DISPATCHES

Update: January 1, 2022: It only took a minute to Google because Anthony Fauci had often been warning that we cannot let our guard down when Covid cases decline. An Axios report from last August was headlined...."Fauci fears a COVID variant worse than Delta could be coming....but we on our side were too busy attacking him to be concerned. I was nothing short of ignorant on viruses before Covid hit....and like many people I researched heavily back in early 2020. What amazed me most was what these scientists were able to determine in their lifelong at times research. This was a very intricate problem to say the least....eons beyond what mere commentators....even doctors could surmise as viruses hit. As in any other diseases that afflicted man....the contributions of science was a blessing from God....but what we have done....once again on our side....is reject that blessing for not being perfect....and refusing to see God's hand in this....we added insult to insult....resulting in what we have now....the near neutering of scientists....affecting not only the continuing fight against Covid.....but any other viruses that may come along....depending on what political party is in power at the time.

Twenty minutes into the Breitbart radio show this morning....and it is an absolute disgrace to everything that conservatives had worked for over decades. It started with the host ranting..... not thinking a whole lot....certainly not looking two steps ahead....but ranting on China. The specifics of China's hold on us economically are true....and we have been warning on this for decades when Trump could not care less....but the way it is used today....is only to light a fire....which is hastening the war that is probably coming....now not on our terms of preparation....but theirs.....giving them the advantage.

The host then quickly shifted to remarks by Kamala Harris where she said that the biggest danger today is to our democracy. So....the Left is saying that losing our democracy is our biggest danger....and the right is saying the very same thing....and you know what....they are both on the right track.....in at least seeing what each other is doing!

The host then said this about what you and I saw with our own eyes on this past January 6....."By 'storm'....I mean....'walk through an open door and protest inappropriately....you know....an unlocked door!' " It is mind-boggling that someone on our side would interpret the horror of that day in this way. I may not have every sound totally accurate in this quote....because it is hard to quote from the radio someone who talks at times like Beavis and Butt-head. But there's more....and it's not even 6:30 yet....

The host brought up the caller who ambushed the president on a telephone call about Christmas. Biden had just said...."have a wonderful Christmas"....or something like that.....when the caller added...."Let's go Biden." Now.....just what would one expect the President of the United States to say in response to this on a Christmas call in? So the host cackled....which is becoming a trademark of his.....and then.....get ready for this evangelicals....he has his three year saying...."Let's go Brandon".....and doesn't care one bit if we think that this isn't a good thing for a father to do. He called the episode on the Christmas call-in....."sensational....sensational."

Comments on the above paragraphs: Alex Marlow is not unintelligent....quite the opposite....but he is one example of how Donald Trump is a destroyer....par excellence....in that at some point over the past few years Marlow....and others.....perhaps you....have been taken in by the machinations....(tested and effective machinations....over multiple decades literally).....of a man who is in his latest incarnation a Pied Piper....leading conservatives away from their foundations....and evangelicals from their Savior. When Trump is finally banished from influence....if that should happen....conservatives might be able to reason once again....and talk radio might once more be conversation....ideas bounced off of each other....instead of the one-sided dispenser of authorized 'alternative facts'....and selective information....meant to control minds....rather than exercise them.

The Daily Regimen Of Some Famous men....And Me....(Redux)

Preface: The following was posted this past February 20. It took me 69 years to finally make a New Years Resolution. Well maybe I made some in the past but didn't keep them and thus forgot them....but my resolution for January 1, 2020 was to read in God's Word every day of my life....providing God enables me to read.....and I have kept that so far.....and it has been a tremendous blessing. Last year I made a resolution and have kept that one also....so I have a few days to think of another. I did not make this as a resolution but I could have for I have done this....many times over....so I can recommend to you that you listen to at least one Charles Spurgeon sermon a week....or you can substitute J.C. Ryle. I should add a caveat....for it may change your life. All you have to do is Google up their name....and sermon....and YouTube....and there are plenty to keep you going!              

             Drudge carried a story about the daily regimen of Tom Brady....and how his determination to stay fit has enabled him to play football at 43 years old. He wakes up at 5:30 to drink an electrolyte solution and a smoothie.....breakfasts at 7 a. m. with his family.....and then hits the gym. Apparently he likes to spend some time at the beach....studies game film and works out some more during the afternoon....has dinner with the family at 6 p. m.....reads to the kids....and goes to bed at 8:30.
             Benjamin Franklin was known for his rigorous daily scheduling.....and even Jay Gatsby.....according to F. Scott Fitsgerald's imagination....began his day with...."Rise from bed 6:00.... exercises....study electricity etc.....work 8:30 to 4:30 p. m......practice elocution, poise, and how to attain it.....no more smoking or chewing....read one improving book or magazine per week".....and a few other things.
            These type of routines can certainly be helpful....but some men had more in mind than worldly accomplishments. This for example.....something Jonathan Edwards originally penned at about 19 years of age.....and added to it over the years....

1. Resolved: I will DO whatever I think will be most to God's glory; and my own good, profit and pleasure, for as long as I live. I will do all these things without any consideration of the time that it takes....
2. I will continually endeavor to find news ways to practice and promote the things from Resolution 1.
3. If ever-really, whenever-I fail or fall and/or grow weary & dull; Whenever I begin to neglect the keeping of any part of these Resolutions; I will repent of everything I can remember that I have violated or neglected....as soon as I come to my senses again.
4. Never to do anything, whether physically or spiritually, except what glorifies God.
5. Never lose one moment of time; but seize the time to use it in the most profitable way I possibly can.
(these are only 5 of 70 Resolutions and condensed somewhat. You can easily Google these and read them)

               I personally try to stick closer to Edwards.....America's greatest theologian....and according to the Encyclopedia Britannica.....(an older edition anyway)....America's greatest intellect of the 18th century....uh....that would include Jefferson and Franklin and a few others.
              This is my personal regimen....up at 5:30.....(after going to bed around 2 a.m)....to turn on the radio and the computer and the Keurig. Work on a post until about 9:00....eat breakfast.....eggs and bacon almost every morning....(and orange juice every day of my life)....take a nap....try to do at least one job that my wife would like done....work out on the same weight set that was a Christmas present in 1963....(along with the Beatles....She Loves You 45 rpm)....or take a walk....either while listening to a Charles Spurgeon sermon on my wireless headset....take another nap....read until about 5:00....(unless it's Tuesdays at Barnes & Noble)....dinner with wife where I sometimes cook....and always clean the dishes....take another nap....read some more and attempt to fix the paltry post I published in the morning....(like this one)....rest and relaxation for an hour which usually means an old movie or Monk or Dick Van Dyke rerun....this with my wife.....she then retires.....asking me if I'm going to bed....in which I invariably respond with Robert Frost's words....."The woods are lovely, dark and deep, but I have promises to keep....and miles to go before I sleep"....upon which she rolls her eyes....while I read and work on the computer....(the reading is always in God's Word....with some time spent in either a Christian or secular book)....fall asleep in the chair.....then find my way to bed for a couple of hours....before I wake without an alarm at 5:30 to start the whole process again.

ICHABOD....The Glory Has Departed

                 I don't even recognize my own country anymore. Somewhere in the past five years we conservatives left the high ground....like an upstart mob in the city that challenges the one that has had control for so long....our plan is to beat them at their own game....hard knuckle purges....threats....reputation beatdowns....and out-and-out bribery.
                 I have been a radio talk show fan for over fifty years.....as talk shows were always big here on Pittsburgh radio....but talk radio is not the information source that it was at one time....or even a half dozen years ago. In the 90s we evangelicals split our time between conservative talk radio and conservative Christian talk radio and James Dobson and the Bible Answer Man....things like that....but we have become hardened. By all rights pastors should enter their pulpits this Lord's Day....and weep at what we have become....but I don't think that they know how to weep anymore.

