Church of the Eighty Foot Parking Lot

Jesus was judged in the place where he lived his life, I believe we also will be

                    Church of the Eighty Foot Parking Lot  

       Many people have different criteria for a church.  I drove a truck over the road for almost twenty years and had a pretty simple set of standards for a church.  It had to have a parking lot nearby that I could park an eighty foot long truck in.  This often did not allow the luxury of choosing a denomination.  If all Christians are seeking to follow Jesus Christ example in their lives then I should find Christ in any church professing to believe in Him and His Word.  I discovered in the course of my life that is not as easy as it sounds.

       It started for me when I was kid and my Mom took me to church.  She would have been ninety today.  She was a perfect example of a Christian, at least as close as I have seen in my travels around this world.  Not just because she was my Mom but, because she lived it.  She was always looking for the perfect church.  I have attended almost every denomination I know of.  That includes Christian Scientist, Pentecostal and Apostolic to name a few.  Almost every church had at least a couple people who believed and lived the Bible.  Sadly having attended hundreds and hundreds of churches I have only been in a few that I would call true Christian churches.

       If you go into a church you have never attended before most people will be friendly.  The first thing they want to know is what church do you normally attend.  There is nothing wrong with that.  Churches need to protect themselves from unbelievers and ones who cause dissension in churches and then move on. Often it is only so they can pigeon-hole you and put you in the appropriate box.  Many people are not comfortable with someone they can’t figure out.  They have opinions or views of most other denominations and once they can put you in a box they are comfortable.

       Sometimes I have been invited to an individual’s home for a meal, a shower or a place to sleep.  Only in a handful of churches in seventy years has that been the attitude of the majority of the congregation.  The more common practice is to break bread with you and share the cup of fellowship, but after leaving the building I have no use for you till next Sunday.  It is often hard to even find a person to go to a restaurant with.  It doesn’t even matter if you are offering to buy.

         Over my years out on the road I found exceptions to the above statements.

Many truck stops have an old trailer somewhere on the lot that has been converted into a chapel and usually it has a volunteer chaplain.  Christian truckers stuck out on the road tend to migrate to these locations in their off duty time.  It is an awesome experience to have several deeply religious people of different denominations come together to share fellowship.  It can make for some lively discussions and sometimes requires deciding what doctrines and principals are important to you.

       There are a lot more issues than most people would ever consider.  Communion is a big one for many people.  Tongues can start quite a few arguments.  Even whether a person should or should not have a beard can become a major issue to some people.  We tried to come into agreement using the Bible to establish our views.   If we couldn’t agree on an issue, we would lay the issue aside and let Jesus Christ rule.  Matthew 7:15 rules regardless of what our own views are.

       Caring for and sharing with each other and those who are lost is the overriding obligation as a Christian.  The example I had as a Mother gave up her home and most of what she owned to move half ways across the country and help my brother raise his daughter after his ex-wife died.  She often did without.  So they would have what they needed.  When I hear the story of the Widow’s Mites I automatically think of my Mother.  She was the most unselfish person I ever knew.  Her faith drove her life.

       Another person who made a deep impression on me was a lady named Geneva Kleinman.  She raised a ton of kids.  She ran a day care center and she took in many kids full time when their parents abandoned them or fell on hard times.  One of the churches I grew up in, which was her church, helped her with food and bills.  Many people also helped her by volunteering as they could.  She always had fifteen to twenty kids or more.  These were kids who fell through the cracks in the system back in the early sixties.  There were no programs to give her money.  She did it because she had a heart for God.  Those kids never went hungry and they never did without.  They may not have had what they wanted, but they had what they needed and they knew at least one person in the world loved them with all her heart.

       This world needs more Geneva’s.  More people like Mother Teresa.  Regardless of what one thinks of the Catholic Church she devoted her total life to caring for those with needs. The Bible says in Micah 6:8 “He hath shewed thee, O man, what is good; and what doth the LORD require of thee, but to do justly, and to love mercy, and to walk humbly with thy God?  James made it clear who Christ taught him to care for. 1:27 says, “Pure religion and undefiled before God and the Father is this, Too visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep himself unspotted from the world.

        Faith is not about saying we believe the Bible.  It is about acting on that faith when we see a need.  It is about rising to supply that need if it is in our power.  I have seen a church in action that lived The Word as close as any church I have ever seen.  It is in Durant, Oklahoma a town of about 15,000 people.  Victory Life had an attendance of just over a thousand.   Their food bank fed almost 8,000 people a month when I last attended there before I had to quit trucking.  They also had a free tape ministry that gave away free tapes all over the country.  I used to haul boxes of them up to New England and other places.  The labeling and boxing of the tapes was all done by volunteers in the church.  The pastor’s goal was to give away a million tapes a year.  It was a fantastic church and the few times I have asked for tapes since I quit trucking they have been there for me.  It was one of those few churches where people invited me out to dinner or offered me a place to stay.

