NOTES ON THE POWER OF THE TONGUE: HARNESSING GOD’S MIGHTIEST GIFT IN A TIME OF ANGER

SCRIPTURE. “Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that ‘reflects our fear of God’ and profound respect for His precepts].”- JAMES 3:10, AMP

QUOTATIONS

ARISTOTLE. “Nevertheless, Rhetoric is useful, because the True and the Just are naturally superior to their opposites, so that, if decisions are improperly made, they must owe their defeat to their own advocates; which is reprehensible.” ― ‘Rhetoric,’ 4th Century BC; edited

SAUER. “What is a word? A sound, a note, a tone which goes out of the mouth! Yet much more! A conveyor of a motion of the spirit, an instrument for manifesting the intelligence, a sign, a sound-symbol of an activity of the soul: Only through the gift of the spirit and speech man becomes really man. Only thus is it that he receives the capacity of inward development. By speech Adam began in Paradise the exercise of his royal authority. At the very beginning, even before the creation of the woman, God Himself brought to him the creatures of the air and the earth, so that he, discerning their natures, should give them suitable names (Genesis 2: 20): and thus was their ‘king’ at the very beginning crowned by the Creator, and speech became, spiritually speaking, the ‘Sceptre of Mankind.’” – Erich Sauer, ‘The Dawn of World Redemption: A survey of the History of Salvation in the Old Testament,’ 1951; edited

BONHOEFFER. “Silence in the face of Evil is itself evil: God will not hold us guiltless. Not to speak is to speak. Not to act is to act.”– Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an attribution based on Robert Hudnut, ‘A Sensitive Man and the Christ,’ 1971; edited

  1. FIRST THOUGHTS

This time I aim God’s Cannons directly at us, beloved, starting with myself at the front of the line. This issue is of the utmost urgency as we watch ourselves increasingly being swept up inside the belly of the most intense andacrimonious National Debate since the years just prior to the American Civil War.

Time for some serious self-examination.

THE GIFT OF SPEECH. As a holder of the Doctorate degree in Philosophy with a specialization in Communication and Social Theory, I have been fascinated with the uniquely extraordinary ‘Gift of Speech’ for nearly all my life. I have even gone so far as to propose that it is the very Divine Signature on every human being.

  • GENESIS 1:27 (AMP). “So God created man in His own image, in the image and likeness of God He created him; male and female He created them.”
  • IMAGO DEI. “Or ‘Image of God,’ means in likeness, or similarity, to God. Humans are created with unique abilities, absent in all other creatures of the earth, that mirror the divine nature of God. The significance of humans being created ‘in the image of God’ is: ‘Our responsibility to recognize and understand rationality and ability to create abstract conceptions from the natural world.’ This gives us the capacity to create a glorious peaceful world or a fallen chaotic environment, depending upon our motives and understanding. Just as Satan fell from God, we are capable of falling from God and suffering the consequences. We must realize our dual potential (Good vs Evil) and act in accordance with God’s Will and Law to create prosperous and benevolent communities and nations.” – EDITORS, ‘Christianity.com,’ June 25, 2019; edited
  • COMMENTARY. “‘So God created man in his own image’ … Which consisted both in the form of his body, and the erect stature of it, different from all other creatures; in agreement with the idea of that body, prepared in Covenant for the Son of God, and which it was therein agreed he should assume in the fulness of time; and in the immortality of his soul, and in his intellectual powers, and in that purity, holiness, and righteousness in which he was created; as well as in his dominion, power, and authority over the creatures, in which he was as God’s viceregent, and resembled Him.” – JOHN GILL, ‘An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments,’ 9 vols., 1746-1763; edited

DK’S TAKE. To Summarize: The Gift of being created to ‘Be like Him,’ carries with it an enormous, sometimes burdensome responsibility. It is through what sociologist GEORGE HERBERT MEAD called “Minded Behavior” and Speech, that Man is charged with the fundamental commission to ‘Make Moral Distinctions’ between good and evil, right and wrong, truth and falsehood. – cf. Joshua 24:15; James 4:17; ‘Mind, Self and Society,’ 1934

No other creature on the earth is given that Royal Charge, just Man. As we all can now testify more than at any other time in our lives, ‘Doing the Right Thing’ is always the harder thing to do, not the easier in this Era of Antichrist in which we all musts CHOOSE every single day, the way we shall “live and move and have our being.’ – cf. Acts 17:28

Through Jesus the Christ and a Life of order, meaning and beneficial purpose – or by and for His Adversary, the Father of Lies, Satan, and a life of endemic chaos, hypocrisy and ultimate destruction.

