Earlier this week, I was driving through downtown Philadelphia.  Part of my ride took me through a section where my boy-hood memories were awoken.  Lest I bore my readers with those sentiments, I will simply mention that as I returned home, there was a great sense of heaviness upon my heart.  I went to my room and kind of flopped on my bed.  As I did, there came a prayer, or more like a lamentation as I said to myself, God and anyone else who would be interested, "What has happened to my country?  This is my country, the country that I love!"
    Deep in the American soul there is a knowing that things are different.  This was more than a momentary swoon of nostalgia - NO!  These were the heartfelt feelings of a native born citizen who sees what is happening, the danger these things present to his personal freedoms, as well as his children's and grandchildren.  As I let my heart go out to God, I came to a passage:

        Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that deal corruptly! they have forsaken Jehovah, they have despised the Holy One of Israel, they are estranged and gone backward. 

    Isa 1:5 Why will ye be still stricken, that ye revolt more and more? the whole head is sick, and the whole heart faint. 
    Isa 1:6 From the sole of the foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but wounds, and bruises, and fresh stripes: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with oil. 
    Isa 1:7 Your country is desolate; your cities are burned with fire; your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. 

    As I read the words of this ancient prophet, I felt as if I were reading the front page of any morning paper from any major U.S. city!  Without getting into the theological things here, because frankly, I was not thinking about theology as I was weeping in my room for my nation.  But was thinking about heart issues, things that touch our everyday lives.
        There are times when I am with my 11 year old son, or my 12 year old daughter.  I attempt to show them some of the things that I enjoyed as a boy growing up in the City of Brotherly Love, the Cradle of Independence.  I am broken many times as I take them places, only to find that they have been neglected, vandalized, or simply no longer exist.
        The writer mentions sickness from head to foot, and pictures the nations resources being consumed and devoured by aliens in their midst.  That these very aliens would one day rise up with their enemies to help bring about their fall and destruction.  For years the prophets warned Israel about making agreements with aliens, that it would turn on them.  But, because of greed they ignored the warnings, and as always, when God warns - what He says comes to pass.

        Today, our nation is ill - and I am not getting on a soap-box and preaching, wagging a self-righteous finger.  The prophet speaks of "no soundness from head (that's leadership) to foot (that's the rest of the body). no soundness.  Our nation is suffering, being crippled by and just might be brought down by the continual partisan hatred that is being upheld and pushed by the extreme entities on both sides.  Unless, as our forefathers did, we can come up and lay differences behind, find area's of compromise and begin to accept each other as American's, our days are numbered.  The truth is, 'A house divided against itself, cannot stand!"  There needs to be a separation of powers for checks and balances, but what is going on now is juvenile. and is causing us to be a laughing stock to our enemies.  They are watching and laying in wait.  It was in a season just as this when we were hit on 9-11.  Do we need to experience our past against to learn our lesson?  Singing "God Bless America" on the steps of the Capital is a nice gesture, but it wears shallow as we watch the treatment given to each other.  That same spirit of indifference flows right down through the nation.  We are on the brink of civil war, and when it breaks out, I wounder what the millions of aliens in our midst will do?  I wonder what the sleeper cells in our cities will do?  As we bicker back and forth over things that happened in 2001 and further back, they are plotting and planning something "more spectacular for sometime soon.
        And so, I weep!  Weep for my country!  Weep for my nation!  Weep for our soldiers!  Weep for my children!  If you're a true American, you too, will weep as you consider these things.  Can I exhort you to join my in a prayer for our nation?  The writers of the New Testament exhorted their followers to pray for their leaders, many of whom were not living under democratic governments.

                "Heavenly Father,  we thank you for blessing us with our nation.  We humbly ask your forgiveness for our constant bickering.  We all have our opinions and positions on these matters, but we have to accept that we all are Americans.  Without that unity in our midst, we are in danger.  Our enemies will and can exploit this weakness to divide and conquer.  We ask for your assistance in this matter.

            Thank you!

            Amen.

Charles Robert Zierle

Good Morning, Fellow Countrymen!

I write today with a heavy heart as I perceive what is happening in our nation.  Our enemies have studied our culture very closely and are using our own weaknesses against us. 

Unfortunately, the partisan mud slinging that the left and the democrats have been engaged in during war time has given untold aid and comfort to our enemies - and now, they are attacking with unrestraint.  This, I believe is phase one - the mental & literary attack.

