Helmetless

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

@#$%

@#$%

Helmetless While Hans and Kathie Take Time Off

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet.

You say you’re sooooooo concerned about me.

I don’t believe you.”

@#$%

            Hans and www.churchandworld.com are off for the next 2 weeks.

            The next edition will be at the end of April; so this is a good time for www.koppdisclosure.com to take some time off.

            Kathie needs a rest.

            Karen won’t take one.

            I need a…

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet.

Is it because you care sooooooo much about

my health and welfare?

I don’t think so.”

@#$%

            Actually, my sister sent a video that appeared at the top of the last edition.

            She knows me.

            Finally, I understand what Paul Simon was really trying to get to in that song.

            My sister says she now knows what I’ve been trying to get to in my…

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet; but

you never want to listen why.

‘My words

like

silent raindrops fell.’”

@#$%

            Ralph just turned 91.

            My esteem for him is only rivaled by esteem for my dad.

            When I asked if I could marry his daughter, he gave a pack of Camel cigarettes to me – something about it symbolizing dowry in another culture.

            When his daughter and I – especially me - were on the brink of some very bad decisions, he took me out to lunch.

            We went to his favorite restaurant near Pittsburgh.

            He said, “The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree; but never cut down a tree that has good roots.”

            I didn’t.

            It looks like Jesus is calling him home.

            I will miss him.

            He was so right about so many things; but his words like silent raindrops fell.

            When he becomes eternal and we converse, I will tell him how much he will always mean to me until we sit together at His table with everyone else by grace through faith in Jesus.

            Until then, a sadness that I’ve known for over four decades in this business will strike too close to home as I listen to Mike and Mechanics: “It’s too late when we die to admit…”

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet; but

if I’m sooooooo important to you, where were you

when…?”

@#$%

            There have been times when it’s been necessary to say, “Please don’t tell anyone that I’m your pastor.  I don’t want anyone to think you got what you got from me.”

            A woman in a church that I tried to help asked me to remove her name from the KD mailing list.

            I wonder if she makes the same request of the ED folks.

            Curious.

            Are people who ask to have their names removed making a simple request, sending a message, or can’t figure out how to use the delete key or block function?

            Anyway, she left the church that I tried to help.

            Before learning she left the church, I sent this to her juxtaposed to her request to have her name removed from the mailing list.

            “Yes, friend, I can remove you from the list.

            That is not a problem.

            I will remove you from the list…but not my heart.

            As I praise God for the faithful saints at ___, especially your undershepherd aka pastor who is among a handful of the most faithful and able and caring colleagues to ever cross my path as a pastor and professor and who dwarfs my fidelity and charismata in so many ways, I also praise God for saints who realize this is a time – an eschatological time – when, more than ever, Christians must hang together in/through/for Jesus as the forces of darkness increase the frequency of their attacks upon civilization and its only hope in Christendom concomitant to John 17 obedience.

            If Christians do not stick together, we have no moral authority or persuasion or credibility to tell anyone else how to do it.

            I am convinced ___, led by its pastor who has the courage and record to look up and stand up and speak up and act up for Jesus with conviction and without worldly compromise, is part of the remnant that is the only hope for America and the globe.”

            She never responded.

            “My words like silent…”

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet;

but you’re a slave to everything/everyone but…

‘And the people bowed and prayed

to the neon god they made.’”

@#$%

            I’ve often started lectures as a homiletics professor, “Jesus did not call you to be boring.  If you really believe in Jesus and really are called to preach about Him, it’s impossible to be boring.  If you’re boring, you don’t get it/Him; and if you don’t get it/Him, you’re never going to convince anybody else about it/Him.  By the way, that could be why so many churches are being bored to death.  Their pulpiteers don’t believe enough about Jesus to be excited enough when talking about Him.  Energy and enthusiasm are contagious; but as the old missionary said, ‘You can’t give away what you ain’t got for yourself.’”

            If excitement were dynamite, most pulpiteers and pewsitters wouldn’t have enough to blow their noses.

            Institutional idolaters refuse to admit that.

            They don’t listen enough to children.

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet;

but you don’t raise an emotional eyebrow at

the slaughter of unborn children.

Maybe that’s why I don’t

believe you really

care about me

and agree

with

Jesus in John 2:23-25.”

@#$%

            Here’s the new trick of moderates and other apostates.

            If you question or contend with ‘em, saying something that their tender ears and fragile emotions find sooooooo traumatizing, they’ll marginalize and disregard you as a wwweeeeallllly woooooood Bully.

            Have you been to any mainline meetings and worship services lately?

            Help us, Jesus!

            Missionary posts of vibrant worship and study and reflection and deliberation are turning into mausoleums and museums quicker than the thanatos libido of the GOP.

            No wonder ISIS and the rest of the savages are running wild.

            Colonel Jessup was right.

            No wonder the first two amendments to the U.S. Constitution are in jeopardy.

            No wonder a pathological liar or pathologically arrogant rookie will be our next President.

            No wonder people get more upset about me not wearing a helmet than babies being aborted, heads being chopped off and gays being tossed out of buildings and women being abused and degraded so viciously by Islamofascistnutballs, and American military women and men being murdered because of an incompetent, immoral, and maybe even worse government, and…and…and…

            So many are so silent about so much that is so loudly awful and evil that it boggles the mind and upsets the spirit as the stomach turns when they are sooooooo OCD about me not wearing a…

            “’Fools,’ said I, ‘You do not know silence like a cancer grows!’”

@#$%

“You’re so mad at me because I won’t wear a helmet.

I’ll tell you why I don’t wear a helmet:

‘And the vision that was planted

in my brain still remains…

whispered

in the

sounds of silence.’”

@#$%

            These are not the real reasons why I don’t wear a helmet: (1) I am more at-one with my surroundings; (2) I have increased awareness of the sights, sounds, and smells that are so important to margins of safety; (3) I don’t like non-bikers telling bikers how to do what they don’t do; (4) Intellectual inconsistencies mentioned in the preceding; (5) I think you care more about controlling than saving with reference to the preceding; (6) Farmers are right: “Don’t mess with somethin’ that ain’t botherin’ you none!”; and (7) It gives hope to people who hate me in a Christian kinda way and really want to see me deleted.

            Those are not the reasons why I don’t wear a helmet.

            I don’t wear a helmet for two reasons.

            First, I don’t want to wear one.

            Second, I am willing to put my personal safety at risk to symbolize the increasingly frequent threats to freedom.

            I will not be silent.

@#$%

Blessings and Love!

@#$%

@#$%

Look up!  Stand up!  Speak up!  Act up for Jesus!

Salt!  Shine!  Leavenate!

@#$%