Buck Up Special Dog

                There is hardly a day that goes by where I don't sit down at this laptop early in the morning.....and say to God....'Lord.....do I have to do this again? They're not listening to me. They don't pass these posts on....or seem affected by them....they read them every day as if they were reading a Garfield comic.....the comics done.....now on to the sports or local community news.' But then I ask myself.....'how do I know that?'. How do I know that there is not a pastor somewhere in Trump America preaching like Spurgeon or J. C. Ryle....warning of false teachers....warning of God's judgment....because he happened upon these posts on a day that a Spurgeon or Ryle sermon was highlighted? How do I know that there there aren't people who took my recommendations on books or ministries....and although they can't for the life of them remember where they got that recommendation....they are thankful? That's what I've always wanted right? So....it's only 9:00....and I'm about to push the 'publish' button again. 

There's Something Wrong With This Picture

                 "The little round headed kid".....I've always felt a strong affinity with Charlie Brown....we think alike. A few years ago we planted a dogwood tree in our front yard. The first year it was fine but it hasn't grown since....and about a third of its branches have died....so today there is really only one word to describe it....scrawny. I think that anyone else might cut it down....but I just can't do that. Anyway....this past Christmas.....I strung white LED lights over it....and for the season it was transformed into a beautiful Christmas display. It's my....Charlie Brown tree. The post below is from January of 2018....just after the Super Bowl. A Peanuts comic described in it kind of explains how I often feel about competitive endeavors. My wife and I play Scrabble from time to time....and If I happen to win two games in a row....I purposely concentrate a little less on the next game so that she doesn't lose three games in a row....but I think she likes it when she wins three in a row. (I'm not going to keep this post up long enough for her to read it!) 

            I read the name Nick Foles for the first time two or three days ago in an article headline on Drudge about the Philadelphia quarterback possibly becoming a pastor of some sort after football this year. I presume that his name is pronounced as it is spelled....but then again....maybe not. I woke up this morning and booted up the computer....and the Drudge Report....and read that the Eagles won the Super Bowl....an upset I take it. I saw one quote by this young man....who I'm sure is a wonderful person...."All Glory To God."
            So let me break this down a little.....a football team.....won the big game.....on the Lord's Day.....with most of America tuned in....as the nation.....delirious, delusional and in harm's way.....wades through an alligator and snake infested swamp.....trying desperately to reach dry ground....because of our rebellion to God.....and yet all the glory of the football victory is to be given to Him? Strange. More than strange, for we need to at least examine some things today that we automatically assume are edifying and Scriptural.
             In my favorite Peanuts comic of all time Linus runs up to Charlie Brown after watching a football game on television, and goes on and on describing the jubilation of the winning team...."People were jumping up and down and when they kicked the extra point, thousands of people ran out onto the field laughing and screaming! The fans and the players were so happy they were rolling on the ground and hugging each other and dancing and everything! It was Fantastic!" I looked at Linus....er I mean Charlie Brown looked at Linus and asked...."How did the other team feel?"
             So once again....all the glory of the professional football team winning the big game on the Lord's Day....along the way taking Christian's hearts and minds all across America.....away from Christ.....(on the Lord's Day!]....and onto a football team.....all the glory here goes to God? Hmm? There's something wrong with this picture folks.
             Athletics is a wonderful thing; and to the Christian there are lessons in winning and in losing...and the joy in an athletic achievement is a blessing....as is simply doing your best but coming up short. The problem....as in other endeavors of life....is in making an idol out of goals.....athletic or otherwise. This young man Nick Foles.....and other Christian athletes such as Tim Tebow.....have kept their eyes fixed on Christ....but we should at least admit that there is no gospel in a finger pointed to heaven or a short testimony on how God made someone an MVP.....and that these gestures do not necessarily justify all of the sports and games that we have in our culture.
             Similar quotes like this one from the Super Bowl quarterback....and there have been many of them over the years....may indeed encourage young Christians....but one question that we should ask is....which outcome might outweigh the other.....the positives of encouraging  few young sports fans who believe in God....or the negatives in encouraging multitudes to ignore the Lord's Day?

We Wouldn't Have Listened To Billy Graham Anyway

                Billy Graham was the exception. Most of the more well-known evangelical leaders of our day....the bad ones and the average ones and also the exceptional ones....as the years pass by....they quite naturally to human nature take on a little more confidence in themselves and their position then they should. Folks....this is even the best of the best that God has blessed us with. 
                Billy Graham....for whatever reason....traveled a somewhat different route. He started out with a little too much confidence in himself. Oh....he was always humble....please don't get me wrong....but the enormous attention given to him led him to embrace politics as if that was part of his calling.
               He almost reached his 100th birthday. Maybe it was his relationship with Richard Nixon....(Graham was only about 50 years old at the time)....but something later told him to slow down....and put politics in its proper perspective. More likely though it was in how he saw that God's judgment was surely coming to this world....and to America. His book titles started to change somewhat. Other evangelicals would comment that he was getting a little too serious about this stuff. The following is part of a March 2, 2020 post:

