Dear Children and Grandchildren,

I have enjoyed the Word of God more than I ever have since I am no longer preaching 3 or 4 times a week and am not pressed for time. Some times I find things I'd like to share with all of you, or some of you individually. With your mother's encouragement I'd like to start a "Bible Blog" and share some of my thoughts with you. Last night I told Joanna that I opened a can of "Pork and Beans" for supper, (your mother is in Arizona helping Becky while Adam recuperates from a serious operation) but I found no pork so I renamed it "Beans and Beans". With a hearty laugh she wondered if I had "looked under every bean?' I trust what I send you will have some "pork" but if you find it to be only "beans" just push the delete button.

Ps.119:168 "I have kept Thy precepts and Thy testimonies: for all my ways are before Thee," As you were growing up one of the things I was careful to emphasize in our daily devotions was that the time would come when you would no longer be under the eye of Mom and Dad but you would never be out of sight of God's eye. What an encouragement we find here to keep God's Word. "all my ways are before Thee,"

"Experience makes many a paradox plain, and this is one. Before God we may be clear of open fault and yet at the same time mourn over a thousand heart-wanderings which need his restoring hand."--C.H. Spurgeon

"I may hide Thee from my eye, but not myself from Thine eye."--Wm. Gurnall

Tuesday, January 27, 2009

Even So Come Quickly

Dear Family,

I have been so overwhelmed by the events in our country the past couple of weeks I've found it difficult to condense any of it into a message to you. As you know, I believe it is important to observe what is being reported by the news media and then try to bring it into a Biblical context. This is not always easy because the media reports are no longer the relaying of events as they happen, but they are filtered through a mostly left wing opinion mill, and we receive a "condensed," left-leaning, anti-Biblical, twisted opinion. Remember, too, they are the ones who pick and choose what they want you to hear.

Back in the 70's and 80's I had a weekly radio broadcast out of a local station. I'd watch the ticker tape news briefs and wonder why they chose what they did to put on their news broadcast and why they rejected what I thought were good news items. Then I realized that it was because someone at the station deemed what was good for us to hear. And that was after it had been filtered down to them from the first responders from the large media outlets.

My daily Bible reading consists of a portion in the Old Testament, plus Psalms and Proverbs where I am currently engaged in writing my verse by verse thoughts. I read a chapter in the Gospels and the book of Acts and am reading through from Romans to Revelation. I tell you that because I just happened to be in the last part of Revelation and the first part of Genesis when the events of the past two weeks unfolded. I did something I have never done before. I opened my Bible and read as I watched the presidential inauguration and listened to the news.

I have never preached much on prophecy and the events leading up to the Lord's return. One reason is that I have had a hard time accepting a lot of the ideas and views that have been advanced by expositors with their charts, etc., over the years. I am not nearly as dogmatic in my views on eschatology as I used to be. I know the Lord is coming back, but when, where, and the time that takes place between events, etc., pose some difficulties for me. However, the events of the past weeks in Washington along with my reading of Revelation and Genesis have given me some "goosebumps" concerning the second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ! I will not share how my reading produced "goosebumps" except to say that some of the bills our new president signed in his first two days in office and the approval of both political parties in trying to solve our financial mess have given me much to think about.

There may be very difficult days ahead for believers. We will need much grace to boldly take a stand for the Word of God. I exhort each of you to "examine yourselves, whether ye be in the faith; prove your own selves. Know ye not your own selves, how that Jesus Christ is in you, except ye be reprobates?" II Cor. 13:5. Remember, "There is therefore no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus, who walk not after the flesh but after the Spirit" Romans 8:1.

The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all. Amen. Dad
Posted by at 5:16 PM

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