All of which is mitigated by our Ability for Thought and Speech. Selah.

  1. COVID-19 AND AMERICAN OUTRAGE

I recall reading a book some years back by WILLIAM BENNETT titled, ‘The Death of Outrage: Bill Clinton and the Assault on American Ideals,’ published in 1998. In it, Bennett asked why we saw so little public outrage in the wake of evidence of deep corruption within Bill Clinton’s administration. As focused illustration, he examined the Monica Lewinsky scandal as it unfolded, from Clinton’s denials that he had had sex with a young White House intern, to his testimony before the grand jury, to the Nation’s decision not to remove Clinton from office.

Sound familiar?

AN ANGRY NATION. Fast forward to 2021, some two decades later, and we find, just what? Outrage to be sure, but its focus leaves me fairly numb. Here is one report about why America is so angry by ALVIN POWELL, writing for the ‘The Harvard Gazette’ on August 20, 2020.

“Tensions are high about many things right now in America, and health and safety concerns over the COVID-19 virus rank high among them, particularly in families. Many parents are fearful about in-person classes for their children; others are upset that classes will remain remote. Neighbors are irritated by those not abiding by the latest public health guidelines, and by those who are. Some workers can’t wait to return to their offices; others resent being forced to. No one wants to get sick or lose their job.”

Just one year after Powell’s report was published, the acrimony has escalated into increasingly violent conflicts across the country. Here is a graphic description by a team of reporters for ‘ABC News’ (KELLEHER, TANG & RODRIGUEZ), August 21, 2021 (edited).

“The Hawaii lieutenant governor watched in horror as protesters showed up outside his condo, yelled at him through bullhorns and beamed strobe lights into the building to harass him over vaccine requirements. A parent in Northern California barged into his daughter’s elementary school and punched a teacher in the face over mask rules. At a school in Texas, a parent ripped a mask off a teacher’s face during a ‘Meet the Teacher’ event. A Missouri hospital leader was approached in a parking garage this week by a man from Alabama who handed him papers accusing him of ‘crimes against humanity,’ and it was not the only in-your-face encounter over vaccines and masks.

School board members, county commissioners, doctors and local leaders are regularly confronted at meetings and in public with angry taunts that compare them to the Taliban, Nazis, Marxists and the leaders of Japanese internment camps. Across the country, anti-vaccine and anti-mask demonstrations are taking scary and violent turns, and educators, medical professionals and public figures have been stunned at the level at which they have been vilified for even stating their opinion. And they have been terrified over how far protesters will go in confronting leaders outside their homes and in their workplaces.”

THE GREAT DIVIDE. As we look at the rapidly escalating American Culture War, realizing that the eruptions have many causes, some recent and some historic, it is not difficult to see TWO MAJOR CAMPS fighting one another.

  • TRUMP NATIONALISTS & THE ANTI-VAXXERS. That’s right: Donald John Trump is the chief instigator of the movement to oppose the entire medical establishment to remain unvaccinated. ERIC DOLAN’s piece published in ‘PsyPost’ on June 8, 2021, documented this: “Anti-vaccination profiles on Twitter tend to be more engaged in discussions and rely on a more interconnected social network compared to their pro-vaccination counterparts, according to new research published in Plus One. The study also indicates that former President Donald Trump was one of the key nodes in the anti-vaccination network … We identify former US President Donald Trump as the main influencer in the anti-vaccination web.” DK: Other studies show that Trump has been Anti-Vax since at least 2007, and that Meghan Ellis’ essay for ‘AlterNet’ (March 9, 2021) shows conclusively that Trump’s Christian Nationalism is the driving force for today’s Anti-Vax Movement.

AN AMERICAN TRAGEDY. I have written before and now document my increasing conviction that it is possible, if not probably, that these internecine struggles among and between Americans are leading us to the very edges of a Second Civil War. And it is in every way begun by, now sustained by, and will culminate in a fully Trump-Led America, whether he returns to power or is represented by a handpicked proxy.

