A Perpetual Future Event

Preface: I watched a TBN program this evening where Jonathan Cahn was talking about his new book coming out a week from today. In that interview he mentioned that the colors of the Palestinian flag were the same colors of the four horses in Revelation six. I remembered posting on that a number of times....researched it....and found the following written on December 1, 2012. Interestingly the topic is very similar to a post from yesterday....Statistical Probability.                

                   In terms of world affairs it was one of the biggest news stories in the last seventy years. The Palestinian people, situated in various areas within Israel, were granted a "birth certificate" as a "non-member observer state" in the United Nations. Most might think this just a simple recognition or mere symbolism but it is much more than that. They can now take issues to the ICC, or International Criminal Court, where Israel may find itself charged someday with genocide, crimes against humanity or even war crimes.
                  The peace of the world revolves around that small plot of land called Israel. There is a hate directed at them that because of its persistence defies the imagination. It is a malignance that is ubiquitous. Many other nations just want to ignore Israel's existence so as not to find themselves a target of that hate. Love Israel, hate Israel or anything in between one must admit that it is the fulcrum of where this world is going. 

                   The front page of today's Pittsburgh Tribune-Review showed a large Palestinian flag unfurled and stretched out by a crowd of people in a West Bank town...black, white and green stripes meeting a red valence. One might be tempted to think of the colors of the four horses of John's Revelation...black, red, white and pale...or green.
                   It sometimes seems as if we in America live in a suspended state of animation the future is there...but at the same time it isn't. We can imagine the possibilities of a future world war or the collapse of our monetary system, even our country, but can go no further in our minds than that, for it's only as a movie script. 
                   Some Christians know two things: Jesus Christ is coming back...but definitely not now. It can't be now, in fact it is a perpetual future event! Other Christians see it differently. Not only do they think that Christ may indeed come back now, but that it looks as if He is very near, indeed they want him to.
                   Which side would be best to err on? In the former one might be caught unprepared, even unsaved. In the latter one might live their life looking, hoping even expecting the Second Coming of their Lord, as many others before have, only to go on to glory. Put us in another country, a country where Christians are persecuted, and we might see the wisdom of looking to Christ's return every day instead of retirement. [this post was written almost four years before I retired] We may live in a country like that country before it is all over. Would it not be best to prepare for retirement and for Christ's return...but not in that order?  At least then there might still be time to get oil for our lamps!

Note: Palestine today is what is called a....Permanent Observer State.

300 TO 1 ODDS

               It is as natural as a baby's cry....'God is not going to judge America now. Not us!' He may judge America later....indeed Christians will proclaim that....but not now. We are wired to think this way....and it is most certainly in our spiritual DNA....no nuclear war on our watch....but that next generation better look out!
               It is a dichotomy in that.....we consider ourselves special....everyone in every age thinks that they are special....but we are not special in that Jesus would return in our generation. It would be inconceivable to us for Jesus to return right now....for that would mean that all of our future plans...family....college....retirement....everything....would be....gone with the wind. 
               There have been at most 300 generations since Adam And Eve. We might....(hey we wouldn't have to buy a lotto ticket but someone might give us one)....we might hope with anticipation as the winning numbers of a lotto ticket are drawn....even though the odds are about 300 million to one....but for that 1 in 300 generation thing....nah....won't happen! Doesn't make sense does it?
               Well guess what....our numbers were drawn....and we are that generation....1948....in retrospect....since veils are being lifted from our eyes all the time....1948 set the end times in motion....or "put us on notice"....as John Macarthur once said. We do not know what a 'generation' means as far as years....but we should know that of all the numerical possibilities....we are already at the tail end.
               So we do not want this. We do not want Jesus to return right now! I can't really blame anyone for that....for who would look forward to what God's Word describes in those....end times....but the fact remains....and we should at least admit it....we do not want Jesus to actually return right now....unless He zaps us up in the Rapture first....and even there we kind of like it where we are.
               Here is why not wanting Jesus to return right now is a problem. If in our heart we do not desire Jesus to return....we are not going to discern the signs. God is not going to show these things to people who do not even care! That's where politics comes in. That's what we really want....America to be great again....and it has nothing to do with honoring God. So if that is what we want....God leaves us there. 
              God knows those who trust in Him....and He will keep them. There is our hope! We will see what is happening. We won't be taken in by false teachers. We won't fall for the delusion. Our minds will not be in chaos....but the world will be in chaos. His Word will guide us. We will recognize each other....and draw strength from each other.

           

Lord's Day Post

                We know that our hope is in heaven. We are not short of hearing this promise....but we are short on hearing this.....as David proclaimed in the 17th Psalm....verse 15....verse 15b to be exact....in the King James Version..."I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
                Now there is a matter of legitimate interpretation here....does this mean....seeing God's likeness....or as the KJV that is above and other literal translations put it....with thy likeness?
                 If Jesus were to appear to me right now.....I would be on the floor as one dead....but I would still be me....in this tent....hoping in salvation for the chief of sinners.....and I might add....so would everyone else.
                 We not only long to see Jesus....we long for that day when we will be like Him....in that there is no corruption in heaven. Let me see if I can come up with an example....
                 Has it ever passed through your mind....even a passing thought.....of maybe seeing someone in heaven that you didn't particularly like here on earth? Maybe they thought that they were holier than everyone? How would you react? Are you concerned even a little bit that you might harbor some jealousy or grievance in heaven. That would be a really discouraging thought would it not....jealousy in heaven....sin of any kind in heaven....I thought we were done with all that?
                 Well we do know that there will not be any of that in heaven. So don't worry about what you will say to this person or that person....for love will absolutely be everywhere!
                 So I have to lean towards the translation of Psalm 17:15b as being...."with Thy likeness." But what if I'm wrong? Hey....whatever it will be....it will be perfect! This is part of our hope folks....as we will no longer have to be concerned about our own frail natures....because we will be changed! How often today do we hear the adage....don't worry about things that you cannot change? Well here it is don't worry,...because we all be changed!

                 This is only verse 15 of the 17th Psalm....although it is the last verse. David was tired....for persecution from evil men was always following him....but he had patience and faith....for he knew what was ahead. Verse fourteen describes those men of this world who seem to have all the money and riches that they could even desire. That was their treasure. And they looked at this life as simply enjoying that treasure....and then passing it on to their many children....but David did write in the first part of that 15th and final verse...."As for me, I will see your face in righteousness...."

                 

Forty Days Post Revisited

Preface: The post that follows this post....titled....Forty Days....is from Friday July 12. The premise of the post....as you will read....was that beginning with the start of the Republican Convention on July 15....and continuing on to the end of the Democrat Convention....tonight....40 days....and within those 40 days were also the Jewish three weeks of morning....and the 9th of AV....and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's speech to our Congress....and the Olympics....so these 40 days seemed to be a time for added prayer and concern. Those 40 days will end in about eleven minutes as I type this....as the Democrat Convention just ended....with Joe Biden nominated once again....oh....excuse me.....there was a change within those 40 days....and the Vice President will attempt to become the first female President of the United States. That's one thing that happened. About 24 hours after the following was posted....and a few hours before that July 15th beginning....an attempt was made on the life of a former United States President....and current nominee to return to that office. J. D. Vance was picked as a running mate. President Biden contracted Covid and the calls for his dropping out of the race increased, Microsoft experienced that worldwide outage. The director of the Secret Service resigned. Joe Biden dropped out. Within about ten days Donald Trump went from a shoo-in to a big underdog. Twelve young Israeli children and teens were killed in a Hezbollah rocket attack. War seemed only hours away....but is still on hold....and the Ukraine invaded Russian territory. Two days ago the headline on the Drudge Report was..."Kamala: Month That Changed Everything.'

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!

Note: 32 Russian and Belarusian 'neutral' athletes competed in 10 sports winning 1 gold...3 silver....and 1 bronze.

