We Are In The Midst Of A Famine Right Now

Preface: I was out doing errands....and was on a local Christian college where I occasionally leave something little for students that has the URL for this website on it. Over the many years it has been everything from pens to notebooks....and now it is bookmarks with a list of the books of the Bible. While walking quickly and passing these out I received a weather alert to take shelter....for there could be wind gusts up to 80 mph. I got home in time to watch a hundred foot tall maple bending as I've never seen it bend in over forty years. I had been praying on the way home. The damage so far has been minimal but there is another storm coming later. I have a brother-in-law who many years ago parked his Mercedes convertible at a park....this in Florida....and took a nice walk in the beautiful weather. A thunderstorm and deluge came quickly and by the time he made it back to his car....with the top down....the car was half full of water....and the insurance company totaled it. Weather alerts can be life saving blessings....and so much more of a blessing is the alerts that God gives us in His word. They are not with a shrill sound....but with a still small voice from the words of Scripture....a calm voice in our mind as we read but one packed with intense warnings! Instead of carrying an iPhone....we carry so to speak our Bible....and it does not vibrate....but the Christian upon reading faithfully as we should be doing should feel the intensity of the message. Alas we seem to value our iPhone today more than God's Word....but as in the book of Amos below....God as if tells His hearers that after the storm has passed and the carnage lay everywhere....He will still take us up and shelter us from that which endangers our soul!

                It was certainly one of the biggest earthquakes in history....8.2 is the most often used numeration. There is archeological evidence galore that it indeed happened....and that it covered a large area....and probably centered in what is today....Lebanon.
               The prophet Amos....a simple herdsman....began his prophecy by writing...."two years before the earthquake".....and Zechariah....maybe 250 years later still referred to that earthquake....as being during the time of King Uzziah.
                So Amos prophesied destruction upon Damascus and Gaza (the Philistines) and Tyre and Edom and Ammon and Moab and Edom and Israel and Judah....and he detailed what they had done to get God's anger to such a degree. Amos saw the destruction in multiple visions....and wrote about this later pointing out that he had these visions....two years before the earthquake. There was no need for him to try to describe a particular earthquake....for this was truly the....mother of all earthquakes.
               Chapter six should get our attention in America....for we have been for a long time...."at ease in Zion"....proud of our power...."I abhor the pride of Jacob, and hate his palaces; Therefore I will deliver up the city and all that is in it." (6:8) Here Amos is prophesying a future judgment....and also....unbeknownst to him....another future judgment after that....which would be us today....for we also sleep on our beds of ivory....so to speak....stretch out on our couches....eat and drink and be merry....all the while having no compassion on our brothers who are not safe under the great and powerful king....commissioned by God Himself to make us great again....or so we believe.
                So is there another earthquake coming in the same area? Yes....and even greater than the one during the life of Amos....as even the Mount of Olives will split in two....and we likewise are given warnings before the earthquake....and ignoring those warnings....just as did Judah and Israel.
                 There is much more than an earthquake coming....and the judgments have already begun. As you read through Amos....if you should choose to do so....you will find some interesting verses to meditate upon. You will read in 3:7...."Surely the LORD God does nothing unless He reveals His secret to his servants the prophets"....and God has indeed though men like Billy Graham warned us for a half a century. 
                  You will read where God told the Israelites to go ahead and offer their sacrifices and pray and give offerings....in Bethel....where they set up pagan idols to worship....kind of like us with Old Glory hanging just feet away from the pulpit. (4:4, 5:5)
                  God told them that He already sent many judgments upon them....one being plagues....or in our case a pandemic....yet we still did not turn from our idols. God told them that he despises their feast days and does not savor their sacred assemblies. (5:21)
                   The people told Amoz....this mere herdsman....with no credentials....to get lost....to go back to his own land....that they had their king!
                    The Lord's hand of mercy is also extended to the people....but not before Amoz prophesied of a day...."Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord God....'that I will send a famine on the land....not a famine of bread....nor a thirst for water....but a hearing the words of the LORD'." (8:11)
                    The above famine of the Word of God is today folks. How was your sermon two days ago? Were you humbled under the holiness and judgments of God? Were you warned of the evil days that we live in? Were you told to look to that day when Jesus returns in great power and glory.....revealed to the whole world as One whom they rejected? Did your knees shake at times under the message....were there any tears either in the pulpit or in your own eyes? Probably not....but there was most likely an abundance of laughter and gaiety.....signifying....evidence of....brothers and sisters....that....famine of the Word of God.

R. C. Sproul has a wonderful YouTube video available on Amos and Hosea....Dust To Glory....Amos and Hosea.

                                                                            

                 
               

The Power Of The Preached Word Of God

               I thought that I would pass this along to you....and it is not the first time something like this has happened. I was spreading some grass seed today and covering it with soil....with my ever-present headphones on listening to a sermon from a preacher from the past....or a preacher today who preaches like a preacher from the past. Today it was Charles Spurgeon....and a sermon preached in 1888.....three years before he went to be with his Lord and Savior and King. You can easily Google it as.....Spurgeon sermon YouTube....The Word, A Sword.
               His message was that we are to rely on God's Word....and not our words....that it is the power to convert....and he said that it will grow in any soil....this exactly as I was spreading soil over seed. Anyway....he told a little story about a man he identified as a Mr. Thorpe of Bristol....this back in the mid-1700s....who was an avowed atheist and detractor of George Whitefield....so much so that he formed a club to ridicule him called....the Hellfire Club....and as a folly he took one of Whitefield's sermons....and read it to his club....Whitefield intonations and all....but lo and behold.....just like so many others who set out to disprove the gospel....they were converted by their research! Mr. Thorpe of Bristol was converted half-way through his reading of George Whitefield's sermon......and the Hellfire Club soon dissolved. Mr. Thorpe of Bristol became a minister and preached the same gospel throughout his life.

DISPATCHES

The horror of it all. I have watched literally dozens of rallies over the years....and tuned in for a few minutes last night....long enough to see the worst of history past when whole nations fell sway for a tyrant....and multitudes of people followed adorningly at the heels of a cult leader.

Trump billed himself this way today....THE MOST SUCCESSFUL FIRST 100 DAYS IN PRESIDENTIAL HISTORY. Technically....The German Fuhrer's....or leader's....first 100 days was more....'successful'....in what he wanted to accomplish....although the similarities are indeed great.

God's Word says that....."covetousness....is idolatry." (Colossians 3:6) That means that wanting more and money and things....is idolatry. This whole....America First scheme....is idolatry. Have you even heard your pastor even mention that possibility?

God's Word is very specific about treating the alien in Israel's midst fairly. Just about everyone agrees that we need immigration in America. We all know that completely open borders in not the answer. There is a legitimate and pressing concern about terrorists using open borders. The most pressing thing with Trump is that he has to come up with numbers of deportations....somehow.....through any means. There was a raid recently in our area where 8 workers....illegal immigrants....were taken out of a restaurant. It's amazing how terrorists can be so polite as they wait on you so efficiently. That is tongue in cheek folks...you know that right. Did these men have a family....a wife and children? Who cares right....that's eight less illegals....only ten million plus left to catch?

After so many failures and humiliations....to get the news back on track....Trump says that he is now going to focus on an....external revenue service.....where we might never have to pay income taxes anymore! He is throwing more bait into the water. We are going to be so rich that we won't know what to do with all the money. Just about all of us have at one time or another watched a television comedy show where the main character tells a lie....and then has to tell another lie....and it goes on and on until he or she gets caught. Well this is similar....but the difference is that Trump has to throw out one money-making scheme out after another....to keep our lust for covetousness primed.

Trump is once again threatening Putin with the dreaded....increased sanctions! If Trump really wants to gets Putin's attention he might tell him that if he doesn't make a treaty....then the U.S. will begin again in earnest....arming the Ukraine with advanced weaponry to defend themselves.

