St. Patrick's Day

He wasn't red-haired nor Catholic, and surprisingly, not even Irish. But Maewyn Succat did become known as Patrick. And when the Catholic Church bestowed "sainthood" upon him many years later, he officially became St. Patrick of Ireland.

He didn't guzzle beer or chase snakes out of Ireland or even teach the Trinity using a shamrock (though he did believe the doctrine).

What Patrick did do, was to preach the gospel of Jesus. Druid idolatry was worthless as is any other form of religion known to man. What the Irish of the 5th century needed is what America of the 21st century needs: Jesus. A savior who forgives repentant sinners.

Some 2 million people celebrated the day in New York City today. Sadly, their focus was not on what Patrick valued most...his Savior, Jesus Christ.

National Prayer Breakfast -- More About Politics Than Prayer

I just read a few blurps of Secretary of State Clinton's remarks as well as President Barak Hussein Obama's remarks from the National Prayer breakfast.

Not surprisingly, their comments were political, not spiritual, though they took some shots at "organized religion" encompassing true, gospel Christiianity I suppose. All comments were devoid of the issue--that America has departed from its worship of the one true God. Jesus wasn't even mentioned.

Still, God in His mercy averts His judgment on a stiff-necked and arrogantly rebellious nation. May He give us repentant and humble hearts!

I was surprised to learn the history of the National Prayer Breakfast. Interestingly, a watch group called Citizens for Responsbility and Ethics in Washington (CREW) had asked the President and others not to attend. The letter is here.

Belated Happy New Year

These words from AW Tozer are worth reflecting on as we enter into a new year:

Every new year is an uncharted and unknown sea. No ship has ever sailed this way before. The wisest of earth's sons and daughters cannot tell us what we may encounter on this journey. Familiarity with the past may afford us a general idea of what we may expect, but just where the rocks lie hidden beneath the surface or when that "tempestuous wind called Euroclydon" may sweep down upon us suddenly, no one can say with certainty....

Now more than at any other time in generations, the believer is in a position to go on the offensive. The world is lost on a wide sea, and Christians alone know the way to the desired haven. While things were going well, the world scorned them with their Bible and hymns, but now the world needs them desperately, and it needs that despised Bible, too. For in the Bible, and there only, is found the chart to tell us where we are going on this rough and unknown ocean. The day when Christians should meekly apologize is over--they can get the world's attention not by trying to please, but by boldly declaring the truth of divine revelation. They can make themselves heard not by compromise, but by taking the affirmative and sturdily declaring, "Thus saith the Lord."

This World: Playground or Battleground? pp. 9-10

President Obama Omits God From Proclamation

Our President, Barack Hussein Obama, issued yesterday his first Thanksgiving Proclamation as America’s chief executive. He continues a long, established and worthy tradition.

However, the President has dramatically changed the nation’s focus. “As we gather once again among loved ones, let us also reach out to our neighbors and fellow citizens in need of a helping hand.” In the early days of American history, thanksgiving wasn’t about turkey dinners and neighborly kindness. It was about worshipping God and giving Him thanks for His blessings to us.

In fact, America's first thanksgiving proclamation, issued by Plymouth colony Governor William Bradford in 1623, ordered citizens to participate in a 3 hour worship service.

Now I, your magistrate, do proclaim that all ye Pilgrims, with your wives and ye little ones, do gather at ye meeting house, on ye hill, between the hours of 9 and 12 in the day time, on Thursday, November 29th, of the year of our Lord one thousand six hundred and twenty-three and the third year since ye Pilgrims landed on ye Pilgrim Rock, there to listen to ye pastor and render thanksgiving to ye Almighty God for all His blessings.

President Obama does indicate thanksgiving is to be directed to someone, but it is for“the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our Nation.” So God is out and the coastal indians are in.

Granted, Obama isn’t the first recent President to move our focus from God to each other, but I believe he is the first to omit any personal reference to God. Sure, the word “God” does appear once in his proclamation, but it is from a quotation from George Washington. Sadly, the President’s proclamation is befitting of this new age in which America finds itself.

The President also fails as a history teacher. According to the President, Abraham Lincoln “established our annual Thanksgiving Day to help mend a fractured Nation in the midst of civil war.” Wrong! Abraham Lincoln established it to give thanks to God. It wasn’t about the “mend of a fractured nation” at all. It was about acknowledging God.

A Proclamation by the President of the United States of America

What began as a harvest celebration between European settlers and indigenous communities nearly four centuries ago has become our cherished tradition of Thanksgiving. This day's roots are intertwined with those of our Nation, and its history traces the American narrative.

Today, we recall President George Washington, who proclaimed our first national day of public thanksgiving to be observed "by acknowledging with grateful hearts the many and signal favors of Almighty God," and President Abraham Lincoln, who established our annual Thanksgiving Day to help mend a fractured Nation in the midst of civil war. We also recognize the contributions of Native Americans, who helped the early colonists survive their first harsh winter and continue to strengthen our Nation. From our earliest days of independence, and in times of tragedy and triumph, Americans have come together to celebrate Thanksgiving.

As Americans, we hail from every part of the world. While we observe traditions from every culture, Thanksgiving Day is a unique national tradition we all share. Its spirit binds us together as one people, each of us thankful for our common blessings.
As we gather once again among loved ones, let us also reach out to our neighbors and fellow citizens in need of a helping hand. This is a time for us to renew our bonds with one another, and we can fulfill that commitment by serving our communities and our Nation throughout the year. In doing so, we pay tribute to our country's men and women in uniform who set an example of service that inspires us all. Let us be guided by the legacy of those who have fought for the freedoms for which we give thanks, and be worthy heirs to the noble tradition of goodwill shown on this day.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, BARACK OBAMA, President of the United States of America, by virtue of the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, do hereby proclaim Thursday, November 26, 2009, as a National Day of Thanksgiving. I encourage all the people of the United States to come together, whether in our homes, places of worship, community centers, or any place where family, friends and neighbors may gather, with gratitude for all we have received in the past year; to express appreciation to those whose lives enrich our own; and to share our bounty with others.

IN WITNESS WHEREOF, I have hereunto set my hand this twentieth day of November, in the year of our Lord two thousand nine, and of the Independence of the United States of America the two hundred and thirty-fourth.