Two Very Different Assemblages Of Officials......But Two Very Similar Worship Events

 "Belshazzar the king made a great feast for a thousand of his Lord's....and drank wine in the presence of the thousand. While he tasted the wine, Belshazzar gave the command to bring the gold and silver vessels which his father Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple which had been in Jerusalem, that the king and his lords, his wives, and his concubines might drink from them.....they drank the wine, and praised the gods of gold and silver, bronze and iron, wood and stone..." Daniel 5:1-4

                   Well you know the rest.....about the handwriting on the wall. This Democrat National Convention can be put up side-by-side in comparison with Belshazzar's feast....for it in essence it is a celebration. It's not temple vessels profaned but rather God profaned. I was a Democrat....(as were both of my parent's families)....up until thirty-two years of age. This party today is in no way...shape...or form....the same political party. Gods of gold and silver and bronze and iron and wood and stone....are everywhere.

"Nebuchadnezzar the king made an image of gold, whose height was sixty cubits and its width six cubits. He set it up in the plain of Dura, in the province of Babylon......And King Nebuchadnezzar sent word to gather the satraps, the administrators, the governors, the counselors, the treasurers, the judges, the magistrates, and all the officials of the provinces to come to the dedication of the image which king Nebuchadnezzar had set up. Then a herald cried aloud: 'To you it is commanded, O people, nations and languages....that at the time you hear the sound of the horn, flute, harp, lyre,  and psaltery, in symphony with all kinds of music, you shall fall down and worship the gold image that King Nebuchadnezzar set up. And whoever does not fall down and worship shall be cast immediately into the midst of the burning furnace." Daniel 3:1-6

                       On February 4, 2020....(I remember the date well for it was my 70th birthday)....all the officials gathered together for the State of the Union Speech. (As a side-note....Thomas Jefferson refused to give such a speech because he said that it was too much like England's monarch's....speech from the throne) I've posted many times on this State of the Union....for what we conservatives and Republicans and evangelicals did was....in essence...."fall down and worship the gold image."
                       The Trump Tower is 664"....with a rectangular base....and a slenderness ratio of 11.1 to 1.  Take a quick glance at photos of the atrium waterfall and what might come to mind is the large-stoned Western Wall on the temple mount in Jerusalem. Donald Trump....born on a blood moon....whose father's mother's maiden name was Christ....are just things to think about....to keep in the back of the mind. The Democrats have many gods that they worship and sacrifice to....literally sacrifice to....and we have the golden-haired image to bow down to.
                       There is not a 'lesser of two evils' here. We are not obeying God by exalting a man who is known for boasting and lying and threatening. God raises kings....and causes kings to fall....all for His own purpose. We need to examine our motivations. Are we truly trying to honor God....or are just we trying to do what we perceive to be best for us?

"And There Was A Mighty Tempest...."

               I'm bringing this November of 2020 post back because of the recent news of an 184 ft super yacht that sank in a sudden storm off of the coast Sicily. There is a grainy video out there that shows the 237 ft mast.....almost a Guinness record on a ship that size....breaking off....and the yacht disappearing from view. November of 2020? The pandemic that changed the course of the world was in its incubating stage at the time! The two preceding paragraphs were prefaces to previous postings:

Preface: I was talking recently to a Christian of about twenty years....the topic being the Daniel musical production at Lancaster's Sight & Sound. He was unfamiliar with anything from the book of Daniel other than the obvious....the lion's den and the furnace and a few other things.....and said that he will have to read the book again....as if he were talking about Hemingway's The Old Man And The Sea....or some other classic book. To you the reader....on average....how many times a year might you read Daniel? I purposely constructed that question as I did....as my friend thought that it was like a once in a lifetime read....or maybe twice in a lifetime type of thing. Think of it this way....your ice maker on the fridge is not working....you can either call the repairman and pay maybe half of what the fridge costs....or you can put the time in and go to the Internet for help and YouTubes....anything? This is the same thing only infinitely more important. It's your eternal soul...and maybe the eternal souls of your loved ones. Are you going to read Daniel once....and Jeremiah not really at all except for a quick....usually worthless....read the Bible in a year....type of thing....or do you really want answers? 

Preface: It was reported in March of 2021 that for the first time in sixty years....fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls were found in a cave. Eleven lines were found....from Zechariah 8:16,17....."These are the things that you shall do: speak the truth to one another;  render in your gates judgments that are true and make for peace. Do not devise evil in your hearts against one another. and love no false oath, (that means lying) for all these things I hate, declares the LORD"....and from Nahum 1: 5-6....'The mountains quake because of Him. And the hills melt.  The earth heaves before Him, And the world and all that dwell therein. Who can stand before His wrath? Who can resist His fury? His anger pours out like fire, and rocks are shattered because of Him." This was no accident....these fragments being found....for God was warning us.

Joppa To Tarshish......Weather Permitting

             When is the last time that you read the book of Jonah? This small book can be read in a half hour....and that's with meditating on and praying about what you are reading. Well we all know the story.....so why read it again? That attitude on reading God's Word is kind of like saying.....why drink water.....I've had it before......I know what it tastes like.
             So the Bible opened to Jonah tonight.....and that's what I read.....and meditated upon again. The last thing that Jonah wants to do is go to Nineveh and tell them to repent. He thinks that sailing all the way to the other end of the Mediterranean should be far enough from God and Nineveh. I could not count on my fingers and toes the number of times that I wanted to quit. Don't we all feel like that at times....that we don't think we are doing any good anyway?
             I guess that the Mediterranean can at times get a storm equivalent to Cat 1 hurricane. That's probably what Jonah and Paul both experienced. These men on his boat certainly weren't like the Ninevites.....as even when they found out that Jonah was responsible for the storm.....they didn't want to go so far as to throw him overboard....but after they did....and the sea calmed....and they no longer had any goods to deliver anywhere....they may have just pulled into a harbor.....possibly back at Joppa....and told their story.....and that story may have made its way quickly up to Nineveh.....maybe giving those people a few laughs.....until Jonah showed up....bleached out from the fish's belly....and smelling like Pungent....Eau De Toilette Water....real toilet water.
             There would have been no laughing this time. Maybe we'll stop laughing in America some day. God relented in his destroying Nineveh. At times I think about America during of our Civil War as Nineveh in Jonah's day. Great revivals of religion had broken out in those days.....and just previous to those days.....did you know that? Anyway in a way God relented in destroying America back then. Nineveh went another hundred and fifty years or so before Nahum showed up.....and there was no offer this time....only a warning to get ready. Well.....we kind of went about a hundred and fifty years after the Civil War.....and we had plenty of warnings....pausing a time or two but generally ignoring them. Our Jonah is gone....Billy Graham.....(there were many others)....and Nahum is speaking to us today.
             Here are a couple of verses from that short book.....(there are 47 verses in Nahum....and 48 in Jonah)....."And I will cast abominable filth upon thee"....."Thou hast multiplied thy merchants above the stars of heaven".....and "Thy shepherds slumber".....but there is also....."The LORD is good, a stronghold in the day of trouble; and he knoweth them that trust in him." (3;6, 3:16, 3:18....and 1:7)

"All Mushrooms Can Be Eaten...."

