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June 27, 2009

My apologies for not having this up last night. I forgot that many of you won't get the newsletter. Here is the link. It is still on the Podcast site.

Weekend Bible Study, Ezekiel 19-20.

Those chapters were hard going.

New set of sermon notes today. Will record it this afternoon: Godliness with Contentment.
It is a sermon for this age.

June 26, 2009

Peggy Noonan doesn't swing for the fence. She is a switch hitter, changing sides of the plate, depending on the pitcher. And she places her hits carefully. Forgive the baseball analogy, but it came to mind reading today's column. I read Peggy consistently, and I think she bats in the 300 range. She has avoided piling on the new President, because there is a time to give a man a chance; or a time to give him enough rope. Her column today, "To-Do List: A Sentence, Not 10 Paragraphs," is a remarkably insightful view and comes from someone who knows what it is like to be young and in the Whitehouse. She is a good writer, and wise, and I hardly need to add: but no one is perfect.

What she has done today is to put her finger squarely on what is wrong with the Obama administration. Perhaps it is not all that is wrong, but an awful lot of what is wrong stems from that title. Do yourself a favor and read her column. It may go a long way toward explaining why Obama could be another one term president.

June 24, 2009

Things are improving a bit, but we still can't access the old WBS files online. I'll have links on this page Friday that will go to last Sabbath's sermon and the Weekend Bible Study that will start with Ezekiel 19. Most of the CEM website is fine, but some of the front page links are broken. We have someone working on it as we speak.

So watch this page, and be sure and look down the page. The most current dates are here at the top.

I often mention the History and Prophecy series, and Doug Young has them posted on his sermon site. Just click on this link. The series is down the page. History and Prophecy.

June 22, 2009

The Born to Win site is back up and operating, although some links are still broken. Check back here from time to time for updates, and if you aren't signed up for the email newsletter, by all means, please do so. We will leave these links here for the time being and will put up more as we can.

The Forum: You can access the forum at this link: CEM and Friends.

Here is a radio link from a recent program: The Will to Disbelieve.

Sermon notes from last Sabbath: That I May Know Him.

And our Father's Day radio program: A Father in the House.

The Bible study for this weekend: Ezekiel 17-18.  Because our website is down, this is posted on "Pod O Matic" for your convenience.

We are sorry that we can't give you the older Bible studies right now, but we are working on it.

June 7, 2009

This morning's radio program, "The Class that Never Was," (which played on all our stations) was originally recorded in 2002, and played in Graduation week. I got a couple of emails this morning asking about the information, scripture references, etc. in the program. Much to my surprise, I found the notes to the program in my archives and posted it this morning in my program notes.  So for all you who are interested in the biblical issues associated with abortion, the notes are there for you.

May 27, 2009

Posted today in Sermon Notes, "The Kingdom of Heaven."

May 25, 2009

I am still working in the Psalms and found the 62nd Psalm almost as relevant to today's world as the 64th. Take a look.

May 6, 2009

As I was editing the next book of Psalms this morning, I came to the 64th, and it seemed strikingly relevant to the national scene. I have heard more and more people expressing fear of their government--a very unnatural response for law abiding citizens. Then, I came upon Psalm 64. Does it say anything to you?

April 28, 2009

I carry copies of the magazine, First Things, to have something to read when waiting at the doctor’s office, or oil changes on the car, etc. That is how I happened to read an item from last summer by Richard John Neuhaus, in his regular column, “The Public Square.” The presidential campaign was going strong, and Senator Barack Obama was the focus of everyone’s attention. I laid the article aside at the time, but came across it again in last few days. Mr. Neuhaus died last January, and I am sorry we have lost an editor with his insight. Here is what he said at that time about Barack Obama and his roots: 

The senator lends his prestige to the claim promoted by sundry race hustlers that Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Clarence Thomas, and Bill Cosby, along with millions of other black Americans, are not black enough to be part of “the black community.” One can understand why a Harvard Law School graduate born in Hawaii with a black father from Kenya and a white mother from Kansas would, for political and perhaps personal reasons, seek the street credentials of having “roots” in a militantly black sector of the intensely race-conscious city of Chicago. But complicity in the explicit slander of America and the implicit slander of most blacks in America is a very high price to pay for a ticket of admission to “the black community.” Read on

April 14, 2009

How many legs does a dog have if you count the tail as a leg?