Preface: We in evangelicalism have no idea the trouble that we are in. We think it has something to do with socialism or communism. If that were the biggest problem then that would be good news....for God would be with us.....but the real problem is that God is no longer with us....Ichabod....the glory has departed. We need pastors that warn us....but instead they comfort us. The church knew back in the 1970s and early 80s that God was going to judge us.....but those men are now long gone. The following post itself from December of 2015.

             What kind of name is Special Dog? Well that's not my real name of course for my real name is....Straggler.....Private Straggler. I'll be the last one to enter the Celestial City.....and the least of those in line....and the greatest testament to God's love of the unlovable and mercy upon the least deserving of it. And if there is someone behind me I'll wait for them....for by rights I should witness every glory filled face before mine shines in the presence of the King of Glory.
             Friends....examine this concept of God that has taken hold in American religion. I don't blame the people for their pabulum reverence....for they....most of America....have never beheld His glory in a sermon....and never adequately understood what one is 'saved' from! Little is demanded from anyone and less is offered by us in the form of humility. No...I can hardly blame anyone for giving God no more than one percent of their thoughts. I realize this because before He hogtied me with the cords of His love and mercy....and before He branded me with the imprint of His Word upon my soul....I would have been far more excited to meet Elvis Presley than seek His face...let alone stand on holy ground!
              So it is no surprise that people do not recognize the extent of our pitiful state in this country today....nor are aware of the severity of judgments upon us which have only just begun. Politics is seen as the answer because few know what the real question was...."...who do you say that I am?" The answer of course is....."You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." If one truly understands that statement then one would have already beheld His glory, known very well what one was 'saved' from, and realized that we deserve His protective hand being lifted from us!

Merry Christmas....O What A Glorious.....Overture!

I turned to our smart speaker and said....."Play Christmas music".....and the computerized voice replied...."OK....playing Xmas music." I have never over the years been a 'fan'....for lack of a better word....of the typical Christmas sermon. In fact so many churches spend the entire month of December....one-twelfth of the year....on 'the Christmas story'....that it's like the cross gets a vacation....but I came across an older series of Christmas sermons by Pastor John Piper at his former church in Minnesota....and I actually had to laugh....it was so wonderful....for he kept saying Christmas this....and Christmas that....but it was entirely the gospel of Jesus Christ! This pastor refused to separate Christmas from Calvary....or Christmas from the Second Coming! You can listen to some of these messages easily by going to desiringgod.org....and then clicking on the menu at the top right....and then 'podcasts'....and then 'Sermon of the Day.' The following was first posted on Christmas Day 0f 2018: 

Merry Christmas....O What A Glorious....Overture!

             Today we celebrate....all over the world....the birth of a baby....a little over two thousand years ago....a baby who would be a Savior....and a King....in fact the Kings of all Kings....but friends....do not think of a baby in the manger in a crib....for if you were to stand in His presence today you would probably be blinded....and dropped to the ground with no strength to even look up. A baby would be the last thing in your mind. You would not be able to move unless a hand were placed upon you....giving you strength....where you would hear the command not to fear....that is if your soul as of right now has been ripped out of Satan's grasp.
             Is Christmas a modern day Saturnalia? Yes....in a way....and a Christmas tree is just a pagan bush....I have one twelve inches from my left elbow right now. Even in better church times....and at 68 years old (70 now) I've seen better church times....the Christmas holiday would seem to be of little value in causing Americans to really contemplate what happened on whatever day in whatever month it was two-thousand and some odd years ago....but today....as America floats like a rotting tree trunk down a muddy raging river....cascading towards a falls....with rebellion to God out in the open everywhere....that same almost pagan Christmas....but with the little light that is in it....shines brightly out of a dense darkness....and its glorious hymns seem to be as when the angels sang out above the shepherds.
             So Merry Christmas to you....for a baby was born....that baby grew up....and the same angels who thirty-three years earlier had rejoiced....obediently stood aside....probably in rage....as the God/Man who that baby became....had His flesh ripped apart as demons rejoiced. Then the single biggest event this entire universe has ever experienced....or will ever experience....happened. Christ was risen....and the farthest star away from earth....whether it be billions or trillion of light-years away....and every atom contained within it....every electron charge....somehow acknowledged the event surrounding its Creator.
             A baby was born....and the angels rejoiced....it was the overture....to be followed by choruses....and arias....and cantatas....and every imaginable orchestral arrangement....leading up to a grand finale that the angels are preparing for right now!
            So yes....Merry Christmas.....for it was a wonderful overture....but the Composer has left the greatest audiological masterpiece for the grand finale. 

Time Capsule

               It's only been in the news for a few days that a time capsule was found in the Robert E. Lee statue that was removed in Richmond....but they have already opened the capsule.....and first reports are that inside where only a few artifacts....one of which appeared to be a novel....the title....The Huguenot Lovers: A Tale Of Old Dominion written in 1889 by a civil engineer in Richmond whose name was Collinson Pierrepont Edwards Burgwyn.
                I Googled the novel not expecting to find anything but there are reprints that can be purchased....of which I considered doing until I found that the novel could be read online.....of which I did.....in about two hours.
                Here is my synopsis....a very proper young lady and her distinguished father leave Boston to travel by train....for mostly health reasons....to see what the South was really like. They stop first in our nation's capitol....and then on to Richmond. The young daughter meets a former Confederate brigadier general....still a fairly young man....this barely over twenty years after the end of the Civil War.
               The prose....I found to be beautiful.....and the history in descriptions of the capitol and Richmond to be valuable....and the story itself compelling. It is as much if not more a love story than historical reflection....with an ending that I would not even attempt to describe....(you can read this for yourself if you want.)
               If you have read much of these posts of mine at all then you know what I will add here. Honor and civility were themes from the writer who lamented what society was becoming. He had an admiration for Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee that I have....(the main male character served under both men)....along with Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain and Abraham Lincoln and so many others from both sides of this conflict....but it does not appear that he had the devotion to God that these men had.....and the lack of it shows up in the story....for the question of....what is love....holds an important place in the end of the novel....and as profound as the author may have made it....it should leave the Christian sad that the love of Christ for His children....and the love of His children for him....the essence of love.....is not there.

 

DISPATCHES....Woe Are Us....Over What We Have Become!

Update....December 29: I mention representatives Liz Cheney and Adam Kinzinger and West Virginia senator Joe Manchin below. If you are in either of their districts or state in the case of Senator Manchin....you might want to consider sending this website to them....for there are six years of observations on Donald Trump from a Christian perspective that they might want to have an aide go over....to see if these thoughts might be relevant to what they are doing in the Congress?

Robert Bork was an 'originalist'....and a hero to us conservatives. Born right here in Pittsburgh....he took a leave from law school to serve as a Marine during the Korean War. He was considered a brilliant jurist....and I believe that I once read that not one of his over 400 judicial opinions were ever overturned....yet his last name....'Bork'....is listed in a number of dictionaries as a verb that means essentially....to destroy. Ted Kennedy said this on the Senate floor during Robert Bork's nomination...."Robert Bork's America is a land in which women would be forced into back alley abortions, blacks would sit at segregated lunch counters...." We witnessed similar but not so successful tactics used on Bret Kavanaugh....and we were outraged....but we have changed....and Dr. Anthony Fauci has been the recipient of ten times the smearing that Bork and Kavanaugh combined received. Woe are us over what we have become.

