New Year's Resolutions

Preface: I was looking for a past post on New Year's resolutions....and found this one from December 27, 2009. I still pray for every person that I see walking along a highway....and I still pray over every ambulance siren that I hear. I've added a couple a few years back....as I listen to at least one sermon a day....either on my mini-boom or my headphones or on my iPhone while in the car....sermons from men such as Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....but generally they can be described as....Sermons from men of the past....or sermons from men today who preach like men of the past....and I make sure that I read in God's Word every day. It is 11 P.M.....I listened to a sermon by Martyn Lloyd-Jones a few hours ago....and I already had my reading in God's Word....all I have to do is consider if this....(it never was a blog)....if these posts are of any value at all....and then I can retire for the evening.

Resolutions

We don't know what a day will bring, let alone a year! One thing appears certain and that is that Christians will need increased discernment in the year to come. I need drastic improvement and I assume that there are many others in the same boat. Here are some resolutions of mine, some in force for some time, some recent, and some brand new:

Resolve, never to think that a valuable book is only to be read once.
Resolve, to keep Press On as my motto.
Resolve, never to let failures discourage to the point that I stop trying.
Resolve, to examine myself on a daily basis (refer to the previous resolution)
Resolve, remember that humility and pride are two sides of a card that is always on the table.
Resolve, to observe and learn from the lives of others.
Resolve, to pray exceedingly for discernment in my speech. (new)
Resolve, never forget past sins, for forgiveness of them is the source of overwhelming gratitude.
Resolve. pray for every person walking a highway (no transportation) for I was once there.
Resolve, to pray for every ambulance that speeds by with it lights flashing.
Resolve, to consider weekly whether this blog has any value or if it is detrimental in any way.

DISPATCHES

The Times article described Trump as a....crypto industry player. You know what that word 'player' means right? It means that he is one of the big investment boys. The article went on to describe how the S.E.C had numerous cases pending against various crypto firms....but when Trump came into office the second time....the S.E.C. dropped every case where the crypto firm had ties to Trump. AI is a money-maker for up-and-coming billionaires....and it is also a 'player' in Bible prophecy and quite possibly the mark of the beast....and it was in essence given to the world with the strong support of the American evangelical who had spent a half century warning of the mark of the beast.

CNN headlines trump's words on Venezuela...."We're going to run the country.' May God have mercy upon us...."First they came for the Communists....and I did not speak out....because I was jot a Communist'.....that is the beginning of the Martin Niemoller's famous poem that ended with...."Then they came for me....and there was no one left....to speak out for me."

We have in the church lost the fundamental truth...yea command....from God's Word....that it is not by power or might....but by God's Spirit! We are showing off our military prowess....threatening the whole world with it....and then laughing as they back off. We are today....even evangelicals....drunk with our perceived strength.

It was reported today that Trump announced that construction for a triumphal arch in our capitol should begin within two months. Everything is wrong about this plan....from the horror of this man's mind as to exalting himself....(I wouldn't be surprised if he tried to name it the...Arch of Trump)....to the timing when we all should be on our knees asking forgiveness and mercy for what is ahead....to the idolatry of it. Trump said four times in his short presser with Netanyahu....that Israel may not even be around today if it were not for his actions on Iran. Folks....brothers and sisters in Christ....God determines these things....not Trump. All of this....everything about Trump....is delusion. 

Benjamin Netanyau....in that presser....apparently thinks that Trump is the greatest thing that ever happened to Israel. He is just totally taken in....but then it appears that Trump has forced....probably by way of a deal...a pardon for him in his legal problems. I have gone over....time and time again....the meetings that Trump has had with the Israeli Prime Minister....wondering in which one....Trump made promises that were never revealed to the public. What else could really explain....this for instance....Netanyahu announced that for the very time....a non-Israeli will receive the Israel Prize. Trump wants....no he demands....the adoration of the entire world.

President Trump continues to inject Russia....all of the time....even yesterday as he and Zelensky faced reporters at Mar-a-Lago....."Russia hoax...Russia hoax...Russia hoax"....so I also bring it up again. Trump's dealing with Russia and Russians go way back....to the mid-80s at least. He was prime kompromat material! He spent big bucks on a newspaper ad....this in September of 1987....before the collapse of the USSR....and just after the Kremlin wined and dined him in Moscow....an ad criticizing our defending...."Japan....and other nations"....an ad that the KGB would have loved.....and then he focused big time after the collapse on newly-minted oligarchs who needed money laundered. Trump Tower was one of two buildings in NYC that sold units to anonymously owned shell companies. It was reported that Trump sold 1300....(1/5 of his condos)....to these shell companies....reportedly worth in total 1.3 billion dollars....this when Trump was reportedly possibly 4 billion dollars in debt!  You do remember of course how Eric Trump bragged....during lean times...."We have all the funding we need out of Russia."

The quote is from Shakespeare's Hamlet...."The lady doth protest too much, methinks." An interpretation of that statement is...."excessive denial or strong vows often suggest the opposite is true." That is Trump folks. Trump Derangement Syndrome is an informal fallacy of sorts....an attempt to discredit criticism....and it has unfortunately worked. Have you heard that Trump said....only his latest absurdity....they come all the time....that news outlets that give negative news about him all the time should have their licenses revoked? Or do you even remember Trump saying....this back in 2015....that he could go out on Fifth Avenue and shoot someone....and not lose any voters? 

Folks....the job of our intelligence agencies was to latch on to a prime kompromat candidate like Trump....and keep an eye on them....and that is what they did! What Trump has done today is fire all of them that did their job! And the evangelicals all shouted...."Hurrah!'

Trump was given....in 1968....a recommendation for a military draft medical exemption for bone spurs from a podiatrist that rented space in one of Fred Trump Sr.'s buildings. He said in an interview in 1997 that avoiding STDs were his personal Vietnam.  General Kelly....Trump's former Chief-of-Staff said that Trump called soldiers and POWs...."suckers"....and those who died...."losers"....and didn't want to be seen in the presence of amputees because it doesn't look good for him. Now....you may not believe that Trump said these things....but you should at least picture General John F. Kelly (retired) in your mind....and actually try thinking of him as a liar....and then see how you feel.

 

A Three Act Play

                  "All things Jesus, All things life, a couple of imperfect girls serving an absolutely perfect God."

                  That's an absolutely beautiful statement from two outwardly beautiful young ladies who are probably inwardly beautiful also. They have a popular podcast directed to.....I presume....young Christian girls around the nation....and for all I know it may be international.
                  There is a lot of this Christian devotional sentiment in evangelicalism today....both for young girls and women....and young boys and men. It is good....and there is no problem with it....other than it is incomplete....for it is but a part of the second act in a three-act play.
                  Many of these young people already through other means have played out the first act.....the mortification....not just being lost in a busy world....but being lost for eternity. Jesus here is prophet....telling us that repentance is needed....mortification....which leads to....(actually if the mortification is there then the regeneration of the heart has already taken place)....which leads to faith....and salvation....being born again....born from above.
                  The second act is a sanctification process....Jesus is priest...."Jesus is life"...."always liv[ing] to make intercession for [us["....our mediator in life....and this is where these wonderful young ladies dwell. It is obviously much more than only...."all things Jesus....all things life"....for it is taking up the cross....and coming out of the world....and heading out on pilgrimage....a trip full of both joys and trepidation....restful meadows and valleys of death.
                  The third act is....Jesus is King....and not only King....but our coming King. Maranatha....come Lord Jesus! In this act the play comes to its conclusion. If it were a musical composition....the overture and all of the arias and cantatas have been beautifully and wondrously performed. The third act begins with a storm brewing....and warnings flashing all over the once beautiful and peaceful landscape. False prophets seem to be everywhere....as is the demonic. 
                   The youth of today need that first act....for there cannot be a second act without it!  Our very salvation is in that first act. Our foundation....and our fitting for armor are in that first act.
                    The grand finale of the operatic piece will be played. It is just ahead....and if you listen you may hear the cacophony of sounds as the angels test their voices....and their swords sing as they are pulled from the sheaths. We sit here as the world becomes chaotic. We need this message in our sermons....and we need it firmly in place in our minds....we need it in our Bible study....and even in our conversation....so that we can bond together to keep a ballast....raise the sails....and listen to our Captain give orders to set the rudder towards the only harbor where there will be safety....the harbor of our Captain....and our Lord and Savior and Coming King!
                   

