I Submit To You That Our Bible Reading Will Change

              Is there something in your life....anything....that you can look back on....something where for a time....maybe a long time....you looked lightly upon or even ignored....but then....something inside you changed....and you found yourself passionately interested in it?
              One example that many people might attest to....including myself....is education....or rather....education taken seriously. Surely you at least know others who early in life were poor students....and then later on....apparently suddenly matured....they became very good students? I was a poor student in high school. It wasn't because I fooled around and played the clown or anything like that....because I tried. I remember very vividly how at the beginning of every year I would get a new ring binder notebook....plenty of lined white sheets of paper....and dividers.....with labels.....and pens and pencils and erasers. I was ready and willing....but not able....for I simply did not have the dedication to continue beyond a week or two. 
              The desire to become an excellent student continued in college....but the lure of the college pub proved too much for me. I remember one class though....one of those classes held in a large classroom....in a half circle....with every row rising above the one before it. The class....a 101 course....was an introduction to theater....considered by everyone to be pretty dull stuff....which under normal conditions I would have worked hard enough to get a C or maybe a B.....but in this course....I happened to have had a fancy for....and worked with the graduate student instructor. I now had a great desire and a real reason to study....and impress. That new textbook looked old halfway through the trimester....with highlighting and underlining on every page....and I had the highest mark in that huge class in the midterm....filled with far better students than myself.
               As I often do in these posts....I write a couple of paragraphs that have nothing to do with the message of the post....other than to lead into it.....and that is this post. You may have been....or are now....quite the opposite of what I was. You know how to study and have always done your very best....and the results have been in your excellent grades? My wife was like that....and was a co-valedictorian. I was more a maledictorian.
                I don't know you....but I know the grades that the evangelical church in America receives today....grades it has been getting for many decades....and they are barely passing grades if that. I know this because I see the America before us....and the church of today which is thoroughly embedded in the culture. The lure may not be a pub....but it is a great temptation whatever it is. 
               We read our Bibles....I cannot deny that. We may have perfect attendance in Sunday School....and if we are old enough we may have twenty or thirty or even forty years of weekly.....(save for summer vacation)....Bible studies. We are in effect professional Bible study students....but folks this is....God-lite....people are not getting saved....loved ones are perishing....there is little to no discernment as to the judgment that God is inflicting us with right now....and we have en masse followed a false prophet....and I just hope and pray that he is just a false prophet and no more!
                 Things may be about to change though....for there seems to be a serious wind just starting to get our attention....that will only get stronger....a winnowing force able to blow away the masses of evangelicals who were never born anew. I submit to you that Bible reading will change. There won't be a teacher to go to for a quick answer instead of mining for the answers ourselves in God's Word....and it won't be small pamphlets to read a chapter and answer the questions....for we will wear God's Word around our neck at all times....as did Corrie Ten Boom's sister Betsy in the concentration camp....guarding it....treasuring it....so as to open and seek answers and guidance and wisdom and discernment anywhere and at any time of the night or day.

Addendum: Ultimately....the benefit of an organized Bible study is dependant upon the knowledge of the person teaching the Bible study. In itself learning can go no further than what the teacher knows. That teacher may and probably does teach from a book....but the Bible study is then dependant upon the teacher....(author)....who wrote the book. This is where we need help. I'm not saying that Bible studies therefore are of no benefit....for they are....on the most basic and fundamental doctrines that are necessary in the Christian life....they are very important here....but to use the word again....'ultimately'....what matters most is our personal desire to continuously learn God's Word. For if this desire is preeminent in our lives....meaning that if we can say as David wrote in Psalm 42...."As the deer pants after the water brooks, so pants my soul for you, O God"....then God will come close and keep His promise and guide our minds and give us discernment....and that includes eventual discernment to recognize the better teachers and authors and better Bible studies. This is evident in teachers such as was R. C. Sproul....or John Piper....or many others....and there are Bible study teachers in many churches that are very capable! On the other hand....if our desire to know more of God  is not preeminent in our lives...crowded out by worldly desires....if our own homes are more important than that...."built on the foundation of the Apostles and prophets"....."Christ Jesus being the cornerstone"....then we will be proportionally blessed....less.

Psalm 132: 1-5.....A Song Of Ascents....(NKJV)

"LORD, remember David
 And all his afflictions;
 How he swore to the LORD,
 And vowed to the Mighty God of Jacob:
 'Surely I will not go into the chamber
      of my house,
 Or go up to the comfort of my bed;
 I will not give sleep to my eyes
 Or slumber to my eyelids,
 Until I find a place for the LORD,
 A dwelling place for the Mighty God of Jacob'."

 

A Fable......He Wove A Narrative Of Greatness That Was Never There

               When someone uses the idiom in conversation....we all get the gist of it....(another idiom)....of what they are trying to get across....that idiom being....The emperor has no clothes....but let's go beyond the gist of the folktale.
                There is an emperor that spends more money than his kingdom can afford for lavish and royal clothes. Is that and has not that been our government? Now there appears on the scene a scammer....(two in the actual folktale....but one in this post)....who sees how vain this emperor is....and concocts a scheme. He pretends to be a weaver....who can weave clothes so beautiful that stupid people cannot even see them to appreciate them. Well that suits....(no pun intended)....the emperor just fine....so he contracts the fake weaver to weave him this magnificent royal clothing. 
                 So....applying this to America....who might the king be....and the fake weaver? Is Trump the emperor or the fake con man weaver?  Well I think that he is the fake weaver who keeps telling the emperor and the people what a great royal robe he is making....for Trump told us that he made America the greatest nation....the greatest this and the greatest that....in the history of the world. Anyone who did not agree with him was stupid! And all the people said....'Yeah....it sure must be great....I don't see it....but I'm not going to admit it." We were torn in two....pagan on one side....(Israel)....and rebellious to God on the other....(Judah)....with priests that offer unworthy sacrifices....and prophets that give false prophecies....but we were the greatest? 
                  So in the folktale the ministers of the emperor weren't about to criticize him....so they just played along with the scam. Republicans in Congress right now are doing the same thing....playing along with this con artist in order to keep their jobs!
                  Donald Trump weaved this imaginary royal regalia of purple and scarlet....covering it with equally imaginative shining armor....and all of his ministers and podcasters and radio and television hosts and court jesters....and even the people....lavished and lavish praise and honor and glory upon him....throwing palm branches as he enters the new Jerusalem!
                  In Hans Christian Andersen's fable....The Emperor's New Clothes....the scam succeeds for only so long....until a child blurts during a royal procession that the emperor has no clothes on! Then one by one all the people see that the emperor is not wearing any clothes.
                  Matthew describes in chapter 21 the triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem....as the children were crying out in the temple...."Hosanna to the Son of David." The chief priests and teachers of the law were indignant....but Jesus rebuked them....referring to Psalm 8:2...."Have you never read...'Out of the mouth of infants and nursing babies you have perfected praise'?"
                 I posted this paragraph very recently...."We are very confident in ourselves today....and there is a lot of pride in there. It is just not us to actually be humbled....and ask....or even agree....to listen to some lesser human being give us advice on how to be....saved. Even the word 'saved' doesn't sit well with us today. We have our preferred choice on the gospel of Jesus Christ. It suits us well...and we actually take offense at even discourse on the topic! And man are we stubborn! We are going to go to our grave before we admit that we may have made a huge mistake. This is one of the reasons that Jesus told His disciples to let the little children come to Him...."for of such is the kingdom of heaven." (Matthew 19:14) Jesus planned it this way folks. He specifically designed it so that the rich and powerful would have too much pride to come to Him...."But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise. God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are." (1 Corinthians 1:27, 28) Well...they don't come more weak and low and probably despised than me....and I thank God for that....for I know it is not me....but the Word of God....through the power of the Holy Spirit....and that alone....that can break that pride and stubbornness that
keeps man from humbling himself before God." 
                

