Idolatry is Futility
There is hope even for the idolater if only he is willing to repent, if only he is willing to turn to the God who saves. “But he who takes refuge in me,” says God, “shall possess the land and shall inherit my holy mountain.” It is never too late to turn to God, never too late to cry out to him for help and deliverance, never too late to flee to the one who is—and will always be—our refuge.
We are all prone to idolatry. We may consider ourselves far too advanced to bow before an idol of wood or stone, to bend the knee to the image of an animal or man. But none of us is immune from bowing before the idols of our dreams and desires, before the idols of our wandering hearts. None of us can forever resist the allure of our illicit longings, of finding hope in mere riches, of finding meaning in mere accolades. In one way or another we are all prone to idolatry. And idolatry is futility.
In the prophecies of Isaiah we hear the voice of God as he rebukes the nation of Israel for its commitment to idols. He challenges the people to consider the cost of turning away from the God who called them, the God who saved them, the God who loves them. “When you cry out,” he says, “let your collection of idols deliver you!”
He knows the day will come when his people will face a great calamity. He knows the day will come when his people will understand that they cannot save themselves. And in that time, he tells them, they ought to be consistent and cry out to their idols for help, for deliverance, for satisfaction. Cry out to those pieces of wood, cry out to those blocks of stone, and let them come to your rescue!
And what will happen? “The wind will carry them all off, a breath will take them away.”
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Christophobe Kamala
While Christians might well want candidates that are more moral, more pure, more faultless, and more pristine, they need to be reminded that Jesus is not running in this election – or in any election. In a fallen world we are ALWAYS left with less than ideal choices. But some are clearly better than others.
We have known for quite some time now that the Democrats in America are overwhelmingly an anti-God and anti-life party. This has been the case for decades now. They had not always been this way, but the hyper-left is now firmly in control of the party, and it seems that these two ‘A’s now reign supreme: atheism and abortion.
All this is easy enough to document. As but one example, consider this: In just this past week Kamala Harris has demonstrated even more of her intense hatred of Christianity:-She and her party makes a blasphemous TV ad mocking Holy Communion.-She tells pro-lifers who said “Jesus is Lord” that they are at the “wrong rally”.-She deliberately refuses to go to the 60-year-old Presidential Catholic charity dinner in NYC.
And some “Christians” think they should support her?! Go figure.
But let me speak to each of these a bit further. The ad featuring Michigan Democrat Governor Gretchen Whitmer feeding feminist podcaster Liz Plank a Dorito was blasphemous at worst, and just bizarre at best. Christians, and certainly Catholics, know exactly what it was meant to parody. If you have the stomach to view this cringe-worthy and awful ad, you can see it here, with a bit of sensible commentary: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SiDJerqeaCc
As to the Christian pro-lifers not welcome at her rally, she had said this: “I think you guys are at the wrong rally. No, I think you meant to go to the smaller one down the street.” Kamala in effect kicked Jesus out of her meeting, just as the Dems long ago kicked God out of their party. And this was the real Kamala speaking: an unscripted moment with an off the cuff remark. This Christophobe is simply diabolical.
Concerning the presidential dinner, the last person who failed to attend was Walter Mondale some 40 years ago. And as Trump reminded the audience, that did not go so well, as he went on to lose 49 of the 50 US states in the election. It is reported that Kamala was told by her handlers not to go to the Al Smith dinner because it would alienate her liberal base – all the pro-aborts and pro-alphabet people. Hmm, another disastrous call.
When other Dems recognised that refusing to go to the dinner was actually a massive mistake, she went into panic mode and hastily made a video for the event. That too was utterly cringe-worthy and weird. Yet Walz calls Vance and the Republicans weird!
Just how dumb is Kamala and her hardcore progressive machine? While folks in San Francisco and New York might love her anti-God and anti-life agenda, most Americans do not see things that way. There are plenty of Catholic voters in places like Pennsylvania, one of the key swing states that she needs to win.
And her ugly attack on the Christian pro-lifer was in La Crosse, Wisconsin, another place where plenty of conservatives and Christians reside. But she does not give a rip about ordinary Americans. She is hellbent on pleasing her radical leftist supporters at all costs. Appointing Tim Walz as her running mate was another crystal-clear demonstration of this.
If this misotheist baby-hating candidate does win the election in a few weeks’ time, we will simply see much more of this. Consider just one recent case in point. A Tennessee Christian, Bevelyn Beatty Williams, has been prosecuted by the Biden/Harris administration for praying in front of an abortion clinic.
