HOW AND WHY WE SHOULD LOVE GOD - "’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments"

           

                It was twenty degrees this morning at 0645 when I woke up.  Me and Louie (my 18-month-old Schnoodle), put on our extreme cold weather clothing (him a Santa Clause tee-shirt and me four layers of clothing that made me walk in a manner similar to the abominable snowman), ventured out for our morning walk.

          The sky was crystal clear, and I saw the belt of Orion and Venus, the morning star, and as usual, I thanked God for waking me up this morning, for the beautiful sky I was seeing, and for all my blessings, and told God, “Father, I love you.”, in the same manner many of us probably do every day.  Of course, I meant the words, but for some reason, still alone in the dark as the day started breaking, I thought “what do I mean when I say, “I love you” to God the Father?  Am I repeating them out of a feeling of gratitude, and if so, what am I grateful for?  Or, am I repeating them almost like I repeat the Lord’s prayer at times; just saying the words because I think I should say them because I have been told I should say them?  Am I repeating them in a way that God really sees the love and gratitude that I feel, and do I really honor the Father with my words AND deeds, which reflect the love and gratitude I feel, in a way that He feels what I feel in my heart.

          I pondered those words during my walk, and then when I came home and started listening to Dr. Charles Stanley’s daily message, I was rather shocked to hear that his message for the day was “Loving God”.  When I heard that title, I realized that God was talking straight to me, telling me that I needed to love Him as He loves me.  But even more importantly than me realizing that God was honoring me by telling me that He loved me, that He wanted me to share what He was telling me today.  As I pondered why God would want me to share this message, it occurred to me that this message that God has put on my heart today, and on Dr. Stanley’s heart today, is a lesson that America needs to understand that our Government is totally failing in demonstrating to our nation and the world.  That failure, as Jesus says below, is why America is failing in its role as standard bearer for goodness and righteousness in a world spinning out of control and going to hell in a handbasket.   

          When Jesus was questioned by the Pharisees and the Sadducees about what the greatest commandment was, His response was “ ‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. And the second is like it: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.” 

          The last sentence in those three verses grabs my attention:  “All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”  As I interpret that, Jesus is telling us that everything else in the Bible is dependent upon us understanding and obeying those two commandments.  He is saying that if we do not Love the Lord our God with all our hearts and with all our souls and all our minds, then everything else we do is just “going through the motions”, and not truly understanding why we are doing something, why it is important that we do God’s will, and what all of this means in our time while we are here on earth.

          I have had many leadership positions in my life in the military, working for others, and in my church life, but probably none more important that my roles as a father and husband.  One of the most important lessons I learned as a leader, however, was that to be truly successful as a leader, I needed to be sure that those in my charge understood not only what I was asking them to do, but more importantly why I was asking them to do something.  I learned that in helping those I led to see the “big picture” as best I could, then they began to understand what their role was in that big picture, and why their role was so important and where and how completing their role successfully made the completion of the overall mission successfully possible.

          God is doing the same thing when He tells us that in loving Him and loving our neighbors as ourselves, we are setting the foundation upon which the rest of the world has an opportunity to a demonstration of how God loves everyone and has a plan for each one of us to maximize our impact on His mission through Christ to save us all from Satan’s condemnation for all eternity for those who do not accept Jesus Christ as their savior.  Just as a soldier or a worker perform their job better when they understand how important their job is to the overall successful completion of the “big picture” plan of their leaders, so we as Christians, by loving God as He instructs us to, will be able to more effectively communicate to others how God loved us so very much that He willingly sacrificed His only begotten Son on the cross of Calvary to become our Messiah, our pathway out of this sinful world into an eternity of bliss in the presence of the God of everything.

          As I examine my own love for God, I realize I fall short of loving Him like I should, and because of that, I am missing out on many of the blessings that God wants to show me here on this earth before I close my eyes in death and go to Heaven.  And though I cannot go back and regain all the blessings I have lost thus far, as Paul says in Philippians 3:12-14: “¹² Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. ¹³ Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, ¹⁴ I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.”