 On the various restrictions and shutdowns from Covid-19

Concerts....sports arenas from high schools to professionals.....restaurants....Spring Break....bars and parties....huge family gatherings....air travel....shopping....these are all things...the restrictions concerning them....that have turned so many of us into 'patriots'.....or so we like to call ourselves....for these we say are fundamental rights and liberties and freedoms....but it might help just a little bit to consider this....there was a time....not that long ago....when none of these things even existed....at least as they do today. Our luxuries and entertainments are so great today....that if a government were to take them away....if would be to us tantamount to quartering Hessian troops in our home. So in effect…all of the trouble we have caused those scientists who were trying to limit coronavirus deaths….and all the additional deaths that have followed….that we evangelicals contributed to by listening to strange theories from "raging waves of the sea" experts....to "tickle our ears"....and refusing a simple vaccination….were in part because we refused to give up that which once never even existed.

We fought them every step of the way in dealing with this pandemic....from Rush saying it was no worse than the common cold....to John MacArthur telling his congregation....and thousands of us around the world....."There is no pandemic"....to Trump downplaying it as long as he possibly could so as not to affect the election....to today where talk radio is one continuous onslaught of ridicule.

"But when Pharaoh saw that there was relief, he hardened his heart...." (Exodus 8:15) We have had in America many judgments from God upon us. They have been increasing in intensity and frequency.....and whether they have been wars or financial panics or terrorism or violence or plague....it is as each time we back off on our overt rebellion against God.....but only until 'relief' comes....and then our hearts become hardened again. So the pandemic will rage....and we will submit temporarily....then it will ebb....and we will...like Pharaoh....suddenly become bold again.

God's Word tells us that we are to pray for leaders in authority. I have two whole posts in the past where it was a prayer for Donald Trump....(February 27, 2019 being the last time one was posted)....but today I pray that God awakens us to who this man has turned out to be. We might today pray for Dr. Fauci...and Liz Cheney....and Adam Kinzinger....and Joe Manchin....the closest today to the definition of ‘leader.”

Most of us are aware of this biblical passage....the Assyrian Sennacherib was subduing much of the Levant and set his eyes upon Judah....eventually encamping just outside of the walls....and mocking Judah's God....big mistake. Hezekiah went to Isaiah to seek the Lord's counsel and was told that Sennacherib would never enter the gates of Jerusalem. The angel of the LORD slew one-hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians in one night....and Sennacherib turned back....only to die at home....fulfilling more of the prophesy against him. Secular history looks at this event and cannot really figure out why Sennacherib suddenly departed from the gates of Jerusalem since there had been no large scale siege. One ancient source wrote that a horde of mice overran the Assyrian army destroying equipment....but it is more likely that a horde of mice brought a deadly plague to them.

Many evangelicals have been for decades giving a heads-up that microchips are eventually going to be planted somewhere on our person....and this probably will be related to the Bible's Mark of the Beast. The latest such microchip in the news comes from Sweden....and it is related to vaccinations.....and we newer evangelicals.....not having much discernment anymore.....will surely tie the Mark of the Beast into masks and vaccinations and Fauci et al....but what is ironic here is that it would be us....and our refusal to get vaccinated so as to at least try to help others....that set in motion mandatory vaccinations....and microchips like they are talking about.

This morning:  Dr. Fauci is angry and you cannot blame him....for at a Turning Point event over the weekend.....Jesse Watters....one of the speakers....advised this particular portion of America's youth.....to go in for the "kill shot" with Dr. Fauci....so Dr. Fauci this morning said that Watters should have been fired on the spot for using such violent terminology. I went to the Turning Point website and watched the episode in question. Watters was giving advice for these young people on how to ambush....he used the word.....certain people in public.....Dr. Fauci in this case....just go up to him and politely ask if he would take some questions.....when he refuses then get up in his face and say that we are going to talk right now....and then pull out a piece of paper.....anything as if it is official documents.....and slam it down in front of him.....saying that this proves that you....in this case it is evidence of giving money to the Wuhan lab.....and then you send off a video of what you did to Hannity or Breitbart or someone. Flee these people folks....talk radio and Carlson.....all of them.....flee them as John Bunyan's Christian did the City of Destruction shouting...."Life, life, eternal life!" They are definitely leading you somewhere....but it is on the wrong path....and away from Christ and His Word.

Can I Get A Witness?

Preface: The following was first posted in early 2020:

