Prayers For Two Please

                I pulled into the service plaza on the Pennsylvania Turnpike and barely had time to stretch my legs when another vehicle pulled in two spaces over. It was pulling a trailer with a vintage tractor on it....almost a skeleton. I simply asked a question about the age of the tractor and it led to a wonderful conversation. Andre is a black man....from the Congo....and he and a friend traveled to pick up the tractor....their plan....restore it and ship it off to a small village in the Congo. Andre said that he could just send money but that doesn't put the men to work. He pointed out how he is going to put tubeless tires on it so that they don't have to worry about flats....and that he will fit it with solar so that they do not have to worry about replacing batteries. I told Andre that I would pray for this ministry of his. He mentioned that I might want to take a picture of the tractor so that it would remind me to pray for him. I did that....and thought that I might ask you to pray with me for Andre while he restores this tractor and sends it off to Africa.
              A few hours after this wonderful  experience we are at Sight & Sound in Lancaster.....Moses being the current production to those many of you who surely are so familiar with this Christian musical venue. It was my first time here....(it's only been around for 45 years)....so I was bit surprised that as in many Christian concerts....an altar call of sorts was offered at the end. Now if you have been to Sight & Sound many times and there were many people who came forward....or if you were there tonight and there were a number of people who come forward.....please forgive my description here.....for I saw only one person come up front. I'm not an 'altar call' type of Christian....particularly at anything like a concert....but I am the type of Christian who when anyone comes forward publically for Jesus Christ....then I am praying for that person. So once again....it was a woman....a black woman I believe but I'm not sure....as we were rather high up in the seats....it's about five hours later....I obviously do not know where she is....or what her thoughts are....but as with Andre....it is someone very real to pray for.....and I thank God for these opportunities.

Try This

I’m typing this on my iPhone….not at home at the time. How was your worship service today? Can you even remember what it was about? Try this. I just listened to it in the car. Just Google ‘R C Sproul….The Cost of Discipleship, a sermon. It’s 28:29 seconds long…..but you will remember it long after you have listened to it!

Addendum added after I returned home: This sermon by R. C. was given about three years before he went to be with the Lord in December of 2017. There was an obvious unction in his plea to consider the cost that comes with being a disciple of Jesus Christ. He had given teachings on this topic before but in my estimation anyway....as with Billy Graham....he grew even more serious with age his warnings on 'cheap grace" which he mentions in this sermon. 

David......The Census......And The Plague

Preface: The following was first posted on December 1, 2021. It is my contention that the evangelical of today....does not want Jesus to return. Oh if you ask them they will say the opposite but....the concept to them of Jesus returning is one where life is just going on and then zap....all Christians are raptured. So....in this scenario they do not have to change or prepare one iota today. They don't have to be vigilant for anything. They simply make their plans years down the line....and if Jesus should interrupt this then that's OK....they won't know what hit them as they get zapped up in the air....so there won't be any lamenting all the plans they had.....children....retirement etc....because all will be changed in a moment! Warnings upset our plans....so we do not want warnings. We are the Laodicean church....certainly not cold....for we go to church and have our Bible studies....but we are anything but hot.             

                   I wonder how familiar we are with David and the census and the plague? You can read about it in 2 Samuel 24 and 1 Chronicles 21. For whatever reason....pride probably....David wanted a census to be taken....'pride'....because it would show how strong Israel was. His commander Joab questioned him about it but David gave the order anyway for the census to be taken.
                   The results of the census are given in 1 Samuel as Israel having 800,000 men able to use a sword....and Judah 500,000.....but Chronicles lists Israel as 1.1 million men.....and Judah with 470,000. It appears that Chronicles listed more than just men trained for battle. Whatever the explanation David knew right away that he had 'greatly sinned' by conducting the census.
                   God gave him three options on the judgment to be handed down to him....and David took the third option.....pestilence. You need to read both accounts with a little bit of help from a study bible because this isn't something that God offered every day....and there is more than one area here that we need help on. 70,000 people died of the plague the first day....and God stopped it....even before the plague reached all areas of the nation.
                   We have over ten times the number of deaths in America in this pandemic....but probably a hundred times the population of Israel and Judah at the time. God's methods in this may have been unusual....but bringing a plague as judgment was not.
                   Now the world certainly doesn't see this pandemic as judgment from God....but I don't know if the church even considers it as judgment....and if it does....the judgment is probably on the unbelieving world and the evil Democrat Party and not us.
                   From day one of our part in this pandemic....that which was most on our mind was the 2020 election. Had our pulpits spoken up it might have been different....but they did not. Add to this the roar of the lion....where Donald Trump was a no-show in the pandemic at first....then reluctantly agreed to some of the restrictions he was advised to give....and then got tired of that and began to harp on Fauci and others....then came the unsuccessful election....and all hell broke loose....and I'm not just being figurative in that assessment.
                   Today....not only do we not even come close to thinking about God's judgment....we ridicule the entire matter. Good men and women.....dedicated men and women in the field of science....have had their reputations destroyed. I am 71 years old.....and have followed politics for over a half century....and have been a flag waving radical conservative evangelical for decades.....but this before me every day in the form of talk radio and Fox and MAGA and January 6 and purging and destroying is no more what we were at one time than how the Democrat Party today is nothing even similar to what it had once been!
                   The pandemic was not the first of judgments on us....and it won't be the last....but you see....evangelicalism today wants to make America great again....it doesn't want to hear anything about Jesus coming back in judgment....for we have plans....and there is no place in those plans for any tribulation or Antichrist or Jesus returning.

              

                      

    

From Sunny Skies To Surveying The Damage In Fifteen Minutes

Preface: The following is self-explanatory. It was about this time of the day....a beautiful day like today....May 30 of 2020: 

From Sunny Skies To Surveying The Damage In Fifteen Minutes

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

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

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

here is where the weather suddenly changed

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

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

Fifty-Four Years Ago Today....

Preface: Every few years on this date I post on the day that I joined the army....which was fifty-four years ago today. The following was from last year:              

