All The News....Fit To Print Or Not....That Can Make A Buck"

"RUDOLPH'S CHRISTMAS MISSION....Steeler's third-string QB praises Jesus after guiding team to big win over rivals"

OK....That's going to need explanation. It was foxnews.com lead story for a while....with a photo of the Steeler quarterback Mason Rudolph on the field. This web site of Fox News is today about half tabloid. I noticed the other day that the mass shooting in Prague was not only not highlighted but hardly mentioned....but if there is a celebrity involved titillating news story out there....Fox will highlight that. Fox is also very big on the Jesus stories. Right now.....C. S. Lewis actually moved Mason Rudolph down a few stories. 

This topic....of any athletes who point to heaven or thank Jesus for a win....is a double-edged sword. Seeing faith in Jesus proclaimed in almost any setting is the positive in this....but there is a negative.

Here is the negative....that would probably be agreed upon by only a few of the readers here. In this case....this fine young man....(I have since read the bio on him)....just as the fictitious Colonel Nicholson in The Bridge On The River Kwai was hurting the British war effort....Mason and these other NFL athletes....( I read two similar stories yesterday on two football players named....Christian McCaffrey and Brock Purdy)....are giving a false legitimacy to one of America's most devastating idols....football worship....on the Lord's Day!

They are giving evidence to evangelicals that it is all right to leave church....most likely hurry from church....in order to make the game....and show ten times more emotion and concern over a football score....than the risen Lord of Glory....and even concern for their own loved-ones who may be one moment away from eternal fire!

This Lord Jesus who presumably had died....by crucifixion....to save their soul from eternal perdition....having been dutifully acknowledged for an hour and a half....must now take a back seat to the real important events of the day.....and all of this.....(speculating on future draft choices....facing playoff elimination....etc)....while America is facing its own elimination....with it's least prepared and willing people....the glory of God....and His protection....having long since departed!

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

Preface: The following post is from September 3. Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day....and this year it will undoubtedly be a day of Christmas sermons. So if you walk out of church  without having heard a single thought that you hadn't heard on just about every previous Christmas Lord's Day....you might try listening to this sermon....just Google....John Piper, The Child To Be Born Will Be Called Holy....and if you need another....which you probably will....John Piper. A Savior Is Born.   

               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 he 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. The gambler diagnosed what the trained doctors could not find.
               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....I believe while given an honorary doctorate. 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....(this note is also from September)....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. 
      
                

"We Will Pray For God....We Will Be With God"

Preface: I changed the title of this post from....They Have Set Up Kings....But Not By Me....because I want to emphasize to all evangelicals that they should be fleeing this man. I don't believe that any speechwriter is literally dense enough to pen those words....We will pray for God....We will be with God. They had to come from the blank mind of Donald Trump. His remarks last week....poisoning the blood of our country....borders on a Teutonic religion. Where are the pastors on this. John MacArthur promoted his open Letter To Governor Newsom....where is he on this false prophet? It's not that this will stop Trump....for what is more likely is a winnowing....where those who are not of the world....come out from it.....and the rest stay in it. If many evangelicals leave Trump....and he feels his campaign threatened by it....he most likely turn with a vengeance on believers....who he has always looked down upon.

              The following was just a Preface before a June of 2018 post titled....God Did Not Commission....Make America Great Again....last posted June 3 of 2020. Our pulpits tell us half the story....the half that keeps us happy. Consequently we have no idea our own culpability in what has happened to our nation. It was a bit odd as I just happened to tune into Trump's rally last evening in Iowa....in front on mostly evangelicals....he reverted to his old dependable...."We are one glorious nation under God.....the greatest nation in history"....neither of which are true. He looked directly at the teleprompter when he said...."We will pray for God....and we will be with God." Who constructed those two disoriented phrases? Well the answer is that only he has a mind so careless as to what he says....knowing that his hearers are equally as disinterested in the integrity of what they hear.
               We indeed are plundered as a nation....but our pulpits will not point to a similar judgment....from Judges 2:14...."So the anger of the LORD was kindled against Israel, and he gave them over to plunderers, who plundered them...."

Preface from June of 2018:

               We conservatives....form many of our opinions on a false premise....that being that God looks favorably upon America because of who we are. If that were really the case then some of the confidence on His protective hand upon us would be justified....but God does not look favorably upon us....for we have long ago left Him for other gods. Our litany of petitions...."God bless America"....and...."God bless this"....and...."God bless that"....are nothing but clanging sounds in God's ears....and the aroma a stench in His nostrils.
                Walter Lord reported in his 1955 book A Night To Remember that the designer of the Titanic once recalled a conference with White Star Line officials where the decorations on the Titanic  were talked about "four or five hours"....but lifeboat capacity....only "five or ten minutes." Folks if the Lord is coming back soon....which by all appearances in His Word He is....then some horrific times are coming soon....and an apostasy....so we might want to make sure that the oil is our lamps has not evaporated."

"For she does not know that it was I who gave her the grain, the new wine, and the oil, and lavished on her silver and gold, which they used for Baal."

"My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge, Because you  have rejected knowledge, I also will reject you from being a priest for Me."

"They will....seek the LORD, but they will not find Him; for He has withdrawn from them."

"Put the trumpet to your lips! Like an eagle the enemy comes against the house of the LORD."

"They have set up kings, but not by Me...."

"The days of punishment have come....let Israel know this!"

"Because you have trusted in your way, in your numerous warriors, Therefore, a tumult will arise among your people...."

"Therefore, return to your God....For there is no savior besides Me."

"Whoever is wise, let him understand these things...."

Hosea 2:8, 4:6, 5:6, 8:1,4, 9:7, 10:4,13,14, 12:6, 14:9

               We are walking through the cities of Sodom and Babel blinded by neon and stadium lights. We get few warnings from the church while our Bible studies tend to be true and valuable but unobtrusive as to laying out before us the condition of our own churches or our own modern lives. All of this of course would work against the popular gospel of the day that promises your best life ever. Patriotism and attempts at restoring America to greatness have assuaged any guilt that we are indeed a nation fully in rebellion to the One who we owe our very existence to.

          

             

Throw Away Your....'Read The Bible In A Year'....Schedule!

Throw them away. They were useful in the past.....but not today....when God is slowly but surely removing veils on His prophetic word in scripture. And to pastors....throw away your future plans to preach on this or that book of the Bible for six months or a year. It may have been a great plan in times past....but God needs your full attention right now to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit on what to preach!  Forget the plans for building an addition....or moving to a different church building. This is not the time for that. The following post is from October 13, 2021:

Flee From The Wrath To Come      

                   So where were the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah? Were they just north of the Dead Sea.....or in the southern part? Did the potash explode....or was it a cosmic fireball? Or were there two cataclysmic events over a period of time?
                  The news story reported today on Drudge is just the latest academic paper to come out....and they are all interesting as this search for Sodom continues. The research in this instance indicates that a fireball must have been similar to the Tunguska event in Russia on June 30 of 1908.
                  Well we know this for sure....the description of the event that is in Genesis is exactly correct. It doesn't include detailed metallurgical and mineralogical findings....but it totally gives God's message.....FLEE...which is the same message for today.....FLEE....flee the yoke of politics that replaces obedience to God....flee these talking heads on radio and television....flee the churches that forgot what the gospel is.
                  The problem is that we kind of like it here....as long as we don't live in the city with the Democrats....but Lot's wife was not in the city itself when she was turned into a pillar of salt. To put this into more palatable language....than fleeing....we have to 'come out from' in terms of not being a part of. We know that we cannot leave the world.....and we know that we have to be salt in the world....but if we are not at least peculiar....then the salt is worthless.
                  Right now people like Tucker Carlson and Mark Levin....not to mention the worst taskmaster of all Trump....they have us in bondage...keeping us from fleeing...and keeping us from Christ. Our entertainments have us in bondage....our sports....our kids sports....our diets....our money....they all tug at us....telling us to join their party....or even their ministry.
                  We need to be reading the Old Testament prophets on a regular basis right now....and the Olivet Discourse as relayed to us in Matthew and Mark and Luke....and Paul's many words on what to look for and what will happen....as well as Peter's and John's and Jude's and James....and the warnings....so clear and so emphatic....of Jesus....but we would be fortunate to hear one sermon a year that gives us anything close to this warning....for that in itself would indicate that we are indeed beginning to...."come out of her..."

