The Why behind Atheism… especially in America

Jesus said, Luke 11:23 (NKJV)
23 He who is not with Me is against Me, and he who does not gather with Me scatters.
That truth is illustrated day after day. The fact is that those who have ever heard the Gospel of Jesus Christ cannot and will not be able with all their “intellectual” arguments otherwise, escape the consequences of the total dishonesty of their “unbelief”. I have read the arguments of many so-called atheists and heard the debates and “reasons” for their “inability” to believe in God, or as they frequently declare it, “the god myth” or “a god”. The intellectual dishonesty is astounding. The adamant determination is incredible. It is not at all that I doubt their unbelief. The unbelief is real… real enough to damn.

It is the reason of unbelief that I question. It is the claims for their unbelief that I question and in fact cannot and do not believe any more than I believe the claims of those in that first century who “could not believe”. It was not that they could not, but that they would not. And that is the very same problem today. When push comes to shove, and it will, and it does, the “Oh My God” that comes gushing out of the heart and out of the mouth instead of out of the practiced denials, the innate knowledge that Paul so elegantly expressed in Romans 1 is exposed. It is so very obvious in the debates of the intellectual pigmy Dawkins, and the late intellectual hypocrite Hitchens that it is not at all an honest inability to believe but a very determined effort  not to believe regardless of evidence simply because what Jesus Christ was and is, what He said and did, and most importantly, what belief in Him requires, is not something at all that they want to face, and therefore there are the vehement denials.
There is no honesty in the argument of those who in this country have had numerous opportunities to read the Word of God, to truly check out the facts regarding the preservation of that Book through all these centuries, to check out the history of what has happened in millions of lives that have been transformed by the Gospel of Jesus Christ, regardless of all the hypocrites, the charlatans, the modern Pharisees, Saducees and scribes, et al, in the pathetic statement that “there is no proof of the existence of God”. Baloney! That argument is as bogus as a child with cookie crumbs on his mouth claiming he knows nothing about the missing cookies. It is not that there is no proof, it is that they do not want there to be proof, and so millions of words are put out with all the blah, blah, blah that comes down to the one truth for which they will have to give account.

There is no more dishonest statement (that is used repeatedly on atheistic blog after blog) than that  he, she, it or they are simply truth seekers.

Following that verse that is so well known in this country that is filled with Christian history (now so seriously distorted and grievously censored for the current atheistic agenda) is this one that gives the real reason for unbelief: John 3:19 (NKJV) And this is the condemnation, that the light has come into the world, and men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil.
The problem regardless of all the multitudinous arguments otherwise is not intellectual at all, but very simply, moral. The very arguments themselves demonstrate the validity of the Bible. There are no animals that try to justify their actions! They simply, do. But BECAUSE of the reality of God, there is that constant attempt by rebellious man to justify why, “I refuse to have this man to reign over me”… “I refuse to believe that what I want to do is sin”, “I refuse to believe that I will give account”. The argument is not intellectual at all, but instead a very self-deceiving, self-congratulatory attempt to sound and appear intellectual, and the arguments are so unoriginal that all it takes is one little foray into the very first book of the Bible to see precisely where they come from: (Genesis 3) “You will be wise”… “You will be like God”… “did God say…” and all the implications of those first lies.
The truths of God’s Word do not and will not change and therefore in every generation they are applicable, regardless of the ten current objections. Ironic isn’t it?  Of that generation that was plotting to crucify Him, we read: John 9:39-41 (NKJV) And Jesus said, “For judgment I have come into this world, that those who do not see may see, and that those who see may be made blind.” 40 Then some of the Pharisees who were with Him heard these words, and said to Him, “Are we blind also?” 41 Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no sin; but now you say, ‘We see.’ Therefore your sin remains.

And we read this very up to date truth: John 15:22-25 (NKJV)
22 If I had not come and spoken to them, they would have no sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin. 23 He who hates Me hates My Father also. 24 If I had not done among them the works which no one else did, they would have no sin; but now they have seen and also hated both Me and My Father. 25 But this happened that the word might be fulfilled which is written in their law, ‘They hated Me without a cause.’
When men and women are coming to Jesus Christ and doing so at the peril of their lives in places like China, Iran, North Korea, and etc. where the political climate is either atheism or an antichristian religion, and then there are the multitude of voices in this country that argue that they do not believe in God, and specifically in the God of the Bible… all the so-called “reasons” for atheism are moot and irrelevant.  Just as has happened all through history, the faith and practice of a few brings the greater condemnation upon the many who do not because they will not.

They will be the greater condemnation on that day when Romans 14:11-12 (NKJV) For it is written: “As I live, says the LORD, Every knee shall bow to Me, And every tongue shall confess to God.” 12 So then each of us shall give account of himself to God.

Hate on, scream out your curses and your mocking just as that crowd did at Calvary… bring up all your “intellectual” arguments_ they did… tell us like the educated, the elite, the rulers, the politically correct, and all the rest that they were:  why “this man should be crucified”…   Those who are truly followers of Christ will pray for you and pity you.

But be warned… in just a few more days… this vapor life will be over and the God who knows every thought and every word will not be impressed at all with your folly. He knows what you know! And He knows WHY you argue!

John 7:7 (NKJV)
7 The world cannot hate you, but it hates Me because I testify of it that its works are evil.
Deuteronomy 7:9-10 (NKJV)  Therefore know that the LORD your God, He is God, the faithful God who keeps covenant and mercy for a thousand generations with those who love Him and keep His commandments; 10 and He repays those who hate Him to their face, to destroy them. He will not be slack with him who hates Him; He will repay him to his face.

Philippians 2:8-11 (NKJV)
8 And being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself and became obedient to the point of death, even the death of the cross. 9 Therefore God also has highly exalted Him and given Him the name which is above every name, 10 that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow, of those in heaven, and of those on earth, and of those under the earth, 11 and that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

God rules, whatever men may choose

When men choose to serve God, He rules, when they choose to disobey Him, He overrules.  Either way, what He has declared will be done.

History is simply the fulfillment of the Word of God from beginning to end. Those who are looking from some proof of God need look no further than history. The Word of God is not an addendum to history, but the guide to it. And there have been no revisions of the prophecies since they were first declared. They were not popular when they were spoken and have not been popular since, but they are nevertheless certain.  There has been considerable rebellion against those first five books of the Bible, but there is no way to refute the prophecies contained therein. The history of the people to whom, and about whom, those laws and covenants and the warnings regarding the breaking of them were written, have had millenniums of history in which they have proven every curse and every blessing that was promised,  and yet through it all they have also proven the faithfulness of God in keeping His promise to never utterly forsake them, but to re-gather them in that very land promised to their forefather Abraham…  even though they are scattered all over the world,  and despite the hatred and attempts by the world at large to prevent it from happening (aside to all atheists… give us a rational explanation for the world’s antisemitism, the concurrence of prophecies regarding Israel with current events).

