words of a famous poem..."Only one life, will soon be past, Only what's done for Christ will last"....and that only reliance upon the words of the captain of our faith will guide us through the increasing storms and unseen shoals to our right and to our left.

      

Fill That Seat....And Lose The Momentum

Preface: We don't even know the name yet....but they are already confirmed....how bad is that? We do know the term 'Pyrrhic Victory' do we not.....where a victory takes such a toll that you have to wonder if it was in the long run a victory? If the Republicans push through this nomination....when upon the death of Antonin Scalia they pushed off a vote for eleven months....then they will give a future Democrat administration complete and total freedom to do whatever they want regardless of the constitution....plus they give Nancy Pelosi the 'loop hole' right now to up the ante on anything and everything....for all is now fair in the White House and in the Congress....but we will have had our Supreme Court judge. Nominate but hold off the vote would be a wise thing to do for Republicans....for their base would be mobilized....vote now.....and the other side will be incensed and energized.

            Anytime that someone dies....anyone well-known in the public....it should bring at least a moment of reflection to us....maybe concern for the family of the person who passed away. That's generally the first thing that comes to my mind at times like this....and it is with Ruth Bader Ginsburg....but there's something else....and that to me anyway....is that one-by-one past generations leave us. The old Hollywood A List is now officially gone with the passing of Olivia De Havilland. It's remarkable how Jimmy Carter....who appointed Ruth Bader Ginsburg to an appeals court back in 1980....is probably still pounding nails at 95 years of age....but all too often....as in a situation such as the passing of a Supreme Court Justice....the here-and-now is what becomes the main concern.
            There is no way that a Supreme Court seat should even be attempted to be filled 45 days prior to a national election....for many reasons....one of which is that it is not enough time to properly vet anyone....but possible societal unrest over a....blink-and-you-missed-it appointment....would be another. This may in a way be why we have playboy bon vivant deal-maker extraordinaire (sort of) Donald Trump as president of the United States of America....as we did not have enough time to vet him....(actually we were hurried but we had the time but not the desire)....and my own testimony on this is that I knew little of Trump even though I voted for him and celebrated. It was only after he showed himself to be completely unfit for that office....this being March and April of 2017....that I started to vet him.....75 books so far and counting....through the tears.
             So....I would expect that this might be the deal from Trump....nominate someone who we want....fight like he did with Vince McMahon at Wrestlemania 23 back on April 1, 2007.....where he body-slammed McMahon to the cheers of the crowd....but hope that the nominee does not actually get appointed....(yet)....because right now conservatives live and breathe their support for Trump because of the Supreme Court. What else has he given them but trouble? Fill this court seat and the emergency is somewhat....somewhat mitigated....and the voter turnout might be a tad lower than hoped for....but that 'tad' is enough to lose an election.

"Both Of Them Were Running Together, But The Other Disciple Outran Peter, And Reached The Tomb First"

           

             Fifty-one years ago today I enlisted in the army at the Federal Building in downtown Pittsburgh. The next eight weeks would be some of the best weeks of my life in that all the pretenses that can come along with being a teenager in the 60s were gone....along with my hair.

             It did not matter how much money a man's family had....or how one did in high school....or how one looked. I had the discipline that I needed....and ate three square meals....and drank milk....and even ate liver. 
             I had to be in bed with the lights out at a certain time....and out of bed immediately after the lights came on in the morning. I couldn't quit this team like I had in high school. I didn't really have any time to dream about girls....and there was no alcohol."
             I've posted on this topic before....always light-heartedly....and always with fond memories....but I don't think that I ever mentioned this one fellow recruit....although I may have. He was of a slight build and very shy. The very first night spent in the army.....in a bunk in the reception station....with all the lights out and most everyone sleeping....in the top bunk of the first set of bunk beds....right next to some light coming from a bulb outside the barracks door....I noticed that young man was sitting upright....reading a Bible.  
             It was almost like he wasn't even there for the first few weeks as he never said anything....but then the emphasis was put on the PT tests that would culminate our eight weeks....which was rather a big deal to all of us as we had bonded together as a platoon and wanted that PT prize. As it turned out he could run like the wind....forever....and we did win that competition.
              I've wondered at times over the years where he was. Did he go to Vietnam....as most everyone had....and did he return? I've never been able to locate him. He didn't talk much so I didn't know much about him other than he had a faith in Jesus Christ. If I could locate him I would contact him and thank him for that witness....insignificant as it may seem....for seeing him read that Bible made some kind of impression on me.
              There was another runner with a Bible that would grab my attention....Eric Liddel from the film Chariots Of Fire....and I was a runner myself by then....sort of. In just one of the many scenes that I've committed to memory....(I could probably reenact the entire film)....American Runner Jackson Schultz handed Liddell a personal note before the final race. Written on it was...."It says in the old book....he that honors me....I will honor." That it was really a fellow British team member who gave Liddell the note doesn't take away from the thought.

"Don't you know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. (1 Corinthians 9:24)

               I ran only one marathon. There were thousands of runners....and I came in second to the last. I was sick in the motel the night before....and could not get any water down the last two-thirds of the race. I had an EMT rush up to me as I was on the last stretch....asking if I needed assistance....in the 86 degree summer sun. I'm probably running this race the same way....but I know that I will finish....as I know that that shy recruit in basic will or had finished.....and as Eric Liddel finished his race....as a missionary in an internet camp in China at the end of World War II....I know this because He has promised.

I'll add this post from September 19th....2009....on my 40th anniversary of joining the army. It was twice as long....with no paragraphs....for that is how I originally pecked out these posts. I bring it back because of the date....and because I mention 'pandemics' in it....and because it also mentions the swift passing of time....but also because I still hold these three views:

Three Views

            This is a personal reflection on three arenas where I tend to view life in America. Maybe it will resonate with you...maybe not. The first of these views is as when I walk the neighborhoods or the Main Streets of small towns. Picture a lovely day, maybe 72 degrees with a slight breeze and the leaves gently rustling above. The smells are clean, as least as we have come to know clean. Maybe there is the scent of lilacs as I pass a garden or maybe just freshly cut grass. I pass another person walking and say hello, or see others puttering in their yard. A few cars pass and I detect a look of content or even a smile as they are talking on a cell phone. There is practically no noise save the purr of tires turning on pavement at only about 20 miles per hour. Possibly there is the sound of a lawnmower in the distance that disturbs the quiet and if I'm fortunate there are the chirps and calls of various small birds. I admit, there is little stress to discern on a walk like this. Walking Main street is a little bit different for there is a measure of hustle and bustle as I see housewives doing their grocery shopping, older folks stopping at the pharmacy for their prescriptions, kids of various ages laughing as they munch on some snack that they to came to town for....and men simply doing errands. 

