Today I am 69 years old.  I am thankful that I have had the opportunity to live for the Lord one more year.  Growing old and maintaining one's health is a blessing from God, the author of life.  I have been active in the ministry, without interruption, since my conversion in 1972.  I understood from the beginning that the call of Christ was a call of discipleship; one must forsake the world to follow Jesus in righteousness and true holiness. 

Jesus only had 33 years of life and his ministry was only for three years.  Yet he accomplished so much in those short years, stronger in death than he was in life.  Likewise, his cousin, John the Baptist, whose ministry lasted only six months, was greater in his death then he was in life as he paved the way for the emergence of Jesus.  I have now had almost four decades to minister.  I have remained instant in season and out of season preaching the word of the LORD for all these years.  The Lord gave me his WORD and I have faithfully published it.  I am still looking for that greater works ministry that Jesus promised when he returned to the Father and sent his blessed Holy Spirit to comfort his people.

Sometimes I am overwhelmed at the changes that have taken place in America in my lifetime.  To the technological changes I have slowly adapted, although that gets more difficult with the passage of the years.  However, the moral breakdown in our beloved country that I have observed since my conversion is progressively vexing to my soul.  I care not to be like Lot who was weakened by the filthy lives of the wicked and merely bemoaned the depravity he saw.  He had to be reluctantly led out of Sodom by angels.  I want to be a man of action like Samson when he was in his glory righteously judging Israel, but who also in his death was more powerful than in his life.  I hope to be an instrument of revival and make straight in the desert a highway for our God.  What better place for this revival to begin than on our college campuses? 

Shamefully, in the sixties I was instrumental in spreading the decadence that we have seen over the last 50 years.  Shortly before I decided to follow Christ, I was awakened to the fact that the amorality of the hippies of the sixties was quickly being accepted by the mainstream culture.  This alarmed me and that concern was instrumental changing my mind relating to my direction in life.  The relative trickle of sin in the fifties became an underwater stream counter-culture movement in the sixties and broke through the ground into the mainstream of society in the 70's and turned into a torrent by the end of the 20^th Century.   Now this surge of immorality and apostasy has turned into a flood threatening to sweep away foundational institutions such as marriage and the family and including the massacre of infants in the womb.  The acceptance of sodomy within our military will soon sap its strength.  Our free enterprise system is collapsing with more and more people on the dole and opting for governmental assistance.  Our educational system has been captured by secularists, multi-culturists and pluralists, who long ago drove God out of the classroom.  The entertainment industry cannot seem to sink much lower.  But, alas, it will.  The Church, which should be the bulwark against this tsunami of decadence, is strangely asleep on the knees of the world.

Delilah awoke her backslidden lover, "The Philistines be upon thee, Samson!"

And when he roused out of his slumber, he said, "I will go out as other times before, and shake myself."  But he knew not the LORD was departed from him.  And the Philistines captured, blinded and imprisoned our heroic but weakened warrior.

While Samson was grinding in the prison house as the months passed the hair on his head began to grow again after he was shaven by his enemies.  Samson's strength was never in his hair but in his obedient faith which his long hair represented.  In prison Samson's pride was humbled by the mockery of the Philistines.  As his pride fell; his faith arose until the day came when he petitioned,  "O LORD GOD, remember me, I pray thee, and strengthen me, I pray thee, only this once, O God, that I may be at once avenged of the Philistines for my two eyes."

Like the Philistines made sport of Samson in his weakness, students have been making fun of me these four decades for my perceived weakness.  Please pray with me that I will maintain and even increase my strength over the next year and the years to come, so that I may finish my course strong, destroying sin and promoting righteousness.  Samson's life demonstrates the great feats one man can accomplish when the Spirit of the Lord is upon him.  I remind the students daily, "Make no mistake about it; I am different from you people; I am a man filled with the Holy Ghost and power.  You are people of the flesh; I am a man of the Spirit.  You are dead; I am alive."  I am not on campus to identify with the students; my identification is with God Almighty.  