BARACK OBAMA

Now contrary to the President’s thinking, thanksgiving doesn’t have a “spirit [that] binds us together as one people”. Thanksgiving and gratitude is more than “FOR” something. It is “TO” someone. Who is responsible for plenty? For freedom? At this point, America’s are divided. Folks like me, say these blessings come from God. I’ll heed the words of Psalm 95

1 O come, let us sing unto the LORD: let us make a joyful noise to the rock of our salvation.
2 Let us come before his presence with thanksgiving, and make a joyful noise unto him with psalms.
3 For the LORD is a great God, and a great King above all gods.
4 In his hand are the deep places of the earth: the strength of the hills is his also.
5 The sea is his, and he made it: and his hands formed the dry land.
6 O come, let us worship and bow down: let us kneel before the LORD our maker.

I know this post borders on complaining which seems contradictory to Thanksgiving. But if Emanuel Clever happens to read this post, it isn’t yet Wednesday!

Thanksgiving Preparation

In our preparation for Thanksgiving, 2009, I’m posting one of my favorite pieces on history: Abraham Lincoln’s 1863 Proclamation. You’ll notice its focus on God as the Giver of blessings.

By the President of the United States of America.

A Proclamation.

The year that is drawing towards its close, has been filled with the blessings of fruitful fields and healthful skies. To these bounties, which are so constantly enjoyed that we are prone to forget the source from which they come, others have been added, which are of so extraordinary a nature, that they cannot fail to penetrate and soften even the heart which is habitually insensible to the ever watchful providence of Almighty God.

In the midst of a civil war of unequaled magnitude and severity, which has sometimes seemed to foreign States to invite and to provoke their aggression, peace has been preserved with all nations, order has been maintained, the laws have been respected and obeyed, and harmony has prevailed everywhere except in the theatre of military conflict; while that theatre has been greatly contracted by the advancing armies and navies of the Union.

Needful diversions of wealth and of strength from the fields of peaceful industry to the national defence, have not arrested the plough, the shuttle or the ship; the axe has enlarged the borders of our settlements, and the mines, as well of iron and coal as of the precious metals, have yielded even more abundantly than heretofore. Population has steadily increased, notwithstanding the waste that has been made in the camp, the siege and the battle-field; and the country, rejoicing in the consiousness of augmented strength and vigor, is permitted to expect continuance of years with large increase of freedom.

No human counsel hath devised nor hath any mortal hand worked out these great things. They are the gracious gifts of the Most High God, who, while dealing with us in anger for our sins, hath nevertheless remembered mercy. It has seemed to me fit and proper that they should be solemnly, reverently and gratefully acknowledged as with one heart and one voice by the whole American People.

I do therefore invite my fellow citizens in every part of the United States, and also those who are at sea and those who are sojourning in foreign lands, to set apart and observe the last Thursday of November next, as a day of Thanksgiving and Praise to our beneficent Father who dwelleth in the Heavens.

And I recommend to them that while offering up the ascriptions justly due to Him for such singular deliverances and blessings, they do also, with humble penitence for our national perverseness and disobedience, commend to His tender care all those who have become widows, orphans, mourners or sufferers in the lamentable civil strife in which we are unavoidably engaged, and fervently implore the interposition of the Almighty Hand to heal the wounds of the nation and to restore it as soon as may be consistent with the Divine purposes to the full enjoyment of peace, harmony, tranquillity and Union.

In testimony whereof, I have hereunto set my hand and caused the Seal of the United States to be affixed.

Done at the City of Washington, this Third day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and of the Independence of the Unites States the Eighty-eighth.

By the President: Abraham Lincoln

Prepare for Thanksgiving

Kansas City’s Congressional Representative, former mayor Emanuel Cleaver, recently circulated a “Dear Colleague” letter to drum up support for H. CON. RES. 155, a Resolution he introduced this past June. His cause appears to be languishing in the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Cleaver’s Resolution is to make the Wednesday before Thanksgiving a “complaint free” day.

Whereas the average person complains approximately 15 to 30 times per day, resulting in roughly 4,500,000,000 complaints spoken every day in the United States;

Whereas complaining keeps people focused on current problems stultifying their innate abilities to seek and create positive, harmonious solutions;

Whereas complaining has been shown by research psychologists to be detrimental to a person's physical and emotional health, relationships, and to limit their career success;

Whereas the `A Complaint Free World' organization is to be recognized for its efforts to encourage people to redirect their minds toward more positive, constructive, and rewarding lives and for its goal to positively inspire at least 1 percent of the global population (60 million people) to become complaint free;

Whereas thousands of people across the United States, including many students, have already adopted the complaint free attitude; and

Whereas `Complaint Free Wednesday' will be observed on the day before Thanksgiving, providing each person in the United States a day free from complaining in order to prepare for a day of gratitude: Now, therefore, be it

Resolved by the House of Representatives (the Senate concurring), That Congress--

(1) supports the goals and ideals of Complaint Free Wednesday;

(2) encourages each person in the United States to remember that having a positive life begins with having a positive attitude; and

(3) recognizes and reaffirms the meaning of Thanksgiving by asking each person in the United States to use `Complaint Free Wednesday' to refrain from complaining and prepare for a day of gratitude.

Now before I send you on to the pundits who are having some fun with Missouri’s 5th District Representative, I would like to point out one piece of profundity from the former Methodist minister. Did you catch this line: “providing each person in the United States a day free from complaining in order to prepare for a day of gratitude” ?

My point is that nothing worthwhile comes without preparation. Thanksgiving dinner will not. Neither will genuine gratitude. For Christians, thanksgiving is an extension of worship. Because we’ve been loved by God and saved through Jesus, we are to live every moment grateful to Him and His blessings. Unfortunately, we think good, spiritual things will happen without adequate preparation. It’s why many Christians leave the church parking lot on Sunday morning disillusioned. They experienced no enriching worship. They use words like boring, stale, lifeless and other sundry adjectives to describe the thing they gave no preparation to. They live a week without a relationship with God, no time in Bible reading, serving God, fellowshipping with other believers and instead watch impure TV shows and listen to tawdry music. They probably even bicker and argue with family members as they drive into the church parking lot on Sunday morning, believing that some mystical force will suddenly transform them into thankful, worshipping believers. Their problem? Lack of preparation.

And that is America’s problem as well, Our countrymen will scope out grocery store discounts on turkey; they’ll bake pies and roll out noodles and do other various things to prepare for a dinner on the fourth Thursday of November. Sadly, however, they won’t prepare their hears or their minds to give thanks to their Creator for His magnificent blessings.

Praise God from Whom all blessings flow!
Praise Him all creatures here below!
Praise Him above, ye heavenly host!
Praise Father, Son and Holy Ghost!

So, thank you Representative Cleaver. It may not be the most eloquent of all bills, but it is a refreshing reminder of truer things.

For those who can’t resist cynicism, go here.

Wilson's Outburst "YOU LIE!"