             The second way to view life today, or lens to look through if you will, is through the news in every imaginable medium available to us. There are no fragrances, no breezes, no birds and the only smiles are in pictures of politicians and other notables, but those smiles are not convincing, or soothing. In the news I see a major confrontation brewing in the Middle East, different from the continuous ones of the past for there is uncertainty in this one. I see the Russian bear stirring up strife as if they considered themselves immune from the consequences. I see a Red China growing in power and influence, both financial and military, through nefarious schemes from Africa to Europe and in the Americas north and south. I see a world financial community that proved in the last year that it is truly winging it, its confidence being a facade. I see nervous looks....on those who should know....of possible pandemics. The stark contrast between these two world views is vivid and almost surreal.

             The third view is one that only a Christian can see. Every person that I meet is subject to my concern for their salvation. The grocer, crossing guard, the janitors at work, the older people walking so slowly, the kids speeding by on their bikes, the news anchor, the people who serve me my McDonald's breakfast every morning, celebrities who waste their lives and the lives of those infatuated with them, the Pittsburgh Penguin, the person who sings the songs I at times sing along with in the car, the mailman and the numerous people in news reports who have suffered some sort of tragedy that put them in the news. At work I'll sit and laugh with others over the amusing little things that we all share...all the while knowing that this is a human soul that will one day stand before a God of perfect love but also a God of perfect justice who has clearly told us that we must be born again....born from above....and to look to His Son....who was lifted up on a Cross....for our salvation.  

                Forty years ago today....(fifty-one today)....I joined the United States Army at the Federal Building in Pittsburgh! Time passes quickly and in itself is a great mystery except in that it will never stop in its present form until we experience the vista of eternity. I am thankful for these views that I have for they are reassuring. That's right...reassuring....in that if it is clear enough to see the dangers then it is also clear enough to see the one that will see us through them. With great trepidation comes a knowledge of one who is greater! With the tears of a fallen world comes the joy in knowing Him who has overcome!

We Pray For One Another.....Don't We?

              One of John MacArthur's strengths over the years has been warning Christians on false prophets and cults. He's written books on this....and recorded numerous teaching tapes....I know....for I've read them....and listened to them....for over thirty years now! So how is it that when the greatest false prophet up till now appears....Donald Trump.....with the strongest delusion....complete with false miracles.....that he fell for him?

             Pastor MacArthur is leading the way in America right now on telling evangelicals that there is no pandemic....that this is nothing but the flu....and strongly inferring that you are probably not even a believer in Jesus Christ if you do not vote for Donald Trump this November. How could this happen? What chance do we have if even a John MacArthur gets taken in?
             Donald Trump came down that escalator on June 16, 2015. Five weeks earlier....May 8th of 2015....John MacArthur had given a sermon titled.....Beware of False Prophets. Actually the sermon was probably given much earlier but his radio show broadcast it on that day. Please Google this excellent message....and keep Donald Trump in the back of your mind as you do! Pastor MacArthur concluded this sermon by asking what it is that we look for to identify a false prophet.
             Well....he says very clearly that you look at his conduct....and his character.....and his personality....and his attitude....and his motives....and his lifestyle....and his perspective towards life....and he warns his listeners on false prophets and false teachers....."that whatever is in his heart is going to come out." 
            I still recommend MacArthur's ministry....go there....and stay there....gty.org....for we don't dump one another so quickly do we? We pray for one another....especially when a leader is wounded....don't we? My continuing daily prayer is that God might open our eyes to Donald Trump....at least the eyes of His children....that we might be united once again....as this storm comes closer.

Note: The book was published in 1983....and when I read it I was probably at the peak of my researching religious sects that claimed to be Christian but were not. It was written by a former member of the governing board of that sect.....describing the problems and the errors that to him had come to light. I have that same book next to me right now because I could not give it away to members of that sect....for they would just not read the writings of an 'apostate.' Segueing here....Jared Kushner should never have been given a security clearance.....but we don't read negative thoughts about Donald Trump do we....so we really don't know anything about Jared Kushner. He should never have been brought into the inner sanctum of our national security. One quick thought just came to mind from Bob Woodward's book....General Mattis was being interviewed for Secretary of Defense. Vice President Pence was there....as was Steve Bannon.  Mattis was questioned on many important topics....when Ivanka....yes she was there.....then asked...."how long it would take to review and rewrite the strategy to defeat ISIS?". Jared was given the task of a peace treaty between Israel and the Palestinians. That couldn't be done but they needed something before the election....so the UAE most likely will be allowed to purchase the F-35 stealth jet....(they would be the only Middle East nation other than Israel to have that weapon in their arsenal)....and much later we will probably find out about Bahrain....and there may be others. There is actually a possibility that Donald Trump might be given the Nobel Peace Prize as a result of this deal. There are more books out there than you could carry on how Donald Trump is unfit....in many ways....to be President of the United States....but we consider those books to be written by apostates...or as we call them....'never-Trumpers'....and won't even touch them. Paul warned the Thessalonians....in a verse that we are very familiar with....on what would happen when everyone would be proclaiming "peace and safety." Daniel gives important and cryptic information on it. Jeremiah gives the warning four times. Micah mentions it....and Ezekiel wrote...."....they have mislead My people by saying...'Peace" when there is no peace. And when anyone builds a wall, behold, they plaster it over with whitewash....(not actually strengthening it)....so tell those who plaster it over with whitewash, that it will fall."

It's Not Our Mission To Defend Donald Trump

The following post is from October 30th of last year....when we were riding high...and Donald Trump was predicting that our best was yet to come....(he's doing it again....and we are buying it again)....and the paragraph below more recent. I hope to bring older posts back more often.....sometimes maybe only for hours at a time if they relate to something in the news:

I saw a clip of an interview with Mary Trump. I'm not sure who brought it up but she was questioned as to how she must be surprised that her book did not make more waves than it has. When Too Much...And Never Enough first came out she made a comment that was in the past tense....on bringing Donald Trump down. I thought it odd at the time....for she does not know the makeup of Trump supporters....and this is what she was questioned on in the interview. I could have told her that we do not read anything that criticizes our lord and savior Donald Trump. Her book would be read by others....but not the ones who needed to read it. 