  

Category.....'Eternal Life'.....For Two Thousand

                Our seven year old grandson was visiting over the weekend and when he came into our home he asked what the square footage of our house was compared to his other grandparent's house....'Gee....I have a lot of other answers that I can give you....but I'm not too good on calculating square footage.' I'm glad he didn't press the issue....I'm lucky I know how many rooms we have.
                 I would rather he asked something like....'When is Jesus coming back?' I could answer that. I wouldn't even need a calculator....for I could do the math in my head....1948 started the countdown. It gets a little hazy after that but countdowns aren't long.
                 Charles Spurgeon and J. C. Ryle and other stalwarts knew that Israel had to come back as a nation before Jesus would return. Spurgeon was hoping that it would be soon. It turned out that it was only a decade or so after he preached that that Zionism was taking form.
                 I think that Hal Lindsey did a great service to the church with his 1970 book The Late Great Planet Earth.  I'm sure his book played a part in the revival atmosphere that would sweep over America....and lead to 1976 being known as The Year Of The Evangelical....of which I was one of those shown mercy! Jonathan Cahn's 2011 The Harbinger gave a much needed warning on America's impending judgment. Cahn unfortunately went on to ignore Paul's warning in 1 Timothy 1:4..."not to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies, which promote speculations....(Trump as Jehu)....rather than the stewardship of God's work, which is by faith."
                  I may disagree with many if not most of Lindsey's doctrinal conclusions....and he was wrong in that he thought that Jesus would return before 1988....but his book sold 28 million copies by 1990....and a mid-70s primetime special was watched by 17 million people. I booted up last evening and watched the 1978 docudrama of the same name as the book....narrated by Orson Welles. I wouldn't recommend it....but Hal Lindsey had already served a purpose by drawing attention to the importance of 1948.
                  It is not conceivable to me that God would reestablish Israel as a state without it being a sign. So what are my qualifications for saying that? Well....let me start with a bit of humor that Billy Graham used while accepting an honorary doctorate. He told of a man who took a hunting trip down South....and when he arrived at the hunting lodge asked the proprietor if they had a hunting dog named Preacher. The proprietor said...."No...no....I don't believe that we have a hunting dog named Preacher." Of which the man responded...."Are you sure....I was told that you had a great hunting dog named Preacher?" The proprietor then said...."Oh yes.....we did have a good hunting dog named Preacher.....and then someone came down here and called him....Doctor....and he ain't been a lick a good since."
                  So I may not have a doctorate....but then I have something better....I can only name three Pittsburgh Pirates....and I couldn't care less if the Steelers ever win another game. That's a harsh way of putting it....but friends....if you truly realize what went on on Golgotha and in that empty tomb....and fully understand where you were headed for eternity before your heart was regenerated where you could then believe....then how....intellectually and logically speaking....can these pastimes hold the place in our lives that they do? Ask yourself....do you know more about the Steelers...or any other team....or any one of multiple topics....than God's prophetic word to us? This is the age we live in. This is why evangelicalism got sucked in by a false prophet! This is no small thing. This is disaster to the church! Did not Paul write...."No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him."? 2 Timothy 2:4
                  What has gone on in America and the world in the past nine years....with the pandemic....the aftermath of the pandemic....Trump and Biden....and Putin....and the Sukkot barbarism....rising hatred of the Jews....and the reaction to Israel's response....(folks....proportionally....if there were similar deaths in an attack upon America it would have been forty to fifty thousand)....not to mention artificial intelligence where 2024 has 1984 dystopia written all over it....and a church upon which the words of Jesus seem directed...."when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on the earth".....with all this insanity and more....and full-fledged rebellion to Almighty God....to not believe that surely our Lord and our King and our Savior is already mounted along with his mighty angels....would be laziness at best....blindness due to those things that really interest us....or worse....an outright disdain for Jesus to come back now.

Addendum: I have a stack of R. C. Sproul's monthly Tabletalk magazines going back over thirty years. His....first books and then VHS....and then cassette....and then CD teaching tools were a staple in our home that whole time. He was a Pittsburgher....and his teaching ministry began to grow in Ligonier, Pennsylvania....about an hour SE on the famous Pennsylvania Turnpike. This great teacher was a big Steeler fan....and mentioned the Steelers many times over the years as a teaching tool. This emanated from his view of the Lord's Day....which was one great error in an otherwise extraordinary ministry to the church around the world. I highly recommend a biography on him from Stephen Nichols titled....R. C. Sproul, A Life....but there is something that I want to recommend more....the last sermon that he gave.....on November 26, 2017....eighteen days before he went to be with his Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. His voice is raspy in the sermon....the title of which was....A Great Salvation. Steeler fan or no Steeler fan....the emphasis in this his final sermon is on a warning not to neglect so great a salvation! By Googling this you can either listen to it or read the transcript. I've listened at least a dozen times over these few short years....and as I was reading the transcript tonight I could hear his voice.....intonations and all. My point in this post is that this that God has blessed us with is truly....A....Great.....Salvation....to be guarded with all of our mental and spiritual acuities. So it's not....'don't be an NFL fan'....but don't let something as inane as this be the catalyst....for neglecting such a....GREAT SALVATION!  

Memorial Day

         This is a totally fictional account....first posted last Memorial Day....but on the other hand totally true many times over....we just have no way of knowing about it.

         Somewhere in Vietnam....on a bloody battlefield....there was a young man....black or white it doesn't matter.....a PFC maybe but that doesn't matter either. His company was ambushed and the first hour or so was pure havoc as the company commander tried to rally his platoons into a defensive posture until help could arrive....but some of the men were separated....two men in particular. One was badly wounded. The second could hear the orders screamed out from somewhere on his right to form a perimeter. He could have hurried and joined his company but heard from his left the cries of his fellow soldier....and instead ran towards him....lifted him up on his shoulder....and carried him towards the shouted commands....but both of them were cut down by rifle fire.
         No one knew what happened....no one will ever know of this heroic deed. His body and that of the man he tried to save were never found. His family had no body to mourn over and bury. There was no medal awarded.
         There are thousands of stories something like this over the centuries of America's wars....and hundreds of thousands of lives lost in every way imaginable in war....and therefore hundreds of thousands of grieving families and widowed wives and fatherless children.
          We long ago set aside one day to think about these men....and women. What we could have....and should have done....at the very least.....was to keep intact the country for which they sacrificed their lives....but we are all human....capable within the herd of both extreme acts of heroism....and of....figuratively speaking....sleeping on guard duty as the country is overrun.
          There is a time for war....unfortunately....for there is pure evil in the world. Although we cannot totally prevent war.....we can do our very best to make them fewer....so that there are far less stories like this to cry over. If we would but keep in our minds the horror and sorrow of what war brings....we might be able to make what would otherwise be four wars....only one.....and what would otherwise be eight wars.....only two.
          It's sad to put it this way....but until the King of Kings comes back it is all that we can do....but when He returns....O when He returns....in the midst of what will be the worst of wars....He Himself will command His army of angels....and then....and only then....will there be war no more. Should we not then....as somewhere in this world....on any given day....as we hear of "wars...and rumors of war"....and know very well what may be just ahead of us....should we not pray for Him to hasten in His return...if it be His will....even as difficult as those days will be?

Maranatha......Next Year In Jerusalem!

                He has never used email or had a cell phone. I used to have to email his church secretary to get a message to him. I met him at a Soli Deo Gloria conference....at the book table. I can't remember....he either saw the town that I lived in on my name tag....or I saw the town that he lived in on his name tag? We are friends to this day....it's been about twenty-six years. He's about my age....and retired from pastoring about a year or so ago. Let me tell you a little bit about him....
                He always had a comb over.....craziest thing. I know he won't read this because he doesn't use a computer. He had a very slight stutter....and spoke softly....and wore a robe when he preached. Maybe fifteen years or so ago....when he moved to a church near Chicago....he gave me a few boxes of his books. I still have them all....volumes of Spurgeon sermons....(he is Presbyterian.....Spurgeon was Baptist).....and mostly Puritan books. To this day when I pick one up I am amazed. He did not highlight....probably never owned a highlighter....but he underlined. The lines were so precise that he must have used a ruler. Every page had a lot of underlining.....from every book....every Spurgeon sermon. It showed how he studied every sentence in all of those books!
                 So he writes letters since he doesn't do email....and forget texting....and he never even uses a sheet of paper.....never has that I remember! He uses the cut-out blank parts of a magazine page or from an advertisement....I don't know....there's some kind of print on the back....and he writes with tiny letters. I have heard a lot of preachers in my life....and no preacher that I have ever heard in person preaches the glory of Christ quite like this man.
                 He was our pastor for about a decade.....typical evangelical Presbyterian church of today. Probably close to half of the congregation thought he was....aah....good....and probably close to the other half of the congregation thought he could use a jazz-up or something....but that small group of us that were left had to regain our breath after a sermon before we could even get up to leave.
                  He was a Puritan born too late...and like a true Puritan....the opposite what people think today that Puritans were....he like to laugh....and he had a sense of humor....not a life-of-the-party type of sense of humor....but....well let me give you this one example. We hadn't been friends all that long.....and I knew him as serious.....always talking about his Savior and the glory of God.....and he and his wife were over our house for dinner. Now he liked good movies. In fact it was he that told me that I had to go and see the then new film....The Winslow Boy....(1999)....and I did....the next day....and to this day it is one of my all-time favorite films. So somehow we were discussing an old German film....a WW I or WW II film....and he was describing it. We were on our front patio....on a quiet evening....and he came to a part of the movie where all the soldiers stood up and sang a rowdy German....probably bar song. So that smile came on his face....and he stood up....this soft-speaking man with a slight stutter....and he belted out the entire song....in German....so loud that the neighbors could hear it! 
                    I did not sit down to post about this wonderful preacher. I sat down to plead once again that the Holy Spirit might move mightily tomorrow morning....bringing tears to the pastor and the congregant alike....this in many pulpits all over America....that tomorrow might be the day that God begins to have mercy upon us. I have prayed that prayer for years now....kind of like the Jewish saying....Next Year In Jerusalem....I would say....next Lord's Day at the foot of the cross!
                    The example of the man that I described above....his preaching and the response to his preaching....tells me that it is not just the preaching that will wake us up. Spurgeon or Martyn Lloyd-Jones could be in the pulpit and the people would still rate them as.....maybe good....or maybe they need jazzed-up. No....as it stand right now we do not have ears to hear....not the preaching of our glorious Lord and Savior.....nor of our own needs to our soul....nor of warnings of judgment that has already started. I recommend all the time preachers from the past....and preachers today that preach like preachers from the past....but not everyone has ears to even hear them. All I can do for sure is start with me. Lord open my eyes to my own failures to Thee. Do not take this unction away.....but do not let me use it for any reason but to bring glory to Thee! Bring us together Lord....and add to our number. If those invited guests are too busy to come then compel others to come Lord! And Lord....If it be your will....Maranatha....next year in Jerusalem!

