rictheturtleryan

Thursday, June 23, 2016

A Tale of Life and Death, My Last Post?

Hard at work in the field in Panama

A Tale of Life and Death, My Last Post?

Third time is a charm they say. It saved my life at least once. If one of the people in the operating room when I had my heart attack had not said it, I might not be setting here writing this. That was clear back in January 2004. Tomorrow I will be going to get my third defibrillator since that historic event. So just in case I am not so lucky this third time I thought maybe I would share why I write in the first place. The purpose of this post is to show that God is in the details in our life and hopefully to show others that he is still working in our lives. Update...All went well by the Grace of God, Lord Willing I will continue writing posts.

There are four reasons I write. First and most important, my Mother encouraged me too. Second is because I entered a photo contest in Panama and my Battalion Commanding Officer gave me a job as a photo/journalist, based on my photography, and ordered me to write. Third my daughter wrote a blog while she was finishing her college Spanish requirements in Costa Rica. I saw it and liked it and she encouraged me to write stories. So my grandkids might someday read them and know more about me. The fourth reason is I like to write and it allows me to share some of the experiences I have had following God during my life so somebody else may be blessed as I have been.

There is one difference between this third time and the first one. I did not see it coming and did not even know what was happening, but I was at peace with God and would have been happy with the outcome regardless. This time I know it is coming and I thank the Lord for these last twelve years. Especially for blessing me with seven grandchildren and two great grand-daughters, and they truly are. A few years ago I was reading a verse in the Bible that says, “He that does not take care of his own is worse than an infidel” Then I looked up the word infidel and it means a person that does not know God. It changed how I look at things in life, especially my relationships to people and doing things for those we love, or at least are supposed to love.

The following Testimony was taken from the start of a book I was trying to write which never really got finished though pieces of it are all over my blog posts, but nowhere in its entirety, I pray you enjoy and it doesn’t bore you to death.

My youngest daughter Glenda's dog, Forrest Gump, She left him to me in her

Will She went home to be with the Lord in August 2010 just before her thirty- third birthday and after fighting a seven year battle with a brain tumor.

She left behind three sons. So no matter how it turns out tomorrow I get to be with ones I care about

A TESTIMONY

Do dates and times mean anything? Well the 22nd of January, 2004 will be important to me as long as I continue to draw a breath of air. It was literally the first day of the rest of my life. If one has been dead and managed to come back, that tends to get your attention. Actually, this was one of the last major events in my life. Is it right to start at the end? It doesn’t really seem to matter. Lots of dates seem to be important to us. Our birthday, the day we got married, and the day we got out of the Army could all be important to us.

When you wake up and don’t really know where you are, with a doctor you don’t know from Adam leaning over you and listening to your heart with a stethoscope, it might seem a little strange. When he asks you how you are feeling, the only witty answer you can come up with is, “I feel like I have a six hundred pound gorilla on my chest.” It really gets strange when the doctor starts talking about being lucky to be alive. Then he says something about having lost you twice and putting some kind of things in your heart. The doctor then asks you questions like you are some kind of computer. “Do you drink?” “Do you smoke?” “When did you quit?” “How much did you smoke?” “You need to lose some weight,” he says. Finally, here is, something I can give a positive answer to. “I have lost eighty pounds over the last six months,” I say, trying to smile. “That’s good,” he says, “If you hadn’t, we probably wouldn’t be having this conversation.” I am thinking, “I thought that was the whole point of losing weight.” My attitude is starting to get a little sour when all of a sudden the light comes on to what he is saying. Having lost all that weight actually did help save my life! All of a sudden, I feel a little bit better about all this. However, the gorilla returned to his seat, and I went back to sleep.

The next time I remember waking up my wife and daughters were standing by my bed. I don’t really know how long I slept, but it was about eight or nine in the morning when the ambulance took me to the hospital in Baltimore. So, considering my family came from Indiana, it must have been awhile.

Who am I that I am writing a book about my experiences and my understanding of them? Very simply, I am nothing and nobody. So, what makes me feel I have something to say that may interest you? How about a common bond, in that we are both seeking to know the will of God in our lives! At least it is my hope that is our common bond.

Why start with a testimony? Well, first, it gives you an insight about me and where I am coming from. It is not my desire to have you waste your time reading something you think is just a nice story. However, I will try to tell it in such a way that you don’t have to use toothpicks to hold your eyes open. Yet, I want you to know that everything said in this book is the truth to the best of my knowledge. If you begin to believe what I am saying is not the truth, then I encourage you to quit reading this and spend your time more productively by truly seeking the presence of God in your life.

