10/31/2013
NATIONAL SUICIDE
GOAFS II: #66
NATIONAL SUICIDE
10.31.13
No historical pendulum swings men and nations back into health when they
are willfully committing suicide.
JERRY SWEERS
cmudgeon@windstream.net
10/23/2013
SHOO AWAY THE BEARS
GOAFS II: #65
SHOO AWAY THE BEARS
10.23.13
In the evening my wife and I have been reading a passage of
Scripture, discussing it, then reading some verses that have touched our lives
in some memorable way over the years. These verses are all on bookmarks that I
made at the time. Last week three of these bookmarks came together in my mind
in a way that grabbed my attention.
The first was a group of verses from John 14:
In vs. 16-17 Jesus promises the Holy Spirit will take up
residence in the hearts of those who believe.
In vs.23 Jesus promises that He, the Son, and God the
Father, will move into the hearts of those who keep His word as well.
So when we pray, “Lord Jesus Christ, be at home
in my heart today,” we are addressing the Triune God, present in the heart of
every obedient believer.
On the second card in this bookmark deck I have printed the songs
the Apostle John heard in the throne room of heaven, found in Revelation 4 and
5. This is a concert in five movements:
Four Living Creatures: 4.8--Quartet
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God, the Almighty,
Who was, and Who is
And Who is to come.
Twenty-four Elders: 4.11—Male
Chorus
Worthy are you,
Our Lord and our God,
To receive glory and honor and power;
For You created all things,
And because of Your will they existed,
And were created.
Elders and Chorus: 5.9-10—Together
Worthy are You to take the book
And to break its seals;
For You were slain, and
Purchased for God with your blood
Men from every tribe and tongue
And people and nation.
You have made them to be a kingdom
And priests to our God,
And they will reign upon the earth.
Creatures,
Elders, & myriads of Angels: 5.12—Together
Worthy is the Lamb that was slain
To receive power and riches and wisdom
And might and honor and blessing.
Creatures, Elders, Angels, & Every Created
Being: 5.4-5
To Him who sits on the throne,
And to the Lamb,
Be blessing and honor and glory
And dominion forever and ever.
The third part of this is a song that has been with me on and
off since I was a teenager (1946-53, more or less). Mario Lanza sang this song like
he really believed it. I don’t know who wrote it and I am not entirely sure
about the theology but over the years it has come regularly to mind. The things
it talks about are all things God the Holy Spirit does—how much He delegates to
the guardian angels I will leave to you to decide.
Guardian angels around my bed
Joining me in my prayers
They hush the shadows when they
dance about
They shoo away the bears
Guardian angels to comfort me
If I wake in the night
They gather all my dreams
Their halos are my light
They dry my tears
If I should weep
They tuck me in
They rouse me from my sleep
Guardian angels around my bed
Standing by till I rise
There's one with shining wings
that holds my hand
And shows me Paradise
I started reading this one to Joan after her open heart
surgery in March 2011. Her short term memory was still catching up after 4
hours plus on the heart machine but it rang a bell for her. If I would miss it
in our nightly readings, she would say to me, “The bears, read about the
bears.”
So here is how these three things intersected for me recently.
If The Triune God dwells in the hearts
of His children, and if there are myriads of angels hanging around Him in
heaven, is it unreasonable to expect that that are a few hanging around each
believer?
I have seriously studied the Word of God since I was in my
mid-teens. But I am neither a prophet nor a son of a prophet. I have never
specifically studied angels in Scripture, so I cannot quote chapter and verse
to support this idea. I know there are good books by good men on Biblically Angelology,
but I have never gotten around to reading one. But I do believe the suggestion
in the paragraph above is consistent with Scripture. If you are aware of any
reason it might not be consistent, or of specific Scriptural affirmation of
this idea, I would encourage your comments and suggestions.
Tell me what you think.