              What is known as.....cash crop farming....produces crops and therefore food to be marketed and sold. Other than a few tomatoes....I do not grow any of the food that we eat in our home. What is known as....subsistence farming....is something different....where the farmer grows the food that his family will consume. A famine anywhere in the world may not affect my grocery shopping at all....other than the prices may go up. A famine in Sudan or Malawi or some such third-world nation threatens families with starvation.
             God's Word speaks of gospel truths as food....and Christians look to the return of Jesus Christ....and that great banquet. Jesus said that man does not live on bread alone but on every word that comes from the mouth of God.
              So how do we survive. Is the gospel a....cash crop....where someone else....the church and its ministers.....and all parachurch ministries out there....harvest and gather and sort the produce....market it....and deliver it to us....the only cost being what money is put into the collection plate or to those ministries? Or is the gospel more of a subsistence crop to us....where we have the land....God's Word....and the water....the Holy Spirit....thus if we choose....we can have a daily supply of the best food?
              God has given us teachers....and teachers teach....so we need teachers....but for how long? In one respect forever....for we are never to stop learning....that's why we read Christian books....but does the time come when we can....so to speak...grow our own food....or read God's Word and see something that we have never read or heard before? 
              There are problems on both sides of this. On the one side there are those who grow their own 'food'....and it is all poison. My wife pointed out a t-shirt to me the other day...."All mushrooms can be eaten...but some only once." This is how cults were formed. This is how 'teachers' like Joel Osteen became popular. On the other side....we would never stoop down to dig a furrow....and then to plant a seed....and to water and nourish and weed it. Why do any of that when all we have to do is go to the nearest grocery store....in this case....podcast or website....and load up the shopping cart?
               How many years do we need Bible studies? The Sunday School was first formed to teach young people who had no other way to be taught. Today these things are like a dishwasher where we do not have to wash our own dishes....where we can go to our dying day subsisting on that....door dash.
               How are we to be Bereans....to check what others are teaching....if all that we do is listen to teachers? Who checks the teachers? Well God's Word is that check....but we have to be able to sail that sea ourselves....and not merely be experienced on taking cruises.

Addendum: I am not disparaging Bible studies. We need them. If you teach a Bible study....keep at it. In five minutes....Lord willing....I am going up to our local bicycle store to purchase a bicycle light for our grandson....as he just graduated to a regular grown-up's bike. He started with a....Stryder....which worked out real well....and then moved on to child's bike. That is us folks. We start out with training wheels. About ten years ago my wife and I took a cruise to Bermuda. I had the bright idea to rent a small motorcycle to go to the opposite end of the island. I hadn't been on a small motorcycle in thirty years since a cruise to Jamaica....which went well....being on a road along the beach. This time it didn't go well as it was a cramped two lane with a wall on one side and a drop-off on the other....with a bus tooting its horn behind us...and my wife screaming....and me trying to be calm. The only instructions the man gave us was...this is the rear brake handle....this other one is the front brake handle....do not use it! So for your Bible study....start on the beach road....where there is no traffic....only turquoise water to look at....but remember that the goal is eventually to ride safely alone.

Lord's Day Post

In was around 1994....I'm going to make this short.....it was a small mission church....twenty people maybe....and we called a pastor....it was his first sermon....and when it ended all the people stood up and turned to each other and started laughing and talking. We had just worked for many months to search and interview and call a pastor....from the South....a Southern Baptist....he preached a sound evangelistic sermon.....which is what we wanted....and now was the time for laughter and gaiety? I immediately walked to the front three or four steps up to the pulpit....collapsed on them.....and wailed....wailed! Do you know what wail means? I was crying out to God to help us to take seriously what we had just heard. I'm reading Joel tonight....and came to the following verse...and remembered that Lord's Day thirty years ago....

"Let the priests, who minister to the LORD, weep between the porch and the altar; Let them say, 'Spare Your people O LORD, And do not give Your heritage to reproach, that the nations may rule over them. Why should they say among the peoples. 'Where is their God'?" Joel 2:17 NKJV

It wasn't just our small congregation....for the problem is all across America. We can hear a sermon on the cross....(not often but now and then)....and when it is over....comment on a good sermon....and then say something like this to the person next to us....'So where are you watching the Steeler game today?" America is what it is today in no small part because of what our Lord's Days have become.

The following post is from January 23, 2021:

           I've brought this up with brothers and sisters in Christ on a few if not a number of occasions....but always felt that it was never really accepted by the hearers....or possibly that I never really explained it properly. I've put the thought in a few posts....and there also had no confidence that I explained it adequately....but today while listening to a Charles Spurgeon sermon....he told a story that came very close to conveying what I have been for so long trying to convey. Here is that story...

           There was a young man who was not a believer....who was utterly lost....but who heard a preacher at a small country church....who preached the gospel...."earnestly and fervently....with tears in his eyes".....and the young man felt the weight of his sins!  He followed the preacher home after the service....conversing along the way....and they stopped at a friend's house and had dinner. The young man entered the house feeling as a sinner should feel....guilty and in need of a Savior....but the preacher's conversation on the walk and at dinner was worldly....lighthearted....with joking. The young man wished that he...."could unburden [his] heart"....but he could not....as the preacher did not talk...."on anything that he said in the pulpit." The young man left the house that night and stomped his foot.....saying that it was all a lie....for the preacher's words of great importance were obviously just words.
            Later in life that man was ill and called for that preacher....who came....and he asked the preacher if he remembered him...."No"....was the answer. Did he remember once preaching at that country church....that the preacher did remember. He told the preacher that upon hearing the text of his sermon that he was...."laid very deeply at my heart"....on which the preacher said..."Thank God for that"....but the man told him not to thank God too quickly....for he had during the sermon...."deeply felt his sins"....but the worldly conversation afterwards.....on anything but Christ....."scattered" all those impressions....and he was now dying....and headed to perdition.
           I can understand this common behavior....worldly talking and laughter...."frothy light-heartedness" as Spurgeon I believe put it....after a sermon that is typical of today....but not after Christ and His gospel are preached...."earnestly and fervently"....even at times with tears. I've experienced the latter on occasion when I could detect sadness in the preacher's eyes after the sermon....that the congregation had so soon joined into triviality....and I've experienced also where the preacher had himself....so quickly....returned to the world

 This sermon by Spurgeon was titled....Not Of The World....and can easily be Googled.

This Storm Has Already Begun

Preface: The following post is from September 13, 2019. It was a warning about a storm that was coming. Two months later a cluster of patients in Wuhan, China developed pneumonia symptoms that did not respond to treatment. Billy Graham wrote his book Storm Warning in 1991. It was published on New Years Day 1992....and the book was "completely revised and updated" in 2010. I no longer have the 1992 edition....so I don't know if the following comment from page 73 was also in the earlier edition....but I tend to think that it was not. He wrote...."I look back on my many years as an evangelist and wonder, Have I made the Christian faith look too easy......in my eagerness to tell the world about the greatest gift that comes from God....I ask myself if I have comprehended the price He paid for our freedom....Have I adequately explained the price we must pay in humbling ourselves, turning our backs on pride, and sacrificing our earthly desires out of obedience to the Lord?" I do believe that this comment was in the original....."[This] storm warning carries a booming jolt of truth--Trouble Ahead; Prepare to Meet Thy God." 

Storm Warning.....September 13, 2019....[and a whole lot has happened since then]