Abraham Lincoln asked a crowd that question, and most people answered "five." Wrong, said Lincoln. Calling a tail a leg doesn't make it a leg. Taking off from this homely illustration, Thomas Sowell today addressed a fundamental fallacy in progressive thinking: Magic Words.

What I had not known until I read it in his column (which his readers gave five stars), was that China is starting to sell some of its holdings of U.S. bonds. Economic advice is not my specialty, and I had thought that bonds have a face value that can only be redeemed at maturity. That is true enough, but apart from the face value, bonds have a market value that can change from day to day. New bonds have to be issued and sold at today's market value.

Common sense suggests that if the Chinese are trying to unload large amounts of U.S. government bonds, that will put a downward pressure on prices-supply and demand and all that, you know. That means our government will have to lower prices or raise interest rates on the new bonds we want to sell. I can't tell you what effect this will have on our economy, but you don't have to be an expert to realize it is not good.

"The Chinese are not fools," observed Thomas Sowell, and they realize that inflation is coming: "That in turn means that the dollars with which U.S. government bonds will be paid off will be worth a lot less than the dollars with which the bonds were bought."

I don't know, but I suspect the government is counting on the man in the street not realizing that inflation is a hidden tax. The intellectuals in the administration know it well enough, and it makes their statements that "no one making less than 250,000 dollars a year will have a tax increase" into, well, a lie. Assume an inflation rate of, say, 13.5 percent (which we saw in 1980), and that your apartment rents today for 500 dollars a month. When your lease comes up for renewal in 12 months, the rent will be 567 dollars a month. That will take another 804 dollars out of your pocket. And lest you think your wage will go up the same percentage, 1980 saw seven percent unemployment as well. Those were the years of the "misery index."

But the value of the article does not stop there. You can read the whole thing at Magic Words in Politics.

There are those who think precious metals are the refuge in times to come. But you can't eat Gold, and there is always this to think about:

• "In that day a man shall cast his idols of silver, and his idols of gold, which they made each one for himself to worship, to the moles and to the bats; To go into the clefts of the rocks, and into the tops of the ragged rocks, for fear of the LORD, and for the glory of his majesty, when he ariseth to shake terribly the earth" (Isaiah 2:20-21).

This may be a time for us to respond as Paul:

• But what things were gain to me, those I counted loss for Christ. Yea doubtless, and I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ, And be found in him, not having mine own righteousness, which is of the law, but that which is through the faith of Christ, the righteousness which is of God by faith" (Philippians 3:7-9).

April 4, 2009

God--In Person

Is God everywhere? Is he in every leaf of every tree? Does he permeate the cosmos with his being? Is he in every blade of grass?

Well, yes and no. God is in every blade of grass in the same way I am in a transceiver I built years ago and later sold. You might even find some of my DNA in that radio, because I got a little careless with my tools. But I am not there. I am here.

God is in every blade of grass in the same way my wife is in the little painting she did years ago when we were playing with oils. But if you think you can put your foot on God when you walk across the grass, you are badly mistaken.

I don’t know when it happened, I don’t know where it happened. It has probably happened over and over again in history, but somehow, we have been sold a bill of goods about what Andree Seu calls “A lower case, upper story god who was the ‘ground of being.’” Whatever in the world that means. God is not everywhere. He is where he wants to be when he wants to be there. More

April 4, 2009

I wonder when the first case against the newest laws of the new congress will hit the courts. Typically, these things take a while, but it seems plain enough that little consideration is being given to the constitutionality of actions being taken right now by both the legislative and executive branches of government. During the campaign, I was worried a the way some candidates talked like they were running for emperor instead of president. I discounted it as campaign rhetoric, but now I can no longer discount it. They meant it.

George Will, last week, rose to the challenge and called the actions of congress unconstitutional. I think it is only a matter of time until someone or some group decide to find out through the courts. It seems the administration is determined not to waste a good crisis. I hope the people have the will to stand up for the constitution.

March 23, 2009

Is the Middle East ready for democracy?

One would wish it were so, but the answer is obviously, no. That is not to say that the Taliban didn't need to be destroyed, nor that hanging Saddam Hussein was not an improvement. But American politics has led to a disconcerting and unrealistic approach to the region and to Islam. There are two opposing postures visible in government: idealism and realism. For a very long time, the west was realistic about the Arabic speaking world. Thus we worked with what some people said were repressive regimes. Those regimes, often as not, repressed movements that would have made the life of the man in the street even worse.

