The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Straight & Narrow

Posted on September 27, 2020 by Chip Murray

God Shines His Grace On Thee, And Crowns Thy Good With Brotherhood, From Sea To Shining Sea.

But also for this very reason, giving all diligence, add to your faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance, to perseverance godliness, to godliness brotherly kindness, to brotherly kindness love. ~ 2 Peter 1:5-7

diligence – Conscientiousness (doing what is right) in paying proper attention to a task (being true to God); giving the degree of care (integrity) required in a given situation.

This past Sunday I was invited to a worship service where masks and social distancing was required. I sadly declined the invitation to be with these brothers and sisters I love on the basis of God’s Word in 2 Peter 1:5-7. What began as concern for health and safety in March has metastasized into the manufactured fear by unlawful authority in September. To submit to such a fear would be a cowardly betrayal of my faithful obedience to the God who loves and sustains me and has never left my side.

I was moved by the testimony of a Newburgh preacher at a gathering of shepherds this past Sunday who, although he had personally experienced more COVID-19 death and suffering within his family and circle of friends than any of us, NEVER closed his church. I have never felt the Holy Spirit so alive, present, and urgent within me as I have felt in these past four months…leading us into this past Prayer & Fast Wednesday.

We are not spectators in this most perilous moment in the history of Christendom and the free world; we are participants and stakeholders on the highest authority with a moral duty and obligation. Corruption AND Progressivism at the highest levels of church and state have blinded us to who we are as Christians and weakened us as Americans. Blind and weakened, we lost our way and became easily divided, both as Christians and as Americans. Our Lord’s final prayer for us on this earth was to be One with Him (John: 17:21). There’s an old saying that comes to mind at a time like this; Lead, Follow, or Get Out of the Way. We may never come together on those things that divide us. But dear brothers and sisters, we must come together on the principles that unite us.

Leaders who last do not merely react to their culture; they base their leadership on timeless and universal principles. ~ John C. Maxwell, Principle-Centered Leadership

If we are unable to call the lie a lie, and murder murder, how in the world will we ever hope to fulfill our precious Lord and Savior’s hope for us? Please join us for Prayer and Fast Wednesday Tomorrow with prayerful focus on our coming together where The Lord Is There in Ezekiel 48:30-35, and His gift of discernment in Proverbs 29:9

I am asking you all to pay closer attention to the events happening around you than you ever have before. We have all been lulled from the natural to the unnatural over the years into the very dangerous acceptance of a place that has become impossible for any good parent to explain to their children. I heard the term “emotional blackmail” for the very first time this week. Some of you may have heard the story of Millennial Leo Guinan who threatened his own parents,  “Vote Trump and you will never see your grandson again.” I honestly cannot think of a more horrific threat one could make to a grandparent! I came across this quote posted by a member of a local group I refer to as the Lost Boys, for the simple reason they have willfully untethered themselves from objective truth. “Wisdom requires a flexible mind.” ~ Dan Carlin

Americans electing such “flexible-minded” men and women to public office as well as our pulpits are losing their children and watching their cities burn. Would you like to know what I’ve learned over the past twelve years? When everyone is lost it is so easy and tempting to just blend in. But then God sends Oswald Chambers to teach me the faithful diligence of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abed-Nego that ended up saving themselves AND the King who condemned them.

And, as if that weren’t lesson enough, He dispatches John C. Maxwell; Taking the safe road, doing your job, and not making any waves may not get you fired (right away, at least), but it sure won’t do much for your career or your company over the long haul. We’re not dumb. We know that administrators are easy to find and cheap to keep. Leaders—risk-takers—are in very short supply. And ones with vision are pure gold. ~ Raymond Smith, Bell Atlantic “Say No to the Status Quo”

Hear Ye! Hear Ye! A New Flavor of PC Has Hit the World Stage! Political Courage From Rome: The United States is witnessing the highest levels and centers of cultural influence of the American Catholic Church shamelessly siding in favor of the Democratic candidate and more generally in favor of the entire apparatus that has been consolidating in recent decades within the public administration. The Deep State, Trump’s sworn enemy, is joined by a Deep Church that spares no criticisms and accusations against the incumbent President while winking indecorously with Biden and BLM, slavishly following the narration imposed by the mainstream. Read all about it HERE!

The vision of an ever-widening gate as the ultimate offer we can’t refuse came to me when a friend posted an article this past Prayer & Fast Wednesday connecting Remdesivir (the “ultimate COVID-19 cure”) to Gilead to UNITAID to Wuhan to George Soros, Bill & Melinda Gates, and W.H.O., which happened to inspire the following…

The Straight & Narrow                                                                                                                   ~ CM 9/23/20

Here’s to the Straight & Narrow                                                                                                        the only path for me…                                                                                                                      even though all others                                                                                                                        look too good to be.                                                                                                                            Forsaking all that glitters,                                                                                                                    …to desire the easy road.                                                                                                                        I would rather walk on coals                                                                                                                  and live without abode.                                                                                                                      For Him who gave me victory,                                                                                                    Who’s never left my side,                                                                                                                        I walk the Straight & Narrow,                                                                                                          until the day I die. Amen.

Now here is where the week took a most revealing turn. I went on a two hour ride out to the Poconos on Friday with a friend who needed to pick up a bathroom vanity for his log cabin home in Newburgh. He and I both ended up buying the red, white, and blue cross pictured at the top of the page. The same friend who invited me to worship this past Sunday texted me. “Chip, this is a travesty” after I texted him a photo of it. And just like that, everything came together as a crystal- clear picture of where we are, who we are, and what has happened to us. The very first thing I thought was how amazing God is in the way he works through us. Now I understand exactly. He put “Two Shepherds” on my heart before I found the cross in the Poconos, and my friend’s response the following day. I see clearly…Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of their country. ~ Charles E. Weller 1867. What about now…in 2020? What has changed? I’ll tell you…two things; The devil has taken over just about every institution in the land as God revealed to my heart in the P&FW, and Bishop Vigano corroborates in Deep State/Deep Church. And he has turned the once stout-hearted into the now feint hearted. Anyone who thinks we can take our country back from this devil without a fight is feint minded as well. It all adds up now…the same devil that has stolen the needle of our moral compass, wants us masked, social-distanced, appeasing BLM, and our churches closed, recoils at the sight of Old Glory and the Cross the way a vampire would respond to the Cross and Holy Water. And the reason is Mark 9:29 clear. There is no more fearsome warrior on the face of this earth than the Christian Warrior…and no greater cause than defending God’s greatest gift, our American way of Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness. And finally dear friend, I promise you this; there is no fairer queen in all the land, than Lady Liberty!

Two Shepherds                                                                                                                                ~ CM 9/25/20

Two shepherds showed up, each one himself to be…                                                                    seen by the Queen at the Shepherds’ Ball, the only one for she.                                              One was clean and righteous, the other feisty, unkempt, and bold.                                          She loved them both and could not pick just one if truth be told.                                            The night went on forever, forever and a day…                                                                            Just when she thought she knew the one, the other danced her way.                                          And then upon the evening end, the devil he did come                                                                to take the Queen against her will, to have her and be done.                                                    The shepherd clean and righteous could not break from his good way,                                  did bid the Queen farewell, as he turned to walk away.                                                              The devil thought he had her, thrust her down upon his bed…                                                ‘till old feisty stood him up…and put a bullet in his head.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Velvet-Covered Brick

Posted on September 20, 2020 by Chip Murray

“OUR” Seat.

Paul felt grieved—perhaps even angered—over the reports he received about his Corinthian colleagues. We can see in his letter the anguish he felt over what has been going on in the church, but we also read of an overriding sense of love and concern for these dear friends. It was as if Paul were hitting the Corinthian church on the head with a velvet-covered brick—the brick his condemnation of their sin, the velvet being his love for those whom God had set apart for good works. ~ John C. Maxwell, The Velvet Covered Brick

Seeing is believing…when we see. The heartbreaking grief Paul felt in his day is more than alive in ours because of the multitude who cannot see or refuse to see. I capped my week off with a frustrating conversation I had late yesterday afternoon with a Christian brother who will not see. And the heartbreak of it is that he leads an exemplary Christian life led by an exemplary shepherd who, thus far, has failed to inform, ready, and prepare his people for the war we are in, what’s at stake in November, and what is coming regardless of who wins. I listened in shock and disbelief as he rationalized his passive lack of involvement…his indifference concerning this epic battle for the soul of our nation. When he said, “If Biden wins, then it was God’s will”, I cried inside.