           As I watch with everyone else the progress of Hurricane Dorian....I'm reminded of another hurricane force storm that occurred in the eastern Mediterranean almost two thousand years ago that was recorded in great detail in the 27th chapter of the books of Acts. That storm also lasted a couple of weeks. There was a similar storm at the end of September 196. (Mediterranean storms that might be equivalent to a category 1 hurricane are somewhat rare.) In that storm a 20,000 ton tanker struck a reef near Malta and split in two.
            As of this evening....Dorian just doesn't want to move away from parts of the Bahamas.....very similar to how Paul and his 275 other shipmates fought and fought the storm for many days. We still are not sure of the exact path that Dorian will take....but we are sure of this.....God rules the waves of the sea as he rules every atom in this universe.
            I wonder how many of those Roman soldiers....and that ship's crew.....and the inhabitants of Malta....eventually came to faith in Christ because of that storm? An "angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve" told Paul....and Paul relayed it to his shipmates.....that there would be no loss of life.....but the ship would be lost. God's Word speaks similarly to us today in that there will be no loss of eternal life to those who belong to and serve Christ.....but the ship will be lost. Paul himself must have been gravely concerned at first for the angel told him not to be afraid....and he then in turn told all that were with him to take courage.
            There is another storm coming folks. Meteorologists speak in terms of rotating low-pressure weather systems and maximum sustained winds but God's Word as it pertains to this storm that is coming speaks in terms of birth pangs. The rotating low-pressure....as it were....is almost becoming unbearable to watch.....while the maximum sustained winds are increasing.....the cries of pain all over this earth are increasing....and the contractions are coming closer together. We are still told to take courage....but therein is the rub....there is a difference between knowing what is ahead and yet remaining calm.....and having no knowledge of or concern for what is ahead......and remaining calm.
            Folks....we....meaning Christians.....on the whole....could not care less about judgment coming. You would have to have lived in the 80s to know what it was like for the church to know how far we had fallen....and that God was giving a strong warning of impending judgment....but our discernment is just about all gone. The Pre-Trib rapture has done it's damage as Christians think that they are going to get beamed up out of an NFL football game if necessary before the tough times start. Look at what's on Christian television....it's as if God exists just to make us happy....and what was left of us were taken in by a huckster in Donald Trump whose idea of wisdom is getting every dollar owed us around the world. It is eerie.....personal opinion here....to see how we have regressed....but it in itself seems to be part and parcel of what God's Word tells us that the world will be like upon His return.
            He deconstructed conservatism....and built in its place Trumpism....with faulty steel and cheap concrete....and an ideology-free foreign policy built on the best sale price at the moment....weakening policies that which had kept us out of world war for seventy years. Domestically he has tortured us....purposely....poking and jabbing every day to stir up anger.....and foment hatred. He has been a destroyer his whole life....(seventy-five books...now 102....on his entire life have shown me this)....with not an ounce of empathy for any living thing.
................................................................................................ 

I'm adding a second older post here....and I'll add an anecdote from a few days ago....August of 2024. There is an older man...a little older than I am....and he is and has been a pastor and a minister his whole adult life. I was told this second hand....it came from his wife. They can't be in the same room together anymore because he always has Fox cable or some podcast on the computer. She just doesn't like Donald Trump....while this minister of the gospel is obsessed with Trump returning to office. As the end of this older posts warns...."Flee these people on talk radio and Fox prime time cable....or at least moderate considerably their input....and use the mind that God gave you."

I posted this thought back in August of 2020...."I have never given up hope that Donald Trump would for the first time in his life show some personal humility. I thought that God might have him eat grass on the White House lawn....(figuratively speaking)....because of his blasphemous arrogance....as did Nebuchadnezzar graze in the fields. I don't wish him ill at all....I just wish him to be a one-term president....primarily because his psychological disorders are so many and so serious....that dealing with our enemies is more than problematic....it is a recipe for disaster." 

Preface: Well Donald Trump did eat grass on the White House lawn....the Ellipse to be more precise....but he never came out of it....primarily because this is the same Donald Trump as in his youth. Trump's nephew....Fred Trump III....patriarch Fred Trump's grandson....has a book out now titled....All In The Family....The Trumps and how We Got This Way. It takes you into the Sunday dinners and the lives of Donald Trump's four siblings. I pleaded in these posts since 2018 with words like these....'Thank you President Trump....but you have to back away....we cannot deal another four years with the rage that you instill in everyone. Please retire with the great accomplishment in life as having become the 45th president of the United States.' Well in retrospect that was an impossibility with him....and today America's vaunted constitutional republic is in ruins. The following post....Let Trump Be Trump....was first published on October 14, 2020....twenty days before the election. Those who tried their best to hold Donald Trump accountable were summarily purged. Pastors all across America....men who should have known better....were at best AWOL....absent....without leave....and reminiscent of the ten spies....fearful of the giant.

"Let Trump Be Trump"

            We begged them time and again in those early days.....hold this man accountable.....for there is a big problem here.....but their response increasingly became...."Let Trump be Trump." Well....that we did....and his actions tore America apart as quickly and savagely as would a Yellowstone bear a box of Honey Nut Cheerios. He ripped apart the Republican Party....dragged the conservative movement into a house of ill repute....and replaced the cross in our churches with a bully pulpit. (and flag) Today we continue to follow him around the country....(really only to swing states)....as faithfully as would hardcore Deadhead fans.....perpetuating the myth of a smart man that has done a lot....because he cares for us so much.  
             Conservative talk radio had every opportunity to hold the newly inaugurated President Trump to account....as a matter of fact it would have been their responsibility....but they blew it. There was Ivanka & Jared....and the fake Obamacare repeal & replace....and there was Luther Strange....this just in the first few months....and dozens of instances after that....and literally thousands of lies....and each time we just sat there....afraid to say anything.....as he got worse and worse and worse over time....until now as we are nothing but captives to his whims.....with no voice to even question his antics....where we find ourselves forced to defend the most grotesque incumbent president nominee for reelection that America has ever witnessed. 
             It's become so surreal that evangelicals now....(this during the pandemic)....in order to get a false prophet and wolf in sheep's clothing reelected....seem to care very little for older people....and those with a higher health risk...."for they're going to die anyway"....and as for the poor....and minorities....he said this last night in a community not far from me..."So can I ask you to do me a favor, suburban women, will you please like me? Please, Please. I saved your damn neighborhood, Okay?" 
             We were deceived by a most extraordinary con man....with a lifetime of evidence of such right before our eyes....but we utterly refused to read....the 'fake news' and the 'hoaxes' that he labeled them to be. There were some good candidates the first time around....that would have ushered in an economic turnaround....without the recklessness.....and the constant incitement of hatred and anger....but we chose the loudest voice on the planet. Now we have no choice of a responsible and honest president to take us through the turmoil that surely lies ahead....but we have Christ....to return to as prodigal sons....seeking His mercy....and all for His glory....not ours.

I pleaded also back then....this from early in 2021

                  "Flee these people on talk radio and Fox primetime cable....or at least moderate considerably their input....and utilize the mind that God gave you. This is serious psychological manipulation that they are involved with. Donald Trump changed them into his mold....as we now call everything a fake....suppress evidence....purge those who will not follow....and deny anything that we do not want to face up to. We use the devil's tools today and think nothing of it. This is the exact opposite of edification! Go back to your Bible...to your prayer time....to common sense thinking.....to humility.....to depending on God alone....before what you have enlisted in shows an even deeper and darker plan for you."

Which it has!

Whatever It Is....I Do Not Know.....But I Do Know This....The 'Tick Tick Tick' Will End

               I have an opportunity....fairly regularly....to say the blessing at dinner with some elderly folks. That's it....a thirty second to maybe one-minute prayer. I do not want to blow those thirty to sixty seconds....for it is all that I have with them. On the positive side....and I would like you to understand this....a lot can be said in a thirty second prayer! So I find time before the dinner to walk by myself and ask God for words to say.
               For a few moments tonight I was stymied. We're talking years of these dinners folks....and I thank God that I always come up with something that is unusual to say.....in hope that the prayer might stir something within them. When this subject came to my mind tonight I knew that it would suffice.
               I began by thanking God for the meal that He has provided....and I said something like this...."Lord....if I look at the second hand on my watch....it will be moving.....for nothing can stop time. We live in time as a fish lives in water. Being frail humans...when we think of heaven....and time passing....thousand of years....we can think it boring....even in heaven with God....our limited minds cannot put into perspective the concept of days and months and years and thousand of years. And when we think of hell.....we cannot understand punishment for a million years for twenty years of rebellion on earth. But your word Lord tells us....(if we desire to know)....that time is created....just as we are....and that whatever eternity is in heaven....it is not time as we live in now....and when we are with you....and can finally see what we will live in....we will see that it is so very fair and wonderful!"
                I have posted on this topic a few times over the years....because I feel that most unbelievers.....although they do not do this consciously....let this concept of thousands upon thousands of years confuse and discourage them. When we do find out what God and His mighty angels live in....this thing called eternity....it will surely make so much sense....that we will be so thankful that God did not permit us to be bound up with questions here on earth that we have no capability to understand. So I praise Him today....for His mercies....and for the perfection of all His ways and designs!

