The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Full Armor of God

Posted on March 8, 2020 by Chip Murray

ALL HANDS ON DECK!

If Jesus truly is Lord of all, as we profess, then He must also be Lord of our government and politics, and it is the Christian clergy who have been entrusted with the Word of God which alone can bring righteousness to this government “upon His shoulders.” We will have to give account to God for the stewardship of the liberty He has given us. Yes, above all, is liberty from sin, hell, death and the grave through the atoning sacrifice of Jesus Christ, but also, is the liberty from tyrannical government common to this world. We have the freedom to preach the Gospel, and we must steward that freedom to preserve it. We must be the salt and light He commissioned us to be. ~ Rev. Bill Banuchi, New York Faith & Freedom Coalition, from his “An Open Letter To America’s Pastors”

This was our invitation to this past week’s Prayer & Fast Wednesday; The most profound events in our lifetime are shaking the ground beneath the reach of our full understanding and awareness. We are suffering the consequences of having made the same mistake as the countless multitudes before us, of putting our trust in man before God. We are standing on the fault line of a major paradigm shift…like the car in the movie thriller teetering on the edge of a cliff. We are the passengers who need to choose which end of the car holds salvation…against the forces pulling us in the fatal direction. Please join us for Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow with prayerful focus on the truth of our rightful government, as found in Isaiah 9:6-7, and the full armor we will put on to defend it, as found in Ephesians 6:10-18.

The Banuchi Challenge coupled with this past week’s P&F Weds Invitation synergize as a call to battle stations on the once mightiest battleship to ever sail the seas, now a vessel dumbstruck by the devil into behaving as if she were the Love Boat…or more aptly, the Nice Boat. Picture yourself in a boat on a river with tangerine trees and marmalade skies. Somebody calls you, you answer quite slowly, a girl with kaleidoscope eyes…Nobody is expecting the call to arms on the ship to nowhere. The captain enjoys a comfortable pension, as the crew surveys the pleasure-seeking passenger roster for romantic opportunities below deck. The passengers of the Diamond Princess, having taken a direct hit, still believe they’ve only caught a virus. Got the picture? What will it take to lift the veil of deception and betrayal? What will it take to restore our God-given sense of the who, how, and why of our world???

The Holy Bible is the most authoritative and trusted explanation of who we are, how we got here, and why. I especially love God’s way of making the very most from the very least…He made the universe from nothing. He who could have easily raised a might army to conquer the Philistines, sent the young boy David, the least of his siblings, instead. And the Creator of the universe who could have conquered Death as a mighty Thor, sent a baby to save the world. And look at what He’s managed with a boy from Queens! Knowing these things our Founders made Subsidiarity, an organizing principle that matters ought to be handled by the smallest, lowest or least centralized competent authority, the primary organizing principle of our new nation. They weren’t mere geniuses…they were moral geniuses.

Not only were the Founders smart enough to see their own present day so clearly, they were gifted with the prescience to thoroughly prepare us for ours. They knew then, as James L. Garlow writes today, “I do not believe that the real separation in America is Right versus Left, but rather right versus wrong. Some principles are right. Some are not. The ones found in the Bible are always right. When followed, they bring great blessings.” And yet…

Garlow begins chapter three of his book Well Versed with a Bible quiz, “How many of the following biblical characters do you recognize? Shammua, Shaphat, Igal, Palti, Gadiel, Gaddi, Ammiel, Sethur, Nahb, Guel. Did you recognize any of those ten names? I doubt you recognized a single one of them. And, yes, they’re all in the Bible. The short answer is because they were wimps. Nobody needs to remember their names. They were the ten spies in Numbers 13:4-5, 7, 9-15 who were cowards. We do, however, remember the other two spies: Joshua and Caleb. Why? Because they were courageous, bold, and ready to charge forward.” He goes on to tell us how the Wesleyan Church was founded in 1843 after a group of Methodist pastors were informed they could not discuss the slave issue in the Methodist Church because it was too divisive. Sound familiar? 177 years later, replace the word slave with the word politics, and voila! The déjà vu irony of the ages…the church that gave consent to slavery by its silence 177 years ago, is fitting its own parishioners for chains by the very same silence today.

I joked the other day about the zombie-like millennials begging for the elimination of their own Bill of Rights, but how are we any better? What are we doing, to use the Banuchi vernacular, to steward our own precious God-given Liberty? Why do the shepherds remain silent as the Love Boat is slowly converted to Slave Ship? Have they stopped believing, or have they bargained for comfort and safety of the passengers…and themselves over the truth of their destination?

Every single day that God blesses us with the ability to breathe the precious air into COVID-19-free lungs, is another day of opportunity to turn OUR ship around…another day to wholeheartedly embrace the Truth of Isaiah 9:6-7…another day to lay my earthly desires aside, to put on the full armor of God. Roosevelt told us the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. He lied. The only thing we truly have to fear is our desire for those things we’ve become attached to. Our earthly desire is a fire created, fueled, fanned, and flamed by the great destroyer. It would consume all that we are, were, and ever will be, were it not for the One who came to save us from the eternal fire. Detachment will free us from the folly of our below-deck-pursuits, to rise above, to re-claim our Ephesians 6:10-18 purpose and answer the shofar’s call, ALL HANDS ON DECK! For the Love of God…

When we are detached from things on the inside the fury of desire burns itself out. ~ Oswald Chambers, Discipline of Divine Loyalty

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

Posted on March 1, 2020 by Chip Murray

Lost Without Discernment

“Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when you have succeeded, you make them twice as much a child of hell as you are.” ~ Matthew 23:15

The title of today’s tune-up was supposed to be Leadership & Courage until somehow, my half-written file disappeared somewhere between Friday evening and yesterday morning. I wish you could have seen me frantically racking my brain, and googling “how to restore computer to previous time”…until it dawned on me that the Real Author had something else in mind. After all, I’m only just the Ghost writer. And then it hit me as I read my morning Chambers…

The one great characteristic of being born from above is that I know who Jesus is. It is a discernment; something has happened on the inside, the surgery of events has opened my eyes.