                 Fifty-three years ago this week I enlisted in the army.....and fifty years ago this week I got out. I signed up for four years but with only six months to go after Vietnam it was either reenlist or take the year drop that was offered to everyone who did what I did.
                 It has been cool this past week in Western Pennsylvania....and when the first cool days of fall arrive my mind goes back to Fort Dix, New Jersey and Basic Training. What a lifestyle change that was for me! I drank milk....ate liver....and went to bed at nine o'clock. I had no hair to incessantly comb....and no worries other than not getting yelled at. I got out of the army at Fort Bragg....(the closest place to home they could send me)....bought a green MGB from a Green Beret.....and packed it up for the long road trip. The GI Bill afforded me an opportunity to go to Pitt....where I would meet my future wife. I wear my army unit pin on my ball cap to this day.
                 I attended Catholic church services in Vietnam on occasion....and attended St. Paul's Cathedral evening mass more regularly....(basically on the Pitt campus)....since I worked at Pitt's Hillman Library on Sundays.
                 I've related this many times in these posts....so this is probably more for me to hear. I picked up a paperback New Testament one evening at the National Record Mart in Oakland....and only read little of it....but what I read of it would not let go. Years later I wrote down in my Jim Fixx Running Log....March 7, 1981...."saw Chariots of Fire today," Something in me had changed by watching the story of Eric Liddell. He was everything that I wasn't...and he knew God. How could he know God? 
               My wife and I would attend Sunday mass....and I would gather up the Catholic newspapers that were available at the back of the church....and take them home to spread out on the dining room table....searching for this God.
               Many men at work in the early 1980s were saying that they were....born again.....and I would....as was and is my inquisitive custom....explore the thoughts of friends. Billy Graham crusades were on the television....it seemed all the time....oh how America misses that today....and there was this 700 Club....both of them on one of only four channels available. Months passed....it was a blur really....and a new part of my life began. Our cable company changed all the numbering on its channels....also this week....and I was forced to surf through every single number....(there were literally hundreds!)....to find the fifteen or so of which we subscribe. Woe are us in America....for this curse upon us.  A few days ago I traveled an hour to just browse in a Christian bookstore. It was old....it was musty.....and it might itself be closing soon. When I came into the faith there were seven Christian bookstores within a five minute drive. We watched them all die....one by one....as we wanted to save a couple bucks by ordering on the Internet. That supply line of the gospel to the community is cut. We can still get our books.....who cares that there are no local Christian bookstores for people to wander in off the street and find the same mercy that we had found.
                 The greatest blessing in my life....apart from my own salvation....was raising our son in the...."discipline and instruction of the Lord." (Ephesians 6:4 ESV) I had a responsibility....a son....and his eternal soul....I could not blow this great responsibility. Today he knows his Savior....and his wife knows her Savior....and he is raising his son in the...."discipline and instruction of the Lord." I have been blessed more than Bezos and Zuckerberg and Musk and all the athletes and movie stars in the whole world combined!
                 The less one understands such a great salvation as has been given us....the less thankful one will be....there is no surprise in that....but something else....the more one understands one's great salvation....the more one mourns from failures to live up to that great mercy. If you are not humbled....and almost breathless....at the glory and power and righteousness of Jesus Christ....then you do not know of His glory and power and righteousness....but in the moment after you have breathed your very last breath.....that glory and power and righteousness....will be evident....and it will then be too late to proclaim.....as did Thomas...."My Lord and my God!"....for...."it is appointed for man to die once, and after that comes judgment." Hebrews 9:27 ESV)

Colloquially Speaking.....All Evangelicals Have Been Born Again

Preface: The following post is only two weeks old....and was posted under the title....A Personal Relationship With Jesus Christ....question mark. I referenced the movie The Blind Side in it....and in the latest news on the controversy a lawyer for the 'adopting' family said that the word 'adopted' was only used...."colloquially." Well there is the problem....not only with the charitable and loving  family and the young football star....but in the whole of evangelicalism today....only it is a mirror image of the controversy....where we evangelicals use the phrase 'born again'.....colloquially....not knowing or caring of the legality of the matter! Thus maybe half of evangelicals in America today....(my estimate).....will find out at the judgment that they were never legally adopted! How many evangelicals are there in America today? Well it depends on the definition used but I can accept the one figure that Pew put out of 62 million. That sounds about right....and if my opinion is anywhere near valid....then about 30 million Americans today would be....born again.....or to use another word colloquially....'saved'....which would be about ten percent of Americans....(and I think that would be a very generous estimate!). Folks....an America that is ten percent Christian....is not a Christian nation! The highly political element today in evangelicalism might want to reconsider not only their political goals....and God's protection....but make sure of their own salvation....which is what we all are to do anyway!       

                  I've had this happen two times in the past two weeks....in normal conversations with Christian friends....they used the terminology....'personal relationship with Jesus Christ'....in that one must have that 'relationship' with Jesus Christ to be saved. Both times I must have had a pained expression on my face. The second time I quickly mentioned that one must be....born again.
                  This description of what a Christian is....prevalent among evangelicals for the past forty years....and maybe longer if Billy Graham used the phrase in his early years of ministry.....this description in retrospect has done far more harm than good.
                  There were essentially two Billy Grahams....the early years and the later years. He became much more serious in the last few decades....so much so that it was commented upon....and he himself....in one of his last books....wondered if he had early in his ministry presented a gospel that was not as demanding as it should have been.
                   I have witnessed something like this many times over the years....and I cringe every time....some minister.....usually on television....tells of some revival that he led.....maybe in Africa or even here in America.....and he will tell of the thousands....even tens of thousands that were saved.....and he has the film to prove it. It is all absolute nonsense. It is said that William Carey....the Father of Modern Missions....ministered in India for seven years before he saw his first convert!
                   Michael Oher....of the film The Blind Side....has been in the news a lot lately. The issue is....was he adopted or wasn't he? If he wasn't....then it was a relationship that he had with this helpful and loving family. If he was adopted....then he is part of that family.
                   So today.....in evangelicalism....if one has a 'personal relationship' with Jesus Christ....it doesn't necessarily mean anything. The new heart has to be given! The eyes have to be opened! The adoption must be finalized! I cannot recommend too strongly to you that you listen to sermons.....from either preachers of the past....or preachers today who preach like preachers of the past....on being born again. Even if you have been a church going professing Christian for twenty years....go back and make sure of your faith!
                   My specific recommendation would be simply to Google either Spurgeon or R. C. Sproul or John Piper or John MacArthur....and add to it....born again....or what is being born again! Only one of the sermons that I listed in the post below this titled....A Month Of Sundays....has the words born again in it....'John Piper, Why Do We Need To Be Born Again....Part One....but every single sermon listed is based upon our regeneration unto salvation! If you start listening to these sermons....there will be no holding you back....should the Lord will it....in glorifying our Lord and Savior and coming King....Jesus Christ!

The Only Name They Have To Name....Is Jesus Christ!

                 What do I know....I've only followed politics for a half century. I only read and study and listen to the glorious gospel....a means of grace if we believe our own words....every day. I only plead in my prayers for answers to when Jesus is returning to put an end to the horrors of violence ever-increasing throughout this world? I'm pointing this out....not because of what I do....or what anyone does....but rather if you are demonstrating to God that you have little to no interest at all....you will get little to no discernment!
                 Most of our pastors....and I'm referring to the real born again shepherds....most of them have for years just wanted Donald Trump to go away. They kept thinking that this impeachment or that fiasco or indictment would be the straw that breaks the camel's back....but it never happens.
                 If they are not aware that he is a genuine false prophet then it is because of their own laziness or obstinance. The bottom line is that they have not warned their sheep of the wolf in sheep's clothing....the church has suffered greatly....and all of evangelicalism is unaware of the real problems that we face....for it is not closing church doors in a killer pandemic or vaccinations....but Almighty God's wrath coming upon the whole world!
                 Time is passing and these pastors still just say to themselves....surely these latest indictments will force him out. If Trump somehow gets this nomination....indeed if God even lets us get that far....and we have Trump against Biden or any one of the other Democrats....then we can only blame ourselves....but there is more....oh is there more.
                 As of right now....we have been blinded by God.....as punishment for letting the world mold us. Every single Lord's Day....today included....and this for years....my prayer has been for God to open the eyes of the men in our pulpits....and have mercy upon them....thus having mercy upon all of us. Have you noticed anything of late as to your pastor realizing his own failures? As I type....roughly 4 in the afternoon of the Lord's Day....most evangelicals are probably watching an NFL game....as excited over someone scoring a touchdown....as they are unexcited over the approaching hoofbeats of the King of Kings and His army of avenging angels!
                 If God does awaken His church....then evangelicals en masse will not only be totally rejecting this man Donald Trump....but they will no longer be placing their hope and dependence upon politics and legislating. They will be as that minority of us are now....pleading mercies of God for our many dalliances with this world....to be with us in this coming perfect storm
                 If this is the route that God has us eventually take....then the vast majority of 'God bless America'....'Make America great again'....conservative patriots....will not be happy with us at all. They will blame us.
                 Pastors do not have to stand in their pulpits and name Donald Trump. They do have to warn their congregations that our hope is not in governments and armies.....but only in Jesus Christ….and not with a sentence or two every once in a while….but with tears if necessary to awaken us! They do have to warn against false prophets....and great delusion that God's Word tells us is coming. They only have to do what they were called to do....proclaim the glories of Jesus Christ and His blood-bought salvation for us who would have never sought out His mercies had not He first given us a new heart with which to seek Him....and opened our eyes to what has been before us all along!

