“Fundamentalists don't change, people quit being fundamentalists!” —Pastor Jack Hyles
Saturday, June 29, 2024
Grace Is Not “Cheap,” It Is Totally FREE
Tuesday, June 25, 2024
Repent Of Your Sins Documentary
(Documentary, a false gospel exposure)
Monday, June 24, 2024
Tender Hearted And Cold Hearted People Just Don't Mix
Here is an excellent quote from Pastor E.M. Bounds (1835-1913) which made an impact upon me as a young Christian man over 35 years ago:
'The world' includes the mass of humanity that is alienated from God and therefore hostile to the cause of Christ. It involves worldly affairs, earthly things, riches, pleasures, and pursuits that are shallow, frail, and fleeting. These things stir desire, draw us away from God, and are obstacles to the cause of Christ. The divorced or torn relationships between Heaven and earth, between God and His creatures, finds its expression in the term 'the world.'” —Pastor Edward M. Bounds, a quote from chapter 7 - Overcoming The Enemy Of God, from the classic book titled: “GUIDE TO SPIRITUAL WARFARE”
1st John 2:15-17, “Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever.”
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Saturday, June 22, 2024
The Foolishness Of Comparing Our Self With Others
Thursday, June 20, 2024
Look At People As Broken Instead Of Bad
For millennia, a diagnosis of leprosy meant a life sentence of social isolation. People afflicted with the condition now known as Hansen’s disease—a bacterial infection that ravages the skin and nerves and can cause painful deformities—were typically ripped from their families, showered with prejudice and cruelly exiled into life-long quarantine.
Wednesday, June 19, 2024
Learn To Be A Friend At Midnight
Job 16:1-4, “Then Job answered and said, I have heard many such things: miserable comforters are ye all. Shall vain words have an end? or what emboldeneth thee that thou answerest? I also could speak as ye do: if your soul were in my soul's stead, I could heap up words against you, and shake mine head at you.”
Sunday, June 16, 2024
God Deliver Us From Wicked And Unreasonable Men
Then I opened the cardboard box with anticipation to see my new dream banjo, but saw that the case was filthy, covered with a thick layer of fine shop dust. Even though that made a bad impression, I let it go, figuring it's just dust that I can wipe off myself.
When I opened the case I was delighted to see a nice handsome looking banjo in a green velvet interior. But when I lifted out the banjo a part fell off. It was a nut that came off the tailpiece. So I removed the pot cover and fastened the nut. I noticed that the tailpiece hadn't been adjusted at all, and was sticking all the way up. So, I adjusted the tailpiece parallel with the banjo head.
I tuned the banjo and went to play it but immediately noticed that the intonation was way off the mark. That is, when you strum the banjo strings open (unfretted) it sounds very nice, but when you fret the strings to play a chord it sounds awful because the distance is incorrect from the nut to the bridge. I spend 4 hours trying to set the bridge in different positions, but nothing worked. When I moved the bridge 1/2" toward the tailpiece, the intonation became accurate on the lower frets, but the higher frets were way out of pitch. When I moved the bridge back slightly, I couldn't get the banjo to have proper intonation, which made it worthless to me.
The Hatfield is the nicest sounding banjo I have ever played (I haven't played many). I have a Recording King Elite 85 with a maple 27 3/8" scale neck. The Hatfield has a standard 26 1/4" scale mahogany neck. The Hatfield sounded MUCH better than my Recording King in tone and resonance. Unfortunately, the best sounding banjo is worthless if it won't play in tune. It was late on Wednesday, so I went to sleep for the night.
Thursday morning I went back to work trying to resolve the intonation problem with the Hatfield. I had purchased a Deering Goodtime Special student banjo earlier this year. When it arrived the bridge was laying sideways. I didn't mind setting the bridge position and intonation, and I did, which took me about 10 minutes and has been very accurate since. The point being that I DO know how to adjust a bridge and set the intonation on a stringed musical instrument. I used to work as a truck mechanic, so I am mechanically inclined. I couldn't get the Hatfield banjo to adjust.