          Pressing on; putting in the past the mistakes I have made, the regrets for what I have and have not done, I will continue to pray, I will continue to read and listen to God’s word and seek with my heart and soul and mind to love God above everything in this world.  For I believe if I can stay firm on that path, God will feel that love from me, feel the gratitude that comes from understanding how deeply He loves me, feel the gratitude that comes from Him drawing me closer to Himself, and eventually Him showing me ways to better serve Him while I am on this earth.  This is how I need to show my love to my Heavenly Father, and how I hope to fully feel and understand the love my Heavenly Father has for me.  With that, will come a deeper understanding of the how blessed I am, and I am confident that will allow me to better show my love for my Savior and Heavenly Father in a manner that will please Him.  He deserves that if for no other reasons than what He sacrificed through His son Jesus, my Messiah, so that I have the opportunity to spend eternity in Heaven with Him and not be condemned to hell with Satan for all eternity.  All blessings beyond that are just gravy.

          Finally, I believe that God is telling Americas that we, as Johnny Lee once said in a famous country song, are “Looking for Love in all the wrong places”.  Those Americans looking for love and peace through political power, through financial wealth, through strategic alliances between companies and other countries, through personal relationships, and any other way that one can conceive of, will not find it in those ways.  Our politicians and judges today have turned their backs on God's word and adjudicated God out of the Government almost completely. That is NOT what the founding fathers envisioned and provided for in our Constitution and Bill of Rights, and if anyone says otherwise, they are either lying or ignorant of who the founding fathers really were and what they really believed about the necessity of our government system being based on Christian principles, and faith in God and Christ being the foundation upon which the nation would prosper. True peace and love and harmony in this world are never going to be found until we, as individuals, businesses, states, and nations, first learn to love God as Jesus instructed above.  Jesus promises us that if we do that, everything else will fall into place, because “’All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments.”

SEXUAL HARASSMENT-AN OBJECTIVE ANALYSIS

I was raised to be a gentleman, and to treat a lady like a lady. That meant opening doors for them, pulling out chairs for them, insuring their safety, and complementing their looks on dates, special occasions, and in general if they had taken pains to make themselves look attractive. I am now seventy years old, and if I treat a woman like that today, especially if the lady was a co-worker or business associate, I could be accused of sexual harassment. To me, that is disgusting and very disturbing. 

First, let me say that I am NOT a chauvinist.  I believe that if a woman can do a specific job as well as a man, then both should be paid at the same scale, and a person's sex must not have any bearing on whether or not the person gets a job or not.  In other words, a person's sex should have absolutely nothing to do with how much they are paid, whether they get a job or not, or what benefits they are provided.  HOWEVER, there is one situation where that situation SHOULD be modified.  In the military, physical strength often can and must be a factor in determining whether or not someone should be deemed qualified to do a job.  As an example, if a soldier in an infantry squad/platoon/special ops team is wounded in combat, frequently it is necessary for that wounded soldier's teammates to drag or carry the wounded soldier quickly out of harm's way and to medical care.  Facing facts, there are some situations where a woman simply could not drag or lift and carry a wounded male soldier to safety.  But in the same light, if a female proves she can meet the same rigorous physical requirements of the job that the males must meet, then she should not be discriminated in hiring or filling a position-PERIOD!

Second, let me say that sexual harassment as was originally described in the law should not be tolerated.  Sexual harassment was originally defined in rather tight terms; it was described as any situation where a person holding a position of either supervision or influence over another person's job uses that position to pressure someone for sexual favors.  The vast majority of incidents report of males being the harassers.  The following link gives a rather comprehensive discussion of what is "sexual harassment": Wikipedia Definition of Sexual Harassment  This is plainly an evil and sick act and deserves both condemnation and punishment.  Likewise, the same condemnation should apply to any female that would harass a male employee as described above.  But over the years, that definition has been expanded and broadened in the court of public opinion and political correctness to the point that now, simply complimenting a woman's appearance might lead to a man being accused of sexual harassment, and that is wrong!  Now, political correctness demands that if a man is accused of sexual harassment, then that man is crucified in the liberal press whether or not there is any proof or not.  We have seen several instances recently where prominent conservative FOX News male news persons were forced to resign because of unsubstantiated accusations, some of them going back decades.  Now, Alabama senatorial candidate Roy Moore from Alabama is now being persecuted by BOTH the liberal news media and the establishment Republicans in Congress because of accusations against him by five women who made their accusations after Judge Moore defeated another Republican and made his way into the state-wide contest to fill the seat that now U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions vacated after his appointment.  