Sadly, we are witnessing an epic failure of leadership on too many fronts to count. But the most devastating front is, or was, at the pulpit. “If Satan rules in our halls of legislation, the pulpit is responsible for it. If our politics becomes so corrupt, that the very foundations of our government are ready to fall away, the pulpit is responsible for it.” ~ Charles Finney, Presbyterian revivalist

…and this weekend experience of disappointment made it back-to-back with the same experience last weekend involving life-long friends…people who are good and caring people with good hearts, who for whatever reason simply cannot see, setting the stage for P&FW…

“Behold, O My people, I will open your graves”…If the Spirit of God has given you a vision of what you are apart from the grace of God (and He only does it when His Spirit is at work), you know there is no criminal who is half as bad in actuality as you know yourself to be in possibility. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Staggering Question

He gave His blood to wash us white as snow, so that one fine day…

Dear Brothers and Sisters,

I found myself staggered this past weekend; in a way I know every single one of us will be able to relate to. I had the bittersweet experience of spending an afternoon and evening with two of my oldest and dearest friends whom I hadn’t seen since February 2nd. The sweet part was seeing them. The bitter part was learning of the mutual friends we grew up with who, along with their kids, have been standing in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, the executioners of men and women who risk all to serve and protect. Add submission to the bitterness of solidarity in their unquestioning acceptance of the facemasks they are forced to wear.

My dear friends, there are two old sayings that come to mind in this, our darkest hour…to help shine a light on our choice between two distinct and separate paths; “If you can’t beat them, join them” and, “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.” I can only say, looking out our window in New York and LA, it’s awfully hard to see the country in between.

Please join us for a very special Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow. With prayerful focus on His something from nothing Word in Ezekiel 37:1-3, and the coming together Satan cannot stop in Ezekiel 37:15-17, to the light of truth on the right path in James 4:4 that we may all find our way…

…to His house we could go.

For Him,

Chip

In fact, one cannot escape the tragic fact that far too many manning the modern-day pulpit are modeling fear where courage is needed, and compliance where resistance is required. Where, dear God, has this man gone?

“It is not the critic who counts, not the man who points out how the strong man stumbles, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena, whose face is marred by dust, and sweat, and blood, who strives valiantly, who errs, who comes short again and again. Because there is no effort without error and shortcoming. But he who does actually strive to do the deeds, who knows great enthusiasms, the great devotions. He who spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the best knows in the end the triumph of high achievement, who at the worst if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who neither know victory nor defeat.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

Jim Caviezel wants to know!

Paul’s Velvet-Covered Brick is a wonderful reflection of who God made us to be. Accountable in our lives, condemning of our sin, and loving in our correction. Many of our institutions are lost, but we are not a nation owing to institutions holding supreme authority over us. The late Supreme Court Justice Ginsburg’s final request was to not fill “her” seat until after the election. We ALL need the velvet-covered brick because too many of us have forgotten who we are, and what is worth fighting for. I cannot begin to tell you how it hurts my ears to hear “style” complaints from those not in the fight, about the man who is ending the America-hating propaganda being taught in our schools, who has brought peace to the Middle East, and is doing more to save our children than any other president in American History. But the man who will nominate the next Supreme Court Justice to fill “OUR” seat this week, cannot save this great nation of ours by himself. Our Lord’s last prayer on this earth (John 17:21) was for us all to come together. Now, my friends, would be the perfect time.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ My Brother’s Keeper?

Posted on September 13, 2020 by Chip Murray

“That Something MUST Be Said Or Done”

It is possible to have such sympathy with our fellowmen as to be guilty of red-handed rebellion against God. Enthusiasm for humanity as it is, is quite a different thing from the enthusiasm for the saints which the Bible reveals, namely, enthusiasm for readjusted humanity. ~ Oswald Chambers, Sin Seen in Unselfishness

If ever there were two more perfect complementary quotes in this world than the two that book-end this statement…well…they simply have not been written or spoken yet!

If you forced me to distill everything that is wrong with this culture down to one word, to find one word that covered almost every sin in one fell swoop, it would be cowardice. I look at western civilization and I see cowardice EVERYWHERE. It is in the eyes and hearts of every adult. Its stench permeates everything. ~ Ann Barnhardt, When Prudence Truly Dictates That Something MUST Be Said Or Done…

“Am I my brother’s keeper?” The world’s first murderer’s response to God’s questioning him on the whereabouts of his brother Abel. These words that have been haunting me lately, especially over the course of these past four years, have brought a new and more chilling ring to my ear. So much so in fact, that back in June, my partner and I formed a county-wide neighborhood-watch program as a way of first and foremost, affirming that we are as God made us to be, our brother’s keeper. But secondly, and at the very heart and source of the chill, the realization of the replay of the worlds very first murder interrogation happening today…and knowing who the Cains are. They are everywhere. Ann was hot on their trail 8 years ago…

“I recently attended a conference about Catholic ethics, and toward the end discussion opened up a bit. An upper-middle class suburban woman (an uber Neo-con Kathy) raised her hand and complained that her 13 year old daughter persistently wanted to dress like Kim Kardashian, I believe the word ”whore” was used, as the daughter has been regularly watching the Kardashian filth on TV and wants to be just like Kim Kardashian, who is, for those of you who do not know, a sociopathic moral degenerate and de facto prostitute and porn star, who is also teetering on the precipice of being mentally retarded.

I tend to keep fairly quiet in venues such as this. If I am not ”the speaker” then it is my job to listen, but since discussion had opened up, I did lean forward and asked this woman why she allowed cable TV into her home in the first place, and why she allowed her daughter to watch evil filth. Some response was made to the effect, ”Well, I can’t control . . . “ at which point I cut her off and told her that she could call and cancel the cable feed this afternoon, at which she bristled and snarled back at me, ”I’m not going to have this discussion. I’M NOT GOING TO LIVE IN A BUBBLE.”

Understand, this woman had no clue who I was, so the bristling and snarling was not because she was intimidated by me – it was an organic response to the thought of taking away her precious Marxist-Sodomite agitporn delivery vector – her precious teevee. She then got up and left.

Had I gone blowtorch on this woman, here is what I would have said”:  Read the rest HERE.

Back to the chill and the neighborhood-watch formation. Necessity is the mother of invention… BECAUSE of who the Cains are and what they have allowed…because of the cowardice Ann exposes. Cowardice is a thousand times worse than cancer, in my own personal opinion, for one very simple reason. Cancer may kill the body, but cowardice kills the soul. The former is temporary. The latter is forever. Nothing on this earth can see and smell cowardice as easy and eagerly as the Wolf that “prowls, seeking to devour.” NBA Lebron James and NFL Drew Brees, who was literally forced to shame his own family by making a public apology for his patriotism, both play for the Chinese Communist Party…arguably the biggest wolf of them all.