        There are churches walking the Christian walk.  They are the exception not the rule though.  The secret is that any church can choose to be a Bible and Christ centered church.  It is not about the length of the sermons.  It is about the hearts of the people.  One church I attended had a lady who said she was going to quit when we got a new pastor because he went over on his sermons sometimes.  It messed with her preset oven program.  In almost seventy years of life I have seen many churches, split, wither and die.  We are living in a nation that is following suite because we are not living what we profess.  There is almost a hatred of the poor among many of the wealthy in America today.  Their attitude is as if the poor are parasites who might want to take some of their blessing away from them.  They are forgetting where it came from.

       One pastor I like has a habit of saying.  “If the Lord knows he can get it from you.  He will get it to you.” In other words God blesses those who share their blessings.  The attitude of the wealthy is part of what is dragging America down. They would rather take America’s jobs overseas so they can get more and let the poor whose job they took fend for themselves.

       When I was trucking I used to see people all the time sitting on their bags in a truck stop.  My habit was to invite them to eat with me and let them know up front I was paying.  At least I would be able to feel the person out and know if I needed to help them.  If they needed help I gave them more than enough to pay for the meal and told them to pay the bill and keep the change.  It was not much but it was better than nothing.  At least I knew they were not going to be hungry for a while.

     The last ten years since my heart attack I have had a wood shop in the town where I live.  I would go to a local Amish auction and buy broken or cheap furniture and fix it and sell it cheaper than they would be able to buy it most places.  It is sure to have helped some people.  Recently I sold the building though and need to find a new way to help others.  I met a pastor in New Jersey who used to fix up used cars and plate and insure them and provide them to missionaries to use while they were back home in the states for a visit.  There are many ways we can help others.  Sometimes it just takes opening our eyes and looking around us.  People can reach out to the single mother with a couple of kids.  Why not give her a break to go shopping or do something she needs to do by volunteering to help with her kids.  Little things that cost nothing but your time and can help a bunch

        Sometimes just letting a person know you care and are willing to listen and not share their problems with the world allows them to vent.   That can really lift a person’s spirit.  Especially when they think there is no one who cares.  I have had people tell me they were not going to let me buy them a meal so I could feel good about myself.  That was fine and I honored their wishes, but they can’t stop me from praying that someone is able to touch their life in a good way.

       I have no delusions that I am an awesome Christian.  My wife can get rid of that thought in a couple of minutes.  She knows all my short comings.  She also knows I am trying to be a better person than I used to be.  I have made progress over the years, but it is a never ending challenge to grow and to be better.  We all can be if we just put our hearts and minds to it.

        Next Sunday take the time to get to know one of your church brothers or sisters.  In fact get to know your extended family and maybe take time to meet your neighbors.   That is an area I could use some practice in.  This sounds strange but I live on a road where seven out of twelve of us are truckers, or were.  I met most of my neighbors out on the road in another state from where we live, simply by striking up a conversation or talking on the CB radio.  Something I failed to do at home and having lived next to them for years.  So yes even I need practice at what I am preaching.  Oh yeah and a couple of my neighbors are preachers.  We have talked but I have not been invited to their churches.  Not lately anyhow.  I have attended their churches at least once to show I respect what they do.

       We may be singing out of the same hymnal, but we are not singing together. If we are going to fix America and get it back to where it used to be as a nation that has to change.  As an asocial person that puts the burden of changing on me. It is a step I am willing to try and take.

Hope in the Face of Mayhem

                                     Hope Springs Eternal

     It is amazing to me that hope can spring forth from tragedy.  The recent shootings in Charleston, SC made me more aware than ever that hope does in fact spring eternal. It will defeat darkness in the end. The forgiveness offered by the victims and the coming together to remove the symbol of hate shows the power of good over evil. Jesus himself said in the end time it would be as “in the days of Noah.” If you take the time to read the 6^th Chapter of Genesis it is a perfect description of the times we are living in today, just as Jesus warned us it would be.

   We all have unforgettable memories in our lives. The Kennedy assassinations, the Martin Luther King assassination, 9/11 and a couple of personal events have imbedded in my mind the fact that evil exists.  However, the events in Charleston made me realize that sometimes goodness can and will in fact defeat evil.

   The recent act of domestic terrorism that happened in Tennessee is definitely nothing new to America. In the course of my life there has been plenty of that.. Murder and mayhem are nothing new. Over 15,000 people are killed every year in America, 11,000 of them by gun violence.  That is equivalent to a small city every year. The media try to slant one event as more important than another. The only change is we now have people encouraged by outside sources to commit acts of terror. Sometimes people are even convinced to kill themselves in the name of religion. The Jim Jones massacre is a classic example.  Evil comes in many forms.  Serial killers take many lives.  It is America’s own unique contribution to evil, though I am sure it happens elsewhere also.

