HEAVEN’S LIGHT IS SHINING

8/30/09

Heaven's light is shining
brighter due to Mom's
eternal smile.

She has slipped across
the border where awaits
Eternal Mile.

Jesus took her hand
in blessing when she
left us hours ago.

Now we wait till Jesus
calls us, hour and day
His will to know.

Helen Muriel Royer Swank,
96 years old,
entered glory on Thursday
8/27/09 at 3:12 AM

CHAPPAQUIDDICK: TED KENNEDY’S JUDGMENT DAY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


I often thought down through the years as to what Ted Kennedy would do with Jesus and Judgment Day when Kennedy breathed his last. I thought specifically of Chappaquiddick’s cover-up.


Now Kennedy has breathed his last.


He has appeared at the Judgment Seat of Christ. What happened?


One thing for certain is that truth won out. It has to for the Judgment Seat of Christ is confronting Truth in that Jesus named Himself as “the Way, the Truth and the Life.”


One does not escape Truth when at death providing an account of one’s earthly stay. Truth is the very core of that encounter upon exiting this sphere.


Kennedy was in the same vehicle as Mary Jo Kopechne. Mary Jo died in that vehicle at 29 years of age. It occurred at Chappaquiddick on Martha’s Vineyard.


Kennedy name and money covered up the full actual detail so that Kennedy continued on with his earthly journey. A young adult female did not. Her family was paid off to keep mum.


The secret was sealed after her death in July 1969—until the Judgment Seat of Christ.


Having partied with political campaign workers, Kennedy and Kopechne left together, not realizing that their car was headed for underwater. Kennedy swam to shore and went to bed. The next morning Kennedy did not report to authorities anything about the accident. Nothing reported.


The list of needling questions surfaced and continued to bother those with sensitive consciences and logical brains. In time, the needling gave way to numbness and finally a footnote in history.


That is, until Kennedy’s last breath and his standing before the Judgment Seat of Christ.


The biblically knowledgeable realize that eternity will reveal the facts about Kennedy, Kopechne and Chappaquiddick.

DICTATOR OBAMA WANTS INTERNET GAG SLAM

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Barrack Hussein Obama wants the power to shut down the Internet if he deems America’s security is in danger.


The Dictator Max continues his march to close down this Republic. No need for Muslim terrorists slaughtering infidels from shore to shore.


We have our Marxist Muslim henchman decorated in the Oval Office. Michelle stands alongside her husband’s hatchet, of course.


There is a bill waiting to clamp down on our Internet free speech in favor of the Obama control fleet.


“’I think the (bill) redraft, while improved, remains troubling due to its vagueness,’ said Larry Clinton, president of the Internet Security Alliance, which counts representatives of Verizon, Verisign, Nortel, and Carnegie Mellon University on its board.


“‘It is unclear what authority Sen. Rockefeller thinks is necessary over the private sector. Unless this is clarified, we cannot properly analyze, let alone support the bill’” per cnet news.


“’. . .vagueness. . .’”


Obama works on vagueness. Change. Hope. These have never been defined for the mob hysteriacs who put their celeb cultist in power.


It’s the same with med care for everyone—the rush of fifty million new patients for doctors who don’t yet exist for their care.


Obama has yet to define how all this gratuity is going to work, let alone exactly what this blanket health coverage really is.


Therefore, there is much talk about an item that we can’t explain. We have only a title—“public option.” What does that mean? How does it float?


Now back to Internet mugging. The bill presently before the powers-that-be is laden with “’. . .vagueness. . .’” like unto the public option duo that has no explanation-in-detail.


Is not this the purposeful manner by which a dictator sets up his throne while the populace scratches its head like space cadets out to swim in high waves?


Read “Bill would give president emergency control of Internet” at http://news.cnet.com/8301-13578_3-10320096-38.html

OBAMA CRAFTS HIS OWN ‘GOD PARTNER’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Barrack Hussein Obama told liberal Protestant and Jewish leaders that it’s time for America to “partner with God.”


He knows better than preach such a pulpit platitude to evangelicals. They know Obama’s definition of ‘god’ and it is not Jesus.


First, if Obama wants to partner with the biblical deity, he resigns his self-ownership for Jesus’ management.


Realizing Obama’s background in the heresy laden United Church of Christ—Congregational, that is not going to happen without an old fashioned personal conversion experience with the Spirit of Jesus. It would be a soul turn-around akin to Saul on the Road to Damascus.


Second, Obama’s hubris is in no mood per present indication in submitting to scriptural morality since his evil positions regarding same-gender ‘marriage’ and abortion slice through God’s declarations.


Third, Obama digs his own soul pit deeper by playing such religious pomposity while breathing the biblical deity’s air. Obama, like all other anti-God enthusiasts, never consider the Day of Reckoning when they must give an account of their earthly doings to none other than the Jesus they pierce.


Therefore, as Obama stood before clergy of the theological opposition, pronouncing sweet sentences sounding ever so righteous, he chalked up an increasingly sad rating in the heavenly register. Nevertheless, such is the option when operating on homo sapien’s free will express.


There will come the day and hour when the biblical deity will respond to the President’s total disregard for scriptural ethics. God’s patience far exceeds most of ours, that is for certain. However, there still comes the moment when anti-Christ mortals cross the divine line.


When that occurs, flee the wrath of deity for that is not up for debate.


Ask Ted Kennedy since breathing his last. I think as I type he might have an evangelistic message to speed deliver to Obama.


Then again. . .once crossing over, messages don’t usually deliver in reverse that efficiently.

BABY KILLER TED KENNEDY PRAISED?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Sane people know for sure that this sphere is laden with crazy people and crazy situations.


Ted Kennedy is one of those personages and his passing is one of those situations.


This man endorsed killing womb babies. That’s a fact. Yet he is lauded as an outstanding statesman, even by some conservative journalists.


One becomes so utterly weary dealing daily with the nuthouse mortals throwing their power around that it becomes a numbing press upon the psyche. That in itself causes some of us moralists the leisure of simply overlooking for the umpteenth time the lunatic happenings that fill up our years here.


