These Are Not To Be Our 'Influencers' Folks!

                Timothy was a special young man to Paul. He had traveled with him quite a bit....and now Paul had essentially left him as the pastor of the church in Ephesus. There were big problems there. Some supposed teachers thought that they discovered ancient mysteries that only confused the people. Some were still clinging to the law for salvation....others were political....demanding their rights....and many others were hooked on riches. This was now probably in the mid-to late 60s....and Timothy was thrown into it for on-the-job-training until Paul if even possible could come himself. Roughly twenty-five years later....give or take a few years....John was given what would be the book of Revelation....and in it was a letter to that same church in Ephesus....along with six other churches in the same general area. Timothy apparently had done his job well. The church was still defending the essential doctrines of the gospel against false prophets and false teachers....but a problem had developed....in their zeal to defend doctrine....as the ESV translates it....they had...."abandoned the love [they] had at first." In their quest to get every jot and tittle right....they forgot how they themselves came to faith....and who they were before they came to faith. A reset was needed....and that was the purpose of Revelation's....letter to the church of Ephesus....and also to us today!
                    Paul had sent two letters to Timothy in those early days....encouraging him....and trying to strengthen him in this difficult task....in the midst of persecution. There is one passage that I hope you sit down and take at least a whole day thinking about....and comparing it to us today....in the second letter to Timothy....chapter three....the first nine verses....and a few verses after that. Paul is talking about....'right then'....but also looking ahead. Verse one begins with this....continuing in the ESV....

"But understand this, that in the last days terrible times will come...."

 "For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money"....think about our culture
   today.

"proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, heartless"

Are you still with me?

"unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God..."

Are you spending time on these descriptions or just reading over them as if you understand it all?

"having the appearance of godliness....but denying its power...." In other words they said all the right words....but they were just words....fake godliness....fake everything.

Then here is the kicker...."Avoid such people." These are not to be our....'influencers' folks! Read on....in fact I hope that you are reading through both letters from Paul to Timothy....

"Indeed, all who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted.....while evil people and imposters will go on from bad to worse....deceiving....and being deceived."

I want to skip on down to three verses in chapter four....verses two....(a very familiar verse)....and three and four....

"Preach the word; be ready in season and out of season; reprove....rebuke....and exhort....with complete patience and teaching." That is verse two....now for three and four....I'm adding my comments in italics....

"For the time is coming when people will not endure sound teaching....(this is today on steroids folks)....but having itching ears they will accumulate for themselves teachers....to suit their own passions." (and with us today it is politics)

"and will turn away from listening to the truth"....(No one has to be born again anymore folks....we just have to be conservative)...."and wander off into myths."

"Hello....Can I Give You $100 Worth Of Silver Dollars Just To Tour A Condo?"

                It was a hot business strategy at the time....no pun intended....roughly twenty years ago....a few years on either side. My wife and I would be sitting under an umbrella at the beach....maybe we looked rich.....I don't know.....and a young man or woman would come up to us and offer us a really nice gift.....just to tour a condo and listen to a presentation. Sometimes the gift would be cold hard cash....a hundred dollars maybe....once it was silver dollars that at the time were worth over a hundred dollars....today those coins would be worth almost five hundred dollars....and my response each time went something like this...."Thank you for the offer....but there is zero percent chance that my wife and I would even consider buying a condo." And that always started a short conversation where the young person would tell me that the owners of this complex do not care....it's all tabulated somehow....its a percentage thing. I would try again by saying....that I can't just take someone's money falsely....no matter what their percentages say....or even if the owners really do not care. The conversation always ended politely but awkwardly.
                A friend was recently telling me how their church was currently debating whether to build a new sanctuary. I said nothing....but I would have liked to advise him that....in today's world....it is no time to even be thinking about such a time consuming and money spending project....and it isn't.
                I have had recurring daydreams of being a drill sergeant. Fifty-five years ago this September....I joined the army and went off to basic training at Fort Dix, New Jersey. Mama's little boy was going to have to get up early every day....and do everything that he was told...and right then....no more hot dogs and a Twinkie before bed....and get all of his hair cut off! Looking back on those eight weeks....it wasn't the greatest blessing in my life....but it was of the most beneficial two months in my life. So these daydreams come to me from time to time. I'm standing at attention....an E-5....which is what I was when I got out of the army....and a bus drops off ten Eddie Haskels....and ten Ralph Malphs....and ten Richies....and ten Vinnie Barbarinos who are now slouching before me. I have complete control of their lives for the next eight weeks....no pleading.....no coddling and not even any listening. I know what they need....and they have no other choice. And then I come back to the real world and plead with you in these posts!
                  If I was in a position of authority in a church....with a hundred thousand in a CD ready to be used to build a fancy sanctuary complete with a latte bar and whole grain muffin counter....I would drastically change the direction of where that money was going....but use that concept that those condos owners employed on vacationers and tourists. I would put together a package of great Christian books....(Folks....If you don't know what I'm referring to then you have never read a great life-changing Christian book)....and audio sermons of Spurgeon and Lloyd-Jones and Piper....and even Horton and MacArthur....(I know you have no idea what I'm talking about here)....and a carefully chosen Study Bible....(valued probable about $80)....and an assortment of other literature helps....and then we....(I would need help)....would go to a public place....and like those young men and women on the beach....offer that package to them for free....if only they would listen to a thirty minute description of what the gospel is....and what it isn't but thought that it is....and what church is....and what salvation is....and who God is....(I would personally stick R. C. Sproul's Holiness Of God CD set in their hands)....and what ministers know what they are talking about....and what ministers to avoid like the plague. That's it....no call backs....nothing....here are the resources.....may God use them to change your life!                 

The Israeli Prime Minister Speaks To A Joint Session Of Our Congress

Preface: The following post....Forty Days....is from Friday July 12....eleven days ago. I am bringing it up front for today because in about four hours the Israeli Prime Minister will be speaking to a joint session of Congress. These past eleven days have been traumatic....with watershed events. When this speech was planned by both the Speaker of the House and the Israeli Prime Minister....they had no idea that it would be much more than even what speeches to joint sessions of Congress normally are. The Vice President....who is the presumptive Democrat nominee for president....and who usually presides over such speeches....will not be in attendance. There are others in the Congress who are in effect boycotting the speech....and this for political reasons. The Republican nominee for vice president also will not be in attendance....or so the plan is of now....because of campaign commitments.....but this speech was planned well before he was nominated? This will be Benjamin Netanyahu's fourth speech before a joint sessions of Congress....and they are always political in substance....for they involve both our national security and that of Israel....but this speech is being overshadowed by our politics. It is so very important to see where America stands in relation to Israel....and to show support and commitment. The Prime Minister is scheduled to meet separately with President Biden....and separately with Vice President Harris....and separately with Donald Trump. Adding to the turbidity of the moment....President Biden will address the nation in the evening. May God's hand be upon all of this....and may the Holy Spirit awaken Christians....clear our vision....and set us firmly on the only rock upon which we would not be moved in the turmoil ahead....if it be His will....and to His Glory alone!

Forty Days

                Tisha be-Av...or Tisha B'Av....or the 9th of Av....begins this year at sundown on Monday, August 12....and ends at nightfall on the next day....Tuesday, August 13. Keep in mind that Eastern Standard time is seven hours behind Jerusalem time....so sunset on August 12 would be about 12:25 PM here in Pittsburgh. This is that day on the Hebrew calendar where both the first and second temples were destroyed! There were other tragic events on this date in Jewish history.
                There is a period of three weeks....actually they refer to it as....The Three Weeks....where Jews fast in a solemn remembrance and mourning of past tragedies. They schedule no weddings or other festive occasions during these three weeks. The 17th of Tammuz....this year July 23....begins those....'three weeks'....that date remembering the day that Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem.
                Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was originally scheduled to give a speech before a joint session of Congress on June 13th....before it was realized that June 13 was the last day of a Jewish holiday....Shavout....so the important speech was rescheduled for July 24.  So....what we are looking at is that Benjamin Netanyahu....the Prime Minister of Israel....is scheduled to give an important speech.....in the most important of venues.....a joint session of Congress....the day after the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz....and the second day of three weeks of dark reflection and mourning that begins in Israel!
                I would remind you that the war....only the latest war....that is currently adding to this world's tailspin....began on the last day of Sukkot....and is sometimes referred to as....the Sukkot War. The following is a paragraph from a July 2020 post:

 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. To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us.