   Many people point to same sex marriage and homosexuality as the signs of our moral decay and weakness in America, but to me the Bible has several other things that God hates far worse than gays.  When God lists the seven evils he hates, gays and adultery don’t even make the list. In fact three out of the seven deal with issues of the tongue.  Reading Proverbs 6:16-20 is enlightening.  Obedience to our parents can keep us from evil.  That point is reinforced in Joshua 1:8. It makes clear that success and prosperity in life are dependent on knowing God and obeying His Word.

   Another place in the Bible it describes who will be punished in the “Day of the Lord’s sacrifice.”  It says all those who wear strange apparel will be judged. Great now what we wear can get us killed.  The question is what is strange apparel?  The only basis I know to figure that out is to look at the clothes they wore in Biblical times. If that is the standard most of mankind is doomed.  I pondered over this for years.  Then when reading a parable by Jesus in Matthew 22 the light came on for me.  The people bidden to the feast did not come and they were killed.  Then the king sent his servants to gather new guests off the street and bring them to the wedding. They bought both good and bad, that was the key that unlocked it to me. They were all brought off the street.  None had time to change into special apparel.  So what did the king see that upset him?.  The verse states that when the King showed up one of the guests was not wearing a wedding garment. That guest was cast into outer darkness. 

     I always thought that was unfair and then I figured out in my own mind what the wedding attire was.  The first people who did not come were the Jews.  The second group was those who followed and believed on Jesus. Their attire was washed in the blood of the lamb.  To me that meant baptism.  The reason I believe that is because he was cast into the outer darkness, which is hell.

   Later after much reading I found another verse in Revelation 11:18 that said the time of judgment of the nations had come. The last sentence kind of stunned me. It placed judgment on and destroyed those who had destroyed the earth. In this day of global warming it is easy to blame it on mankind.  When I read that verse as a semi-environmentalist I had to wonder if it meant all the roads, cities, canals and changes mankind has made to alter the earth to his needs.  The dams, the stripping of the forests from the land, the oil pollution, nuclear pollution, and oceans stripped of the fish and polluted with trash.

     Having found the solution to one threat of destruction in a parable I took another look at the parables in the Bible and came to the parable of the talents. The issue in that parable was stewardship of what the servant had been given. The final one was a bad steward and was cast into outer darkness.  It made it pretty clear to me that we are responsible to properly use what we are blessed with.

     If we want to keep digging we will find that getting tattoos is not permitted and puncturing our body to wear jewelry is not allowed.  Even trimming our beard is a sin.  How much greater is the sin of not even having a beard. We can get as far out there as we choose to do, but really it is pretty simple.  Micah 6:8 lays out the whole duty of man.  I am sure there were gays and every other form of  degenerate behavior at the time of Christ, but he did not rail on them.

   In James 1:27 it makes pretty clear what God does expect of us,’ Pure religion and undefiled before God  and the Father is this. “To visit the fatherless and widows in their affliction, and to keep oneself unspotted from the world.”  That sounds pretty simple really.  The only problem is that we have fallen so far away from God many do not know what it means to be undefiled.  We have reached a point where if anything feels good we feel entitled to do it.  However many of the things that feel good in the moment, will destroy us and our lives in the end.

    Simply reading the first and second chapters of Romans makes it pretty clear what is wrong with the world today.  It says God will eventually give man over to evil choices and they will come into judgment for their actions.  It does not take a rocket scientist to see that we have reached that point.  A person who does not wish to be judged has only one option and that is to live a good life and pray God delivers us from the evil around us.

      God does not hide what is right and wrong from us.  Anyone who will take the time to read the 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy can clearly see what God says he will do for those who follow him and those who don’t. While America may have been on the Blessing side of the page at one point, it is easy and clear to see that we have slid to the cursed side.  The sad part is that judgment is just around the corner and most do not realize it.

     Most of those living lives of corruption admit they are living wrong, but choose to continue doing so.  I have not pity on those people while I do pray for them. The ones I do have pity on and feel for are the children who will be swept up in it all. When a tsunami hits, or a Katrina,  or even a 9/11 situation children are swept up in the destruction,  but it is often because of the bad choices of their elders.  My heart goes out to them and my prayers that God will spare them.  God will do what is just and what is right, regardless of how we see it.  What befalls most of us is by the decisions and choices we make in life.

    My only purpose and hope in writing this is that someone who does not know what they are doing, or someone who does, will open their eyes and see they have the opportunity to make the choice that can change their life. It is solely up to each of us to do so.

     So what makes me think we are near the end?  In Luke 24 Jesus is laying out what will happen after he is gone. In verse 6 he says they will hear of this and that, yet when you get down to verse 33 he changes from hearing to seeing.  I do not think it was a grammatical error.  It was an intentional change that could clearly be seen by those willing to look.  Are you looking up.