I’m sure not whether Representative Joe Wilson (R-South Carolina) should have apologized for his outburst of “You lie!” during President Barrack Hussein Obama’s address Wednesday to the joint session of Congress. Specifically, the President was ticking down supposed “lies” of detractors of his socialistic, government controlled health-care plan. When the President said his plan wouldn’t insure illegal immigrants, Wilson responded and a whole new sage unfurled.

Time Magazine called it “the heckle heard ‘round the world.”

Rep. Jim Clyburn, a South Carolina Democrat, stated: "I thought the governor [Mark Sanford] had embarrassed us enough, but Mr. Wilson has gone even lower."

In a CNN interview following the Joint Session, Senator John McCain (R-Ariz.) said Wilson's outburst was "totally disrespectful -- [there's] no place for it in that setting or any other and he should apologize immediately." "

I was embarrassed for the chamber and a Congress I love," Vice President Joe Biden said Thursday on ABC's "Good Morning America." "It demeaned the institution."

And on and on and on go the quotes, pundits, side-stories and rants.

I can’t help wondering myself whether Mr. Wilson crossed the line. But that wondering has gotten lost in other feelings that protrude more strongly into my being.

The first is the hypocrisy. Do you remember the President’s address. During the controversial section when the frustrated South Carolinian blasted forth, President Obama said

Some of people's concerns have grown out of bogus claims spread by those whose only agenda is to kill reform at any cost. The best example is the claim, made not just by radio and cable talk show hosts, but prominent politicians, that we plan to set up panels of bureaucrats with the power to kill off senior citizens. Such a charge would be laughable if it weren't so cynical and irresponsible.It is a lie, plain and simple [my emphasis].

There are also those who claim that our reform effort will insure illegal immigrants. This, too, is false – the reforms I'm proposing would not apply to those who are here illegally. And one more misunderstanding I want to clear up – under our plan, no federal dollars will be used to fund abortions, and federal conscience laws will remain in place.

I suppose one could argue that the President, in those two paragraphs, a) didn’t direct his accusation to any one specifically, only the generic “it” is a lie; and b) used more innocuous language like “bogus claims” “a charge…cynical and irresponsible” “false” and “misunderstanding”. But I think it’s quite clear the President was calling these detractors “liars”.

So, is it acceptable for the President to call “prominent politicians” liars if he doesn’t do it directly? Is that what this controversy is about? That it was the President’s speech and his time to do what he wanted? There is some truth to that in my mind. But the vitriol that’s out there against Wilson seems to overlook the President was doing the same.

Second, and I only have my memory, but Democrats were very disrespectful to President Bush during his several of his speeches. For example, here’s ABC Nightline host Ted Koppel with his round table guests following President Bush’s February 2, 2005 State of the Union address:

“When the president talked about the bankruptcy of Social Security, there were clearly some Democrats on the floor who thought that that was taking it too far. And they did something that, apparently, no one at this table has ever heard before. They booed." [ABC, Nightline, 2/2/05]

I won’t take the time (right now anyway) to show just how President Obama is lying. Ooops, strike that…of how President Obama is enunciating verbage that may not best reflect what some perceive as the reality of a truthful outcome of his health care proposal. But here’s just one quick grab for “Exhibit A”:

“I happen to be a proponent of a single payer universal health care program. I see no reason why the United States of America, the wealthiest country in the history of the world, spending 14 percent of its Gross National Product on health care cannot provide basic health insurance to everybody. And that’s what Jim is talking about when he says everybody in, nobody out. A single payer health care plan, a universal health care plan. And that’s what I’d like to see. But as all of you know, we may not get there immediately. Because first we have to take back the White House, we have to take back the Senate, and we have to take back the House.”

--BARACK OBAMA

Go here for the video.

"I have not said that I was a single payer supporter...."

--BARACK OBAMA
on Tuesday, August 11th, 2009 in a town hall meeting in New Hampshire

In the end, Representative Wilson’s outburst was unfortunate because it deflected attention away from Obama’s true lies. The President is intentionally trying to mislead the American people to embrace this nightmare.

The Bible On Labor

With the Labor Day weekend here, I thought I'd post a few verses of the Bible having the word "labor" in them. So without comment...


Exodus 20:8-10
8Remember the sabbath day, to keep it holy. 9Six days shalt thou labour, and do all thy work: 10But the seventh day is the sabbath of the LORD thy God: in it thou shalt not do any work, thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, thy manservant, nor thy maidservant, nor thy cattle, nor thy stranger that is within thy gates:

Psalm 90:10
The days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labour and sorrow; for it is soon cut off, and we fly away

Psalm 127:1
Except the LORD build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

Proverbs 23:4
Labour not to be rich: cease from thine own wisdom.

Ecclesiastes 2:11
Then I looked on all the works that my hands had wrought, and on the labour that I had laboured to do: and, behold, all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and there was no profit under the sun.

Matthew 11:28
Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest.

1 Corinthians 15:58
Therefore, my beloved brethren, be ye stedfast, unmoveable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, forasmuch as ye know that your labour is not in vain in the Lord.

1 Thessalonians 5:12
And we beseech you, brethren, to know them which labour among you, and are over you in the Lord, and admonish you;

Hebrews 4:11
Let us labour therefore to enter into that rest, lest any man fall after the same example of unbelief.

Revelation 14:13
And I heard a voice from heaven saying unto me, Write, Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth: Yea, saith the Spirit, that they may rest from their labours; and their works do follow them.

There Is Nowhere God Isn't -- The Omnipresence of God

Psalm 139: 7-12
7Whither shall I go from thy spirit? or whither shall I flee from thy presence? 8If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there: if I make my bed in hell, behold, thou art there. 9If I take the wings of the morning, and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea; 10Even there shall thy hand lead me, and thy right hand shall hold me. 11If I say, Surely the darkness shall cover me; even the night shall be light about me. 12Yea, the darkness hideth not from thee; but the night shineth as the day: the darkness and the light are both alike to thee.

I have three quick thoughts about this passage and its truth, usually labeled as an attribute of God as “omnipresence”.

It is a clear teaching of the Bible.

AW Tozer (Knowledge of the Holy) wrote: “Few other truths are taught in the Scriptures with as great clarity as the doctrine of the divine omnipresence. Those passages supporting this truth are so plain that it would take considerable effort to misunderstand them. They declare that God is imminent in His creation, that there is no place in heaven or earth or hell where men may hide from His presence. They teach that God is at once far off and near, and that in Him men move and live and have their being.”

It should stop Christians from sinning.

