'A Little Bit of Monica In My Life....A Little Bit Of Erica By My Side.....A Little Bit Of God....Is All I Need....'

Preface: My wife and I walked through a carnival last night....throw some darts off to your left....or knocks some milk bottles over to your right. I threw a bucket of rings at Coke bottles trying to win a stuffed shark for our grandson....no luck. We watched a family of four tykes crawl through a tube....slide down a slide into a bin of pool noodles....wiggle their way through a maze of dangling strips and push their way through air-filled punching bags. The kids did this over and over again. Then a quick pass through some crafts....walked by the rides.... and obeyed my wife when she said....no....I cannot have some cotton candy.  We spent about a half hour there. We're supposed to be pilgrims....traveling to a certain place. That popular wedding reception song comes to mind....A little of Monica in my life....a little bit of Erica by my side....only with us today the next line is....a little bit of God is all I need. I'm in the habit of doing this wherever I might be....I might see an overweight mother stressing out with kids....or a frazzled grandparent pushing a stroller....or teens decked out with bright new shoes or a T-shirt with a more than lifesize face photo on it of somebody with five colors in their hair and a pint of mascara on their face....and the enjoyment that I might be having runs right into the stark reality of life. These people have eternal souls. That carnival last night was the exact same type of carnival that I goofed around in as a young teen. I want to shout out....Follow me....for your own good....don't stay in one place too long!" Another line from that wedding song came to mind....I had to look it up...."So what can I do? I really beg you my Lord....to me flirtin'  is just like a sport." What an odd but eerily apropos line!  The following was first posted in January of 2023: 

 "He'll Labor Night And Day....To Be A Pilgrim"                 

                To paraphrase a familiar introduction....My name is Special Dog....(though it was once Graceless)....and I am a pilgrim. I wasn't always a pilgrim....for I lived in Vanity Fair....but the day came many years ago....maybe a couple of decades....this after over thirty years of living in the City of Destruction....the day came when I saw that you cannot stay in Vanity Fair if you ever hope to reach the Celestial City. I'm of course using John Bunyan allegory here from his monumentally wonderful book Pilgrim's Progress.

                We need to examine the age that we live in....and compare it to other ages....in order to see how far we have fallen....for otherwise we can swim in the polluted waters forever....without ever knowing the extent of the pollution. Our habits eventually adjust to what is all around us....for it is all we know or have ever known.
                 So for the Christian....the day is either going to come or it isn't. We either in effect go into denial....or we pack up and leave Vanity Fair....trusting in God to guide us safely over territory where the Christian is despised. As for the family....we either say as did Joshua...."And if it be evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." To phrase that as we would understand it today....If you think that these 'born again' Christians are way too fanatical....the Bible this....and Jesus that....and....life, life, eternal life....then ignore them. Go ahead and spend your time on the things that everyone else does....but as for me....even if I’m the only one….I’m not goin' there.
                 There is more than one way to look at this. The cost of discipleship would be another. After so many years....I do not see how one can...."Come out of her"....as both Jeremiah 51:45 and Revelation 18:4  commands and warn us....and not experience the rejection....at bare minimum....from the world around us....but you must know this in advance also....even Christians will make it hard for you....for even being around you unsettles them.....for you are either too fanatical for them....your words of devotion are too syrupy....or your beliefs and practices will sting them. The Lord's Day is one example.....for they've got it good right now....put a couple of hours into the church on Sunday morning....and run home to watch NFL games the rest of the day. You are thus a threat to them.....and they do not like it.
                Friends....brothers and sisters in Christ....if the trials are not there....if you are not looked down upon by the crowd...there is something wrong! Now it is easy to ignore my words here....or anyone else's words that might place this difficult challenge right before you....but if you are having a tough time ignoring it....you might want to meditate upon the words of Jesus to Peter....and Peter's response....in not that dissimilar of a situation. Jesus asked Peter....after many disciples turned back...."Do you want to go away as well?" I need to repeat this here....most will have no problem ignoring this....but some....maybe only a few....won't....and if you are part of that few....will you respond to Jesus as did Peter...."Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
                I'll leave you with these words from Bunyan...."What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it." And this the last stanza of a song within Pilgrim’s Progress which reads:

Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend,
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
                

Seeking Our Own Righteousness

             I would like to put a concept before you. I haven't even fully developed it myself. Roughly half of the people in America have no problem with ending the life of babies that are not born yet. And roughly half of the people abhor that a life is being taken. At times it seems like the whole world is being ....halved up.
           So we on our side....the pro-life side as it is known....have always had the goal of at least 51% of the Congress....and at least a one-vote majority on the Supreme Court....and of course the White House. Unfortunately it takes more than a bare majority to do anything....but even if it had that sixty percent or so....we would still be a country where half of the people have no problem with ending the life of babies not born yet.
            So how does God look at this? Our belief would be that if the government made abortion illegal....officially.....then no matter how many people wanted it to be legal....we would...officially....be a nation that respects life. That is our goal. God would acknowledge this....and bless us accordingly....but in light of how Jesus described hating someone as the same as murder....babies lives might be saved....but America would be the same....and it is that America that God had been warning and judging for quite some time.
            We feel the same way about same-sex marriage....or gender transitioning....particularly letting the very young do this on their own. In all of this....no matter which side gains majorities through elections....the nation....America....essentially stays the same! So we are fighting....and compromising our ethics in the process....for something that in the eyes of God changes nothing!
            The alternative is this....we look inwardly....we make sure that there is no hate. We seek God's mercy....not that more and more people would start voting the way that we want.....but that more and more people....and we ourselves.....would humble themselves....ourselves....before a holy God....seek His ways and His perfect will and His goals....Thy will be done....and not ours. It is not that the laws need changed....but that our hearts need changed.
           
"How then will they call on him in whom they have not believed? And how are they to believe in him of whom they have never heard? And how are they to hear without someone preaching? And how are they to preach unless they are sent?

              We know these two verses....some know them by heart....Romans 10: 14, 15a....but do we associate them with what Paul wrote at the beginning of the chapter. His heart's desire was that Israel would be saved. Oh they had a zeal....but it was not according to knowledge....

"For they being ignorant of  God's righteousness and seeking to establish their own righteousness, have not submitted to the righteousness of God."

               We need in evangelicalism....preachers to tell us that we are seeking our own righteousness.....but that type of message offends us. Our pulpits comfort us and let us lie around in ease so much that we have developed bed sores. How will we know....what we need to know....if they do not preach this to us? 
               Charles Spurgeon was undoubtedly the greatest preacher sent from God in the nineteenth century. Martyn Lloyd-Jones was undoubtedly the greatest preacher sent from God in the twentieth century. Is your preacher....the one who feeds you every week of your life....serving you the bread of life....or a thin gruel? There is no way you can know the counterfeit until you know the true. Preachers out there are not going to be a Spurgeon or a Lloyd-Jones....but by hearing the power of God preached....you will then be able to seek and find men who draw from the same well!