           I like to hear the testimonies of conversions. Personal testimonies were the norm in my early Christian walk as a Pentecostal. Today as a Christian whose theology is what would be described as 'Reformed'....testimonies are really not given as formally....not as often anyway....but rather in a conversational setting. We tend to avoid anything that might possibly take the emphasis away from Christ and put it onto ourselves....but on occasion I've waxed sentimental in these posts....and today is one such day.
            Both sides of my family were Catholic. My uncle was a priest in Tennessee and would take me to ballgames and other fun things when he was home. I attended Catholic schools through high school....and was married to a Protestant girl but in the Catholic church. Oddly enough my great grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. One of his sons....my grandfather.....was a wild youth who eventually settled down to marry a Catholic girl. He in turn became a devout Catholic....as did his four sons and their families....as I eventually reverted to Presbyterianism.
            My mother had a St. Anthony statue by her bedside right up until the last couple years of her life in a nursing home. She never said a negative word about the Catholic church.....until about a year before she died.....and a year into the papacy of Pope Francis. Out of the blue one evening while the nightly news was on in her room.....she looked at me and said...."Special Dog....we have a bad pope."
           I attended Our Lady Help of Christians grade school in Buffalo, New York up until the seventh grade. We were encouraged to attend Mass before school which I took advantage of because if you went to communion then you could have a delicious glaze donut to dunk in a cup of tea to begin the first class while the others had to sit there and study something. Somehow....and I don't know how because we did not have much money....I had a daily missal which I treasured. The ultra-thin pages with red and black type....and Latin....mesmerized me....but I did not have a Bible other than the impossible to read pocket New Testament given to me by my uncle at my first communion.
         I occasionally attended Mass while in the army.....and then again while attending Pitt after the army. One evening.....I remember it well.....while waiting on the bus after classes I stopped in the National Record Mart that was a few feet away from the bus stop.....and I bought a Living Bible paraphrase of the New Testament....I still have it today. Although other than being touched by the solemnity of what I was reading.....I remained in darkness as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ....as did my future wife raised in Presbyterianism.
         In 1981.....now married for five years.....My wife for some reason bought me a hardback Bible for Christmas.....I still have that Bible also. We were attending church regularly at the time.....and after Mass I would gather up all the Catholic newspapers in the back of the church and take them home....spread them out on the dining room table....and devour almost every word. Something was happening.
         This was 1982 folks.....wonderful and marvelous things were happening all over America as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I stumbled across the 700 Club on television.....(becoming a member of the 700 Club and actually vacationing a few times down at their Founders Inn in Virginia Beach). There were also men at work who told me about being 'born again'.....and there were Christian bookstores.....wonderful Christian bookstores.....something we do not even have anymore because of the Internet. One day while my wife was shopping at Penney's.....I strolled the concourse of the shopping center and stopped out of curiosity at one of these Christian Bookstores. I had my rosary in my pocket.....which had broken.....I asked the lady at the counter if they sold rosaries on which she politely said no. I then browsed around and walked out with Josh McDowell's classic Evidence That Demands a Verdict. An explosion of intense curiosity was set off within my mind. I still purchase and give away that book today!
          I wanted something so badly of which I knew not what it was that I planned to attend a Catholic charismatic service on Tuesdays at a local Catholic church. Twice I drove to the church....arriving purposely a little late....and stood outside the doors with my ear to the crack.....listening to the music and the voices but not going in. Out of frustration I called the 700 Club to ask if they knew of a church near me where I could hear this of which I wasn't even sure what it was. They recommended an Assemblies of God about a mile from our home. We were members there for about ten years....and I will always thank God for that church and the wonderful Christians we met there. We were active in the church....often entertaining overnight visiting ministers....once a leader of an apologetics ministry....another time a newspaper editor from Timisoara, Romania.
           I was inquisitive about the veracity of the Christian faith from day one.....studying particularly apologetics....and researching what are known as Christian cults in order to defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ....even putting an ad in the newspaper to reach them. In 1987 on a short term mission down in Paraguay....while walking through  a small town one evening.....I saw a Baptist church offset a few yards off the main sidewalk of the town. It was hot....over 100 degrees....and the door of the church was open....I saw about a dozen worshipers sitting in a circle praying....a heavenly golden light contrasting the evening darkness....no music.....no laughter or gaiety.....just a soberness in what they were doing. I knew immediately that I wanted that. When I returned home my attention moved towards church history and I eventually wound up in a small Baptist church....about twelve members....no piano player....and no kids....(our son was about eight years old)....and the pastor was leaving! Somehow we stayed. A new pastor was called who would become a friend for life. Here was a man who owned a successful sign business in North Carolina.....who being 'born again' in his mid 50s.....decided to go to school to become a Southern Baptist pastor. A few years later I attended a Soli Deo Gloria conference (Reformed literature-Puritans in particular) that I heard of on Christian radio....and met there a man who would become our pastor for about the next twelve years....and also became a friend for life. He spoke with a little bit of a stutter.....and in a monotone....and whose sermons would be considered to be dull today in this church culture that demands practical sermons that are uplifting....but the words coming from his mouth....oh the words....about the glories of Christ....they were words from out of the past in the church. If you are upset at who I have become....blame him.
             Eventually although working full time.....my wife and I opened a Christian bookstore.....and an odd Christian bookstore it was....very odd.....actually one-third of the books were everyday secular books....but carefully chosen....one-third were children's books.....and one-third were Christian books....but all from a 'Reformed' or 'Reformation' perspective. We had customers from all around Pittsburgh thanks to radio commercials that we made where I spoke about the bookstore as the sound was heard in the background of a hammer pounding a nail......this referencing Martin Luther hammering his 95 theses on the castle church door at Wittenberg.....but locally we did not do as well.....and although having this store was a great blessing.....we closed after two years.
           So here I am today.....so thankful that God would take the least of the least.....and the most unlovable of all.....and bless him with a salvation almost indescribable in its wonder.....and a son who is raising a wonderful Christian family. I'm still me....same personality....(hey there's still time....Lord willing)....69 years young (70 years old now) and looking to that day when either Christ returns with His powerful angels in kingly glory....or when I am resurrected.....probably the last in line of multitudes to enter the Celestial City.....but thankful in that God will take glory in having mercy on someone such as I.
           There you have it. I'll keep this up for a few hours.....a day or so.....and then try to hide it somewhere in past posts.....only keeping it there....as I do with a post titled 'Thankful For Weaknesses'....that I simply have to bring back from time to time to tell someone....anyone....of how Jesus Christ offers them an eternal salvation if they would but take themselves off of that pedestal long enough to read God's Word to see who should be up there.

"Rumors Of War"

               When I was in the army....fifty years ago....I dealt with maps and reports and briefings....and I had a top secret clearance....and I've been reading on this stuff over that half century since then....along with countless biographies on world leaders....and generals in war....and war in general.....so I may not have a PHD in political science....but I know when a 'rumor of war' is legitimate....and what is going on with Putin and Xi Jinping should be more than concerning.
               As for statesmanship....we have to be the dumbest generation in our history. People like Bolton are mostly gone....run out of town by a guy who probably never read a chapter on political science in his life....and by all accounts that have come out....could not even get through a one page daily brief. That he said that he was smarter than all the generals....when not calling them babies that is....is something right out of a comic book where the characters are not even supposed to be believable.....for that's what makes it a comic book!
              The goal should always be....no world war....and certainly no chance of nuclear war. And you never let your back be up against a wall....and shouldn't even put an opponent's back against a wall. And you don't fight each other at critical times like this....but come together. Putin and Xi Jinping are meeting....virtually....and behind the scenes they are surely making coordinated contingency plans for war....and you better believe that Kim Jong-un is a part of it....and probably the Middle-East.
              I'll turn on talk radio and man....they're ready for war.....pounding their chest.....but you know what....few if any of these guys will have to go. Have any of you even thought about what a military draft would look like if we had to have one. We can't even wear a mask today without complaining....and there are no safe spaces in basic training. I've been there....you don't tell the army doctor in basic that you don't want that shot thank-you.
              Where are our pulpits? Aren't shepherds supposed to protect the sheep from wolves? Billy Graham is long gone. Woe are us....if we do not see our predicament....and our culpability in it....and humble ourselves before the Lord of Glory....who alone causes nations to rise and to fall.

Consider Micah

 The following post is from August of 2016:

          Would you be interested in partaking in a little biblical meditative exercise? Before I explain it let me give you a preface: I've written a number of posts over the years on two small books of the Old Testament....Jonah and Nahum...and always in this context....Jonah was told by God to go to the great city of Nineveh and give them a warning that would extend for 40 days....repent or be judged. Nineveh repented....and Jonah wasn't particularly happy about it. Possibly 150 years later another prophet addressed Nineveh....Nahum. God gave him no warning to give....only a declaration of impending judgment. My point is that this whole process of warnings and then prophesied judgment took well over a century as God was very patient. We need to understand this as it relates to the warnings God has been giving to America for a long time! This is not a sign of His failure or inability to keep His promises, it's a sign of His patience!
       The exercise, should you want to do it, is to read the book that is between Jonah and Nahum....the book written by the prophet Micah. Now these words from Micah, once again words of judgment...but also of hope, were to specific people, the people of Judah and Israel, but these books are to us also, certainly at least as examples for us to consider what happens when a nation blessed by God then rejects Him. The book is small but take an evening reading it and contemplating each verse, and possibly referencing different translations and a Study Bible to help with the changing context. Put America in there.... as if....as if....it were written also to us, just to see if our history of blessings and then rejection of our Benefactor is not strikingly similar. And if our rebelliousness is similar, would not the judgment be similar also, and would not the patience extended before judgment be similar...a patience that we may have used up!
        I'm confident that as you read through Micah you will see many instances where we followed the same path as rebellious Judah. You may even be astonished at times.Consider Micah

Lord's Day Post

The following post is from October of 2020....and was titled....It May Come This Way....Or It May Not.

It may come in this way....the last great movement of God in America....the preacher....any preacher....many preachers across the America....arrive at church a little disheveled....as if they hadn't had any sleep the night before....for they hadn't.....in fact they have been tossing and turning all weekend trying to prepare a sermon that they believe God may have put on their heart. It goes like this....the congregation detects something as the uptempo music ends....and the preacher's shoulders are as if they are sagging. Is something wrong they wonder....has the sale for more land for the addition fallen through? The pastor begins by saying that the holiness of God is an awesome thing to be confronted with. He's not looking at the congregation while talking as he usually does but his eyes are lifted to heaven. Maybe this is the setup to a humorous but informative anecdote....he's done that kind of thing before....but his wife is sitting in the front pew....and her lips are moving in prayer. This is no humorous but informative anecdote coming! The pastor reads the Parable Of The Ten Virgins....while his eyes lower to meet those in front of him....and he begins his sermon...."Beloved....how much oil do you have available to trim your lamp.....for you may need it soon....and even if our Lord tarries in His return....we must have oil for our lamps at all times!" It may not happen this way....but each Monday I look for reports on how this preacher or that preacher was extremely solemn in the pulpit....and the congregation responded to his message with equal solemnity.   