Trump once again made some spur-of-the-moment remarks that were enlightening. That's where we get most of the truth from him....when he speaks impromptu....where the prepared words have been delivered but he wants to still keep talking.  He said that Isarael was not going to draw the United States into a war. That remark would certainly have gotten the attention of Netanyahu.

There is another big military sale of advanced weapons to Saudi Arabia in the works....but don't worry....Trump says that Israel still has more advanced weapons! Let's hope that Israel doesn't get on the bad side of Trump....where he threatens to stop weapons deliveries if they do not toe the line again.

There are at least three movies out there on Corrie ten Boom and how her family protected Jews.....and there are many more books on the topic. I'm reading The Watchmaker's Daughter right now. This is a message that has always blessed the Christian community.....but we may have forgotten how a government can start breaking down doors to arrest its enemies. We might want to remember the words of Martin Niemöller....who said that first they came for this group....and then that group....and eventually they came for him. 

Karoline Leavett....watch her at length sometime. That sweet face and smile unfortunately is like a....thoroughly brainwashed....Youth For Trump....and she is arrogant as the day is long. It is sad to see a mind wasted like that. Anyway....today....she was asked a question about arresting judges.....how far up would Trump go. Coincidently I was asking myself that same question earlier this morning. A congressman or a senator might easily get arrested....everyone might get arrested except for one person....a sitting president. All you can do with him or her is start impeachment proceedings.....and that is if you have the  House....and you are not going to get a conviction unless you have the Senate. Yes you can vote him or her out of office....if you can make it to an election without everyone being arrested. There also is the 25th Amendment....and we actually came close to that in Trump's first term when he had a normal cabinet.....but with this group of runway models and runaway celebrities....forget it. Trump knows all too well about the 25th Amendment....for on the campaign trail in 2024 he brought up amending the 25th amendment....so that he could get rid of a Vice President if he gets another like Mike Pence. Friends....you have been warned so many times on what you are getting yourself into.

The German Fuhrer was named chancellor in a secretive late-night meeting....11:45 PM on January 30, 1933 to be exact. Those that made the decision did not like who they would give power to but believed that he could be controlled. The Fuhrer's popularity soared. Children across Germany would eat cake and celebrate his birthday every year....until about 1939....when those celebrations ended. The Fuhrer's first hundred days ended on May 9, 1933. The battle was on....the country was polarized....opponents were purged....the Fuhrer's people were put into all positions of power....and the Enabling Act was passed to suspend the constitution. I highly recommend to you that you read Peter Fritzsche's 2020 book....Hitler's First 100 Days...When Germans Embraced the Third Reich. You can purchase the paperback on amazon for about $21....or on Kindle for about $13.....or....from what I see advertised....you can listen to it on an audiobook for about $10.
                 

Just Take A Walk......And All Cares Will Drift Away

Preface: Tomorrow is another Lord's Day...and I guarantee to you that twelve hours from now lobbies....narthexes if you prefer....or vestibules....in just about all the churches in America will be filled with gaiety and laughter. This isn't the joy in the Lord that John Piper preaches on so often. It is more the idiom....ignorance is bliss....or as God's Word puts it in Hosea 4:6....this the ESV...."My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge." We do not want to know the real situation that we are in right now....and we do not want preachers that will tell us the real situation....and the preachers themselves do not even know the real situation that we are in. The following was first posted in March of 2024:             

                    The small and delicate Jewish mother had her baby secure in a cloth cradle draped across her chest as she balanced a wicker basket on her head filled with turnips and leeks and olives and onions and barley for bread and a few fish. She was leaving the market on the southwest wall of Jerusalem only a few hundred cubits from the temple....but through the Essene Gate could be seen a giant statue of Moloch. The market was crowded....and the fruits and vegetables for sale or barter were in abundance. The day was warm and the aromas of cooking fish and roasting lamb were wafting across the entire city. She passed the many booths with small idols of pagan gods....not in need of any....for they had two of them prominently placed in their home.
                     It was a loud cacophony of voices.....and laughter....and shouts proclaiming all the various wares that the marketeers were selling. She walked north at first....passed 'the Temple....the Temple....the Temple'...that was presumed by its mere presence to guarantee safety and prosperity for the city. On the steps of the golden edifice were temple prostitutes awaiting men to take them and offer a lustful sacrifice to the God of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob. She then turned towards home on the Western Hill....an expanded area meant to handle the refugees from the northern tribes conquered by Assyria. She would often walk about and smell the flowers....or just sit in the security that the great city of Jerusalem always provides.
                     With the sounds of the marketplace growing dim....she could hear the shouts of the prophet....as he walked about....hands raised.....proclaiming destruction upon the city....where laughter would be taken away....and there would be no more marriages or feasts....as an enemy from the north would be setting up siege mounds outside the barred gates. A few men walked along side of him in prayer but no was listening to the madman who had been shouting this warning for many days.
                     The prophets voice was now gone as she entered their humble home....and laid her baby comfortably in her little cradle. They had a son who was sacrificed in the fiery arms of that Moloch statue....but God....the pagan god Moloch presumably....had provided another child....with another on the way. Their life....that of her and her husband and their infant daughter.....was idyllic....barring the sacrifice of their first child....and now if she could only get the ramblings of that prophet Jeremiah our of her memory!
                      Folks....if you....on a warm spring day like we had today in Western Pennsylvania....or nearly any day in the South....if you simply leave your home and walk either the town square or along a country road with wheat blowing gently in the wind....and the smell of lilacs possibly causing you to breath deeply through your nose....and if you expel from your mind any news of the day....all elections....and everything not within eyesight....then there will be.....as there was with this woman of Judah....no cares in the world!
                      Yes there are exceptions but generally all we have to do in America is take a walk....consider only that which we can see with our eyes or hear with our ears or experience directly with any of our senses....and today will be pleasurable....and tomorrow even better. Surely all the rantings of ministers of the gospel come from the fears within man. Nothing of the sort can directly be seen....no murders or wars....no starvation or plagues....no devils or cosmic mountains flying to earth.
                      That mother would raise her child....and maybe the next one....until the watchmen on the walls of Jerusalem blew the shofar....for the banners of the Lion of Babylon could seen in the distance....and the shouting of the name of their God Marduk faintly heard over the bleating of goats. The people of Jerusalem would be eating their children before all the prophecies of the still shouting prophet Jeremiah would be fulfilled.
                      We in our culture....even in the church....want no part in warnings that might unsettle us or threaten our goals. We see no wars in our little town....no people dying in the streets....no children gaunt and thin as rails....no longer anyway people wearing masks....no devils ripping men's flesh with chards of glass....and no asteroids darkening the sun....and until we do....we shall go on living as we are....sacrificing babies....engaging in spiritual adultery....worshiping our sports idols on the Lord's Day....making merry and feasting....while going to our temple....the corner church....to assuage any guilt that the prophets of doom might bring.

        
                   

The Prodigal Son

                I don't follow this stuff.....but on the other hand....checking the news forty to fifty times a day I can't avoid it. I even have to look up the name....Shedeur Sanders. I don't even know how to pronounce the first name....but I know that he is the son of a famous former football player and now coach in college football.
                So when this young man has been in the news it has always been with some kind of braggadocio....just like Trump....and apparently he had a big party set up to celebrate when he got the call that he was a first round draft choice....but that never happened....and now they are through....what....three rounds and he hasn't been picked....and what....five quarterbacks have already been chosen?
                I would never write a post on something as ridiculous as this but I saw a tweet that he reportedly tweeted this morning....and that tweet will be us in evangelicalism when we finally see that just like this young Colorado star quarterback whose father is the coach....we wasted what God gave us....and we like the prodigal son demanded right now what was ours....and forgot about our Father in heaven....and His Son....and when this world is literally disintegrating.....and we look around us and see what we wasted our time on....that we in evangelicalism....those who have really been born again....will be humbled....and if it were a tweet....we would tweet something like what that young man did today...."Thank you GOD for EVERYTHING"....and add something like this...."Forgive us Father....have mercy upon us....and give us a heart to look only to that day when your Son is revealed in great power and glory!"