How Many Is Too Many....Or Can There Possibly Even Be Too Many?

                 I look over my daily habits...this over the past four or five years at least....and I try to analyze how they may or may not have affected me....and for better or for worse? Now I am retired....I have no real pastimes other than reading and doing these posts. I do have a fair amount of yard work that has to be done....along with a regular schedule of cleaning....(that is my part in shared spousal duties)....but along with this I listen to sermons. I know you are tired of hearing the phrase but....sermons from either men from the past....or men today who preach like men of the past.
                I hardly ever miss a day without Spurgeon or Piper or any one of a number of others. And there is hardly a day without at least two sermons...for I may listen to one in the morning and then again on headphones while cutting the grass....and many days I will listen to three or four sermons. I am rarely in the car or truck without a sermon playing through the bluetooth. So we are talking about fifteen to twenty sermons a week bare minimum!
                OK....there is the situation....now how might that affect me.....how might it affect anyone? One side of the argument might be that this constant listening to sermons might be counterproductive to say the least....or even psychologically damaging? One might say that God does not want us becoming fanatical....but rather to live with a consistent and moderate lifestyle to display to the world?
                Well that kind of makes sense to me....until you bring up the cross....and the resurrection....and my being raised from spiritual death....when I had no ability whatsoever to choose life.....after I had lived a life in rebellion to God....then it makes no sense to me at all!                    So that is settled in my mind....fanaticism in the light of the glories of Jesus Christ should be a natural as a salmon fighting raging river rapids to go home...but there are other things to consider....and they revolve around what is termed....the means of grace.
                If we believe what we teach then the preached Word of God gives grace. So why wouldn't we want more grace? Is not reading God's Word every day glorious? Is not praying every day wonderful? Then why wouldn't hearing God's word preached every day be glorifying to God and edifying at the very least to us?
                There's one more aspect of this that I want to bring up. I believe that God is judging America right now as I type and you read....and has been increasingly so for bare minimum of a half century....warning us the entire time. I am not alone in this by any means as there are multitudes of believers that feel this way. Now here are the two possibilities. I have listened to so many sermons....that I have become unbalanced....that's one....or....I believe that 1948 started the countdown....and that we are in overtime right now.....because I panted for the preached Word of God as a deer pants for water....because I listen to so many sermons glorifying our sovereign and majestic God and coming King of Kings?
                 Why don't you try it for yourself.....for only one week....that can't damage you too much psychologically can it? I have a post a few posts back that I titled....A Month Of Sundays....a list of about thirty sermons.
                 

The Coming Storm

                        

Preface....The following was posted four years ago today....September 13, 2019. I wrote in a preface to it...."There's a hurricane of biblical proportions coming. All the spaghetti models show that it will veer off at the last minute to the Atlantic....all the models except two....the Old Testament Prophets model....and the New Testament Olivet Discourse model." The pandemic followed almost immediately. The evidence of judgment is literally everywhere....but we have no interest. God told the Israelites through the prophet Amos that He had given them warning after warning in the form of punishments....and concluded each time with...."Yet you have not returned to me." Then came His ominous proclamation "Prepare to meet your God, O Israel."

The Coming Storm.....September 13, 2019

                As I watch with everyone else the progress of Hurricane Dorian....I'm reminded of another hurricane force storm that occurred in the eastern Mediterranean almost two thousand years ago that was recorded in great detail in the 27th chapter of the books of Acts. That storm also lasted a couple of weeks. There was a similar storm at the end of September 1969....(these Mediterranean storms that might be equivalent to a category 1 hurricane are somewhat rare.) In that storm a 20,000 ton tanker struck a reef near Malta and split in two.
                As of this evening....Dorian just doesn't want to move away from parts of the Bahamas.....very similar to how Paul and his 275 other shipmates fought and fought the storm for many days. We still are not sure of the exact path that Dorian will take....but we are sure of this.....God rules the waves of the sea as he rules every atom in this universe.
                I wonder how many of those Roman soldiers....and that ship's crew.....and the inhabitants of Malta....eventually came to faith in Christ because of that storm? An "angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve" told Paul....and Paul relayed it to his shipmates.....that there would be no loss of life.....but the ship would be lost. God's Word speaks similarly to us today in that there will be no loss of eternal life to those who belong to and serve Christ.....but the ship will be lost. Paul himself must have been gravely concerned at first for the angel told him not to be afraid....and he then in turn told all that were with him to take courage.
                There is another storm coming folks. Meteorologists speak in terms of rotating low-pressure weather systems and maximum sustained winds but God's Word as it pertains to this storm that is coming speaks in terms of birth pangs. The rotating low-pressure....as it were....is almost becoming unbearable to watch.....while the maximum sustained winds are increasing.....the cries of pain all over this earth are increasing....and the contractions are coming closer together. We are still told to take courage....but therein is the rub....there is a difference between knowing what is ahead and yet remaining calm.....and having no knowledge of or concern for what is ahead......and remaining calm.
         

          

The Winds Are Tearing Us Apart....But It's The Surge That Destroyed Our Discernment

                It was nine days ago....Monday the 21st....and The Weather Channel's tropical weather expert Rick Knabb....at the end of a segment on a topic that I cannot even remember.....matter of factly mentioned that there was some cloud rotation in the southern Gulf that he was concerned with. He pointed to the area but there was nothing really there to see.....not to the untrained eye anyway. I purposely kept that comment in mind just to see if his inclination came true. Days passed and there was nothing....and then all of a sudden they were talking about the beginnings of a tropical depression at the same spot that Dr. Knabb was pointing to....which today is Hurricane Idalia! Knabb was correct.