We Will Do It Our Way

                 John Bunyan's allegory....The Pilgrim's Progress....depicts perfectly what I want to say here in that in the beginning Christian had this huge burden upon his back....for he knew....because that book that he was reading told him....that his city....the City of Destruction....was going to get burned up in God's judgment....but no one would believe him Even his own family thought that he was daft! And as he and the few others that would join him....as they traveled on to the Celestial City....they met many others who laughed the whole gospel off! Some thought that they would be just fine if and when they met God in judgment. They all had a better way than God's way....a better door than the wicket gate....and a better path than the straight path.
                  That's the way that it is in the church today folks. No one is worried....God is cool....he digs my kicking for the NFL on the Lord's Day because I get to help Him out later by giving Jesus autographs! Folks if you have never had that burden then something is wrong.....terribly wrong! If you have never felt that burden falling off of your back.....while at the foot of the cross...then you are on the wrong path. You cannot stay in Vanity Fair. All the houses there are built on sand! If you think that you are doing God a favor then you had better read that book again....maybe for real....the first time!

                   I want to give you six verses from the sixth chapter of Jeremiah....16 through 21....and this will be from the NKJV. Please read and heed what God is telling us here through His prophet Jeremiah. It begins with

"Thus says the LORD:

Stand in the ways and see,
and ask for the Old Paths,
    and where the good way is,
And walk in it;
Then you will find rest for your souls"

But get this folks....

"But they said, 'We will not walk in it."

That is what we are saying today. We will do it our way thank you!

"Also I set watchmen over you saying,
'Listen to the sound of the trumpet!'
But they said, 'We will not listen.'
Therefore hear, you nations
And know, O Congregation,
      What is among them.
Hear, O earth!
Behold, I will certainly bring calamity
      on this people,
Even the fruits of their thoughts,

That's means our discernment!

"Because they have not heeded My words
Nor My law, (the Lord's Day for one....idols for another) but rejected it.
For what purpose to Me
Comes frankincense from Sheba
And sweet cane from a far country"
Your burnt offerings are not acceptable.
Nor your sacrifices sweet to me."

'God bless America! He does not care about your politics

Therefore thus says the LORD

Behold I will lay stumbling blocks
      before this people"

MAGA....USA USA USA

"And the fathers and the sons together
     shall fall upon them
The neighbor and his friend
     shall perish."

Ruminations

            I took my wife out tonight for her birthday to a community pool party type of thing....with a group playing and other friends present. There was a day when I'd do well at these type of gatherings but no so much anymore. Oh you wouldn't know it to observe me as I laugh and tell jokes. There were some lawyer parents there so I told the legal joke that I made up while sitting in a seminar for trusts. A son comes home from college and his father asks him what he decided on as a major. The response was....cannabis science. The father asks incredulously...."I am going to pay for you going to college to study....cannabis science?" The son says that that's what he is interested in. The father shrugs and says...."Well....where there's a will....there's a way"....and the son says...."Thanks dad." Whereas the father says...."You misunderstand....if I die....then there's a will....and there's your way....other than that there's no way I'm paying for you to go to college and study....cannabis science!"
              Yeah....I might have passed the test for being a normal human being.....but inside I failed. I tried to appear normal for my wife's sake on her birthday....sort of a....'Happy Birthday Wifey....your present is that I'll be normal all day'.....well up to this post anyway.
               I've noticed lately that I have a little trouble in conversations. I was always a talker.....but it comes harder today. I can write like this.....and I can converse normally in some conversations.....well normally for me....if the topics are fairly serious....and I can converse perfectly fine in one-on-one conversations with other Christians.....for our faith and our Savior will be the topic....but more often than not I know before a conversation begins with a group of people....even friends....that I will regret the episode later.
              I have to segue here.....for I have Sirius/XM on softly right now....my choice of music tonight the 60s....and Bob Dylan's.....My Back Pages....just started playing....funny how these things happen so often. Now I'm not going to attempt to interpret Bob Dylan....or the concept of protesting gone wrong.....but rather the poetry of it all. Yes I long for Christian content in conversations....but I will settle for anything with some kind of meaning.
               So I often ponder....meditate upon....why I am drying up as a conversationalist? I know that I don't want to go back. I want every thought to be relevant to something....for you cannot speak seriously on anything for long before God has to come into the conversation.....war....Memorial Day....pain and suffering....hunger....politics.....even goals or dreams or humor....we can only go so far before the glory of God rushes in along with the words of Jesus...."You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind."

Matthew 22:37 ESV

"Why are you cast down, O my soul, and why are you in turmoil within me? Hope in God; for I shall again praise Him, my salvation and my God."

Psalm 42:11 

Note: All of my Ruminations posts remain here.....somewhere....but I usually leave them up front for only a few hours before moving them back in the pack.

The True Believer

                The only thing that I knew when I came into the faith....'started my pilgrimage' is also a good way of putting it....this back in 1982....was that I was an egregious sinner who God had mercy upon....and that Jesus Christ....who I had my whole life as a Catholic bowed my head everytime that I said His name.....was in fact real. 
                 I came into the faith with my own personality. I was a reader interested in all kinds of things. I had just completed two books in short order....Ernest Becker's 1973 Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction....The Denial Of Death....and Eric Hoffer's small classic The True Believer....both powerful works. In the film Annie Hall....Alvy Singer had given Becker's book as a gift to Annie. Hillary Clinton had recommended Hoffer's book to her staff during the 2016 campaign. Both books were highlighted throughout....Becker's torn in two so that I could carry half of it with me in my pocket.
                 I could list a dozen other similar secularism best-sellers that I had read over the past decade. God I'm sure prepared all that for me in order to lead me to a Christian bookstore.....(never been in one before)....browsing.....to pick up Josh McDowell's classic Christian apologetic....Evidence That Demands A Verdict. God gave me the best the world could offer on the topic....and then one book to dispute it....which led me to the Bible....and my life went another way.
                 Because of these interests I almost immediately went into Christian apologetics....the defense of all Christian truth. I focused on 'Christian cults'....sects that claimed to be Christian but denied the essential truths therein. I spent years in this area....and ran an ad in our local newspaper in an attempt to talk to people who were being wooed by the Jehovah Witnesses. 
                 All of the above is a preface to tell you that what we are witnessing in America concerning Donald Trump is pure textbook cultism. I watched yet another rally yesterday. It's like archaeologists finding the Rosetta Stone in that it is right there in front of us....the evidence and the methods and the psychological "systematic and forcible" indoctrination of many people who wind up defending that which beforehand they would have passionately argued against.
                 I observe this in evangelicals....Christians....all the time. Their minds were over years worked upon by a grandmaster of deception.....with tried and true methods going way back....but particularly to the 1930s in Germany. Their countenance changes....and some are ready to fight for....what their Lord and Savior warned of....a false prophet and a deceiver.
                 I'm kind of at a standstill right now....even with forty years of off and on research....at times as last evening....just watching in amazement how the human mind can so easily be taken in. Christian pastors are either fully recruited....or they live in fear that someone in their congregations might ask them if they are going to vote for Trump....and if not told that they are then voting for Biden. 
                  This is all part of God's perfect plan.....of which we will find out....and rejoice in if we remain faithful to the gospel of Jesus Christ. If Trump does regain the White House it 'may' be concerning him as a mortal political "head wound"....miraculously healed....and the whole world will stand back amazed. If the church wakes up....enough of it anyway....and Trump loses....the 'right'....joining in with the 'left'.....may unify in at least their contempt for the historical and true and powerful Christian faith? 
                  There is a difference between a politician with which everything about him is opposed to God.....this being Biden....where no one in any evangelical church even remotely takes serious any mention of God.....there is a difference between that politician and one who tells the evangelical everything they want to hear....but embodies everything in God's very Word to us to stay far away from. The former is easy to discern....the latter...."mouth [s] great swelling words, flattering people to gain advantage"....who...."cause divisions"....and are...."raging waves of the sea, foaming up their own shame; wandering stars for whom is reserved the blackness of darkness forever." This choice.....Biden or Trump....is God's judgment on America....and on the church that wants only to continue the way that it was....which itself was under God's warnings of judgment.