Addendum: I wanted to add this short sentence to this older post. Books like Daniel and Revelation should never be far from our fingertips. We need to review as it were....constantly....our need for the the shed blood of Christ....and the sure hope of salvation for those who truly believe....and we need to be in the Psalms regularly....praising God in the words and thoughts of the writers. Nor can we get in the habit of reading just to check off a daily reading requirement.

Is This You Running Away?

 

         Is this you running away from the gospel's command to repent and believe in Jesus Christ? Consider these cars slowing down....as Christians are surely praying with fervor....as you run away in the busy traffic. Is that your mother raising her hands in desperation? Are those Christians friends trying to warn you? Is that your spouse taking this video....and praying that you will listen? But you continue to run....and they continue to try to rescue you? It's a joyous ending in this news story from Tuesday night on a New York City highway. How will your ending be?

It Won't Be Pretty

                Some things in life are so beyond fathoming that all one can do is observe and pray. Two major wars are going on....with one rumored war....(China)....threatening all the time. 
                How much more plain could Jesus have been....a house divided falls....and today even our houses of worship are divided! Israel is essentially surrounded by those who hate it. 
False Christs and false teachers are everywhere. Fifty years ago they laughed at a mark on the hand or forehead....but they are already implementing microchip implants.... while we are worried about a vaccination!
                Law has been weaponized....and love has grown cold. Our youth rule us....because the culture panders to them....and women lead us. (Isaiah 3:12) I'm not referring to individual women....for that is not what God's Word was warning about....there had been few as strong and wise in the 20th century as Margaret Thatcher....but rather the babbling nonsense epitomized on The View...or the misguided feminism from the 1971 hit song...."I am woman, hear me roar....in numbers too big to ignore." There is that Bible verse that no one wants to mention...."And Adam was not deceived, but the woman was deceived and became a transgressor." (1 Timothy 2:14) Eve was deceived by the serpent....and Adam was as weak as Eve was deceived. We are a fine pair of genders when left to our own wits....when we stray from God's guidance.
                Delusions today are about as frequent as the Geminid meteors that I hope to go outside and view in about an hour....but something else will be as frequent as those meteors....and that is winnowing....the separating of the redeemed of Christ from mere professing believers. Scripture is very plain about this....those who know the voice of the Good Shepherd will come out from the others who claim to know Christ....but do not know Him....nor does He know them. To employ a common colloquialism for how God's Word views these coming days....it won't be pretty. We need oil in our lamps....and to be vigilant....and sober-minded in preparation...."until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, which he will display at the proper time-he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords" (1 Timothy 6:14-15)

Update: It was cold....26 degrees....and I only stayed outside for about ten minutes looking directly up into the starry night....but I did see one meteor go by directly overhead. It startled me as it shot by as a flaming object.....here and gone in about a second!

American Idol

As you are probably aware....Ryan O'Neal recently passed away at 82 years of age. I saw Love Story in Sydney, Australia....in 1971.....on leave while in the army. The film began with Oliver Barrett IV softly asking this question....."What can you say about a 25 year old girl who died....that she was beautiful and brilliant....that she loved Mozart and Bach....and the Beatles....and Me?"  Well....in like manner....sadly thinking back....what can you say about a 247 year old nation that died...that it was once beautiful....and brilliant....until it died of gluttony....gazing at its own perceived beauty in a mirror....choking on that which it loved to devour....from the Beatles to the Super Bowl?

The following two paragraphs were originally just added at the bottom of the above post....From Whence Come Wars And Fighting. I decided to make them a post of their own because the topic did change from the Tim Alberta book to the idolatry of sports in America. I do believe...in my research and observation over four decades....and past participation in what I am now warning of....that we....in 2023....have become serial idol worshipers....and are blind to that. I want to point out that sports is only one idol of many....and to acknowledge that I have my own idols that have to be identified and confronted: 

             Are you wondering how someone can make time for reading 98 books? (mentioned in the Alberta book post) Well think about it. If you are not enslaved to sports....then take all the games watched on television or in stadiums....on all the sports....all though the year....football and baseball and basketball and hockey and golf and tennis and the Olympics and soccer and track and swimming and NASCAR and MMA or Ultimate or whatever it is called.....and all the time spent reading about them in newspapers and magazines....and all the time watching or listening to sports talk shows on television or radio or the computer....and all the time playing any of these sports....and all the hours driving to the stadiums and golf courses....and all the time spent in conversation with friends on all these sports....and you would not only be able to read 98 books....but hundreds of books....and also listen to hundreds of sermons on the glorious gospel on the majesty of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! And this is just one effect on the church....from one of the many idolatries that plague modern man!

OK....Shohei Ohtani. I knew there was a Japanese baseball player that both pitched and hit home runs but this is the first time that I heard both his first and his last name. Are you flabbergasted? What planet do I live on?  A 700 million dollar contract? What planet do you live on? Sport in America today is a bonafide biblical major idol....subject to any and every judgment previously in God's Word. America is collapsing in no small part because of this. Athletes can change schools that invested in them....make millions if their brand is big enough....and now they're talking about just paying the student athletes. Maybe someone should ask an AI app what horror that would lead to? Sport on all levels has been corrupted....and every aspect of it.....the moderation of appreciating a gold medal winner or the awarding of a trophy replaced by dancing around a Golden Calf....towers of Babel in almost every major city....while Demetrius and the silversmiths live to lay down millions to make more millions.

Billy Graham's.....Storm Warnings

                Billy Graham was seventy-three years old....my age....when he wrote a book that he titled....Storm Warning. Eighteen years later....at the age of ninety-one....that book was....according to the cover...."completely revised and updated." Tonight I had a small stack of books that I was paging through....on a research mission....and I came across a few paragraphs that I want to bring out in this short post.
                I used to have a copy of the 1992 edition....no more.....I'm sure that I gave it away....but I would think that these words that I'll relate to you were added in the 2010 edition. I say this because Billy Graham's overall message became much more serious as the years went on. His son Franklin remarked that his father did not speak much in his last year....that would be when Billy was ninety-eight and turned ninety-nine....this in 2017 to February in 2018 when Billy Graham went to be with his Lord and Savior. So here are those words that stood out to me. The first few sentences are from....page 73....

"I look back at my many years as an evangelist and wonder, Have I made the Christian faith look too easy? (Italics his)....in my eagerness to tell the world about the greatest gift that comes only from God, I ask myself if I have comprehended the price He paid for our freedom. Have I adequately explained the price we must pay in humbling, turning our backs on pride, and sacrificing our earthly desires out of obedience to the Lord?"

             The second set of remarks conclude that chapter five on page 75....

"I hear the distant thunder. I see lightning striking in many places of our world; I know that the coming storm will someday engulf the whole world. I see the storm clouds mounting in the lowering sky. For the length of my days, I will always be sending out the call of an evangelist to proclaim hope that redemption-new life-can be found in Christ and to sound the alarm that there is serious trouble ahead for our world and for all who live in it. These are the elements what make up the images of the Apocalypse-a storm warning that carries a booming jolt of truth-Trouble Ahead; Prepare To Meet Thy God!-followed by the voice of the Gentle Shepherd-Come!"