Coming Full Circle

                   Coming Full Circle

Recently I have had to take time and reflect on things in life.  Following God is something I do when I am not busy doing my own thing. Which is normally running away from him.  It is a part of my being and a big part of my life story.  It has been an awesome experience.  Taking everything I do to God is almost second nature.  It took me a long time to learn to sit and wait if God didn’t move me.  However, last fall I came to a situation and I wanted to move, only God was saying sit. I wanted things to happen and they weren’t happening.

It is not that I am not willing to sit and wait till I hear God in a situation.  The day before Thanksgiving in 1993 I got laid off with no warning. I decided I was not moving till I was sure God was in it. The Friday after Thanksgiving I was offered a job but was not sure God was in it. I sat at home on unemployment till April and was getting a little nervous and thinking maybe I missed God in the matter.  When the job did come it was the same one, from the same person, but this time the Lord bought him to me. I told the guy okay, but also told him if I felt moved by God to go elsewhere, I was gone.  It went fine for six months and the door was opened to me having my own truck and traveling all of the United States and Canada. At least till God slammed that door ten years later, which is a big part of my testimony.

It is clear to me now that the reason my barn was not moving along was not because I was building it.  It was one of the first projects in my life that I had the cash in hand upfront. The problem was the why I was building it. I was trying to go back to doing something God had opened the door to and then ten years later closed.   The two links are basically a testimony of some of my experiences with God.  The fact I am here today is another having had the big one and been bought back. Little did I know that the next six years of my life God had plans for me. I became convicted by the Lord and a verse in 1st Timothy 5:8. My twin great Grand-daughters Mom could not get a job  and was stuck living in government housing, with the bugs and the junkies. I stepped up to the plate and for the last six years have been taking care of them five days a week. I was 67 when it started. Looking back I understand it now. This part is being added in August of 2021. My wife said I was nuts, but I wasn't, what I was, was convicted by the Word of God/

God has opened doors and given me everything I ever wanted in life and it has been a full life, thirteen years in the Army, ten years of it as a skydiving instructor and a tour on the Seventh Army Parachute Team where we did exhibition jumps all over Europe. Ten years of living overseas seven years in Germany, two years in Panama and a year in Vietnam.  Twenty years of seeing America in a truck. Ten of those years were in my own truck and getting to witness out on the road.

 

That part of my life was behind me and it was all a Blessing but God had closed that door for whatever reason.  I was trying to reopen it. My goal was to get in my van and go back out on the road. My plan was to travel sharing my testimony getting stories to write for my blog.  The problem was I had not bought that part of the plan to the Lord.

Since October I have been very ill four times and three of those times I did not really know if I was going to see the other side but I did by His Grace. A couple of days ago I was reading a couple of friends blog post and the light came on. I don’t have to be out on the road to share my testimony. I met these girls at the Blue Ridge Mountain Christian Writer’s Conference. It had been my privilege to go three years in a row. This year I missed it. 

In 2013 at the Conference I met the person who had come the farthest to the Conference.  He was a pastor from Japan. We started talking in the coffee shop and I shared with him that I had a friend that I had lost contact with over the years and that she was Japanese.  She was the wife of my best friend who died in a plane crash which killed fourteen members of the Army Parachute Team the Golden Knights. Well he wanted all the details I could give him.  I told him I had tried for several years with no luck in finding them.  He said no problem.  Anyhow the next morning at breakfast he gave me a piece of paper with her name, address and many details about her.  I called and sure enough it was her.  That fall I was reunited with my friend and former teammate’s son at Ft. Bragg, NC.  He is very involved in good works and has turned out to be a very awesome person.  Another circle in life had been completed.

The Lord has given me an awesome life.  I can live it again and again in memories.  I have seen the world, but now I need to become involved. It is time to reach out and help where he has placed me.

It is possible to share all that he has done for me without leaving here. My blog is doing very well. I am sure he called me to it. He opened all the doors, especially my time working as a journalist my last year in the Army.  Time spent writing for the Southern Command News in Panama, The voice of America in the Canal Zone.

So it is time to reel it in Richard.  It is time to reflect on all the neat little circles in life. To see God in them like the one that just closed.  The 29^th of May my wife and I went to the graduation of our youngest daughters, youngest son’s graduation. His Mom went home to be with the Lord a few days before her 33^rd birthday in August of 2010.  She fought a seven year battle with a brain tumor. It is only in looking back that I realize my heart attack had a purpose as I was allowed to take her to therapy and radiation.  Our bond became very strong and she was ready to go when the time came.  She passed with all her sons and family with her. The testimonies that were given at her memorial service made me see how awesome of a woman she was.