There was also a bad buzz on string four, because the truss rod was too tight. So, I removed the truss rod cover on the headstock and loosened the truss rod, but in the process stabbed my hand on one of the four 1/2" sharp strings ends that Arthur Hatfield carelessly left sticking out on the tuning pegs. Blood was all over my hand. I was frustrated, so I took a photo and sent it to Arthur, to let him know kindly that he needs to trim the string ends in the future at the tuning peg, and not leave them sticking out 1/2" for someone else to cut them self. He got mad at me and at no time ever bothered to apologize for anything. He just wickedly didn't care.
I asked him for any suggestions to remedy the bad intonation, but he didn't want to deal with it and just insisted that I return the banjo to him for a full refund. I was heart broken. I didn't want my money back, I wanted a professional banjo. The guy couldn't have cared less. Like my pastor said a couple months ago in his Sunday morning sermon, the heathens are just doing their job being heathens.
So, yesterday I shipped the Buck Creek banjo back to Arthur Hatfield in Glasgow, Kentucky, but I am very sad. I loved the sound of the banjo, but it was unplayable because of the poor intonation and the builder wasn't willing to make things right with me, except to refund my money. He even horribly rubbed it in my face that he has deposits from three people waiting to buy a Buck Creek banjo from him. I kindly asked him what that had to do with the fact he sent me a defective banjo? What a horrible man.
Well, praise the Lord anyhow. I'm back to square one wanting to purchase a professional banjo. I'm coming along nicely in my banjo practice. I've been making backing tracks for the banjo and freely sharing them with other banjo enthusiasts online.
Lord willing, I plan to make many more backing tracks, and also some banjo recordings at some point down the road. I'm working on learning several songs right now. The progress is slow but rewarding. I enjoy making backing tracks and freely sharing them with other banjo enthusiasts. My favorite banjo artist is Dave Hum (1966-2012). I love this man's music!
Dave had three banjos, a Chinese made Epiphone (Gibson's cheaper banjo line), an Ode banjo (made in the 1970's in Arkansas), and his main banjo that he played 95% of the time, a 1992 ESS (Earl Scruggs's Standard) Gibson banjo. I am in a peculiar situation. I live in Pensacola. Even though it is the deep south, and we do have a few music stores here, they don't sell any high end banjos. So I don't have any way to play different banjos to see which make and model I like and want to purchase. I have to rely on watching YouTube videos and reading reviews online.
That is why I chose to buy a Hatfield Banjo. I had read a bunch of positive comments about Mr. Hatfield and his banjos online, so I am bewildered that the banjo he sent me was so shoddy in quality and that his attitude is so horrible and unwilling to cooperate to work with me to remedy the problem. I had offered to send him more money and swap banjos with a different one with proper intonation, but he was mean and refused. I don't know what his problem is. Evidently his success has gone to his head, like PCC.
Perhaps it is the Bible verses in my email signature. Perhaps he resents me as a Christian and this is really about his anger against Jesus Christ (John 7:7), and has nothing to do with me at all. I'm still scratching my head, wondering what happened (Ephesians 6:12).
When you pay someone $3,000 for a banjo—you don't expect to randomly find it laying on your front porch, and receive it filthy with dust all over the case, and then a part falls off the banjo the first time you pick it up, and it won't play in tune, and the tailpiece hasn't been adjusted, and it has a bad buzz on string four, and then you cut your hand open on a sharp string sticking out trying to adjust the truss rod that the builder failed to do right at his shop, and then the builder gets mad at you when you kindly complain to him. 𝟐𝒏𝒅 𝑻𝒉𝒆𝒔𝒔𝒂𝒍𝒐𝒏𝒊𝒂𝒏𝒔 𝟑:𝟐, “𝑨𝒏𝒅 𝒕𝒉𝒂𝒕 𝒘𝒆 𝒎𝒂𝒚 𝒃𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒍𝒊𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒇𝒓𝒐𝒎 𝒖𝒏𝒓𝒆𝒂𝒔𝒐𝒏𝒂𝒃𝒍𝒆 𝒂𝒏𝒅 𝒘𝒊𝒄𝒌𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒆𝒏: 𝒇𝒐𝒓 𝒂𝒍𝒍 𝒎𝒆𝒏 𝒉𝒂𝒗𝒆 𝒏𝒐𝒕 𝒇𝒂𝒊𝒕𝒉.”