Kennedy was one of the countless persons championing slaying boys and girls inside female bodies.


I know that Barrack Hussein Obama is like unto Ted. So is Nancy Pelosi. And therefore the bloody list winds out into eternity.


But with all that as an hour-by-hour atrocity fact, moralists must once in awhile come back to the baseline which is to shout loudly that these creatures are bad. They are evil. They say that righteousness is wicked and wickedness is righteous.


Surely the Old Testament prophets came upon like weariness. I know that when I read Jeremiah and Isaiah chapter after chapter I myself wonder how they withstood the divinely appointed mission.


It is heavy enough just to read their lambasting Israeli fruitcakes who thought themselves god let alone have to minister to the devil bent year after year.


Is there any wonder that Jesus wearied having to minister to the numb in head who wore clergy garb in the name of Jehovah? Thank God Jesus had only three years of public ministry. With enemies attacking His every holy deed, three years certainly was enough.


Yes, He warned that as they hated Him, His grace children will always be despised. True. It is true.


That is why when liberals read this article they have fits. Their bodies twitch and their jaws drop to the dust. How can anyone type out a sentence stating that Ted Kennedy is a child slayer? How can any decent person even think of speaking such syllables when a man has just breathed his last?


Well, take it from me, it is indeed possible.


And not only possible but absolutely necessary in order to cleanse our thought patterns and speech cadences, let alone filter our souls of all that gradually attaches itself to up the mire.


Get this: Ted Kennedy represents one of the most devilish categories of homo sapiens inhabiting God’s Earth because, for one, he could not say and do enough to increase the number of slaughtered womb children.

REMEMBERING MOM

J. Grant Swank, Jr.

The following is read at the funeral of Helen Muriel Royer Swank, Friday, August 28, 2009, Denton, Texas:

As a boy I would often arrive at home from school or playing with neighborhood pals to find Mom on her knees before the living room couch. Her Bible was always open. Her glasses were alongside the Bible. And her eyes were wet with tears. She had been praying.

This was not uncommon. It was not until I was a bit older that I realized that not every Mom in the world knew how to pray as Mom knew how to pray.

Mom and Dad made the perfect Christian parenting team. Mom came to know Jesus as friend when a little girl. She introduced Dad to Jesus when they were both teens. They never wavered throughout their lifetimes from journeying with Jesus.

That meant that we children had the most marvelous Christian mentors one could hope for. They taught us the Bible, how to pray like breathing, that the Lord’s Day was holy all day long, that the tithe belonged to God and our souls’ salvation was the most important treasure here on earth.

Mom knew how to play the piano. Dad knew how to play the piano. They both were singers. Therefore, quartets, trios, duets and solos were common evening doings in our home. Mom was an accomplished soloist so that most church weddings featured Mom as ceremony soloist. When she had throat surgery, she lost her singing voice, sadly.

Mom and Dad sang on Christian radio for years when we lived in Frederick, Maryland.

Mom and Dad believed wholeheartedly in the holiness lifestyle. They sang about it. They testified to its reality. They lived it year upon year.

Mom and Dad delighted in having our house filled with friends. We children grew up with our parents entertaining everybody and anybody, especially guest evangelists, missionaries, the poor, the lonely and those simply passing through. That was the case whether in Maryland or Illinois or Texas.

When someone showed up at church for the first time, Mom and Dad had that newcomer to the house for a meal. That was a given that continued for decades. Such treasured memories we have because of meeting these interesting personages.

Mom was an outstanding secretary and delighted in her various positions, starting as secretary to the high school principal in Vandergrift, Pennsylvania, her home town, then for the US government in Frederick and College Park, Maryland. In Texas, she continued as secretary for a private firm. Mom was especially happy when at a desk with a typewriter and shorthand tablet.

Mom excelled beyond measure in typing and shorthand. I would often watch her taking notes on the Sunday sermon—in shorthand, of course. Her penmanship was a work of art.

Mom delighted in teaching children in Sunday school. She had all sorts of children’s chorus books and illustrative teaching material. Even when her own children were adults, she had more fun going through her repertoire of children’s lessons for us, much to our cordial laughter responses.

Mom was made for hugging, especially little babies and toddlers. She’d squeeze them till you’d think they’d turn into youth bubbles of smiles and giggles.

Mom had one of the most winsome smiles God ever crafted. It lit up the world around her. A smile from Mom set life on balance—every time. She’d tilt her head to the side, light up the twinkle in her eyes and then spread that smile as if she were royalty. She gifted us with her ready smile.

Mom was married to her Bible. She said in recent days that she missed so very much sitting at her desk with her Bible in front of her. She read all sorts of Christian literature—classics and the most recently published. She was glued to Christian telecasts and could inform you of the latest in political and social fulfillment of biblical prophecy.

To the very last, Mom had the alert mind of a young adult. She was aware of everything around her. Her logic was precise—and wise.

Mom knew how to witness. She would speak about Jesus to those around her, in recent years to those sharing her meal table at Good Samaritan Village. She would also witness to staff. Everyone knew that Mom’s God was real. And His name was “Jesus.”

She was faithful to chapel services, encouraged the chaplains attending her, and was particularly appreciative of her local church pastors and their families. She spent a lot of hours in intercessory prayer—petitioning for others’ welfare.

When someone died, she’d often ask me, “Do you think he was saved?” “Do you think she knew God?” Mom was knowledgeable that no matter what else happened in this life, making it safely home to heaven was top priority.

Today I have no doubt that Mom made her journey home with Jesus waiting at the gates and Dad right alongside Jesus. Of course, her earthly godly father, Harry Royer, was there as well. And, thanks to God’s mercy upon her mother, she too was at heaven’s entrance, though coming to know Jesus only in the last year of her life here in this sphere.

Now I sit imagining Mom eternally healthy and happy, her smile lighting up the pathway wherever she may go. Heaven is far richer today because Mom walked through those gates. Can’t you just see it all?

And to know it will never end.

Thank you, Mom. You were a precious presence we were privileged to call our own.

OBAMANGST: FIFTY MILLION NEW PATIENTS. NOT ENOUGH DOCS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


“The brain drain.”