Addendum: I wanted to give this anecdote. It was about 35 years ago and my wife had a friend over for dinner. This friend was very talkative....and very atheist. After we conversed for a while she confidently said to me that I sometime should read Bertrand Russell's classic....Why I Am Not A Christian....upon which I walked over to our bookshelf and showed her the book...."Do you mean this book?"....which was highlighted and notated throughout.

Moderation In Everything....Except Praise And Honor And Rejoicing Over Our Lord And Savior Jesus Christ!

                Let me lead this off with describing how I was a Pittsburgh Pirates baseball fan most of my early life. Before I begin you might want to go to Fox news.com right now and read one of the headline stories that is titled....Pitching Phenom Plans To Serve In The US Military Once He's Done With His Baseball Career. So back to my youth....it was October 13, 1960....and my mother and I lived in a small basement apartment in Buffalo....this was about 2 1/2 years before we moved to Pittsburgh. Bill Mazeroski was up to bat in the bottom of the ninth of the seventh game of the World Series. A young friend of mine was watching the game with my mother and me. I was so nervous that I ran out the door into the back yard....and Maz hit his famous home run. I missed it. The next thing I knew was that my mother was throwing my young friend out of the house by the seat of his pants. It was all fun.
                 Segue to September of 1972. I was only days out of three years in the army and at one of the last games of the year at the newer Three Rivers Stadium with three friends. The Pirates were losing heading into the bottom of the ninth and the driver wanted to get ahead of the rush....so we left.....and on the bridge just outside the stadium Roberto got a base hit. I told my friend to stop the car....jumped out and ran back into the stadium in time to see the Bucs come back and win the ballgame. In between these two dates were numerous games at Forbes Field and numerous opening days. I think that I qualified as a legitimate Pirate fan.
                 In that Fox article....and there are others out there. This young phenom plans to serve in the military in some form after his playing days are done. He must have had this desire for quite a while because he played baseball for the United States Air Force Academy for two years before transferring to LSU....and with his talent you cannot blame him for transferring. This plan of his is odd but not unprecedented for many old time baseball players left baseball in World War II. In the case of Ted Williams....he won his first triple crown in 1942....served three years in the service....and returned to baseball to win the MVP in 1946....and then folks....he returned to the military in 1952 and as a pilot flew 39 combat missions in Korea.
                 Today....May 23, 2024....I do not even know what the Pirates are doing....other than they have this new phenom. Our son will be going to tomorrow's game with his son and wife....and his mother.....my wife.....and I though invited a number of times....will be home.....probably writing on this blog....Lord willing. I would like very  much to be there. I haven't been in that new stadium yet that resembles the old Forbes Field....but I am among many others who see what is going on in this world....the enormous....almost inconceivable dangers from every direction....the horror of what is ahead....and then the return of the King of Kings in power and glory to a fallen and judged world.....reeling under the judgments. 
                  Everything in moderation....go to a ballgame.....or take a deserved vacation....everything in moderation except praise and honor and rejoicing over our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ! Nothing in life is as precious as what the Son of God had done for us!
                  One last thought....and the reason for this post....that young phenom will probably be in the military before he expects it....for the reinstatement of the military draft looms on the near horizon....and it is going to be a mess. Have you even given any thought to this? There are no more college exemptions other than finishing the current term. Who gets drafted? Are pro athletes going to get an exemption? How does the gender issue come into play....and the undocumented issue? We don't think ahead in this present culture....not even in evangelicalism. 

Tuesdays With Special Dog

Preface: In the Fall of 2016 I had the idea of having two Christian men meeting occasionally at a Starbucks in Manhattan....just getting together for conversation and fellowship.  There may be a half dozen so far....always under the title....Tuesdays With Special Dog....a take on the popular 1997 book....Tuesdays With Morrie.

S.D......."John....good to see you....we missed last month although I did have an interesting experience that I'll have to tell you about sometime." 

John......"Yeah....I missed our monthly get-together too."

S. D......."So how you been?   

John......"We're all fine. It's been busy....and frustrating.....increasingly so with all that's going on in America. I watched a clip this morning of Ted Cruz hammering Antony Blinken....from his high exalted platform in the Senate chamber....accusing Blinken of financing the Hamas Sukkot attack. Special Dog....I'm opposed to just about everything the Biden does as much as anyone but attacks like that are irresponsible....and just for show. They don't help anything."

S. D......"I know what you mean.... I saw the same clip. If Cruz had been a tenth as tough on Trump over the years we might not have the political maelstrom that we have today. When Trump says..."Bow".....they just say...."How low?" How's the family and everything else?"

John......"Well....the family is fine.....it's just church I guess. I don't know if it's from talking to you on a regular basis or what....but I'll walk into church just like I've done for the past forty years....same church....a lot of the same people....same small talk.....but I'm having trouble with it. Is it my lack of faith Special Dog.....or what?"

Special Dog looked at his watch....lifting his arm so that John would see...

S.D......"That's a record I'm sure....about two minutes before we get into the heavy stuff. Is it me John? Let me ask you this....it seems like you may be listening to sermons from preachers from way back when....Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones maybe?"

John's eyebrows went up in surprise.

John......"How did you know that? 

S. D...."Elementary my dear Watson....been there done that so to speak."

John...."Well I'm putting my Bluetooth earpiece in just about every time I'm cutting the grass or doing any job around the house.....which is all the time by the way."

S.D.......John....those sermons will do that to you.....that's what happened to me. Both of our churches teach that a preached sermon is a means of grace....I believe that.....but logic tells me a few things....it's got to be a good sermon....a biblical sermon.....from the Holy Spirit....and if those sermons are not there....which they are hardly anywhere today....then there is little to no means of grace....and little discernment. But if we do hear a strong sermon on a weekly basis then we will be fed....and if we listen to two sermons like that a week we will have even more.....means of grace....and if we listen to five or ten or whatever sermons like this....then....well for one thing.....when you see all the laughter in church it tugs on your heart....the lack of knowledge we have on what is ahead for all of us."

John gave that....'you did it again' kind of look and asked....

John....."Well if that's the diagnosis....what's the prognosis?

Special Dog paused and looked off....out the window....past the crowds....off into nowhere. John was used to these pauses and didn't say anything....and then Special Dog focused again....

S. D....."John....I love these conversations of ours....iron sharpening iron. I need to hear what my brothers and sisters in Christ think. We need conversation today....but if you don't mind....I'll give you my thoughts on your question in....in a discourse more than a conversation?"

John...."Go ahead. I'm in a hearing mood today."

S. D......"OK....Do you need a refill on your coffee?"

John...."Nope.....I'm Good."

S. D......"John....everyone is so sure of this.....come November 5 an election will be held with Joe Biden as the Democrat nominee and Donald Trump as the Republican nominee. Democrats are having conniptions....fits of rage and hysteria.....over the possibility that Trump will get power....and rightfully so.....while we on our side are having those same conniptions that Biden and will retain power.....and this also rightfully so!