Are these accusations true or not; frankly no-one really knows now.  However, many questions arise to any person with an objective mind.  Why did the women wait until this time to make the accusations when the time frame of some of these accusations go back over forty years?  Why did they not make the accusations at the time of the offense?  Is/are the accusation(s) provable, will the accuser(s) be willing to take a polygraph before the stories are published?  Did the accuser(s) know one another?  Had the accusers ever told anyone else prior to this time of the attacks?  Are the accusers from the opposing political party or vocal opposition persons of Judge Moore's religious and political beliefs?  Have the accusers been motivated by Judge Moore's opposition to make these accusations?  Were the women physically assaulted or are the allegations about verbal harassment?  I have read in Judge Moore's case that in at least one instance, the accuser told her mother of the incident after several years.  If so, that lends more credibility to the story, but, in fact the accusation is still just that; an accusation with no ability to be proven.  And, when one considers Judge Moore's forty-plus year history of fighting for the restoration of America's original belief structure and conservative foundations, then some might find it hard to believe such accusations because they are so contrary to what Judge Moore has said and done over the past forty or so years. 

All I am saying here is that it seems awfully unfair for this man to be convicted and banished to the point of being forced to withdraw from the Alabama race, or face expulsion from the full Senate if he stays in and gets elected, which seems highly improbable now.  The principle of innocent until proven guilty is absolutely shot to hell by the liberal press and the politically correct liberals on the left.  Especially when with some of the accusations could not possibly be proven in a court of law.

It is probably a very unpopular position to put forth, but it seems to me that the "system" is stacked against men in a very unhealthy and dangerous way.  A woman today can make charges against any man, destroying his career, his reputation, and his future, with absolutely no proof presented, and facing no legal punishment when/if  the charges are found false.  In a day where women are demanding equality of treatment, then there needs to some quid-pro-quo in the legal and court-of-public opinion worlds for the protection of men from women who have ulterior motives and make damaging, unsubstantiated accusations of sexual harassment against a man.

I also have heard cases where women verbally attack a perfect stranger for simply complimenting the woman's appearance.  Guys like me brought their male children up to treat every female like a lady.  If in passing I were to tell a lady I was introduced to that she looked lovely or pretty or very nice, I would be behaving like most men born in the forty's through the early sixties were taught how to treat a lady, especially someone raised in the South and West.  It would both insult me and anger me if a woman reacted like Ashley Judd did to being paid a compliment recently by taking offense and chastising me for trying to do so, and I would probably reply that I was sorry, I mistook her for a lady instead of a liberal nut-case, and politely then excuse myself.

I miss that age where women were proud to be known as a lady and complimented on their appearance and did not feel offended or threatened.  I miss the days when women were ladies, where there was a standard of behavior and appearance where women exercised some modicum of propriety with their behavior and appearance.  I miss the days when ladies were treated with appropriate respect and admiration for who they were rather than how they insisted others treat them because they feel like they would get the respect and recognition they deserve because of their sex.