What is there to protect the sheep from the wolf if not the shepherd? Was it not the shepherd’s job to protect them from the teevee? So they were scattered because there was no shepherd; and they became food for all the beasts of the field when they were scattered. My sheep wandered through all the mountains, and on every high hill; yes, My flock was scattered over the whole face of the earth, and no one was seeking or searching for them.” ~ Ezekiel 34:5-6

The compromised shepherds are indifferent to the neighborhood watchman…“So you, son of man: I have made you a watchman for the house of Israel; therefore you shall hear a word from My mouth and warn them for Me. When I say to the wicked, ‘O wicked man, you shall surely die!’ and you do not speak to warn the wicked from his way, that wicked man shall die in his iniquity; but his blood I will require at your hand. Nevertheless if you warn the wicked to turn from his way, and he does not turn from his way, he shall die in his iniquity; but you have delivered your soul.” ~ Ezekiel 33:7-9…and conspicuously quiet on “Patriot Day”. Save a precious few…

Good evening, my dear brethren in Christ!  Tomorrow, September 11, 2020, is the 19th anniversary of the 9/11/2001 terrorist attacks which took place that day in New York City, Pennsylvania and in Washington DC – attacks, in fact, against our entire Nation and against all that we as Americans hold to be true and sacred, regardless of our varied ethnic and cultural backgrounds! We again thoughtfully and prayerfully remember all the precious lives that were taken on that tragic day, along with all those who as a result of that fateful day subsequently passed on or continue to battle its health related consequences – not to speak of the inflicted and ongoing emotional trauma due to the loss of both beloved family members and friends! All those who died, all of the first responders, all those who tended to the wounded, and all of the assisting volunteers are forever to be gratefully recognized as heroes! As we remember 9/11/01, however,  our beloved Nation is presently under another evil, deliberately orchestrated and well-funded attack which vows to undo the legitimate rule of law and to dismantle established constitutional government for all American citizens, regardless of who we are! We as fellow Americans of all backgrounds must stand together against the lawlessness, anarchy and violence that right now plagues and increasingly threatens the peace and safety of us all! While serious and unresolved problems in our Nation must be honestly addressed and corrected, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. would never have sanctioned what is presently going on in the name of peaceful protest! Dr. King’s goal was not to ruin but to reconcile and to restore by the means of justice, godliness and respect, at a time in America when it was most difficult to say the least! And he paid the supreme price for it in 1968 when he was assassinated! He nevertheless set a spiritual and social example that lives on and which we must now urgently follow – not a pattern of incited violence and of street terrorism by imported seditionists who are just adding insult to injury in their wave of disruptive and counterproductive destruction! We as Christians from all denominational and ethnic backgrounds must lock our hearts and hands together in our love for God first, for one another, and for the Nation to which we all belong – calling upon Him in humble repentance to forgive our sins and to heal our Land!  On this special day of remembrance, we pray for Almighty God to stay the course of evil and to spare us the judgment that we deserve! PRAY FOR AMERICA – for violence to cease, and for a new and desperately needed season of mutual respect, justice and genuine unity to reign!  We must turn to the Lord, not away from Him! This we sincerely pray for – in this critical hour and in the love of Christ! ~ Pastor Good Shepherd

As surely as God warned Cain then…The Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry, and why has your countenance fallen? If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin is couching at the door; its desire is for you, but you must master it.” ~ Genesis 4:6-7…He is warning them now. It is the time to choose. You are either with We as Christians from all denominational and ethnic backgrounds must lock our hearts and hands together in our love for God first, for one another, and for the Nation to which we all belong, or…

You are of your father the devil, and your will is to do your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks according to his own nature, for he is a liar and the father of lies. ~ John 8:44

If anyone asks you for a description of my true Brother’s Keeper, simply refer them to Flight 93:

“Flight 93”

by Leslie Fish

She took off from Newark on a warm autumn day,                                              With forty-five travelers and crew.
They all were unarmed at the will of the law;
Security passed them all through.
An hour into flight-time, four Arabs jumped up —
Two Ahmeds, Ziad and Sa’eed —
Announced a hijacking and waved knives around
(Razorblades, box-knives and steak-knives they’d found),
And a box that they swore was a bomb up and down;
They thought that was all they would need.                                                                           

Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

CeeCee the stewardess had a cell-phone,
And called up her husband to say:
“The plane has been hijacked. We’ll do as we’re trained;
Be quiet and humbly obey.
They’ll dicker for money or some social cause.
The government surely will pay.
They’ll put us out somewhere and leave with their score,
Or maybe police will come catch them and more.
That’s always the way this has been done before.
With luck, I’ll be home in a day.”

Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

Next was Mark Bingham, who had a phone too,
And used it to call up his Mom.
He said they’d been hijacked by “three foreign men”
Who had knives and said they had a bomb.
But some of the passengers plotted, he said,
To take back the plane as it flew.
“But first tell me, Mom, is it true what they say?
That three other airplanes were hijacked today,
Flown straight into buildings and blew them away?”
His mother cried, and said: “It’s true.”
Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

Jeremy Glick called his wife on the phone,
And told of the bomb and the knives.
He said: “If these stories we’re hearing are true,
We might as well fight for our lives.”
His wife told him: “Yes, the World Trade Center’s hit,
And maybe the Pentagon too.”
He left the phone hanging, then came back and said:
“We’ve nothing to fight with, and may wind up dead,
But we’ve voted to stand up and fight them instead,
And we might keep them from getting through.”

Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

Thomas Burnett phoned his wife several times,
Reporting the course of the fight.
He said: “One man’s been stabbed, and we can’t reach the cockpit,
But somehow we’ll alter the flight.
We’ve guessed that the target is likely the White House,
And if we fail, we’ll surely die.
We’ve nothing to fight with except our bare hands,
But we’ll keep on trying until the plane lands
One way or the other. We’ve taken our stand.
My darling, I love you. Goodbye.”

Flight 93 no more will fly.                                                                                                         Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

Jason the pilot could hear the whole tale.
He’d signaled as well as he could.
He saw that the terrorists still held the cockpit —
And one way to stop them for good.
He watched while the passengers battled and died,
And knew that no help would be found.
The guard was distracted. Just one chance to win.
There’s one case where suicide isn’t a sin.
He weighed all his chances. He said: “Auger in!”
And drove the ship into the ground.

Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

Flight 93 hit the ground at full speed,
And no one aboard her survives.
But the White House still stands, and a few thousand folks
Can thank those aboard for their lives.
There’s no guarantee, when the Bad Guys come in,
That they won’t kill you all to a man.
So when some fanatics are out to have fun,
There’s nowhere to hide and there’s nowhere to run.
Then pray that the law lets you carry a gun,
But fight back however you can.

Flight 93 no more will fly.
Dead on the ground or dead in the sky:
You might not survive, but at least you can try.
Stand up and bring the ship down.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Rod and the Wide Gate

Posted on September 6, 2020 by Chip Murray

Their Plan. His Plan. Your Plan?

The Rod [NKJV, scepter] means two things—it is used in counting in the sheep, and it is used to destroy the wild beast that suddenly springs out on the sheep (Ps. 25:4). The man of sin will have his rod, he will do clever tricks, he will put the mark of the beast on every business system that he sanctions, and those who do not have that mark on them can never do business under the regime of the man of sin. Suppose you find that the people who are “counted in” under the mark of the beast succeed, and you do not succeed, you may be tempted to negotiate the thing and say, “Well, I don’t know, if I did this thing it would save me; I had better compromise a bit.” We must never do that. “The [rod] of the wicked shall not rest on the righteous,” God says. There is no need to fear, if we keep within the moral frontiers of God we can boldly say, “The Lord is my helper.” We do not need to mind how the wicked bluster and say, “If you don’t do this and that, you will starve.” Be faithful, make holiness your aim, holiness in every relationship—money, food, clothes, friendship—then you will see the Lord in all these domains. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Rod of the Wicked

My friends, let me tell you about “the rod of the wicked” and what it means to be “counted in”. The rod or scepter, as it is referred to in the King James version of the Holy Bible, is so much more than “an ornamented staff carried by rulers on ceremonial occasions”…it is the nonrefundable, nonredeemable, one-way ticket to Hell. Let me try to be a little more specific in terms of how and where this rod appears in our lives.

I will not be “counted in” because “the Lord is my helper.” The Lord is my helper because I am saved. I am saved because I believe. Because I believe, I am fearless. Because I am fearless, I act to save. So, is it enough to believe? No. We know this to be true from the parable of the ten virgins. And here’s why; “The word ‘believe’ in this and many verses, is the verb pisteuo derived from the noun pistis meaning ‘faith, assurance, belief’.  But a verb is an action word.  The usage of the word pisteou means ‘commit unto, commit to (one’s) trust, be committed unto, be put in trust with, be committed to one’s trust.’  It’s defined by Strong as being in the ‘aorist tense, active voice, imperative mood’.  This word is used 375 times in the KJV.  So ‘believe’ not only means to believe once but to commit to believing, to continue to believe.” Is It Possible To Believe In Jesus…And NOT Be Saved? Five were not committed enough to be prepared…and ready.