            I wonder at times what was going through Billy Graham's mind during that last year? Did he possibly come to realize that evangelicals put in power....in Donald Trump....a false prophet....and an antichrist....as John describes them....and folks....maybe even worse? Did he lament anew how he might have missed this? Did he look back at the idolatry of sports that took captive that same evangelical? In the so-called Bible Belt....college football stadiums are packed with evangelicals....living not in the discernment of the gospel....as their country rumbles and shakes as a volcano about to erupt....but for this god of the gridiron.
            Did he see his son making the very same mistakes that he had made in his earlier years....but no longer have the physical ability to warn him? What would he say if he were with us today....fully capable of warning as he had been....and this with Donald Trump having long since shown to anyone with discernment....that there is punishment written all over the legacy of this vengeful and egomaniacal man who....and this has to be supernatural....is still beating down the evangelicals....with almost no pulpits warning the sheep....those pastors concerned that many would leave should they go against the powerful force that had infiltrated all the congregations?

Jury Duty....And Waiting For God To Awaken His Shepherds

                 I recently had the experience of being summoned to jury duty. I had gone through this a few times before....where there is a date and a time that you have to show up at the courthouse. One of two things will happen in the course of the day. You will either be chosen to serve on a jury....and I have had this happen to me.....or at the end of the day they may tell you that all the cases had been settled out of court....and you will not be needed.....and I have had that happen. In this most recent experience....I showed up exactly on time....and there were no prospective jurors in the juror's room as there usually was. I asked if I was early....and was told....no....that late in the previous evening the case had been settled. So as every prospective juror showed....they simply turned around and went back home....their duty having been done.

                 This process came to mind to me only a few minutes ago as I sat down from doing my duties around the house.....with my headphones on as usual....listening to a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon. My mind was straying somewhat amidst the words of the sermon. I thought of the news of the day....and the very clear warnings in God's Word....no longer warnings such as Jonah gave where the people had forty days to repent....but more the warnings as Nahum gave....to prepare....for in effect....the case had not been settled out of court....as in the case of Jonah....but the trial took place....and we were found guilty....and the sentence was given....to commence immediately.
                 So I had been praying....asking God's forgiveness for being impatient....thinking myself a failure because people did not seem to take heed of these warnings in these posts....which are only repeating the warnings that God gives throughout His word to us. This is probably thirty minutes ago at max.....listening to the sermon....having a bit of a pity party....and the thought came to me of the recent experience of jury duty. I showed up. I was ready to give attention to every minute in court. I was a little concerned because of my age. I doubt if the judge would call a short recess for juror number 5 to take his nap. There was a little nervousness....for people's lives are at stake....but I was ready....and then it was over before it started. At my age I'll probably never be called to jury duty again.
                So every week I pray....usually on Saturdays....and again in the early morning hours of the Lord's Day....for God to awaken these otherwise faithful men in the pulpits....that He might bless them....and thereby also bless us who have to listen to them as they wander aimlessly....but in the next few days of every week....I realize that it was not yet God's perfect timing to awaken these men. It's like the situation at the courthouse....and being told that this is not the day for you.

Tinker Preacher Soldier Spy

         

"He who would valiant be
 Gainst all disaster
 Let him in constancy
 Follow the Master
 There's no discouragement
 Shall make him once relent
 His first avowed intent
 To be a pilgrim.

 Who so beset him round
 With dismal stories
 Do but themselves confound
 His strength the more is.
 No Foes shall stay his might,
 Though he with giants fight:
 He will make good his right
 To be a pilgrim

 Since Lord, Thou doest defend
 Us with Thy Spirit,
 We know we at the end
 Shall life inherit.
 Then fancies flee away!
 I'll fear not what men say,
 I'll labor night and day
 To be a pilgrim
  

              Twenty years or so ago it was said that the seventeenth century tinker turned preacher John Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress was....next to the Bible....the biggest selling book of all time. I don't know if that is still the case.....but it still is the case that Bunyan's book has never been out of print since originally published in 1678!
              Charles Spurgeon has stated that he read The Pilgrim's Progress one-hundred times over his life. I would think that there must be a correlation between that and that he is called....the Prince of Preachers. I know that I have listened to over a hundred Spurgeon sermons over the past few years because I listen to them three and four times a week....along with three and four Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons....many of them three and four and five times each.
              I'm not going to estimate other than to say the I have read The Pilgrim's Progress many times....and listened to it on tape many times....and listened to Derek Thomas lectures on the entire book many times....and watched the few animated films on it many times.
              It is said that Field Marshal Bernard 'Monty' Montgomery carried the book with him while soldiering throughout WWII....along with of course the Bible. Margaret Thatcher requested that the hymn To Be A Pilgrim....using Bunyan's words....put to music by Ralph Vaughan Williams....be played at her funeral....of which you can easily Google.
              Unfortunately we as a church are not really into reading old books like The Pilgrim's Progress today....or the great Puritan literature....or even biographies of great pilgrims of the church. I am in Barnes & Noble probably fifty times a year....as it is almost a weekly trip that I make....and each time I am in the....Religion....section.....formerly called the....Christian Literature....section. In the average B&N there are probably hundreds if not a thousand 'Christian' books. These are the books that we read today....light....therapeutic....fanciful....egregiously speculative at times....with C. S. Lewis always at least represented....along with a small handful of other books that might actually have edifying merit or the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is just who we are today. For every book like R. C. Sproul's The Holiness of God....or Packer's....Knowing God....there are hundreds of books like.....The Shack....or....a book on someone's trip to heaven,
              OK.....I've gone further in this than I intended.....for what I wanted to do was bring up one passage of The Pilgrim's Progress. In this passage.....Christian and Hopeful....are nearing the end of their pilgrimage. Christian looks upon the rocky path that is ahead and cannot see a problem with hopping the fence and following along on soft grass rather than rocky ground. Well the two paths paralleled each other for a while but then the two pilgrims....soldiers for Christ....took some bad advice and got lost. Some people today have a winter home in Florida. Well I have a timeshare so to speak....and I have gone there at times during the winter of my mind. It's called....Doubting Castle....and is run by an ogre called Giant Despair. It's not a place where one doubts the central beliefs of the gospel....but where one doubts that God....for one reason or another....will save him out of this despair.
              If you have never stayed at Doubting Castle then I would think that you are one of the fortunate few. The advertisements for the grassy meadows or the sandy beaches were great....but it always turns out to be a nightmare. 
              So Christian and Hopeful found themselves in that dungeon because of Christian's mistake in choosing to follow a smoother path....and they thought that they would never get out. Giant Despair tried to get them to take their own life....but Christian remembered a promise. Maybe it was....."I will never leave thee or forsake thee."? It could have been any one of many promises that we may memorize but never bring to mind when needed.
               Are you in that Doubting Castle right now? Is Giant Despair beating you? Well if you would look in the direction from which you came....way off in the distance....you might see the smoke from your hometown of the City of Destruction....burning? If you look in the direction where you were headed....you might spy out the Celestial City.....and see it brighter than it has ever looked to you?
               Didn't your pastor tell you this? Didn't he warn you to stay on the straight path? You have a key....so use it....and when you get back on the path that you should have been on....read Bunyan's The Pilgrim's Progress....and if your pastor isn't preaching like this....then Google Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones....or John Piper....and listen to their sermons until you find a pastor who does know Bunyan's description on directions to the Celestial City.

 

Note: The title of this post is a play on words from a 1974 John le Carre' spy novel....Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Who Walks Out After The Overture?