They get their medical education in Canada then pick up their paychecks in the US. Been going on for years. Still going on.


Canada does not have enough doctors. If Obama’s Whacko Health Blanket smothers America, the US will not have enough doctors.


All of a sudden fifty million new patients. Where are the medical professionals to care for this floodsweep? They don’t exist.


That means that Medicare is going to pain maximum. That means that elderly who in particular need care are going to go wanting.


My mother was in a luxurious health care unit in Texas. She is 96. Now that facility is imploding. There is one CNA for two wings. Long-standing nurses’ name signs are no longer posted outside their prior offices. And so forth.


Mother is presently cared for in a doctor-owned facility. Now she is receiving superb treatment.


But if the Obama Whack Plan is cemented, these doctors will be worked flat out. That means mother will suffer more than she is suffering today.


The bottom line regarding Obamangst is that people who need medical attention will not have a professional to help them. This goes on in UK and Canada every day. Does the US want this flatout squash?


America will implode as mother’s previous facility is imploding as I type.


America, wake up!


Read OBAMA MOB HYSTERIACS PUSHED BACK BY BRAIN ALIVE CITIZENRY at http://truthinconviction.us/weblog.php?id=P3184

OBAMA MOB HYSTERIACS PUSHED BACK BY BRAIN ALIVE CITIZENRY

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Thinking heads throughout the Republic are finally getting some headway, particularly regarding Obama’s Whack Non-Health Blanket.


Obama is pained due to recent right-thinking citizens howling loudly and long enough. Grassroots town halls have screeched at Congress. The mob hysteriacs who voted in a celebrity rather than a free enterprise, constitution-friendly statesman are losing ground.


As for Obama wanting a Canadian cloned health-blanket, Canada’s health care stinks. My cousin needed immediate spine care. His Halifax Nova Scotia doc was brusque, mean-hearted and just plain crude in his response to my relative’s plea.


The cousin ended up at Lahey Clinic, Burlington MA, for state-of-the-art surgery that responsibly corrected the problem. Thank you, America!


Obama would have wiped that out for a replica of Canada’s health-care wasteland.


There is no use getting starry-eyed over Canada’s socialized meds. It ain’t there except in the eyes of the blind.


Ask any Canadian needing serious care about “the list.” Those two words send shivers up and down every Canadian back. I know for I live part of each year in Canada.


Talking to a medical doctor relative recently, he told me about “the list.”


Citizens are put on “the list” for surgery. It is a waiting line that can go on for years. Yes, years. The doctor told me that he has gone into the hospital where he works, ready to do surgery, only to be told he may as well wait in the room down the hall because others have just been added to “the list.” They are of a more pressing priority than his patient.


There he waits, losing precious professional time. That happens all the time. His wife is a doctor. She told she endures the same. But it is the person in need of the doctor relatives’ immediate care who truly endures the tests of time and eternity.


A friend up the road from our Nova Scotian home was to have a pacemaker. She waited four years for that operation! Four years. In those four years she was always exhausted because her heart was not working correctly. The truth is that she could have died during that time.


There are many others who are now in the grave because their time had not come on “the list.”


Mob hysteriacs put Obama the Anti-America
President in control. But as we are now realizing, the hysteriacs, though many are still loyal space cadets in the brain space, are losing hold. The ground is slowly giving way to the brain alive citizens of this country.


As a Christian, I believe that what is happening right now is God inserting His powerplay into societal happenings for God has a vested interest in this particular country.


This is the only nation ever created by biblical believers seeking a land where they could worship Christ and live by the Bible.


Those founders prayed with their blood. Their petitions are still very much alive and well at heaven’s throne. With God, a thousand years is as a day and vice versa. Those prayers are before God as if they were prayed this morning.


Couple the founders’ prayers with the earnest biblical believers’ cries present-tense and you have a mighty call-out to the divine going on 24 / 7. God is responding to those sincere pleas.


We biblical Christians have just begun to witness the divine thrust retrieving our nation for its foundation’s sake.

REMEMBER TO SAY ‘THANK YOU’

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Our company left.


My wife sat across the dining table from me. I looked at her and said, “Thank you. That was a most delicious meal.”


We both laughed. Why the laugh?


Because somebody had to say it: “Thank you.”


Our company had eaten heartily but never once gave any indication that they were thankful for the meal or the work that went into its delivery.


There was a gracious place setting for each. There were candles lit. There were the garnishes as well as the main course. There were the cloth napkins. There was also the background music still playing.


But not even a hint of “Thank you” from our dinner guests.


How can this happen? It’s beyond me. I don’t get it.


When Ollie and Elsie served the most delicious cuisine in their New York home, I can still remember spying their guests arriving from King’s College.


Friends walked through their front door with tidy gifts in hand. It was always a kind gesture to arrive with some present, not expensive, just thoughtful.


There was such a genuine friendship feeling in the air. Smiles. Greetings. Sometimes an embrace. Pleasant exchanges all. Forget the crabby selfish world outside; we were safe while
at Ollie and Elsie’s.


Throughout the meal there were sincere gestures of appreciation extended to host and hostess. Those expressions were as bright bows tying up heartfelt words offered to the two presenting their welcoming table.


Has all that been lost in the hurry and self-centeredness of our times? Could be.


But my memories are intact. I will sometimes just sit on an evening, watching the sun go down over Lake Sebago, to think back to Ollie and Elsie’s lovely home. What made it lovely was not just their relaxing furnishings but the thoughtful people who knew them best.


When the evenings closed out with farewells, everyone there could look back over an enriching exchange. It never failed. Ollie and Elsie obviously knew how to choose cultured, well-mannered friends.


Last evening we had a meal at Debbie and Steve’s home. The salad plate was a work of art. The fruit platter likewise. The main course was set forth with flair.


There was our favorite background music playing throughout. Debbie is thoughtful that way.


My wife and I have entertained enough over half a century to know full well what goes into making guests feel comfortable and happy. At least we have tried our best. So we knew the preparation that went into Debbie’s set-forth.