                I have watched....for forty years or so....various Christian ministers and teachers....from local pastors to prophecy teachers....all the way up to Billy Graham....warn of a storm that was coming....this is where the term....'a storm of biblical proportions'....comes from. Meteorologists like Rick Knabb usually deal with time periods of weeks....but those who read their Bible as meteorologists can follow a storm for decades. That is just about what I have been doing.
                It was August of 2011 when I posted this....A recent entry into our expanding collection of American phrases and idioms is "the perfect storm," alluding to a storm so complete, so surrounding, whose potential is so devastating that the worst possible scenario has to be considered. America is in the path of that "perfect storm." Since then I've used the word 'storm' literally dozens of times....recently in a post that I titled...."This Storm Cannot Be Outrun!"
                If I might use some of the weather terminology here....we have both winds and storm surge with which to contend. The winds would be anything from violence to war to pandemics to societal and cultural collapse to artificial intelligence to false prophets and impeachments and insurrections....the list could go on. It's the storm surge that I want to address here.
                 I tried to describe this many times before in the context of a contrast in evangelicalism....that of the 1980s to today. It actually goes further back but I can comment best on the 80s because I was part of that. So If I'm addressing in this post either young people.....college students for example....or just younger generations that did not experience the church before this storm surge began....please try to grapple with this....there is a fundamental change that has taken place that you in no way could have experienced first hand!
                 It may be technology.....the ever-expanding information age....that blinded us and literally destroyed our discernement. To someone my age....the ubiquitous cell phone up to the ear or someone walking and pecking on it....is a new world. I don't think you can imagine the impact this must have had on our discernment. I can't emphasize the loss of Christian bookstores too much....the loss of which cut our supply lines. I meandered into just such a bookstore in 1982 and came out with Josh McDowell's Evidence That Demands A Verdict. We had Billy Graham crusades fairly often on one of four available stations. Now we have four or five nonsense Christian channels in among hundreds of other channels. These things are a big deal. We are effectively without sound biblical information concerning the age we live in....in an exploding information age! 
                 It is no longer evangelization....it is now recruitment that builds the church. No one has to be born again anymore. What is that anyway? It's the opposite of edification that Fox cable and talk radio has done to us. We have become hardened and insensitive....and extremely tribal....with little compassion for anyone. Our lives revolve around warnings of the wind gusts....personal freedoms and liberties....but we are unaware that the storm surge had totally engulfed us.....and isolated us from God's warnings!
                 This storm surge covered the pulpits also. They have been as affected as we have been. So to the college student....you are still smart....with knowledge on technology that I could never keep up with....but discernment on things spiritual is practically gone....and there is no way that you could know this! You have no idea what is lacking in the preaching.....because you have never experienced it to know that it is missing!
                  The warnings back then were consistent and strong....God was going to judge us. Those judgments have begun....both the wind and the surge! We simply have no interest in these things today. Ask yourself....do you have any interest in God's judgments upon us? 
                   I want to recommend a book to you. It is extraordinarily easy to read....but it would take work to get through it because it's a commentary. These things happen on occasion and they are always a pleasant surprise. I visited a small Christian bookstore a little while back....just thrilled to see such a thing.....and I was determined to buy something to support the store. I related this in a post a few weeks ago. I saw John Guest's name as the author....and the book was a commentary on Jeremiah....and it was published in 1988....OK....I might get a thing or two out of it.....so I bought it. Well....it's rather extraordinary rather than just good! I'm recommending it not only because it is excellent....and very readable....but because we need more than a primer on Jeremiah today.....because he as much as or more than any of the prophets is speaking directly to us!                    You wouldn't be reading this book as much to find out what happened to Judah and Jerusalem....but to find out what happened to us....how we forgot God....and how we now depend upon ourselves for protection.....and what is ahead for us! This book is not still in print but it's on Amazon for $12.99....The Preacher's Commentary....Jeremiah/Lamentations....John Guest.

Addendum: So maybe your classes are done for the day....and there are a couple of hours until  dinner is served.....well here's another class if you are up for it. Do you know who Martyn Lloyd Jones was. Why don't you gather up a few friends and Google....Alistair Begg, Martyn Lloyd-Jones, the Preacher. You will be glad that you did this! It might even introduce you to Alistair Begg....if you are not already familiar with him....whose ministry is at truthforlife.org.

Advantage Pilgrim

The following was first posted on October 13 of 2021....the additional comments a little after that.....and the addendum in April of this year. I try to keep it near the top....hoping that the message is as potentially potent that I think that it is....you are sixty or seventy.....maybe only fifty....you had the advantage for all of those years....with no real concern about having to stand before God....but those years are gone....or almost gone....and now the advantage is with me....for you used up your hope....while mine only built up. Here is good news....you did stall....and balk....but the door is still there for you to knock on....no believer will look down on you for delaying....for every one of us was given mercy that was totally undeserved. 

Preface: I'm thinking specifically of two men that I had known in the past....similar in many ways....the opposite in some other ways....but ultimately destined for the exact same future. Both were extremely intelligent.....contemplative. No one could say that they were not thinkers. We had many conversations about God over decades. The one would not only challenge every single thought....and do so with total confidence that they were right....but also do so with a smile....so as to twist the dagger....so to speak. The other was the opposite. He relished the conversation and hearing any and all of my thoughts....and would even expand the questions....not to challenge.....but to welcome the furtherance of discussion. He rarely challenged....and often agreed....and also with a smile....a sincere smile. The former never even considered God let alone the need for salvation. The latter appeared to almost want to believe....but at the same time there was no disappointment in that he did not believe. The following post was not directed to either of these men.....they never entered my mind when I typed up these thoughts....but in retrospect....the post refers to my conversations with both of them. Their advantage is gone today. The passing of time has taken it away. The question in the debate was never urgent to them.....but now.....along with age....comes a certain creeping urgency. They watched forty years pass....and have not a single sentence to add to the defense of their argument....whereas I have evidence of forty years of God's faithfulness....having witnessed and experienced His wisdom and glory.

Advantage Pilgrim

               If the whole world were somehow darkened....the sun completely blotted out....and God were to cause every Bible in the world to emit a light....then the earth from space would appear as a lighted globe....that is how many printed copies of God's Word there are....not to mention the same Bible accessible on every computer.
               One could hold in one hand the most valuable diamond in the the world....and a cheap paperback Bible in the other hand.....and there would be no comparison in the real intrinsic and eternal value in the hand that holds the Bible.
               One could be rich like a Musk or a Bezos....or adored as the greatest celebrity....or the greatest athlete.....or the greatest anything....but have nothing compared to any little old woman anywhere in this world.....hobbling home with a paper sack containing that day's food....who is in prayer and praise to her Lord and Savior....and coming King....Jesus Christ.
               Take a look at your watch dear reader....or a clock on the wall....and whether you can see the second hand or not....it is moving....nothing can stop time. No matter how rich....or how happy one perceives they might be....that time is merely rented....with a contract that will run out.
               So we debate this.....you and I....and time passes.....years.....decades maybe. In the beginning you had the advantage.....how foolish of me to waste my life.....but as time passes....your advantage lessens....for you once could exclaim with reasonable confidence that you would have many years to enjoy your thesis....and the conclusion of it all was far away.....while I could only say with confidence that the conclusion of all things would prove the Bible true....but now....as the years have passed....you can only say that the past is on your side....while I still point to the future...which is no longer far away.
               But this God who you accuse of being unfair....he watched you debate against His righteousness for those so many years.....and yet still says...."Knock....and it will be opened." This God who you accused of being harsh....has offered you mercy for maybe fifty years....and still says to you...."Today is the day."  Pick up that Bible that is probably as close to you as the next room....or the attic....or the basement....for the very same words that you may have read before....while you had so much confidence in yourself....may this time bring you to your knees....first in horror at where you are headed....and then humility in how wrong you have been....and then hope in He who opened your eyes....as He had opened all of our eyes. 

Addendum....the one man....the one who would talk to me every chance that we had....over many decades....and enjoy the intellectual stimulation....but never seriously considered how the conversation was directed at his eternal soul....who was as health conscious as anyone that I have known in my life....passed away suddenly a few months ago. Our last conversation was only about a year ago....as I ran into him in Barnes & Noble....right there among the books that we so often talked about. As I recall....we talked about the Apostle Paul. He brought it up. It was another mind exercise....where one then puts down the barbell of thought....refreshed in a way....but to no purpose other than to keep the mind in tip top shape.

