Go There Now

       R. C. Sproul was a pastor/teacher/theologian whose influence on the church in America was up there with that of George Whitefield or Jonathan Edwards or Billy Graham. His ability to explain and expound upon the great doctrines of the Bible was surely a God given blessing to all of us.
       He was a Pittsburger. I say 'Pittsburgher' rather than just 'born in Pittsburgh' because Western Pennsylvanians are almost a breed unto themselves. Let me give you an example. In all of the history of major league baseball you will not find a more uplifting or heartwarming season than that of 1979. The family atmosphere of that Pirate season was pure Pittsburgh.....it effected the the players.....and the fans....and even reached out into the nation.
        R. C. Sproul's personality was formed on these streets that did not have the hustle-bustle of a Manhattan or the quirkiness of Califormia. There was no uppityness here....no great mountains to take our attention away....and no summer surf for outsiders to flock to....on the whole just a friendly and fair people....but it does have history. My father was raised smack dab on a battlefield where God gave rise to a young George Washington.....and yet hardly anyone even knew the importance of the Battle of the Monongahela.
        These streets are where God also gave rise to a man who would start a ministry that would restore in American Christianity the knowledge of the holiness of God. If you doubt what I say then go and listen to some of the audio on R. C. Sproul's teaching ministry. It's all there. All you have to do is touch a few keys on your keyboard.....ligonier.com. Go there now and hear for yourself!
         R. C. Sproul went to be with his Lord and Savior this past December....Billy Graham followed him two months later.

Where's The Evidence?

            We all know them......well I'm one of them but just to keep the conversation going......we all know at least one and probably many more people who just have this Jesus thing and act like it's everything. I first started noticing them in the late 1970s. They weren't any problem. All you had to do was kind of watch what you say because if you gave them a lead-in they would go on a bit on Jesus and the Bible. And then I became one.
            To be accurate there's not quite as many of them around today. Christians tend to talk more about their church than about Jesus Himself....and they hardly ever mention the Bible in their political conversations.....but the original 'born again' types are still there....they'll always be there.
            The general perception today is that Christians are more about conservative politics and Donald Trump than about the Gospel. Don't get me wrong, they won't ever deny the Gospel, and they'll talk about it if you absolutely want to, but it's not the driving force that it once was.
             Well let me switch gears a little here and talk like we used to talk. You were probably a little bit bored to come across this web site. Maybe you saw my bumper sticker or picked up one of my web site pens that I like to leave on tables and benches. My proposition in this post is to challenge you to think about what God would be like if there really was a God. I kind of agree with you in that if He would be like what we see in American today then I don't think that I would be too interested either. I mean how great can a God really be if His own followers barely mention Him? No...we can't all be a Billy Graham but can all have the heart for the Gospel of a Billy Graham!
              OK....everyone knows that the Bible speaks of a literal hell....but it's kind of like Roy Moore to conservatives today....talking about him makes them uncomfortable....then they get feelings of guilt for abandoning a good man after he was attacked and beat down.....and then they wind up blaming him for hurting Trump. Well we in the church don't want to talk about hell....it makes us uncomfortable....takes us off our game...so we just don't talk about it. But folks...if the Christian doesn't mention hell or eternal punishment....then logically speaking this whole "Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and thou shalt be saved..." thing makes no sense. What are you saved from.....the eternal candidate Hillary Clinton.... wrinkles.... cellulite.... what?
              If this is all that God can get out of His children....to go to church....and vote Republican....then there could not possibly be much to this Gospel stuff. Unless one is only into 'their best life now' or some other thing that a dozen other man-made self-help philosophies can get them.
             Where's the power? Where's the evidence? There got to be some kind of noticeable power and logical evidence if there really is a God. If this Gospel can't even light a fire under believers then there can't really have been much there to begin with.
             So to sum this up....if thoughts about their Savior do not dominate the Christian's thinking then he either cannot be much of a savior....or there must not have really been anything from which to be saved. Today is the day friend....and there may not be another. Humble yourself before the holiness of God and you will one of those that you formerly just wondered about.....and you will then praise God every day for it!

Note. I finished this post and thought about what I had written with...."Where's the evidence?" Thirty-six years ago while my wife was shopping in Penny's and I had nothing better to do than walk around the shopping center. I ambled into a Christian book store....not being familiar with any of the books....and walked out with Evidence That Demands A Verdict by well-known apologist Josh McDowell. Before I was done with that book it was torn in two so that I could have a part of it my back pocket at all times to pull out and read whenever! It's still available. If you are interested then get an older paperback.....so you can tear it two.

           

Difference Without A Distinction

           What we are seeing taking place before our very eyes is a new coalition being formed by President Trump. A lot of the same voting block remains that was a thorn in the side of Barack Obama's anti-American Marxist agenda over eight years that culminated in the defeat of Hillary Clinton in November of 2016 but the Make America Great Again element that focuses on American hegemony in the economy of the world along with military power has taken control of the agenda.
           Whereas the former block was very issues and ideology oriented, the new coalition is more profit and power oriented. The former was high on ethics, honesty and transparency but the latter is all pragmatics with little to no emphasis on ethics, honesty and transparency.
           The power base has shifted dramatically within this coalition. The former were able to keep issues such as abortion and marriage, border security, Common Core and a fair tax system on the front burner. Those issues are on the back burners on simmer right now if not turned off....while the stock market, 401ks and employment statistics (which by the way can be nuanced every bit as much as with Democrat administrations), and big stick foreign policy initiatives are now on the front burners and on high.
           Possibly the biggest difference between the two is in general discernment. The former might first see communism whereas the latter only state leaders Xi Jinping or Kim Jong-un. The former knows a little bit of the pernicious plans of globalism whereas the latter thinks that globalism is only economics and they are thus content to just focus on the concept of making America great again.
           The most significant impact from the difference between the two is that the Founding Fathers of America were mentioned often over decades but one hardly hears the names Thomas Jefferson or George Washington  anymore. The towering figure of Donald Trump has cast a shadow over the Constitution and most unfortunately over the Bible also. This is what the power of an image can do.
            The Trump administration has made us more proactive....you can see this in yesterday's decision on Iran....but at the same time it has made us more vulnerable in a number of ways. In essence we are preparing for good times....and not preparing for bad times. There is an edge to us these days. We were once confident in what we believed to be true but today we are more confident in ourselves. We once sought out debate but there is no longer a need for that....in fact in the case of people like myself....debate is considered destructive if not traitorous to the cause.
           If only this changing of the guard were a 'distinction without a difference'....but in fact it is a 'difference without a distinction.' Our agenda has changed along with our methods and even allegiances but we have not observed it because the motion of the river has shifted the sediment below what we can see from the surface. The variable here is the horde of Christians remaining in this block....and I use the word 'horde' only to emphasis it's potential power. If they come to realize that they have compromised many of their beliefs without even realizing it.....and they begin to back off on the MAGA agenda.....then Donald Trump's new coalition will be much smaller.....and forced to continue to metastasize to fill the big tent that it now has.  A 'conservative movement' seeking its own glory and not that of the Benefactor of its country is where we are headed.....and it's not be a pretty sight to behold.
           We'll see how this all pans out. In God's eyes this past general election was of no importance at all other than the next step in His plan. The same goes with Jerusalem as Israel's capital.  The term 'capital' is a modern delineation of what city is the country's most important. This move means nothing to God other than possibly leading to events precluding His return....with all of His angels....in power and glory.

            I've been interested...involved....in politics for one half century. If I might paraphrase and then expand upon Benjamin Franklin's famous words when he addressed the Constitutional Convention after a political impasse was threatening progress.....I have lived 68 years now due to God's grace upon the most unworthy of it....and the longer I live the more I see that politics in America can be helpful if we seek wisdom from God....put it in front of humility and submission to God's will and it is but a river than cannot be crossed....a mountain that cannot be climbed....metal that cannot be forged....and peace that cannot be attained.....at any price....with any armies....behind any champion.....or for any even righteous cause.

