I was nearing the city after a very long drive on the interstate. Traffic had been horrible. Perhaps it was due to the waves of Floridians fleeing their state due to the terrors of Milton. And to think that the devastation of Helene is not even close to being appreciated or dealt with adequately, at least in terms of efficacy at relief and restoration. Hundreds, perhaps thousands of people, are unaccounted for in western North Carolina. But that is a different topic for a different day.

I had been driving for hours, but the interestates were jammed with fellow travelers.

As I neared the city, black smoke caught my eye, and I saw a wave of red brake lights washing towards me. I slowed down. Then I spotted the reason. A car had just caught fire. When I arrived on the scene, the car was already on the side of the interstate, roiling in flames. You would have thought the car had been made of kindling.

The smoke was a deep black; it reminded me of some of the scenes from the writer Dante’s epic. Much judgment in Dante is icy, but there’s also smoke and fire.

Suddenly I was arrested–convicted–for my angry attitude. I had been listening to podcasts and news for hours on the road, and had been stuck in traffic, growing more and more frustrated. I was growing more and more angry by the mile. I was crestfallen that my nation I serve as a soldier is borderless, that North Carolinians are offered $750 to rebuild their lives, but illegal aliens enter and are bused to hotels, that this administration writes $8 billion checks in support of Ukraine (with what end state, exactly?), that funding for fiscal year 2025 is on hold for the U.S. military, but somehow Congress continues to be paid just fine, their insurance is just fine, and sheeple may actually vote for open communists and oligarchs to continue taking America down and circle the drain of damnation, more concerned about pronouns and medical castration and DEI indoctrination than actually knowing history, hating communism for what it has always done, and will always do–steal, kill, and destroy?

I passed the car as it continued to succumb to the flames. I switched off the news and podcasts. I could not take it any longer; it was just more of the same. I switched to my music playlist. Suddenly the soulful sounds of Gregg Allman came on. I could feel myself loosen. The ABB was playing “Melissa.” And suddenly I was back to times I’d seen the Allman Brothers Band play it in concert, and my eyes looked in the rear view mirror to see the black smoke continue to rise on the perimeter of Atlanta, and I thought the imagery bespoke lessons of warning for a people rushing headlong into what they do not understand.

DeMar is both prescient and precise in his biblical diagnosis of impenitent sinners’ undoing:

Step 1: Suppression of the truth

Step 2: Intellectual futility

Step 3: Spiritual darkness

Step 4: Incredible stupidity

Step 5: Deification of man and nature

Step 6: Gross immorality

Step 7: Societal destruction

Step 8: Self-denial

The steps correspond to Romans 1:18, 21, 21, 22, 23, 24-28, 29-31, and 32 respectively.

Not sure what more it will take for sheeple to arise from slumber, but the enemy is not asleep, and is assuredly not afraid.

“Politics: A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage” (Charles River Editors, Ambrose Bierce: The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of the Famous American Author, ch. 2).

That, dear reader, is a truth bomb.

I finished up afternoon PT. I was sweaty but felt good. I still had a few moments before I had my next appointment. I decided to go through the car wash business where I have a membership. I pulled up to the little gate and waited for the arm to lift. It did, I pulled up to wait my turn to enter the wash. A couple of kids brushed the front and rear of my car with suds mops, and squirted my car with water, and my wheels began to be pulled into the wash.

A moment later I emerged at the other end of the tunnel of suds. I pulled to the vacuum hoses and got out to begin vacuuming my car’s interior. A smiling man walked over to me as I was grabbing the vacuum hose. He extended his hand.

“Sir, good afternoon. I just wanted to thank you for your service,” and he smiled and shook my hand.

“Thank you, brother,” I said. “You prior service?” I asked.

“No. My dad was. This was his last duty station, and he retired here. So I’ve been here my adult years. He was a crew chief on Chinooks in Vietnam.”

We talked and talked about Chinooks, about his dad’s career, and I felt as though we were becoming buddies straightaway, he was so genuine and open.

“I sold cars here for years, but I’ve been around the world with my dad’s career. I was born in Munich, Germany. My sister was born in Frankfurt. I never served, but I want you to know how much I appreciate you,” he said.

“Thank you, brother. That’s very kind. It’s been great ministry, and I too have spent a great deal of time abroad. I know Munchen well. Frankfurt, too,” I said.