Endless Mysteries

                 It was a year ago today....September 6, 2022....that Jonathan Cahn's new book was released....and I bought and read it that day....and posted the review that is below. Yesterday was the release date for his newest book....The Josiah Manifesto....The Ancient Mystery & Guide for the End Times....and I as usual was there to buy it. I'm getting weary of wasting my money on his books. I try to keep up with prophecy books that come out. They are few and far between but Cahn's books are every year....and they are the more expensive hardbacks. We need to hear the preached Word of God....addressing our failures.....not just the world's. We need to be reminded of the mystery of how we are one in Christ....not the mysteries of "endless genealogies." Let me give you an example....I can assure you that you will be blessed if you take the time to listen to this sermon. You can easily Google....Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon, The Lukewarm Church....and hear our resurrected Lord's words and warnings to us to us in these last days....for the sermon is on Revelation 3: 14-22.

Endless Genealogies

             Jonathan Cahn's books get progressively more problematic as they come out. His first book...The Harbinger....was a legitimate endeavor....exploring a sign to America from God that it was being judged....but now a celebrity.....it seems that he felt over and over again....with every new book....that he had to come up with something new....after all....people looked to him as someone to whom God was revealing ancient mysteries.
            The latest book....The Return Of The Gods....was actually boring....and not even new....as other authors on biblical prophecy....had put forth the same theme....that pagan gods....were real individual demons....and would return some day.
            The Apostle Paul wrote to Timothy...."not to teach any different doctrine...nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations rather than the stewardship from God that is by faith." 1 Timothy 1:4
            I was in Barnes & Noble yesterday as one of the employees was clearing a place on the shelf for the stack....as probably twenty copies of Jonathan Cahn's book were on the floor waiting to be put on the shelf. Christians....especially charismatics....and MAGA evangelicals....will eat this book up.....and that is truly sad!
            There is sin condemned everywhere in the book....only it is not addressed to the reader. This isn't a book of self-examination. It is not that the author is wrong in everything that he points out....he accurately takes time in describing how money has become a god to us....so evident in how Wall Street....the financial district more accurately.....has that huge bronze bull as its symbol....but he takes that and does exactly what Paul told us not to do....getting taken up in myths and endless genealogies. Cahn also....he spent a lot of time on this....exposed how homosexuality has taken over America. Indeed....a war was waged here....and America lost.
             One of Jonathan Cahn's best-sellers was....The Paradigm....The ANCIENT BLUEPRINT that holds the MYSTERY of OUR TIMES. Here we find Bill Clinton as Ahab....and Hillary as Jezebel....and a lot of other ancient mysteries solved....the kingpin of which is that Donald Trump is Jehu.....oh a little bit of a wild bull....but sent by God to America to get rid of its gods. That speculation doesn't look too good right now.
             One statement by Cahn in his book was particularly disturbing....page 34...."As Israel was consecrated to God from its inception, so was America. America was established after the pattern of ancient Israel." This type of thinking is one of the reasons that evangelicals are moving into a dangerous form of....Christian Nationalism. Trump is a false prophet....we are not one glorious nation under God....and we are not a type of Israel. Our symbiosis is that they once served God....and then forgot Him....and so did we....and so did a lot of other nations over history.
             We do not need endless genealogies and ancient mysteries solved to tell us that America is being judged....and that it is time to get our houses in order....for the time is truly near....or that money has become our god....for God's Word instructs us in all of this....from the prophets and the Psalms....to the gospels and all the other books of the New Testament. We need to look inwardly....not outwardly. We need humility in what we do not know....more than pride in what we think that we do know. We need Christ preached....pulpits awakened....and God's Word daily emblazoned anew upon our hearts.

The Western Tip Of Cuba

                  Tropical Storm Idalia right now is off the western tip of Cuba....and people along much of the Gulf Coast of Florida are preparing for a hurricane....and praying....as should we also be praying along with them. When I heard those words on The Weather Channel....'western tip of Cuba'....it immediately brought to mind another storm in the same place....a much....much smaller storm....this back in March of 1983....but with high enough waves to send all of us on the cruise ship back to our cabins. I remember walking down the hallway....bracing ourselves....my wife and I....on the left wall and then the right wall and so on until we came to our cabin in the center of the ship....no windows....two twin beds and a table.

                I was a newer Christian at the time....with a 700 Club pin on my hat....and some Christian books brought along to read....one of them was....Home Where I Belong....by B. J. Thomas....yeah....a couple books and a Christian magazine....Charisma.....but no Bible. That's about where I was at the time in this new faith. It was early evening and I was laying on that bunk. A glass of water was sliding across the bed table and I caught it before it fell to the ground. I opened the table drawer....and the Gideons had provided God's Word....for someone like me.
                 I owned a Bible at the time....probably the first complete Bible....Old Testament and New.....that I ever owned. As a matter of fact that same Bible is sitting on the arm of the chair right next to me now....as I retrieved it for this post. My wife had given it to me as a Christmas present three months earlier....but at the time I was more into testimonies....B. J. Thomas's for example....than God's Word telling me what had happened to me.
                 In that storm off the western tip of Cuba....I picked up the Gideon's Bible from out of the drawer.....let it open to wherever it would open....and started to read the first words that I came to. They were from the 93rd Psalm....most likely from the New King James Version....these were those glorious words that I read as the cruise ship rocked in the waves....

The Lord reigns,
      He is clothed with majesty;
The Lord is clothed,
He has girded himself with strength.
Surely the world is established,
      so that it cannot be moved.
Your throne is established from of old;
You are from everlasting.

The floods have lifted up, O LORD,
The floods have lifted up their voice;
The floods lift up their waves.
The LORD on high is mightier
Than the noise of many waters,
Than the mighty waves of the sea.

Your testimonies are very sure;
Holiness adorns your house,
O LORD, forever."

           This experience obviously affected me enough to remember....forty years later....even the details of what happened. After returning home from the cruise....I went out and purchased a pocket Bible....Holman Bible Publishers....New American Standard....imitation leather....I retrieved it also from the basement....5 1/4" by 3 1/2"....a perfect fit in the back pocket....both covers long gone from putting it in that pocket so many times!

'God Is Love'......'God Is Just'......'The Lord Is Returning'

                 It is almost every Tuesday that I am in Barnes & Noble. OK....it would be more accurate to say that I hardly ever miss a week without having to check out the new arrivals which are displayed on Tuesdays. I have a routine....first I check out the new arrival non-fiction books....then go over to the entire current events section.....this takes five minutes max. This is how I read 100 books on Donald Trump since the Spring of 2017. Next I go over to the magazines....for there are a couple that I look to see if the new issue is out....and this only takes a minute or two....and then I go to the Religion section.....formerly the Christianity section. This can take up to a half an hour.