No Study....No Preparation....No Problem

If I were watching a spy/thriller movie where the President of the United States was not only going to meet in a face-to-face summit with a nuke-capable mass-murdering dictator....and not only meet with him but initially meet one-on-one without any advisers present....I would probably turn the movie off because it was too absurd to believe.....but that apparently is what will happen in Singapore. John Bolton should have threatened to resign then and there when told he would have to stand outside while the President who is famous for not studying anything goes behind doors for the oral exam with the Dean of DPRK U's Torts (short for Torture) Department.

            Donald Trump as President stepped into or inherited a dangerous situation with North Korea....and as difficult a situation as one can imagine. He started out well as he brought the full force of American power to the waters surrounding this madman's kingdom. The American public was preparing for what might take place and our military was ready.....but things deteriorated as the months passed. It's been a year now and America is no longer preparing for what might be ahead....instead it is expecting peace and safety because many from our formerly august body of conservative talk radio show hosts have told us that North Korea is on the run.
           When I heard that the President had said that he didn't need to prepare for this coming meeting with Kim Jong-un I simply shook my head....for this is the same man who early last year said that he didn't have to have daily intelligence briefings because after all....he was very smart and didn't need them....but even this isn't the essence of this post. Tonight I listened to a regular conservative radio talk show host gush once again over the brilliance of Donald Trump.....as if their leg was tingling. This nightly talk show host castigated and ridiculed the media for taking umbrage with President Trump's statement about not needing preparation. Here finally is my point.
           Conservatives such as myself who not only voted for Donald Trump in November of 2016 but celebrated....and who genuinely hoped that he would show some maturity and wisdom in his responsibilities....yet who saw nearly from the beginning that he was not who he proclaimed himself to be in the primaries or general election....we seem to be non-entities. It's as if we don't exist. Any criticism of the President is labelled as 'Trump Derangement Syndrome' from the media or the Progressives or the Never-Trumpers. They never mention or even allude to the fact that those of us who were an integral part of his general election base are not happy at all with who the President has shown himself to be....or the mind manipulation techniques that he relies upon to keep his 'base' stirred up and off his back. They lump us who had celebrated on November 8th of 2016 in with Never-Trumpers. Why? It's because discontent within the ranks like this could cause problems in that which has become but our latest day of salvation.....the mid-term election day.
           Sooner or later our questions will have to be answered. Sooner or later a major conservative radio talk show host is going to see that he (she) has been had....and that Trump Republicans have become no better than the Democrats or Republican elites in prodding their branded cattle into the pen! They stifle legitimate critical opinion...or ignore it.....and even deny it. They are now even punishing those who do not toe the line. They use the same deceptive tactics that have been used against us by the Democrat Party and the Republican establishment. Transparency is totally gone. Selective reporting and selective facts dominate just about every radio broadcast....and I don't think that they are aware of this....because their discernment has disappeared as they gave up necessary principles....principles such as 'let your yea be yea and your nay be nay'.....principles that they came to prominence with....they gave them up for the pragmatics of bending the truth to win the next election which will be no more effective that any of the last elections because no one anymore pledges their lives or their fortunes or their sacred honor.....but now wind up only pledging is to the McConnells and Ryans of the Congress to vote yes when told....no when told...and to shut up when told.
           This upcoming summit is naivety in spades. The preparation necessary would have been on what Communism is....in how the communists connive....and in what their tactics have been for a century. If Kim throws a fit....it will have been pre-planned....and if he smiles and makes promises....they will never be kept....and time will pass just as it always has. President Trump should not be himself meeting with this mass-murderer. This is reality TV. Someone in the President's coterie of advisers should have stood up to him on this. If Kim Jong-un is serious as many hope that he is then he can send his people to meet our people....for we do have some who know what to expect and what to look for....and who have prepared.
            Either way we need to start preparing ourselves again....preparation....and even that would be entirely useless if it doesn't begin with our imploring of God undeserved mercies....and His wisdom in this chaotic and dangerous situation....for...."Except  the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it, except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."  (Psalm 127:1 KJV)

Note: I find it interesting that President John Kennedy was to give a speech on November 22, 1963 in Dallas that he was never able to give. That speech on paper ended with the second sentence in this verse! So these in effect were the last official words of President Kennedy...and a harbinger of what was ahead for America...."For as was written long ago: Except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain."

We also might want to remember this Scriptural warning: "While they are saying, 'peace and safety!' then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman with child, and they will not escape. But you, brethren, are not in darkness, that the day would overtake you like a thief.....so then let us not sleep as others do, but let us be sober and alert."   (1 Thessalonians 5: 3,4,6)

Tall Hats And Gold Watch Fobs

The following paragraph is from a post from 2012 titled Tall Hats And Gold Watch Fobs:

          "There's a scene from Ted Turner's Gettysburg where Brigadier General John Buford, played by Sam Elliot, scans rocky heights and farm land that would in one day become a battlefield, and he literally spews out these words as he foresees carnage in the Union army if the politicians and generals play their war games as usual...afterwards men in tall hats and gold watch fobs will thump their chests and say 'what a brave charge it was..... I've never seen anything as brutally clear as this.... It's as if I can actually see the blue troops in one long bloody moment....as if it were already done....as if tomorrow already happened and there ain't nothin you can do about it. He went on to lay out a plan to change that, 'We can block that road till the main body gets here, and deprive the enemy of the high ground'!"
           The essence of the scene was that the poor leadership at the top of the Union Army would lead to yet another terrible loss of life....and more carnage The Confederates would somehow get the high stony ground....and the Union Army would have to charge up it as they had to at Fredericksburg. Buford was going to hold back the Confederate infantry until the main body of the Union Army showed up.....they would defend the high ground this time.
            Personally I cannot let go of what happened in Vietnam....nor do I even intend to try. Over 58 thousand Americans died in that war. I cannot wrap my mind around the bravery that so many Americans displayed in that cause....a cause where their efforts were not even appreciated by much of the American public. Consequently, whether it is Iraq or Afghanistan or Syria or anywhere that our troops are deployed, I don't want to see men wearing 'tall hats and gold watch fobs' playing any games at all...political or otherwise. Just as the film character of Buford could see tomorrow as if it already happened....I can picture our service men and women put in harms way either in haste or for the wrong reasons.
           If anyone has read back in these posts even a few months they would have read where I believe that a major conflagration is coming. There is no stopping it. The outright evil unleashed today cannot be contained forever....or even for long. We do not have the luxury of probing here and there....seeing what the response will be.....and then committing if necessary. It is coming....hold back and prepare! If we attempt to goad Iran then we will have given up planning for reacting. 
           As kids in Buffalo in the 1950s we would cut a golf ball open for fun. The rubber bands would first appear as we peeled back the cover and we would then cut a little deeper.....and the bands would unravel all at once....and we would laugh. This is what I don't want to see happen because someone thinks that Iran or anyone else will react as someone's model shows that they will react. When conservative talk show hosts chuckle about this or that....and how successful some bombing was....it greatly unsettles me. I'm tired of hearing how much better Donald Trump is than Barack Obama...that man was a communist. Let's drop the politics!
           Right now the average conservative would probably be inclined to believe that supporting President Trump in anything and everything that he does is in effect supporting our military....but supporting our military is making sure that we have looked under every stone for something that might be hidden....and weighed every decision to make sure that our ego or pride was not involved in any way. Mistakes will happen.....mistakes always happen in war.....mistakes will find us.....we do not want to go looking for them.
            We owe it to our military to do our part....if our politics is determined by our 401 then we will have let them down....if we spend more time analyzing our sports team than history then we will have let them down....if wars are either started because of politics (which we have done) or put off because of pending elections (which we have also done) then we are responsible for the consequences.....if we do not make sure that our leaders know that they do not have carte blanch decision-making....that they are constrained by our Constitution.....and also by their promises....if we do not do this then will will have let our military down.
            There will be plenty of opportunity in the future....even demands....for our leadership to act quickly and decisively. If we cannot at least be sober-minded....humble....and seeking of God's guidance when we contemplate the war ahead of us then we do a disservice to our military.