                One of the Oxford dictionaries defines an overture as...."An introduction to something more substantial." Occasionally a movie is so epic that it has an overture. Doctor Zhivago comes to mind. I posted the following last year in early December....

"Celebrating the birth of Jesus in a manger in Bethlehem.....with all the wonderful hymns associated with it.....is the overture....but who walks out of a concert or film after the overture? The post concluded with this....""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."

               Handel originally intended the Hallelujah Chorus to celebrate Easter....thus it appears as an instrumental overture but the chorus appears at the end of Part Two of his Messiah with the Risen Christ. Church tradition has moved Handel's famous piece to Christmastime

               We attended a Christmas concert benefit this evening. Last evening I watched....for probably at least the sixth time....the 2016 film....Risen.....that starred Joseph Fiennes as a Roman Tribune who saw Jesus dead on the cross....and then came face to face with the risen Christ! It's a marvelous film that I highly recommend!

               So you may very well have a Christmas sermon tomorrow. In 2018 I wrote these words in a post...."I came across an older series of Christmas sermons by Pastor John Piper at his 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!" 

                  Just Google.....Messages On The Birth Of Christ, John Piper

Blue State Debate

                    It was a mess....but things like this happen in politics at times. The Republican candidate for the senate had to withdraw at the last minute because of serious health problems. There was absolutely no time to find a replacement. That left only one challenger to the Democrat candidate....an obscure historian....and an evangelical.....a Republican running as an Independent. It was a blue state....and there was little chance anyway for the Republican candidate....so the Democrats were silly-happy with what was going on. 

                   Narcissism got the best of the Democrat as he challenged the Independent to a debate. He really only wanted one more evening in the spotlight....plus he knew that the Independent had consistently criticized debates today as absurd and meaningless. The Independent indeed declined to debate but the Democrat would not let it go. It turned out to be a monumental mistake for the Democrat.
                   The media got into the conversation. They wanted to know why the Independent would not debate....and were told by him that debates today are nothing but talking over one another....and making outlandish statements that would never be followed up....that the whole thing was less than worthless...as it was all just a media event. This went on for a few weeks until the Independent said that he would debate....but he would do it his way on the stage....and they probably would not like it....take it or leave it. Well the Democrat was put in a spot. He could not really reject the offer to debate by the man who he had consistently ridiculed for not wanting to debate. So the debate was on.
                   It was televised all over the state....and even some national independent news sources picked it up. There would be an opening statement from each candidate. The entire debate would be ninety minutes and would conclude with a final statement by each candidate.
                   The Democrat gave his opening statement....but then the Independent candidate declined to give one? The questions started coming....and each time the Democrat would rattle off statistics so fast that no one could analyse anything said....and each time the Independent candidate would decline to give an answer.
                   The crowd would boo....and the hosts were becoming hostile....but the candidate kept declining to give and answer or an opinion. Well...he was sure doing it his way....whatever that was. At the end of the fiasco the Democrat candidate gave a final summation. The host then turned to the Independent candidate....expecting him to decline a summation.....but the candidate began to talk...the very last four minutes of the entire evening would be his! His words were as follows....

                   "It will undoubtedly be said that I did not debate tonight....but that won't be the case....for we all heard my opponent speak tonight....rant and rave and embellish and concoct and even deceive....and here is my response....in the final summation....where my opponent will not have the opportunity to talk over me.
                   It is moot as to who may have been right or wrong on the immigration issue. The millions of people are already here....and surely there are hundreds at least of very subversive types who may have violent intentions. It has already happened....and we have to deal with it. It has been said that the Democrats only want unrestricted immigration because they see that as future Democrat voters. This is true. There is no compassion involved....and there is no compassion involved from our end. Hispanics though are part and parcel of Western Civilization. They process information just as we have done in America. I am here to tell you that Jesus Christ is the only answer to our national chaos....just as it is our only answer as individuals. If we humble ourselves before God....who has blessed this nation from the beginning....then God may have mercy upon us once again....at least being with us in the turmoil that is ahead....and these new members of our society may surely humble themselves right along with us! Maybe they will be the first....and we will follow them?
                   As for the pandemic. The Democrats surely embraced covid restrictions for their own political purposes....where once again there was no real compassion involved. We on the other hand opposed restrictions because of our own political purposes....also with no compassion involved. What if there is another pandemic my friends? We on our side have shot ourselves in the foot. We have to be against vaccinations or any restrictions because that is what we have built our political platform upon. Let us pray that God might not bring another killing virus upon us.
                   As for the transgenderism issue that seems to be everywhere today.....transgenders in sport is essentially the disqualification of sport itself....replaced by controlled athletic exhibitions. There are no more....winners in these specific sports....and no losers....only actors....in a play. If that is what Democrat voters want....then that is their right. It is the right of every American to not only reject God....for this is a God-centered issue....but to seek to keep others from God. That is what we had originally built into our democratic system. If the people want something...they have the right to vote it in....even if it would be national suicide.
                    How? I ask you to prayerfully consider this....how can conservatives become defenders....in essence if not openly....of a man such as Vladimir Putin? It defies that which we always thought ourselves to be. What ally might we turn on next....Israel? What despot might we support....for our ethical moorings have burst....and we are adrift....the safe harbor getting further and further away.
                    Politicians like to claim God's endorsement....just as did the leaders of Judah....who promised peace and security....just as we on our side do....along with making America great again. We have had forty years....or thereabouts....of warnings....which was our Jonah moment....but that offer has expired. Having demonstrated extreme presumption for God's mercy....without any mortification on our part...it is now our Nahum moment....Where God is saying to us...."Prepare to meet thy God"....where not only should we recognize judgment from God....but we should be able to see those judgments specifically in the pandemic....and the lack of leadership that we have....and the violence all around us....and the threat of world war....and now the revived antisemitism all over the world. 
                   So I won't promise anyone peace and security....but what I can promise is to be at least one senator out of a hundred....who will humble themself before God....and work to prepare us for difficult times ahead....and to return to common sense even if the entire world seems to reject all forms of discernment and reasoning! Thank you for inviting me to debate. I think that it worked out quite well.

                    This blue state went on to elect that conservative as their senator....the vote bolstered by strong Hispanic support....and even Democrats who recognized that our problem....on both sides....was that we indeed had forgotten God!
                      

Special Day For Special Dog

I came across this 2010 post today and thought that I would bring it back for a while:

               I wanted to write about this while it was fresh in my mind. Our son, our only child, was married today. He married a wonderful young lady who grew up in a house close enough that I could hit it from our house with a golf ball. If you knew how I played golf, you would realize how very close that must be, and if there was a golf course next to it that I could play, I probably would have hit the house many times.                 He's two years older than her and for many years they, and the other children of the neighborhood, played release in the evenings until, one by one, they were called home by parents. I assume that release is similar to the tag of my day but never did ask for a description of the rules. I just heard the laughter and shouts until they quieted down for the night about the same time that the chirping of the birds did.
               Both are young Christian adults. I remember the day when I commented to my wife on the change in this little girl running around. She was becoming a beautiful young lady. Our son noticed too. By the high school years they were dating. He went off to a very good and a very conservative college.  Two years later she went there also, and one after another they graduated. He went to law school and they set a wedding date after her graduation from college and his second year of law.  I'm the type of person who likes to be in the background. I merely want to help the politician or to help the pastor, but in an odd quirk of personality, if they do not do the job, I'll tell them that. So being the father of the groom, and having attention as such, was a little bit difficult. I'm sure I would feel much better advising the father of a groom. 
               It was like I was on a cloud for the last two days. God has blessed our son with fine young Christian friends. To someone like me, this is more valuable than a million dollar lottery win. I watched the young folks laughing and enjoying themselves at the rehearsal dinner, and was very humbled at blessings given. Tonight I saw them dancing with abandon, all good clean fun and certainly the type of wedding celebration God designed for His children. Years ago, when we dropped him off at his freshman dormitory for the first time, I had real difficulty with emotions. When we moved him into his apartment at law school, it was even more difficult. Today was different and similar. They were no tears at his leaving us. It was pure joy to see him join to another in God's plan, but there was one moment when I almost lost it. The pastor of the church, in his accompanying sermon, looked to our son and made this comment, or one very similar to it: You requested only one thing, that I preach this sermon with a very clear definition of the gospel for all those attending to hear... Our son wanted all those who came to his wedding to hear Christ preached.
                I was never more thankful! I danced two slow dances tonight. I think that makes three in my life.  And I liked it! I also was probably the first and only man, ever, to attend his son's wedding with a tennis ball in his pocket. It's a long story, trust me, I make mistakes like this, and I took great joy in seeing my wife have such a wonderful day!