Again, in MY opinion, over the last thirty to forty years, the women's liberation movement has intentionally done all it could to make women feel like they are wasting their lives if they choose to follow the traditional path of becoming wives and mothers and not do everything they can to prove that they are as capable as a man in every situation.  What the women's liberation movement has failed to do is understand the damage that its platform has done to literally destroy the value placed on being a good mother and wife.  Can anyone really say that in today's world, a woman that chooses to be a wife and mother is recognized as being as valuable as a woman who pursues a career to be a CEO or political leader?  I think not, and that is a shame and an injustice.  Every woman has value if she chooses to do and be what God intended for her to be, just as every man has the same value.  A mother that raises a child to be a person of faith, integrity, dedication, and honesty has as much value as a woman that pursues her dream to be  a CEO or President of The United States of America, and, as such, should be treated with respect, love, and value.  In fact, that same analogy applies to every person, male or female.  Sexual harassment of any person is an act of disrespect, conducted by a person with low self-esteem, the value system of a demon from hell, and one unworthy of the respect and admiration of anyone, and is an act symptomatic of the lack of a Godly moral compass having been ingrained into the person's up bringing.

It is a shame and disgrace that in a civilized, educated world like we live in today that women must fight for equal treatment on the job and in the workforce.  Obviously, there are situations where a woman must work, rather than just deciding to work for their own satisfaction.  But in either case, if a woman is in the workplace, she deserves the same treatment, respect, benefits, wages, and evaluation as a man would holding the same job.  The ONLY situations where a woman MIGHT not be qualified to hold the same job as a man, as I described earlier, is where her physical strength capabilities might endanger a fellow worker's safety should an occasion arise where she must physically rescue a fellow male worker from danger and possible endanger his survival because she cannot assist the injured party because of her strength limitations.  And, to be totally honest, there many be other situations where there might be justification to put a male requirement on a position that I am overlooking simply because of my background and frame of reference, and if so, excuse my not mentioning them.  But other than that, I think it is absolutely the right thing to do to hire, pay, promote, and if required, fire an individual STRICTLY on their job performance and capabilities.  To NOT do so is wrong, and to inflict the indignation of sexual harassment on an individual is a dastardly act and must face condemnation and rejection by any person with a Godly moral compass and sense of right and wrong.

WHY IS AMERICA TEARING ITSELF APART FROM WITHIN? DECEPTION BY LIBERALS AND BY SATAN, THAT IS WHY!

                Why is America being torn apart from within?  Is it racism, political abuse of power, immorality, sexual perversion, economic instability?  The answer is yes to all of these destructive forces, but it should be noted that these are all just the symptoms of the major cause of our internal destruction.  They are ALL symptoms of a nation that was founded by men who intended for that nation to operate and govern using as a foundation for ALL its laws, policies, and actions the Christian religion, but has strayed away from its intended heritage.  Not the Jewish, Islamist, Hindu, Buddhist, or any other non-Christian faith, but upon the principles of Christianity.  

            I do not ask or expect anyone to believe me, but all should believe the words of the founders themselves. For example:

           AMENDMENT ONE TO THE CONSTITUTION:  Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof...".  
          The purpose of this Amendment was NOT to separate government from religion,

but to prevent the Federal Government from dictating to the individual states which Christian religion was the official legal religion of the nation.  This is stated explicitly by one of the first Supreme Court Justices, Associate Justice Joseph Story:

• The real object of the [First Amendment] was not to countenance, much less to advance, Mahometanism, or Judaism, or infidelity, by prostrating Christianity, but to exclude all rivalry among Christian sect”
•  “Probably, at the time of the adoption of The Constitution, and of the Amendment to it now under consideration, the general, If not the universal, sentiment in America was that Christianity ought to receive encouragement from  The State…An attempt to level all religions and to make it  a matter of state policy to hold all in utter Indifference would have created universal disapprobation [disapproval] if not universal indignation [anger].”

Our founders were a religious group of individuals, and all strongly felt that the principles of Christianity were essential to our nation becoming and remaining strong and independent.  Again, don’t believe me, read their own words:

