Category Archives: Current events

Do you ever feel dumb?

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Do you ever feel dumb? Sometimes I do. But Jesus said, “The children of this world are in their generation wiser than the children of light.” (Luke 16:8 ) He also said, “Be wise as serpents and harmless as doves.” (Matthew 10:16) The Lord closed His thought with the injunction not to be dumb sheep but instead wise, even wise as snakes. Clearly, it’s not that the Lord wants us to just be ignoramuses.

But some people want to portray us as uneducated, bigoted, racist dummies. Sadly, at times they are able to do that because some Christians just default to simplistic, under-educated clichés or sound bites. And they sadly are prone to being uncharitable towards folks who are not of their race, background, nationality or education. Let’s face it, this happens. And it shouldn’t.

Things are very serious now. Incredible battles are being waged in local school board meetings across America where the forefront of cultural/spiritual battles are being waged for the future of the children and grandchildren of this nation. Astonishing inroads have been made into the curricula of public schools to where books that are just gorged with filth and infested with perverse indoctrination are freely available to elementary school kids in school libraries, as well as being put forward by some teachers.

It’s not a time to default to dummy-ism. If you study history, you’ll know that there’ve been some extremely smart Christians over the centuries who’ve championed the cause of Christ in the secular world and have helped to turn the tide of evil in their day.

A few days ago I saw a movie that really spoke to me, maybe you’ve seen it. It is called “Amazing Grace” and it is the story of William Wilberforce who was an implacable foe of the devil and fought for the love of God and the liberty of African slaves 200 years ago in Great Britain. It’s a tremendous movie and really spoke to my heart.

Is there ever a time when a fully dedicated, consecrated Christian who is seeking first the kingdom of God should take his efforts into what could be considered the political sphere?

Wilberforce deeply struggled with this question. But his friend, the future Prime Minster of Britain, William Pitt the younger, was instrumental in persuading Wilberforce to use his considerable speaking talents and his passion to champion the cause of the ending of the slave trade in the British parliament.

It is an amazing movie and an amazing story, probably very seldom told in secular modern education since it so much glorifies the truth of God and those who follow it. I do recommend it, especially at this time when Christian values are being overwhelmed by “identity politics” and so-called “Progressivism” which is working successfully as a carnivorous beast to destroy Christian values as fast as it can across most of the Western world.

If ever there was a time for parents to stand up, and grandparents, against the forces that are successfully proselytizing and seeking to convert our children and grandchildren openly in public schools across the supposedly advanced world, it is now.

But you’re going to have to be sharp. They are. And they will eat your lunch if you let them. If you haven’t done your homework and are just pratering away with weak platitudes about “the Left”, “the Communists” or things like that, they’ll make a fool of you and utterly defeat you in the realm of public discourse. And this is important because all kinds of people have not made up their minds.

No, everyone has not already made their decision. Multitudes are heart-stricken by what’s going on in public schools. But they need to be informed of the facts without being forced to join one camp or the other on the political left or right.

It’s a great time for those who’ve spent years in the struggle for the cause of Christ to recognize this fight that’s presently raging. It doesn’t at all have to be a matter of “Left’ verses “Right”. I strongly resist being labeled that way.

But when it comes to our poor children who are being indoctrinated with perversion in public elementary schools and then they are told to not tell their parents about it, this is outrageous . And it seems to me it needs the intervention of seasoned veterans of the cross to enter the fray and fight for the survival of our children and grandchildren, right in our own nation, states and cities.

What if the wolf was really there?

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What if the wolf was really there? In the end, the real wolf showed up in the story of the little boy who cried wolf. But people had become so skeptical, they didn’t believe it. Folks and friends, the wolf is there. No, he doesn’t show up all the time and there are lots of people falsely crying “wolf” nowadays. Nevertheless, the wolf is real.

That’s what bothers me. At the end of the movie “Don’t look up”, as the doomsday apocalyptic comet is striking the earth and vast earthquakes shake the planet, the scientist played by Leonardo DiCaprio is having a “last supper” with his family and he pauses to say whimsically to everyone, “We really did have it good, didn’t we?”

But too late. He had been the scientist trying desperately to tell the leaders of America that they had 6 months to take action against a “planet killer” comet that was in alignment to strike the earth. But to no avail. Like Jeremiah of old, he was mocked and dismissed by the leaders of his country, while making little headway with the general population who in DiCaprio’s case were overwhelmingly preoccupied with the technological delicacies of our times, along with the glitzy glamour of the modern media.

In the end, the wolf got them because they’d been lulled to sleep by their hardened hearts and increasingly skeptical perceptions so that reality in its most true form was not really able to be perceived anymore. That’s one reason why I got a lot out of that movie.

A verse that came to me about it after watching the movie was, “The wages of sin is death” (Romans 6:23). It just shows the enormity of the sin that is upon this nation and so many others in our times to which virtually all are oblivious to. When someone shows up who’s telling them verifiable, objective, in-your-face truth about a coming reckoning unlike any before, were they believed? No.

Unbelief and reprobate, hardened hearts were unable to come to grips with simple truth-tellers and so the window of time they had to take action in was frittered away. And, in the end, the planet was virtually destroyed.