“My name’s Mike,” he said, and shook my hand again. “If you ever need anything when you come through this car wash, you just ask for Mike, and I’ll take care of you.”

We agreed it was a deal, and I felt like two minutes of kindness and courtesy fell upon me like spiritual sunshine. As a friend of mine wrote recently, a bit of courtesy goes a long way.

And to Mike’s dad, Chief, wherever you are, you raised your son to be a good man. Salute.

Issue: Sheep without the Shepherd?

Connection to Today: In my years I cannot recall a time where our nation has been more divided and more filled with hostility. Relationships are being destroyed because people are oftentimes at an emotional breaking point. Just over recent days I have witnessed tempers flare over the causes of hurricanes, over how we don’t have money to pay our own nation’s military, but we somehow have billions for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion indoctrination, and of course billions more for Ukraine, and still more for wars in the Middle East. It’s all fun and games, some think, until it comes to your door and affects your pocketbook. Then, it suddenly is real and not just a talking point. People are looking for leadership. And when it comes to character—wise and godly character—may I suggest that it is in short supply? It’s stunning when you look at the quality of the people who are ostensibly in charge of representing us, truly stunning. We are sheep with the wrong shepherds.

In Matthew 9, Christ was continuing to demonstrate that He was and is the true King, the true Shepherd, the Good Shepherd: “When he saw the crowds, he had compassion for them, because they were harassed and helpless, like sheep without a shepherd. Then he said to his disciples, “The harvest is plentiful, but the laborers are few; therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest” (Matthew 9:36-38 ESV).

Folks, we are to recognize a true shepherd when we see him walk with the sheep, warning them, feeding them, leading, and guiding them in wisdom, and with demonstrable love. But this calls for a discerning people. I do not know how much more vapid many so-called leaders can become. The bar is so low now that we find ourselves in a culture that is more concerned with skin pigment and pronouns than we do with rendering aid to western NC as people are buried under the mud. We need wise, discerning, and courageous shepherds—not giggles and bromides. But to have wisdom, we must know the fountain of all wisdom, and that is God, the ultimate Good Shepherd. 

The Roman Catholic system continues to showcase its rainbow colors …

https://www.breitbart.com/europe/2024/10/07/pope-francis-to-makes-gay-rights-advocate-a-cardinal/

For just a couple of weeks short of a decade, this area was my home. Just know, beloved WNC, I am with you. Many are with you. FEMA and the U.S. government have betrayed you. They continue to mock you via neglect and grift.

Our Christian church body is neither mocking nor neglecting you. We are there, and will continue to be there.

Press on.

Do not lose hope.

Much is being revealed herein.

I have a few connections at church and other places who appreciate the written word. I have people in uniform who likewise share the itch. And I have others who have retired, but who still devour the written word. What’s more, I have a longing for depth on behalf of the Christian church. There are saints who are withering on the vine because they are starved for intellectual stimulation. I track with those people’s longings. If I am not stimulated intellectually, I quickly check out and go off to feed myself again.

For as long as I can remember, I have had a passion for reading, and there are other bibliophiles out there, too. With them (and others) in mind, I share some of what I am reading. The goals? First, to say, “You’re not alone.” Second, to say, “There is depth out there; come along.” Do not lose hope.

A Few Qualifiers:

First, I read multiple volumes simultaneously.

Second, I read seven main genres (but occasionally expand/contract these).

Third, the usual genres into which I divide my reading follow:

1. Bible/biblical history/biblical cultures (one never masters the Book of all books; it sets the standard)
2. Theology/philosophy/worldviews
3. Literary fiction (mostly, the classics. Sometimes, however, I read certain writers that speak to me irresistibly, that are not yet recognized as canonical; I can share those names, if there is interest.)
4. Literary drama (Sophocles, the Bard, Aeschylus, Euripedes, etc.)
5. History (I’m a soldier, and devour military history, and especially war memoirs/diaries/stories/novels, but I’m currently reading Sears’ Gettysburg, e.g.)
6. Culture (the history of ideas/worldviews/trends/prognostications, etc.)
7. Poetry (currently I’m on a John Donne and Elizabeth Bishop wave again)

On my reading agenda this week are the following volumes:

Ambrose Bierce: The Life and Mysterious Disappearance of the Famous American Author

Sears’ Gettysburg

Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man

Conroy’s South of Broad

I’m currently reading the gospel of Matthew (ESV English translation) over and over as part of my intake of Scripture.