Leviticus 23: 1,2...."And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them; the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts'."

              There were well over 400 Russian and Belarus athletes that participated in the 2020 Tokyo summer Olympics. (Actually held in 2021 due to Covid) There will be well under a hundred allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics which is scheduled to begin on July 26 and end on August 11. This is because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They will not enter the arena on the opening day ceremonies.....there will be no mention of Russia or Belarus as they compete....and I don't even think they determined yet what their uniforms will look like.  Recently a number of Russians refused the invitation....so that number is dwindling fast.
                 Paris has not hosted the summer Olympics for a hundred years....since Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams made the 1924 Paris Olympics famous through 1981's Best Picture....Chariots of Fire. My 1982 Jim Fixx Runner's Log informs me that on March 5....as you can see in the accompanying photo....(not included in this post)...."Saw Chariots of Fire today. Great Picture." I marvelled at that man....Eric Liddell....and his dedication to God. I was not a Christian at the time....but there were evangelistic influences all around in the early 1980s....(replaced by the political influences in evangelicalism today)....and I was forgiven....extended mercy....and born again shortly thereafter! 
                 The Republican convention is scheduled to be held on July 15 to 18....security restrictions in the city of Milwaukee will begin of the 14th.....and the Democrat convention is scheduled to be held on August 19 to 22. These forty days....July 14 to August 22....Jewish holidays including the 9th of Av....and political conventions....and the joint session of Congress included....and everything involved here....should be accompanied by our earnest prayer and vigilance!
                  Russia has been involved in attempts to bring disarray to the Paris Olympics....not that their efforts may be needed....for this world is barreling towards the falls. I bring this up in this post to once again encourage all of us to begin to take seriously the day and the age that we live in....to put our baubles away....and look to the Lord of Glory for our needs....and seek to glorify Him in all of our thoughts....and to wait patiently but expectancy and hopefully for His glorious return!

Joint Session of Congress afterthoughts: There surely are people in Israel who are amazed at  how conservatives and Republicans seem to almost revere Benjamin Netanyahu at times. Let me shed a little light on that. We are very familiar with this man....who we have known in speeches like this and from decades of interviews. There are not many government leaders anymore who can speak so well....so intelligently....and so clearly and rationally as Benjamin Netanyahu. That style of rhetoric and rational thought....mixed with determination....is rare today. Ronald Reagan had it....and Barack Obama had it. Lindsey Graham can at times command our attention through his reasoned speech. John McCain was capable of it....and Ted Cruz also at one time....although no more. With the rest of these leaders today it is pure psychological manipulation....and motivation through instilling fear. It's not that they brainstormed this....for they are as taken captive as those they are trying to take captive. No one....not even Reagan....had such a command of rhetoric and grace as did John Kennedy. It is not necessarily that they are always in the right. Barack Obama is an example of this. My point here is not concerning these men....and there have been such women....Margaret Thatcher leads that category....as much as we who listen to them. We have lost the ability to rationalize and analyze....and until we regain it....we will be nothing but fodder for the wolves. This same situation exists in evangelicalism....for we also have lost the ability to have patience and actually think through issues. Let me give you an example....a little test if you are willing to take it. There is one longtime ministry out there that is known for being faithful....and cerebral. It had a tremendous effect on me when I first started listening to the radio show in the 1990s. It is called....The White Horse Inn....and the man behind it is Michael Horton. I'm going to recommend a very controversial recent broadcast....late in 2023 I believe....that you can Google at....White Horse Inn....All Heroes Are Flawed. You may wind up calling Michael Horton....woke....many have....but you will have had the opportunity to exercise your mind....exercise equipment if you will....that we no longer have in our churches.

   

Yes....The Best Is Yet To Come!

             How many times have I heard the phrase....the best is yet to come....at the very end of just about every rally? Dozens of times at least! I would take issue with that phrase every time....for it was not true.....in fact it was a false prophecy. I know this because God's Word tells us that today....His wrath and judgment is ahead....and He has given more than enough evidence in His Word of this.
            There is a scene in that oh so very humbling....Billy Graham World Wide Pictures produced....1975 and now classic film....The Hiding Place....where Betsy is challenged in the concentration camp barracks by a vehement skeptic....concerning all the death and suffering everywhere in the camp. Seeing and feeling this every day....how could she....Betsy....know that God's Word is true. Betsy softly answered her interrogator...."We know Him....so we know that it is true." This is profound theology....from a simple believer....we know....because we know Him....and He knows us! If one does not know Him....if one is not His....nothing will make sense.
            I watched the film again tonight....for the upteenth time over the decades....and at the end....where Corrie ten Boom herself gave testimony....she said this....which was an essential part of the script....for Betsy had previously said it to Corrie....

"No pit is so deep that He is not deeper still. With Jesus even in our darkest moments....the best remains....and the very best is yet to be." 

            Do you see the contrast here with the rally cry? Do you see why I'm bringing it up....indeed why I had to come to this computer to write this post? Yes....the best is yet to come! And praise God forever and ever for that!  But it is not pointing to earthly or temporal needs....but to the rejoicing in being in the presence of our Lord and Savior and coming King....Jesus Christ....also for ever and ever!

    

We Became Impatient....And Wanted Other Gods To lead Us

                "So Moses went into the midst of the cloud and went up into the mountain. And Moses was on the mountain forty days and forty nights." Exodus 24:18 NKJV

                "Now when the people saw that Moses delayed coming down from the mountain, the people gathered together to Aaron and said to him, 'Come, make us Gods that shall go before us; for this Moses, the man who brought us up out of the land of Egypt, we do not know what has become of him." Exodus 32:1

                So the people took the gold from their earrings....and Aaron molded a golden calf.

                "Then they said, 'This is your God, O Israel, that brought you out of the land of Egypt'." Exodus 32:4b

                "So when Aaron saw it, he built an altar before it. And Aaron made a proclamation and said, 'Tomorrow is a feast to the LORD. Then they rose early the next day, offered burnt offerings, and brought peace offerings; and the people sat down to eat and drink, and rose up to play." Exodus 32: 5,6

                 Moses and Joshua....when they were descending the mountain thought at first that they heard the sounds of war....but then realized that it was the sound of singing and dancing.

                 "So the Lord plagued the people because of what they did with the calf which Aaron made." Exodus 32:35

                  Do you remember Charles Colson...Nixon's snarling hatchet man? He went from arrogance to humility....was born again....and wrote that wonderful best-seller Born Again. It was a period of fifteen or so years....(late 60s to early to mid-80s)....where the glory of God descended upon us and many were saved....born again....of whom I was one of them....the lowest of the low. The glory began to decrease about the mid-80s....and we became impatient....as slowly the Billy Graham evangelical became the Ralph Reed evangelical....which became the Karl Rove evangelical....and is now the Donald Trump evangelical. We demanded and then made our own golden calf....and had a party....and it has been one plague after another since then.

Lord's Day Post

Preface: There were four huge video screens of fire to the left and right of the man....who was wearing a large silver cross around his neck....distinctive over his black t-shirt....rapping I guess is what they call it. The stage appeared as a furnace....or something much worse? The only words I could identify were....fight fight....and American badass. Another speaker....a fight promoter I take it....was also shouting....and I heard the same word....badass....over and over. In amongst this somewhere was Franklin Graham....his words seemed scripted....probably given to him or suggested anyway....and then he prayed....but I could not continue to listen to it because of the total absurdity of the moment....and went back to the movie that I was watching on ROKU....a 2013 Christian film....Return To The Hiding Place. I watched it on my computer the other day....but watched it again on the television. I wonder how many pastors experienced what I had....watching that stage....possibly some well-known ministry pastors....and I wonder if they will be changed in their pulpits tomorrow? The following short story....from an October 2023 post.....came to mind.

