Effectual, Fervent Prayer...

The effectual fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much. Every person who names the name of Jesus Christ must be in prayer these next few day. Do not go to sleep in Zion, resting in your ease.

Faith as a grain of mustard seed--even if it be so slight as this: "My Father, you said for us to call in the days of trouble, and we are calling, Dear Lord. We have enough faith to call. Have mercy upon our nation and guide voters at every level: county, city, precinct, state, federal. You would have delivered Sodom if there had been ten righteous--search out the righteous, dear Lord, not for our sakes, but for your glory, Dear Lord.

All of you who claim faith in the Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, can pray. You dems repubs, Paulites, and everything in between, etc., pray earnestly, submitting yourself to the will of God. The Lord will clean up your prayers, for He is our kind and gracious Father who loves us in Jesus Christ. Enter into your closet and pray earnestly; do not trumpet it abroad. Speak to your Father as if to one who loves you and forgives your sins by the blood of Christ.

Am 6:1 Woe to them that are at ease in Zion....

What you can do to heal our country.

Or try this: http://tinyurl.com/9u86v5x  cut and paste into browser.  Google may not find it, the drips.

Abortion IS Murder. Without a Doubt

"If men strive, and hurt a woman with child,

so that her fruit depart from her, and yet no 

mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, 

according as the woman’s husband will lay 

upon him; and he shall pay as the judges 

determine.

"And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt 

give life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for 

tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot,
Burning for burning, wound for wound, 

stripe for stripe."  Exodus 21:22-25

"Mischief" would have to apply to the "fruit" for the law against murder in general 

would apply to the woman. When I was a boy every man in the room would rise 

when a pregnant woman entered the room. This law that is denigrated as "eye 

for eye" is the most civilizing respect for life in the world: because you might not 

know whether a woman was with child you would treat them all with great respect. 

But with murder and hatred of the God of life, men have no compunction about 

ripping her life from her, and her wickedness aids and abets them. Abortion has 

reduced womanhood to monkeyhood, sexual objectivity and a slave of man's 

sexual perversity.

People's hearts are revealed by what they say. I respect people enough to take 

them at their word when they speak. If they don't mean it, they shouldn't say it. 

Words mean something.

Levi paid tithes in his great grandfather Abraham. God considered Levi a person 

even before he was born. Killing Abraham would have been killing, Isaac, Jacob, 

and the twelve tribes of Israel. Couldn't happen, for God preserved Abraham and 

all his seed in him.

But go ahead, kill your babies. What good can come from any of your godless 

seed? You deserve what you get. Murder your neighbor, too, while you are at it, 

and get rid of all his godless children that are not yet born. You will be doing the 

world a favor. [irony alert]

Of course, if there is no God, what does it all matter, anyway?
But because there certainly is a God, the true and living God of Scripture,
I know with out a doubt that it would have been impossible for any of my
forefathers to have died without children, for then I would never have been born.
It was no accident that I was born because my Heavenly Father had planned my
redemption from the beginning of the world.  How do I know that?  Because I
read in Isaiah 53:10 about my Savior:


"Yet it pleased the LORD to bruise him; he hath put him to grief: when thou
shalt make his soul an offering for sin, he shall see his seed, he shall prolong
his days, and the pleasure of the LORD shall prosper in his hand."

The reason Jesus my Lord endured the cross and despised the shame was this:  

He saw His seed, His children that His death would purchase--He saw everyone 

of them, including me.  He did not see me as righteous or godly, but a sinner 

that He chose to redeem for His own purpose.  The will [pleasure] of God the 

Father in electing a people to eternal life prospered in the sacrifice of Christ 

and the love of God was revealed [Rom. 5:8] in that Christ died for us while 

we were yet sinners. 

Because of that, every elect person's birth is secured and his line is protected 

all the way back to Adam.  God has saved many babies from the knife of the 

murderous abortionist in ways that are almost beyond belief, because He was 

not through with that line yet.

This also applies to all the ones who, by God's grace, descend from me who are 

the elect of God. That's why I baptized my babies, because of the Promise of God 

to me and to all His children, a greater promise than that given to Abraham, for our 

promise is for a spiritual seed.  If some do not believe, that does not make the 

promise of God without effect.  The true children of God have always been those 

who believe.  But they have to be born before they can believe.

This is the reason God hates divorce, because He seeks a godly seed. It isn't 

just about you, you, you, and you, and your experiences. It is about the promises

of God to you and to your children, as many as the Lord our God shall call, which 

implies that not all the children of the flesh are called.  

The future does not belong to the abortionist, the lesbian, or the sodomite,
for they have no issue.  Their line dies with them unless they repent.  It does belong
to all those who believe, even the eunuch, for by his faithful witness he can bring the
lost into the kingdom of God.  But children are an heritage of the Lord; blessed be
the Name of Lord.  Amen and Amen

Amen and Amen.

Well, You Know, Sin is Sin

Perfectionism refuses to see the difference between things.
God expects us to know the difference between a gnat and a camel.
I have had a gnat in my soup and removed it. The soup was still
good and I drank it along with the myriad of unseen biological
creatures that infest everything we eat and drink. Don't seek to know
everything you eat and drink on a daily basis if you are a perfectionist.
It will drive you crazy.

