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