                 

Dispatches

Dispatch.....2330 hrs....12/9/2018         

           President Trump held what was only his second press conference since taking office. That in itself is disturbing, CNBC chief Washington Correspondent John Harwood said immediately after the press conference that President Trump did not look well and that he was concerned about Trump's state of mind. I found those thoughts disturbing so I watched the press conference myself.
           There was a couple of things that were in favor of President Trump in this choice for a press conference.....it would obviously focus solely on tariff talk at the G-7.....and it would focus on the upcoming meeting with Kim Jong-un.
            I didn't agree with President Trump's line of reasoning....as usual....but other than that it was about as professional as it could get. John Harwood felt he needed to mention that President Trump's "affect' was "oddly kind of languid for him." Languid? If Mr. Harwood meant relaxed or unhurried then yes the President was very relaxed and unhurried....so many of us wish that he was relaxed like this all the time. There was no problem here at all unless Mr. Harwood was referring to languid as in ill or fatigued which certainly wasn't the case.
            Folks, I don't receive cable news on my television set....never have. I'm not familiar with Mika and Morning Joe other than what I read. I only get too see Sean Hannity when on vacation....but John Harwood's comments were seriously out of line. This definitely was....fake news.
            The questions in this particular press conference were not softballs nor were they hard questions....they were limited but very fair. President Trump will have to face much more difficult questions sometime....and they are going to be very difficult to skirt around....and I don' think that President Trump will be able to stay calm when the tough questions come....but as for this one press conference....he did a very good job....if only he would stay away from that tweeting.....and those ridiculous pep rallies.....and just stand up there....languid as in relaxed as he was today....face the questions....and attempt to answer those questions!

           On the same general topic...The New York Times ran an article by Maggie Haberman and Katie Rogers which was typical of this source in describing the confusion and consternation within the White House. The article stated that "The President is growing only more emboldened to act on instinct alone"....admittedly my observations are from far away but this is what I also have noticed.....and if it is true it is more than problematic....for we are in the most dangerous period that we have ever been in....the opposite of what the President constantly tells us in that these are the best of times to be an American....therefore this is not the time to ignore experience. The article quotes former chief strategist Steve Bannon on Donald Trump's dependence on constant conflict...."This is how he won...this is how he governs, and this is his 'superpower'...drama, action, emotional power."

          Have you noticed that the phrase....'a special place in hell'....has been used quite a bit lately. Yesterday White House adviser Peter Navarro used it for Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau. Former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright used it for women who did not support Hillary Clinton in the 2016 election. Ivanka Trump also used it in condemning Roy Moore. Last year Cher said of Trump supporters...."You're gonna see a hell like you never dreamt!"

Whose New World Order...."A Rotating Group Of About 10 Member States Could Work"

Dispatch....1900 hrs....6/7/2018     

           BloombergQuint.....a joint venture news outlet out of India.... ran an article claiming that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is determined to rally European unity at the coming G-7 summit in Canada that starts tomorrow....rally them in opposition to....as BloombergQuint phrased it.....Trump's New World Order. Merkel is...and has been for at least a year....concerned that President Trump's policies of an 'America First' isolationism is effectually ending the current world order that came about after World War II. John McCain famously ranted on this same concern last year. Merkel wants European United Nations member states to form a European bloc.....quoting the article...."a rotating group of about 10 member states could work."....which can then use France's veto power. A ten European nation bloc....hmm....where have I heard that idea before?
            Those five members of the United Nations that have security council veto power have become known as the P-5. They were given this veto power in the United Nations because their nuclear capabilities give them the greatest influence in averting nuclear war itself.  They are the United States, China, the United Kingdom, Russia and France. The security council itself can pass all the declarations that they want with nine votes out of the fifteen members but any one of the P-5 can....and often does....veto that which they don't agree with.
             There are participants in the United Nations that would like to do away with this P-5 veto power but as of now it is deemed very unlikely that any change could be made to the charter....for the P-5 members themselves would have go along with it.....and once again.....only one member would have to exercise their veto. This much is certain.....the 'world order' that we now have is coming to an end. What is uncertain is in what will replace it. 

You're A Better Man Than I Am.....Gunga Din

The following post is from July of 2016:

         You can say what you want about my opinions and conclusions but I have been consistent. A friend gave me his honest opinion recently with this..."Special Dog, you've been saying these thing for twenty years!" The message intended was that I have thus been proven wrong. My response was a pause....a gentle look urging him to consider further what he just said....and one word...."Exactly."
         This awareness that our nation is in the midst of a suicide attempt goes much farther back than my own thoughts. Allan Bloom's 1987 The Closing Of The American Mind woke a lot of people up as did Neil Postman's 1985 Amusing Ourselves To Death, Christopher Lasch's 1979 Culture Of Narcissism and before all of these....Richard Hofstadter's 1963 Anti-Intellectualism In American Life!
         Even more than these books, Christian books from the 70s, 80s and 90s by authors such as Francis Schaeffer, Harold Lindsell, John MacArthur, Billy Graham and many others gave specifics on where we were heading. They predicted a collapsing Christian church and a new world order with spot-on precision.
         God warns His people before judgment, this much is very clear in Scripture, and those warnings usually take place over many years. No warnings... or warnings right before judgment... are what would be odd. Christians in America have no excuse for not considering the evidence all around them. They would have to be living in Hillary's world...or at least never venture outside of their local newspaper...for them not to aware of a world gone mad.
         It gets much worse friends and you have to know this!  Should the Lord already be mounted and  summoning His holy angels then we are heading into Tribulation. More bad news....there is no rapture beforehand! If this doesn't shake you to the core then you're a better man than I am Gunga Din! God may indeed have some semblance of mercy upon America but it won't happen without many in this nation rending its clothes and falling on its knees.
         As I mentioned in a post of only a few days ago...should the Lord tarry for quite a number of years, you would not...if you knew where we are headed...look forward to living in this society that is rising menacingly as the Tower of Babel... before our very eyes.
       

Expect The Unexpected

         Expect the unexpected. It's really a profound thought. Oscar Wilde used it once and probably many other people. Now if the phrase was just advising one to always be aware that the unexpected could happen it would be one thing....but it's not saying that....for it's saying....expect....or actually believe that the unexpected will happen. Wow....that can boggle the mind if you really think about it.
         OK let's go a little further with this. You have a plan....on anything....this should happen....and that should then happen....and if these things happen then you are confident that your plan will work....(plan your work....work your plan.) But this is altogether different. One is being advised to actually expect something that is not expected and maybe not even considered as a possibility.
         Let me see if I can come up with an example....OK I've got one....I actually wrote a post about it a few years ago. A young newlywed couple's plans are coming along just fine.  The young man completed college to get that degree and has a good job and then they were married. Their ultimate goal is to buy a nice little house and have a couple of kids....and maybe a little dog....but then December 7th, 1941 came along and all of those plans were put on hold if they would ever even come about.
         The closest thing that I can think about where the Bible mentions something like this would be in that monumentally prophetic 24th chapter of Matthew....."If anyone tells you then, 'Look, here is the Messiah!' or, 'Over here!' do not believe it. False messiahs and false prophets will arise and perform great signs and wonders to lead astray, if possible, even the elect. Take note: I (JESUS) have told you in advance." I chose the Holman Christian Standard Bible for this for or it uses the word 'Messiah' rather than 'Christ.'
        Friends, this chapter....along with Mark 13 and Luke 21 where Jesus answers the question...."Tell us when will these things be.."....these chapters were indeed for everyone from the day that they were written to today.....but they are especially relevant for us today....for we are in that day where the nearness of the return of Christ is so close that false messiahs and false prophets are....and have been for quite a while....literally everywhere.
        Expect the unexpected....expect the false messiahs and false prophets....hold everything....everything up to Scripture....be vigilant and more than leery of great signs and wonders should they come about....for anyone can be "led astray....if possible, even the elect."