Millions of people have heart attacks every year. What makes mine so special or different? Maybe it was the circumstances. One thing is that only by the grace of God, did I had the wisdom to ask the people at the business where my situation occurred to call an ambulance for me, because more than once in my life I had shrugged things off physically till I literally woke up in a hospital.

Initially, I had broken out in a cold sweat. That happens to people who have hypoglycemic attacks because they do not eat properly. Your sugar levels get all out of whack. Driving a truck and eating regular meals sometimes is not easy to do. Often you are not near a place to get something, and you wind up spending longer than you intend waiting to get loaded or unloaded. However, that morning I had eaten a normal meal. Thinking it was still just an imbalance issue, I went to the cab of my truck and got a swig of pop and some soda crackers which usually worked.

Upon returning to the inside of my trailer, it quickly became apparent something else was wrong, as I could not get my breath. I mean, I could breathe, but it was like I was not getting any oxygen. Finally, things started into a slow spin, and the urge to go to the bathroom became overwhelming. With much effort, somehow I managed to get the couple of hundred feet to the office and asked the people there to call me an ambulance. It was a just a matter of minutes till the ambulance arrived. The ambulance was on the way back to the hospital from a previous run and was only a couple of blocks away when they got the call. Much of this I found out after the fact.

One of the things I do remember is how nice the ambulance crew was upon their arrival. Getting on the cart was the last thing I remembered till a doctor at the hospital asked me to sign a paper and told me he was performing a procedure to help me, because I was having a heart attack. If I signed the paper, I do not remember. The next memory I had was the doctor standing over me with the stethoscope.

Coincidence number two was that I had only been about a mile and a half from Saint Agnes hospital in Baltimore. If you are going to have a heart attack, that is a good place to be. The reason is that Saint Agnes was the first hospital in America to come up with the idea of a specialized cardiac care facility. They also have some of the top people in the field of cardiac care.

The third thing that saved my life was that the actual cardiac arrest did not start till I was in the emergency room at the hospital. The doctor informed me that if I had not been where I was, when I was, we would not have been having our conversation. He said if the attack had started in the warehouse, they could not have gotten me to the hospital in time to save my life, even with the short distance involved.

Supposedly, the final thing that saved my life was that, during the emergency, they had to hit me with the defibrillator paddles. They lost me twice. As I understand it, the first time they brought me back with a single hit. However, the second time they hit me twice, and I did not come back. They thought I was gone; and someone said “Third time is a charm,” and they hit me again. Fortunately, it worked. The burn marks from the paddles were one of the worst side effects of the whole ordeal. However, if you consider the alternative, it was not that big of a deal.

Several days later, my family and I left Baltimore and flew into Louisville, Kentucky on our way home. This small part of my life came full circle to me as I looked down at the C-130 airplanes on the tarmac at the airport. The C-130 had been central to several of the main events in my life. It was almost as if I heard an audible voice say to me “You have had your time; now it is my time.” God had given me fifty-seven years of life, and now He was calling a promise I had made due.

Why me; why now; why at all? God does not have to answer to anyone, especially a man who has run from Him most of his life. He has spoken through the mouth of a donkey. That is in Numbers 22. He has used people who were the epitome of evil to get “His will” done. Also, just as I know, I could die before I get this done; God will get His message out with or without me. It is vanity and pride to think God needs us to do anything. However, I believe the things I have come to understand and see, speak to this day and age in a special way and with a special purpose. Yet, God’s Word has always been special. Soon and very soon, mankind will come to a very vivid understanding of that.

Yes, I believe we are in the end time. The next part of my testimony will test your ability to accept things as they are. Some will discard what I have to say quickly and say God does not speak to people anymore. That is their privilege. However, when I read the Bible, I find that Jesus marveled at two things while He was here on earth. He marveled at total blind, unquestioning faith, and He marveled at unbelief.

First, I would like to say something about unbelief, because I think it is the most deadly thing that can happen to someone. When someone rationalizes why they do not believe something or why God cannot do something, they are treading on very, very thin ice, as far as I am concerned. Yes, there are some things God cannot do. Before you write me off as nuts, at least read the next paragraph and see if you do not agree with me. Only a faithful person will agree.

First, God cannot lie. If God says it, that makes it truth. Second, God cannot steal, as everything in the whole universe belongs to Him to start with. Thirdly, and finally, God cannot cheat, because He is the One who makes the rules to start with. So there are three things God cannot do. That may be playing with words, but it is the truth as far as I see it.