            Supporting Donald Trump in the manner that some nationally known Christian ministers are championing is incongruous to the gospel they proclaim. The two positions are inconsistent with each other. Donald Trump's message....his real message of power and greed....is antithetical to the message of the gospel....but there is more that has to be added to explain this conundrum.
            Franklin Graham has gone off the rails in what he believes is a defense of America's God-fearing heritage. I understand how this can happen. We....by 'we' I mean evangelicalism in America....we struggled with the anti-God movement in America for decades.....myself anyway.....others for over a half century. It was natural in 2016 to rejoice when the Clinton/Obama legacy was challenged and beaten....but there is really no excuse for what happened next.
             I listened only a few minutes ago to an interview by Eric Metaxas of Franklin Graham....two good men....Franklin's efforts in his ministry of Samaritan's Purse having been an extraordinary blessing to millions in need....but both men are blinded to who Donald Trump really is. The Rev. Graham has thus essentially said...'I shall accept the leader God has given....but I shall not entertain any warnings from the brethren on why God may have given him to us!' Now you he might bring up the fact that Franklin Graham has spent a lot of time with Donald Trump.....where I certainly haven't? True....but back in early 2017....when it became obvious that the now President Trump was not who he had told us that he was....I began reading on the man Donald Trump. Previously to this.....like most of us....I had known very little about him....he built towers....he had three glamorous wives......he ran casinos....and he had a popular television show.
            I'm over fifty books now folks. (seventy-five as of today) How many has Franklin Graham read.....probably none. So I see one very consistent life that has not changed one iota in the past four years. This is one horribly profane man with a number of serious psychological pathologies that in itself should exclude Donald Trump for any consideration of four additional years.....but Franklin Graham is not aware of any of this. Donald Trump will at any time and on any issue meet with someone and take on a persona that is a benefit to him only. It will be lies....flatteries....and manipulation! So I would expect him to make pious statements.....and as soon as the meeting is done return to his narcissistic mania. (Michael Cohen relates in his book....Disloyal, A Memoir....how after Trump's initial meeting with about fifty evangelical leaders back in 2011...that after they laid hands on him....and he took on a humble and reverent photo op look.....that he said to Cohen...."Can you believe that b*** s***....can you believe people believe that b*** S***?"
              In this interview the Rev. Graham said that he believes that the opposition to President Trump is demonic. (John MacArthur has since said that one is not a Christian if they do not support Donald Trump) His argument is that President Trump has done so much for the economy....and that money generated has provided more giving to the church. What he missed here is that conservatives fought valiantly against the economically restrictive policies of the Obama administration. We wanted a conservative candidate....any one of which on that podium in 2015/16 would have removed the restrictive barriers. Donald Trump is not the source of these economic statistics....but he ingeniously and malevolently took the sole credit for them.....and we believed him! He is now the king of debt....after ranting on debt to win the White House! Brothers and sisters in Christ....these statistics are more than fleeting! The stock market could.....and probably will....be in a tailspin in the near future.....in which in pure Donald Trump fashion.....he will blame on others....when it will have been partially because of his risky ventures in both foreign and domestic policy....all in the quest for ungodly profit....that brought down this idol of greed.
          Everything Franklin Graham described President Trump as in this interview was wrong. Donald Trump is indeed a politician...of the very worst kind. He does not keep his word....as he can turn on a dime whenever something benefits him at that moment. He is not building America great again....for this definition of greatness that we have is terribly skewed....as our problems are infinitely more involved than economic statistics and military expenditures. He is not "a good guy!" He is indeed doing all this for money and fame. He is not only not honest....he is the antithesis of honesty. So Franklin got all of this wrong because he does not know Donald Trump.
          To conservatives here....Donald Trump does not care about the immigration issue. He was totally pro open borders not that long ago. He did nothing for two years until the fall of 2018 when talk radio relayed to him that he is in trouble. He only wants these conservatives judges....of which we would have had with any other of the candidates....to strengthen his economic agenda. He doesn't really care about Israel. The embassy move was strategically planned....as was the Golan Heights....and the more recent settlements issue. (these recent temporary peace initiatives are risky and meant solely to influence our election) He had cozied up to corruption his whole business life and now claims that corruption in the Ukraine was his concern. He was pro-abortion not that long ago....and made the switch because he had to. His own daughter....after he was elected.....tried to make a deal with Planned Parenthood. Nothing about this man is real....but he has successfully won us over. "Bringing our troops home' is a ruse. He only spouts that because it costs money....and if the money is to made by sending them....he'll send them.
           Will he defend an ally if attacked? If he can swing it yes. If he politically has to yes. If he can in any way get out of it.....yes again. He has no passionate beliefs in this area.....for he is amoral....in love only with his own image....but the patriotic words will always be there in the rallies....and we will buy them. The last thing he was going to do in the 60s was go into the service. He joked about it.
            Franklin Graham was passionate in the interview in that this impeachment inquiry is a "travesty".....a travesty that it is terribly dividing America. Folks....Donald Trump is a divider and a destroyer by nature. He is the travesty....and the impeachment inquiry is not only legitimate.....it is necessary.....for if he is given an additional four years....he will need none of us....and not Franklin Graham either. He would rather the nation burn with anger than see his glory destroyed.
            Well....Franklin Graham is right on one thing.....God put Donald Trump in office....but for what reason? This is end-times related folks.....as is everything going in Israel right now. Making America great again was a terrible mistake of which evangelicals refused to critique.....failing to see that we also are guilty for what America has become. Yes we are against abortion and other such issues but we are mired in mud of this world....in our own ways.....as are all the others. Our discernment is shot.....our pulpits are at best sound asleep. One should have to look no further than Joel Osteen's popularity to see that our Christian moorings are gone and we are adrift.
          We think....no we are adamant....that we will rebuild....that we will make America great again....but God has told us that He will just tear down again. Common sense alone should tell us where this world is headed irrespective of any political parties. There is a winnowing coming.....and Franklin Graham will certainly be on the right side when it does....at the front of this remnant whereas I will be in the back....but as for now he has been deceived. We are all struggling to get our bearings as this freight train of deception and delusion barrels down towards a broken track.  The answer never was that Donald Trump was going to be our savior. The answer is that in Donald Trump we should see ourselves....our frailties....and use this travesty of division in America to awaken us....not politically....but spiritually.....of which Franklin Graham himself speaks. We are not to defend this man who has brought this ire upon himself....who in the process has also divided us....but to once again defend that which is our only hope....and proclaim Jesus Christ to the world....and to Donald Trump....not in a milquetoast gospel that only encourages him in his arrogance....but that he has his whole life profanely rejected any true gospel that may have been presented to him....and that God will not be mocked.....there will be no polls taken at his judgment....no Rush Limbaugh to tell how wonderful he is....and no famous ministers to write a recommendation. 