It is abundantly easy for us to look at the world around us and become dismayed and discouraged, but a simple foray into the Word of God with simple faith in this God of history is enough to cheer our spirits and put a song back into our heart (that is for those whose trust is in Him and His Word). The world changes, the Word does not.

The story of Hannah comes to mind during that terrible time in the history of Israel when “everyone did that which was right in his own eyes”. The nation was being prepared for the king of their choice to sit on the throne, (Saul the prototype that serves as a warning)  but beyond that it was being prepared for the king of God’s choice (David, the prototype of history’s ultimate end), the king through whom the Eternal King of Kings would eventually descend.  And while the religion of the land was mostly idolatry (as it has perpetually been), there were still the faithful few who held on to the promises of God and were looking to Him alone for answers (He is the only One who has them, by the way).

In the one place where there should have been godly leadership and godly examples, the place where the tabernacle of God was, there was instead: self-indulgence, immorality of the worst sort, greed, selfishness, and utter corruption (sound familiar?). Still (and this is an important point) since it (the Tabernacle at Shiloh) represented the Presence of God, the place of His Word, there were those with sincere hearts who came there to present themselves to Him despite the corruption of those who were supposed to be representing Him. Among those who came, were Hannah and her husband Elkanah and his family. The story is found in 1 Samuel. Hannah was barren and her husband (as was permitted by law at the time) had married a second wife in order to have descendants. This second wife, Peninnah, became quite arrogant and spiteful because of the fact that she had children, whereas Hannah had none. The shame of barrenness was enough for Hannah, but to this shame was the added pain of the taunting, and provocation of Peninnah. Simple story to tell, no doubt a much harder one to live; but instead of retaliation and adding to domestic strife and causing her husband grief, Hannah took her burdens to the Lord and left them there.

In her silent prayers before the Lord, the half blind (spiritually and physically) priest, Eli, accused her of drunkenness (adding insult to injury) which Hannah dejectedly denied. Eli then changed course and pronounced a blessing upon Hannah which amounted on his part to “be blessed, and may God answer your prayers”… very generic. But her prayer had been to the God who sees in secret and who rewards openly.  He heard the prayer. The years of barrenness had brought Hannah  to this point of desperation, and also  to great gratitude when God answered her prayer. She had been molded into the character that willed to give back to God what He had graciously granted her… a son that she reared as God’s gift.

She vowed to give the child Samuel (heard by God) to God to serve at His tabernacle. God was about to humble the proud and exalt the humble, and just as He has done so many times through history, He did it by sending a child.

But it is this song of thanksgiving of Hannah’s that says what is needful for this time: (1 Samuel 2:1b)  “My heart rejoices in the LORD; My horn (symbol of strength) is exalted in the LORD. I smile at my enemies, Because I rejoice in Your salvation.”

Can we do that? Smile at our enemies, forgive them through Christ of their ignorance and arrogance, knowing that there is a God in Heaven before whom their pride and arrogance is indeed laughable (were it not  for the tragic consequences)… but noting also that unless they repent, there is an eternity of regret that they are facing?  I can smile, “because I know (as the Gaither song says), HE holds the future!”

(2:2) “No one is holy like the LORD, For there is none besides You, nor is there any rock like our God”.  Amazing isn’t it how the agnostics, the atheists, the wicked, and the religions of the world focus their hateful speech, their heated arguments, their mockery and ridicule against the One and only God while at the same time denying His existence?  It brings to mind the quote from Isaiah 44:20 (NKJV)  He feeds on ashes; A deceived heart has turned him aside; And he cannot deliver his soul, Nor say, “Is there not a lie in my right hand?”

Indeed, there is no other God and all the arguments for any other god can easily be refuted, whereas the God of the Bible, and the things that the Bible teaches can be easily demonstrated to be the foundation of every moral argument, every logical argument, every attempt to establish anything that is absolute. He IS and there is NO OTHER.  He is not a rock, but THE ROCK, meaning that He is unchangeable, immoveable, Eternal.

I love this admonition: (2:3)“Talk no more so very proudly; Let no arrogance come from your mouth, For the LORD is the God of knowledge; And by Him actions are weighed.”  Aha! That in a nutshell is the REASON, this God is despised by the world. There is that innate knowledge that comes out just before the car hits the tree, or just as the towers are falling, or just when the diagnosis is cancer “oh my God”… that innate knowledge (that causes guilt and shame over sin,  despite all the attempts to suppress, justify, and deny) that we must all give an account for the deeds done in this body whether good or evil… and He does not need witnesses, tapes, videos, DNA samples, and etc. He KNOWS.

This we can confide in and wait confidently for: “The bows (the strength, the imaginary powers, the strongholds of their defense… whatever and whoever they may be) of the mighty are broken, And those who stumble are girded with strength”.  The line from the old Andre Crouch song comes to mind, “I may be down today, but help is on the way”.  Hundreds of lines from the Psalms and  multiple hymns and spiritual songs come to mind. It is a theme that anyone who has had his faith tested can sing about. We know that all things work together for good to those who love God…those whom God in His grace is molding and shaping through circumstances to be more like Him. Down today does not mean out. It means:Psalm 27:14 (NKJV)
14 Wait on the LORD; Be of good courage, And He shall strengthen your heart; Wait, I say, on the LORD!

1 Samuel 2:5-8 (NKJV)
5 Those who were full have hired themselves out for bread, And the hungry have ceased to hunger. Even the barren has borne seven, And she who has many children has become feeble. 6 “The LORD kills and makes alive; He brings down to the grave and brings up. 7 The LORD makes poor and makes rich; He brings low and lifts up. 8 He raises the poor from the dust And lifts the beggar from the ash heap, To set them among princes And make them inherit the throne of glory. “For the pillars of the earth are the LORD’S, And He has set the world upon them.

God is sovereign… but He has sovereignly protected our “right” to choose, and we can be assured that no one will be in hell that did not make the choices that led there. But even before that eternal state, we can see through history the fact that there are stunning reverses which defies explanation except through the declared Word of God.. Some want to credit “fate”, “accident”, “fluke”, and a host of other things, but there are choices and consequences, there are appointments and deadlines, there are roads that have an end, there are happenings that are too inexplicable to be coincidence.  If we could explain them all, then we would be our own gods, but the oldest book in the Bible puts it this way: Job 9:12 (NKJV) “If He takes away, who can hinder Him? Who can say to Him, ‘What are You doing?’”