                The religion section is really poor.....but it is all we have in America anymore. OK....I'll grant this....someone tells you about the new David Jeremiah or Jonathan Cahn book....and you order it on the Internet. Yes you can get any book that you already want....but you have no Christian bookstores where you can go in and go straight to the prophecy section or the biography section or the classics section....and come across books that you will never even hear of if not for that bookstore. This was my lifeblood back in the 80s....all the way up through the 90s. I'd be whacking a golf ball or sitting in front of the TV watching Steeler pre-season games today if it weren't for that beautiful store called....It Is Written....back in 1982....at the far end of the Northern Lights Shopping Center.
                It wouldn't really take a half hour in the religion section if I were not suffering from an addiction to reading. Some men like to breath.....I like to read. Depending on the Barnes & Noble....there are hundreds of books....well over a thousand....in that religion section. I know how to recognize the new books. My secret as I scan the shelves....'well there's a book I haven't seen 52 times in the past fifty-two weeks.' There might be twelve quality Christian books....shelved spine-out....in the entire collection. Good luck to the browser. If you add C. S. Lewis books which there might be eight to ten titles....and a few books by Billy Graham....you might double that number.....but....you will find this particular 24 carat time-piece....pure gold....with no dross....in just about any location....which makes the religion section at Barnes & Noble....almost indispensable....in that there may not be a lot of food there....but to a man dying of hunger....it might sustain a new believer for a few months.
                I probably have one copy in my basement. I didn't bother to look. I wanted a new copy anyway. First published in 1971.....written by Elizabeth and John Sherrill....from the first-hand accounts of Corrie Ten Boom....The Hiding Place....is right up there....well it's right up there with anything really if one wants to read a book that magnifies the glory of our risen Savior and returning King!
                Just about everyone my age read this book back in the 1980s. We're more into talk radio and Fox news today. This is the fifth post in a week on The Hiding Place....the first four on the new stage-filmed movie of the same name...this post is on the book. Please let me offer some advice if you do go out tomorrow and buy the book....(time is short folks....make every day count)....do not read this for the historical content alone. That in itself will humble you....but as you read....consider this family and their Christian faith....and the glorious God that they serve....for that is where the real nourishment is! 

Addendum: I often write that there are no Christian bookstores today....because they are so very few....but there are some here and there if you are willing to drive for a few hours. I was in one Saturday....a very small Christian bookstore that I get to visit maybe two times a year....and I have never gone in without buying something to help out the owner. So I went in yesterday....and found this to buy....a wooden block with a Christian message on it....GOD IS LOVE....and as I put it down to pay for it....I told the owner that one cannot buy.....GOD IS LOVE....without this block also....GOD IS JUST....and for good measure I put a third block down for purchase....THE LORD IS RETURNING.

Also....after previewing this....I wanted to add at least one anecdote from the book. Here is the setting....May of 1940....the Dutch prime minister was giving a major address to the nation. War was raging....but not in Holland...."there was nothing to fear....Holland would remain neutral"....promised the nation's leader. "Sonorous and soothing" were two words used by Corrie Ten Boom to describe what they heard on the radio....but then Casper....who was the most mild-mannered and humble Christian you could ever imagine.....with fire in his eyes that Corrie had never seen before....jumped up and turned off the radio....calmed down....and told his family this...."It is wrong to give people hope when there is no hope. It is wrong to base faith upon wishes. There will be war. The Germans will attack and we will fall." Five hours after the prime minister's speech....the bombs were falling close enough that the Ten Boom family could hear explosions and see the red sky! Our pulpits today preach the same....soothing message.

Note: In two days....August 16....there will be an....'international showing'.....of this film. I understand that it comprises only about 200 theaters outside of America and Canada.....in other words...practically nothing.....but God has had a habit of doing wonderful things out of....practically nothing. Please pray about this!

A Dog Named Preacher......And A Preacher Named Dog

                If you are a baby boomer you might remember the comedian Alan King? Johnny Carson had him on a lot. It's been a long time but if I remember the story it went like this. Alan had three brothers....two very established medical doctors....and the third was just a gambler. Their father was elderly....and one day developed a serious limp. The doctor brothers took him to the hospital....and examined him thoroughly....ran tests....but could find no obvious reason for the limp. So they took him back home. The third brother....the gambler....took the father in the bedroom to put him to bed.....and then came out and said that he found the reason for the limp. The father had taken his socks off and stuffed them in the toes of his shoes. 

               Charles Spurgeon gave a similar message in one of his sermons. As he had heard it....the famous French naturalist Buffon had a large gathering of fellow men of the French Academy of Sciences....all philosophers of one sort or another....to his estate....this about a hundred years before Spurgeon's time....and in his garden he had a decorative glass globe. One of the philosophers happened to put his hand on the globe and noticed that it was hot on the side away from the sun....and cooler on the side directly facing the sun. These great men....as Spurgeon described them....must have had a grand time speculating on how this could be....from refraction....to reflection....to absorption. Buffon was not satisfied with the answers and called over the gardener....who told them that the one side of the globe was getting too hot....so he had just turned it around.
               That reminds me of some humor that Billy Graham added in one of his crusades. It seems that a man went down south on his annual hunting trip....and asked the proprietor of the hunting lodge if he had a dog named Preacher. The owner said "No"....but the man persisted....."But I heard that you had a very good hunting dog named Preacher?" Then the owner remembered..."Oh yeah....we did have a good hunting dog named Preacher....but then someone came down here and called him Doctor....and he ain't been a lick a' good since."
                I know a man....a preacher....pastor of a relative....I heard him preach....and I doubt that he's ever been a lick a' good. Am I allowed to say that....or are men and churches allowed to keep people away from the gospel of Jesus Christ for their whole lifetime without anyone permitted to criticize what they do in the pulpit? God can choose anyone to carry His message...to whomever He wants to hear it. It my have been ten or twelve years ago that I first put a message in these posts to pastors....with their seminary degrees....that God can choose the man who is cleaning out the drain in their basement to set them straight.
                 Spurgeon was converted on a snowy Lord's Day morning by a man filling the pulpit of a small church....who as Spurgeon told it....could not even pronounce many of the words correctly. John Owen wished that he could preach like the tinker....John Bunyan....the man who fixed pots and pans for a living. J Gresham Machen choose to defend the laughed at fundamentalists....for they at least were true to the fundamentals of the gospel.....and of course....God chose at one time to rebuke through Balaam's ass.
                 Woe to these shepherds today who think that their learning is over. Woe to the doctors and lawyers and academics who are incapable of humility as it concerns their own eternal life. Woe to all of us....to me also....if we place ourselves above another believer....for we have nothing that was not given us....and if something was indeed given us....we had better use it to God's glory!

Note: I spent an hour and a half today at the gym....and on a walk. That is my physical love of exercise in life....lifting weights and using machines....and has been since I got my first set of weights for Christmas in 1963! Other men may enjoy golf in the same way. It is not the golf nor the fishing nor the running that can be a problem. I literally thank God every time that I walk out of the gym....for the ability to enjoy this....especially at my age. My new toy....(today is first time I used it)....is a mechanical counter.....so that I can finish a set on the weights....and just push the button....thereby listen more intently to the sermon on my headphones....and not have to remember what set I was on. No....it is not the golf....it is the mind. I knew a man who would praise God as he walked the golf course. When I was a runner....running the track....(the counter would have helped back then).....I spent the time in deep thought. As for doctors....(PHDs or otherwise)....or lawyers....or academics....as I mentioned in the above post....they are noble professions.....(I could not have been any of them).....but they are also a temptation to think one more important than the patient or the client or the student. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was a tremendous preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ....in the dry land of England for over a half a century.....(late 1920s to his death in 1981.)  He was known by many simply as....The Doctor....for he was rising fast in the medical field until he got tired of helping to heal men....only to see them return to rebellion to God....choosing instead to help in healing their souls. This....note....is a bit long. I may have to turn it into a post.
                
      
                

Even The Concept Of....'Strong Delusion'....Should Shake Us To The Core

                 Dwell on these three verses if you will....9, 10 and 11....from Paul's second letter to the Thessalonians....the second chapter....this from the ESV....