I Planted A Dogwood A Few Days Ago

                 "This calls for a mind with wisdom: the seven heads are seven mountains on which the woman is seated."  (Revelation 17:9 ESV) The word could be translated either 'mountains' or 'hills.' Throughout the history of the church those seven mountains or hills have been viewed as being the seven hills that Rome is built on....but Washington D. C. is also built on seven....though less prominent....hills. Rome has its Capitoline Hill and D. C. has its Capital Hill. The Tiber flows through Rome....and Tiber Creek flows through....and under....Constitution Avenue. The Vatican City has it's Egyptian Obelisk while our capital has the Washington Monument. Some think that the street grid was designed with Masonic symbols....others do not....personally I do. I think that it is more than obvious when pointed out. There are numerous books on this subject alone. Some think that Freemasonry infests the Vatican. There are whole books on that also to anyone interested. In fact there is so much published on these topics that I hesitated to even mention these few points.

                 It appears that Peter was in Rome when he wrote that he was writing from....Babylon. None of this is new....as the church historically interpreted Babylon in Revelation as Rome. Washington D. C.....our capital....is another story. Personal opinion here....it is only in recent decades....and really only in recent years....that Washington D. C. could be considered in speculation to possibly be the Babylon of Revelation. I hesitate once again to even mention it....but the direction that we are going....and fast....is more than just disturbing. There is a power present in our now near-monarchy....and it is not God.
                 To sit in our homes today....and make plans for years ahead....schooling and retirement and things like that...without at least concern and awareness of God's Word on the nearness of Jesus....and what those days will be like....is willfully walking in darkness. They ask Luther what he would do if he knew for certain that Jesus was coming back the next day. He said that he would plant a tree. I planted a dogwood in our front yard a few days ago. There is no contradiction here. The contradiction is when our earthly plans and our spiritual prayers collide.
                 To sit in our pews and not realize that....Ichabod....the glory is departed....is worse than walking in darkness....it is walking in rebellion to God's commandments to us to be vigilant and to stay awake.
                 
                 

Ichabod

              Donald Trump has tormented the entire world now for ten years. This is judgment from God on all of us. When you read through the New Testament and see what type of person the writers told us to avoid....Trump is that man. When you read through Proverbs....it is Trump that is described over and over again. When you read of all the false prophets that the people of Israel had to endure....Trump is just like them. When you read warnings in the New Testament about great delusion and deception....those warnings include Donald Trump.
              How then....can so much of evangelicalism have missed all of this? Well I'll give you just one example here.....Billy Graham's son Franklin. In Franklin Graham we can see....if we have eyes to see....the effect that politics and the lowest common denominator Christianity can have on the church. He is indeed dedicated in his ministry of compassion through Samaritan's Purse....but even here there are chinks in the armor as when Trump ended USAID....as liberal as that institution was....and with a deep need to have it reformed....the end was so heavy-handed....and done primarily to give Trump talking points in that he is cutting waste....that many people will suffer as collateral damage. Yet even today.....again.....Franklin took the time to praise Trump for eliminating it. Let it be noted that he didn't lose his  USAID money....for his ministry was given an exemption....after it was appealed.
             Franklin Graham....(a better man than I will ever be)....can if given a paper and pencil....(a smart phone is more likely)....as he did today....he can give a 100% picture-perfect description of Jesus being the only way to salvation....but I wonder what his theological training over the decades had been? How can he sit at Trump's left...as he did last week....with false prophet Paula White on Trump's right? He said just the other day that he finds Trump to be an honest man. I have to believe that he hasn't read one single book....of the hundreds that are out there....and the hundred that I have read....on who Trump has been his whole life....and how he conducted himself in his first term....and what his own cabinet members thought of him. I doubt if he had ever even read an article on Trump.
              To these folks in major ministries today....good and wonderful as so many of them are....and as is Samaritan's Purse....the number one priority is that Republicans have to win in American elections. We have talked ourselves in believing....more likely been talked into believing....that we are the good people who God is pleased with....and the other side is the bad side that God will judge. We have a big surprise ahead of us. Billy Graham once said....(actually it was his wife Ruth who said it)....that if God doesn't judge America then He would have to apologize to Sodom and Gomorrah. Folks the America that we want to go back to....is the same America that Franklin's father warned over and over of judgment. LGBTQ and wokism are not the only offenses to God....greed and pride and idolatry are among them.
              Trump's first hundred days in his second term will be come on April 30th. So far it has been one gigantic and horrific and uncompassionate mess. The man is winging it every day. We should have to look no further than three women....Nancy Mace and Marjorie Taylor Green and Lauren Boebert....to see how low we have sunk in what used to be conservatism....and the concept of a God-fearing America.
                  When Donald Trump stands before the cameras and says something.....anything....on any topic at all....if you simply believe what he says....which so many people do....then you are simply under his spell. Trump doesn't live in this type of world that values something called truth. That his website is called....Truth Social....shows only that he knows that people value something called truth....and he being the premier.....world's best....con artist....he thus throws the word about with abandon.
                  No....when you hear Trump speak before those cameras....consider it as I do....with ten years of reading everything that I could get my hands on....and constant observation of him at press conferences and rallies and in his texting....when he speaks....what he says is only that which at that particular time....benefits him the most! It may even contain truth....but has nothing to do with the concept of truth....but the benefit of Donald Trump. 
                   So back to my initial statement.....Trump has for ten years now tormented the world....you might look at your own relationships with family and friends and other brothers and sisters is Christ....and he does it purposely. It is but one part of his many psychological disorders. He has no idea what he is doing with Putin or China or the economy. Conservatism has been intellectually conquered....and evangelicalism has been decimated by Trump. The Democrats fell first....thirty years ago or so....just as the kingdom of Israel fell first....and then the Republican Party fell next....beginning ten years ago.....just as Judah followed her evil sister. Ichabod is the word for today....The Glory Has Departed.

Addendum: Melania....in her book released last fall....close to the election....gave a strong defense for women taking the lives of their preborn children....and she said that she held this belief her entire adult life. For at least the second year in a row....it may be a lot more....Franklin Graham tweeted how classy a lady that Melania was....this on her birthday. Does he read anything? Is there no one on his board of directors to just give him little hints now and then? All he had to do was....not....feel it imperative to wish her a happy birthday. Did he wish Mrs. Rubio or Mrs. Cruz or Mrs. Alito or Mrs. Thomas happy birthday?

           

"The Mouth Of The LORD Has Spoken"

                    The 58th chapter of Isaiah ends with this declaration...."The mouth of the LORD has spoken." Do you sense in those words as I do....a little bit more of an emphasis than what we usually read with...."Thus saith the LORD"....which itself should be enough to prostrate us before our God? Would you consider taking an hour just to read and meditate upon that 58th chapter of Isaiah?
                     Let me set up what you would be reading. God is telling the House of Jacob that they....on outward appearances....seemed to be seeking the LORD....daily....reading their torah....praying....and taking pleasure in that they were doing all of this.....but God did not seem to be acknowledging their holy efforts....for they remained a nation torn apart.
                     God told them....through Isaiah....that their pleasure was not a holy pleasure....but a pleasure that emanated from their evil nature. He said that He was not going to hear prayers of this kind....for they were doing all of this out of greed....and that the pleasure they experienced came from exploiting others....from trying to get everything that they said that they deserved!
                     God described to them the type of fast that He required....one of a humility so strong and deep that it would drive them to prostrate themselves on the ground before Him....and then He asked them if they thought if that was what they thought they were doing?
                     Folks....This chapter is for us evangelicals in America today. We can pray with the best of them....and have our rallies...and try to legislate a holiness of which we have no idea what that even is ....and we will proclaim to anyone who will hear that we are doing it all for the glory of God! Folks...we are not doing all of this MAGA glorying in God....for God! We are unknowingly doing it.....for ourselves....and there are few pastors to tell us this from their pulpits....because of the darkness that we are living in!
                     God then tells them how to emit light in this darkness....and to be guided by Him....and to take real pleasure in Him....and to become...."The repairer of the Breach....the Restorer of Streets to Dwell In"....and it begins with thinking first of others....others first....and of turning away from doing their own thing on the Sabbath....which today is our Lord's Day....but take delight in it!
                      If we honor this day folks....and have compassion upon those who we now have no compassion....He will guide us....in what is ahead...."The mouth of the LORD has spoken."