    

DISPATCHES

The sermon that I listened to today while exercising was from Martyn Lloyd-Jones. It was given sometime between 1961 and 1963....and was titled....Blinded By The 'god' Of The Age....and I bring it up because of one teaching tool that he used. He pointed to a stained-glass window at the back of the chapel....and imagined for the congregation that he had been blindfolded....and being blindfolded he said...."I see no stained-glass window at the back of the church....and therefore I say that there is no stained-glass window at the back of the church.....because I cannot see it. He tied in another example....a friend was "motoring" him on a visit...Somewhere in the very north of England....and as they motored on his guide told him that very soon they will be able to see Scotland over the expanse of water. (probably the North Channel)....They motored on to where they were supposed to see Scotland but there was a great mist. Lloyd-jones said to his congregation that if were to say that he could not see Scotland as he was told he would be able to see Scotland....and therefore it was a lie.....and that there may not even be a Scotland....that his friend would think that he was mad. He used other examples but all were revolving around the veil that was over both the eyes of the believer and the unbeliever. We all have veils over our eyes to some degree....where truths are being hid from us for one reason or another. Folks....there is a veil over our eyes right now on the real Donald Trump....a veil where he is hidden from us....because we do not want to see him.....nor do we want the veil removed. My prayer.....join me please if you agree....is that God will remove that veil.....even if only over the eyes of His children....that we might no longer be taken in....that our offerings to God might no longer be tainted....and that we might once again be united in Christ....and not torn apart by ravenous wolves....such as Donald Trump.

In my pre-teens the Miss America pageant was fun as my mother and I would would settle around the small black & white TV and watch it. As for Miss Universe....I don't think that I ever watched a minute of it in my life....other than the video of which I'll describe here....and you will probably remember as it was in the news. Donald Trump had owned the organization....and a fair amount has been written over the past few years on the controversies that he was embroiled in....but not this one....for after he announced on June 15, 2015 his run for the White House....another controversy immediately developed over some of his comments....the 2015 pageant had to be pushed back a few months....and Trump sold the organization. The pageant was eventually held in Las Vegas in December....there were the two finalists....The MC took his time in announcing the winner to build up the excitement.....he announced the winner.....Miss Columbia....minutes passed as a crown was put on her head....and she stood there beaming....while the large crowd cheered. Then the MC slowly walked back on the stage....and apologized....whether he read the card wrong or the teleprompter was wrong....I don't know that it has ever been settled.....but he had read the wrong name.....and they had crowned the wrong head. It was painful watching it again this morning. The simplicity of the original concept of the Miss America pageant has long been gone....along in many ways Atlantic City itself. Gambling came in in 1978....Trump's casinos came in....and then they went bankrupt....he became president....and many put a crown on his head....as many others said...."There are no crowns here....take it off"....and that is where we are at today.

Here's a question I would put to a fervent Trump supporter....for there's no one around but them....and no reason not to be perfectly truthful....the question is this...."Is there not anything at all imaginable....anything....that Donald Trump might say or do....where they might even consider withdrawing their support?"

Often an author places an historical quote or two at the beginning of his or her book. Bob Woodward chose this from Donald Trump in a 2016 interview with him...."I bring out rage. I do bring out rage. I always have. I don't know if that's an asset or a liability, but whatever it is, I do."

Donald Trump retweeted a video....a video that most of us who closely follow the political news would remember....of then Vice-President Biden with his hands on the shoulders of Ash Carter's wife Stephanie during the swearing-in ceremony of Carter as Secretary of Defense. The video had the caption....#PedoBiden. First of all Mrs. Carter is an adult woman....and she has said that the  encouragement by Biden was fully appreciated. Joe Biden would be within his rights to say...."That's it....no debates....it's straight to the mat." Evangelicals believe that this man....Donald Trump....is being used by God to bring America back to God. They are sorely mistaken in this...as it is instead inhibiting the discernment of those same evangelicals....although the disasters that Donald Trump may bring about in America may indeed be used by God to bring many back to Him. 

OK....I have never really seen Fox & Friends.....other than a few minutes while on vacation.....as my wife and I would be getting ready to go to breakfast....and while walking the treadmill at the gym.....but here there is no audio. Anyway....reports are that on the show today Trump insinuated that this talk would be a weekly thing.... which would be an election coup....which took the host by surprise. Trump has been moving in on Fox....bolstered by intimidations on Twitter....for a few years now.....and as in everything else he touches....discord and turmoil has followed.

Bahrain and the United Arab Emirates will normalize today their relations with Israel. The UAE will likely get to purchase the much sought after F-35 stealth jets....which some day should allegiances change may be used against Israel. We'll see later what Bahrain got. These deals are based on Israel's....'suspending'....annexation of parts of the West Bank. They are the essence of temporary peace deals....that may also invite repurcussions....in other words war....but they will show up well on the polls....and that's all that counts to this man. 

Another quote from Rage....this one from the crown prince of the United Arab Emirates.....related by Rex Tillerson from his world travels prior to becoming Secretary of State...."We don't need nuclear weapons. As long as we have friends who have them." So....as long as a tentative ally needs our help....and what if they don't pay their bills like NATO?

The Department of Justice is opening up a criminal probe on whether John Bolton's book contained classified information. I read the book....it's terrific....and this is nonsense....although the book demonstrates to our enemies first hand just how extraordinarily unstable our president is....which is  really already common knowledge anyway. The probe is pure Trump revenge....through a now thoroughly discredited Department of Justice.

