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Stilton Jarlsberg did a wonderful thing when he drew this strip: CLICK.

I guess he didn’t draw it, exactly, but still. He is obviously aware that increasingly, Israel is alone in this world, and Barack Obama is among her enemies. This will probably be my big political post for the week. I will try not to discuss President Obama’s pitching arm, in spite of the overwhelming temptation.

My traffic keeps dropping. I think the people who used to come here for snotty political humor got bored. I’m glad I got out of that mess, however. I used to find it frustrating when I wrote well and didn’t get picked up by other blogs, but now I think God’s hand was in it. I was walking into a trap.

The political side of the Internet is turning into a real snakepit. I can’t believe the stuff that goes on at the Breitbart sites. Bloggers used to call each other mean names. Now bloggers are getting arrested, and operatives are throwing eggs (on camera) at buses belonging to people they disagree with. It’s like the SEIU is running things.

Where would I be, if I had really caught on? I’d be writing silly, vitriolic, embarrassing things that contributed to the contentiousness in the world without benefiting anyone. I’d be hanging around with adults who make a living behaving like children. That kind of thing doesn’t do a lot for your self-respect, in the long run. And some of these people are on TV now! You can live writing down, but it’s hard to put video behind you.

Contentiousness is a work of the flesh, according to the Bible. It grieves the Holy Spirit. That’s bad. You want to avoid that. Putting God far from you is one of the most damaging things you can do to yourself.

The other day I read a chapter of my cookbook, and part of me was glad it didn’t sell better. I thought it was fairly tame stuff when I wrote it, but it looks worse in retrospect. I can’t imagine Job or Daniel writing material like that.

I hate to say this, but conservative and liberal bloggers are starting to look alike to me. Conservatives are not as vicious, and they’re right about most things, but the difference is not big enough to make them look mature in comparison to their liberal counterparts. Being right matters, but the way you go about being right is just as important.

“Answer not a fool according to his folly, lest thou also be like unto him.” I probably should have studied that a little harder before I started blogging.

You can overcome your past, no matter how stupidly you acted, given enough time and a sufficiently sharp change of course. That should be a comfort to anyone who reads it. In fact, I would call it the central message of Christianity. One reason God does not care about your past is that the baptism with the Holy Spirit will eventually turn you into a different person, and it will no longer make sense for you to bear the full responsibility for what you’ve done. It would be like spanking a ten-year-old for soiling his diapers when he was six months old or refusing to eat his peas when he was two.

A person who has not been transformed by the Holy Spirit is like an unfertilized egg. Raw material. Jeremiah’s piece of marred pottery. Given what you can become in the future, through God’s power, it doesn’t matter all that much where you started. The reason for the crucifixion was that it was necessary to preserve God’s raw materials so he could craft them into finished goods.

There are some earthly debts that are extremely hard to void. If you’re on death row, even if you undergo a total transformation, you shouldn’t expect to be released. Unpaid taxes and student loans will follow you until you die. If you commit a sex crime, you might as well be branded on your forehead. But a surprising amount of mercy is available, if you have faith. And even if you can’t outrun your past, life as a Christian is still the best possible option. It’s the only option that really works.

I saw an interesting message on Manna-Fest (Perry Stone’s show) the other day. He was preaching about the miraculous irrigation they’re doing in the southern part of Israel. The Dead Sea has changed. Hidden sources of fresh water have been found. Farms are popping up in unlikely places.

He mentioned Isaiah 35:

1 The wilderness and the solitary place shall be glad for them; and the desert shall rejoice, and blossom as the rose.

2 It shall blossom abundantly, and rejoice even with joy and singing: the glory of Lebanon shall be given unto it, the excellency of Carmel and Sharon, they shall see the glory of the Lord, and the excellency of our God.

3 Strengthen ye the weak hands, and confirm the feeble knees.

4 Say to them that are of a fearful heart, Be strong, fear not: behold, your God will come with vengeance, even God with a recompence; he will come and save you.

5 Then the eyes of the blind shall be opened, and the ears of the deaf shall be unstopped.

6 Then shall the lame man leap as an hart, and the tongue of the dumb sing: for in the wilderness shall waters break out, and streams in the desert.

7 And the parched ground shall become a pool, and the thirsty land springs of water: in the habitation of dragons, where each lay, shall be grass with reeds and rushes.

8 And an highway shall be there, and a way, and it shall be called The way of holiness; the unclean shall not pass over it; but it shall be for those: the wayfaring men, though fools, shall not err therein.

9 No lion shall be there, nor any ravenous beast shall go up thereon, it shall not be found there; but the redeemed shall walk there:

10 And the ransomed of the Lord shall return, and come to Zion with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads: they shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing shall flee away.

Perry Stone was talking about the physical changes taking place in Israel, but I believe this passage also refers to the baptism with the Holy Spirit.

Over and over, the Bible refers to the Holy Spirit as “water” or “living water.” Jesus used this metaphor with the lady at the well. Many prophetic passages about water describe the Holy Spirit baptism. When you pray in the Spirit, the stream of speech that pours out of you flows like water; this is an illustration of what the metaphor means.

What is a person who is far from God and lacks the Holy Spirit? A desert. A land that is not fertile. He may do what he thinks is good, but without God to guide him, his works may be vain, and his harvest may be an illusion. He is also blind, because the Spirit opens our eyes and helps us understand things, including the Bible. He is lame, as far as God’s works are concerned. He lacks the Spirit-provided power to serve God ably. He is dumb; he can’t say what the Spirit would have him say. Instead, he is likely to use his own puny and unreliable mind, which leads to terrible mistakes.

As for the highway, it refers to the Spirit’s guidance. As Psalm 37 says, “The steps of a good man are ordered by the Lord, and he delighteth in his way.” The Holy Spirit guides believers. He will literally tell you where to go, which way to turn, and what to do. Maybe you’ll hear a voice, or maybe it will be something subtler, like an urge or a desire, but it will happen.

As Robert Morris has pointed out, we wash in the Spirit, not just the blood. So it makes sense that Isaiah would say the unclean could not travel the highway. They lack the Spirit’s indwelling; they are not washed by living water.

Isaiah says that even fools who travel the highway will not err. I believe that means that even humble believers who are not well educated or highly intelligent will still behave wisely when the Spirit guides them. I’ve seen this to be true. A genius who is new to Christianity can learn a tremendous amount from a ditchdigger who is farther along. It’s amazing how many wise things come out of the mouths of simple Christians. You don’t have to be smart to be a powerful or knowledgeable Christian. It’s incredible; no other religion has a similar power.

It’s a great gift. It will make it possible for you to rise above your limitations as you make your way in life and raise your kids.

Man’s unaided thinking gets us in a lot of trouble. It brought us great ideas like conversion by the sword, celibacy, indulgences, the pantheon of saints, gay clergy, and anti-Semitism. It brings us modern Biblical “scholarship,” which is full of error and denies the power of God. It brought us replacement theology and divestment from Israel. It even gave many of us the crazy notion that leftism was somehow acceptable and even favored by God.

I hope I get to go to Israel again soon. I would really like to see what God is up to over there.