The Dark Tower

 

 

 

There is a dark tower I often go to...

Time after after time I return there

It is dark, dank and dismal

It is a monolith and testimony to my hidden shame...

Augustine wrote about it

Calvin pondered it...

 

Barth spoke of it as well..

 

I have spent most of my life there

In solemn solitude

 

It is the dark tower of my heart

It is the abyss of sin that is in my soul...

 

However there is another tower!
It is an infinitely greater tower!

The Lord God Almighty is that strong tower

Mighty and strong to save

The righteous run to Him and are safe!

We are justified by grace alone through faith alone in Christ alone for the glory of God alone.

The only way to wash away our hidden shame and the darkness of our soul is to look to Jesus Christ, who died and rose again that we might live in Him forever!

 

 

This is the Day the Lord has Made!

 

 

This is the day the Lord has made;
We will rejoice and be glad in it.

 

Psalm 118:24

John F. Kennedy and the Lost Art of Democratic Bipartisanship

 Dreams of a President that Actually Crosses Over the Aisle 

By Lee Edward Enochs

 

I am not going to lie to you. Although I have been a Republican all my life, I have spent most of my life a bit fascinated with John F. Kennedy, who died exactly 51 years ago today in Dallas, Texas.

I am not sure exactly why I like reading about John F. Kennedy. Perhaps it is because he was so very young and full of potential when he died and embodied the boundless potential of American Democracy.

Perhaps I loved the “mystique of Camelot” that depicted President Kennedy as eternally youthful and dynamic, I am just not certain. What I am certain about it that Kennedy was a much better President and agent of bipartisanship and conciliatory action than President Barrack Obama.

I spent close to seven years living in the Dallas / Fort Worth area and had the opportunity to visit the "Grassy Knoll" area near downtown Dallas where President Kennedy was assassinated on several occasions and have tried to go over the evidence of the Warren Commission, and I just don’t believe in the “lone gunman” theory.

I am not a conspiracy theory type person, but there still remain questions in my mind over just exactly what happened exactly 51 years ago today in regards to JFK’s death.

I do not believe that Lee Harvey Oswald acted alone in shooting President Kennedy. I simply do not believe the “lone gunman” hypothesis and believe it has major holes.

In any event, JFK was a better and different kind of Democrat than President Obama, who often acts unilaterally without seeking any support for his controversial “executive orders” such as did in the Affordable Care Act debacle and in his recent controversial actions involving Immigration reform.

John F. Kennedy was a much better President than Barack Obama and often attempted to gain bipartisan support for his legislative accomplishments, while Obama often goes it alone without the slightest support from Republicans. It seems that Obama is impervious to the Republicans concerns and will do whatever he feels is necessary to further his agenda without seeking any semblance of bipartisanship.

President Kennedy reached out to Republicans in a way that Obama could only dream of. This is evidenced by the fact that he appointed Republicans to his cabinet and placed Republicans in other important administrative posts. JFK’s secretary of defense, national security advisor and treasury secretary were all Republicans.

The strangest thing about President Kennedy’s efforts to gain bipartisan support for his agenda was that his legislative accomplishments, ultimately carried out by Lyndon Johnson, due to his assignation, were liberal and progressive social policies such as Medicare, the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the war on poverty and federal aid to education.

None of JFK’s major legislative accomplishments could have occurred without him reaching over the aisle and soliciting support from Republicans, something Obama has simply no ability or desire to do.

Exactly 51 years ago today President John F. Kennedy was killed in Dallas, Texas, may a new generation of Democrats who seek bipartisanship arise in his stead.

 

 

 

Saying Goodbye to the Woman I Love

When a man loves a woman

I have a confession to make. As much as it may be surprising to some of you, I once loved a woman. 

I generally don’t discuss my personal life, but I have to express the deep and abiding love I once had for a woman.

Yes, all the rumors are true,  I had a passionate love affair with an intellectual woman.

I gave this woman the best years of my life and she taught me so much about life, I thought I would be with her forever.

A fiercely independent woman, she taught me not to trust anyone except myself.

She taught me to make my own way in this world and not to depend on the state for a hand out. 

She taught me that I must be selfish to succeed in life and she taught me the following incredible insights: Follow reason, not faith. Work hard to achieve a life of purpose and productiveness and pursue your own happiness as your highest moral aim.

Yes, I loved this woman with all my heart.

However, I had to break up with her because we had a fierce disagreement over my Christian faith.