Update....Monday afternoon.....in the few conversations that I have had with Christians since since yesterday there is no indication of any alarm or concern from these few pulpits. The return of Jesus in judgment is surely far off....the only warning given to us seems to be....do not think too much about these things.

An Approaching Tsunami.....Redux

Preface: The paragraph directly below is from 2014.....and the post itself as mentioned is from 2009. God had given us plenty of warnings for decades on the judgments coming to America and the world....but we in the church....although we listened to these warnings thirty and forty years ago...have no real interest in such distractions today....if we are even fortunate enough to hear any of them:

          My wife and I vacationed in Charleston, South Carolina year last. I was disappointed that I didn't get to tour the French Huguenot church in town but we did get to take in a lot of the history and beautiful architecture. On an early morning walk on the beach I was able to retrieve a conch shell. At one point on my walk I stopped and thought of the Christmas Day Tsunami which I mention in the following post from October 11th of 2009. One scene remains vivid in my mind from videos of that tragedy in 2004; a woman had ventured onto the exposed underbelly of the sea to retrieve shells as the killer waves, visible in the background, sucked in the surf before it. She didn't even have time to run. It's as if we in America are marveling at how far the surf has receded and are picking up shells when if we would look closer at the extreme abnormalities of the day and at least lift our gaze to the horizon we might recognize a coming tsunami and implore God's forgiveness and mercy.

An Approaching Tsunami

          I watched a short video clip tonight on the Christmas Day 2004 tsunami. You could hear background voices. Some were giving simple comments on the strange horizon. Others were speculating on what it could be, tsunami was even mentioned. The comments turned to screams as it became apparent that a wall of water was coming at them. It all happened very quickly.
          A few years ago a pastor of mine told me about a film he had just seen, The Winslow Boy, and how it was superb. I trust this man's opinion immensely and my wife and I traveled about 30 miles to see it. It was as good as he described and is now one of my favorite films. In the middle of the showing the film broke and after about 15 minutes we were told that it could not be fixed that evening. Someone in the audience shouted Well, how does it end? I stood up and responded in kind with the shout of Don't say anything! I felt a little embarrassed but my wife was not surprised at my response. We returned the following night to see it again in its entirety.
          This film is a 1999 reproduction of the original starring Robert Donat from 1948. David Mamet directed the film based on the play by Terence Rattigan that was written around a true story in England at the beginning of the twentieth century. A 12 year old boy is accused of stealing some money while at England's version of a military academy and expelled. The boy's father and sister go to extremes in his defense. To me anyway, although most might not agree, there was a potent romantic aside in the film between Rebecca Winslow, played by Catherine Pidgeon, and the renown barrister Robert Morton played by Jeremy Northam. The Winslow Boy begins with the family returning home from church. The father is commenting with all seriousness on the sermon, "Good man. Good sermon. Pharaoh's dream. Seven fat years, seven lean years. Good sermon." It was probably a typical sermon in Edwardian England. The Winslow family would go on to indeed experience lean times.
          The evidence today is that we may have a tsunami coming to America and possibly the world, maybe far more tremulous than even terrorism. (Folks....is not this pandemic a tsunami that has hit both America and the world?) These are not typical problems of the nuclear age that we are facing for they are combined with terrorism and with an agenda for a New World Order that must first experience a global catastrophe to be instituted. Combine this with a narcissistic Facebook mentality that is not interested in danger signs, and with a dismissal of God and therefore His warnings and we are oblivious to the wall of water on the horizon.
         It is not extremist to prepare for lean years but it's also not probable when the fat years are spent in revelry instead of thanksgiving.

Note: You can easily watch the 1948 film on the computer....and it also was very good.

Tuesdays With Special Dog

Tuesdays With Special Dog....After The Lockdown. 

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



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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Me....."Don't call me Special Dog." 

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

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

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

John and Special Dog looked at each other again.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

DISPATCH.....(Singular)......"The Show Does Pretty Good With Me Picking The Topics"

                This is something new that I seem to be doing in these posts....and I didn't plan it. As a news item comes up....I might post it right away by itself....similar to what a real journalist's 'dispatch' might have been at one tine....and then later on I put that individual item and comment in with the last.....'DISPATCHES'....(Plural)....post. So here goes....I tuned into Breitbart's morning show this morning in time to here this....a caller wanted to talk about January 6th....OK.....that's pretty normal on talk radio.....but he hit a raw nerve with the host....who said...."I don't like to talk about January 6th.....I don't want to talk about January 6th....the show does pretty good with me picking the topics.....and we'll just leave it there." For four years now talk radio has made it sound like the people are calling in....and here is what the people think....but it is more....the people are calling in.....and the hosts pick the callers who might fit their carefully chosen narrative. So friends....when you listen to talk radio....and it seems like most everyone agrees with what Donald Trump says and does....and consequently you feel comfortable agreeing with the narrative....you may want to think again on this.

DISPATCH....Trump Wore His Mask A Little Too Low Today

The 'mask' I'm talking about is his claim to have any true belief in anything other than himself. It's being widely reported that he used more Trump language today.....this time on Netanyahu.....who didn't hold out on congratulating Biden after the election....so his masked slipped and there surely were some today who finally saw who Trump really is. Let's say that Donald Trump became president again....and Netanyahu became Prime Minister again....and a reporter asked Trump if he would still defend Israel.....well the answer might be like the one he gave when asked if he would defend NATO....as it depended on if NATO's bills were up to date. So with Netanyahu it would depend on if he bowed low enough in forgiveness. Neither NATO or Israel or anything has anything to do with any real ideological beliefs in Donald Trump's mind. Folks....this relates to any who now support Donald Trump....even talk radio....you are only as safe with him as long as you are on his good side....which is behind him.  

DISPATCHES

There is a point that I would like to make from an interview just this morning on....I suppose....Fox & Friends....(I saw the interview from an alternative source.) In the interview Steve Doocy asked questions about the new Omicron variant to Dr. Robert Redfield. Watch the interview if you can for it is an example of an expert speaking very clearly and very transparently on the virus. In about a minute and a half we learn a lot....but my main point is this.....suppose that six months from now we find that Dr. Redfield's opinions were not correct? Well....it should be obvious that he (and others) are doing good work on this difficult problem right now...and if what we find later gives different information then that is how science works....but.....that's probably not what we on the right would do....as for political purposes....we would proceed to tear Dr. Redfield apart....for having made mistakes. This is what we have already done with Dr. Fauci and Dr. Redfield himself and others.....for this is politics that leads us today.....not science anymore.