I kindly told Arthur on Thursday that I am praying for him, but emphasized that he did me wrong, and this is all his fault for not doing better quality work. I told him that it seems like he didn't even bother to play the banjo before boxing it up. This is so sad and unfortunate, because I really had my hopes set high to get a nice banjo. 𝑷𝒓𝒐𝒗𝒆𝒓𝒃𝒔 𝟏𝟑:𝟏𝟐, “𝑯𝒐𝒑𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒇𝒆𝒓𝒓𝒆𝒅 𝒎𝒂𝒌𝒆𝒕𝒉 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒉𝒆𝒂𝒓𝒕 𝒔𝒊𝒄𝒌: 𝒃𝒖𝒕 𝒘𝒉𝒆𝒏 𝒕𝒉𝒆 𝒅𝒆𝒔𝒊𝒓𝒆 𝒄𝒐𝒎𝒆𝒕𝒉, 𝒊𝒕 𝒊𝒔 𝒂 𝒕𝒓𝒆𝒆 𝒐𝒇 𝒍𝒊𝒇𝒆.”
I know it's just a stupid banjo, but I love music. A banjo is a tool to make music. I greatly enjoy playing the banjo, making backing tracks to play along with, and sharing it all with others. Music makes the world a better place! Finding a nice sounding banjo is not easy. I spent $1,795 for my Elite 85 Recording King in 2018. It is a sturdy built banjo with accurate intonation (after I put a compensator bridge on it), but it just doesn't have "that sound" which is coveted by banjo players who desire great tone, like I do.
The Hatfield has a beautiful tone, but without good intonation it was worthless to me, so I reluctantly returned it to banjo hell where it came from. My Deering Goodtime Special I paid $1,099 for earlier this year. It has excellent intonation for a student model. That banjo doesn't even have a truss rod, because the neck is made of hard rock maple. Yet, the intonation is very accurate. The pot is made of violin grade maple. The Goodtime Special has a tone ring inside the pot, and the sound quality is very nice, but not near as exceptional in resonance as the Hatfield Buck Creek was. I've never had the opportunity to play a Gibson, Huber, Deering Golden Era or Calico, Nechville Phantom, Stelling or other $5,000 plus banjos.
I have learned that the average going price today for a great mandolin, Dobro or Banjo is about $5,000. The Dad of the Gospel Bluegrass group from Texas that comes to our church each October to perform at our 3-day revival (my favorite event of the year), showed me his new Dobro in 2022 which cost him $8,000. Great fluffy biscuits in the morning! He sure plays it sweetly. I bought a Gold Tone solid mahogany body Dobro last year for $2,000, which included a Nashville pickup system installed. I love the beautiful quality sound that the Dobro has. I love stringed musical instruments.
Lord willing, I need a quality mandolin after I get a banjo...lol. I'm getting my one man band together. I've been playing a cheap Donner mandolin (a boat anchor), but it's good to learn on. The mandolin I think I'll buy is the Eastman MD505 which comes with a hardshell case for $849 (not a bad deal). It has a solid spruce top. It lists at Eastman for $1,199. If you're not into music you likely won't understand spending insane amounts of money for musical instruments, but if you love making music and want great tone then you know those instruments are worth every single penny. A professional American made mandolin costs about $5,000. A quality ukulele made of koa wood can easily cost $5,000.
That's crazy! Thankfully, there are cheaper high quality Chinese imports like Eastman. Due to the insanely high cost of musical instruments, rising inflation and the struggling U.S. economy, in the future we will see many more Chinese imports in music stores.
I am content with what the Lord has given me over the years. I dropped and cracked my $130 Cort acoustic guitar last month, but it is my favorite guitar, because it plays easy and sounds very organic (natural wood without a lacquer coating to deaden the sound). I bought it locally at Guitar Center in 2022.
Anyway, I was very sad for the past few days because the banjo I had hoped to play for the rest of my life turned out to be a LEMON. But the good thing is that when (Lord willing) I do finally get a great banjo, I will appreciate it all that much more. Dave Hum was a skilled musician on mandolin, harmonica, bongos, guitar and banjo. I don't think he ever played the Dobro or steel guitar. Steel guitar will always be my favorite instrument to hear and play.