Addendum: Returning for a moment to the basics on salvation....the second thief on the cross had faith....alone. There was nothing possible that he could add to that confession of faith in Jesus. If you add a good work of any kind to your belief in what will save you....then you are not trusting wholly in what Jesus did on that cross. If that second thief on the cross had said to Jesus...."Jesus....I was baptized by John the Baptist....remember me when you come into your kingdom." He would not have heard Jesus say...."Today you will be with Me in Paradise"....but even if had been baptized by John the Baptist....but did not mention that to Jesus....because he was not trusting at all in that baptism....he would have heard Jesus say those wonderful words. It is not taking the Lord's Supper....it is remembering the Lord's Supper in the taking of the Lord's Supper. It is not confession of sin....it is confession of faith in Jesus....in the confession of sin.
                     
                     

And Yet Another Conclave

                It was January of 2013....Pope Benedict XVI....celebrating the arrival of a peace caravan in Rome....along with two children....released two doves as symbols of peace from a window in the Vatican. The doves were immediately attacked by gulls. In January of 2014....a year later....Two children released two doves from the same window as Pope Francis watches. The occasion was praying for peace....in the Ukraine. One dove was immediately attacked by a gull....while the other was attacked by a crow. (you can easily Google videos of these events)
                It was mid-October of last year when my wife and I went to see the newly released movie....Conclave. As a young Roman Catholic boy raised in heavily Polish and Catholic Buffalo, New York....I remember all the hubbub about the new Pope....John XXIII....and then again in June of 1963 with Pope Paul VI....and then again in September of 1978....(I was then 28)....with Pope John Paul I....and through extraordinary events....again....three weeks later....with Pope John Paul II. Since then the world has watched conclaves that chose Pope Benedict and Pope Francis I....and now....there will be another....the world will watch....and the DVD Conclave will be in high demand.
                 The passing of Pope Francis will have prophetic significance....we just do not yet know what that significance will be. The following is 1 Thessalonians chapter five....verses one through six in the NKJV:

"But concerning the times and the seasons, brethren....(emphasis mine to point out who these words are given to)....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, as labor pains upon a pregnant woman. And they shall not escape," 

"But you brethren....(emphasis mine again)....are not in darkness, so that this Day should overtake you as a thief." 

"You are all sons of light and sons of the day. We are not of the night nor the darkness." 

"Therefore let us not sleep, as others do, but let us watch and be sober." 

There Is A Fine Line At Times....And Then At Other Times It Is A Great Gulf

                I'm not much of an art critic but I was raised in a home where my mother was an accomplished painter in oils...so I was around art books a lot and over the many years and I developed a love for the work of Vincent van Gogh. I will....when I have the opportunity....just stand and stare at any one of a number of his wonderful paintings. Vincent was raised in the Reformed Faith....and he was at one time a minister. Did you know that. He preached the gospel....and then he didn't!
                 We are familiar with the phrase....'a fine line.' Sometimes it will be said that there is a fine line between genius and madness....and Vincent van Gogh is often described that way. I think that's a pretty good attempt at describing a man who painted with a genius....but lived a form of madness.
                 There is something eternally more important....and there is not a fine line in this....but we often believe there to be one. So on this day of Easter....where schools are out for Easter break....and families are gathered everywhere....and churches are full....and even Wall Street shut down for Good Friday....we need to fight the temptation and know with a certainty....a certainty of what God's Word tells us very clearly....that one is either born....again....born this time from above....with a new heart....and the Holy Spirit dwelling within....and a name written....in the Lamb's Book of Life....and angels having rejoiced when the person was born again....otherwise known to us as....SAVED....or one is not.
                 The church today has consciously chosen....not to push this issue. It not only no longer preaches God's Word on this....but it avoids it like the plague. So on eternal matters....it is not a fine line....one is either safe under the shelter of God's wings....or one is still headed to perdition. 
                 Those who have been born again....know it and rejoice in it every day....though there may be trials that may even bring one at times to doubt their salvation. If you do not know this rejoicing that makes everything else in life pale in comparison.....if you are even confused about this is all about....then you must without delay see where you are at! Have you indeed been born again....or it is just an assent to the truths of the Bible....an assent that does not save.

DISPATCHES

Friday....April 25....it is but one small piece of evidence on the divide in America. As I was going from one news site to another this morning....I eventually came to Breitbart. Highlighted right at the top was a picture of Trump....and below it large type....NO ONE IS ABOVE THE LAW. Below that was the article on how Trump is directing his Justice Department in another investigation of Democrats. Of course when I saw it I interpretated it pointing to Trump not being above the law....and wondering why the DOJ is not hot on the heels of insider trading in this these back and forth tariffs.

The Czar's wife had her Rasputin....while Putin has his mysticism. Marx and the National Socialist regime were engulfed in the occult....(the John MacArthur sermon video in the IMAO OR IMHO post below speaks in-depth on this)....and Trump has Paula White.  The video below is from the 2020 election when Trump's pastor....Paula White....was calling for angels from Africa and South America to come to Trump's aid. This video is well-known....but apparently evangelicals and their pastors have no problem with it....and certainly do not see any of this demonic connection to Trump.

                                 

One of Trump's tweets following the Mueller hearing was...."TRUTH IS A FORCE OF NATURE!" In a cursory search of Swiss psychologist, psychiatrist and psychoanalyst Carl Jung quotes....this came up...."It is the truth, a force of nature that expresses itself through me- I can imagine in many instances where I would become sinister to you." Trump is not a reader but in his first campaign he listed Machiavelli's....The Prince....as one of thebooks he had read. He also seems to have had Jung as a mentor....Jung....who called Christianity...."systematic blindness"....and who was heavy into Gnosticism and the occult. Here is another Jung quote....."The pendulum of the mind oscillates between sense and nonsense, not between right and wrong."

I'm going to take the opportunity of the topic of this post to mention this first term controversy....where it was reported that Trump kept a copy of Hitler speeches by his bed. He called this fake news....but later Ivana....his first wife....confirmed it....upon which Trump said that he did not have that book....and even if he did....he did not read it! He later said that a Jewish friend had given it to him....but that friend who was identified said that he was not  Jewish. This is typical of everything around this man.

Trump has been given a gift in Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A gift from whom or what is another story. It does not matter if Garcia at any time in in his life associated himself in any way or to any degree with MS-13....Trump has bait to dangle off the side of the boat as it trolls through a Trump yacht armada. He has displayed Garcia as a rapist and murder of the worst kind. It does not matter that his extraordinarily incompetent administration made a legal mistake. The administration immigration lawyer who simply....admitted in court....under oath....that it was an error....was summarily fired. Everyone in the administration who does not first and foremost defend anything that Trump does....is to be fired or persecuted or in some way purged. His Attorney General....watch the video....inadvertently showed us a bit of who the real Trump is....as she arrogantly spat out...."That woman"....Garcia's wife....and the children....will be better off without him." Trump has been given dozens of these gifts over the years...and with each one he drew more evangelicals to him....where they cast off Christian love....and pull on board a net filled with poisonous fish....to serve on Sunday mornings....(formerly Lords Day mornings.) 

J. D. Vance does it again....in an interview with a right wing British....think tank of sorts....he said this in a news report today...."Something I know a little bit more personally: I think a lot of European nations were right about our invasion of Iraq," said Vance, who served as a U.S. Marine for four years, including a stint as a news reporter for the military in Iraq. "Frankly, if the Europeans had been a little more independent, and a little more willing to stand up, then maybe we could have saved the entire world from the strategic disaster that was the American-led invasion of Iraq." Do you understand what he just said,,,,he said that if Europeans were more independent they would not have supported the United States in Iraq. He is trying to divide and conquer....which is the order of the day....divide....and conquer!