That is as good of a place to start in my estimation as any. When asked what truth was, Jesus replied, in John 8:32 “I am the way, the truth and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.” If one comes to understand that Jesus was God’s Word made flesh, then you also know that without knowing Him, God’s Word, you cannot know God. John 17:17 makes it clear we are “sanctified through the truth, and His Word is truth.” Too many, that may sound adversarial, but if you are seeking God and if you hope to find Him, it will be on His terms. If you are not willing to meet Him on His terms, you are suffering from vanity and pride. Those are two of the things He hates most so your chances of success are slim unless you discover a little humility along the way. You do not even have to ask to get a big dose of humility. It is one of the reality sticks with which he opens blind eyes.

All that being, said I must admit, yes, I have lied and occasionally still do. However, nowadays, it is more from senility than intent. The testimony I am about to give though is the truth. It is still as fresh in my mind as the moment it happened. Reflecting on my past, I would say one of my biggest problems was that I was a “the grass is always greener” person. The only good places in life were where I had been and where I was going. It took me many years to get over that. Once you learn to be happy with where you are, God will open the gate and put you where He wants you to be. However, it will be on His timetable, not ours.

It is not my intent to bore you, but I would like to give you enough background on me to be able to form some type of an opinion. It will be warts and all as they say. It is not to shock or upset, but let you see some of the wrong turns that the good Lord can undo when given the opportunity. Believe me I made plenty in my life.

A Vision ?

In January, 1967, I went to bed, and, best as I can remember, everything was normal. I had not been drinking nor doing drugs. I did at that point drink sometimes, but I had never tried drugs other than those prescribed by a doctor. The next thing I knew, I was standing at the window of my room in the barracks looking out. The window was open, and it was a nice spring like night. As I looked, I saw two people walking down the street across from the barracks. All of sudden, I realized one of the two people was me. I was telling the person with me about the Bible and the coming of the Lord.

It was or seemed like a spring like night. One thing I noticed was that I had this peace about me. It was a peace that surpassed all understanding. It was a peace to the core of my being. Believe me, that was not the state of my life at that moment in time. The next thing I knew, the heavens parted and I saw Christ coming forth on a white horse, with an Army in white, and a golden staircase preceded him. Trumpets blared, and the earth shook, and people started running in all directions and screaming. Again I noticed that peace about me. All of a sudden, it was over.

The next thing I knew, I was standing at the window and looking out. However, it was not a spring like night. It was blowing snow and freezing cold, and about six inches or more of snow was on the ground. I stood there a couple of minutes kind of dumbfounded by my experience. I looked around the room. The light was on. It was a four man room, but all my roommates were gone. It was very late. I closed the window and watched as a couple of cars passed by. Slowly, I went back to my bed, turning the light off on the way.

I laid there and tried to absorb what I had just experienced. It was some time later when one of my roommates came in. That was a relief. It was not the rapture, and I had not been left behind. I remember his asking if I was okay. I said yes, but wondered if my voice betrayed my concern. He never mentioned it again. Sleep was hard coming, but sometime later it overtook me.

The next day I talked to Allan who lived in the next room. That was his last name, at least I think it was, and I do not remember his first. After all, it was forty plus years in January. That is not an excuse, because I can close my eyes and replay that moment almost as vividly as the moment it happened. It had not been my custom to talk to Allan; in fact, he was almost a social leper. He was a born again, Bible thumping Christian. In the course of the day, I managed to get alone with Allan and discuss my “experience” with him. He seemed to tolerate me. While I had not played any of the tricks on him that the others had, I had not shown any sympathy or compassion either. His main advice was to pray on the matter.

While I did not do much praying, I did consult a Bible. My success was limited to a verse a member of our church had written in the Bible before giving it to me on my return from Bible camp. It was Proverbs, chapter three, and verses five and six. Since that day, they have become my life verses. The fact I still had that Bible was a miracle in itself. At that moment in time, it was my Rock of Gibraltar. It was all I had to cling to. It was the needle that led me out of the haystack of confusion, although it was some time before I truly even grasped its significance.

Slowly, I came to the conclusion that the Rapture was going to be in the spring. So I came up with my plan. Like Jonah, I ran. I volunteered for Vietnam. In my peanut brain and higher logic, I expected God to put everything on hold while I went to Vietnam. Spring came and went, and I was still in Germany. Finally, in May, I got my orders for Vietnam and had to wait till the 20th of June, 1967 to leave. In my job as a parachute rigger, I thought I was going to go straight to Israel instead. God was playing a trump card and sending me straight to Armageddon. Let me say that Israel was going to have backup if they needed it. The Israeli Six Day War came and went though, and off I went to Vietnam, with a short stay at home in the states.