"The coming of the lawless one is by the activity of Satan with all power and false signs and wonders, and with all wicked deception for those who are perishing, because they refused to love the truth and so be saved. Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that they may believe what is false."

              Just a few more verses to consider....Matthew chapter 24 verses 24 and 25. This is from what is known as the Olivet Discourse....found in Matthew....and also Mark 13 and Luke 21. One of the reasons that I am opposed to all of the....'read the Bible in a year'....plans.....is that when today....and for the the last half century.....we should be dwelling on these areas of Scripture that pertain to the Second Coming.....because we will live it....the 'read the Bible in a year' plans keep you out of the areas that that God wants us to be very vigilant in! OK....verse Matthew 24....followed by Paul's warning in Galatians 1:8.

"For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible,  even the elect. See, I have told you beforehand."

"But even if we or an angel from heaven should preach to you a gospel contrary to the one we preached to you, let him be accursed." This was so important that Paul immediately repeated the warning.

              If these verses do no shake you to the core then there is something wrong....for they were meant to shake to the core....for they are warning the believer that even they....knowingly and gloriously and joyfully aware that they are redeemed by the blood of Jesus....and kept safe in the palm of His hand.....even they.....must.....remain vigilant!
             We do not know the...."wicked deception"....(as the ESV puts it)....and there will be multiple false wonders.....but I will give you just one very strong possibility to consider. Satan and his demons....(we still believe in demons do we not)....they have the ability at least to present some kind of physical appearance. We do not know that much about this and should not go too far into speculation. Suffice it to say that they can appear to us in some way.
             So we have today....and greatly increasingly....credible reports and even video....of some things flying....at speeds and with physics that go beyond what we are aware of. We immediately assume that they must be some sort of alien life visiting our planet.
             Ask yourself if you will....how would this normally affect people as it pertains to belief in the God of the Bible? You know the answer....it would at the very least cause them to ignore God's Word. If there are aliens....then the Bible is not God's Word....should there even be a God. And to the believer.....it depends on how strong they are in their faith....for if they are strong in that faith.....then they know beyond a doubt that that whatever these reports are....they are not what are called aliens....but if they are not strong in their belief....if they have not been vigilant.....then they are susceptible to falling for great delusion....or...."wicked deception."
              There is another message that comes out of this situation....and you would have to look around at the general American public here to consider it.....(I'm using America but it is much worse around the world.) What would be demonstrated here is that....'few are saved'....for that is what God's word tells us. If you have trouble with this....that few are saved....then I would recommend to you what the great London Anglican minister....(a peer of the Baptist Charles Spurgeon)....wrote about....few being saved. Just Google....'J. C. Ryle....Few Are Saved.' It was not a sermon but a book that was put on audio. It is easy to listen to....and you will at least find it interesting.
              There is a winnowing coming.....just as Gideon's army was winnowed down....only here it is where the only ones left are those who have been born again! Even if God should have great mercies on us in an general awakening....which is what we pray exceedingly for....the winnowing will still be there....and the saved....although the numbers would be wonderful....would still be 'few' in a nation of over 300 million! 
              Folks....I could talk for hours on this...or write until both you and I are thoroughly confused. Finding these answers is up to you. I'm just trying to stir you up. If you love Jesus....then you will want to know more and more about Him every day of your lives....and you will seek Him....in His Word....and He will be there for you....but if you really have little more than a passing fancy....then you will not put in the effort.
             
              Christ will hold on to the elect....but we must heed Peter's God-breathed words in the first chapter of his second letter...."Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to make your calling and election sure...."

"Yet I Will Exalt In The LORD"

                  The following was to be just a preface but it has turned out to be a post in itself.....followed by a post from November of 2018! 

                From Jonah to Micah To Nahum and now to Habakkuk....God is laying out for us to see....not only what happened to Israel and Nineveh and Judah and Babylon....but what is happening to us today. We do not want to hear this! We are not into judgment if it concerns us! We shut our ears.
                Ten minutes ago....about 8:30 in the morning....I listened in for a few minutes....Donald Trump being interviewed by his flagship radio station....Breitbart. I had been a talk radio listener for roughly fifty-five years....up until about three years ago. I remember one show in early 2017....it was Mark Levin's. He had up till then been increasingly critical of Donald Trump since taking office....as was I....with good reason....and then something happened....it was so obvious.....even Levin could not hide it. He had....for whatever reason.....decided that he would from then on forget the criticisms and defend the man.
                 To listen to this interview this morning was surreal....it was the same horrid deception from a demented psyche that had bewitched people beginning eight years ago. There is only one possible explanation for republicans and conservatives and many evangelicals....not telling this man to leave....and to never return....and that reason is that this is judgment....a blindness....from God....to us.... who have had mountains of evidence....for many years now....that this man was everything that God's Word has told us to stay away from....but we would not listen.
                  Habakkuk was like you....if you truly are vexed at what has happened to America....and if in your confusion your concern is that we have departed as a nation from God. The difference may be in that Habakkuk listened to what God said. It was as if God was pointing to a man like Trump who...."enlarges his desires as hell"....who...."covets evil gain for his house"....who leads others astray....as if giving them drink....but the prophecy continues..."Woe to him"....for surely a "proverb" will be said about him.....a "riddle"....and is that not what has happened to Trump today? Is he not as a proverb....of the judgment that will follow a man who through pride and injustice gathers all about him?
                  What is very interesting here....as mentioned in the following post....is that in amongst all this prophecy are seven words that exploded upon the mind of Martin Luther....and then upon the world...."the just shall live by his faith." (Habakkuk 2:4) The message of the gospel of Jesus Christ precedes it...."the vision [that] is yet for an appointed time; But the end of it will speak, and it will not lie. Though it tarries, wait for it; Because it will surely come, it will not tarry." (Hab 2:3)
                   Chapter three is the Tribulation and the return of Jesus in power and glory....the mountains are moved....(we see this description in other prophets....possibly plate tectonics....Micah and Nahum for example)....rivers are apparently formed or moved. Chapter 3 verse 5 mentions....depending on the translation....pestilence and plague....(literally fever or heat. This prophetic book is essentially a psalm....a poem....worship...."yet I will rejoice in the LORD. I will take joy in the God of my salvation." (Hab 3:18)

"Yet I Will Exalt In The LORD"......November of 2018

                 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 prophecies....both judgment and redemption....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.

"Hear Now, O Heads Of Jacob....And Rulers Of The House Of Israel..."

             First of all....Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah....both prophesied of the coming Messiah....and both prophesied judgment....consequently the question at time comes up....who reported first....because the prophesied judgments were so similar. Babylon was still subservient to Assyria at the time....but Micah prophesied that it would be Babylon that will bring judgment on Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied the same thing. The northern kingdom was about to fall to Assyrian assault. That was bad enough for this prophet from Moresheth....located in Judah....about twenty-five miles SW of Jerusalem....but Micah knew that the people of Judah and Jerusalem were following in the exact same footsteps as Israel to the north. So the extreme warning was there to His covenant people....return to God. The same warning is to us today....as we are following in the same footsteps of both Israel and Judah.
              Micah offers a rhetorical question....what was it that the north did that was so bad....and then provided the answer...."Is it not Samaria?".....the capital of the northern kingdom. Is not our capital a source of our rebellion to God.....and do we not send the people to our capital? They relied....and we rely today....on our military might and financial prowess....as we reject dependence upon God.
              What about the 'high places of Judah'....Jerusalem itself....with its temple? The leaders commanded the prophets....not to point out the corruption and injustice...and not to prophesy judgment. They only wanted good news....or stop the prophesying!  Spurgeon preached a sermon on this....The Holy Spirit...The need Of The Age....(please listen to this powerful sermon!)....where he asked....can anyone restrict the Holy Spirit? What gave them the right to say who can prophesy or preach and who cannot prophesy or preach? Spurgeon wasn't saying that anyone can minister for God....but rather the Holy Spirit can choose whomever He wants to declare what the Word of God says!
               There are three parts to the book of Micah....chapters 1 and 2....3 through 5....and 6 and 7. Each part....or oracle as some call them....begins with prophesied judgment....and then concludes with hope and deliverance...

"Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case....and executes judgment for me....He will bring me forth to the light." (Micah 7 8,9 NKJV)

                Why the separation into three parts? Was it a chronology of some sort....or was Micah emphasizing the warnings by essentially repeating them three times? Whatever it is....Micah is speaking to us today....warning us....and telling us not to boast because we are still standing!
               The elites....the people with money and power....cheat and lie....they want to take houses and fields....and basically lord it over all the poor people....in this society where the rich get richer....and the poor get poorer....as even their inheritance and heritage was stolen. There's more....they were violent. The judiciary was corrupt. The judges took bribes...the priests taught for the money....and the prophets prophesied to please the rich. So those who were allowed to prophesy....became the false prophets. It was almost as if they were running for reelection....securing the needed votes by prophesying peace....and keeping the truth from the people....the same thing that our pulpits do today. 
                So what was it that the Lord demanded....and demands...."To do justly....to love mercy....and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) That doesn't sound like Christian nationalism....does it? Micah became extremely vexed....just as Jeremiah would cry over what he saw coming....for God's covenant children were in rebellion....and God was going to judge them....and judge them severely. 
                I don't see any scriptural warrant for it....but I cannot get it out of my mind. When I read of Jacob....the people of Jacob....not the man Jacob....I associate it with the church....and when I read of Israel....I think of the Jewish people today....however many God has willed....who have not as of yet....found their redemption in Jesus Christ....but rather it points to a redemption that will come!  "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel" (Romans 9:6) So when I read...Jacob....in prophecy...anywhere in Scripture....my mind first goes to God speaking to us....the church. It is a hard habit to break....and to be truthful....I'm not sure that I want  to break it.
                Israel was about to fall....Judah would be next. Secular America is about to fall today....along with the world.....and unbelieving Israel....and Micah is as speaking to the true church today....the remnant....that is where the hope and deliverance comes in....this is where Israel will see its salvation.

"He will again have compassion on us; and will subdue our iniquities....You will cast all our sins....Into the depths of the sea, You will give truth to Jacob....And mercy to Abraham....Which you have sworn to our fathers....From days of old."  (the last two verses of Micah)

Note: The title of this post is....Micah 3:1.

               

  

The Basket Never Empties

Preface: Would you ever gamble with your life? How about your eternal soul? Well if you do not at least consider this then you are indeed a gambler! There will be an event or events of some sort....that will change everyone's life on planet earth. It could be a nuclear world war....or an earth-killer asteroid....I don't know....but I know this....all the sports will be gone....no NFL or golfing or vacations....no more Luke Bryan or Taylor Swift concerts....not even any high school extra-curricular activities for a soccer mom....all gone....that is how cataclysmic and traumatizing this will be....whatever it is. It will then be as when the people ran up to Noah's boat when the torrents came. They didn't get in folks. It was too late! So....what should you take from this? You should take this....the plan will not work! You wanted to put this off for when you were ready....it's not going to work. Consider the very words of Jesus Christ....as He describes the narrow way.....this in Luke 13....this is God's Word folks...."When once the master of the house has risen and shut the door....("Behold, he is coming with the clouds, and every eye will see him...)....and you begin to stand outside and to knock at the door, saying, 'Lord, open to us,' then he will answer you, 'I do not know where you come from'....(you didn't come through the wicket gate....you were never born again!)....Then you will begin to say, 'We ate and drank in your presence, and you taught in our streets.' (church membership just doesn't seem to impress God)....But he will say, 'I tell you, I do not know where you come from. Depart from Me, all you workers of evil'." You are planning on knocking later....but friends.....the door is not going to open for you....precisely because you planned on knocking later! 

The following was first posted on November 12, 2015:

The Basket Never Empties

              You have been in a Barnes & Noble and walked past the Bibles section I'm sure. And you have probably been in a hotel or motel room and opened the table drawer under the clock radio and lamp and saw a Bible placed there by the Gideons. More than likely you have a Bible somewhere in your home. It's incomprehensible to me, and breathtakingly stupefying, for if there were a table of gold bullion with a sign reading...free....only one to a customer....a madhouse would ensue. And yet here in a typical bookstore is the single most valuable physical item of any possible type in this entire world, for sale at a price one could buy a roast beef dinner at Applebee's, and it goes unnoticed. I visit bookstores with the regularity that most people attend to a gasoline pump. I know that there is very seldom anyone even browsing the Bibles...Christian bookstores excluded here of course.

              Well I haven't yet impressed you too much with this post have I? Blah, blah, blah....the Bible. Book lovers can lose themselves in a good mystery. Believe me, I'm married to one. I can pick up a non-fiction book and sit down with it until I've finished it, highlighting and notes included. Mark Levin's Liberty And Tyranny was like that. This (God's Word) is something different. It's oxygen in the form of words...the blood of life pumped throughout one's being by God Himself.
              How many neurons function throughout the brain? I could look it up but its billions. God designed this organ and yet it's merely a tool to discern the glories of its creator, the inglorious condition man has brought upon himself, and the redemption of those who believe and trust in what is the very Word of God which we so nonchalantly call...a bible. In this neglected gift of gifts is all of creation explained in sixty-six books. It would be more accurate to say that it's all that we as humans can handle of creation explained in sixty-six books. Still, for the sake of argument you say that sixty-six small books is not a lot of information. Obama's new Pacific Rim Trade Pact has sixty times as many words! Let me try to explain. One sentence from God's Word can change not only a life but an eternal destiny. One phrase can debilitate the strongest person. One word can explain the mystery of your own life.
             What's more it is like the five loaves and two fish that Jesus fed the five-thousand with. The basket never empties! One can read through the Bible and go from death to life, from peasant to a king, and from rags to the riches of an inheritance in heaven as a child of God! Paradoxically and wonderfully it becomes more complex and yet more clear as time passes and veils are lifted. I vividly remember the testimony, some thirty years ago, of a ninety-five year old Christian man who spoke of the ever increasing wonder of the Bible over his life.
             It's an odd treasure also in that people want to give it away. Some live only to give it away, and one may give it away a thousand times and still possess it. The very most that my testimony can do is to pique your interest. If you think me a fool....wonderful....should it lead you to research it yourself to find the method to the perceived madness.

Have You Ever Witnessed The Beauty Of Christ

The following post is from April 2:

It's not a sermon that I am recommending here but rather a talk given by John Piper at a Christian youth conference....but it could be a sermon. In fact if it was a sermon....I don't think that any Christians that I know personally would have heard anything quite like it. It's on salvation....and what that is. Only here it is not focusing on what legally happened.....as if in a courtroom....to all of us who at one time in our lives were converted to the gospel of Jesus Christ....but rather what we all saw in the beauty of Christ as that courtroom drama unfolded. All you have to do is Google....John Piper....Why Do Christians Preach And Sing?