This past week I found myself hopelessly jousting with confederate comrades of the young woman pictured above, whom I’ve come to refer to as the Lost Boys (from the movie of the same name). I don’t know whether I’m sorrier for their never having experienced the normal life we Boomers were fortunate enough to live, or that they’ve been deprived of the precious gift of discernment by the modern-day Pharisees referred to in Matthew 23. I thought back to the very nice young woman who had flippantly posted an image of two young men mocking our Christian faith a few months back, and realized our Christian realization is a fairy-tale to them.

The ONLY hope for the Lost Children pictured above is prayer and fasting. I realized in my debate with a Lost Boy this week…he is beyond physical reach. I offered to meet with him face to face, knowing there are things we may project and pretend via social media (the devil’s favorite tool) which cannot be concealed in a face-to-face. Of course, he declined. And so, we are here…Surely You set them in slippery places; You cast them down to destruction. Oh, how they are brought to desolation, as in a moment! They are utterly consumed with terrors. ~ Psalm 73: 18-19…by what we ourselves have invited…

HAVE WE GONE INSANE???

Last week I received Psalm 91 from three separate and unrelated sources. This week I received the “time to put on the full armor of God” message from three separate and unrelated sources. Synchronicity and a female cardinal trying to get my attention for the past several days…

From Psalm 73 verses 15-17, If I had said, “I will speak thus,” Behold, I would have been untrue to the generation of Your children. When I thought how to understand this, It was too painful for me—Until I went into the sanctuary of God; Then I understood their end.

Discernment is the Sheepdog’s nose he uses to detect the wolf. Did you know that dogs possess up to 300 million olfactory receptors in their noses compared to the 6 million in ours? Some dogs are trained to use their noses to flush birds, find drugs, and locate missing or even dead people. But God created the Sheepdog to detect and protect the flock from the same Wolf that has prowled the earth in search of men’s souls since the beginning of time. Our 2nd Amendment is the Sheepdog’s teeth to keep the wolf at bay. Think about how the very same people who have deprived the Lost Boys of their own sniffers of discernment via academia, are the same people who would deprive our most naturally inclined (and skilled) Sheepdogs, returning veterans, of their teeth through Red Flag laws because of the PTSD they created in the first place!

Reading Psalm 91 reveals to me, more than any other passage of the bible, the timelessness of God’s seeing eye. Taken together with the full armor of God message this week, it brings me to this powerful “heightened sense of things”- Leonidas and the Wolf moment. Ask David about the full armor of God. So girded in his faith was he, that he had no need for Saul’s javelin and shield. Three smooth stones and a strap of leather was all he took to topple the giant the rest of his countrymen cowered in fear from. Which reminds me of a dear friend who shared with me the story of her unbearable sorrow, grief, and heartbreak over her child’s homosexual relationship with another…even after having been raised to learn the truth in a great church. I could only respond with my observation that we as a society have stopped fighting for the truth, without realizing the message that sends to our children. Put another way; if we’ve surrendered to the Wolf, how can we expect them not to do the same? Especially when it feels so good…

Its one thing for any of us to let our guard down, but for the shepherd whose charge is to protect the flock to do so is tragic beyond measure. There are those in our own community who seem to believe they can compromise and bargain with the wolf in subtle ways regarding the social behavior of the sheep, in order to keep their posts…thereby to their own minds, benefiting the sheep. One such shepherd spoke at the end of a Pro-Life Play in Walden on Saturday. Ever so delicately, he praised the most loyal and dedicated of the sheep while admonishing and even cautioning against the Sheepdog. Remember dear friend, Jesus Himself did not recruit from the ranks of clergy, political elite, or the powerful of His time…and He certainly made no bargain with the Wolf. He cast his net upon the common man to build God’s Kingdom, just as He will call upon you and me to see His purpose through. It’s Time! Woe to those who stand in His way…and continue to lead His children astray.

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Holy Spirit in the World of Doublespeak

Posted on February 23, 2020 by Chip Murray

The Man Who Saw For Miles And Miles

God saves a man and endues him with His Holy Spirit, and says in effect, “Now it is up to you to prove it, work it out; be loyal to me while the nature of things round about you would make you disloyal. I have called you friends, now stand loyal to your Friend.” His honor is at stake in our bodily life. ~ Oswald Chambers, Fruitfulness of Friendship

My oldest friend reached out to me after reading last week’s SMTU. We’ve known each other since we were kids, through each other’s twists and turns, ups and downs, good times, bad times…mostly good. He was concerned…as a big brother who looks out for his little brother. But I thought about my friend in the context of this week’s Fruitfulness of Friendship read, and realized how God blesses us with people in our lives who model what He wants us to have with Him; through every twist and turn, up and down, good and bad time…

I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without me you can do nothing. If anyone does not abide in Me, he is cast out as a branch and is withered; and they gather them and throw them into the fire, and they are burned. If you abide in Me, and My words abide in you, you will ask what you desire, and it shall be done for you. ~ John 15:5-7

…and we talked about how there are times, as in last week’s edition, where he has to read it a couple of times to get the picture. And just now, the line from my song Liam’s World pops into my head, Life is a magical space, as everything falls into place. The mystery is never as dear, when we see the answer too clear. And I realized, with a chuckle, I’m sort of a mystery writer and journalist morphed into one another. Half of me has no clue where the story leads, or how it ends. And the other half of me is determined to cover the story as all true journalists did…once upon a time.