A Once Beautiful Home                   

                 There it was.....the home of my youth....sitting on a hill overlooking the town....to me it had always been as the Acropolis....for it was the pride of the community. We moved away when I was fourteen....to the other side of the country. I had prospered....became a lawyer...and was up and down my new coast dozens of times....and around the world three times....but by some strange twist of fate....never back to my home town....until today.

                 The sun was out and the white paint on the wooden framed mansion looked as bright as it ever had....this from the bottom of the long road up to the home.
                 The closer the Uber came....the more the white paint appeared dingy. The driveway was almost unusable for the holes and the sinking and the parts that seemed to be washed away.
                 By the time that we pulled up to the front door there were tears coming down one cheek. This was the home that I had once loved.....and that had stayed in my memory as the most secure place in the world....and from the outside it was....dilapidated. It had been lived in all these years. What possibly could have happened? There were shades of gray....not curtains....on all the windows. My uncle Sam....a carpenter....had made a five by seven foot wood carving of an eagle that he permanently attached above the front door. It was rotting. The ornate railing along the long curving porch was hard to decipher because of the fragmented paint chips everywhere.
                 I had originally asked the Uber driver if he could wait for about thirty minutes as I simply walked the grounds and reminisced....but I would now not need thirty minutes....for that would be a half hour of anguish. I walked around the porch that circled the entire house....taking care not to twist an ankle in parts of the wood that were no longer there.
                 One window provided a look into the living area as the shade had ripped from top to bottom. Much of the furniture was still there from when I was a boy....the piano and the grand desk and the benches along the stairs and the book shelves on the one wall....and the chandelier! I remember laughing as I would slide down the banister. Everything was covered with dust and there were cobwebs throughout. I tapped on the window to try to loosen some dust to see more clearly and the noise startled an animal....I have no idea what it was I was in so much shock...a rat or a raccoon.....I don't know nor do I care.
                  I turned to walk as quickly as I could back to the Uber and did twist my ankle in the rotting floorboards of the porch deck. It hurt....but I hobbled as best I could back to the car....stumbling again going down the steps....falling and twisting my knee. The Uber driver came to help but there was more pain in my heart than my legs.
                 Laying there on the ground next to me was a document enclosed in a clear folder. It had staple marks on all the corners and had obviously once hung......probably on the front door....under the bald eagle....and had most likely been ripped off by winds. The document stated that the house was officially condemned....but was not to be torn down because the determination was still in the courts.
                 What had happened to my home. How could anyone let it become what it was? I was angry....and then I remembered the telephone call....twenty years previous. I was building my law firm. The caller owned the property and said that he could no longer properly maintain it....and that I could purchase it if I wanted.....to protect it.....and maybe turn it into an attraction of some sort for people to see. I had the means to do this....but thought that others would find a way to protect the house and the property. The caller seemed to be pleading.....but his cries fell on deaf ears....and I saw that I was as responsible as anyone else for not protecting this piece of history.
                  On the ride back through town I asked the driver to turn down a side street....to at least look at the church our family attended....where my father would herd us all in and then sit upright in the pew to honor the hearing of the preached gospel of Jesus Christ. The landscaping of the church was immaculate. The spire was still there shining in its copper brilliance but the cross was no longer on top. The name had of the church had changed....no longer Sovereign Grace Baptist....but Community Family Church. The marquis displayed the pastor's name and title of this week's sermon....Happiness Is Our Choice.
                  

   

There's Nothing More To Be Said......God Help Us

                General John Kelly was recently asked about controversial comments that Donald Trump had once made to him. You are familiar with this I'm sure. General Kelly responded to a question and gave about a two paragraph litany of opinion on the man who he worked for.....beginning with this sentence...."What can I add that has not already been said?". At the end of his answer he added...."There's nothing more to be said.....God help us."
                When I read that I knew exactly what he meant. I feel the same way in that I don't know what more I could add to these posts on God's warnings of judgment upon not only America but the world. There is a feeling of closure....at least in that the warnings were adequately given to us....over many decades. There is no more time to....mull these warnings over.
                 I want to recommend a sermon to you that Charles Spurgeon gave on May 10, 1891....only nine months before he went to be with his Lord and Savior and Reigning and now Coming King....this after about forty years of blessing London and the world with sermons that rightly gave him the title of....The Prince of Preachers. 
                 Now you have to have patience with this sermon....for Spurgeon begins with Abraham's servant who was sent to procure a wife for Isaac. I would like to explain how that fits in with the title of a post on this sermon that I published last year....Possibly The Most Penetrating....Maybe The Most Clear....And Certainly The Most Urgent....Evangelistic Sermon That I Have Ever Heard....but I want you to hear this for yourself. 
                This sermon was similar in a way to General Kelly's comments....and my seconding those comments....in that....we have had enough time....and we are at the precipice. It's not....'what more can be said'....as much as....'what more do we need?' 
                 The stage is set. The nations and the actors are in place. The warnings were given and rejected. Armies are shouting victory and 'peace and security" before they even take the field....but Jesus Christ is mounted on His white horse....along with His mighty angels....and the trumpets are lifted....nothing is choreographed....no speeches are necessary....no motivation required....for the King is coming to reclaim what is His...."so that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, in heaven and on earth and under the earth.and every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father."! (Philippians 2:11)

                                AN URGENT REQUEST FOR AN IMMEDIATE ANSWER

                                          
                  

If you are not familiar with Charles Spurgeon there is a wonderful docudrama film that can be booted up on your computer in 30 seconds....and it is on ROKU....C. H. Spurgeon....The People's Preacher. 

"Therefore...'Come Out From Among Them'...."

                It was one of the most common memory verses back in the early 1980s.....2 Corinthians 5:17...."Therefore, if anyone is in Christ,  he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new." This is from the NKJV....because it is what we were memorizing back then. The following verses are from the ESV.
                In chapter six....verses four through ten Paul began to describe his ministry....and that of Timothy who was with him. In these words he described how they had to have great endurance as they went through afflictions and hardships and calamities. There were beatings and imprisonments....and He went on...."by purity....knowledge....patience....kindness....the Holy Spirit....genuine love.....by truthful speech....and the power of God; with the weapons of righteousness for the right  hand and for the left....through glory and dishonor......slander and praise......we were treated as imposters, and yet are true....as unknown, and yet well-known; as dying, and yet behold, we live....as punished and yet not killed.....as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing; as poor, yet making many rich, as having nothing, yet possessing all." 
                This short chapter six should have a solemn effect on all of us. It is almost a reset moment....to use that word that we hear so often today. The following verses....concluding the chapter....fourteen through eighteen....are what I wanted to focus on in this post.....
                "Do not be unequally yoked with unbelievers. For what partnership has righteousness with lawlessness? Or what fellowship has light with darkness? What accord has Christ with Belial? Or what portion does a believer share with an Unbeliever? What agreement has the temple of God with idols? For we are the temple of the living God; as God has said, 'I will make my dwelling among them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they shall be my people."

"Therefore go out from their midst, and be separate from them, says the Lord. Touch no unclean thing; then I will welcome you, and I will be a father to you, and you shall be sons and daughters to me, says the Lord Almighty"

