Perry......Pogo......And Piper

Charles de Montesquieu..."there are three kinds of government.... Republican.....Monarchical....and Despotic. I assume three definitions, or rather three facts...one, republican government is that in which the people as a body or only a part of the people, have sovereign power; monarchical government is that in which one alone governs, but by fixed and....Monarchiald established laws; whereas, in a despotic government, one alone, without law and without rule, draws everything along by his will and caprices."

                Donald Trump spent fifty of his seventy years.....deceiving people. He had no regard for the sanctity of life....or our military....and no compassion....not even in his own extended family. 
                We conservatives....for forty years....had wanted a return to common sense....and a reverence for the God who blessed us as a nation....but the opposition in America was....and still is formidable. We offered up nominees....Bush...HW and W....Dole etc...some would be successful but others would not....and then in 2015 along came Donald Trump. As if we were an urban slum that had potential for a great and glorious tower project....he purchased the land....lied to attain all the permits that he needed....lied to the people whose homes would be bulldozed to make way for the tower....which in effect was only another statue to him....and won the contract on that fateful day in November of 2016.
                The economy was going to recover with any Republican president that followed Barack Obama. We advertised for someone who would limit regulations....for growth....put in as many judges who simply would follow the already written constitution....and do his or her best to protect the life of the preborn child. Trump surveyed the Republican Party as he had surveyed many local government officials before....came to the meeting and told us what we wanted to hear....and we hired him.
                He did nothing on immigration on our southern border....until even Rush and Sean and Mark were on his case. He did more than just blunder at the beginning of Covid....for he acted irresponsibly....because it was his reelection year. 
                With a lifetime of escaping criminal convictions....and now impeachments....by the skin of his teeth....he sent a horde of people down to the Capitol....and then sat there even as lives were lost....and even as his advisors were pleading with him.
                This seemed surely the end of his political career....but he rallied his small group of worshipful followers....and lied and bullied his way for four years to get his glory back. In God's providence....he would face the most incompetent candidate the Democrat Party had ever produced....and at a time when the horror and the insanity of what has come to be known as....wokeism....ravaged our nation....and he was returned to the Oval Office of the White House. 
                 This second visitation would not be like the first. Most of the Republican 'establishment' had surrendered....the rest...with very few exceptions....retired. The Democrat Party...that really only had one legitimate member in the entire party....in Joe Manchin....who just faded away....lies in shambles.
                  Unexpectedly....but once again in God's providence....the tech titans and money interests....just changed from a blue tee shirt to a red one....as the liberal media sat there licking their wounds. Trump this time came out...."conquering, and to conquer"....and he is already making rash decisions and mistakes. He is firing a host of senior FBI people even as I type here because his nominee to head the FBI was just questioned on whether he would enact retribution. So Trump had better get it done fast. Will Trump's FBI head replace them on the merit system....or will he nominate on a political basis....or will he just wait for Trump to supply him with the names?
                  America's greatest strength....the evangelical...now in a period that can only be described as a....'falling away'.....ran stumbling down off the high ground that they had always occupied....into the greed and pride and callousness of Trump's kingdom....rendering themselves ineffective. With America's chief source of strength abrogated....we took the worst possible routes....and chose the worst possible leader.
                  Evangelicalism always had a number of sound and often wise spokesmen on the national scene....every persuasion having their own....to help keep us in line....and warn us when necessary. Thirty years ago Trump could not have taken over the entire flock. I remember an anecdote that John MacArthur once gave. A young person in his church was being lured by a cult. MacArthur showed up at the young person's house as that young man was about to leave to join the cult....and MacArthur took the keys out of the ignition....and threw them into the lake....saying...."nobody steels one of my sheep." All these men....most of them....are gone....or just too old....and we are now essentially without shepherds.....with weak preaching....no Christian bookstores where we might stumble across something helpful....and no warnings whatsoever of wolves.
                   Commodore Perry sent that famous message after the Battle of Lake Erie...."We have met the enemy and they are ours." Pogo....that cute little comic opossum....changed it a bit with...."We have met the enemy....and he is us." Today in the church....as of now anyway....we have met the enemy....and we are theirs." May God....if it be His perfect will....and for His glory alone....open our eyes to see what we have done.

                      John Piper once said......"Blind people don't decided to see. Jesus says....'See!'....and they see!"

Note: The Charles de Montesquieu was taken from Mark Levin's 2015 book....Plunder And Deceit.

 

The Glitch And The Sermon

                We were streaming our worship service this morning....singing Psalms along with the congregation....and there was some kind of glitch with the streaming....where we could no longer hear anything from the pulpit. The other folks streaming along with us....unmuted....just talked for a while. This had happened before....where my wife and I just listened to silence for an hour....hoping that the service would be restored....but today I asked her if she would mind if I booted up another sermon from the Internet for us to listen to.
               Let me segue here for a little bit. David Wilkerson....born in 1931....was a Pentecostal preacher whose ministry led him from Pennsylvania to New York City....in compassion for what was happening to young people who were joining gangs. That led to the book and eventually to the movie....The Cross And The Switchblade....which then led to the wonderful ministry of....Teen Challenge....and then a pastorate in a former Broadway theater....a church that still exists today.....Times Square Church. David went to be with his Lord in 2011.  
                You could read in my profile....in a little more detail if you want....how my mother and I....in 1963 it was....moved from Buffalo....to a small boro just outside the Pittsburgh city limits. As I learned much later....David Wilkerson's future wife was raised a few hundred yards from the apartment where my mother and I lived. I would spend summers at a cousin's home only a few miles away....(the apartment...and the care from my cousin's large family being great blessings)....anyway....David Wilkerson....a decade earlier....had lived a few hundred yards from my cousin's home....and his future wife's....father's ministry....(he was a pastor)....his church was only about a hundred yards away....small world in God's providence.
              Let's move on up about twenty-five years....I am now....and I will praise God forever for this....a fairly new Christian....and Pentecostal.....Assemblies of God....and I walked into a Christian bookstore....and a bright orange book cover caught my eye. It was written centuries ago by a Puritan.....William Gurnall....and titled....The Christian In Complete Armour. I had no idea what this was....and little knowledge of the Puritans. So I looked at the blurbs on the back cover....which is still my habit today. There was one from a....Charles Spurgeon.....hmm....yeah I think that I heard that name....and there was another blurb by....David Wilkerson! Well....as a Pentecostal I knew and loved David Wilkerson....so I bought the book.....and it was an important part in my transformation to the Reformed Faith. Are you curious about this....David Wilkerson....and Puritans? Well. David Wilkerson was a Puritan more than many Reformed pastors today....although he may not have even realized it.
               I have 100 of David Wilkerson's sermons on cassette in our basement....still today....thirty years or so after I first listened to them. So....today....the Lord's Day....after the glitch in our streaming of our church worship service,,,.and having already listened to a half dozen or so sermons this week by Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones....(my wife listened in to couple of them also)....I....for whatever reason....typed into Google....David Wilkerson sermon....and what is below is what was on the top. I'm sure I have this sermon in the basement....but would not have listened to it in at least thirty years.

                                                               

                                                                          

Anecdote: I have a brother-in-law who every time that I bring up a book....he tells me that he only read one book in his whole life....because he had a concussion when he was young.....that's what he thinks anyway....he read that book back in 1979....it was The Cross And The Switchblade....and today....forty some odd years later....with a lot of hard knocks and health issues....he talks about his Lord all the time.