Thursday morning: This is a sad dispatch to type for it is so disconcerting. I listened to about a half hour of Breitbart radio this morning before I had to bail out. The show played a few snippets from an upcoming Trump interview....it has been a long time that I know of since a leader....(Trump in this case).....so blatantly lied into a microphone of some sort.....and was believed by an adoring crowd....(and in this case the radio host) Obama never had such boldness. I heard Dr Frankenfauci ripped apart from the host....and conspiracies that would make your head spin from callers. There are other radio hosts who have done this type hosting but they are relatively obscure and you have to search to hear them....but Breitbart is mainstream conservative. The way that Breitbart usually does it is that they let the caller go on and then say..."I gotta go thanks"....and think that they have no part in what has happened and what is happening. The only good thing about this....and that is only a possibility....is that it must be easy for these type of people to call in....for others like me tune out when we can't take it anymore. These folks are prepared in advance to blame everyone but Trump when China attacks Taiwan or war breaks out elsewhere. When Trump was in the White House.....he hated them but he had wise and experienced people in the national defense working for him who successfully kept him out of this kind of trouble....which he was blundering around literally all the time....until he fired most of them anyway. I would not even type this 'dispatch' if I didn't know that Christians around me listen to these talk show and podcast hosts all the time....and it is a staple of their information.....which is why I plead with them to....flee from these sources....and return to the Word of God!

Two interesting tidbits on how God works to accomplish his purposes. There were two incredibly influential ministries in London and England in the latter part of the 1800s....and this eventually in the whole world....that of Charles Haddon Spurgeon and Anglican Bishop J. C. Ryle. If you have never been introduced to these men you should start today by Googling their names +YouTube. Anyway....Ryle was given the influential position of Bishop of Liverpool by lame duck Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli to get back at incoming Prime Minister William Gladstone.....(this according to the wonderful Christian historian Iain Murray who you should also Google.) So we have Ryle with us today because two Prime Ministers did not like each other, The second tidbit is that mega-publisher William Randolph Hearst heard about this young Billy Graham....and sent a memo to all his newspapers that read simply....'Puff Graham'....which meant to put him in the headlines....and we all know what happened next. You could add this anecdote also....a young unsaved Spurgeon could not get to his normal church during a blizzard so he stopped in a small Primitive Methodist church just to say that he went to church....and God used an unlearned church elder who had to preach because the regular minister also could not make it to church....to give a simple message that God used to save Spurgeon....and bless the entire world!

New: Texas republican congressman Dan Crenshaw is in the news after heavily criticizing the Freedom Caucus....(Jordan and Meadows etc. who had once been our heroes in the conservative movement)....by saying they are now 'grifters' and 'performance artists.' He also said that Trump lost the election. Crenshaw had previously been critical of conservatives in congress for not backing Trump's agenda while in office...(Trump's conservative agenda.....what there was of it....was our agenda long before Trump ever came along) I disagree with some of Crenshaw's opinions but the hope here is that his refusal to simply become a lemming may be a bond of sorts between those who want no part of Trump....ever....and those who do not like Trump at all but as of yet have not told him to leave.

LAWFARE: One definition of the relatively new term is the...."use or misuse of law-litigation for harassment, propaganda, or ideological purposes-to achieve strategic, political, or military objectives." I used this definition in a post from 2011. Another one would be...."the abuse of Western law for political gain." We conservatives haves for decades lamented the fact that criminals often go free simply because they have good lawyers. Trump has employed measures like this his whole life....as normal and almost as often as a comedian might employ jokes. These type of legal measures can also be used simply as a delaying tactic.....and sometimes they can infinitely delay. All of a sudden we are fans of this legal maneuvering. Another legal concept that drove us crazy over many decades was 'legal loopholes'....as so often we would hear that so-and-so got off because of a 'loophole.' Non-disclosure agreements or NDAs had been common with Trump....those being superseded by 'executive privilege' since becoming president. We were up in arms over Barack Obama's infamous comment about "fundamentally transforming the United States of America"....but in retrospect....Obama's fundamental transforming does not look nearly as nefarious compared to how Trump has fundamentally transformed almost the entire conservative movement....including evangelicalism. 

California Republican Congressman Devin Nunes is resigning his House seat to become the CEO of Trump Media & Technology Group....big mistake Congressman. How many men and women....dozens upon dozens whose names we would recognize....who had entered Trump's personal orbit....now wish that they had never met him....or whose life has since then either been on a downward spiral....or overwhelmed with controversy....or they suffered a humiliating firing through twitter....or they have done or will do jail time? I guess the money is a lot more....and you might get Mr. Weisselberg's old office....but you better have Michael Cohen go over the fine print in the contract....for he knows how these things work.

The year was around 1995....and we were attending a small Southern Baptist start-up here in Western Pennsylvania. There may have been eight adults. We called a pastor from the South who may not have been the greatest preacher....but his heart was in it. We doubled our number....to about sixteen adults....and one child....ours. This pastor had just preached one of his finer sermons....and I was sobered in joy and thanksgiving....but no sooner than had he stepped off the altar area....a flat area maybe two or three steps up....than all of the congregation was loud and laughing. Had they not just heard what I had heard....I thought? I walked up to those few steps....and almost collapsed in prayer on them.....and wailed. I don't remember the words I cried out....only that it had something to do with...."Lord revive us!"  The congregation looked upon what was happening....and then went back to talking.

Looking back on my life....I contributed greatly in my personal sphere to the downward slide of America....and since that time when God had mercy upon me by opening my eyes to who I was....I grew in grace with the speed of a melting glacier. God's judgment upon us has brought a perfect storm our way....and there has never been a time like this where the church needs to grade itself with an F....instead of the A+ that we give ourselves....and then hopefully finally hitting rock bottom....thank our Lord that we are still here....cast away all the pride that led us to depend on our own power....and trust in the only Rock where we can stand.

I've mentioned the following quite a number of times over the past few years: Please consider Googlng....'John MacArthur....Beware Of False Prophets'....a Grace To You daily broadcast from May 8, 2015....which was forty days before Donald Trump came down that escalator at Trump Tower. If you don't see Trump in much of his warnings....then....God didn't make little green apples....and it don't rain in Indianapolis in the summertime.... 

The events of January 6 of this year are similar to what Ephesians Chapter 19 describes where Demetrius summoned all the craftsmen together in the amphitheater....and stirred them up....so much so that  for two hours they shouted...."Great is Artemis of the Ephesians!" ("Diana of the Ephesians" in some translations) But as Luke records in verse 32...."the assembly was in confusion, and most of them did not even know why they had come together." So incredibly....almost two-thousand years ago....in a capitol city full of temples....a riot occurred....an official eventually calmed the rioters down....and warned them that they were in...."danger of being charged with rioting"....and they listened and dispersed.

Stark Contrast

The following post is from May of 2014....and the preface is from 2020. I bring this back because of December 7, 1941....eighty years ago.

Preface: Common sense in its most basic form tells us that there has to be a generation on the earth....and both children and newlyweds....and college students etc. etc. etc.....when the Tribulation begins. Well it wasn't my generation....Vietnam and riots and rock music and drugs and free love were my generation. It wasn't my dad's generation.....World War II and the Jitterbug was his generation.....he enlisted....was severely wounded....and is buried in Arlington National Cemetery. This is it folks. This is the generation. Call it generation XYZ or anything you want. 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! 

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.

I usually add to this post....comments about the 1943 Academy Award for Best Picture....which was the 1942 American film Mrs. Miniver in which Greer Garson also won for Best Actress....but today I'll just summarize it. A middle class family just outside of London is enjoying all the blessing they have been given....buying things....son off to college....that kind of thing....and then the war came. There is a church service at the beginning of the film and another at the end....the beginning of the war.....and the end of the war. The first service is about anything but Christ.....the second.....with sky showing through a bombed out roof of the church....is somber and reverent.

Damn The Icebergs....Full Speed Ahead

The following post is from December of 2014. Reading it today I'm led to think of talk radio and all the talking heads as they will mercilessly hammer Joe Biden no matter what decision he makes on anything.....demanding he resign as I heard one say the other day....and then leave Biden alone only long enough to mock and jeer Kamala Harris even more than Biden. Has it ever registered in their minds that if Biden leaves....Harris takes over....and if they both go.....Pelosi takes over?