They are attacking on two fronts:  the Presidency and Christianity.  We have watched incredulously as the leading terrorist was led under the protection of our Secret Service to speak at the U.N. - where he all but declared war upon the U.S.  Why was he not arrested?  He was interviewed by the self-absorbed Brian Williams, who treated him as a celebrity rather than the blood thirsty enemy of America and our way of life that he is.\\Yet, a week earlier, this same Williams conducted an interview with President George W. Bush that made me hang my head in shame as I watch my President being rebuked and cajoled like some junior high school student.

So, the enemy is attacking the Office and Authority of the President of the United States.  We sense the uprising of our enemies around the world as they all sense a weakness and, in my belief, actually see a way to bring the "Imperialist American Nation" down.  Could it be that we will wake up one day with mushroom clouds in a few targeted cities on our East & West Coast, a couple in the heart land, and then an uprising of armed illegal aliens, now coming to pick lettuce, but to take over.  Believe me folks, these are not the thoughts of a cappuccino driven writer,  but those things which I see on a continual basis, if there is not a change.

The second wave of this mental warfare is the outright, vicious attack upon modern Christianity.  Now, Rosie O'Donnell is not to be given any credit - she's just the latest come along in the long line of Hollywood celebrities to state such dismay.  Bill Maher leads the pack with comments that make him a candidate for the abyss.  Just for having his own opinion?  No!   Because he has blasphemed and rejected Jesus Christ.  See, you don't need to be a follower of Jesus to be President, or have a successful acting career, play professional sports or have your own political talk show on HBO.  Unfortunately, there won't be a need for a jaded, sarcastic, hate filled ,loudmouth spewing forth lies, innuendos and blasphemy in heaven.

This opening of the doors to blast Christians has been helped along.  The Pope recently made mention of the Catholics stand in regards to Islam.  Wow!  You mean everyone else can have an opinion about Islam except the Christian church. You mean, everyone can have all kinds of lying and hateful things to say about the church, without fear of contradiction.

Friends, just prior to the fall of the Roman Empire, there arose a great persecution against Christians.  Nero had lost control of the empire and he was truly to blame.  The greed and vice that had corrupted the once nobel Roman government had not rotted the foundation from within.  In an attempt to divert attention from himself, Nero began deflecting attention towards these, "Nonconformist Christians"  BI (SOUND FAMILIAR?)  He accused the church of unbelievable practices, including sexual depravity in their meetings, drinking blood sacrifices during their communion celebrations, and a host of other charges.

The eyes and rage of the empire turned to the church and it is during this time that the church entered into one of the cruelest, prolonged campaign of persecution she had experienced until not.  "Foxes Book of Martyrs" tells us of the severity and terrible deaths some of these most precious saints endured for their faith.  Nero was the Caesar who had Christians fed to the lions in the Colosseum.  He also had their children wrapped in animal skins and fed to hungry beasts.  Then, to top off his devilish rain of terror, it is said that he would have Christians wrapped in animal skins and cloth, soaked in oil, placed on a pole and set ablaze.  These would serve a lighting torches for his palace grounds.

Today, Nero would probably be interviewed by Brian Williams to try to get an understanding of what he really thought about Christians.

Jesus Christ said this,

                "Every kingdom divided against itself is brought to desolation; and every city or house divided against itself shall
not stand."      (Matthew 12:25)

It is my prayer that this message begins to grow and take wings in America.  I am just one voice crying in the wilderness where I have been privileged to live.  There are others who have the same view as I, that are scattered throughout the nation.  These are praying, genuine servants of the Living God, and will be brought forth in God's timing.  But, for those who have ears to hear and eyes to see, what is happening is frightening, unless one knows the promises of God's Covenant and are fully trusting in His faithfulness.

If you have comments, a desire to pray with someone about these things, or just want to link up and talk about these things, simply drop me a note at:the email listed.  I would be more than happy to talk  with you.

Hey, have you ever been driving a late night jaunt and you were very tired, but you just had to drive cause you wanted to wake up in your own bed?  So, you tell you wife, son, or other traveling partner, please make sure I don't fall asleep.  And their job was to make talk, nudge you - do whatever it took to keep you awake.  Well, we are living in a time when many are falling asleep, being lulled to sleep and losing the discerned of the times in which we live.

Let's be committed to keeping one another awake, alert, and informed.

God Speed!

Reading Assignment
(Isaiah Chapters 24-26) in the New International Version
Referred to  by many scholars and theologians as "Isaiah's Little Apocalypse".