And from my John C. Maxwell “Leadership Promises for Every Day” February 18th read:      And so it was, when they had crossed over, that Elijah said to Elisha, “Ask! What may I do for you, before I am taken away from you?” Elisha said, “Please let a double portion of your spirit be upon me.” So he said, “You have asked a hard thing. Nevertheless, if you see me when I am taken from you it shall be so for you; but if not, it shall not be so.” ~ 2 Kings 2:9-10

The Holy Spirit comes and goes where It will, and It wills most where It is most welcomed. Think about how differently the Holy Spirit operated in the lives of David and Solomon his son. We cannot unsee what we’ve seen, or un-experience what we’ve experienced in connection to the Holy Spirit…but we can, and often do, look away.  I like the way Chambers puts it when he writes, “When we are beginning to be spiritual by means of the reception of the Holy Spirit, we get moments of intuitive light…We have to believe what we saw when we were in the light, ‘hang in’ to it, discipline the whole of our lives up to it.” Many of us have experienced the moments, but as Chambers goes on to say most of us are more apt to believe what we see in the dark. God had a special place in His heart for David, who started well, flirted with the dark, found redemption, and finished strong. Solomon, as wise a man as he was, started strong, lost his way, and finished in the dark. Who besides Jesus, was a greater friend to God than David? What greater testimonial and tribute than the Book of 150 Psalms? I encourage you to read 91.

It’s so much easier to hang in, to it when we have a good understanding of the true nature of things round about us. George Orwell saw America today with crystal clear clarity, as if he were standing on Pike’s Peak on a cloudless day, all the way back there in 1949, when he published his book 1984. So, he was off a few years. I asked an old friend and practicing attorney who has chosen the Progressive Liberal path in life, what he loved about America. Pretty straightforward and clear question, right? Here’s his response to me, loving my country is caring for it and its future because I so respect its past and those who brought us here. I would not think of love as against criticism, but actually what motivates it. His words, while fragrant with noble feel, were poison to the conversation. The point of communication is to unite the communicators with understanding. His words were designed to evade understanding in such a way as to leave the other party (me) unaware of the deception. The word doublespeak, coined by Orwell in his famous novel, popped instantly into my head. Here are a few Orwell quotes that describe one of the devil’s most powerful tools;

‘Power is in tearing human minds to pieces and putting them together again in new shapes of your own choosing.’ And, “An elaboration of ‘freedom is slavery,’ this quote illustrates the ways in which the Party seeks to control its people by giving them ‘what they want’ — a simple, unthinking, fully controlled life.” And “Being in a minority, even in a minority of one, did not make you mad. There was truth and there was untruth, and if you clung to the truth even against the whole world, you were not mad.” And, “What can you do, thought Winston, against the lunatic who is more intelligent than yourself; who gives your arguments a fair hearing and simply persists in his lunacy?”

The greatest doublespeaker of all, the devil, has convinced most of my Christian brothers and sisters that the most important issues affecting our lives and the lives of our children are “political” and off limits to them….which is how we got here: “Meanwhile, consider that Bernie supporter Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, the spectacularly ignorant but endlessly narcissistic 30-year-old ex-bartender who got herself elected to Congress and quickly became the Democratic Party’s de facto leader, recently said, and I quote: ‘Billionaires should not exist.’ Friends, forget about ‘socialism’ and ‘democratic socialism’ (whatever that means). This sounds like straight-up communism. Remember, Marx and Engels used the terms socialism and communism interchangeably, and the Soviet Union, the mother lode of hard-core communism that extinguished tens of millions of innocent lives, called itself the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. Why not the Union of Soviet Communist Republics? Because they’re ultimately the same thing, socialism being just a necessary first stage of communism.” ~ David Kupelian, America is in the Midst of a New Civil War

We are two Americas. Two generations of doublespeaking Pied Pipers have led the children so far from their homes, they may never find their way back. Their view of the world around them filters through a Marxist kaleidoscope of identity politics. In their world, to their mind’s eye the very worse thing a person can be, is racist. 

rac·ism
/ˈrāˌsizəm/
noun
  1. prejudice, discrimination, or antagonism directed against someone of a different race based on the belief that one’s own race is superior.

When words lose their meaning, people lose their way. In the real world, the Holy Spirit works through men strong enough to stand through adversity…even in a minority of one…to carry the banner of truth, the hope in redemption…and Promises Kept!

Today’s SMTU is dedicated to the memory of Philip Haney  who gave his life on Friday for the things we cherish most as Americans. Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends. ~ John 15:13

As a Christian, I do know how the story ends…I just don’t know when. Sam Cooke sings it so well… A Change Is Gonna Come…

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Into the Valley

Posted on February 16, 2020 by Chip Murray

Just When You Think…

“Can you trust Jesus Christ where your common sense cannot trust Him? On the mount it is easy to say—‘Oh, yes, I believe God can do it’; but you have to come down into the demon-possessed valley and meet with facts that laugh ironically at the whole of your mount-of-transfiguration belief.” ~ Oswald Chambers, Confidence in Jesus

Buckle up boys and girls, you may wish to consider mouth-guards for this morning’s read. Half a league, half a league, half a league onward. Someone I love dearly came through her surgery on Friday somewhat less of herself than before she went in. But I tell you dear friend, even leaving something as important as lung and lymph node behind, the many prayers were answered…as many more are requested for her recovery. The experience of watching this couple deal with life’s greatest test taught me something about how God made us vs how we are inclined to measure ourselves…especially in our suffering. Into the valley of death…

This past week was the toughest week of my adult life. I can endure most any physical pain, but the betrayal by those we love and trust is by far the deepest cut of all. Not though the soldier knew, Someone had blundered. Theirs not to make reply, Theirs not to reason why, Theirs but to do and die. Most assuredly, I say to you, unless a grain of wheat falls into the ground and dies, it remains alone; but if it dies, it produces much grain. ~ John 12:24 And so, this week Orange Strong as our local county chapter of Community Preparedness Team of America was born…in the year of our Lord, 2020.

