Rainbow Revisited (12/24/22)

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Rainbow Revisited (12/24/22)

I was feeling Habakkukian and Psalm 55ish.

On top of that, it's colder than a Laodicean church.

The republic is unraveling and Jezebel's spirit goes unchecked at worst and unnoticed at minimum even by patriots and pastors pretending Constitutional and Biblical fidelity; remembering the Constitution is rooted in Judeo-Christian values.

Can you spell/pronounce Ephesus, Pergamum, Thyatira, and Sardis?

Rise up Smyrna and Philadelphia!

"America, where are you now?  Don't you care about your sons and daughters?  Don't you know we need you now?  We can't fight alone against the monster!"

Maybe that was a gospel band after all.

Matthew 10 and Jude provide context.

I was almost overwhelmed by the evilspeaking tongues of death birthed by Antichrist.

Then, this morning, after visiting a shut-in, I saw it.

Scroll down.

Then I read Habakkuk 3 and read the last verses of the psalm.

Sooner or later and definitely in the end...

Merry Christmas!

Blessings and Love!

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Pan-Seasonal Prayer of the Priesthood of All Believers

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Pan-Seasonal Prayer of the Priesthood of All Believers

Father God,

The Torah teacher said You are the most tragic figure in the Bible.

Well, yeah; and it hasn't changed since the war began in the garden.

You give, give, give and people still disbelieve, disrespect, disobey, and divide Your family and sing their new song, "Blest be the tie that doesn't bind...We aren't one in the Spirit...And they'll know we aren't Christians by our odium."

Surely, that gift of myrrh at the manger wasn't so strange after all.

Isaiah 53 comes to mind.

You are crucified daily.

I think of a colleague not of You or me that couldn't understand Your-through-his care for a man imprisoned for horrible crimes.

When the book was opened to Matthew 25 and the we-do-because-He-said-so was offered as command not suggestion, the scornful scowled and snorted with sulfuric smoke from her/his spirit, "Well, Jesus was wrong!"

Isn't that what the masked concealing their identity behind the trappings of religion coincidentally related to Jesus by the book admit when reducing Your sanctity of all human life to a personally selfish choice ignoring/murdering the unborn's life while defying her/his Creator, inverting sexuality, and mocking nuptials along with the plethora of insults to Your holiness with Sodom and Gomorrah reimagined fidus?

Jesus was wrong?

Darkest/damned blasphemy at its utterance.

So with Jude whispering of the devilish that have slithered in among the posing as sleeper cells of Antichrist's spirit "already in the world," I ask Your strength and patience to keep on keepin' on with gospel.

I beg postponed rapturo/harpazo with John 3:16-17 tempering.

May my eyes and ears be so tuned into You that the betrayals of Psalm 55 not distract, dissuade, detour, or discourage.

Keep me wise as a serpent to protect sheep from predators of soul infinitely more than body (toughminded) and gentle as a dove to cradle the wounded (tenderhearted).  

I renew my reception of You as Lord and pledge a life of greater gratitude by faithful countenance, confession, and conduct because You are the Savior of my soul destined for paradise while enduring and overcoming these increasingly eschatological mean times.

I thank You for enfleshing in Jesus as the perfect pattern of fidelity and remaining as Spirit to enlighten and compel Holy Scripture's prescriptions for behaviors confirming belief.

I acknowledge You as Victor; knowing the tragedies of infidelity scarring history are about to be erased at parousia.

Your weeping in Matthew 23:37-39 is fixed in time.

Your triumph is eternal and shared by anyone/everyone believing and receiving You as Lord and Savior by grace through faith in Jesus.

I do.

So my highest goal, greatest ambition, and most fervent prayer is to be Yours in all things at all times in all places with all people.

I want to help make the paths straight for You.

May the baby away in a manger smile and move decisively past the myrrh at the rapidly approaching Matthew 25 and Revelation 20 judgment.

I pray as I seek to live in the name of Jesus.

Amen.

Blessings and Love!

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Dropping Bombs

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Dropping Bombs

“Blest be the tie that binds our hearts in Christian love…We are one in the Spirit.  We are one in the Lord. And they’ll know we are Christians by our love.”

It’s hard to sing that with a straight face.

I mean, really.

