[I'm still working on this:] The assumptions and practice of Critical Race Theory are a purposeful attempt to undermine traditional American culture (think Christendom).  That's not good.  But, there's something worse.   Nations will come and go anyway.  The worst thing about CRT is that it is a violation of the Golden Rule.   Therefore it is sinful and perilous to an eternal soul.  To promote CRT - or to enforce it, as the case may be - is to promote the transgression of God's law, which is worse than violating our sympathy for traditional American institutions or way of life, for these things are temporal.  Hell is eternal. As Christians, our mission is to call all to repentance, whatever the sin may be, and point them to the Saviour.  We should certainly be concerned for justice in our society - CRT promotes  injustice  - but our main concern is that which is eternal.  Therefore, our conversation with anyone who is in f...

I recently preached this sermon at the funeral of my brother-in-law, designated herein as "V."  I've taken out a lot of personal stuff.  The text is that famous first periocope in Ecclesiastes 3.           Many of us here remember the ‘60’s – how can we forget them!  What a time!  As we read the first lesson from Ecclesiastes, I’m sure many if not all of us were reminded of the Bob Dylan song made famous by The Byrds, “Turn, Turn, Turn”…. As the passage says, we live in seasons, and all our seasons have a purpose, and every purpose is under heaven.   God sees it all, he knows about it all, and he is ultimately seeking our good in it all – as hard as that may be to believe at times.   It’s easy enough to see how our birth was good, but death is not a good thing: it’s a curse brought upon us by the sin of Adam and Eve.   But, however or whenever our death comes, God is still good and He is still watching over his purpose ...

  William Thackeray published essays on each of the first four King Georges.  While describing King George III, he spoke positively of how he tried to make use of what gifts were given him.  Speaking of his courage, he reflected on what was grand about it, though I think he is being sarcastic.  It was grand in that he exercised it in a grand way against all who opposed him. "The battle of the King with his aristocracy remains yet to be told by the historian who shall view the reign of George more justly ... It was he, with the people to back him, who made the war with America; it was he and the people who refused justice to the Roman Catholics; and on both questions he beat the patricians.  He bribed: he bullied: he darkly dissembled on occasion: he exercised a slippery perseverance, and a vindictive resolution, which one almost admires as one thinks his character over.  His courage was never to be beat.  It trampled North under foot; it beat the stiff...

An excellent presentation on History writing by a Princeton Univ prof - lasts the first 33 minutes. From the Intercollegtiate Studies Institute.

I'm noting a personal experience here.  More than once, I have had an unusually encouraging and prosperous day, only to find out that my bishop has prayed for me on that day.  What of that? First, it certainly makes me have greater respect for my bishop!  God hears his prayers - and they make a difference!  I trust they are doing the same for my fellow clergy as well.   Second, I note the kind of encouragement that comes to me on those days.  If this is God answering someone's prayers for me, then surely the kinds of things I'm encouraged about are things that the Lord wants me doing.  Such encouragements are important for me, for it's easy for me to feel lost about my life vocationally.  There are several reasons for that, of course, but it's a life-long affliction, actually.  But what I'm considering today is that these answers to my bishop's prayers are perhaps a way that God is whispering behind me, "this is the way, walk therein (Is...

It was one of those wild, clear, winter nights when the stars are like clouds covering the sky.  The air was crisp and the moon was yet to rise. Silhouetted upon the church tower stood a very large man.  His hair was long and rather unkempt.  He wore a coat of fur and held a staff in his hand.  His head was upturned to the sky. Then on the horizon, like a red jewel, was Mars, twinkling like a fire, peering down upon the earth with its martial gaze.  The great  man looked upon it and sighed - not with the sigh of despair, but with the sigh of determination. Dire times were at hand.  The flicker of Mars brought to his mind the flicker of fire - fire consuming British villages and churches; a fire set upon the land by Saxon hands.  He briefly closed his eyes and tried to shake the vision from his mind.  He crossed himself, and turned to descend the tower.   As he did so, the moon began to rise and a prayer formed in his heart: a prayer...

Some thoughts after recently watching - again - the 2017 movie "Darkest Hour": We must, as God fearing people, survive the coming tragedy in our country.  We may no longer have a geographic territory to preserve for the freedom-loving people of the world, but we can keep the ideal of godly liberty alive, until such a time as God deems it best that such a territory arise again for the hope of an oppressed and suffering mankind.  We must fight for the Gospel and the good of men, as best we can. The forces arrayed against the Church and all god-fearers here, led by mad and lawless people, are, humanly speaking, very dangerous and powerful.  But free people have been in this situation before.  Nothing good can be achieved by compromise or surrender.  We must stick by the Great Commission and the example of our Captain and never give up.  Greater is He that is in us than he that is in the world.  In the end, our Lord will prevail - one way or another - as h...