Note: The title also uses the more recognizable NKJV

The Lost Decade

                They called it Japan's Lost Decade....beginning in 1990....as their economy imploded. These past roughly ten years have been our lost decade. We have been royally raked over the coals....beset upon by wars of words....violence increasing....psychological manipulation and real trauma. The division is palpable. We are today two warring tribes.
                I had been a regular conservative talk radio listener for a long time....there was genuine discussion and opposing viewpoints presented....and accepted as just that....opposing viewpoints....but that changed in this decade....so much so that my tuning in decreased and decreased until I never listened in anymore.
                Conversations were becoming more difficult....or it would be more accurate to say that free and open conversation became less and less. The pandemic started....we were handling it normal for a while....the announcement of a vaccine was cheered....and then we started talking about it from a political perspective....and it became a battleground. It all depended upon who we normally listened to for information....for we were now doing very little real analyzing on our own.
                And then church doors became the issue....and some national ministers became super-patriots. Most of the national ministries that I pay attention to....men who also pastor....just followed the directions and either streamed services or met outside....but most of evangelicalism was by now fully indoctrinated into politics. There was no discussion or analyzing necessary. It was black and white....they were trying to destroy Christianity. 
                The election was stolen. Folks I'm not describing how I felt. I'm describing what the mood was. We were no longer soldiers for Christ....if we ever were....we were now soldiers in the fight. When Hillary uttered that word....deplorables....it motivated a lot of people on our side.....but in comparison to the past nine years since then....deplorables would be nothing today! Our character....and our personalities....had changed by the second half of this decade. Compassion and truth and ethics were things of the past. It's not that we came out and said that we were not going to be compassionate or tell the truth or stay on the high ground in ethics....(which is where we were at one time)....it's more that those traits just disappeared....and no one was there to take inventory.
                Peter was brave....but in a minute he changed and ran. Elijah was brave....and when Jezebel threatened him he took off as running an ultramarathon. I'm the same way. I'm a little bit different in that I document things in my mind as time goes on. Ten years ago....actually it was in January of 2013....at about the beginning of this lost decade that I am documenting....I wrote a post with the title....All Is Lost. All was not lost then....I can say that after witnessing this past decade from a reporter's perspective. It is lost now. God had a lot of patience with Elijah....who thought that he was the only one left. God told him that He had reserved 7,000 others who had not bowed the knee to Baal.
               There are many faithful men in our pulpits today....a lot more than 7,000....and a lot more faithful than I am! And they are vexed just as I am. Charles Spurgeon was vexed as it seemed that all of British Christianity was bowing the knee to Baal. It seems that a major winnowing must be coming....this delusion that has taken us captive must surely be the cause. The book of Revelation surely points to it. These last ten years have taken a toll on me. I've been discouraged and run for the hills more times than I care to remember...but it's as if I always hear....'What are you doing here....why is your soul so troubled....where is your faith?'. There is a balm coming....when we can all see each other clearly....for He has kept His promise when He said...."I will never leave you nor forsake you" Hebrews 13:5

                

Lord's Day Post

                I listened to a Charles Spurgeon sermon just this afternoon....where he told a story....of which I don't know the veracity of.....here it is. There was a famine in Rome during the time of Nero....but grain was in good measure in Egypt. Three large vessels took off across the sea....and when they returned.....the people were waiting at the docks for the food. The vessels landed and were filled with sand....for the tyrant had ordered it for the Colosseum gladiators. The orders were....get only sand!
                This led into what Spurgeon said that his mission was to only bring food to the people from the pulpit. This has been a very sad day in America. May God have mercy upon us. May pastors take seriously their roles....and beginning tomorrow....feed their sheep. May there be a seriousness and a soberness to them. May we all humble ourselves before our God....and pray mercies and wisdom and discernment in these terrible times that we live in.

Yellowed Journalism

              I was looking for a family photo when it fell out of the folder. It was a ragged-edge....yellowed....ripped out letter-to-the-editor.....published by our local newspaper in February of 1993! The editors gave it the title....Only God Can Save America. Wow....this was thirty-one years ago that I wrote this...and the 1990s was Mr. Rogers' Neighborhood compared to today. I could almost write this letter now....but I would hope that I would make the letter-to-the-editor more legible. We on our side utterly refuse to take any responsibility in what America has become....and I could not help but observe how we played our games....watched our games....and gamed our position as conservative evangelicals....while America became progressively worse over the decades. And now our answer has been to blindly follow a man who we would not have given the time of day to thirty years ago!

Only God Can Save America

             Has anyone wondered why they can't listen to the television or the radio news ...and not be hit with one vicious, horrid news event after another?
             Have they stood back lately and looked at what America has become? At the risk of ridicule by editors and talk show hosts, who view themselves as sentinels of freedom but in reality fuel the flames of ruination, the reason for this is our disobedience to God! We have either kicked Him out or allowed Him to be removed from our school rooms and governing bodies.
             America can continue in this if it desires. It will not be the first nation to do so. But let it be known that it also won't be the first nation that God will take His blessing off and permit it to reap what it has sown.
             But I request honestly. Admit that it is 'change". It is not what the founding fathers would do. But we know better than they did! We are more advanced!
             For those who still care, they can start in their history books and find out when America hit its low points and happened to restore it. The answer is "revival", a humbling of oneself and return to God.
             And to the churchgoers who meet in their Bible studies once a week with a pencil in one hand and plenty of doughnuts handy, I recommend that they put down the pencil and pick up a Kleenex. For as they meditate in Scripture surely tears should be produced by what they read. If they are mad at me for saying this, it's because they know that I'm talking to them. For the ones who are on their knees over what is happening are saying,"tell it like it is,"
            I would ask those sitting on the sidelines to do what Josiah did in the Old Testament. He read the Scriptures for the first time, tore his clothes out of anguish at how far the people had strayed and set out to change things!
            We need help drastically in this country, and there is only one place to go for it and that is Almighty God!

Forty Days

                                                       

Preface: I wanted to bring this closer to the top since these 'forty days' begin tomorrow:

               Tisha be-Av...or Tisha B'Av....or the 9th of Av....begins this year at sundown on Monday, August 12....and ends at nightfall on the next day....Tuesday, August 13. Keep in mind that Eastern Standard time is seven hours behind Jerusalem time....so sunset on August 12 would be about 12:25 PM here in Pittsburgh. This is that day on the Hebrew calendar where both the first and second temples were destroyed! There were other tragic events on this date in Jewish history.
                There is a period of three weeks....actually they refer to it as....The Three Weeks....where Jews fast in a solemn remembrance and mourning of past tragedies. They schedule no weddings or other festive occasions during these three weeks. The 17th of Tammuz....this year July 23....begins those....'three weeks'....that date remembering the day that Babylon breached the walls of Jerusalem.
                    Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was originally scheduled to give a speech before a joint session of Congress on June 13th....before it was realized that June 13 was the last day of a Jewish holiday....Shavout....so the important speech was rescheduled for July 24.  So....what we are looking at is that Benjamin Netanyahu....the Prime Minister of Israel....is scheduled to give an important speech.....in the most important of venues.....a joint session of Congress....the day after the fast day of the 17th of Tammuz....and the second day of three weeks of dark reflection and mourning that begins in Israel!
                    I would remind you that the war....only the latest war....that is currently adding to this world's tailspin....began on the last day of Sukkot....and is sometimes referred to as....the Sukkot War. The following is a paragraph from a July 2020 post:

 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. To  prognosticate on this is more than problematic....but to ignore it is being careless to God's warnings to us.

Leviticus 23: 1,2...."And the LORD spoke to Moses, saying, 'Speak to the children of Israel, and say to them; the feasts of the LORD, which you shall proclaim to be holy convocations, these are My feasts'."

              There were well over 400 Russian and Belarus athletes that participated in the 2020 Tokyo summer Olympics. (Actually held in 2021 due to Covid) There will be well under a hundred allowed to compete in the Paris Olympics which is scheduled to begin on July 26 and end on August 11. This is because of the Russian invasion of Ukraine. They will not enter the arena on the opening day ceremonies.....there will be no mention of Russia or Belarus as they compete....and I don't even think they determined yet what their uniforms will look like.  Recently a number of Russians refused the invitation....so that number is dwindling fast.
                 Paris has not hosted the summer Olympics for a hundred years....since Eric Liddell and Harold Abrahams made the 1924 Paris Olympics famous through 1981's Best Picture....Chariots of Fire. My 1982 Jim Fixx Runner's Log informs me that on March 5....as you can see in the accompanying photo...."Saw Chariots of Fire today. Great Picture." I marvelled at that man....Eric Liddell....and his dedication to God. I was not a Christian at the time....but there were evangelistic influences all around in the early 1980s....(replaced by the political influences in evangelicalism today)....and I was forgiven....extended mercy....and born again shortly thereafter! 
                 The Republican convention is scheduled to be held on July 15 to 18....security restrictions in the city of Milwaukee will begin of the 14th.....and the Democrat convention is scheduled to be held on August 19 to 22. These forty days....July 14 to August 22....Jewish holidays including the 9th of Av....and political conventions....and the joint session of Congress included....and everything involved here....should be accompanied by our earnest prayer and vigilance!
                  Russia has been involved in attempts to bring disarray to the Paris Olympics....not that their efforts may be needed....for this world is barreling towards the falls. I bring this up in this post to once again encourage all of us to begin to take seriously the day and the age that we live in....to put our baubles away....and look to the Lord of Glory for our needs....and seek to glorify Him in all of our thoughts....and to wait patiently but expectancy and hopefully for His glorious return!

