JOHN MACARTHUR....wow....no one can ever accuse Pastor John MacArthur of not saying what he thinks to be truth. His latest controversy came about a week ago when as the media reported it.....John MacArthur denies there is anything called mental illness. The Internet supposedly went viral first....as this was a recorded panel discussion.....and then the doctors and the preachers started to join. So....as I often do....I tuned in an hour or so ago to MacArthur's church worship service livestream....this being 2 PM our time.....11 AM California time. MacArthur started out by saying that he was putting on hold a week his series on Revelation....to address this latest controversy.....and he is doing it as I type this. Unfortunately you will have to wait a few days to a week or so to hear this sermon for yourself....whether at his ministry website of....gty.org....or to the church website....(Google John MacArthur, Grace Community Church)....where you can listen his sermons. Maybe you can find a way to boot this sermon up now? Go for it. Anyway....after explaining his position which you will find interesting.....he moved his sermon to the gospel and to man's greatest fear....the fear of death....and that is what he is concluding as I type this.
SWISS ARMY KNIFE....an article out today reports that the new version of the Swiss Army Knife will have all but one of the regular fixtures....and maybe some new ones....but no knife. One of my best memories of boyhood was in reaching in my pocket and pulling out a small....two inches max....pocket knife. Wow....what a feeling owning that was! It was like I really had an identify....boy....someday to be man....someday to have muscles....someday to cut wood with an ax...someday to lift the hood on a car and fix something! A few weeks ago my wife and I were out and about....and she needed to cut something....and asked me if I had a knife on me. I looked sternly at her at I pulled out my pocket knife and said..."Wifey....a man always has a pocket knife in his pocket!"
BOY SCOUTS.....also announced today....after 114 years....the Boys Scouts will no longer be called the Boy Scouts....but Scouting America. Oh how I wanted to be a Boy Scout when I was a kid....but it wasn't to be. I really wanted that uniform...and that green bent flashlight that hooked to your belt. And I wanted to earn merit badges! And have my mom sew them on that sash! Just within the past few weeks I did research on ordering....not a Boy Scout Manuel....but a Boy Scout Field Manuel for our grandson....and I planned on having fun with it for a few weeks before giving it to him. I may go and order it now? (five minutes later....did it)
MET GALA....reality has become surrealism. The news today is like looking at a Salvador Dali painting. The annual Met Gala makes the Academy Awards look like an Amish bake sale. It's not the theme....for that I believe is Sleeping Beauties....but the dress code....so it's more the theme for what fashion to pursue at the gala....The Garden of Time....a 1962 science fiction writer's short story. I read that short story tonight....a couple that lives a life of pure opulence....sees an invading army of seemingly revolution peasants approaching their grand villa. There is a time warp here....and the couple....or the statues (?)....lament that their lifestyle is about to end. You can easily Google this and read it in five minutes. It is just so odd that the Met Gala choose that as a theme....as an army of locusts approaches America. A book came to mind while reading the short story....I've posted on it often. I think it might be a good book club selection....Helen Rappaport's....Caught In the Revolution....Petrograd, Russia, 1917...A World On The Edge
MARTIN SCORSESE is working on a new movie on Jesus Christ. It was 1988 when The Last Temptation Of Christ came out. Christians protested that blasphemous film. Here in Pittsburgh....I don't know how many of us there were.....thousands at least....we met on one end of Forbes Avenue on Pitt's campus of Oakland.....and walked silently with candles.....stopping in front of the King's Court Theater....to pray. I made a promise to myself at the time.....and have kept it up to today.....I would never watch a Martin Scorsese movie.
BENJAMIN NETANYAHU....It's being reported that Congressman Jerry Nadler yesterday called Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu the worst Jewish leader in 2100 years. It actually goes a little bit further than that as Nadler said...."He only got one competitor for the worst Jewish leader in history"....referring to Hyrcanus II....born a hundred years before Jesus Christ. That puts Ahab and Zedekiah and a slew of evil kings ahead of Netanyahu. It also puts the rulers of Jerusalem who sent the Son of God to the cross....ahead of Benjamin Netanyahu. Netanyahu is only a few months older than I am. He's been around a long time....first becoming Prime Minister in 1996. I am no expert on Israeli politics by any means....I only have an observer's opinion....but that opinion is that if there is one thing that has always stood out about Benjamin Netanyahu....it is that the most important thing to him is the defense of Israel.
CONSERVATIVE TALK RADIO....I have been a talk radio listener since the 1960s....just about 60 years folks! On November 2, 1920....that's not 2020 but 1920....KDKA radio in Pittsburgh....announced election returns between Warren Harding and James Cox....the first scheduled commercial radio broadcast in history. That broadcast came from a shack on top of the Westinghouse plant.....and began with these words...."This is KDKA of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania." It is entirely possible....it is decades too late to ask them....that both of my grandfathers were at work in the building at that time. Conservative talk radio was an everyday thing for me up until about the middle of Trump's term....when opinion and debate and even conversation ended. Rush and Levin and Hannity....all of them.....just became obedient followers. The conversation was gone. Before Trump came along the habit was to support a conservative candidate....anywhere....and bring them on the broadcasts. That's where we first heard of Ron DeSantis and Cruz and Rubio and so many others. That unfortunately is also what gave rise to Kristi Noem and others who are only useful as far as they stick with the program.
THE KENNEDY FAMILY....I've brought it up many times in these posts of over fifteen years....as a young Catholic....and with a Catholic as President....I began an almost lifelong respect....concern later became a better word....for the Kennedy family. To this day I still believe RFK to be the most compassionate politician I have ever encountered. I looked at Ted Kennedy and wondered....how do you possibly follow three brothers like Joe and Jack and Bobby. So when RFK Jr.....whom I have been very familiar with for a long time....when he came on the scene as a presidential candidate....in spite of the significantly erroneous positions that he was taking on some issues....I tried to at least keep in mind that this was Bobby Kennedy's son....and I still feel that way....but today....after viewing videos that JFK's only grandson is hyping on the Internet....(I can't even describe them folks....you can look them up if you are interested)....and I saw just how far a Kennedy can get from what those three men stood for....the fascination or the endearment.....is coming to an end.