Cannon to right of them,                                                                                                          Cannon to left of them,                                                                                                             Cannon in front of them…

For such is this, the valley we ride into. A sight that no amount of normalcy bias can dim. Our own continual slaughter of innocence, while our own who survive live in open defiance of the God who gave them life. Who has laid this impenetrable fence across our once great land, placing half of us on one side and half on the other? On the verge of pandemic…

And He said to them, “Doubtless you will quote to me this proverb, ‘Physician, heal yourself; what we have heard you did at Capernaum, do here also in your own country.’” ~ Luke 4:23

 “The man who lies to himself and listens to his own lie comes to such a pass that he cannot distinguish the truth within him, or around him, and so loses all respect for himself and for others. And having no respect he ceases to love, and in order to occupy and distract himself without love he gives way to passions and coarse pleasures, and sinks to bestiality in his vices, all from continual lying to other men and to himself. The man who lies to himself can be more easily offended than anyone.You know it is sometimes very pleasant to take offence, isn’t it?  A man may know that nobody has insulted him, but that he has invented the insult for himself, has lied and exaggerated to make it picturesque, has caught at a word and made a mountain out of a molehill — he knows that himself, yet he will be the first to take offence, and will revel in his resentment till he feels great pleasure in it, and so pass to genuine vindictiveness.” 

Fyodor Dostoyevsky, The Brothers Karamazov
Father Zosima to Fyodor Pavlovich Karamazov, father of the brothers Karamazov and Diabolical Narcissist…

Volleyed and thundered;                                                                                                          Stormed at with shot and shell,                                                                                                  Boldly they rode and well,                                                                                                              Into the jaws of Death,                                                                                                                    Into the mouth of hell…

I watched a video taken by a class mother in Suzy Rosenbloom’s 1st Grade class at Kings Elementary School in Warwick on this very President’s Day week…must have been 17 years ago. I watched as she cast them in a play…not about Washington, or Lincoln…but about Rosa Parks. I watched with my own eyes, as this “teacher” taught these first graders to hate the color of their own skin. I watched these kids we all knew and loved over the years “progress” through their slow and steady indoctrination from innocence to Liberalism to Socialism to the America-hating Communists many of them have become today. This does not end well…how can it?…

…as I read the Feb 11 message from the wonderful Maxwell Book Leadership Promises for Every Day my Calvary Family gave me: “Give Up Your Rights”. Think how hard that was for me to read! “Even when truth and justice are on your side, you may never be able to right your wrongs. Continually fighting for your rights will just make you resentful and angry. These are all destructive emotions that tap our energy and make us negative. And besides, when people focus on their rights, they’re often looking backward rather than forward.”  Now…before you get too far…WAIT. We need to step over to the other side of Murray’s Morning Library to balance what we just read with Chambers “God’s Way of Giving Life”…“Jesus never shut Himself away from things, the first place He took His disciples to was a marriage feast. He did not cut Himself off from society, He was not aloof, so much was He not aloof that they called Him ‘a glutton and a winebibber’! But there was one characteristic of Jesus—He was fundamentally dead to the whole thing, it had no appeal to Him.” Do you see? It’s about ATTACHMENT. We can hold opposites when we’re attached to neither and allow ourselves to become (ironically) a thousand times more effective. So, it’s not about me reducing my emphasis on politics as much as it is about reducing politics emphasis on me. If that makes sense. In the John Eldredge book Fathered by God, we are now in the Lover stage. The first thing that jumped out at me here, “We Must not let the battle become everything.” And you’ll love this, “The Celts had a phrase, ‘Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance,’ by which they meant if he is not also becoming a poet, be careful how much warrior you allow a man to be.”

Cannon to right of them,                                                                                                          Cannon to left of them,                                                                                                              Cannon behind them

Juxtapose Dostoyevsky’s he ceases to love man with the Eldredge/Chesterton/Tennyson men who set themselves aside in the fight FOR love! In the coming epic battle between the two, only a fool would wager on the former. It ALL comes down to love…

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” ~ G K Chesterton

This week brought back two key memories that come together to bring it all home for me. The first one came to mind watching my Eldredge/Chesterton/Tennyson friends deal with “life’s greatest test” on Friday. It made me recall my 83-year-old friend and neighbor Irv from back in the late eighties when I lived in Mahwah, NJ. We were neighbors who didn’t know one another, other than the occasional smile and wave across the yard and driveway…until the ambulance pulled up to their door one evening as I was making dinner. I rushed over to console Irv’s frantic wife Margaret. Irv had just suffered a stroke. We became friends that night. I must have driven Margaret back and forth to Kessler Institute a dozen times or so until Irv was well enough to return home. The connection, you see, is that Margaret and Irv were Eldredge/Chesterton/Tennyson friends too! Irv was a wonderful artist whose trademark was the three birds subtly placed in every painting to symbolize the Holy Trinity. For the entire time he was a patient at Kessler, his roommate was a Dostoyevsky man twenty years his junior who had suffered the exact same stroke in the exact same location of the brain within a day or so of Irv’s stroke. In stark contrast to Irv’s upbeat glow, his roommate was rude, disrespectful, and treated nurses and staff miserably. He was still languishing when Irv was released earlier than expected with flying colors. We became such good friends, my wife (at the time) and I took them to England with us on our honeymoon, after they had told us of their lifelong dream over dinner one night.

The second memory was triggered by the betrayal. It was a horrible nightmare I had when I was a very, very young boy. I can’t say for sure, but I don’t think I had even reached the age of six. I dreamt I was one of the children being led out of Hamelin by the Pied Piper. I was the last in line and, as if the dream wasn’t dark enough, the city gates closed shutting me off, separating me from all of them, leaving me there all alone. But, you see, it too is all about love. What I interpreted as God abandoning me, I realize now…sixty years later, was God rescuing me!