Lord's Day Post

             So who was Jephthah....mentioned in that famous 'Hall of Heroes' eleventh chapter of Hebrews? I posted this same question back in March of 2019....when we still had a choice to seek God's advice. Suffice it to say here that Jephthah was their Rambo. Israel was under severe threat and they turned to him to lead them.. Jephthah was the anti-Trump....in that he attributed all of his victories to God. That's why he is mentioned in Hebrews chapter eleven.
             Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day. Will God awaken these shepherds in time for worship services tomorrow? I don't think so. For one thing there are two big NFL games tomorrow. We are showing absolutely no signs of repentance or mortification or humility....and we have decades of serious self-indulgence to repent of....only the latest being our following a godless man....even a false prophet....even an antichrist who has decimated the church....who lures us with promises of power and money. 
              These words were in that 2019 post...." We would depend on a prince....and not the Prince of Peace. We would depend on a king....and not the King of Kings. We would not humble ourselves...we would make others humble themselves. We would not repent....we would make others repent for what they tried to do to us."
               We need tomorrow to hear these words from the book of Judges 10: 15,16....words that the Israelites prayed to God before they called Jephthah...."And the sons of Israel said to the LORD, 'We have sinned, do to us whatever seems good to thee; only please deliver us this day.' So they put away the foreign gods from among them, and served the LORD; and He could bear the misery of Israel no longer." We....did the opposite....in calling yet another foreign god to deliver us.
                No....I do not think that it will be tomorrow because not only do we not feel that we have hit rock bottom....we actually think that our greatest days are ahead....and that we are going to keep on winning.
                Maybe it will be next Lord's Day that we throw away these baubles....these worthless trinkets that we adorn ourselves with....and run once again to receive an "imperishable" wreath

                                                                       

The above is a Martyn Lloyd-Jones Sermon titled....Woe Unto Thee....that you might desire to listen to today.

Did You Get A Pardon?

                God has pardoned each and every one of us who have been born again....but He did more than pardon us....for He regenerated us beforehand....or we would never have had the faith to seek mercy and forgiveness.
                Charles Colson....Nixon's hatchet man....was despicable in life even before Watergate....although not as despicable as me. Marine Captain....White House Special Counsel....all that honor was gone. He was born again....changed his plea to guilty....went to prison....and later in life headed a marvelous international prison ministry....while writing thirty books....and receiving the Presidential Citizens Medal from President George W. Bush....photographed with him in the same Oval Office where he helped construct the Watergate break-in....and worse.
                It was in the 1990s I believe....when asked if he wanted a pardon for his crimes that he answered....something to this effect...."I have the only pardon that I need.' He did have his voting rights in Florida restored before he went to be with His merciful Savior in 2012.
                His 1976 book....Born Again....was one of the biggest selling books in all categories that year. I may have read it back then....because I was reading everything on Watergate....or I may not have read it until about 1982....the year that I was born again. Either way it had a profound affect on me.
                How about you. Did you get a pardon? Or are you demanding a pardon....or just asking for one....or don't think that you have a need for one? 
                 Below is a sermon by Charles Spurgeon....preached in 1886....five and a half years before Spurgeon went to the King of Kings who had pardoned him forty-six years previous. I confess that I have not yet heard this sermon as of yet....but I plan on it....Lord willing....as soon as I hit here the 'publish' button.

I Have Always Had This One Recommendation

                When the Democrats are in power.....and they have most of the news media and just about all of the popular media....The View....and things like that....they are indeed a powerful force to behold....but in that situation they do not need any intellectual acumen.....because this is not a grid that uses the intellect. That doesn't by any means make it weak because the culture itself does not use the intellect. The visible and easily discernable result of all of this was Kamala Harris....who went for years just being the woman who drove everyone nuts with her constant laughing. When the rubber hit the road in the election.....that laughter was of no use...and what came out was what we now refer to as....word salad....where she can talk for minutes on end without really saying anything at all. 
                 So right now we have the situation where Donald Trump is trying to run the world through bluster and threats. All of the diplomatic expertise and analysis by intelligence agencies and diplomats and scholars garnered over the years has been discarded....which means....the defenses have been torn down. The Democrats are having a hard time dealing with this because their mental acuity has atrophied. Whereas there should by now be a strong critical response to Trump....they are coming up empty. They were good with January 6 because the facts were undeniable....so no one ever really needed to analyze anything they said because the facts were before their eyes. 
                  Most of the world at this time is running scared. They see that Trump is in control. They are backing off just as the tech titans have backed off. That leaves only the old Republican establishment to warn of what Trump is doing....and as of right now they have effectively been banished and purged. So Trump will have free reign until the catastrophes begin. Putin and Xi Jinping are not running scared. They are playing this like a chess game as they always do. Trump has been pro-Putin and anti-NATO since the beginning. This is one thing the Democrats could address....for Trump loves the methods of dictators....he admires them! 
                  The evangelical had been a very powerful force since the days of Reagan. They were not only a common sense base for conservatism but also a biblical base....but Trump won them over....and that common sense appears to be all but gone....and the biblical aspect....which is the most important in all of this....is indeed all gone.
                   Right now there is still that remnant. There will always be that remnant....of Christians....who can still discern a problem. I have been wrong on this before but I have to believe that they will come to see that this is not just a problem....where they could look at Trump as the lesser of two evils....but that mere and ineffective dislike will turn to alarm ....at the biblical potential of what is happening right now....and righteous indignation at what Trump has done to the church/ 
                   Prayers are offered every day that God will return John MacArthur to health and to his pulpit. Those certainly are my prayers even though I am not sure which John MacArthur would enter that pulpit....the stalwart teacher and preacher of a half century who called out any enemy to the gospel of Jesus Christ....or the more recent protester of lockdowns. Either way the prayers are there from all of us.
                   There are many other men like John Piper....another stalwart defender of the faith....who were never taken off course....but who seem to be biding their time....as these end-times evolve ever so quickly.
                    I have one recommendation. We are now in a famine of the Word....which is a biblical concept. It happens. My recommendation is that until God has mercy upon us...and begins to awaken these men in these pulpits....as we in the pews wander aimlessly away from the Shepherd....prone to disease and wolves....constantly going after grass on the other side of the fences....that many of us sheep might be steered to the shepherds of the past who God used mightily....mightily....to protect their flocks as the rest of the church collapsed on what Spurgeon in his time called....the Downgrade.
                    So....incorporate Charles Spurgeon and Martyn Lloyd-Jones and J. C. Ryle and R. C. Sproul....and John Piper's desiringgod.org....and even John MacArthur's gty.org....into your daily Christian life! The sermons are there! You can easily Google men who read Spurgeon's sermons....and you can listen to Martyn Lloyd-Jones himself. Forget all this sport nonsense....and cast off all these radio and television and Internet political talking heads. 
                     May God apply a balm along with discernment....for it will not be easy when we finally see how far we have strayed....and the mistakes that we have made. May He give strength to this remnant....and unite us....for the opposition will be intense. May He do all this if it be in His perfect will and perfect timing....and all for the glory of the name above all names....Jesus Christ....His Son....Our Lord....Our Savior....and our already victorious Coming King!
                     

"It Was A Dark And Stormy Night".....In The Heavens

               It was five years ago today....February 4, 2020....'a dark and stormy night'.....as Snoopy would write....in our capital of Washington D. C. Actually it was about sixty degrees with a light rain. (I just looked that up) I remember the date very well for it was my seventieth birthday....which means that today is my seventy-fifth birthday. I remember distinctly only my fourth and my sixth birthdays....the fourth because my cousin Buzzy jumped out from behind a door to scare me....and my sixth because I had an apartment full of kindergarten friends for a party. We tend to remember dates that something extraordinary or different happens on them. So I remember February 4, 2020 very well....for something very ominous happened on that evening!

               It was more of a party....definitely a celebration....for half of the people present anyway.....senators and representatives and Supreme Court justices and generals and admirals and cabinet members. Rush Limbaugh....that grand old man....he was sixty-nine years old at the time....(he would live another year)....was awarded....deservedly so....the Presidential Medal of Freedom on that evening.
               That was the State of the Union Address where Nancy Pelosi did not introduce Trump with the usual...."It is my high honor and privilege".....and then he did not shake her outstretched hand....and then she ripped up the speech transcript....and he sent everyone off with the prophecy...."the best is yet to come." 
                An odd anecdote here....that same cousin who scared me....went on to become a famous disc jockey and radio consultant....so good that Time Magazine did an article on him in 1974. Well....he came to Pittsburgh as a consultant and turned the lowest rated radio station into the top rated station....changing its name to 13Q. In the process....Rush who was a disc jockey under the name of Chris Christie on the former top station...KQV.....lost his job....and we all know what he moved into.
                I just got a text this minute from a good friend who I used to work with. Every text of his is always....Maga this or Maga that. Today it was...."Have a MAGA BIRTHDAY."
               