It so much reminds me of the obscure but deeply haunting verse at the end of the second book of Chronicles. Talking about the all-encompassing judgment on the nation of Israel 2600 years ago, as the Babylonians closed in to devastate and destroy the nation that had represented the God of Abraham for around 800 years, the text describes the situation in Israel as this. “But they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words and misused His prophets until the wrath of the Lord arose against His people, till there was no remedy.”  (II Chronicles 36:16)

They had been warned, repeatedly. It’s not for the faint-hearted but if you think you can take it, read the first chapters of the book of Jeremiah and see if any of it reminds you of modern America or the Western world at large.

My friends, in the case of the people of those times, the wolf came. And God allowed it. He had warned them, repeatedly. But an increasing dullness and darkness had settled upon and entered into the hearts of the vast multitude of people so that the lone truth-tellers were looked on as cranks and fools.

The wolf came but they didn’t believe. What a warning, what a lesson. I just wonder who will have taken this to heart? Actually, we don’t have to look back 2600 years to see this process in action. If there was ever a “wolf”, it was Adolf Hitler and the Nazi movement in Germany in the 1930’s.

But the clear historical record shows that so many people in the Europe and even in the America of that time just vehemently didn’t want to believe that it was really that bad. “Surely we can work out around this. Surely there will be ‘peace in our times’.” That was the popular and majority opinion. But in this case, it was the British statesman Winston Churchill who with flint-like resolution continued to sound out a warning to all who would listen about the mortal threat of Hitler and Nazism.

Was Churchill listened to? No, not for a very long time and almost until it was too late. Churchill said that at one point in the late 1930’s he could count on the fingers of one hand the number of friends he had in the British parliament. But Churchill was proven true. The wolf was real, he was there and it was just almost too late before the people of Britain awoke to this truth.

Do you know of any Churchills around today? Sadly, I don’t. So we get our warnings from wherever the Lord can somehow engineer them to get to us. I’m sorry if I end this on a sad and foreboding note. But that movie, “Don’t look up” struck me personally to very accurately portray the dithering, distracted, weakened, sin-soaked souls of what seems to be the majority of the peoples of the Western and northern worlds at this time. May the Lord help us all and have mercy.

Seeing light through the mists

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Without God, life can be like being nibbled to death by ducks. The enemies of our soul want to exhaust you and wear you down with distractions, vanities, “rabbit trails” and meaninglessness. Without God, you ultimately crumble, surrender to the fog and become numb within the mists you’ve come to live in. Certainly, this is not the will of God.

But then tonight, it was like a fresh wind from God that blew through the house. We watched the movie about the “Free Burma Rangers”. It’s the story of a man from Texas who was raised on the mission field of Thailand but then felt led to become a soldier. After having become an elite “Rangers” member of the US military, he felt the call of God to use his training and Christian/military background to help the marginalized peoples of Burma.

It specially spoke to me as this man, with his wife and 3 children beside him, has lived a life of zealous Christian discipleship which has been similar to what I’ve experienced at times in my life on the mission field.

This movie touched me on so many levels. While I‘ve not had exactly the same life as this man and his family, I could very much relate to their commitment to the Lord and their willingness to put their lives on the line for Him in very extreme situations in the hinterland of Myanmar (Burma) for years and then in northern Iraq at the height of the ISIS threat there.

It made me reflect on where I’m at now. I’m still amazed at what the Lord has done in the last year to make it possible for me to get the first house I’ve ever owned in my life, against the backdrop of a crazy housing market in central Texas at this time. Plus the Lord has put me together with a couple I met barely a year ago who now rent two rooms from me here who I get along with very well and with whom I share a background of Christian discipleship faith. So “the Lord has done great things for us, whereof we are glad.” (Psalm 126:3)

At the same time, this movie about these dedicated people at the very front of Christian discipleship in Burma and Iraq helped remind me to not “sit at ease in Zion” (Amos 6:1), as is so normal and acceptable to do here in Christian circles in America. The movie reminded me of my calling and background, my experience and all that the Lord has invested in me and all I can still be used by Him to do, if I will be cautious to not get comfortable and settled in this present wonderful situation I’m in.

Desperation often brings on a clarity that comfort and ease really doesn’t. There’s so much confusion and vanity that every person here in my country is mightily assailed by every day. It’s like living in mists that effectively obscure spiritual realties. So we can end up quibbling about trifles while the starkest realities of the spiritual world mostly escape us in all the Babylonian chatter of our daily lives.

But this movie tonight about this dear, precious man was a bit of a shakeup and a reminder of my calling and life up to this time. Jesus said, “No man having put his hand to the plow and looking back is fit for the kingdom of God.” (Luke 9:62) Or it’s like the old prophet and the young prophet (Kings 13). The young prophet was really going great for the Lord. But then he took time out to rest under the shade of a tree, in direct disobedience to God, and this was his undoing.

One of the greatest dangers to Christians in my country is the incredible surge of sickening swill and sludge that flows at us night and day through every organ of the media. It’s virtually all tainted, brackish and deeply polluted by any number of agendas and outlets, trying to sell you their viewpoint or product.

Strange as it may seem, counter-intuitive as you might think it to be, those dear people in the jungles of Burma or the poor souls who were assailed for years by ISIS in Iraq and Syria had a leg up on many of us here. Because they didn’t have to try to sort out reality from fiction. The enemy was right there, real and clear and in their faces, ready to literally kill them physically right then.