JERRY SWEERS
cmudgeon@windstream.net
10/16/2013
MESSIANIC PRESIDENCY
GOAFS II: #64
MESSIANIC PRESIDENCY
10.16.13
The news that
God had died finally reached the shores of the Colonies in the 1960s. Time
magazine took official notice in its April 8, 1966 cover story, “Is God Dead?”
Time’s answer amounted to “yes.”
A society
that rejects God soon finds there is a vacuum left that must be filled. In
America we filled it with new heroes in sports, entertainment, and politics.
Given the nature of man as he has been created in the image of God, these substitutions
always prove inadequate so the project of kicking God out of the public square,
and everywhere else as well, is still going on. There is a long list of efforts
of the present administration to move this project forward.
It is
well-known that the man who currently occupies the White House has imperial
aspirations. We need to recognize also that his adoring followers perceive him
as a figure of messianic significance. The daily flood of information that
swirls around us makes it difficult to focus, to reflect, to remember things to
which we really should pay careful attention. The following quotations are well
worth some serious reflection. They are the words of the prophets of the coming
Utopia of Politically Correct Socialism.
Campaign Slogans/Themes
The graphic
materials used in the presidential campaign clearly signal the divine character
of the candidate.
BELIEVE!
FAITH, HOPE, OBAMA
Commenting on
the second one, the National Review asked, “and the greatest of these is ?”
Gary Hart, on Obama’s “transcendence” of
“conventional politics” 2.13.08
“Through some miracle of timing, luck, good fortune, Barack
Obama has seized the moment… He is not operating on the same plane as ordinary
politicians… I see Barack Obama as a leader for this transcendent moment, the
agent of transformation in an age of revolution, as a figure uniquely qualified
to open the door to the 21st century and to convert threat to great
new opportunity.”
Jesse Jackson Jr. on Obama’s winning the Dem nomination
6.5.08
“What Barack Obama has accomplished is the single most extraordinary
event that has occurred in the 232 years of the nation’s political history… The
event itself is so extraordinary that another chapter could be added to the
Bible to chronicle its significance.”
I wonder if
Jackson has seen the cover of the news magazine from which I took the
illustration above. If he did he would have realized Barack Obama already has
half of Revelation 13 so a new chapter would be superfluous. I added the
reference to the picture. I suspect the eitors couldn’t find their Gideon
Bible, and would not known where to look anyway.
Spike Lee, movie director 7.10.08
“You’ll have to measure time by ‘Before Obama’ and ‘After
Obama.’…Everything’s going to be affected by this seismic change in the
universe.”
Barack Obama
in accepting the nomination 6.4.08
“I am absolutely certain that, generations from now, we will
be able to look back and tell our children that this was in this moment… when
the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal.”
Evan Thomas, Newsweek Editor at Large on
Hardball 6.5.09
“In a way, Obama is standing above the country, above
the world. He’s sort of God. He’s going to bring all different sides
together.”
Politiken, Danish
Magazine editorial 12.29.09
Of course, it was the Europeans who really went overboard.
They recognized Obama as one of their own—fellow godless socialist humanist. The
subject of this editorial was comparing Obama and Jesus.
“If such a comparison were to be made, it would,
inevitably be to Obama’s advantage. Today, his historic Health Reform is being
passed through the American Senate – a welfare policy breakthrough that several
of his predecessors have been unable to manage…. On the other hand, we have
Jesus’ miracles that everyone still remembers, but which only benefited a few.
Obama is, of course, greater than Jesus…”
|
hu·bris n.
Overbearing pride or presumption; arrogance
|
Reviewing
these quotations, a small selection from a very large body of shameless
propaganda and eloquent baloney, I find two words come immediately to my mind: Hubris and Narcissism.
I will leave it to you to decide how well the shoe fits the weightless
cypher in the Whitehouse who has led us, from behind, the last five years into
the arms of a vast entrenched progressive bureaucracy controlled by the
Executive Branch.
JERRY SWEERS
cmudgeon@windstream.net