   

To All The......Priests....And Prophets....And Princes Of The People

The following was first posted on April 19:          

               Babylon was going to rule over Judah and all the lands surrounding them. That was the proclamation that Jeremiah had given to all the priests and prophets and princes and people. Judah had brought it all upon itself. Jeremiah had been warning everyone for decades. None of the aforementioned wanted to hear anything of the sort. Jeremiah's message went further....if the people accepted that which God said through His prophet was going to happen ....then they would get to live in peace in their own land and till their own soil....this being after Daniel and others....and some temple vessels....had previously been taken off to Babylon. If they did not accept this then everyone was going to be dragged off to Babylon....and the temple and the city and the walls....destroyed.

              One false prophet....Hananiah....was incensed....and prophesied..."In the name of the LORD"....that within two years the yoke of Babylon would be broken....and all the temple vessels and the people would be returned to Jerusalem. Jeremiah walked away but God told him to go back and tell Hananiah that he would be dead within the year....and that indeed happened a few months later.
              The America that we once knew is gone. I'm old enough to have lived in both. It is a different country today. We brought it upon ourselves.....and I was a contributor as much as anyone else. Trump is telling us....indeed he has been telling us since he came down that escalator in 2015....essentially....that the yoke of Babylon is going to be broken....and we are going to be greater than we ever were.
                The power of the Holy Spirit through the Word of God preached in our pulpits once sustained us....just as the preaching of the Puritans sustained England and early America. Each and every believer needs the power of the preached Word of God. If we don't have it then we become malnourished and weak with no discernment. Today we have preachers in pulpits everywhere....new fangled churches with smiling faces and bigger buildings....with a ministry for literally everyone if they want one....but Ichabod....the glory had departed.
                These posts exist for one reason. Oh yes I expound on politics....and there is humor in my life so there is humor in these posts....and I warn the best that I know how to warn....and I present the gospel in an evangelistic way that is representative of the way that my mind operates....but my main goal is that I might help the reader see that the high probability is that they are not hearing the power of the Word preached in their churches....that they are not...are not....hearing what they need to hear to humble themselves in this Babylon that we live in....but that there is a way if they would only but go there.
                 God gave the Baptist Charles Spurgeon to London in the latter half of the 1800s....and then He gave the Presbyterian Martyn Lloyd-Jones to the same city from the 1930s to roughly 1980. They....along with Anglican J. C. Ryle....and some others....kept the flame alive....and the remnant fed. When I was relatively young....Billy Graham crusades were  on one of the four....that's right....four television stations....his crusades were on all the time. Some quite remarkable preacher/pastor/teachers were given to us....R. C. Sproul and John MacArthur and John Piper to name but three. I'll put David Wilkerson in there....and even Pat Robertson!
                  We were revived for a time. Dear reader....you absolutely need this nourishment! You are not going to have discernment without it. You will become me-centered....America Only centered....thinking only about your own future....and finding others to fellowship who think like this also. Stay in your church....pray for your pastor....he needs it more than you or he knows....but add....add these men to your life who still preach the power of the Word of God! Show up on the Lord's Day....but get fed every day if you can from other sources! All you would have to do is Google....'Spurgeon sermons YouTube'....or....'Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermons YouTube"....or...."J.C. Ryle YouTube"....or go to....desiringgod.org....or.....ligonier.org....or....gty.org....or....whitehorseinn.org. Please go there and be fed.

We No Longer Gaze Upon His Glory

Preface: The following post is from December of 2021....and as in everything else....it is even worse today.... 

               Richard Sibbes was one of the more famous Puritan preachers....and he was known for exalting the beauties of Christ....so much so that the heart softens....and the hearer cannot but fall in love with the Savior....and so it must be with the Christian or we wind up doing our 'good works' if you will....out of obedience only....and not out of love....therefore not being 'good' works at all.
               When we read God's Word....we are not just reading about Christ.....we are....reading Christ....every passage is as if standing before Him....gazing at His glory....enraptured by the majesty before us. The whole world....and all of its baubles....and all of its demands....and all of its threats and the fears associated with them....melt away in the searing holiness of the One....the One who actually loves us! We can be as Peter....who walked on water....gazing at Jesus before him....but when we take our eyes of of Him....we begin to sink.
               This is the challenge of the day. Our nation is crumbling fast. This is where we live....and raise our families....it should be natural that at times like this we turn toward Christ even more....for this is not a mere muse that we have proclaimed to love....but the creator of all things....who holds the universe together by His will....who alone determines....and for His reasons alone....what will become of us....but we turn....to the loudest noise....and we sink slowly into the muddy battlefield....our love....if indeed there was love....fades....as we turn from beauty to the beast.
               It can be put in mathematical terms....if every minute that we have spent listening to other voices....taking our advice from those who care nothing for the beauty of Christ....but only the glittering parade float with His name on it....if every minute had been spent....seeking His guidance....searching the Scriptures....renewing our minds....the equation would have proven sound....the algebraic proof....evident in our nation. As it is....nothing works....nothing balances the books....nothing cures....nothing even softens the symptoms.
              We fell out of love....we strayed....we no longer cherished His letters to us so as to have to reread them every day....no longer had faith in our beloved....or gazed at His beauty....or walked in discernment....but turn to the parade behind us....no longer brought glory to Him....no longer were nourished by the food of His words....or given light from His countenance....or peace from His presence....yet as He approaches in judgment to take what is His....he tells us to get our houses in order....for His love has remained faithful even if ours has not.

Sheep And Their Shepherds....Or.....The Good Shepherd....And His Flock

              It's really a magnificent book! First published in 1970....I think that by the mid-80s most Christians read it....W. Philip Keller's....A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm. Keller led....at the very least....an interesting life....as a scientist at times....a pastor at times....a photo-journalist....and a sheep rancher & shepherd! I would never question his qualifications to speak about sheep after reading that book of his. They were not only possessions.....which he points out that he owned them....he paid for them....he raised them....they knew him....but he loved them!
              This isn't a theological treatise....and I don't know how effective of a pastor the author was.....but he knew sheep....and he perfectly correlated this to us....and himself....fellow sheep....following The Good Shepherd.....and The good Shepherd.....watching over us!
               Folks....this book is up there with John Bunyan's....The Pilgrim's Progress....not in the great doctrines of the church....along those lines A Shepherd Looks At The 23rd Psalm is no where near the level of Bunyan's masterpiece....but on that one topic....sheep....and shepherds....it is so encouraging and informative! So many times I wanted to just thank and praise God for this wonderful design of sheep and the Shepherd that loves them....stubborn and timid....and quite frankly....stupid....as they so often are. You can easily read it just by Googling it up.
              I could write much too long of a post on the many things that W. Philip Keller wrote about sheep. I won't for your sake....but I have to give an example or two. Keller writes on how the flock will be on the way to good water....but they will often run off to drink from muddy or fetid ponds. He tells of a beautiful....perfectly formed female sheep that he once owned....that was just a delight to look at....and of who He as a sheep rancher and shepherd loved....but that ewe just had it in her to run to the fences and try to get into other pastures....even though those pastures were not as good.....and other sheep would follow her! Well Keller had no other choice....to keep the other sheep from harm....how do I put this....they probably had lamb for dinner one evening. One last humorous example....a friend arrived by car one day....and her tiny Pekingese pup jumped out and barked....and the entire flock of sheep ran for the hills in fear. Well....I been there....how about you?
               

  

What Was Better....The Book Or The Movie?