It wonderfully concentrates the mind in situations like that. I haven’t experienced it a lot but I definitely have from time to time in my encounters on some far flung mission fields. It quickens you, clears your mind and mostly gets you very desperate as you are face to face with forces greater than you. And you realize perhaps as much as ever before how very much you desperately need at that moment the presence and power of God. Or you may die in the next minute. [Here’s an article I wrote about when I was about to venture into a city on the Syrian border when ISIS was at its peak and how desperate prayer was a life or death matter.]

But are most people in my country experiencing that right now? No. Sadly another manifestation of Satan assails them and for the most part utterly defeats them: lulling distractions, “the pleasures of sin for a season” (Hebrews 11:25), meaningless political debates and diverse vanities that suck the air out of our lives and the clarity of the Spirit out of our hearts.

It was a real wake up call for me tonight to watch “Free Burma Rangers”. I’d better not get drawn in to the allurements and futility of “this present evil world” (Galatians 1:4), but instead keep my eyes on the Lord and my commitment to His cause.

 

A note on the tenor of the times

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Many of us know just how fast and far things have plunged into darkness. The whole trend of light being called darkness, truth being called a lie and love being called hate has already permeated the society I live in and is almost taken for granted in everyone’s lives.

One example stood out to me tonight, not even that much of a major but I was seeing it as an endemic example of the times we’re living in. I was reading about “fat shaming”, maybe you’ve heard of that. Simply put, someone ends up saying something to someone who has become “morbidly obese.”

There’s another relatively new word. When I was a kid, I had a good friend and his grandfather weighed 300 pounds (about 135 kilos). It was the kind of thing you said under your breath. That was the outside edge of what anyone ever weighed when I was 12 years old. Nowadays that’s pretty much within the range of normal here.

But the issue is that to say anything, to even “speak the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15) to someone who’s been unable to restrain themselves and who has become morbidly obese, this effort to say anything to that person is now called “fat shaming”. I don’t know if it has become a felony yet but I could certainly see how that could happen.

Maybe I’m old fashioned but I don’t see it as being wrong to try to find a way, in sincere and humble truth, love and wisdom, to speak to someone who’s been overcome by their physical desires to the extent to which they’ve become vastly overweight. Certainly here in America this has gone on to the extent to which it is not even mentioned or almost even noticed. It’s not unusual to see people weighing 300 to 600 pounds (about 270 kilos), barely able to carry themselves about because of their girth.

Of course for Christians and actually for everyone, it should go without saying that to tease, mock or in any way make someone feel condemned for their looks or their weaknesses, this is not what I am talking about. Jesus taught love and love is totally different from mean-spirited taunting and teasing.

But it’s now a negative thing for anyone to say or do anything to help any of these people to try to be delivered from this dilemma. You’ll be accused of “fat shaming”. Honesty, I don’t even know if this article will survive the surveillance of the internet powers that be as this may be a bridge to far in the way of social/Christian commentary and observation. Possibly therefore it may be banned from the platform. Being “deplatformed” is the risk one runs for making comments like this.

But, are we “our brother’s keeper”? It’s a fundamental tenet of the New Testament that we are.  And we are to speak up in order to be a help to others who are struggling with human weaknesses, whatever they may be. Obesity is a leading cause around the world of a shortened life span.

When someone suffers an early death because of struggles with any number of cravings and addictions, it’s not just the victim that dies. They often have children, parents, brothers and sisters or friends who miss them dearly as their life is snuffed out prematurely through their “flesh”, as the Bible calls it, getting the best of them and ruling their lives.

But in the modern atmosphere, if any of us speak up, we’re likely to be called out as the guilty ones, guilty of “shaming” someone which is seen as a modern aggression, when actually it’s an effort to admonish and reason with someone who’s been “overtaken with a fault” (Galatians 6:1).

What’s the point? None really, but just an observation, a reflection on the deeply perverse nature of this time that to do good, to try to help recover someone from a series of choices and a lifestyle which can easily mean their death, to do that is seen as an affront and an aggression against the poor soul that needs someone to speak lovingly but plainly about how their choices are leading them to destruction.

Quite possibly some reading this know exactly what I’m talking about. What I’m presenting here is not even that much of a big issue. But it just fades into the overall bedarkening of our times where, on the right hand and the left, the Christian voice of conscience is powerfully hushed by the tenor of the times, the mood of “tolerance”, a mood of independence to the neglect of responsibility and of where doing basic Christian good can now be framed as ethical, moral evil, even to the extent of being criminal.

Christians everywhere are being confounded by these kinds of confrontations in their lives to what the simple prompting of the Holy Spirit would lead them to do. Common decency and brotherly love would lead someone to speak up to a friend or loved one to bring to their attention their being defeated by the desires of their flesh. But in these times, to do that is to invite strong censure from the society which tries to frame that as aggressive cruelty, rather than an act of loving kindness. And this kind of thing is seen everywhere.

What can anyone do? For one, they can recognize it. We are our brother’s keeper. Lovingly admonishing another in order to try to help them is the will of God and is a natural product of common, even human love for another.

As the darkness deepens, it will be decisions like these (against the mood of the times) that will be necessary for true Christians to make, if they’re to follow the leadings of the Lord through the Holy Spirit in our daily lives. God help us all.

