Book of the Month Club

Claymore wrote: The Police Inspector, "I'm Shocked, Shocked to find that Gambling is going on here.".
Hotel staff to the Inspector, "Your winnings, sir.".
The XXXXXXXXXXXXXXX, "Oh, thank you very much."

CIA, FBI, DNI, DHS, DOJ......... There, updated it.


After the disastrous Bay of Pigs operation, JFK was contemplating disbanding the CIA, saying that his desire was to "splinter the CIA into a thousand pieces and scatter it into the winds..."

Is that why...

"Let me tell you. You take on the intelligence community - they have six ways from Sunday at getting back at you." (Chuck Schumer - D)

I was an Intel NCO on our Special Forces Detachment.

But we did much smaller, less nefarious things......

...........like bribe the Chief of a local village,

or topple small governments.

Claymore wrote: But we did much smaller, less nefarious things......

...........like ............

topple small governments.

What considerations played into "too big to fail?" (Asking for a friend.)

joecool wrote:

Claymore wrote: But we did much smaller, less nefarious things......

...........like ............

topple small governments.

What considerations played into "too big to fail?" (Asking for a friend.)

Can you put the Operation into a Five Paragraph Op-Order?

Then.....

To quote the Post Office, "If It Fits, It Ships".

This week's Supreme Court 1st Amendment decisions, while welcome, are just a bump in the road for leftists. They have control of pretty much everything else, and are already strategizing their next moves. Their self-envisioned "arc of history" wants nothing to do with our ark.

A senior editor at The Federalist released a book a couple of months ago, titled Pagan America: The Decline of Christianity and the Coming Dark Age. I probably won't buy it, as I don't need any convincing of what's to come. Interestingly, this editor seems to be walking away from the fight, moving to Alaska to homestead. Or perhaps he plans to continue from the relative safety of the wilderness.

But I did start another new book today, 781 pages of small font printing. It was written by an amazing man, whom the Catholic church bestowed sainthood on. Augustine wrote The City of God almost 1600 years ago. Yes, you read that right.

The Goths had sacked Rome and were beating their chests, saying that their gods had defeated Christianity. Augustine's book answered those claims, and it buoyed the demoralized Christians.

The barbarians are once again at the gate, although they are attacking from within, and not from another country. May we ask for and receive the same kind of strength that earlier Christians had.  

"For here we do not have an enduring city, but we are looking for the city that is to come." Hebrews 13:14

Amen
they are at the gates for sure.

Started reading a science fiction trilogy while on vacation, written between 1938-1946, a particularly dark time for humanity. The author is CS Lewis, the same guy who wrote The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe. He was an amazing Christian apologist who found novel ways of getting theology into the people's hands.

The first book was relatively mellow, and the second book has begun in an alarming way. The title of the last book is That Hideous Strength. Not to be read on a dark and stormy night?

joecool wrote:Started reading a science fiction trilogy...The first book was relatively mellow, and the second book has begun in an alarming way. The title of the last book is That Hideous Strength. Not to be read on a dark and stormy night?

The first two books were enjoyable, recognizing symbols and their links to Biblical events of the past. But the third story...oh, my. Written so long ago, but prescient of today's problems: moral compromises, unrestrained evil, social control, engineered riots, spinning the narrative, arming the bureaucracy...and throwing Jesus under the bus.

I have not read The Great Dechurching, but perhaps I should. It was the cover story on the latest issue of Influence, the AG magazine for pastors and leaders.

The book is a deep dive into the condition of the American Church, and claims that 40 million adults (including 15 million evangelicals) have left over the last 25 years. "How did that happen?" is what the authors try to answer.

One factoid: During 2014, there was a net gain of 300 Protestant churches. In 2019, there was a net loss of 1500 Protestant churches! And that was before COVID came along. Here are a few paragraphs from the end of the magazine article:

"As millions leave the Church, we can't gloss over the fact that this changes the culture in which we live and will make some things harder for us. We may feel less at home in our own cities, but we can take heart that this has been and is still the norm for most Christians around the globe.

We refer to this situation as "cultural exile." From Daniel in Babylon to the persecuted members of the early Church, God's people have a long history of standing for biblical truth amid a culture that largely rejects it.
We can be the city on a hill without controlling Capitol Hill. And the reality is, having cultural power has not always gone well for Christians.