This Isn't An Insignificant False Prophet!

              Balaam was an interesting character....mentioned in a few places in both the Old Testament and New Testament....and worth meditating upon. Here is the story. The Israelites....on their way to Canaan....after forty years in the wilderness....and after defeating Sihon and Og....caused great worry to Balak....king of the Moab....so much so that he sent up north....by the Euphrates river....for the....apparently well-known non-Israelite prophet and sorcerer Balaam. He wanted him to call down a curse....or prophesy against the great number of approaching Israelites.
               Balaam told the emissaries from Balak to stay overnight while he checked with God to see if it would be OK. God told him that it was not OK....that these people were blessed. So the emissaries....or princes....went back and told Balak that Balaam would not come....but Balak would not give up and sent even more emissaries....more impressive emissaries.....with the same request. Balak was begging Balaam...and trying to entice him with great honor and riches....of which Balaam told him that even if he gave him silver and gold enough to fill Balak's house....that he could not prophesy more than what God told him! It sounds like Balaam was a pretty honorable guy doesn't it....but that wasn't the case.
                Here is where it gets a little tricky....and we have to use a little conjecture. The men were going to stay overnight again....and God told Balaam that if they come to him....to go with them but only say what I tell you to say. Morning came....and Balaam went to the emissaries and told them that he would go. Something is amiss here. Balaam was a little too eager to go....so on the journey is when Balaam's donkey sees the Angel of the Lord standing before him....and turns into a field....and crushes Balaam's foot against a wall....and then just lies down.....and Balaam winds up beating the donkey three times....before God puts man's words into the donkey's mouth...to ask Balaam why he doing this.
               Balaam now knows that he is in big trouble with God....but God tells him to go with the emissaries but to say only what he is supposed to say. Meanwhile....Balak is like a conman trying everything he can think of to get Balaam to curse the Israelites....of which Balaam won't do....not with that Angel of the LORD lurking by somewhere anyways.
                Balak finally gives up....here is where Balaam is mentioned in Deuteronomy and Joshua and Micah and then in 2 Peter and in Jude....and in Revelation! Somewhere along the way Balaam tries....and succeeds....to curse Israel....without directly cursing them....as he went to the Israelites and talked them into joining in with the pagan cultures....which they did....against direct commands from God! God punished the offending Israelites with a plague....just like He did with this world in 2020....and Scripture records that later Balaam died in battle against the Israelites....and Balak probably had the same fate!
                 Is this just a history lesson? I don't think so....not with Balaam being mentioned....and warned about....three times in the New Testament! Think along with me....and pray along with me. Why is Balaam so important. What is it that God is telling us about the love of money....and trying to fool Him....and leading Israel astray? How can this fit into these last days?
             
             

Deuteronomy 23:4,5.....because they did not meet you with bread and with water on the way, when you came out of Egypt, and because they hired against you Balaam the son of Beor from Pethor of Mesopotamia, to curse you. But the LORD your God would not listen to Balaam; instead the LORD your God turned the curse into a blessing for you, because the LORD your God loved you.

Micah 6:5    O my people, remember what Balak king of Moab devised, and what Balaam the son of Beor answered him, and what happened from Shittim to Gilgal, that you may know the righteous acts of the LORD.”

2 Peter 2:15.....Forsaking the right way, they have gone astray. They have followed the way of Balaam, the son of Beor, who loved gain from wrongdoing. Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

Jude 1:11......Woe to them! For they walked in the way of Cain and abandoned themselves for the sake of gain to Balaam’s error and perished in Korah’s rebellion.

Revelation 2:24.....“But I have a few complaints against you. You tolerate some among you whose teaching is like that of Balaam, who showed Balak how to trip up the people of Israel. He taught them to sin by eating food offered to idols and by committing sexual sin.

Note: The verse in Revelation is from the letter John was given to give to the church at Pergamum! This is end-times stuff folks!

It Was The Day Before Christmas....

                It takes me a few weeks to complete it. I've lately been starting to construct it as early as October....and then not taking it down till at least mid-January. It's just a little hobby of mine....but I enjoy it....a typical Christmas Village....this one on an 8X10 platform....with the train extending a foot off the plywood as on a trestle.
                If a psychologist....say someone like Dr. Robert Hartley....and his wife Emily....were to come over to see it....and I told them how long it takes to put it up....Dr. Hartley might bring up the subject of OCD. Let's say that I was in his group therapy sessions....the conversation might go like this....on the day before Christmas....

(If you were not a fan of the old Bob Newhart Show then you may not get the comments) 

Dr. Hartley......"So let's start with you Mr. Carlin."

Mr. Carlin......."Why do you always start with me? Am I some kind of freak or something?"

Mr. Peterson looking to Mrs. Bakerman..."I told you he was listening to us talk."

Mr. Carlin......."Quiet Mr. Mouseman."

Mr. Peterson..."Mr. Mouseman? I served in the army in WWII!"

Mr. Carlin......."What did you serve....breakfast, lunch and dinner?"

Dr. Hartley......"Ok everyone.....it's Christmas Eve."

Mr. Carlin......."And not a Mr. Mouseman was stirring!"

Dr. Hartley......"OK....then lets's start with Special Dog. What have you been up to lately?"

Special Dog...."Well....I take a lot of joy in building my train set around a Christmas Village"

Dr. Hartley......"That's real nice. Do you like trains Special Dog"

Mr. Carlin........"Yeah....he chases them!"

Special Dog....."Mr. Carlin. Who is your barber....the Windy City Dry Cleaners?"

Mr. Peterson...."Ha Ha....he sends his hair out to be cleaned once a week."

Special Dog....."Please forgive me Mr. Carlin. It's just the day we live in....attack everyone."

Dr. Hartley......."That's a very nice thing to say Special Dog....back to the Christmas village?"

Special Dog decides to go into detail....

                          "Well....there are boys skiing down a slope that I fashioned with cardboard.....and four boys having fun throwing snowballs at each other....and a father building a snowman with his son next to him making angels in the snow....and people drinking hot chocolate around a fire....and there is a family carrying a Christmas tree....and a family in a horse drawn sleigh....and a lot of people carrying Christmas presents that they just bought in actual brick & mortar stores....and you can see couples through a window dancing a waltz....and there is a little ice skating rink....and there is a Marine giving out presents for...Toys For Tots...."

Mr. Carlin........"Dr. Hartely.....is our time up yet?"

Dr. Hartley......."No....this is very interesting....go on Special Dog."

Special Dog....."And there is an actual Christian bookstore....and two churches....and I hang a little metal plane overhead....with a banner that says in bold letters...."JESUS IS LORD...."

Mrs. Bakerman..."Oh that's nice....Christmas is all about Jesus."

Mr. Carlin........"Bah humbug!"

Special Dog continues...."And there is one of those old fashioned telephone phone booths. It reminds me of when everyone didn't have a smartphone. And there is a manger scene....with Christmas carolers in front of it....and a lot of people listening to them....I can almost hear the singing.....'Hark the herald angels sing....Glory.....Glory to the new-born king'!"

Even Mr. Carlin was quiet.

Dr. Hartley......"So Special Dog....this Christmas scene takes you back to your childhood?"

Special Dog....."Yes....but it also takes me back to a different America....where there were only four television channels....and we actually greeted each other....and said Merry Christmas no matter what our politics....and politics was civil....not civil war."

Dr. Hartley......"So you would like to go back to that time period?"

Special Dog...."Not really Dr. Hartley....because I may have been a child....but I grew up without knowing why that baby in a manger was born that day....no....I wouldn't want to go back....but I want to remember....I want to remember when we at least were open to hearing the gospel....and Billy Graham was on one of those four television channels all the time....and we were a people in America at least trying to see the good in others....and although we wandered about not really knowing the majesty of the One who Handel's Hallelujah Chorus so magnificently sang out praises to....we were at least reverent....and humble"

Dr. Hartley...."Well Mr. Carlin....our time is now up....but I think that it has been a good session....Merry Christmas to you all.