Charles Spurgeon (Treasury of David) wrote:“This makes it dreadful work to sin; for we offend the Almighty to his face, and commit acts of treason at the very foot of his throne. Go from him, or flee from him we cannot: neither by patient travel nor by hasty flight can we withdraw from the all-surrounding Deity.”

It should encourage lonely Christians.

Andrew Bonar (Christ and His Church in the Psalms) wrote “What a comforting thought to a believer! If God’s eye is on me, then I am blessed, though I be obscure, and though I suffer unheeded by man. He is with the prisoner in the Inquisition, with the soldier, the sailor, the miner; yes, he is so truly with his saints, that wherever their dust may be laid, he will find it, and gathering every particle from the dark grave, will raise up therefrom a glorious body.”

God Knows Us All

Psalm 139:1-6
1 O lord, thou hast searched me, and known me. 2 Thou knowest my downsitting and mine uprising, thou understandest my thought afar off. 3 Thou compassest my path and my lying down, and art acquainted with all my ways. 4 For there is not a word in my tongue, but, lo, O LORD, thou knowest it altogether. 5 Thou hast beset me behind and before, and laid thine hand upon me. 6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me; it is high, I cannot attain unto it.

In this great Psalm, the Bible reminds us that we are known by God. The great, eternal, majestic, awesome God knows me and you. We often become proud that we are known by someone important.

Some of my friends and acquaintances have pictures of themselves taken with some politician prominently displayed. Never mind that the politician doesn't know them. It usually got snapped at some rally where they worked or volunteered. But there they are with a president, or governor, or senator. Usually, the famous person doesn't know them at all.

Interestingly, this passage of scripture adamantly declares the truth that God DOES know us. He isn't simply being obliging or congenial like those politicians at those rallies. God really does know us. AND He knows us intimately. When we rise and when we recline.

I think two responses are appropriate.

The first is love and appreciation. If an important dignitary called you to comfort you when you were emotionally distraught, or wrote you a congratulatory letter at some special triumph of yours, your heart would be bonded to that person. We should become endeared toward God.

The second is fear. I'd rather God not know certain things about me. Knowing that He knows should stop me from sinning.

Rick Warren's Departure

Rick Warren, America’s newest neo-Evangelical, spoke this past Saturday at the annual convention of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) at the Washington Convention Center. I won’t point out that July 4 is a very strange time for patriotic Americans to be having an annual convention, because doing so would only highlight the probability that the ISNA is not very patriotic.

But I will remind Americans that in December 2003, U.S. Senators Charles Grassley and Max Baucus of the Senate Committee on Finance listed ISNA as one of 25 American Muslim organizations that “finance terrorism and perpetuate violence” and that terror expert Steve Emerson has said, “ISNA has has been an umbrella and a promoter of groups that have been involved in terrorism.”

According to the Washington Times, Warren began his speech with the common Arabic greeting "Asalam alakum," (‘peace be upon you’), though as a Christian theologian Warren should know only the wrath of God can abide upon Christ-rejecters. Evidently, Warren is becoming more conversant in the Islamic Arabic language. Readers may remember his reference to ‘Isa’ (Jesus) in his Invocation during President Obama’s Inauguration.

ISNA President Ingrid Mattson, trying to diffuse criticism from her own organization, introduced Warren as a "distinguished guest" –someone she had invited because of his worldwide charitable projects—adding that the Saddleback Community Church pastor gives away 90 percent of his salary: "Here is someone who, in charitable giving, is very stiff competition," she said. Of course, President Mattson didn’t mention the millions of dollars Warren keeps from his “Purpose Driven” empire.

"Talk is cheap ... but love is something we do together," Warren stated. "As the two largest faiths on this planet - more than 1 billion Muslims and 2 billion Christians - as Muslims and Christians, we must believe in this. As more than half the world, we must do something to model what it is to live in peace, to live in harmony."

The book of James is thunderous in its advocacy of works alongside of faith. In James 2:17 the Bible states: "Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone." So it is clear the Bible wants both--faith AND works--to exist in the lives of the people of God. And it is true that most Christians err on the side of no works, just simply verbal professions of love for God and their fellow man.

But Warren is proof-texting and erroring on the other side. He wants actions. Loving, kind and helpful actions. There is nothing wrong with that, per se. But the Christian's (and the Christian pastor's) higher calling is eternal. To be paving a way for a Muslim/Christian partnership is far from the gospel.

Warren's statement, reminiscent of Harry Emerson Fosdick and his social gospel, is a theological impossibility. Warren is attempting to draw a wedge between words and actions. His goal of the betterment of humanity, while worthy, is short-sighted and temporal.

In his brief reference to Jesus, Warren said: "My deepest faith is in Jesus Christ. I am committed not only to the good news but the common good. Scripture says 'love your neighbor as yourself.' I am commanded to respect everybody."

Certainly, Biblical Christianity demands respect for others with whom we disagree. But respect does not mean silence. Warren’s emphasis is on good works. Talk can be cheap, but it can also be revealing. And allegiance to “the common good” (the second greatest commandment) can never be given at the expense of “the good news” (the first greatest commandment). To join Muslims in reducing African poverty and suffering, for instance, means to overlook their rejection of Jesus as God and Savior. And obedient servants of Jesus would not do such a thing.

Warren’s preoccupation with prominence has blinded him to his first call.
Southern Baptists (the denomination Warren belongs to) would do well to publically distance themselves from this Fosdick disciple.

P.S. Here’s a bit more of Warren’s swift decline from doctrinal integrity.

P.S.#2 Is Rick Warren in this commercial?

P.S. #3 Now I'm probably bordering on petty, but I've heard Warren speak at several conferences in my former Southern Baptist days. He never wore a suit then, why now?

In Honor of July 2…Independence Day?

John Adams, in a now very famous (or infamous) letter to his wife Abigail, wrote on July 3 of the previous day’s events in Philadelphia where representatives of the 13 American colonies had, after days of grueling debate, voted to approve their Declaration of Independence.

The Second Day of July 1776, will be the most memorable Epocha, in the History of America. I am apt to believe that it will be celebrated, by succeeding Generations, as the great anniversary Festival. It ought to be commemorated, as the Day of Deliverance by solemn Acts of Devotion to God Almighty. It ought to be solemnized with Pomp and Parade, with Shews, Games, Sports, Guns, Bells, Bonfires and Illuminations from one End of this Continent to the other from this Time forward forever more. You will think me transported with Enthusiasm but I am not. I am well aware of the Toil and Blood and Treasure, that it will cost Us to maintain this Declaration, and support and defend these States. Yet through all the Gloom I can see the Rays of ravishing Light and Glory. I can see that the End is more than worth all the Means. And that Posterity will tryumph in that Days Transaction, even altho We should rue it, which I trust in God We shall not.