Justice does not happen on just a certain Monday morning. God has infinite time and space and power to rule His universe, and  also has absolute right to do so. But thankfully He rules with perfect and just laws that have no hidden clauses and no loopholes. And also thankfully, He is merciful, gracious, loving, and good even to the arrogant and ignorant.  He has provided a way that His perfect justice could be upheld while at the same time displaying incomprehensible  love and grace through becoming man and allowing the full penalty of sin to fall upon Himself so that those humble enough to confess their sins and repent of their rebellion against His just laws may have an opportunity for pardon… the penalty having been paid by Jesus Christ as their substitute, not so they (as some erroneously teach) could go on living in rebellion, but so that they could be reconciled to God, freed from the guilt and estrangement of the past, and reckoned no longer as transgressors, but as sons and daughters to a loving father… the prodigal who has learned  the grief of sin, who has been cured of his illusions as to the attractions of the far country…  It is rightly call “THE GOSPEL”.

But for those who have no interest in the good news, be warned:

1 Samuel 2:9-10 (NKJV)
9 He will guard the feet of His saints, But the wicked shall be silent in darkness. “For by strength no man shall prevail. 10 The adversaries of the LORD shall be broken in pieces; From heaven He will thunder against them. The LORD will judge the ends of the earth. “He will give strength to His king, And exalt the horn of His anointed.”

Justice is by no means executed only in this life. There are actions that are so wicked that a thousand lifetimes would not be sufficient to punish the evil. How can you measure the sorrows caused by a Stalin, a Hitler, or those wannabe’s that wreak havoc all around them in their selfishness and wickedness?  But there is a God who sees it all and knows it all and will deal with it all, and there are tokens of His justice seen in daily happenings…  like the very subject of this song. He many times gives us those external, but mostly internal assurances that fill our hearts with praise and thanksgiving as we watch with pity the proud prancing in their pompousness, because we know the smallness, the weakness, and the pathetic frailty of their frame and the foolishness of their boasts. We are all like grass that withers, like clouds that pass away with the heat of the sun, like water that is spilled on the ground in our mortal frame. Consider how quickly this short life will end! Consider how great the loss will be, to be eternally lost! Consider whose choice it will have been! Consider how quickly the mouths of those who such a short time ago were spitting out their arrogant railings against God have been silenced, and consider the fact that that there is still a judgment to come in which every knee shall bow and every tongue shall confess that Jesus Christ is LORD! to the glory of God the Father.

Nebuchadnezzar’s historic speech is always apropos to the present politics and presumptuous pride in whatever decade: Daniel 4:37 (NKJV)  ”Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and extol and honor the King of heaven, all of whose works are truth, and His ways justice. And those who walk in pride He is able to put down.”

 

 

What if you get your wish?

Just what is it that you get when you get your wish that the whole nation no longer recognizes worships, believes in, and adheres to the Word of God, The Holy Bible ? Do you really imagine as Lennon did that a world free of religion, free of borders, free of flags can exist? And what if it did? Everyone doing what is right in his own eyes?

I have to say that is the dream of fools, absolute fools and dishonest ones at that. There is enough corruption, selfishness, lawlessness, jealousy, hatred, greed, lust, covetousness, madness in every single human heart to start a million wars. Sadly Lennon met one of them.

There are many reasons that I reject what comes out of Hollywood and would not have watched any of the movie, ‘The Book of Eli’, had I not heard what it depicted. The violence, vulgarity, visceral evil certainly turned my stomach, but what it depicted is too close to the reality, to easily write it off. What is to be reaped by a generation that gets their wish by their wholesale rejection of the Bible and of course the very real God whom it introduces and the absolutes that it is full of?

So you think that “society” can dictate morals to the degree that we do not need God? And that, albeit the complexity of all that is made is such that we cannot by any means imitate it with all our best efforts, still we can get along with the foolish notion that the stars made us minus any deity, thank you very much.
“The stars gave their life for us, so why do we need Jesus?” Really?

And suppose you get rid of these pesky Christians with their message of a Savior who loved us enough to die for our sins, and those despicable Jews who claim allegiance to a God that exterminated “wicked” societies, then who will you turn that bitterness and hatred upon? Who will be the scapegoats? Let’s see, the innocent unborn have already been murdered by the millions, and aged and unproductive old are next… I mean after all, it is survival of the fittest. The morons, the pathetically illiterate, the crippled that are just taking up space and have no way of doing or being anything but wards of the state… why should they live? Who is to tell any group that organizes for the sake of supremacy that their ideas are not right, since the only absolute is that there is no absolute, never mind how self-refuting that lie is. What next? What do you have when you have what you want? And really what is that you want? To be told that anything you contemplate is acceptable and good or rather that nothing you do is wrong. I have read the blogs that justify pornography, rape under certain circumstances, abortion is old hat, and so is euthanasia, child sex… what is wrong with that, and with men tiring of being men and becoming women and vice versa, and why not become animals… oh but I see, we are already those aren’t we?

And getting rid of Christianity and Christians removes any reason to judge anything or anybody. There is no wrong or right, no black and white. No one is watching except the cameras of the state, and the only “sin” is to disagree with the state… but I forgot, no borders, just one world… and is there to be no authority? Well of course, the man of our own choosing, and what kind of man might he or she be? He must hate Christianity, or course. He must believe in the supremacy of man, of course. And of course he must be given some authority, sort of like the current administration… you just cannot have everyone doing his own thing… oh but wait, I thought that was the reason to get rid of Christianity, so that we could do our own thing….
Wait, haven’t we already seen what society is like when you get rid of “the opiate of the people”? Hmm… China, Soviet Union, Cuba…

You have really thought this one through haven’t you? Just get rid of Christianity and what a world!

There will be a place where it is no more! Welcome to hell.

The Real Problem, the Only Solution

Why do we fret so much about the little puppet on the string? He is not our problem but our own lack of repentance and sincerely calling upon God. As in Jeremiah’s day the real problem is that the calling is only so that things will be good enough for us to return to our old idolatries. If we neglect… how shall we escape?

How quickly we move toward the days when there will be no return and for the same reasons that first Israel and then Judah went into captivity. It is ironic but still a startling parallel… that Europe with Great Britain leading the way has already succumbed to the godlessness and captivity to anti Christian isms of every sort with it being only a matter of time until she is just as “carried away” as the Northern Kingdom of Israel by the Assyrians, and by the descendants of a sort of that very kingdom. And the United States has been dealt with, preached to, by the few remaining prophets of God that told us our sins while like Judah of old, city after city and state after state has been captured and we have only a tiny minority left, and the most of that minority is still in denial. “If we could elect these, or do this or recover that”… and we hold on to our Constitution as religiously as Judah did her temple thinking that surely with such a sacred document we could never really go into total oblivion. But just like Eli’s sons taking the Ark of the Covenant into the battle against Philistia, our waving the Constitution or even the Bible in the face of our enemies will do nothing to deter their determination. If we do not have God with us by real repentance, true confession and absolute trust in that Bible, our souls emptied of all self-justifications, self-righteousness and excuses, we have no hope of escaping the righteous judgments of God.