Just a little false

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The devil fought me for hours. I was asleep and kept having these strong experiences, not really terrifying but just false. I knew it was some alternative reality that was upon me and I resisted it. I even quoted Bible verses to defy the things my mind was seeing in my sleep.

Yes, you can quote verses in your sleep and you should if you need to. But this just kept happening and coming back. I’d wake up and quote the Word to resist and wash away the things I’d seen in my sleep. Then I was so tired I fell back asleep and there was a new alternative reality, almost like a rabbit hole I fell down. It wasn’t really super bad, just that I knew it was false.

The Bible says, “Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” (James 4:7) So much truth in that verse. But sometimes you have to keep up your resistance. You have to keep fighting, keep praying and keep quoting Scripture. This went on last night for quite a while with me.

And the funny thing is, it wasn’t just all blood-curdling, heart-stopping terror. It was just a false reality that was mixed with confusion that kept trying to take over my mind, my heart and my sleep, very persistently.

Finally some hellish imps appeared in my dream. They seemed like people but they were taunting me and challenging me. I had to fight emphatically in my dream and I thrust forward towards one of them as I called on the name of Jesus and quoted Scripture. Of course they disappeared and were defeated. And then again I woke up.

It’s not the first time this has happened; it doesn’t happen much but I suppose it’s the price of being on the wall of discipleship for the Lord, that from time to time the enemy will try to break in and attack us when and if he can. I’m not certain I really prayed over my sleep last night before I went to bed, as I should have and usually do.

Also I’m about to launch out on another activity abroad and I’m sure the devil doesn’t want me to. So, it comes with the territory. Those of us who are trying to be fighters for the Lord, part of the spiritual army of the Lord, living for Him in this world, can just expect to experience opposition, even the kind that comes with spiritual attacks in the night.

Then today at the end of the day, I had a really funny thought. I was recounting how the experience in the dream was before I woke up this morning and the nature of it all. And I remembered that it actually was not just some kind of horrific deviltry and gruesome wickedness I was seeing in my dream. It was just definite falsehood. It was some kind of alternative reality that I recognized as not having the essence of truth to it.

And tonight it dawned on me, “Well, that’s the way things are now in many ways.”

Here in the “civilized” West and North, we are not experiencing what the poor people in Syria or parts of Africa are experiencing, the violence, the anarchy, the collapse of civilization and the prolonged mayhem that grips many parts of the world.

But on the other hand, we here are strongly, persistently attacked every day by vehement falsehood, parading as some inside information, some “truth” that only that source has access to. Like my dream last night, it wasn’t horrific, just definitely false. And if I had not fought it and resisted it, it would have been the reality I would have accepted.

But I knew in the deepest place in my heart, even though I was asleep, that something was wrong with it. It didn’t have the ring of truth that I knew from many years of experience in the Lord’s service. It didn’t even have the elements of Godly dreams when the Holy Spirit can open our eyes and mind to His truths when our spirits are more sensitive when we are asleep.

It was just blatant falsehood. But very persistent. I had to keep continuing to resist it and to not accept what I was seeing in my night hours. The Bible says, “The Spirit bears witness with our spirit…” (Romans 8:16) We just get “the witness of the Spirit” sometimes. Or we don’t get the witness of the Spirit. And if we are in tune and experienced in these things, we notice that we don’t get the witness of the Spirit.

That can happen in your sleep or when you are awake and perusing the issues of the day and our times. Some of it is not really horrific, it’s just false. It is not confirmed by “the Spirit of Truth” (John 16:13). But if you are not paying attention to the checks you are getting in your heart, you can miss the signals of the Lord and not recognize that falsehood is before you and trying to take a place in your heart and mind.

So watch out for plain “not-so-bad” falsehood. The devil shouldn’t have to show what you think is his very worst before you recognize it for what it is. We should have enough of the presence of God in us to recognize falsehood, even if it “isn’t so bad”. That seems to me what is before so many of us in these times.

The need is very great for greater discernment and a willingness to not accept falsehood, even if it is pretty polished, kind of reasonable and is even selling itself as trying to expose some evil. God help us to recognize the attacks and devices of the enemy and not accept counterfeits or substitutes for the truth and reality we have within the Word of God and the life we have in Christ.

 

Friends

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Friends. I’ve never really thought deeply about that word. We say it, use it, but seldom deeply look into it. Churchill’s friendship with Roosevelt was a bedrock of the alliance between Great Britain and the USA which were able to overcome Nazi German nearly 80 years ago.

That’s all mostly forgotten in these times. But so often it really did come down to the friendship, trust, and accord between two men of that time that radically and utterly changed the course of history, without which many of us, if we were even alive, would now be speaking German or Japanese. Really.

Churchill repeatedly stressed his personal friendship and camaraderie with Roosevelt in those times and, from reading Churchill’s 5 volume tomb on the history of World War II, I utterly believe that is true. In a very personal telegram from on March 18, 1945, Churchill wrote to Roosevelt, “Our friendship is the rock on which I build the future of the world, as long as I am one of the builders.” Roosevelt passed on to his heavenly reward less than 4 weeks later.