           The Supreme Court decision on Roe v. Wade came down on the same day that former President Lyndon Johnson died....January 22, 1973. Watergate would consume the rest of the year. In November Billy Graham held a crusade in St. Louis, Missouri. In one of his nightly messages he thundered about the Babylonian king Belshazzar. Nebuchadnezzar was dead and his grandson took the vessels previously taken from the temple in Jerusalem.....and all present in that great feast of his drank from the holy vessels. That's when the hand appeared....writing on the wall....as the book of Daniel describes to us. Billy Graham pointed out to the people in the packed arena....once again this back in 1973....that America was becoming as Babylon had been under Belshazzar.
           Folks....that crusade was over forty-five years ago. I was partying on the Pitt campus at the time. Did I somehow catch that particular night's message? Possibly....as I did spend some time at home....and I did surf the 13 or so channels....but at the time I would not have known the Old Testament book of Daniel from a bottle of Jack Daniels....but here's the thing....what Billy Graham saw in the America of 1973....was absolutely nothing in terms of rebellion to God as we have today! Reverend Graham would continue to preach this message....with increasing fervor....until he went to be with his Lord more than forty-four years later.
           Was Billy Graham incorrect or premature with his message of judgment forty-five years ago. Was he about a half century too early to give such a message? No....Jeremiah prophesied God's warnings for forty years. Most of God's prophets in the Old Testament did not live to see their prophesies come true....and Billy Graham would never see his beloved nation undergo the full judgment of God.
   
           Billy Graham's last crusade was in 2005....in New York City....Flushing to be exact....that hosted the World's Fair in 1965....the last time that I have been to New York City.  He said in a 2011 interview that he wished he had "stayed clear of politics"....and even that he may have back then...."gone over the line." Franklin Graham said of his father's last year....2017...."he just basically quit talking. But his mind was still good. So even if he didn't talk to me, I would sit beside him and I'd talk to him."  He had served God's purpose.....he had warned us for decades.....and it was time to go home. Franklin Graham made the same mistakes on politics that his father had....only ten times over. He writes today in defense of Trump that his father voted for him....and had hopes in him. So did I....so did I....but I didn't put my head in the sand when Donald Trump's mask fell below his chin....and I saw the face of a wolf....for I began to read about who this man was....(85 books as of today)....who injected himself right smack into the middle of the church....prophesying of great things....peace and security....the whole time. I do not believe that Billy Graham would have missed what has transpired in evangelicalism in the past four years....where evangelicals now look to politics as the answer....and listen now more to podcast and cable and radio gurus instead of reading the Word of God.
           Jeremiah's words in chapter 18 verse 11 were ignored by the "men of Judah"....and...."the inhabitants of Jerusalem"....those words being...."Thus says the LORD: 'Behold, I am fashioning a disaster and devising a plan against you, Return now every one from his evil way, and make your ways and your doings good"....for the people's response as God summarized it in verse 12 was...."That is hopeless! So we will walk according to our own plans, and we will every one obey the dictates of his evil heart..." Billy Graham had no input to us throughout Donald Trump's four years....but whatever it would have been....we wouldn't have listened to him anyway.
           

               

All Is Lost

The following was first posted November 8, 2012. Compared to today it was a sweet heaven. What makes it so much worse today is that back then we conservatives still had our wits about us....but Donald Trump took care of all that. As far as ethics and honor are concerned.....and folks....I probably look at different news sources 100 times a day....it is constant....and have for many years....and what I see today is that Fox News....and those once formidable radio talk show hosts....are no better than CNN on integrity in reporting....for both are pure one-sided propaganda....the only difference being that CNN totally ignores truth....as Fox distorts it....actively and purposely limiting that truth.....hiding the truth about Trump....to promote it's own very selective agenda.....which needs us....but permits no input from us....for if we were free to use our own minds then their agenda might fail....and they won't take that chance.