  1. THE TEACHING

SCRIPTURE. “Out of the same mouth come both blessing and cursing. These things, my brothers, should not be this way [for we have a moral obligation to speak in a manner that ‘reflects our fear of God’ and profound respect for His precepts].”- JAMES 3:10, AMP

I have wondered for the very longest time just what this passage means, in the context of the Apostle’s severe warnings in this chapter about “our words” that come flowing out of us. Especially during times of stress as we are experiencing today. As many of you, I have always taken it to mean “Don’t be angry! Don’t swear or curse!” And most certainly, we are not to do so by any Biblical measure.

KEY TERMS. But I found some real surprises when I deep-dove into this teaching, as I expect you will find as well. So, now to the central Words and Ideas in this very timely instruction to us all in these volatile times.

  • BLESSINGS. The Greek word for this idea is from, ‘Eulogia’ [εὐλογία], or: “Adulation, praise, commendation [imp. of those things or persons doing good]; exhortation; fine discourse, polished speech (eloquent, uplifting words); fair speaking and fine speech; to declare as indwelt by God and thereby fully satisfied; consecration, beneficence; a solemn prophetic benediction, in which happiness is desired, invoked or foretold.”  DK: My own summative sense from these renderings is that the “blessed” individual walks in Divine Favor, giving God pleasure at the way he conducts his life.
  • CURSINGS. The polar opposite of “blessing” is from the Greek, ‘Meton’ [κατάρα], referring to: “A meton [sic]: a doomed one; that which has to ‘go down’ due to condemnation; a penalty when God Himself curses or condemns; an execration or imprecation [spoken curse]; judgment without mercy; a divine rejection or sentence imposed for some serious offense against Him, the consequence of which is ruin; imprecating evil on; denouncing evil; dooming to evil, misery, or vexation; a dooming to vexation or misery.”

COMMENTARY. “No organ should be devoted to uses so unlike, and the mouth should be employed in giving utterance only to that which is just, benevolent, and good. It is true, however, that the mouth is devoted to these opposite employments; and that while one part of the race employ it for purposes of praise, the other employ it in uttering maledictions [i.e., curses]. It is also true of many individuals that at one time they praise their Maker, and then, with the same organ, ‘calumniate, and slander’ [making false statements about a person and his reputation], and revile their fellow-men. After an act of solemn devotion in the house of God, the professed worshipper goes forth with the feelings of malice in his heart, and the language of slander, detraction, or even blasphemy [speaking sacrilegiously about God or sacred things] on his lips.” – ALBERT BARNES, ‘Notes on the Old and New Testaments,’ 1884; edited

  • BIBLICAL SLANDER. “Slander (etymologically a doublet of ‘scandal,’ from Fr. esclandre, Latin scandalum, ‘stumbling block’) is an accusation maliciously uttered, with the purpose or effect of damaging the reputation of another. As a rule it is ‘a false charge’ (compare Matthew 5:11); but it may be a truth circulated insidiously and with a hostile purpose (e.g. Daniel 3:8, ‘brought accusation against,’ where Septuagint has diaballo, ‘slander’; Luke 16:1, the same Greek word). Mischievous “tale-bearing” or “whispering” is condemned (Leviticus 19:16; Ezekiel 22:9) … Slanderers and backbiters are mentioned in some of Paul’s darkest catalogues of evildoers (Romans 1:29,30; 2 Corinthians 12:20; 2 Timothy 3:3).” – JAMES ORR, General Editor, “Slander,” ‘International Standard Bible Encyclopedia,’ 1915; edited
  • JOHN PETER ZENGER. “Zenger was a German-born printer and journalist who published the ‘New-York Weekly Journal.’ The newspaper was a political forum for colonists who opposed the policies of New York governor William Cosby. Although Zenger did not write the articles he published, he was responsible for their content. Charged with libel (making a false statement that exposes another person to public contempt) in 1734, he was arrested and held in jail for ten months. After he finally went to trial his lawyer, Andrew Hamilton, won an acquittal (not-guilty verdict) that established the first victory for freedom of the press (the right of newspapers to print ‘truthful information’) in the American Colonies [establishing the pre-Constitutional principle that Truth is a Defense].” – DAVID COLBERT, Editor, ‘Eyewitness to America,’  1997, pp. 41–44; edited
  • TRUTHFUL DEFAMATION. Among the six elements required for someone to successfully sue another for ‘Defamation’ is the requirement that the statement be false. If the statement is true, there is no liability and there can be no recovery. According to Common Law, the burden of proof relative to the truth or falsity of a statement is on the defendant. ‘Truth is an absolute defense,’ but there are several considerations in determining the truth or falsity of a statement. A statement does not have to be truthful down to every detail. A few inaccuracies still can lead to a statement that is true in substance. It also is important to note that while reasonable doubt applies before a jury, simple implication or a preponderance of the evidence is enough when considering a whether a person has been defamed.” – AARON MINC, Founder, “Is Truth a Defense to Defamation?” ‘Minc Law,’ ret. December 10, 2021; edited

