Who Is Our Savior? 

     Donald Trump? He's off to a great start in restoring limited, common-sense government, with safety, peace and opportunity for all who want safety, peace and opportunity.

     Then there is Lara Trump, who told a rally that her father-in-law "is the one who will save, not just our country, but will save the entire world!" 

     What a relief. The president is working seven days a week to right the wrongs and end all wars. We didn't know Iran, Russia and China were going to lay down their arms and copy our constitution. 

     And we didn't know that our president will send Satan and friends to the "fiery lake of burning sulfur" - Revelation 19:20. 

     Okay...common sense and pragmatism...we'll take it. As for same-sex marriage and late-term abortions...we'll suffer it. America's history of Biblical standards...might not be revived. 

     "Many Christians," says Janie Cheaney in WORLD magazine, "see the Trump administration as a reprieve in a long-term slide." A pastor wrote: "Trump...will give the church four years to prepare for a secular and hostile world." 

     Cheaney adds, "We Americans don't know what real pessimism is. We haven't been ground down by centuries of poverty, oppression and godlessness. Secularism may spread and hostility may grow against the church - or maybe the Lord will send revival, and many will turn from their worthless idols." 

     "A true Golden Age is waiting. Donald Trump won't save the world. But we know Who will."

            Jimmy

Wednesday: Golden Age?

Light 

     Following our blog on salt, we turn on the light. 

     Jesus, who said Israelites are the salt of the earth, added: You are the light of the world - Matthew 5:14. 

     Centuries after creation the Israelites were going to the promised land. Moses wrote, Aaron and his sons are to keep the lamps burning before the Lord. He didn't mean fire to light their way. Rather, This is to be a lasting ordinance among the Israelites for generations - Exodus 27:21. 

     Much later, in Isaiah 60:1,3, Arise, shine, for your light has come and the glory of the Lord rises upon you. Nations will come to your light and kings to the brightness of your dawn. (still in the future)

     In verse 19, ...the sun will no more be your light by day nor will the brightness of the moon shine on you, for the Lord will be your everlasting light and your God will be your glory. Your sun will never set again and your moon will wane no more. 

     Isaiah wrote of the new heaven and new earth when God and the Lamb will be the everlasting light of his people - Revelation 21 and 22.

     Years after Jesus' resurrection, the disciple John wrote: In him was light and that light was the light of men. The light shines in the darkness, but the darkness has not understood it. The true light that gives light to every man was coming into the world - chapter 1:4, 5, 9. 

COMMENTARY: The light of Christ shines in an evil world controlled by Satan. Christ illumines all who hear his gospel by imparting a measure of grace and understanding. There is no other light by which we may see the truth and be saved. 

     Jesus said, I am the light of the world. Whoever follows me will never walk in darkness but will have the light of life. - John 8:12. 

     If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth and the truth will set you free - John 8:31

Salt and Light...trust and obey

SALT and Light 

     So, the theologian asked, "What has happened to salt and light?" 

     Well, we salt (40% sodium, 60% chloride) our food, and we have sunlight part of each day. Salt and sunlight are vital to civilization. 

     Moses wrote of salt that is vital to our eternal life: Whatever is set aside from the holy offerings the Israelites present to the Lord...It is an everlasting covenant of salt before the Lord for both you and your offspring - Numbers 18-19. 

     Centuries later, Jesus addressed the Israelites:

     You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? - Matthew 5:13.

     Later, Paul wrote to the Colossians (chapter 4:6). Let your conversation be always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone. 

COMMENTARY: As table salt is valuable to give flavor and to preserve, believers and the church must be godly examples in the world and resist the moral decay and corruption in society. 

Christ severely warns the church about spiritual lukewarmness. He invites the church to repent and be restored to a place of faith, righteousness and fellowship. 

To churches that overcome he will come to them in blessing and in the power of the Spirit, opening a door that no one can shut. 

Salt in the Bible represents preservation and permanence.

Friday: Discussion on light. Don't miss it.

 What Is It?