'Have It Your Way'....'I Did It My Way'....'For I Deserve it!'

               Today we like to use the word democracy....."we could lose our democracy".....but we are a federal constitutional republic....."[We are] A Republic....if you can keep it"....as Benjamin Franklin famously answered a question upon leaving the Constitutional Convention.  The Constitution was meant to keep everything in order through law. If we were to be just a democracy then everything would depend on what the populace was like at any particular time....if the people lose all morals then all is lost. Yes....the constitution could be changed or amended....but that would either take time or a very strong majority of the Congress. The Supreme Court would keep all of this under control....but then the judges are people....and we are back to the concept of democracy. It was a great system....but not fool proof.
                The problems began decades ago when original intent from the writers of the constitution began to be challenged by the concept of a living document where the intent of the writers was superseded by the personal beliefs of the person or persons who were charged with interpreting the document....who they themselves were put into positions of power....by the people.  So once again the concept of democracy was in play....where the majority today is attempting to in effect replace the constitution with another constitution....Diversity....Equity....and Inclusion....or DEI. We are not talking about equality here but equity. It is no longer that everyone gets a chance to be a leader because of their abilities....but rather....everyone gets a chance to lead....(government or corporate or education or even the church)....in spite of their lack of abilities. 
                The system lasted for about two-hundred years before it began to be weakened. It was about thirty years ago...and it was either Nancy Pelosi or Barbara Boxer or Diane Feinstein....(I have not been able to find the quote)....but whichever one it was...in exasperation while being interviewed....(conservatism was making strong headway at the time)....she blurted out....."What's all this talk about the constitution....the constitution....the constitution?" Well today it is the opposite....everyone talks about the constitution....but it has no real authority....being subject to whatever the majority wants it to say.
                 So there have been changes and things continue to change....but underlying all of this is that the people of the United States of America....have changed. Postmodernism was part of it....but only a part of it. We as a people slowly became....me-centered. It is all about us....giving something to us....for we deserve it. The Constitution could not keep the desires of the people in check....but more importantly.....the church did not even attempt to keep the desires of the people in check....for even the gospel of Jesus Christ...became all about me....'God loves us and has a wonderful plan for our lives.'
                  We really do not want Jesus to return right now for that would put a serious crimp in our plans. We want back the America of the past....and we want it for ourselves....not for anyone else. Pastors want their congregations to grow....family congregations. The cross and the blood and judgment....denying oneself....the are outmoded concepts....that stifle church growth. 
                  So as I read the political news every day....two very bad candidates....VP nominees being scourged because they had a life before yesterday....three or four main news sources on one side that are totally biased....two main news sources on the other side....also totally biased....so in effect....freedom of the press....but no legitimate press to use that freedom.
                  Ultimately all of this is rebellion against God....against the King of Kings....'have it your way'....as if God were a quarter-pound hamburger? We will even have a revival our way....but we are about to find out that as the song boasts...."I did it....my....way'....was a fool's errand.
                 
                

"Hear Now, O Heads Of Jacob....And Rulers Of The House Of Israel...."

Preface: The following post is from this past September 2. I'm bringing it back for a while because of a concept that I talk about in it. My Bible is highlighted with this concept...that being that when the prophets....the prophets.....speak about....'Jacob"....in the future....they are pointing to us....evangelicals....the church....and Jews who have come to believe in Jesus....and when they the prophets speak about....'Israel'....they are referring to literal Israel today. I've never heard anyone make this distinction....which means that I am probably wrong....but still....it is firmly embedded in my mind. I could only ask that when you come upon these words the in the prophets....which hopefully you are reading all the time....that you consider this thought....and see what you might think about it?

"Hear Now, O Heads of Jacob....And Rulers Of The House Of Israel..."        

              First of all....Micah was a contemporary of Isaiah....both prophesied of the coming Messiah....and both prophesied judgment....consequently the question at time comes up....who reported first....because the prophesied judgments were so similar. Babylon was still subservient to Assyria at the time....but Micah prophesied that it would be Babylon that will bring judgment on Jerusalem. Isaiah prophesied the same thing. The northern kingdom was about to fall to Assyrian assault. That was bad enough for this prophet from Moresheth....located in Judah....about twenty-five miles SW of Jerusalem....but Micah knew that the people of Judah and Jerusalem were following in the exact same footsteps as Israel to the north. So the extreme warning was there to His covenant people....return to God. The same warning is to us today....as we are following in the same footsteps of both Israel and Judah.

              Micah offers a rhetorical question....what was it that the north did that was so bad....and then provided the answer...."Is it not Samaria?".....the capital of the northern kingdom. Is not our capital a source of our rebellion to God.....and do we not send the people to our capital? They relied....and we rely today....on our military might and financial prowess....as we reject dependence upon God.
              What about the 'high places of Judah'....Jerusalem itself....with its temple? The leaders commanded the prophets....not to point out the corruption and injustice...and not to prophesy judgment. They only wanted good news....or stop the prophesying!  Spurgeon preached a sermon on this....The Holy Spirit...The need Of The Age....(please listen to this powerful sermon!)....where he asked....can anyone restrict the Holy Spirit? What gave them the right to say who can prophesy or preach and who cannot prophesy or preach? Spurgeon wasn't saying that anyone can minister for God....but rather the Holy Spirit can choose whomever He wants to declare what the Word of God says!
               There are three parts to the book of Micah....chapters 1 and 2....3 through 5....and 6 and 7. Each part....or oracle as some call them....begins with prophesied judgment....and then concludes with hope and deliverance...

"Do not rejoice over me, my enemy; When I fall, I will arise; When I sit in darkness, The LORD will be a light to me. I will bear the indignation of the LORD, Because I have sinned against Him, Until He pleads my case....and executes judgment for me....He will bring me forth to the light." (Micah 7 8,9 NKJV)

                Why the separation into three parts? Was it a chronology of some sort....or was Micah emphasizing the warnings by essentially repeating them three times? Whatever it is....Micah is speaking to us today....warning us....and telling us not to boast because we are still standing!
               The elites....the people with money and power....cheat and lie....they want to take houses and fields....and basically lord it over all the poor people....in this society where the rich get richer....and the poor get poorer....as even their inheritance and heritage was stolen. There's more....they were violent. The judiciary was corrupt. The judges took bribes...the priests taught for the money....and the prophets prophesied to please the rich. So those who were allowed to prophesy....became the false prophets. It was almost as if they were running for reelection....securing the needed votes by prophesying peace....and keeping the truth from the people....the same thing that our pulpits do today. 
                So what was it that the Lord demanded....and demands...."To do justly....to love mercy....and to walk humbly with your God." (Micah 6:8) That doesn't sound like Christian nationalism....does it? Micah became extremely vexed....just as Jeremiah would cry over what he saw coming....for God's covenant children were in rebellion....and God was going to judge them....and judge them severely. 
                I don't see any scriptural warrant for it....but I cannot get it out of my mind. When I read of Jacob....the people of Jacob....not the man Jacob....I associate it with the church....and when I read of Israel....I think of the Jewish people today....however many God has willed....who have not as of yet....found their redemption in Jesus Christ....but rather it points to a redemption that will come!  "Not all who are descended from Israel are Israel" (Romans 9:6) So when I read...Jacob....in prophecy...anywhere in Scripture....my mind first goes to God speaking to us....the church. It is a hard habit to break....and to be truthful....I'm not sure that I want  to break it.
                Israel was about to fall....Judah would be next. Secular America is about to fall today....along with the world.....and unbelieving Israel....and Micah is as speaking to the true church today....the remnant....that is where the hope and deliverance comes in....this is where Israel will see its salvation.