BIBLICAL ILLUSTRATIONS. I have cited these examples before, but let me briefly reiterate them here. Three are of particular significance as Templates for how we deal with renegades, apostates, false teachers and false (or even “errant”) brethren.

  • PAUL THE APOSTLE. Paul spent much time warning publicly against false teachers and doctrines, by name, as with such troublemakers as Hymanaeus, Philetus and Alexander the Coppersmith. They were variously described as individuals who “suffered shipwreck with regard to the faith,” and were “handed over to Satan” by the Apostle for their forsaking of sound doctrine (1 Timothy 1:19-20; 2 Timothy 2:12; 4:15-15-16).
  • JOHN THE BAPTIST. Here we have the repeated and somewhat relentless, public warnings issued to Herod and his illicit wife, Herodias, for their transgression of the Moral Law. “So with many other appeals and various admonitions John preached the good news (gospel) to the people. But when Herod [Antipas] the tetrarch was repeatedly reprimanded [and convicted by John’s disapproval] for having Herodias, his brother’s wife [as his own], and for all the wicked things that Herod had done, he also added this to them all: he locked up John in prison.” – LUKE 3:18-20, AMP
  • JESUS THE CHRIST. Clearly our most severe example of publicly, truthfully, ‘Defaming’ liars and hypocrites (whom God despises, by the way), was the Messiah Himself. Just one snippet from his excoriation of the Religious Elites that Day of days. “Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you are like whitewashed tombs which indeed appear beautiful outwardly, but inside are full of dead men’s bones and all uncleanness. Even so you also outwardly appear righteous to men, but inside you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.” – MATTHEW 23:27-28, NKJV

DK’S TAKE. My unapologetic, searing point is that no, we are never to offer condemnations, curses or any punishments to another individual, especially for a “so-called brother” (1 Corinthians 5:11). However, beloved, and this is a massive “However” – We most assuredly ARE to call such a person using the name of Jesus Christ to promulgate a false view, specious accusation, dark doctrine, or unsavory association with a wicked individual. This is especially, even severely true, for a Church Leader or Pastor. “Do not participate in the worthless and unproductive deeds of darkness, but instead expose them [by exemplifying personal integrity, moral courage, and godly character].” – EPHESIANS 5:11, AMP

This is the Teaching of the Canon, beloved, though you would not know it by the flagrant Suffusion of Truth in virtually every ‘Soft-Gospel’ Pulpit in America today. Paul’s Letter to the Romans pulled no punches regarding this.

“For God’s [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative.” – ROMANS 1:18, AMP

Any questions, beloved, concerning the perfect Will of God here? I trust not.

  1. ON THE MATTER OF ANGER

Clearly, this section is the most challenging of all those I have penned thus far, including difficult ones on salvation and eternal security. The reason? For all our days we have been taught as Christians a steady torrent of sermons and commentaries that command us to never, ever be angry at anything or anyone for any reason. Ever.

Note to Reader. I removed the exclamation point above to make sure I didn’t appear to be, um, upset.

As I pondered this part of the essay, with some trepidation I might add, I came across the title of an article in a Reform Christian journal – I cannot recall where – with this lead caption: “Caring Enough to Be Angry.” And that immediately catapulted me into confrontation with a single word that Jesus Christ virtually spat out of His royal mouth:

LUKEWARM. “To the angel (divine messenger) of the church in Laodicea write:

‘These are the words of the Amen, the trusted and faithful and true Witness, the Beginning and Origin of God’s creation: I know your deeds, that you are neither cold (invigorating, refreshing) nor hot (healing, therapeutic); I wish that you were cold or hot. So because you are lukewarm (spiritually useless), and neither hot nor cold, I will vomit you out of My mouth [rejecting you with disgust]. Because you say, “I am rich, and have prospered and grown wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked [without hope and in great need].’” – REVELATION 3:14-17, AMP

