Thanks-giving 2020

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Each year at this time we all sing a Dutch hymn the Pilgrims knew, and may have sung at America’s first thanksgiving.  Its opening verse is especially applicable for us this year:

 

"We gather together to ask the Lord’s blessing;

He chastens and hastens His will to make known;

The wicked oppressing now cease from distressing;

Sing praises to His Name; He forgets not His own."

This year, all Americans who have taken refuge in Him fervently praise Him for deliverance from the oppression of the wicked.

The last verse of the hymn also strongly resonates with me this year:

"We all do extol Thee, Thou Leader triumphant,

 

And pray that Thou still our Defender will be;
 

Let Thy congregation escape tribulation; 

 

Thy Name be ever praised !  O Lord, make us free !"

 

Jesus said "If you continue in My word, then you are truly My disciples; and you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free" (John 8:31-32).

We who know and believe Jesus' words, know it is His unshakeable will that we continue in His word.  So we know that this song of petition is Jesus' Own desire for us...and that we will be free indeed.

Amen, Lord !  Thy will be done.

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Good

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

“Why do you call me good?” Jesus answered. “No one is good—except God alone.” 

                                                                                            --  Mark 10:18, Luke 18:19

“…it is written, ‘You shall be holy, for I am holy.’ “              --  I Peter 1:16

 

Human beings are only ever “good” in comparison to other people.  It’s the wrong standard.  Jesus, during His days in human flesh, rejected that standard.

Americans have to thank God we will soon have a President with a moral compass, and a heart for other people.  That’s better for America than what our nation has experienced under the current president: but it can only be relatively better.

Our human system of government hinders even that relative “good.”  The incoming President’s political enemies control other levers of government power, and have promised they will do everything possible to stymie his governance: including whatever limited, relative, “good”  he might attempt to do.

Our system of government also makes certain that when a majority of “the people” again WANT to believe lies and follow liars, America will again have evil rulers after their own heart …and come under God’s judgement again.  Poor America !!

May America REPENT, and every heart desire the Kingdom of God and its righteousness !  Amen !!

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Abortion and Honesty

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

 

Another election, and again many Christian friends have voted for Republicans

because "Republicans are pro-life."

 

The question I would ask those friends is, "And you believe them !?!?"

Most people are wise enough to be skeptical of the words of politicians, any 

politicians.  Even more are wise people today distrustful of the words we hear

from Republicans, who have shown themselves to be the foremost party of liars

and hypocrites, and devotees of the great liar.

 

So I would call out scripture's words to all Christians, to those who before God

should be the most honest of all people, "Test yourself to see if you are in the faith !"

(II Corinthians 13:5).

Honest people can certainly be wrong: that's why God commands self-examination.

But only the honest are capable of fruitful self-examination: able to hear God when He says

anything contrary to their own "thoughts and ways," able to admit to themselves they've gone

astray from God's ways, and capable of turning back from their wrong ideas and wrong ways.

Even though he's a politician, I consequently have hopes that Joe Biden (for example) may

be able to look at abortion as the moral issue it is in God's word, rather than the political

"right" his party has made it.  Joe Biden is a man who could possibly repent his political

support of "abortion rights."

 

I consequently have virtually no hope that the liars and hypocrites will repent...

especially when lies and hypocrisy are the foundation of their political "success."

Except for Almighty God's sovereign work-of-power in his heart, can anyone

imagine the Republicans' demigod admitting...to himself, first of all...that he

was ever wrong...and repenting ?  And obviously none of his worshippers would

dare his wrath by questioning his ineffable wisdom (i.e., lies) ?

So we hear many Christians say they vote for the liar, and his false prophets,

because "Republicans are pro-life."  So we see that many Christians believe

and follow liars because they are led astray by their "politics," and pay no heed

to the Spirit of Truth.  An honest Christian is a rare thing, in this time, in our nation.

May God yet send a spirit of repentance on all Christians (if they are) who love

neither righteousness nor Truth !  May God yet call back to Himself any, if there are

any, honest hearts among the deceived now following the father of lies.  Amen !

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

War Is Hell

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

We all know, and agree with, General Sherman's (slightly-misquoted) dictum that "War is hell."

Well and good that we do: it's true, and has always been true.  We all know so.

Well and good that we can all objectively judge the moral quality of war.

How is it then that we invariably regard warriors as "heroes"...and not logically, as devils ?

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

Bull in a China-shop

                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                              

My folks regularly used the expression "...like a bull in a china-shop," so I was familiar with what it meant: someone so mindlessly inattentive that they were dangerous, and destructive.  My folks often used that expression about me.

It wasn't 'til I was in my 20s, working on a survey-crew, that I learned the fuller, coarse, version of that familiar saying from my profane old crew-chief.  It was both harsher and funnier than the version I knew.  (Come to think of it, my crew-chief  too may have said it about me.)

Coarse and profane is seldom my style.  And to tell the truth, I don't think I've known anyone in the intervening 50 years who really deserved the old crew-chief's harsh description.

But now we have Donald Trump.

He's like a bull in a china-shop: what he doesn't break, he shits on.