We can learn from our brothers and sisters in minority-Christian nations and the historic Black church in America. In seasons of exile and marginalization, the gospel has advanced powerfully, the faith of believers has been deepened, and God has strengthened His Church."

I'm reading When Faith is Forbidden, from The Voice of the Martyrs. Here's an excerpt from the author, who visited a Chinese pastor recently released from prison.

"Persecution is like fire," he told me. "I use the word like purify. If we want pure gold, we have to let it go through fire." He said that Christianity had become "cool" among Chinese people who thought of it as a Western religion, and thought all parts of Western culture were popular or cool.
"The blessing (of persecution) for the church is that when we are facing the difficulties, the serious believers will stay. So it doesn't matter what happens." Persecution leaves the church full of believers serious about their faith - serious enough that threats of arrest or physical pain can't keep them from meeting. Those who are there only because it's "cool" quickly fall away.

Wow. Here in America it took way less than that to fall away.

Reading While Men Slept, by Dr L Nelson Bell. He was a medical missionary for many years in China, until WWII ended his ministry there. He brought his family back to the States, where his daughter married a young preacher named Billy Graham.

Written in 1970, he was very concerned about where the Church was going. Change some of the names and it reads like it was written this year. Half a century has gone by and not much has changed. I believe that his main point is that the Church's response to the enemies' challenges has been lacking the power and conviction of the Holy Spirit.

"Tolerance - tolerance to error - has been the watchword."
"Many remain silent hoping the tide will turn. Others are silent because their livelihood is at stake."
"The mainstream of Protestantism has been polluted by theologians who have willfully rejected faith in the complete integrity and authority of the Word of God. This lies at the source of all that has followed."
"How can the holiness of God be relative?"
"I see social engineering replacing the preaching of the simple Gospel."
"...the blindness and unconcern of the dominant segment of our society must be completely changed."
"The lawlessness that has entered our national life...can prove to be the moral cancer that will destroy our country."

And that's just from the first tenth of the book.

Is this related to your Pathway studies?

Claymore wrote:Is this related to your Pathway studies?

No, I saw the copy on a Christian bookstore shelf. The title comes from Matthew 13:24-25, "The kingdom of heaven is like a man who sowed good seed in his field; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat and went his way."

More from While Men Slept.

"Ordinary men had irresistible tools, and God worked a miracle. The same tools are available today, but they are too often neglected. In their place men use man-made devices that perish with their makers and those on whom they are used. The early disciples...

- Were imbued with the power of the Holy Spirit
- Were men of prayer
- Used the holy Scriptures to confirm their preaching
- Had a message
- Had no money."

It's time for Tool Time. Can I have a grunt out there?

Reading the Pulitzer Prize-winning book, American Lion, which is about Andrew Jackson in the White House. A line from the book which include's words from the President:

As long as the government heeds the popular will, Jackson said, "the republic is safe, and it's main pillars - virtue, religion and morality - will be fostered by a majority of the people."

Our government is desperately short of those qualities. Alas, our people grow increasingly short, as well.

Just started reading Pagan America - The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come. It begins with a quote from the great English apologist, G.K. Chesterton...

"Some say it is impossible to return to the past; but the truth is that there is now nothing before us but the choice between two paths which both return to the past. We can return to some sort of Christian fellowship, or we can return to some sort of pagan slavery. There is no third road."

70+ years later, it's pretty evident which path mankind chose to take.

joecool wrote:Just started reading Pagan America - The Decline of Christianity and the Dark Age to Come.

I'm done with the book, but not the content and the concern. The author closes with a quote from Saint Boniface, who was martyred:

"Let us continue the fight on the day of the Lord. The days of anguish and of tribulation have overtaken us; if God so wills, let us die for the holy laws of our fathers, so that we may deserve to obtain an eternal inheritance with them. Let us be neither dogs that do not bark nor silent onlookers nor paid servants who run away before the wolf. Instead let us be careful shepherds watching over Christ's flock."

The wolves are here.