John modded his head

S. D....."We both know that God put Obama in power....just like He put Reagan in power twenty-eight years earlier....and He put Trump in power.....and He then put Biden in power.....and everything that happens in the future will be according to His perfect dictates....but we do not know what a day brings. James....in his letter was very explicit on this....

Special Dog quickly pulled up James 4:13-16 on Bible Hub on his phone....

"Come now, you who say, 'Today or tomorrow we will go into such and such a town and spend a year there and trade and make a profit'- yet you do not know what tomorrow will bring. What is your life? For you are a mist that appears for a little time and then vanishes. Instead you ought to say, 'If the Lord wills, we will live and do this or that' As it is, you boast in your arrogance. All such boasting is evil." Continuing....

"Let me ask you this John....who today in all the world....it's not even close.....who is it that boasts more than anyone else on the planet? Well you and I know the answer to that. It's Trump. There's not an issue that he would not turn on a dime for....Israel or abortion or anything....if turning benefited him. You would think that Cruz would know that. It would be unlikely that Joe Biden would complete a second term.....should God even give America more time. If the Democrats were smart they would send Kamala Harris on her way. Joe Manchin as a running mate would probably secure that second term....should we go on with this election. Tons of republicans and independents would vote for that option in the hope that someone sane eventually gets in that office. On the other hand there is not a week or a day or an hour that goes by without the possibility that Donald Trump will finally say or do something that even Lindsey Graham could not stomach....even though he got sick on Trump once before.

Special Dog took a sip of his latte and asked if he should go on....on which John nodded again.

"We do not know what will happen in the world over the summer. We do not know if Putin will attack Europe....or if Xi will attack Taiwan. We do not know the significance of a new president in Iran....or the possibility of a new Supreme Leader over there? We do not know if the earth has something catastrophic in store for us?  Even those party nominations are not yet certainties....but what do we know....or should know....is that this is the end of the end times....or the last of the last days. Israel and 1948 determined that every bit as much as the fish burping Jonah up on the beach determined that he would go up and preach to the Ninevites. We know that the Day of the Lord is coming quickly. We know that Israel will be the center of it. We know that Antichrist is coming but we do not know the specifics of what this Antichrist even is. We know that Christians will be hated by everyone....even by those in their own family.....that's how bad this will get! We know that most calling themselves Christian will be deceived. We know there will be a remnant. We don't know when....the day or the hour....but we have a good idea on the season....and wee know what we are to do....fill those oil lamps up and have oil in....."

Special Dog did not get to finish his sentence as there was some kind of disturbance up at the Starbucks counter. Two young people were berating what looked to be an older Jewish gentleman. The baristas had come around the counter and tried to calm these two young people down but they only became louder. John and Special Dog stood up just as one of the men the flipped his hand and knocked over the Jewish gentleman's drink. They shouted anti-Jewish epithets as they laughed their way out of the Starbucks. John went over to the gentleman and asked if he was OK....then told the barista to give the older man another drink and give him the tab. John and Special Dog sat back down....and just prayed to themselves for a minute or two before Special Dog said...

S. D....."This is getting too close to another Kristallnacht John."

John....."What's the word....Maranatha....Come Lord Jesus!"

With that both of them just sipped their drinks and gazed out on the hustle-bustle of the crowd....everyone going somewhere in a hurry....having no idea what surely lies ahead.
               

The Next 500....Days?

                   We do it all the time. We'll buy some sort of over-the-counter medication....glance at the directions....and take the pill or pills. There's usually all kinds of warnings on the box or bottle but we know that that is just legalese....for the manufacturer to protect themselves in case someone might think that if one pill helps then one-hundred pills should help one hundred times better. We do the same thing when we might buy some electrical gizmo....hair dryer is not to be used in the bathtub....or all of the....read our terms and conditions....on an Internet app. Health conscious people might read the ingredients on the jar....and a wise steward might read the fine print on a loan....but generally we depend on the fact that if there is a poison in the product that....POISON....will be the biggest word on the box or jar.
                   There is one difference....and opposite actually.....peculiar to the human condition....and we can see it in the Covid-19 vaccine. There is nothing about poison on the paper they give you to sign....but we were determined to find some....and we had the whole world of the Internet to manufacture the proof.
                   The word that I have used over the past six or seven years to describe Donald Trump was....destroyer....as he either actively works to destroy his enemies....or that anyone that latches on to him.....or had been fooled by him....is eventually destroyed by....flying too close to the flame.....but another word that describes who he is would be....poison.
                   The Republican Party has been poisoned....the Supreme Court has been poisoned.....evangelicalism has been poisoned.....probably your church has been poisoned.....slowly.....over time....talk radio died....as did the Freedom Caucus....and individuals.....Ted Cruz....and sadly even Rush. They all litter the political trail of Donald Trump.
                   Everything that we learned in America about defending the weak....or helping the less fortunate....was lost as would be the memory of an Alzheimer patient. Weeds of hate grew up quickly and choked us. Tares were sown in with the wheat....and there is not a thing that we can do now about removing them.
                   God had warned us here in America for upwards of a half century....but we blew off those warnings. We found an excuse for every idol that we worshiped. So after decades of warnings.....God took away our discernment....and we were as prey for jackals and wolves and lions.
                   At the beginning of Trump's rallies we were God-fearing men and women....as we sat or stood there as the music of the night played.....but later we started dancing to it.
                   Pastors all over America....those who knew that something was terribly wrong here....sat back and let it happen. To this day they will defend themselves.....instead of defending the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ against a false prophet.
                   Judgment is here....but we deny it. No....this isn't God's judgment we say....this is Biden and the Democrats! We are the good guys. We said that we were going to make America great again....and we did.....just look at 2019....but God said....go ahead and build....and I will tear right back down.
                   I have watched strong conservative leaders....brave leaders like Ted Cruz....weaken and eventually grovel before nothing less than a tyrant. Pastors are literally afraid to tell their congregations that God is judging us....us not them. We have right now in America two evil forces vying to lead America during God's judgment....but we rationalize Trump as the lesser of two evils.
                   Pastor/teacher/theologian R. C. Sproul was one of the greatest blessings that God had given to His church....and his legacy lives on today....five and a half years after he went on to be with His Lord who he had exalted in his ministry for so very long....(ligonier.org)....but I want to point one thing out to you. The Ligonier Ministries conference....held on March 9-11 of 2017....was titled....The Next 500 Years. This referenced the then soon to be completed first 500 years since Martin Luther pounded thos 95 theses into the castle church door in Wittenberg.
                   The speakers were the very best....and I'm sure that the messages were blessings....but there was a serious flaw in that title. The discerning Christian....(and R. C. was as discerning as they come)....should have known that Jesus was coming back soon....Webster's definition of 'soon.' God had been warning His church. This was a time for preparation for the Lord's return....and vigilance. I should note that this title was probably selected well back into 2016. The mood in conservative God-fearing America was.....unfortunately....Make America Great Again. It was a basic mistake but should have been an insignificant mistake....if it were not for the ascendance of Donald Trump. I posted the following on March 9 of 2017....the day the conference started:

I understand the message but what went through my mind upon hearing of the conference title was.....next 500 years....how about the next 500 days? Or even the next five years...or maybe even the next 500 souls surrendered to Christ...or even the next 5 million souls surrendered to Christ? I just don't agree with the emphasis on the next 500 years when....if I might use this expression in a very literal sense....all hell is breaking out in this world. 

And I posted this much later on....

Folks....within 500 days of my writing this....both R. C. Sproul and Billy Graham had gone on to be with the Lord....the first of two impeachments were to begin....followed by the pandemic....the horrors of January 6....along with multiple other horrors....including the collapse of evangelicalism....and the very possible beginnings of world war.

  

James....And Other Books of God's Word....Come To The Fore?