Therefore, throughout the meal I mentioned several times how tasty this item was, how scrumptious that item was. My wife did the same. We meant it from the heart; this was no mechanical stimulus-response network.


And at the finish, we looked Debbie in the eye to genuinely express our gratitude for everything—and we meant everything for Debbie had thought through everything. That’s her style.


Does it really take that much effort to say “Thank you” in a variety of ways? Seemingly for some it does.


Thank God there are those who offset the stale space occupied by the thoughtless. And to those who know how to be polite in such a manner, many thanks.

CAN AMERICA RETRIEVE ITS FRIENDLINESS?

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


There is less conversation today, researchers tell us.


There is thereby less friendly exchange for the one influences the other.


It used to be that when I walked through this New England village people greeted one another: “Good morning.”


Now they cast their eyes away or downward, that is, except for persons my age—70. They still hold onto the old-fashioned American friendliness. They even open doors for one another.


America can retrieve its friendliness again. But it will happen chiefly when genuine Christians craft the milieu.


Christians however have been caught in the present-tense fear fog. They have distanced themselves, even from one another. Have you noted that?


I have.


The other day my wife and I went Dunn’s Cabins alongside a large pond where campers hang out summers. I heard someone strumming on a guitar. Rhonda said: “That’s a group of Christians over there having evening devotions.”


I thought how quaint. And how inviting. So I walked toward them, expecting some sort of smile montage. Perhaps someone would wave me a greeting. There were about two dozen gathered by the water’s edge.


Only one smiled toward me, waving his teen hand. All others basically ignored me altogether.


All lawn chairs were taken but there was an edge to a picnic table bench so I sat on the edge.


The fellow plucking the guitar barely looked in my direction though the group was singing gospel choruses.


When they finished that one chorus, the guitarist looked at me, smiling slightly, said his first name at which time I smiled in return and spoke my first name. I supposed that was our twosome greeting and would suffice.


There was a chill in the summer evening humidity.


I thought: “Is the prophecy of end times’ hearts growing cold even pressing upon born again souls?”


I have thought this in other venues in the last several years. I don’t think I’m imaging this negativism. It hurts. It’s not nice. It doesn’t have to be that way.


Christians must make certain that the “hearts growing cold” does not take over their own faces and feelings. We must keep the gospel warm and pleasant for it represents the Spirit of Christ within.

AMERICAN CONSERVATIVES: LET LOOSE TOTALLY INTO GOD

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


The devil impregnates believers’ minds constantly with doubt.


God is not up to it. God is late. God doesn’t know yet. God is not all that mighty. God is not used to the present crisis.


These thoughts fly off and on through believers’ brains every waking hour, except for a few hiatus spiritual highs and in some souls’ case of maximum saintliness.


What American believers must do is to be aware of this devilment and cast it far into the sea.


To do that the Republic’s conservative biblical constituents must make certain that they have let loose totally into God. That means a complete surrender of money, sex, dreams, future, and so forth—everything.


Has God upheld His promises to date in the believers’ lives? Of course He has. Then trust that keeping into every tomorrow, none exempt.


Once this nation’s grassroots’ Christians genuinely yield their all to God, God will act in such splendor and completeness as to amaze our entire culture. The next astounding acts in human history will be performed, not by mortals’ ingenuity, but by God’s intervention.


The Christians’ surrender to God’s perfect scheme in matters global will enhance that intervention.


Satan would put a fog of fear over believers’ thought patterns so as to drag them through the day, hesitate due to faithlessness and prove a major hindrance to the Republic’s spiritual health.


That fog must be recognized. Then it must be negated outright. This must take place in every individual’s soul and in every truly biblical congregation as a church family.


When this takes place from coast to coast, the entire spiritual climate of America will change in gusto and holiness. Spiritual fires will ignite all over the place.


The secular sphere will take note. The lax believers will come to the fore. And our futures will be ignited with the heavenly power of Pentecost.


American conservatives: let loose totally into God. Do it. Now. Ask your family members to do just that. Ask your Bible classes to make such a conscious yielding to the eternal throne.


Each morning when Christians wake up, Satan comes to their first thoughts with their wondering if God is actually up to taking are of that day’s difficulties.


I recall a sign on the front entrance of the old farmhouse where we stayed as guests in North Ireland. It read: “Good Morning. Let the stress begin.”


Christians in this country awaken with that motto stretched across their brows, many of them not getting a full sleep the night prior.


Then they go through the next waking hours wondering when God’s energy is going to peter out. When is the weak deity going to show up as the real thing? Satan keeps pestering them every time a problem surfaces.


Christians must conclude once and for all that every difficulty has been handled by God before they were thought of. God indeed knows His own Word: “There is nothing new under the sun.”


Therefore, the next vital spiritual move in this nation is the banding of Christians alongside God in total trust. No more fretting that God cannot do the job. Instead, a letting loose into God as never before.

STOP CONSERVATIVE POLITICAL RELIGION

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


Too many political conservatives with biblical values as their base have inadvertently turned their zeal into a religion without realizing it.


What happens when political conservatives turn their social activism into a religion?


It subtly wipes out God as God.


I hear conservatives go on and on about this issue and another. They are in reality positing their own human options for fixing America in particular.


This means talking about who conservatives can locate as their ‘real leader’. It focuses on how to turn liberalism around with one political tool or another.


These well-meaning citizens give forth on how to save the Republic by one logical move or another. And so forth.


What occurs when this kind of dialogue persists? And I mean persisting to an ‘over the line’ position.


It means that world-think moves in place of simple-faith-in-God-being-God. Very easily world think can overtake an American biblical believer for we are socially conditioned to assume logic as prime mover.


We are so quick to opt for reasoning out life situations, especially the present national sludge.


However, biblical believers know that world-think is basically carnal. It is the opposite of simple faith.


Now simple faith is difficult for American biblical believers for they privately consider simple faith as the edge of ignorance. For some, it is naïve to the dangerous degree.


Not so. Simple faith is the call of deity throughout Scripture. For instance, God told Moses to take his rod, place it upon the Red Sea and then watch what would happen.


Moses held to simple faith, followed through as a child, and the Sea separated.