I have three Jewish friends who find themselves central to this morning’s message. One is saved, two are not. Let’s call both of my two unsaved friends David in honor of my 2nd most favorite Jewish man in history. And my third Jewish friend we will call child of God because she is saved. All three wrote themselves into today’s message by their own actions this very week. One David reached out to let me know he is slowly recovering from a serious and debilitating illness. The other David, the absolute picture of health, informed me he is too old for the fight. The child of God brought a tear to every eye, and broke every heart in a worship gathering, with her personal story of betrayal and rejection this past Sunday. And each one of the three is 100% equally capable of saving the world! Read Hebrews 11:17-40 to learn why.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I could not help but hug a child of God this past Sunday who had just shared a story of rejection and betrayal by those she loved most that was so heart-wrenching it brought a tear to every eye. I held her close and told her, “The devil has made his gate wide and easy but see here the family God has given you.”

Speaking of the Wide Gate, God has given me the vision of the coming Tune-up, The Rod and the Wide Gate. The Rod [NKJV, scepter] means two things—it is used in counting in the sheep, and it is used to destroy the wild beast that suddenly springs out on the sheep (Ps. 25:4). The man of sin will have his rod, he will do clever tricks, he will put the mark of the beast on every business system that he sanctions, and those who do not have that mark on them can never do business under the regime of the man of sin. ~ Oswald Chambers, The Rod of the Wicked

Please join us for tomorrow’s Prayer & Fast Wednesday with prayer focus on Psalm 125:1-5 and Isaiah 53. That God may keep us from the devil’s illusion of the only way, the normal way, the acceptable way, the sane way, the safe way, the profitable way, the successful way…and strengthen us with the moral fortitude to keep us on His righteous path.

For Him,

Chip

All three of my Jewish friends are THE Chosen People referred to in the Bible. AND, they were chosen by the Master Builder of the Universe…THE Greatest Architect of all time and space! And guess what the one single most essential thing every architect has…A Plan. Of course, we are talking about The Plan…the very same Plan that, through the Gospel of Jesus Christ, expanded the ranks of the chosen to include EVERYONE. I believe the plan provides His children EVERYTHING they need to find their way home, to and through the narrow gate…including the two greatest shepherds of all time, in Moses and Jesus. BUT, the plan is incomplete without our choosing (my prayer for the Davids), and our pisteuo (my prayer for all).

What more shall I say? For time would fail me to tell of Gideon, Barak, Samson, Jephthah, of David and Samuel and the prophets—who through faith conquered kingdoms, enforced justice, received promises, stopped the mouths of lions, quenched raging fire, escaped the edge of the sword, won strength out of weakness, became mighty in war, put foreign armies to flight. Women received their dead by resurrection. Some were tortured, refusing to accept release, that they might rise again to a better life. ~ Hebrews 11:32-35

There are only two plans for the world of men. There is the plan of satanic tyranny by a luciferian order deeply embedded in our oldest corporate, academic, entertainment, media, medical and, as the photo at the top of the page sadly suggests, religious institutions. Their plan, playing out on the streets of major cities throughout the world, includes a pandemic and soon-to-be mandatory cure through a micro-needle vaccine delivery system known as LUCIFERASE! And there’s the plan devised by the Master Builder/Architect God Himself. Sounds like a simple choice, does it not? But, as any child of God will tell you, it is not. God’s plan offers great suffering up and to the narrow gate, with the eternal bliss of heaven on the other side. Sadly, most will choose the wide gate (including 85% of Christians I’ve heard said) because it offers the emotional satisfaction of social justice with heaping servings of creature comforts and Netflix on wide-screen TV’s here and now…until the end of now. And then…the eternal agony of eternal remorse in the eternal pit of Hell.

Folks, you are living under a Communist putsch.  Evidence, even videographic, is IRRELEVANT.  It doesn’t phase these demoniacs in the least.  Don’t think for a nanosecond that because you have “done nothing wrong” that they won’t come for you.  They will. And they will murder you without compunction. If you’re “lucky” (as the Ukrainians would have told you….) ~ EVIDENCE AND TRUTH NO LONGER MATTER. You are living under a satanic tyranny that LUXURIATES in lies and mendacity. Soviet Communism pales in the shadow of Maoist evil…20 million cell phone signals went silent and simply disappeared in China earlier this year. This is what inaction has invited…

We need the integrity and guidance of the Good Shepherd in the darkest hour, “He has proved Himself to be all that He and His Word declare Him to be, and we must not allow anything to spiritually distract or to discourage us, in our walk with Him or in our witness for Him!  Hallelujah!  Let us be First-Century, Acts of the Apostles’ believers and followers of Christ, regardless of our circumstances, “looking into Jesus the author and finisher of our faith… (Hebrews 12:2)!  It can’t be just humanly explained, but over the past six months this humble fellowship has increased and not decreased – and all because of God’s grace and mercy in answer to our sincere prayer to be bound together by His Word and in the love and unity of His Spirit!  We certainly have needs, but our good and faithful God will continue to supply them all (Psalm 24:1; Philippians 4:19)!  As someone has said, “This is not a time to just sit on the premises but to stand on the promises”!  God has privileged us to be alive in this hour as the representatives and ambassadors of His Son, the Lord Jesus Christ!  We must never go into hiding, succumb to fear or be silenced (see 2 Timothy 1:7).  “Let the redeemed of the LORD say so…” (Psalm 107:2)!”  That, my friends, is pisteuo! But where is the pisteuo in all the others who choose instead to use the elderly as human shields, to aid, abet, and legitimize the total fraud of a fake pandemic to excuse their own inaction…as the brave few continue their stand against the great evil of our time? Where are they as the shadow of “satanic tyranny” spreads across the land?

Those who trust in the Lord                                                                                                    Are like Mount Zion,                                                                                                            Which cannot be moved, but abides                                                                                      forever.                                                                                                                                           As the mountains surround                                                                                                 Jerusalem,                                                                                                                                      So the Lord surrounds His people                                                                                        From this time forth and forever.

For the scepter of wickedness shall not                                                                              rest                                                                                                                                                  On the land allotted to the righteous,                                                                                  Lest the righteous reach out their hands                                                                            to iniquity.

Do good, oh Lord, to those who are                                                                                      good,                                                                                                                                             And to those who are upright in their                                                                                hearts.

As for such as turn aside to their                                                                                            crooked ways,                                                                                                                              The Lord shall lead them away                                                                                              With the workers of iniquity.                                                                                       Peace be on Israel!                                                                                                                   ~Psalm 125:1-5

I love the man that can smile in trouble, that can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but he whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves his conduct will pursue his principles unto death. ~ Thomas Paine

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Fatal Distraction

Posted on August 30, 2020 by Chip Murray

The Dilemma of Pragmatism

“Pragmatism has had such a huge Impact in the church that the church is more concerned about what the unbelieving world thinks of it than it is about ministering to the Saints. The church has become an event to attract non-believers. So, if you’re going to do that then you’ve got to buy into the conventional attitudes of those people and not offend them if that’s your goal. That’s what pragmatic goals will do. Then you gotta go with the flow of the culture, you can’t go against that. From my standpoint, the only stock-in-trade we have is the Truth.”  ~ Pastor John McArthur

Fatal Attraction was a powerful movie thriller made in the late 80’s starring Michael Douglas and Glenn Close that made EVERY man think twice about cheating on his wife. In Fatal Attraction, the lawyer (Douglas) living the perfect life with the perfect wife (Anne Archer) finds himself fatally attracted to the sexy psychopathic client (Close). In the real-life Fatal Distraction, the pragmatic shepherds guarding their imperfect flock for the perfect Master find themselves fatally distracted by the intentionally imperfect non-believers. In the former, one marriage is threatened (I won’t give away the ending). In the latter, our entire world and every soul in it is threatened. (Only God knows the ending)

What McArthur is essentially describing in his quote above is the very fault line of the divided church…the house that, as Jesus Himself warned us in Matthew 12:25, divided against itself will not stand. The Holy Spirit has been guiding us to correction since Pentecost…

Dear Brothers & Sisters in Christ,

There is something about a wedding. Every culture across the globe loves a wedding. Who doesn’t love a wedding? It breaks my heart to know those even among the chosen…those invited who will not make it through the gate. God puts a question on my heart that keeps me up at night. How that number would be multiplied if those among us with the power to do so would cast off the shadows, deny the dividers, and unite the ecclesia as one powerful YES in response to His last prayer on this earth…please join us for Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow, with an earnestly prayerful intention, that WE may come together as the ONE He prayed for…