Pastors....you are the only ones left....to awaken your congregations to the false prophet leading evangelicalism astray....into greed and pride and at times into outright racism. The power of this master of intimidation and marketing is astonishing. Surely you are on your knees....or whatever position you take throughout most days and nights....when your prayers for wisdom are pleaded more than offered....as when David prayed....or as when Jeremiah prayed....or as when Elijah prayed.

Trump's Complaint

            'Catch and Kill'.....is part of our vernacular today....Ronan Farrow used it as a title for his book....and Michael Cohen explained in his book....Disloyal, A Memoir....how it was part of his job as Donald Trump's fixer. So the story came out recently on Trump's real feelings for those who had sacrificed for our country.....and 'catch and kill' was put into action by Trump's new fixers. Cohen described it as...."catch, kill, and twist....to bury the truth, and if it wasn't possible, to distort it beyond recognition, to sow doubt and confusion and even fear." In this one the weather in Paris was used to kill the story....for if they could prove that the weather was not the reason for going to the cemetery....then they could claim that the words were never used.
             A few friends and acquaintances have told me that they have given up the NFL because of the controversy over our national anthem....and statistics seem to prove that this is the case with many men....so why hasn't the exact equivalence of this with Donald Trump's comments not brought out the same reaction....particularly by veterans....and those currently serving? Do they really think that this story was made up? Well they might in fact believe just that....but what about the comments on John McCain...."I like people who weren't captured"? Folks we should have dumped Donald Trump the very day he very publicly made that statement.
             I brought up in a very recent post how President Trump in a meeting at the Pentagon had lost his temper and told generals and admirals that they were...."a bunch of dopes and babies"....but folks the die was already cast....we had the coronation of a king.....and placed the crown upon his head. He has since....every day of his time as Commander in Chief....used fear and intimidation....to quell even any thought of an insurrection within the ranks. He purged those who gave any hint that they might not be total followers....and replaced them with others whose eyes were glazed over with the thrill of the opportunity....just as Michael Cohen had ignored the pleading of his wife and son and daughter to leave this man who they despised.
              In his youth during Vietnam Donald Trump had no intention of ever being so stupid as getting drafted.....for that was for losers. One really should not need to be a big reader to know this. When Donald Trump gives someone in our military a medal.....or places a wreath at a cemetery....as he is placing that medal on a chest....or carrying that wreath....he is thinking about the photo op....and nothing else.
              It's not only the lives of our military that Trump has no interest in....it's all human life. In January of 2017 Ivanka and her husband showed up in Texas to meet with the president of Planned Parenthood with an idea....PP might consider splitting in two.....so that they could do their abortions in the auxiliary entity....but not in their official capacity as Planned Parenthood....and still get their funding....even more funding maybe....but pro-life people today still consider Donald Trump to be pro-life....just as veterans still consider him to care for our military?
              I'll conclude this post with this....any decent man....who seeing the mind-boggling opposition to him....and the pure determination no matter what to oppose him with everything within them until the day that he exits the White House....and who sees society crumbling because of this....would voluntarily have long ago left....leaving the fight for others who were capable....in this case Mike Pence....but of course the man Donald Trump would never even consider anything like this.....as he would fight to the end even if the country collapsed into chaos because of it....such is the malignant narcissism that has ruled his mind since his youth.

Billy Graham's Epistle To Us

Preface: You can probably find it on the shelf at Barnes & Noble....for the same copy is there every time I visit the two B&N locations that I frequent. The following is from July of 2016....a year and a half before Billy Graham went to be with his Lord and Savior. I deleted the parts that were not directly about the Billy Graham book that I somewhat review in this post.

         We had passed by it at least thirty times over the years.....the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte......always hurrying to get to the beach or too tired to stop on the way home.....but we took the time this past week turning a fourteen hour drive into a sixteen hour drive.....but it was well worth it! 
         A blurb on the back of the book (that I purchased while there)....reads this way..."When I die, tell others that I've gone to my Lord and Savior Jesus Christ-that's where I am." Those last three words are the title of Billy Graham's Where I Am... subtitled Heaven, Eternity, And Our Life Beyond...his latest, and as he himself describes it, his last book.
        (I wrote in this 2016 post about that river.....from Pilgrim's Progress....that we will all cross....and here pick up from that which was left out) I see that river today and can faintly hear the rejoicing emanating from the beautiful city beyond; this simply because the more one walks toward the light of the Celestial City, the less one hears the barkers and minstrels of Vanity Fair.
        My descriptions (left out) are but feeble attempts so I plead with you to obtain a copy of Billy Graham's book....for he sent this epistle of sorts back for our encouragement....and with a strong warning....for it is obvious that he had met multitudes of people in his pilgrimage....many of whom gave woeful testimony of their self-destruction.
        Reverend Graham's ministry began in 1947. His book Where I Am, was published in 2015, sixty-eight years later. He seemed to write it as a last will and testament....with no holds barred. He has nearly seventy years of experience with presidents and kings, and movie stars and the working man to draw from. His outlook changed somewhat over the years. He, like Solomon from Ecclesiastes, looks back upon this life and can not only see more clearly the vanity but feel its heat and smell it odorous perfumes.
         Billy Graham's vision and hearing are impaired at his advanced age but his spiritual senses have only heightened. This book is in no way a theological treatise nor is it devotional or biography. It is more of a letter to the churches....a report on the enemy territory that he has passed through....with each and every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today....he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time, both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends....listen to every book of the Bible visited for directions. Billy Graham stands at that river today....he turns and calls out to us for possibly the last time....both rejoicing and warning. Take advantage of his experiences friends....listen to this elder brother....for God may have prepared him specifically for this book!

DISPATCHES

VOTED FOR HIM.....CELEBRATED.....NEVER AGAIN

September 11....With Rush on in the background....listening to him....and fully realizing the power that he has over the minds of many evangelicals....I had to once again utter this prayer...."Lord.....open our eyes to this man....and to Donald Trump....if even only the eyes of Thy children....have mercy upon us though it be undeserved....have mercy on me Lord....give us wisdom to know the voice of our Shepherd....and to run from the other voices that seek to lead us astray."