Folks....we need our system of checks and balances back where no individual branch of government can usurp excessive power as it is doing right now!

The Fuhrer transformed Germany in his first 100 days....and was increasingly popular....but there were internal problems....as the Brownshirts....the SA....led by a man named Rohm....4 million strong....and the army....particularly the generals....and Himmler and Goring....were going to clash one way or the other. Beginning on June 30 of 1934....and lasting only a few days....a violent and sudden and surprise purge of executions began....which became known as the....Night of the Long Knives. At least 70 were executed but possibly many more than that....Rohm was one of them. The SS and the Gestapo rose to power....the next stage of the horror in Germany began.

I think that it was CBN....Pat Robertson's network....that highlighted on their website a photo of Trump....and the words that he said in his scripted Easter message....He Is Risen. Below is the unscripted Trump on Easter. Pat's first book....an autobiography....Shout It From The Housetops....was written back in 1972. His last years were not as pure in the gospel as were his first decades....but he did in December of 2020....after the election....say that Trump was living in an...."alternate reality"....and reportedly told Trump to...."Move on....You've had your day." Billy Graham....according to Franklin....hardly spoke at all in his last year of life....that would be 2017. I believe that he would have sadly watched Trump in that first year of the first term. He would probably weep today.....and as for R. C. Sproul....who went to be with the Lord in December of 2017....today he be....shouting from the rooftops....in defense of the gospel over what is going on in evangelicalism.

Trump's Easter message:

"Happy Easter to all, including the Radical Left Lunatics who are fighting and scheming so hard to bring Murderers, Drug Lords, Dangerous Prisoners, the Mentally Insane, and well known MS-13 Gang Members and Wife Beaters, back into our Country......Happy Easter also to the WEAK and INEFFECTIVE Judges and Law Enforcement Officials who are allowing this sinister attack on our Nation to continue, an attack so violent that it will never be forgotten! Sleepy Joe Biden purposefully allowed Millions of CRIMINALS to enter our Country, totally unvetted and unchecked, through an Open Borders Policy that will go down in history as the single most calamitous act ever perpetrated upon America......He was, by far, our WORST and most Incompetent President, a man who had absolutely no idea what he was doing -- But to him, and to the person that ran and manipulated the Auto Pen (perhaps our REAL President!), and to all of the people who CHEATED in the 2020 Presidential Election in order to get this highly destructive Moron Elected, I wish you, with great love, sincerity, and affection, a very Happy Easter!!!"

It was announced that Trump will be going to....Rome....when the funeral announcements are made....to attend the funeral.

Lord's Day Post

               Trump has been given a gift in Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A gift from whom or what is another story. It does not matter if Garcia at any time in his life associated himself in any way or to any degree with MS-13....Trump has bait to dangle off the side of the boat as it trolls through a Trump yacht armada. He has displayed Garcia as a rapist and murderer of the worst kind. It does not matter that his extraordinarily incompetent administration made a legal mistake. The administration immigration lawyer who simply....admitted....under oath....that it was an error....was summarily fired. Everyone in the administration who does not first and foremost defend anything that Trump does....is to be fired or persecuted or in some way purged.
              Trump has been given dozens of these gifts over the years.... little Reichstag fires that he can use to his advantage....and with each one he drew more evangelicals into his net....where they cast off Christian love and compassion....and pull on board a net filled with poisonous fish for food.
               Tomorrow is yet another Lord's Day. Honestly....the concept of the holiday of Easter has not even entered my mind today.....for with so many years in the Reformed Faith....as opposed to today's evangelicalism....fifty-two Lord's Days every year is like fifty-two Easters every year. It would just be odd to think....'well today we celebrate the resurrection of our Lord and Savior and coming King'....but there is a plus about the holiday....once you get past the bunny rabbits....for just about all of the pulpits will preach the resurrection of Jesus Christ....and the pews may even be full.
               So if God should will it....may He have mercy upon us....may we wake up on Easter....but tomorrow night go to bed on the first evening of the week....with six days ahead to encourage one another on this pilgrimage that must go through Vanity Fair....before we meet again to hear the glories of the Risen Lord and His salvation!

I Don't Want A Date......I Don't need A Date!

                I have a nephew who wants to be a professional baseball player. He has been dedicated to this sport ever since he was a kid. His love of baseball dominated his life....and he did very well in college baseball. Now his quest is to make it to professional baseball. He was recently offered a contract with an independent minor league team....and is to report in a few weeks. He has the exact date that he is to be there....but he was told that it is very important that he plays good baseball from the day that he gets there. He hasn't had any team play for a few  months....although he does teach baseball. 
                Please bear with me on this....for this post is not about baseball. He heard about an opportunity to play with another minor league team....for only three or four games....in their preseason....for they needed a couple of players. So he packed up and drove about 1300 miles....to possibly get in a few games....so that when he reports to the team that contracted with him....which is 2000 miles the other way....all of which he will be driving....he may be primed....and steeled....and conditioned....and ready to hit the ground running.
                 I want to go over a couple of things....he had a love....and he had an exact date given him to demonstrate the effects of that love....so he is increasing through a remarkable effort....his preparation!
                 OK....now down to business. I'm going to give you a Scripture verse....one that has been on many Bible memorization lists....for many decades....Hebrews....10:25....the second part of the verse is all that I need....I'm using the ESV....where it says that we are to encourage one another...."and all the more as you see the Day drawing near." That word....Day....capitalized in many translations....alludes to....The Day Of The LORD!
                  We are told in the church today....that drawing near in a verse like this is a relative phrase....everything in the future....technically....is drawing nearer....but this verse in Hebrews says near....not nearer! Once again though....it is another relative interpretation. We are told that we cannot know that....near....really means....near....as in....the day that you have to have a Real ID....is near....or as in my nephew knowing that the day he has to report....is near.
                  Friends....we can know....that Jesus is near....at the very gates.....not because we were given a date....but because we were given eyes to see....and ears to hear....and a nose to smell....and a mind to be daily renewed....to discern the biblical lawlessness....and the mockery....and the error and delusion....and the pride and the violence....of this day that we live in!
                   I don't have a date to give you. I don't want a date to give you. I don't need a date to give you....I only want to encourage you....as I see that Day approaching!

Update....on my nephew....he is doing well so far....3 for 7 with a walk.

Special Dog's Commencement Address

               Once again another year has passed and I wasn't invited by any college or university to be their commencement speaker! So I dreamed a dream and in that dream a very fantastical thing happened. Joe Biden was to be the commencement speaker at Harvard University but a couple of his hair plugs fell out at the last minute and he refused to go on stage.  The Ivy League school administrators were frantic in trying to find a replacement. When they heard my name....Special Dog....they thought I must be a rap singer and thus eminently qualified to a give a commencement speech....then I woke up. So I sat down and penned the speech that I would have given had I in fact been invited by Harvard to give their commencement speech. Maybe next year! Here is that speech.... 

