Coffee Percs

I started off with a cup of strong black coffee. I never did like anything in my coffee to cover up the flavor of the coffee.”

                    –Lou Bradshaw  (Ace High)
 
Don’t yuh be a-frettin’ Pard, I ain’t gonna say nothing about cinos.  See, I reckon there’s all sorts of people out there, some good, some bad, some weird, and some look like they came out of a horror movie.  That means some like good, hot, strong, black coffee like it was meant to be.  There are others who aren’t so hardy an’ need something to sweeten them up along with their coffee, whilst others need some of that moo juice.  Now I won’t go so far as to say that almond milk is acceptable, ’cause I’ve never seen a way to milk an almond.  Then there are the moderns who need their cino.  But let me be tellin’ yuh right now, yuh gonna get the pure stuff this mornin’.
     Hope yur week went well.  Did yuh realize that summer begins tomorrow?  Been gettin’ hot here, but then again it’s wakin’ us up for summer; it is Texas after all.  Pard, that means that the year is half over.  Yur still here, yuh might not look like much, nor have much to be showin’ for it, but yur here.  That says somethin’.  Yur rememberin’ to check yur cinch and the good Lord is takin’ right good care of yuh.  I’m reminded of one of the Psalms, 116 if I’m correct where it says, “I will walk before the Lord in the land of the living.”  That’s our purpose and our plan.
     There’s so much stupidity and evil out there, blatant and in yur face an’ a-sayin’ that it’s okay to live an’ think the way they do.  It sorta riles my gizzard, so I’ve stayed away from most of it this week.  I know we need to be keepin’ up with the world in which we live, but my mercy, a person can only stomach so much of it.  The old bile gets to movin’ around makin’ me want to a spewin’ my innards out.  Folks tend to forget that we’re made in the image of God.  I know, I know, that is speakin’ of the spiritual, but let me tell yuh–what’s inside shows forth on the outside!
     Coffee tasted fine this mornin’ but I need to be up an’ a-movin’.  Daughter is havin’ a breakfast brunch for Fathers’ Day, so got to get the ol’ steel mount on down the road.  She found some rhubarb so Annie’s makin’ a rhubarb custard pie along with a coconut cream pie.  Pard, let me tell yuh I’m already smackin’ my gums thinkin’ about it.  The little ol’ pie-baker still has it.  Kimberly is makin’ the biscuits an’ Annie will be makin’ the gravy so it’ll be a grand time.
     Pard, yuh be doin’ what I said, walk with and before the Lord every step of the way, no matter the weather or the trail.  Yuh can’t do nothin’ ’bout the weather, so if’n the rains come jist be sure to have yur slicker handy.  Ha, ha, ha, that reminds me–seems like I always pack the slicker away so’s when I need it I have to get wet to get it out.  And the trail, why jist keep yur eyes out for the snares of the devil.  Don’t be jist a lookin’ at the ground, there’s li’ble to be some hostiles or catamounts in the rocks and trees, so yuh’s be careful travelin’.
     Vaya con Dios.

Echoes From the Campfire

Evil always smiles when it thinks it’s won.”

                    –D.C. Adkisson  (Redemption)

       “The grace of the Lord Jesus be with God’s people.  Amen.”
                    –Revelation 22:21 (NIV)
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You remember it, don’t you?  That something called COVID.  Panic, fear, and stupidity marked it along with this one idea that most people overlooked–Power.  COVID gave power from international leaders, to national leaders, to store owners and even neighbors.  Don’t come near me without a mask!  I went to WalMart during the epidemic.  There was one way in and one way out.  I was stopped upon entering and told that I could not enter without a mask.  Now, that’s important to understand.  I could not enter a store without a mask.  I took out my bandana, put it on and walked in whereupon I took it off.  Someone questioned me, and I replied, that I was told I couldn’t enter without one on, but no one said I had to keep it on.
     Some stores had signs up, must wear a mask.  Some stores said that you had to go up one aisle and down another, while many dictated that you had to stand in certain spots to check out.  Safety–somewhat, but mostly POWER.  They were saying, we can do it, so we are.  Then there was the order to get vaccinated.  Some organizations, included the U.S. military mandated vaccinations against the virus.  Power!   Stores closed, especially restaurants, but even some churches.  My, my, what happened to faith and worship?  The reply, I can stream it, or watch it at home on TV.  Excuse, compromise, complacency–call it what you will.  On top of the COVID scare there came that dreaded fear of the people–no toilet paper.  There was a rush, I’m still shaking my head over it, a stampede to buy toilet paper.  Did we go crazy?
     Reading last night I was reminded of the words that John penned in Revelation:

               “He [False Prophet] forced everyone, small and great, rich and poor, free and slave to receive a mark on his right hand or on his forehead, so that no one could buy or sell unless he had the mark, which is the name of the beast or the number of his name.”  –Revelation 13:16-17 (NIV)

Want a snickers bar–get the mark.  Want to buy a coffee–get the mark.  Need bread, milk, or other food items–get the mark.  Got a cough, need medicine–get the mark.  Need medicine for a disease–get the mark.  Gas for the car–get the mark.  Do you begin to see how it will be during the Tribulation?
     I hear your thoughts.  You say that’s far off.  That’s in the Tribulation.  That won’t really happen.  Let me remind you of the control that those in power had during COVID.  Let me remind you of the words of Paul, “For the secret power of lawlessness is already at work; but the one who now holds it back will continue to do so till he is taken out of the way.” (2 Thessalonians 1:7, NIV)  Look around you at what is happening and you will quickly notice that it is not totally hidden anymore.  Deception is among us.  It is spewing out lies, that good is bad and bad is good (as I wrote yesterday).  There is a person in Texas running for Senate who deliberately twists Scripture to fit his agenda.  He leaves out words, he adds works; it is no longer the Word of God, but the twisted words of deception, what Josh Howerton called a “serpentine theme.”  Beware!
     Listen my friend, deception means slavery.  David Jeremiah tells us regarding the False Prophet, “He uses religion to deceive the world, and once deceived, he uses the mark of the beast to enslave all people economically, forcing them to endure the unrelenting tyranny of Satan and the Antichrist.”  I will say it again, “the secret power of lawlessness is already at work.”  Food is expensive now, gas is expensive now, are you getting the picture?  What will it be like when you can no longer get necessities and service that is needed unless you have the “mark”?  You will be a slave to it.  “The fusion of government and religion puts the squeeze on anyone who refuses to take the mark, leaving them nowhere to turn.  No one buys their products or services.  Barred from employment and from shopping in stores or online, they face bankruptcy and starvation.” (Jeremiah)
     “The secret power of lawlessness is already at work,” and you better believe it.  Dear Christian, do not be deceived by the twisting of Scripture.  Do not be deceived by progressive culturalism and WOKE agendas.  Do not be deceived by the teaching of globalism, that all ways lead to God.  Stand firm on the holy foundation of the Bible.  We are not to live in fear in these times, we are to stand.  We are to exhort one another.  Read Revelation, it was not written to bring fear but to build faith.  Paul exhorts us in regard to the signs of the times that we are to “Therefore encourage each other with these words” (1 Thessalonians 4:18, NIV).  We are to be like Paul and exhort one another by saying that the Lord is coming.  Lift up your heads, be ready, “For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God…” (1 Thessalonians 4:16, NIV)  
     Today is the day of salvation!  Take advantage of it while you can.  Do not be deceived by the serpent and his servants.  Recognize the works of darkness, the secret powers of lawlessness.  Take heart, John writes this last promise of Jesus, “Yes, I am coming soon.” (Revelation 22:20)  To which we have the great, simple prayer of the early church, “Even so, come, Lord Jesus!”

 

Echoes From the Campfire

Truly we were often traveling through a world of woe.”
                    –D.C. Adkisson  (Walker)

       “Woe to the world for such temptations to sin and influences to do wrong! It is necessary that temptations come, but woe to the person on whose account or by whom the temptation comes!”

                    –Matthew 18:7 (Amplified)
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          “Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; Who put darkness for light, and light for darkness; Who put bitter for sweet, and sweet for bitter!”
                       –Isaiah 5:20 (NKJV)