All Is Lost

             It was heroic at times and trying at times but always set apart by a common creed.…life as an American in these United States of America. God blessed this endeavor from the beginning as pilgrims left their homelands where tyranny had enveloped even the church and they saw this new land of America as a new beginning for them and an extension of the Gospel of Jesus Christ to the new world. The long distance from the heavy hand of the King of England encouraged them to see beyond being merely a colony or an extension of England to being a nation unto themselves. Liberty is a powerful force and freedom empowers one to reach beyond what would otherwise be available. 
             In the mid-eighteenth century, after the First Great Awakening, the Gospel began to wane while great political minds filled the void and a secular government…that nonetheless proclaimed its dependence upon God…. came forth. Economic growth followed as the frontier was conquered but we faced an enormous stumbling block, the separation of two peoples in two different geographic areas over the issues of state’s rights and slavery. God’s heavy hand of judgment came upon a nation that had forgotten who had bestowed upon it its blessings. We turned to Him momentarily but a brand new frontier of industrial growth drew us away again only this time our educational institutions followed.
             A weakened church was at that time under full scale attack from European theological liberalism. God’s judgments now began to come upon the entire world in wars and economic collapse. We retained the sense of being Americans, of being free and of having liberty and defending the liberties of others while the Gospel went throughout the world... and then we hit our peak. We were the most powerful nation on this earth both economically and militarily.
            We had a creed that bound us together as Americans. We had heroes and causes and confidence. There’s a scene in the classic Marlon Brando film The Wild One where a girl asks the young Brando what he is rebelling against. His answer was “What do you got?” This became the hidden mantra of the 60s generation…my generation. Everything was available to us and little of it was good. America found itself in smaller wars, trying to do what it had done before but the mantle was gone.
            We were then a lost generation when a former 'B' actor in Hollywood revived the memory of that which was good in us but the rebellious generation of the 60s had produced our college professors and they in turn trained our media, the source of most information and news. Our creed that once bound us together was being hacked away at. We were now not only ignoring our heritage, we were attacking it, ashamed of it. Old heroes are old news. Heroes today are created for a purpose irrespective of what they might have done....good or bad. (Example: Trump) We were no longer 'one' as a people but groups, each one out only for themselves.
             God had watched all of this. The Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical which ultimately became the Karl Rove evangelical. (and is now the Donald Trump evangelical) Our pulpits, no longer capable of preaching Christ, preached whatever they thought would bring people in. The Democrat Party fell first, taken over by Progressives and then Communists. The Republican Party fell next, taken over by political machinery without a soul. Our country essentially lies in ruins, the demolition notice just hasn't been served. Yet most of the people party on but that's not unusual, for history is replete with empires that fell while its people were oblivious to its nearing demise.
             All is lost! Or is it? From the vantage point of observation and reality it is. Common sense and truth are utterly impotent in the postmodern mind. The blessing of capitalism became the god of capitalism....and then a scourge of profiteering. We pray to it but it does not answer. Our culture is in shambles. We have disasters ahead and we may as well know it beforehand. Fill in the blanks on what they might be. God's hand had departed from us long before we even heard the name Barack Hussein Obama. If His will is to awaken us one more time it will not be within a political party but over all the land and upon all those who suddenly see what we have done....and who we have become....a people who have forgotten their God.
              Should God open our eyes and revive us there is no power on earth that can stop it. Those on the outside will utterly abhor what they see happening. This is our hope. It has always been our hope. Apparently we have to reach bottom to see this and we are not there yet. May God have mercy upon us once again and do so entirely for His glory alone. (Note....God did not open our eyes....not yet anyway....but closed them and gave us the real desires of our heart in the form of a despicable person in Donald Trump....and we are right now returning to our own vomit.

The Frank And Manly Mr. Ryle

                As I started out on a short trip today I quickly Googled a YouTube on J. C. Ryle. Ryle....the Anglican Bishop of Liverpool.....and the Baptist Charles Haddon Spurgeon....were the two great lights in England in the latter half of the nineteenth century. Though the bodies of these men have long since been laid in the ground....their ministries continue with great effect.....well over a century later....through their writings and their sermons. 
                What came up today was actually a lecture by John Piper....on J. C. Ryle....at what appeared to be a conference for pastors. It was such a blessing to listen to that I thought it deserved a post of its own. If you are a pastor who came across this post of mine....is there any reason that you would not want to listen to this. I mean....John Piper....it's not like it's me lecturing....but I think that anyone would be blessed by.....attending this lecture. Just Google the title of this post....The Frank And Manly Mr. Ryle!

Lord's Day Post From January Of 2020

It has been a not so subtle change that has overtaken us conservatives and evangelicals over the past five years....demonstrated in many ways but evidenced in our reaction to a pandemic. There has not been a single solitary day go by.....in my observation anyway.....on talk radio....where a caller did not ridicule masks or vaccinations...."miniscule"....as one caller described the number of deaths in America...."not even a million!" The following post is from January of 2020.....before the pandemic began to hit in full force:

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

America Expiring

The following post is from October of 2011....almost ten years ago! You could look it up for yourselves but both Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle gave warnings to the church of their time that make my words below seem tame. Spurgeon finished his ministry in 1892....Ryle in 1900. We no longer defend the gospel in the church anymore.....for we spend all of our time defending the pastors....most of whom are right now....Saturday at 10:30 pm....probably watching Dateline....before checking out the news and sports and weather...and reading a few chapters of the latest best-selling novel before going to bed. How do I know this? Only a general pastorate like this could produce the America that we have. Brothers and sisters in Christ....describe to yourself what we have become as a people....then multiply that rebelliousness by ten...and you might be ten percent of where we really are. We have no idea of either the extent of our predicament....or our culpability in it.

America Expiring

          Tomorrow morning, throughout much of America and possibly even most of it's churches, ordained ministers will either climb into pulpits or stand behind lecterns to lead congregations in "worship" services. The original Hebrew and Greek will be deployed in some as well as pastoral helps of various kinds but mostly it will be a Christian variation of Oprah presented to the worshippers. Expensive sound systems will enliven the atmosphere and the results of lessens in elocution will be on display. The name of Jesus will be heard a few to a number of times, mostly as part of the message where the congregation can apply WWJD to their own life. Songs will be sung and either the choir or soloists will be given polite applause. It may be "pot luck" Sunday where little if any of the Christian faith will be discussed at the meal and after the services each person will shake the hands of the minister before they leave the church building, dutifully fulfilling the "rite of worship" and leaving them free to enjoy the football game or gather with family, confident that God's generous blessings of such activities has been earned for at least another week.

Meanwhile, the nation gasps for breath, wounded and bleeding, while wolves slowly pace back and forth looking for the right moment of total defenselessness to move in on their prey.