So John Adams got it wrong. It least the day, anyway. Americans would remember July 4 -- the day the Declaration was formally signed, instead of July 2 – the day it was officially approved. And he missed the part about devotion to God. Americans no longer seem to need God or even honor Him, let alone acknowledge His help in ages past. But on the issue of “pomp and parade” Adams was dead on.

Incidentally, this wasn’t Adams’ only July 4 mistake. He would die on July 4, 1826. As he was passing away, he bemoaned that his political rival and fellow patriot Thomas Jefferson would outlive him. His last words were whispered “Thomas Jefferson survives.” What Adams didn’t know was that hours earlier, the Virginian Republican had already passed into eternity.

Which leads me to point of this post. July 2 is a good day to remember eternal matters in regards to America. Before our Independence Day gets overshadow by the partying aspect of our national and familial celebrations, let’s thank God for His kindness of the past towards our beloved America and plead for His present mercies towards our nation.

P.S. Here’s what John Adams got so excited about:

The Declaration of Independence of the Thirteen Colonies
In CONGRESS, July 4, 1776

The unanimous Declaration of the thirteen united States of America,

When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature's God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.

We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. --That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, --That whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or to abolish it, and to institute new Government, laying its foundation on such principles and organizing its powers in such form, as to them shall seem most likely to effect their Safety and Happiness. Prudence, indeed, will dictate that Governments long established should not be changed for light and transient causes; and accordingly all experience hath shewn, that mankind are more disposed to suffer, while evils are sufferable, than to right themselves by abolishing the forms to which they are accustomed. But when a long train of abuses and usurpations, pursuing invariably the same Object evinces a design to reduce them under absolute Despotism, it is their right, it is their duty, to throw off such Government, and to provide new Guards for their future security. —Such has been the patient sufferance of these Colonies; and such is now the necessity which constrains them to alter their former Systems of Government. The history of the present King of Great Britain [George III] is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations, all having in direct object the establishment of an absolute Tyranny over these States. To prove this, let Facts be submitted to a candid world.

He has refused his Assent to Laws, the most wholesome and necessary for the public good.

He has forbidden his Governors to pass Laws of immediate and pressing importance, unless suspended in their operation till his Assent should be obtained; and when so suspended, he has utterly neglected to attend to them.

He has refused to pass other Laws for the accommodation of large districts of people, unless those people would relinquish the right of Representation in the Legislature, a right inestimable to them and formidable to tyrants only.

He has called together legislative bodies at places unusual, uncomfortable, and distant from the depository of their public Records, for the sole purpose of fatiguing them into compliance with his measures.

He has dissolved Representative Houses repeatedly, for opposing with manly firmness his invasions on the rights of the people.

He has refused for a long time, after such dissolutions, to cause others to be elected; whereby the Legislative powers, incapable of Annihilation, have returned to the People at large for their exercise; the State remaining in the mean time exposed to all the dangers of invasion from without, and convulsions within.

He has endeavoured to prevent the population of these States; for that purpose obstructing the Laws for Naturalization of Foreigners; refusing to pass others to encourage their migrations hither, and raising the conditions of new Appropriations of Lands.

He has obstructed the Administration of Justice, by refusing his Assent to Laws for establishing Judiciary powers.

He has made Judges dependent on his Will alone, for the tenure of their offices, and the amount and payment of their salaries.

He has erected a multitude of New Offices, and sent hither swarms of Officers to harass our people, and eat out their substance.

He has kept among us, in times of peace, Standing Armies without the consent of our legislatures.

He has affected to render the Military independent of and superior to the Civil power.

He has combined with others to subject us to a jurisdiction foreign to our constitution and unacknowledged by our laws; giving his Assent to their Acts of pretended Legislation:

For Quartering large bodies of armed troops among us:

For protecting them, by a mock Trial, from punishment for any Murders which they should commit on the Inhabitants of these States:

For cutting off our Trade with all parts of the world:

For imposing Taxes on us without our Consent:

For depriving us, in many cases, of the benefits of Trial by Jury:

For transporting us beyond Seas to be tried for pretended offences:

For abolishing the free System of English Laws in a neighbouring Province, establishing therein an Arbitrary government, and enlarging its Boundaries so as to render it at once an example and fit instrument for introducing the same absolute rule into these Colonies:

For taking away our Charters, abolishing our most valuable Laws, and altering fundamentally the Forms of our Governments:

For suspending our own Legislatures, and declaring themselves invested with power to legislate for us in all cases whatsoever.

He has abdicated Government here, by declaring us out of his Protection and waging War against us.

He has plundered our seas, ravaged our Coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.

He is at this time transporting large Armies of foreign Mercenaries to compleat the works of death, desolation and tyranny, already begun with circumstances of Cruelty and perfidy scarcely paralleled in the most barbarous ages, and totally unworthy the Head of a civilized nation.

He has constrained our fellow Citizens taken Captive on the high Seas to bear Arms against their Country, to become the executioners of their friends and Brethren, or to fall themselves by their Hands.

He has excited domestic insurrections amongst us, and has endeavoured to bring on the inhabitants of our frontiers, the merciless Indian Savages, whose known rule of warfare, is an undistinguished destruction of all ages, sexes and conditions.

In every stage of these Oppressions We have Petitioned for Redress in the most humble terms: Our repeated Petitions have been answered only by repeated injury. A Prince whose character is thus marked by every act which may define a Tyrant, is unfit to be the ruler of a free people.

Nor have We been wanting in attentions to our British brethren. We have warned them from time to time of attempts by their legislature to extend an unwarrantable jurisdiction over us. We have reminded them of the circumstances of our emigration and settlement here. We have appealed to their native justice and magnanimity, and we have conjured them by the ties of our common kindred to disavow these usurpations, which, would inevitably interrupt our connections and correspondence. They too have been deaf to the voice of justice and of consanguinity. We must, therefore, acquiesce in the necessity, which denounces our Separation, and hold them, as we hold the rest of mankind, Enemies in War, in Peace Friends.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by the Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these United Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States; that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes and our sacred Honor.