It's COMMUNISM....Not Racism

           The spirit behind Communism has absolutely no interest in the welfare of women or the rights of minorities.....or children and immigrants for that matter. Communism would be the very first to imprison or execute any immigrants that dared cross it's borders illegally but history has shown that that it was people trying to cross their borders the other way....to get out....and even there they shot to kill.
           Same-sex marriage and the entire Gay agenda was not only championed but designed by communist (aka progressive) ideologues whose main goal was to instigate dissension, division and ultimately turmoil in America....leading to a boiling point that would either start their people's revolution (which would never occur) or leave us essentially defenseless against outside enemies (which is indeed happening now in varying degrees.) Charges of racism are but another big tool in their bag of tricks....and once again we have permitted them to put us on the defensive against charges of racism instead of going on the offensive against Communism!
           So what has happened in America time and time again is that a charge of racism is lodged essentially against America's heritage....and we in turn defend ourselves by addressing only the issue and not the source of the attack. This plays perfectly into the hands of the communist goal.....but to be accurate.....the average liberal/progressive doesn't know what's going on because the progressive miseducation of much of America has rendered them clueless in discerning who and what our real enemies are....this cluelessness of coarse excludes the Barack Obamas and Valerie Jarretts of this movement who do know exactly what they are doing.
           Why is this important that we understand Communism? Without a working knowledge on what Communism is and what its operating methods are we wind up always on the defensive which is playing right into the hands of our enemies. Compounding all of this is President Trump's cluelessness as to what Communism is. His speech in Poland came from the minds of others.....his on again-off again buddying up to Xi Jinping is disturbing.....and his dealing with North Korea as if they might just like this idea of denying their ideological DNA in order join the globalists is more than dangerous....but more importantly than even this.....our ignorance of Communism blinds us as to why Christianity has been under attack in America.
           No....Communism is not the only enemy that we face but it is the only enemy that must....absolutely must.....destroy our Christian heritage and the very concept of God in the minds of those it seeks to rule over....for God is kryptonite to Marx's proletarian revolution and also to Nietzsche's ubermensch.
           God has warned us for a half century now to turn away from our idols and turn to Him. He has been patient but we misinterpret this to be a weakness on His part in that He doesn't interact with his creation.....and a weakness on our part in that the Bible must not be taken literally. We are about to find out that God cannot be mocked.....and that these were indeed warnings.....given out of strength and yet out of compassion.....and not idle imaginations from those of us who actually believe God's Word to us.
           Donald Trump dominates everything in America today.....the minds of his supporters and the minds of his opposition. Putin and Xi Jinping have an accurate profile on him which is an advantage for them whereas we in America look only at the golden image.....either worshipping it or trying to topple it....but there is another statue that is about to topple.....for it has feet partially of iron and partially of clay.....division! Communism is in that clay. Identifying it and the weakness of that which all of the world's governments stand should lead Christians to look.....not to President Trump as our savior.....which whether we realize it or not we are doing.....but to the 'trump of God'.....heralding the return of..."our blessed hope, the appearing of the glory of our great God and Savior Jesus Christ."

Oh What A Time Period It Was

            There's no specific day that I can remember when I came to faith in Jesus Christ.....but Oh what a time period it was! The gospel was everywhere. I was a coal-fired power plant operator and if I wasn't covered with coal dust then I was ankle deep in lime slurry. New Christians seemed to be everywhere. We had prayer meetings after working a midnight shift! Christian bookstores were everywhere. Billy Graham crusades were on television.....and the books.....the books actually addressed the mind.
            One major weekly magazine named 1976....'The Year of the Evangelical.' Our President said that he was 'born again.' Charles Colson....one of the Watergate conspirators....became born again. The 700 club was a force with which to be reckoned.  R.C. Sproul was introducing the church to the holiness of God which had a transforming effect on Bible study. Sound biblical ministries were everywhere on the radio. An astronaut who walked on the moon could only see God's glory in the heavens....and one of the best and most fanatical basketball players ever to play the game....after coming to Christ....regretted that his life up until then had been more basketball than the Bible. Christians were actually reading and studying John Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress....I've read it a dozen or more times and listened to it on cassette an equal number of times....Charles Spurgeon read it 100 times in his day! David Wilkerson preached the glory of Christ like George Whitefield. Christian music was simple yet profound. A wonderful and humble man was our President. Nightline type of television shows would choose Jerry Falwell to interview....and he would keep his head up....smile cinfidently....look straight into the camera....and proclaim Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior!
          I remember that time period.....and I came in late....I remember it as Jews must have remembered their temple......and I often feel like weeping at what has become of America since those wonderful days. No longer are there Christian bookstores in just about every community....no more Billy Graham crusades.....no more R. C. Sproul......Bunyan's book is never read....but we're really not aware of any of this....and when you're not aware of something.....you don't know what you are missing.
          How had all this started? Well I don't know....but I know this....God started it....and if it happens again....then it would be He that starts it again. I know what we need though. We need an unction in our pulpits.....tears if necessary.....we need to dust off our grandparent's books if they are still stored away somewhere. We can still listen to Billy Graham and R. C. Sproul on our computers....but there is one thing that we must understand.....our beloved nation is crumbling fast.....chaos is everywhere....our enemies are taking advantage of it....and politics cannot save us!!! If we could only see the mist from the falls that are just ahead....and hear the roar of the water that will soon crush us....then we might look to what is our only hope....cast off our unbalanced dalliance with politics....and call out to Him whom we have presumed upon....."Have mercy on us Lord.....for thy name alone....and for thy glory alone!"

NOTE: There are two older books....but easy to find....that I would recommend. The first.....The Holiness Of God by R. C. Sproul (1984) was instrumental in the gospel fervor of the 1980s. The second....Ashamed Of The Gospel, When The Church Becomes Like The World (1993) by John MacArthur....focuses on the church in England during the ministry of Charles Haddon Spurgeon. Both books can help us put politics in a more proper perspective.

Dispatches

Dispatches....0648 hrs.....6/4/18

          The NFL is back on the front burner. The post before this was on expecting the unexpected. Well, I had long hoped and prayed that American men would once again begin to honor the Lord's Day....for this was essential if God was ever to have mercy upon our nation....and I knew that sports....particularly the NFL.....was the biggest obstacle to that.....but I never considered that the NFL would just collapse on its own. Yes this assault on America (kneeling) is on our flag....it's nothing but communist methodology....but God may use it to free many of us from Sunday/game day.....and as the NFL may continue to diminish in viewership.....then surely many of those who are no longer interested in professional football may instead actually look to God....on the day that He commanded us to look to Him.....and not split the day into a pious church service and rambunctious touchdown cheers....and therefore wherever America is headed in this coming judgment....it would be the better for it.

(0820 hrs 6/6/2018) Note: To those select few in the NFL that say that they honor the concept of 'team' I would say.....the Soviets always produced a great Red Army hockey team....they must be your model.....but there are some other teams that you might want to consider....a Navy seal team or an Army ranger team or a Green Beret team or the entire Marine Corps or Minutemen or the team at the Alamo or Doughboy Yanks or Jimmy Doolittle's squadron or the task force teams on D-Day 74 years ago today....all of which and many more that have or are giving you the right to disparage their efforts so that you can get your picture in the paper as if you actually have a clue as to freedom and liberty. And to the new team in Washington....Donald and Ivanka.....the once formidable conservative talk radio....Fox News....and Rasmussen....I guess that we were cut from your team.....but we're still wearing the same uniform....it's you that stuck a new logo on the helmet....a dollar sign.
         
         Syrian President Assad gave an offhand comment in an interview that he plans to visit North Korea. It would be the first visit by a foreign head of state to North Korea since Kim Jong-un took power while it would also be a rare trip abroad for Assad himself. Assad may be seeking assurances that North Korea's military and political assistance continues....or they may be coordinating plans in case war breaks out between the United States and North Korea.

         It's also being reported that Kim Jong-un has removed....either from the earth or their jobs is uncertain....the country's top three generals....and replaced them with younger generals. A few possible reasons for this have been offered. Essentially they revolve around this....the old men might have been too belligerent in this Kim quest for peace.....replaced by moderates.....or they might have been too queasy about war....replaced by more hardline younger generals. What is certain is that the new top three generals must be Kim loyalists which means that there was some concern that the older men might have had some reservations about what was about to happen.

         The Tea Party appears dead.....replaced by the T Party (Trump). Half of the 2010 then incoming Republican class that was given the Tea Party label have moved on...some even seem to regret the original name given to them.