          When a church has grown through invitations such as or similar to these: "A friendly, loving congregation" or "Come grow with us" the ensuing sermons must therefore fit the invitation or charges of "bait and switch" will follow and the sanctuary will need a swinging door. Neither these ministers, nor their congregations, know the folly they are engaged in for they either have nothing to compare it to or their one experience with a church that actually preached Christ crucified showed them exactly where they do not want to be.
          As de Tocqueville strongly implied, the strength of America was in it's pulpits and conversely today our weakness emanates from there too. God has given us foolish leaders; He is purposely allowing our defenses to decay and our prosperity to whither. He is giving us what we want and may not let us see that it was "fool's gold" that we mined until it is too late. Our one hope is in Him extending mercy to us one more time but imagine that as a Republican platform!
          There indeed was a great fish that swallowed a man only to vomit him alive on a shore, and that man went on to give a warning to Nineveh, the America of it's day. That nation heeded the warning but years later another man was sent to Nineveh and this time not with a warning but a proclamation of impending judgment. Our prayer today, in America, should be "God let us hear from Jonah and not Nahum but if it be Nahum, give us strength to go on."
          There are many warnings today that a Trojan Horse has come into the church but others think that those who spend their time warning are to be pitied for they miss the blessings that God is so desirous to give. My response to this is that the real blessing is knowing the extent of His mercies to us and the real pity is in the Christian church that adamantly refuses to even consider that it may be a Laodicean church. It was that word "Laodicean" that a young American of Indian descent, Kavya Shivashankar, won the National Spelling Bee with in May of 2009. The definition she was given was "lukewarm or indifferent in religion or politics." Sit back and be satisfied with the state of the church and the church of state if you want but if you truly listen, there is a crescendo in a dirge rising over this land that we once loved, once protected and once attributed to the blessings of Almighty God.

'West' Side Story

                 Tony....or Anton as Maria softly utters while holding him....is dead and lying on the concrete. The Jets are to the left....with clenched fists....and the Sharks to the right....ready to fight. Maria grabs the gun used to kill Tony....and points it first to the Sharks and then to the Jets....and then collapses in sorrow. The authorities arrive....and three of Tony's Jets struggle to pick up his body....whereas two of the Sharks jump in to help carry with respect this member of the hated Jets....a hope for some kind of reconciliation at the end of the film....after the damage is done.

                 The Academy Award Best Picture winner....along with nine other Oscars....was released almost sixty years ago. I saw West Side Story as a twelve year old....in Baltimore....tagging along with an older cousin who did not want to go to movies alone. It's odd how some memories stick with you....as at a stop sign on the way to movies....the radio announced the death of Marilyn Monroe.
                  Famed Pentecostal Preacher David Wilkerson grew up only a few houses away from where I would a few years later spend the summer of 1963....with a different cousin....this being Turtle Creek, Pennsylvania. His book had just come out....The Cross And The Switchblade....of which I would know nothing about until twenty years later. The film starring Pat Boone would come out in 1970....as the Jesus Revolution was just beginning....but I was in the army and more interested in the blasphemous Jesus Christ Superstar....the album of which I listen to in Vietnam.
                  I had spent the summer of 1968 in rapt attention to Robert F. Kennedy....collapsing also....so to speak...on that Wednesday morning when informed that he was shot in the continuing violence and hate overtaking our nation.
                  Back to October of the year....1962....where we would experience the world on edge over the island of Cuba. The goal back then....and for decades after....was to avoid a world war with nuclear weapons. Saner heads prevailed. In the past five years we seem to have moved away from the goal of preventing a world war....to demanding from around the world every penny due us. We use the words freedom and liberty all the time....but those words seem hollow. I wrote for years in these posts of the dangers of Communism....and had remarked at times that talk radio would not even use the word....but now it is on their lips every day. (see the addendum blow) Is this for ideology....and the love of individual freedoms....for they are more than a little bit late in their alarm....or is it only the latest political card being played....or is it somewhere in between....stumbling confused in the cloud of dust from the collapse of institutions?
                  Apparently we are going to need to see....'Tony'....lying dead on the concrete....and 'Maria' crying over his dead body....before we see that our pride....when not kept in check....can lead only to death and sorrow. We all have our switchblades out and gleaming in the lights of the television studio. Seeking glory is our goal today....but if we are going to glory in anything....it can only be in the cross of Jesus Christ.

 Addendum: I wrote these words in a December 2017 post.... as every show for the whole year....was three hours of the 'Russia Hoax'....and defending Trump. "Gentlemen....ladies....of conservative talk radio....read Paul Kengor's The Politically Incorrect Guide To Communism. It won't tax your mind. It's like a month of sports pages. You will then have an idea of what has gone on [elsewhere in America] and be able to actually help your audience once again. It's time to tell us just exactly what the term 'the Left' means."

DISPATCHES

This is the best that I can make of what happened. A major conservative pundit's Twitter page shows that Twitter itself removed one of the pundit's tweets. There were dozens of irate readers that had no other information other than a tweet was removed....and conspiracy theories and anger were running wild. After a little investigation it appears that the pundit retweeted a select encapsulation from an Israeli news source that highlighted that 40% of new Covid infections were from those vaccinated.....and only 1% were from those who were previously infected. I could find no Israeli news source reporting these statistics....other than the news source at the bottom of the pundit's deleted but retrievable Tweet. Yes....these statistics may be correct.....for new infections in Israel since a May outbreak began. In researching Israel's vaccination program it came up that there is some concern that the particular vaccine used in Israel....'may'....begin to wear out after six months....and this news source reported that most of the recent infections in Israel who had been vaccinated were from people vaccinated in January. So there is concern there....but the data sample is so small that no conclusions have been made. What we can see out of this is that a news source posts a full article....about a small recent sample....in one country....someone reads it and passes on an encapsulated portion....and a major pundit reposts it again....but it being a recent small sample....in one country....is lost in the encapsulation....which set by itself was indeed misleading.