Addendum: Test me on this....Google up and listen to....all 54 minutes and five seconds of....Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon, The Acceptable Year of the Lord....and ask yourself if you have ever heard any man preach such as this?

"The Heavens Declare The Glory Of God, And The Sky Above Proclaims His Handiwork" Psalm 19:1

Preface: The following paragraph in from the latest DISPATCHES post....but I wanted to bring it front for a day since it is new: 

It has been a wild year for stargazing....highlighted by the total solar eclipse....and the year is not over. They are calling it a once-in-a-lifetime viewing experience. Two distant stars....in our Milky Way....in the constellation Corona Borealis....one larger and cool....the other smaller and hot....will in effect....'collide'....with the explosion being so bright that for a while it will look like a new star was created....appearing as bright as the North Star....visible just by looking into the heavens. This happens in the Corona Borealis about once every 79 years or so....so it is predictable. The last one was in 1946. The latest may be this year....possibly next year....but no later than 2026. To make it even a little more interesting....a brightening is first noticed about eight years previous to the explosion....but a slight dimming usually occurs before the big explosion. In the previous Blaze Star as it is sometimes called....brightness began in 1938....dimmed...and exploded in 1946. This current brightness was noticed in 2015....dimmed in mid-2023....indicating that it is about to 'explode'.....thus for a time appearing to be a new star.

"He'll Labor Night And Day......To Be A Pilgrim"

Preface: The following was first posted in January of 2023:                   

                To paraphrase a familiar introduction....My name is Special Dog....(though it was once Graceless)....and I am a pilgrim. I wasn't always a pilgrim....for I lived in Vanity Fair....but the day came many years ago....maybe a couple of decades....this after over thirty years of living in the City of Destruction....the day came when I saw that you cannot stay in Vanity Fair if you ever hope to reach the Celestial City. I'm of course using John Bunyan allegory here from his monumentally wonderful book Pilgrim's Progress.

                We need to examine the age that we live in....and compare it to other ages....in order to see how far we have fallen....for otherwise we can swim in the polluted waters forever....without ever knowing the extent of the pollution. Our habits eventually adjust to what is all around us....for it is all we know or have ever known.
                 So for the Christian....the day is either going to come or it isn't. We either in effect go into denial....or we pack up and leave Vanity Fair....trusting in God to guide us safely over territory where the Christian is despised. As for the family....we either say as did Joshua...."And if it be evil in your eyes to serve the LORD, choose this day whom you will serve, whether the gods your fathers served in the region beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites in whose land you dwell, But as for me and my house, we will serve the LORD." To phrase that as we would understand it today....If you think that these 'born again' Christians are way too fanatical....the Bible this....and Jesus that....and....life, life, eternal life....then ignore them. Go ahead and spend your time on the things that everyone else does....but as for me....even if I’m the only one….I’m not goin' there.
                 There is more than one way to look at this. The cost of discipleship would be another. After so many years....I do not see how one can...."Come out of her"....as both Jeremiah 51:45 and Revelation 18:4  commands and warn us....and not experience the rejection....at bare minimum....from the world around us....but you must know this in advance also....even Christians will make it hard for you....for even being around you unsettles them.....for you are either too fanatical for them....your words of devotion are too syrupy....or your beliefs and practices will sting them. The Lord's Day is one example.....for they've got it good right now....put a couple of hours into the church on Sunday morning....and run home to watch NFL games the rest of the day. You are thus a threat to them.....and they do not like it.
                Friends....brothers and sisters in Christ....if the trials are not there....if you are not looked down upon by the crowd...there is something wrong! Now it is easy to ignore my words here....or anyone else's words that might place this difficult challenge right before you....but if you are having a tough time ignoring it....you might want to meditate upon the words of Jesus to Peter....and Peter's response....in not that dissimilar of a situation. Jesus asked Peter....after many disciples turned back...."Do you want to go away as well?" I need to repeat this here....most will have no problem ignoring this....but some....maybe only a few....won't....and if you are part of that few....will you respond to Jesus as did Peter...."Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life."
                I'll leave you with these words from Bunyan...."What God says is best, is best, though all the men in the world are against it." And this the last stanza of a song within Pilgrim’s Progress which reads:

Hobgoblin, nor foul fiend,
Can daunt his spirit;
He knows, he at the end
Shall life inherit.
Then fancies fly away,
He'll fear not what men say,
He'll labour night and day
To be a pilgrim.
                

"Do You Also Want To Go Away?"

                It's not a formal logical fallacy.....but it can at times prove itself.....circular reasoning. There is an ad right now on Breitbart for a tee shirt that has two lines of words....the top says....I MAY BE OLD....BUT I'M OLD ENOUGH TO REMEMBER.....and below an eagle....AMERICA BEFORE IT WENT TO S**T.
                The mere fact that someone would wear this shirt with profanity on it....with children to see....proves the assertion that the person who bought and wears the shirt was making!
                A half century ago or more....the 'liberal'....(an imperfect choice of words but it will serve its purpose here)....said that they do not want this old time religion God....they want their more enlightened God. On our side....we also said that we don't want that old time religion God....we just want the God bless America....God.
                Evangelicalism....embedded within the MAGA movement today....wants something that is impossible. They want God's blessing on what they do and who they are. As you may know....the news is only a day old....Louisiana passed a law that requires schools to display the Ten Commandments. That is not enough folks....because it is trying to bribe God....or to put it in a more milder way....make a compromise with God....we will fight to put the Ten Commandments in school....but we are keeping our sports and entertainments.
                We are like this out of ignorance. We are not out-and-out telling God that will we give Him some of what he demands but not all. So....we need to know.....to be informed....of how and where we went off the path. We need to be reminded of the awesome holiness of God! That is the job of the pulpit....but the pastors in those pulpits are on their own. The glory of God has long since departed.
                We just visited the Billy Graham Library in Charlotte. I love the place....and I love the memory of the man....but he was imperfect as we all are. He made major mistakes in discernment in his early decades....but as he neared seventy he began to change. The words of judgment for America that he bellowed early on became real to him. His last decades were spent more like those of Jeremiah. This is the same with me....and I hope that it will be the same with many in evangelicalism.
                 John MacArthur made a similar transformation. We are today in the church....the remnant of believers anyway....as in a landing craft....the days shipboard are over. The beach is ahead....and it won't be as the beach that I just returned from.
                 The shepherds are asleep in the fields...and only God can awaken them. There was a microburst in our neighborhood as we were away. I'm sure that all of you have been in a microburst of wind at some time or other. You just huddle there and pray....pray that the trees don't fall and the roof stays intact. Well more than a microburst is in store for us....and the trees will not stand....and the roof will not remain intact.
                 This will wake up the men in the pulpits....but we need them awakened beforehand. We need them awakened.....yesterday.....to use that familiar form of expression. We need them awakened three days from now in their pulpits! We need them on their knees today!
                 This is not what we want. We want to go back....but we cannot go back. This winnowing that is coming will cause great division....but when the dust settles....and we can see what is front of us....we will then see who is still there.
                 I want to give you just one Bible passage....the 6th chapter of the gospel of John. Jesus had just fed the 5,000. The people wanted more of Him....they wanted to make Him king. Jesus knew this and went off to pray. The disciples got caught in a storm on the sea that evening....and Jesus appeared to them walking on the water. Peter then walked on the water...before he began to sink....and Jesus calmed the sea! The people followed to the other side of the sea....and Jesus confronted them. They didn't discern the signs he gave them....but wanted the food. We today do not see the signs of the times....we just want the food....they wanted a king....we want a leader.
                  Jesus then entered the synagogue and gave the most thrilling discourse in that He was the bread of life...."Most assuredly, I say to you, unless you eat the flesh of the Son of Man and drink His blood, you have no life in you." Well this was just too much! Many of His disciples walked away from Him....John 6:66....interesting number....and many will walk away today when they see that our bread is not the bread of a free and powerful nation.
                  Jesus saw disciples leave and asked of Peter...."Do you also want to go away?" Peter rhetorically answered....'Where would we go....You are the Christ....the Son of the living God.' 
                  The 6th chapter ends with this....Jesus said to the remaining disciples....referring to Judas...."Did I not choose you, the twelve, and one of you is a devil?" Why did Jesus bring this up here? This whole passage has end-times implications....in fact end-times implications are literally all over through God's Word.