After forty-five days at home, it was time to go on to Vietnam and my appointment with destiny. My year in Vietnam was a strange one to say the least. It turned out to be more of a Jonah experience than I realized. The units I was assigned to were over- staffed. Upon arriving at the 101st Airborne in Phan Rang, I spent ninety days guarding water pumps for the Air Force. After that, I returned to my unit, only to be transferred to Cam Ranh Bay. Shortly after arriving there, it was my privilege to again be sent on temporary duty. I managed to survive three months of driving convoys up and down the coast on Highway One. Little did I know that this would open a door later in my life . Finally, when the Tet Offensive started in February of l968, it was my chance to perform in the field the Army had trained me for at great expense. Many units were cut off and completely surrounded, our job became vital. We were returned to our home units. Supply by sky, or by parachute specifically, became the sole means of getting supplies and equipment to many units. It was around the clock work for almost sixty days.

Finally, my time in Vietnam came to an end. When I had volunteered for Vietnam, it was really to get back to the states a little quicker. At this point, I need to give a little background as to how I got to Germany the first time. I had reenlisted to go to France, and upon getting there in September of 1966, my dream got cut short. French President De Gaulle told the Americans to leave. You know who left with the advance party. Not being impressed with Germany helped me make my decision to volunteer for Vietnam. The vision or dream I had also helped encourage me to leave. Otherwise I would have spent three years in Germany and then my last year in the States. However, by going to Vietnam, I would get back to the States almost two years earlier and finish my time there.

It almost worked. I did go back to the States after leaving Vietnam, and spent almost eight months in a heavenly place known as Fort Bragg, North Carolina. It was not Germany, and it definitely was not Vietnam, so for the time being I was happy. At least till February of 1969, when I got orders to go back to Germany. It was funny how Germany no longer seemed like such a bad deal. After all, I was not going back to the same unit I had left. At the time, there were only two company size units with my job specialty in Europe. At least I was not going back to Idar.

As they say, God works in mysterious ways His wonders to perform. My time flew by, and I took my short leave and off to Germany I went. Arriving at the airport of Rhine-Main in Germany, I got off the plane still in a fairly exuberant mood. The Rapture had not happened, and I was back Germany, but not where I was before. As I exited the terminal a young specialist walked up to me. He asked my name. He was there to pick me up. Well, first, they do not send a jeep to pick up a specialist, and secondly, he was not wearing an Eighth Division patch. He was wearing the patch of the unit I had left almost two years before. In short order, I explained these minute details to him.

He smiled and handed me my “new orders” explaining I had been transferred en route back to my old unit. My cheeriness of moments before was gone. Getting my bags and the almost three hour drive back to my unit was all a blur, and truly hardly any of it is remembered. My conversation was mechanical, as I was lost in deep thought all the way. How could this be, I kept asking myself. Finally, we arrived, and I came out of my stupor. There were a lot of smiling faces, a lot of back slapping and shaking hands. The job field I was in was small. After just four years in the Army, I had served with and went to school with many of the soldiers greeting me. Also, as I said, it was a three- year tour, and I had only been gone two years. So some of the faces were familiar from when I had left.

It was almost surreal as I came “home” the conquering hero. They carried my bags in and took me to the First Sergeant and introduced me. He shook hands and welcomed me to the unit. Then he explained he would get someone to take me to my room. I remember telling him that would not be necessary as I knew where I was going. He explained that was impossible as he had not even told the clerk where he was putting me yet. I smiled and looked at him, and by this time I knew where this journey would end. I had literally gone clear around the world and was back in the same Company, in the same barracks, on the same floor and in the same room. I explained to him my room was the second from the end on the right. He looked at me puzzled. I just smiled back and left with my entourage.

As I reached the room, I opened the door and looked in. The bed on the right was taken the two by the windows were also taken. Finally, I looked behind the door and sure enough the bed and wall locker were empty. I had gone all the ways around the world to come back to the very same bed and wall locker I had left almost two years before. However it hit me that God does have a sense of humor. The day I arrived was April 1 1969. At that point, I became a little overwhelmed by it all. I asked all the people to give me a few minutes alone. I sat down on the bunk and leaned back against the wall.