God appointed Jehu king of Israel and used him to destroy Baal
worship, and rewarded Jehu with four generations of kings in his family.
This in spite of Jehu's continued worship of the golden calves at
Dan and Bethel, the evil of Jereboam I. He even names one of
his sons Jereboam who reigned as Jereboam II. Baal worship was
far worse than the golden calf worship for the nation and involved
human sacrifice. The calf worship was, at least in the beginning,
a pretense to worshiping Jehovah and did not involve the social
and legal decay that Baal worship did.

Jehu was a better man than Ahab, though neither of them were godly.

I have never had a camel in my soup, but I don't think I would
drink soup that had a camel in it. I have never swallowed a physical
camel, but I have swallowed some spiritual ones that I dearly repented
of. The principle is the same, it is the degree of invasion that counts.

People choke over some poor, weak, "hypocrite" in the church,
and swallow easily their disobedience to God in despising the church,
Christ's government of the church, and the regular preaching of the Gospel.

Well, "sin is sin," the perfectionist intones with hands folded and eyes
elevated to heaven. Well, duh. And false doctrine is false doctrine.
But God said that we are to judge righteous judgment. You should
pay your tithe of mint, anise, and cumin, but don't think a transgression
in mint is equal to a transgression in judgment, mercy, and faith.
The perfectionist is mired in the false doctrines of self righteousness
and cannot see clearly.

But the perfectionist thinks he has every obedience covered and is
secure in his pretense. He thinks, "When I pay my pinch of mint,
then I will have kept the law perfectly as a righteous man.
I got the gnat. Don't talk to me about the camel. I just swallered him."

But worst of all, the perfectionist, in treating every sin the same,
does not make small sins abhorrent, he only succeeds in trivializing
huge sins. So he loses the ability to evaluate anything: murder is the
same as petty theft; perjury before a church judicatory is the same
as complimenting a person for an ugly hat.

God's Word in Your Heart

You will not find God's word in your heart unless you have put it there: 
Ps 119:11 Thy word have I hid in mine heart, that I might not sin against thee.

The word is put in your heart by reading, meditating, asking God for the 
Holy Spirit to give you understanding. James 3:17, 18. 

The word is sown in the heart from without, for even the field of the 
good heart does not have good seed until it is sown there by the Sower. 

Pleading inability to understand is no excuse, for that is your fault, 
and no one understands unless he cries out for understanding and wisdom. 
But God's word makes wise the simple and give understanding to the fool. 
But you must seek her as for hidden treasure.

God has words that you MUST receive from without. 
You will not find them in your heart which is a den of iniquity and lies:

1 My son, if thou wilt receive my words, and hide my commandments with thee;
2 So that thou incline thine ear unto wisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding;
3 Yea, if thou criest after knowledge, and liftest up thy voice for understanding;
4 If thou seekest her as silver, and searchest for her as for hid treasures;
5 Then shalt thou understand the fear of the LORD, and find the knowledge of God.
6 For the LORD giveth wisdom: out of his mouth cometh knowledge and understanding.

You will have no wisdom to speak in your mouth if you have 
not hidden it in your heart. Ps 119:27 Make me to understand the way of thy precepts: 
so shall I talk of thy wondrous works

Only One Foundation

True faith is known only by God, for all its fruits can be faked.

It it is indeed true and from God, then God who alone sees the heart, 

has justified the sinner and all his sins are covered by the blood of Christ.

That being said, faith is witnessed to men ONLY by works, 

and can be revealed ONLY by works, beginning with a confession 

with the mouth that Jesus is Lord [not friend, good pal, easy on the mind] 

which has the idea of an oath and covenant, that He is my king and master. 

"Why call ye me Lord, Lord, and do not the things that I say?" 

Good question for the modern rebellious saint.

Ministers are to "reprove, rebuke, exhort..." what?? John the Baptist said 

"Bring forth the fruits of repentance." Pr 17:10 

"A reproof entereth more into a wise man than an hundred stripes into a fool."

Of course, no man can keep the law of God, for this Christ died. 

But He didn't die so I could continue to wallow in my sins. 

He provided a way for me to escape just as He did Israel. 1Cor. 10:6-13 and context. 

Those who despised Moses died without mercy, for God is master of His own mercy 

and dispenses it as it pleases Him. If we despise the way God has given for us to escape, 

we shall not escape a more severe penalty [Hebrews 2:1-3]

A duck is a duck and bears witness to its duckness in everything it does. 

It doesn't slander and despise other ducks when it is doing its duck thing. 

And neither does a Christian despise the visible church which is the 

pillar and ground of the truth [1Tim 3:15], no matter how much of a tickle 

he gets in his belly that he thinks is the Holy Spirit. Reformation is not rebellion 

and both Luther and Calvin and the other Reformers had a high view of the 

church and ecclesiology.

I suppose there are dozens of churches, both small and large, in Colorado Springs 

where people can be nurtured in the faith and grow in Christ for there are a lot of 

fine Christian people in this town. The churches are doing something good. 

There is a lot of foolishness, I suppose, too, for there is no church that does 

not need to heed the command to grow in the faith and to be conformed to Christ. 

Perfection is found only in Christ, and the faults of the churches are no excuses for 

those who profess the Name of Christ to submit to the rebukes and exhortations 

of the Word of God, even though spoken by earthen vessels. God would humble that in us.