We have lost the vision of how holy our God is and how totally without partiality and respect of persons. We hold to the “this is America” credo as if America were somehow so special that “it” could not happen here, while we fail to see that among the youth of this country there is already an almost total defection from God and among those who still claim Christianity, it is a brand that is so compromised that the early church and even early America would not recognize it. The so-called “security” of believers is the new old false security of the Jews of Jeremiah’s day that cried, “The temple, the temple of the Lord are we” while wallowing in the same sins as the world around them. We have forgotten that admonition of Paul’s to the Corinthians that ends: 1 Corinthians 10:11-12 (NKJV) “Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the ages have come. 12 Therefore let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall.” And he had just recounted the fact that all of those who came out of Egypt had an “experience with God”. They had been delivered from slavery, they had been baptized, they had drank of Christ (these are his words, not mine), they had all participated in the meals of spiritual meat and drink… but… but what? They, like the church in general today, thought that sin was no big deal, that idolatry with the world could not be all that bad, that fulfilling their lusts…. Well God understands, after all He made us this way (isn’t that the way the reasoning goes)… and so the church is just as promiscuous (and quite forgiving… without the slightest rebuke) as the world, just as full of adultery and fornication and abortion as the world… and instead of the Word of God as our rule of practice, the gods of science, politics, social acceptance, pursuit of mammon, and so forth are far more important and to be consulted than the naïve, old-fashioned, fundamentalist, ignorant faith of our fathers (ancient fathers indeed) who believed the Word of God from Genesis 1 to Revelation 22. They (the ancient fathers) reasoned that if God hated it in the Old Testament times, and God does not change, then He must still hate all those sins that were so severely punished back then. Somehow they could not come up with the subtle excuses for self-indulgence, self-righteousness, self-congratulation that so seduces this self-esteeming generation.

God forgive us; forgive me, for allowing my mind to be enticed with those things that attempt to take the heart away from the sincere admiration and adoration of the Holy God of Creation who has declared the end from the beginning. God is not conned by all the calls for repentance without true repentance. All the days of prayer for our country mean absolutely nothing if those days of prayer are not true contrition and confession of our sins, but rather a prayer for the return of status quo. What would we conserve in our promotion of conservatism? What are we to revive?

Just as those in Jeremiah’s day there are those that predict that we are on the verge of great revival and a turning of the tide… Jeremiah 27:16-22 (NKJV)
16 Also I spoke to the priests and to all this people, saying, “Thus says the Lord: ‘Do not listen to the words of your prophets who prophesy to you, saying, “Behold, the vessels of the Lord’s house will now shortly be brought back from Babylon”; for they prophesy a lie to you. 17 Do not listen to them; serve the king of Babylon, and live! Why should this city be laid waste? 18 But if they are prophets, and if the word of the Lord is with them, let them now make intercession to the Lord of hosts, that the vessels which are left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and at Jerusalem, do not go to Babylon.’ 19 “For thus says the Lord of hosts concerning the pillars, concerning the Sea, concerning the carts, and concerning the remainder of the vessels that remain in this city, 20 which Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon did not take, when he carried away captive Jeconiah the son of Jehoiakim, king of Judah, from Jerusalem to Babylon, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem– 21 yes, thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels that remain in the house of the Lord, and in the house of the king of Judah and of Jerusalem: 22 ‘They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall be until the day that I visit them,’ says the Lord. ‘Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.’ “
As God said to Baruch through Jeremiah: Jeremiah 45:3-5 (NKJV)
3 ‘You said, “Woe is me now! For the Lord has added grief to my sorrow. I fainted in my sighing, and I find no rest.” ‘ 4 Thus you shall say to him, ‘Thus says the Lord: “Behold, what I have built I will break down, and what I have planted I will pluck up, that is, this whole land. 5 And do you seek great things for yourself? Do not seek them; for behold, I will bring adversity on all flesh,” says the Lord. “But I will give your life to you as a prize in all places, wherever you go.” ‘ ”

If we escape with our lives, thank God, but if not, thank God also Lamentations 3:22-24 (NKJV) ‘Through the Lord’s mercies we are not consumed, Because His compassions fail not. 23 They are new every morning; Great is Your faithfulness. 24 “The Lord is my portion,” says my soul, “Therefore I hope in Him!”

If the worst of judgment comes to us, God is still good. Thy will be done.

Pity for those convinced that they are products of Accident

Psalms 119:90-91 (NKJV)
90 Your faithfulness endures to all generations; You established the earth, and it abides. 91 They continue this day according to Your ordinances, For all are Your servants.

The atheists of our day continue their rants against God, and yet it is only because of the faithfulness of God that they can continue to spout and spew their vitriol.

I challenge any and all of them to give a reasonable reason for their existence, rather than a rambling rant. When the foundation is ridiculous, then all the superstructure cannot be otherwise, and the premise of “once upon a time there was a big explosion… and here we are” is so preposterous a proposition that it could not have been believed at all were it not for the fact that there is a grand deceiver/slanderer afoot that can/does convince mere mortals of lies exceedingly illogical and far surpassing the incredible, requiring exponentially more gullibility to believe than the reasonable faith required to believe the simple truth, “in the beginning God” (hmm, seems there is an overlooked principle here somewhere…razor or something).

Where is the argument that can stand the scrutiny of reason and logic that denies God? There is no reason except for His very existence and specifically our accountability to Him for any argument against His existence. The argument/arguments are because He is! If He does not exist, there is no argument to be made, and no motivation for argument. He is resisted because He is. We are because He is. The universe is because He is. We think because He created us to think. All arguments are dependent upon His Word, His laws, His existence or there is no argument at all and no reason that we could reason or argue. To trust that there is truth at all is dependent upon a concept that truth exists and outside the Word of God there is no origin of such concept. Our whole society and the ability to debate anything regarding it is dependent upon the presuppositions that come from the Bible alone. In Hinduism all is one and one is all. In Islam contradictions are perfectly in order. Allah says one thing one day and another next and the fact that what he says today is contradicted tomorrow poses no problem, so the concept of truth is pointless and self-refuting in Islam. In naturalism, the talk of “laws” is total nonsense without the Lawgiver. Accidents do follow certain laws, but without a lawgiver there is no reason for them to, and there is no reason to trust any product of any accident. There is no reason for information period… all illogical argument notwithstanding. To follow any of the proposed theories of origin or philosophies of existence to their logical end, or to suppose there is such a thing as logic is dependent upon the God of the Bible to even make an argument, but to follow them to their logical end is to end in total nonsense.