It's an everyday occurrence....and twice today before noon....radio talk show hosts ridiculing the coronavirus. The first gentleman did his Trump impersonation on the word coronavirus....and in the second only minutes ago....the host went on about the number of coronavirus deaths being minuscule. Are 405,000 killed in World War II simply to be considered minuscule....or 58,000 in Vietnam....or the number of those lives lost in Afghanistan or Iraq? But 607,000 Covid deaths are....minuscule! I don't believe that these people are even being honest with themselves. I think that if the political parties had somehow been switched....that we would have been pleading with others to take this pandemic more seriously. I think that the real issue....is the 2020 mid-terms....they simply have to oppose virus restrictions because that is the direction Trump led us into....and we are not going to get the House back unless we stick to it....no matter how absurd it might be....and no matter how many more people have to die. (cheering the low vaccination figures by those at the recent CPAC as just one example)

It's the middle of the day....I painted in the morning....and turned on the television while grabbing a quick lunch.....and the program was a Jewish Messianic teacher with two guests.....the topic being the "end of the end times." I have two comments on what I heard that I would ask you to consider. The topic of the coronavirus came up.....and tied to it was the question if the world elites were behind all of the lockdowns....as a test to see just how far that they could go on their way to a one-world government. Once again these folks are close.....but no cigar....because they put the cart before the horse. No doubt these world elites are looking over all the health restrictions the world just experienced to see if they can use this or even duplicate it in the near future....but the coronavirus was real.....the scientists are real.....their recommendations were the result of expertise in how to limit the amount of deaths in a pandemic. These guests eliminated all of this.....all the science.....and all the expertise.....in order to construct their conspiracy theory....the result of which in effect not only grossly distorted any conclusions that they would come up with....but having downplayed the seriousness of the pandemic.....and thus permitting hundreds of thousands of additional deaths in this country alone.....they continue to ridicule the men and women who are the experts in this field....and listen instead to talking heads on talk radio and Fox who have one thing and one thing only in mind....the mid-term elections.....and this even if they have to allow Donald Trump to continue to cause chaos....thinking that they can worry about him later.

Secondly....one of the authors had written a pro-Trump book a while back....a book that I had read.....so he is operating from a pro-Trump bias....and in this short conversation the American embassy was brought up....in comparison on how Obama was so bad for Israel....but Trump so good. What these men have not been able to discern is that Donald Trump could not care less about Israel....never has....and probably never will. What he does....and has done his whole life.....eighty-plus books on him made this so very clear to me....is to have replaced any ideology that may have ever been in his mind....but probably was never there to begin with....with a transactional philosophy in business or politics or anything else in his life....where he will give to anyone if he can get even more in return. (This is Trump in March of 2018 on Xi Jinping...."He's now president for life. President for life. And he's great....and look.....he was able to do that. I think it's great. Maybe we'll give that a shot some day." And again at the same time...."Can he be better? I always say yes, he can be better....but he's been very good." He sat on the embassy issue until he needed it....and the same with the Golan issue....and the same with West Bank issues....and we conservatives.....and Netanyahu even....bought it all.

Expect......The Unexpected

The following was from December 22 of 2018. In this post I tried to tell readers to always expect...the unexpected....not that you can prepare for it for you cannot....but you can prepare for something that seems to come out of nowhere....in that when it happens you say....OK it happened....God willed it....what can I learn from it....press on. Wall Street and the economy took off in 2019....almost as a 'great wonder'....that in retrospect did indeed lead us astray....as alluded to in the below post....for when the unexpected....the pandemic hit....we did not handle it well...and there are more things ahead of us that will be....unexpected.

Expect The Unexpected.....December 2018

         Expect the unexpected. It's really a profound thought. Oscar Wilde used it once and probably many other people. Now if the phrase was just advising one to always be aware that the unexpected could happen it would be one thing....but it's not saying that....for it's saying....expect....or actually believe that the unexpected will happen. Wow....that can boggle the mind if you really think about it.
         OK let's go a little further with this. You have a plan....on anything....this should happen....and that should then happen....and if these things happen then you are confident that your plan will work....(plan your work....work your plan.) But this is altogether different. One is being advised to actually expect something that is not expected and maybe not even considered as a possibility.
         Let me see if I can come up with an example....OK I've got one....I actually wrote a post about it a few years ago. A young newlywed couple's plans are coming along just fine.  The young man completed college to get that degree and has a good job and then they were married. Their ultimate goal is to buy a nice little house and have a couple of kids....and maybe a little dog....but then December 7th, 1941 came along and all of those plans were put on hold if they would ever even come about.
         The closest thing that I can think about where the Bible mentions something like this 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...."Tell us when will these things be.."....these chapters were indeed for everyone from the day that they were written 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....[be ready for]....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."