1Co 14:36 and context; "What? came the word of God out from you? or came it 

unto you only?" This was written to correct the Corinthian error that the Holy Spirit 

was just jabbering away to everybody all the time--even in languages nobody understood--

so that in the church [what?] every body should sit down, shut up [especially the women], 

and listen to each other, doing things decently and in order.

The Ephesians had it right, for they examined those who claimed to speak for God 

and found them liars. [Rev. 2:2]. No one should publicly teach in the church that is not 

approved of the elders, ordained by the laying on of hands, for the most precious gift 

of Christ to the church is faithful teachers and preachers. If you despise them you will 

soon find a famine in your heart and in your life.

There were only 12 apostles and when they were finished with their work the foundation 

of the church was finished and everyone else was to build on their foundation. No other 

foundation can be laid than that which is already laid. [I Cor 3 and context, which was 

also written to those who were pretending new revelations.] Away with your new 

revelations and dreams! There is only one foundation for the church [Eph 2:19-22].

Acts 10: 41 Not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God, even to us, 

who did eat and drink with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to 

preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he which was ordained of God to be the 

Judge of quick and dead.

If you didn't get it from the Apostles, then you ain't got it.

1John 1:3-10 and context. The only way to have fellowship with the light of God is to walk 

in the light of the words of the Apostles. [verse 3] Salvation comes through the fellowship 

of the Gospel which was preached by the apostles. When we walk in that light, we have 

fellowship one with another, and the blood of Christ cleanses us from all sins. vs. 6,7.

1Peter 5:5,6 and context: Yea, all of you be subject one to another, and be clothed with 

humility: for God resisteth the proud, and giveth grace to the humble. 6 Humble yourselves 

therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time...

Thus saith the Lord: not Bud Powell, not John Calvin, not Martin Luther, not Gashmu nor 

Geshem the Arabian.

Walking in Darkness

A man walked along in darkness. He was peaceful. A great light came to 
him and frightened him because he saw great dangers all around.

"I do not like the light," he cried. "I will not suffer it." So the light 
gradually faded away and he no longer saw the dangers. 

Then the darkness said, "I will be your light. I will show you good 
and pleasant things."

Then the darkness appeared light about the man and he saw pleasant 
and pretty things that delighted him and made him feel good. "It is so 
good to be free," he said. "I am not afraid. Fear is bad."

"Poor, tragic fool," said the Light. "The way of the wicked is as darkness: 
they know not at what they stumble. 
-- Who leave the paths of uprightness, to walk in the ways of darkness; 
-- The wise man’s eyes are in his head; but the fool walketh in darkness: 
-- Woe unto them that call evil good, and good evil; that put darkness for 
      light, and light for darkness; 
      that put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!" Pr 4:19 Pr 2:13 Ec 2:14 Isa 5:20

Pr 6:23 For the commandment is a lamp; and the law is light; and 
reproofs of instruction are the way of life:

Joh 8:12 Then spake Jesus again unto them, saying, I am the light 
of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but 
shall have the light of life.

2 Cor. 11:14, 15 And no marvel; for Satan himself is transformed 
into an angel of light. Therefore it is no great thing if his ministers also 
be transformed as the ministers of righteousness.

No Weapon Shall Prosper

No weapon shall prosper.

16  Behold, I have created the smith that bloweth the coals in the fire, and that bringeth forth an instrument for his work; and I have created the waster to destroy.17  No weapon that is formed against thee shall prosper; and every tongue that shall rise against thee in judgment thou shalt condemn. This is the heritage of the servants of the LORD, and their righteousness is of me, saith the Lord

Psalm 7  For God is the King of all the earth: sing ye praises with understanding.8  God reigneth over the heathen: God sitteth upon the throne of his holiness.9  The princes of the people are gathered together, even the people of the God of Abraham: for the shields of the earth belong unto God: he is greatly exalted.

All the weapons belong to God, because there is no power but that of God.  Even the devil himself has only the being and power given to him as a gift of the Creator.  God is so high above all things, and so powerful, that He makes even the wrath of men to praise Him.  Ps 76:10  

Because all the weapons belong to God:  the tongue, the heart, the hand, the engines of war, the imagination, the will, the courage, the pride, the arrogance, the hardness of heart, the cruelty, the anger, etc., there is nothing that can do permanent harm to His work or His people.  No weapon shall prosper and no tongue can judge.  

Not even the dogs barked against Israel as they left Egypt.  "Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect.  It is God that justifies." God's power and wisdom are so great, so high above all things that He made, that He is able to make all things work together for good, for His glory and the good of His people.  

This does not mean that evil becomes good, for that would be a contradiction of the very being of God, but it does mean that the outcome of all things is good and for His glory.  If you do not seek God's glory the outcome will not be good for you, however, for the wicked shall be turned into hell and all the nations that forget God. 

The One-Eyed Man [Apologies to Erasmus]

Irony Alert:  Not for the Faint of Heart.

[This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream.  I am not responsible for what goes on in the mind of the One-Eyed King.]

In the Land of the Blind, the One-Eyed man was King.  He was often confused, and one day sat alone in his parlor, thinking deeply about the things that confused him.