In a world that’s gone crazy, you don’t know what’s true

Most people don’t change, but Some People Do… (If you don’t LOVE this song, you ain’t breathing)

The Charge of the Light Brigade, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Mocking Tongue

Posted on February 9, 2020 by Chip Murray

"Physically Smart & Spiritually Stupid"

“Physically Smart & Spiritually Stupid”

The righteous man perishes, and no one lays it to heart; devout men are taken away while no one understands. For the righteous man is taken away from calamity, he enters into peace; they rest in their beds who walk in their uprightness. But you, draw near hither, sons of the sorceress, offspring of the adulterer and the harlot. Of whom are you making sport? Against whom do you open your mouth wide and put out your tongue? ~ Isaiah 57:1-4 KC Chief Larry Johnson on SB Halftime Tribute to Satan

To think of our world events and all that occurs in the space of a week’s time can be un-nerving and frightening. The complete disarray of one political party in Iowa, concurrent with acquittal of their #1 target in Washington (which they refuse to accept), perhaps the most divided SOTU in history with the Speaker tearing up her copy of the President’s speech, all amidst the backdrop of the Coronavirus…rumored to be an escaped biological weapon from a Chinese lab.

Even more amazing to me…how we went from last week’s Loyalty, Vision, and Sanctification to this week’s read of Isaiah 57 and the Mocking Tongue those of us tuned into last Sunday’s Super Bowl Halftime show were treated to. I have lost all interest in what I used to love watching the professional sport of football. It seems more than clear to me that what used to be an as-American-as-apple-pie National Football League, has become the Social Justice Warrior League pimps for THE most un-American Globalist/Deep State forces imaginable. I went for the sole purpose of spending time with the friends I grew up with. Most of whom are as awake as I am to the horror of what our country has become. To think of how many of the children my generation has raised, who look upon what we saw as “entertainment” sickens me beyond words.

And then this past Thursday, my day began with Maxwell’s Leadership read on Ezra and his role in the restoration of Jerusalem, and Chambers’ Moral Dominion read of the crucial alliance between King Hiram of Tyre and King Solomon that provided the rest on every side needed to build God’s Temple, and ended with our Men’s Bible Study of the John Eldredge book Fathered by God, where we are now in the Lover stage, having finished Warrior. The first nugget that jumped out of the river and into my pan, “We must not let the battle become everything.” Its one thing to read these words in peacetime, quite another when we’re perched upon the castle walls of Helm’s Deep watching as Sauron’s army approaches from the East. Now? In all places, and of all times, God has me reading, “This is very good for the warrior to be arrested by Beauty. It provides a great balance to his soul, lest he simply be a fighter. The Celts had a phrase, ‘Never give a sword to a man who can’t dance,’ by which they meant if he is not also becoming a poet, be careful how much warrior you allow a man to be.” WOW…double Holy and immaculate WOW!

The time we are living in is both terrifying and exhilarating. Terrifying because the monster (the lady pictured above serves) behind the monster, also known as the shadow government or deep state, is out in the open now. Exhilarating because we as Christians and God-fearing Americans know what this portends, how our feet are planted, and where our hearts and minds reside. My brother nick-named Aramis sent me this quote from “Dangerous Good” by Kenny Luck, “The point here is sharp: The man of God is not a spectator to God’s Kingdom purposes being advanced on earth. God never intended His sons to watch the battle between evil and good; He expects us to fight for the good of our faith—in the open, living out the dangerous good calling we have in Him, and, in the process, restating our identity in Christ to the world!”  

I wrote to some old friends just this morning, “I’ve learned that people can be physically smart and spiritually stupid.” And that “Most people I know follow their own self-interest when they come to a crossroad. I follow Him…it’s the spiritually smart thing to do.”

Keep the Faith Dear Friend…its about to get bumpy.

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Loyalty, Vision, and Sanctification

Posted on February 2, 2020 by Chip Murray

There Must Be Something Higher

Take it in the case of friendship, or of blessing, or of spiritual experiences; as soon as I long to hold any of these for myself I cannot sanctify them to the Lord. David had the right idea when he poured out the water before the Lord. ~ Oswald Chambers, Sanctified to the Lord

A Friend Indeed…Every single morning I am on my knees giving thanks to the Lord for another day…for the blessings of this life, my family, my friends, my place in all of it. I ask Him, as I have been since September 2015, to draw me nearer still. To guide me, to empower me to lessen me. To empty me of myself, to make room for His Holy Spirit. And He delivers…

This past week I ended my affiliation with an organization I had dedicated myself to for the past 8 years. It was an extremely difficult thing for me to do because I believed so strongly in the cause for which the organization was founded, but I came to realize that I know longer believed in the leader, as a person qualified to lead. Which brings us to the question of loyalty. If our ultimate loyalty is to men, we are ultimately bound for disappointment. We saw this on full display on the floor of the Senate Chamber this past week. The House Minority Leader led her entire caucus over a cliff. There must be something higher.

I spent Friday in the studio working on my 3rd album titled When the World Turns Around. I recorded my original Just When You Think, and my cover of America the Beautiful. I am only myself just now catching the juxtaposing places each song was written from. America was first penned as a poem by Katharine Lee Bates, inspired by the America she saw looking out over her from atop Pike’s Peak in Colorado in the Summer of 1893. I wrote Just When You Think from the very opposite place in the valley of despair of an ending marriage in 2016. Many good Americans feel themselves in the valley of despair watching the country they love being torn apart before their very eyes. Who will lead us from the malaise of this dark night? Some feel we have this leader in President Trump. Others do not. Time will tell. But it was this place that inspired this past Wednesday’s Prayer & Fast…

You are invited to us for Prayer & Fast Wednesday tomorrow, wherever you are. Our prayerful focus will be “Loyalty, Vision, and Sanctification” as may be found in 1 Samuel 19:2-3, Nehemiah 2:5, and 2 Samuel 23:16. If you are unable to fast with us, please consider prayerful meditation on these things.