The day or so before the graduation my wife and I had these little things happening.  I took one of my grandsons out for a birthday lunch in Evansville. On the way back we stopped at a pond where Glenda loved to go and sit.  It had sunflower fields by it.  While it is early for sunflowers it was still beautiful. When I pulled in I had been on a country station. When I started the car to leave the radio had changed to a Gospel music station. I started crying.

Later that evening as we entered the graduation a lady caught our attention. She was wearing a hat, holding a lady’s arm and shuffling along.  She looked very much like our daughter did in her last days. I looked at my wife and we were both already in tears. Glenda was giving us signs, just as she had done when she passed.  We would sit on the front porch and butterflies would keep landing on us. It kind of freaked us out and yet it gave us peace.

Once we got inside the auditorium we found a good seat and had been there only a little while before our daughter’s best friend, who she lived with for awhile during her illness came in and sat with us.  They were there for the graduation of their son’s girlfriend. So Glenda gave us plenty of signs to know it will all work out.

Friday night I took my niece to an Amish auction near our house.  It is actually ten auctions in one as most of them are going on simultaneously.  In the course of the evening I started talking to a guy, mainly because of my Vietnam hat. He started telling jump stories and then he said he was a skydiver.  I probably physically rolled my eyes.  I have had that happen so many times only to find out they had not in fact skydived it was getting old. 

Then I asked him where he jumped at.  He said Ft. Stewart, GA and started naming names of people who trained him and jumped with him.  We had started at the same place and within six months of each other and knew all the same people. We agreed to get together some time and talk. It was kind of ironic to meet each other at an auction.  We only live about 50 miles apart.  While our lives followed many similar paths and crossed often it was our first meeting.

So maybe the circles of life are coming to a close. The Good Lord has definitely given me a good ride and I have really enjoyed it. My only hope is I can become a good stay at home Christian.  John 3:8 has not changed and still applies, but maybe  the winds are just becoming softer

In closing I just want to say to those who do read my posts regularly I truly appreciate every one of you, even if I have never met you.  I pray the Lord touches all your lives in a positive way. I apologize for the long break between posts but my health has been an issue.  I will try to make up for it by making the remaining posts I make, better posts.  I would also like to thank another BRMCWC member for encouraging me and for being a good friend. I wish her all the success she could ever hope for. Her book, Running from a Crazy Man, is about when God does not make sense. It is in a guest post on my blog and is written in short stories format on how we can deal with the issues we face in everyday life as a Christian and is endorsed by Jerry Jenkins of the Left Behind Series fame, which might say how good it is. And awesome a testimony to her writing skills.

Turning a Corner in Time

                 Turning a Corner in Time

Are we, or have we turned a corner in time. Are we fast approaching the time when there will be no more time as man knows it?  Every time I turn on the TV lately somebody is being or has been killed.  The truly scary part to me is that here in this country it is not the forces of evil doing the killing.  It is those appointed to protect and defend our society doing the killing.  How can this evil happen?  When did we turn this corner of death and destruction.  It was before 9/11. Remember Waco, Oklahoma City, Jim Jones, It has not been like this all my life or I do not remember it being this way, but it had to have a starting point. Or has it always been like this since Cain and Able. 

Then I read Ephesians 6:11-12, it gave me pause.  My eyes were opened in a new way.  I spent thirteen years of my life defending this country and what it stands for. How could it come to this? Those verses say, “Put on the whole armor of God. that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil,  For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places.”

So what is the Armor of God? The Word of Truth and the Holy Spirit are the most powerful parts.  Yet they must be combined with knowledge of the Word and how it functions in truth to be effectively used. 

Hosea 4:6 makes clear that God’s people are destroyed through a lack of knowledge.  That is not the heathens or the lost, it is His people.  This country professes to be His people today, but it certainly can’t be seen when we look at society as a whole.

OWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW

I am back I just had a bit of wake up call.  Nothing wakes you up like pouring a whole cup of hot coffee on your bare foot first thing in the morning as you take the sugar spoon out of the cup.  Didn’t really need the sugar I guess.

I was getting sidetracked from my goal for this post and I got pulled back into reality.  A friend of mines blog already says it in much better style than I could ever do. Where I was going with this? You can follow the link to her blog post.  You owe it to yourself to read her post and understand what is happening in the world we live in.

The following little insert is where I was headed before the coffee and when I started throwing out verses.  It sums up what I am personally having issues with.

      “Awesome Lori, it speaks volumes.  Irony for me is that I was/am just writing a similar piece but as a question. "A Corner in Time."  When did we turn this corner of death and destruction?  It was before 9/11. Remember Waco, Oklahoma City, Jim Jones, It has not been like this all my life or I do not remember it being this way, but it had to have a starting point. Or has it always been like this since Cain and Able.  Anyhow thanks for the boot to get it started.”  The above was my comment on her blog.

We thought the problem with people flying planes into things was over.  There is always a way for evil to accomplish it goal.  Jesus said in the end it would be as in the days of Noah.  I advise reading Genesis 6 and your eyes will be opened significantly.