“I am a Christian,” he said, “but I wish I could understand more.  Christianity seems so simple to some, especially those who have no eyes, but I get confused at times.  Jesus died on a cross and that seems to be very important to Christians.  But why did He die?

“It seems to me,” the One-Eyed King said to himself, “that before Jesus came God spoke to Moses and gave His commandments to Moses.  This gave the Jews a special relationship to God.  But what happened?  Why did Jesus come?  It seems that Moses defined the will of God for the Jews and, therefore, for mankind, for in the Jew all the families of the world were to be blessed, as God told Abraham.  But how could they be blessed if they did not live by the law that Moses gave the Jew.”

He thought about it for a long, long time.   It was very hard for him, but after one very hard day of thought, with his head bowed and his one eye staring at the ground, he suddenly jumped to his feet.

“I see! I see!” exclaimed the One-Eyed King.  “Jesus came to lead us to Moses, to show us how important the laws given to Moses are for the good of mankind.   Men live by the law.  The Jews did not do what Moses commanded them, and this was the reason that Jesus came. If the Jews had been better at obeying Moses, then Jesus would not have needed to come.  Jesus died on the cross to teach us that we really need to take Moses seriously and keep every one of his laws.”  He came to show us how to do the law and to give us power to do it.  Wow!  (Tears of joy streamed from his blind eye.)

“God promised Israel a land flowing with milk and honey.  They would be very rich just as Abraham was very rich.  Jesus didn’t want His people to be poor, so He died so they could be rich.  This is what that saying of Paul must mean, that Jesus ‘though he was rich, yet for your sakes he became poor, that ye through his poverty might be rich.’   Jesus humbled Himself and was poorer than the foxes so that Christians could have three or four houses, one for the summer, one for the winter, and another for skiing and still another for European vacations.  It fills even my blind eye with tears to think that He loved us so much.”

“God is also very concerned about holy days,” the One-Eyed King continued, as he got up from his chair in his parlor and walked out upon the veranda.  “The Jews didn’t do well with this, and never seemed to be able to get this right.  They did their own things on the Sabbath Day and thought their own thoughts and sought their own pleasure.  This was very distressful to God, who wanted them to think His thoughts and seek His pleasure one day of the week.  If they did that, then they could live the other six days as they pleased, thinking their own thoughts, seeking their own pleasures, and doing their own things.  

"Moses told them how important that holy day was and how everything depended upon it.   If they kept that day very holy, then they didn't really need to think about what it meant to be holy the rest of the week.  Preachers really need to concentrate on what you don’t do on the Sabbath Day, because God really cares about what you don’t do on holy days.  Besides, if you get the holy days right, then God will make you rich.  Riches are very important.  Jesus died so we could be rich.  If you get the seventh day right then God will bless you so much that you will be much richer than the poor suckers who work all the time.  Jesus wants us to be rich.

“Especially important are two worship services on Sunday.  Christians should earnestly contend with one another over how much rest they should get on the Day of Rest.   God is really concerned about this.  After all, He rested on the seventh day and knows how important rest is.  It is so important that Jesus died on the cross to teach us that we should have at least two services on Sunday.  It is very hard for me to see how Sunday is the seventh day.  I guess I would need both eyes to see that.  But I see enough to know that I am very agitated in my soul that some churches only go to church once on Sunday.  How can I have rest in my soul when I know they are not resting.  How evil is that?

“But I am very certain that God is very concerned about people having pleasure on the Day of Rest.  I should be very restless in my soul if I think that someone is having any fun on that day, especially in Colorado where Broncos play.  Christianity absolutely depends upon Christianity having a day of rest so they can be mournful on that day, because Jesus died for this.  I know that I will never have rest and peace in my soul until everyone is having rest and peace and no personal fun on Sunday.  It my duty, as I see it with my one eye.

“The Jews were to be a peculiar people, but they were not peculiar enough at times.  They interbred their cattle, mixed the seed in the field, rounded the corners of their heads, and marred the corners of their beards.  Some even wore garments made of different kinds of cloth—in the same garment, would you believe!  If they mixed their cloth how could they be expected to be separate from sinners?

Some of them even didn’t have beards.  How excessive was that?  How could they possibly have been so rebellious as not to grow a beard so they could keep God’s commandment about not marring its corners? It seems so clear to me now,” said the One-Eyed King to himself.  “Jesus had his bearded plucked out so that we might wear our hair right.  Why else would Jesus have His beard plucked out but to show us that we need to pay more attention to our hair.

“How can you be godly if you don’t wear your hair right?  It is clear that every man must have a beard because how could he not mar its corners if he didn’t have one?  Why else do men have facial hair if not to not mar the corners.  Too bad about the women.  It shows they cannot be holy, but then, some women do have some facial hair, so there may be room among the godly for some of them.  But they should never shave or pluck their facial hair, for that would make them as wicked as the men who shave.  Shaving really mars the corners of the beard which is shameful.

“But women who do not have facial hair will never be able to have the blessing and be rich because they will never be able to get Moses right.  No wonder God doesn’t have much use for women because they will never be able to have beards with un-marred corners.  They will never be able to keep Moses perfectly.  I understand a lot more now that I am getting the hair thing right.  It’s too bad that my people do not have one eye so that can see it like I do.