                Here are some of the words from that S.O.T.U address....I've posted on them before.....
               "Tonight I stand before you to share the incredible results....(of the past three years)....Jobs are booming....Incomes are soaring....Poverty is plummeting....Crime is falling....Confidence is surging....and our country is thriving....America's fortunes are on the rise.....America's future is blazing bright....our pride is restored....("Pride goes before destruction, and a haughty spirit before a fall" Proverbs)....we are moving forward at a pace that was unimaginable just a short time ago....and we are never going back....we are advancing with unbridled optimism"....and the address ended with this...."This nation is our canvas, and this country is our masterpiece. We look at tomorrow and see unlimited frontiers just waiting to be explored. Our brightest discoveries are not yet known. Our most thrilling stories are not yet told. Our grandest journeys are not yet made. The American Age, the American epic, The American adventure has only just begun. Our spirit is still young. The sun is still rising, God's grace is still shining, and my fellow Americans, the best is yet to come."
               As President Trump uttered those words of extreme confidence....the coronavirus was already beyond incubating....millions would die....thirteen of my friends....and the world would be changed.
               The State of the Union Address for this year is schedule for March 4. Unless something happens....which it may very well....we will hear in essence the same speech.....and even more so as to the extreme confidence. The biblical Edom felt like this once....but God said of them in Malachi 1:4...."Edom may say, "We are shattered but we will rebuild the ruins.' the LORD of hosts says, 'They may build, but I will tear down..."
                
This italicized paragraphs was added shortly after the first posting.

"it is Christ who redeemed me, it is the Father who chose the weakest, unsightliest jar of clay and it is the Holy Spirit who dragged me to belief, opened my eyes and gave me faith. And it is Christ again who keeps me, who keeps all of us, though we let Him down time after time. The modern church bears scant witness to the glories that underlie the gospel. Its doctrines permit man to credit His own choosing of Christ as evidence of his salvation. Christ is less than sufficient, the Bible is less than adequate and the Holy Spirit hastens to our beckon call. Large churches legitimize us, oblivious of the warnings to the Laodiceans. Reformed churches sit on the laurels of sound doctrine forgetting the command to the Ephesian church to return to their first love. Evangelicals pass out 'four spiritual laws' booklets with a place for a signature for salvation as if they were handling out coupons for a free Big Mac. Pray for a Reformation, that we return to the cross of Christ, that pastors would preach His glories, that fathers would teach His truths and that we would be salt and light to a destitute nation."

DISPATCHES

"I'm not afraid of failure. I'm afraid of succeeding at things that don't matter." William Carey       

Bible verses for the day....2 Timothy 3:1-5...."But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come. For men will be lovers of themselves....lovers of money....boasters....proud....blasphemous....(no this is not Trump's resume)....disobedient to parents....unthankful....unholy....unloving....unforgiving....slanderers....without self-control....brutal....despisers of good....traitors....headstrong....haughty....lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God....having a form of godliness but denying its power....and from these people turn away!"....Except if it is Donald Trump....we really don't take this stuff in God's Word literally anyway.

February 3....Trump is indeed moving at warp speed so to speak. What he does is hit you with one thing right after another.....including trolling....in amongst these things are legitimate moves....but played in a staccato rhythm....rat tat tat....the result being that we are at one moment outraged....and before we can catch our breath there is another event,,,,that might actually be legitimate....thus temporarily assuaging the outrage. It's a form of a con game....and very effective. What is amazing is that  people....or countries if those people represent countries....seem to fall back at his voice....or his threats. Whether this is temporary or not we shall see. 

Trump's money-making Gaza scheme is very close to ethnic cleansing. Panama does not have to be reacquired in order to insure the flow of traffic through the canal. Greenland is a member of NATO....and that should give it the same protection we would give it....but we are anti-NATO aren't we? Canada as another state is ridiculous.

As far as Putin calling Trump a....'master'....the essence of the first impeachment was in....why did Putin....his military people actually....work so hard....(whether their efforts had a great effect or not)....to get Trump elected?

February 3....What Trump is doing by threatening Canada and Panama and Greenland is giving China an excuse to move on Taiwan. "Hey...if he can take these nations close to him....then China can take Taiwan.

The reserve currency is a big deal....and the United States dollar has been considered the global reserve currency since the end of World War II....taking over for the British pound. There are other local reserve currencies though....the euro being second....and today there are what are known as the BRICS nations....Brazil and Russia and India and China and six others....that would like to challenge the dollar for global supremacy. There are economic benefits to the United States for being the global reserve currency....but....when a nation implements an economic practice that benefits them......well....that's not acceptable....so we will wage economic war with them through tariffs. 

We are witnessing what may be the complete collapse of American society. An election win does not mitigate that statement. In this case it amplifies it. There are stages in the collapse....beginning maybe sixty-two years ago with JFK in Dallas. America's youth in the 60s....I was one of them....were sold up the river. They found out that we had disposable income. 1992 was an important stage when Americans fell under the alure of the Clintons. 2021....January....the 6th to be exact....was a killer....in fact all of 2020 was the first water falls that we went over. Joe Biden was breathtakingly deplorable. At the end he looked like he was going to keel over any minute...but the biggest problem with Biden was that he played right into the hands of Donald Trump. Other Republican candidates never had a chance.     

January 31....DEI and the Disabled....How odd....can this really be happening....Trump in the last few days....with the air disaster....seemed to be going after the disabled? Fred Trump III....Trump's nephew....in his book....relates how when his infant son was diagnosed with a disability that would require lifelong care....that Trump just asked of him....'Why don't you just let him die?' But we don't read books like that do we? The DEI issue is stoking latent racism....in Christians! Are there legitimate DEI concerns? Of course....but we have to be careful of....Reichstag Fire moments. 

On Immigration....It is one thing working quickly to send gang members and genuine undesirables back across the border....but it is an entirely different matter when you are raiding Mexican Restaurants. I for one am not for sending any man back who came here with his family....seeking employment.....to be able to provide better for them. Brethren....are you aware of God's warning on how we are to have compassion in treating the alien within our midst? 

January 25.....Why is it that whistleblowers on our side are always great people....while whistleblowers on the other side are always evil people? And why is it that inspectors general watching over the other side are always great....while inspectors general watching over us are always corrupt.

January 20....Inauguration day....some are pointing out that Melania did not raise the two bibles fast enough....but whatever reason....Donald Trump's hand was not on the Bibles....but by his side as he took the oath. Still....the fact remains....that Trump did not put his hand on the Bible.

January 21....I'm condensing a few paragraphs here. Trump stripped John Bolton and Mike Pompeo and Anthony Fauci and Mark Milley of their security details. The man is troubled....shame on Christians who laugh their way through....or turn a blind eye to what is going on.

January 24....Trump had one of his acolytes put a proposal before Congress that would allow him to run for a third term....but the measure put forth would prohibit Barack Obama from a third term because the wording says that if a president serves two consecutive terms....then there cannot be a third.

Franklin Graham is a good man....and very compassionate....but against the warnings of his own father....he made the same mistakes on politics....a hundred fold over. He is probably the most deceived true believer high profile evangelical in America.

There is a mass purging going on. It's been done before.

Today....Trump named Mel Gibson and Sylvester Stallone and Jon Voight as special envoys to Hollywood...."for the purpose of bringing Hollywood, which has lost much business over the last four years to Foreign Countries, BACK-BIGGER, BETTER, AND STRINGER THAN EVER BEFORE"....they will be his...."eyes and ears....and I will get done what they suggest." Here is a little mental exercise for you....take some time and think about what control a government might have over a film industry. Here's a hint....it also has been done before.    