Jesus also said the only sign that would be given was the sign of Jonah. If you want your eyes opened wider read 2^nd Peter 3: 8-9 and if you count the days from Adam using the Lords count, we are entering the seventh day or the day of the Lord.  The only thing is left that has to happen for Jonah’s prophecy to be fulfilled is for the Lord to rise up, just as Jonah did.  It is amazing that he would use one of the most questioned books of the Bible as the only precursor of his coming. So if Jonah is a lie your okay, however, if it is true as Christ said it was.  We are standing at the door and everywhere I turn I hear knocking.

If you have a problem with what is going on in the world today you might read a couple verses from Isaiah and be even more confused or maybe enlightened. Isaiah 45: 5-9 yes God does it all, but for his purposes and in the end, regardless, he says we win. Isaiah 54:16;17.  Do YOU know YOUR Bible, it will make you a winner.

As the parable of the ten virgins makes clear, the time to fill your lamp with light and knowledge is quickly running out.  Please excuse my writing as it may not be the neatest.  I have been totally sick since the 28^th of March and went from then to the 5^th and ate nothing.  I had two tamales on Easter, normally eat six. Had no sides and went back to bed.  Was down to the 9^th with nothing and then on the 10^th I had my first meal, a 6 inch subway.  It stayed down and I feel better today.  I wanted to get this post out as I have not had one in a while, but believe me I was beginning  to wonder if there even was going to be another post.  The upside is I have lost almost 35 pounds.

The Truth Will Set You Free

                 The Truth Will Set You Free

Will the Truth really set you free?  I can tell you from personal experience it can and it will.  The Bible says God’s Word is True and every man a liar. Towards the end of my Army career I had to decide if I really trusted the Word of God.  My superiors were determined to kick a soldier who was serving under me out of the Army.  I knew that the story and situation they were using to accomplish their goal was based on lies.  They informed me I had to go along with them or my career would be over.  It came down to a decision of which was more important, my integrity or my career.  Little did I know that just a couple of years down the road the choice I made would actually alter the course of my life.

At the time of the event I was serving as an Infantry squad leader in Germany.  I had spent my first ten years as a parachute rigger. The Army reclassified many people during the downsizing after Vietnam.  I was one of them.  Anyhow one of my men had been caught in possession of drugs.  The way he was caught was the issue.  My superiors violated regulations to catch and charge the man.  As a squad leader I knew he was guilty of what he was being charged with, but the Army had rules concerning search and seizure and those rules were violated to catch the man.  I had already warned him that I knew what he was doing and that if and when I caught him I would see that he was punished to the full extent of the law.  I also told him it would be perfectly legal and he would only have himself to blame for throwing away his career.

My view in the matter was that my men had to put their lives in my hands and be able to trust me.  My superiors said I was making too big of a deal out of the matter.   They said that we were not at war and so what did it not matter.  I argued that principals and integrity were the core values of leadership.  They ended up removing me from the man’s chain of command and proceeded on with his court-martial.  By removing me from the man’s chain of command I had no say so in his trial.  However I was allowed to act as a character witness at the trial. I knew before I walked in the door to that trial that if I did so my military career was over.

At the trial I was called in after the court martial was over.  The man had been found guilty and my superiors were sure they were going to kick the man out of the Army as they intended.  The judge asked me why I was willing to testify to the man’s character and not at the trial.  He asked me to explain in my words what had happened.  As I talked I saw him start to smile and it confused me.  When I finished speaking he said he had already found the man guilty and my only purpose was in determining what the exact punishment would be.  The judge explained to me that he knew I was telling the truth.  I asked how he could know that.  He stated that he had listened to five versions of the story during the trial.  My story was the only one that made sense of all their stories and he said therefore it had to be the truth.  Based on that revelation he decided that instead of kicking the man out of the Army he would fine him $25 and that would be the end of the matter.

Well it may have been the end of the matter for my soldier, but it was the start of a nightmare for me.  I had about 45 days left in Germany and my superiors made my life a living hell.  When it came time to leave they had to write my proficiency report.  Well they gave me one that was the worst I had ever seen.  They gave me a rating of 19 points out of a possible 125 points.  Not only that, they gave me a rating for the previous year at the same rating,  They had failed to do it when it was due.  The irony was that they had promoted me to staff sergeant in the period between the two reports.  To show the significance I had to write reports on a couple of soldiers that got kicked out of the service and I gave them a 75 and an 85 point reports.