As idealism began to dominate foreign (and domestic) policy, a new level of instability began to emerge. For a useful insight, read the piece appearing today by Barry Rubin, "Middle East still not ready for democracy."

March 15, 2009

Yet another experiment begins this morning. Look on the left for "Program Notes." I plan to have staff print these for the prisoners on our list who can't receive tapes or cds. There may be other uses as well, some of which are suggested on the introductory page. This may also involve sermon notes.

March 14, 2009

I have two programs circulating now that are related in a curious way. Neither of them has aired at this date; they have only been offered to our mailing list. They will play on the air in the next few months. I just this morning listened to one of them, "The Testimony of Four," which discusses why and how the four Gospels were written and preserved. The program is important because of insidious and persistent attempts to undermine the authenticity of the New Testament. Often, these efforts come about to justify a belief system which cannot be easily maintained in the face of plain statements by Jesus and the apostles.

The other program, "The Will to Disbelieve," is related in that belief systems are often based, not on evidence, but upon the will or need of the of the believer in the system. It has now been experimentally determined that people rarely change their deeply held belief systems, whether they are religious or political. I had known this for a long time, but did not entirely understand why it is so. I suspect it is closely connected to what Viktor Frankl calls, "Man’s drive to meaning."

One thing that brought them together, oddly enough, is the Parable of Lazarus and the Rich Man (Luke 16:19ff.) The point of the parable is not, as is often supposed, a description of what hell is like, but rather Jesus' summarizing words: "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead." That is counter to what one might have thought, but it turns out to be true in practice as well. People are not persuaded nearly so much by argument as by their unspoken and unrecognized needs.

You can listen to both of these programs by clicking on the links provided above. The connection may not be immediately apparent to all, but it is likely that it will become so in time to come.

March 13, 2009

There is an insight in Peggy Noonan’s column today, but she doesn’t come right out and say it. The column, titled, "There's No Pill for This Kind of Depression," walks through her set of experiences, contacts, neighborhoods, and describes the mood of people far and wide. She observed:

[The] economy isn't the only reason for our unease. There's more to it. People sense something slipping away, a world receding, not only an economic one but a world of old structures, old ways and assumptions. People don't talk about this much because it's too big, but I suspect more than a few see themselves, deep down, as "the designated mourner," from the title of the Wallace Shawn play.

For me, it is summarized in President Obama’s mantra: We are going to remake America. I think a lot of Americans are mourning the passing of the country we love. And it didn’t have to be so. Even the perceived snub of Britain’s Prime Minister is a symptom. If you really want to understand what happened there, you need to go to You Tube and review the sermons of Jeremiah Wright. I doubt the President thought of it this way, but the Prime Minister of Great Britain is a "White European." And for those immersed in Black Liberation Theology, there is a clear antipathy for that category of people. It is risky business for a president to carry prejudice into his foreign relations.

No one knows what our beloved country will look like in another 10 years, but sometimes a little fear can be a good thing—especially when there is something to fear besides fear itself. Ms. Noonan commented on the increase in gun sales: "People are scared." It is funny how insecurity manifests itself. I heard a talking head on the radio this week remark that styles are starting to change: cleavage is out, women are starting to cover up. The boldness of the past few years is being replaced by a sense of vulnerability. It may even affect spring break.

I suggest reading the entire column (The link may only be there for a week). She is describing how this country is getting the medicine it needs: a dose of reality.

March 6, 2009

Ouch! I didn't realize it had been a month since I posted here. There have been many distractions, but that is hardly an excuse. I was stung to action today by a piece that appeared in the Jerusalem Post titled: "How Obama, Hillary and Kerry will, ultimately, bring peace to the Middle East." What made this article hit so hard was the fact that it confirmed in concrete terms what I have already come to fear.  Here is the way the piece ended:

The Obama administration has no intention of preventing Iran from becoming a nuclear power or Syria from maintaining its alliance with the mullahs. The White House seeks far more modest ends. Through its policies towards Israel on the one hand and Iran and Syria on the other, the Obama administration demonstrates that it has already accepted a nuclear Iran. Its chief concern today is to avoid being blamed when the mushroom clouds appear in the sky. And it may well achieve that aim. After all, how could the administration be blamed for a nuclear Iran when it has wholly devoted its efforts to advancing the righteous cause of peace?