               It seems that the best of the best scholars believe that the book of James was written by James....the brother of Jesus. They also believe that the letter was written around 49 AD....or at least before the Jerusalem council. It thus appears that it was written somewhere around the time that Paul wrote at least his first letter to the Thessalonians.
               As I read through James today....not as in the previous forty years where I had read through countless times....I just keep getting the feeling that....like 1 & 2 Thessalonians....and so many of the Old Testament prophets....and even many of the Psalms....it seems to have an end of the end time....time release quality to it. In other words James seems to be focusing on a church that will have many trials ahead....and he's not focusing on doctrinal truths that we already know....but reminding us a number of times of how we should be acting.
               Here is an interesting verse....James 1:17...."Blessed in the man who endures temptation; for when he has been proved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who....love him." This isn't systematic theology stuff. God's Word doesn't tell us in a doctrinal sense....love the Lord and you will be saved.....but James reminds the one who has saving faith....that therefore he will also love Jesus. This was an essence in many of Spurgeon’s sermons....do we....love Jesus....is He precious to us….or do we just assent to the truths?
               It is the same when he writes in verse 21...."....receive with meekness the implanted word, which is able to save your souls." It is not meekness that saves us….but we had better receive the truth with meekness….or it may very well not be sincere.
             The much debated passage over the centuries is from 2:24 to the end of the second chapter....where he writes in vs 24...."You see that a man is justified by works and not by faith alone." But before that he scolds them with...."Even the demons believe and tremble." This is not a doctrinal dissertation. It is a wake-up call to those who already believe unto salvation. This isn't evangelistic either. That's why I'm seeing a last days....check the oil in your lamps type of exhortation.
             So all through his letter.....to the Jewish believers that were scattered....he is saying....stay humble and meek....be patient....the rich who hate God are going to get what is due them....pray fervently! If someone is straying....bring him back if you can. This is very Thessalonians....very Peter....very Jude. Unbeknownst to these men there would follow almost two thousand years....but the time would come that we would revert to a persecuted remnant.
             In the last few verses of this short five chapter letter.... James tells them that if they are sick....call for the elders....and the "prayer of faith will save the sick....and the Lord will raise him up." He talked about Elijah who...."prayed earnestly that it would not rain; and it did not rain on the land for three years and six months" (an interesting time period) So when we read this kind of stuff do we find ourselves saying something like...."that's a little higher than my pay grade?" Well...right now it may be....but I suspect that in those last seven years....or in a part of those last seven years before Jesus returns....that we may be doing a lot of things that we do not normally do today....but that were done in at the beginning!
             Many Christians today believe that they are speaking in tongues....I at one time believed that I spoke in tongues. I now know that that was not the case.....but then we may truly need tongues again in the last of the last days.
             Jesus told his disciples not to worry about what they were going to say when brought before governors and kings....(Matthew 10:18)....but that the Holy Spirit would give them the words...."For it is not you who speak, but the Spirit of your Father speaking through you." (Matthew 10:20) Well that sounds a little related to tongues to me.
             My point in this post is not doctrinal. John MacArthur believes and teaches confidently and often in the cessation of these type of gifts. Martyn Lloyd-Jones on the other hand was not willing to limit the Spirit of God. Difficult times are ahead.....more difficult than we can imagine....we have our faith and are sure of our faith....and we have God's precious Word to us....and the Holy Spirit.
              It seems that demonic oppression and possession is increasingly evident today....as Jesus nears in His return....as it was when He walked throughout the land in His incarnation and ministry....as this spirit world of the demonic was stirred up. Well It would not surprise me if in like manner the Holy Spirit healed and spoke and guided in similar ways that He he had done when Jesus came the first time.

Do You Have About Fifteen Minutes To Spare After Reading This Post?

                Donald Trump today spoke at the NRA convention in Texas. In my biographical research on him over the past seven years I've watched dozens of his rally speeches. I would recommend to you....particularly any pastors who read this....that you simply Google....watch Trump NRA speech....then choose the Sky News site. Slide with your cursor the red dot over to the right to approximately one hour and twenty-one minutes....1:21:00....into the speech....and watch the last fourteen or so minutes.
                You will see the purest example of a demigod or a demagogue....both definitions fit. This is essentially the same stump speech that he has always given but there is a little twist....for about a minute or so after the time that I gave you to start at....soft music will begin....and Donald Trump will pause for about thirty seconds....look around.....seem a little confused but possibly not....and then begin his final words along with the music.
                There is one point I would ask you to pay particular attention to....where when speaking of guns....he says...."This is your God-given right"....only he paused after the word God....so it comes out....'this is your God......given right.' I'm sure that he did not intend this but it may be that God did? 
                He will go on....(you may have heard these words dozens of times as I have)....he will go on to tell you how America is going to be great again....(God's Word tells a different story)....and he will end with.....(he abandoned this for a little while a year or so ago)....and he will end with....speaking rather slowly...."for we are one....glorious,,,,nation under God." Which we are not.
                 I recommend that you take a few minutes to pray before watching this....for you will need discernment to break the spell....and spot the false prophet.
                 Once again this is a Saturday evening....about 10:30 as I type....about twelve hours before pastors take to their pulpits. I have prayed for mine on the day before the Lord's Day for years....and I pray for our son's pastor....and I pray for your pastor....generally but also specifically if I know you. 
                  I am the way that I am....I believe this to be so anyway....because I listen to about a dozen sermons a week from....preachers from the past....(Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones specifically)....and preachers today who preach like preachers from the past....(there are many if you can find them....but it takes effort....(I'll mention only John Piper and John MacArthur here.) I do not think that one can listen to powerful....(just another word for faithful)....sermons so often....and not have your life changed. I firmly believe that pastors today need to attempt to glean from these men.
                  So I will end here to pray again for pastors. Please join me....and if you leave your church service tomorrow and have not been figuratively brought to your knees in humility and praise for mercies given....and the laughter and trivial banter once again fills the sanctuary....then please run home and find a preacher on the Internet who can feed you what you need.

It's A Perishable Wreath

                Scottie Scheffler seems a decent and nice man as you will ever find....from what I have read since the Masters. Before that I didn't even know who he was. The article that I read this morning states that after the Masters win he said that golf is the fourth most important thing in his life. 
                I alluded to Scottie Scheffler in a post four days ago titled....We Knew That Many Would Be Deceived....But We Had No Idea That We Would Be Among Those Deceived....in this sentence...."We separated from progressivism and wokism but not from the world....and we gathered for ourselves idols which we labelled blessings from God....sports for one. So a professional says that Christ is most important to him....and that trump's all of God's Word about coming out of the world."
                 So we all know the story about how he was arrested while trying to pull into the golf club where one of the Majors....the PGA Championship was being played....and he after one round was right up there in the hunt. Not only was that incredible....that he was actually arrested....abut I read this morning that after being released he shot a 65. How is that possible....he is shaken to the core....I would be the same way....and he shoots a better round than he did the day before. I probably wouldn't be able to hit a straight shot. I know that because I couldn't hit a straight shot....if I golfed that is....because I could never hit a straight shot.
                  So the next thing was how would he react in the press to what happened? Would He be defensive? He remained as classy as he apparently is....and lauded the police who are there to protect us. So as I thought about this yesterday....with my mind pondering things as it always does....I formulated something that in my imagination he should say.....knowing full well that this would never happen. I want to get this down now in this post before I forget the details. 
                  This is what my mind came up with. Scottie Scheffler stands before the press after being released....and before starting his second round....and says something like this....

                   "Thank you all for coming at such quick notice. As you know I made some mistakes driving today....and wound up being arrested. As I was sitting in that jail cell contemplating what had happened.....not only to me but more importantly to the man who earlier had lost his life in that accident....whose family is now grieving....I came to some conclusions. I am in perfect peace about this. I can surely see God's hand in this. I talked this all over with my wife. I am a golfer who currently is ranked number one in the world....with seemingly a great career ahead of me....but God is dealing with me....and I plan on playing my best over the next few days....and then retiring completely from golf. I don't need the money and I am leary and weary of the fame. I look around this world and can hardly comprehend the seriousness of the situation. For me....I put no burden on anyone else....I cannot continue to play a game while war and everything else that God's Word tells us is coming....and that it seems that my Lord and my Savior is very near in His return. Thank you all again!"