Many might dismiss all this as coincidence, but I felt God had actually showed me the reality of his Being. As I sat, there I told God, “I do not know what all this is about. I will not be a hypocrite and get down on the floor and plead and beg. But I know now you are real and there is a meaning and a purpose to all this. I intend to continue on with my life, and, when it is time, you give me direction. I will do whatever it is you want me to do. I do not know what it is, but I will do it. My life is in your hands; do with me as you please. When you call I pray, I have the wisdom to answer. The call came in April of the year 1984. At least the call to start turning my life around and get some direction to it seemed pretty clear at that point.

That moment is also etched in my mind and was a moving experience. However, this whole thing is not about me. It is about knowing God and His Word and having the faith to live by that Word. In the course of this testimony, I left out a lot of the details, because, while they are important to me, they are not what this is all about. It is about a revelation I have had over the years in my time in the Word of God. There is nothing new here that has not been there all the time. It is just looking at it all from a different perspective and saying why is this here? What does it actually mean?

To me, it means if we are willing to get into and truly search his Word, the answers are there. The whole plan is laid out for us to see. We just need to open our eyes. The stories are not for entertainment, but for enlightenment. All I am about write and explain came from asking God to answer one simple question. He has been over twenty years answering it. The answer gets more and more detailed as time goes on.

Many years ago, when I first started walking the way the Lord wanted me to walk, at least I felt it was the way he wanted me to walk, many things troubled my mind. Some things I could not grasp. Had I any clue how detailed the answer would be I might have tried to change my profession, had I felt called in that way. To this day I have not felt called, just blessed. At least that was the way it was till I started this project. This has become a consuming fire. Often I wonder if I have waited too long or put it off too long, but I do not feel that is the case. There is a purpose to all that God does, and, after, all this time I know He would have put a boot under me or sent the message to another. Only time will tell, but it is my belief I will be here for the rapture. Sooner or later “it will happen.” My belief is that we are closer to sooner than we are to later. My recurring question is, will I know that person I was walking with in my vision when I meet him?

The rest of this book is basically things I have come to understand out of the Bible that makes me believe we are at a time close to the end. If you are not into end time stuff, this is a good time to quit reading, but all that follows is taken directly from the Bible.

Sunday, June 12, 2016

The Islam of Muhammad Ali versus ISIS

The Greatest of Our Time versus The Greatest of All Time

versus ISIS

As America lays to rest the Greatest of our time. His greatness in the boxing ring is being proclaimed, but his greatness goes far beyond a boxing ring. He was a man of conviction, an Olympic Gold Medalist and a champion of the oppressed. The government tried to draft him in 1964 and failed because he did not pass a test, but as they needed more soldiers they lowered the standards and tried again to draft him. This time he passed and was drafted, but he refused to be inducted into the service on conscientious grounds.

I was very conscious of the situation with Cassius Clay. At the same time he was standing firm for what he believed in I was just entering the U.S. Army after dropping out of high school in June 1965. I enlisted because I felt my country needed me. In hindsight he was far more aware of the realities of life than I was. It has been interesting to read in the reports of his life that his IQ may have only been 78. Yet he had an unmeasurable amount of “common sense” which over the years I have come to believe may be a far better measure of a man than his IQ.

When he made his famous quote, “I ain’t got nothing against them Viet Cong” I was already in the Army and on orders for Vietnam. I respected his right to follow the tenets of his faith. Had more Christians stood up for what Christ taught and acted on His Words, maybe America would not have spent so much time in Vietnam at a cost of so many lives. They say hindsight is 20/20 and looking back on Vietnam it is easy to see it was a war we were manipulated into by lies our government told the American people. It was to become just one of many such wars. I do not believe Muhammad Ali had any great secret knowledge in that area, but he did have the convictions of his faith.

Upon entering the Army in July 1965 I had only met one black person in my whole life. It was in a high school printing class as a sophomore and I was setting type for a project I had been assigned. I picked up a letter and could not make up my mind if it was an i or a j. So I started to recite some words I had used often in my life when making decisions. Words that were common in that time. I started off, “Ennie, Mennie, Minnie, Moe catch a”, and I stopped and looked straight across the table into the eyes of the only black senior in my high school. He looked me straight in the eye and said, “Finish it.” and very humiliated and embarrassed I did. He told me something that has stayed with me all my life. “Pay attention to what you say in life. Words have meanings and they have the power to make you great or make you small.” Little did I know at that time that less than three years later I would be living in a twelve man room at Fort Stewart, Georgia as the token white boy in a room with eleven black soldier’s. That few months was one of the greatest learning experiences of my life. It taught me to look at things from more than one perspective in life, but that is for another story and another time. This story is not about me. It is about a man I came to know in a way many never would. At least in my mind that was the case.