She was an atheist, but I am a Christian and we were completely incompatible in regards to faith. She said religious faith is for fools. I say faith in Jesus Christ is the most important thing in human existence.

I believe in God with all my heart.

She said I was a fool.

I really did not leave her, she left me and my heart at the door when she said my faith was a fraud.

She said love and altruism were fools. I say that we must lay down our life for a friend.

I loved this woman with all my heart, but I love God more.

And that's that and my love is no more.

I loved a woman, yes it is all true. Her name was Ayn Rand, the founder of Objectivism. She also wrote "Atlas Shrugged" and the "Fountainhead," two books that greatly influenced me in life...

She was my libertarian lover for a while, but now our love is no more...

I Believe in the Apostle's Creed

Apostles' Creed

---

1. I believe in God the Father, Almighty, Maker of heaven and earth:

2. And in Jesus Christ, his only begotten Son, our Lord:

3. Who was conceived by the Holy Ghost, born of the Virgin Mary:

4. Suffered under Pontius Pilate; was crucified, dead and buried: He descended into hell:

5. The third day he rose again from the dead:

6. He ascended into heaven, and sits at the right hand of God the Father Almighty:

7. From thence he shall come to judge the quick and the dead:

8. I believe in the Holy Ghost:

9. I believe in the holy catholic church: the communion of saints:

10. The forgiveness of sins:

1l. The resurrection of the body:

12. And the life everlasting. Amen.

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Freedom of Speech: A Quintessential American Value

"We are never going to survive unless we get a little crazy."

                                      -Seale

I just walked across the Princeton University campus in the bitter cold and I passed by the famous statue of John Witherspoon ((February 5, 1723 – November 15, 1794), who was a Scots Presbyterian minister and a signatory of the Declaration of Independence.

I stood there transfixed for a moment before this statute and thought about the greatness of American history and the quintessential value of the freedom of speech and how many Americans and especially conservatives have lost touch with this freedom that is safeguarded for us in the Bill of Rights which says in the First Amendment:


Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably to assemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

I have got a little crazy on this blog in the last few months to make a point. We have the right to freedom of speech even if your Baptist minister or whoever tells you otherwise. I believe in American values and we have a right to dissent and speak our mind, even if the whole world is against us.

Saving Calvary Chapel

                                    On Reforming a Church Movement I Love


                                                        

                                 "But examine everything cafefully, hold fast to the truth"

                                                                                           1 Thessalonians 5:21

                              by Lee Edward Enochs

If you have been my friend for any length of time, you know well that I came from the Calvary Chapel movement. I became a Christian and was heavily involved in the Calvary Chapel movement for close to twenty years. So, Calvary Chapel Costa Mesa, the late Pastor Chuck Smith and the entire association of Calvary Chapel churches will always hold a very special and dear place in my heart. To attempt to put a wedge between me and my love for the Calvary Chapel movement is impossible.

To those of you who do not know what the "Calvary Chapel Movement" is or what a "Calvary Chapel" church is, the movement of churches came into being during the counter cultural days of the 1960's and 1970's, when a Pentecostal Pastor (Graduate of LIFE Bible College, a Four Square Gospel school) named Chuck Smith reached out to the many hippies and other young men and women on the fringes of Southern Californian society. This movement was a part of the larger "Jesus Movement" that saw many hippies and diseffected youth coming to a saving knowledge of Christ all over America. There are now over 1,500 Calvary Chapel assemblies around the world.

This is the movement I was spiritually reared in and is especially dear to my heart. I love Calvary Chapel for its emphais on Jesus Christ and His gospel. I also love the Calvary Chapel movement because of its emphasis on evangelism, Bible study and the second coming of the Lord Jesus Christ.

However, the Calvary Chapel movement is not perfect. Actually, there are many flaws in it and I believe it is time for some systemic and theological changes to occur in the entire Calvary Chapel movement for the glory of God and the benefit of those who attend a church associated with Calvary Chapel.

There are three primary issues I believe that need to be addressed in the entire Calvary Chapel movement,(1) Soteriology (2) Ecclesiology (the nature and governing of the church) and (3) Pastoral Accountability.  My upcoming book, "Saving Calvary Chapel: A Call for Reform in the Calvary Chapel Movement" explains why Calvary Chapel is a great association of Bible believing Evangelical Churches, but also explains why there needs to be some changes in the movement in general.

Stay tuned, I will let you folks know more about this book project that should be finished next Spring.