God told Noah to build an ark for it was
going to rain for the first time in planetary history.


Noah took many years to build a huge vessel, never once seeing a drop of rain from the skies. But he acted in simple, naïve, child-like faith.


Jesus told His disciples that on the third day He would resurrect. They didn’t get it. Yet they got the significance of simple faith when resurrected Jesus scolded His followers on their lack of understanding concerning the ‘third day’ resurrection.


Today biblical believing conservatives active in political concern must pull back their world-think for simple faith.


That means quite a gulp for some in that they have taken on completely the O’Reilly/Beck catechism as gospel truth. How indeed could any thinking person ever give up on that?


Yet that is exactly what biblically believing conservative politically sensitive thinking persons must do. Yes, O’Reilly and Beck and colleagues are on track. They are valuable.


But they are to be marginalized for the biblical believer. At present, too many such believers make them center pieces. Not good for the spiritual condition of the Republic.


Genuine American Christians must wake up every morning with the hope-filled prayer to God that more and more grassroots believers increase their faith in God’s network for this country. It must be God’s network. His ways and thoughts are far above the conservative politically sensitive.


Buoyed faith from the ‘little people’ of God will turn this nation around because they believe solely in God’s work set forefront.


Such people are asked to hold the rod over the sea. They are asked to build the vessel under divine instruction. They are to believe with all their hearts that Jesus is in fact is risen from the dead.


This same resurrection-powered God then has the might to do what He pleases in His own way for America.


I believe that this God will do what He wants; but it certainly would help the country’s spirit health if His children kept step with Him rather than turn their conservative paradigm into a new religion.

THE BIBLE AND FOX NEWS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


I have got hooked on Bill O’Reilly and Glenn Beck. Fox News has become a given.


That means in the past months I have spent a lot of brain cells deciphering the precise logic of conservative newsfeeds.


That means also as a mortal I have been trying to fix the nation, the world in fact. Not doable, of course.


However, I have found that a lot of my biblically believing friends have been doing the same.


The outcome has been much angst. At the same time, thinking caring believers know that part of their commission under Christ is to do His will in this world, hence we labor.


Nevertheless, personally I have concluded that I need a news fast. So I have taken that for about two months.


The outcome is that I feel much refreshed in soul and mind. I am enjoying the day as the Bible states: “This is the day the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”


I have also realized that though conservative newsfeeds are helpful in providing truth in events’ analysis, it is not my responsibility to solve the world’s problems, beginning with America.


In place of scrambling about for planetary answers, I have spent more time in the Bible. That has been a most positive, healthy move.


I think too many biblically based believers have spent too much time in the newsfeeds and not enough time in the divine newsfeeds. We need the divine messages more for our own souls to keep fit. We need them also to receive from the Holy Spirit His logic concerning world happenings.


I am becoming more and more convinced that what the true church can give to the present state of affairs is biblically-true prayer. And more prayer. And still more prayer.


I don’t mean fretting prayers. I mean faith-filled, hope-laced prayers for there is much going on that is the obvious divine working.


For instance, Christ disciples are becoming more sensitive to their frailty. That in itself compels us to rely more on God. As a baseline in doing anything for the eternal, that must be ever forefront in our consciousness.


Further, though there are pockets of apostasy within today’s church structure, there is a tightening of the righteous remnant. That remnant is realizing that it cannot afford to be lax in anything. Believers are to be on guard, totally surrendered to the moment-by-moment directives of the Holy Spirit.


Remaining on the news fast, I ponder more about America’s founding disciples of Christ. They were earnest in their faith.


They read the Bible. They lived the Bible. They honored the Bible. They taught their children the Bible. They used the Bible as a tool in the public school education. The Bible was preached as unerring truth from our first colonies’ pulpits.


That Bible loyalty is what brought down the divine blessings from coast to coast in molding this nation. The Bible as central to all that was called “America” is what has yielded the fruitage we now enjoy.


Therefore, I would recommend that biblical believers who have become mesmerized by conservative newsfeeds slice off more time for the Bible and less for the newsfeeds. In doing so, the newsfeeds will surely continue, but the genuine believers will strengthen their tethered souls.


It’s a time not for tethered souls but for robust prayer warriors who have their faith grounded solidly on the Scriptures.

SWEET PATIENCE

SWEET PATIENCE


J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .run with patience. . ." Hebrews l2:l


We laugh about being impatient. The reason that we treat that with humor is due to the fact that its seriousness is overwhelming to us. We are not good at learning the patience lesson. We know it. We are not proud of it. We want to do something about it but continue to put off the lesson training.


However, the cross beckons us to be patient in the will of God. We know that that is our dream. We want to fall in line with the step of God, indeed breathe the breaths of God. We do not want to stir up the dust in front of God's walkings, nor do we want to be laggards in traipsing behind Him. We want to keep in step, day in and day out. That would be such a peaceful way of going the journey, we conclude.


Then it is that the cross is so extremely beneficial to us. The cross is going to bring you into pace with the divine. And yet you say that you truly desire that. Then it is that you will see the cross as your gift. He has presented it to you for a variety of reasons--one of them being the lesson of patience learned.


". . .run with patience. . ." Running? Yes running. Not lagging. Not ripping up
the pavement. But running with God as God would run. It is a well measured run. It is a healthy run. It is what keeps your soul lean and trim. It contributes to the on-going healing of your spirit. Then you want to run as God would have His children run--with patience.


God turns to the right. You turn with Him. God turns to the left. You turn with Him. Then God goes uphill. You go uphill with Him. Next it is into the vale. You go into the vale, too. It is the run with God that then stretches out into the horizon which never ends. It is a run which keeps on going and going and going into the eternal run.


Patience in the moment-by-moment teaches you how to listen to your athletic coach, how to heed His commands and watch for His signals. It is a run which is difficult if you think you are running the track alone; then you get into real trouble--in too many ways. But when you do get into trouble, then you want to get hold of yourself in order to remind your ears to listen more carefully. When you do, you will pick up again with the Master's directives. He has not left you. You had left Him. As soon as you heed Him anew, you will discover that He has been there all along.