Mrs. Bakerman....."Merry Christmas Dr. Hartley.

Mr. Carlin looked at Mr. Peterson..."Merry Christmas Mr. Peterson."

Mr. Peterson...."Merry Christmas Elliot!"

                

"And When These Things Begin To Come To Pass....Then Look Up....And Lift Up Your Heads....For Your Redemption Draweth Nigh."

              Opinion here of course....opinion in this whole post. Ben Sasse was probably.....from a Christian perspective.....the best United States Senator that we have had in multiple decades if not a hundred years. I was one unhappy camper when he decided to leave the Senate to take the position of President of the University of Florida. Sasse was raised in the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod....and is Reformed Presbyterianism today....so he has his entire life been firmly in....as we say....the Reformation.
               That is one of his great strengths....for in none of the other....even wonderful Christian persuasions....is the sovereignty of God so marvelously preached and taught and proclaimed! But as in all persuasions or theologies or denominations....however you would choose to state it....there are also weaknesses....for none of them are perfect. I would tell you my theological weaknesses but by the very nature of the problem....I do not know them.
                Ultimately....everything that is not clearly codified in God's Word is subject to interpretation. Fortunately there is a lot that is clearly codified...or perspicuous....as Reformation scholar and preacher/teacher R. C. Sproul liked to say!
                 Ben Sasse announced that he has fourth stage pancreatic cancer and is...."going to die."  This much is sure....whatever he says in the time that God will give him....will be based solidly from God's Word.
                  When Ben Sasse moved on to the University of Florida.....he was exchanging for the longer range plans of changing the higher education system in America....this from the more pressing survivalist plans of a United States Senator that knows very well the existential dangers America is in right now. This is what I wasn't thrilled with....for we needed him in the Senate.
                  I have on occasion over the decades....had the opportunity to stand by the hospital or home bedside of a dying Christian man....and in every case....what was certain in that man....was that they were shortly going to see the glory....and stand in the majesty of a Holy God! That was a great and confident hope in those men....and that will be the case will Ben Sasse....but there is one thing that I would tell him....in that weird method of stating things that I apparently have incorporated in my later years.....I would say...."Ben"....probably...."Mr. Sasse" or 'Senator Sasse"....."Jesus may return before you go to Him....and if not....look up....for He is surely on His way....and may be in view right now!"

Title: Luke 21:28 KJV....from the Olivet Discourse

A Gospel That Does Not Save....Neither In The Temporal....Nor The Eternal

'Oh.....How we need Billy Graham....to stand up and tell us the grave error of our thinking....and how we have taken a wrong path'....or so I might lament....but we didn't listen to him when he was with us....so why should we believe if we were to listen today?      

                For much of the day....Fox News Internet headlined JD Vance saying that America was a Christian nation. America is not....and never was....a Christian nation. England....and other nations....at various times were closer to being a Christian nation. 'Christendom'....of which we are a part....is a sociopolitical term....with only varying degrees of the Christian Faith within it....of which we at times had a high degree of Christian faith....but they were very temporary....and even fleeting....while today we are little more than a remnant in a pagan culture.
                How do you explain a rogue element of the government doing what it did in November of 1963....and then the rest of the government lying to cover it up...for sixty years? How do explain a political system that primarily relies on trickery and psychological manipulation instead of truth and honesty?  How do you explain impeachments where the defendant's party....in either party....will not cast an honest vote? How do explain revenge as the chief component of a chief executive....and a Congress showing no compassion at all to the most needy....and the alien....just to keep that chief executive in office....thereby keeping your political party in the majority? How do you explain bombing a boat when you could stop it without loss of life? How do you explain purposely fomenting anger....and even hatred? How do you explain giving money away....both parties again....to buy votes?  How do you explain so many people wanting drugs? How do you explain being outraged at drugs....and then signing an executive order....again to get votes....when it only makes it easier for people to get a drug? How do you explain the violence....and the greed....that is everywhere? How do you explain families who came here....legally or not....to find a better life for the children....and then forcing them to fear who is knocking at the door....or firing hundreds of thousands of people....where the savings will do little to nothing on a national debt that we built through our greed and power-mongering....and then after all this....having the audacity to decorate the White House for Christmas....and wishing everyone a Merry Christmas?
                How do you explain the prosperity gospel? How do you explain preachers with multi-million dollar 'ministries'....telling the poor people and poor souls that listen to them....to send in a seed offering? How do explain all the divorces within the church? How do you explain going to church and then rushing home for eight hours of football? How do explain Christians fawning over celebrities who obviously haven't a clue about the Christianity that they profess? How do explain a church....that refuses to warn about anything....because people might leave that church....when it is not even telling them their need for salvation anyway?
                No....we are nothing near a Christian nation. We consecrated our own Hophni and Phinehas types of ministers....Eli's wayward sons who thought that if they just took the ark of the covenant to the battle that they were losing....that God would give them victory....which is kind of like us always saying....'God Bless America'....and thinking that God would thus bless us with victories. So the ark was taken to the battle....the battle was lost....and the ark taken by the Philistines. The wife of Phinehas gave birth...and when she heard that her husband was killed and the ark taken and the battle lost....she named the child....Ichabod....meaning....the glory has departed....and then....after the ark didn't work....we wanted to go the way of having a powerful king....and we got more than we bargained for....and are now paying for it.
               So....the glory has indeed departed from America....and the American church....Ichabod! The gospel message that is presented on the dais of our rallies and conventions....is almost unrecognizable.....and it is a gospel that does not save....neither in the temporal....nor the eternal.

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?

Preface: I remember typing the following post....it was early October....a few months ago....the day after my wife and my 49th anniversary....and it was in a hotel room in Virginia Beach....right on the concrete boardwalk....only thirty yards or so from the famous boardwalk statue of Neptune.....the god of the sea. My wife was sleeping while I was working under a desk light....covered up with a shirt or something....to keep the room dark. What should I write about. The following is what came out...

"How Do You Turn This Thing On?"

The crowd applauded as John Rigby left the microphone and moved to his seat to the left of the podium. Micah Taylor stepped back up to the mic and said this....

"Thank you Mr. Rigby. And now let us hear from"....he looked closer at the paper before him...."Let us hear from.....Special.....Dog?"

The crowd laughed....as Special Dog walked up....and kind of looked at the mic from both sides....as if he had never held one of these before.

"I never talked into a microphone before...."

The crowd giggle

"That was a very nice presentation by Mr. Rigby....on the....positives....of Donald Trump. I disagree with just about everything that he said though. So here is my resume. I'm 75 years old....pushing 76. I graduated from the University of Pittsburgh back in 1976....that would be the football team's national championship year. I spent three years in the army....half of that in Vietnam in signal intelligence....and I did some graduate work when I was fifty years old. I voted for Donald Trump in 2016....and celebrated when he won. About two or three months into his term I could tell that there was something wrong....seriously wrong....terribly wrong....so I started reading about who this Donald Trump was....other than that which we all knew....the comical supermarket tabloid character....and TV show host....of which I never saw a single episode. I just started the 108th book on him.....(I just finished book 109....STOP In The Name Of GOD....Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life....Charlie Kirk's last book)....books for him and against him....and supposedly by him.....books on every decade of his life....and books on single topics like Mar-a-Lago and golf and of course.....Russia.....lots of books on Russia! So that's my resume....not a whole lot of letters after my name....and no experience at all in speaking before people."

Someone from the back shouted out...."Get closer to the microphone!"

Special Dog looked at his watch.....

"Well....I have thirteen minutes left so let me get right to the topic a hand. I do not think that Donald John Trump has changed an iota in the past....seventy years....he is someone with no compassion for anyone....and who cares only about one person....himself....it is all lies and flattery and threats."

Someone again from the back shouted out...."You're a communist!"