Lord's Day Post

Preface: Evangelicalism has been in a period of evolution for over a century....during which in conference after conference....and declaration after declaration....the gospel has purposely been made more palatable to the modern mind. The result of this has been in the enormous 'success' of 'ministries' such as Joel Osteen....and in a politically conservative Christianity with little to no spiritual discernment.               

                 I changed a few names....and included the short story as Chapter Thirty in my novella....Isaac Crockett. Isaac was the rock star who gave it all up to return to his home in Ocean City, New Jersey....and open up a Christian bookstore. Shane was a know-it-all college student who more than dabbled in paranormal nonsense....and would stop in Isaac's Christian bookstore just to display his great intellect. Isaac....always polite but never compromising....would straighten Shane out....fully knowing that his warnings went in one ear and out the other.
                Summarizing this little episode so that I can get to my point.....Shane was getting deeper and deeper into an absurd local myth about a ghost ship that had on occasion been spotted by passengers on the ferry to Lewes, Delaware. One dark evening.....while half asleep on a deck chair....the ghost ship appeared....passing by only feet from the ferry. With no time to think....and the ghost ship passing maybe forever....Shane leaped over the rail....and landed hard on deck of the passing ship....as it was now quiet.....sailing off into who knows where.
                There was only one person on board.....the captain....behind the wheel of the ship. When Shane found him he tried to talk the captain into coming back into the 'world'....a world that would be amazed! Long story short....the captain for the first time turns around to Shane....and it is a Satanic figure.....laughing demonically at Shane....who now stumbles and falls in his attempt to get off that boat. In the now high waves of a brewing storm....Shane is rescued....and taken to the hospital. Isaac hears about it and rushes to the hospital.
                Shane tells him the whole story....and then Isaac tells Shane that the ferry crew saw him jump in the water....and rescued him within minutes. There was no ship. Shane finally sees that his fascination with the occult almost caused his death....and here is my point in this story....Isaac is about to leave the hospital room but Shane stops him and asks if this isn't where he is supposed to say a prayer or something....and become a Christian?
                That's what we do today is it not folks....we lure someone in....maybe with a rock star's testimony....then we get them to say a sinner's prayer.....mission complete....another person saved from hell....as we put yet another notch on our belt....but Isaac in this story essentially tells Shane....no....there is no easy way out....you were never interested in the gospel....and have no understanding of it....and no repentance....only fear at almost dying. No....he wasn't going to lead Shane in a sinner's prayer! Hmmm?
                This is evangelicalism today......churches filled with people who for one reason or another....choose church....never having been....born again....only recruited into a stable conservative lifestyle....freedom and liberty don't you know....God bless America....thinking that this is God's kingdom that they are fighting for. This folks is but one reason why when a false prophet came.....an antichrist as John describes them in his letters....in Donald Trump....we fell for him.....for so many in this church of today were never really saved....while others were never discipled with warnings of remaining vigilant....or in the cost of their profession of faith. 'Don't bother reading the fine print....just sign on the dotted line!'
                 In my story....Isaac leaves a Bible on the bed.....and tells Shane.....read it....begin with the Gospel of Mark....I'll be back....listen this time....then maybe we will talk about saying a sinner's prayer.  
                

That Man Did Not Do...."A Lot Of Good Things"

                Trump's bedside Hitler speeches are in the news again. It was Ivana....(not Ivanka)....who let it slip that Donald kept the book....which was a gift....by his bed. Trump said that if he ever owned such a book that he wouldn't have read it. Only Donald Trump could give an answer like that. This is back in the news because a new book reports that General John Kelly said that Trump once said that Hitler...."....did a lot of good things". 
                Here's the problem....The evil German Chancellor had a very well-defined agenda....and that was to get on the good side of the German people in order to get total power over them. In such a scenario.....one where prosperity is used as leverage to promote a deeper and darker agenda....then ultimately that prosperity is not....'good'.....not without extreme qualification anyway....because in this case it was also a means for horror to rise up.
             With Donald Trump....the economy picked up....(as it would have with any of the candidates on that debate stage)....and that economic success was enough to secure a second nomination. Trump gave us a 'win' in 2016....(the others may not have)....and that was the only thing he did for us....and in hindsight with the absolute devastation of evangelicalism....and conservatism.....and the Republican Party....that's not necessarily a good thing....for we don't know if Hillary would not have been in office for four years....and we might have had a total Republican government today? 
              This much is certain....the judgments on America and the world are still coming.....and intensifying. There is little wisdom left....if any....no hedges of protection....apparently no cooler heads....not in positions of power anyway...no great minds....and not enough faithful pulpits left to tell us of how we brought this all upon ourselves....and warn us of what we are still inviting in....and to turn all of our dependence upon whom it should have been all along....our coming King....the Lord Jesus Christ.

"....That By Testing You May Discern...."