Patience is then stripping down for the run so as to let the coach dress you. He will garb you in just enough to make you humble and modest. He will not attach unnecessary regalia. That would impede the run.


Patience will also loosen you up so as not to grab hold of unnecessary items. You don't need them. The world will tell you that you do; but the coach will remind you that there is very little that you need in this life to make the run. Then the coach will point to His own earthly journey when He indeed had not even a pillow for His head.


Patience will remind you to be more like your coach and less like the world. You then will sense such joy come upon your spirit because you have come into another plateau of life realization. It is that plane whereby the coach is able to get hold of your heart for the unseen goal. You will then come to understand that the patient run has its own rewards. And they are not all at the close of the race; many are for enjoying right here on earth in this existence.


Patience is a most valuable commodity in that it brings the cross closer and closer to Calvary Christ. And in that is your patience fulfilled. It is realizing that the whole patient lesson has been to reveal more of Jesus' heeding of the Father's will. He then will teach you how to do the same.

PUTTING DOWN THE SHAME

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .despising the shame. . ." Hebrews l2:2


Because Jesus knew that the cross was not the end of it all, He rejected the threat of the cross and its shame. He would not permit Satan to fool Him into believing that the disgrace of the crucifixion would be the conclusion of His ministry. Instead, Jesus proceeded to endure, knowing that joy with the Father would culminate His obedience.


". . .despising the shame. . ." is a way of saying treating the attacks of Satan with the emptiness that they really are. Satan attacks us on the cross journey with such overwhelming threatenings--fears upon fears, dreads upon dreads. So it is that night swirls around our heads so as to cave us in with depression.


Do not listen to the dark whispers of the snake. They are but smoke screens of awful concoctions plotted by imps to do in your faith.


Instead, realize that the cross is already enveloped in resurrection morning presence. Know that the Father who sent you His comforting Spirit has already won the victory. You are merely going through what is destined to every believe--the way of the cross bearing--privileged journey with Jesus that it is.


You then can laugh at the devil. Tell his fellow demons to take flight.


As Satan tells you that you are going to lose it, come to poverty, be tossed off balance, done in thoroughly, then remind hell's citizens that you are onto their tactics and so will not be taken in by them. You are into Christ Jesus--the resurrected One--Victor, Master, King, Lord, Omega, The Amen.


If you lose all things material, you will win spiritually. You will not succumb even if martyred for your soul will be welcomed into the heavenly realm with the saints who have preceded you. Christ Himself will take you by the hand into His abode prepared for you.


Be sure to list all the possessions to which you used to cling. Then inform Satan that you do not own them. They have been sacrificed already to God above for gospel purpose. They have no name of yours tagged to them. They never will. You have them on loan for eternity's use; but you have no hold upon them. They are merely gifts from the Father of lights for you to return to Him; and you have already done that.


Tell Satan that he cannot snatch your soul. It has been washed in the blood of the Lamb. You are not your own but have been purchased by the blood price of God's own Son. Therefore, you cannot lose. You already are winning on every side. Earth and its "charm" is no match for eternity's wealth. Therefore, you have consigned your now and then to the God of gods, the Maker who formed and redeemed you.


Continue that litany of praise in worship to Christ your Keeper. With such rejoicings you will send demons in flight. They will not be able to clutch their claws into your heart of hearts.


You will have despised the shame! You will have treated lightly the embarrassment accompanying the cross. In that, the cross will have turned into its bridge from earth to eternity, from pain into glory.

JESUS HOPE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .Jesus. . .the Author and Finisher of our faith. . ." Hebrews l2:2


We know that we are not our own when we recognize fully that Jesus owns our start and conclusion.


Jesus has gone to the cross, not simply to make life happy for us. Not just to help us with our problems. He has gone to the cross in order to purchase our existences.


We begin life thinking that we have the right to our ourselves. We act that out. We purchase and plan, we set our goals, we brag on how much we have accomplished, we tell others what we are going to do and where we are going to go.


We live each day of given breath as if we have manufactured our own beings.


This is the daily reenactment of Eden's folly. It is playing Adam and Eve all over again. We hear the enticing lure of the snake and go for it. We bite into the forbidden fruit.


We claim that we know our courtesies, one of them acting out humility. Yet we are the proud of the proud for we claim our own lives. This is utter nonsense. The lungs in our chests are gifts from the Father of lights. The air moving through lungs is provided from without. The brain cells which perk in out heads were not molded by our own egos.


We owe everything to the "outside." Everything. Therefore, to claim to own anything is to speak as a fool. However, mortals live this out day in and day out. Such hubris.


When we are strapped to the cross, however, we begin to see truth. We come into reality as heaven sees reality. And in that is the unspeakable blessing--all due to the cross bearing.


We do not start and finish anything. God is in charge of our conception and points to our exit.


For the children of grace, Jesus has become their Alpha and Omega, the Author and Finisher of their faith. By an act of faith, one acknowledges in humility that there is Someone other than self in charge of everything. In that act of faith, one comes into wisdom and so discards the foolish haughtiness of the warped-thinking human creature.


Knowing that Jesus, the victorious One, is in control of your today and tomorrow, you then can relax. There is a rest for the people of God; it begins with the realization that Jesus, the blessed Savior, is more than adequate for your cross journey. Then let Him lead you. Do not look one second ahead in fretting. Let Jesus set the race. Let Jesus guide you to the finish for He is the Finish.


You now may lay yourself down to sleep. You now may get up to cross carry. You now may let go of all that is entwining itself to snare you. You now may sing joyfully of the praises to your God. You now may envision the joy that has been set before you. You now may contemplate residing at the throne base where God seated. You now may bask in the grace available to you.


Jesus--the start and completion of your all. There is no wiser move that can be made than to invite this Jesus to be Himself in your soul--the Author and Finisher of your faith.

YOUR THRONE POWER

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .is set down at the right hand of the throne of God." Hebrews l2:2


Jesus instructs His own to take up their crosses, then follow Him.


Jesus has told His own that where He is, there they will be also.