I'm okay on mandolin and banjo, but getting better as I play. I've been trying to play the banjo each day, depending on how my neck pain feels. I rarely feel like doing anything due to my constant chronic neck pain and burning nerves. The good thing is that acquired skills on one instrument carry over to others. So, as I increase my dexterity, speed and accuracy playing single note scales on the mandolin, it helps me also play the banjo better (and vise versa).
One of my favorite quotes by Pastor Jack Hyles is:
“The most important job is the one that doesn't get done.”
Friday, June 14, 2024
It's 10 PM, Do You Know Where Your Pastor Is At?
Matthew 7:21-23, “Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven. Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works? And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
The most frightening thing that they said is the phrase, “have we not prophesied in thy name?” That is, they taught others! These hellbound false prophets were sincere. Proverbs 16:25, “There is a way that seemeth right unto a man, but the end thereof are the ways of death.” They followed Christ as their Lord, calling Him “Lord, Lord.” (There's your Lordship Salvation crowd in the Bible.) They did not just a few, but “many” good works. Yet, they were horrified when Jesus told them, “I never knew you: depart from me, ye that work iniquity.”
America's Ungodly Zionist Churches
Today's churches in the United States disgust me, and I know they disgust God. The churches are pathetic today. I am ashamed to be called an American these days. Since October of 2023, Israel's monstrous government has murdered 37,616 innocent Palestinian people in Gaza. I have heard countless loved ones of dead victims in Gaza crying out, “We have nothing to do with Hamas!” Israel is punishing a group of innocent people in retribution for what evil Hamas has done. I do not support Hamas, God forbid. But I also do not support Israel's rampage against innocent families who have done nothing to hurt anyone.
Having said that, I am sick and tired of our ungodly stupid American churches. There is something wrong with a carnal pastor and complicity church congregation who wickedly support the manmade nation of Israel, idolizing them allegedly as “God's chosen people,” while completely despising the Arab people and disregarding the slaughter of 37,616 in Gaza as a form of justice. You are a wicked fool if you support Israel, and if you in any way think that those 37,616 Palestinians deserved by be murdered. The evil that Israel is committing is textbook genocide!
I DO NOT STAND WITH ISRAEL, and shame on you as a Christian if you do. I thank God for Bible preachers like Pastor Chuck Baldwin in Montana, who has exposed Israel for trying to Erase Palestine (preached by Pastor Baldwin in November of 2023). I stand with the innocent people in Palestine, but not Hamas. It is a crying shame that thousands of U.S. college students had to speak up in support of the Palestinians victims, and demand for U.S. universities to stop funding the ungodly nation of Israel, while America's pastors remained eerily silent.
Why Christians Must LEAVE Christian Zionist Churches Before God Can Again Bless AmericaGod Himself has rejected Israel since 586 BC because of their idolatry with other gods. Israel today in 2024 is even worse! Less than 2% profess faith in Jesus as the Messiah, and that includes all of the pseudo-Christian cults. Manmade Israel is NOT the fulfillment of Bible prophecy. Unsaved, Christ-rejecting, Jews are NOT God's chosen people (Romans 2:28-29). Only born-again believers, Jews and Gentiles alike, are of the true seed of Abraham (Galatians 3:26-29).
Tuesday, June 11, 2024
ALLAH — The Greatest Deceiver of Them All!
How can the Prophet Muhammad be a prophet if he has no prophecy? The Quran contains no prophecy at all, whereas the King James Bible contains 31% prophecy.
The Quran unashamedly calls Muhammad’s god the best liar and deceiver of them all!
The Quran describes Allah as the best deceiver there is, a liar who is not above using the same evil and wicked schemes of his opponents.
