It has been quite a while since I posted anything. Rather than delving into the reasons for my hiatus, I am going to just jump back into the fray. This and future entries will give you a sense of where I feel things are going in our world..
In the very first entry to this site back in July of 2014, I wrote the following

In this blog I will go into some depth about the situation in which the Bride of Christ finds Herself in these turbulent times. I will also have a running devotional thread throughout. You are not imagining things if you have been feeling that there is something fundamentally wrong in the church these days. In an effort to slavishly adhere to the culture, many writers and bloggers have accepted the following premises to be universally true;

  • There exists this special group of of people known as ‘Post Moderns’ or ‘Millennials.’
  • The church, as it has thus far existed, is unable to reach them with the ‘old ways’ of doing business.
  • The answer is to adopt as much of the culture into the church as possible in order to earn a hearing.
  • Insistence that there is only one way of salvation must give way to an ethos that honors diversity and downplays certainty.
  • There must be a fundamental change of emphasis from talking about sin and judgment and repentance, and replace it with a gospel of social justice.

I reject all of these premises out of hand. I believe it falls to us to stay the course and live out the truth of Jude verse 3

Beloved, When I gave all diligence to write unto you of the common salvation, it was needful for me to write unto  you to exhort you that ye should earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered unto the saints…

As this blog develops it is my prayer that you will recognize that these are consequential and perilous times. I hope this website helps you to see ‘Why it Matters…’
Dr. J.

Well a lot has transpired since then. Then I was introducing a book titled Fatal Drift Is the Church Losing its Anchor?

Now I will shortly be able to announce the launch of my new book titled Chirps From the Pile The book was written to coincide with the 20th anniversary of 9/11. It is a memoir of sorts of my time as a chaplain at Ground Zero, but hopefully it is much more than that. It is about the Lord’s ability and willingness…His promise…to take all the rubble of our lives and to redeem it for His purposes.

In the weeks and months to come I will post excerpts from the new book. I begin with this from the Introduction

The geese in the distance were honking their intention to get back up north. It’s 2021 and the ice storm in Oregon is over. Some of the more odious pandemic restrictions are being eased; just enough to hint at some sense of normalcy after a nightmarish year of lockdowns, wildfires, and non-stop riots in the streets.

While driving on the Interstate, I started to notice a pattern. Every few minutes a crumpled up, letter-sized piece of paper hit my windshield. One sheet, then another. After passing a few cars, I spotted the culprit. It was a garbage truck. For some reason it was only letter-sized missives that were hitting my Jeep.

As I concentrated on my driving; hoping one of those papers wouldn’t stick to my windshield and impede my vision, I thought back to the streets of Manhattan which had been blanketed by a carpet of papers soaked in Jet Fuel. Was there a signed contract for a million-dollar investment deal? Was there a termination letter from someone cleaning out his desk when the plane hit? Was there a printed email that was in the process of translation? Was there a post-it note, ’Call home’? Was there a crayon drawing from a grandchild, or a menu from the Windows on The World Restaurant?

As I drove on, I think it was the steady, almost rhythmic release of one page after another that got my attention. I was after all in the final stages of writing the book you are about to read. Writing it has been a lot like this. One page, one memory at a time over two decades, and always the wondering…What was the message from the garbage trucks leaving Ground Zero, and what about the rubble?

A pastor friend of mine asked me early on, “So how will you approach a book about your time at Ground Zero after 20 years have gone by?” Almost without hesitation, I said “It’s going to be about rubble. I’m going to follow the rubble, address the reality of the rubble, its long-term effects and its prophetic significance.

As I continued my drive north I was getting closer to Portland—the site of some of the most violent protests of the summer of 2020. I couldn’t believe my eyes. The signs and billboards were defaced and covered with graffiti. Blue tarps and garbage littered the shoulder of the road.

I had not driven north since the riots and I never imagined that the destruction would be allowed to take place on an Interstate Highway. Perhaps most shocking of all to me was the fact that the ‘artwork’ was not the product of some lone gang banger tagging a billboard with a spray can. These were huge letters that took time to produce. Either cherry pickers were used to lift up the Antifa artist for a lengthy period of time, or the ‘mostly peaceful’ justice warrior was lowered by a harness long enough to produce these huge eyesores. Two things became abundantly clear:

1. The police must have been told to stand down and not interfere
2. Months later, the city was making no effort to clean up the mess

 Homeless camps are springing up everywhere. Once beautiful areas are now reduced to burned out desolate debris fields. America is being torn down.  In a matter of a few months the whole world it seems has been shaken. To quote the prophet, “Truth is trampled in the streets.”

On the twentieth anniversary of the last time we went through something like this, I write to remind us how it felt to wake up to scenes of horrific destruction and burning rubble and non-stop ‘fasten your seatbelt warnings’. If 9/11 was a wake-up call, then 2021 is a global trumpet blast.

This is a book about God. This is a book about us. And finally, this is a book about our children and our grandchildren. In a mere 20 years, the impact and the significance of the events of Sept 11th 2001 have been blunted, distorted, and coopted by those who wish to dismantle all that we once held dear.

In the current cancel-culture I have been assigned a place in the ‘basket of deplorables.’ Patriotism and pigmentation mark you as a hater. Belief that the bible is ultimate truth marginalizes and isolates you. I make no apologies for what I believe. I believe that we are experiencing events of Biblical proportions, and we would do well to look to God’s Word for the truth.

My earnest prayer is that you will not only see things through the lens of God’s Word, but that you will be drawn to seek the Face of God, the only constant in this turbulent time. I have done my best to accurately report what I saw, and what I feel the Lord spoke to me. I recognize that my chronology may be off and the I may have failed to properly document every reference I cite. I ask for your forbearance, as my memories, like the pieces of paper hitting my windshield are crumpled up sometimes. I have done my best to open them up, un-crinkle them and relay them to you for your consideration.

To God be the glory

Jim Jenkins

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