               I had never watched Daniel Day-Lewis in The Last Of The Mohicans....that film being from 1992....until last evening. I remember the book being talked about in high school....James Fenimore Cooper's Leatherstocking Tales....but can't remember if I actually read it or any of those books back then. The movie came up in a conversation a few days ago....and a few hours after that conversation I booted it up on the computer to read....and then last night the movie.
                Everyone is going to have their own personal opinion on this. As for me....for example....Ian Fleming's James Bond books were so much better than the movies. As for The Last Of The Mohicans....I guess that it didn't help that the movie altered a lot of the book....but reading was a totally different experience....as so many more details are present in the author's actual story.
                If you were to look at the My Favorite Books link in my profile you would see Arthur W. Hunt's....The Vanishing Word: The Veneration of Visual Imagery in the Postmodern World. I've mentioned that book a few times....the first time in December of 2008....which was at the very beginning of these posts. 
               God's primary design for communicating to man is in the written word. That little book is the greatest treasure in this entire world! He also speaks to us in the preached Word! Well we have the book....but the preached Word is vanishing! At least give my thoughts a test....Google up sometime a sermon from....a preacher from the past....or a preacher today who preaches like preachers from the past. Try this one....Martyn Lloyd-Jones....Follow Me....or....Seek Ye First. I listened to both of them two or three times in the last week. But I have to give you a warning....if you listen to too many of these men you may turn out like me! Here's another sermon to listen to....R.C. Sproul's very last sermon....you can Google it under that title....preached only a few weeks before he went on to be with his glorious Lord that he so marvelously exalted! I was in the car with a friend the other day....a sort of captive audience....and I played this sermon on our journey. His response after hearing it was immediate...."That was a great sermon!"

Blood Sport

                It's been lamented in recent years how sports were becoming political....and what we had witnessed had been bad....but the greater problem is that politics today has become sport....and a blood sport at that! There is little real ideology anymore. There was a day when the Democrat had the good of the people in mind. Their ideas may not have been the best all the time....but they were sincere. I was a liberal Democrat back then....the late 60s to the mid-70s. And there was a day when conservatives held the high ground....but the real dynamic now for us is....winning. We hate the other team....and the other team hates us.
                 A football team has its star quarterback or a running back....and a baseball team has its ace pitcher or its power hitter....and that is really all that politics is today. The Democrats didn't really have any stars....but now their go-to player is old and breaking down. On our side we have a guy who is a hotshot but he is more trouble than he is worth.
                All of us voters....we're just the fans....and we want to kick butt. On November 10, 1973, I was in Pitt Stadium....the top row....and Notre Dame fullback Wayne Bullock scored four touchdowns in a 31 to 10 win. One of the guys I was with....Ed I believe was his name.... I haven't seen him since....was losing his mind....when Bullock was tackled Ed's leg would be stomping wildly on the long wooden bench....and he would be shouting....."Kick him kick him kick him!" Three years later we had Tony Dorsett in an identical 31 to 10 win....and a national championship.
                That's the way it is today in politics and government.....Clinton won two championships in a row....and then W. won two in a row....and then Obama won two in a row. Trump won....Biden won....but it's game time again.
                 England had its national championship a week ago....and France had their championship over the weekend. The pendants are flying and the fans are rejoicing but outside the stadiums it is a dystopian scene. These people are smiling right now as they raise the trophy....but that gaiety will turn soon to fright as those trophies and championship cups will be more a burden than a prize.
                 I don't think that many readers will remember this 1975 sci-fi movie starring James Caan....Rollerball. Corporations had replaced countries. The sport of rollerball was politics. The future year was.....are you ready for this....2018. Rollerball had degraded to pure violence.....with no rules.....deaths on the rink....and crowds cheering the blood.
                 That is all we do in politics today....cheer the spilling of blood....no real rules to speak of....both primary seasons were a farce. Trump was bloodied but is still skating. Biden is being hit hard with a sledgehammer after the debate. There are bodies all around....Giuliani and Bannon....Hunter and Navarro lead the list. It is a level playing field....by that I mean that there is no high ground of ethics....because there is no ethics.
                  The Olympics are about to commence....and the world is tense. The Olympic flame was lit in April in Greece....this is tradition....in front of the ruins of the temple of Hera....by someone portraying the high priestess. The sun is symbolized as igniting the flame in a curved reflective dish. There are other high priestesses involved....and ten vestal virgins. The flame was then carried all over Greece....and transported to the host country.....France in this case....and we all will see the torch light the flame in the stadium. It's kinda a like the European version of a Super Bowl halftime show....without the virgins.
                   Of course God looks upon all of this....not from Mount Olympus by the way....and on what is going on in Israel....and....well you can read it for yourself....starting in Revelation chapter one....verse one....

Lord's Day Post

                  Whatever an individual church might be....wherever it is....mid-America.....the South.....the North....the West....here in the East....the congregation is already in place. It may be 100 members or 6,000. That is what the pastor has as his responsibility at the present time. Oh they have goals. They desire visitors. The 100 member church may have the goal of 300. The 500 member church may envision thousands. The pastor wants to keep his job. He has to meet some kind of expectations. Although others have the itch to move on. They are frustrated and are looking for a better opportunity. It happens all the time.

                 The sermon title for tomorrow is already printed up in the bulletin and probably on the church website. Pastors are probably at a picnic of some kind today. As for the members....the people....the sheep....they are probably fat and healthy....maybe they are at the pickleball court trying to be muscle-toned healthy. Spiritually is another story. Their faces are gaunt....muscles atrophied....their gate slow and halting....if they are old enough....forty or above....(spiritual years that is....since they were born the second time)....their memory of the early days is long gone. They really can't even remember Billy Graham or David Wilkerson or even Pat Robertson.
                  There are no Christian bookstores anymore....(oh there are a few but essentially the concept is long gone.) We do it differently today.....evangelizing and discipling. Yesterday I took a long-time Christian friend to Barnes & Noble....this is relatively new to him....he had a gift certificate present to use. He browsed the Religion section for a long time. He may have went over every book title....and finally picked up an older David Jeremiah book. As we were walking to the car he commented on how there was practically nothing of any substance in those hundreds of books. It's been that way for a long time!
                   Oh do I remember some of those Christian bookstores from the eighties....Grand Book And Bible in Lawrence County....or Logos in Beaver County....or Family Christian Store in Butler County. Anybody could walk in and browse....and there might be fifty....(maybe more)....quality books of one sort of another....to 'pick up and read'....tolle lege....a Latin phrase that many of us knew what it means back then....because it was a different era. We had multiple choices before us of books to read....classics and doctrine and biographies and critiques on evangelicalism and the Christian mind. That is mostly all gone. We don't even know what is out there anymore....with the exception of the latest Jonathan Cahn or Eric Metaxas or David Jeremiah book that Barnes & Noble will carry....because carrying them makes a profit. On that Logos bookstore that I mentioned above. I had a conversation with the owner one day. He was forlorn....it was just before he closed.....he said that he spent forty minutes with a customer describing the various Study Bibles....and then the customer said that he could get one cheaper on the Internet. We had a bookstore ourselves.... just before 9/11....a very good one if I say so myself....two professors at a Christian college encouraged us and bought a lot of books and prayed for the effort....and there were a few others....but the motivation in the church was no longer evangelism....as everything had turned inward. It was all about us....our future....our family. We started to become our own idols!
                          The evangelical community today is very informed on politics and socialism and wokism....things like that....but woefully uniformed or misinformed on the gospel of Jesus Christ itself. The holiness of God is gone....doctrine is gone....and spiritual warfare is gone....church history is absent. Spurgeon who? Martyn Lloyd who? We don't even see the need to be born again anymore. We would have a hard time even describing it. As for preaching....today it is meant solely to bring more members form the community into the church. Saving souls is somewhere in the background if it even exists at all. The glory of God has long since departed from the pulpit in America.....with of course some exceptions.
                  John MacArthur....John Piper....my pastor.....and many others....have not been changed in this paradigm shift in the church....but percentage-wise....the above paragraph describes the church in America today.
                   So tomorrow is yet another.....Lord's Day....an opportunity for pastors to plead for mercies from God. Physically they are the ones that should be gaunt...with muscles atrophied....and walking at a slow and halting gate....after so many hours.....mornings and evenings on their knees....head resting on praying hands....sweat and even tears on their cheeks....this over so many months and years if not decades.
                   May God....if it be His will....if this be His perfect timing...may He have mercy upon these sleeping shepherds....and thereby have mercy upon us sleeping in the pews. May He awaken us all....in extreme humility for our having dallied so long in Vanity Fair. May the Holy Spirit descend upon many of the pulpits once again.....just as in days past. May our Lord and our Savior and our coming King be to whom we look to for respite....and calmness.....and trust.....and patience.....and hope! And may all of this be to His glory alone! May we exist for His glory alone! May our hope be in His glory alone! For if it is....if we eschew our trust in princes and power....and look to Him who holds all of creation in his hands....then will we be at peace as the storm intensifies. 