Even now in my spirit I am feeling the pillars of the house of the academic lords, where, like at Areopagus of old, they "spend their time in nothing else, but either to tell, or to hear some new thing."   I am leaning upon the pillars.  I am bracing myself against the two main pillars holding up the structure, scientism and humanism.  The ivory towers of academia will tumble.  Intellectualism without God is pseudo-intellectualism.  The towers cannot stand; they are built upon sand.  The towers of Babel are about to be pushed over.  The academic elites will be crushed when the towers topple.  The Church will prevail!    

The fall semester of 2012 will mark the return of Sister Cindy to full-time warfare on the front lines, which should result in a banner year for The CMUSA.  Like the days of old we will be going forth arm in arm to fight the uncircumcised Philistines, even as the judges who preceded Samson, Deborah and Barak went forth.  Sister Pat will be our Jael, who "put her hand to the nail, and her right hand to the workmen's hammer; and with the hammer she smote Sisera, she smote off his head, when she had pierced and stricken through his temples." 

With our team wielding the hammer of God's word and the jawbone of truth and by preaching in the power of the Holy Ghost, we are anticipating singing great songs of praise to the LORD for the avenging of the Church in the New Year.     

Let us all pray the Church will awaken and shake himself like Samson, the Nazarite, (one separated from the works of the flesh) and he put on the whole armor of God and defeat the barbarians at the gates.

Anno Domini 2012, "Let God arise and his enemies be scattered!"

Bro Jed

Brother Jed's Team's Tentative Schedule for Spring Semester 2012

     Sister Pat and I will be preaching along with a retired couple from Michigan, Dave and Doris Metz, who will be with us through February. Sister Cindy, Martha and Priscilla will likely meet us in Arizona. Should anyone else like to join us along the gospel road, please contact me before coming to campus since this schedule is still subject to change. If anyone would like to offer hospitality, contact me. The Metzs travel in a camper so no room is needed for them except perhaps a place to park their vehicle. Dinners are also appreciated if you are close to campus.

     Pastors, please contact me if you would want me to speak in your church while in your area. Also, if anyone would like to arrange a home meeting, I am available. Local Christians coming out to stand with us is very helpful. It is usually a life changing experience for anyone who has never witnessed on campus.

     This is a rugged schedule; we will be preaching five to six hours daily; also, I anticipate that Sundays and Wednesdays will be filling out soon with church meetings. We covet your prayers and your financial support. A long trip like this is expensive. Meanwhile, bills must be paid on the home front.  Bro Jed

January 8, Centenary UMC, Friendship Class, Terre Haute, IN

January 9 & 10, University of Florida, Gainesville

January 11 & 12 University of South Florida, Tampa

January 13, University of Florida

January 17 & 18 Florida Gulf Coast University, Fort Myers

January 19, USF

January 20, UF

January 23-27, Louisiana State University, Baton Rouge

January 30 & 31, Sam Houston State, Huntsville

February 1-3 Texas A&M, College Station

February 6-8 Texas State University, San Marcos

February 9-10, University of Texas, Austin

February 13-15, New Mexico State, Las Cruces

February 16 & 17, 20-24, University of Arizona, Tucson

February 27-March 2, Arizona State University, Tempe

March 5, San Diego State

March 6 & 7, San Marcos State, San Marcos

March 8, San Diego State

March 9, UCSD

March 12 &13, Fresno State University

March 14, UC Davis

March 15 Sacrament State

March 16, UC Davis

March 19, Cal State Fullerton

March 20 &21, Long Beach State

March 22 & 23 Cal State Fullerton

March 26-30, Texas Tech, Lubbock

April 2 & 3, University of Oklahoma, Norman

April 4, University of Central Oklahoma, Edmond

April 5 & 6, University of Oklahoma

April 9-27 Campuses in Missouri

April 30 & May 1, Ohio State, Columbus

May 2, Oberlin College

May 3, OSU

May 4, Ohio University, Athens

May 7, Oberlin

May 8, OSU

May 9, Wright State

May 10, Priscilla Smock's Senior Recital, Columbia, MO

May 12, Priscilla Smock's graduation

May 14 & 15, University of Washington, Seattle

May 16 & 17, Western Washington University, Bellingham

May 18, University of Washington

May 21-25, Eastern Washington University

May 29-June 1, University of Washington

June 4-7, University of Oregon, Eugene

June 8, Portland State