"He will again have compassion on us; and will subdue our iniquities....You will cast all our sins....Into the depths of the sea, You will give truth to Jacob....And mercy to Abraham....Which you have sworn to our fathers....From days of old."  (the last two verses of Micah)

Note: The title of this post is....Micah 3:1.

               

  

The Twelve Spies......And The Ninth Of Av

Preface....Monday....August 12....6PM....Tisha b'Av started in Israel about six hours ago: There is a video news segment as I type on the Times of Israel....website that reads....

"Tisha b'Av is different this year. The Israelis for the first time in decades, understand that the State of Israel is not as secure as they once thought and that statehood cannot be taken for granted."  

The lead story on the Jerusalem Post right now reads...."Regional quake: 5.2M earthquake hits northern, central Israel and surrounding countries."

The Twelve Spies....And The Ninth Of Av

                It's recorded in the thirteenth and fourteenth chapters of the Old Testament book of Numbers....the fourth of the five books of the Pentateuch....or the Torah....the book of the law....as the Jews refer to it....that in the wilderness of Paran....God told Moses to send one man from every tribe into Canaan...."Which I gave unto the children of Israel"....to check out the land....or to spy it out. And Moses did send them out....twelve of them including Joshua and Caleb....this on...."the time of the first ripe grapes"....which the Jewish Targum identifies as the twenty-ninth of the month of Sivan.

               The twelve spies returned forty days later....either the eighth or the ninth of the month of Av....and they said that yes it is a land of milk and honey....but the cities are too strongly fortified. Caleb jumped in saying that they should go up and conquer the land because they were able....but the ten others rebuked Caleb (and Joshua)....and changed their tune on the land....that it was a harsh land....with giants as enemies.
               It did not matter that the people had experienced God's miracles when they left Egypt. That was all in the past. They turned against Moses and Aaron....and wanted someone else to take them back to Egypt. Moses and Aaron fell on their faces before God...and Caleb and Joshua rent their clothes at what they were hearing....and began their argument again....that the land was exceedingly good....and they told the people not to rebel against the LORD....and He would give their enemies over to them.....at which the people called for stoning Caleb and Joshua.
               Well the LORD had had enough of this....and the glory appeared in the temple of meeting....and He told Moses that the people were going back into to wilderness....case closed....and except for the younger ones....and Caleb and Joshua....they would all die there....forty years in the wilderness for forty days of spying out the land and coming back with a false report.
               Then the people did what we all do when punishment is announced. They changed their tune and said that were going into Canaan after all....but Moses warned them that it was too late....upon which the people charged anyway....but were routed.
               The people in Israel right now are just waiting....what else can they do....to see what happens from all the threats and reports of an imminent attack. We are right in the middle of what is called....The Three Weeks....which is a time of mourning. This coming Tuesday evening begins the 9th of Av....that is most likely the day described above where the unbelieving congregation of the people rebelled against Moses and Aaron....and God. 

I'm adding here a post from Friday....July 12....the day before that horrendous Saturday in Pennsylvania....that gives more detail on The Three Weeks....and the 9th of Av....and this period of summer that we are now in....

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...."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!

   

               

Faster....Higher....Stronger...."Together?"

                The 1964 United States Olympic team entered the stadium in Tokyo....almost marching....as was the norm....and was followed immediately by the contingent from the Soviet Union. That opening ceremony can easily be Googled. The 1972 summer Olympics began on August 26....twenty-four days before I would ETS from the army. I spent my last six months in the service at Fort Bragg....as an afternoon CQ....keeping a log of men coming in and out of the long three story brick barracks....this because there was no six-month job for a morse code analyst in the United States. These tragic Olympics ended on September 11....and I watched almost every minute of it....much of it heart-wrenching minutes.....from my desk as a CQ.
                These were essentially the Mark Spitz Olympics as far as the competition was concerned....with his seven world record gold medals in seven swimming races....but the Olympiad was and is more than that right up to today....as eleven Israeli athletes were murdered by terrorists. This atrocity happened near the end of the sixteen day Olympics. Mark Spitz is Jewish and was sent back to America for his protection as the horror unfolded.
                So sitting by that television for so many hours....that iconic theme music....has remained in my mind even after all these years. I know that there hasn't been a year go by where a few times in that year I would have that theme waft through my mind. It was a Frenchman's composition titled....Bugler's Dream....if you are interested in Googling it. Was it played this year in NBC's Olympic programming? I wouldn't know because the only broadcast that I saw came at a....believe it or not...baby shower....(I guess they invite the husbands nowadays)....where the giant screen was on the wall ten feet in front of where I was sitting....as I was answering baby quiz questions.
                I have to correct that for I did tune in for about a half hour of the opening ceremony....which may have turned me off for the rest of the games? So what I did see of the competition was in news videos. The threats of terrorism and the hatred of Israel and Jews is still here today....but otherwise the world has changed. From mocking the Last Supper to Tom Cruise leaping off the closing ceremony stadium roof....(I saw that video a few minutes ago)....we are fully ensconced in an entertainment culture. NBC described the ceremony as...."glorious"....but the AP is closer to the truth with...."cinematic." The Bible would label it....idolatrous.
               One scene from the Olympiad sticks in my mind....in fact it came as I was sitting at that baby shower....it was women's sprints....and the camera was pointed to a theatrical stage opening where one by one the female sprinters were introduced....(there was no sound on this TV)....and they dramatically walked through the opening.....posed for a moment or two....and then went straight to their lane assignment. I found it odd. What would Bruce Jenner have thought?
                The Olympic motto had always been....(in Latin)...."Faster....Higher.....Stronger"....but in this Olympiad they added...."Together." One-hundred years ago....at the 1924 Paris Olympics....Eric Liddell made news by refusing to run on the Lord's Day. Yesterday....August 11....the Lord's Day....with the world and Israel at the precipice....millions of Christians in America would surely have been tuned in to the celebration. Not only has the world changed....but so has the church. Gone from our mind is 2 Corinthians 6:17...."Therefore 'Come out from among them, and be ye separate....says the Lord'."

Lord's Day Post......"Good Morning Pastor....Great Weather Today Isn't It?"

                They were easily identifiable as officers on the Titanic....a handful of them....polite and agreeable as they would answer questions...."When are we due to arrive in New York"...."I say....we seem to be going a bit faster today?"....."Excuse me officer....but my stateroom heating does not seem to be working as it should?" After the ship struck the iceberg their duties focused on getting women and children into lifeboats....which was a lot more complicated than it sounds...."Did Captain Smith say....'Women and children only....or women and children first?". 
                The crew was nowhere near adequately trained to lower lifeboats....especially in an emergency. To make matters worse....at first....many people did not want to go into those small lifeboats that might not even make it down to the water. Some people were laughing and chatting on deck....and the band was still playing....what was the hurry? As the ship began to list it was a different story but by then some lifeboats had been launched with a few people in them....and it had even more dangerous to lower lifeboats....particularly since the crew members were getting on-the-job training on the davits.
                So tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day...."Excuse me pastor....beautiful day outside isn't it?"...."I say old chap....that was a rather long sermon today"...."We won't be here next week pastor....we'll be on a Caribbean cruise....that is if there are no hurricanes....ha ha."
                The people are laughing and chatting....and the music is still playing....what's the hurry....where's the emergency? And when that clear and present danger is there....it will unfortunately be....on-the-job training....for we are not preparing for anything right now.
                I had an interesting experience the other day as I had to make a sudden trip to the hospital to visit a man in the emergency room....who as I was told.....could not even talk. I grabbed my Bible and hurried up....planning only on reading to someone who may not be conscious? But as I was walking the halls of the hospital I had the feeling....maybe I was imagining it....that people thought I must be a pastor....carrying one thing only...an obvious Bible. If that were the case....that I was a minister....then I must know God's Word. That's how we look at pastors today....I've heard it often....said in respect...."Oh....he a pastor!"
                Well....as I wrote in a post many years ago....God could use the man cleaning out the pastor's basement drain to tell him what he is missing in God's Word....and the world today. Spurgeon once told the story of a pastor friend....of a church of 200 or 300....how that pastor was overcome with the responsibility of so many souls. Spurgeon told him to buck up....how did the man think that he felt....for he had thousands of souls under his responsibility!
                It appears....unless the Holy Spirit intervenes....that until we hit that iceberg....no more than that....we've hit the iceberg....until the ship starts to list....no more than that....we are listing and rocking now....until the bow of the ship dips under the water....that we will not uncover the lifeboats....or even tell the people to put the life vests on. You see...this ship is unsinkable! Oh yes it may incur damage....and we may have to be towed into port....but actually to sink? Nonsense!
                To those of us who have seen the flooded engine room....and heard the boilers belch....and know that there are no bulkheads to stop the water going from one compartment to another....in reality to those of us who really believe the warnings in God's Word....we can continue to pray for mercy....and individual mercies for we know that we helped bring this catastrophe upon ourselves....and pray also that God might have mercy on these shepherds in the pulpits...and that if God wills it to have mercy upon us....it might begin tomorrow! 
                 