The signers of the Declaration represented the new states as follows:
New Hampshire
Josiah Bartlett, William Whipple, Matthew Thornton
Massachusetts
John Hancock, Samuel Adams, John Adams, Robert Treat Paine, Elbridge Gerry
Rhode Island
Stephen Hopkins, William Ellery
Connecticut
Roger Sherman, Samuel Huntington, William Williams, Oliver Wolcott
New York
William Floyd, Philip Livingston, Francis Lewis, Lewis Morris
New Jersey
Richard Stockton, John Witherspoon, Francis Hopkinson, John Hart, Abraham Clark
Pennsylvania
Robert Morris, Benjamin Rush, Benjamin Franklin, John Morton, George Clymer, James Smith, George Taylor, James Wilson, George Ross
Delaware
Caesar Rodney, George Read, Thomas McKean
Maryland
Samuel Chase, William Paca, Thomas Stone, Charles Carroll of Carrollton
Virginia
George Wythe, Richard Henry Lee, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Harrison, Thomas Nelson, Jr., Francis Lightfoot Lee, Carter Braxton
North Carolina
William Hooper, Joseph Hewes, John Penn
South Carolina
Edward Rutledge, Thomas Heyward, Jr., Thomas Lynch, Jr., Arthur Middleton
Georgia
Button Gwinnett, Lyman Hall, George Walton

Celebrating America!

My country, 'tis of thee,
Sweet land of liberty,
Of thee I sing;
Land where my fathers died,
Land of the pilgrims' pride,
From every mountainside
Let freedom ring!

My native country, thee,
Land of the noble free,
Thy name I love;
I love thy rocks and rills,
Thy woods and templed hills;
My heart with rapture thrills,
Like that above.

Let music swell the breeze,
And ring from all the trees
Sweet freedom's song;
Let mortal tongues awake;
Let all that breathe partake;
Let rocks their silence break,
The sound prolong.

Our father's God to Thee,
Author of liberty,
To Thee we sing.
Long may our land be bright,
With freedom's holy light,
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

When the Christian Samuel Francis Smith wrote these words in 1831, he was having a bout of patriotism. His fellow classmate at Andover Seminary, Lowell Mason, had asked him to translate some German music into English. Smith evidently figured he would have none of it, and wrote these wonderful American lyrics that served as our country's unofficial national anthem until "The Star Spangled Banner" was formally adopted.

All has not always been well with America. Nor is it so now. Consider, for instance, the words of Civil Rights advocate W.E.B. DuBois who wrote a spoof off of this song:

Of course you have faced the dilemma: it is announced, they all smirk and rise. If they are ultra, they remove their hats and look ecstatic; then they look at you. What shall you do? Noblesse oblige; you cannot be boorish, or ungracious; and too, after all it is your country and you do love its ideals if not all of its realities. Now, then, I have thought of a way out: Arise, gracefully remove your hat, and tilt your head. Then sing as follows, powerfully and with deep unction. They’ll hardly note the little changes and their feelings and your conscience will thus be saved:

My country tis of thee,
Late land of slavery,
Of thee I sing.
Land where my father’s pride
Slept where my mother died,
From every mountain side
Let freedom ring!

My native country thee
Land of the slave set free,
Thy fame I love.
I love thy rocks and rills
And o’er thy hate which chills,
My heart with purpose thrills,
To rise above.

Let laments swell the breeze
And wring from all the trees
Sweet freedom’s song.
Let laggard tongues awake,
Let all who hear partake,
Let Southern silence quake,
The sound prolong.

Our fathers’ God to thee
Author of Liberty,
To thee we sing
Soon may our land be bright,
With Freedom’s happy light
Protect us by Thy might,
Great God our King.

My only addition would be that America, while far from perfect, is to be honored and celebrated. And my only admonition would be to sing and pray to "our father's God" more often. The "Great God our King" can still deal graciously with us and be merciful to a sinful nation.

George Tiller is Dead

Kansas late-term abortionist, George Tiller, is dead. He was murdered Sunday at his church this past Sunday. Pro-life organizations quickly and appropriately condemned the killing.

Operation Rescue President Troy Newman said:

“We are shocked at this morning's disturbing news that Mr. Tiller was gunned down. Operation Rescue has worked for years through peaceful, legal means, and through the proper channels to see him brought to justice. We denounce vigilantism and the cowardly act that took place this morning. We pray for Mr. Tiller's family that they will find comfort and healing that can only be found in Jesus Christ.”

Kansans for Life Executive Director, Mary Kay Culp offered a succinct statement:

“Kansans for Life deplores the murder of Dr. George Tiller, and we wish to express our deep and sincere sympathy to his family and friends. Our organization has a board of directors, and a 35 year history of bringing citizens together to achieve thoughtful education and legislation on the life issues here in Kansas. We value life, completely deplore violence, and are shocked and very upset by what happened in Wichita today.”

Across the state line, Missouri Right to Life President Pam Fichter issued this statement:

“Missouri Right to Life strongly condemns the murder of Dr. George Tiller and extends our sincere sympathy to his family. We have always and will always oppose violent acts in response to the violence of abortion. Missouri Right to Life is committed to working peacefully and legally in our efforts to educate citizens on the tragedy of abortion and to work for legislation that will protect women and their unborn children. We urge all who support the sanctity of human life to offer their prayers for Dr. Tiller, his family, and to pray for an end to abortion.”

Eloquence is something that eludes me these days, so I’ll be brief and rather blunt in my observations of this rather epic event within the pro-life struggle.

First, the tragedy. The murder happened in a church and with the victim’s wife present. She is in my prayers.

Second, the truth of God’s Word. Galatians 6 teaches that we reap what we sow. It is taught elsewhere in Scripture as well. I am not the least happy in this. Rather, I am mournful of the violence that George Tiller sowed during his so-called medical career; and I am sad that more violence was sown this past Sunday.

Third, Tiller evidently was a regular church attender. I am very grieved that he felt comfortable in a church that calls itself Christian. Jesus hates the murder of innocent children. I am disheartened that many who have attended this church (Redeemer Lutheran Church of Wichita, Kansas) have been given a message that abortion is ok. It is not.

Fourth, Tiller has not met the Creator. His Creator. The Creator of the thousands he murdered. It indeed is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of God. I have no doubt Tiller is in hell. And for that, I am very, very sad.

I just came across this powerful video based on a John Piper sermon from this past January. It's powerful.



You can read his entire sermon here

Wisdom from Tozer

If you read this blog very often, you know one of my favorite writers from the past is A.W. Tozer. I know I quote him often, but this one was too good not to pass along.

The contemporary moral climate does not favor a faith as tough and fibrous as that taught by our Lord and His apostles. The delicate, brittle saints being produced in our religious hothouses today are hardly to be compared with the committed, expendable believers who once gave their witness among men. And the fault lies with our leaders. They are too timid to tell the people all the truth. They are now asking men to give to God that which costs them nothing.