The one thing that I confess makes me furious on a daily basis is what I see and hear every time I look at various manifestations of the American Church today, captured in any dictionary’s SYNONYMS for Lukewarmness:

“Tepid. Half-hearted. Unenthusiastic. Disinterested. Moderate. Uneager. Apathetic. Dispassionate. Emotionless. Impassive. Neutral. Uncaring. Lackadaisical. Languid. Listless. Perfunctory. Undemonstrative. Unresponsive. Unfeeling. Unsympathetic. Chilly. In Sum: ‘Indifferent.’

Are you hearing the Lord’s Heart here, beloved, and why He so despises the Lukewarm Christian? I do, I do. And while I would never counsel Anger as a way of life, our King seems to more than suggest He would prefer that to this spiritual mush we find in the Church across the entire religious landscape of America.

A TIME OF ANGER. So before getting myself in more hot water, let me make a clear distinction between Two Types of Anger, often difficult to not confuse the one with the other. Since we live inside an unprecedented ‘Time of American Anger,’ we must come to understand the difference between these two types. That is to say, “Be angry, but do not sin.” – cf. Ephesians 4:26

  • RIGHTEOUS ANGER. “Righteous Anger is getting angry at the things that are not of God. It is an anger that is grieved by sin, death, and any form of evil. Righteous Anger is a characteristic of Jesus Christ that we as Christians receive when we accept Him as our Lord and Savior and choose to follow Him. We are to be angry at the things that oppose Christ and His image.” – Mckenna Von Gunten, “Righteous Anger: Definitions and Examples from Scripture,” ‘Just Disciple,’ ret. December 10, 2021; edited
  • UNRIGHTEOUS ANGER. “Unrighteous Anger typically occurs when our anger is caused by an attack to our own pride. If someone tries to hurt or insult us, then we respond by trying to hurt or insult them. Righteous Anger seeks restoration, but Unrighteous Anger seeks destruction.Unrighteous anger [therefore] seeks to destroy or hurt another person, just to make them suffer. Again, it’s the cyclical idea that ‘You hurt me, so now I’m going to hurt you.’” – Evan Forester, “Righteous Anger vs. Unrighteous Anger,” ‘Leaders God Last,’ March 21, 2017; edited

HUMILITY. Leading figures in Biblical History were all described as possessing and demonstrating this key ingredient of Godly Character. MOSES was described as “very humble, more than all men who were on the face of the earth” (Numbers 12:3). PAUL described himself as “the least of the apostles, who am not worthy to be called an apostle” (1 Corinthians 15:9). And JESUS referred to Himself as “humble and lowly in heart” (Matthew 11:29).

Though I have taught this recently, a razor sharp DEFINITON OF HUMILITY bears scrutiny here to further clarify the thorny challenge of confronting one’s own anger in a Time of Anger.

·         PRAUTÉS [πρᾳΰτης]: “Meekness, not in a man’s outward behavior only nor in his relations to his fellowman or his mere natural disposition, rather it is an inwrought grace of the soul, and the expressions of it are first and chiefly toward God. That attitude of spirit in which we accept God’s dealings with us as good and do not dispute or resist. According to Aristotle, it is the middle course in being angry without reason, and not getting angry at all. Therefore prautés is getting angry at the right time, in the right measure, and for the right reason. It is not readily expressed in English since the term ‘meekness’ suggests weakness, but prautés is a condition of mind and heart which demonstrates gentleness, not in weakness but in ‘power.’ It is a [chief] virtue born in strength of character.” – Spiros Zodhiates, ‘Lexical Aids to the New Testament,’ 1992, edited

  • MEN OF VALOR. Moses. Paul. Jesus. And we could quickly add such figures as Joseph, and Joshua, and Esther, and Ruth, and Deborah and Gideon and the entire pantheon of Apostles. All, all, both ‘Humble and Courageous!’ I particularly love this passage that so sharply defines the Heart of the Father toward those He honors: “Now Jephthah the Gileadite was a mighty man of valor, but he was the son of a harlot” (Judges 11:1). So does He revel in choosing “the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise, and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty … that no flesh would glory in His presence” (1 Corinthians 1:27, 29).