"Hey....that's an interesting comment. I have studied for fifty years now on communism....and saw first hand....in Vietnam....how communists come in and brutally murder people....before taking over the country and turning it into a capitalist resort. I've been warning Americans about communism for a long time. No....I'm not a communist. That is my opinion on Trump from what I have gleaned in the past 8 1/2 years of reading and observing and researching in any way that I could....watching just about all of his rallies....which were the exact same...methodry....that that German Fuhrer did to get power in the early 1930s. 

The Donald Trump show is the greatest show on earth. In a fifteen minute talk I have to pick and choose what to point out. In his first term he picked some pretty good people for his cabinet....and then alienated most of them. They know today all too well who he really is. Yes....the pandemic did him in in the 2020 election....without that he would have won....but he lost. I watched television that morning of January 6....2021....and had to turn the set off because the rhetoric was too disturbing....and unsettling. He did nothing to stop what was going on.....in spite of his people begging him to do something....and then almost immediately....even before the dust settled....began a campaign to turn history upside down....so that it appeared that he did nothing wrong on that day....and that Anthony Fauci and others were the truly bad people. In retrospect....all of this is kind of unbelieveable....but what was truly mind-boggling was that intelligent people....evangelicals....seminary trained pastors even....actually believed the lies they were being told." 

Special Dog used the few cat calls to take a deep breath

"Trump then began to brow beat everyone in the Republican Party into supporting him. The approximately 30% or so of true believers behind him were enough to beat off all of the opposition. He didn't even debate in the primaries....lying as usual....saying that legal matters prevented him from doing so. So he won....and formed the worst cabinet in American history....filled with loyalists....and a couple of nut-cases who needed paid back for their support....and the usual suspects of attractive women who has always liked to keep close by.

So here we are today. The Republican Party is gone....replaced by the Trump Party. Evangelicalism is gone....replaced by Christian nationalism. What exactly happened to Donald Trump from November of 2020....to January of 2025....when he was inaugurated for a second time....I really don't know. Some people say that he learned his lesson from his first term. Others say that the radical right finally convinced him to be bold. I lean to something more supernatural....for this is a new man that has come out in the second term...."conquering...and to conquer"....as Revelation puts it in the sixth chapter....concerning the rider on the white house....excuse me...white horse.

I would ask you....especially evangelicals....and very especially pastors....do you really think that a golden age is coming? Hey....maybe you do? Maybe you think that Jesus is behind all of this....and that men like Jonathan Cahn are correct? Well....that view is going to be severely tested in the days to come....thank you."

Note: An hour ago I watched a few minutes of the last day of TPUSA in Phoenix. I watched a few minutes here and there over the past few days. Vice President Vance was the speaker....and I thought about all of the evangelical youth that must be in the audience. Please excuse my naivety....but Nicki Minaj was the previous speaker....and I do not know anything about who she is....but I listened...and this was a compromised and very modern testimony....but everyone seemed to love it. Anyway....I listened to JD Vance finish. This is truly scary stuff....that evangelical youth can be taken in like this. Personally....the Vice President has been the biggest disappointment that I have ever experienced in politics.....(and I have had some big disappointments)....everything pointed to this being a man of integrity....who would tell it like it is....and not be drawn into the web of personal advancement....but it turned out to be the opposite.

"Blow The Trumpet In Zion"

                It is at times like this when man's extraordinary weaknesses can be seen. I have lived sixty years as an adult....and no time period....not even all the time periods combined add up to the immanent dangers that face America and the world right now. There is no getting out of this mess. The NATO and United States alliance...and the buffer between war and peace that it brought with it....is either ended or seriously damaged. Putin....(or his successor)....will...if not now....at some point in the future....start the war....and China will jump in with Taiwan....or vice versa. The Arab nations....some of them....that we are arming now....will use those jets and tanks against Israel. There will most likely be some geologic or cosmic catastrophes....and there will be another pandemic....of which we will probably at first laugh off. 
              There is all of this before the Word of God has even to be mentioned....within which....God has warned all of us that beginning back in 1948....and the miraculous establishment of the state of Israel....that the whole world from that moment in time was put on notice to prepare for the calling of kings and kingdoms into there prophesied place....but we of course ignored that warning. There is nothing new in all of this....for that is how man acts....whether it is us today....or any other fallen empire in the past....or any of the multiple occasions where God's Word warned Israel....and its kings who did evil before the LORD.
              All of this should be obvious to the Christian....for there are more signs than any of us should ever need. God has not left us in the dark. He warned us just as He had warned the people of Israel so many times. He sent prophets....just like Billy Graham....and although we didn't kill them before the altar as they had in Israel....we either ignored them or laughed them to scorn....and God has thus taken them all home....their tasks having been completed.
              Trump/Biden/Trump has been and is judgment from God. When Jesus said that a house divided against itself cannot stand....He may also have been pointing to us today....for the West has been divided....and America is divided....families are divided....and friendships of all kinds have been divided. We cannot stand.
               Now we don't even want to hear this. That also is right out of the Old Testament....or the Tanakh....a copy of which is right at my elbow. We are being called out of the world....which is the exact antithesis of....Make America Great Again.
                How do I....(and there are multitudes of others)....know this....but most do not? It may be because....for men anyway....as I type....Saturday at 10 PM....they are sitting by the television watching maybe the second or third  football game of the day? If one's spiritual mind is in such trivial disarray....there is no way that God is going to reveal even the most basic and clear signs that it is time to come out of the world....put on the armor of God...."Put on sackcloth and lament....consecrate a fast....call a solemn assembly....(not a state of the art laser light conference/party)....gather the elders.....and all the inhabitants of the land....to the house of the LORD your God....and cry out to the LORD."

Joel
               

                       

Lord's Day Post

Preface: Evangelicalism as a representative of the Christian Faith has totally collapsed. The original decline....turned into downward spiral....and finally into freefall....began somewhere in the early 1990s. I remember distinctly my concern at the time because Vice President nominee Al Gore's wife....Tipper....had written a book that was a mainstay and bestseller in Christian bookstores....that book titled....Raising PG Kids In An X-Rated Society. By that time we did not have enough discernment to see through the ruse. In 2008 we entered into our Sarah Palin stage....(I saw her in person less than a mile from where I am typing right now)....and the downgrade....(to use the term that Spurgeon used as British Christianity was collapsing)....continued until Marjorie Taylor Greene came on the scene....and rather than being rejected....which is what should have happened in an evangelical culture....she ascended in this new pantheon of gods. Jonathan Cahn did his part in the rise of a false prophet....as did Robert Jeffress....while Franklin Graham played the ultimate patsy....and even John MacArthur let down his guard. We are now fighting tooth and nail for walls....to keep people out....whereas in the utmost of irony....the wall with the wicket gate that one must pass through to become a Christian....has been torn down....and everyone invited to rush in without regeneration! The following post is from September of last year:

The Complete And Utter Failure Of The American Pulpit

                 You can go about this in a number of ways. You can ask friends and acquaintance as if you were a roving reporter....or you can visit different churches every week....or the easiest way would be to sit down at the computer for hours visiting the websites of churches. You could probably do forty or fifty of them in a day.
                 If you would choose the third option....look over the website. Here is what you will invariably find....there will be a carefully constructed sentence in bold letters describing the mission of the church. The board or the deacons or the elders or whoever would have sat down in a meeting to come up with a catchy phrase....it might go something like this...."A growing....vibrant....family community....sharing the good news of Jesus Christ first with each other....and then with the world around us."
                 There will be a ministries link....an elective that you yourself can choose as soon as you join the church.....a photos link from all the events.....an 'about us' link....or 'who we are' link....and then most important....a directions link on finding the church. There may be an expanded mission statement....and a 'what we believe' link. There probably will not be a sermons link but if there is....go ahead and explore what the shepherd in teaching the flock.
                 What these churches are....would be the spiritual counterpoint to....Planet Fitness or LA Fitness. They are a product of the times....and America is what it is today....in total collapse....in good measure....because of what these churches in America are not....and what their pastors do not do....strengthen and warn the church!
                 If you would ask one of the members in just about any church about the sermons they would say that their pastor is a real good preacher....for just about everyone thinks that think that they have a good preacher....but then hardly any of them ever heard a Spurgeon or Martyn-Lloyd Jones type sermon in their life.
                The church is great for the kids. If it is a larger church then there will be a music ministry. Three or four young people will have a microphone in one hand....the other hand raised to heaven....and they will lead lively worship music for fifteen or twenty minutes....and then the mood will soften....and the worship lyrics might be something like....'I love you Lord....and I lift my voice....to worship you.....oh my soul....rejoice.' It's mesmerizing. I been there. Then the pastor will take over....all smiles of course....and you will get a sermon....to send you off to another week....unfed....not prepared....and not mortified for who we in fact are and what in fact Jesus did for us.
                 I listened about a week ago to a Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon that actually shocked me. The sermon title was....I Am Not Ashamed....please Google it and listen! In that sermon Lloyd-Jones said that many Christians will readily offer up that they are not ashamed of the gospel....but that in reality they are not ashamed because in retrospect it was a good deal for them....for they are satisfied.....happy....and would make the decision again. Lloyd-Jones raised his voice a few times.....for they were not even aware that Paul's words....'not ashamed'....pointed to Paul being deserted by so many who as it turned out....were ashamed....for apparently it wasn't what they signed up for!
                 Politics is not only not the answer for us....our dependance on it makes matters far worse. This is Wednesday morning as I post this....a few days earlier than I usually post a Lord's Day post....but then we have a few extra days to pray that God might have mercy upon these men in our pulpits....for if they don't wake up.....then we will not wake up. We are in deeper trouble then we could even imagine in evangelical America....for we have been a great part of the problem!

Note: You can easily google and listen to the Martyn Lloyd-Jones sermon!

"He Alone Who Owns The Youth....Gains The Future"

Preface: Both Lenin and Hitler have been quoted on the importance of reaching and controlling the youth. We on our side used to use those quotes to warn about what is happening in our education system. Today....it is us going after the youth....with the same intentions.              

               We are in an age where the American pulpit warns of nothing....not of false prophets....which are literally everywhere....or a false gospel....of which a lowest common denominator gospel on salvation has taken over the church....and now is working full-time on the youth.
               Oh....we are conservative....socially conservative anyway....there is no question about that. The Left has long since been compromised by what we called back then....the social gospel....which could be interpreted as the socialist gospel....but this is a different kind of social gospel....whereas in the former it was on purportedly based on compassion on the poor and the downtrodden and the different skin colors....today....'social'....simply points to morality and patriotism. 
                 I have witnessed it many times on a video....as recently as this morning.....for this is who our evangelical youth are today....a young person takes the microphone in the Q&A at the end of a passion-filled youth lecture....and pleads with the speaker to tell them what they personally can do to start winning in their schools. It is heartbreaking in that their motive is pure....but they have been taken in and led away by those whose particular avocation....within the overall world of power politics....is towards the youth....who were fed the narrative. Sadly....there is no one in the pulpits to warn them on what is happening to them....and where they are being led. The pastors have long since abdicated their responsibilities. The wolves have come into the church....and the lambs are led off.
                  I posted in the beginning of this year on the TPUSA conference in Phoenix the previous December....(as I have posted on Passion conferences)....and included a short video that I took of the screen with my iPhone. It was the last day of the conference.....Sunday in their eyes....the Lord's Day in the eyes of the remnant....and it was in the morning....so this particular day of church worship was obliterated and replaced with a different kind of worship. The mass of youth were being mesmerized by the music....and then....which today....a year later....still amazes me....the state of the art sound system played The Point Of No Return from The Phantom Of The Opera....and brothers and sisters in Christ....parents....these are the lyrics that our children were fed....on a Lord's Day morning....

You have come here in pursuit of your deepest urge
in pursuit of that which till now has been silent
I have brought you
That our passions may fuse and merge
In your mind you've already succumbed to me..

                 These are the end times....the end of the end times....another topic that our pulpits will not face. America has changed....and it wasn't Barack Obama who changed it....it was a man who has given us sixty years of solid evidence that if there is anyone that God's Word....both Old Testament and New Testament....has warned us to stay away from....it is the man with the power today....but there was no one in our pulpits of any stature or gravitas  willing to present to us this evidence.
                  There is no golden age ahead as has been prophesied by the false prophet. What is ahead is the rider on the white horse of Revelation....if that horse is not already promenading to the cheers....and the red horse....and the black horse and the pale horse....all of which our pastors will give you a sermon or a Bible study....but then quickly move on from for fear that someone might take them seriously.

The Silence Is Deafening

                  I have used the term....the Lord's Day....at least once a week....for at least a decade in these posts....if not much longer....and as recently as....probably yesterday....so one might tend to think....that I might agree with Charlie Kirk's newly and posthumously published book....(a week ago Tuesday)....Stop, In The Name Of GOD....Why Honoring The Sabbath Will Transform Your Life....but this is a complicated issue.
                   The sabbath can be promoted in a Jewish religious context....or in a psychological and health related context....or a Christian religious context....or in a mixture of all three....which is what this new book does. It's published....(quite handsomely)....by.....Winning Team Publishing....which was founded by Donald Trump Jr and another member of the Trump team.....in 2021.
                    It is not a Christian book. It is more a health and politics and philosophy book. To read it as such would be OK. To read it as a Christian book is problematic. The author is as likely to quote a Jewish rabbi in it....as a Christian minister....and the book itself is dedicated to Jewish/conservative icon Dennis Prager.
                    When I first professed Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior....back in 1982....I for whatever reason....immediately went full steam ahead into Christian apologetics....with authors like C. S. Lewis and Josh McDowell and Frankie Schaffer and Tim LaHaye....and apparently so did this author. Hank Hanegraaff was my....'go to man'....and it appears that Christian apologist Frank Turek was the author's....'go to man'....on many and varied issues of Christian apologetics. The problem in my case was that as beneficial and edifying as much of my study was....I had put the cart before the horse. I talked a good game....I just talked a little too much....a little too soon. Thankfully I had the opportunity to grow out of it....which at times was humbling and difficult.
                    The difference is at the same time....distinct....and subtle....looking at....the Jewish sabbath....and the Christian Lord's Day. I do not feel confident or comfortable in commenting on this intricate theological issue....other than to say that one of the primary reasons for us to meet on the Lord's Day is to hear the Word of God preached from the pulpit....or in a field if necessary....as has been the case in the past....the many glories of the Lord Jesus Christ....and our need of a Savior....with both encouragement and comfort....and warning and mortification....but that is not in this book....thus the silence is a deafening.

               I'm taking a little poetic license here in relating this very true story. The church was small to begin with....as was the denomination....and the man entering the pulpit was only a layman....and unlearned in public speaking. Charles Spurgeon would later use the word 'stupid' in describing him. Now that word was not used back in 1850 England as it is today....but more a gentler description of slow of mind....dull or dim.
               There was a snowstorm that Lord's Day morning....'Lord's Day' being another term used differently today....in fact it is hardly even ever used today. When was the last time that you heard a brother of sister in Christ use it?
                The pastor of that small church could not make it to the worship service. There was no texting or telephones....so the fact that the pastor could not make it must have been evident simply because he was not there. The service may have thus started late. 
                 That humble a man....a shoemaker by trade....was forced to take the pulpit....a difficult task even if he was prepared to give a message....which he wasn't.
                 God had timed everything perfectly....as He always does....and the fifteen year old boy came in from the snowstorm and took a seat at the rear of the depleted congregation.
                 The shoemaker layman....now the preacher....hastily chose Isaiah 45:22 to speak on...."Look unto me, and be saved."
                  Spurgeon later said that it was as if the preacher was speaking directly to him...and that may have been the case...as any new visitor....especially in a snowstorm....would have stood out among the common people in the congregation.
                  Young Charles Spurgeon's heart had already been regenerated when he walked into that church. He was able....possibly for the first time.....even though he was from a family of pastors....able to spiritually hear what God's Word was saying. It was the beginning of his conversion....the beginning of the greatest preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ in that day....and even up to today.
                  What happened to that unlearned shoemaker/temporary preacher? He probably went home that day and prayed a prayer of thanksgiving for the ability to fight the nerves and enter the pulpit when called upon....and he probably prayed for that young boy who stumbled in from the snow.
                   Did Spurgeon ever go back to that church after he became a world famous preacher? I'm certain that he would have....for even I go back every few years to the now empty storefront in a dilapidated strip mall....and look on....and even touch....the door handles of the Christian bookstore that I stumbled into....forty-three years ago....just to think back....and to thank God for His extreme mercies on one such as I.
                    That humble man who took the pulpit may have never known of the fruit of his faithfulness that day. He may have never known that his....possibly one and only sermon....was used by God to bless the entire world?