“You are headed for trouble” (CEV) and that is a fact.  This “woe” perhaps more than others mentioned is the most prevalent in our society, or at least the most clearly seen.  As sin progresses, it grows and “at times sin seems to work up to some terrible climax; and that climax is invariably followed by calamity.” (Lloyd-Jones)  Need I mention the days of Noah or the destruction of Sodom?  Here Isaiah is warning the people of his time, that because of their perversion judgment is coming, and the same is being said to our generation.
     A great truth is this:  “when people no longer feel shame; they sin openly; they are proud of it and even boast of it.” (Lloyd-Jones)  Look around you how perversion is flaunted and pushed in your face.  Bizarre, macabre, perverse and they have no shame.  Gone is hiding in the darkness, now there seems to be delight in their sin and how “weird” they can be.  They have lost their moral sense.
     To be perverse is to reverse morality, as we see in this woe.  It is a deliberate overturning of moral standards.  Isaiah is warning that without repentance nothing is left but disaster.  What once was regarded as sinful is no longer sinful.  No wonder  believers cry, “How long, oh Lord, how long?”
     What is beauty?  It seems it is the abnormal, the ugly, and the foul.  Faces that once were found in carnivals are common place.  They are portraying what’s in their heart as the face is the mirror of the heart.  Martyn Lloyd-Jones states, “We have almost reached the stage in which not to be a pervert is to be abnormal.  The pervert is glorified.”  The new slogan is:  “Evil, be thou good.” (Lloyd-Jones)
     The sad commentary of the Book of Judges is “everyone did what was right in his own eyes.”  Man seeks to be autonomous; seeks to be his own god.  This is complete, perverted idolatry.  Man makes himself his own deity and it can change with a whim, for all is relative.  Deconstruction (Post Modernism) has made havoc with moral standards–they are gone.  Hence we understand why the “Antichrist” is called the “Man of Lawlessness.”  Anarchy is seeking to reign.  Man was meant to live a higher and nobler life thus the standards of morality, but now, anything goes.  “Sin always presses people to something further.” (Lloyd-Jones)  In reality they are falling into the trap of Satan, back to the days of Noah and the days of Sodom.  “There is no fear of God before their eyes.” (Romans 3:18, NIV)
     John tells us that “men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were evil” (3:19)  Paul shows us the perversion of the terrible times of the last days.  Read 2 Timothy 3:1-7, and get this into your brain, they are “lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God….  Have nothing to do with them.”  Compromise–NO!  Tolerance–NO.  Sin is sin, no matter what man says, it is what God says that counts.  We need to pray what Paul wrote, “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth, and that they will come to their senses and escape the trap of the devil, who has taken them captive to do his will.” (2 Timothy 2:25-26, NIV)

Echoes From the Campfire

If something is evil, then it is the duty of good men to stand firm and try to correct the situation.”

                    –D.C. Adkisson  (Mal de Ojo)

       “My heart is steadfast, O God, my heart is steadfast; I will sing and give praise.”
                    –Psalm 57:7 (NKJV)
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Our study in Proverbs this week takes us to 10:29-30:
     
          “The way of the Lord is strength for the upright, But destruction will come to the workers of iniquity. The righteous will never be removed, But the wicked will not inhabit the earth.” (NKJV)

The way of the Lord is a path of righteousness; do not kid yourselves if you think you can walk any other way and find the Father waiting to greet you.  It is a way in which our feet should be firmly planted, and our steps should be steady.  On our journey to glory we have the assurance that God is our strength (other translations use–refuge, stronghold, fortress) and as the psalmist wrote, “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble.” (46:1, NKJV)  This trek is taken one step at a time, daily by faith, and Charles Bridges reminds us, “The habit of grace increases by exercise.  One step helps on the next.”
          “Each step I take I know that He will guide me;
          To higher ground He ever leads me on.
          Until some day the last step will be taken.
          Each step I take just leads me closer home.”
                 –W. Elmo Mercer
     A great hope is ours as we journey.  As our steps are firm we have the comfort of knowing that no power or person can remove us.  Dan Dick gives us this reminder, “As we dwell in Christ over the years, we lay roots which form a foundation in which makes it impossible for us to be moved.”  I am reminded of the hymn by John T. Benson:
          “In my Christ abiding, I shall not be moved;
          In His love I’m hiding, I shall not be moved,
          Just like a tree that’s planted by the waters,
          Lord, I shall not be moved.

          I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
          I shall not be, I shall not be moved;
          Just like a tree that’s planted by the waters,
          Lord, I shall not be moved.”

     Wicked men, those in darkness, do not need or want the strength of the Lord.  They do not struggle within themselves (unless the Holy Spirit brings conviction).  In this time of evil we can take heart that it will not last.  All the demagogues in history have failed in their attempt to inhabit the earth for death surely comes.  They now await, in terror and fear, their eternal fate.  J.L. Flores states, “Unforgiven sin breaks the bones of the soul.”  It is not so much the sin that dooms the wicked, but that they have turned their back upon Christ; they have spurned the sacrifice and shedding of His precious blood.  “The message of love can never come into a human soul, and pass away from it unreceived, without leaving that spirit worse…” (Flores)
     Yes, the way may grow weary at times, but look up, glory is near.  The Lord is waiting to receive us at the end of the journey.  As Winston Churchill proclaimed, “Never, never, never give up.”