Think about the line of David, and what might not have been, had there not been a Jonathan. It’s hard for most of us to imagine not being loyal to our own father who happens to be the king, but thank God, Jonathan perceived his higher calling. I am mentoring a young man in my church who gave me a wonderful present this past Christmas. It’s the book Leadership Promises for Every Day by John C. Maxwell. My Morning Maxwell from January 27 and 28 dovetailed perfectly into my Utmost Devotional message from Chambers to give us today’s SMTU. It made me wonder, who is mentoring who here? Which brings us to…

Nehemiah 2:5 All great leaders have uncommon vision. A leader sees…

  • Farther than others see…
  • More than others see…
  • Before others see…

Winston Churchill saw further, more, and before most…all the way from Dover to Berlin. And he was ridiculed, mocked, and scorned for it, until he was proven to be right.

Locally, I am called a hater and a bigot for calling out another approaching storm…

Here’s a thought for REAL Warwick. LOVE is open, unafraid, fierce, selfless, and honest. HATRED is cowardly, fearful, hesitant, self-indulgent, and reckless.

Nigel Farage speaking in Parliament this week on his country’s breaking loose of the tyrant’s grip, “This is about Globalism versus Populism. You may loathe Populism, but I’ll tell you something funny, Populism is becoming popular.”

When the World Turns Around…and we come back down, we will need to reorganize and find what Maxwell describes on February 1st as…

The Right Circle

Experience: People who have been down the road of life and understand it.

Heart for God: People who place God first and uphold His values.

Objectivity: People who see the pros and cons of the issues.

Love for people: People who love others and value them more than things.

Complementary gifts:  People who bring diverse gifts to the relationship.

Loyalty to the leader: People who truly love and are concerned for the leader.

John C. Maxwell

Finally, we come to the most important point of today’s message…on Super (Bowl) Sunday of all days. Tom Petty wrote that “the waiting” is the hardest part…he lied. What a glorious and amazing precursor we find in David’s own sanctifying action in 2 Samuel 23:16 to the ultimate sanctification to God, descended from him by God to pour out His blood for all mankind. This truth must be told, must be heard, and must be taken into our own bodies, as our Father in Heaven intended through our own everlasting communion with Him.

Love, they will listen. Give, and they will come. Pour yourself out, and they will follow.

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ 1917’s “Collapse, Sea Change, and Cultural Calamity” 2.0?

Posted on January 26, 2020 by Chip Murray

Our “City by the Bay”

Then Jesus spoke to them again, saying, “I am the light of the world. He who follows Me shall not walk in darkness, but have the light of life.” ~ John 8:12

In his article “‘1917’ and Remembering Who We Are”, Bishop Robert Barron invokes the great thinkers and writers of the day; Tillich, Tolkien, Wittgenstein, and Hemingway before presenting the palate they worked from, which I’ve borrowed for today’s Tune-up title. Barron observes that the 1st World “War to end all wars” was mostly all Christians killing Christians. He goes on to write, “Something broke in the Christian culture, and we’ve never recovered from it.” And leaves us with this dark thought to ponder, “And I wonder whether we might look long and hard at this wonderful and disturbing film in order to see what happens when Christians forget who they are.” Who can say?

The tension, apprehension, and fear was so thick in the air on the eve of our march on Richmond this past Monday, it inspired our Prayer & Fast Wednesday two days later;

I was struck by the “doom & gloom” fears expressed to me by SO many this past week over what ended up being a perfectly peaceful protest in Richmond VA yesterday…Praise God! Our prayer focus will be John 8:12…as we fast and pray tomorrow. Even if you are not able to fast with us, please join us in contemplating with gratitude and appreciation, the awesome light and shielding power of God’s love.

People today don’t have a clue about the human death and suffering and carnage that was WWI. As Barron writes, “The fifty-eight thousand American dead in the entire course of the Viet Nam War would be practically a weekend’s work during the worst days of WWI.” But here’s the Barron line that really hit home for me, “How many Christians of that time raised their voices in protest, refused to cooperate with the folly…” Mind you, I am reading Barron the Catholic on the very same day I am also reading Chambers the Baptist’s “Believe in the Light”…as thousands of American patriots are preparing to descend on Richmond in defiance of laws that violate their God-given rights. They will not comply. They refuse, as well they should, to cooperate with the folly.

January 20th in Richmond became the tale of two cities. In one simultaneous portrait, we got a very good look at the representatives-turned-rulers determined to Lord over us, juxtaposed to an army of well-armed and well-behaved patriots who came in peace, with safeties on, made their statement, and cleaned up after themselves before heading back home to their families.

God is giving us a priceless moment to look even closer at the portrait to see what we are now seeing in the representatives-turned-ruler on their way to tyranny…aging. Accelerated aging. On the very precipice of Collapse, Sea Change, and Cultural Calamity 2.0, God has given us a window to see for ourselves, exactly the right spot to plant our own feet…and most importantly, the seeds of our faith. For, as Chambers goes on to write, “Spiritually we never grow old; through the passing of things we grow so many years young. The characteristic of the spiritual life is its unaging youth, exactly the opposite of the natural life.”  The source of most every message oozing into our lives from the modern world desperately wants and needs us to literally worship our natural lives to be in compliance with them. We sign our own death warrants in complying. Complying is decay. All one need do is look, beneath the Botox, surgeries, and anti-aging creams, directly into the faces of the Pied Pipers of Compliance…many, if not most of them, Adrenochrome junkies. Let that sink in.

Ecclesiastes provides the wisdom and discernment to tell the seasons apart and to know the one we’re in. And we are in the time of war…the time to find and embrace the warrior within. The time to find the true soldier. The time to look for the true leader. No longer do I call you servants, for the servant does not know what his master is doing; but I have called you friends, for all that I have heard from my Father I have made known to you. ~ John 15:15 Leadership begins in the heart…

  • Understand People
  • Love people
  • Help people

The light of the world Chamber’s encourages us to believe in, becomes our resolve, our armament, the very courage and strength we need to “raise our voices in protest, and refuse to cooperate with the folly.”  

“The true soldier fights not because he hates what is in front of him, but because he loves what is behind him.” ~ G K Chesterton

In Loving Memory of Our Friend Robert S. Somerville

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Love People, Reward Performance

Posted on January 19, 2020 by Chip Murray

A Thousand Words!