Intro: At our church, I am currently leading a study through the gospel of Matthew, and we are currently in chapter 12 of that book. It is a chapter of increasing conflict wherein many religious leaders and others reveal their hatred, jealousy, and resentment of Christ—even when Christ is healing, forgiving, and doing good to people daily. There is something important here.

God the Son incarnate did not please everyone, and His followers won’t either. There will be resistance to the truth; count on it. Despite the evidence, despite transformed lives, despite His grace towards sinners, despite physical healing He did as evidence of His divinity and His compassion for maimed, broken, fallen people like we are, He was hated. The hatred many demonstrated towards Him reveals as much about the fallen and hostile human heart/affections (Jonathan Edwards uses the term ‘affections’ wisely to convey the disposition of our wills) to the holiness of God.

Takeaway: Expect resistance to goodness and truth. Some people simply thrive upon evil. Isaiah 48:22 says, “There is no peace,” says the LORD, “for the wicked.” But God’s people are to overcome evil with good. I love the way Paul phrases it: “Brothers, do not be children in your thinking. Be infants in evil, but in your thinking be mature” (1 Cor 14:20, ESV).

Illustration: Recently my wife and I watched a film from 1989 that starred Robin Williams entitled Dead Poets Society. Williams plays an inspiring English teacher at a boys’ preparatory school. The boys are high school-aged young men, laboring to discover who they are, who they are meant to be, ravished by hormones and ambitions, etc. Anyway, Williams, their English teacher, connects with them on not just cerebral levels but he is gifted at connecting with them emotionally, spiritually, and viscerally. He is one of those teachers we sometimes receive once in a lifetime, a teacher who makes the world rich in color, the one who makes love poems not something to memorize for the exam but who makes you discover that beautiful poems are friends and lovers. Williams’ skills in pedagogy make all the difference, to use Frost’s language.

There’s a scene where Williams chooses Todd, an introverted cerebral boy, to “sound [his] “barbaric yawp over the rooftops of the world.” In other words, Todd is to shout as if he were trying to get someone’s attention in Perth, Australia but he’s standing in Toledo, Ohio. Todd’s got to dig deep, if you will, and discover that passion of which he is capable but also afraid. Eventually, however, through some difficult growing pains, Todd begins to learn the lessons his English teacher is laboring to teach him and the other pupils. It has to do with seeing what is there but having the courage to actually see it rather than run from it.

What a Whitman Poem Has to Do with Today: The American poet Walt Whitman served as a nurse in America’s Civil War. Whitman was a rather colorful individual and I do not care to get into his bio here, but I do want to include a poem from him and see if you might connect what Whitman was driving at in this war poem from 159 years ago and events you see unfolding today. Here’s “Cavalry Crossing a Ford”:

A line in long array where they wind betwixt green islands,

They take a serpentine course, their arms flash in the sun—hark to the musical clank,

Behold the silvery river, in it the splashing horses loitering stop to drink,

Behold the brown-faced men, each group, each person a picture, the negligent rest on the saddles,

Some emerge on the opposite bank, others are just entering the ford—while,

Scarlet and blue and snowy white,

The guidon flags flutter gayly in the wind.

The images are straightforward enough. Cavalry troops are crossing a water barrier, a ford. Their course is “serpentine’’—a rather interesting word choice, is it not? We behold horses, men with tanned skin, and we see flags (guidons) fluttering. It’s a scene that freezes motion via precise language.

Questions: Is it possible that we’re once again amidst a cold Civil War in America and the West? Is it possible that tribalism is rearing its head? Is it possible that theological and philosophical sides have their guidons out front (hint: the symbolism of flags/heraldry is not to be underestimated), and that they’re demanding allegiance? Is it possible that sides are mounting like cavalry, maybe not in the form of horses, but in the form of legislation and force? You see, folks, if you have been blessed with a teacher who can help open your eyes to see what’s before you, you will be moved. It will change you, hopefully for the better, hopefully to choose the right and good ways, rather than the ways that lead to death (Proverbs 8:36).