Our churches these days are filled (or one-quarter filled) with a soft breed of Christian that must be fed on a diet of harmless fun to keep them interested. About theology they know little. Scarcely any of them have read even one of the great Christian classics, but most of them are familiar with religious fiction and spinetingling films. No wonder their moral and spiritual constitution is so frail. Such can only be called weak adherents of a faith they never really understood.

That Incredible Christian, page 76.

America's Vulnerability

In yet another area where our nation has fundamentally changed is the area of national security.

Do you realize that the United States of America is vulnerable to a missile attack from anywhere in the world within 33 minutes? The Heritage Foundation has put together a great video appropriately called "33 Minutes".


Missile Defense
33 Minutes

The chief responsibility for government is to "provide for the common defense" and our government is not doing that. SCMagazine reported that recently a computer disk containing missile launch procedures was bought on Ebay!

One of America's greatest leaders, John Adams, said long ago: ""National defense is one of the cardinal duties of a statesman."

President Reagan, who's great vision for protecting America was ridiculed in his own day, said in his March 23, 1983 address to the nation:

"It's up to us, in our time, to choose and choose wisely between the hard but necessary task of preserving peace and freedom and the temptation to ignore our duty and blindly hope for the best while the enemies of freedom grow stronger day by day."

It's not too late for American officials to re-embrace the fundamental role of government--protecting its citizens. I've added a 'permanent' link in my sidebar to the Heritage Foundation's film.

Samson and Modern Evangelicals

This past Sunday, I had the privilege of teaching on the story of Samson found in Judges 13-16. One verse in his troubled chronicle is particularly telling. In fact, I'd rank Judges 16:20 in my Top 10 list of "The Bible's Most Tragic Verses." After Delilah shaved Samson's head, she feigned fear and cried out to the sleeping warrior, "The Philistines are upon you!" Samson awoke, ready to destroy all enemies as he had done previously but "he knew not the Lord was departed from him."

How can a servant of God not know God is no longer with them?

I fear the bulk of modern American evangelicals are in the same boat. We do not know we are operating without God, without His blessing and without His help. We know well our powerlessness. But we don't know its cause.

I came across this 'sermon' by William MacDonald. It's worth more than a little reflection. While not deep, it may help us begin a long journey back to God--the source of our power.

Spiritually we are in a shocking condition. The status of many local fellowships is bad news, and deteriorating by the minute.
It is fairly well known that there have been scandalous cases of immorality involving even elders and full-time workers. Of course this type of news never gets into the magazines; there everything is sweetness and light. But the awful truth is that some respected spiritual leaders have fallen into gross sin in recent months and the only reaction seems to have been to hush up the whole thing, lest the word get out and our reputation be impaired.

We have been arrogant, and have not rather mourned (I Cor. 5:2).

And that isn’t all. We have become materialists to the core. Supposing that gain is godliness, we have degraded ourselves to the worship of money.

We have become more proud of the number of successful businessmen in our churches than of the number of men of God. The dollar has become our master. The claims of the businessworld have been given more place than the claims of Christ. The corporation counts more with us than the Church. Our condemnation is found in the words of Samuel Johnson, “The lust of gold, unfeeling and remorseless, is the last corruption of degenerate man.”

We have become a status-seeking people. We sacrifice everything for prestige jobs, prestige homes and prestige cars. And we have prestige ambitions for our children.

Truth is that in our mad desire to see them successful and comfortable in the world, we are causing many of them to pass through the fire in this life and to suffer the pains of hell in the next.

Too often we are living double lives. Outwardly there is an appearance of piety and respectability. But in business there are bribery, shady deals, dishonesty and numberless forms of compromise. And in our personal lives there are coldness, bitterness, strife gossip, back-biting and impurity. We are living a lie.

Many of our children have been involved in hard drugs, liquor, free love and sex-perversion. To say nothing of the many others who have become rebels and apostates. We have lived to see the fruit of our permissiveness and indulgence. But are we broken before the Lord?

We have become thoroughly worldly, living for the love of passing things. We have been enraptured victims of the idiot tube, and lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God. Most willingly have we been poured into the mold of the world, its fashions, amusements and ideals.

The sin of prayerlessness has been all too apparent. In our abounding wealth and self-sufficiency, we have not had any strong inward necessity driving us to prayer. Many of our prayer meetings need closing down.

And finally there is our pride and impenitence. Rather than admit our low spiritual conditions, we endeavor to hide sin, to sweep it under the carpet where no one can see it. After all, we muse, time heals all things.

But does it? Are we getting away with it? Or are we reaping the fruit of our backsliding in more ways than we care to admit?

What about the broken homes, the divorces, the separations? What about the tears of heartbroken parents and children that cover the Lord’s Table each Sunday morning? (See Malachi 2:13).

When will we realize that God is speaking to us through sickness and tragedy? It is true that there is always a certain amount of sickness, sorrow and accidents. But when they come in unusual volume, and under most unusual circumstances, we should not be insensible to the fact that the Lord is trying to get through to us.

Think of the number of believers who are spending small fortunes in psychiatric treatment. Once again we grant that a certain amount of such cases are to be expected. But when the trickle becomes a flood-tide, it might just be that God is saying something to us.

There are other results of our departure from God. Many of our children hate their parents, and wish they were a million miles from home. The heavens are brass above our heads our canned prayers never seem to get through. God has punctured our bags with holes; we work, and scrimp and save, but never seem to get off the treadmill. Because we wouldn’t tithe to the Lord, we tithe to the doctor, the dentist, and the garage mechanic.

We are suffering a famine of the Word of God. The ministry lacks unction. Too often it is a rehash of the obvious. How seldom in meetings are we conscious that the Spirit of God has spoken to us in power? We live on a diet of pablum. And don’t put all the blame on the preachers!

The worship meetings are often dead. Dull, awkward pauses are the fruit of prolonged occupation with the never-never land of TV. The evangelistic meetings are an exercise in futility – fishing in a bathtub where there are no fish. Years pass without the conversion of one single person.

If we cannot see that God is dealing with us in all these judgments, what more can He do to wake us up? We are like the people in Isaiah 1, beaten from head to foot, yet still too dull, too obtuse to realize that God is speaking.

"Ah, sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, offspring of evil doers, sons who deal corruptly! They have forsaken the Lord, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are utterly estranged.
Why will you still be smitten that you continue to rebel? The whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. From the sole of the foot even to the head, there is no soundness in it, but bruises and sores and bleeding wounds; they are not pressed out, or bound up, or softened with oil.
Your country lies desolate, your cities are burned with fire; in your very presence aliens devour your land; it is desolate, as overthrown by aliens.
"And the daughter of Zion is left like a booth in a vineyard, like a lodge in a cucumber field, like a besieged city" (Isaiah 1:4-8 RSV).