I stand as any rational creature should stand upon the Word of God who speaks as the only authority on the subject of why we are here, (He is the only One who observed it all and still lives to tell it) where we are going and what the purpose of history is all about. The answers are logical, rational, and totally irrefutable (arguable, but irrefutable). Let the most “brilliant” atheist bring forth his/her arguments and they have to fall back upon the Word of God and what God has revealed regarding this universe to make any argument period. Take away the foundation that I have chosen to stand upon and they are standing on… what??? Once upon a…. not “a”, but 0… not not even 0, because that is a concept that has to be postulated by intelligence, and their foundation does not even include intelligence… not even empty space, because space itself is certainly not nothing.

Zero added to zero is still zero and zero multiplied by a million or a trillion or a googolplex is still zero. Abandon the Word of God, truly abandon it and pretend that it cannot be trusted and there is not even zero to stand on.

The logical fallacy from the beginning is the same one of today. Eve was convinced by Satan, that she, a creature, had sufficient intelligence and reasoning ability to know better than her Creator what she ought to do. She was convinced by the deceiver to believe that her mind could think superior thoughts to the mind that created both her and the universe that surrounded her. It was/is a logical impossibility. It is impossible for a created, manufactured, invented anything to exceed the intelligence of its creator. (Beware, products of accident!)

Those who desire to ascribe their intelligence to chance mutations or to “almighty accidents” as their creator are to be pitied rather than respected with arguments. It is unfair to argue with victims of accidents. How can anyone trust the intelligence of an accident?

New Address

We are so grateful to be able to announce a new location for our church to meet at 2601 North 7th St. in the Massey Building Suite 129, the last suite on the bottom floor on the North end of the building, (the one closest to Cypress), in West Monroe. We could not have found a more convenient and accessible location. It is one block off of Cypress, is near Glenwood and just a few feet from the intersection of Macmillian Road and 7th Street, easily accessible from Thomas Road, the interstate, and visitors coming in from all points of the compass. We are looking forward to receiving visitors to whom we may preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Personal answer to a post on another blog

I too remember 911 very well. I suspect that most of us will remember for a long time exactly where we were and what we were doing. I was in the hospital in Jackson, Mississippi with a child with cerebral palsy, secondary to shaken baby syndrome, crippled by my daughter’s husband before the child was two months old. My daughter, already ill with Huntington’s by this time, had two other children (different father) which were in my custody (one of which recently wrote on your blog). I knew from the ill treatment that she was receiving from her husband during the pregnancy that the child would be in grave danger after he was born, and I contacted Social Services and asked them to investigate to no avail only to have them call me a couple of weeks later to inform me that my grandson was in the hospital. The injured child was two years old when we were in the hospital during 911, and through the next two weeks in the hospital I saw the first plane crash as it was happening and the second as it was happening, the scenes from the Pentagon as soon as it was clear that it too had been attacked, and so on for the next multiple reruns and commentaries and theories and interviews, the scenes of shouting in the streets on another continent. To imagine that the God of the Bible was not around is beyond imagination. He was around when all those things happened in my family, and He was around certainly during 911.

To imagine what would have happened by now in this country had we not been shocked awake, is really too terrible to imagine, whereas multiple other attempts (even an earlier one on those buildings) had already taken place, the bombing of our troops abroad, the bombing of peaceful ships, the hostages taken by terrorists, and the continual terror that had/has gone on for years in Israel. It is true that many died that one day, but it is also true that many die every day. But the sad thing is that we hardly notice. It is also true that we are surrounded by evil for which evolution and naturalism and so many other isms have woefully insufficient answers, or rather no answer at all.

It is appointed unto man once to die and after that the judgment. God is not dead nor does He sleep just because there are the tragedies of death all around us. The only way that death could be prevented from happening in situations like 9ll and Katrina would be for God to be the tyrant that so many want to make Him, who takes away all human ability to choose. I live in Louisiana and have spent time in New Orleans, 6 weeks in the last three months. To blame God or anyone else for the carnage in New Orleans when those there received but ignored warnings, and when inept public officials simply blew it, is simply ignorant. But indeed He does not take away that ability to choose, and in fact has preserved it to the greatest possible personal cost. And therefore we have terrorists and wacko’s like the “pastor” of the Westboro Baptist Church. We have people that stubbornly refuse to take any kind of precautions, people that drive break-neck speeds, that ingest poisons, that greedily manufacture poisons carelessly to be diseminated through our economy, and etc. “Love thy neighbor as thyself” would take care of a whole host of problems as would the exposition of that law in the New Testament exemplified by the early church… “love works no ill toward his neighbor”. But alas, selfishness is the rule of naturalism and of most isms.

What is the answer from evolution or naturalism in the midst of any tragedy, personal or corporate? “Another one bites the dust”…. “blip it is over”…Jesus addressed similar, if not quite as severe, situations in the current events of his day and he had this to say to that audience, Luke 13:1-5 (NKJV) “There were present at that season some who told Him about the Galileans whose blood Pilate had mingled with their sacrifices. 2 And Jesus answered and said to them, “Do you suppose that these Galileans were worse sinners than all other Galileans, because they suffered such things? 3 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish. 4 Or those eighteen on whom the tower in Siloam fell and killed them, do you think that they were worse sinners than all other men who dwelt in Jerusalem? 5 I tell you, no; but unless you repent you will all likewise perish.”

The sad truth is that men deny their mortality until or unless there is some kind of general tragedy that temporarily awakes them out of the stupor of the imagination that they have all their tomorrows all lined up.

None of us are immune to tragedy. I can testify from experience. My oldest grandson got cancer at 8 and was dead days before his 13th birthday. My oldest two children have the disease Huntington’s that also killed my wife. What does atheism have to say to me? “Too bad, I hope you don’t miss them too much”? No, not even that… “survival of the fittest”… that is the answer to tragedy, and the principle is/has been helped along by atheistic societies in this modern era that have caused untold misery with no remorse, i.e. Communism. My brother’s handsome son died on his 21st birthday, my other brother lost his oldest son at age 31. Does that at all mean that God is not there? Absolutely not, but in fact was and is a very present help in time of trouble. As my grandson said when others tried to question God by saying “why did He let this happen to Josh?” his reply was, “why not me?”

What makes any of us so special that the universe is supposed to revolve around what happens to me, or to my family, or my city, or my state, or my country?