Take Your Tweed Cap Off....As If You Were Going Into The Sanctuary To Hear Spurgeon Or Lloyd-Jones Preach

 "Return , O faithless children, declares the LORD......And I will give you shepherds after my own heart, who will feed you with knowledge and understanding."  Jeremiah 3:14-15 

         The essence of our Christian walk is in God's Word.....the Bible. It is one possession that dwarfs everything else. Our lifeblood is in our prayer. The power in God's Word....and in our prayer....comes from the Holy Spirit....who enables us that we might glorify the Son! Our very being is to glorify and magnify our King....our Savior....and our Good Shepherd. The primary way that the Holy Spirit empowers us is through the preached Word of God. The primary way that God uses to chastise us when we stray....is to withdraw His Spirit....where God's Word is as a closed book....and we know not even what to pray for....and the preaching has no unction and no power of the Holy Spirit....and that is where the evangelical church in general is at today! That is why America is what it is today....in trouble....with no leadership....its people straying so far away from God that although we boast of being a Christian nation....we are no better than Judah and Israel during the time of Jeremiah!
                 Having said all the above....I would imagine that few agree at all with me. This is because discernment is gone. How can I say that? Well I'll tell you....when the average Christian man literally wastes his time....bundles of time....on the absolute absurdity of  grown multi-millionaires....doing this or that with a leather or pigskin or cowhide....whatever.....as their nation literally crumbles before their eyes....then that tells me that spiritual laziness at best....and full-blown idolatry at worst....has blinded those eyes....and that means the eyes also of the shepherds....now unable to spot wolves or prowling lions.
                I remember a story that John MacArthur once gave on one of his Grace To You programs. As he told it....and as best as I remember it....a cult....he did not name the cult....had swayed one of the young men in his congregation. That young man was about to move away to join that cult. MacArthur was mad. He got in his car and drove over to the young man's House....where the young man was loading his car....and MacArthur took his keys and threw them in the nearby lake! MacArthur said.....once again as best as I remember...."No one steals one of my sheep!" Trump stole the sheep on a thousand hills and hardly any shepherds said a word!
                We today valiantly and stoutly defend....our pastors. They have been a friend....and are good men....and have probably helped us with many things. These men for the most part....may have gone to Bible college or seminary....and studied books on and were taught how to preach. Who am I to say that they are not preaching? Well its like this.....speaking metaphorically here....I have been in this army for upwards of forty years. I have watched Gentlemen's Quarterly generals....fat colonels....hero wannabe captains....and snotty second lieutenant 'victory' pastors give their time and energy to state of the art sound systems....and air-conditioned soft pew sanctuaries....all the while having medals pinned on their chests....while the sheep are shaved and then butchered for veal cutlets....only to have new recruits brought in under the auspices of the gospel of Jesus Christ to fatten up!
                Over the course of those forty years I came across real shepherds who know how to preach....and real generals who know how to lead....and I've seen the sheep strengthened not fattened. Most of these men are from ages past....Spurgeon and Ryle and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....but they are around today also....John Piper being one....you just have to have patience and find them!
                So I have heard these preachers preach....these preachers from the past....and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past....and they were at times saying the exact same things that I have in this post....but I'm supposed to just sit back and watch the sheep sheared....to fatten these church coffers? Instead I have chosen to be a messenger. Go to these men who I so often write about. Defend the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ over defending these men who have no desire to even glean from those who God had used so mightily in the past.
                You have a glorious Lord whose presence in the preached Word is joy unspeakable. Do not let anyone keep this from you! Until you can find a faithful shepherd....wherein you might be blessed....and he might be given needed encouragement....listen to these sermons from the past....for effectually it is no different than if you were taking off your tweed cap in the church to listen to Spurgeon or Ryle or Lloyd-Jones....on a Lord's Day morning in London.

Note: Please reference my post titled....A Month Of Sundays....two-thirds of the way down on the archive to the left....for a list of sermons from which you can start.

We Just Don't Want To Hear It......It's As Simple As That

We do not want to hear about God's coming judgment upon us. We shut our ears to warnings. The 'we' of course are all of us who are happy where we are in life....concerned of course over the direction of America....but we have employments and families and safe communities. Ask the rest of the Christians....those who are poor and/or persecuted....knowing that the children they love have no safe and happy future ahead....and to them it is.....as it should be for all of us....Maranatha....Come Lord Jesus! The following post is from 2017:

            We don't want to hear about God judging America. We just don't want to hear it. It's as simple as that. We are a people that want to get for ourselves what we want for ourselves....what we feel that we deserve. The old days where Americans actually felt some kind of thankfulness not only for those who worked and sacrificed for centuries to give us the nation that we once had but thankfulness to God for blessing this land with spacious skies and amber waves of grain....that's no longer us. Half of us....or at least close to half of us....can no longer think through existential issues....our progressive educational system having insured that we are to be followers and not leaders....producers and not thinkers.
            We cannot grasp the problem of a now twenty-one trillion dollar deficit. (now $22 trillion)....if we ignore it it will go away.....Communism is just a name from the past....and whatever it was.....it doesn't really exist anymore. In fact if any nagging threat to America does grab our attention for more than a few days....thus upsetting our personal schedule....we just put our headphones on....or watch cable TV and sports....and if we want evidence that we are all right all we have to do is check the Dow Jones Industrial Average....or go outside for a walk where the birds are still chirping....and the squirrels and rabbits still play and chase each other around....and no one passing by seems overly concerned.
          I can see the total lack of vigilance in the long-term decisions that younger people make. There's no room in those plans for emergencies.....or for war....or even for another Great Depression. They don't show the slightest concern that the world governments have emergency plans to change the entire structure of money and the way that we buy and sell....that is if this emerging New World Order even lets us have all of our money. Whereas we used to laugh at such suggestions of a one world government....today no one is laughing....we just push it off the possibility to years down the road.
           On our side of this mess we search for churches that exude happiness in a world of turmoil. A giant church with a latte bar and exercise classes does the trick. Don't believe me? Go and read their church websites. There is little to no mention of repentance on them for that would be church growth killer. Their listed 'beliefs' are given about as much weight as directions to the church....and their sermon titles are charmingly unobtrusive. Ask them about the omission of any warnings and they will tell you that you just have to trust God! You mean like trusting Him when He give us warning after warning for decade after decade?
          God sent Jonah to Nineveh with a warning. The Ninevites repented. A century or so passed but God then sent Nahum to the same people. This time there was no offer of forty days. It was a proclamation of imminent judgment. God sent one Jonah after another to America for the past half century....all the warnings were ignored....and the message of Nahum is to us now....read it if you will at your leisure.
           This is a time of preparation.....physically but more importantly spiritually.....but you won't hear that message in too many of our pulpits....why....as I wrote in the first paragraph of this post.....we don't want to hear about God judging America....we just don't want to hear it....it's as simple as that.