I appeal to you brothers to watch out for those who cause divisions and create obstacles contrary to the doctrine you have been taught. Avoid them, for such persons do not serve our Lord Christ, but their own appetites. And by smooth talk and flattery they deceive the hearts of the naive. ~ Romans 16:17,18

“I do not pray for these only, but also for those who believe in me through their word, that they may all be one; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that thou hast sent me. The glory which thou hast given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one. I in them and thou in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that thou hast sent me and hast loved them even as thou hast loved me.” ~ John 17:20-23

For Him,

Chip

Be careful of anything that is going to deflect your attention from God. ~ Oswald Chambers, Attention to God. The last word in McArthur’s quote is Truth. Period. Not Truth if, or Truth but. Truth is Truth, regardless of consequence or desired outcome. What on earth is pragmatism other than the very definition of deflecting attention from God by making Truth conditional…or even worse, subjective? Isn’t this exactly where the pragmatic shepherds lead their flock to avoid the risk of offending the non-believers? As the Wolf savors the approaching meal. Think about what is being modeled in the world today compared to the standards and principles of yesterday…

He who justifies the wicked and he who condemns the righteous are both alike an abomination to the Lord. ~ Proverbs 17:15

Thus says the Lord: “Stand by the roads, and look, and ask for the ancient paths, where the good way is; and walk in it, and find rest for your souls. But they said, ‘We will not walk in it.’” ~ Jeremiah 6:16

When we accept everything, we stand for nothing. ~ Unknown

In the beginning of a change, the patriot is a scarce man, and brave and hated and scorned. When his cause succeeds the timid join him, for then it costs nothing to be a patriot. ~ Mark Twain

How do the pragmatic shepherds reconcile themselves to the model of the second greatest shepherd of them all in King David, who revealed the power of his faith to Saul before he stood up to Goliath, “The Lord who delivered me from the paw of the lion and the paw of the bear.” As Kesterson puts it so well, “It takes action to bring faith into the world.” To which I would only add, there is nothing like the power of faith to overcome the fatal poison of inaction.

Pragmatism becomes passivity becomes paralysis becomes rigor mortis as the well-intentioned shepherds lead themselves astray…along with those in their care. What can be done? I know the Holy Spirit is holding a special mirror up to ALL believers in this hour. It is so much easier to fool ourselves than it is to fool Him. We know from the parable of the ten virgins that not all believers will make it through the gate.

I am praying for all my brothers to make it through the gate. Leave the political tool of pragmatism to the politicians where it actually belongs, on the field of negotiation and compromise. There is no negotiation or compromise on Calvary. There is only our stock-in-trade as Christians; the Truth manifest in Jesus Christ. Isn’t this the very question the Holy Spirit is holding up in front of us now, “Where do you stand?” God knows the answer, but do we?

Is it chance or coincidence that just as I am searching for the ending of Fatal Distraction, my newest Christian brother writes it for me in the very last sentence of his very first book which I finished only moments after I wrote, “God knows the answer, but do we?”

Marcus’s heart was filled to overflowing, for his life, his dreams, his faith, his love, and his family, finally have all experienced the amazing miracle of coming together. ~ Walter Irvin Johnson lll, Coming Together

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The City That Never Woke Up

Posted on August 23, 2020 by Chip Murray

Desolation

“How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!” ~ Lamentations 1:1

How in the world did New York City go from the greatest “city that never sleeps” to the city that never woke up, in the state whose motto went from I Love New York to I Leave New York? Americans are voting with their feet in record numbers, fleeing blue states for red. What does that tell us? Property values are soaring in Orange County New York and Morris County New Jersey as thousands are reacting to phenomena outside their capability to comprehend, and beyond their ability to control. And the most amazing yet tragic thing of all to me is the friend who made his fortune in New York City Real Estate who cannot…or will not see the hand of God in any or all of it. And how would he…how would any of us who grew up in the promising glow of the Big Apple comprehend His hand in the chaos that has turned Times Square into a ghost town and threatens to extinguish the lights on Broadway…permanently? Start spreading the news…remember those good old days? Now, in the grand scheme of things, were we spreading news or manure? What is the really true and essential news for (your name) to know in this life…while there is still a (your name) left to know? God wants us ready…

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I read this from Lamentations in my Oswald Chambers read this morning and wept, “How lonely sits the city that was full of people! How like a widow is she, who was great among the nations! The princess among the provinces has become a slave!” Watching the sacking of our cities from within, as tragic as that is, is nowhere near as tragic as observing the posture of submission and the “just another day” response of those around me. Chambers writes, “The Bible looks upon the human race as it is as the result of a mutiny against God; consequently, you find in the Bible something you find in no other book or conception. The modern view of man is, What a marvelous promise of what he is going to be! The Bible looks at man and sees the ruin of what he once was. In the Bible everything is based on the fact that there is something wrong at the basis of things.” It grieves me beyond words to see so many fellow (New Yorkers) playing into the hands of the mutineers, by silence or consent it matters not. Please join us in Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow, with prayerful focus on Lamentations 1:1-22. And 2 Samuel 3:28-29, that we as a people will ACT to encourage one another to come together as we were made to be, mindful of Whom we serve.

For Him,

Chip

I’m in the middle of a conversation with a very intelligent young millennial from Michigan who is so spiritually lost he claims he doesn’t believe in God in one sentence, and then blames God for everything in another. “I don’t believe in Biblical God, but I believe in God-like creatures.”  He goes on, “We are not responsible for the sins of God, our father, he must carry the weight of his own wrongdoings.” Yesterday I heard the tragic story of a once solid Christian family who watched a faithful daughter surrender her faith to a college sweetheart, while her sister rejected God and subsequently her own gender. It seems pretty clear that the church has been infiltrated by a spirit that has poisoned the well over the years, leaving the shepherds divided. There are the remnant few who have refused to allow any and all spirits antithetical to the Holy Spirit to gain any foothold whatsoever, while the majority seem to have mistaken the spirit for one that can be won over with peace, love, and understanding.  And those who would sound the alarm and shine the light of truth become the threat to what has become a congregation huddled together in the dark with little or no understanding about what is really happening in the world outside. John Maxwell writes in Hope Springs Eternal, “One of the greatest gifts leaders can give to those around them is hope. Never underestimate its power. Winston Churchill was once asked by a reporter what his country’s greatest weapon was against Hitler’s Nazi regime. Without pausing for a moment, he said: ‘It was what England’s greatest weapon has always been—hope.’” Imagine what would have happened to that hope had Churchill kept his people below the streets in the air-raid shelters with no understanding of the events taking place on the streets and in the skies and world above their heads?

Leaving people in the dark without hope is the perfect breeding ground for fear. Perhaps this is why the eschatology debate has resurfaced. To my mind time spent on debating where we are relative to the end times discussed in the Bible’s last book of Revelation is like fretting over the cause of the fire while your house is on fire, rather than taking the right action to put the fire out. On the other hand, focusing, informing, and understanding the unfolding events taking place in the context of Revelation is enormously beneficial in helping the Bride with the one and ONLY thing the Bride is responsible and accountable for; to be prepared…and to be ready.

Fear is the enemy’s greatest weapon. We know we are in the final battle between the Offspring of the Woman and the offspring of the serpent, as Archbishop Vigano stated in his letter to President Trump. This is God’s fight but we are God’s army on the ground, as Scott Kesterson reminds us in Red Lines and Plumb Lines. We know the Bridegroom returns. Only the Father knows the exact day and hour. Is New York City doomed to be the lonely city of Lamentation? Famous NYC entrepreneur James Altucher seems to think so. Does it really matter to the Bride? What is VERY encouraging to me in this hour is to see a third shepherd stand up in California to proclaim, “God has not called us to be cowards.” We have to know and understand as God’s children, what matters most of all is that (your name and those you love) are standing on the Right side of the Plumb Line when the Bridegroom returns.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Jericho and the Wall of Fear

Posted on August 16, 2020 by Chip Murray

Onward and Upward, Together As One!