                 The mood on the bridge was somber. The Captain never said a word as the chief engineer detailed the damage to the hull from the iceberg. All of the ship's officers were present. Muffled voices from somewhere on the decks below were the only sounds. It could have been a painting or a photograph. The scene almost had a Civil War flair to it as some of the uniformed men faced left....some straight ahead....some with a hand neatly placed between buttons on their coat. The Captain turned from looking out over the dark sea....picked up his cap from a table and carefully placed it over his grey hairs....walked over and unlatched the hatch....and it swung open as the ship was listing fast. The muffled voices became loud shouts....and the Captain....knowing the imminent fate of the ship....stepped out into the chilly North Atlantic air....reserved and dignified as he had done thousands of times before. 
                 As the hatch swung shut the voices once again became muffled and the officers seemed to breath for the first time. The First Officer spoke...."Gentlemen, I promise you that if I am made captain after this voyage I will restore the promise of this great ship." The Second Officer took two steps into the middle of the gathering and spoke next...."If I might interrupt sir, had you followed my advice we would have come to a stop hours ago at the first sight of icebergs." The Executive Officer cut him off  "Stopped.....stopped! I would never have taken this route. Records are all you men are interested in....Fame!"
                Everyone in the room was now shouting out allegations. They had all moved closer together and the scene was uncomfortable to watch for the one person not blessed by birth into the elite culture of the ship's staff officers. Throughout the entire meeting....the details....the captain's humiliation and the officers fighting over who might replace him....was a lowly ship's mate standing at the wheel....holding firm onto it as was his duty even though all engines had stopped. He turned suddenly to face the others....his face red as the ribbon across his cap just below the word HMS Inviolable. What was there to lose? "You are all daft! The ship is going to the bottom! None of you will live till morning!" The First Officer stared intently into his young face "Going down? Nonsense. This is His Majesty's Ship Inviolable. It is unsinkable!" At that point a pair of binoculars had slid off of a table and crashed onto the deck of the bridge. The lights flickered and a horrible groan emanated from the bowels of the ship. The officers, every one of them, for the very first time, realized what was indeed going to happen.

Today Is Still The Day....For We Do Not Know What Tomorrow May Bring

Preface: The following was first posted almost seven years ago to the day. We thought that things were bad back then....and they were....but they were a walk in the park compared to what is going on all over this world today. We were conservatives back then....giving all that we had in an attempt to right this ship....little did we know that we ourselves would be the next domino to fall....taken in and abused....along with our leaders like Rush.....while our pulpits....oblivious to the warnings of God's Word....built their big churches....with everyone smiling before and after the services....not in the joy of Christ....for I could probably count on one hand the number of times over forty years that anyone even mentioned Christ.....as the conversations are always plans for the week....or ailments.....or the kids.....or the weather....or the big game....and all this while a false prophet came in and raided the sheep. Pastors....if you have a church of 500....and you would warn them right now on this vile man Donald Trump....maybe 100 would leave....or two hundred....leaving you with just 300....which is all that Gideon had left after God's instructions. Check out if you dare the latest Trump video over the weekend at Mar-a-Lago....in front of a gathering of young 'patriots'....or so they think that they are....and listen or read and weep at what you allowed to come into your church.

Today Is The Day          

               We have no one to blame but ourselves. We let it happen. Some are more to blame than others but no one is left unscathed. They came in waving their diplomas given to them by the Wizard of Oz and we let them set the coarse for teaching our children. They tapped us on the shoulder getting our attention long enough to tell us that God was dead and we ignored them and went back to watching our sports. They told us that a pre-born child was only a fetus so we let them kill as many as they wanted. They taught in our universities that there is no truth....and then told us that that was the truth, said that there is no good and no bad, no right and no wrong, and that if we agree... that's good, but if we disagree... that's bad, if we follow...that's right and if we don't...that's wrong. They called us intolerant as they swept away piecemeal our identity as a nation through courts whose judges they had strategically placed into position while we naively thought that politics could save us.
                 Meanwhile we opened the gates wide as they dragged in the Trojan Horse with the colossal hologram of Barack Obama sitting atop it saying "peace...peace." The barbarians slithered out of the seeming abyss of its belly and began to take apart our Constitution and destroy the American family. They lie as easily as they breath.
                 We now sit here and watch as hardly a day goes by without another assault upon sanity, another mockery of law, another battering ram thrust upon our bulwarks....from the inside, another swing of the ax laid to our moorings and another pyre constructed of old books and documents and histories and pews and pulpits, readied to lay upon it our Constitution and be lit by the fires of hell.
                  We knew more than our parents and they knew more than their parents and they knew more than theirs. The final result of this antithesis of wisdom has produced the 140 character text, the tweet, that tests the limits of our analytical skills. (the Tweet eventually did us in)
                   O where to go to when we finally see how far we have fallen, when we gag at the stench that permeates our very being, when we sob when we think of the future of our children and clench our fists in anger as we look into a mirror and see nothing....absolutely nothing.
                   Well, we're not there yet. We haven't hit bottom, but we will. We aren't gagging because we have been conditioned to savor the fetid stench of communism, and why look into a mirror when one has Facebook!
                   Many have penciled in God for late in life, an insurance policy to be purchased upon retirement. How foolish, yet how perfectly inlaid into the urn awaiting our ashes.  Look around and see the house that we have constructed where Jesus Christ is no longer the cornerstone, where His Word is packed away in the basement in a box labelled...'books.' Today is the day to humble ourselves before God, to kneel and weep at the foot of the cross, for there is no guarantee of tomorrow, not for individuals or for nations.

The Republican Leadership Needs To Heed This.....or At Least Hear It!

                It is a difficult statistic to come up with....numbers....not percentages....of evangelicals that voted in the various presidential elections over the past forty years. We have a good idea of the percentage of evangelicals that voted for George W. and McCain and Romney and Trump.....and it is a high figure....but percentages aside....how many turn out on an average....and had that changed in various elections. Another problem here is that everyone and their brother on our side seems to be categorized as an evangelical....but how many claim to be born again.....and even here just about everyone claims to be born again if you come right out and ask them...for what are they going to do.....say that they are not born again....when Jesus said that one must be born again?
                Here is why I'm bringing this up.....by the 2012 election I had for four years posted very critically on Barack Obama....to put it mildly....but I did not vote for Mitt Romney.....and I know many other Christians who also did vote for him. Do I have to mention here that we did not vote for Obama either? The reason is this....there were 50,000 Mormon missionaries on the field at the time.....Romney is a decent man.....and I would have no problem with him serving in important cabinet posts.....but I was not going to give the 50,000 missionaries on the field a calling card that says that the president of the most powerful country in the world was a member of their religion.
               I emailed a number of members of our congress....and a number of talk radio hosts.....and warned them.....this in the run-up to the nominating process.....that 5% or 7% on the normal evangelical vote was not going to come out and vote for Mitt Romney. I don't think that any believed me....and the post election statistics do not answer this question.
               I bring this up for one reason....yes huge numbers of evangelicals not only voted for Trump twice....but will vote for him again if necessary....but the total vote statistic....the number of evangelical votes cast...on any future elections....is dependent on if God gives wisdom to His church once again. If He opens the eyes of those who are....not just evangelicals....not just those who answer 'yes' if asked to being born again......but genuine regenerated redeemed believers in Jesus Christ.....who do not trust in the powers of this world....then there will be that number of 5%to 7% or even higher who.....now having their eyes open to Donald Trump....could never under any circumstances cast their vote for this man!
               There is something else involved here....and that is that if this occurs.....then it would signal that a winnowing is occurring in the church....and that the redeemed are actually becoming a peculiar people! So to the Republican Party leadership....you could have a trillion dollars in your campaign chest....and every talk radio show and podcast beating your drum....but it would not be enough to secure one of our votes if God wills it to awaken and revive us!