We cannot have it both ways… either there is choice or there is not. And because men constantly choose to rebel against just and perfect laws designed to protect society from just such tragedies, their rebellion, and their pride in imagining themselves much wiser than God brings on an exponentially expanding plethora of tragedies. Tell me, in those societies where they have decided that the God of the Bible is verboten? Are tragedies exempted there, or exacerbated? Recent history provides a resounding answer.

I was force fed the tragedy of 911 for fourteen days with nurses and doctors talking constantly about it while facing my own personal tragedy, but it did not in the least make me contemplate faithlessness in the God of the Bible, but in fact strengthened my faith because in it (the Bible) I found the only way to make sense of it all, as well as all the other tragedies surrounding us.

Answer to a Fool According to His Folly

I read the blogs and posts of atheists just for insight into their thinking. As a group they are to be most pitied while they rant and rave and pour out their contempt, their savage invective, their ridicule, their taunts and accusations of ignorance upon those who believe in the God of the Bible. Their sarcasm (and yes that is a generalization after sampling sufficient examples to form it) is, regardless of all the bluster, just a covering for their hatred of the God whom if they really believed that He did not exist… why bother? But the truth is, He does, and they know it, but wish it were not so… as do the many “isms” that have fought so diligently over the past century to wipe out all the symbols of His existence. And from Nazism, Socialism, Communism, Hinduism, Buddhism, Intellectualism, Multiculturalism, environmentalism, atheism, to ISlaM, the God of the Bible is in the way of each of their agendas. They can be at each others throats about a number of other things, but one thing is agreed, the Bible, and the God of that Bible and the people that teach and believe it must go… and that includes Christians and Jews that believe in the absolute that “the God of the Bible will judge us by His Word”. The Word of God so despised, is taken and twisted to their own condemnation, and yet in their eyes to their justification for their “right” to sin at will and ignore this “tyrant” that would dare demand certain things of them. I have read long and repetitious justifications for everything from the most vile pornography, to bestial promiscuity, serial adultery, homosexuality of every description, murder of babies of course, and in short the fulfillment of the words of Psalms 2 (this 3000 year old Psalm that tells the truth that is found in every generation, and never more than in this one) in their raging desire to be shed of the God of the Bible and all His laws: “Let us break Their bonds in pieces And cast away Their cords from us.”

It is really the rage against God that is at the root of atheism, and all the isms that that “a” entails. Karl Marx was, you guessed it, an atheist. The Fabians were atheists. The father of the total demise of education in America to the present state of schools of political propagandists for all the “isms” mentioned above was the atheist, John Dewey. The suppression of truth that is called “science” today is but another arm of atheism, atheism that became militant in Nazism, and Socialism and Communism that has been responsible for more death and destruction in the past century than in all the other centuries combined from the time of Christ till now. To believe oneself to be so intelligent and then to find out how terribly duped and used they have been is an embarrassing thing to say the least… but alas, the atheists have been so intent on closing their ears and eyes to the Bible that they have fallen hook, line and sinker for the agenda of those who have been guilty of the greatest crimes against humanity of any in human history since ancient times. Their agenda has been to indoctrinate this generation into atheism so that they can become sheep for the slaughter… and the slaughter by the atheistic regimes of Hitler, Lenin, Stalin, Mao Tse Tung, Kim Jong il, and all the rest, is so very typically cynical… the sheeple are robbed of their belief in God and fed on dependence on almighty government, and their trust in what is called “Science”, and then the ‘useful idiots’ (in the words of Lenin) are so indoctrinated and so deceived that they cannot even recognize truth any longer. They become useful tools for the atheistic government (the likes of which we now have despite all the hypocritical assurances otherwise) and after being duped into believing how wise and intelligent and well informed they are because of following the party line, any attempt to wake up from the stupor is a capital offense.

It is almost laughable how gullible those who are so convinced of their superiority truly are. The belief in evolution for instance. Now you know how “natural” it is to walk into a house and admire all the furniture and the architecture and exclaim with excitement “this is just beautiful! Isn’t it amazing how this could all come about by a series of accidents over the course of x number of years!” Or how “natural” it is to go to the beach and upon seeing a remarkable sand castle with some excellent details, to remark, “Wow, the sea has done an incredible job of forming this intricately detailed likeness of the Eiffel Tower… wonder how many years it took and how many accidents were involved in this work of art”. I mean it really takes intelligence to come up with such an amazing piece of sophistry to dupe people into believing such you know what and to persecute those who have enough sense to say “the emperor has no clothes”. And yet our so-called “naturalists” and “atheists” with a straight face and with quite a serious and offended demeanor cannot tolerate the mockery of believing such a stupid argument… in fact feel quite intelligent and wise while being such fools.

You know how intelligent it is to claim to mother and dad that the pile of papers and books and cookies and coke just happened to get on the table and no one in the house did it, and no one out of the house did it either…. Oh but let’s use a little more sophisticated (interpreted sophistry) words to sound “intelligent” while we decorate this lie… maybe we can convince mom and dad that aliens did it… or as one well known atheist recently answered when pushed back to the origin of the materials for his theory of origin… “crystals man, crystals” to which I would have to answer if I had been there, “what, the ones you are ON!”

Atheists as a whole (another generalization from numerous observations) consider themselves to be intellectual, smart, certainly too smart to believe in the “god story”, and yet as Paul so perfectly puts it, Romans 1:21-22 (NKJV) because, although they knew God, they did not glorify Him as God, nor were thankful, but became futile in their thoughts, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Professing to be wise, they became fools…”

When you start out with an impossibility (all that exists coming from non existence) and add to it what never happens (new information being added to the DNA that never existed before) and then start making up lies that have to be changed constantly because of discovery after discovery that refutes the old lies… and then keep on insisting that you are intelligent for believing it… then you have defined a fool. “Fool me once, your fault, fool me twice… ”

I had the privilege/curse of attending the local university over a period of three decades: starting undergraduate work in one, stepping out in order to earn more money to go back, going back and graduating in the second decade, and starting graduate work, dropping out again for the same reason, and then going back in the third decade before losing all my graduate work… each time I took some courses in what is called “science”, and each time I found a large portion of what had been popular theory the decade before debunked for the next most plausible theory in the next. That is true in almost every field… psychology, social science, the hard sciences, the life sciences. During all those decades I have consistently read and studied the One Book that has never changed, the original has never had to be updated, never had to apologize for an inaccuracy, never had to retract one law that is harmful to society (harmful to many egos, and harmful to debauched, debased, perverted, dehumanizing, murderous, disgracing lifestyles, but not to any peaceful life loving society), never had to apologize for mistakes in geography, history, true science (that which can be tested and proved), nor for the first prophecy. What has been written remains written with the challenge from the author: Isaiah 46:9-10 (NKJV) “Remember the former things of old, For I am God, and there is no other; I am God, and there is none like Me, 10 Declaring the end from the beginning, And from ancient times things that are not yet done, Saying, ‘My counsel shall stand, And I will do all My pleasure,’