"Cast Your Bread Upon The Waters......For You Will Find It After Many Days"....Ecclesiastes 11:1

                 So Fox has an article out today on a dozen or so....'witch bottles'....or....'spell bottles'.....that have been found on some beaches on the Gulf of Mexico.....particularly around Corpus Christi, Texas. They tend to look like wine or vinegar bottles that had been filled with really anything that you might associate with occult spells....herbs or....well you get the picture. The article states that these bottles are...."intended to entomb malevolent spirits." I can attest to evil spirits in bottles for I opened hundreds of them while in college....but it seems that these 'spell' bottles turn up even more often on England beaches....witch isn't surprising. (pun intended) 

                There also were about thirty....messages in bottles....found. Archaeologists take note of things like this. I wonder if any of those were mine? I'm guessing that it was over twenty-five years ago that our son and I started a tradition that lasted even after he went off to college. He was under ten anyway when we started. We always had our beach vacation. I would buy four to six of those little souvenir bottles filled with sand and tiny shells that all the t-shirt and swim trunks stores on the boardwalk sold. We would write a short gospel message on paper....roll that paper up....stick it in the bottle....push the cork down hard....and toss them into the surf!
                So the tradition continues to today....only I put a little message and the URL for these posts in the bottles. In the summer of 2022....when we all vacationed together....my son and I walked down to the surf....and we tossed a couple of bottles in the water....and a few months ago while my wife and I were at Rehoboth Beach....on the last evening....I went down to the beach with the one bottle that I bought....and tossed it as far as my seventy-three year old arm could toss it. (which wasn't that far) Maybe you found it? Maybe President Biden found it?

               

It Doesn't Take A College Education To Look....Or To Listen

 Preface: The Following was first posted in the summer:

It's a Lord's Day afternoon. You can't remember much about the sermon. It was the same as usual. You have been restless lately....tired of leaving church without God speaking to you in any way. It's warm today in Western Pennsylvania where I live...not as warm as in England and Germany and the Netherlands....but close to eighty degrees fahrenheit as in much of France and Italy....countries where I almost have as many visitors as here in America. When you leave this post....stay seated....and please consider listening to the John Piper sermon that I recommend in the following post which is from November of last year....and then encouraged with great hope as you will be after hearing God's Word preached....watch the movie on your computer that is also mentioned below. I will be praying for you!

                This post will take a little bit of explaining beforehand. Let me start with this. It is well-known with lovers of Charles Spurgeon....how his conversion took place. As a fifteen year old....who had been in church his whole life....with pastors in his family....he was not yet born again....and he knew it....and it bothered him. "It was a dark and stormy night"....isn't that how Snoopy always started his novel" Well with Spurgeon it was a cold and stormy....a snowstorm....Lord's Day morning.....so much so that he could not make the usual trek to his church....so he stopped in at a small Primitive Methodist Chapel....just to check off showing up at church. The weather was so bad that the preacher could not even make it. So as Spurgeon recounts it...." a poor man, a shoemaker or something of that sort, went up into the pulpit to preach." The man was obviously unlearned....and according to Spurgeon...."didn't even pronounce the words rightly"....but God used that man's attempt to preach to convert that fifteen year old....and thus bless the whole world from shortly thereafter right up to today! The Scripture verse that he preached on was Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth." 

                  Let me segue a little bit to a film that you can very easily watch for free on your computer....C. H. Spurgeon; The People's Preacher. (it is also on ROKU) In that sermon as depicted in the film....the man in the pulpit spoke in a distinct manner....slow....as a commoner might talk. He kept repeating the Scripture verse....emphasizing the word 'look'...."Look....look....all you have to do is look. It doesn't take a college education to look." It's a scene that kind of sticks with you.
                  OK....now for the main message of this post. I listened to a John Piper sermon only an hour ago....in the car....on the way home from grandma's house. Now John Piper often speaks very fast.....a little too fast....but tonight in this sermon....he spoke slow.....and his speech reminded me of the preacher's speech when fifteen year old Charles Haddon Spurgeon was converted....but instead of saying...."Look....look"....he was saying....'Listen...listen"....for the sermon title that you can easily listen to....just before you go and watch the Spurgeon film....is...."Take Care How You Listen....Part 1."
                  It's a wonderful evangelistic sermon....powerful in the message....and because of that speech pattern....it moved me to relate the whole thing to you in this post. Is there a greater blessing in life than telling another about Jesus Christ....or pointing them to a preacher's preacher....a people's preacher? Well maybe there is....seeing someone....or hearing of someone....who has been saved....born again....and knowing that God will surely use them to reach others with the truth of Jesus Christ....just as He used someone  else to reach them....just as someone once....many actually....reached out to tell me of my need of Christ....and His grace in salvation if we only but....look....or only but....listen!

The Prophet Jeremiah.....And The......"Sexiest Man Alive"

                                                                                 

Preface: I don't especially like the title I chose for this post....but it gives me the opportunity to get the attention of someone who might just be surfing by....and it also gives me a reason to bring back this earlier post from October 28...along with a few comments. There is chaos....everywhere....in the midst of conservatism....and even with some prominent evangelical ministers. Have you by any chance read a bio on the president-elect in Argentina? The above video is a scene from the end of the classic film....The Bridge On The River Kwai. Colonel Nicholson utters four words that we evangelicals will be uttering when reality sets in as to the path we have taken....having ignored Jeremiah's words in 6:16...."Thus says the LORD: 'Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls." Patrick Dempsey is apparently the latest male that People Magazine awarded the above title of Sexiest Man Alive to. We also might want to consider the words that concluded Jeremiah 6:16...."But they said, 'We will not walk in it'"....for we have had ample warnings on what path to trust....and responded in the same way as did the people of Judah.

I Want You Lord....More Than What The World Has To Offer

                Are you familiar with the actor Patrick Dempsey? Maybe your answer is....of course! I really wouldn't know for I only saw him in one film.
                He seems to be very successful.....this from Wikipedia anyway....plenty of films....some of those films acclaimed. He apparently is very much involved in auto racing....and that is an understatement. He is a philanthropist of sorts....with a couple of honorary degrees....seems like an overall nice guy. And uh....something called....Grey's Anatomy....never saw it but have read that it was....(is?).....huge.
                He was in the news earlier in the day because his hometown is Lewiston, Maine....and he was relaying his sadness around the events in the town that he loves.
                When I heard the name....Patrick Dempsey....I immediately thought about the one film that I did see him in. It was a 1998 made-for-television movie....Jeremiah. (Released in August of 2000 in the United States) You can watch this right now if you like....on your computer....for free.....no sign-ups.....nothing. I know that I have watched it four or five times....bare minimum.
                Now it was not going to win an Emmy....but that surely was never the intent of the producers. It's the type of TV movie that the people who made it wanted some people to watch....four or five times.
                How were they supposed to depict the prophet Jeremiah over forty years....in a ninety minute film? Well they did it. Jeremiah just didn't really age too much. A couple of the scenes were obviously of artistic license....and some were out-and-out not in the Bible....but there was nothing that altered who this young boy turned into aged weeping prophet was.
                As for the acting....how does Oliver Reed sound to you? He played King Zedekiah's chief general. I'm sure he was doing it for the money....he died shortly afterwards....but he is a presence on the screen. Klaus Maria Brandaur is an Austrian actor....once nominated for an Oscar....and once winner of a Golden Globe. He played Nebuchadnezzar....and sold me on it.
                So this Patrick Dempsey is Jeremiah....warning the people....warning the Kings.....and warning the princes and the false prophets....that judgment from God was coming....telling them of his visions....and using props....and all this over forty years....until the people were taken off to Babylon....twice....and Jeremiah himself had to live out his life for however many years or months....until he went to paradise....to wait some more....for the coming of the Son of Man to redeem those given to Him.
                Here's a great idea....possibly with eternal consequences....it's tomorrow afternoon.....and the Steelers have a 1 PM start time....and you had been looking forward to it. Well....tell God that you want something more....that you want to know more of Him....and your need of Him....and boot up and watch this film....maybe with a good Study Bible at your side if you are not already familiar with the book of Jeremiah.