                     This post came to my mind after hearing the latest offering by Greg Morse....of John Piper's....Desiring God Ministries....as he read his own article titled...."You May Not See The Fruit Of Your Ministry." Please go to....desiringgod.org....and listen to this wonderful twelve minute message....and while you are at it....the link below is an absolutely wonderful 70 minute docudrama on the life of Charles Spurgeon....and it includes the story in this post,

                        

'House For Sale....Vanity Fair....Must Sell Quickly!'

                This much I know....every day Trump loses some evangelicals. He has to make news every day....jab and poke and enrage....and exalt himself. Where this has been a decade of torment for many evangelicals....not to mention everyone else.....he himself thrives on the controversy. If this continues....which it probably will....Trump may soon lose a significant portion of his evangelical base.
                 What I do not know is how many evangelicals Trump loses every day. The uncomfortable trolling text over what happened to Rob Reiner and his wife surely woke some evangelicals up....and the even more recent reporting on the interview that Chief of Staff Susie Wiles gave will continue to hurt Trump's evangelical support.
                  It is interesting....to me anyway....that the above interview was from the magazine....Vanity Fair. John Bunyan coined....if you will....those words in his 1678....The Pilgrim's Progress....from This World to That which is to come. We are living in Vanity Fair....the world of amusements and outlandish merchandise and frolicking as a way of life. We have to go through it...but we do not have to stay or buy into a timeshare.
                  That book....The Pilgrim's Progress....was at one time the most read book in the world after the Bible. The greatest preacher of the gospel of Jesus Christ....according to so many....London's late nineteenth century Charles Haddon Spurgeon....from his own testimony....read Bunyan's classic over 100 times during his life! That should tell us something right there! Every Christian should have read this book at least once in their Christian lifetime. Only ignorance and the lack of encouragement can account for it having lost some of its popularity. Heaven knows that R. C Sproul and John MacArthur did their best over their entire ministries to encourage Christians to read it!
                   So I would like to encourage you to find a copy....and meditate on every single passage and every single character in this allegory. If I were a character in the book....Bunyan he would probably name me....Tries So Hard....But Comes Up Short.
                   Derek Thomas is a wonderful Scottish preacher and teacher....now located in the United States. I encourage you to Google some of his sermons....but here I will add one episode of his marvelous and greatly edifying teaching series on the Pilgrim's Progress....this one on the chapter that includes Vanity Fair....but you can easily find and listen to his commentary on the entire book....or contact ligonier.org....and order the entire series.

                                                                             

                    

                First was Brown University.....then Australia....and then the apparent homicides of a Hollywood icon and his wife? I was reading the last news story and saw a comment that former television news journalist Katie Couric made on social media.... "My God....another horrific story....the world is feeling very dark right now."

               The end of the 60s....a period of 20 months from April of 1968 to December of 1969....gave us one horrific  story after another....beginning with Martin Luther King....and then RFK....the Democrat convention in Chicago....Chappaquiddick and Manson and the Altamont music festival....and there were other terrible memories from that period....as there were other cycles of horror throughout our history....Fort Sumpter beginning one....and the Gilded Age and the Roaring Twenties....where our turmoil began within....and these last ten years are only the latest....but they are the worst....because not only is wanton violence everywhere....but we no longer have any checks and balances....as law....has been politicized....as has the gospel of Jesus Christ....and we have no leaders left....willing to stand up....no leaders of stature in government....or shepherds in the church....willing to warn the sheep.
                There definitely should not be a week go by....and probably not even a few days....(in my case there is not a day that goes by)....without the Christian referring to at least the Olivet Discourse....(Matthew 24 & 25....and Mark 13....and Luke 21)....for Jesus gave us this in all three synoptic gospels as a very clear warning....so that we might not be taken by surprise on what is about to take place. The following words were first posted in November of 2014....just before this terrible decade of darkness began:

                   In amongst an entire chapter of information concerning the tribulation period....Jesus gave us this particular revelation of the Second Coming....in verse 37 of that 24th chapter of Mathew...."But as the days of Noah were, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be. For as in the days before the flood, they were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, until the day that Noah entered the ark."
                   If you read the Genesis account in chapter six you will find that what Jesus was referring to wasn't quite as simple as just getting married but rather that  men "....took wives for themselves of all whom they chose." In the next verse we see God's response in "And the Lord said, 'My Spirit shall not strive with man forever...'." A few verses later we read "for all flesh had corrupted their way on the earth." And once again a few verses later "....the earth is filled with violence."
                    "But as were the days of Noah"....are we as in the days of Noah? It must be possible to know of such a situation or Jesus would not have given us the clue. One last verse....in speaking of the people of Noah's day....Jesus then said...."(they) did not know until the flood came and took them all away, so also will the coming of the Son of Man be.

"Now when these things begin to happen....look up and lift up your heads....because your redemption draws near." Luke 21:28 NKJV
              

A Fairy Tale......As Best As I Remember It

We gave up things that were of real value....ethics and honor and truth....and the gospel....in an attempt to get....gold....or as we say now....a golden age. The following is from a March of 2024 post:                 

               OK....the fairy tale goes something like this....a man brags that his daughter can weave gold from straw. The king hears about it and demands that the daughter weave some gold for him....or die. The daughter has no idea what to do....but an imp....a devilish or demonic type of character.....comes out of nowhere and appears to her....and in exchange for something of value of hers....a quid pro quo....you scratch my back I'll scratch yours type of thing....he weaves the gold. The king is thrilled for the riches but wants more....(don't we all?) He demands of the daughter that she weave even more straw into gold....and the imp appears again....and again the daughter gives up another valuable possession....and the imp again weaves the straw into gold. Now the king is delirious in his greed....kind of like us not that long ago....before the pandemic.....and demands even more straw woven into gold.....but this time he says that if she does weave the gold that he will make her his queen. Well....the imp appears again but the daughter has nothing more of value to give....so the imp demands her first child after marrying the king. He weaves the gold....the daughter and the king marry....there is a child....the imp returns and wants the child....the daughter does not want to give the child up....the imp gives her three days....and an offer.....if she can find out what his....the imp's....name is....he will let her out of the deal. The queen assigns a messenger to travel everywhere in the land to find out the imps name but cannot find out what it is.....then finally the messenger stumbles across the imp himself....doing his thing and bragging and singing a song....and in that song he mentions his own name....which the messenger hears and tells the queen....Trumpelstiltskin....or something like that. Then the imp is furious and blames the devil for telling her his name....and stomps out....but in his anger he stumbles and that is the end of him.