               Today you are graduating from the sixteenth grade. Congratulations! This is that special day when everyone gets to write something obscene or against America on the top of their mortarboard. Most everyone here is 22 years old......which means that you only have four years of living in your parents basement before you must figure out what corporation you are going to be a slave to for the rest of your life. Retirement will probably be about 77 years old when you get there. That's only a tad over a half century away.....about 1/120th of the history of the world since Adam was created. It'll go fast. I don't see anyone laughing out there. Hmm.....maybe I better get serious. There are no....'safe spaces'....in basic training!
               A little bit of trivia.....President John Kennedy would be 106 years old today....if he were still alive....but his 46 year old face in the last year of his presidency is what we remember. I had the privilege of seeing him in person as Senator Kennedy and then presidential candidate Kennedy passed by our Catholic grade school....as they herded us all out to wave to him.
            I recently viewed an old interview with then Governor Ronald Reagan that was taped on June 5th of 1971. The interviewer asked Governor Reagan if he was going to run for president in 1972. Reagan replied...."No....Lord willing I'll complete my second term as governor." That would make two United States presidents....in a row....Carter and Reagan.....who could naturally use the phrase...."Lord willing." Abraham Lincoln spoke a very similar phrase in his second inaugural address. No surprise there. (Today we tell God what we are going to do...."We're going to keep on winning....winning....winning!")
            Your parents would remember this....well maybe your grandparents....that magazine sized book....Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy. I think that just about everyone had it back in the months and years following that tragic day in November of 1963. In that book the editors reveal what were...."President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." John Kennedy was to give this speech but never did... for assassins (plural) ended his life.....SPOILER....it wasn't Oswald.
             That speech never given by our 35th President concluded with these words....the last official words of President Kennedy...."The righteousness of our cause must always underlie our strength. For as was written long ago: 'Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain'." That Bible excerpt is the last half of the 1st verse of Psalm 127... from the King James Version, which begins with this "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it." So the full verse is:

             "Except the LORD build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

             John Fitzgerald Kennedy was nominally religious as was I. He would have respected the Bible and believed those words but he could not have truly understood their significance, nor timeliness, nor even seen his own part in attempting to build a city (a country) without the LORD. The 60s were an absolute disaster, the effects of which nearly brought my own life to an end. They produced college professors for the next few decades who gave us many of our problems today. They gave us Barack Obama and the Clintons....two Bush presidents....(Donald Trump....and now Biden)
             It was drizzling and a bit chilly as my wife and son and I walked Cambridge University back in the spring of 2001. I wanted to see where many of the Puritans were educated....one of them was John Harvard....and I wanted to see some of the places where scenes from the Academy Award winning Chariots Of Fire were filmed. The building that housed the White Horse Inn on the grounds of Cambridge was long gone but a small blue plaque hung in the nearest spot possible to that location. That inn was a 16th century English pub where students, Dons and travelers discussed the works of Martin Luther, and out of this discussion came a passion for the hearing of the Word of God which resulted in the English Reformation. Young people...find your own White Horse Inn! (hint...try....whitehorseinn.org)
             Surely somewhere in America on that bleak or snowy Saturday in early December 1941 a young man sat looking out of a restaurant window, or maybe a coffee shop, with a young lady at his side who was his new bride. They had the world at their fingertips as he was just awarded that treasured college diploma he worked so long and hard for, and she wore the wedding band she had dreamed about since they first met in grade school. They looked into each other's eyes with hardly a care in the world. Oh, the plans they had so much fun making.....a small cottage with a white picket fence that someday would keep little ones and maybe a puppy dog from straying as they play.
             And then the morning came and as they walked into church the somber faces took their joy away for they had not heard the news from that group of islands where the sun shown year round and warm surf slapped the white beaches. America was in the war against evil that they had only given themselves minutes a day to reflect upon. The young bride knew immediately that their dreams would now be put on hold if they would ever come true. Surely the prayers of all present in that worship service were salted with tears.
             Not every generation has its hopes interrupted as this generation did on December 7th, 1941 but your generation today may indeed be another one. Love is disappearing in the world....no....worse than that....it has been hijacked by greed, tortured by pride and what is left is directed to ourselves, and we in America are paying dearly for our dalliances.
             Do you sometimes feel a void of passion in your life...a meaninglessness that cannot be satisfied by the picture that you paint on your Facebook page? Well, a river of passion flows right by you! Cup your hands and drink from it. Let mercy and peace pass over your palate. A political election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings provides every morning and every evening with a ceaseless ardor that will make you forever thankful. If you happen to really see the trouble that we are in here in America....that vision is from God....and He will also give the balm....supply the strength and provide the wisdom to see the joy of redemption even in the darkest hours of this world....and to plan ahead with the full trust that if it be His will it will happen and if it not be His will you would not want it to happen. Here is the only true hope and change...... "Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation." 2 Corinthians 5:17

          One does not have to be a PHD, or a celebrity, a statesman, general or financial wizard to relay God's wisdom to graduates. I certainly didn't plan it this way but my later adult life....whether while working or in personal relationships....has been one of taking joy in training or teaching when I was able. The greatest joy of a father is in conversations with....in my case....a son....passing on what I have learned....taking advantage of so much experience and so many mistakes....and most of all pointing him to the most blessed and beautiful majesty and glory of our Lord Jesus Christ!


"Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it. Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

IMAO....Or....As I Hope Anyway....IMHO

Thursday morning....11:00 AM: Every day I check in the news if there is any word on John MacArthur's health. I did so yesterday....as everyday....and again just now.....and lo and behold there were reports everywhere....on John MacArthur releasing a video of himself....giving a very positive update on his health....and saying in the video that he was...."Ready to come roaring back"....to resume his ministry!

            Personally I go back to about the mid-80s with John MacArthur. I have dozens of his teaching cassettes in my basement...even a few VHS tapes.....and plenty of his books....including his large print Study Bible....and a regular hardcover Study Bible.....ready to give away to the first person that I find that needs it....and my own Study Bible....and I have a signed copy of one of his books from when I attended a Soli Deo Gloria conference in Pittsburgh. I have been praying....along with so many others the whole world over....for his recovery and return to ministry....should the Lord will it.
            This morning my wife looked over to me from her chair and asked me what the computerese term....IMAO....meant? I had no idea....but apparently it means....In My Arrogant Opinion....as opposed to....IMHO....In My Humble Opinion. So....IMAO or IMHO....whichever one it is....in your opinion.....here it is....

             John MacArthur has always been a great blessing upon the church.....but he is still just a man....and he is not infallible. He started a string of mistakes in the year 2020....beginning when he received a surprise phone call from first term President Trump....and said very respectfully that every true believer would vote for his reelection....which relegated myself....and more importantly....wonderful ministers of the gospel such as John Piper....to being not true believers....according to John MacArthur's then criteria for what a true believer is.
             What made this even more extraordinary is that John MacArthur more than any other modern-day ministry with the exception of R. C. Sproul....was the greatest defender of the salvation message that America had! He had made a big mistake in not spotting Donald Trump as a false prophet....when he himself was a fifty-year preacher who had warned of false prophets!
             That was mistake number one.....to be followed by some serious miscalculations during the pandemic....including his own opinion on if there even was a pandemic....which at the time he denied. Then in 2024....he stepped a little back from Trump....but still took the position that Trump was the lesser of two evils. He also....either....IMAO or IMHO....was way too hard on Alistair Begg....which may or may not have influenced Alistair Begg to retire from his pulpit....and we needed him there! Pastor John has hardly been in the pulpit at all over the last sixteen months with his health issues.
             Right now we have no minister on a national level to warn us! Billy Graham is long gone....and his son...great man and wonderful Christian that he surely is....is totally buffaloed by Trump.
             So....My hope and my continuing prayer is that John MacArthur comes back to his pulpit....very soon....like right now....to warn us as he always has done....but I know very well that he may come back as confused as he has been in the past five or six years. He may come back and still not recognize Donald Trump as the false prophet that he....John MacArthur warned us of from God's Word....over so many decades!
             So....once again....please pray with me for John MacArthur....pray for his health....but even more so for his discernment and courage and strength....and humility to be able to say that he was wrong about Trump! We are all wrong on some things along this long pilgrimage....and I have had....and still have I'm sure....more....more than my share in this....but God in His glorious mercy and longsuffering....is there to accept our repentance....pick us up....and put us on the path again!

Addendum: I listened just now....while doing yard work....to a John MacArthur sermon that looks to be only six or eight years ago....the title of which is....Who Is The Antichrist. I do not share all of John MacArthur's eschatology....a pre-trib rapture being just one piece....but I highly recommend his thoughts to you. My hope is that this is the John MacArthur that God might bless us with should he be restored to his pulpit. On that question of the timing of the rapture....after forty years of interest in this Bible topic....and a mind as open as could possibly be....it has long since appeared to me....and this opinion is growing fast in the church today....that we will experience much of what happens in this tribulation period....(should this not instill in us a heightened vigilance....and help us to look even more closely at our own lives)....but not....those final judgments that wreak havoc on the entire earth.