Preface: Last night....July 3, 2021....I came across a lecture by a Georgia pastor by the name of Ray Rhodes. I was searching for something on Susannah Spurgeon....and Ray Rhodes wrote a book on her life.....titled Susie: The Life And Legacy of Susannah Spurgeon, Wife of Charles H. Spurgeon. I plan on ordering his book....Lord willing.  While doing some touch up painting around the house this morning I picked another conference lecture by Ray Rhodes to listen to....this one on the topic of 'Revival.' In that lecture he made some comments on listening to conservative talk radio....comments that were practically identical to the thoughts I've given here in these posts.....so here they are....he began by saying...."If we are going to meditate on the Word of God day and night then some things are going to have to go in our lives"....how true is that! He went on...."There was a time in my life when I loved watching cable news......and the fiercer they started screaming at each other the more I liked it....and I'm as conservative as you can get....but I'm increasingly convinced that if you have a steady diet of CNN or Fox news....just to use the two because they are opponents....your mind will be poisoned...your outlook will be skewed....and your spirituality will greatly diminished.....I know people who wake up in them morning.....conservative as can be....and turn on turn on Fox....and they listen throughout the day....and are constantly taking in that spin....it's poison." If you would like to listen to this lecture....Googling....'Ray Rhodes....Revival'....should get you there. He concluded his thoughts with this...."I'm a conservative....[but}that cannot be our steady diet if we are to walk with Christ...." 

Note....July 6....Barnes And Noble did have the Ray Rhodes book Susie.....I'm half-way into it.....and it is wonderful.

"That By Testing You May Discern...."....June 30, 2021         

                 Listening to most of conservative talk radio.....or more accurately formerly conservative talk radio....for it is Trump talk radio today....anyway listening to it on SiriusXm has a distinct advantage to it for you can go forward or back in the broadcast and only listen to the segments that you want to listen to....so with Breitbart morning radio I pass over their regular experts and listen only to the callers.
                 There was a lady caller this morning that came close to seeing part of the problem that we face today. By the tone of her voice and some of the phrases she used it appeared that she was an evangelical. The opinion that she expressly called in to express....was that the United States recent bombing of some Iranian targets in Syria.....could possibly be only a diversion.....so that our focus was taken off of other issues more important to the Biden administration.
                 This 'wag the dog' foreign policy to influence political policy is used often enough....so she was not necessarily off target....but she missed the essence of her own profound intuition. Our focus....that of evangelicals and Christians....has been taken off of Jesus Christ....and placed right smack on our own desires and pride. How else could Christians have missed a genuine biblical false prophet in Donald Trump....an antichrist as John labels them in his epistles? 
                 For the umpteenth time in these posts......Donald Trump is a destroyer.....he destroys everything that he touches....everyone knows this....everyone except those whose discernment he has destroyed. It would be a long....long list....the people that he either purposely destroyed.....or who crashed in flames because they decided to follow him.....or even just work for him.
                 The caller said another thing of interest....she gets up in the morning and boots up her Breitbart app.....to read all the stories of the day that she needs to know. This is a big mistake on her part....for she does not get everything that she needs to know from 'conservative' sources alone....as she get at most half of the news that can inform us....the rest of it being so exaggerated and distorted and censored....that it does much more harm than good. This same problem exists even to a greater extent from those who watch or read CNN type sources alone.
                We are not only two distinctly different peoples in America today....with two very differing political opinions....we are two peoples who are in bondage to only one type of news source.....thus effectively negating any wisdom that can be brought to the debate. Add Trump and his fake everything to the equation....and it is only much worse.
                So once again I want to warn readers to these posts....flee these Tucker Carlson type of news sources....at least flee them as gurus. If I were only to have read Fox News over the years.....well I would probably be a regular at Trump rallies.....and if I were only to have read CNN....well....I don't even want to think about that. 
                Vary your news sources....read some of the books that Trump and talk radio tells you are fake news. Give Drudge a once over a couple of times a day....but most importantly....boot up God's Word every morning.....and put everything upon His grid.....and pray about everything....employing self-examination....and value humility over perceived accomplishments....and  vigilance over the slothfulness of going to one news source for all your information.

"Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, and what is good and acceptable and perfect." Romans 12:2 ESV

UPDATE....July 2: Former executive vice president Louise Sunshine said this in response to yesterday's indictments...."Donald will always survive....even if everyone else around him drops dead." Another former exec said about Weisselberg...."He stayed too close to the fire and he got burned....and that's true of a lot of people." Sunshine....who like me voted for Trump in 2016 but not in 2020....added this...."He survives everything....He's a super-human....I don't find it impressive....I find it a reality."

Lord's Day Post

The following post is from September of 2018....the Preface from March of 2019: 

Preface: Billy Graham....just for one....warned us in America for a long time of God's coming judgments. R. C. Sproul warned us. Both have gone on to be with their Lord....their tasks complete. Many have warned....having labored in obscurity. None of this really matters....for all you have to do is read the Old Testament prophets and you will see how this is the way it has always been.....God sends prophets....no one listens.....judgments come.....then everyone wonders why God was so mad. So why even warn? It may be so that one can look back....after the judgments.....and see that they were warned. Jeremiah seemed to do this....remind the people after judgment that they had been warned again and again. It may be because some do indeed listen....bewail their condition....and actually repent. British poet Rudyard Kipling spent the summer of 1889 in our small town....in the middle of touring America....if you can look at this country of ours today....and it doesn't make your hair stand on end....and does not make you tremble....."You're a better man than I am....Gunga Din."