                 OK....pretty crazy stuff right? I think that the general response to someone reading this might be that Scottie Scheffler was able to be calm and go out and shoot a 65 because God was with him. It was because of his faith in Christ! This will be a great witness! 
                 B. J. Thomas famously became born again and his 1976 album....Home Where I Belong....and was a big part of 1976 being called....The Year Of The Evangelical. I'm sure that his witness had an effect on me six years later....as I am sure that the witness of Scottie Scheffler will have an affect on some. Every man has to do what he has to do. I would point you to another celebrity also....one of the greatest basketball players of all time....Pete Maravich....who also became born again. I can't give the source of this quote....in fact I can't remember it word for word....but it had a big enough impression on me that I can relate the jest of what Pete Maravich said....it went something like this...."I wish that all the time I had played basketball....I had spent in God's Word." 
               Come on Pete....you would have been a nobody without basketball....and you wouldn't have affected Special Dog? Well that would be true....but what we have forgotten today is that our sport fame or our music fame or any fame of success....gets in the way of the glory of Jesus Christ. Paul wrote in 1 Corinthians 9:22....ESV...."To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some." He then a few verses later went on to write..."Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable."
               You have to keep reading here for Paul said that their 'fathers'...."all ate the same spiritual food"...."all drank the same spiritual drink"....but God was not pleased with most of them....and that these things were examples to us....warnings on idolatries. The temptation is surely there that we can partake of things that may even be idolatry....as long as we do it with a Christian witness. This may at times be a fine line....but it is still a line.
                History gives us this....surely you have heard of it....a Roman envoy was sent with a few men....but the power of the name of Rome....to stop the Seleucid Antiochus IV Epiphanes from attacking Ptolemaic Egypt. There was hesitation. The envoy drew a circle around the Syrian and told him....make your decision before you leave this circle! Friends....before you enter into the world....make your decision....will it be a half-hearted decision.... will you offer to keep the advice in mind....or will it always be Christ....over everything....with no playing around with idolatries?
                  One-hundred years ago....Eric Liddell made that decision before leaving the circle. He would not run in the Paris Olympics on the Lord's Day. This was a better witness than running the 100 meters....winning....and then giving the glory to God! Our denomination's monthly magazine just this month had a photo Of Liddell winning the gold in 1924. He died in a Japanese concentration camp just before the war ended....but his name lives on a hundred years later....where if he had run and won the 100 on the Lord's Day we would never have heard his name!

Understanding How God Put Revelation Together....Not What Everything Means

                This is my feeling on what is happening today. There is probably a better word to pick than 'feeling' but that is all that it is....a feeling. It's not that the book of Revelation is being revealed in that we can identify beasts and judgments. I am in the same place on those things that I have been for a long time. I can speculate here and there....but there has been no great revelations other than 1948....and the establishment of Israel as a state....as the beginning of the beginning of the end of the end times. I actually like the way I structured that sentence. It was that year and that event as John MacArthur once phrased it...."God had put the world on notice."
                I'm trying to think of an analogy. I'm literally pausing. I guess that's the way that I write at times. I've got one. There was an acclaimed movie in 1966 that starred Steve McQueen....the Sand Pebbles. It takes place in China in the mid-1920s. Just a regular seaman in the navy....but an engineer....by that I mean that he was in charge of the running and maintenance of the engine in the gunboat. It's a film about Gunboat Diplomacy. He transfers to this gunboat at the beginning of the film....asks for permission to come aboard and all that....but before he even stows his gear away he wants to see the engine. He stands there and just looks at it for a few minutes.....at this valve or that piston....and finally talks to it. I'm probably getting this wrong....it hasn't been that long since I last saw the film....but as I remember it he looks at the engine and says....."Hello....I'm Jake Holman." He understood how it works. They were going to get along fine.
                That is how I think that the wiser pastor/teachers are starting to look at Revelation. They don't know how it is going to operate tomorrow. They are not solving ancient mysteries.  There will be surprises....troubleshooting so to speak....but they know how God put it together. The seals and the trumpets and the bowls and the beasts are starting to make sense. There is less speculation with these men but more patience and comprehension albeit with great apprehension. The grid....or the motherboard if you will....is becoming a little more clear. There is less scratching the head....and more observation....making rounds so to speak....checking for vibrations....listening for a sound that should not be there.
                It's like the training is finally kicking in....and the real job is about to start. I want to bring up one part of Revelation from chapter 18. There is a 'city'....a bad city...."a habitation of demons, a prison for every foul spirit and a cage for every unclean and hated bird." 
                The whole world got rich through the existence of this city. An angel from heaven shouts...."Come out of her, my people, lest you share in her sins, and lest you receive of her plagues"....plagues which will come in one day....in one hour...."For in one hour such great riches came to nothing"....and everyone in the world were found "weeping and wailing" because of this city Babylon's demise.
                 Now....we don't know what that city is....what 'Babylon' means. There are plenty of clues....but at this time those clues seem to be more for exercising our discernment more than solving the puzzle. What I'm trying to put forth in this post is simply that we should be ready for this city....expectant might be a better word....whatever it turns out to be....to fall quickly....and that the world will not be the same.
                  There are books out there that will identify that city....and a number of 'cities' so to speak have been identified. Most will find that they were wrong....but some may find that they were right....but even for those whose guess turns out to be right....it would be more the probability that someone is right....than calculation. Although we are told in one verse....Revelation 13:18...."Let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast." 
                  Veils are being lifted. There is no hurry....because to God....as 2 Peter 3:8 tells us...."....do not overlook this one fact, beloved, that with the Lord one day is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day"....His timing is perfect....and His training of us is perfect....if we want that training....even as we struggle to see clearly in that training....and if we look to the coming of Jesus Christ....ready to rejoice....because we know that the engine of this world is about to burnt out.

                 

Shavuot.....Or.....Pentecost

               Shavuot....is pronounced in three syllables....sha...vu...ot. It's one of the three major Jewish feasts where the people had to travel to Jerusalem. It is also known as the Feast of Weeks...as it takes place 50 days....or seven weeks after the first seder of Passover. It is a celebration of the early summer grain harvest....but over the centuries....after the destruction of the temple where this feast could not be celebrated as the Bible describes it.....it took on the meaning of the giving of the Torah. Shavuot this year begins on sundown....Tuesday June 11....and ends on nightfall of Thursday June 13. It always begins on the 6th day of the Hebrew month of Sivan.
               Christians celebrate this as Pentecost....when the Holy Spirit was given to the church....and this year it is Sunday....May 19. Neither the Jewish Shavuot nor the Christian Pentecost is celebrated on the same secular date every year. So to reiterate....the Christian Pentecost is one day....May 19.....and the Jewish Shavuot is a two day celebration beginning on June 11.

               God's Word describes the Feast of Weeks in Deuteronomy 16: 9-12....(there are other references)...."You shall count seven weeks. Begin to count the seven weeks from the time the sickle is first put to the standing grain. Then you shall keep the Feast of Weeks to the LORD your God with the tribute of a freewill offering from your hand, which you shall give as the LORD your God has blessed you. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your GOD will choose, to make his name dwell there. You shall remember that you were a slave in Egypt, and you shall be careful to observe these statutes." 

               Although the New Testament does not mention that Jesus celebrated the Feast of Weeks....He told his disciples to wait for the....promise of the Father....and they waited....and when the fiftieth day came we read in Acts 2:1-4...."When the day of Pentecost arrived, they were all together in one place. And suddenly there came from heaven a sound like a mighty rushing wind, and it filled the entire house where they were sitting. And divided tongues as of fire appeared to them and rested on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit gave them utterance."

                  This paragraph in italics from a 2020 post describes why I pay particular attention to these Jewish feasts....

"The dates of the future feasts of Israel are always only a click away for me or anyone who feels that surely major prophetic events will occur on these days. This isn't date setting for we do not know the years....but we do know that God's future plans for the Jewish people will most likely revolve around their feasts. (the horrors of the attack from this past October.....on the last day of Sukkot....is an example)....To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us".

Ships Of State

Preface: The following was first posted on January 20.....2016....the post below it....December of 2014. Just as with this ship in the first post....America has experienced one disaster after another since then. We have lost the capability to communicate....we have lost our rudder....as a perfect storm is approaching.