Jesus spent His earthly stay in seeking to bring salvation to those who would repent of their sins, give up their all in order to know His all, then follow Him through the door of death into heaven.


Jesus, having been true to the Father's plan--even to the cross--then sat down at the right hand of the Father. Where He is, there the disciples will house as well--at the throne.


Keep in the forefront of your allegiance to Jesus that you are going to close your cross journey at the base of the throne in glory.


Jesus endured the cross agony because of the joy which was set before Him. We too endure the cross agony because of the joy awaiting us.


Can there be any other location that a Christian would seek to terminate life's sojourn but at the throne of God? Surely not. The throne of God is the apex of all geographies.


We do not deserve to bed down there. Yet Creator God has invited us there.


God, being a personal God, seeks friendships. The complete deity is not finally whole until He has a friend. That paradox works its way through to the eternities when Creator God discovers friendships in those who have traversed the Calvary road with Him.


In that eternity, there is no pain, cross bearing, injustice, spittle hanging from righteous faces. There is no whippings of the back and legs. There is no mockery, no crown of thorns. There is no spear thrust into a side and no taunting from the worldlings who simply want something to break their Friday boredoms.


In that eternity, there is only holiness, beatitude which emanates from the throne, goodness and kindness, gentleness and gratitude.


No matter how heavy the cross may be today, look ahead of you to see that awesome throne. It is already there. Just as the race has already been set for you, so the close of the race is already prepared for you. It is where God resides--the God who so loved the world that He gave Himself upon the tree to redeem your soul from hell.


We cannot fathom that love here and now. We will have forever to contemplate and enter into the love of loves which provided us with the rescue mission from hell. Therefore, whatever injustice you are dealing with now will be forgotten immediately as soon as you are invited to the throne.


Jesus kept the throne in front of Him. But not so much the throne as fellowship once again with the Father. You too do not really care about the throne as much as you do what the throne represents--fellowship with God Himself.


Jesus has instructed you not to look into the tomorrows with worry. But He has invited you to look into the future hope. That is your privilege because He has bought it with His blood spilt. Then receive His extended hand as He leads you onward. Endure the pain now; it will be the enjoyment of the throne then.

SETTING THE SETTINGS

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .the race that is set before us." Hebrews l2:l


In other words, we don't make our own maps. We don't chart our own journey. God does.


We have lost it to such an extent that most of our thinking is spent on preparing our own charts. We are so wound up in this project that we often claim all sorts of spiritual grandeur while in fact living the cheap grace life. It is appalling.


We claim God as Lord. We call Him Master. We refer to Jesus as being Savior and King. Then we go out of worship to claim our own futures. We do exactly what we want with our money, our connections, our bonanzas, our winnings and trophies.


How is all this contradiction to be tolerated?


It isn't to be tolerated. It is to be despised. Then despise your own hypocrisy, no matter how many others are into the same disease. Do not become comfortable with the great numbers who are into claiming one religious foundation with their lips while living out the practical egocentricity of their worldly ambitions.


Look clearly at who you are. See yourself honestly as God sees your self. Ask God to reveal truth to you; He will do just that if your prayer is sincere.


Then when you genuinely take stock of who you are and what you are doing with the resources heaven has provided you, you will realize that you have held too much onto the helm. You have clutched tenaciously to the controls. That simply cannot be permitted if you state that God is Lord of your being. It cannot be tolerated once you come upon the naked truth.


Therefore, let go of your claim upon the journey. You have nothing to say about it. You don't own it; you don't control it. It is but an illusion to conclude such. With one second's time, the project you claim to be under your sway can be wiped out. In many lives, it is wiped out every day.


Heaven's wisdom would then warn you that the race has already been set before you. All the coach then asks of you is to run it with patience, learning from the cross how to do that. That is all that you are asked to do. How simple then is your responsibility under God. How very, very plain and basic it is.


What a relief then to let go of your illusions of grandeur. You are not equipped to journey on your own course for there is no "your own course" to get hold of. It is but a mist of your imagination.


What a treasure of heart and head then to come upon the truth that the whole sojourn is put into path by Creator God alone. Then all you have to do is find His pace, get into it, and run with patience with His company enveloping you.


What a way to live!


Do it. Go for it. Live it. Now.

NAILED FOR ME

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .forgiven you all trespasses. . .nailing it to his cross. . ." Colossians 2:l3-l4


Paul wrote that the law system of the Old Covenant had stood against the believers continually; however, Calvary's cross had that system nailed to that tree so as to provide forgiveness to all repentant souls.


Forgiven of all wrong-doings through the cross!


That is the gospel. There is no system which can take the place of divine mercy, the latter provided by the Sinless Sacrifice! There is no legalism, no structure, no judgment which can stand against the truly repentant soul once that soul has come under the Lamb's blood.


If then our Holy Savior has taken upon His head our unholiness, blotting out the sins forever as if they never occurred, all the more we should be more than attached to the cross. It makes us one with the Savior's offering. It makes us united with Him Himself. We then become wedded to not only the divine grace but the Grace-provider.


Would we then find any other location on the planet by which to house? Not so. There is no other place to turn to if we want to stand as clean before heaven. It is the cross. So we take up our daily cross, not only to learn its lessons, but also to carry our daily thanksgiving to heaven for such a provision.


We are saved from our sins, their attending guilt and the penalty of hell. We are saved by the kindnesses of Jesus--His taking our place upon the tree. He took the cross that we might carry our cross as a witness to the world that we are more than grateful for the gift presented us.


ALL sins. Complete redemption. Perfection personified in Him. There then is not one trespass which we have blotched against our records which cannot find removal by means of His spilt blood!


The cross stands high upon history's hill as that present from glory's throne which makes hope possible.

WITH HIM SAFE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .God. . .hath he quickened together with him. . ." Colossians 2:l2-l3


It is amazing to think that God has raised up His Son while at the same time has made like provisions for our resurrection.


How could we ever be invited to be a part of the same miracle power as Jesus Christ, the sinless One?


Yet we are. God raised up Jesus from the dead, while at the same time making such might available to all the bearers of the cross. We are quickened together with Christ Jesus. We are brought to life with our Redeemer.