A Billboard's Direction To Heaven

                I count license plates on road trips! There I've said it. I'm like a kid whose parents have to keep occupied with a game. I have done this for at least thirty years. I really don't even think about it when I'm doing it. I'll be listening to sermons.....as I was today on a road trip....but when a car passes....I glance at the license plate out of the corner of my eye. I can tell most of them from five or six car lengths. Some of the states are trying to play tricks on me.....for instance.....Michigan....in order to look like their football team....changed the design and it now looks a lot like Delaware. I got to get close to see which one it is!
                I also pray for the cars that get stuck behind me....or rather the people in the cars.....because they are forced to looked at my bumper stickers for these posts....so I pray...."Lord have mercy on that couple!"....I know they need mercy because we all need mercy! In-between these habits I try to notice what the speed limit is.
                We have an absolute rule in our car....whoever drives....picks what to listen to....so on a road trip we will go back and forth from Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....to Shaboozey and Jelly Roll. To be fair though....my wife listens to a lot of Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones while I drive.
                Religious billboards down South are a big thing....and I notice them....and always offer up a prayer even if I don't think that the message chosen was the wisest....but today....on Interstate 26 in South Carolina....there were three absolutely giant billboards that floored me. Apparently I wasn't the only one that noticed something special about them....for when we got home I Googled the message....and there was an article on the man who personally financed them. You can easily find this article by Googling....Billboard....and the words below that are on those billboards....
                Imagine this....for I did after passing all three of these....a driver....or a passenger....maybe with tears in their eyes....for they have made a mess of their lives....or their marriage.....maybe lost their job....or have an addiction that they cannot beat....and they while driving are almost forced to read this giant billboard

                                FORGIVE MY SINS, JESUS SAVE MY SOUL

                 You don't have to be a theologian folks. You don't need a pamphlet....you don't have to be in a church or at a revival service.....and you sure don't need my posts....you need to look to Jesus and say....forgive me.....heal me.....save me. Be critical of that if you want but the kingdom of heaven will be filled with souls who did just that....as I did forty-two years ago.

Addendum: It's becoming our habit to exit Interstate 77 in Charlotte....coast two miles down the road....and visit the Billy Graham Library....browse....buy a few things....be blessed at even being there....and have an inexpensive lunch in their cafe. if you go there be sure to have a peach milkshake!

Do You Need Oil For Your Lamps? See The Bottom Of This Post

               My wife and I are on the last day of a vacation on a fairly exclusive island....and had breakfast at an exclusive French restaurant. Everyone at home talks about this place so we had to go there? I admit it was the best orange juice that I ever tasted in my life. The restaurant was highly organized and filled to capacity. As my wife enjoyed the atmosphere....I was pensive....and she asked me what I was thinking about. And I told her....probably a mistake.
             As I sat there with people enjoying crepes and $6 coffee....my mind kept wandering from the movie Dr. Zhivago To Helen Rappaport's 2016 book....Caught In The Revolution. I could see Yuri Zhivago's beautiful family home....this at the beginning of the film....and then I would see the home after the Bolsheviks took it over and moved in. I could almost hear the gaiety of the crowds at the Russian ballet in Rappaport's book....and then see the crowds of people demanding the removal of Tsar Nicholas II. I could see the young Romanov daughters flittering around at the Winter Palace in St. Petersburg....and then I saw them huddling around an iron stove in Siberia.
              Jay Gatsby comes to my mind as I type this....and the clash of Old Money estates and New Money extravagance. The Jazz Age....the Roaring Twenties....Rock & Roll....Yuppies....MAGA....this today....whatever we have created....is not sustainable.
              Taking advantage of the U. S. Open completed on the Lord's Day the day before last....Payne Stewart was a brash young golfer who became a genuine and sincere Christian....who won that Open in 1999 for his third 'major'....and then died four months later when the Lear jet he was a passenger in lost pressure....everyone on board passed out....and the plane flew aimlessly off course before crashing in a field. On accepting the trophy for that 1999 U. S. Open....while wearing a WWJD bracelet he said...."First of all, I have to give thanks to the Lord. If it weren't for the faith that I have in him, I wouldn't have been able to have the faith that I had in myself on the golf course. I'm proud of the fact that my faith in God is so much stronger, and I'm so much more at peace with myself than I've ever been in my life."
              Scottie Scheffler was....probably he still is....the world's top golfer. He won the Masters in April and his victory speech included this...."My victory was secure on the cross...and that's a pretty special feeling....to know that I'm secure for forever....and it doesn't matter if I win this tournament or lose this tournament. My identity is secure forever." As you probably know....on May 17 he was arrested on his way to the golf course before the second round of another 'major'....the PGA....(the charges have since been dismissed)....and he tied for 41st at this just completed U. S. Open.
              Rory Mcllroy missed two short putts in the last three holes to lose this same U. S. Open. He hasn't won a major since 2014 when he won two. His life is pretty much a mess right now....and in spite of being ranked number two in the world with over 10 million in earnings he is taking a little time off from golf to try to figure out where his life or his golf or whatever is headed. Bryson DeChambeau pointed to Payne Stewart in heaven as he sank the final putt to win the Open. These are strange and unbiblical concepts that we have today on God and heaven. Logic alone should show us that the discrepancy between the lives and beliefs of the New Testament believers....and that of our lives and beliefs today...is too great to be representative of the same gospel.
              The 1924 Paris Olympics were made famous through the movie....Chariots Of Fire....where Eric Liddell would not run on the Lord's Day. Ralph Lauren just revealed the United States Olympic ceremony uniforms for this year's Paris Olympics. 
              To repeat my assertion from above....this culture and everything involved in it....is not sustainable. It cannot go on. I would ask the evangelical who passionately wants MAGA to succeed....have you given much thought at all to what would be ahead regardless of who wins this election? Do you have any analytical powers....or is everything just talking points for an election....of which they happen....every two years!  God is judging all of us....all of us....for what we have constructed as a society? Think about it...do you really believe that God takes pleasure in blessing a man winning a multi-million dollar golf tournament....on the Lord's Day no less....as violence and hatred and the demonic spread over the world as in a pandemic? 
               Ultimately....do we desire Jesus to return...of do we just want our future to get back on track? (SPOILER....we are not getting back on track....and that future was not God-honoring to begin with)
                The winds were so strong today on the beach that they planted a red flag where everyone could see it. Even yesterday under a yellow flag I had to fight the currents. We have no excuse....for we have been warned....maybe not from our pulpits but the warnings are all through God's Word. We are collectively the five unwise virgins who when we hear the announcement....The Bridegroom Comes!....we'll have to turn the gas off on the grill....of which we probably have plenty of....and run frantically for oil for lamps....of which the warning is also given....that there will not be enough time to get any!