Churches are notorious for hating each other in a “Christian” kinda way with the accent on self-righteous passive aggression a la that nobody-knows-Jesus-like-we-know-Jesus denominational/sectarian/cultic arrogance aka BS that fences the sacrament from other “inferior” believers pretending preferred reservations in heaven.

That’s one of the differences between religion or making up stuff about Jesus only coincidental to Him by the book to satiate color, class, and culture bias and a relationship with Jesus with exclamation points of grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape filtered through John 17.

I mean, really.

There are more denominations, sects, cults, flavors and franchises pretending authenticity to Jesus than socialists on CNN and in the DNC.

I’ve read/heard over a thousand pastors quit every month because they’re treated like...in a “Christian” kinda way that accounts for all of those PKs that left never to return.

I mean, really.

It’s hard to convince anyone that Jesus is the answer when people masquerading as Christians are so notoriously divided themselves.

Parenthesis.

Jesus is the answer when He is Lord and people act like it by loving Jesus by loving everyone like Jesus does with the essential reminder Jesus ain’t your Savior unless He is your Lord.

Don’t blame Jesus for so-called-self-confessed-but-contradictory-to-Him “Christians” that need more Jesus in them; or as some faithful pastors are prone to say, “Don’t tell anybody that I’m your pastor because I don’t want anyone to think you got what you got from me because you ain’t got Jesus.”

So what does this have to do with dropping bombs?

Recalling the uncomfortable fact that the good guys are the only ones that ever dropped any of those big babies, it seems North Korea, Russia, and Iran are increasingly trigger happy; or even Israel before Iran because Israel knows America’s they-get-to-shoot-first SOP doesn’t work when it comes to dealing with Muslims that want to wipe out Jews from history.

Yeah, I didn’t mention China.

They know how to scare the sanity out of America by manufacturing viruses and fentanyl with the latter being the next in the tool box of international terrorism.

Truth is there has never been a weapon that hasn’t been used sooner or later or as a last resort that, uh, means it will be used as a last resort.

I mean, really.

If people that say they love Jesus can’t even get along, how in the anything but heaven do you expect people with historical hatreds for each other that don’t give a damn about Jesus to ever get along?

Google or YouTube the Kingston Trio’s Merry Minuet.

Again, if people that say they love Jesus hate each other “for Christ’s sake” and next door neighbors go to the mattresses when their dogs poop on their lawns…

I mean, really.

Now that lots of churches are reimagining Christianity apart from Jesus by the book as enlightened by the Holy Spirit who never contradicts Jesus by the book, I guess it’s O.K. to change some lyrics.

“Not blest is the tie that doesn’t bind our guts in Christian love…We aren’t one in the Spirit.  We aren’t one in the Lord.  And they’ll know we aren’t Christians by our hate.”

I mean, really.

 

Blessings and Love!

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Why I Don't Quit

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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I was ordained on May 8, 1977.

 Whoa.

 I have a lot of pension credits...pero never thought about quitting.

 I've been discouraged but never thought about...

 Here's why.

Statistics and political polling are like mainline denominations.

          They lie when the truth doesn’t advance their agenda.

          Pero according to lots of polls that I’ve seen from left, right, up, down, and all around, churches are dying and pastors are quitting quicker than poop through a goose.

          Certainly, there are lots of reasons for that.

          When it comes to clergy, I’ve known lots of pastors that never really understood what they were getting into or what they were expected to believe according to their ordination promises; which is why I often tell faithful pewsitters that are horrified by apostate pulpiteers that those Matthew 23 dolts either didn’t understand the vows, lied because seven years of college and seminary prepped them for nothing else except maybe selling insurance, or changed their minds and lost a faith that they never had and don’t have the courage and integrity to quit and work for Amazon.

          I’ve also known lots of pastors that were driven out of churches by the irregular, irascible, insidious, and irreconcilable; prompting me to recall a shrink from the Netherlands that said during doctoral studies, “The problem people in churches are usually constipated.  That’s why they dump on you.”

          When it comes to churches, lots of them never had any idea of who they’re suppose to be and what they’re suppose to do because they missed the courses on Matthew 22, 28, Mark 16, and Acts 1; and if you go to Revelation 2-3, you’ll discover why God Himself shuts ‘em down.