     On Friday we summarized part of Timothy Lamer's article about our crime rates ... in 2019 more than double the 1960 number. And that doesn't account for our free-for-all the last four years. He partly cites welfare and the decline in two-parent families. 

     Something else is missing. Lamer quotes British theologian John Stott: "We should ask, 'What has happened to salt and light?'"

     In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, modernists began taking over American seminaries and pulpits. They called themselves Christians but preached a religion that taught the goodness of man and rejected Christ's messianic claims, his miracles and need for atonement. They took over entire denominations.

     Lamer: "When churches stop preaching about sin and repentance, bad things happen. The worship of God suffers. Eternal souls go unsaved. Sin gains an easier foothold. Differences in different communities, but it will never look good. In America, decades of liberal preaching softened up society for the sexual revolution."

     "Theological descendants of the modernists celebrate each new frontier and attempts to redefine the family despite documented harm to children and society. Untethered from the Bible, liberal churches become active agents of decay instead of preserving salt." 

     He concludes, "Remember how much lower the crime rate was in the past and could be today if Christians would produce more salt and light."

What is salt and light? Views Wednesday and Friday.

        Jimmy   

Crime Rates; Deep Roots 

Coming Monday: What might uproot them

     Your blogger, in high school then college during the 1950s, enjoyed a relatively safe life. A few times I hitchhiked the 200 miles to and from college - to save Dad money, which was precious back then. (Mom did not approve).  

     Then came the 1960s, when blacks understandably began to assert themselves. But inclusion wasn't the reason crime rates climbed and climbed some more. 

     Today's violent crime "would have been alarming in the 1950s," writes Timothy Lamer in WORLD magazine. Every time period has its blind spots and problems, and the 1950s were no different, he says. But Americans didn't shoot, stab, rape and rob each other nearly as much as today. 

     Violent crime rate more than quadrupled over 30 years. At the turn of the century, violent crime fell somewhat as police and incarceration took effect. But 2019 crime rates were still double the 1960 level. Something went terribly wrong, and we haven't recovered.  

     Mr. Lamer claims part answer is the sexual revolution and the decline of two-parent families. Births to unmarried women went from 5% in 1960 to 40% now. So, what caused the decline in two-parent families? In part, welfare programs took the place of fathers as providers. 

     Something else is missing. 

Monday: What is it? 

          Jimmy  

 Wednesday

Peace and War

     Swords and plowshares. The old order of things isn't going anywhere until the age described in Revelation chapter 21. 

     "The nations ... shall beat their swords into plowshares" - Isaiah 2:4. or "Beat your plowshares into swords" - Joel 9:9-10. Which is it? 

     "The Lord is a warrior." - Exodus 15:3-6. "Blessed be the Lord, my strength, which teaches my hands to war, and my fingers to fight." - Psalm 144:1. "The Lord has gone out before you to strike down the army of the Philistines" - 2 Samuel 5:22-25. 

     It was Solomon, not David, who would build God's holy temple. Although David agreed that "peace is better than war" - Psalm 120. 

     George Orwell's Nineteen Eighty-Four involves a state of perpetual warfare by a totalitarian government for its self-preservation of power. There is mass surveillance, lying propaganda and censorship of free speech. 

Above from WORLD magazine

     How did Englishman Orwell in 1948 know what the Democrats would be doing in 2020-2024? We assume he knew how governments - including ours - are inclined to act. His book became "best seller" in 1984, 35 years after the initial publication in 1949. 

          Jimmy 

The Spirit in the Old Testament          

     And afterword, I will pour out my Spirit on all people. Your sons and your daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days. - Joel 2:28-29

The Spirit in the New Testament 

     John (the Baptist) said, "I saw the Spirit come down from heaven as a dove and remain on him (Jesus). The man...is he who will baptize with the Holy Spirit. ...this is the Son of God. - (the disciple) John 1:32-34      

     Years later: When the day of Pentecost came, they were all together in one place. Suddenly, a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 

     They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

     Now there were staying in Jerusalem God-fearing Jews from every nation under heaven. When they heard this sound, a crowd came together in bewilderment, because each one heard them speaking in his own language. Utterly amazed, they asked: Are not all these men Galileans? Then how is it that each one of us hears them in his own native language? - Acts 2:1-8

Verses 9-11 mention 13 nations and regions.