Who examines friendship? Who studies it or delves into its being or interworking? I can say I’ve never read much about that. I’m a Christian and I often revert to the words of Jesus. He said to His 12 followers, “I have called you friends.” (John 15:15) Honestly, I’ve never in my life really thought about that. I’ve just taken that word and concept for granted as something we all understand.

But right now in what I’m reading in Churchill’s history, it is at an extremely pregnant moment. It’s early 1945. Allied forces have already crossed the Rhine River into Germany and are focused on reaching Berlin to end World War II. Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin have met in the Crimea to discuss the aftermath of WWII and how the world will be governed afterwards.

Suddenly a dark cloud appears in the earlier relative camaraderie and unity that existed between the leaders of Britain, the USA and the USSR. Poland in particular is falling more and more under the rule of what Churchill sees as utterly Soviet puppets, “the Lublin committee” who were totally in the Marxist/Leninist/Stalinist camp. These ones rejected any other group but their own being a part of the new Polish government, something totally at odds with the agreements between Churchill, Roosevelt and Stalin at Yalta in the Crimea a few months before.

In what could be considered a measured desperation, Churchill kept sending communications to Roosevelt, his trusted and true friend, to try to head off what Churchill could see was happening. But something had changed. Evidently it was a result of Roosevelt’s steeply declining health at this time. Churchill came to realize that the communications between him and Roosevelt were not the same as before and he felt that what he was hearing back was no longer really and truly from Roosevelt personally.

Like a movie where 75% through it the plot suddenly changes and there’s a deep twist into the unforeseen and the unfortunate, Stalin of Russia turns from the agreements between the 3 men a few months before. Churchill implores Roosevelt to intervene, to try to get things back to what the three world leaders had agreed on at the Yalta conference.

But it was not to be. As the German Nazi menace moved towards a final defeat, a new danger and darkness arose, not totally unforeseen but certainly hoped against as Churchill had gone the extra mile over and over again to try to establish a friendship and trust between himself and Stalin, as well as the Soviet foreign minister Molotov.

But it was not to be. Stalin, following the self-interest of Soviet, Marxist/Leninist doctrine, did not stay true to the agreements made with Churchill and Roosevelt at Yalta. And Roosevelt himself was entering into the last months of his life. Churchill writes that he felt an ominous chill upon his soul at this time to foresee what was arising before him, even as World War II was reaching its conclusion.

I’ve been struck by how much weight and significance Churchill put on friendship as being a rock for him in the war years.

He and Roosevelt really liked each other and enjoyed each other’s company. They mostly saw eye to eye on the affairs of WWII and Roosevelt truly respected Great Britain and Churchill in how Britain, led by Churchill, almost single-handedly stood up against Hitlerian Germany all through the early war years, when basically only Britain was left undefeated in Europe and the USA had not entered the war yet.

It’s an incredible read and I never saw how much it came down to friendship, the friendship and trust between Roosevelt and Churchill and even the bond that was able to be forged for a while at least between Churchill, Roosevelt and to a surprising degree, the leader of Soviet Russia, Joseph Stalin.

Maybe I need to appreciate friendship more. Evidently Jesus certainly did. He said, “I have not called you servants but friends.” We can’t comprehend this. The very Son of God, having come down from heaven, saying this to bumbling, uncouth fishermen and the “unlearned and ignorant men” (Acts 4:12) who the Lord chose to be His followers.

I think I’ve never really thought about friendship as much as tonight. Winston Churchill was having the truth dawn on him that his dear personal friend, the President of the United States, was quickly fading from relevance as his health rapidly declined. And Churchill’s bond with Stalin was also unraveling as Poland, Romania and other countries increasingly came under the dictatorship of Soviet Communism even before World War II ended.

How many know that Churchill was the one who coined the phrase, “the Iron Curtain”, the most well-known axiom for the annexation of eastern Europe by Soviet Russia at the end of World War II? Churchill’s “Sinews of Peace” address of 5 March 1946 used the term “iron curtain” in the context of Soviet-dominated Eastern Europe. Church said,

“From Stettin in the Baltic to Trieste in the Adriatic, an iron curtain has descended across the Continent. Behind that line lie all the capitals of the ancient states of Central and Eastern Europe. Warsaw, Berlin, Prague, Vienna, Budapest, Belgrade, Bucharest and Sofia; all these famous cities and the populations around them lie in what I must call the Soviet sphere, and all are subject, in one form or another, not only to Soviet influence but to a very high and in some cases increasing measure of control from Moscow.”

In my growing up, “the Iron Curtain” was heard in the news almost every day. To Churchill, it must have been a real and unforeseen nightmare that he did all he could to withstand.  But his coalition of friends which he worked so hard to forge and keep together unraveled in the last months of World War II.

Friendship. How deep and important it is. How unappreciated, how unstudied, how foundational it can be in the most significant affairs of each of our lives. What a shocking tragedy it is when it unexpectedly ends. Jesus had His Judas. We hear of Quisling of Norway or Benedict Arnold.

Or Ahitophel who turned against king David of Israel. King David said,

“My own familiar friend in whom I trusted. We took sweet council together and walked into the house of God.” (Psalm 41:9 & 55:15) The psalm goes on to describe the treachery of this friend of David

What can we say? Hopefully we can appreciate our friends, love them, value them, cultivate them, cherish them. That’s what I’ve been learning from the unfolding of events and the ending of the relationships between Churchill , Roosevelt and Stalin at the end of World War II. Churchill called his ending book on the history of World War II, “Triumph and Tragedy”. How truly fitting that title is.