• We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion….Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people.  It is wholly inadequate to the government of any others” John Adams, 2^nd President of the United States
• Three points of doctrine, the belief of which, forms the foundation of all morality.  The first is the existence of a God; the second is the immorality of the human soul; and the third is a future state of rewards and punishments….Suppose it possible for a man to disbelieve either of these articles of faith and that man will have no conscience…the laws of man may bind him in chains or may put him to death, but they can never make him wise, virtuous, or happy.” John Q. Adams, 6^th President of the United States
• Religion and good morals are the only solid foundations of public liberty and happiness…..A general dissolution of the principles and manners will more surely overthrow the liberties of American than the whole force of the common enemy….”  Samuel Adams, Signer of Declaration of Independence and organizer of the Boston Tea Party
• Only a virtuous people are capable of freedom.  As nations become corrupt and vicious, they have more need of masters.” Ben Franklin
• The practice of morality being necessary for the well-being of society, He [God] has taken care to impress its precepts so indelibly on our hearts that they shall not be effaced by the subtleties of our brain.  We all agree in the obligation of the moral precepts of Jesus and nowhere will they be found delivered in greater purity than in His discourses.”  Thomas Jefferson, 3^rd President of the United States and author of the Declaration of Independence
• “Reason and experience both forbid us to expect that national morality can prevail in exclusion of religious principle.  Purity of morals [is] the only sure foundation of public happiness in any country….Religion and morality are the essential pillars of civil society”  George Washington, 1^st President of the United States and Commander of the Army of the Republic which won our Independence

So, how did America go from being a nation with declared dependence upon the principles of Christianity as a foundation of our nation’s laws and government to what it is now, a nation whose government has done everything in its power to destroy Christianity as the foundation of our government, and to turn America into a godless agnostic, morally depraved nation?  We Americans have done it to ourselves by becoming an morally apathetic and uninvolved bunch of individuals more focused on material success, self-gratification, and in denial about our nation’s dependence upon the blessings and protections of an Almighty God for the protections of our liberties and independence.  We have become a nation who are convinced a big, nanny-state government, free from Christian guidelines and self-discipline, taking care of all our “needs” is what is best for all our people, a vision exactly the opposite of what the founders intended.

We have been deceived and blinded by Satan who has convinced over half of this nation that God either does not exist, or does not care about what happens.  He has convinced liberals and non-Christians that Christians are people who look down their noses at non-Christians; that Christians think they are better than everybody else, that Christian beliefs are no longer applicable, and that God will not send people to hell as long as they are “good” people, although the definition of a “good” person is undefined, or varies from person to person according to how that person views the world and their and others’ behavior.

America was strong because America WAS a Christian-based nation who understood that our freedom and our liberties and blessing were given to us by God because of our acknowledged reliance and dependence upon Him as our protector and sustainer.  Until it returns to that nation as envisioned by our founders, it will not be great again.

THE TRUTH, THE WHOLE TRUTH, AND NOTHING BUT THE TRUTH

            In the world of 2017, one must make certain assumptions when it comes to knowing what to believe is truth and what not to believe.  In making those assumptions, one must have a point of reference which is believed to be absolutely infallible.  Otherwise, we place our decision making about truth on questionable foundations. 

The truth is our world today is full of lies.  Politicians lie virtually every time they open their mouths.  Children lie for fear of punishment.  Criminals lie in hopes of getting away with a crime and not going to jail.  Professors lie because they want to influence their students to believe according to their belief system.  But the worst liar of all is SATAN.  He lies to us because he wants us to believe that God is a liar so we will all end up not trusting God’s word and, because of that mistrust, refuse to accept Jesus as His son, and therefore spend all eternity in hell after we die because of that refusal.  

I KNOW the Bible is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth.  I know that sounds like an awfully strong and questionably declarative statement, but let me explain why I say that, and then maybe others can understand why I make such a strong position.

In 1972, I was in Southeast Asia, flying combat missions.  I was scared.  On many of the missions I flew, bullets literally flew over my head and over the wings of my aircraft by what looked like inches.  I was looking for truth in my faith, because I wanted to be absolutely sure that if I was killed over there, that I would go to Heaven.  I had several wonderful friends that were of the Mormon faith (Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints), and I admired them because they lived a life that seemed to me to be what Christians should live.  They were kind, soft-spoken, gentle people who loved their families and others with what I would call the love of Christ. 