ligonier.org
gty.org
whitehorseinn.org
desiringgod.org
truthforlife.org
Google....Spurgeon sermon YouTube....for all the oil you will ever need
or....Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon YouTube

Here are two powerful Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons that I listened to just today on the way back from our vacation. Just Google....

Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon....Ananias and Sapphira
Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon....Believer or Unbeliever

We Avoid This Debate At Our Own Spiritual Peril

              There is a joke that used to circulate in Presbyterian circles....oh this maybe thirty years ago at least....

There was a ministerium meeting of various church pastors in an auditorium....when a fire broke out. A Methodist minister jumped up and yelled...."FIRE!"....and a Baptist minister jumped up and yelled...."WATER!".....and then a Presbyterian minister jumped up and yelled...."ORDER!"

              I focused a little this week on trying to get the attention of some Presbyterian ministers attending a synod. Well....order is fine...and no one does it better than presbyterians....but there are times that are of an emergency nature....and we have been increasingly in such times for the past decade.
              I have no insight on this....on all that is involved in developing yearly conventions and synods...and there are so many different denominations. The Southern Baptist Convention right now is once again focusing on women pastors.
              If the SBC were to take up what has become known as....Christian Nationalism....it would probably be a disaster....for that denomination is so big that it would be hard to maintain order....as last year the convention barely made it through the issue of women pastors.
              John Macarthur on the other hand recently held a Shepherds Conference that did address the issue....but being that this was MacArthur's conference....the pastors attending knew in advance what John MacArthur's opinion is on this.
             So this would not be a pretty sight....taking up the issue of Donald Trump....in any church convention or conference or synod....but in the smaller denominations the challenge should be met....in fact to ignore the extraordinary malignant influence that Donald Trump has had on not only evangelicalism as a whole....but on the gospel of Jesus Christ....to ignore this is....well....I won't apply any adjectives here.....other than to say that it would not be a wise or right decision....and it would not be the courageous thing to do....and it would be lacking in faith that God will....however difficult the conversation might be....bless the outcome.
              The issue came up in my own denomination in the early months of 2020. If I remember it correctly the denomination....through the monthly magazine....applied some sound wisdom in not taking the position of voting for....the lesser of two evils. There was some strong backlash to this opinion....which was also given space in a later issue. We needed this dialogue. A lot has happened since then....all negative and mostly disastrous. This is not in any way the politics or even the America that we had before the turn of the century. The magazine's viewpoint has been proven correct. We need this dialogue even more today....expanded....debated....prayed over....fasted over....tears shed....and mercies pleaded from our only true King! 

Daniel Boone......George Washington.....John Fetterman....My Father......And Me

Preface: I just read the news where Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman and his wife were in an auto accident on interstate 70 in Maryland....were treated at the hospital but are fine....and according to Senator Fetterman....happy to be back home in Braddock. Braddock, Pennsylvania....a borough in the Pittsburgh suburbs....along the Monongahela River. It was once....eighty years ago....a thriving community where everyone in the area went to shop. Today it is a depressed town. A couple of weeks from now....Lord willing....I hope to be at a family reunion on the bluff above North Braddock....at a restaurant with a beautiful view of Pittsburgh....and the river....the famous Kennywood Park....and possibly some of the battlefield. Fall backwards....and roll about a half mile....and you would be in the town where I grew up. Small world isn't it....Daniel Boone.....George Washington....my father....Senator John Fetterman....and me....having something to do with the same small plot of land. You will have to read the following post from April of 2015 to understand that last sentence:   