It does not take an extensive search at all to find dozens upon dozens of declarations of what will be in the Bible from the very first book till the last, and it is a matter of record easily ascertained to see how accurately prophecy after prophecy has been fulfilled. Israel, and the “people of the Book” so hated by false religion and no religion alike are constantly fulfilling the ancient prophecies, and as hated as they have been and still are, the major one being the multiple promises regarding their continued existence (Jeremiah 35:25), their scattering all over the world and then their regathering into that same land and that same city from which they were removed by their sins (beginning as far back as in the Law, Deuteronomy 30:1-10; continuing in the Prophets, Jeremiah 31:10 fl. and Ezekiel 11:16fl. and etc.). There are specific events foretold regarding the one city that is continually in the news… the history foretold was this: Jeremiah 9:11 (NKJV) “I will make Jerusalem a heap of ruins, a den of jackals. I will make the cities of Judah desolate, without an inhabitant.” None other than the agnostic, Samuel Clemens, aka Mark Twain, attested to the accuracy of this prophecy when he visited that land in the 19th century and declared that it was a desolate place with only the Bedouins as dwellers in the ghostly shadows of what had once been thriving cities and villages. But then there is this prophecy concerning the “latter days” which we have seen fulfilled ever since the Jewish state has been reborn in 1948: Zechariah 12:1-3 (NKJV) “The burden of the word of the Lord against Israel. Thus says the Lord, who stretches out the heavens, lays the foundation of the earth, and forms the spirit of man within him: 2 “Behold, I will make Jerusalem a cup of drunkenness to all the surrounding peoples, when they lay siege against Judah and Jerusalem. 3 And it shall happen in that day that I will make Jerusalem a very heavy stone for all peoples; all who would heave it away will surely be cut in pieces, though all nations of the earth are gathered against it….”

Whereas evolutionists and naturalists and a host of other self-proclaimed intelligentsia believe the fairy, fairy tale “once upon a time when there was no “when” and no “where” and no “thing” and certainly no God, “nothing exploded into something and viola organized itself into “soup” which became “sandwiches” which became all this wonderful intelligence called man that believes he has accidentally became the epitome of wisdom” (tee hee, hee, hee, hee) and they pity the likes of yours truly for accepting the totally logical, sensible, and only true record of origin, “In the beginning God“!

I suppose we will simply have to pity one another from our opposite sides and wait and see. In the meanwhile there are plenty more milestones ahead already laid out in advance by the God who was there, who is here, and who will always be. One, (2 Timothy 3:13) “deceivers shall grow worse and worse, deceiving and being deceived”. Two, (2 Thessalonians 2:11-12) those who refuse truth will soon be unable to see it because God will second their motion, 2 Thessalonians 2:11-12 (NKJV) “And for this reason God will send them strong delusion, that they should believe the lie, 12 that they all may be condemned who did not believe the truth but had pleasure in unrighteousness.” and Three (out) this God that has been rejected will allow those who want to be their own God to have one of their own to make himself a God to them. And just like the present madness called Islam, there will be no choice, but he will force all to take a mark of allegiance to him alone (See Revelation 13) and in turn he will seek to destroy all of us who are followers of Christ…

Watch for the coming attraction: the atheists, the evolutionists, the naturalists, and all the other “ists” and “isms” opposed to Christ will join together appear to win (according to Daniel, destroying many)… but don’t forget real history… Jesus was crucified, but He lives. Israel, and Judah were thought to be destroyed not once, but twice and they have one to go, but Israel lives and will live. The victories of the Hitler’s, Stalin’s, and much further back, Assyrians, Babylonians, the Haman’s (See the book of Esther) are but for a moment. This God whom you refuse, is not intimidated and neither are those who follow Him. Through the centuries from Nero to Mao, they have died by the millions because they love enough to tell the truth even when it is hated, when it is politically incorrect, when it is absolutely verboten, and yet here we are, preserved not because of weapons, or political skills, or human ingenuity, but because God has said it.

Continue to believe lies, but remember that truth will always triumph because it is… the Truth. There would be no world at all were it not for the Creator. It is foolishness and arrogance to imagine otherwise. We are because He is, and the silly and preposterous imagination that anything from a grain of sand to a mountain of granite could exist by accident is so stupid that only a fool would believe it.

So,
Rave on brave souls… in just a little while you will know. Enjoy your sick addictions to disobedience to the One and Only Lord God. Look diligently for every excuse to disavow Him. Seek out arguments and accuse God with your “superior ethics” by citing anything to attempt to discredit the Bible. Ignore the context, and ignore the totality of His laws that are perfect. By all means ignore the life and teachings of Jesus Christ, and continue to blaspheme and mock, and even join those that in only a short while will be putting to death any reminders of Him and His glory… but know this… YOU WILL GIVE ACCOUNT TO HIM.

Mock the warning, as you will, but HIS WORD WAS HERE LONG BEFORE YOU CAME. IT HAS NOT CHANGED ONE IOTA AND WILL NOT CHANGE. You can do nothing but confirm it, whatever you do, because HE has always had our number… every last one of us.

I thank Him that He loved me enough to call me out of my sins into His light. He loved you the same… but if you persist in rejecting and mocking His love, you can have what you have chosen. YOU GET WHAT YOU WANT! NO GOD! NO GOD and none of the Good which His word is all about… consider, consider if you get your wish…. Look into your own filthy heart honestly for once and see what you would be if there were no restraints, and look at all the societies in the past who have pushed God out and the foretaste of hell that they became….The eternal hell is a reality. It is getting what you want… a place where God leaves you forever alone with all the others that did not want Him, His Love, His goodness, His blessings, His creation… How does the Bible describe it? Just like you want it… the lights go out forever… the lusts get full reign forever, but no God to heal, deliver, improve, and show mercy for you in the midst of them, the Christians and their morality is gone forever, along with all the principles that have inspired all that has ever been good in society. The restraints of God are gone, forever. It is the world of Eli to the last exponent. It is a world totally without the Laws of God… total chaos, total anarchy, total rebellion, total hate, total evil, total selfishness, total depravity, total immorality, total despair, total hopelessness because the big bang cannot create morality, hope, love, law, organization, selflessness, morality… even if you are given the biggest molecule of mega-googleplex weight for a starter…