For example: the Quran calls Allah a makr, in fact the best makr there is:
But they (the Jews) were deceptive, and Allah was deceptive, for Allah is the best of deceivers (Wamakaroo wamakara Allahu waAllahu khayru al-makireena)! S. 3:54; cf. 8:30
Are they then secure from Allah's deception (makra Allahi)? None deemeth himself secure from Allah's deception (makra Allahi) save folk that perish. S. 7:99
Miim-Kaf-Ra = To practice deceit or guile or circumvention, practice evasion or elusion, to plot, to exercise art or craft or cunning, act with policy, practice stratagem.
makara vb. (1)
perf. act. 3:54, 3:54, 7:123, 13:42, 14:46, 16:26, 16:45, 27:50, 40:45, 71:22
impf. act. 6:123, 6:123, 6:124, 8:30, 8:30, 8:30, 10:21, 12:102, 16:127, 27:70, 35:10
n.vb. 7:99, 7:99, 7:123, 10:21, 10:21, 12:31, 13:33, 13:42, 14:46, 14:46, 14:46, 27:50, 27:50, 27:51, 34:33, 35:10, 35:43, 35:43, 71:22
pcple. act. 3:54, 8:30
LL, V7, p: 256 (Source)
He practised DECEIT, GUILE, or CIRCUMVENTION, desiring to do another a foul, an abominable, or an evil action, clandestinely or without his knowing whence it proceeded. (Lane’s Arabic-English Lexicon; source)
"how the word makr (scheming or plotting), which implies deceitfulness or dishonesty, could be attributed to God." (The Quran and Its Interpreters – The House of Imran [State University of New York Press [SUNY], Albany 1992], Volume II, p. 165; italic emphasis ours)
"scheming (makr) is actually an act of deception aiming at causing evil. It is not possible to attribute deception to God. Thus the word is one of the muttashabihat [multivalent words of the Quran]." (Ibid., p. 166; italic emphasis ours)
Ayoub also sources one Muslim who actually boasted of Allah being the best conniver/deceiver/schemer et cetera.
"Qurtubi observes that some scholars have considered the words ‘best of schemers’ to be one of God’s beautiful names. Thus one would pray, ‘O Best of Schemers, scheme for me!’ Qurtubi also reports that the Prophet used to pray, ‘O God, scheme for me, and do not scheme against me!’ (Qurtubi, IV, pp. 98-99; cf. Zamakhshari, I, p. 366)." (Ibid., p. 166)
Then he reminds the apostle of His favour towards him when the people plotted against him 'to kill him, or to wound him, or to drive him out; and they plotted and God plotted, and is the best of plotters.' i.e. I DECEIVED them with My firm GUILE so that I delivered you from them. (The Life of Muhammad: A Translation of Ibn Ishaq's Sirat Rasul Allah, with introduction and notes by Alfred Guillaume [Oxford University Press, Karachi, Tenth impression 1995], p. 323; capital emphasis ours)
Kindly but truthfully said, Islam is of the Devil! John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”
Monday, June 10, 2024
Fools Consider Bacteria On Mars “Life,” But Not A Baby On Earth
The world has always been a wicked place (1st John 5:19). One of the most hideous of all sins is abortion, which according to the inspired Holy Bible is cold-blooded, first-degree, cruel, premeditated murder. I like what the state of Tennessee has been doing now for several years. By law in Tennessee a doctor is required to let a mother hear the heartbeat of her living baby in the womb, before she can get an abortion. The purpose is to ensure that the mother fully understands that she is killing a living human being. No doubt some mothers have changed their mind about getting an abortion. And may I kindly say, having an abortion doesn't make a woman unpregnant, it just makes her the mother of a dead baby. Abortion is evil.
Scientists Find Evidence of Ancient Microbial Life on Mars
“An international team of researchers has discovered compelling evidence that the magnetite crystals in the martian meteorite ALH84001 are of biological origin.” —SOURCEYet, ungodly liberals, kooks and selfish Americans (including our incompetent U.S. Supreme Court) wickedly insist that a living human being in the womb is not a person. Go figure! Heathen liberals consider bacteria on Mars “life,” but not a baby on earth.
You Will Never Be “Well Adjusted” Without Faith In God
Isaiah 26:3, “Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” Isaiah 48:22, “ There is no p...
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John 3:1-3, “ There was a man of the Pharisees, named Nicodemus, a ruler of the Jews: The same came to Jesus by night, and said unto him, R...
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1st John 2:22-23, “Who is a liar but he that denieth that Jesus is the Christ? He is antichrist, that denieth the Father and the Son. Whosoe...
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Psalms 116:15, “Precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints.” It was reported in the news today (September 11, 2024) that...