     ...we hear them declaring the wonders of God in our own tongues! Amazed and perplexed, they asked one another, "What does this mean?" 

NOTE: We find the Spirit in numerous Old Testament books, beginning with chapter 1 of Genesis, verse 2. Later, God may have given Joel a forecast of the Pentecost event, or maybe he was combining that and other occurrences to follow. Only God would know. 

  

One Firey Furnace

     King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon, the "head of a statue" in his dream of world leaders, was mighty for sure. Not that he cared for others. Talk about ego! His forces had dragged most of the Jews off to Babylon. 

     When God enabled Daniel's three friends to become administrators, Babylonian officials were jealous. Meanwhile, the king was so egoistic after the dream, he had a 90-foot image of himself erected. When the music began, everyone was to fall down and worship him.

     Not sure where Daniel was, but his three Jewish friends - Babylonian names Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego - refused to worship the king. Astrologers went to the king and ratted on them. The king was so furious he threatened to throw his servants into a blazing furnace unless they worshiped him.

     They answered that their God was able to rescue them, but even if he didn't, "O king, we will not serve your gods or worship the image..." 

     The furious king ordered the fire overheated, and the flames killed the soldiers who threw in the men. Then the king in amazement asked his advisers, "Weren't there three men? I saw four men walking around in the fire, unbound and unharmed, and the fourth looks like a son of the gods."  

     He called them out of the fire, untouched by the flames and heat. The king immediately gave their God his due and threatened anyone who says anything against him "be cut into pieces and their houses turned into rubble." Just never learned the word "freedom" did he?

What a doctor!  

If God can out-perform a fire, Jesus the Son can heal leprosy, paralytics, the blind and mute, the demon-possessed, and raise a girl from the dead. He also calmed a storm...all in Matthew chapter 9.

Valley of Dry Bones

     People of Israel and Judah were in exile. Their hope had died as they were dispersed among foreigners. The prophet Ezekiel wrote, the Spirit of the Lord set me in the middle of a valley. Beginning at chapter 37:4...

     Then he said to me, "Prophesy to these bones and say to them 'Dry bones, hear the word of the Lord. I will attach tendons to you and make flesh come upon you and cover you with skin. I will put breath in you, and you will come to life. Then you will know that I am the Lord."

      And as I was prophesying, there was a noise, a rattling sound and the bones came together, bone to bone. I looked, and tendons and flesh appeared on them and skin covered them. Then he said to me, "Prophecy to the breath...'This is what the Sovereign Lord says: Come from the four winds and breathe into these slain that they may live.'"

     So I prophesied...and breath entered them; they came to life and stood up on their feet - a vast army.  

     Ezekiel continues: ...the Lord will bring back "my people and I will put my Spirit in you..." (in the end times).  

Birth of Jesus 

     Matthew 1:18 - This is how the birth of Jesus the Christ came about: His mother Mary was pledged to be married to Joseph but before they came together, she was found to be with child through the Holy Spirit.

If God can grow an army out of dry bones - or just convince Ezekiel that he saw and heard this - he can plant a seed in a virgin. After all, he created sperm in the first place. 

         Jimmy

 

Cave Men 

     That is, men who cave...to cultural approval, or to immature voices, to social media mobs, to activists, to biased, uninformed voters. 

     Empathy is a good thing. But 'go along to get along' leads to mission drift. Hello failure. This is so for leaders in education, religion, government, business and parenting. 

     Nick Eicher in WORLD magazine contrasts compassion - offering a hand to someone drowning - with "untethered empathy," jumping in and getting swept away. 

     He argues many leaders flinch when outrage flairs - whether it's a university giving in to mobs, a church backing off Biblical teaching, or a corporation surrendering to activists. A leadership crisis. Eicher's advice:

1. Leaders must know when they are being tempted to flinch. 

2. Fear God, not man. Only a deep-rooted confidence in God's approval can stabilize a leader challenged by cultural storms.     