The Kennan Doctrine and MAD Mutual Assured Destruction....were the best that the West could do to stay away from a third world war and a nuclear war. As imperfect as it was....and in the hands of imperfect humans....we never had that third world war or a nuclear war....but we are no longer systematic in our thinking. Threatening and America Only are the new doctrines.

I have in these posts been warning about Facebook since 2010. I gave evidence from God's Word and from psychologists. Stay away from it Christian!  Trump wants these tech titans on his side....and now he wants AI on his side.

January 13.....Blood Moons....I am one of those who think that God gives signs in the sun and moon and stars. Some....many....can laugh at that but I've done my homework on it.....can those laughing make the same statement? Anyway....the next total lunar blood moon is March 14....falling on Purim. Do you know what Purim is? Every Christian should at least be familiar with the Jewish feast and solemn days. CBN has a small article out right now on blood moons....and as all these articles do they give information of past tetrads....but they never....and I mean never....mention that Donald Trump was born on a blood moon. So if they would be consistent....would they say that that blood moon birth signified something great happening....or possibly....something else?

American politics entered a new realm back in January of 1981 with Ronald Reagan....in fact the world entered a new era with the ascension of Pope John Paul II and Mikhail Gorbachev. Five more presidents followed Reagan....some good and some bad....among them was Donald Trump....Joe Biden came on the scene for a short time....and we have Trump again....coming out to conquer....with even the 'elect'....rejoicing....for a while anyway.

I came across these words today and thought I would add them here,,,,they are from a January 8, 2018 post: 

Nothing will happen to us we say....God is pleased with us....we're carrying His banners.....Make America Great Again.....and God Bless America. We are not vigilant.....we are not alert.....we are no longer humble....we banish those who do not bow before our champion....we refuse to look at the storm clouds on the horizon.....preferring to listen to our own meteorologist.....Rush Limbaugh.

Charles de Montesquieu..."there are three kinds of government.... Republican.....Monarchical....and Despotic. I assume three definitions, or rather three facts...one, republican government is that in which the people as a body or only a part of the people, have sovereign power; monarchical government is that in which one alone governs, but by fixed and....Monarchiald established laws; whereas, in a despotic government, one alone, without law and without rule, draws everything along by his will and caprices."

I posted the following on November 9 of 2021....in a post titled.....Strong Delusion
   
                   God help us.....God help us....God forgive and have mercy upon us....if we let this man rule us again. May God forgive the pulpits in America....in His true churches.....for not warning us of this false prophet who does nothing but rip and tear and destroy....and for not feeding us.....but feeding only their own dreams of great successful churches....and for not exalting Christ as our only hope....and our only strength....and our only refuge....of whom we should be praising every day....and every minute of every day....for His blessings and favor upon us in the past....and long-suffering patience up until this point....as He removes His hand from us....yet still gives us time to repent and prepare for the judgments that we have brought upon ourselves.

Everything is about the....'other.' If you receive a present....the most important thing is that you show appreciation. If you give a present....the most important thing is that there is nothing to inhibit the person from enjoying the present.

"The Golden Age Of America Begins Right Now"

               Whether it is a great country or a small third-world country....at that moment when a revolution or a war is won....whether it is for good....as when the United States Army's 28th Division marched around the Arc de Triomphe and down the Champs de Elysees in August of 1944....or for evil as when the Bolsheviks succeeded....it is a moment for history to record as an epic triumph. 

               In our day....to us known as baby boomers....and to the people of West Germany....and even East Germany....that moment was when the Berlin Wall was chipped away with hammers and axes....and in essence fell. Today may prove to be such a day. The critics have astonishingly been silenced....well most of us anyway. Victory in Europe Day....or the surrender of Japan....or Appomattox....or when the British were trapped on the Yorktown or Virginia Peninsula....leading to the surrender of General Cornwallis...these moments may have a new addition to their number....in the astounding resurrection from oblivion of Donald Trump....even from a head wound....this coinciding with a transformation from a timid first term beginning to a...."Conquering and to conquer".....second term beginning.
               As it stands right now....it is one of those epic revolutions in history. Napolean Bonaparte was forced to abdicate in April of 1814....and banished to Elba. His powerful charisma somehow restored him to his throne after only eleven months....but that return only lasted one hundred days.
               On the one hand there are the masses that are celebrating....but there must also be those....maybe not only a few....who with tankards of beer being raised all around them....are meditating on the victory celebration that they are witnessing. It's more than just a win. A college football team will win the national championship tonight....and in a few days it will be filed away under great victories....but this inauguration is a blitsgrieg....pincers cutting here and there and everywhere. Is there something else going on here....they may be forced to ask themselves? 
               Whatever it turns out to be....it is one of those moments....not just a watershed moment that takes time to play out....but a battering ram whereupon the entire army invades the castle....routing all the inhabitants....and freeing all the prisoners.  
                To the Christian....not the Make America Great Again variety....or the thank you Jesus for the touchdown variety....but the....'God be merciful to me a sinner".....Christian....there is a sense of wonder at what is transpiring. How does it relate to the Second Coming of our Lord and Savior and King? Surely....because of all the emphasis on God bless America....and one glorious nation under God....and now a new golden age....the exact opposite of what God's Word is telling us....this whole thing is biblical and not just historical! This man who has continuously prophesied to us in the church  for nine years....must either be a true prophet....or a false prophet....there is no in between....and this that we are watching must be either....David dancing into Jersalem as the Ark is being brought up....or Phinehas and Hophni dragging the Ark of the Covenant into battle....only to lose it?

Addendum: AI is one of the biggest dangers than mankind faces right now....and there is no stopping or even controlling it...and it is most definitely part of end-times prophecy. Trump's big announcement today was that three tech giants are investing $500 billion in an AI super project....in America. Trump's mind is robotic....'if it makes money for him or gives him glroy....he'll do it. Nothing else matters in the decision.'

Thank You Lord For These Faithful Men....Who We Can Go To....When There Is A Famine Of The Word

                  The video below was posted so long ago that upon watching it again just now I don't even remember it! It is part of a series from R. C. Sproul....I would guess from the mid-80s....all of which you can watch by Googling....R. C. Sproul...born again.

                                                                             

                  R. C. Sproul went to be with his Lord and Savior and King of whom he proclaimed the glories thereof for so many decades....in December of 2017. His voice was raspy....more than usual....in the last sermon that he ever gave....only weeks before he went on to glory. You can easily Google this....R. C. Sproul's Final Sermon....and I'm sure that you would be blessed!

I want to add this post from last September....

"Abba, Father"

                 Christ is everything! It took me over six decades to figure that out. I thank God for old age.....for some things.....pride....many goals....numerous distractions....and many temptations just fall away naturally.....with me anyway.....replaced by aches and pains.....and just looking in the mirror.
                 This isn't the best way of going about it. David Brainerd and Robert Murray M'Cheyne found out more about this than I'll ever know....and this in their twenties....and Charles Spurgeon in his teens....theirs more the hand of God....mine more the mercies and long-suffering of God.
                 NFL football....entertainments to any excessive degree....miserliness....unyielding ambitions....(other than spreading the gospel)....these things cannot exist once we see that Christ is everything.

"No one can serve two masters. Either he will hate the one and love the other, or he will be devoted to the one and despise the other." Matthew 6:24 ESV

                 Prime evidence of this is in politics and the Christian. If Christ is everything.....then one is not going fall for delusion....one is not going to place their faith in men or princes....one is not going to seek to build anything before Christ's church is built.
                 Is there pride is using words like this? No....it is more that of a child's love for a parent....where it may gush with love more than if that child were older....and more embarrassed by such displays of emotion. It is more the praises shouted to God of a blind man who can now see. It is more the kissing of the king's ring by a prisoner granted mercy. It is unencumbered by what anyone may think....anyone other than the triune God!

"Truly, I say to you, unless you turn and become like children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven." Matthew 18:3 ESV"

'Inaugurate'....Merriam-Webster....2b...."To Bring About The Beginning Of"

                 It is 12:36....thirty six minutes past noon....and about thirty-four minutes since Donald Trump was sworn into his second term....and I just received this text from his 'team'...."I AM....(the pause here is mine)....THE PRESIDENT NOW. Let's unleash the next Golden Age in the USA.