I fear great loss of life may fall out (no pun intended) from the Obama foreign policy. These are dangerous times, I fear.

February 6, 2009

In the weeks since the election, Peggy Noonan has solidly maintained the posture of a good American, respecting the constitutional process and recognizing that the people had spoken. She seemed reluctant to criticize the President elect until he had done something that could be evaluated. Today, she said what a lot of people are thinking. A moment of truth came and she described how it seemed:

• On Wednesday, in an interview with Politico, Dick Cheney warned of the possible deaths of "perhaps hundreds of thousands" of Americans in a terror attack using nuclear or biological weapons. "I think there is a high probability of such an attempt," he said.

  When the interview broke and was read on the air, I was in a room off a television studio. For a moment everything went silent, and then a makeup woman said to a guest, "I don't see how anyone can think that's not true."

  I told her I'm certain it is true. And it didn't seem to me any of the half dozen others there found the content of Cheney's message surprising. They got a grim or preoccupied look.

Funny thing is, that the left has so demonized Dick Cheney that he was not taken seriously in too many quarters.  It seemed to me that Ms. Noonan has come to the same conclusion Carl Rove came to concerning the new President: "He's just winging it."

Personally, I think I see a profound example of the danger of inexperience in the most powerful office in the free world. Throughout the financial crisis that emerged in the closing weeks of 2008, I was left feeling that no one had a clue what to do about it.

Read Peggy Noonan's column by clicking here. It is worth every minute.

January 27, 2009

I missed this entirely until Chuck Norris called it to my attention, and I think most of the world did. He called it the most important thing that happened at the inauguration of President Obama, and he has a point. Moreover, Rick Warren is a little more subtle than I thought he was. Read it here.

January 23, 2009

Let brotherly love continue. Be not forgetful to entertain strangers: for thereby some have entertained angels unawares. Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them; and them which suffer adversity, as being yourselves also in the body (Hebrews 13:1-3).

Does intercessory prayer really make a difference? We should hope so, because Jesus "Ever lives to make intercession" for us (Hebrews 7:25). But this passage adds an intensity that goes beyond mere sympathy. There seems to be a question in some of the versions about the phrase, "in the body." The New American Standard Bible, for example, renders the phrase, "since you yourselves also are in the body." I am not sure how to take that, because some would say, "in the body," means in the church—the body of Christ.

I don’t think that is what Paul is saying, because this is a Hebraism. It is eye opening when you come to recognize parallelism in the Psalms, and a lot of obscure or ambiguous phrases become clear. Paul, being a Hebrew thinker, quite naturally expresses himself in parallel phrases. The first phrase, "Remember them that are in bonds, as bound with them" controls the second "as being in the body." Paul urges an empathy with sufferers, as urgent as if you were the one who was suffering, or as being right there with them.

January 19, 2009

"Disillusionment Is Necessary for Salvation"

Forgive me for citing another of Dart's Laws. This one was developed in the atmosphere of religious disillusionment and a doctrinal argument about what was necessary for salvation. I concluded that, to whatever extent one has illusions about religion and religious leaders, disillusionment is a necessary step for the saving of the soul.

The rule comes mind as I watch all the preparations for the inauguration of President Barack Obama. Someone noted that the University of Virginia was cancelling classes on inauguration day, something they apparently have never done before. It is an example of the expectations that have been built up for the 44th president, and one wonders what the reaction will be when the inevitable disillusionment comes. No mortal could ever live up to the giddy expectations that have been developed around this man and his political campaign.

The president of the United States of America is neither king nor dictator, much less a Messiah.  The constitution places him as an equal power against congress and the Supreme Court. No man can live up to the promises of a political campaign, so the greater the promise, the harder the fall.

I suspect that President Obama would have been better served with a smaller majority in congress. Now, the Democratic Party cannot hide behind the Republicans, and President Bush will be in Dallas enjoying his retirement. Power corrupts, and the future political battles will likely be among Democrats rather than between parties.

Let the disillusionment begin. Maybe we can get back to constitutional governance.