The Battle Of The Monongahela And The Tribulation 

                 My father was raised in a small community in Western Pennsylvania called North Braddock, which is on the Monongahela River only a few miles from Pittsburgh. The house that he was raised in was on the site of one of the most important battles ever fought on American soil. Never heard of it? Don't worry, most people living in that area never heard of it either, at least they aren't aware of the significance of it. The battle really doesn't even have a name but is generally known as the Battle Of The Monongahela. George Washington was an aide to General Edward Braddock who was the 'Generalissimo' of all British and American forces in Colonial America, and who was mortally wounded in the battle. Daniel Boone, before he became famous, drove a wagon in service to the British soldiers in the campaign, and many in the campaign fought a few years later on both sides of the American war for independence!
         In the 1750s the French had their sights on the territory west of the Allegheny mountain ranges. The forks of the Ohio River which is Pittsburgh today was a key focal point for their strategy. The British knew this and assembled what would be the largest British military force ever gathered in the colonies, over 2000 British and American soldiers, and put them under General Braddock to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. They, the Braddock Expedition as the force was called, were to hack their way over the mountains and up the Monongahela River. It would turn out to be more than a disaster. The British in their bright red uniforms and the Americans in their blue uniforms crossed the Mon (as we know it in Pittsburgh) just past Turtle Creek and then shortly after that, to the cadence of the drums, they marched back across the river (it was only knee deep at the time). It was here on the east banks of the river that they were ambushed by the French and Indians.
         Thomas E. Crocker, author of Braddock's March, How The Man Sent To Seize A Continent Changed American History, described the battle as pure pandemonium among the British and Americans, almost 500 of whom died in the battle. The enemy lost only 11! The British would like to forget this battle... one of the worst defeats in their history.... and Americans were not that interested in remembering it either.... but the importance of what happened in that battle cannot be overestimated.
         As a child my father had played on those streets below the bluffs from which the French and Indians had descended upon the British and Americans. My mother went to dances on what was at one time a battlefield, and later met my father at Braddock Hospital where he was recovering from injuries sustained in the Pacific in World War II? She passed away last year but only a few years ago we visited the house that she grew up in which was only yards away from the bluff where one could see most of what had been the battlefield.
         George Washington's reputation as being invincible began at the Battle Of The Monongahela as he survived with bullet holes in his coat and horses shot out from under him, but this post isn't really about George Washington...or the battle itself as history....but rather the battle as a study in chaos and pandemonium. The British and Virginia officers stood their ground but could not bring order to the men who could not see their enemy who hid behind the trees. Many were killed by friendly fire. The British had all the skills and all the knowledge and more than enough firepower but were decimated because chaos was all around them. That is the reason for this post. Christians will one day experience such chaos and pandemonium....and that day may be in the very near future. We need to know this...and we are not being told!
           Mankind hasn't changed. As brilliant as he can be, he can be just as foolish. We read in Scripture about the very last of the last days and think that we have it all down pat. An evil man arises and takes over the world....he demands that everyone have a mark placed on them in order to buy or sell anything.....Christians say no....he kills many of them....and then Jesus Returns. Only it is not going to be as easy as just recognizing the Antichrist and saying no, for just as the British and Americans experienced chaos and pandemonium on the banks of the Monongahela, so will Christians in the great delusion of the last days. Family and friends will be taken in...making it much harder! "This...mark... is just technological progress in a digital age" they'll be told. 'Friendly fire' will be everywhere. Confusion will reign supreme. Friends....we fall for just about anything now...and this deception is minor compared to what the church will one day experience!
          From personal observation of end-times conversations over the past thirty years, and even recollections of my own thoughts when I held to a Pre-Trib Rapture, I don't remember the topic of the Christian experiencing chaos and pandemonium being at or even near the top of the list. That's probably because the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory tends to make Christians a little less worried about something they won't even be around to experience. That's the short message of this post...if our Lord's return is near, the pandemonium and confusion ahead may be so great that we may even question our own decisions! Whatever generation experiences this will need to know....beforehand.... what God has written to us about those days.... and discernment does not readily come while while one's main interests and passions are on the baubles of this world and not on God's Word

Addendum: I submit to you friends that what evangelicalism experienced in the past nine years....the above having been posted two months before Donald Trump came down that escalator into the midst of evangelicalism....is but a part....a foretaste of the chaos that the church will experience before our Lord comes back in great power and glory. 

The Wrong Weapons....The Wrong Armor....The Wrong War

                It was November 22, 1969....and our bus had just pulled up to the headquarters company in Fort Devens, Massachusetts. We had just completed basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. After dumping my gear we went to the second floor day room to wait to be told where our barracks would be. On the television was a middleweight championship fight where Italian boxer Nino Benvenuti retained his middleweight title in a win over Luis Rodriguez.
                Benvenuti was a classic European stand-up boxer who had great success primarily by scoring points in the ring. I don't remember what year it was that I first witnessed this cage fighting that they have today. I do remember that I could not watch it too long because I thought that it was sickening....and I still do. I was listening to Mark Levin one evening when he went on and on about how he loved this new type of fighting. It took me by surprise but looking back on it....this was the arena that we in conservative politics were heading. We were to become known as kickers and stompers and stranglers and elbowers....anything to win. One side of the culture was becoming effeminate....and the other side macho men....but women were in there stomping with the best of them.
                I'm sure you read in the news that the....'Right'....as it is known....is coming back strong in Europe. This isn't Nigel Farage stuff folks....even though he is again in the mix....this has serious negative potential of strongarm tactics turning into outright totalitarianism and demagoguery. Here in America....our women are in your face....and our college age youth are being deceived and commandeered by organizations such as Turning Point USA. Anyone not totally taken in by Donald Trump knows that he is a man who loves revenge....but more than that he has to have it....it has always been a driving force in his empty life.
                There is a scene from the film Gods And Generals....it takes place at the flagpole at the Virginia Military Institute. Everyone was waiting to see if Virginia would secede. The Virginia Order of Secession came down....and the cadets....(in the film)....where deliriously happy and celebrating.....honor and glory and all that stuff would follow. And it did....along with death and destruction on both sides. Surely....those students were not happy nor smiling as the reality of war dragged on....those who were still alive....and just as surely we with our joyous rallies....calling for war on the other side....will see that things were not as simple as they appeared...and that pestilence and famine and death are part of war.

"For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the cosmic powers over this present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly places.....Therefore take up the whole armor of God...."

Ephesians 6:12 ESV

Note: Folks....we are at war already. Thomas Jackson got his nickname Stonewall....at the first battle of Bull Run. He had his men stand and wait for the right moment. Others charged forward in haste and were driven back....only to have their officer in an attempt to stop the retreat point to Jackson....standing like a stone wall. Jesus said...."From the days of John the Baptist until now the kingdom of heaven has suffered violence, and the violent take it by force." (Matthew 11:12) That is us folks...we are to take heaven by storm. We do that through ferocious prayer and steadfast faith and bold witnessing....but we also are at times to stand....in defense of the gospel of Jesus Christ....like a stone wall!