I asked one of my friends, a pilot named Steve, to tell me why the Mormons seemed to live a more Christian lifestyle that most of my other friends who were Christians, and as he explained it to me, he told me things that started making me question whether or not that was really the church I should belong to or not.  I liked what I heard, so they invited me to go through a process where I was taught about their church and could eventually become a member of that church. 

While many of their beliefs were totally foreign to me, their story about the Book of Mormon and Joseph Smith at first seemed questionable, they presented historical facts to me which gave me reason to keep an open mind.  I did, until they told me I would have to be re-baptized by someone in their church that had hands laid on them with a lineage that traced all the way back to Joseph Smith.  At that, I got a disturbing feeling in my spirit and told them I had to pray about that, because I had already been baptized twice; sprinkled in the Methodist Church, and dunked when I converted to the Baptist denomination at the request of my first wife (at that point, I believed what the preachers told me that baptism was not a requirement of salvation, but an outward expression of trust and obedience to Christ’s instructions). 

I was very uncomfortable in my spirit then, and when I later heard about our next day’s mission, I became even more uncomfortable.  We were going to fly our first mission deep into North Vietnam and attack a base which was the only North Vietnamese anti-aircraft training school.  It was a rather small base geographically, which made a fairly concentrated target, and around that base were, if my memory serves me correctly, fifty-seven anti-aircraft gun sites.

I got very scared at that point.  In my fear, I became convinced that I was going to die the next day.  I had taken anti-aircraft fire before from a few gun sites down in South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, and they got close enough to make me question how we did not get hit, but we never did.  Now, we were going to bomb a concentrated area where they were fifty-seven guns firing on us.  In my mind, I saw no way for us to get through that much firepower without getting hit and I just accepted in my mind that I would probably die the next day.  But with that acceptance, the question of whether or not what the Mormons were telling me about baptism became an even more pressing matter, because when I died I wanted to be sure I would go to Heaven.  The Mormons believe that all other faiths will not go to Heaven; they were telling me that only those who were Mormons would go to heaven.

I started praying harder than I had ever prayed before about what to believe.  I actually fell asleep praying, but at roughly two o’clock in the morning, I woke up and sat straight up in my bed when I heard these words “Stick with what you know to be the truth” as clearly as if the person were in the room with me.  But my other three roommates were still sound asleep. 

I climbed out of my upper bunk bed and went down the hall to where Steve and his Mormon friend whose name I cannot remember were sleeping and woke them up.  I explained to them what had happened, and asked them what they thought about it.  They were very patient with me, and were obviously trying to wake up and gain some comprehension of what I had said, so they asked several questions of me getting me to explain again what had happened, and I explained as best I could what I had been going through all that day after they told me about the baptism requirement and how I had been praying hard, even falling asleep while praying.

Steve and his friend really seemed a little befuddled, but finally Steve’s friend said to me in so many words “sometimes, the devil will put thoughts in our heads in order to lead us astray, and maybe that is what is happening here.”  He had no more finished his statement when I said to him “Well why would the devil tell me to stick to the Bible?”  They had no response.  At that point, I simply excused myself and went back to my room and started praying again.

My thoughts became pretty clear to me at that point.  I had not even thought about what I would say to Steve’s friends statement; it just popped out of my mouth without my thinking about it.  In my prayers, I had not thought about the question in exactly those terms, but I had prayed hard asking God to clarify to me whether my prior teaching from the Bible about baptism were true, or whether what Steve was telling me about the Mormon faith’s beliefs about baptism were true or not.  I had not, to my recollection ever put it into context about whether the Book of Mormon was true or not because frankly, I had come to believe it was true until the baptism issue came up.