And the Lord said to Joshua, “See, I have given into your hand Jericho, with its king and mighty men of valor. You shall march around the city, all the men of war going around the city once. Thus shall you do for six days. And seven priests shall bear seven trumpets of ram’s horns before the ark; and on the seventh day you shall march around the city seven times, the priests blowing the trumpets. And when they make a long blast with the rams’ horn, as soon as you hear the sound of the trumpet, then all the people shall shout with a great shout: and the wall of the city will fall down flat, and the people shall go up every man straight before him.” ~ Joshua 6:2-5 The Bards of War, Jericho

It is hard to overstate the significance of this past week in its treasure of revelations manifesting themselves in our world at just about every level. I need to draw the focus in to the relationship between you and I, and the wall of fear that currently separates us as illustrated above.

It was a miraculous week that ushered in “a change of heart” that opened a door of hope and a vision of a place more beautiful than you can imagine…for all of us.

“Now Jericho”, as Bards producer Scott Kesterson informs us, “is one of the strongholds of the Canaanites. To understand the Canaanites is to understand our Luciferian Elite today. They are a society that is consumed with sexual exploits, a warring society, cannibalism is part of their society, and the sacrifice of children.”  WHAT ABOUT THE CHILDREN??? (PLEASE watch & share) Are you beginning to see we are in the present-day Jericho? We need to see and understand it is the enemy within our own walls; our cities, our government, our schools, and yes…our churches, that needs to be conquered and purged.

But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come: For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of good, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of godliness but denying its power. And from such people turn away. ~ 2 Timothy 3:1-5

I believe it was Kesterson pointing to Jericho along with the hand of God that put us in touch with Pastor Rob McCoy of the Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks California, which inspired this week’s P&FW that helped bring the “change of heart”.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

This past weekend I was moved by Pastor Rob McCoy of Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks California who opened his church for worship in defiance of a judge’s order. What impressed me more than his act of courage, was his graciousness towards other pastors around the country who, as he put it, were “not wired” like him. “Knowing their thoughts, he said to them, ‘Every kingdom divided against itself is laid waste, and no city or house divided against itself will stand;’” ~ Matthew 12:25 ~ We know by our faith we can survive a house, city, and even a country divided. But can we survive all this and a divided church as well? The choice between what seems like “the kabuki theater of hopeless political discourse and quieting before the Lord to rest in His provision” is beyond understandable. It is the desire of most good and faithful Americans. But how can a people as blessed as we have been, see the clear choice before us…the choice between God’s great gift of liberty and demonic totalitarianism as “kabuki theater”. I believe our response must be Godly and Christ-like, but my great fear for many of my brothers and sisters receiving this message, is they will chose the worst response…the non-active choice to remain on the sideline, leaving the church divided. Therefore, I pray for us all to gather wherever we are tomorrow as one family in Christ, to pray and fast with prayerful focus on Joshua 6:2-5, that God will show us the way to come together as ONE to face the coming storm.

For Him,

Chip

The Bards of War podcasts are an amazing weapon against the evil that surrounds us because it provides our faith a course of action, and the confidence to overcome the fears that keep us on the sidelines. In this Jericho edition Scott Kesterson tells us, “One of the hardest things to do in this period of time is to witness the ongoing hatred that just seems to be growing by the day across this nation. And at the center of most of that is FEAR. The mask pandemic is what the real virus has become, and people have literally lost their minds in fear of something that kills less people than a drunk driver on the road.”

He goes on to say, “Jericho is a reminder to me of the power of prayer in the public square…hate and violence are the foundations of everything the Left* does. And that all traces back to the origins, which is the Luciferian Left, which hates anything of light and related to God’s children. If we truly want to change this world, and we truly want to fight to the full extent of what the great awakening is giving us…the opportunity to demonstrate a path different than that of violence…then we need to bring prayer forward, visible, and active in the battlespace.”

* A VERY important distinction must be made here. Just as today’s Democrats are not my Grandfather’s Democrats, neither is today’s Left my Grandfather’s Left. It is also worth noting that EVERY dark age of tyranny the world has ever known, could have never been without the inviting wink from the Left eye.

I cannot begin to tell you the amount of pushback and anger my refusal to comply with forced masking evokes. As Kesterson puts it so well, it is perfectly alright to defy. “Because we are not defying God’s rules, we are defying rules that are laid out before us by a Luciferian order.” And we know this because the numbers do not lie. What other order could there be that would stop the world for 150,000 lives…while turning a blind eye to the 800,000?
   

But whoever causes one of these little ones who believe in Me to sin, it would be better for him if a millstone were hung around his neck, and he were drowned in the depth of the sea. ~ Matthew 18:6

Oh, I nearly forgot to share the “vision of a place more beautiful than you can imagine”. The body of believers divided is like any other body divided. It becomes weakened, which is why we are experiencing so much emotional and physical suffering, addictions, divorces, cancer and depression. Compromised immune systems let in more than physical disease, they let bad spirits into the body as well. God showed me our body in the meeting place between the blue arrows above the wall, strengthened and fully purged of the bad spirit. The best word I can use to explain what I saw is pure joy.

My dear brothers and sisters, I have never felt so strongly the tug and pull of God’s will on my heart as I have all these days since the Pentecostal Spirit drew me even closer to It’s fathoming…oh how I have felt the powers and the grace of God working the soil of His garden for the coming Harvest. He wants US, His body of believers…His ecclesia & koinonia united as ONE with Him. Who among us can turn from this light to say no to this truth? The illustration at the top of today’s Tune-up came to me from Jericho as the solution to our divided church…the actual way up and over the wall of fear that keeps us divided. Fear is more than paralyzing, fear is self-perpetuating. The more we fear, the more we fear. Fear weakens the heart. But faith in action leads to a “change of heart” which is not only self-perpetuating, it is re-generating. There was a great surge in the battlespace this week, a great victory in California!  From Los Angeles California to Cedarville Ohio to Warwick New York, our King is the ultimate King of provision. Let’s make the vision REAL, for Him. Onward and upward my brethren. Rise up and over…where we will ALL meet in the middle as ONE!

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ “This Could Be Heaven, Or This Could Be Hell”

Posted on August 9, 2020 by Chip Murray

There Are No Do-Overs Here

The line from one of the Eagles’ biggest all-time hits…is Life Imitating Art?

NOTE: I try to keep my Sunday messages to a page out of respect for your time. Please allow more time for today because of so much “essential” grist for the mill in what I have to share.

Behold the storm of the Lord! Wrath has gone forth, a whiling tempest; It will burst upon the head of the wicked. The fierce anger of the Lord will not turn back until he has executed and accomplished the intents of his mind. In the latter days you will understand this. ~ Jeremiah 30:23,24

In case you’ve missed it, there is a mighty tug of war going on for the soul of our nation and the destiny of all mankind. The shaking is so intense it has shaken the dust off the eschatology books and leaves no corner of the globe unaffected…or perhaps uninfected might be a more appropriate way to put it in the post-Covid world. In either case there are two sides in this the greatest battle of our lives. As a very good pastor friend of mine put it in a letter to 175 of his fellow New York pastors just this week; In just a few months this nation will choose one of two paths moving forward: the path to the right will lead toward righteousness, redemption and the favor of God, while the path to the left will lead to unrighteousness, rebellion and the curse of Satan, (Ecclesiastes 10:2). The path this nation ultimately takes is in the hands of the Church (2 Chronicles 7:14).

To a clear-thinking mind, independent and free of ideological contamination, the picture could not be more crystal clear. On the Left side weighing in at approximately the weight of all the evil in the world, as measured by every parasitic swamp creature that has fed off the lives of good and decent people for the better part of the last three quarters of a century, poised to murder us all rather than relinquish the total control it was so close to achieving. And on the Right side weighing in at approximately 250 pounds, the greatest fighter for the American people to have ever occupied the Oval Office. In the physical world we are choosing between a top down one world order and our own sovereignty. Spiritually it is a choice between Heaven and Hell. My pastor friend has probably never made a more accurate statement in his entire life. Sorry friends, Joe Biden is a hologram.

What I find so fascinating in this place is watching people I’ve known for years, thought I knew, and how they respond to a world gone mad. Unfortunately, because our schools have operated as ideological contamination factories, our homes, neighborhoods, and communities have all become incredibly polluted. Being able to see truth has become as difficult as seeing the horizon on a typical smog day in Los Angeles. Take the COVID-19 bug that has turned the world upside down, for instance. Here in Orange County New York we knew back in March that Dr. “Zev” Zelenko achieved a 100% success rate in treating COVID-19 patients in Kiryas Joel using Hydroxychloroquine. 100% recovery. Nobody died. Nobody had to be hospitalized! And yet here we are in August looking back on 150,000 lives lost. WHY?  Because somebody(s) didn’t want us to know then what we know now. That “100,000 lives could have been saved” with a treatment that costs a mere fifty cents a dose. And further, thanks to the amazing work of one of the best investigative journalists in America, we now know the WHO!