Here Is A Key....The Old Testament Is Just As Much....'Living And Active"....As The New Testament

                 I want in this post to write as if we were just sitting around....fellowshiping and conversing. Ezekiel was a contemporary of Jeremiah.....quite a bit younger....and was taken off to Babylon with the first wave of captives. The book of Ezekiel in a way is a lot tougher to get a handle on than Jeremiah....although at times it is the very same message that Jeremiah gave.

                Ezekiel was given while in Babylon extraordinarily detailed visions....and in the vision that I want to bring up here....in chapter eleven....he is transported back to Jerusalem....to the temple....and he can see twenty-five men sitting at one of the gates. These men may have been government officials of some kind....Ezekiel even named two of them who he recognized....that is the general consensus anyway....they were leaders and not priests....the ones who made many political decisions for the people. Many of their fellow countrymen had been taken away....Ezekiel and Daniel included....but they didn't seem to care about them at all. Nebuchadnezzar was gone....these leaders had lucked out....or so they thought.....for the time being anyway.
                They described Jerusalem to the people as a caldron....instilling fear into them. Ezekiel told them in the vision that the meat cooked in the caldron were those slain in the city because of them....and that they themselves were not the meat....for they would be driven out of Jerusalem and then die on the border of Israel....which is just what happened....for when Nebuchadnezzar came back....which Jeremiah told them that he would....and the city walls were finally breached....those leaders tried to escape....but were caught at the border....and killed.
               Ezekiel then as instructed....told the exiles with him in Babylon what the LORD had showed him and instructed him to prophesy to them. Folks....we should....in fact we need to be in these Old Testament prophets on a regular basis. These read the Bible in a year programs may have been valuable at one time but no longer. Ezekiel tells the exiles that there will be a time when all the Jews that were dispersed would be returned to Israel. In this case he is giving encouragement to them but also talking about the end-times...."Then I will give them one heart, and I will put a new spirit within them, and take the stoney heart out of their flesh, and give them a heart of flesh, 'that they may walk in My statutes and keep My judgments and do them; and they shall be My people, and I will be their God'." 
                 Much of Old Testament prophecy is like this. Jeremiah could go from prophesying judgments to Jerusalem right then....and a paragraph later be talking about end-times judgments! Jeremiah is not even in chronological order.  Here is a key....the Old Testament is just as...."living and active"....as is the New Testament....in that it is....marvelously and incredibly opened up to us....continuously....throughout a believer's life....no matter how old the believer may be! Prophecy is like that also....I can have read something fifty times over the  years....and all of a sudden it becomes....clearer. Notice that I said....clearer....and not necessarily....clear.
                 So back to Ezekiel eleven. What might you think about this eleventh chapter....concerning today? These twenty-five leaders may as well be our leaders....."for you have not walked in My statutes nor executed My judgments but have done according to the customs of the Gentiles which are all around." (verse 12) Fear is being instilled in us every hour of the day.....but it is not the fear of the Lord.
                Verse thirteen gives the reader more to think about. Ezekiel tells us that as he was giving this prophecy....one of those twenty-five men....and one of the two that he knew....possibly a kinsman....just dropped dead! It was too much for the prophet and he cried out to God...."Will you make a complete end of the remnant of Israel?"
                 Here it is folks....God then told Ezekiel that those who are his brethren and his relatives and his kinsman and all of true Israel....are those exiles who were mocked....and told that they were now far from God's city. They possessed Jerusalem....not the exiles!  It was as if they themselves were boasting what Jeremiah told them not to boast about...."The temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD....the temple of the LORD"....thinking that that proclamation alone secured something for them. It was as we might hear it today....USA....USA....USA....as if that alone secured anything if we do not walk with God!

It Is No Longer As Much Dialogue......As Proclamation

"....I know whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that day." 2 Timothy 1:12 NKJV

Preface: The following post was only going to be a preface to the post which is directly below this....Advantage Pilgrim....but it became too long for a preface so here it is as a post....followed by that former post:

               They were two friends that I worked with for decades....this is blue collar stuff folks....dirt and grime and very physical....but both were college educated....and who I considered thinkers. Although never the three of us at once....I would have long philosophical conversations with both of these men.
               Let me describe friend number one....he did not believe in God....although his wife was a Christian. He was an English major in college....way...way back when. He took the approach that life is all there is....but he liked to converse....and had absolutely no problem with....(he would even smile throughout)....my side of the conversation on the Bible and eternity and the Christian Faith.
               Friend number two....he read extensively in philosophy....and took great pleasure in our conversations....and would actually bring up the topics. He was by far the most health conscious person I had ever known. Both of these friends had the advantage on me in that we were young....and then eventually a little older than young....and had many years ahead of us. They were comfortable on their side of the debate....for it would most likely be decades probably before any of us would actually die....and then first hand find out what the truth is. I on the other hand had to defend what could not be seen. Both of my friends definitely had the advantage on me.
               The years passed....we worked together for over thirty years....and we were all nearing retirement....and the advantage shifted to my side....for they no longer could confidently look too many years ahead before we would all find out. Their position had not changed one iota....and they did not grow more confident....but mine grew stronger with every passing year of this earthly pilgrimage! 
                The first friend is now about eighty years old...the exact same man who I worked with side by side. I talked to him a few years after we both retired....and the same stubborn belief was there....but he appeared to grow tired of the conversation. There was no light in his eyes anymore as we spoke.
                 The second friend who took every pill and vitamin and mineral imaginable....including garlic....and wore a face mask for all of those decades to keep the dust of a power plant out of his lungs....and wore ear plugs even while at lunch....and would not stay in the room if the microwave was running....this good friend died from Covid and related illness. I remember the last time I saw him. It was at Barnes & Noble shortly before he died....I was perusing a book and he spotted me....came over....and as was his usual habit....brought up something that I would know something about. He asked a question on the Apostle Paul....from a philosophical point of view. There was still no real interest in any faith in God.....it was just good....healthy....intellectual conversation.
                 At seventy-four years old....and forty-two years as a believer in Jesus Christ....the advantage is clearly mine today in any conversation. To use John Bunyan's allegorical language....I can see the Celestial City today....whereas before I could only see the lights in the sky above. It's been a long pilgrimage....with every step of the way a learning experience. I thought at the beginning that the rejoicing could not possibly increase....but it has! I've had questions answered. I've seen my own sin devastatingly clearer....and saw the grace of God clearer! The majesty of Jesus Christ....and the Bible....became more evident with each passing year. I am not as much in dialogue anymore....as proclamation....Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you shall be saved! I can say today with even more confidence....come with me for your own good!

Advantage Pilgrim.....October 2021

               One could hold in one hand the most valuable diamond in the the world....and a cheap paperback Bible in the other hand.....and there would be no comparison in the real intrinsic and eternal value in the hand that holds the Bible.
               One could be rich like a Musk or a Bezos....or adored as the greatest celebrity....or the greatest athlete.....or the greatest anything....but have nothing compared to any little old woman anywhere in this world.....hobbling home with a paper sack containing that day's food....who is in prayer and praise to her Lord and Savior....and coming King....Jesus Christ.
               Take a look at your watch dear reader....or a clock on the wall....and whether you can see the second hand or not....it is moving....nothing can stop time. No matter how rich....or how happy one perceives they might be....that time is merely rented....with a contract that will run out.
               So we debate this.....you and I....and time passes.....years.....decades maybe. In the beginning you had the advantage.....how foolish of me to waste my life.....but as time passes....your advantage lessens....for you once could exclaim with reasonable confidence that you would have many years to enjoy your thesis....and the conclusion of it all was far away.....while I could only say with confidence that the conclusion of all things would prove the Bible true....but now....as the years have passed....you can only say that the past is on your side....while I still point to the future...which is no longer far away.
                But this God who you accuse of being unfair....he watched you debate against His righteousness for those so many years.....and yet still says...."Knock....and it will be opened." This God who you accused of being harsh....has offered you mercy for maybe fifty years....and still says to you...."Today is the day."  Pick up that Bible that is probably as close to you and the next room....or the attic....or the basement....for the very same words that you may have read before....while you had so much confidence in yourself....may this time bring you to your knees....first in horror at where you are headed....and then humility in how wrong you have been....and then hope in He who opened your eyes....as He had opened all of our eyes. 