Another rally without social distancing or masks....the worst generation....with extreme recklessness....and evangelicals are leading the way....pro-life....unless those lives are the elderly or infirmed....claiming great faith in God....but having no faith in His extreme warnings to be vigilant of false prophets.

Peace in the Middle East? What Donald Trump is doing right now is trying to buy temporary peace treaties with Israel and Arab neighbors before the election. The United Arab Emirates....who normalized relations recently....are in line to be the first nation in the Middle East other than Isreal to be able buy our F-35 stealth jets. President Trump has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize which he has been yearning for for a long time....nominated by a Norwegian anti-immigration parliament member....who has supported Vladimir Putin against Russian sanctions....and has been a critic of the United States until Donald Trump became president. 

September 9....I haven't even read anything about the new Bob Woodward book coming out next Tuesday....other than seeing the Drudge headlines.....as I have three unopened as of yet books on Trump....and three half read in front of me....but I have read how the immediate response by critics is that Woodward should have told about Trump earlier on.....to save lives. As usual I'm thinking along a little different lines....as what came to my mind was that this is what Mike Pence and Mike Pompeo and William Barr and others may be questioned about in the future....for they knew who he was....they saw him operate....but unlike Bolton and Mattis and Tillerson and many others....they tried to keep us in the dark. Also on this matter....are these critics thus admitting that many lives were lost?

Previous to March/April of 2017 I  knew enough about Donald Trump....(on Carly Fiorina....."Look at that face....would anyone vote for that....can you imagine that, the face of your next president?")....I knew enough to know that he was a despicable person....and to hope for any other candidate right up till they all dropped out....but not enough to know the extent of his problems. I started reading when he threatened to 'primary' the Freedom Caucus during the fake Obamacare repeal and replace bill. I'm at about 75 books now on his entire life....and every aspect of his life....books for him....books against him....and books by him.....(ghostwritten for him)....and books detailing his extensive decades long involvement with Russian money....(books we would never read because we think that they are fake news from the deep state). He is the exact same person that he was when he was twenty years old....with no conscience....and no empathy....who lies as naturally as he breaths.....and with no beliefs other than how something might affect his ability to continue his very lucrative con game. If you do not know who Donald Trump has been his entire life then you can fall for his methods using the powers of fear and intimidation and coercion....and how he surrounds himself with sycophants....and purges and attacks those who pose a threat....but if you do know who he is....then almost every statement he makes on a daily basis sets off alarms...'do not believe him' alarms....and 'do not trust him' alarms!

First it was the Deep State....(men and women who knew who Donald Trump was....and also knew that we did not know who he was).....and now it's the generals.....who Trump once called....to their faces...."losers....a bunch of dopes and babies"....and who now accuses them of wanting to go to war! (that remark of "dopes and babies" was the beginning of his troubles with Mattis and Tillerson. It was a rant....probably spur of the moment....by a seriously troubled man....who has displayed the same recklessness and lack of control on almost a daily basis over the three years that have followed)

It appears that Defense Secretary Mark Esper may be the latest to be on the way out....because he had parted opinions with the president a few times. The president has indicated that in a new term....the entire cabinet would be 'fired'....and have to reapply to continue in their positions. The bigger problem here is that if and when he is given a new four year lease.....we all will essentially be fired.....conservatives and evangelicals and everyone....for their will be no stopping him. 

Donald Trump has always thought of our veterans of foreign wars....and those who had died in service to our country....as suckers. It boggles his mind that others do not just think only of themselves as he does. I attended a 'support our troops' rally over the weekend....and commented to my wife....that for the first time in a while at one of these rallies....I did not get the opinion that it was as much a Trump rally as a support the troops rally....but maybe that is what I wanted to think. I guess that we shall see.

I watched again just now the September 2017 Roy Moore rally in Alabama.....this after listening to Phil Robertson this morning on the Breitbart radio show. You may remember that President Trump had endorsed Luther Strange in that race. Duck Commander Phil was one of the speakers.....and it was a wonderful short talk....and at the end before picking up his Bible and leaving the stage.....he very seriously looked to the audience and said....."Alabama....we better get a godly man in the White House....these ten commandments.....they trump politics....(pausing and looking back the the people as he started to walk away).....pun....intended." What happened in the past three years to change Phil Robertson's opinion on Donald Trump? Well....it can be summed in this comment from the radio show today....."Hell on earth is comin' if they vote for Joe Biden.....[for] when they pile up Bibles on top of the American flag and burn them....they've exchanged Jesus Christ for Karl Marx." Robertson knew who Donald Trump really was back in September of 2017.....and this after only eight months....and he has had three years since then to observe a genuine false prophet and disciple of the Father of Lies. What we on our side have done is exchange Jesus Christ....for Donald Trump....and for a flag....wonderful as that flag is....or as in the case of evangelicals....we put them side by side. Phil said that "hell on earth" is coming.....with Joe Biden." Folks....the judgment is coming on all of us....whether it is Biden or Trump....for they both represent and epitomize who we are....and what we deserve.

I know what it's like to look under couch cushions hoping to find enough change to buy a can of stew for supper. My mother struggled to pay the rent and the phone and the electricity....and to buy food. We lived in an oddly placed apartment on a middle class street of two-story brick and frames homes....in a middle class borough....with good schools....and no drug dealers....as my friends were Wally and the Beav and Lumpy and Eddie. I don't know what would have happened to me had I lived only a few miles away. We built our urban areas today....and want the people just to stay there....and cause no trouble....out of sight-out of mind....but I am not going to look down on these neighbors....or consider myself in any way better....when I know that my mother's answering the first 'for rent' ad....and not the second....gave me much greater opportunities. There are legitimate grievances in these protests....but radicals can and do come into a protest and turn it into a riot....just as Donald Trump came into our Tea Parties of legitimate grievances....and turned them into no more than stock market casinos....and onto our radio airwaves....attempting to incite our own more sophisticated riots.

The DOJ has requested that it become President Trump's defense in a defamation case revolving around an alleged assault in the 1990s. The DOJ says that since the defamation claim in this suit....around the assault claim....happened while Donald Trump was in office....that they would merely be defending the actions of a president. There is also the possibility that the suit might be tossed if the DOJ takes over because the president cannot be brought to court in something like this....since the claim would then be against the government. Folks....this is the exact kind of thing Donald Trump has done his whole life. Read Michael Cohen's book to see how he....(they)....operated. Oh.....I forgot....we don't read anything critical of this our new American Church....do we?

