Things I Think…
1. Congratulations to Kevin and all the Eagles fans…any reason to find joy in these times is a good thing…
2. Greg Laurie is a whore for power and attention, constantly trying to prove his significance. This video is ridiculous…watch it and lets discuss.
President Trump has launched “The Faith Office” with the mission to eradicate anti-Christian bias—a long-overdue initiative. Some may push back, raising concerns about the separation of Church and State, but I tackle that and more in this video. Check it out! pic.twitter.com/dqPV5oQSNx
— Greg Laurie (@greglaurie) February 11, 2025
First off, the only anti- Christian bias is against Christians who don’t hold to dispensationalism and who don’t support Trumpism because they believe it is a direct affront to Christian ethics and values.
Toadies like Laurie have a seat at White House functions and love to have their pictures taken in proximity to power.
If there is such a thing as “anti-Christian bias” that bias is protected under the Constitution…the document that is the foundation of this country and is under attack by this administration.
Finally, (before my head explodes) there has been nothing…NOTHING…to stifle the Gospel in this country.
There are multiple Christian radio stations everywhere…so much so that one Christian radio executive once told me that their signal evangelized jackrabbits out in the desert.
There are numerous Christian TV networks going 24/7 in every market.
Every kind of media imaginable is flooded with Christian content and has been all my life.
Complaining about “persecution” when ridiculously rich preachers like Laurie got that way because they learned to use that free media is a damnable lie and an insult to the men and women who really did endure persecution and death for the cause of Christ.
Those ignorant enough to believe this lie become whiny little disciples of men and spiritually flaccid believers always looking for more privilege than they already have.
The real impediment to the hearing of the Gospel isn’t bias or lack of freedom to share it…it’s the lives of the people claiming to know it.
3. I thought some other things, but got so mad I forgot them…
4. “If you can convince the lowest white man he’s better than the best colored man, he won’t notice you’re picking his pocket. Hell, give him somebody to look down on, and he’ll empty his pockets for you.” —Lyndon B. Johnson
5. I haven’t thought this through because I’m so rattled about current events…but it seems to me that all our technologies hold out the promise of rebuilding the Tower of Babel…and then God scatters and confuses us yet again…
6. I’m getting ready to teach on The Beatitudes again…and it’s inescapable that simply teaching the words of Christ will sound “leftist” and “woke”…but not for those with ears to hear…
7. There was a big blowout on social media last week when it was disclosed that Christianity Today had applied for an ERL loan during Covid…this was offered as “proof” that CT was paid to be a “leftist” magazine…but didn’t explain why Greg Laurie, Skip Heitzig, Franklin Graham, and many others also got government payouts…without being accused of being bought off by the liberals…
8. “For myself, I don’t have any certainty that God is on my side when it comes to my political choices and opinions. Furthermore, I’m pretty sure that God is not on your side when it comes to your political choices and opinions. I am, however, absolutely certain of one thing – the appropriation of faith as a political tool will likely end in sorrow for all of us.” Duane W.H. Arnold
9. If we’re witnessing the end of the American experiment, that is tragic on multiple levels…but it doesn’t change my position in Christ or my responsibilities to Him or my blessings from Him…
10. I used to start my day with the news and my email, then morning prayer…I need to reverse the order if I’m to stay anything close to sane…
Michael,
I often think of this when each party’s rhetoric becomes too accusatory and self-righteous.
“Now when Joshua was near Jericho, he looked up and saw a man standing in front of him with a drawn sword in his hand. Joshua went up to him and asked, “Are you for us or for our enemies?” “Neither,” he replied, “but as commander of the army of the LORD I have now come.”
(“Sheesh! …I was SO certain the Lord favored US”)
This is only my personal conviction, I do not command, prescribe, or recommend it for any other person, collective, gathering, team, or organization.
I pray to always remember Gen. 14.22-23 Abram replied to the king of Sodom, “I solemnly swear to the Lord, God Most High, Creator of heaven and earth, that I will not take so much as a single thread or sandal thong from what belongs to you. Otherwise you might say, ‘I am the one who made Abram rich.’
I want to always remember God is my provider. I’m not shrewd enough or saved enough to take what the systems of the world is giving without crediting them for the giving. That’s been tough. I’m in lean times. I’m praying God is teaching me to lean and rest when lean times is the test.
The good news is that God is making me more eager for His Ultimate Kingdom. Right now I only lay claim to it where I put my size 11s as I live, move, and have my being in Him. One day, though, there will be a river in this wasteland, coming from The Throne, and that will be a beautiful day.
I don’t think *this mess* gets fixed before the Son of Man brings the restoration of all things.
Dave,
I think that is a great scripture for these times…thank you.