In the nine words that I heard that night, I believe that God answered my prayers.  I can state unequivocally that from that time on, I did not fear dying.  I was still afraid on every combat mission, but not of being killed, but of possibly being maimed or taken prisoner and being tortured.  But death had no hold on me any more.  I also realized two very important things that night:

1.       God confirmed in my heart and mind that the Bible was truthful and to be trusted.

2.       God answers prayers when we question Him about theological issues with a pure heart searching for truth. 

Since that time, God has revealed to me that He is giving people proof of His existence, and proof that the Bible is true.  Numerous books are available from people who have had near-death experiences and gone to Heaven and met Jesus.  The most obvious and undeniable proof to me is given in the example of two children, one a then-three-year-old from a Midwestern state, and a young Russian child from the Chicago area.  Both had experiences where they went to Heaven and met Jesus.  Neither knew of the other, but the father of the young boy, a pastor of a church in that Midwestern state, kept asking his son what Jesus looked like, showed him every picture he could find depicting Jesus, and the boy kept saying no, that wasn’t him.  Then, one day a story of the young girl was being shown on TV.  In that story, it was showing some of the beautiful paintings that this less-than-10-year-old girl from Chicago had painted, and one of them was a large painting of the Christ.  About that time, the young boy, who at that time was less than five years old, walked by the TV, and matter-of-factly told his father “That’s Him”, meaning that is what Jesus looked like.

So, a boy from the Midwest sees a picture of Jesus painted by a girl just a few years older than him from Chicago, a girl the boy had never met, and confirms that the picture is of Jesus as the boy saw Him in heaven in his near-death experience.  Coincidence?  No, I don’t think so.  When one becomes a Christian, one soon learns that in the life of a Christian, there is no such thing as coincidence when it comes to spiritual truths.

To learn more about the young boy and girl mentioned in the example above, read the following books:  To relieve the concerns of the skeptical, I do not know any of these people, and am not receiving any kind of financial or any other compensation for recommending these books.  I found them compelling reading, and the interactions between them, though thousands of miles apart, is hard to discount as anything but truthful.

1.       Heaven is for Real: A Little Boy's Astounding Story of His Trip to Heaven,

2.       Akiane: Her Life, Her Art, Her Poetry

 I know all the arguments against the Bible being absolutely truthful.  I listen to my skeptical friends with the typical arguing points (shell-fish versus no-shell-fish, women cutting their hair, conflicts between the Old Testament and the New Testament, the earth being billions of years old versus thousands of years old, etc).  Do I know the answers? No.  Does that bother me?  NO!

Any religion is a belief based on one thing:  Faith.  Faith is believing and trusting in something or someone that cannot be seen or proven by empirical evidence.  However, there is another type of proof that overcomes all the issues of empirical evidence requirements.  In the Christian faith, there is the proof of the Holy Spirit.  For those of us who have accepted Jesus Christ as their Savior, we have been given the gift of the Holy Spirit, and that Holy Spirit is as real as your next breath.  The Holy Spirit is our interpreter when we pray but do not know how to express ourselves to our Father.  The Holy Spirit is our conscience, guiding us on our quest for truth as we face the lying society in which we live.  It is our source of the ability to believe and trust in God.  We Christians know that the Holy Spirit is real and trustworthy because it is part of the Trinity. 

Can I prove what I have told today? No.  If Steve and his friend are still alive, I hope they would confirm at least factually what I have said is true, whether or not they believe what I have said spiritually is true or not.  But in my own heart and mind I am convinced without doubt that on a hot July night before my first combat mission into deep North Vietnam I heard the voice of God speak to me as audibly as I hear anything while awake and tell me “Stick with what you know to be the truth”.  And while I am a confessed sinner, undeserving of anything but condemnation, through the undeserved grace and mercy of God, when I close my eyes in death, I will spend eternity in Heaven in the presence of the one and only God, His son Jesus Christ.   I pray others will read this and if there are any doubts as to whether I speak the truth or not, do not trust me, but go in earnest, heartfelt prayer to God and ask for His guidance, and I believe that God is faithful and will reveal His truth to you.

May God bless and keep each of you. 

"PROTESTING" ATHLETES-NO! SPOILED INGRATES? YES!!

I sent this letter to Commissioner Roger Goodell today via USPS.  His failure to stop these spoile and arrogant players from dishonoring the men and women who died defending this country is, to me, unacceptable behavior, and I think he should be fired.  I for one, will NOT watch a single game where any player from either team fails to stand and honor the men and women who died during the display of the flag and the playing of the National Anthem.