Tuesday, November 13, 2012

You Better Listen!


Kopp Disclosure
(John 3:19-21)

@#$%


@#$%

    Steve Corbett is the host of his own daily talk show on WILK Radio (980 AM) in NE Pennsylvania from 3:00 - 7:00 p.m. (EST).

    Listeners around the globe listen/link to him via www.wilknewsradio.com.

    I like him.

    I don't always agree with him; but that's never been a prerequisite for me liking someone. 

    I like/love Jesus; but don't always agree with Him in my depraved human kinda way if you know what I mean.

    Steve makes me think; and as you may know, that's a big part of what KD is all about.

    While it's still legal, it's important to think about what's going on and then decide how/if we're gonna...

    For folks who dare to refer to themselves as Christians, it's imperative to think how to honor Him in an increasingly hostile-to-Him/His culture.

    Anyway, Steve is always saying, "You better listen!"

    It's his way of encouraging us to listen and think and then decide how/if we're gonna...

    He's got that prophetic edge: "You better listen...or..."

@#$%

    Remember Pearl?

    I've written about her before.

    She's the lady-in-Carolina-blue-crushed-velvet who hated my beard because she had a bad relationship with her son who had a beard and transferred...

    Well, you may recall I shaved it off to satiate her pathology, expected kudos, and got this as she greeted me after worship the very next Sunday: "Now about your moustache..."

    It's been about 25 years since that happened; but I've never told anybody the other side of that story with metaphors/meanings that...

    I'm not sure why I'm telling it now - it probably has something to do with the confession in the next section - but I am scratching the surface of my relationship with Jesus and lots of stuff's coming up as...

    You may think it's/I'm silly; but I, uh, think it means something as part of my scratching and desire/prayer/passion to encourage others to...

    I had an associate pastor back then - one of the best three to ever try to serve avec moi - who wept when seeing my clean-shaven face and then blasted me for betraying God.

    The verdict was accurate.

    While studying in Europe in the mid-70s, I took a truncated Nazirite vow to experience/express my devotion to Him.

    It included facial hair.

    My associate knew that; so when I...

    Truth is I broke that vow - symptomatic of me breaking many...

    That was about 25 years ago.

    Just to let you know (Psst.  Go to the right column and click on...).

    Now that I'm scratching the surface of my relationship with Him and listening/thinking a tad more than before, I've renewed that vow; and whenever I even trim..., I think about how I too often trim my relationship with...

    You better listen!

@#$%

    Election 2012 comes to mind.

    Despite the corporate optimism included in "Election 2012 Reality Check" (go to the right column and click it on if you need a refresher), I was inspired/indigested about my need to confess personal sin in how I voted - trimmed - on November 6 while Kopper took me for a walk on November 9.

    Parenthetically, while I hope you'll think a tad yourself, I'm just talking about my vote and my relationship with Him and not suggesting I know more than anyone about anything related to Election 2012 and not implying anything about your vote or...  Catch the drift?  I may be wrong about what follows; but this is how I feel about my vote after being inspired/indigested on November 9.  It's hard enough for me to work out my own salvation; so I'm not about to tell you how to work out yours apart from urging all of us to listen, think, and then...

    While I've always said I kinda like both of 'em in a personal way and would like to have lunch or a Yuengling with 'em, I only voted for one of 'em even though I live near Chicago and could have voted for both of 'em if you know what I mean.

    I could not vote for the guy who's an accomplice to mass murder.  I know partial birth murder is only one issue; but, for me, and I may be wrong, it's a really, really, really big issue and...  I've been to Yad Vashem many times.  I've read Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Martin Niemoller who read Jesus and...

    Instead, I voted for someone whose personal religion includes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit.  That was the inspiration/indigestion on November 9.  I voted for someone whose personal religion includes blasphemy against the Holy Spirit!  I have begged forgiveness ever since that early morning walk with Kopper.

    Voting for the lesser of two evils means still voting for...

    I haven't read anything in His book about embracing or voting for the lesser of...

    Then He reminded me of Gideon...and I thought again about trimming...

    I don't know about you; but I've trimmed so much over the years.

@#$%

    Philip Schaff: "Jesus' whole life was one unbroken act of self-consecration to the glory of God and the eternal welfare of His fellow-men...The better and holier a man is, the more he feels his need of pardon, and how far he falls short of his own imperfect standard of excellence" (Apostolic Christianity, 1910).

    Martin Luther King, Jr.: "God has a way of saying, 'Don't play with Me, Babylon.  Be still and know that I'm God.  And if you don't stop your reckless course, I'll rise up and break the backbone of your power.'  And that can happen to America.  Every now and then I go back and read Gibbons' Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire.  And when I come and look at America, I say to myself, the parallels are frightening" (The Drum Major Instinct, 1968).

    Isaiah: "Woe to those who call evil good, and good evil; who put darkness for light, and light for darkness" (inspired long enough ago that we should know better).

    We better listen!

@#$%


@#$%

Blessings and Love!

3 comments:

steve said...

nice.
you're paying attention.
you're listening.
all the best,

Bob K said...

Pastor Bob:
Just read your latest about your vote. Made me think about a conversation I had with my wife very early on in our marriage when we were expecting our first child. We were driving somewhere on a sunny afternoon. I was driving (like I said, this was early on in our marriage) and turned to her and said, "You know if something happens when you are giving birth and the doctors come in and tell me its either you or the baby I'm going to pick you." She didn't respond but she knew I meant it.
The point of the story is this: does that mean that I am for abortion or against it?

Your brother in Christ,

Dr. Robert R. Kopp said...

Bob K.,

Brother, you always make me think which, uh, I like and don't like and I know you know what I mean.

I'm gonna catch something for saying this but I'm a 99% pro-lifer.

I do understand those exceptional moments of "situation" ethics when we've got two bad choices and must immerse ourselves into intimacy with Him to make one of 'em and then pray that we were inspired not indigested.

Of course, whenever confronted - kindly in your note - with such conundrums and knowing I'm gonna mess up more than less, it makes me really, really, really thankful for Jesus and, again, I know you know what I mean.

Thanks, brother, for trying to keep me honest.