Lord's Day Post

                  It was 2014....aboard Royal Caribbean's....Grandeur Of The Seas. At our dinner table there was a retired rodeo cowboy and his wife....a professor and his wife....(this is sounding like Gilligan's Island)....two single English ladies from London....a couple that lived not that far from where we live....and my wife and I. We all dined together the whole cruise. One evening I tried to break the steady conversations about trivial matters....port-o-call excursions....that type of thing. Out of no where I brought up the Academy Award Best Picture....Best Actress....Best Director....and a bunch of other 'Bests' winning 1942....Mrs. Miniver....one of my favorite films.
                  I talked slow for dramatic effect. I told of the church service at the beginning of the film....before the war started....where all the main characters were having a jolly time listening to a jolly sermon....and then I paused and told about the last scene of the film....the church in the small cottage town outside London was partially bombed out....with much of the ceiling gone....exposing the open sky. A number of the main characters of the film had been killed off by the end of the film....but many of the other church goers were still there....and it was anything but a jolly time....with very serious faces....and a very serious minister. Well that was my point to the story....we may be cruising in calm waters but the world was in dangerous straits. How would our new friends react. Well....the one English lady who had been looking at me....I would have thought she would have appreciated the theme....she looked back at everyone else and immediately started talking about an excursion they were planning on in Bermuda! It's not easy being orange! 
                   Let me segue for a moment to last evening....where my wife and I were at a swanky restaurant....swanky in Special Dog's life anyway....with a patio table and live music. My wife was talking most of the evening with her friend about regular daily things in our lives. Towards the end of the dinner....I don't think that I had said anything yet....in the middle of laughter....I looked straight at my wife's friend and out of the blue again....asked her opinion of Pennsylvania Senator John Fetterman. That's just me. I like to talk about things that matter. I'm not the first one people would think about when compiling a dinner party guest list.
                  So twelve hours from now men will be filling their pulpits or standing behind their transparent or translucent lecterns. Laughter will have filled the sanctuary as the congregation arrives. Mothers will be disciplining children....fathers looking for the pew....children dropping things. Just about everything will be discussed from knee problems to vacations....everything except the Lord Jesus Christ.
                  The pastor will welcome everyone and comment on what a beautiful day is....the chatter will stop....and the service will begin. The name of Jesus will be heard throughout the sermon but no one will even have had a tinge of discomfort....and certainly nothing even near despair. As soon as the sermon ends the laughter will return with a vengeance....and we wonder why America is collapsing?
                   We hear a fair amount about mass baptisms at this college or that beach....but I am hoping and praying to hear about Jonathan Edwards type sermons where the people were sliding out of their seats upon hearing...."Their feet shall slide in due time." Edwards preached this sermon....more than once....specifically to wake up the sleeping congregations. And you know what....this was at God's direction....and in His perfect time! May this...even tomorrow....Be God's perfect timing to have mercy upon His shepherds....thereby having mercy upon all of us!

Note: I highlight my Bible with four different colors. Orange represents anything related to prophecy. Consequently there is orange highlighter all through my Bible. Thus my comment....'it's not easy being orange.'

"BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SINS OF THE WORLD"

                 It was two days before Charles Spurgeon was to take the pulpit at London's famed Crystal Palace....this was October 7, 1857....and with workers up in the galleries preparing for the crowd....the Prince of Preachers took to the pulpit to test the acoustics for that crowd that would exceed 20,000! With no microphones in those days Spurgeon bellowed out...."BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD!"

                One of those workers up in the peanut gallery heard those words and was shaken to the core. He went home and confronted what he heard....the command to....Behold the Lamb of God!  On his deathbed he told of how he was converted....and word got back to Charles Spurgeon on this.
                 For the first ten years of my Christian walk....roughly ten years....I was of Arminian belief. If you do not know what that is....it is the belief that man has a free choice in being saved. Consequently....Arminian believers do everything that they can to in effect talk a person into faith in Jesus Christ. There were seven men at my workplace who I talked into saying a prayer of faith. This was almost forty years ago.  As time went on they showed no increased interest in God's Word or anything involving the Christian Faith. There was another man though. I didn't talk him into anything. I didn't even really know him well. He sought me out....and asked if I would lead him in a sinner's prayer! He has since then treasured the gospel of Jesus Christ. I talked to him only a few days ago.
                If you are confused by my definition of Arminianism then I suggest that you simply Google....'election'....along with 'R. C. Sproul or John MacArthur or John Piper.' My purpose here in this post is to point out that God does the saving. He does the choosing. Please don't give up on this because of your gut reaction....but let these men explain what is happening in salvation.
                Would anyone who has read at all into these posts think that I do not attempt to lead readers to Christ? It is not that we who see what God's Word says on this do not evangelize! Think of the names of the greatest evangelists and missionaries of the history of the church....and just about all of them believed that it was God that does the choosing....and regenerates a heart....upon which the regenerated person then....chooses Christ!
                 This does not mean that those with Arminian belief are working against the gospel. Billy Graham is a prime example of this. If God demanded perfection in our evangelizing then I would have been the first to get the boot.
                 That Spurgeon episode demonstrates that it is the Word of God that converts....not the efforts of the evangelist. This is not a great divide between us....but it is a divide great enough that we must hold fast to what we know to be true!
                  So the title of this post is in bold letters...."BEHOLD THE LAMB OF GOD WHO TAKES AWAY THE SIN OF THE WORLD." Should God have mercy upon the least of the least of believers who evangelize....that being me....then one reader here....it may even be you....might read those words....as the Holy Spirit is convicts through those words!

Addendum: I'll give you three YouTube's for you to consider:

R. C. Sproul....Unconditional Election. What is Reformed Theology.
John MacArthur....Christ's Honor and Our Blessing.
John Piper....TULIP Seminar, Part 6.

And as I do so often I recommend the wonderful film....C. H. Spurgeon; The People's Preacher....which can easily be Googled....because in it you will see how the greatest preacher of the 19th century was converted by one verse....Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth: For I Am God, and there is no other."

Someone once asked R. C. Sproul if he thought that he would see Billy Graham in heaven.....R. C. Sproul believing in Sovereign Grace and Billy Graham having Arminian inclinations. Sproul said...."No....I do not believe that I will see Billy Graham in heaven....because Billy Graham will be so close to the throne of God....and I will be so far away from the throne of God....that I will be lucky even to get a glimpse of him"

              

Nothing Is Set In Stone.....That God Does Not Decree

                 Preface: In our arrogance....we are absolutely sure that Donald Trump will be the Republican nominee....and he may very well be. The MAGA church is looking cautiously but somewhat confidently to a November victory. Let me explain what I mean by MAGA church. Though just about every congregation in evangelicalism has some kind of split in it as to Donald Trump. This is not a counting beans situation to determine whether this or that' church is a Trump church. Rather...the mere fact that there is a split....and the reasons cannot even be talked about....prove that Donald Trump has essentially destroyed the effectiveness of the evangelical church in America. Pastors literally everywhere have been neutered. Discernment is practically nil. The glory of God has departed the church....Ichabod. This my friends is why Donald Trump is....how the Apostle John described them....an antichrist....not to mention a false prophet....for he has prophesied for nine years now....right in the midst of the church....of which its ministers thank God for his presence....that our best days are yet to come! To reiterate something that is in the post before this post....we in evangelicalism are praying for....an antichrist....to become our president! 