After leaving Germany I went to Ft. Campbell, Kentucky for a year or so and then reenlisted for duty in the Panama Canal Zone, which just happened to be at the time of the Canal Zone Treaty.  For some reason I could not deal with the heat and humidity in Panama and it showed in my duty performance. I volunteered to the Department of the Army for discharge under the Qualitative Management Program way back in 1978.  I referenced the two bad efficiency reports from Germany as grounds for my application.  The Army was down-sizing after Vietnam and my request was approved.  I had received bad reports for not being physically fit for duty.  I did not know the irony of that, and that there was a reason, till almost forty years later.  Some time later in 2011 I found out many of my health problems were related to Agent Orange.  I started receiving disability in 2013.  The heat hadn't bothered me in Vietnam, but that was before I found out about Agent Orange and what it did to people. it never crossed my mind the that my inability to perform and my time in Vietnam might be connected.

There is another small irony in all this. Had I not taken typing in high school I may never have been drafted for temporary duty as a legal clerk and learned how to read and use the Army Regulations to my advantage.  I typed and submitted all the paperwork  myself for the Qualitative Management Program Application. I did not mention the fact that I had been promoted between the two EER's. that was sort of an 

"Ace in the hole" that I figured the review board would never see.  However when I filed for my Agent Orange Compensation I included it in the paperwork. I had intended to make a career of the Army, but my health was destroyed without my knowledge. Had I not met a retired Air Force officer and at a Bar B Q and our discussion had not come around to my health condition and my status, I may never have known to file the paperwork. I am sure hundreds of thousands of other people have also not filed because of not knowing.  The government does know who are qualified for the benefits but they have a sort of, don't tell, unless it is bought up policy. 

Had I not told the truth and stood up for the soldier in my squad in Germany it may not have had the same ending.  When I realized I could not do my job I might not have had those bad reports to fall back on.  I decided to get out of the Army and go to college because when I did re-enlist at Ft. Campbell two other NCO’s were denied reenlistment and not allowed to serve until they were eligible for retirement.  One had seventeen years and six months in the service and the other had seventeen years and ten months.  Army policy at the time said if you had eighteen years in the service you were locked in and they had to at least let you finish your twenty years for retirement. Had I served my time out I would have been at seventeen years and eight months and based on those two reports probably been denied re-enlistment.  My decision on leaving if I could was the best option.  One of the two men denied re-enlistment in the Army was based on something he did clear back on his first enlistment in the Army.  The example made clear to me that it might be better to leave, because I was not really good infantry material anyhow.

 Over the course of my twenty years in the trucking industry and going to court and fighting tickets that I felt were unjust and being willing to stand up for myself it became clear to me that many times the truth can and will literally set you free.  It might be good to add that over the years I got a few tickets when I did absolutely nothing wrong and had to pay the fine. It does not take much reflection on my part to know that in reality, I may have been innocent at that time, but many times I should have been busted but I got away with it.  My best friend calls it Karma, but I call it life.

All in all though I have lived a life I have enjoyed and in the end through no planning of my own I have been blessed with a decent income and no longer have to struggle to survive. The Bible says, "The steps of the righteous are ordered of the Lord"  I am not saying I am a righteous person, but I am saying the Lord has opened many doors in my life and made my paths straight, even when I didn't know I was on a path.  Things that I thought had no consequence or purpose served to open doors and give me opportunities that I never dreamed or envisioned and that worked out for my good in the end. From watching a skydiving demonstration by the Golden Knights in my home town, to becoming a skydiving instructor, serving on an Army exhibition parachute team in Europe, writing for a newspaper in the Army, and driving a truck for twenty years after learning to do so in Vietnam via OJT, while running from the Lord. Having four wonderful daughters, seven wonderful grand-kids and two great-grand-daughters that will melt the hardest heart.  Yep I am and have been Blessed beyond understanding.

MONEY, Faith Based Financial Solutions

If Haggai 1:6 describes your financial condition, I challenge you to accept God's challenge given in Malachai 3:10. Might read 3:7-12 to get the whole picture. Believe me, you can not out give God. 

This is the MONEY POST,  I had been tagging my site to come to my search bar and put in MONEY and it was supposed to take you to those posts.  It came to my attention that was not working so to simplify the matter I got all the dates an posts and put them in this post to make it easier to find them.  This post will give you the dates for each post.  Then you can simply go to my history bar and pull up the article you are interest in.  Thanks for your time and patience.  Hopefully soon they will be out in a book format.

Those who take the time to read them I would love to hear your comments.  Both positive and negative as they can help me make the posts better, which will make the book better. All those who make comments will be on a page in the book thanking those who help for their comments.

Thanks again,  My email address is sclaus2u@hotmail.com which is how I would prefer to read the comments.  You can leave them on line, but I have discovered sometimes I do not get them if you do.  Looking forward to hearing from you and your comments and suggestions.

HERE IS THE LIST OF POSTS DEALING WITH MONEY.