               I tuned in most of the morning....right up to the swearing in....and then closed the computer... before President Trump's speech began. I can read it later....Lord willing.
               Franklin Graham's prayer just before the swearing in was disturbing. He began...."Mr. President, in the last four years....there were times....I'm sure you thought....it was pretty dark....but look was God has done....we praise Him and give Him glory....let us pray....our Father and our God....Thou has said....'Blessed is the nation whose God is the LORD'....as the prophet Daniel prayed....'Blessed be the name of God for ever and ever....for wisdom and might are His....He changes the times and the seasons....He removes kings....He raises up kings....He gives wisdom to the wise....and knowledge to those who have understanding'....our Father today....as Donald J. Trump takes the oath of office once again....we come to say...thank you O Lord our God....Father when Donald Trump's enemies thought he was down and out....You and You alone saved his life....and raised him up with strength and power....by Your mighty hand....we pray for President Trump....that You'll watch over....protect....guide....direct him...give him Your wisdom from your throne on high....we ask that You would bless him....and that our nation would be blessed through him....we also ask that You would bless and protect Melania....as First Lady....we thank You for the beauty...the warmth....the grace....that she shows not only to this nation....but to the whole world....we thank You for Vice-President-elect J. D. Vance....and his wife.....Usha....and his young family....may he be a strength to President Trump....stand beside him....to hold up his arms like Aaron held up the arms of Moses in the battle....the prophet Samuel reminded the people....it was You that brought him up from the land of Egypt....and He said....stand still....that I may reason with you before the LORD.....for Father we take this moment to stand still....to remember the great things You have done for this nation....thank You for the protection....the freedoms....that we so enjoy....we remember....to keep our eyes fixed on You....and may our hearts be inclined to Your voice....we know that America can never be great again....if we turn our backs on You....we ask for Your help....and we pray all of this in the name of the King of Kings....the Lord of Lords....Your Son....My Savior....and our Redeemer....Jesus Christ amen."

               This prayer was disturbing to me because the Rev. Franklin Graham is taking the position that all is good with us now....that only the last four years were dark....a half century of increasing warnings from God....vanished in our mind....because we have replaced one political leader with another....when in fact we are far more removed from repentance than we were when he said many of these same words in a rally prayer in August of 2017....that I posted on at the time. We.....evangelicals and all of us on the....'right'....are glorying right now in our own accomplishments and power! We are sure that our financial and military hegemony will return. Our idols are not only still in place but have increased since 2017. We have less compassion than we had even back then. We are certain now that peace and safety is ours. Graham missed all of this. His words when speaking of God were true....and will ring out....but they no longer ring out in a warning....for those warnings were rejected....they now ring out in proclamation for us to yes....stand still in remembrance....but also to stand still and behold what the Lord of Glory is going to do.

Just What Is It That You Think That You Want?

                 You probably know this already....a 7.0 earthquake on the Richter Scale....is ten times stronger than a 6.0 earthquake....and an 8.0 earthquake is ten times stronger than a 7.0 earthquake. This is called exponential growth by a factor of ten.

                I have read it described like this a number of times....by the most experienced of artificial intelligence scientists or experts....right now AI is growing exponentially! 
                I need to expound on that in order for the reader here to understand how serious this is. This is not just a constant....new and improved version....a 1.0 to a 2.0 to a 3.0. One scientist of AI....maybe the most well-known of all of the them....wrote in his latest book that by the time the words that he was then typing....were out in print....they would already be outdated!
                 There is nothing....short of total dystopia....that would stop AI! We do not know the specifics as of yet....but artificial intelligence is Bible prophecy fulfilled and being fulfilled!
                  I didn't type the above because I wanted to do a post on artificial intelligence. I typed them because I wanted to ask a very serious question....and address it to all the evangelicals....from Franklin Graham on down...."Just what is it that you think that you want?"
                  With all of your experience in ministry....(speaking to all of them here)....you do not understand the seriousness of the situation! You have no idea of the concept of immanence. If you had....then how could you not cry out....'Maranatha....Lord Jesus come!'?
                   We have a half-pagan America....and almost half Laodicean church right now. Have you read the polls that come out all the time telling you what evangelicals actually think? 
                   Violence is literally everywhere on this earth. Even the multi-billionaires are building bunkers....or in some other way planning their escape! 
                   Now I know that many of you today do not think that the state of Israel is Bible prophecy fulfilled. I can't do anything about that....for you went as far as your seminary training will take you and then turned off your hearing aids....and went to bed and turned off your reading light.
                   We do not have a viably ethical political party in America today....none. And we do not have a legitimate and fair....let alone 'fair and balanced'....media today...which means....no information or news that has not been cherry-picked. We have discarded all of our defenses.
                    So the question is....what do you think it is that you want? Do you really think that God will be appeased....after fifty years of warning us....with us getting worse and dumber all the time....do you really think that a political party in power....and especially the vile and blasphemous leader of that party....who prophesies literally every day the exact opposite that God's Word proclaims to us....do you really think that God is that dense as to say that this will save us? You wouldn't even let your own kids get away with logic like that!
                  We are hoping for a....revival....and celebrate when a couple of thousand kids show up at a college. Let me tell you....a comicon....or a Grateful Dead concert....or a Trump rally....or dog show can get tens of thousands of people in one place! We need mortification....and there is none of it around today! 

 

Annie Get Your Crown

 The following was first posted in April of 2017:                

             Consider two women if you would. I'll call one Anne....and the other Annie. They are both 70 years old. Anne was born into money....private schools....a debutante ball.....Sarah Lawrence College....all of that. Her net worth has been in the billions....or today's equivalent of it....all of her life. Anne was physically beautiful...and still is as she had all that money could buy for various expensive cosmetic surgeries and beauty products to keep her skin soft and wrinkle free. She also is very healthy....as every sign of illness was addressed immediately by the best doctors in the world.
             Annie was born in East Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, not far from the steel mills. She started smoking at fourteen because she didn't know any better. She began working as a cleaning woman at the historic Westinghouse Air Brake when she graduated from high school at 18 years of age. She has never had a thousand dollars to spare in her entire life. She still cleans banks and schools at 70 years old. There is no discernible shape or style whatsoever to her hair. Her skin is wrinkled and pasty....and she is not well although she really has no personal doctor to diagnose anything.....rather she will go to the emergency room when necessary.....which had been two or three times in her life. There doesn't appear to be a whole lot of fairness to life as it concerns Anne and Annie.
             God had humbled Annie early in life as she made a mess of it with men....and never married. There was a large yellow brick church on a hill that Annie would always admire when she was on that hill. One particular Sunday while in her thirties, she bundled up on a cold winter day, walked through the red doors, and sat in the last pew. It was as if God dragged her out of bed that day and pulled her up that hill. She heard something from that old man in the pulpit that she had never heard before. It was like water that starts to boil and then one has to hurry and turn the heat down on the stove to keep the water from boiling over the top of the pot.....as if Annie reached out that morning to grab the robe of Jesus....and been raised to life from the spiritually dead.....and has ever since echoed praises to her Savior and her Lord off of those cold bank marble and tiled cafeteria floors. Her body may often ache but her soul is comforted in the pure joy of grace bestowed....and of knowing that a crown awaits her!
               Anne married the perfect man....handsome and richer than her. Her children are all highly successful and have provided a dozen beautiful grandchildren. Anne attends a majestic glass and steel church but she has never once heard the words that changed Annie's life. They were similar words that she heard but sterile....lacking power....and she has no idea that something is even missing. Anne gives more money to the church every Sunday than Annie makes in a whole year....but knows only a name....and not a reigning King. There doesn't seem to be a whole lot of fairness here either....for God had humbled Annie....but never Anne.
               Granted, there have been many examples that are the exact opposite where the poor woman had a chip on her shoulder against God her whole life....while the rich woman's sole purpose was in using her wealth to help others and spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ. My point here as it concerns riches and a life of ease....or poverty....is that both are temporary.....with an eternity to follow! Surely there is someone within fifty yards of where I sit right now who is an Annie......and who has been blessed so as to make all the wealth of the richest man in the world appear as nothing but a gilded dung hill.
               What is of everlasting importance is whether Anne or Annie.....who having been born either in riches or poverty....had also since been born anew.....born from above.....or as we hear most often.....born again.....adopted into God's family.....forgiven.....made heirs of an eternal inheritance.....and given God's Holy Spirit to know all these things.....and to rejoice in them.....and to have faith in that which cannot be seen....and strength to persevere.....and if it applies.....to discern the dangers that lurk within riches. This highlighting here of the temporal in no way lessens our concern for the Annies of the world....it rather does the opposite.....for whether one is born into money or not....they are both born into a spiritual deadness......and to be raised from this to life.....makes one almost immediately reach for the one not yet raised.....as if to pull them up also.....whether it be an Annie....or an Anne.