Been reading "Rise of the Fourth Reich," a strong attack against Big Pharma and Big Gov't for how COVID was handled. The first chapter is presented as the prosecution's opening statement, Nuremberg Trial style. 31 pages of mind-numbing medical malpractice and gov't malfeasance. Not sure if I can read on.

joecool wrote:Been reading "Rise of the Fourth Reich," a strong attack against Big Pharma and Big Gov't for how COVID was handled. The first chapter is presented as the prosecution's opening statement, Nuremberg Trial style. 31 pages of mind-numbing medical malpractice and gov't malfeasance. Not sure if I can read on.

I pushed through. I had forgotten a lot of the material in it. I was unaware of even more. It's all going to happen again, sooner or later. We will have learned nothing from COVID. Why is it that Senator Paul is the only one in gov't trying to hold people accountable?

Reading "Your Mission In God's Army - Discovering and completing your faith-filled assignment before Christ's return."

If you know a veteran who's a Christian, but not necessarily engaged, get a copy and give it to him. The author is a retired Colonel/Army chaplain, who might be able to change that.

Just finished the latest edition of The Creator and the Cosmos, written by an astronomer/pastor. It was a little easier to read than another book of his, but I must confess some of it was still over my head. Truly, "The heavens declare the glory of God."

In the last chapter, he addressed the question of "Why has our generation been singled out to receive such an abundance of evidences for God and His Word?" His answer: God measures out evidence in direct proportion to the level of resistance to his truth. Where the resistance is relatively low, less hard evidence for the God of the Bible is necessary to overcome it. But where resistance, namely arrogance, is high, so also is the quantity of quality of evidence he provides to overcome it.

"Lord, help me overcome my unbelief."

Started reading We Will Not Be Silenced by pastor Erwin W. Lutzer. An early quote:

"In the past, we, as American Christians, always had home-field advantage. We knew that in the crowd there were those from the other team who were opposed to us, but the larger stadium crowd was either on our side or indifferent to our witness as Christians. All that has changed. Now we play all our games on enemy turf. A minority is on our side while the wider culture sits in the stands shouting hateful epithets at us, rejoicing at our losses. And the elitists in the sky-boxes cheer them on."

I would add that more and more, the umpires have pockets full of cash, and more and more, their calls are against us. And the elites keep changing the rules, too. What will we do when it's the top of the ninth with two outs? Time to bring in the designated hitter...Jesus.

Another quote from We Will Not Be Silenced:

"The purpose of this book is not to inspire us to 'take America back.' We have neither the will nor the clout to reverse same-sex marriage laws or to halt culture's obsession with destroying sexual norms and erasing our shared history. It's highly unlikely we will ever reverse the laws that restrict religious freedom in the military or return public education back to the control of the parents rather than school boards that proudly adopt the most recent sexually liberalized curriculum. We have crossed too many fault lines; too many barriers have proven too weak to withstand media-driven cultural streams that have flooded our nation. The radicals know how to make themselves look good and make Christians look bad.

I write not so much to reclaim the culture as to reclaim the church. I write this book for anyone who has a burden to 'strengthen what remains,' as Jesus told the church in Sardis (Revelation 3:2)."

Amen!

In his ending to We Will Not Be Silenced, the author quotes a German pastor who spent time in a concentration camp:

"We have all of us - the whole Church and the whole community - we've been thrown into the Tempter's sieve, and he is shaking and the wind is blowing, and it must now become manifest whether we are wheat or chaff!...(we) must see that the calm of meditative Christianity is at an end...

It is now springtime for the hopeful and expectant Christian Church - it is testing time, and God is giving Satan a free hand, so he may shake us up and so that it may be seen what manner of men are we!

Satan swings his sieve and Christianity is thrown hither and thither; and he who is not ready to suffer, he who called himself a Christian only because he thereby hoped to gain something good for his race and his nation is blown away like chaff by the wind of time."

Get ready for what's coming. To paraphrase one of our Ranger Chat friends, "It's now our turn."

I just finished reading Dying Out Loud, a biography of Stan Steward. Good thing I was alone, because I wasn't very effective in holding back the tears. Stan was a news photographer and then a police officer, who became a missionary in Afghanistan. I won't completely spoil the ending, but the way Stan's quotes were going, I knew someone in his family was going to die.

The book was given to me by a young lady who will be going to one of the "-stans" next year. She's all-in and very inspirational. The least that I can do is dust off a writing project that has been on the shelf for a decade. Earthshine is a novel about a Muslim astronaut in search of the truth.