          I’ve also known lots of churches – only faithful ones to Jesus by the book as enlightened by the Holy Spirit who never contradicts Jesus by the book – that are assaulted by the unholy trinity of Satanos, Antichrist, and false prophecy that slither(s) into churches as Jude warned to oppress/possess by the Jezebel spirit that manipulates and controls and divides and destroys if it cannot manipulate and control.  That Jezebel spirit is especially effective with people having a coincidental religious relationship to Jesus as Lord and Savior while saints with a personal relationship with Jesus are fully armored for the assaults with Ephesians 6:10-20, James 4, 1 John 2 and 4 in mind.

For more on that deadly spirit, go to www.koppdisclosure.com. 

But, for now, let’s just say the bad guys hate and the good guys love; noting God is love which means those that hate don’t know God, have no relationship with Him and His, and aren’t, as Paul, Luther, and Calvin observed, showing signs of being saved.

God knows I haven’t been immune to the assaults.

Though I’m just scratching the surface of my relationship with Jesus and have so much more to learn as my intimacy with Him increases - knowing justification comes when born anothen while sanctification never ends until we have that 1 Corinthians 13:12 apocalypse – I am more excited about gospeling and being an undershepherd to the Good Shepherd than ever before with increasing focus, energy, passion, and determination.

 So why don’t I quit?

+ I’m called; and as bikers like to say, “If I have to explain that to you, you wouldn’t understand anyway.”

+ I am privileged to point people to Jesus as Lord and Savior so they can endure and overcome the meanness, madness, misery, and miscreance of life in the modern world; especially in these eschatological times so clearly explained and charted in the Olivet Discourse of Matthew 24-25, Mark 13, Luke 21, and John’s Apocalypse. Moreover, what a privilege to tell people that Paul was right in 1 Corinthians 15 and that the bestest comes in paradise/heaven described so well in Revelation 21 immediately après the last breath.

+ God wants everybody to be saved which means I want everybody to be saved as a follower of Jesus.  People that hate God by hating God’s family and vice versa are not going to heaven after they die which echoes the truth that grudgeholders are gravediggers digging deep pits for themselves (read Matthew 25).  Believers like me are with Rick Warren’s dad as he approached his transfer to heaven: “Gotta save one more!”

+ Finally, I’m part of a family of faith aka Church on the Corner of Lincoln and Main dominated by Jesus lovers loving Jesus by loving like Jesus with grace, mercy, and forgiveness wrapped in agape as the haters have been exorcised by God Himself; or as I tell anyone with ears to hear and eyes to see, “There’s no division in our church.  They’re gone.”

Parenthetically, I feel very sorry for the haters and those that have assaulted Godly pastors and churches as in pastors and churches that want what God wants as enfleshed in Jesus and explained in the Bible.  They are messing with the anointed and will be punished by God Himself with Psalm 34 and Isaiah 41 quickly coming to mind.

Recently, I was asked if the exorcised evilspeakers and evildoers – in short, haters – would be welcomed back.

I hesitated because it’s so wonderfully warm and caring and Christian without them; remembering just one rotten apple can spoil a barrel of freshly picked ones.

Then I remembered why I don’t quit.

 

Blessings and Love!

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Miracles

 KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Miracles

46 says the pandemic is over.

O.K.

While I’m not sure if this is more cognitive dissonance or China concentrating more on Taiwan than cooking up something else to mess with us, beggars can’t be choosers and I’m up for any kinda good news.

I spend a lot of time with hurting people with pastors among ‘em.

While I’ve got feelings too and every day’s not a hot fudge sundae, I’ve been blessed with an extraordinarily faithful staff and leadership core like never before after over four decades of praying for it; and considering how it happened, it’s miraculous.

As I tell pastors in divided churches not to boast but to point to the miraculous for them, “Our church is not divided.  They’re gone!”

In short, our worship over the past three years and especially last six months has been more warm and wonderful and respectful to Him and His than ever and our mustard seed is about to bear unprecedented fruit.

Already happening.

So I’m gonna ramble on a bit about some recent miracles in my/our life and ministry, again for emphasis, not to boast but to point to the miraculous available to anyone with Matthew 5:3 humble fidelity.

Pero first, a preface.

As Tug McGraw said to the Mets in 1973, “Ya gotta believe.”

Do you believe, as the angel explained to Mary about a virgin birth being a mere trifle for an omnipotent and sovereign God (Luke 1:26-38), nothing is impossible with God?