It Will Come With Tears......And Then Shouts Of....

The following post is from this past August: 

                   It is not impossible....it takes real effort....to stand back and view America as it is today....as if from the outside....but it may as well be impossible because we do not even attempt it. The ugly reality is that we....evangelicals....just do not care about God judging us. Take the pandemic for instance. That was God's judgment....on America....all of us in America....even the church....and the world....but we rejected that concept of judgment....and transferred the focus to China....and continue that narrative....'gain of function' if you will....altering the meaning of this pandemic....for political gain.

                  The Reagan years turned into the Clinton years....and then the George W. years....and then the Obama years. 9/11 shook us to the core....but it is what happened after the dust settled....and we found ourselves....two sides....facing each other....bayonets in place....that should really have sent us to our knees....but it never happened.
                 It was probably only months before that terrible day in 2001....when as I was going through an eighteen month master's degree program in Higher Education....a fifty year old among mostly newly graduated young people....that I stood up in class....during a general class participation time over the issues of the day....and I....looking back on it....pleaded with those in our cohort to consider the division that was coming to America. I could see it....and I could feel it. They were already familiar with the word 'division'....for we had been a divided society for a while...but not nearly as intense a division as what I saw coming. 
                We in evangelicalism have settled into an erroneous and destructive 'rapture' mentality where since Jesus will return in 'the twinkling of an eye"....we don't have to think about any of this at all. We will be zapped up....and the world will have to deal with the tribulation. So....since in our estimation Jesus may not return for fifty or a hundred years....OK....we'll admit....maybe it's sooner than we than that....maybe twenty years....whatever it is we just have to get the republicans back in charge so that we can continue to work on our future....and the future of our children.
                This is not God's will for us....and since it is not His will....we are out of His favor....and have lost just about all discernment. It is literally horror that engulfs us today. Our governing processes have collapsed. Our media....both sides of it....are so biased that the news they gives us does more harm than good. We have become as two wild animals going at it. God has given us up to chaos. Israel is in chaos. Both they and us will have to defend ourselves in the near future....but we are so divided that se may not have the will.
                The greatest disappointment has been the churches....particularly the pulpits. We are in need of severe warnings....to prepare for what is ahead....and they give us none. Our shepherds have abandoned us. Great delusion is right at our doorstep....but for them to warn us would jeopardise the plans they have made....to grow.....and build. That is if they were even aware of the dangers ahead....which they are not. We simply cannot come to grips with the concept that one church age might differ from another....and that therefore....one  might be worse than another.
                 A winnowing is not only coming but upon us right now....and it is going to be very difficult....families and churches split between those who can discern what is happening....and those who have fallen for the delusions. 
                 Look at your own church. When is the last time that your sermon filled you with the glory of our Lord….or depleted you so that you had to call out for mercy....and cried thanksgiving for God's patience? Probably never! It’s the church age folks. We have no idea what the power of the Holy Spirit can do in either mortification because of our failures to be faithful....or exaltation of our glorious Savior....because we have never experienced it. 
                  We have been told that the power of the Holy Spirit is fifty thousand filling a stadium....or a million-man march....or college students in a marathon revival service. We manufacture visitations....and concoct stories....trips to heaven....or hell. None of it changes us....or humbles us. We have fallen under the sway of counterfeit….emotion-driven substitutes....or practical church-growth gospels that do not save. No one has to be born again anymore....and there is no call to come out of the world....or to separate ourselves unto the Lord....but all that is about to change....should the Lord will it....only it will come with tears....and then shouts of....

"Amen! blessings and glory and wisdom and thanksgiving and honor and power and might be to our God forever and ever! Amen.

(Rev: 7:12) 

                 

Possibly The Most Penetrating....Maybe The Most clear....And Certainly The Most Urgent....Evangelistic Sermon That I Have Ever Heard

The following was first posted in June of 2023           

             Home from vacation....with a couple of days of yard work waiting for me....I just had to stop midway this morning to give you this post. Listening to sermons as I cut grass and do other tasks....as I always do....from either....men from the past....or men today who preach like men from the past....I stumbled across this morning possible the most wonderful evangelistic message that I have ever heard.
             The sermon was preached by Charles Spurgeon on a Lord's Day evening on May 10, 1891. Spurgeon had less than nine months to live. Well let me give you the sermon title....you simply have to Google it....An Urgent Quest For An Immediate Answer. I understand so well where Spurgeon was coming from in this sermon. He had preached the gospel for four decades....most of it in the heart of London....and he...as it were...was upping the ante....and demanding an answer right then as to whether his unconverted hearer would be converted.
              I have found myself in these posts becoming more and more urgent as time goes by. Either believe or don't believe....either become serious in your faith....or admit that you will not become serious in your faith.
              Spurgeon will not let you go away unchallenged in this sermon. Settle it now friends. Why waste your time in hesitation that is only sinking you deeper in unbelief....and taking the precious time of ministers and Christians who try to throw you a rope out of the judgment that you will come to....where you will no longer be able to put things off.

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Things That Are Hard To......Wrap Your Mind Around

                For most of you readers out there....you will need a quiet room....with no distractions....pour a cup of coffee for yourselves....or tea....and then settle in....before you go to the Wikipedia description.....through Google.....of the term.....non binary....or....non binary gender. I'm not going to mention any of the specifics here.....that is not why I am attempting this post. If you are new to this at all....you will read....and pause....and then read the same sentence or paragraph again....and maybe a third time. You will have a hard time....wrapping your mind around.....what you are reading.
                When you are finished reading this Wikipedia offering....or more likely a number of times pausing while reading it....you will ask yourself something like....how can this be? Or....where could this possibly come from?  Or....how can this actually be accepted....by governments....or in our case....by one of our states? You won't come up with an answer!
                 Now....you may do this....you may impulsively just spout out some negative comments coming from a political perspective. Your answer will be as insufficiently thought out as what you were reading....but if you have no one around to call over and say....'look at this'....or no one to text in indignation saying....'can you believe this'....but seriously contemplate what you are actually reading....you will not just react.....but you will need time to let it all sink in.
                 Now for the hard part of this post. I have laid before you an example of something in the culture and in our society today that seems to make no sense at all to you. It will at the very least be very sobering. I'm going to give you another example....and most likely you will outright reject it.
                 In this example you may be the one whose beliefs are examined. People are observing you and asking the very same same questions.....how can this be....how can you take the position that you are taking....where could this possibly come from....or how did we come to this point?
                 How could a man who has a long lifetime of outrageous vileness....and emptiness....and deceitful maneuvering....and a literally frightening spirit of revenge within....and a narcissism that is hard to wrap your mind around....and who three years ago was quite rightly considered politically gone and forgotten....how could so many people today....even Christians.....followers of Jesus Christ....how could they look up to this man with almost adoration? How could all of this have been accepted?
                 These are two examples....there are more....pro-abortion marches would be another....smiling joyous faces in effect saying....give us the right to kill the life in our womb! Can we really even wrap our mind around that celebration? A bird....(I love birds)....or a fish....or some rare animal is said to need protection....and thousands of human beings will suffer because the rare fish needs protected? How can this type of thinking be? The Bible...or the Constitution....very clearly says one thing....a child could see it....but some say....no it doesn't say that....it says the opposite. What can be the origin of the human mind going haywire as in these examples?
                  Well some say that it is simply a paradigm change.....people think one way....and so many years later they naturally think another way....no big deal! Some say that it is progress! Some call it intellectual freedom. God's Word calls it blindness....or in some cases....spiritual blindness.