MONEY Basics, Eating out for 4, for less than $10    2/17/2013

MONEY… Real Estate…Rentals versus Storage        12/10/2012      

MONEY …Living Money, Working Money              6/27/2012

MONEY, Victory over Stuffitis                      6/13/2012

MONEY, How You Get The Free Car                      1/27/2012

MONEY, Dump The Gas Hog and Get A New Car Free   1/26/2012

MONEY, The Secret Of Getting Is Learning To Give      1/21/2012

MONEY, When You Are Underwater on Debt, When Is It Time To Bail Out  1/12/12

MONEY, Starting Over With A Direction and a Plan       1/12/12

MONEY, Learning To Make It Work For You, Killing The Debt Beast  1/4/12

MONEY, Do You Work For IT, Or Does It Work For You    1/2/2012

MONEY, Business: Pricing, Dealing With Taxes and the IRS    4/29/11

MONEY, Finding A House, Working Smarter, Not Harder  4/22/11

Money, Business, Banks and Bankruptcy, from My Perspective   4/11/11

MONEY, Finding/Creating a Job and Money  4/10/11

MONEY, Stopping the Bleeding, Finding A Home          3/24/11

  

MONEY, Living One Month A Year Free   9/23/`11

MONEY, Spending Your Money Wisely     9/24/11

MONEY, Starting Your Own Business…Dealing With Banks    10/10/11

MONEY, Great Idea…But Are You Self Employable   10/13/11

MONEY, Investing For Retirement versus Reality    10/18/11

MONEY, Time for A New Game Plan     10/26/11

MONEY,   Getting Your Loan      10/27/11

MONEY, Cost of Driving           10/28/11

MONEY, Money How I Went From $150,000 to Nothing       2/6/12

MONEY, Trash to Treasures with Pictures       2/15/ 12

MONEY, Eating the Bear         4/27/12

MONEY,  Who Turned Off the Flow    5/3/12

Fighting Fire with Fire, both Spiritual and Physical

Fighting Fire with Fire both Spiritual and Physical

   Epiphany’s can come from the strangest places and when you least expect them.  Recently I went to the birthday party of my twin three year old Great Grand Daughters, they are full of life. During the course of the party it became time to light the birthday cake.  There were probably a dozen people in the room and nobody had a light.  It was completely a nonsmoking group, which is good for my great granddaughters, but at that moment made me see how much America has changed over the years.  Had someone asked for a light at my daughter’s birthday party, and everybody had lit up at once, the emergency sprinkler system would probably have gone off. Finally someone went and got a lighter out of their car.

     One could take away from that experience that America is becoming healthier and it may be true physically.  The spiritual fire in America, however, is slowly going out. As churches close their doors and struggle to maintain membership the great commission is slowly becoming a sin of omission.  This fact really strikes home when we look at the world news and see brothers and sisters of faith being slain only because they are Christians.

     The sad part is that they are being slain by a group of people who claim to have faith in and believe in Abraham.  A group who knows nothing of the history of Abraham and have twisted and perverted the religion they say they believe in spreading a doctrine of hate.  Abraham did stand up for himself and Genesis 14 relates how he saved Lot when he was captured and taken away.  He protected his family, but he did not ruthlessly wage war on others. 

      The commandment in Genesis 9:5-6, which preceded Abraham and surely was followed by him, to not take life and that anyone who takes the life of another shall be killed. No man who murders another shall live.  ISIS has perverted the truth to do as they please.  Even Mohammed said he believed the prophets and Abraham and adhered to the God of Abraham.  That is the same God that Christians profess faith in.  The same one who spoke the Words of Genesis 9:5-6

     All Christians need to stand up for the faith they believe in and challenge the faith of Islam.  We need to stand up for what we say we believe in. Abraham and the prophets can’t be used to justify the actions of ISIS.  Not without perverting the Word of God.  The only way to defeat the enemy is with the truth of the Word of God. We can’t allow them to twist the truth.  We need to force those who say they do believe in God, Abraham and the prophets stop using lies and half-truths to justify their evil.

     When Abraham died his sons Ishmael and Isaac both attended his funeral and came together to mourn him.  Genesis 25:9 states that as a fact and so all those claiming to be heirs of Abraham came together.  In Genesis 13:15-16 God says he will propagate Abraham’s seed and they will become as the dust of the earth. God has been good to His Word.  Certainly a large portion of the earth and over a third of its population claim they descend and have faith in the God of Abraham. 

     Christians need to use the whole Word of God, not bombs and guns to defeat those professing false doctrine and Jihad. Make them see the error of their way.  Only then can those who use lies and deceit and do the works of the devil and Satan can be defeated. Christ did not protect the woman who was going to be stoned by physical violence.  He opened the eyes of those who would have punished her to see their own evil, just as he will those who are spreading the doctrines of evil in this day and age.

     It is time to engage the enemy and use the double edged sword of the Truth of God’s Word to vanquish our enemies.  Using bombs, guns and murder to overcome Islam, makes us just as evil as them.  We need to live by the doctrines we say we believe.