3. Maintain mission clarity. Leaders must refuse to be manipulated, resisting the false promise of appeasement. 

     If leaders cave, he writes, they won't keep the peace - they'll just invite more demands. 

Views: We see the difference, currently, in politics. One group is on mission to improve us, fingers crossed, regardless of detractors. The other is a leaderless, hostile bunch, sadly. They don't cave in. They just, as Mark Levin titled his book, "THE DEMOCRAT PARTY HATES AMERICA." 

            Jimmy

Where do I put my confidence?

Fellow Christians: I think I'm doing pretty good. Then I read the apostle Paul's humble letter to the Philippians, chapter 3, verses 7-14. 

     "But whatever was to my profit I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. What is more, I consider everything a loss compared to the surpassing greatness of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things.

     "I consider them rubbish, that I may gain Christ and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ - the righteousness that comes from God and is by faith. 

     "I want to know Christ and the power of his resurrection and the fellowship of sharing in his suffering, becoming like him in his death, and to attain to the resurrection from the dead. (Romans 6:3-5; 8:17). 

     "Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already been made perfect, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 

     "Brothers, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus." 

😌

Musk Goes to Washington    

     Andrew Carnegie went to Pittsburgh and New York City (see Monday's blog). Elon Musk, the current wealthiest person in the world, has gone to Washington. 

     A private businessman himself, like President Trump, Musk is praised by Republicans and hated by Democrats. He is appointed, without pay we understand, to clean up fraud and waste in government. 

     Musk leads the new Department of Government Efficiency, DOGE. Classified as a "special government employee," he works in the White House complex, where DOGE teams branch out to federal agencies, to gain information and recommend whatever.

     One agency that Musk calls a radical-left, political "psy op" (military psychological operation) is the U.S. Agency for International Development. He blames USAID for a "crazy waste of money." President Trump wants to freeze funding and essentially shut down the $43 billion agency. 

*

NEWS FLASH: The Supreme Court on Wednesday voted 5-4 to agree with a judge who ruled the administration cannot do what the president might decide about USAID. We don't know the facts. But how can a judge rule over an administration agency when no laws have been broken?  

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     Democrats despise anything Trump and his appointees do. If the administration miraculously provided peace, good health and prosperity to every soul in the world, Dems would find something to criticize. Rep. Raskin, D-Md. said, "we don't have a fourth branch of government called Elon Musk." Silly. But his voters will buy it. 

     Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said Musk is, "working around the clock to root this out and end it. And it's exactly what President Trump was elected to do."  

     Dems and some Republicans went to Washington for themselves. President Trump went there for all Americans, including Democrats. 

            Jimmy

 

World's Wealthiest Man 

     He was born in Scotland, where his family had basically a one room house. No wonder they immigrated to America in 1848. He was 12. He worked in a Pennsylvania cotton mill, 12 hours a day. That's not how he became wealthy. His pay was $1.20...a week! 

     Next as a messenger boy, spending his Saturdays at the library. From there, he became a telegraph operator, and eventually, superintendent of Pennsylvania Railroad. 

     By age 30 he was a rich investor, a major player in steel production. He invested in railroads, bridges and oil during the Civil War.  In 1901 he sold Carnegie Steel to J.P. Morgan and retired as the wealthiest man in the world. In retirement he gave 90 percent of his wealth to charities. 

Hunger for knowledge led Andrew Carnegie to fund 2,800 libraries in the U.S. and seven other nations. He believed in opportunities for education among common people. His Pittsburgh property on the river is now the site of Heinz Field, Pittsburgh Steelers. 

     Pittsburgh has a Carnegie Science Center, Carnegie Museums of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University and a Carnegie Mansion. My dad parked and we walked past Carnegie Library to attend Pirates baseball on Forbes Ave. You see where our interest was. 

     Carnegie funded famous Carnegie Hall in New York City, where he lived for a time, and spent summers in Scotland. He delayed marriage to care for his aging mother, later married at age 51, and died in 1919. His wealth was estimated to be $372 billion.  

     Elon Musk's net worth is only $357.54 billion.  

        Jimmy