“But then,” quoth the One-Eyed King.  “Moses didn't have it completely right, maybe.  Nature taught the Corinthians that it is a shame for a man to have long hair.  Nature must trump Moses who said they shouldn’t cut their hair.  How can a man not have long hair if it is a sin to round the corners of his head or wicked to mar the corners of his beard?  Why is it natural for a man to have a long beard but unnatural for him to have long hair?  Whatever was going on with the Corinthians?  I guess the sin is growing unnatural long hair on the top of your head, or perhaps in having unnatural short hair on your chin.  But it seems pretty certain that it is natural for most women not to have beards. No temptation there.  I guess that shaving his beard is a sign that a man doesn’t want to grow up manly but wants to be a sissy with cheeks like a woman.  But God does seem to care a lot about hair if Jesus died so we could get it right.  Jesus died to make us peculiar.  Didn’t He?

“It is really tough to have only one eye,” sighed the One-Eyed King.

“But then,” the One-Eyed King went on.  “Maybe Moses did have it right.  He said that Samson was strong and manly until Delilah cut his hair, and then he became a sissy with short hair.  When it grew out again his manly strength returned, it seems.  But I am confused,” the One-Eyed King mused.  “If it is shameful for a sissy with long hair to pray and honorable for a manly man to pray with his short hair, then why did God not hear Samson with short hair, but did hear Samson with long hair?  How could he have had faith when he was a shameful sissy and not have faith when he was manly?   And why did the male Nazarite have instructions about cutting his hair but a woman Nazarite receive no instructions about hers?  Could she cut her hair after her vow was over?  Although I have only one eye, I do know that the law of the Nazarite was for women as well as men.

“But why is it natural for my hair to grow long if nature teaches me it is shameful?   It must be something about the fall.  Adam must have had short hair because God made Adam good, not shameful.  Sin must have something to do with the hair.  Man cannot love God if he has long hair for that is naturally shameful.  But Moses said it is wrong to round the head or mar the corners of the beard.  It is certain that Jesus didn’t do that at all, for then He would have been shameful.  The hair grows long naturally, but if a man really loves God he will cut off that natural growth.  Somehow it is natural for the hair to grow out long so that it can teach us that it is shameful for a man to have long hair.   But he must do this cutting very carefully lest he round his head or mar the corners of his beard for then he will look like a heathen priest, which is shameful.  This is perfectly clear, even to a man with one eye.  I wonder if I could see it better if I closed my good eye.”

“But I am very tired,” the One-Eyed King said in his soul.  “I cannot think any more about this.  But one thing is clear to me.  The purpose for Christ’s death on the cross will be completely fulfilled when we all get Moses right.  This is what Jesus meant when He said, “the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ.”  Isn’t it?  What else could it mean?  It does have something to do with hair, though.

The attendants came at this time to help the One-Eyed King get ready for bed.  He slept fitfully and finally only slept when he vowed to continue his musings at a later date.

[This I beheld, or dreamed it in a dream.  I am not responsible for what goes on in the mind of the One-Eyed King.]

Written on Our Hard Hearts

If we were not blinded by sin, we would see 
that God's law is clearly written in our own 
hearts, embedded so deeply in our nature that 
it cannot be effaced.  The more eagerly we 
seek our lusts and desires the more we are 
judged.  

The reason that we do not understand is that 
our hearts are very hard, unless we are 
renewed by the Spirit, given a new heart 
that can understand and fear the Lord.  We 
are naturally first in our own causes, seek 
them eagerly, and men who are most 
energetic in this endeavor are praised and 
rewarded by the world and held up as 
examples for the rest of us.


Philippians 2:21 "For all seek their own, 
not the things which are Jesus Christ’s."

Jesus is the Light of the world, and the 
Light that penetrates into the darkness of 
our hearts, showing us that the more 
energy and effort we devote to our own 
interests, the more we are judged by His 
holy law.

How can this be.  These are the words of 
Christ in Matthew 7:7-12, the latter 
portion of the Sermon on the Mount: 


7  Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, 
and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be 
opened unto you:
8  For every one that asketh receiveth; 
and he that seeketh findeth; and to him 
that knocketh it shall be opened.
9  Or what man is there of you, whom if 
his son ask bread, will he give him a stone?
10  Or if he ask a fish, will he give him a 
serpent?
11  If ye then, being evil, know how to give 
good gifts unto your children, how much 
more shall your Father which is in heaven 
give good things to them that ask him?

This is the proper way of seeking the 
desires of our heart.  We are to come to 
our Heavenly Father and trust His wisdom, 
love, and dominion, for He will give the 
Holy Spirit to those who ask Him.
[Parallel Passage in Luke 11:13]

Instead of asking of our Father, we strive 
on our own.  We bite and devour,we 
contend and steal and murder.  We slander 
and destroy, and we have not because we 
ask not.  But our very striving, our very 
contending, the hot lusts that burn within 
us.  In fact, the hotter our desires, the 
strong we contend for them, the stronger 
our condemnation.

Because we have this wonderful promise 
from our Heavenly Father, we should read 
our desires and lusts in an entirely knew 
direction.  In the words of our Lord, for 
He follows the above promises  by saying:

12 Therefore all things whatsoever ye 
would that men should do to you, do ye 
even so to them: for this is the law and 
the prophets.