This brings us to the “This Could Be Heaven, Or This Could Be Hell” point of today’s message. As has often been the case of late, it is best described in this week’s Prayer & Fast Wednesday Invite:

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

As Jerry Lee Lewis once sang, “There’s a whole lot of shaking going on.” And as Rabbi Jonathan Cahn referred to the shaking in an interview this week, “It has only just begun”. Then, something so profound in yesterday’s morning prayer reading Chambers and Jeremiah… In the latter days you will understand this. (Jer.30:24) But we know that the law is good if one uses it lawfully… the opposite of what he was…something has entered into…that I will break his yoke from your neck…I am feeling a departing out of…a rescue. And hours later, Christian journalist Scott Kesterson affirms the message with the following words, “Most of you know that I don’t subscribe to the fact that we’re living through Revelation, but rather we’re living through Exodus version 2.0. We are literally being freed.” Price of the ticket? Repentance.

“The only repentant man is the holy man, that is, the one who becomes the opposite of what he was because something has entered into him. Any man who knows himself knows that he cannot be holy; therefore, if he does become holy it is because God has ‘shipped’ something into him.” ~ Oswald Chambers, The Bedrock of Christianity. Please join us for tomorrow’s Prayer & Fast Wednesday with prayerful focus on Jeremiah 30:1-24 and 1 Timothy 1:1-20

For Him,

Chip

IMPORTANT: The idea of our living Exodus came to me BEFORE I heard Kesterson!

WHAT A WEEK! And it was only half over. Friday morning, I wake up to an email from my friend Kevin containing the link to Tucker Carlson’s FULL 44-minute show from the night before. I am so glad I watched and took notes, because hours later “They” cut out the Chris Bedford & Professor Jason Hill portion…3/4 of the show!! This Tucker Carlson-CENSORED 12 minutes is still worth the watch. Here are the Hill and Bedford quotes from the show that really caught my attention…

“What we are seeing in the educational system is systemic nihilation. So, let’s go back a step further. A couple of weeks ago Rutgers University declared that grammar was racist. Now grammar is the science that deals with the proper method of oral and written communication. When you attack grammar, you attack language which is the method of cognitions…you attack man’s mind, you attack his ability to reason. So, you attack man’s mind which means you leave us on the level of grunting farm animals. So, you leave us incapacitated to reason…to think. And then you take away his history. You take away our Constitutional rights, our 2nd Amendment, our 1st Amendment, our time-worn principles that we use to defend our way of life.” ~ Professor Jason Hill, DePaul University, responding to a Chicago Democrats call to abolish history classes, (16:00min mark)

“It’s going to be up to us on the local level, the churches and the civil organizations they’re targeting right now because they know those are the only chances we have of resisting this kind of uprising.” ~ Chris Bedford, Senior Editor of The Federalist, (11:23min mark)

Now, I especially love what Bedford had to say about the churches and civil organizations being “the only chances we have of resisting” because I don’t believe most of the churches have gotten the memo…yet. AND the reason I say this stems from my own personal observations along with this amazing interview with “radical organizations” expert Clare Lopez on the America’s Black Robe Regiment podcast in early June, in which the host says, “What has really gotten me alarmed is seeing pastors running to microphones to distance themselves from racism.” As with every other link in today’s tune-up I urge you to listen beginning at the 3:12 min mark to learn the truth about what is really happening across America right now…falsely labeled as “peaceful protests”.

My pastor friend, in his letter to the pastors, follows his quote above with these words… We dare not be “complacent in Zion” waiting for the Rapture while this nation “Under God,” entrusted to us, is lost to demonic totalitarianism. We are commanded to give to God what is God’s and to Caesar what is Caesar’s. In this nation governed by “We, the people” what is due to Caesar is our informed and active engagement in the governmental and political process.

Something amazing has happened between yesterday morning when I completed the final draft of this Tune-up and today. Two things actually. First, my friend Derek from Southern California sent me an “Urgent Constitutional Prayer Request” late yesterday afternoon. He urged us all to pray and do whatever we could do to support Pastor Rob McCoy of the Godspeak Calvary Chapel in Thousand Oaks (Ventura County) who is opening his church today, in defiance of a judge’s order. Derek is driving three hours to attend. Here is the 11-minute video of this pastor defending his “Essential” Faith AND his country. PLEASE watch HERE. The second thing is more of an epiphany really. It came to me in the middle of the night. Heaven or Hell…Exodus 2.0 or Revelation? What is the difference? Both tell the story of a departure from one place to journey to another. The difference is one has happened already, and we learned from that experience…or did we? We learned that God’s children screwed up and were ordered by God to serve 40 years in the wilderness instead of the promised land because of it. So, whether this is Exodus 2.0 or the end, Tribulation, Mid-Tribulation, or Rapture isn’t it possible His children are capable of screwing up again? It struck me when the Black Robe Regiment host made the statement, while cities are burning, criminals are being released from prisons, good people are losing their livelihood and their freedoms, that what “alarmed him most was seeing pastors running to microphones to distance themselves from racism.” I thought about my pastor friend who sent the letter. I thought about Pastor McCoy. I thought about the pastors running to microphones. I know my pastor friend and Pastor McCoy are sharing the critical “Two Path” message with their congregations. I was criticized earlier by a Christian friend I had shared yesterday’s final draft with, for what he saw as my attacking the church. There are two truths that convince me this is not the case. First, God wants His people united as one body of believers. Second, not sharing the “Two Path” message is the same as choosing the wrong path. What kind of friend, brother or Christian would knowingly allow a fellow friend, brother, or Christian to make such a choice without doing everything he could do to…save him…and the family he loves?

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Time to Confront the Devil

Posted on August 2, 2020 by Chip Murray

For the sake of our children, for the sake of honor and posterity…

Now war arose in heaven, Michael and his angels fighting against the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they were defeated and there was no longer any place for them in heaven. And the great dragon was thrown down, that ancient serpent, who is called the Devil and Satan, the deceiver of the whole world—he was thrown down to earth, and his angels were thrown down with him. ~ Revelation 12:7-9

There is a great question that needs to be answered by the mind and confirmed by the heart. If we are at war with Satan and his forces, how and where do we confront them so that we might defeat them? Interestingly, in the very same morning this “great question” arose, I received the article When a Nation Becomes Possessed from a close friend. Coincidence?

Then Nathan said to David, “You are the man!” (2 Samuel 12:7) Many people avoid confrontation. Some fear being disliked and rejected. Others are afraid confrontation will make things worse by creating anger and resentment in the person they confront. But avoiding confrontation always worsens the situation. ~ John C. Maxwell on July 28, Care Enough to Confront

Imagine, if you will, how differently things might have turned out for all humanity, had Nathan not found the courage to care enough to confront David. Our Prayer & Fast Wednesday focused on exactly this…

Dear Brothers & Sisters.

I hope this Prayer & Fast Wednesday Eve finds you and yours in good health and spirit. There are many brave people taking great risk to expose the “things they’ve been doing in secret” for an awfully long time. Please join us for Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow as we pray for the full armor that can only come from knowing the evil in our midst, receiving the wisdom and discernment in all confrontation, and the courage to stand against the evil of our day.*

Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them. For it is a shame even to speak of the things that they do in secret; but when anything is exposed by the light it becomes visible, for anything that becomes visible is light. ~ Ephesians 5:11-13

Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. ~ Ephesians 6:11

About this we have much to say which is hard to explain, since you have become dull of hearing. For though by this time you ought to be teachers, you need someone to teach you again the first principles of God’s word. You need milk, not solid food; for everyone who lives on milk is unskilled in the word of righteousness, for he is a child. But solid food is for the mature, for those who have their faculties trained by practice to distinguish good from evil.*  ~ Hebrews 5:11-14

For Him,

Chip

* Those of us unable distinguish that Black Lives Matter has nothing to do with black lives, or that burning down a federal courthouse with people inside is not a “peaceful protest”, need more training.