The 33-year-old pro-life activist and mother was convicted of violating the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances (FACE) Act. For daring to stand up for the unborn, this woman has been sentenced to a three-and-a-half-year prison term! I kid you not. More details can be found here: https://dailydeclaration.org.au/2024/10/18/pro-life-mother-imprisoned-3-years/
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Waiting in Our Trials
Written by Michael S. Beates |
Thursday, April 11, 2024
The faithfulness of God to the saints needs to be a guide for our lives as we wait on God in our suffering and through our trials. Yes, sometimes the saints received deliverance and victory. Yet many times they also died in faith, not receiving such earthly deliverance, but most certainly (with the anchor of hope) they received the salvation of their souls (see Heb. 10–11).We know about storms in Florida. Our family home sat in the path of the eye of Hurricane Charlie almost twenty years ago. When the roof peeled off from part of the house, we were left with damage that took many months (and some tens of thousands of dollars) to repair. Most of our home required new walls, ceilings, and floors (and an entirely new kitchen that we affectionately call “Charlie’s Kitchen”). It was a long journey back to normal.
In 2023, Hurricane Idalia whipped through Florida, coming ashore in the Big Bend region. Many of the small towns there were devastated.
Such storms remind me of Mark Heard’s song “Eye of the Storm” (1983), wherein he sings of the safety that God’s people enjoy even in the midst of storms. In God’s providence, Heard weathered his own storm, suffering a heart attack at forty years old and then dying six weeks later from cardiac arrest.
We don’t need to be reminded that we live in a fallen and broken world. Our lives too often are filled with tragedy, injustice, heart-rending unmet expectations, and dashed hopes. Storms of the soul don’t come with damaging wind, but it certainly can seem as though our souls are tearing apart from forces rising against us. People and powers in authority over us too often lie and pervert justice; vocational callings can seem to dry up and disappear; family struggles destroy relationships and create seemingly unbridgeable chasms. Cancer, loss, life-altering disabilities—the list goes on and on. And as we wait for deliverance, we cry out, “How long, O Lord?”Jerry Bridges (perhaps most well known for his book The Pursuit of Holiness) knew these things too. I was blessed to work closely with Jerry at Ligonier Ministries (in 1989), writing a study guide for Dr. Sproul’s lecture series The Providence of God. Jerry had recently lost his wife, who suffered from and died as a result of a brain tumor. Through the darkness of this journey, he wrote Trusting God Even When Life Hurts, one of the best books on God’s sovereignty, suffering, and waiting. He told me privately that when his dear wife finally passed into glory, he needed to go back and read his book again. He needed to be reminded again of the goodness and trustworthiness of God.
Another account is Joni Eareckson Tada’s book A Place of Healing. She speaks from experience with great candor and grace after more than fifty years as a quadriplegic, waiting on God’s deliverance.
The psalmists knew these things (and it is interesting how, despite all the massive changes from the ancient world to our day, the human condition and suffering remain timeless). Three times across Psalms 42–43, the psalmists admit that their souls are downcast. The metaphors are rich and varied. The psalmists speak of being parched and desperate (42:1–3); they are being swept away by waves (42:7); they feel forgotten and wounded (42:7, 9).Read More
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Women in Church History: Phillis Wheatley (c. 1753–1784)
From the trauma of enslavement to repeated loss of loved ones and material suffering, Phillis’ story is a tragic one. Yet her poems show her unflagging belief in God’s providence within and beyond her circumstances. While acknowledging the sorrows of her early life, she praises divine mercy for allowing her to learn “That there’s a God, that there’s a Savior too; once, I redemption neither sought nor knew.”
While we know her as Phillis Wheatley, the first African-American published poet remains a mystery to us in many ways. This is because she was kidnapped from her birth family and sold into slavery while still a small child. All we know of her origins is that she was born somewhere in West Africa around the year 1753, then transported to America, where she was purchased by a wealthy Boston couple, John and Susanna Wheatley. They intended for the little girl—around seven at the time—to work as a servant and companion to Mrs. Wheatley.
The Wheatley family named her after the Phillis, the ship on which she had made the Atlantic passage to America. Noticing how rapidly Phillis learned English, the family tutored her in reading and writing. She also attended Old South Meeting House, a Congregational church, alongside the family and showed an interest in Scripture and theology from a young age. Before Phillis was a teenager, she was avidly studying not only the Bible, but ancient Greek and Latin classics and English literature as well. She began experimenting with poetry and published her first poem in a newspaper at age 12. The Wheatleys encouraged Phillis and had a strikingly progressive attitude about education for their time; however, the fact remains that Phillis was enslaved by them until after she reached adulthood.When the famous evangelist George Whitefield died in 1770, teenaged Phillis published an elegy for him. She had likely heard him preach in Boston just the week before. Reflecting on Whitefield’s ministry she wrote this exhortation about responding to Christ:
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