The measure of our desires is the measure 
of our duty toward our brother and sister, 
and this is the very requirement of the law 
and the prophets.  Do I strive to defend my 
life; then I should strive with the same 
measure to defend my neighbor's life.  Do 
I oppose theft and seek to secure my title 
to my possessions  then I should do so for 
my neighbor.  Do I love my wife and resent 
attentions paid to her by other men;  then I 
should not pay attention to other men's 
wives.

For love is the fulfilling of the law and the 
second great commandment is to love my 
neighbor as myself.  My love for myself 
that I have naturally is the very measure 
by which I must love my neighbor.

Jesus is not teaching us in the passage how 
to go to heaven, for salvation is not by the 
law, but by faith in Christ.  But He is 
teaching us the true meaning of the law 
and the prophets and the measure of the 
good we are to seek to do as the children 
of God.  

Jesus fully engaged the law and kept it 
perfectly, and His righteousness is the 
only sufficient righteousness that can 
open the door to heaven and admit us into 
the presence of God, but this is what He 
did in laying down His life for us.  We 
also ought to lay down our life for our 
neighbor, for this is His commandment.

1 John 3:16 "Hereby perceive we the love 
of God, because he laid down his life for us: 
and we ought to lay down our lives for the 
brethren."

If Bill Has Your Back....

Mac the Knife

This is it. I said a few days ago on Facebook that when Clinton's got your back, your back is not got.

"Governor Romney's argument is, we're not fixed, so fire him and put me in," said Clinton. "It is true we're not fixed. When President Obama looked into the eyes of that man who said in the debate, I had so much hope four years ago and I don't now, I thought he was going to cry. Because he knows that it's not fixed."

A man smart enough to know that sometimes "is" does not mean "is," will know that you cannot respect someone you pity.  This knife was very skillfully placed.   These Clintons are amazing.  This comes two days after Obama took Mrs. Clinton off the hook on the Libyan fiasco, after she gallantly tried to fall on the sword for him.

You can't but admire the political skill.  Mrs. Clinton comes off as a faithful and loyal team player and Obama is left slowly twisting in the wind.  The Clintons have long memories but waited until Obama had almost destroyed himself, then moved in for the coup de grace.  They still think of Obama as a usurper who stole the nomination from Hilary and supplanted Bill as the first black president.  The Romney camp jumped on Clinton's remarks also, for Romney is no slouch of a politician himself.

This paves the way for a Romney victory, and a Hilary run in 2016.  There will be a lot of chicks in and around the White House so that Bill can play.

Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha Ha

Jonah Goldberg @JonahNRO
Joe Biden Veterinarian: "Hi Timmy, your dog HA HA HA HA is dead HA HA!"

Here's some more from me.

Joe Biden Minister. "Hi Bill, HA HA HA HA, You might be going to hell."


Joe Biden Airline Pilot. "Hi, this is your captain. He, He, He, He. I think we are going to crash and all of us will die. Ha Ha Ha."


Joe Biden the Son. "Dad, I think HA HA HA HA HA that Mom just left with that guy next door with those really neat abs.HA HA HA HA HA ."


Joe Biden Philosopher: "Students, HA HA HA HA HA HA, Good and Evil are the same, so I am going to have fun giving you all F's. HA HA HA HA ."

Make up your own.

The waning of Iran?

This is an interesting article.  One of the things going for the West is that the Islamic nations hate each other more than they do Europe.

http://tinyurl.com/9zvbl2p

Salt and Light and the Rainbow Covenant

God's Providential Care for Justice

God not only has predestined His people to salvation and eternal life, but He
does providentially preserve the world until all of His people actually are born
and come to faith. Hence, as Christians we not only spread the light of the 
Gospel and render the earth palatable, but we are called to work to reprove
wickedness and speak for truth and justice.

The presence of the righteous holds back the hand of God's wrath until all the
elect are saved. [2Peter 3:3ff] Sodom would have been saved if there had been
ten righteous souls. 

Sometimes wars are God's chastening acts on all sides of the conflict, but by no
means always. The man who stands in his yard shooting people will be taken out
by officers of the law, or by other citizens who may have lesser offenses on their
record. Not even cops are pure always. But the Rainbow Covenant includes the
activities of men in God's wise and providential government of the world, and we
are to be willing actors in that work. Hence, we support the work of the police
against domestic crime and the military against foreign crime. Both occupations
are approved of God and are His ministries.

Wicked nations that may be used of God to curtail the activities of other wicked 
nations may in turn be subject to chastening by God who is the judge of all nations
as their Creator and Lord. Also, if the government becomes the enemy of its own
people, the people may change the government, destroying it if necessary. Even
wicked men may be used of God to accomplish this purging. [Read the American Declaration of Independence. Jefferson, though himself not a Christian in the
evangelical sense, yet expressed in the Declaration the thinking that grew out 
of fifteen hundred years of thought concerning the relations of the people with
unjust governments.

The Rainbow Covenant of Genesis 9 is with all the world, the sons of Noah. God
promises not to destroy the world again, but has commissioned the nations of the
world to work to escape the wrath of God by mitigating violence: "Whoso sheds
man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed." War is a just and proper occupation
for the nations of the world, especially to hinder the ambitions of murderous
regimes who shed the blood of the innocent and make the world unfit for peace.
God uses one nation against another, to slow the progress of sin and preserve the
world. Peace is God's great gift to the world, but if we do not seek righteousness
along with peace, He will give us unending wars and troubles. 