It's Only A....Vac-Ci-Na-Tion

                     All you can do really is sit back and observe. It is so mind-boggling that even if we had the one main reason why it's happening....it would still be mind-boggling. It's just a vac-ci-na-tion. We could hardly wait for them to come up with one....and then we were wildly happy....for about ten minutes.....until the talking heads grabbed on it to try to get back at President Biden. Had we all just got in line for the jab.....there wouldn't have been any mandates to get the jab. Sadly so many of us....on the 'right' as we are labelled....bought into the political prop that this has something to do with our liberties. We are today....thanks to the metamorphosis of what was once conservative talk radio....into Trump radio....nothing but sheep....believing every word they tell us.....and only getting half the story at best. What is particularly galling is in how veterans think that Trump is somehow one of them.....one of us.....somehow a patriot....this a man who joked about Vietnam....called men like Mattis babies.....continues to disparage John McCain.....(evidence of severe psychological disorder).....and claimed that he rebuilt the military.....before the ink was dry on the paper that was put on his desk to sign! Folks....there is no limit to our gullibility!

"...And Great Was Its Fall"

                I remember my seventieth birthday.....(in detail....not in how wonderful any birthday may have been )....more than any other birthday in my life.....with the exception maybe of my fourth birthday.....where my cousin Buzzy jumped out from behind a door to scare me....and apparently it worked....for I remember it in detail. He went on to literal national fame in the music industry as Time Magazine once did an article on him for his influence in radio....but on my seventieth....on February 4, 2020....I watched a most extraordinary State of the Union Address.

                I had watched many over the decades....and in this most recent decade had posted on the concept of the S.O.T.U....and even emailed members of congress pleading with them to do away with this speech that Thomas Jefferson....refused to give....because it reminded him of Britain's Speech From The Throne. Anyway....please consider these words in the post below from February 6 of 2020....in light of what began at that time....and where this world is today because of what had begun at the time....for God has given us this peek back in time...if we choose to visit it.....to see how arrogant and self-indulgent we had become....the 'we' being the better half on the 'right'....and all this just before the coronavirus hit with force.
                I heard these words of Scripture in today's sermon....and bring them here for you also to ponder upon...for it may describe us....Jesus speaking....and recorded in Matthew 7:26 and 27...."But everyone who hears these sayings of Mine, and does not do them, will be like a foolish man who built his house on the sand: and the rain descended, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house; and it fell. And great was its fall."

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

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

Note: Well....it's almost two years later.....we had been attempting to build our 'house' of America in the sand.....through politics....and might.....and prosperity.....and our pastors did not warn....and still do not warn.

'DISPATCH'...."A News Item Filed By A Correspondent"....Merriam-Webster

Preface: Conservatives sure aren't going to listen to this warning....but to evangelicals....flee talk radio....and Fox primetime. I had read most of Mark Levin's books over the years....and had subscribed for a while to his show....and posted a few times on his great book....Liberty And Tyranny....but these people have changed. I remember when Levin was challenging some of the egregiously inane things that the new President Trump was doing.....and then one day everything flipped.....and he began saying "the president" with a strange reverence. Rush was gone from the beginning....as I remember when Trump endorsed Luther Strange....and for ten days Rush wouldn't even mention it....not a word.....it was odd....until finally giving a lame excuse. Trump's influence here is not normal....for any clear thinking republican or conservative would have long ago said something like....'thanks....but that's enough....it's time for you to go." So to evangelicals.....these folks are leading you down the wrong path! This is not related to the Christian faith....in fact it is antithetical to it.....and pastors should have been warning us! The following post is only a few weeks old:            

                Jonah Goldberg's 2008 New York Times #1 best-seller Liberal Fascism, the Secret History of the American Left, from Mussolini to the Politics of Meaning was one of the most important books of the new millennium. I occasionally look up his latest opinion pieces....for he is one of the few conservatives who has not moved on to this new....whatever this is....that we are today. Apparently he along with another Fox News contributor Stephen Hayes last year started an Internet site titled....The Dispatch....which I had not heard of until today when news reports are out that he and his partner Hayes have resigned from Fox over the incendiary antics of fellow Fox personality Tucker Carlson. My own title for occasional posts....DISPATCHES....was chosen after reading Helen Rappaport's equally important 2016....Caught In The Revolution....Witnesses to the Fall of Imperial Russia.

                This movement led by Carlson and most of talk radio and various podcast hosts is what I have been urging evangelicals to flee!  I have used the word 'incite' quite a number of times in describing it. What is most important here is that this is not a Christian movement....in other words it is not a movement that puts forth Christian principles....but it is rather....rabid reactionary men and women in the media who use the word 'God' all the time....hitting on issues that may be true....but denying the essence of what Christianity should be. One radio hosts starts every show with a scripture reading.....another  begins by giving that day's date...emphasizing the phrase...."in the year of our Lord"....and yet another....a prolific female author....shows no more concept of what the gospel is....than a cheerleader knows offensive and defensive schemes....of the team for which she cheers.

Update Tuesday morning: There is a report out today on..."a significant level of an internal dispute over conspiracy theories espoused by Tucker Carlson." According to the information that has come out....both Bret Baier and Chris Wallace have also...."went as far as raising their objections to the network's leaders."             

What Happened To All The False Prophets

                  It is not something so outrageous that it could not have happened....that the children in Israel might have had some pagan custom where once a year they dressed up as idols or some sort of demonic spirits.... and begged food or delicacies in the public square. It didn't happen....but it could have.....sometime in Israel's Old Testament past. So....what do you think that Jesus would have said about that....or Paul.....or Jeremiah? Well I'm not even going to waste your time with speculation for we all know what the response would have been. So....how can we get away with it so easily today. I know more Christians who have fun with the dark celebration of Halloween.....than Christians who will have nothing to do with it!

               Part of it....I fear....is that I don't think we believe in demonic spirits anymore! We are proficient in teaching of all the demons that Jesus cast out....it makes for good Bible study.....but we think that has nothing to do with reality.....at least not the reality of today. So when there is a mass murder....and the person is heavily involved in the occult....or in any of the other atrocities in our daily news that should have evil spirits written all over them....we instead assume there has to be a chemical imbalance somewhere in their brain.....for it could never be demonic.....and even if it was.....we're just not going to talk about it.....because we have enough trouble today with unbelievers thinking that we are weird....without demons and the devil coming into the picture.
               Demonic spirits are mentioned in 19 of the 27 books of the New Testament....if I remember correctly. Was this a common occurrence throughout the Old Testament.....or was the demonic heightened because it was the time of the first advent?   And if that would have been the case....would it not then be plausible that with the return of the Lord Jesus so near....that the demonic might be heightened once again?
               In the same vein.....what happened to all the false prophets? They were everywhere in the Old Testament....and warned of in the New Testament.....but they're about as hard to find today as a Republican Senator who sees something wrong in what happened on January 6 of this year....or is that we just refuse to address this issue also?

Note: I've recommended this John MacArthur video a number of times in the past. The title is....Beware Of False Prophets.....and it was broadcast on his program.....Grace To You.....on May 8 , 2015.....forty days before Donald Trump came down that escalator.