Note: Just Google....Jeremiah, movie....and the 1:31:25 film will come right up.

Will Jesus Find......'FAith'.....On The Earth.....When He Returns?

                 The English Standard Version translates it...."I tell you....(this is Jesus speaking)....He will give justice to them speedily. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will he....find faith on earth?" (Luke 18:8)

                This passage comes to our mind occasionally but infrequently today. We look at 'faith' as meaning....belief in Christ....but not necessarily....living in Christ....or....abiding in Christ. Interpreting it this way we can easily align ourselves with those in that verse who will have faith when the Son of Man comes....but that may not be the case....as Jesus may be warning us that even the church will not be trusting in Him....thus will He find faith....a living powerful faith....at all? We can actually see this in politics or the 'Christian nationalism' that we hear so much about. We....believe....as an assent to who Jesus Christ is....but we do not nearly trust in Him for what we believe that we really need in life.
                 Here is my reasoning for this. I find it ....and have so for nearly forty years now....difficult to generate a conversation on our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ....and particularly his coming again in great power and glory....along with His mighty angels....and this even with believers after Lord's Day worship services! That is the sad fact. I can bring these things up and will get a due and appropriate response....that will be short-lived....and then the conversation will return to life in general. The glories of Christ do not possess our minds. I have witnessed forty years of Bible studies that may be full of 100% truth....but never....or seldom at best....once or twice a year at most....enter into any of the multitude of other truths warning us to separate ourselves and guard our own heart....make sure our salvation....and love our neighbor....'love'....being our concern for their eternal destiny....more than just being nice to them.
                 The gospel of the cross seems to be a shawl that we put on when in church. It gives us access to the Lord's Supper. it distinguishes us from the liberals who want abortion and same-sex marriage....but in no way describes us as....abiding in Christ. The world in this situation is our god. It might be the concept of 'liberty' that can possess us....or it might be our enjoyments.....particularly the quite literal worship of sport....or it might be our possessions.
                 I lived the absurd life of worshiping sport teams. I know its lure. I wasted my life up to the age of 32 years old on the holy trinity in Pittsburgh of baseball and football and hockey....and I see Christians everywhere today glued to TV screens....their hearts pounding in reverence for their team....where in no way would they ever take a tenth of the time to listen to glorious sermons from....men of the past or men today who preach like men of the past....that magnify our Lord and our Savior and our coming King! So truly....as God's Word asks of us....will Jesus find 'faith' on the earth....a living powerful faith....upon His return?

Addendum: I wanted to add this after seeing an article and doing a little research. The New York Jets fans may be the luckiest of all. The team signed a future Hall of Fame quarterback....for a lot of money by the way. This was going to be a big year for the fans....maybe the Super Bowl....but the famous quarterback only played a couple of minutes in the first game....and was done for the year. I looked at their record....four wins....and seven losses. If they were seven and four....and still had the famous quarterback...the city would be super-excited....and the fans living for the next game....configuring all the possibilities....making plans for the bigger games....devouring newspaper sports sections and ESPN NFL shows....but that is all gone....except for those who like to cry in their beer. Maybe....just maybe....and surely for a few fans at least....they may have time on their hands and find themselves confronted somehow by the gospel of Jesus Christ! I was in a hotel room Thursday night....and there was a Gideon Bible in the drawer. Maybe a crazy uncle will bring up the subject of their eternal salvation....and with no one around to impress....they might actually give it some serious thought. Who knows. Well God knows! Maybe it's you? Stranger things have happened....my salvation for one!

The Beatles And The Stones

                 ABC News brought this to my attention this morning. The Beatles and the Rolling Stones have songs in the top ten right now.....the Beatles song being the much ballyhooed John Lennon song....Now And Then....and the Stones with.....Angry....from their new album. Jagger and Richards will both be 80 when their new tour begins early next year....those tour dates just announced. Think about this....you young people in college....in a few weeks it will have been 60 years since the Beatles had their first top ten hit with....I Want To Hold Your Hand....59 years with the Rolling Stones and....I Can't Get No Satisfaction.

                Here is something that will stun you. John Tyler....born in 1790....who was our 10th president....his term from 1841 to 1845....a grandson of his is still living today....not a great-great-grandson....not even a great-grandson....a grandson! Think of your grandfather.....now think of Tyler born in....1790! It's an anomaly....John Tyler had a son born in 1853....and he had a son born in 1928....who lives today in a nursing home in Virginia.
                I just played the Rolling Stones song to my wife but didn't clue her in on what it was. I misled here into believing that it was one of their early top ten hits....and asked her if she even remembered it....acting as if I didn't even remember it. After listening to it she said that she did not remember it....whereupon I told her that that was because it is a top ten hit....right now....that they just recorded it! Charlie Watt completed the drums before he died.
                 I have two concepts for you in this post. One is nothing but statistical....but the other you probably will not buy into my interpretation.
                First....it is a paradox in a way....time is short....I'm referring to our lives here....but as for me....looking back almost 74 years now....it looks like forever. It seems as another existence as I think of when I was under ten years old....although some of the memories are still there....even fresh in my mind. So you are only....say 19 years old....I can close my eyes and almost feel myself at 19 years old standing with my buddies....laughing and talking about girls. I could then open my eyes....look in a mirror....and see a 73 year old man.
                I think that it was 1962....my cousin was driving fast down a two lane highway....with four of us in the car....everyone screamed....she sideswiped a car coming in the opposite direction....we were inches from death. My message therefore is....make your decision today....this very hour....on whether you will finally tell Jesus that you cannot do anything....and anything you do is filled with sin....plead the mercies in believing upon His shed blood for those sins....for although some have 73 years...and others even much more....you do not know what an hour brings! Here is the good news....Jesus turns no one away who comes with the trust of a child to the father!
                The second message I expect that you will reject. I was taken in by both the Beatles and the Rolling Stones....way back when....but since God chose the most unlovable....me....to show His love....I today look at the Beatles and Rolling Stones and I see pure rebellion to God....Hinduism....drugs....and the songs Imagine and My Sweet Lord. I also think of....Sympathy For The Devil....(Trump used to have that on the songlist of his rallies...I sat and listened in disbelief as evangelicals filled the audience.)

                  God....I believe anyway....is bringing these groups back as sort of a swan song....evidence on how far we have fallen over the past sixty years....a warning to those who will listen to or read of!

You May Either Laugh......Or Kneel

                We have a Peregrine falcon in our small town area. I noticed it perched in our tree once....flying overhead a number of times....and right on top of the patio umbrella on another occasion. I feed the birds every morning....and two or three hours later the seed is all gone. There are occasions....yesterday was one....when the birds do not show up at all. I'll hear them in the bushes but they don't venture out. The falcon will get a pigeon or a blue jay or a morning dove now and then.