Governments are established by God for the purpose of rewarding the good and
being a terror to those who do evil, both internally in the state and externally in
the family of nations. Nations must not make peace with internal outlaws nor
with external outlaw nations. We must pray and support wise leaders both locally
and nationally who will support just laws and righteous relations with foreign
powers. It isn't easy. But as St. Augustine said: "No man's sin is so unnatural as
to wipe out all traces whatsoever of human nature." [The City of God (New York: Doubleday, 1958) 545 quoted by David W. Hall, Calvin in the Public 
Square, Presbyterian and Reformed Publishing, 
2009, p. 5]

What makes an outlaw government? Not easy to define, but one that wars directly
or indirectly against its own people, or directly and indirectly seeking to overthrow  
legitimate governments more righteous than itself. This is a huge subject and cannot
be covered on FB even in bumper sticker form. Love your neighbor as yourself applies
to nations as well as to individuals, but the bar is lower, perhaps. The extremes are
easy to define: a man with a rifle in his front yard shooting at his neighbors; nations
who do likewise. A man with a gun threatening his neighbors; nations who do
likewise. Wisdom is required, but we do not pull out the police because some cases 
are harder: a man with a meth lab; one growing pot; making moonshine; and every
variety of ways in which wicked men seek the lives and property of their neighbors.
I suggest Hall's book cited above; Augustine’s City of God [ancient and not perfect]; 
Calvin's chapter on Civil Government in his Institutes; and a whole host of reading, not much of which is found on Facebook. 

One of the beauties and curses of America is that every man has the privilege of
placing his ideas in the public forum no matter how uneducated, unstudied, and
ignorant they might be. This freedom of speech is hated by tyrants of all stripes, but
is a bulwark against them. That's why they hate it. Even the stupid ideas of the
educated, the studied, and the learned are given play. Only God can give us wisdom
to sort out the chaff from the wheat.

Honest Doubt: Not in some things--the most important!

Ac 9:5 "And he said, Who art thou, Lord? And the Lord said, I am Jesus whom thou persecutest: it is hard for thee to kick against the pricks."

How do you verify your thoughts?  What makes them true or false?  You think there is no biblical God, the Creator, perfect in power, love, justice, knowledge, wisdom, etc.  That is something pretty important not to be certain about.  But how can you be certain?  If certainty is impossible, then if He does exists He cannot be loving.  To even raise the doubt destroys the only comfort that is possible for man.  Before you can ever decide whether anything is true, you have to make a decision about whether you are capable of knowing it.  You must affirm something about yourself in order to affirm anything else. 

To tell the parents that there is no reason, no loving purpose, nothing but bitter chance or cruel nature, for the death of a beloved child; or the birth of a severely handicapped one, or any of the other harsh tragedies of the world is to deprive the experience of meaning, to take away hope, the support of life.  Anyone who does this is not loving, but bitter and angry.  "But it is true," they say.  "There is no God.  We have to face the truth."  But how can you be sure?  Isn't it important enough to be certain about?

Because the doubt raised by the skeptic represents a most bitter and unloving spirit, the doubt fills the soul with bitter knots and fears, especially in a world of tragedy. If the doubt is from God, then He is no loving God, and the skeptic represents no love and no compassion. 

Again, the doubt raised by the skeptic is not humble, but imagines that those who believe in God have been conditioned by others and do not think for themselves.  They think that only stupid people would believe stories about talking snakes, water from rocks, bread from heaven, parting of seas, etc.  Stupid people from all the world believe such stupid myths in all religions.  The skeptic hasn't seen such things and like Thomas, he demands that he be given a private viewing before he will believe.  He is a cut above everyone else intellectually, he thinks.    

Ob 1:3 "The pride of thine heart hath deceived thee...."  Pride is the greatest of all intoxicants and blinds the mind and the heart.   It demands the right to define the boundaries of truth.  As such, at the very beginning of the inquiry, it refuses to recognize Jehovah who resists the proud and calls men to forsake their own thought and live. "The light shines in darkness, but the darkness comprehendeth it not."  Understanding requires an act of the will to "take hold of," for the mind is not a wax tablet upon which experience writes, but people must have a "spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of him." [Eph. 1:17]  This is the reason that Paul and all faithful ministers pray that "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened that ye may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints...." [Eph. 1:18]

Why the Knowledge of God Must Be Clear

The existence of God would be clear from physical reality, and the universe would abound with a veritable downpour or hurricane of evidence, that would reveal the folly of doubt.  It would be clear from the intellectual reality, and the vanity of thought that would result from denying Him.  It would be clear from the spiritual and moral realities and the selfishness, corruption, and spiritual bankruptcies of those who doubt.  Without Him the whole world becomes a bottomless pit, intellectually, morally, spiritually, physically.

If Jehovah is possibly a myth and the very doubt is warranted, then all the evil results follow.  To start with doubt is to deny the existence of Jehovah.  To doubt His existence is to deny it, a frightful offense against God and all his creation.  Denial is in the doubt; for it is impossible for an all powerful and all loving God not to have revealed Himself clearly.  How could a loving God permit the world to believe in Jehovah?  How could a loving God permit Moses to be so deceived and the Jews to suffer so much to preserve their Scriptures and the knowledge of Jehovah?