September Five......1972

 Preface: The film was released today and my wife and I were there for the second showing. That's par for the course with films that I'm looking forward to seeing. The film here was.....September 5....which reads as.....September five....and focuses solely on ABC Sports coverage of the hostage drama as it happened during the 1972 Munich Olympics. I'm referring to this as a 'film' rather than a 'movie' because the word 'film' gives it more of an artsy or serious bent. It's only an hour and thirty-five minutes....and focuses on what went on in the temporary ABC studios outside of the Olympic Village....much in the same way that 2023 film....Golda....focused only on the Israeli command centers in the 1973....Yom Kippur War. Here we are again today talking about the release of hostages. The Golda film....which was also excellent....was released in August of 2023....only about eight weeks before the Sukkot attacks. I posted the below....All The Hostages Are Safe....on July 6, 2015....and below that I'll add what I posted the day the film Golda was released in the United States.

All The Hostages Are Safe......posted July 6, 2015

               We are coming to the 77th anniversary of the attempted appeasement of Adolph Hitler in the Munich Agreement. The world was on the brink of war and this deal was an ill-advised attempt to hold off Hitler's aggression. Munich would again capture the world's attention 34 years later.
               I recently watched a documentary on the Munich Summer Olympics massacre from the first week of September 1972. I had seen the film before and might even be compelled to view it again if the opportunity arose. Murderous hate such as displayed before the world in the Olympic Village almost 43 years to the day from today has since become commonplace, so common that we now not only negotiate with terrorists, we humble ourselves in appeasement to them; but there was one segment of the film that is difficult to dislodge from my mind. Gunfire at the airport had erupted and the world waited. A report came in....all nine Israeli athletes were safe and the terrorists were all killed. Do those of you old enough remember that?
               I was in my last few weeks in the army at the time. Having no real duties to speak of, I spent my time playing chess and watching these Olympics. Some newspapers had headlined the news....'All Hostages Safe.' Then ABC's Jim McKay tried to prepare listeners for the truth.....all nine hostages were in fact murdered in the final assault. Nothing of the future is certain other than what God has spoken of in His Word.
              The following is a well-known passage from the fifth chapter of Paul's first letter to the Thessalonians..."But concerning the times and the seasons brethren, you have no need that I should write to you. For you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so comes as a thief in the night. For when they say, 'Peace and safety!' then sudden destruction comes upon them.....' It would behoove all Christians to follow the news of the world with this caveat in mind for it would serve to temper the confidence that most people seem to emote that things may get bad, and maybe set us back in our 401k....but not catastrophic......that just can't happen to us!

GOLDA.....posted in August of 2023
   
               It's not really a biopic of Golda Meir because the film begins the day before the Yom Kippur War began....and basically ends as the war ends....but it was enough....and an hour and forty minutes was about perfect. Golda was released today and we were at the second showing. You're not going to see tanks getting blown up but you will hear the orders barked out and the screams over the military communication radios....and quite frankly....that's a lot harder to deal with. It's more than a good primer on the October 1973 war....and Helen Mirren's characterization of Golda Mirren was incredible....but the reason that you might want to see this movie is that Israel may be in a similar situation in the very near future. 

The Lord Of The Rings....The Return Of The King....And The Return Of The King Of Kings

                 I never....'got into'....to use that terminology....so I was never a fan of fantasy literature....with very little exposure to it....and none to J. R. R. Tolkien's....The Lord Of The Rings. So let me emphasize even more that I knew absolutely nothing about it or any of the many interpretations that may be out there. I was given the DVD for the 2003....third movie....The Return Of The King. I did research the book but primarily the film before watching it....which is my hobbit....excuse me....habit. I read many comments on whether or not it was a Christian film....and whether or not Christians should watch it. After just finishing the movie I do have a simple opinion....no it is not Christian. Oh there is good and evil everywhere....and saviors and kings....and I can see allusions that can be interpreted as Christian....but it more problematic than edifying as it pertains to the Christian faith.

                 Still....I do admit that it was a fascinating tale and extraordinary movie that held my attention to the end. I have a little fantasy relating to this of my own. I would like to sit down over coffee....a lot of coffee....over an extended period of time....with someone who is an expert on Tolkien and the Lord Of The Rings. I would like for them to take their time and explain everything in all three books to me....and go into detail on all the characters.....for I could probably list a dozen characters right here that I have many questions about.
                 I simply and usually have a sincere interest in learnings things like this....but....there is a second part of this fantasy. After all would be said and done about Tolkien and his writings....I would then like the opportunity with this person....to sit down....again over coffee....with all the time that I would need....to explain a story and a mystery that I know of....for in my opinion....and really it would be common sense and logic....this story would be more important because it is real....and affects each and every one of us....eternally!
                 So having sat down to listen intently to what The Lord Of The Rings is all about....I would like to take my turn to explain another book.....as best as I could....a book of sixty-six books....written by about forty authors....over centuries....starting with Genesis....and gloriously and terrifyingly at times moving on to Revelation....from eternity past....to eternity future....the story of the King of all Kings....particularly....the return of the King of Kings!

The Problem Is.....Today We Are Not Even Looking To See What That Delusion Might Be

  Preface: The following post is from this past May 13:              