                                                                      

Also.....earlier today I listened to a Jonathan Cahn video of the Antichrist. In that video....which was made sometime before this last election....for he mentioned the previous administration in the White House....he spent considerable time on issues that plague us today such as transgender surgeries in young people. Then he talked about the Antichrist who will come in great deception and trickery. What he did not consider was that the Antichrist could conceivably come opposing the horror of such things....in order to deceive us into accepting him as some sort of conquering hero.

DISPATCHES

When it rains....the Secretary of Homeland Security had her purse stolen from a restaurant over the weekend. In the purse was $3000...her passport....her badge to get in the Homeland Security building....keys to her apartment....among other things.

Rubio related Trump's thoughts on the Ukraine/Russia talks. Trump in effect is threatening to....wash his hands....of the situation. What happened to his campaign promise that he would end the war in one day? Many people voted for him for that! Trump may be able to make a deal when money is concerned....(witness Italy's Meloni weakening her European cohort's defense)....but he has no diplomatic skills....(he has bragged that he knows more than the generals and our intelligence agencies)....and few if any organizational leadership skills....(witness his first term cabinet....and how he picked loyalists for his second term cabinet.) Folks....brothers and sisters in Christ....divide and conquer is one of his chief methods of operation. He is trying to divide Europe right now....and he will come after us when he no longer has use for us.

Can Trump fire the head of....the Fed? Most scholars say....no....that it is designed as independent in it's monetary policy. Others say....not so fast....let the Supreme Court determine who Trump can fire if he wants. The Supreme Court says....OK....we will look at it. Trump wants lower interest rates to help him with his tariff war. The head of the Fed says that's not a good idea. If SCOTUS let's Trump fire Powell....should Trump indeed want to....which we do not know....and which the prevailing opinion is that SCOTUS will not let him do this even if he wanted to....but if it did it would make the Fed like any other cabinet position under Trump....where no one is able to think or make decisions for themselves....they are only to obey orders. If Trump himself was to in effect be given the power that the independent head of the Fed now has....then we might finally see the straw that broke the camel's back....in the world of economies....already shaken to the core by Trump.

J. D. Vance was raised in an evangelical protestant tradition....but stopped going to church altogether....and later was "intellectually" converted to Catholicism. This is not unusual. He married a seemingly lovely young lady who is Hindu....and their wedding ceremony was bless by a Hindu cleric. These things are not the main issue. I voted for many....many Roman Catholics over the years....but evangelicals think that under this "intellectual" testimony...that Vance is a Christian.  The issue is that evangelicals no longer distinguish between the Gospel of Jesus Christ and other gospels and other religions. They don't seem to even understand the difference....and they do not seem to care at all about any of this. If John MacArthur was healthy....healthy enough to preach from his pulpit....I have to believe that he would be doing what he has done for the past fifty-some years.....defending the Gospel of Jesus Christ against error and false teaching and false teachers. The prayer of so many is that God might restore him....with the same discernment that he always had. 

President Trump is now in the habit of standing in one of the doorways on Air Force One to make an announcement and/or answer a few questions from the media on board. Yesterday he announced that he had completed his physical examination....and has a...."good heart...and a good soul....a very good soul." We are now used to this odd language that he often uses. What he meant was that he thinks that he is a good person. Essentially the 'soul' means that man is a living being. Jesus warned in Matthew 10:28...."And do not fear those who kill the body but cannot kill the soul. Rather fear him who can destroy both soul and body in hell." In Jeremiah 17:9....the prophet commented on a people who had made some movement back to their Creator....this under Josiah....but still reserved the right to keep the idols of their own choosing...."The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick, who can understand it." Trump definitely thinks that he has a good heart and a good soul. He has always thought this! Still it's odd....and not spiritually healthy....that he feels that he has to remind everyone something that....in this biblical context....is not true.

Pesach....(First Fruits)....will fall on the same day this year as Easter....April 20, 2025. They are usually close but the last time they occurred on the same day was in 2012. Easter is determined by the first full moon in the Spring....while Pesach is determined by the Jewish lunar calendar.

It's complicated....too complicated to make generalizations....but I think that we can confidently say the following....Biden initiated a temporary program for hundreds of thousands of migrants to get two-year permits to enter the U.S....and seek asylum and work....until their applications could be completed....one way or the other. It was meant....as I take it....to lower illegal immigration....and give the migrant a chance at permanent immigration. Trump ended the program on his first day I believe....but today he cancelled all the two year permits....and told these people to get out. Here is my point.....initially Trump said that he was going to go after criminals....and that is happening....but with today's action....I can't even give a guess on how many....but it will be many....families and children....who yesterday had a hope.....no longer will have that hope....and folks.....there will be professing Christians all over tonight....cheering this misfortune of others.....women and children and families. God's Word condemns this type of stuff....this total lack of compassion for the alien in our midst. When our judgments increase....and we pray to God....He may say to us as He said to the people in Judges 10:14...."Go and cry out to the gods whom you have chosen; let them rescue you in your hour of distress!" 

The New Animated Children's Movie......King Of Kings

              I wanted to get this post in quickly. We went to see the new animated Angel Studios film....Kimg of Kings.....and it was wonderful. I recommend it for small children but....if you do go to see it....do what I usually do at all movie theaters....and that is wait outside the door until the previews are over.....because the demonic images on half of the previews that your child would see....on Children's movies.....would be unsettling and maybe even give nightmares. There will be about twenty-five minutes of previews....and there is usually a window in the door to the theater that you can look through and tell when the previews are over and the main film begins. 

"You Are Welcome To Listen"

If they protested....they were ushered out....and I mean right now....tasered if necessary....as Marjorie Taylor-Greene pointed to the exit and said...."Go....go....go....if you want to sit and listen....you are welcome to listen....or get out!" Folks....you do not voice anything against Trump or any of his policies in this....Fishy government. I'm alluding here to what was known as.....Vichy France....which collaborated with the invaders....and became authoritarian in themselves....thinking that they could lessen the tyranny if they played along....which is what many Republicans in Congress are doing right now. You do not read what they do not want you to read...or watch or listen to what they do not approve of. If you do not completely comply....you will be either shunned....or purged.

There were ways to go after and deport the MS-13 gangs that would have been both effective and constitutional....but Trump got himself in a bind. He had to produce numbers right now....and collateral damage did not matter. 

The definition of a....police state....according to dictionary.com is....."A nation in which the police, especially a secret police, summarily suppresses any social, economic or political act that conflicts with government policy." We in America are in danger of veering off into a police state....with the "police"....interpreted here as this now political Department of Justice and its many arms....and the "secret police" element....being executive orders and such....suppressing anyone...."conflicting with government policy".....that being....conflicting with Trump's demands.

Addendum: I mention fairly often in these posts how forty years ago in the church we knew that we were in the last of the last days and that difficult times were coming....and I also would mention that today we neither know about these things....or even care about them....but in retrospect....even back then we had no idea how powerful the delusion was going to be on and in the church. It never entered our minds....as far as I recall....that we were going to be the ones falling for the delusion....but we did....we fell hook, line and sinker for this genuine biblical false prophet....and are propagating the horror. We actually were the ones to pave the way and make straight the road for him. He changed us in so many ways....none of which were for the better.