         Steve Bannon is back! Italian voters are revolting against their own establishment while Steve Bannon is in the middle of it. Someone ought to take away the wrinkled field jacket type coat that he wears all the time....or maybe not....because if he looked a little better then he might be unstoppable. I remain firm in my opinion that Donald Trump won the election because of Steve Bannon. I remember that morning when Bannon was not on his Breitbart radio show. When I heard that he joined the Trump campaign I knew that Trump would win....this because I personally have never witnessed anyone in my 68 years as motivational in a political sense than Bannon.
         The problem is that he lives the philosophy of his favorite book....William Strauss and Neil Howe's 1997 futurist book The Fourth Turning, An American Prophesy, What the Cycles of history Tell us About America's Next Rendezvous with History. Here's a short synopsis of the book from a 2017 post of mine...."Time moves in cycles and those cycles have shown to contain four distinct...'turnings.' The cycle begins on a "high' and them moves or turns to an "awakening' then to an "unravelling" and finally to a "crisis." Now there's a whole lot more than that in this thesis but essentially it points to continuous cycles....each one with four evolutions....labelled  'turnings.'  Well, according to the authors....writing in 1997....we should be entering the 'crisis' turning right about now."
           Steve Bannon really believes that right now....today....is the time that a totally new cycle will begin and he therefore lives his life to influence what the new paradigm will be. His ideas are not a return to a conservative constitutional republic but are truly what could be termed....revolutionary.....and that is not what we need. I wrote this also in that 2017 post...."My point then and now is different than a futurist's take on cyclical events. To put it in very simple terms...we trust in God and He blesses us....then we forget where the blessings came from and we fall away. This hasn't anything to with time cycles. It has to do with fallen man.....and God's long suffering but limited patience. So the chronological essence may at times somewhat coincide with the thesis put out by these two authors....but this is not time cycles dealing with man....but rather God dealing with man.....and the pattern is similar to the constant repenting of the Israelites only to fall right back into idolatry before repenting again! Are we then at a Turning? No...we are at judgment."
         One last thing on Steve Bannon.....PJ Media is reporting that Mr. Bannon said that we no longer have the luxury of opposing the establishment.....and that...."the time was now to embrace the establishment." Embrace the establishment? Well that's actually exactly what has been happening in the Trump administration....at least Bannon tells it like it is. Now there are a lot of us who will never go there but they may not need us as so many seem to have abandoned much of what they formerly professed to believe....with the exception of 401k related and national economy issues (minus concerns about the national debt of course) and a military and economic hegemony around the world.

           And this just in and headlining all the news services: The Supreme Court in a 7 to 2 decision sided with the Colorado baker who only wanted to make a living as a baker and still hold to his Christian convictions. After losing all the way to the Supremes he was finally vindicated! The decision did not clarify or change the Colorado law but it did say that in this case the Colorado Civil Rights Commission's decision was inconsistent with the baker's First Amendment rights! I would think that this would be an important and much needed precedent to revert to in future violations of our Constitution's First Amendment's rights!

              Robert F. Kennedy was shot a half century ago today. I was eighteen years old....and devastated. RFK was a flawed individual....as we all are....and a politician who knew the tricks.....but he was the candidate who he said that he was. His passions....civil rights and Vietnam.....the former right.....and the latter wrong....were at least real. The Democrat Party of today is not the Democrat Party of 1968....it changed somewhere between Robert Kennedy and when Edward M. Kennedy became 'The Lion Of The Senate.'

Keep This Dream In Mind

           The equation works with any family member that one might choose. Let's see....I'll go with father. Here's the situation....you were raised in a loving household and provided with everything that you need....your father was there for you to put food on the table.....to answer your questions......to help in sports......everything! You grew up....uh....let's say that you are around 30 years old right now....and then let's continue on from there..
            A strange and fantastical thing happens to you. Through whatever means.....you come to be born again......you see your sin and you see where not only yourself but all men are going unless something is done about it.....and you see that something was done about it......it happened at the cross on Calvary and in an empty tomb about two thousand years ago.  For some reason the very words in the Bible that you may have read or heard many times over the years all of a sudden passed through your thick skull. Now momentarily....maybe even longer....maybe even for a few years....you were so overwhelmed with joy that you didn't feel it necessary to contemplate anything else.  Now that would indeed be too long but it happened and now you are starting to realize some other realities.....let's go on from there.
           This father who provided so lovingly for you for so many years and who without him....who knows where you would be today.....what about him? Let's go over some possibilities....one....you get two free passes when when you become a Christian so you can give them to you mother and father! No...that's not it. Hmmm! Two....you have watched your father for thirty years now and if anyone knows him it is you.....and since you know him and how nice and hard working and caring that he is....then God....who is so much more knowing than you.....must certainly know this also....and therefore your father will be wind up in heaven....even though he has never mentioned the name of Jesus....exhibited any outward love of the gospel or of God.....nor have you ever seen him just sit down to read the Bible....or even mention the Bible? You know the answer to this very well.....it's not an answer that you want.....so you keep it as far back in your mind as is possible......and simply never let it see the light of day. You do this because you love your father so much......or so you tell yourself. Let's go on from there.....
           You finally come to the point that all Christians should come to sooner or later. You look at this loved one....or these loved ones....and you face the fact that they too must be born again also.....just like you were.....or they will go to....hmm....I'm not sure that one can say that word in America anymore. Why in England just a week ago a judge put someone in gaol.....that's old English for jail....and then threatened to put any newsman in gaol who even reported what he did! Someone called this 'Soviet style' justice and they were right. There are all kinds of things that we cannot say in America anymore. They are not putting us in jail yet.....but they will take away our livelihood if they can. Let me see if I can sneak this one past the censors....if your father....or any family member that you love....never becomes born again.....then "there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." That's all that you should need to know....that your loved one will weep and gnash their teeth when they stand before the glory of God and are judged.
           Now I could describe this in other words than 'born again' but a century of easy believism has made these other phrases utterly ineffective......one example might be.....'unless they became a Christian' (not nearly specific enough) or 'unless they have a personal relationship with Christ' (kind of close...but no cigar) or 'unless they believe in Jesus Christ' (absolutely true but so incomplete and easy to do that pretty near everyone uses it today if asked.) Folks, you do not have to use the words 'born again' but if you understand the enormity of what one soul regenerated is then you would never let your loved ones rely upon anything less!
           I'll get very personal here for a minute. I loved my father. He passed away in November of 1979. I was lost in my sins at the time and therefore utterly useless to him in the matters of his eternal soul. I visit his grave site occasionally.....he is buried in Arlington National Cemetery....and I walk away more determined than ever to pray for those family members that I love....who believe that an amiable personality is enough to enter God's eternal rest.
           Discipleship comes with a cost. The least of this cost is that you may become a persona non grata on occasion.....because you mention Jesus Christ so often. Letting your loved ones alone.....without at the very least constant prayer for their salvation....without at least trying to verify if they have any of the obvious signs of being 'born again'.....one of which would be a dependence on the Word of God as one would cling to a floating lifesaver thrown from a ship in stormy seas....this may just be refusing to pay even that little cost....and in the ultimate sense....this is not love as it should be.
           Consider this....a dream maybe.....you are lost.....hanging by a thread over you know where.....that thread begins to unravel.....a Christian passes by.....you always gave him the impression that you were a Christian even though you didn't even have the slightest idea what that really was...."tell me about Jesus Christ" you plead.....but he cannot hear....."tell me the gospel of salvation!"....you look up and the thread continues to unravel...."what must I do to be saved" you shout....but no one responds.....because they are not listening....they 'love' you but just assumed that you are safe.....for you go to church.....the thread then breaks and you fall......it gets colder and colder.....the evil all around you makes your skin crawl.......you shout......"Nooooo!"......and then you wake up. Now the next time that you think about loved ones....remember this dream......and see if you can so easily avoid the issue because you just.....assumed.....that they are not lost and hanging by a thread....when if you are honest then you must admit that they never gave evidence to the contrary.....and you never even looked for any evidence anyway.
     