Well done good and faithful servant; you have been faithful over a few things, I will make you ruler over many things. Enter into the joy of your Lord. ~ Matthew 25:23

I am a Calvary Baptist. I shared the wisdom of an early twentieth century pope with a good Baptist friend a week or so ago. He was dismissive since the words were from a Catholic pope, rather than from God. I respect that since I am Baptist and well aware of how differently we Baptists and Catholics practice our Christian faith. But we’re both Christian with the very same God, and the very same Devil. And if God can use bad men and Atheists for good, it only makes sense that our God may have tasked Pope Leo III with a message for all Christendom to heed. Especially if it doesn’t contradict the Word of God…as Francis has the habit of doing. I believe this is exactly why our Father has blessed us with free will and the tools of wisdom and discernment. In this spirit, if you’re with me, I share the following breadcrumbs of wisdom…

From a Catholic perspective ~ “The devil will work to persecute the ministers of the Lord in every way, working with baneful cunning to destroy the spirit of their vocation and corrupting many. Those who will thus scandalize the Christian flock will bring upon all priests the hatred of bad Christians and the enemies of (Christendom). This apparent triumph of Satan will cause enormous suffering to the good pastors of the Church…and to the (One true Pope Benedict) who, a prisoner in the Vatican, will shed secret and bitter tears in the presence of God Our Lord, asking for light, sanctity, and perfection for all the clergy of the world, to whom he is King and Father.

Wormtongue & Theodin


To be delivered from the slavery of these heresies, those whom the merciful love of my Son has destined for this restoration will need great will-power, perseverance, courage, and confidence in God. To try the faith and trust of these just ones, there will be times when all will seem lost and paralyzed. It will then be the happy beginning of the complete restoration….” ~ from Barnhardt.biz

Think of the beautiful farmhouse in the country, with just the right windows in the perfect locations so as to feel one with nature while being protected from it through all seasons and the foulest of conditions…until the roof gives out…with no one to realize and remediate the breach. The “Ice House” in Dr. Zhivago would be a good visual of what has become of the house of man over time, though many of us through our own normalcy bias manage to find the livable space within what has become overall, a giant frozen ice castle…just as Yuri and Tonya were able to.

Life itself is warm and vibrant with color, beauty, form, love, passion, and most of all good humor. The self-less kind that loves the laughter and smiles of the other for the other’s sake. The slow hand of icy death replaces generous and gracious humor like a magician who makes the rabbit disappear, leaving the darker art of snark and ridicule in its place…with no one the wiser. Corruption of the physical (seen) and spiritual (unseen) world go hand-in-hand. “The spirit of their vocation” is/was the roof of our protection from the physical elements and spiritual evil.

And guess what my friends? The elements that breach the weakened roof do not discriminate. They are the rage and ruin of ALL life they come in contact with. But if we all take out, dust off, and put on our trusty old Detective Columbo hats for a moment and follow the clues…

We find that most all of the rot can be traced back to the same devil behind the breach of the one roof with the same target and the same motive. In this week alone, as the world of major league baseball joins the world of politics with its very own self-inflicted plunge into the swamp of corruption, I hear a straight-faced Charlie Gasparino say to Mark Simone and a few million listeners, “Obama wasn’t an ideologue. Obama was a pragmatist.” …a bold-faced lie, as I read the following words from my childhood friend Cathy, “I wish I had her (Nancy Pelosi) brain and education. She does her job, we don’t have to like our politicians. It’s tradition to use a separate pen (gold pens on silver platters rumored to have cost taxpayers a total of $15,000) for each signature.” I didn’t know why at the time, but I responded with this simple video as my reply to Cathy, with no explanation. Hola, me llamo Íñigo Montoya. Tu mataste a mi padre. Prepárate a morir.  in Spanish! I woke up the next morning realizing exactly…

My name is (Shutupnsing), you killed (The Patriarch of Western Civilization)!

The Church is my beloved family. Matt, Barb, and Andrew gave me the most wonderful Christmas gift; Leadership Promises for Every Day by John C. Maxwell. It’s a daily devotional which I received and began reading on January 1st, 2020. I feel like God is performing CPR on me as I read about the qualities of leadership through 19 days of understanding who David was, and how he became a King. Its all right there my friends…from boyhood to cowboy to warrior to lover to king, there are no shortcuts. Love to live, or live to love…

For the Lord gives wisdom;                                                                                                         From His mouth come knowledge and understanding…                                                               he guards the paths of justice,                                                                                                       and preserves the way of His saints.                                                                                          Then you will understand righteousness and justice,                                                              Equity and every good path. ~ Proverbs 2:6, 8-9

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ Beyond Convictions

Posted on January 12, 2020 by Chip Murray

“You’ve got this…Dad.”

Up to the time of the Resurrection, the disciples saw only along the line of their old narrow Jewish prejudices. When they received the Holy Spirit from the risen Lord, the operation performed on the inside enabled them to see along the line of Christ’s revelation (see Luke24:31, 45)…The way a searchlight works is a very good illustration for prejudice. A searchlight illumines only so much and no more; but let daylight come, and you find a thousand and one things the searchlight did not reveal. ~ Oswald Chambers, Beyond Convictions

There were two things that struck me in the past week that convinced me we are on the brink of major sea change in our world. Ricky Gervais exposing the Hollywood and corporate elite for who they really are on camera at the Golden Globes for the entire world to see, and President Trump taking out the Iranian General and terror mastermind, Qasem Soleimani. Both events required strength and courage because both Gervais and President Trump took on the bully that has been running the show for the past forty years now. It inspired our Prayer & Fast Wednesday.