Matthew 11:25-30 (NKJV) “At that time Jesus answered and said, “I thank You, Father, Lord of heaven and earth, that You have hidden these things from the wise and prudent and have revealed them to babes. 26 Even so, Father, for so it seemed good in Your sight. 27 All things have been delivered to Me by My Father, and no one knows the Son except the Father. Nor does anyone know the Father except the Son, and the one to whom the Son wills to reveal Him. 28 Come to Me, all you who labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. 29 Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. 30 For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”

If it had not been

How dare we think or imagine that we could stand for one second in this world with the enemies powerful and hateful were it not for the one fact that God stood with us and upheld us by His hand? How foolish to imagine that we have strength at all to stand except that God holds us up? The scripture is so very true that Paul speaks, “if God be for us, who can be against us”, but consider in humble appreciation the negative of that statement so that the positing of it will have its full effect. The whole world IS against those who love God. They are armed and dangerous. They have popular opinion on their side. They are united or will unite immediately at the thought of opportunity to destroy us. The resources of this world are in their hands. We are constantly in the position of Judah, shut up with not enough soldiers to place on the enemy’s loaned horses, scarce of food, scarce of arms, scarce of rest, scarce of options, while our enemies are contemplating which of the multitudes of choices they have for our destruction.

What arms do the Christians have? And what arms, if they had them would they be able to use? What resources do they have? Those with resources, the “rich and increased with goods” are not on our side, but are like those in the battle of Barak, cursed because they came not and will not come to the aid of Lord against the mighty… To imagine that we can do this, that, or the other with weapons available to this world if we could only “get them” (if we only had this, or could do this, or go there, or whatever else) is to have a vain imagination. Our hope is and always has been and always will be in ONLY ONE Source.

Psalms 124:1-5 (KJV) “If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, now may Israel say; 2 If it had not been the LORD who was on our side, when men rose up against us: 3 Then they had swallowed us up quick, when their wrath was kindled against us: 4 Then the waters had overwhelmed us, the stream had gone over our soul: 5 Then the proud waters had gone over our soul.

If not Jehovah, If not the Lord Jesus Christ, the little flocks in this world would long ago have been totally annihilated.

1 Peter 1:4-5 (KJV) “To an inheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away, reserved in heaven for you, 5 Who are kept by the power of God through faith unto salvation ready to be revealed in the last time.”

It may seem that I am stating the obvious, but then the obvious is so often overlooked. How many times in history has a remnant, just a tiny remnant been surrounded by the whole world filled with rage and even so-called “friends” were found to have been complicit in the attempt to destroy that remnant. Case and point is the Jews in World War 2. It was certainly not just the Germans who were wanting a “final solution”, but the Muslim world and multitudes in the U. S., the U. K. and in Europe. If it had not been for Jehovah… Look at the church, the real church in the midst of the world and the world empire church through the centuries and how many times all the world vented their rage against God in those tiny minorities across this globe.

And wait a few more days and the scene will again be familiar. Judah surrounded by the rage of all Assyria with no aid from anyone… except.

Yes indeed, He is all sufficient, the One who wins every battle and will never be defeated… but it is needful for us to fully realize the impact of that fact so that our trust from start to finish will be focused as it should be upon that fact. The weapons of our warfare ARE NOT carnal, Paul reminds us. We do not and will not ever stand a chance competing with the world on the world’s terms. The children of this world are wiser in their own generation… always, because this is their hour, and the power of darkness (See Luke 22:53). Our only hope is the only hope we have ever had and the only reason the Jews have survived and the church survives… and that is to run to the Fortress, the Rock of our Defense, the Shelter in the time of Storm, the God who is more than able… the God of Moses before Pharaoh, the God of Gideon against Midian, the God of Nehemiah and Ezra with enemies without and within and with nothing but the promises of God as their hope and defense, the God of our Lord Jesus Christ when all His disciples fled, the God of Paul when “no one stood by me, nevertheless the Lord…”

Occasions for Gratitude

The song says, “Change and decay in all around I see, Oh Thou who changest not, Abide with me”. The long winter will be over so shortly and the wonders of spring will come. We can be grateful for the fact that there are seasons here on this temporary earth in which decay changes into new life. We can be more grateful that the naturalists have it so very wrong, along with all those who deny the One God of Creation, the One “Lover of My Soul” who came to redeem our souls from the decay that is brought about by sin, so that we may not die in the winter of our lives to be forever frozen in that state. There is a spring coming for those souls who know the Resurrection!

Every spring I am amazed at the wonder of how all the rotting leaves and limbs and dreary landscape is so rapidly transformed into indescribable beauty, a testimony of the love of God for His creatures to whom alone this phenomenon is designed to wow them so that they sing, “O Lord My God, How Great Thou Art”. The Psalmist David asks, “What is man that You are mindful of him?”And when we look above us and beneath us and around us and in us, we cannot help but be awed at the vast complexity that this creation is.

And yet we cannot help noticing either, that no other creature is awed at all by it all. They simply live in their own little niche perpetuating their kind from one generation to another, seemingly happy to simply exist for the short span of their lives. How is it that some humans can relegate themselves to such a restricted, degenerated, mere subsistence? How is it that there does not escape from their hearts and mouths the shout “O Lord our Lord, how excellent is thy name in all the Earth!” How can it escape any of us that “for this cause you were created”: that we may return to the One who loved us and gives us all these things freely, love, adoration, worship, praise, thanksgiving, awe, and reverence? How rightfully Paul declares, Romans 1:20 (NKJV) “For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made, even His eternal power and Godhead, so that they are without excuse…”

Add to that the fact of our rebellion against this Creator, our incredible ingratitude for all that He alone has furnished us for this incredibly short span called “life”, our constant willful ignorance of Him, our continuous attempt to live as if He had nothing to do with our existence or the universe around us, and our determined effort to get along independently of Him; then add the incredible fact that He (the Lord Jesus Christ) was not willing that we die estranged from God and adjoined to the arch rebel, the slanderer, the devil. Jesus the Christ came to offer us pardon, reconciliation, and fellowship, for those who would repent of their rebellion, ingratitude, and defiance, and acknowledge His rights over us as Creator, Savior, Lord and Judge of the Universe.

I am so grateful that He called me out of darkness into His marvelous light. I am so grateful to feel and know the LOVE of God. I am so appreciative of His unchanging nature, His faithful to His Word for all generations, His righteousness, His justice, so perfectly balanced by His mercy, and grace. I am so grateful that my life does not end in the bleakness of dying and bareness of the dead and death of winter! Job 14:14-15 (KJV) “If a man die, shall he live again? all the days of my appointed time will I wait, till my change come. 15 Thou shalt call, and I will answer thee: thou wilt have a desire to the work of thine hands.”