Michael Cohen's Book

           
             On the Michael Cohen book. Just a couple of things to think about....if the tables were reversed....and it was an Obama or Clinton lawyer that turned states evidence....so to speak....they  would be....and have been at times....heroes. That's the first thing you have to deal with if you are going to reject the book simply because of who wrote it. I'm not even halfway through it but wanted weigh in on what I'm reading. There have already been over seventy books that I've read on Donald Trump....but this one still shakes me up. The events that Cohen relates may be new....but not the person. It's not the best book for the serious biographical student of Donald Trump to read....but it is one book that if a Christian does read....they will most likely never really defend him again.
             I want to give just this one sample from Disloyal A Memoir. Michael Cohen was early on given the responsibility to lead the outreach to the evangelical community. Evangelist Paula White....or whatever she is....(take the time to read about her on your own)....gathered more than fifty religious leaders to meet at Trump Tower....(this is in 2011.) Cohen said that when these leaders "solemnly" came forward to lay hands on Trump....that this was the moment he knew that Trump would someday become president....because these people actually believed him...."He could lie directly to the faces of some of the most powerful religious leaders in the country and they believed him-or decided to believe him,  a distinction with a real difference....(Trump) knew what they really cared about....(abortion and Supreme Court justices etc.)....that was [his] rat-like cunning....and it was a talent I knew that he would ride all the way to the White House." After the meeting....according to Cohen's book....Trump said to him...."Can you believe that b***s***....can you believe people believe that b***s***?".

Update: It's a few hours later and I've finished Michael Cohen's book....the last chapter describing how the....government....tried to keep him locked up so that he could not publish this book. I remember these stories in the news on how he was to be released....and then told to sign a document that he would not in effect write a book....and then taken back to jail....followed by the judge who ordered his virus related early release....calling his being taken back to prison as retaliatory....and this was only seven weeks ago! I have written many times how Donald Trump is a destroyer....either purposely destroying people....or others destroyed simply by flying too close to his flame. Well....Michael Cohen has a dual passport on this trip to you know where.....as he both crashed after being right next to Trump in his orbit....and then was stomped on to make sure that he would never fly again. The Donald Trump in this book is the same person who appears in dozens of other books on him....only in this book....similar to John Bolton's which was on a totally different topic matter....you get to go in the very room where these things happened.

Tolle Lege...."Take Up And Read'....Is Today....Turn On And Watch

Preface: I heard on the radio what Franklin Graham had said but have so far been unable to find it so as to quote him verbatim....but the gist of it was that all he wanted from President Trump was four more years so that Christians would have time to prepare for God's Judgment. This is definitely an improvement on his normal wholehearted endorsing Donald Trump....but he needs to come to grips with the fact that Trump almost daily prophesies that our best is yet to come.....and recently implied that it is nonsense that judgment is coming for America's sins. Donald Trump is not buying us four more years....in fact he is hastening cataclysmic events....and may even before this is all over....turn on the evangelical....of whom only serves a purpose for this purely transactional mind of our president....particularly if we come to see who he is and no longer support him.

              I don't know how many times I've done this....I don't know why I do it....but I did it again yesterday in Barnes & Noble. It used to be labeled the Christian Living section....but now it's just plain Religion....at least the B&N that I usually go to every Tuesday....for that's when the new releases come out....and then I torture myself as I walk the aisle....and look at what America is offered as Christian books.
             I think back on how thirty years ago I might occasionally criticize Christian bookstores because they mostly sold wall hangings and Christian knickknacks and music....but if we still had those bookstores today....evangelicalism might not have fallen so easily as it has.
             It was either late 1981 or early 1982 that I walked into one of those Christian bookstores while my wife was shopping in J. C. Penney....not ever having been in one before....and not knowing hardly anything about the Christian faith....and inquisitive as I have always been....always looking for an interesting book....I walked out with this title....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....written by a Josh McDowell.
             In fact....along with all the Christian paraphernalia there were many books....and depending on the individual store....some great Christian literature....along of course with the schmaltz and pablum and nonsense. I was introduced to Banner of Truth publishers in these stores....and Charles Spurgeon and Jonathan Edwards and George Whitefield....and R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and literally dozens of other names from both yesterday and today.
             I did fall for some of the charismatic nonsense at first....but the more one varies his reading in something like this....(or politics by the way!)....the more likely that he will spot the genuine....and be able to identify the false doctrine and the fake....and that's what happened to me....but all this is gone today....for the 'Christian' section in Barnes & Noble is the only source that the average person....just browsing....has available to them....that and Christian television.....where they are more than likely going to come across Joel Osteen or Joyce Meyer....with little to nothing in either B&N or on television to combat these false teachers.
             If you are a little upset at this my comment....and you have been a Christian for say....twenty years or less....then you have proved my point....although you have no idea that you did. One can go into a conservative Presbyterian church today and receive no warnings on false or just poor Christian authors....if in fact one of these books are not actually being studied....or at least in the church library. That's how bad it is. That's how far we have fallen.
             There was only one John MacArthur book in that aisle yesterday.....maybe one or two by Billy Graham....and possibly one or two genuinely good books in amongst the thousand other books....(good luck to the browser)....none by R. C. Sproul or Michael Horton or any of a couple of dozen authors who are out there but not carried in the store by B&N because they do not fit today's criteria for books that will sell. There were no Banner of Truth books....no Luther or Calvin or even church history....other than on Bonhoeffer. The best that you might find as from the past might by C. S. Lewis.
             Megachurches dominate our supply lines today....and they are megachurches primarily because they are there to provide what people want....what might excite them....what might make them want to come back....what might make the typical suburban mom to want to stay....active youth programs.....good music....with state-of-the-art sound and lighting systems....but not what they terribly and immediately need. There are no hedges around these churches....not literal bushes....but protections....warnings on cults and false teachers....or strong doctrinal studies.....beyond the bare essentials of which they might very well have....and certainly not anything that might be controversial....or intellectual. Check out if you will....their web sites....and yes you will find that bare essential statement of faith....in the midst of tons of links for various ministries from which you might be interested....and activities that you might want to partake of....and as for the sermons (?)....if you think that they are good sermons....try going back for research on YouTube to Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle and Martyn LLoyd-Jones....do this daily for a week or so....and then see if you hold the same favorable opinion on typical sermons from today.
             We have Donald Trump because we have lost discernment....largely because the preached word today is so weak. We never....ever....would have picked him back in the 1980s....because we would have dumped him the first time that he tweeted out his personality and character. We would have spotted the false prophet.
             If you are interested.....and if you have read this far you just might be....the novella link to the left of this post....Isaac Crocket....written over twenty years ago....revolves around a Christian bookstore....sounds exciting huh....but it's actually on the issues in this post.