The Battle Of The Monongahela....And The Tribulation

Preface: The following was first posted on April 2, 2015....74 days before Donald Trump famously came down that escalator in the atrium of the Trump Tower:

                 My father was raised in a small community in Western Pennsylvania called North Braddock, which is on the Monongahela River only a few miles from Pittsburgh. The house that he was raised in was on the site of one of the most important battles ever fought on American soil. Never heard of it? Don't worry, most people living in that area never heard of it either, at least they aren't aware of the significance of it. The battle really doesn't even have a name but is generally known as the Battle Of The Monongahela. George Washington was an aide to General Edward Braddock who was the 'Generalissimo' of all British and American forces in Colonial America, and who was mortally wounded in the battle. Daniel Boone, before he became famous, drove a wagon in service to the British soldiers in the campaign, and many in the campaign fought a few years later on both sides of the American war for independence!
         In the 1750s the French had their sights on the territory west of the Allegheny mountain ranges. The forks of the Ohio River which is Pittsburgh today was a key focal point for their strategy. The British knew this and assembled what would be the largest British military force ever gathered in the colonies, over 2000 British and American soldiers, and put them under General Braddock to drive the French from Fort Duquesne. They, the Braddock Expedition as the force was called, were to hack their way over the mountains and up the Monongahela River. It would turn out to be more than a disaster. The British in their bright red uniforms and the Americans in their blue uniforms crossed the Mon (as we know it in Pittsburgh) just past Turtle Creek and then shortly after that, to the cadence of the drums, they marched back across the river (it was only knee deep at the time). It was here on the east banks of the river that they were ambushed by the French and Indians.
         Thomas E. Crocker, author of Braddock's March, How The Man Sent To Seize A Continent Changed American History, described the battle as pure pandemonium among the British and Americans, almost 500 of whom died in the battle. The enemy lost only 11! The British would like to forget this battle... one of the worst defeats in their history.... and Americans were not that interested in remembering it either.... but the importance of what happened in that battle cannot be overestimated.
         As a child my father had played on those streets below the bluffs from which the French and Indians had descended upon the British and Americans. My mother went to dances on what was at one time a battlefield, and later met my father at Braddock Hospital where he was recovering from injuries sustained in the Pacific in World War II? She passed away last year but only a few years ago we visited the house that she grew up in which was only yards away from the bluff where one could see most of what had been the battlefield.
         George Washington's reputation as being invincible began at the Battle Of The Monongahela as he survived with bullet holes in his coat and horses shot out from under him, but this post isn't really about George Washington...or the battle itself as history....but rather the battle as a study in chaos and pandemonium. The British and Virginia officers stood their ground but could not bring order to the men who could not see their enemy who hid behind the trees. Many were killed by friendly fire. The British had all the skills and all the knowledge and more than enough firepower but were decimated because chaos was all around them. That is the reason for this post. Christians will one day experience such chaos and pandemonium....and that day may be in the very near future. We need to know this...and we are not being told!
           Mankind hasn't changed. As brilliant as he can be, he can be just as foolish. We read in Scripture about the very last of the last days and think that we have it all down pat. An evil man arises and takes over the world....he demands that everyone have a mark placed on them in order to buy or sell anything.....Christians say no....he kills many of them....and then Jesus Returns. Only it is not going to be as easy as just recognizing the Antichrist and saying no, for just as the British and Americans experienced chaos and pandemonium on the banks of the Monongahela, so will Christians in the great delusion of the last days. Family and friends will be taken in...making it much harder! "This...mark... is just technological progress in a digital age" they'll be told. 'Friendly fire' will be everywhere. Confusion will reign supreme. Friends....we fall for just about anything now...and this deception is minor compared to what the church will one day experience!
          From personal observation of end-times conversations over the past thirty years, and even recollections of my own thoughts when I held to a Pre-Trib Rapture, I don't remember the topic of the Christian experiencing chaos and pandemonium being at or even near the top of the list. That's probably because the Pre-Tribulation Rapture Theory tends to make Christians a little less worried about something they won't even be around to experience. That's the short message of this post...if our Lord's return is near, the pandemonium and confusion ahead may be so great that we may even question our own decisions! Whatever generation experiences this will need to know....beforehand.... what God has written to us about those days.... and discernment does not readily come while while one's main interests and passions are on the baubles of this world and not on God's Word

If This Isn't That......"Falling Away"......Then It's A Good Imitation.

Preface: The following post is from February 11. My wife was in the car tonight with three ladies....to and from an event. They were probably mid-70s....just guessing....for I never met them....and they were gushing about Trump....saying things that made no sense at all. Polls are showing that the MAGA element in the Republican Party....percentage-wise....is increasing a little bit....but the overall approval percentage is decreasing. My thoughts are that Trump will come crashing down....for his incompetence and serious psychological disorders are becoming more evident every day....but....if he keeps the armlock on the razor-thin Republican majority in Congress....there is no telling where this delusion might lead!

If This Isn't That...."Falling Away"....Then It's A Good Imitation

                     It is a different church than it was thirty and forty years ago. You could tell back then who the Christians were. You can't tell that today....as they have been swallowed up by patriotism....so everybody says that they are Christian. The world would shy away from us back then because we would always talk about Christ. They stay away from us today because we always talk about Trump.
                     Even though our country was nowhere near in rebellion to God as we are today...we had the fear of God in us. Our youth were Christian youth back then. They are republican youth today. We just knew that Jesus was about to come back soon. Today....a genuine biblical false prophet leads our nation....and we put him there. We are right now on the very precipice....and this man shows every sign....of every tyrant in the past....and just like in the past....that tyrant has a people who believe every lie that he says. It is nothing less than astonishing.
                     We knew what cults were at one time. We might read a book now and then on any one of them. The charismatic leader had complete control....using mind-altering methods on the members....where they only read what they were told to read....and were shunned or purged in they didn't toe the line. We don't even know or care who those cults are today....and there is a very strong likelihood that that we have been taken in by a new one.
                     God has judged His church first. He has put blinders on us....which is the only explanation on how someone as empty and as bloodthirsty as Donald Trump....could successfully bind and lead away most of evangelicalism.
                     God's Word says that there will be a falling away. If this isn't it....then it's a good imitation. The Bible talks about last days/end times false signs and wonders....and delusion....and deception. We've been taken in to believe that what Trump has done in a few short weeks is marvelous! We actually think that what this man is doing....will bring peace and safety....and we are oblivious to that being exactly what God's Word tells us we will think! Benjamin Netanyahu....this surprised me anyway....was taken in also by Trump's promises and rhetoric....but then so has Ted Cruz and so many others.
                     We are in the midst of a winnowing. A strong wind is passing over the threshing floor....as we are being tossed up....again and again....trying to breath through the dust...vexed....and landing hard time after time. Whether the Lord gathers us up....or replants us to sprout new wheat....it will be His perfect will.....may He give us the strength and wisdom and discernment necessary to wait upon the Lord....and to endure to the end.

"Truly....truly.....I say to you....unless a grain of wheat falls into the earth and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it bears much fruit." John 12:24

"Everyone Is Scratching Their Head...."

                 It has been over forty years since I watched the television program 60 minutes....because it is a Lord's Day program....and God commanded us to reserve this day for Him....which is a great blessing to those who try to do so in this modern world. Just a few days ago I was in a conversation with a friend on the topic. I told him that I had worked shifts for 37 years....which meant 37 years of often working on the Lord's Day. I told him that it would be difficult to live in a warm home on a cold winter night....when someone else had to be working to generate the electricity. There is a difference between running equipment that produces heat for people....and sitting down on a Lord's Day....after a worship service....and spending a few hours watching the Masters tournament....all the while maybe showing more emotion and attention than was given while in the worship service.
                So in the news this Monday morning....Trump was tweeting that he wants CBS to lose their license because....(the latest offense according to him)....the 60 Minutes program last evening presented the issue of Greenland in a way that was not acceptable to him. This is going on everywhere with him folks. It is attempts at tyranny and totalitarianism the likes of which even the Left feared to tread. So I booted up the broadcast on Greenland....it was about seventeen minutes....and it was very informative.
                 The Prime Minister said that according to a treaty from the 50s....America could do anything that they wanted militarily on Greenland. No....this is about money. He said that everyone in Greenland was scratching their head on why Trump wanted it so bad. There was though one comment that he made that I had wondered about before....Greenland is under the protection of NATO.....and if the United States invaded Greenland....then it would require a response from NATO....which according to the Prime Minister....would effectually destroy the mission and even the existence of NATO. Why is it that Trump hates NATO so much? One obvious possibility is that Putin hates Nato even more.
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