               The small birds are always looking around....always vigilant. They will grab a seed....in the process knocking a couple seeds on the ground....look left and right....then go for another seed. The morning doves stay at the bottom of the feeder to get the table scraps.....as do the squirrels and the grinny. The small birds like me....the squirrels think that it's fun to throw nuts at me from the tree....it's like a dog that brings a stick and wants to play....and the pigeons basically ignore me. Only the cats don't like it when I'm around....for they want to get that grinny. I have never in forty years seen a snake in our yard....nor a groundhog in our town....but once or twice a deer became lost and wandered the streets.
                I remember the first time that I heard a lion actually roar. It was at one of those smaller....living treasures type of local zoos. The sound seemed to vibrate around the whole area. Have we become too accustomed to Peter's words in the fifth chapter of his first letter...."Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour."?
               It has become obvious to me that the birds know when that peregrine falcon is flying somewhere overhead. It must be the same in the jungle with the lion....and even in the ocean with sharks.
               Preachers used to be good at giving warnings....that was a big part of their calling....but all that is gone....save in small fundamentalist churches looked down upon in this modern age of the exaltation of the intellect over even the concept of God....let alone the roaring of any devils.
               I'd like to recommend to you a short thirty minute film. It's probably over forty years old. I have a copy of it on VHS but nothing to play it on. Fortunately it is available on YouTube. It's a British film....where one of their wonderful actors plays the part of John Bunyan. He emerges from the woods to a grassy opening to give a sermon to a group of villagers who had gathered against the laws of the land to hear the preached Word of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. 
               After watching this film ask yourself if you have ever heard anything like this preached in any of the churches you have ever attended. I dare say that you may either laugh at the silliness of the film....or kneel?

It's a little tricky getting to this film but if you Google....YouTube, John Bunyan, The Preacher....it should be the third  link down....with the words....Pilgrim's Progress Author....in parentheses.
               
                

Hard Sayings

Preface....this morning: Ten years ago I wrote a glowing post on the 21 hour and 19 minute filibuster speech that Texas Senator Ted Cruz gave in an attempt to derail Obamacare. I defended him once again just after the 2016 Republican National Convention in Cleveland after Trump purposely came out to his seat in the auditorium while Cruz was giving his speech....to humiliate him....which worked. Cruz was a good senator....and a wise man....until he came into Trump's orbit. It has been nothing but a crash since then. Today....Fox has a short 'news' story out on Ted Cruz. In it the Texas senator said that the day after Texas lost to Oklahoma that he was in mourning....after the tragic and heartbreaking loss. Well there is a big part of the problem today...a United States senator....and a vocal evangelical....uses the words....'mourning'....and 'tragic' because one group of guys carried a football for more points than another group of guys! What is tragic and heartbreaking is what happened to Ted Cruz.

 
              The multitudes that John the Baptist baptized were not saved souls. These baptisms were in preparation for the coming of the Messiah. How many of them later became followers of Jesus we have no idea....but surely many. So you remember that when Jesus was speaking some....'hard sayings'....that many disciples departed...."After this many disciples turned back and no longer walked with Him." Jesus asked the twelve...."Do you want to go away as well?"....whereupon Simon Peter answered...."Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. and we have believed, and have come to know that you are the Holy One of God." (John 6: 66-69)
               What happened in California in the late 60s and early 70s....that which became known as the Jesus Revolution....was similar but not identical. Over this past summer the same Greg Laurie and others baptized over 4000 people in those same Pirate's Cove waters....and there are baptisms going on on a number of college campuses.
               These type of movements are usually described as revivals....and the numbers of people baptized mischaracterized as the number of people 'saved.' Greg Laurie....(in a news article on CBN two days ago)....wisely described this as a genuine....baptism movement.....for that is what it is....and it can be wonderful....but once again....in like manner....hopefully....it is more....preparation....for the Second Coming Of Jesus Christ along with His mighty angels....in great power and glory!
                The signs of the imminent return of Jesus are everywhere today. That same Jesus Revolution moment....fifty-some years ago....brought with it a Holy Spirit inspired awareness of the end-times that we were and are living in. It was only in an early stage....with much error due to over-exuberance....but it also was preparation in a way. Those kernels of truth sewed among weeds have built into a great wheatfield today about ready to be harvested...."Truly, truly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." (John 12: 24)
                 If one does not die to Christ....then it is impossible for them to be....born again. In some way....and there are various ways....there must be that moment of mortification. Have you experienced that....or were you 'saved'....without ever having known that you were lost?
                 Have you ever just meditated on the words of Jesus in John 10:27...."My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me."? Here is a hard question....How are you hearing His voice with everything else that you are more passionately interested in? Turning this into a hard saying might be....if you are a man of the cloth....and that cloth is a....Terrible Towel....how on God's blue planet are you going to hear His voice at all? That is just one example. Anything can take our attention away from Christ where we do not hear Him. Children can do that. I have my own idols that have to be checked every day!
                 So there is the hard saying of Special Dog. It has been almost exactly fifteen years and over 3000 posts since I started specialdogg.blogspot.com....and all I have even wanted to be was a messenger....flee the wrath to come....go through the wicket gate....stay on the strait path....go to Sproul....or go to Piper....or Ryle....or Bunyan....or Edwards or Whitefield....listen to Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons! Seek the Old Paths....awaken....and heed the words of Jesus in John 9:4...."Night is coming when no one can work."

We Cannot Wash Our Hands Of This Issue

                J. C. Ryle was the revered 19th century Anglican Bishop of Liverpool....and author of the classic book that evangelicals once held in high esteem....Holiness. We are more into Jonathan Cahn and Eric Metaxas today. Ryle was second in influence in England only to Charles Haddon Spurgeon. He died in 1900....eight years after Spurgeon. I recommend that you listen to anything you can find on his sermons and writings.

               Let me digress a little bit. There is a significant disparity today in the way that evangelicals perceive the state of Israel. Some believe that 1948 and the miraculous beginning of the modern state was prophetic. Some cannot see what all the fuss is about. J. C. Ryle wrote these words about the Jews in 1867....."They are a people reserved and kept separate by God for a grand and special purpose. That purpose is to make them a means of exhibiting to the world in the latter days God's hatred of sin and unbelief, and God's almighty power and compassion. They are kept separate that they may finally be saved, converted and restored to their own land. They are reserved and preserved, in order that God may show in them a platform, to angels and men, how greatly he hates sin, and yet how greatly he can forgive, and how greatly he can convert. Never will that be realized as it will in that day when....'all Israel shall be saved'."
                Ryle for one thought it obvious....astoundingly obvious I would describe it as....that the Jew is still even around considering their unbelief....and how the world hates them so....it is evidence that God has preserved them for a purpose. The Christian today can believe what they choose to believe on this....but if they see nothing biblical in today's state of Israel...there is a very serious caveat that they should at least hear. If they stand back and wash their hands of Israel....then that would in effect be cursing Israel....and any Christian should be aware of that warning from Genesis 12:3. 
                This is not an easy issue to navigate. It is not telling America to automatically fight in defense of Israel....that is the reactionary charismatic attitude....but it is telling us to obey God....."Come on Special Dog....are you saying to defend Israel or not?' The more important issue is for us not to elevate ourselves above what God has blessed us with. From what I hear around me....we are doing just that....'We are Christians....and they are just rebellious Jews.' If we watch them fall....while our churches are mostly whitewashed tombs...and our praise clanging cymbals....all the while patting ourselves on the back on how our doctrine is so pure....then we risk being cursed along with the rest of the world in the coming judgments.
                   We as a nation are to do what is right.....not what is expedient. If what is 'right' means defending the state of Israel....then we must do it. You see....this is not a political issue....it is a heart issue. Before this recent war the Israeli culture in the news was that of Tel Aviv nightlife...and gay pride parades....and political division on individual rights. That is pretty much the same as here in America. If we were to be attacked would we wash our hands because we are not God's people?
                   All of this in a way is moot....because war is coming....because Jesus Christ is coming. The time will come when all of us believers know this....may God in His mercy....and to His glory alone....have us discern this sooner to that day rather than when it happens!