Our Wednesday Prayer & Fast focus today is the “Beyond Convictions” message in 2 Samuel 7:1—8:18 David’s defeat of the Philistines and the army of Hadadezer, and John 5:24-47…where does David’s strength come from? Good fast and prayer today for those who are able to join us…

My friends, we have been under a Theodin-like spell for the past forty years. It feels, as I said to more than one friend this week, as if we are witnessing the death of appeasement. Think about it. We just went from the old policy of delivering a pallet of 1.5 Billion dollars CASH to enable the #1 sponsor of terrorism to attack and kill us, to the new policy of killing their #1 for attacking and killing us! Even more fascinating is the negative reaction by many of our own countrymen…which really brought things into the light.

The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate.” ~ Genesis 3:12

The stark contrast of how two different administrations dealt and deal with the bully made me realize that we have been emasculated top-down for years. When I was a kid, I learned to punch the bully in the nose to end the bullying…because I had to. Today we defer to an institutional protector, be it the school principal or a cry for more government legislation. And we blame…it’s the toxic masculinity that stems from the patriarchal disorder of our society. How tragically sweet is this irony? The Fall that began with Adam blaming Eve has come full circle to find Eve now blaming Adam for the woes of the world. What does this tell us?

It tells me that we have been given an amazing gift by our creator, whose angels in the whirlwinds direct this storm. It tells me that we’ve been living a very big lie for such an awfully long time now, most of us have forgotten what it must be like to live the truth…Fentanyl and suicide-free!

Imagine this…those who followed Jesus; those who talked, walked, and studied with Him…those who saw him work miracle upon miracle with their own eyes…They did not see beyond the searchlight beam until they themselves received the Holy Spirit.

Imagine a world that turns from blame and appeasement to individual accountability and responsibility for one another. To lift ourselves and each other up, instead of putting ourselves and each other down. To love and support, to encourage and nurture one another. To stand up for and defend those truths and principles that make us who we are…who He made us to be. And to lead by example. Imagine…now that the spell has been broken.

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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The Sunday Morning Tune-up ~ The Guarding Rock

Posted on January 5, 2020 by Chip Murray

Lover of Truth?

“To recoil before an enemy, or to keep silence when from all sides such clamors are raised against truth, is the part of a man either devoid of character or who entertains doubt as to the truth of what he professes to believe…After all, no one can be prevented from putting forth that strength of soul which is the characteristic of true Christians, and very frequently by such display of courage our enemies lose heart and their designs are thwarted.” ~ Pope Leo XIII, SAPIENTIAE CHRISTIANAE

The chaos inflicted on the Catholic Faith by the man passed off on the world as Pope Francis, the chaos inflicted on the people of New York via the Bail Reform Law, the chaos inflicted on the people of Virginia via draconian abortion and unconstitutional gun legislation, and the chaos inflicted on California via a plethora of tyrannical dictates, ALL originate from the same black hole in our universe. Black holes grow by swallowing up stars…

Think about what our world was like when the man who spoke the words above presided over the Catholic flock, a twenty-five-year papacy that ended with his death in 1903. Before the League of Nations, and the war that was to end all wars. It seems that the same “clamors” that have plagued us since the Fall, will be with us for some time to come. But, like dying stars, the one constant in the universe is the ebb and flow of “that strength of soul” which now seems so hopelessly stuck in the ebb stage. Pope Leo goes on to say, “This kind of conduct is profitable only to the enemies of the faith, for nothing emboldens the wicked so greatly as the lack of courage on the part of the good.” And it ALWAYS comes down to…it’s still the same old story, a fight for love and glory, a case of do or die. The world will always welcome…what? Lovers…why? Because they are the shining star the black hole lusts for. True love, and love of truth are nearly identical twins, as most anyone and everyone who’s been fortunate enough to experience true love will tell you. AND…it’s as close to the Guarding Rock as most of us will get in this mortal coil. If we are made in God’s image as the good book says we are, then we’ve an innate love of truth.

But alas, we seem stuck in the season where “truth is treason”. Orwell describes the present state of the world we are living in as “an empire of lies”. The sad reality of this place is that the membership of The Liars Club seems to have outgrown the combined congregations of our synagogues and churches. Attacks on Jews have become a daily occurrence in Rockland County and Brooklyn, New York. There have been multiple attacks on synagogues and churches. These attacks, all orchestrated by the same architects of chaos, are by design and have a purpose. They need us to be divided and apart from one another. These may seem like hopelessly daunting times for those of us who cling to our Torahs & Bibles, but in fact they are the exact opposite. God did not make us to be hopeless and helpless victims…

First and foremost, “‘The Lord is my rock,’ my encircling guard.” In Him, “I have set (my) house of defense very high.”

Secondly…WE, as individuals in accord with the design of our Founders, are ultimately responsible for the spiritual and physical development of our children and the security of our families. To that end…in the 1st month of 2020 (Year of the Sheepdog), I am encouraging all to consider the following four-point Home & Family Security Plan.

  • Find a good church/synagogue and Sunday school, and become active members.
  • Get your kids enrolled in a good martial arts program…anytime after 8-years-old.
  • Get your conceal-carry license, teach your kids how to respect and handle firearms.
  • Seek out leaders in your circles who were made from and for the “Fire of God”:

“‘Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire? Who among us shall dwell with the everlasting burnings?’ He who walks righteously and speaks uprightly. He who despises the gain of oppressions, who gestures with his hands, refusing bribes, who stops his ears from hearing of bloodshed, and shuts his eye from seeing evil: He will dwell on high; his place of defense will be the fortress of rocks; bread will be given him, his water will be sure.” ~ Isaiah 33:14-16

They will possess…

  • Integrity: The leader’s life and words match.
  • Justice: The leader rejects dishonest gain.
  • Convictions: The leader’s values won’t allow him or her to accept bribes.
  • Positive focus: The leader refuses to dwell on destructive issues.
  • Pure: The leader disciplines his or her mind to remain clean and pure.
  • Secure: The leader is firm, stable in his or her identity and source of strength.

~ The Maxwell Leadership Bible

Its time to get REAL…for the love of Truth.

 

Chip Murray: Wide Awake
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