"It's Practically Nothing....But Then....It Isn't.....Nothing"

                It was and is a great idea....in my opinion anyway....as I just received a sturdy 11 1/2 by 5 flier from the Billy Graham Evangelistic Association....where you can tear along perforated lines to makes three small gospel tracts. One has John 3:16 and John 10:10 on it....one has Romans 3:23....and one has John 14:6. Surely there were tens of thousands of these sent out....with tens of thousands of postal workers having to handle it.
               The Jersey and Delaware and Maryland beaches are the primary destinations for most people in the Philadelphia area. You can easily tell this by all the Eagles jerseys....but Pittsburghers own Myrtle and Hilton Head. So to you folks heading down I-77....when passing through Charlotte....take the Billy Graham Parkway....and spend a couple of hours at the Billy Graham Library. It's only about a mile or so down the road....and have lunch while you are there....for it will start your vacation on the right note....or clear your mind of all the beach noise on the way home.
               It was over thirty years ago when I started this tradition with our son....and I kept it up even after he has been out of the house for fourteen years. I'm not a white sand on an isolated island type of person....I'm more of a boardwalk type of guy....with people....no two faces alike....greasy fries....fudge....bumper cars....and beach t-shirt shops every twenty or thirty yards. And it is in one of those stores that I head first to buy a couple of those little bottles with sand and tiny seashells....or a treasure map....or a shark's tooth in it. My son and I would empty half of the sand out if necessary and add a gospel tract of some kind....head to the surf and throw the bottles in. Later on....(I've been doing these posts for almost sixteen years now)....I would put a Bible verse and the url for for these posts inside. Hey....it's practically nothing....but then again....it isn't....nothing.
               When Zerubbabel began in earnest to build the second temple....the younger generation rejoiced....but the older generation could only see how small it was in comparison to the first temple that they once knew....and some of them cried....but Zechariah admonished them...."For who has despised the day of small things?" (4:10)
               Well the ministry in these posts is about as insignificant as you can get. If there is a video of a dog sliding along a kitchen floor it'll get about a million more views than I will in this post.....but that's not my concern....for God gave Billy Graham a thousand talents....I just got one....but I'm trying to double it! So here is my pitch....if these posts cause you to consider things that you have never considered...would you consider....(is that too many 'considers for one sentence? How about four?)....would you consider passing this url on?

Addendum: How many times have we heard the admonition....if just every Christian would vote? Here is something more to the heart of the problem to think about....depending on where one lives....I would imagine that we hear a siren....(ambulance or fire or police)....a couple of times every day at least. What is our response. Well....I would think that usually we try to have patience until the annoying sounds ends? Someone is in trouble....but to us it is an annoying sound. I have never heard a pastor stop in his sermon to pray as the community fire alarm sounds or an ambulance speeds by. I'm not bringing this up to say....we must do this and we must do that....but rather to encourage us to examine whether we may have....as an entire church in this world....forgotten why we are even on this earth....and forgotten the power of prayer?

HOW.....CAN THIS BE?

                When we think of the word....lamentations.....we think of mourning and sorrow....but the original Hebrew word used for the title of the Old Testament book written by Jeremiah....simply meant....'How"....implying....how could this be....how could this have come about?
               Jeremiah had warned the people for forty years on what was to come if they did not change their ways....but the false prophets kept coming....promising peace and prosperity and security. Even after Jerusalem was under the bondage of Nebuchadnezzar one prophet said that in two years that bondage would be broken. Jeremiah told that false prophet that....no.....that is not what is going to happen....but instead of the wooden yoke that they had then....it would become an iron yoke....and that he....the false prophet would die within the year.....all of which happened.
                Even though the weeping prophet had told them of the judgment to come....the severity and horror of the punishment when it did come....drove Jeremiah almost to despair. There was no law anymore....the once beautiful city was now an ash heap....enemies walked the streets....people had to pay for water and wood if they could find it....the nobles and the rich had nothing....and were no longer even recognized....and mothers even resorted to eating their children or die of starvation.
                So yes it is a book of mourning and sorrow and tears from Jeremiah....but the essence of the title says more....'how could this have happened to such a great and beautiful city?' Are we in America not asking ourselves that today....in only the beginnings of our judgment....'how could we have come to this?'
                Jeremiah wrote....seven verses from the end of this short five-chapter book...."Woe to us, for we have sinned!' There is an odd phrase only two verses later...."Because of Mount Zion, which is desolate, with foxes walking about on it." In the next few verses Jeremiah proclaimed...."You, O LORD, remain forever...."Turn us back to you, O LORD, and we will be restored."
                The rabbis over the centuries envisioned that when foxes would return to Mount Zion that it would be a precursor to the rebuilding of another temple. In 2019....on today's date....a few days before the 9th of Av....foxes were photographed on Mount Zion....and those photos made the news around the world.
                Jeremiah indeed still had faith and hope in God....that His people would return to Him....and that indeed will happen....for in the book under Jeremiah's name....the Book of Jeremiah.....he had already prophesied...."In those days and in that time....declares the LORD, iniquity shall be sought in Israel, and there shall be none, and sin in Judah, and none shall be found. for I will pardon those whom I leave as a remnant."  (Jeremiah 50:20 ESV)
                There is a remnant in Israel right now that will....in a time of extreme duress....come to salvation in He whom they once despised....to be one with us....the remnant among the gentiles....whose sins also will be covered by the blood of Jesus.
                