A Bible verse I often think of is, “Be not overcome of evil, but overcome evil with good.” (Romans 12:21) In World War II, Churchill, Roosevelt and even Stalin banded together to do just that, to not be overcome of the Nazi evil but to overcome it with the good of their united stand, based so much on the bond of personal friendship between the three of them which at least lasted long enough to overcome the indescribable Nazi horror of those times.

Conflicting currents and viewpoints

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Six years ago I was told, “By 2020, Texas will be uninhabitable. The temperature will reach 120 degrees (50° Centigrade) each summer. Huge population migrations will happen as a result.” A dear friend with strong environmentalist views told me this.

Then last November I had a clash with a missionary friend who I’ve known for decades.  He was passionate about the need for assault rifles with large cartridges to hold dozens of bullets. And he was emphatic that the Corona virus vaccine would be the literal fulfillment of “the Mark of the Beast”, spoken of in the book of Revelation chapter 13.

Many were listening to him right then and I felt I had to speak what I felt. I told him I didn’t believe the corona virus vaccine was the fulfillment of the Mark of the Beast. It was unpleasant to be so frank with a good friend but I knew I needed to share what I believed was the truth. I asked him then about the American national election that was happening in a week, what did he see would be happening? With utter conviction he said that Donald Trump would be reelected as President and that the Democrats would then start prolonged, violent civil unrest throughout the USA because of it.

These people are dear to me and I want to stay friends with them. The Bible says, “If it be possible, as much as lies within you, live peaceably with all men”. (Romans 12:18) But other verses come into play and, reluctantly and with Godly caution, they must be considered at times. Jude said that there was a time when we need to “earnestly contend for the faith” (Jude 1:3). Paul said “The servant of the Lord must not strive but be gentle unto all men,.. in meekness instructing those who oppose themselves …” (II Timothy 2:24-25).

Truthfully I think I can say I’ve seldom ever seen as much division and disunity among both Christians and people in general here in America. It’s particularly disheartening to have such division with close friends who I want so much to be of the same mind with. But often it’s just not how it is now.

I feel the danger is that there’s an incredible pull towards extremist views now that are not substantiated by the fundamentals of Christianity. Multitudes of Christians are being drawn into powerful vortexes of radical, fringe views that masquerade as Christian, or scientific, or with some supposed high ethical stand that all true Christians are seemingly compelled to follow.

I’ve had to take measures to simply hold on to the fundamental truths and basics of the Word of God that has sustained me through the last 50+ years. No matter how seemingly Christian, supposedly scientific or utterly substantiated some current view is that so many are being swept up in, I’ve had to exercise my spiritual discernment to try to sense the essence of some things and to ascertain what truth they may have, if any.

My friend told me 6 years ago that Texas would be uninhabitable by 2020. That wasn’t true, that didn’t happen. On the other hand, some serious weather events have happened here, both extreme droughts and in the recent winter extreme freezes. In driving through Texas now, I’ve never seen so many trees that have died of drought or prolonged frost. My friend’s timing may have been off. But it’s hard to not see that something is happening with the climate and the weather.

The song from the Buffalo Springfield back in the 1960’s said, “Something’s happening here. But what it is ain’t exactly clear..”. That well describes things currently. What to do? For me, I’m convinced that I can and should hold on the basics of God’s Word that have proven true for the people of faith for thousands of year. I may not have full understanding of all that’s taking place right now. In spite of that, I have in my grasp the fundamentals that God has given His people in His Word that will provide light and guidance in any time, no matter how confusing or unprecedented.

There are serious, extremist views coming at all of us from both “the Left” and “the Right”, not to mention ceaseless modern heresies Driving-in-fogand multiple temptations thrown at us from the prince of this world. Sometimes we don’t know how to go forward. But if nothing else, we can hold on to the eternal truths we already know, until a time that always comes when the fog clears and directions and truths become more evident so that we can better understand our surroundings and which way we should go forward.

 

 

Fog

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Winston Churchill, writing about 1940 said, “Although it was a fine September, I was frightened of the fog.” Why? Because he knew that the fog was the best cover the enemy could have for a German invasion of Britain at that time. And that’s in many ways where we are now: in a fog.

Admittedly, some think they are seeing utterly clearly and can emphatically tell you who the good guys are and who are the bad. But sometimes, the wrong people have the right message and the right people have the wrong message. It’s rather like great confusion.

Have you ever looked up at the sky and seen some clouds going one direction but others going another at the same time? In one place in the Bible it says, “The winds were contrary.” (Acts 27:4) A bit like it is now, it seems to me. And it’s the easiest time for the enemy to invade the land or our own hearts: when we are in a fog and can’t really see as clearly many things that seemed clear not so long ago.

It’s like that to some degree for me now and perhaps for many people. A dear friend said something to me a few days ago that was profound, although he didn’t probably intend it that way. He simply said that he was looking at individual issues rather than choosing one side or the other in the big picture.

I think that might hold a lot of wisdom for the Christian people of faith right now. For me it’s been a help. If I look at individual issues affecting the world right now, I can feel a leading of the Lord on them, if I just look at them one at a time. But forming some composite big picture, some “unified field” as they say in the realm of physics, I’m not really able to do that right now.