Luther often reminded us to let God be God.

The miraculous is commonplace for God.

So anything is possible for anyone with humble faith in God as long as it meets this summarial Biblical qualification articulated so well in The Shorter Catechism of the early 17th century, “Prayer is an offering up of our desires unto God, FOR THINGS AGREEABLE TO HIS WILL, in the name of Christ, with confession of our sins, and thankful acknowledgment of His mercies.”

Certainly, we could exegete that pregnant sentence to distraction; so I’ll focus on one thought concomitant to the miraculous available to anyone.

Agreeable to His will.

In other words, if we petition or intercede about anything or anyone to God and it is agreeable to His will, it’s gonna happen sooner or later, usually sooner than later, and definitely in the end.

Some quick recent examples.

The manufactured pandemic hurt many people; yet in a miraculous Romans 8:28 kinda way, faithful people and churches have endured, overcome, and been miraculously blessed.  Our family of faith lost posers and gained women and men of faith with an authentically personal relationship with Jesus as Lord and Savior for a reinforced remnant with exponentially better attitudes, affections, and allegiances.  

Don’t get me wrong.

We’ve had our challenges as some sleeper cells and spiritually oppressed to possessed spies slipped in and attempted to pollute us (read Jude for more on that).  But we endured, overcame, exorcised, and have enjoyed the miraculous in worship, work, and witness as testimony to Psalm 91, Matthew 16:18, James 4:7-10, and 1 John 4:1-6.

Though the CCPC19 and those oppressed to possessed by the Jezebel spirit did their worst to divide and destroy us because they could not manipulate and control us, our finances have taken a very, very, very positive turn.  For example, on September 18, I prayed God would bless churches like ours that are not pure and perfect in every way and know we need Jesus to save us by grace through faith; and we received a large five figure check to cover some major repairs, were named in the will of someone that left our church for a more faithful church many years ago, and got another check for our Matthew 25 Compassion Closet.

The checks came in on September 19!

I am going to pray more specifically and try to make sure it’s for things agreeable to His will; knowing if they are…

Hallelujah!

    Then in a recent memorial service in our sanctuary, a real troublemaker showed up; so I prayed right after reading Psalm 23 that God would keep me from the distraction so I could pay tribute to the resurrected saint in thanks to God for his eternal life in heaven by grace through faith in Jesus.  From that moment on, I was literally blinded to her; and when my wife mentioned miscreants that showed up, I said I didn’t see them either.  Really, I didn’t see her or them.  God blinded me to her and them because my prayer to focus on him and Him was agreeable to His will.  The only people that I saw were the faithful saints and resurrected saint’s family.  God honored my prayer to focus on him/his and Him/His.

Here’s the point.

God is not dead.

God is alive and active to those that ask Him, seek Him, and knock on His door; and He will come through specifically in time as requested if the petition or intercession is agreeable to His will (take a look at Matthew 6:25-34 and 7:7-12 for more context).

It’s true.

God honors people that honor Him (1 Samuel 2:30).

That’s when miracles are commonplace…like they are increasingly in churches that want to be faithful like one on the corner of Lincoln and Main in Belvidere, Illinois.

 

Blessings and Love!

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God Save the Queen

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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God Save the Queen

I’m always surprised to hear what I’ve never said; acknowledging I’ve said a lot of things that are often received like salt on an open wound.

I live for it.

Read Matthew 5:13-16.

Anyway, when it comes to the Queen and her royal family, even members of my own family seem as upset with me as the people that left our family of faith on the Corner of Lincoln and Main when we took the church away from them and gave it back to Jesus or Muslims that want to fatwa-Rushdie me because I’m not shy about saying their idol was a perv and Christians would never treat women, gays, and infidels like they do.

Compelled by the first half of the big ten in Exodus 20 and commandingly complementary references throughout the Bible, I’ve never been into idolizing any royal family even in churches that I’ve served as an undershepherd to the Good Shepherd for three reasons.

First, we fought a war to get away from them.

Second, go back to the paragraph about Exodus 20 and the Bible that condemns – yes, categorically condemns even damns without excuse or exception – idolatry of any kind because it distracts from the attention, affection, and allegiance due God alone.

Psst. That second reason is why brass plaques and pictures of deceased big givers and even some pastors in churches are so repulsive Third, while I wouldn’t expect people with Bibles not bigger than their favorite parts to pick this up, God cares a lot about poor people and seems really pissed off by people that keep too much for  themselves.