January 17, 2009

As President Bush leaves office, I am once again impressed with what a decent and honorable man he is--and the certainty that history will judge him better than this generation. It was gratifying to read Thomas Sowell this morning, who presents the best summary of the Bush presidency I have read to date. I especially enjoyed his opening paragraph:

• Whatever history's verdict on the Bush administration might be, it is likely to be very different from what we hear from the talking heads on television or read from the know-it-alls on editorial pages. [Emphasis mine.]

January 8, 2009

"If riches increase,
set not your heart upon them"
(Psalm 62:10).

I think this is a hard thing to avoid, especially in the modern world, and for the strangest of reasons. For some time now, there has been increasing pressure on charitable organizations. For one thing, the Internal Revenue Service has added a feature (I suppose to make filing easier) called "the standard deduction." Thus there is an amount you can deduct whether you give to charity or not. The effect of this is to move charity slowly from private hands to public.

I once asked some elderly friends of mine how people made it before social security. They almost seemed surprised that I asked. "Family," came the reply, "and if no family, then local charity." When I cast my mind back to those days, I ponder how it would affect me to know that my mother would not have anything to take care of her in old age. I would obviously change my approach to saving and spending to be sure she was taken care of. Then I would realize that unless I planned for it, I would have nothing to live on either.

It creates a very different, and far more responsible, approach to life and living. I recall there was a county home for the elderly, handicapped and indigent. It was a government program, paid for by taxes, but it was local, and thus under the full control of the local taxpayers. Was it really worse than starving on social security? I doubt it.

Before social security there was family, charity (mostly churches), and local assistance. The motivation to give was compelling. But when the government begins to take over the responsibility, the need to help others fades away. So does charity. You can judge whether that is a good thing, but never forget the Katrina effect, where government failed dramatically and the churches and charities came through like champions.

And as we approach national healthcare, some are asking, "Do you want the people who handled the Katrina disaster to handle your healthcare?"

January 4, 2009

If you ever wondered why some people don't trust government, George Will offers a convincing example of The Law of Unintended Consequences. It was clear in the aftermath of the crash of 2008, that neither the administration nor congress knew what to do next, and the consequences of what they have done will surely not be what was intended.

• WASHINGTON -- Like pebbles tossed into ponds, important Supreme Court rulings radiate ripples of consequences. Consider a 1971 Supreme Court decision that supposedly applied but actually altered the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The argument for a reduction in the power of government is simple. They don't know what they are doing, therefore the less they do the better.

January 3, 2009

The Politics of Religion

Listen here.

Playing on radio this weekend.

January 3, 2009

Here is a thought for the new year:

• He who is pregnant with evil and conceives trouble gives birth to disillusionment. He who digs a hole and scoops it out falls into the pit he has made. The trouble he causes recoils on himself; his violence comes down on his own head (Psalms 7:14-16 NIV).

May it be so in 2009.

January 1, 2009

With the onset of a new year comes the first challenge. Remembering to date your checks, 2009. It is sobering to realize that there are kids alive today who may ring in the year 2100. I can’t even imagine what that world will be like. If present trends continue, I would not be very optimistic, but Dart’s first law of trends says that present trends never continue. I would be better off today if I had learned that earlier, but we must play the cards we are dealt.

One of the cautions that should accompany that law is that attempting to create prophecies of the future based on present trends will lead to failure. I recall an article I once wrote titled, "Famine, 1975." I did a lot of research for that book including reading the book by William and Paul Paddock with the same title. I pulled down facts and figures, and plotted graphs, and it looked very much like the Paddocks were dead right. If existing trends continued, there would have been massive, world wide famine by 1975, and any New Testament reader with a prophetic interest would realize the significance of famine.

The problem was, that Dart’s first law of trends blew the whole idea to bits. The trends then present led to advances in agriculture and food production, and the Paddocks and I were left with egg on our faces.

Then there was the great financial bubble that ended in 2008. Anyone who was betting on present trends in the middle of 2008, lost his shirt in the autumn. Will the present downward trend continue? Almost certainly not, but who can say when it will change? And it could always change for the worse. One thing is certain. Americans voted for Change in November and they, and the rest of the world, are getting change.

I have a new radio program in the works titled, "The Failure of a Prophet." It won’t air for some weeks, but perhaps you would like to listen to it today. Just click on the link above and download it. Meanwhile, I must find my checkbook and write a reminder in the date line of a few checks.