                My wife has a running joke with me that I only have one friend. Well in retirement I do really have only one friend who I see regularly....but many friends from the past who I at least keep in touch with. There is some truth in what she says....for if I myself didn't believe....what I believe....I wouldn't really want to get together with me either.
                We do get together with people rather regularly....primarily because of her many  friends....and neighbors....and family of course....and I can talk and look and laugh like a normal person for....maybe three hours....telling jokes at times....(as I have a whole humor link to the left of this post)....and overall seeming like an everyday conservative evangelical American citizen....but it is hard for me to pull this off....as I am really being somewhat of a fake at those times.
               Gary Lewis....and the Playboys....had a hit song back in the 60s that you have probably sung along with many times over the years....Everybody Loves A Clown. There is one line in that song that hits home with me...."If you wonder why this clown is cryin'....look a little closer, inside I'm dying."
               If you knew what I know? That sounds kind of arrogant doesn't it....but it's not only me....for it is a sizable remnant within the church....within evangelicalism....including multitudes of pastors....that feel like I do....who know what is ahead....only we are spread out across the country....and my particular area of churches is not a hotbed for wanting and expecting and desiring Jesus to return to this world that is descending into the abyss. Daniel knew what was ahead....far ahead....at the end of times....and it still made him ill! This is not pretty stuff!
               Lest any reader might feel sorry for me....(pertaining to the joke about having only one friend)....I have to let them know what should not be a secret....but apparently is a secret....that when all is said and done....all of the psychology of the matter analyzed....and the history of the world and the church laid out....and all the biblical advice given on why we do not know when Jesus is returning....and all the advice rendered by many councilors....there will be Jesus before us in glory and majesty! Did we examine ourselves....and our motives...and our primary desires? Did we pray in humble mortification? Did we go slow and review every possible temptation that one could fall into? Did we even say something like....'Lord....please send someone else to say these things....someone more respected than me....and with more ability?'
                That's all we can do folks. I will add this though. The peace of God...in stepping forward....in the face of legitimate doubts....relying on faith....the faith that Peter had as he stepped out of the boat....and the knowledge of what happens if that faith weakens....that peace and joy from God is enough....it is enough....to press on!

It Was The Most Blessed Day For Charles Colson....When His World Fell Apart

                I do not take any joy when with someone that I totally disagree with or even think that they are a curse upon America....when their life collapses in a moment right before them. Rudy Guiliani or Mike Lindell for instance. I just  don't. I may have a lot of serious faults....but laughing or smirking at someone's else's misfortune is not one of them. Why? Well I only have to look at my own life. God could have had me groveling in the gutter in my early years.
                The situation with the Michigan football coach is more than sad. It's concerning. On top of the world....one day....or close to it....and then on the dung heap. There may be no better example of something like this than with Chuck Colson....a man situated right in the Oval Office....family....extraordinary pension....everything that the world considers success.....and then....crying in his car....as he looks forward to a jail sentence.
                So the concern for someone like the Michigan football coach....or anyone in a sudden riches to rags and shame situation....is that they do not consider ending it all....of which they are not aware....is only an ending of life on this earth....but a beginning of a timeless eternity....whatever that may turn out to be. I don't have to know the scientific space time continuum.....for it is enough to know that God's Word uses the phrase...."weeping and gnashing of teeth." Those five words are description enough for me of someplace that no sane mind....even the most defiant....would want to go.
               There were a lot of folks in Trump's first term who later wished that they had never joined up with him....and there will be many more this time....and I won't take any satisfaction in their misfortune. 
                God had mercy on Nixon's hatchet man! This was 1974. Jimmy Carter told the world that he was born again. Hippies were being baptized in the Pacific Ocean. Billy Graham crusades were on our four-channel TVs all the time. Pat Robertson was just starting out....David Wilkerson was preaching and R. C. Sproul was beginning to teach on the holiness of God....and Hal Lindsey....although he didn't realize it....was giving the world a primer on Israel and the Second Coming of Jesus Christ.
                Colson's entire countenance had changed! He has gone on to be with his Lord and Savior....but I'm sure that sometime in the past he had said that his very public collapse was the best blessing that God could have given him. Maybe it will be the same for this Michigan coach....for God had mercy upon me....the lowest of the low....and more unlovable even than Charles Colson in his heyday.
                You would know it if you heard it....the University of Michigan fight song....that begins...."Hail to the victors valiant....Hail to the conqu'ring heroes"....but this passion and praise is fleeting....and worthless.....and vanity. May it be for many....that this is the day that they can finally see and say...."To him who sits on the throne and to the Lamb be praise and honor and glory and power for ever and ever," 

The Gravitas of Isaac Newton......And The Gravity Of The Situation

                Isaac Newton was writing down his thoughts literally all the time....and most of it was on man and his relationship with God. He wasn't a great theologian by any means....not even a good theologian....but surely one of the very greatest minds in history. In his research on the Second Coming....primarily from the book of Daniel....he predicted that the end of times would come on or around 2060....(1260 years after the founding of the Holy Roman Empire)....maybe a little later....but probably not sooner. 
                Not even Isaac Newton's mind could hurry when God would reveal things to us....but it was strong enough to see the gravity of the situation of man's coming judgment. It is extraordinary in that when a man....or a woman....is so gifted in some specific area.....that it usually becomes their whole life....but with this supremely gifted scientist....his mind was still stayed upon the God of the universe that he studied. So Newton should speak to us today....even in Bible prophecy and the end of the age....with a gravitas that a mind like his commands.
                 My point here is that it should be....to anyone who seriously examines....patently apparent that this age....in its present state of drones and missiles everywhere....where you can just push a button and let some machine fly to the other side of the world to kill and destroy....that as the fingers on the wall told Belshazzar....that his days were numbered....and he was found wanting....so are ours!
                When Daniel was told at the end of the book of Daniel....that he should go his way...."until the time of the end....[when] many shall run to and fro....and knowledge shall increase"....this was pointing to this present day and age. We do not know the specifics....they will come shortly....but in that Isaac Newton was certainly the greatest of all....natural philosophers....he could see that man and his rebellion to God had only so much time....that there was....so to speak....a corresponding....second law of spiritual dynamics. It should also be noted that the word..."until"....was used.....indicating that a time would come that many of these things were not...."sealed."

"By Prayer And Supplications, With Fasting, Sackcloth, And Ashes."

Preface: The following post is from February of 2019. I reposted this a number of times...and wrote another post on Daniel chapter nine....and reposted it a number of times. The point I was and am trying to make is that Daniel....as an old man....and in Babylon a long time....pleaded to God with prayer and supplications and fasting and sackcloth and ashes....laying before God the guilt of all of Israel that brought them to where they were.....and as soon as he did this....God sent Gabriel to explain to Daniel what the seventy years of Jeremiah meant. There is no mortification for our own guilt in the church today....and until our pulpits lead us in this direction....we will remain confused and in chaos....and continue to suffer in extreme delusion and spiritual blindness....but should we prostrate ourselves in mortification before God....and pray with tears....God will....just as He did with Daniel....open our eyes to what is today hidden concerning the return of our Lord and Savior and King!

"By Prayer And Supplications,  Fasting, Sackcloth, And Ashes."

               There is a prayer of Daniel that would do Christians in America good to not only read but meditate upon....and not only meditate upon but devour....along with....in due time....the entire book of Daniel. ...again and again and again as the years go by....should God give us those years. Daniel's prophesies are not fully understood by us today....not by a long shot....but much of it is....and much of Daniel is perspicuous in that the meaning is clearly discernible upon reading it for the first time.
               The prayer starts in the fourth verse of the ninth chapter and continues through the nineteenth verse. Daniel had witnessed what had happened to his people. This exalted prophet of God.....having already experienced miracles  and visions.....reads the prophet Jeremiah anew....but this time understands that his people would be in bondage for seventy years. This should be a lesson to us....God reveals the various wonders of His Word to us in due time. Daniel had pleaded with God...."by prayer and supplications, with fasting, sackcloth, and ashes." God is not going to reveal to us those things we are so in need of today if we are not anxious to hear them.
                No sooner does Daniel finish his prayer.....but God....through Gabriel....reveals one of the most incredible prophesies in all of Scripture to him. So whether you are thirty years into the faith or thirty days....God incrementally opens His Word to us in marvelous ways....as we are in need....and according to our desires to know of them.
                 In that prayer Daniel acknowledges the rebellion of the people to the Lord....and the consequences paid. This is what we need to meditate upon in America....this is what our pulpits must remind us of....for we also have rebelled.....and are staggering blindly in confusion and chaos. We are looking for answers to questions today but are in reality looking no further than our own minds....instead of humbly imploring of the only One who has those answers.