140 Illuminating Rules

            The best way to dress while reading Roger Stone's new book....Stone's Rules....How To Win At Politics, Business, And Style....would be two-day worn...stretched out of shape grey tube socks...with a moderate amount of grass stains on them....too much grass stain and you look like the gardener in Never-never Land.  A tank tee shirt would fit in.....with suspenders (clips)....and maybe pink flips-flops (because pink goes well with the green grass stains)...and a cowboy hat (providing that you live east of the Mississippi). If you are eating spaghetti for breakfast...wear a purple tank top just in case. The used handkerchief hanging out of your back pocket should never match the spaghetti stains on the tee-shirt....and the green snot on the handkerchief might clash with the Marinara sauce. The best place to read the book would be on your recliner.....set halfway back......drinking an Iron City beer....with more potato chip on your chest then in your hand at any one time.
            Are you wondering where I'm going with this? Well this is how the book reads....sort of....only it's written by an obvious gentleman whereas I'm just a Bible-thumping....pro-life....two men might make good cell mates in an English prison for saying what they believe...but not good soul mates walking down the aisle....necessary voter once every two years....who can then go back to my Bible study or praying or whatever I spend my time doing.
            Roger Stone is not James Bond although he may think that he is.....but he is Ian Fleming. His style in everything is impeccable....believe me....I tried to peck it....can't do it. Stone and Donald Trump are twin brothers....kindred spirits.....separated in birth by six years due to Donald's hem-hawing over making up his mind if he wanted to completely enter the world facing left...right....or the middle.
            Stone's book is a heavy read.....I don't mean deep but literally heavy as each page is laminated. The highlighter goes on easily and shows up well. I used peaceful green to offset the power bleeding off every page. Don't get me wrong...it's a good book.....Tucker Carlson writes the Introduction. Where else would I find that clip-on suspenders (excuse me...braces) are never to be worn....or that "breast shirt pockets are a mistake...unless you are a nerd."
           If you are still upset over the time in kindergarten when that kid purposely spilled his chocolate milk all over your Davy Crockett nap rug....and want to get even with him....this book is motivation! If you are a lawyer in a big firm...looking out on the Hudson from the 88th floor....you absolutely need to read this book. You will not know how to dress or act or eat or probably litigate if you do not. If you are running for any political office above dog-catcher.....you need to read this book.....or you will not know how to pound your enemies into dust....or trick people into voting for you. If you are a Christian.....then you must go out right now and buy the book.....and turn off your iPhone so that the constant Trump text dings do not take your mind off of what you are reading....for what you will find described in the book is Donald Trump's world.....the world that you are now in.....and if it doesn't scare Donald Trump out of you.....if it doesn't make you cry out in anxiety how you could have been so tricked....and if it doesn't cause you to immediately unsubscribe from President Trump's twitter group therapy......then you are probably too far gone.

Breitbart Shrugged

           Well it's official....Raheem Kassam has left Breitbart. He disappeared suddenly from Breitbart News Daily a while back. At the time he was the brightest light on American conservative talk radio. He actually was critical of this administration when necessary....and he addressed issues instead of avoiding them....which is the affliction of what is Trump conservative talk radio today.
           There's still talent at Breitbart radio....but someone somewhere has set a bad course. It was good talk radio before muckety-mucks took over the direction of content. Right now it is really weak where one administration official after another is paraded out unchallenged in their highly selective tedious recital of nuanced accomplishments. Kassam was lively....keenly observant.....could smell a swamp rat from just one uttered sentence....and was aggressive but fair. I certainly didn't agree with him all the time but I never felt that he was condescending. These administration officials wouldn't be walking all over him.
            Some radio talk show hosts have begun to defend criticisms by the media of Ivanka in that she is part of a president's family.....but Ivanka Trump is a high-powered political operative and corporate entrepreneur who told Leslie Stahl in December of 2016 that she was "just going to be a daughter."
            Conservative talk radio has lost its independence....and is subservient to Donald Trump. Whatever he says or does....the first order of business is to applaud it....to make it appear conservative....or concoct a good excuse....or blame someone else....and make sure that no dissent makes its way to the airwaves. It does this as it castigates the mainstream media for its biased and selective reporting!  It has shrugged conservatism for Trumpism. Breitbart hosts quote their founder often in...."Walk toward the fire. Don't worry what they call you" but all they are doing right now is walking behind Donald Trump....cleaning up the mess that he leaves behind.
            

President Trump's Base

The polls....some of them anyway....seem to indicate that the base is holding....this because of President Trump's approval ratings. It is not....it is changing! Conservatives....many of them....who actually believed what they fought for....along with discerning Christians....are leaving....replaced by Republican establishment types who see that President Trump is really open to anything and everything.....and that he is not the true conservative threat that they feared. A breakdown of that base....past and present....is as follows:

A) People like me.....there was no choice in voting for Donald Trump.....and we celebrated with other conservatives on election day 2016......but we recognized Donald Trump from the get-go for what he is....for we've been familiar with The Donald for four decades and he has not changed.....he's a man who does not read.....who is vindictive, manipulating and narcissistic beyond even Barack Obama....a man who has no ideas....and possesses only a handful of true beliefs....while the rest of his campaign promises were really nothing but carefully crafted positions meant to troll for supporters. He truly does want to restore America to economic hegemony.....he wants conservative judges so that his plans for economic hegemony are not thwarted (certainly not because of issues that are important to us)....and he actually wants to defeat terrorism....and that's it. The rest of the promises are negotiable....if he can come through on them....fine....if not....no big deal. We are as rigorous as ever as to defending our constitution.....but have no trust in anything President Trump might say on any particular day.

B) Evangelicals see Donald Trump as God's answer to prayer....a man who will restore the family....give them conservative Supreme Court judges who will eventually put an end to abortion.....permit parents to raise their own children.....and build up our military to defend our nation. It will take more than just another stab in the back to wake them up. The evangelical has become a very distinct entity in American politics....very predictable....and often easy to manipulate. What we cannot predict is whether or not God will choose to awaken the Christian mind in America from the doldrums....but if He should do so....Donald Trump will have lost his Christian base! Thus the key indicator of America's immediate future is in our pulpits.....where it has historical resided.

C) 401 (k) folks who may talk a good game on many issues but really just want to make a lot of money on Wall Street. Abortion.....gun rights....immigration....Obamacare....these things were good fodder for the campaign but releasing the business community and industry to do their thing and make money for themselves....and for us....this was what we needed Donald Trump for. They'll be on board until the stock market collapses.

D) Constitutional Conservatives who read Mark Levin type books....like I do....and revere our forefathers for their efforts in building a constitutional republic.....and who thought that  Donald Trump was one of them....only to have to close their minds on almost a daily basis to continue to support him. These are the true 'repeal Obamacare folks....the illegal immigration opponents....the tax 'reform' people etc.' They are slowly....but steadily....falling away in that support.

E) The just....Make America Great Again....economically.....militarily.....faction. They're happy....no problems here yet.

F)  And Independents....moderate Democrats and Republicans who just felt that Hillary Clinton was just a little bit too Al Capone to go along with her. They're not overly concerned about anything at this point either. President Trump is firmly in the camp of the Republican establishment now....and that's a pleasant surprise to them.

           Folks....we do know that the other conservative candidates in the 2016 primaries were going to lower the corporate tax rate do we not? We are aware that we would have had a conservative Supreme Court Justice with any one of them.....right.....and our American military would have have the shackles taken off....and regulatory restrictions would have been lifted....correct? If so then why do we act as if without Donald Trump we wouldn't have seen these things?  

           Much of this will be moot when God reaffirms His warning to all rebellious peoples....as as He did in Malachi 1:4....."They may build, but I will tear down"....and at that time of humbling we will then no longer bellow....'Make America Great Again'....but finally admit that......"Unless the LORD builds the house, They labor in vain who build it. Unless the LORD guards the city, The watchman keeps awake in vain."   (NASB)        

 

The Only Safety.....

Many Christians are conflicted today in that they know that our only hope in America rests in Jesus Christ yet the temptation is so great to look elsewhere that we construct a political apologetic with a 'God bless America' Christian veneer....and we call it Make America Great Again. We tell ourselves that 'God wants us to turn America around'....that too much Bible turns voters that we need away......just look at Roy Moore.  Folks, they....even conservatives....will put up for only so long with the Christian who will not bow down to the reigning prince....and they will then chew us up and spit us out if we dare go beyond 'God bless America.'  MAGA is avoiding the real battle.....I need to repeat that.....MAGA is avoiding the real battle.....and there is no safety there! The following post is from December of 2011. 