However, it would be audacious to even conclude that we could share the same tomb let alone the same empty tomb with the Redeemer of the world. How can it be? We--clods of clay, rebellious to the teeth, set in our stubbornness and ignorant of all matters holy--are included in the resurrection presence with the One who took on our sins.


This is astounding gospel. Nevertheless, the Word informs us that this is exactly what occurs when we come into the redeeming power of the Creator God. He extends to us such absolute mercy that His housing becomes our
housing.


No wonder we should awaken each morning with such prostrate souls before the Sinless Sacrifice. Yet we claim Him as Monarch while serving ourselves to our own appetites. Nevertheless, once the truth of our comradeship with the Perfect Sacrifice truly dawns upon our spirits, we should never return again to such conceits.


From this moment onward, promise yourself and heaven that you will truly know your place before the God of the universe. You will not only testify to the gift of humility provided by the Spirit; you will live out the humility in actuality--particularly as such relates to the Lord Jesus.


Then you will live out that humility to the "least of these, my brethren," realizing that as you humble yourself before others, you are humbling yourself before the Lord.


Unburden yourself of your pride and take on the cross as you have never embraced it before this. In that cross you will discover the grace of a God who is willing not only to lift His Son out of the grave, but to bring you out of the grave by the same love. This divine compassion then is beyond our fathoming. No wonder we are left breathless when contemplating the cross, the
resurrection, the ascension and the workings out of the graces provided by such astounding gifts.


Loving Father in heaven bestows upon us such honor as to include our wayward, tawdry lives into the same envelope as the Son Jesus. Can it be? Yes, it is true.


God has raised Jesus from the dead. This same God has indeed raised us up "with him, having forgiven you all trespasses. . ." Colossians 2:l3.


Sing the Praise of such news. Let others know of the redemption scheme. But more importantly, thank heaven every time this inspired truth comes to mind so as to make your own Creator God's heart happy. There is nothing that we forget more than to return to our Lord God some sacrifice of gratitude by which to make the divine heart glad.


Do so now and forevermore. Amen.

KINGDOM GRACE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


". . .we receiving a kingdom. . .let us have grace. . ." Hebrews l2:28


When you carry the cross, you keep your eyes on the King. Knowing that the King is mastering your cross journey, you thereby understand that you are a part of His Kingdom.


"Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven."


There is a spiritual kingdom of light active on this planet; King Jesus is its Monarch. All those who carry crosses faithfully are citizens of that realm.


There is likewise a spiritual kingdom of light active in the heavenly sphere; King Jesus is likewise its Monarch. All those who remain true to the cross journey conclude their traveling as eternal citizens of glory.


In the meantime, the cross bearer is never without the Kingdom credentials. That in itself gives you the courage to endure to the end of this earthly stay.


Further, the Kingdom of Jesus ". . .cannot be moved. . ." That is, it is stable. All else in this life is unstable. It is always in the process of vanishing. One day in history's future, the earth will be folded up as an old garment and done away with. Everything but the Monarch and His citizenry will be obliterated.


How foolish then of the worldlings to cling to anything here as if it were lasting. It is not. How wise then of the believers to let go of everything here for it is passing.


Yet how many believers continue daily in the process of amassing earthly items as if they were lodged into the permanent? It is sad. It is also cumbersome for it impedes the cross journey.


Know that no matter how difficult the pain of the cross carrying, you are carrying the sign of the permanent realm. He carried it. You carried it. He continued through Calvary to resurrection presence; you likewise continue into resurrection presence. That is the only reality which is truly real; all else is but a mock-up of the real.


". . .let us have grace. . ." It is the grace gift that make such insight possible. Without that grace, you too would be locked into the temporary, referring to it as permanent. Grace permits you to see eternal fact. That vision positions you then to make the eternally correct decisions for your gospel witness here and your heavenly destiny when you die.


Let us have grace for what? ". . .whereby we may serve God acceptably with reverence and godly fear." The grace gift has one purpose--to provide us with the wherewithal to bring all our efforts to the Monarch for His praise. Every word, work and motive then is set in motion to augment the glory of the Ruler Jesus.


What do you do today which will bring reverential acclaim to the Sacrifice? Is your life so stripped of self-centered ambition that you move and influence solely for the good of Jesus witness?


As serfs of His Kingdom, you are commissioned to die out to your own life drives in order to submit to that which will outlast you. It is a Kingdom which will endure the world's demise. Balanced logic would then conclude that it is the sole purpose for your existence. Surrender to that high purpose.

AMERICA: GOD IS IN CHARGE

J. Grant Swank, Jr.


God is in charge of unique America especially because of its founders who loved God supremely.


Their loyalty to God will be honored particularly for this nation. God does not forget. A day is as a thousand years with God.


God, by His own nature, honors the founding righteous mothers and fathers today and into America's future.


With that righteous remnant at the unique start of this nation, combined with the righteous remnant of today--no matter how small for God has never won the number’s game--America will witness God's reaction to today's national decadence as well as God's righteous remnant maintaining the biblical values.


As with Sodom and Gomorrah, God is merciful and patient for ten mortals’ sake.


So with America, its unique righteous start combined with its present-tense core of biblical believers, God will continue to survey each situation and respond accordingly. This will be surprising to the believers for they may have calculated some other pattern by which to rescue but God may go another route.


In any case, God will discipline the evildoers and reward the righteous.


There is no other country in human history with America's righteous beginning. No other county. Therefore, God has a vested interest in this nation due to that. And because of God's own holy nature He must honor still that start along with the holy disciples' cry heavenward.


God is God.


God is in charge.


The Bible is laden with verses that warn that ungodly rulers are but wisps in the wind and their ungodly rules are as paper. That goes for the Obama regime today.


God will act decisively.


God will act powerfully.


God will cover His own children.


God will honor his own disciples' pledge. There is no doubt about any of that.


I have much hope for America's future for God is networking right now exactly His perfect response to America's present state and no believer can decipher it for it is a holy knowledge kept in heaven's wisdom till the time of release.


I believe this with all my heart.