Jesus Does Not Have To Schedule An Appointment

The following was first posted in 2022

Lord Jesus 

As you know....for this blessing is from you....
        our son Kyle has a full football scholarship....
        at an SEC school....GO DAWGS!
        and you have also blessed us with a beautiful daughter....
        whose wedding is planned for next year....
        and we need every minute of this year to prepare for it....
        so yes Lord Jesus....come....just not right now.

I know that America has strayed far from you...
        but that's really the Democrats Lord...
        I was just talking to the pastor the other day...
        at the pot luck after the service....before the game
        and he says that we are going to get the House back....
        and then we are going to throw Hunter Biden in Jail...

They're making us wear masks Lord....
        just like they put a crown of thorns on your head!
        our wonderful freedoms are being taken away....
        bless Donald Trump Lord....and Ron DeSantis....
            and Matt Gaetz...and Marjorie Taylor....I can't remember her last name....
                and the My Pillow Guy.

May I ask one more thing Lord....
        when you do come....
        can you call first...and leave a message
        to see if we are home....
        what with Bible studies and pickle ball and all
        a grandkid on the way....
        it's going to be a busy decade or so.

So all praise to you Lord....
        Come Lord Jesus....
        With all your mighty angels....
        In Power and glory....
        And righteous judgment....(on the Democrats)....
        Just not right now.

Just one last very personal request Lord...
        just in case Billy Graham was right
        and you are indeed coming real soon....
        could you possibly schedule the rapture....
        in early April.....
        just after March Madness if possible
        so I don't have to break my back...
        unnecessarily spreading all that mulch....
        and fertilizer?

        (I missed the first week of last year's
        church golf league because of it....
        because I couldn't bend over to putt)

All Is Truly Lost

                We have as a people experienced a lot in America over the past forty years or so....with gross corruption and crimes....and terrorist attacks both domestic and foreign. Socialism and anarchism and even communism have made inroads in a nation that is set to celebrate a 250 year anniversary. Our culture just totally collapsed. Billionaires are everywhere....not only a new ruling class....but in essence a new governmental class. It appears that the printing press and the entire Industrial Revolution will be dwarfed in its societal changing effects by the horror of all horrors in artificial intelligence....of which we are loving because it occupies our no longer exercised minds. All is truly lost....not only in America but in the entire world.
                 There are no award ceremonies that make any sense anymore for they are all political. Sport no longer has anything to do with character building....for money and greed has taken over everything....from paying college athletes....to hundred-million dollar contracts for professionals. Whereas sport once only flirted with idolatry....from a Christian perspective....it is now our own Areopagus....with monuments to our own pantheon of gods.
                 Debate is gone....for how can one debate when truth is no longer of any consequence? Conversation has been replaced by pep rallies. The image has entirely replaced the word....except when the word is used in attacking others effectively using the word.
                 The evangelical church is not even a shell of what it once was only forty years ago. The gospel is almost gone.....replaced by political issues....and the preaching lacks conviction....and mortification....nor does it prostrate itself before the holiness of God. No one has to be born again anymore. We don't have time to be born again when....as we have prioritized....that we need to make our country great again....but in reality we do not even know what the word 'great' might mean.
                  God has taken all of our leaders....and left us utterly leaderless....both in the church and in the government. We have no shepherd on a national level....such as was Billy Graham....to warn us....no Sproul or MacArthur....or even Phil Robertson. Christian bookstores are gone....that were once a wonderful brick & mortar town crier....heavenly libraries....replaced by crass podcasts of ministries that winter in warmer climates. If there is anything solid and edifying left on Christian television....it would be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find. Christian music no longer has the lyrics that cause us to think and then lead us to worship....as they are now replaced by the harmonic mesmerizing that has us worshiping....in essence....ourselves. Our youth flock to passion extravaganzas when not passion political conventions.
                   There is no rule of law today. The man in the White House has lived his entire life above the law....one step ahead of the law....yet today he can look us in the eye....(well he never really looks us in the eye....as he is always looking into a teleprompter).....and tell us as he purges all those who utterly refuse to bow down to him....that no one is above the law! And amazingly....we believe it....which in itself has to be part of the great delusion that God's Word warned us about! 
                   Forty years ago in the church we would quote 1 Peter 4:17...."For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God..." We knew it was coming. We thought it would be in other parts of the church....the liberal church....but it has turned out to be us....right smack dab in the middle of evangelicalism! We warned of false prophets back then....forty years ago....it was almost common conversation....but as it turns out....we were the ones who fell hook....line....and sinker for the biggest of the false prophets!
                 Ultimately....as it all turns out....Jesus is near....look out your window into the sky....it is that close....and not only do we not know that....but we don't even care....nor would we really want that....for we are more interested in the second half of the football season....the playoffs and bowl games.....than the Second Coming of the one who all of the mighty angels of heaven....cannot stop praising!

Please listen to the warning given by John MacArthur in the video below.

                                         

              The above graphic is used today....but the below graphic is what was originally used over forty years ago.

                                                         

Lord's Day Post

                I have been praying in these Lord's Day Posts for over a decade that God....if it should be in His perfect will....and to His glory alone....might move mightily in the hearts and minds of His shepherds in their pulpits....having mercy upon them....and thus having mercy upon us in the pews....but maybe I have been praying too boldly....for does not His Word tell us not to despise the day of small beginnings?
                So for tomorrow my prayer is that God....if it should be in His perfect will....and to His glory alone....might give a morsel of humility to His shepherds in their pulpits....that they might consider if even for a moment....that they may have failed to stay true to God's Word in warning us of what is ahead....so obviously ahead....and in bringing us to our knees in mortification of what we have become....of what I have become....that only then might we go to Him and pray for mercies....not upon our nation....not mercies to become what we never were....and not to desire to become great in the eyes of the world or in our own eyes....but mercies upon ourselves....a church within that nation....who knows that we can do absolutely nothing good....and nothing honorable....unless we first acknowledge ourselves to be prone to transgressions against God....and to pray....not for favor but discernment....that we might know which way we should turn....and what we should do....and how we should pray....in the days that are ahead of us!

We Followed Him......And Became Like Him

                  My mechanical pencil and highlighters are always right by me while reading God's Word....and this for forty years now. I gave a woman a Bible a week ago....along with a highlighter....and told her to start marking up that Bible right away....for too often....as I have found over the years....we feel that we have to keep the Bible in pristine condition....as if that somehow honors God?

                 Recently I've been reading slowly through Proverbs....and I began to add a notation....a very small....'DJT'.....next to verses that seemed to describe Donald John Trump....for they are everywhere throughout Proverbs....the first being in chapter one....verse ten....this from the ESV...."My son, if sinners entice you....do not consent"....the warning continued in verse 13...."we shall find all precious goods, we shall fill our houses with plunder." Brothers and sisters....this is exactly what happened.....as Trump enticed us with his promises of greatness and riches....and we followed him....and became like him!
                 Trump can be found in all of the books of the prophets....as either a false prophet or a bad king....and he can be found all through the New Testament....from the gospels.....to Paul's long list of what type of person to stay away from....to Peter's admonition about Balaam....and Jude's...."they have run greedily in the error of Balaam"....and his description of...."loud-mouthed boasters, showing favoritism to gain advantage."..... and John's letters...."and as you have heard that antichrist is coming, so now many antichrists have come"....and even into Revelation...."....you have there those who hold the doctrine of Balaam....who taught Balak to put a stumbling block before the children of Israel...""
                  At one time....early back in Trump's first term....there may have been an excuse for not immediately recognizing the dangers of Donald Trump....for we were ignorant of who he was....but those excuses have long since expired. Today one would have to purposely ignore or outright reject all of the warnings....for the examples of an increasingly vile and deceitful and corrupt and power-mad Trump have been daily occurrences for over five years now!
                  We tell ourselves that God uses imperfect persons to fulfill His will....and that is supposed to make it OK to not only support....but make excuses for....and even lie for....a man who has single-handedly decimated American evangelicalism.....causing us to be unmerciful....and vengeful....and greedy and prideful....and to trust in armies and power and might....the very things that God's Word commands us not to trust in!