Note: The must have book of the day today is Jonathan Cahn's latest....The Harbinger II....of which I have a review only a little ways back under the same title.

Also: You might want to try this.....Google.....Michael Reeves sermons Youtube. He is a British theology professor who is on R. C. Sproul's ligonier.org often.....and who preaches as wonderful as many of these men from the past.
          
             

             
             

That Part Of The Book Of Daniel We May Have Missed

         The following post is a little over a month old. Do you see your country yet? Are you weeping yet? Do you see Donald Trump for what he is yet? Please read his tweets from just this morning....Tuesday August 11th. God help us....for this man has the reins of power. The world sees him. That from which he came out of (the lives and the rich and famous) see him. The Never-Trumpers see him. Many conservatives now see him. Many evangelicals see him. The Bible describes him in one way or another from Genesis to Proverbs to the Prophets to Revelation..."...you have some there who hold the teaching of Balaam"....(Revelation 2:14)...."They have followed the way of Balaam....who loved gain from wrongdoing." (2 Peter 2:15)

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          What comes to mind first when you think about the Old Testament book of Daniel....the lion's den.....or Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego in the furnace.....or Nebuchadnezzar's dream of a great image with a head of gold and breast and arms of silver and thighs and middle of bronze and legs of iron with the feet part iron and part clay....or his dream of the great tree that was him and was cut down....or maybe the fingers writing on the wall? If you were  making a list you might add Daniel's vision of the four great beasts....and the ten horns with the little horn coming up.....or the cryptic prophesies of the king of the south and the king of the north?

            What a book this is! The Christian can and should read through this throughout his or her entire life....and that day will come when....and we most likely are nearing it....when piece by piece those words become even more clear....but there is one part of Daniel that may be the most important to us today.....of which most of us may not even recall.....and if we do we certainly do not dwell upon.
            In chapter nine Daniel was given knowledge of Jeremiah's prophesy of the seventy weeks....this as he was nearing the end of his life....but he had first prayed and fasted in sackcloth and ashes....seeking mercy over the desolations that had come upon Jerusalem....and it is his prayer that we in America should contemplate greatly upon as our own country lies desolate. Here is that prayer

           "I prayed to the LORD my God and made confession saying, 'O Lord, the great and awesome God, who keeps covenant and steadfast love with those who love him and keep his commandments, we have sinned and done wrong and acted wickedly and rebelled, turning aside from your commandments and rules. We have not listened to your servants the prophets who spoke in your name to our kings, our princes, and our fathers, and to all the people of the land. To you, O Lord, belongs righteousness, but to us open shame, as at this day, to the men of Judah, to the inhabitants of Jerusalem, and to all Israel, those who are near and those who are far away, in all the lands to which you have driven them, because of the treachery that they have committed against you, To us, O Lord, belongs open shame, to our kings, to our princes, and to our fathers, because we have sinned against you. To the LORD our God belong mercy and forgiveness, for we have rebelled against him and have not obeyed the voice of the LORD our God by walking in his laws, which he set before us by his servants the prophets. All Israel has transgressed your law and turned aside, refusing to obey your voice. And the curse and oath that are written in the Law of Moses the servant of God have been poured out upon us, because we have sinned against him. He has confirmed his words, which he spoke against us and against our rulers who ruled us, by bringing upon us a great calamity...."

             

Flight 93

          
It was 9:57 that the passenger revolt started on Flight 93. The following post was written after returning home from attending the Flight 93 National Memorial the day that it was dedicated and first opened to the public on September 10th, 2011. 

             Former Presidents George Bush and Bill Clinton were gone by the time my wife and I arrived at the Flight 93 National Memorial in Shanksville, Pennsylvania. The ceremonies were concluding and the families of the heroes from Flight 93 walked from the memorial wall down to the path where Flight 93 made impact. As they were departing the memorial they walked through the midst of the crowd of roughly 4,000 people to gentle, sustained, respectful and heartfelt applause. Part of the crowd then spontaneously and softly started singing  America The Beautiful.  
             Flight 93 National Memorial Park is roughly 15-20 minutes off of the Somerset exit of the Pennsylvania Turnpike. I didn't need to hear the words from the speakers on the dais, moving as I'm sure they were, for I just wanted to be in the spot, or as close to it, to where this remarkable group of people struck back at terrorism before the terrorist's day of infamy was even over, something very similar to those pilots who got off of the ground at Pearl Harbor before Tojo's planes could leave the islands. What happened on that flight, and the aftermath of it, could never have been envisioned by the terrorist minds involved.
              As the crowds were waiting in long lines for buses to take them back to the parking areas, I had the bright idea of walking up and over the field then meeting back up to the road, and then back to Route 30 where our car was parked along the berm with many others. A couple miles into the forced march back I had regretted subjecting my wife to this trek and we still had a couple of miles to go! The line-up of departing automobiles moved at a snail's pace and at times we walked faster than they inched along,  As one vehicle with two men inside came up beside us the driver asked if we wanted a ride. I'm the type that if I was stranded on a deserted island and a cruise ship spotted me and tried to rescue me I would say, "Only if I can work for my fare," but I looked over at my wife and then said "thank-you very much."
              The driver offered us a fruit drink which was a great relief to us and we asked these two men a few questions on where they were from and why they had come. Well, they were two of the four children of Flight 93 passenger Joseph Driscoll who perished on that site and whose widow and many other family members were in other vehicles. I realized that they were probably emotionally spent and tired themselves but I did ask some questions about that fateful day and they very politely answered. One of these two sons of Joseph Driscoll had been working in the World Trade Center only the day before the attacks and he vividly described the scene on the New York City streets as his father was still aboard Flight 93. How typical of all that I had heard of these families of the Flight 93 heroes, that they reached out to help others after they themselves were hurt, and here they were doing it again on this special day.