But because the biblical God is real, then no doubt cam be warranted, for His love would make His existence transparent and written in all His works.  The man who knows God will realize that the doubt is culpable and is to be condemned, as the Bible says.  The doubt itself would be worthy of judgment and the wrath of a good God, though He bear long with it. The doubt itself would reveal the bankrupcy of man's intellect, his spirit, his very powers of observation, and use of His senses.   The doubt would reveal that the skeptic has refused knowledge; not that the knowledge is obscure.   The doubt condemns the doubter, not the evidence.

Because of this, the skeptic cannot deliver himself from his own doubt; how could the blind man see? how could the dead feel? how could the deaf hear?  If he does not believe he is condemned already, because he does not believe.  There is no excuse for his unbelief, for the unbelief itself is culpable.  His jaundiced eye makes everything yellow, and nothing he finds in his friends, the birds of the air, or the fish of the sea, or the moon and the stars, or even in the love of family can convince him of the truth of that which is self-evident.  His heart is hardened in pride.

Such men are to be prayed for and pitied.  "In meekness instructing those that oppose themselves; if God peradventure will give them repentance to the acknowledging of the truth; And that they may recover themselves out of the snare of the devil, who are taken captive by him at his will."  2Tim. 2:25,26

Revisiting Charles Schultz

Revisiting Charles Schultz

Of course Charles Schultz had a right to write what he felt.  I am just very sorry that he felt that way.  The comic strip about sound doctrine that I reposted from somebody recently does not mean what some Christians might think it means.  The message throughout Peanuts is that we live in a hard unforgiving world and the weak take solace in religious myths [like the Great Pumpkin], impossible ideals [winning baseball with dogs and girls], stubborn building of tiny islands of meaning around yourself: Beethoven, security blankets, doghouses, etc.  "Sound Doctrine" is one of those security blankets and might even affect how realists like Lucy think, who are among those who realize the Charlie Brown is a blockhead, Linus is a religious mystic and Lucy and Snoopy [the realists] are always trying to take away the security, so that the blockheads can see reality.  It is hopeless to think that such stubborn blockheads will ever see the truth of psychiatry and nature and live in the world of reality.  

There is no purpose for this stupid world, some realist will always pull the football away; the reality is in the journey, for there is no ultimate purpose. 

The very name "Peanuts" reveals that Schultz's world view was that we are a bunch of insignificant childlike idiots whose lives have no meaning, so you have to find your own meaning in your little circle and be prepared to protect yourself from the realists like Lucy.  

Your little doghouse can be filled with immense furnishings that could exist only in a world of fantasy.  The best thing you can do with such a world is to laugh at it.  Little people living meaningless lives:  Peanuts was pre-Seinfeld Seinfeld, but as funny as can be, especially when you recognize the pain at the root of it, for great humor always comes out of pain.  It is a bitter satire clothed in the comedy of children, a Swiftian satire with the bitterness masked.

The value of such satires and the humor of them is that we see ourselves and others and life becomes a bit more bearable for meaningless lives.  It is especially funny when we see our friends so displayed.  We know those who always whisk away the football.  The tragedy is that in laughter and fun we often miss "The Horror, The Horror!" and drift on into eternity where reality will hit us with a vengeance.  There IS a God and we were created to glorify Him and enjoy Him forever.  That the present sufferings are not to be compared with the glory that awaits those who believe on Christ and have found the Way the Truth and the Life.  And that is NOT a great pumpkin.

The comparison with the Old Man and the Sea is pertinent.  The world is meaningless.  The struggle is the existential meaning we impose on the world.  The meaning is in the catching of the great fish you dream of--it's the dream that counts.  Make your hands keep holding on, continue the struggle and do not give up.  You will never win a baseball game, but every year you take the mound again.  But realize, that nothing will turn out as you dream, the sharks will eat the fish, and you will be left with nothing but memories of the struggle, but people will marvel at how brave you are.

Pshaw!  No wonder Hemingway blew his brains out.  Cheer up, friend, nothing will turn out right.  The Great Pumpkin will not return again.  [Irony alert]

Good Thinking Belongs Naturally to the Image of God

Good Thinking Belongs Naturally to the Image of God

"Commit thy works unto the LORD, and thy thoughts shall be established." Prov. 16:3. The best thing you can do for your mind is to give yourself up to the Lord. The Holy Spirit whom He sends to those who obey Him will not teach you to make a fool of your self, but will teach you soundness [healthiness] of mind. Sin perverts the thought process for sin separates us from Christ, the wisdom of God. Giving yourself up to God does not teach you to live without thinking, but teaches you to think God's thoughts after Him.

2Ti 1:7 "For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind."

Eph. 5:15-17 "See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools, but as wise, Redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Wherefore be ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is."

Pr 1:7 "The fear of the LORD is the beginning of knowledge: but fools despise wisdom and instruction."

Isaiah 35:8-10:  "And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein. No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there: And the ransomed of the LORD shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away."

Pr 28:26 He that trusteth in his own heart is a fool: but whoso walketh wisely, he shall be delivered.