Monday - the 31st

I got out to campus a little late today. I had a troubled night sleeping, and when I finally did get to sleep, I slept past my normal time of getting up. For the last couple of weeks, I have been deeply troubled in my spirit. I am not sure why, but it is not a foreboding, nor a rebuke, nor an instruction. As close as I can identify it is a deep sorrow over the state of the church and the masses of people who march lock stepped to destruction. My spirit has been calling out to the Lord day and night that He would pour out His spirit, power, and glory on the world.

The Glory, though, is the main thing. The purpose of the Glory was clearly framed in John 17:22-23: "And the glory which thou gavest me I have given them; that they may be one, even as we are one: I in them, and thou in me, that they may be made perfect in one; and that the world may know that thou hast sent me, and hast loved them, as thou hast loved me.

That the world may know. Is not that the one thing we want to happen above all others? It is the glory that will do that. And it is the glory that my heart has been greatly burdened for. We have the promise of it. Joh 17:20 "Neither pray I for these alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word" It is in my understanding the one thing that is missing in our preaching. And it is promised to come.

Isa 60:2 For, behold, the darkness shall cover the earth, and gross darkness the people: but the LORD shall arise upon thee, and his glory shall be seen upon thee.

Nu 14:21 But as truly as I live, all the earth shall be filled with the glory of the LORD.

Hab 2:14 For the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea.

Please, join me in this one prayer request. "Above all things, Lord, pour out your Spirit, your power, and your Glory, even as you did on the day of Pentecost, that the world may know."

On to the day.

It was a pretty quiet day. I spoke about the scientific repercussions caused by a change in the speed of light. In particular, I wanted to talk about a geological structure that covers most of the continents. That is undulating layers of rock. The explanation for the undulations in the currently accepted paradigm of plate tectonics is that the supposed movement of the crustal plates caused the layers across thousands of miles of the continents. When the plates collided, the shock waves caused the rock layers to buckle for thousands of miles.

To me, that is not very plausible. The speed of the plates was not in the thousands of miles an hour, but feet per millennia. I don't see how shock waves could have been generated strong enough to buckle solid consolidated rock up to a mile thick for thousands of miles. And all that without crushing and breaking the layers in the process. I believe there is a more plausible explanation.

We have evidence that the speed of light is not a constant. The speed has been measured for over 350 years, and the measurements have been consistently decreasing until 1970. Here is a great presentation on the evidence. Youtube The implications of the change in the speed of light are many, but the one I centered on was the effect it would have on the size of atoms.

If the speed of light changes, then the equation E=MC**2 dictates that the mass of atoms must also change in the other direction. A decrease in the speed of light would produce an increase in the rest mass of the particles that make up the atom (protons. neutrons, electrons). The increase in the mass of the protons and electrons would effect the overall size of every atom. The increased mass would produce an increase in the electrical charge in the particles. That increase would force the electrons to orbit the nucleus at a higher energy level. That higher energy level would mean that the overall size of the atom would be larger.

Such a change, even though minuscule at the single atom level, would cause a large amount of expansion over a continent. The accumulation of the expansion would be expressed as if the "skin" of the continent were too large for the continent. It would look like a sharpei dog, whose skin is a couple of sizes to big for the body. That would be a better explanation of the undulating hills than plate collisions. Undulating hills are all over the world, where the supposed collisions are centered at only a few locations on the globe. The ubiquitous atheist club didn't buy it, but I can sense a draining off of their confidence in the face of my arguments

Toward the end of the day, someone asked me what I thought of the atheists. I singled out one fellow and told him that I thought he would be saved, and become a mighty preacher, confounding those believers in bogus science. I thought I would get a rise out of him, but I was surprised by his response. He said, "That would be nice. I would like it if God revealed Himself to me." Like I said above, they seem to be opening up.

Tuesday - Sep 1

I have to admit that I don't remember anything about Tuesday. I preached but nothing stuck with me. Some days are like that. We joke that some days we preach to the squirrels and the bricks.

Wednesday - Sep 2

Gary did all the preaching today, but it was an unusual day anyway. When I got to Willard building, someone told me that there was another group on campus over in front of the Hetzel Union Building. I told Gary I was going to check them out, and made my way over there.

There was a huge crowd. I approached a young man who offered me a tract. I declined and introduced myself as the fellow who had pioneered preaching at Penn State in 1977. He directed me to their leader, a fellow named Shawn Holes. I went over to him and asked if I could take his picture.

Shawn thought I was a professor that he had talked to last year, and said that we had disagreed on every thing. I said, "I don't think so." He asked me my name and I said, "Bro Cope".

He said, "Bro... Brother... you're a believer?"

I guess I have someone on campus who looks like me.

Well, we spent a few minutes talking. I shared my vision for Penn State, and he shared about his vision. He was heading up a group of 6 young preachers, taking them out on the road to learn how to preach.

His home base is Lake Placid, NY. While he offered to let me preach, I declined. I knew that since the students see me all the time, my preaching would probably lose the crowd. I believe I have found a preacher of the same spirit. We seemed to have one of those instantaneous connections, at least from my perspective.