 "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'." James 4: 13-15 ESV

               President Lincoln used this thought of...."If God wills it"....in his second inaugural address. Jimmy Carter used the phrase 'Lord willing' often....and Ronald Reagan gave the same response when asked if he was going to run for president.
               I have at least two plans for this day....take two naps....that may come about and it may not. We have a vacation planned. It may or may not come about. I try to include in my conversation as often as possible....'Lord willing'......and when I forget....I get a twinge of regret.
               So with this in mind....we in America have a general election planned for this November 5....and we are sure of the two nominees....at the two conventions....the Democrats in Chicago from August 19 to the 22nd....and the Republican in Milwaukee from July 15 to the 18th. All of this may come about....or none of it.
               I had two relatives pass away within the past three weeks....and a friend and former co-worker two days ago. I have no idea how many more days I have left. Paul made this fascinating statement in 2 Corinthians 5:4...."For we know that if the tent that is our earthly home is destroyed, we have a building from God, a house not made with hands, eternal in the heavens." Granted....it is easier to dwell on these things at seventy-four years old than at thirty years old.
               To any Christian with even a modicum of discernment it should be a bleak feeling at best to look ahead to this coming post-convention election season....Lord willing that is. We have had almost nine years of this stomach-churning anxiety....and it is only going to get worse.
               Thomas Paine wrote these words in December of 1776...."These are the times that try men's souls; the summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph."
               Paine wrote...."My own mind is my own church." He detested the Bible...."It would be more consistent that we call it the word of a demon than the word of God." He thought that George Washington was a fake. His words in the above quote....."Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered"....are very telling....as he thought hell....if there was a hell....could be conquered....though not easily. Thomas Paine's thoughts are those of the radical patriot....where God if he does exist is inconsequential. The Christian's Valley Forge is....The Valley Of The Shadow Of Death...."Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; For you are with me; Your rod and Your staff they comfort me." He gently pulls us in with His staff....but at times He uses His rod....and that is where we are now....for we strayed in pride and arrogance and politics. The comfort is that He is merciful to us who return to Him!
               Donald Trump's nomination is not a certainty. From day one....which was the day of his inauguration in 2017....he has force-fed and stiff-armed the entire Republican Party. Anyone else and they would have been sent off to Elba long ago. Neither of these two men....Biden or Trump....can handle what is ahead....and that is being overly generous to them. No one who would replace Trump could stop the judgment that God has told us is coming. DeSantis or Haley....should the Lord will it....would at least be sane voices in a maelstrom....and very easily defeat an eighty-one year old man who for over a half century had dug a deep pit that he will never be able to get out of.
               Our hope has always and only been in Christ. That hope today is that God will be with us during the coming tumult and tremors. So....we think that this election is set in stone....and it may indeed turn out as it looks now....but just as Nebuchadnezzar.....after looking around at Babylon asked of no one but himself...."Is not this great Babylon, which I have built by my mighty power as a royal residence for the glory of my majesty?"....and immediately lost his mind and grazed in the grass....and just as we conservatives in 2019 boasted of the greatest nation that we built....and then as the men of Sodom.... were struck with blindness in the pandemic events to come....and just as Donald Trump boasted all through 2020 of the great nation that he built....only to in effect graze in the grass of the ellipse on that fateful January 2021 day....we also...."both small and great"....shall wear ourselves out groping for the door....if we do not turn away from trusting in princes and horses....and proclaim for all to hear...."to the only God, our Savior, through Jesus Christ our Lord, be glory and majesty, dominion, and authority, before all time and now and forever. Amen."

Addendum: I posting this at 10 PM. I did not get my two naps....but I did listen to a worthy talk by Stephen Lawson that you can Google up with....Steven Lawson; The Passionate Preaching of Martyn Lloyd-Jones.

Genesis 19:11

v

Can You Sign This Petition.

               My wife brung this up to me for the upteenth time. She read my last post and said....its not...my wife and I....its....my wife and me! I told her for the umpteenth time that I aint on no account goin to change. I dont like....so and so and me....I like so and so and I. I think its more classy. I figure that if I can get a hundred thousand signatures on a petition to make it ok to say.....so and so and I....and send them to someone important like Miriam Webster....that she just might change it! So....If each one of you can sign the petition that is to your left....i'll get it their sometime....if you can sign a thousand different signatures....you and me can make change happen! Just use anyone's name....neighbors or friends or relatives or baseball players or mass murderers or dead people or anyone....they wont care.....they dont check these things. The democrats do this every election. 

Whatever Happened To Jeremiah

Preface: Many pastors today are in for a rude awakening. The question is how will they respond when they find out that they were asleep....and that God was indeed judging all of us....and they did not warn the sheep like they should have been doing? The more faithful servants of God will admit it....and God who is full of mercy....(or I would not be typing this right now)....will chasten them but restore them....to once again feed the flocks. The others will find excuses....and never admit that they were wrong. The following post is from October 2 of 2013:

                Were you ever telling a story to someone and as you finished the other person looks at you and asks...."So what happened?" You had completed the narrative but there were some loose ends not necessarily related to the message you were intent on giving. Well that's kind of the way it is with Jeremiah. We follow him for forty years of warning kings and princes and false prophets and the people....Nebuchadnezzar returns super angry....just like Jeremiah told them that he would....and destroys the temple and the walls and the city and takes just about everyone as captives back to Babylon. So what happened to Jeremiah?
                The short answer is that we do not know. What God's Word does tell us is that Nebuchadnezzar knew about this prophet who all along was telling Zedekiah to surrender. He gave orders to his top general to find Jeremiah who had been under house arrest....and offer him a good life in Babylon....or he could stay in what was left of Jerusalem if he chose....but even that's not the end of the story.
                 Nebuchadnezzar took everyone back to Babylon but left the poorest of the poor to pick up the pieces and farm the land....and he chose someone to be a governor over them...someone that he could trust....Gedaliah was his name. Here's where it gets complicated. A third man....Ishmael....wasn't happy with the choice....for being of royal lineage he thought he should be named king. Gedaliah was warned about Ishmael but did not heed that warning....long story short....Ishmael kills him....rounds up the people....and starts to take them where he thinks they should go. Enter yet another key player....Johanan....he gathers up as many soldiers as he can and pursues Ishmael and the people....and finds them.
                 Ishmael escapes but now Johanan is in charge....and he asks Jeremiah whom along with Baruch was with the people.....he asks him what the LORD would have them do....and then promises to obey whatever Jeremiah tells them. Remember this is after Jeremiah giving true prophetic words for four decades!
                 So Jeremiah asks of the Lord what the people should do....and the LORD tells them to stay in Israel.....and He will protect them and provide for them. Essentially it is the same thing that God had been all along telling the people through Jeremiah....TRUST! You would think that the people would finally believe Jeremiah....but no sooner had he told them what God said but Johanan and the leaders....who had promised to obey what what the LORD would say.....called Jeremiah a liar and a false prophet....just like all the kings and princes had been accusing him of for decades! It's mind-boggling....and frightening....how weak we all are when we do not trust God's Word!
                 Johanan took the people to Egypt....and Jeremiah did his visual parable thing again....this time with rocks....essentially telling the people that they would all eventually die of the sword and pestilence and famine. That's all we know about what happened to Jeremiah....except for this....the most important thing....he is praising the great I Am right now....and exalting his Lord and Savior and King of Kings....and will joyfully do so forevermore....whatever that time paradigm will be that is eternity!
                 So take heart friends....stand for what God's Word tells us of judgment that is coming....and our need to amend our ways and to prepare. No one is going to want to hear it....just as they didn't want to hear what Jeremiah told the people. Trust God....heed the warnings from His Word....listen to what He tells us....and not the various princes and voices that dominate the airwaves today!