          How are we to explain it? At one moment the people were laying palm branches before the approaching colt that carried Jesus into Jerusalem, shouting "Hosanna! Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord," and only a few days later they shouted "Crucify, crucify him!" Or were they the same people? Luke describes the first as his "disciples," and the second as the "chief priests, rulers and the people." Is this not the dichotomy of the people of this world from that day to the present? 
          I remember watching an awards ceremony (probably the Tonys) on television in the mid-eighties where there were two musical performances, one after the other. The scene effected me enough to recall and relate it many times since. My memory on the specifics is not that clear but I do remember a gospel themed performance from a large choir. Certainly it must have been related to one of the nominees. It was a powerful ensemble performance and the audience was enthusiastic in its response. Then came the second performance. What I remember about it was the very wild theme as if from a Mardi Gras or a Brazilian festival. Again, the power of the music was displayed and the audience responded in kind. I felt that I had witnessed a spiritual battle right before me on the television screen. It astounded me that two themes of such opposite polarity where presented next to each other. Certainly, some cheered only for the gospel ensemble, others cheered only for the wild festival-like performance, while still others cheered for both, oblivious to the clash of messages.
         Who may have won that battle...I don't know, but it became etched in my own mind. Not all Christians are consumed with passion for knowing Christ, nor awestruck by the majesty and radiance of the Risen Lord, nor do they cling to His Word as more valuable than gold and more precious than pearls, but many do. Not all of those that are lost and unredeemed grit their teeth in hate at the mere mention of Jesus Christ, but some do, while the lukewarm in the middle are often confused as to what all the fuss is about. The Israel of the Old Testament either sang praises and danced to its God or they killed the prophets sent by Him. Even today, we are conflicted not only between nations, but within nations, even at times within ourselves. There is no safety in trying to avoid the battle between God and those who oppose Him. The only safety is in shouting salvation and glory and power belong to our God!... to the only righteous king... and the only true God!
   

Maranatha

The following is from this past April:       

           This topic is not new. It weighs upon me and I feel it necessary to return to it again and again.....but let me begin with this....we have a family member who has only months and maybe weeks left to live. In fact the hospital called the immediate family in about a week ago. From my experience hospitals are usually right on this type of call but in this case they were not....but still....unless God intervenes....this family member will not have much longer to live.
           We essentially have no Christian bookstores in America anymore. Yes you can find them here and there but overall they have withered away. My wife and I used to own one. There were five or six Christian bookstores within a ten or fifteen minutes drive from our house at one time. Today there are none. There are no Billy Graham crusades in which in times past a couple of times a year with only thirteen to fifteen television channels you could not help but stumbling across a crusade. If it weren't for a certain Christian bookstore that I just walked in because I had nothing else to do....this 37 years ago....I'd probably be watching Saturday Night Live right now.
            What we have today are big churches where people from little churches go because there is a lot more to do there. I spent about a half an hour a few weeks ago walking down the Christian book section at a Barnes & Noble looking at just about every book title.....hundreds and hundreds of them...and it is sad....there were not more than five or six that I would even pass out if I had them in my possession. America....unless God intervenes....does not have much time to live.
            You do not agree with me? What do you base your opinion on? Have you at least observed America....and studied it....maybe for years on end.....for decades? There is a verse in the book of Daniel that is easy to pass over but if you do stop at it and consider it....it speaks volumes. Daniel had a severe vision....and because of it had no strength. He was told this...."....Do not be afraid, Daniel, for from the first day that you set your heart on understanding this and on humbling yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have cone in response to your words."
           Daniel racked his mind trying to figure out what God was doing....but today we don't rack our minds....we barely exercise them.....and yet we seem to think that we know all that we should know about what God is doing. Here's something to ponder....one may be a brain surgeon....or a pastor of a megachurch....or may flip hamburgers for a living.....in God's eyes they are the same....neither one has any more innate ability than the other apart from the Holy Spirit to see what God is doing. In fact it is much more unlikely that the brain surgeon will trouble himself with such things....and the pastor probably thinks that he knows it already. My point....if you don't put the sweat and tears into it....you will get nothing out of it.
           We do not have the resources that we did forty years ago. God has recalled our resupply line due to our lack of interest. My wife and I were travelling recently and on the Lord's Day I perused the local paper on worship services. I Googled the churches and went to the websites. There was not one that was encouraging. We stayed in the hotel room and listened to a couple of R. C. Sproul sermons. The monk Luther knew that the church in Rome was bad but he went there anyway.....and found that it was much worse than he even imagined. Is there something unbiblical about saying that the church age that you live in is in trouble?
           We get no warnings from the pulpit today....unless that warning is to beware of warnings. If you but would play amateur futurist for curiosity sake you might see that the world that is rapidly developing has dystopia written all over it. Artificial intelligence alone should be enough for us to call out...'come Lord Jesus.' When is the last time that you....Christian.....actually uttered those words....'come Lord Jesus'....or words to that effect?
                 

The Greatest Treasure On Earth

          Thirty years ago there were five Christian bookstores within a few mile radius of my house. Today there are none. Whereas once someone with a little time on their hands might very well stop in a Christian bookstore just to look around, as I did in 1982, now he cannot. There are no Billy Graham crusades to stumble across as you work the remote. Genuine news is becoming harder and harder to come by....as even foxnews.com is rapidly turning into a tabloid.  Almost gone is the rigorous and challenging intellectual life on America's college campuses, replaced by safe spaces, censorship and Doublespeak. Conversation is primarily done on Twitter....and when the voice box is actually used the result is dull and boring. Even conservative talk radio no longer stimulates thought. The American mind has officially closed up....put out of business by artificial intelligence.
          Could The Closing Of The American Mind be written today? Could The Scandal Of The Evangelical Mind be written today? Probably not, for they accomplished their purpose, albeit in a losing cause. The battle was won on November 8th but the war was lost. We had an opportunity in the past year to humble ourselves before our Creator but chose another road. We are the high and mighty right now....we conservatives....but we may soon find out that that which we hoped for.....political power.....was not the answer. Where do we then turn.....another political savior?
          I submit to you that we will by then have had our fill of trusting in men and princes and ourselves. When that happens.....should God will it.....we will put a Bible in front of us as if it were the very first time. We'll open it and immediately hope will fill our heart. "What is this....I've seen these words before....why are they now penetrating a part of me I didn't even know existed?" We will devour the words....stare at them....pause and look up to heaven as they sweeten the palate....lift them to our face to take in the beautiful fragrance where there should have been mustiness!
         At  sixty-eight years old and thirty-six years bringing up the rear of God's army marching towards heaven, I now dwell on Bible verses...and even on individual words. Why have I been so fortunate to have been given this treasure? Of course I know the answer....in that God ...".... giveth power to the faint; and to them that have no might he increaseth strength." So, why are you reading this post when somewhere in your home is the greatest treasure on earth? Please go to it...."Take up and read"!

The Greatest Treasure On Earth.....July of 2014

          America is shipwrecked, taking on water for decades, adrift and sure to sink if the director of the universe and of all that exists does not intervene, but Americans view this unfolding disaster with detachment! I see it every day in people's faces...."This can't possibly be as serious as it appears! Surely the cycle will return to one of prosperity and....normalcy!"
          The further one's mind is from God on a daily basis the less one will feel imminent judgment. The Bible was once an American's most valuable possession. Today it is either an artifact, a talisman for prosperity, simply an aid to innocuous bible studies and Sunday School lessons, or a rather large and bulky ticket one must have in their possession to enter heaven...should heaven really exist.
          In reality it is the Omnipotent God's Word to fallen man, the greatest treasure on earth, which brings the greatest joy, draws forth the most ardent love and applies a devastating guilt followed by a torrent of mercy that elicits praises upon praises for mercies undeserved...all given because of faith, faith in the One who took our sins to a tree on Calvary. If my words seem overly pious or even syrupy, might I suggest that there may be an underlying cause for your hesitance to shout praises yourself; or if the Bible does not literally captivate you as God's Word to you, overwhelm your objections and gratify beyond your wildest expectations then you might never have truly discerned the words therein. 

"No....They Can't Take That Away From Me"

There's an old old George Gershwin song originally sung by Fred Astaire in one of his movies....and later recorded by Frank Sinatra and Pat Boone and others. Some of the lyrics go like this...."The way you wear your hat....the way you sip your tea....the memory of all that....no no....they can't take that away from me."