Rob,
I think you might be right…this may be end of the beginning…
I know a thing or two about lean times…and I pray that God provide for you as miraculously as He has for me…usually from places I never saw coming.
I haven’t been “comfortable” for a very long time…but I’m still here and I’m not hungry.
Note to the reader…I obviously don’t give a hoot in hell what Laurie or celebrity preachers have to say about anything…but when someone like Murphy speaks, I listen…because I know they have been with God in their personal Gethsemane…
I listened to Laurie. I’m to the point where I don’t want to darken the door of church! It’s getting to the point where the only type of church that I feel safe from the bloviation of Trump loving worshippers is a church that is not sound theologically. However, I do love reading the words of Benjamin Cremer. Perhaps I should move to Boise.
Like you Michael , watching the news is upsetting. Trump is nothing but an uneducated con man.
I was listening to Jackie Hill Perry, and she was talking about the connection between hope and idolatry. The Enemy wants them working together, and it’s so easy.
What I’m learning is that it’s really, really easy for me to put my hope in some form of immediate relief, and immediate relief has proven (for me) to be the enemy of Jesus’ steadfast rescue, redemption, renewal and building my heart and life toward ultimate restoration.
For me, idolatry has come from putting my hope ever so slightly on ‘and’. I keep finding that my “okay” is a veneer of Jesus over layers of my preferences, like my preferred bank account amount, my health, my relationships, my lack of needing to endure *anything*.
I have not been more uncomfortable, grieved, broken, than I have since my sister dying (10/6/23), the church I serve in splitting (4/24 to present), my Mom dying (Thanksgiving ’24), and financial difficulties to present. There’s a crowd on earth actively cheering my demise like it’s an old, favorite song and a host in heaven, a crowd of witnesses singing “Jesus Is Worthy Of It All”. Which song will I sing along with?
A world of hurt, yet I’ve never known with greater certainty that Jesus loves me and is with me and every day, He catches my heart and shows me He is making all things new.
If you think to pray for me, pray this: I really want Jesus to make me able to say “I don’t want you to think like I think, but I’d sure like you to hope what I hope. My hope is only Jesus.” That’s what I’d want to hear if I could go talk to me a few years back.
It is evident that Laurie has been enslaved to self-deception for quite some time. He does not realize that judgment has begun. Self deception is the beginning of judgment. Judgment culminates at the judgment seat of Christ but it is introduced in god giving people over to self deception. You can mouth doctrine all your life and never attain the capacity in Christ to discern between good and evil. Greg is consigned to his personal silo, cell and echo chamber called the pulpit.
I have been angry about what is happening, and I know that anger does not work the righteousness of God. So, I pray, I do what I can for those who need help, and I try not to watch so much news that my blood begins to boil (like Laurie singing the praises of Paula White. If she had been one of his church congregants, she would have been up before the board for the sin of adultery). I am thankful for the courts, and pray that they will not be intimidated by the Evil Trinity (Trump, Vance, Musk). I honestly can’t believe what is happening.
“If you think to pray for me, pray this: I really want Jesus to make me able to say “I don’t want you to think like I think, but I’d sure like you to hope what I hope. My hope is only Jesus.”’
Amen and amen…
Rob,
Thank you for your words.
7. Horse pucket.Rank hypocrisy
Also…
“Christian” radio and TV. What a waste for the most part.
I wonder if the prolific presence of Xn radio is leaving a false impression. Like Michael said, I
do believe most of it is heard by the jackrabbits. Unfortunately many of them now seem to have unequally yoked themselves to an Antichrist ideology. Lord have mercy!
Thank you for 2.
With expletives, I have had it with Christians thinking they are persecuted here in MURICA
Thank you, Michael!
In case people missed it on the Open Blogging thread, I repeat here,
E-A-G-L-E-S, Eagles!
🙂 🙂 🙂
Mr. Greg Laurie is working the business, and business is good. There is nothing, and I do mean nothing, holier than that in the corporation. To my eternal shame, I once found some comfort in what Mr. Laurie said: true followers of the corporation should never need things like comfort, hope, empathy, compassion, and other such vile emotions. There is a great danger to the services that those I work (ed) with being reduced or stopped. I am not sure what to do but I keep calling, writing letters, going to offices, etc. The same I have done for over 40 years. I won’t go into what my fellow cogs in the machine have told me about what an utter disgusting failure I am as a human being if I even am a human being. I will continue to do so, to my shame.
This is how the faith makes me “feel”/believe on an almost daily basis, it always has. Just a side note and I have said this before, its not good news it never has been.
I firmly believe that religion should be taxed.
10% off the top.
No exceptions.