"Yet I Will Exalt In The LORD"

           The prophet Habakkuk speaks to us today....but will we listen? Hidden away in a slew of other prophets that we ignore....books labelled 'minor prophets' because of the short length....it gives us a glimpse of Habakkuk's extreme frustration as his beloved Judah was destructive and violent....full of strife and contention....where law is ignored and justice is never upheld. Does that description sound familiar?
           The prophet begins by venting to God his frustrations. Why isn't God doing something about this? Why has the LORD not intervened? The answer that God gave Habakkuk was not the answer that he wanted to hear. God was going to bring judgment upon Judah.....and he was raising up the Chaldeans to do that!
           Habakkuk was a contemporary of Jeremiah. Nineveh was about to fall....and Babylon about to rise. Nahum had just prophesied impending doom to Nineveh. Habakkuk was now....after God's answer to his question....even more frustrated in that God would use a more violent nation....Babylon.....to punish Judah. It's as if he then stood there and defiantly said.....'explain that God'.....and then waited to hear God's rebuke....but God didn't rebuke him....he calmly told Habakkuk to record the vision that he was about to see.
           Martin Luther would be transformed by part of what God told Habakkuk...."Behold, as for the proud one, his soul is not right within him; but the righteous will live by his faith." God was showing Habakkuk what would happen in the future...."at the appointed time." He was pointing to the Messiah. Yes Babylon would bring judgment upon Judah....but God then quickly taunted Babylon.....five times! Their turn for God's wrath would be next.
          So what would Habakkuk do now....offer a third challenge to God? No...even though his "inward parts trembled" and his lips "quivered" in acknowledgment of what was about to happen to Judah....God gave him a quiet and a calm....and a prayer that Judah would utter and sing even as Babylon approached.
          Habakkuk....like Jeremiah and Daniel......had to give their messages....but none of them would see the final fulfillment of their prophesies while in their mortal bodies. Habakkuk's inner parts did tremble and his lips did quiver after realizing what was going to happen to Judah....but his final words were....and they should be our words....as we have witnessed our nation rebel in ways eerily similar to Judah's...."Yet I will exalt in the LORD. I will rejoice in the God of my salvation. The Lord God is my strength, And He has made my feet like hinds feet, and makes me walk on my high places."
          Christians should know by now that judgment is coming to the nations of the West that once acknowledged and even reverenced God....but now violently oppose His mere presence even in tradition. In many of us....our inward parts tremble....and our lips quiver....but as Habakkuk's final prayer proclaimed the power and "everlasting ways" of Almighty God.....we for our part know very well....and should proclaim....the glorious return of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....in the midst of judgment not totally unlike in its terror what Judah experienced with Babylon. 

Are We Burning Incense To The Cross?

               I've heard it before....but most recently yesterday when a radio talk host....(one of the top three in the nation since Rush is gone)....mocked the Covid-19 variants....and said that 'liberty' or 'freedom'....(I can't remember which)....was all that he cared about. It was today on his show that he played a commercial where on it he himself recommended a financial wizard who had been right on  stock picks in the past.....you know the story....so his latest advice might make you rich if you but follow it. It's one of those....'I want to share this great secret' type of commercials. So many of these people today....like this radio host....say that it is liberty and freedom that they so dearly love....but it seems that often it's really the opportunity to make a lot of money that drives their defense of 'freedom and liberty.' As for the church's involvement in this patriotic nationalism....only the pastors themselves could know....(and they might be blinded themselves)....if it was really for the preaching of the cross that they demanded that their churches remain open....or if the empty pews meant empty offering plates? The following is part of a March 2020 post.

"....I have not seen one bit of evidence yet that the leading ministers in our nation are warning anyone that God's judgments are increasing.....nor that the church in general feels any culpability....nor that we as a country have even a tinge of anything resembling guilt. I picked a book off the shelf in the basement today merely out of curiosity....it was Billy Graham's Storm Warning....from 1992....in which he wrote this...."TROUBLE AHEAD; PREPARE TO MEET THY GOD..." Precious few ministers dare preach this today. You surely remember the biblical scene....The Israelites were rebelling against God in the wilderness....and God sent fiery serpents who would bite them....and people were dying. Moses called out to God who told him to construct and raise a bronze serpent....and whosoever looked upon it after being bitten would live....for that symbolized Christ raised above the earth on a cross.....look to Christ and live....(Numbers 21)....but do you remember this....many centuries later Hezekiah took that very same serpent on a pole and broke it in pieces....for the people had come to burn incense to it! Have we today (fashioned) the cross....into that bronze bull in the financial district of Manhattan....Nehushtan? (2 Kings 18:4) Is this the real object of our worship today? Are we looking to this "mere piece of brass" in order to live? If so we need to put our trust back where it belongs....in the Lord Jesus Christ....look to Christ and live."

Addendum....I want to add a little to the preface of this post as it pertains to the closing of churches during the pandemic....and the response of many pastors to those closings. Nothing in the overall church today is absolutely the same...but generally the Lord's Day goes like this.....the congregation gathers before church with laughter and small talk....a sermon follows that may a few times a year actually contain why Jesus went to the cross.....but most of the time they are practical sermons on how to live the Christian life....and then the service ends....and the laughter and small talk continues. Do you agree with this? How then....was the temporary closing of some churches the great persecution and assault on the gospel that it was made out to be? What the church in general should have done is see what happened to our country in the pandemic....and considered the culpability of the church and all of us in what our country has become...and pleaded with God for mercy.....but instead we ignored self-examination....and instead proclaimed ourselves to be not only great patriots but persecuted saints.....because we could not....for a time.....continue what we were doing.....which was little help to the country....or anyone's souls....anyway.