And maybe as a Christian disciple, I don’t need to. Maybe I don’t need to identify with the various yardsticks that are so prevalent and demanding right now. No, I don’t at all swear allegiance to one political party or the other, “left” or “right”. I just feel vehemently that my loyalty and allegiance should continue to be to the Son of God Who will ultimately return to establish the Kingdom of God on earth, as He clearly said He would.

Should I move away from that? Should any of us come off the wall of Christian discipleship to become embroiled with “the course of this world” and “the affairs of this life”?  (Ephesians 2:2, II Tim. 2:4) No matter how loud the clamor is between one worldly faction and the other right now?

I just can’t, or at least shouldn’t. But there is a strong pull and I do have long-time Christian disciple friends who’ve now engaged themselves almost totally within those controversies and have, in so doing, moved away from their original calling to an allegiance with Christ and His service within this present evil world.

But the enemy can attack most easily when there is a fog. That may be why Paul said, “God is not the author of confusion but of peace.” (I Corinthians 14:33) If I let present contrary winds and an inability to as easily discern things as it seemed possible in the past, then I can allow that wedge to be a device of the enemy to move in heavily, as he always attempts to do, and to overwhelm me with uncertainty, perplexity and confusion. Before you know it, as Churchill feared the Germans would do in 1940, the enemy is landing troops upon your land and is advancing in a blitzkrieg war while you pause in perplexity, with your guard dropped.

The-fight-of-faithThe solution? Remain vigilant. “Strengthen the things that remain.”  (Revelation 3:2) “Be sober, be vigilant, for your adversary the devil as a roaring lion, walks about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8)

Having perfect understanding and being able to see clearly the horizon in every direction is not guaranteed for Christian discipleship. Sometimes we simply don’t have that. We have to “walk by faith and not by sight.” (I Corinthians 5:8) But the enemy is always there to cast fiery darts into our hearts and minds, sowing fear, uncertainty, questions and doing all he can to reverse the polarity so that he can launch an attack on God’s homeland, which is our souls, especially when the overall outlook seems foggy.

I’ll have to admit, it has bothered me that I have not been able to feel I see things as clearly as I did until very recently. But on the other hand, I have more than enough of the Lord’s grace to handle all that is before me on the short term. So while the fog clears, I’m going to concentrate on the short term goals and vision which is still just fine. And perhaps before long, other things will become clearer. Still, I am going to remain vigilant against the attacks of the enemy who has already tried to attack me in this present somewhat foggy time.

The enemy is always threatening, broadcasting his woes and contrary confusion, all the much more when it is foggy. But the Lord’s directional systems still work just as well in fog as they do in clear skies.  Meanwhile, when it comes to the enemy of our souls, “We are not ignorant of his devices.” (II Corinthians 2:11)

Weighed in the balances

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It can be a frightening thing to be weighed in the balances. We are faced with a sudden accounting of our lives and decision, at times in our lives. That’s what is happening to the Christian leadership of Texas right now.

The fearsome polar vortex that engulfed Texas a few days ago pushed the state’s power grid here far beyond what it was able to bear. Temperatures plunged to almost unprecedented lows across the state and snow remained on the ground in central Texas longer than it ever has before. Eight million people in Texas lost their electricity, many of them for days. Electricity was off across Austin for around 2 days. Water was off for there around 4 days.

The responsibility for this is all the full domain of Christian Texas leadership. So although it is primarily a political matter, it also pertains to the character and nature of our Texas leadership as they have always maintained their Christian identity and stature. And there’s the dilemma. In the political realm, you basically never admit your mistakes. You come back hard and throw the guilt on your political enemies. That’s always the way of the world.

But if you are a Christian, Christ’s call to admit when you’re wrong, to apologize and make restitution cannot be ignored since it’s one of the most fundamental tenets of Christianity.

So the Christian leadership of the government of Texas is really under the microscope and being brought before the court of the people, if not the court of God. Sadly, one of the greatest characterizations of the people of Texas is (supposedly at least) their pride. Pride is extolled as a virtue here and an absolute. But any Christian who has studied their Bible knows that there is not a single verse in the Bible, cover to cover, that exalts pride in any way.

From all we can see, the state government of Texas was utterly unprepared for the crisis that hit it last week and that is still going on in many ways. But there is so much misinformation flooding cyberspace at this time to promote right or left wing agendas that it becomes all the more difficult to ascertain any element of objective truth and facts in these times.

And millions of people locally are still coming out of the experience and seeing what they have to do to repair their broken water pipes and find a way to pay for their skyrocketing electric bills. All of which comes back to the leadership of the state of Texas at this time and their policies concerning utilities that have been implemented here over the last 10 or 20 years.

This isn’t fake news. This is not a partisan take on what happened. I’m not a politician or a journalist, representing either right wing or left wing views. But I am interested, as a Christian and a citizen of Texas, as to how our leadership, all devout Christians, respond at this time. From all I know, the Christian thing to do is to admit their mistakes, to apologize to the State for the impact their policies have had on this disaster, and to try to make restitution.

But it may not at all be that easy. The challenge will be the massive ideological struggle that will go on in the hearts and minds of our Texas Christian leadership. Because the political ideology that they have followed is what has set up the infrastructure here in such a way that profit has been the primary driving impetus, rather than to serve the people of Texas. And to go against that principle of profit will be almost impossible, regardless of what their Christian convictions and soul may be telling them.