We need some prophet, some man of God to lead us to repentance! That is the need of the hour— TO REPENT – to break at the foot of the Cross and sob out the confession so hard to come by, “We have sinned.”

We need to repent in our individual lives to confess and forsake the sins that have brought us into this place of spiritual barrenness. We need to make right personal feuds and animosities, asking forgiveness from those we have wronged.

And we need to repent as assemblies of God’s people. Never in the memory of most of us has a meeting been called for the express purpose of repentance. And seldom in any of our meetings has confession ever been mentioned. But we need to do it. We desperately need to do it.

The time has come, O for spiritual leadership that will bring us to our knees quickly before we are consumed by God’s awful wrath! We need to eat the sin offering like Daniel, making the sins of others our own (Dan. 9:5). We need to lay hold of God’s promise in II Chron. 7:14,

“If my people who are called by my name humble themselves, and pray and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from Heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land.”

It is time to seek the Lord. He is calling us, through the voice of Hosea:

“Return O Israel, to the Lord your God, for you have stumbled because of your iniquity. Take with you words and return to the Lord; say to him, “Take away all iniquity; accept that which is good and we will render the fruit of our lips.” (Hosea 14:1,2 RSV).

We have been a proud people, boasting in our heritage of renowned evangelists and Bible teachers. We have claimed a special corner on scriptural knowledge and on church order. We have looked down our theological noses at other believers. Now the Lord has stained our pride. If we only knew it, our halo is shattered.

There is only one hope! “In returning and rest you shall be saved” (Isa. 30:1-5) The way to renewal and revival is to confess the awful truth about ourselves, to make right the wrongs of the past, to forsake our sins, and to get desperate with God about a perishing world and a powerless Church.

Paul said in Acts 17:28 "For in him we live, and move, and have our being..." May it be so once again--Christians totally consumed and preoccupied with God.

Snarlin' Arlen Switches Parties

Arlen Specter, senior senator from Pennsylvania, has announced he is changing his party affiliation from Republican, to Democrat. Surprise, surprise. Snarlin’ Arlen has been in conservative crosshairs virtually ever since he left the Democratic Party 44 years ago.

Most recently, he is facing Pennsylvania Republicans’ wrath over his vote in favor of the Obama “stimulus” package—one of only 3 Republicans to do so. He has been trailing Republican challenger Pat Toomey in GOP polls. Sensing defeat, Specter jumped ship to have a chance to salvage his 29 year liberal career in the Senate.

Writing for his organization’s blog, Lowman S. Henry, CEO of Pennsylvania’s Lincoln Institute of Public Opinion Research, said: “Arlen Specter has acted more like a Democrat than a Republican for years. He is a large part of the reason why the GOP's brand identity became so blurred voters have abandoned it in droves…Arlen Specter never was, is not today, and never will be an ideological conservative.”

I blogged over two years ago about Specter’s pro-death, anti-life views. Specter had said: “I want to take abortion out of politics. I want to keep the Republican Party focused on the vital economic and foreign policy issues -- and leave moral issues such as abortion to the conscience of the individual.” I’m sorry, but economics and foreign policy issues aren’t quite as “vital” as protecting innocent human life.

The real story takes us back to 2004 when President Bush and then Pennsylvania Senator Rick Santorum (who was very conservative) chose to back Specter in his primary run against Toomey in 2004. That was definitely a wrong decision. Now, Specter is showing his true, liberal colors at a time that could prove costly to conservatism.

Specter’s switch could give Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate. If Al Franken prevails in his court case, Democrats will have 60 Senators.

Dismal Circumstances

Life can give us some very unsettling and troublesome circumstances. With their backs against the Red Sea and nowhere to run, is it any wonder the people of Israel were afraid when they saw Pharoah’s army approaching to recapture and/or slaughter them?

And they said unto Moses, Because there were no graves in Egypt, hast thou taken us away to die in the wilderness? wherefore hast thou dealt thus with us, to carry us forth out of Egypt? (Exodus 14:11)

Being in the belly of a great fish, was certainly a dismal circumstance, so much so it caused Jonah to cry before God “I am cast out of thy sight” (Jonah 2:4).

Jeremiah lamented “He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.” (Lamentations 3:2)

Psalm 31:22 is an insightful verse. David felt so alone, he was sure even God didn’t notice him: “…I am cut off from before thine eyes…” Interestingly, that statement of honest feeling is bracket by two other statements. First, “For I said in my haste…” David realized what he was feeling, wasn’t the true reality. In retrospect, he confessed he spoken “in my haste”. Then, “…nevertheless thou heardest the voice of my supplications when I cried unto thee.” Even in the midst of a dark heart, David knew God WAS paying attention. The Creator was listening.

In chapter seven of his prophecy, Micah was overcome by the moral emptiness of his culture. “Woe is me…” “The good man is perished out of the earth: and there is none upright among men.” “The best of them is as a brier: the most upright is sharper than a thorn hedge…” “For the son dishonoureth the father, the daughter riseth up against her mother…” “they hunt every man his brother with a net…” His advice was “Trust ye not in a friend…” and his only hope was in God: “I will wait for the God of my salvation.”

One theme that emerges from those who faced dismal circumstances and a culture bereft of any goodness was that they all focused on God. Some way or another, they found a way to cast their gaze towards heaven’s Glory.

Charles Hadden Spurgeon advised:

Are you unable to sing the Lord's praises? Are there no mercies that you have experienced? Although you're gloomy now, can you forget that blessed hour when Jesus met you, and said, "Come unto me"? Can you remember that wonderful moment when He snapped your chains, dashed them to the earth, and said, "I came to break your bonds and set you free"?

Surely there are memorials along the way that haven't yet become overgrown with moss; let them remind you of His mercy toward you. Did you ever have a sickness like the one you have now? Didn't He restore you? Wasn't He with you? Were you ever poor before, and didn't He supply what you needed? Were you never in dire straights before, and didn't He deliver you?

Arise, go to the river of your experience, and pull up a few bulrushes, and let them become lining in the tiny boat in which your infant-faith may float safely on the stream. Don't forget what your God has done for you. Has the Lord never met with you on the mountain? Have you never been helped in time of need? No, I know you have. Go back, then, a little way to the choice mercies of yesterday, and though all may be dark now, light up the lamps of the past, they will shine through the darkness, and you will trust in the Lord until the new day breaks and the shadows flee away.

Can you find a way to get your focus on God? You had better, it may be the only way to survive your own present dismal circumstances.