Psst. The New York Post which has about as much credibility to me as the New York Times which is why I read both in my search for intersecting truth reported on 9/13/22 that King Charles III has a list of daily demands that should make even the most idolatrous a tad  nauseous: “…from ironing his shoelaces to putting toothpaste on his toothbrush…His pajamas are pressed every morning…the water temperature has to be just tepid [which fits in a Laodicean kinda way]…He reportedly even brings his own toilet seat and Kleenex Velvet toilet paper wherever he goes…”

Like Queen like Prince trumps like Father like Son.

O.K., I could go on and on and on about the idolatry thing or that family’s lack of confession when it comes to their colonialistic savagery throughout history and that the Queen was nothing more than a meaningless monarch apart from being a ceremonial tourist attraction with  cartoonishly blinding pastel attire…but I’ve already got enough former faith-poser members and  Muslims scheming to ambush and assassinate me…so I’ll get to the point.

The Queen is no more nor no less loved by God than you, me, or anybody else in a John 3:16-17 kinda way.

Gospel.

The Queen is no more nor no less saved for eternal life in heaven than you, me, or anybody else by grace through faith in Jesus in a John 11:25 kinda way.

Gospel.

So God save the Queen…and He will just as He will save you, me, and anybody else by grace through faith in Jesus.

 

Blessings and Love!

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Casino Comes to Rockford

                

KOPP DISCLOSURE

(John 3:19-21)

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Casino Comes to Rockford

With every head bowed and eye closed, have you ever gone to a casino or played the lottery?

Please don’t tell anybody…but I have.

Proving Hans Luther was right when he disputed Martin’s call to monasticism as not coming from God which later proved right as Martin renounced it and said Christians have a duty a la the great commission of Matthew 28 to go out into the world and share Jesus, there have been a few times when I felt all the stars were aligned right in a Christian kinda way…and I bought a lottery ticket…and really thought I was going to win…maybe because I pledged to give a bundle to the church…even pay off some old voluntary-apportionment-not-mandatory-tax per capita to the denomination as long as they don’t give it to baby killers or apostates practicing neo-abomination of desolation in their sanctuaries…pay off any outstanding debts of anyone related to me or nice to me…help pastors with churches insisting they take a vow of poverty…send Leslie to Hawaii because she’s always wanted to go…after I bought a new Ping driver and played a round at Pebble Beach.

I was wrong.

Both times.

It’s kinda humiliating.

You stick that lottery ticket into the machine and it says, in effect, “You’re a Loser!”  I know it says “Not a Winner” but synonyms are synonyms.

Parenthetically, ever look at people in those gambling joints?

Kinda sad.

Some play because they have nothing better to do while others play because it’s their only shot at a procrastinated retirement plan.

Then there was the time during a iron pony ride that Paul gave a Benjamin to me to play Black Jack.  

Gone in 5 minutes.

I felt bad about that…because he said smart people do O.K. at it.

Beatles song comes to mind: “I’m a…”

Robert De Niro was right in Casino – a great movie in exposing the underbelly and collateral criminality and debauchery surrounding gaming though it contradicted just about every ethic in Christendom – “In the casino, the cardinal rule is to keep them playing and to keep them coming back.  The longer they play, the more they lose, and in the end, we get it all.”

Of course, here’s what my dad said when I told him about the odds against winning the lottery: “Do you know the odds if you don’t buy a ticket?”

Point kinda made while some logic still sounds stupid.

I’ve had enough to do in my life and ministry like trying to encourage pastors and their denominations – especially mine – to remember Jesus in a John 14 kinda way; so I haven’t gotten involved in speaking up about the inevitable damages when a casino comes to town.

I know it’s kinda good for the economy.

So is doing business with China.

It starts out real well and then…

Back to gambling, I know some people with more money than they know what to do with it – If they asked me, I could go up to those reasons why I bought a couple of tickets – and they like the action.

As long as they use more of their money on doing good Matthew 25 kinda stuff, I look the other way like most of us even in churches that say they love Jesus while looking the other way at Godless politicians, school boards, and…

It just seems like such a waste of money.

On the other hand, I smoke cigars.

Now read Romans 3:21-26.

 

Blessings and Love!

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