I have been considering what the Lord would have me do this school year. I have been considering focusing on my area more. There are 14 state universities in Pennsylvania that seldom see a preacher. I also am feeling lead up into the New York area. I suspect this connection is the Lord's way to direct me north, east, northeast, and southeast. I have made several new contacts with preachers in this area. This coming week, I am going to preach at Loch Haven University on Thursday and Friday. The week after next, I will be going up into New York to preach at Cornell, and in Ithaca Commons.

There was some press in The Daily Collegian the next day.

After a while, I went back over to Willard rejoicing in the Lord. When I got there, a student who regularly hangs out with the preachers called me aside and said. "Bro I want to open my heart to God, but I don't know how"

We went aside from the other students and talked for about a half an hour. He was under very strong conviction. He kept rubbing his eyes and saying "This is so hard. Is it supposed to be this hard?"

I told him that God had begun to call to him, and that his thoughts would more and more be drawn to think about God. I made sure that he didn't think that he was saved yet. I told him he was just being awakened by God. When he comes to the point where he is willing to submit himself to God's will, THEN he would be saved.

I asked him if he would allow me to pray for him. He agreed, and I prayed that the Lord would reveal Himself to him and give him the grace that he would need to surrender to God. He thanked me for my prayer. I am looking forward to seeing him this coming week. I will be spending Tuesday and Wednesday at Penn State.

Thursday - Sep 3

I drove up to Mansfield last night. There was supposed to be a meeting of the Kingdom Communities steering group. I was under the impression that I would be getting a chance to prepare local pastors for my role of preacher. I held off going to Mansfield State because I wanted to lay some foundation first. But as circumstances would have it, I didn't get to speak Thursday night. So....

Friday - Sep 4

The first thing in the morning, a car full of us scouted the immediate environs for prospects for the Christian community we have been talking about since spring. We spotted several locations that would have been good, and one that would be just about perfect. Our desire is to have it set on the top of a hill, visible from all around.

The next step is to see if the tracts are for sale. Our plans are to build a self contained, self-sufficient community of about 120 people. The community will be built like a castle - in a square, with residences in the walls, and an enclosed courtyard. I'll post more about this undertaking as things start to take shape.

I told some people I was going to go out on campus at Mansfield State. Three people wanted to go with me, Jean, Katy, and Pat. It was the first time for Jean and Katy, but Pat had gone out preaching with Jed in years gone by.

The crowd began to form immediately, and the police were right behind. They took me aside and began to try to intimidate me. As soon as we began, I took out my IC recorder and turned it on to record. The first officer asked me if I was going to record the conversation. I said "Yes".

He told me to turn it off, and I said "No. You are about to break the law, and I am going to get it on tape." He countered by insisting I needed his permission to record, and I stood strong again. I told him that if we were on the phone, I would need permission, but anything that happens out in the public can be recorded because in a public setting there is no expectation of privacy. One by one, the officers tried to argue that what I was doing was wrong. The first officer said I was using profanity. One argued the "No one wants to hear you" argument. Another tried to cite the schools speech code. Another tried to plead tumult. The first officer insisted I needed a permit to speak on campus. I told him I had already checked with a man associated with the university and was told that since the university was a state school, they supported free speech. As it turns out, the man was one of the university's trustees. We had had dinner a couple of days before.

Each argument I stood against. They began to waiver. At one point I told them I was backed by a panel of lawyers who are not loathe to sue police who violate Constitutional guarantees. "I will own your house". As they wavered, I pressed harder. Finally I said I would compromise. I said I would not use those words they thought were profane (whore, whoremonger, sissy, queer, masturbation), and when I was done preaching I would look into getting that piece of paper they said they needed. Then I said, "Unless you intend to arrest me now, I am going to go back and finish preaching." Their response was "Well, okay then". I turned and walked back to the bench where I was preaching. They set out to intimidate me, but it was I that intimidated them.

The rest of the day was wild. The crowd varied between 50 and 75. At first they were rather well behaved, but then as the central issue came around, living a holy life, the debate became quite heated. I kept looking for the officers to return, but they didn't. A couple of times they walked by, but paid no attention to the loud debate.

The topics discussed ranged all over the place, but the one issue that always draws the students ire is the subject of being able to cease from sin. I think the reason it is so controversial and stirs the students so badly is because, if it is possible to stop sinning against God, then no one has any excuse whatsoever for continuing to sin. If it were true that sin was inescapable, then they could rest in their delusion that God could not judge them.

Indeed if it were true that sin was not escapable, then it would be unjust for God to send anyone to Hell for doing only that which they had to do. If it were impossible to sin, that is. But truly, God can bring us to the point where we cease from sin. If it is impossible to stop sinning, then it would mean that sin is more powerful than God. And if sin is more powerful than God, then indeed Satan won the battle in heaven. No, a God who is all powerful is able to set us free. Sin is not more powerful than God.