                   I've witnessed and experienced a lot in politics since the 1960s. I'm one of those who can tell you where they were on November 22, 1963. I remember the mechanical numbers changing on the black and white television screen in November of 1960 when that young and handsome John F. Kennedy beat Richard Nixon....and I remember standing in front of the television in Ted's Dairy Store on March 31, 1968 when LBJ announced that he would not run for another term....and I remember that unbelievable comeback when Nixon won in 1968. I remember going to bed before RFK took the microphone at the Ambassador Hotel....and I remember the news of the next morning. Watergate....Jimmy Carter....Reagan....Clinton fooling the evangelicals....Obama....and then that groundswell for Trump in 2016. Yeah....I've seen a lot.
                  This is a difficult post. It's about as controversial as it gets. Here is Revelation 13:18 from the ESV...."This calls for wisdom: let the one who has understanding calculate the number of the beast, for it is the number of a man, and his number is 666."
                  Some of you are thinking...."I don't remember the first part of that verse....that can't possibly literally mean for us to calculate!' Talk to a pastor about this and he will do something that he rarely if ever does....warn! He'll warn you vehemently against thinking too much about that verse....but it is there....and like time-release medication....it is kicking in right about now. 
                  Tune into David Jeremiah and you will get one take on where the Antichrist might come from.....tune into any one of a number of other popular preachers and you will get a number of other theories. There is nothing wrong with this. This is what we are to be doing. There will be legitimate speculations....and there will be the opposite.
                  Barack Obama was a candidate at one time....and may still be. There was his nomination acceptance speech in 2008....at Mile High Stadium in Denver....with a giant white horse on top of the stadium....and a stage that looked like a replica of the Altar of Zeus from Pergamum.....Satan's throne as is referred to in the letter to the church at Pergamum. Were those things a message from God....or a joke from the devil?
                  Gorbachev was a considered a....man of peace.....if there ever was one.....with a weird birthmark on his forehead that someone once described as looking like the Hebrew number 6....with a drop of blood at the bottom. Whoever or whatever the Antichrist is....he or it is with us today. That alone should wake us up!
                  'Kick in the butt' is an idiom that we hear fairly often. You're about to start a new job....a real good job....and then the position is suddenly eliminated. Well that would classify as a kick in the butt would it not? Well here is another....particularly for evangelicals....and very particularly for pastors.....what if it turns out that Donald Trump becomes the Antichrist? To use two popular idioms....that would be....'the mother of all'....'kicks in the butt'.....would it not? All these pastors who ignored all the warnings in God's Word....on people to definitely stay away from....would find out that they paved the way in their churches for.....The Antichrist!
                    Well lets' hope and pray that that is not the case.....but it is a legitimate speculation to at least give the once over. Why do I say this? Nine years of study and over a hundred books on Trump have showed me that this man is empty.....and if a man is empty.....there is the potential to be filled. He has absolutely no compassion or empathy.....in spite of all blabbering that he does on this. His belief that he is the most important person in the world....far beyond mere delusions of grandeur....impossible to experience anything akin to humility....filled with an unquenchable passion for revenge....and incapable of discerning the difference between truth and lies....all this combined with a truly great ability to deceive....yeah....he's probably not that man....I surely hope that he isn't....but he is a legitimate candidate!
                     Here's another verse to consider....Matthew 24:24 from the ESV...."For false christs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders, so as to lead astray, if possible, even the elect." Did not Trump prophesy...."our best is yet to come"....along with dozens of other statements of what glorious 'wins' were to come....and this constantly for years? Did he not tell us in some way every day of the great wonders that he accomplished? 
                     That rally over the weekend in Wildwood, New Jersey was nothing less than astonishing....80,000 to 100,000 people in that small blue state town....I've been there many times. 
                     Here's another verse....2 Thessalonians 2:11 from the ESV...."Therefore God sends them a strong delusion, so that that may believe what is false." Folks....we do not know what that strong delusion will be. That's not the problem. The problem is that we are not even looking for that strong delusion! 
                    

Then He May Say To You And Me....."Do You Also Want To Go Away?"

 "Therefore when Jesus perceived that they were about to come and take Him by force to make Him king. He departed again to a mountain by Himself alone." John 6:15

               The people and disciples followed Him here....and looked for Him there. The rest of that chapter is one blowtorch truth after another....until these many disciples could bear no more....(please read through this chapter....stopping and meditating every few verses)....the final straw was verse 65...."Therefore I have said to you that no one can come to Me unless it has been granted to him by My Father."

                Folks this may very well happen to us....where there will be a point when the evangelicals reject the Jesus of Scripture because that Jesus does not want to make America great again....and then Jesus will in effect look at....hopefully you and me....and ask as He did his twelve disciples in verse  67...."Do you also want to go away?"

                 Peter must have been a little shook up himself after the barrage of difficult to understand truths that Jesus had given one after another....and so it may with us.....you and I....as the delusion that reigns now in the form of Christian nationalism....with multitudes absolutely blinded to the most clear and simple evidences that evangelicalism has taken a wrong road. May God keep us and have mercy on us...that we might have the faith and the strength to say as did Peter....

"Lord....to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life. Also we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the living God." (verses 68, 69)

               

                

               

We Were Like Kids In A Library.....With The Whole World To Explore

                 I was talking to a friend yesterday....a Christian woman....actually I was just listening in as my wife asked her if she regularly visited her local library. The response was...."Why would I do that....I get all my Christian books over the Internet." Well for one thing it would help the library....and for another....the more Christian books are requested.....the more they will be ordered....and others can then read them also....so it would help the community.

               My wife and I met in the University of Pittsburgh's Hillman Library....fifty years ago. She was working her way through library science grad school....and I was on the G. I. Bill and making a little extra money to help keep the college bars in business. She was my boss. Down the road was the historic Pittsburgh Playhouse....that gave a boost to the careers of Gene Kelly and Shirley Jones. In the early 70s the heyday of the Playhouse was gone....and they had a ton of memorabilia and donated all of it to the Hillman Library Special Collections. All Pitt had to do was sort through things and pick out what it wanted. That's where I and another student came in. We spent a few weeks going through playbills and restaurant menus. Now....at the back of that famous restaurant....covering almost an entire wall....was a mural by the even more famous caricaturist Al Hirschfeld. The mural had maybe fifteen or twenty celebrity figures drawn in Hirschfeld's trademark black and white. The Playhouse manager gave us a tour....and proudly pointed out the mural....going over all the celebrities....until he came to one who he said that no one has ever been able to figure out who it was. I said that it looked like King Edward VIII....also known as the Duke of Windsor....married Wallis Simpson and then abdicated and all that stuff. The Playhouse manager's jaw dropped. Why do I tell you this silly lengthy anecdote in what will be a very serious post? It's because it is the only academic accomplishment that I have in life....and I'm going to brag about it. I went back about a dozen or so years ago while they were gutting the building....to see that mural....and the man working there was almost in tears as he told me that they just chopped the mural in pieces and shoveled it up.
                OK....now it's my turn to be in tears. That Christian woman that I mentioned at the top of this post is representative of what has happened to evangelicalism. My wife and I once owned A Christian bookstore....this about twenty-five years ago....and there were about six other Christian bookstores within about a half hour drive. Back in 1982 I walked into one of those stores simply because I had nothing else to do....never been in one before....didn't even know what they were....and walked out with a classic book that would change my life. When we had our bookstore....it did not do well locally....but because of a radio commercial we ran on Word-FM radio....faithful customers traveled from all around Pittsburgh to browse through these different types of Christian books....Reformed Theology....Reformation Theology....and Puritan literature. One man....just passing through on his way to seminary in Michigan....much later called me to tell me that the book that I gave him....(he didn't have the money to buy the book)...,changed his theology and his ministry!
                I lived in all these Christian bookstores back in the 80s. I remember the day that an orange neon cover jumped out at me....Puritan William Gurnall's classic....The Christian In Complete Armour....and that changed my life again! Christian bookstores back then had a lot of books...of many different genres....bios and classics and church history and critiques of the contemporary church and men's and women's devotionals and prophesy and apologetics and every Bible imaginable....and all the best sellers of the day. 
                 It was the same principle as a kid in a library with the whole world there for him or her to explore! Yeah there was nonsense there....plenty of it....but if one was a reader....then over time the cream would rise to the top! We were a fairly educated....(Christian discernment)....church back then. We knew what a cult was. We were skilled in apologetics....the defense of the gospel. These stores were where the authors put their books on display. All of this has changed....and we in the church have become spiritual paupers....illiterate in the history of the church and the lives of the giants that came before us.
                 So what do we do today....we listen to our favorite Christian podcasters....and no one else....and we order their books on the Internet....or we use the church library that will never stray from its own theology....so if you visited that church....liked it....the kids programs were great....and there was nothing there to cause any discomfort....then you are going to remain clueless as to what has happened in the church in America over the centuries!
                 Television is no better. Forty years ago we had four channels...and a Billy Graham crusade seemed to always be there for that traveler in a motel....or the man or woman....father or mother....who didn't have any of their favorite shows on that night. In other words....our supply lines have all been cut....just like those underwater sea cables that Putin and the Chinese are trawling over with their anchors nowadays....no information is shared....nothing to debate or defend....just pick whatever doctrine suits you best.

Note: The book that I just happened upon was Josh McDowell's....Evidence That Demands A Verdict....and the book that I gave to that young man who was off to seminary was....The Valley Of Vision....a compilation of Puritan prayers edited by Arthur Bennett....Banner of Truth books.