                Captain Miller was leaning over weather reports that had come in over an hour earlier. There was some concern on his face but if the ship remained on schedule they might outrun the winds. It was 2100 hrs and he had just returned to the bridge from dinner where he shared the Captain's Table with some very influential stock market brokers heading to London on what else....money business. The waves were about ten feet and the winds calm at the moment. They were exactly half way across the Atlantic....the ship....its 300 passengers and 45 crew.
               The hatch opened quickly and Lieutenant Crosby entered appearing very annoyed. "Captain.... we have lost all radio transmissions capability.... we cannot send out anything. The problem appears to be electrical and we are on it but I'm told that if the transformers are shorted out as they appear to be that it could take up to 24 hours before we can transmit again!" "24 hours!"  The captain repeated his last words..."24 hours without contacting anyone? Well, let's hope that we do not have any emergencies Lieutenant."
               Captain Miller ran his fingers through his graying hair and just as Lieutenant Crosby left the bridge Lieutenant Smith entered...."Captain...we have a rudder problem. After we completed the 15 degree turn north the rudder froze in place." Captain Miller walked up to the wheel, look over the sea and nodded his head...." I can see that....all engines stop." A seaman repeated the order to the engine room. Miller turned and looked at the four men with in the bridge...."No radio transmissions.....no rudder....this trip was going along too smoothly."
               First Officer Martin Malkin spoke up...."Did you hear that?"   The captain looked off to his left and then to his right and answered that he heard nothing but Smith nodded..."I did...it sounded like a muffled explosion."   Captain Miller looked over at Seaman Thomas...."Have all stations report in."   The Seaman did so and one by one answers came in. "Nothing from the engine room.   Lieutenant Smith, go down there and see what's happening."
               It was 2115 hours. The captain had been back on the bridge for only 15 minutes and the ship was falling apart. A young officer entered the bridge with a returning Lieutenant Smith. He was covered with dirt and oil and appeared in shock.....Smith spoke for him...."Explosion in the engine room Captain. Everyone is reported for but they can't even see for all the smoke right now."
               Captain Miller walked back over to the weather reports he was reviewing only a few minutes earlier with then little concern...now there was great concern for they were not going to be able to outrun the storm even if the engine and the rudder were repaired quickly. Lieutenant Smith spoke first...."Captain, should I make an announcement to the passengers?" The Captain  paused for a moment or two and said...."No....there's no need in worrying them."
               Three other officers were summoned to the bridge and the group sat around a table to consider the problems and make a plan. The ship was now beginning to rock ever so slightly. Captain Miller stood up quickly and asked of no one in particular....."Gentlemen...are we listing a little to the aft?"  Indeed it seemed so, that the ship's bow was a little bit higher than the stern. Just then another seaman burst through the hatch..."Captain....Captain....we are taking on water! A seam in the port side of the engine room has ruptured!"   "How much water?" the Captain shot back immediately?   "Sir.... a  lot of water....we had to get out of the engine room!"
               Captain Miller shouted to Lieutenant Smith...."Smith...radio an S.O......" he stopped mid-sentence for he remembered that there was to radio transmission capability. "Lieutenant Bonham....get the lifeboats uncovered....just uncovered. If anyone asks why, tell them....tell them it's a crew practice."
               Seaman Waverly, the ship's cook knocked on the hatch unaware of the emergencies that were going on....""Enter!"  Waverly spoke slowly....."Captain, we have a bit of a problem.....a serious one though.....a 6" water pipe broke in the stockroom....." he hesitated and Captain Miller roughly yelled....."And?"   "Sir before we could get the leak isolated, all of the stock was destroyed.....the only thing that we have left is the refrigerated food and.....and...."  "And what else"...shouted the Captain again.   "And there seems to be an electrical problem with the refrigeration. Unless we get that fixed, we only have one meal left for all on board."
               There was no panic or even hesitation from Captain Miller...."Make the announcement Lieutenant Smith.  Make the call to emergency stations and then tell the passengers that we are temporally stuck.....with damage that will require assistance.....don't mention the food or anything else."
                Captain Miller did not hear the door open. He turned to look over the seas and Doctor Johnson, the ship's doctor, was behind him, also unaware of all the problems except the one that he had to report. "Sir, It appears that you are very busy but I have something you need to know."  Captain Miller could not believe his ears. He didn't have any idea what problem the doctor had but it was obvious that there was one....yet another emergency....was this even possible. It was now only 37 minutes from the time that the captain was looking over weather reports and it seems like the world had caved in.  Did he even want to hear the doctor's report?  He did pause long enough for Doctor Johnson to continue....."Captain...we have had an unusually high sick call the past 24 hours. I did not think it necessary to mention it to you but it appears to be some sort of violent bacterial strain of some sort. One patient...a passenger.... has made a dramatic turn for the worse and is fighting for his life.....three others have the same symptoms. This seems to be highly contagious sir."  He paused and then asked "Captain....is it too late to turn back to New York?"
                The ship was listing more now...surely the passengers were aware of it. Surely they were aware that we were not going anywhere. There would be panic soon. The waves were nearing fifteen feet and getting worse by the minute. A young lieutenant whose name the Captain had not memorized as of yet ran through the already open hatch and almost slipped.   Apparently he knew that the ship was taking on water and had been charged with removing the covers from the lifeboats....."Captain....I don't know how this has happened......I signed off on the papers in port.....I didn't visually verify it but was told in no uncertain terms that....." "Spit it out Lieutenant" shouted the Captain. "Captain. The guernsey chains had been removed in port to be weight inspected......somehow they were never put back on......we cannot lower the lifeboats if we need to!"

The following post is from December of 2014. 

Damn The Icebergs.....Full Speed Ahead!

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

Order In The Court......"And The Books Were Opened"

               Sometimes it is labeled The Parable Of The Unjust Judge. I prefer what it is called at other times....The Parable Of The Persistent Widow. A widow went up to a judge with a grievance against an "adversary." The judge admitted that he cares nothing about God or even man. Does that sound familiar? It should in this day and age where judges are too often political. 

              The 1973 movie was so popular that they made a television series on it that ran for four years in the late 70s and early 80s....The Paper Chase. It probably would have lasted longer but it revolved around a group of 1L....first year law students....and followed them to graduation and then a half season to figure out what to do in life. I have it on DVD....we watch an episode about once a week....and it is really quite good.
              Did that movie or television series have any effect on the thinking of the current Supreme Court justices? Clarence Thomas would have been in his second year of law school when the movie came out. Samuel Alito would have seen The Paper Chase as a 1L. John Roberts and Sonia Sotomayor would have watched the television show as 1Ls. Elena Kagan would have been in high school. Brett Kavanaugh and Amy Coney Barrett and Ketanji Brown Jackson and Neil Gorsuch may have watched reruns somehow. 
              The unjust judge from the parable simply did not want to be nagged anymore. Jesus made a point of thinking of the judge's excuse for finally hearing the widow's complaint. That point is for us to keep praying....keep praying....keep praying!
              That is not the end of the message....for Jesus then said God will answer prayers....and avenge those who...."cry out night and day to Him".....but then Jesus says this...."Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?"
              John Gill....of whom Charles Spurgeon spoke so highly of said of Luke 18:8...."There will then be little of the doctrine of faith, and less of the grace of faith, and still less of the exercise of faith, particularly in prayer, and especially about the coming of Christ; it will be little thought of, and expected, or faith little exercised about it."
             Spurgeon himself preached...."Will any of you persevere? If Jesus came tonight, would He find faith in your house? Would He find it in your life?"
             J. C. Ryle wrote...."Where is the use, after all, of ignoring facts under our own eyes....facts on the world....facts in the churches....facts in the congregations we belong to....facts by our own doors and firesides? Where is faith to be seen? How many around us really believe what the Bible contains? How many live as if they believed that Christ died for them, and that there is a judgment, a heaven, and a hell....these are most painful and serious inquiries....but they demand and deserve an answer."
             Martyn Lloyd-Jones emphasized that the gospel would be accomplishing everything God designed for it but reminded his congregation that it was their salvation that mattered....not the condition of the world.

             This is from a sermon transcript of John MacArthur...."I kind of think that if He [Jesus] were to come, and He will, will He find a whole lot of people who call themselves Christians with very little interest in that. Genuine Christianity never loses its grip on God, never loses its trust in Christ, never loses its hope. But we get easily distracted, don't we? And the Lord is trying to nail this down in a practical way. When Jesus comes....will He find His people still crying day and night eagerly waiting for His return? Will we love His appearing? Well we be crying out....'Maranatha....or will it be like in Noah's day with just a few, or Lot today with just a few?"
             I would ask Christian men to ask themselves this question....how much time on average do they put in on what the next Steeler season would be like....(and this is but one example of many)....compared to time spent meditating and studying God's Word on when Jesus will return? I would then recommend they ponder that a while....and try to come up with an excuse for their answer....but logically there would be none. We care more about our entertainments and our future and our freedoms then we do for the glorious return in righteous legal judgment of Jesus Christ....where all tears will be dried....and all pain done away with for those who believe in....and trust in....and even cry out for that return.....'Maranatha....Lord Jesus Come!'

Revelation 20:15....NKJV...."And anyone not found written in the Book of Life was cast into the lake of fire."

Revelation 21:4......NKJV...."And God will wipe away every year from their eyes; there will be no more death, nor sorrow, nor crying; and there shall be no more pain, for the former things have passed away."

Revelation 22:20....NKJV...."He who testifies to these things says 'Surely I am coming quickly.' Even so, come, Lord Jesus.'  

Note: I don't like going too many posts without recommending a sermon from either....a preacher from the past....or a preacher today who preaches like preachers from the past. So I would like to recommend an 1887 sermon from Charles Spurgeon....The Holy Spirit And The Need Of The Age.....which can easily be Googled.