Having dispensed with a few cultural illusions about Anger, Humility and Courage, we have just one last thing to consider.

  • LAST THOUGHTS

THE CONTEXT. Paul’s Letter to his Gentile disciple Titus comes to mind here in the following passage that helps us to always bear in mind just who we are addressing in this current volatile spiritual climate. Listen carefully, beloved, as we close.

  • TITUS 1:10-13, NKJV. “For there are many insubordinate, both idle talkers and deceivers, especially those of the circumcision, whose mouths must be stopped, who subvert whole households, teaching things which they ought not, for the sake of dishonest gain. One of them, a prophet of their own, said, ‘Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons.’ This testimony is true. Therefore rebuke them sharply, that they may be sound in the faith.”
  • THE INSUBORDINATE. From the Greek word, ‘Anupotaktos’ [ἀνυπότακτος], or: “Not subject to rule; disobedient to authority; disorderly; exhibiting a defiant attitude; rebellious, unruly [as with witchcraft; cf. 1 Samuel 15:23]; contrary, ungovernable, willful; obstreperous.”
  • REBUKE SHARPLY. Here to the bottom line of the great sin of the American Church today: Her refusal to obey the Command of our Sovereign to being such to account. From the Greek, ‘Apotomós’ [ἀποτόμως]: “To expose, convict, reprove, refute [as in debate]; severely, abruptly, peremptorily, roughly, vehemently correct or admonish.”

COMMENTARY. “As a surgeon’s knife cuts away the diseased and mortifying flesh, so must the words and discipline of Titus, the Apostle’s representative in Crete, sharply rebuke, and, if need be, punish the sinning members of the congregation. Not merely the false teachers—’the deceivers’—are referred to here, but also ‘the deceived,’ those whole households mentioned in Titus 1:11; and the object of this severity in words and acts was that the lapsed, the doctrinally and morally sick, among the Cretan Christians, should be restored to health again; and the sound state of faith and practice would, St. Paul proceeded to show, consist in “the rejection of Jewish fables and the commandments of these men.” – CHARLES ELLICOTT, ‘An Old and New Testament Commentary for English Readers,’ 1878, 1897; edited

The entire point of this is to consider, again, just WHO we are addressing as we debate these matters of Life and Death in today’s Spiritual Warfare inside the Houses of God. PAUL gives us a clearcut Guideline for making such distinction, vital to demonstrating the ability to keep each other to Biblical Account – a completely forgotten discipline in today’s appeasement oriented Church.

“For though I am free from all men, I have made myself a servant to all, that I might win the more;and to the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might win Jews; to those who are under the law, as under the law, that I might win those who are under the law; to those who are without law, as without law (not being without law toward God, but under law toward Christ), that I might win those who are without law;to the weak I became as weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some. Now this I do for the gospel’s sake, that I may be partaker of it with you.” – 1 CORINTHIANS 9:19-23, NKJV

CODA: To Conclude: To the very strong, well-informed Church Leaders who know better (cf. Luke 12:48), I come to them in ‘severity.’ To the comparatively informed but clearly naïve, I approach in ‘moderation.’ But to the unsaved or newly saved, I approach in ‘gentleness.’

In all of this, at least when I get it right, my MOTIVE is our should be ‘Rescue’ from the condition of danger the individual is experiencing. For we indeed serve the God of Rescue, beloved, who seeks first and foremost that none should perish, but all would come to eternal life in The Christ.

But to do this, my friends, in this particular Hour of Apostasy, the Lord is fairly shouting to us to ‘Speak Truth to Power,’ in order to save many from The Fire that shall be here ever so soon. Indeed, I can very nearly here Him in a plaintive voice, asking once again:

Then I heard the voice of the Lord, saying, “Whom should I send? Who will go for Us?” Then I said, “Here am I. Send me!” He said, “Go, and tell these people, ‘You hear and hear but do not understand. You look and look but do not see.’” – ISAIAH 6:8-9, NLV

Who indeed, beloved? Who shall be brave enough to ‘Carry McCarthys Fire’ into a dying world for the One who calls us all, for such a time as this? I believe each of us in the days ahead shall be required to answer that Sacred Commission. May the King of kings strengthen us to say, with a full heart: “Here am I, Lord. Send me!”

Ever your servant, DK

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