"Down To The Sea In Ships"

                  Now you can go directly to ligonier.org and order the resources.....(I have been a supporter of Ligonier Ministries for at least 35 years if not longer)....or you can navigate the website or the web for individual teachings....but one easy way that I recommend to you is simply to Google....The Holiness of God by R. C. Sproul Part One....Litterbox studio....and begin to listen....and to watch this Pittsburgher. (I decided to add it below) The YouTube is almost two hours. I'm not sure how many episodes of The Holiness of God that entails. I'm going to start listening to it again today....for I need it!

                 We need to get this straight right at the beginning....and if we travel for a decade or two without having come to grips with this....then we need to go back there immediately....even before supper....and we need it again and again throughout our pilgrimage! Let me segue....as usual....

                 I have been reading in depth Psalm 107 for a few days....maybe a week....studying and meditating on one Psalm for a week! Five times in this Psalm....the first Psalm in Book Five of the Psalms....the author writes...."Oh give thanks to the LORD, for He is good"....verses 1, 8, 15, 21,31....with slight modification.....and the Psalm ends with...."Whoever is wise will observe these things, and they will understand the lovingkindness of the LORD."
                 So in verse 23 we read...."Those who go down to the sea in ships..." I remembered an old Hollywood movie of that title....vaguely....I may have watched it sixty years ago. Well the exact title from the 1949 movie starring Lionel Barrymore and Richard Widmark and Dean Stockwell is....Down To The Sea In Ships. A movie with a Bible verse as a title. That's not exactly uncommon but it piqued my interest, so I found it on the computer....and my wife and I watched it last evening....and it is absolutely wonderful....so I recommend it to you. 
                 I hope this hasn't changed but I fear that it has. Basic training was an absolutely essentially time in the army....or any of the other services. The drill sergeant had eight or twelve weeks with these men. There was no time for coddling! There were no safe spaces. There was no room for error. There was no whining....at least none that the drill sergeant could hear. I look around at the church....and there has been no basic training today! Everyone seems to think that this is a great small group that we all have joined. So to reiterate....you need to go back to basic if you have not understood who God is....and the abyss between He and man....and the awesome majesty and unspeakable glory and unimaginable mercy that has been bestowed upon the truly redeemed believer. If that redeemed believer is wasting his time on himself....and his passions are not centered upon the One who lifted him up out of hell....then there is a big problem! Statistics tell us that about 64% of Green Beret trainees drop out....and seven or eight of SEAL trainees drop out. These are not flabby draftees that drop out or do not make it....but fit individuals. God's Word speaks of this in a different way.....the narrow way....in which a few go through....and the broad way....in which the many deceive themselves.

                                                                         

Note: There is an audio glitch at the beginning that only lasts for a minute or two....have patience.         

Addendum: I don't have anything against small groups....as a matter of fact I would like to be in one.....as a matter of fact we are all probably going to be in small groups at some point. 

Today I Have The Upper Hand......And Tomorrow Is Even More Clear Than Yesterday

                 About an hour ago I sat down for breakfast....said my blessings.....and was about to begin when my elbow knocked over a full glass of orange juice. Things like happen more often at my age. I sprang into action with towels....and springing into action at 74 is like a batter strolling to first base on a walk....although I had a little bit of Pete Rose in me. It's not easy getting down on the floor.....I have to sit while cleaning up rather than put pressure on my knees....and it's even harder getting up.

               Only minutes before I had listened to John Piper's daily offering on his ministry website....desiringgod.org. It was one of those Q&As....the question being asked by a listener....Is Heaven a Real Place Right Now?
                At one point in Piper's answer he talked about how he can remember important events in the past as if they were yesterday. I know exactly what he means....but more importantly....heaven is not as far away as it used to be! This is a big deal....and one of the blessings of growing older. For example....when I may have a conversation today with someone who is not a believer.....and he or she has no interest at all in what happens after death....I have the distinct upper hand! It used to be that they who I was being challenged by at the time....could count on forty or fifty years until they found out if they were wrong....and I would therefore have to wait forty or fifty years....not to find out if I was wrong.....for...."I [knew] whom I [had and have] believed and [was] persuaded that He [was and is] able to keep what I [had and have] committed to Him until that day"......"that day"....which is now today forty or fifty years sooner!
                

2 Timothy 1:2

"It Probably Will Not Be Tomorrow"

Preface: The following post is only a little over a month old. The Super Bowl is scheduled in a few weeks. I would have to look up the date. Is the college football championship tonight? I would have to look that up also. When is the last time that you the reader had someone joyfully say to you that they had been born again....or heard something similar second or third hand? We don't have to be born again anymore. There is nothing for the Christian to be separated from. The bad liberals and the good patriots are already separated. That's the only separation necessary. I was last night reading a book that I purchased only yesterday....the title of which I'll leave for a possible book review later....but there is a short paragraph on page five that caught my eye...."It has been a season of grieving, lament, and lots of prayer. But it's also been a season of new relationships, and the winnowing experience deepens the ties with those that remain." I'll give you a hint on the book. It was written by a former government official and counterterrorism expert who became a persona non grata....along with many others....unwelcome in other words....because they also focused too much on homegrown extremism....but it is that word....'winnowing'....that caught my eye....because I have used the word a lot in the past....for that is what is coming in the church....a winnowing....where that multitude of evangelicals today will increasingly find out that they really have little in common with born again Christians....(a redundant term yes....but one that explains a lot today to anyone willing to look first to God's Word for answers.)

                   I had posted so many times over the past sixteen years....a hope that the next Lord's Day would be that day when God would awaken our pulpits and have mercy upon all of us. So will tomorrow be that Lord's Day? I don't think it will be. I see absolutely no indication that Christians are worried about anything. They have their election win....they therefore think that God has blessed them....and they are waiting for the good times to start rolling again. There is no evidence of any mortification in their speech....or in the pulpits. They have no interest in even considering any warnings....of which they hear none from their pulpits anyway. They are more concerned....the men anyway....with the Steelers than they are the Antichrist.
                  We might as well put pillows in all the pews?  What you will have tomorrow in most pews of most....at least conservative churches in America....is cheerful  banter. We went from banners to banter. No one....generally speaking....will be convicted of anything. One wise minister long ago said that the purpose of the sermon was to convict....and then to comfort. Well we just scratched off the convict part.
                  This is all going to change folks....but probably not tomorrow....for it seems that we have a little bit more to go before we hit rock bottom. Trump has changed the gospel...and redirected our hope. Our fall is going to be hard....as maybe even in a day we will see what we have allowed to happen. Then....on the Lord's Day following that....God may show these pastors that they miserably failed to warn their sheep. 
                  It will be a hard time for all of us....for we all contributed to the collapse. May God....if it be His will....and if it be in His mercy....may he then apply a balm....that we ourselves might not collapse under the weight of our guilt. May He have mercy on these men in the pulpits....that instead of panic and confusion....or worse....denial....that they would....through the strengthening of the Holy Spirit....lead us all in humiliation and mortification.

"Your Kingdom Has Been Divided"

   
                                  

               The above is a photo of an oil painting by 19th century....(the period of Romanticism)....English painter John Martin....who was known for his epic religious themes. If the grainy photo piqued your interest....please Google....John Martin...Belshazzar's Feast...Yale University....where the image that will appear is not grainy....and you can expand it to see just how incredible the oil painting is!
               In a few days we will begin a four day inauguration celebration....Saturday through Tuesday. There will be three balls....Carrie Underwood and Lee Greenwood and the Village People will sing. Franklin Graham will pray. There will be a....Make America Great Again Rally....on the Lord's Day at 3:00 PM in the sports arena. Evangelicals are primed for the "feast".
               We believe that great things are about to happen because Donald Trump will be back in the White House. All gone...is God's fifty years plus warnings to us that judgment was coming....all because we have Trump and a Republican Congress....and new cabinet members. All forgotten is the decades long judgements....one after another....building to a crescendo....only the latest being Los Angeles....as we are about to celebrate the dawn of a new....Golden Age in America! We in effect....blew off God's warnings. We are far more godless of a people....both on the left and on the right....than we ever were. On the right....including evangelicals....we are drunk with the promise of economic gain....and national glory....and have been steered away from Jesus Christ....but God will not be mocked.