It’s a crisis time in Texas in more ways than one. They even have a modern, somewhat mocking phrase for times like this. They actually call it a “come to Jesus moment”. Not that they really do that at all. But the idea is that it’s a real moment of accountability, of exposure where reality is being exposed and you, the major leaders of a state, nation or multinational business, are exposed and have to give a clear and visible accounting of yourself. Perhaps a poignant point Jesus made was when He summed up things in the simple words, “You cannot serve God and Mammon.” (Matthew 6:24)

It all very much bears watching. Expect a lot of smoke and mirrors. Expect there be a change of the subject, red herrings being thrown in every direction and a mighty shifting of the blame onto all the usual suspects that the right/left paradigm always throws up at us. Sadly, so many in American have bought into this ideological conflict that we’ve evidently come to where truth, raw and real truth in real time, doesn’t matter that much anymore to so many.

But people died here in Texas last week. Most of my friends went without electricity and water for days. So many major grocery stores for the second time in less than a year were denuded of food and necessities and panic buying went on again. As I wrote in another article (“Judgment must begin at the house of God”), in a state as Christian as this one, as led by Christians as this one is, it’s truly a time of sifting and accountability for the Godly leadership of Texas.

May the Lord help them to come down on His side, even if that means that pride is humbled and political struggle is ignored in order to measure up to greater truths and allegiances that we all have in the sight of the dear Lord God.

Judgment begins at the house of God

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The Bible says, “Judgment must begin at the house of God”. (I Peter 4:17) What does that mean? God holds the standard the highest for those who proclaim that they are His. It’s like how Jesus castigated the Pharisees rather than the drunks. In fact He told the self-righteous religious leaders of His day, “The tax collectors and harlots enter into the kingdom of God before you.” (Matthew 21:31) The same principle that Jesus espoused 2000 years ago is still valid today.

The recent pandemic that’s swept America, as well as the world, had a major, transformative effect on the elections of 2020 in the USA. The national government here was seen by many to be aloof and distracted by other things as the Corona virus hit America as hard as any disease has in the last 100 years.

Was this an example of judgment beginning at the house of God? Well, it sure had an effect on the elections last November. And America voted for a new administration and government which it was hoped would take more action and really get to grips with this vast, deadly emergency that has virtually overwhelmed the country.

And now this major historic cold and snow that has just hit here in Texas has had a similar effect. Both the cold in Texas and the Corona virus nationally have been ”natural disasters”, as we call them. Insurance companies actually call them, “acts of God”. But judgment must begin at the house of God. The Lord has ways to intervene in the affairs of humanity, even in our times. And thank God for that.

The Lord has always had ways to bring judgment first upon His own people, rather than on the so-called worldly or the unsaved. That’s why, in God’s eyes, His own saved Christians are so much more accountable than are the unsaved worldly who don’t know His Word or ways.

I often feel that it is a pitiful, fearful time for America. Will they be able to muddle through for a few more years, as they have for so long? Maybe; they’ve gone on a long time, coasting on the momentum of the righteousness of former generations. But, like Israel of old, there comes  time when God requires an accounting. It says in the Bible, “In those days the Lord began to cut Israel short”. (II Kings 10:32) I fear this is now happening to America as well.

The Lord has consistently held a higher standard for His own people than He does for the ignorant and unsaved of this world. But you seldom hear this message from the pulpit here or much less from the opportunistic politicos of our times.

A former US President from Texas once talked about “compassionate conservatism”. I wish I could say I have seen more of that here. In Texas there is a predominance of conservatives; but each of us will have to answer to God if we have truly been compassionate. I could go off on a tangent here, trying to apportion blame and take sides. But instead, maybe I’ll just try to keep seeing what the Lord is doing. I will add that I have certainly known personally some very humble and compassionate conservative Christians here in Texas.

The Lord brings crisis into our lives. He can, in His love and nurturing of us, even expose our sins, both to individuals and to nations. And almost no one really ever likes that, individually or nationally. Still, the Lord does it to purge and purify and to try to bring us out of “the sins that so easily beset us.” (Hebrews 12:1)

JobAnd how we react to that, individually or nationally, will really tell the tale of how our life goes. Almost everyone is very prone to “justifying themselves” (Luke 10:29). I wrote a blog article about justifying yourself which can be found here.

But God’s hope must be that, individually and nationally, we won’t justify ourselves and thwart the working of God in our lives. Instead, we will see the hand of God working when events that He sends expose our unpreparedness, our aloofness, our pride and arrogance. Then the hope must be that we will see it, acknowledge it, repent of it and be the better for the judgment the Lord sometimes brings. So often, it really comes down to that.

How’s this all going to end? Will the leadership of Texas confess their mistakes, ask for forgiveness and make the changes that are so desperately needed? We can hope so. Virtually every major leader in Texas is strongly a Christian conservative. May the Lord have mercy upon us all. May we all, individually and nationally, see the chastening, purifying hand of God in our lives.

“Now no chastening for the present seems to be joyous, but grievous. Nevertheless afterward it yields the peaceable fruit of righteousness to them which are exercised thereby.”  (Hebrews 12:11)