Friday morning I learned that Orange County Parks are restricting our walk-a-thon fundraiser for our Christian-based-alternative-to-Planned Parenthood organization, from 500 to 66 people max.  Yesterday morning I wrote to my fellow board members, “Jesus taught us ‘how’ to fight. But how can any of us fight what we’ve been led not to see?” How do we not see the evil behind restricting Christian and Conservative causes while giving Progressive causes free reign? And if we do see it, why do we accept it? I saw this a few nights ago, The Night Baseball Died…, and wondered how much of US has to die before we are finally willing to confront this devil? How sad would it be for us to not be awakened to the evil around us by the systematic killing of 62 million unborn babies, but only when our national pastime became threatened?  I can see the tear in my Savior’s eye as he sees us yawn in the midst of human carnage wrought by the evil one all  the while dissipating our precious fighting spirit over the demise of a tradition of man.  The sad reality is, not even the demise of baseball is waking us up!  What will it take?”

Years ago, I made the acquaintance of Bishop Daniel Jenky of Peoria, Illinois through the simple act of thanking him for the courage he demonstrated by confronting the Obama Administration over policies threatening our religious freedom. He responded by thanking me and encouraging me with the Prayer of St. Michael…

St. Michael the Archangel,
defend us in battle.
Be our defense against the wickedness and snares of the Devil.
May God rebuke him, we humbly pray,
and do thou,
O Prince of the heavenly hosts,
by the power of God,
thrust into hell Satan,
and all the evil spirits,
who prowl about the world
seeking the ruin of souls. Amen.

And so I am at the point  where I realize you can not discuss things with people who scream “racist” and live in fear of a medium sized flu and go into a rage at anyone who would dare discuss not only theology but even reason and science. If demons have not taken over the brains of my opponents, then why do they reject not only faith but also reason?  And if demons have taken over the brains of my opponents, then my readers need to take courage that—just like the Catholics in the French Revolution—now is not the time for meeting zombies halfway to “evangelize” them… ~ Fr. David Nix, When a Nation Becomes Possessed

It’s been five years since Pastor Arnold stood up for marriage in the Warwick Public Square, drawing fire from the enemy, leaving a tragic and paralyzing vacuum of silence in his wake. God is so clearly telling us here and now that THIS is our defining “Jacob>Israel” moment (Genesis 32:24,25). Jacob knew what it was to fear the confrontation God empowered him to overcome. It’s time to confront, time to rise and shine, time to overcome for the sake of our children, for the sake of honor and posterity…and ALL of it, for God’s greater glory!

* We may be given the full armor of God the moment we become Christian, but it is up to us to “put” it on. Full and knowing are the key words. We cannot defend against an enemy we do not know…which explains the need for the 2nd half of Ephesians 5:11

Blessed be the Lord, my rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle; ~ Psalm 144:1
Yesterday’s “Morning Max”…

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Our Civilizational Inheritance

Posted on July 26, 2020 by Chip Murray

“But it requires us to step into the world to make our presence known, and to literally stand up against evil.”

America’s founders, schooled in a profound philosophical and literary tradition dating back to classical antiquity, understood the fragility of civil peace and the danger of the lustful vengeful mob. Our present leaders, the products of a politicized and failing education system, seem to know nothing of those truths.  Pulling the country back from the abyss will require a recalling of our civilizational inheritance. ~ Heather Mac Donald, Four Months of Unprecedented Malfeasance

Friendship, to me, has never been anything other than the second most sacred relationship any of us can ever have with another person. My best friend all the way back to my Communion at the Wyckoff Reform Church, is my best friend to this day. So, when I look you in the eye and call you my friend, I am giving you all that God gave me to give…most especially His command to love you as He loves us; it puts you in my inner circle. In the world many of us were so fortunate and blessed to grow up in, we were connected to one another with these amazing bonds…like the strongest chain forged from the highest grade of steel, linking families to neighbors to villages, towns, cities, and states across the fruited plains of the most richly blessed nation in the history of the world. That is the world I experienced growing up.  Those who were not so fortunate to have that experience may not resonate with the same feeling I do when they think of these things, but I believe in many ways, they reaped the benefits of those strong bonds.  Some today might argue that those bonds served to lock the people of one race or socio-economic class into an unbreakable network, locking them in, but locking others out.  I believe these bonds locked together a lattice work of many networks that were intended to interact with and strengthen one another, providing a bulwark of security, stability and opportunity for all people.  It was that way then; it can be that way now. The very pinnacle of Western Civilization, WE had attained as a country what the Beatles attained as a band; to the toppermost of the poppermost…as my favorite wordsmith John Lennon dubbed their rise to fortune and fame…all from the bonds of friendship…and God’s good grace.

Now I know what you’re thinking, and you’re exactly right. Civilizations like rock bands (except for the Rolling Stones) and many friendships, don’t last forever. BUT, are we not obligated as stewards and “inheritors” to do our level best to protect the great blessing that was passed to us, so that we can pass it on to those who come after us? Its hard for me to imagine that any of us would wish to go down in history as the ones who dropped the greatest torch ever passed.

I am going to ask you to imagine the following scenario. You and your best friend since childhood have shared this journey called “life” for the past sixty years or so. AND, you’ve shared more than just the journey itself…you’ve shared the same passion for the inheritance Ms. Mac Donald writes about in her quote above. But now something has changed…a very subtle change that has occurred over time causing a major shift in the dynamic of your friendship. Suddenly, it seems, as the inheritance is imperiled your passion has grown while your friend’s passion has gradually waned and turned to indifference. What we once shared as ours is now yours alone to bear. As bad as that sounds, its more complicated than that…and worse I’m afraid. Indifference not only kills passion, it stifles discernment as it enables a willful blindness. The friend you love as God loves you is walking straight into a fire (Evil) that he refuses to see, and there isn’t a blessed thing you can do about it.

QUESTION: Are we afraid to get involved?  Have we given up and think that all is hopeless?   Cato Institute: 62% of Americans are afraid to discuss politics.  77% of conservatives are afraid to discuss. From my perspective, the progressive end of our body politic has taken control of the agenda and is calling the shots. But we are meant to debate ideas and force solutions to be as centric as possible while still effectively solving the problem.  That cannot happen unless BOTH sides engage, respectfully, factually, and I pray, Biblically. Has the left shut down discussion of competing ideas? State of Free Speech and Tolerance in America

For God did not give us a spirit of timidity but a spirit of power of love and self-control. ~ 2 Timothy 1:7 “Those three things can literally change the world. But it requires us to step into the world to make our presence known, and to literally stand up against evil.” ~ Scott Kesterson,  Fear or Fearless

As usual, our Prayer & Fast Wednesday took us to the heart of the matter as Jesus provided the 2nd greatest example of how to stand up against the evil that threatens our ability to recall our civilizational inheritance (Luke 4:1-14), the 1st being Calvary.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

The road to tyranny is a slow boil. Our “submission” muscles have proven themselves in excellent condition, while our “resistance” muscles are weak and atrophied. I had a friend assure me last night that “wearing a face mask does not equate to the mark of the beast”, while another one just this morning happily shared the news he had just been given his COVI-Pass permission to leave the country. I asked him if he knew about Revelation and the mark, and he nodded yes. It is coming friends. Will the most passionate supporter of gun rights who sells every gun he owns to feed his family, be able to say no to the mark? Based on what I have observed for the past four months, I would have some serious doubts. Please join us for Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow with prayerful focus on Luke 4:1-14, because I hope to see every single one of you in Heaven.

For Him,

Chip

The position of the Americans is quite exceptional, and it may be believed that no Democratic people will ever be placed in a similar one. ~ Alexis De Tocqueville, 1831

America needs prayer warriors. But the American Exceptionalism that De Tocqueville wrote about in 1831 was achieved precisely because our forefathers were prayer warriors whose faith empowered them to “step into the world, make their presence known, and stand up against the evil” of their day. How have we allowed the strongest chain to become the precarious thread separating our civilizational inheritance from the hands of the lustful vengeful mob? I pray with every last molecular fiber of my being for the Holy Spirit to ride in on the refreshing winds of the Pentecostal promise to restore the passion where its lacking and most desperately needed.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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