          Well they can't take away the memory of what happened at Valley Forge....or Gettysburg....or Guadalcanal.....or the I Drang Valley......or Fallujah....or anywhere that our military did what is has always done....that being upholding the honor of the flag they took with them. They try.....oh do they try. They attack our traditions.....our families.....our government....our constitution.....our educational system.....our political system....our courts....our free press....even our faith.....particularly our faith. Who are 'they?' They're communists.....some are just 'fellow travelers' with communists.....many are just dupes of the communists. They might have high cheekbones and bushy eyebrows or rounder faces or a Latin complexion....or they may look like the all American boy. They may be young or old....smart or stupid...male or female.
           They made headway through espionage and playing upon the imperfections of a democratic capitalist society. Today they control the thinking processes of nearly half of America....they want that memory....but they can't have it. Memories are etched into the human mind.....that's why they attacked education so thoroughly....to keep our memories from the younger generations.
           You have to hand it to them...their plans were nearly perfect......they know more about us than we know about ourselves.....but that's where their expertise ends.....they know about gods and religion and the power that it can have....but they know nothing about God.....and the omniscience and omnipotence that is His. They know that man has many weak areas....so they exploit those areas using miscreants and malcontents to do their pernicious bidding. They simply thought that if they take God out our of the mind then the power will be gone.....which is true....but they were and are unaware that man does not seek God.....that God calls man.....and when He calls them particularly.....they come.
           So they have an advantage over us right now.....and they may indeed win the day......but neither they nor us nor anyone nor any entity will determine what happens to us.....either good or bad. No coup of a sitting president or 'make America great again' Madison Avenue campaign can have any effect without God permitting it for His purposes. Polls mean absolutely nothing....impeachments mean nothing.....capitals mean nothing.  Should God let's us continue to dally with our own perceptions of autonomy then they will get that victory they've been working on for a century.....but should God's plan in these the most terrible of times be for us to return to Him.....then there is not a snowballs chance in Hades that all their well laid plans will not totally collapse let alone succeed.
           Written into the Christian faith is a paradox. Yes we have to turn to Him once again....but we could never do that in our own strength. What we can do is humble ourselves before Him. Trust in Him and not ourselves. How do I now this? Memory. I remember what I have read in His Word to us. The many sacrifices made by our brave military...so very often the ultimate sacrifice....could not possibly be forgotten by us who have remained vigilant. They can kneel on the field all they want....bang their drum all they want....and sing The Internationale all they want....we still have a functioning mind....memory....the words written on a page in sixty-six books....and God who is faithful despite our forgetting that from time to time.
           

Special Dog's Commencement Address

OK....that's it....I've had it! Two minutes ago my wife got a text and apparently a friend of hers gave a high school commencement speech yesterday and sent her a video of it! I've waited for an invitation from anywhere for ten years now but I can't even get a grade school commencement to speak at! What's with this? I even have the speech written and can't get an invite! I guess that you have to have some kind of accomplishments in life to be a commencement speaker. (Folks...I've had fun with this commencement speech post every Spring for quite a few years.....but the intent and the message is serious. Consider passing it on to your graduate if the commencement speech that they heard did not even mention the Benefactor of all gifts....including the gift of learning)

Special Dog's Commencement Speech

          Once again another year has passed and I wasn't invited by anyone 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 the University of Pennsylvania 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 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 as a commencement speaker...anywhere! Here is that speech:

          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, 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. My advice to you young people...find your own White Horse Inn!

          Let me begin with a little bit of American history....the "last official words" of President John Fitzgerald Kennedy. The magazine sized book published in 1964 that most everyone has seen... Four Days, The Historical Record Of The Death of President Kennedy, described it this way, "These were President Kennedy's last official words-the conclusion of the speech he was to have delivered in Dallas." That speech ended with these words, "...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 I pass these words on to you as encouragement in this commencement speech for they are the only truly reliable words that I will utter: 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!

          At 68 years old....looking back on 1968 as I graduated from High School....I thought that I had it bad. It was a horrible year with assassinations and riots and heinous murders that were the headlines of our newspaper. It would be another two years before my plane would touch down at Tan Son Nhut Air Base in Vietnam. My job dealt with Morse Code intercept of North Vietnamese and Viet Cong communications and then analysis of that intercept. On the first day in that job the man who would be training me showed me files from 1968 after the Tet Offensive. There was basically nothing left of the enemy in South Vietnam except a few people in every unit to keep up the continuity of communications. 
           The communists had been defeated. Their top general contemplated suicide after the failed offensive that risked and then lost everything. There was a high level meeting somewhere in the Can Tho region of South Vietnam where it looked like the decision would be made to sue for peace.....in other words surrender. Someone in this group stood up and said that they should wait.....that the anti-war protests on the college campuses in America was such that suing for peace might be a hasty decision. They decided to wait it out....and you and I know the final result. As for me at the time....back in Pittsburgh....I was totally immersed in the campaign of my hero Robert F. Kennedy. His death rocked me. I wandered aimlessly for over a year before enlisting in the army.
           So you see that through those protests.....the young generation was important.....it was instrumental in the communist takeover of South Vietnam and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of Vietnamese trying to escape the communists. 

          So.... you will be going out trying to find a job...maybe you already have one lined up.....please remember....Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
          You finally have that degree....it will be worthless in that which is really valuable if you forget.... Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
          Whatever your degree is in.....your future must be built upon this....Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
          You might already have a position secured at the biggest law firm in New York City.....God's Word reminds you.... Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain!
          You're already an expert at investing and have great plans for your portfolio.....is this the title of that portfolio...Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it?
          'Make America Great Again' has been an often-used phrase over many decades...do not confuse this with....Except the Lord keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.
          Lastly....you may be a small cog in a megachurch or a valuable member of a small church...either way keep in mind.....Except the Lord build the house, they labor in vain that build it.
                  
          Permit me to digress for a moment....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....the possibility of which 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. You should know this....if we have a major war today.....a war with at least two fronts.....which is very possible.....you may very well be getting a letter from the government beginning with...."Greeting..."
         
          It was in the 1960s when Madison Avenue realized that the youth of America were a potentially potent economic force with their newly established buying power. Along with all the attention given to us, for I was a Baby Boomer also, came a microphone. Some used it to shout pro-Ho Chi Minh slogans from atop university statues, some used it to attack Richard Nixon, some used it to announce to the world the true meaning of love, peace and happiness, and a very few used it to ask "Brother, are you saved?"
          Much later when Barack Hussein Obama came along with no employment history to speak of, no legitimate letters of recommendation, no experience outside of community organizing and not even a birth certificate to prove eligibility for the job he was applying for, the youth came out in force America. Barack Obama received 66 percent of the 18-29 vote in 2008.
          America needs a vigorous but positive contribution from its youth at this very moment in our history. It must not be birthed by the spirit of the age but by God's Holy Spirit. Just getting a job cannot be the criteria to determine success. The college student of today is in a more precarious situation than any generation before them. Not the Civil War, nor World War II, nor the Cuban Missile Crisis compares to it. They are losing their republican form of government, the Constitution that kept the rule of law intact, and most importantly the blessings of having God's very hand upon our nation.
          The original discovery that youth were an economic force has evolved into a monster feeding frenzy with the youth feeding on every material and social networking product thrown at them while others feed on the youth themselves, and enemies of America feed on the vacant minds seeking anything to....occupy.
          I realize that you do not want to hear this. Possibly you are not represented by this description. You have made plans, worked hard and now it is your turn to enter the work force and carve out a niche with a prosperous future. Are you going to attempt this without God, or at least expect the rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in a nation that overtly rejects God? Realize this.... past generations had the benefit of living within of a God-fearing populace. Even the agnostic could graze in the fields of plenty. This is not the case today! Others have long since sprayed the insecticide of secular humanism over the amber waves of grain, killing the grain it was supposed to protect. You can join this survival of the fittest if you want, where prosperity is soulless and void of true happiness; or you can join those who are seeking mercy from God and a renewed reverence to the one who blessed your grandparents and their parents as far back as to the arrival of the Pilgrims on this continent.
          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 President's election will give but one night of elation but the coronation of the King of Kings will provide 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 very 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 whatever is ahead for America....if it be His will then it is for good....and if it not be His will....even if it would make America 'great again'....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.....Wisdom herself shouts out to us...."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."