We See The Existential Threat.....What We Do Not See Is The Threat To Our Christian Faith

               I thought that I would address this issue again.....for it seems that I hear at least once every other day....either directly or second-hand....that a Christian is going to vote for Donald Trump even though they don't like him. The reason is always the same....he's the lesser of two evils. Not that I haven't done this before....but I'm going to do it a little bit different....as I'm just going to get down to the nitty gritty.
               First of all before I even begin....this election means nothing....absolutely nothing....as far as what evangelicals expect of it. We in America have had our Jonah moments....many of them....during our Civil War....and around the time of the Scopes trial....and in the 70s up to the mid-80s. The 'forty days' warnings are long ago used up. Nahum has been speaking to America for the last decade or so....where the message was simply....'get ready for judgment.' Judgment is coming under Harris or Trump or anyone else.
               Put yourself if you can....into Jeremiah's Jerusalem....where he has been warning kings and priests and the people for many years that God was going to judge them....but false prophets push him out of the way and told the kings and priests and the people that Jerusalem's best days were yet to come! That's what happened folks....and that is what happened to us over the past nine years....the false prophet came down the escalator....telling us that we were going to be safe again and proud again and rich again and great again. So we fell for the flattery....but the problem is even much deeper still.
               Folks...this isn't someone that just isn't likable. Thinking that is a mistake. We need to get our minds off of princes and power....and put it back on Christ! This man devastated evangelicalism....led multitudes of pastors astray....even nationally known pastors. All of the....God bless Americas....all these years....at all of these rallies....have been blasphemous. 
                Our minds have been filled with nonsense that God chose this man to rescue us. God would not choose a man who prophesies peace and security....indeed who gains fame and power by prophesying peace and security....when His word tells us the opposite. He wouldn't choose a man who fulfills just about every description that Paul gave of men to stay away from. He would not choose a man who has no use for truth....and He would not choose a man who leads His sheep away from Him!
                Our hope is not in princes....nor economic hegemony....nor legislation....nor patriotism....nor constitutions. Our hope is in Jesus Christ alone. God puts kings on the throne....both good and evil....and removes them.....for His purposes. He can save a bad king....or He can let a good king perish.
               The Apostle John wrote of....antichrists....plural....this in 1 John 4....where they spoke the wisdom of the world....and the world listened to them. Contrasting that....John wrote that when believers spoke....the world did not listen....but....those who are of God hears them! If you are....'hearing'....Donald Trump....if his rhetoric and promises resonate with you....then you are right now in the world.
                We seem to think that...."well I don't like him but"....excuses us from all our responsibilities to defend the faith. The average evangelical in Western Pennsylvania knows more about the Steelers than the prophet Jeremiah. This isn't hyperbole! They could probably boot up ten or their favorite podcasters and political websites....but not tell you where to go in Matthew or Mark or Luke to find the Olivet Discourse! We will spend....I don't know.....fifty to a hundred times more hours on our pastimes than we do in contemplation and prayer at what is ahead for America and the world.
                The average evangelical knows that there is a serious problem in America....what he or she doesn't know is the extent of that problem as it concerns the church. He or she sees the existential threat....but not the threat to their own Christian faith! If they did....they would never make a statement like.....'well I don't like him....but I have to vote for him."
                The redeemed of the Lord are but a remnant in America. May God add greatly to that remnant....and may He unite that remnant....and call "out from among them" that remnant. May He use His staff and not His rod. And may those who 'know God' only hear others that 'know God!'

The Purpose-Driven Conservative

Preface: The voice of the individual conservative had been totally taken away over the past seven years. Talk radio used to be an intellectually exhilarating experience. Today there is no thinking required at all....in fact we are not allowed to think on our own. No longer just a Fox contributor....or weekend host....Tucker Carlson began his own weekday television show in November of 2016 at 7 pm....and then on January 9, 2017 replaced Megyn Kelly at 9 PM...and then was promoted again in April as he replaced Bill O'Reilly at 8 pm. Conservative talk radio and Fox nightly cable would never be the same....as the conservative audience was simply herded into a pen and branded. Receiving the mark so to speak....they became disenfranchised.......or told to go somewhere else.

In the buildup to Putin's invasion of Ukraine there were doubters that it would ever happen....Breitbart's Alex Marlow was one of them. The day before the invasion.....he spaced his words for effect and ridicule as he said...."Putin....is...not....going...to...invade....Ukraine!" I purposely listened in the day after as Putin had invaded. Marlow could not get out of at least making a comment....so for a few minutes he sheepishly admitted that he made a mistake....and that was it.....on to other business.

In early 2017....As President Trump was confusing conservatives....to put it mildly....on some of the decisions that he was making.....Mark Levin was challenging these decisions....and showing concern. Then....and it shocked me....as out of nowhere that I could discern....he said that he made a decision not to criticize Donald Trump anymore. Sometime after that....I was listening in....Mark was now defending everything that Trump did....and he paused....and oddly said these words....with very discernable emotion...."I love that man!"

Rush never challenged President Trump. In early August of 2017 President Trump came out and endorsed the establishment candidate in the Alabama Senate race....Luther Strange....over Roy Moore and Mo Brooks. This was a shocker....even an earthquake. I tuned into Rush for ten straight days as he never even mentioned the Trump endorsement....and then on day ten or maybe eleven he came out and admitted that he purposely avoided commenting on it. The reason? He said he did not think he should get involved....which considering who Rush was....made absolutely no sense whatsoever. 

The following in italics is from a DISPATCH post on May 17, 2018. Conservative talk radio by now was no longer debate or even dialogue...and not really even conservative as much as....America only.

 ****Dispatch.....Thurs 08:06.....**** It looked like it might be one the best calls in over a year on any of the  conservative radio talk shows......and one of the very few that was critical of President Trump that the call screeners let in....it lasted about one minute and then the caller....someone who said that he had...."worked tirelessly for candidate Trump".... was just about to make his key point....and then the call went blank....Alex Marlowe said......"Oh did we lose the caller?....That's too bad." I didn't laugh....and I didn't scream.....it was somewhere in between.

Sean Hannity's show had also changed....as gone was the back and forth conversation....the sharing of opinion. It was now only purpose-driven talk radio....defend Donald Trump....but one morning in January of 2018 Raheem Kassan was filling in on Breitbart's morning show....and he was actually letting other opinions in. Later in the day Louis Gohmert was filling in for Sean Hannity....and he also was letting other opinions in! I took note of this refreshing change and posted on it....but it only lasted a day with fill-in hosts.

Prior to August of 2016 Steve Bannon was clearly the second best conservative radio host behind Rush....but in effectiveness really not that far behind Rush. He was that good! At about five minutes after six in the morning on Wednesday August 17, 2016....with 88 days left in the campaign....I was at the drive-by window of McDonalds for my breakfast to take to work....tuned into Breitbart as usual....but Steve Bannon was not there. Later in the day it was announced that he had been appointed chief executive of Donald Trump's campaign. I knew then....immediately....that Trump would win the November election....and I told people....and later when Trump did win I celebrated....for a few weeks....maybe a month....until Trump took his mask off. 

I remember how it transpired.....but not the date....probably 2018. President Trump had just been caught in a couple of whoppers....so obvious that even supporters could not deny them. Within a week....all three hosts.....Rush and Mark and Sean....addressed the issue....and all three sheepishly admitted that....yes Trump incorporates lies.....but that's just him. My question to these three men was....OK....so why are you not concerned that he lies to you also?

It was August of 2017 in Phoenix....at a Trump rally....and the crowd was raucously singing and dancing to The Village People songs....and the Stones. Franklin Graham was introduced to pray. The crowd went silent as Graham gave a wonderful prayer....of which my shorthand transcript of it follows this. As soon as he ended and walked off the stage....the crowd immediately started chanting....USA USA USA. Apparently Franklin Graham did not discern the absolute absurdity of the moment....nor did he remember his father's many warnings of mistakes that he himself had made on combining politics with the gospel.  This was Franklin's prayer....   
      
"Our Heavenly  Father.....you've blessed our country more than any nation on earth and we acknowledge that apart for you we have no hope....we come tonight....as a troubled nation....we're broken spiritually....were divided politically....we're divided racially....we are adrift morally..... following whatever direction the wind of popular culture blows....with no regard for your word or the consequences of our disobedience....we ask tonight for your help....our sins have paralyzed us....as a country we have seemed to have forgotten right from wrong.... you warned us in your Holy Word the Bible that there would come a time when truth would become a lie....and lies would become truth....we come to you this evening confessing our sins as a nation.....we confess the sins of our past.....of injustice....of pride.....of self-indulgence.....we have failed to protect our young and our innocent.....and we ask for your forgiveness.....we ask that you would unite this country for your glory.....Father we need a shepherd.....I pray that you would be the shepherd of our nation.....you are the God who restores our souls.....your rod and your staff they comfort us....and I pray this all in the name...the powerful name....the name of your son....the Lord Jesus Christ."

USA...USA...USA...USA!