Lord's Day Post

                It was August of 2011....and my wife and I were vacationing on Hilton Head island. Sunday was our first full day. We usually arrive on beach vacations on a Saturday....and it is my habit to surf the web for a church to attend the following morning. That is not an easy thing to do....to find a church were the gospel will be preached. Often if all the Presbyterian and Baptist churches advertise on the web as a 'friendly church" or a "come and grow with us' type of evangelizing.....I'll then look for a Lutheran Church Missouri Synod....for I know that the liturgy at least will contain the gospel....and these churches usually turn out fine.
                Well that year at Hilton Head we did find a Missouri Synod church....and attended. It was announced that the regular pastor was away and that a retired pastor was filling in. I wrote a post on this back then....and that is why I can relate some of the details. Anyway....it was a wonderful sermon as that old man....("Old man?"....he was probably as old as  I am today)....he preached slow....and softly as I remember....but it was a glorious proclamation of the majesty of our Lord Jesus Christ....and humbling sermon on our need to hear that our sins have been taken away by the finished work of Jesus Christ on the cross!
                As we were leaving.....(the people were very friendly)....a woman came up to us and in an apologetic manner told us that we should come back the next week when their normal pastor would be back. Well that my friends is the predicament that we are in today. The pastor has to be upbeat....stylish helps....and comforting. You have to leave church with a smile on your face or the pastor had failed.
                I've related this many times before.....(hey....it's been 15 1/2 years of posts so far)....where a young 15 year old Charles Haddon Spurgeon....(this was January of 1850)....where this young man could not get to his regular church because of a snowstorm....so he stopped into a Primitive Methodist Chapel on the way.....probably for warmth more than anything else.
                 Well the regular pastor could not even get to church so an elder was forced into the pulpit. While relating this church service later on in his life....Spurgeon described the man as not even able to pronounce all the words correctly. The man preached on Isaiah 45:22...."Look unto me, and be ye saved, all the ends of the earth, for I am God, and there is none other." The pastor would say....."Look....all you have to do is look. It don't take a college education to look!"
                  The greatest preacher of the glorious gospel of Jesus Christ in at least the past two centuries....was gloriously saved that snowy morning. Spurgeon said later in life that not every man can go into a pulpit to preach....but God can choose any man to go into a pulpit and preach.
                  I could ramble on for a few more paragraphs on Charles Spurgeon....but there is a 110 minute....2009 documentary.....titled....C. H. Spurgeon....The People's Preacher....that you could....and really should....boot up on your computer....(no signing this or joining that)....and watch. I believe that you can type it into the search on ROKU and watch it.
                  Now....personally.....our television has only been on once on the Lord's Day in the past forty years. I'll relate that one time....it was Super Bowl Sunday.....I guess that I could look it up but can't remember the year....and my elderly mother had to have her Steeler games. Well I got a frantic call at game time.....the Super Bowl was not on! I told her....'Ma....the Steeler game must be on!" She was panicking.....'No it's not on!" What do I do....get in the car and travel 45 minutes to tune it in for her? I called the television station to see if there were any problems. No....the Super Bowl was just starting. I had no choice. I turned the television on on the Lord's Day in my home....and tuned in the Super Bowl....to prove to my mother that the Super Bowl was on....and then told her...."Let's do this. Do you see the little arrow that changes the stations?" She did. "Well....push it once....did the station change?" She said yes...."OK hit it again.....any Super Bowl?" "No!" After about fifteen or so pushes of the button she said...."Oh...There it is!"
                  I guess you really didn't need to know that all....but I might suggest to you that right now.....(it will probably be Sunday afternoon or evening)....that you put the world aside if at all possible....and watch this wonderful film....and be blessed!
              

When We Forget Who Is The Only Source Of Our Strength

                The thirty-fourth chapter of Jeremiah is worth looking at anew. Nebuchadnezzar and his Babylonian army held siege against Jerusalem. Jeremiah had taken God's message of warning to the king and the people for a long time....and he did it again here....repent or God would turn the city over to the Chaldeans. Zedekiah threw him in jail for the latest warning....but in an attempt to mollify God....decided to obey just one of the commands of the law. The people had held many of the Hebrews in a slavery of servitude. It was only....according to the law....supposed to last for seven years and then they would be set free. Jerusalem hadn't been doing that. So Zedekiah covenanted with the people to let those in servitude go free. Well....Nebuchadnezzar's attention was turned to an emergency with Egypt. Maybe God wasn't going to judge Jerusalem after all....so the people then regretted setting the slaves free....and enslaved them again! Jeremiah prophesied that the Babylonians would turn right around and return and resume their siege....and that is what Babylonians did!
                 Although not an exact analogy....how many times have we prayed when in dire need of something....and then when God blessed us with an answer....we all of a sudden forgot our gratitude? I've done that more times than I care to remember. Well America in a way has done the same thing....also many times. There was an absolutely major revival just prior to the beginning of the Civil War....that started in New York City. The carnage then began....and there were later legitimate prayers of mortification officially offered....from the Congress and Abraham Lincoln....prayers of humiliation and seeking God's forgiveness. The 'killer angels' ceased in their work....but it did not take long for us to forget God in order to take our part in the industrial revolution. 
                 God watched all of this in Jerusalem....and through the words of Jeremiah....told Zedekiah that he had indeed done a good thing....but then then he broke covenant and made it worse....and therefore God would give all the people of Judah their liberty....their liberty to do what what they want free of God's hand upon them. In other words...Nebuchadnezzar would come back with a vengeance!
                 So what does that have to do with us? Well....we had....forty and fifty years ago....attempted to come closer to God as a people....1976 was called....The Year Of The Evangelical. We had a born again president. Nixon's hatchet man was wonderfully and powerfully brought to Christ. Another president....Ronald Reagan....would use the term....in sincerity...."Lord willing!" Great and wonderful ministries such as R. C. Sproul's Ligonier.org and John MacArthur's Grace To You....gty.org....and John Piper's Desiring God....desiringgod.org....came into existence....and then we changed our minds....and now the liberty that we demand is ours....the liberty to make America great again....free from God's guidance and hand upon us! Billy Graham for one....warned increasingly....as long as Jeremiah had warned Judah and Jerusalem....that judgment was coming. John MacArthur shouts out the same warnings as does Piper and many more faithful shepherds....but we do not have ears to hear.