Muhammad Ali stood on his principles and even did so when they conflicted with the teachings of some in his new found faith. He remained faithful to his beliefs in the goodness of man. Many thought his refusal to fight in the military was an excuse and that it was not sincere. They could not reconcile that boxing did not mean killing. It did not mean hating your fellow man. I tend to believe boxing was more of a survival skill than a sport in the city he grew up in. That is a harsh judgment on my part. Part of which was learned from going to the time trials for the Indianapolis 500 Race. To get to the track we had to pass through a predominantly black neighborhood. My Dad insisted I roll up my window, in spite of the heat and no air conditioning. I was conditioned to be biased. The town I grew up in had very few blacks. We only had two or three black students in a high school of over 1100 students.

Ali spent most of his career outside of the ring helping the poor and those who did not have the chance in life that he had. He was an example of what I think the Muslim faith is really about. He experienced and met some of the people who promoted a hate filled version of Islam, but he stood on what “He” believed the faith to mean. It was a view that crossed all barriers of faith, religion and nationalities. The eulogy given by Billy Crystal at his memorial service showed the real Muhammad Ali that many did not see.

He had a joy and love of life that was not diminished by his long battle with Parkinson’s disease. It was a fight in his life that showed that overcoming obstacles in life for him was something he did in every situation. It was his battle and how he fought it that makes me believe there is a good side to the Islamic faith. It also taught me that those who are fomenting terror in the name of Islam are not only a minority, but uninformed about the true nature of the faith they profess to believe.

Ali lived his faith as it was lived and practiced by Abraham. He shows me the side of Abraham that pleaded the case with the Angels that visited him to deliver all the good people in Sodom and Gommorah, not just his nephew Lot. The same Abraham that cast out Ishmael and his mother Hagar into the wilderness and yet was so loved by Ishmael and Issac that they came together in peace at his funeral and Issac and Ishmael both buried his body. Gen 25:9

Billy Crystal testified of their awesome friendship. Crystal a Jew and Ali a Muslim, their friendship transcended what for some are insurmountable differences. Ali reached out and spoke on behalf of Jewish hostages in Iran helping secure their release. Ali is the true side of Islam that I believe in and think most Muslims of the world believe in. It is not the Islam of the hate filled terrorist. Terrorist who missed the loving side of their faith and perverted it by only half learning the faith they profess to believe. They walk in darkness and have no understanding of the light of the teachings of Mohammed.

When all of Islam comes to grasp the example of Ali and his understanding of Islam the world will truly be changed and ISIS will be destroyed, when it is exposed for the ignorant perversion of the true faith of Islam that it is. When and if they learn to grasp the teachings of all the prophets in the Word of God, which is a big if. Especially those of the Prophet Jesus Christ and the message he taught, they will be changed. Ali grasped and understood The Word of God was not limited by the Prophet Mohammed, which is something I believe even Muhammed himself understood, but that the teachings of peace and love far out weight those of hate and will move mountains that will bury those living in darkness and spreading hate.

Tuesday, May 17, 2016

Israel's 1st Jubilee in 2000 Years Begins

The 7th of June 2016 will be the 49^th anniversary of Israel capturing the Temple Mount during their Six Day War. I remember this for several reasons. First I was stationed in Germany and we were rigging out supplies to parachute into Israel if they needed back up. We even had planes of troops that went all the ways to Turkey and sat under the wings of planes for a few days waiting to see what was going to happen. That was no small task as we could not fly over communist territory, Austria, Switzerland or France. Our planes had to fly out to the English Channel down the coast across Spain just to get to Turkey.

As a rigger getting equipment ready to go we learnt a few things. We always did training exercises and sometimes rigged live ammo. Sometimes they would even give live ammo to the troops for their weapons, but during this rig out we rigged something we had never rigged before. It told us this was the real deal. We were rigging Blood Plasma to drop by parachute. While we rigged the infantry units were practicing door to door combat operations. Something we did not worry about in the Vietnam era. It was serious and intense training trying to cram months of training into a few hours.

At the time I was on orders to go to Vietnam and was out processing to return to the United States enroute to Vietnam. That was all thrown out the window. The mission we were involved in had priority. I was running from God win it all happened and I thought I was going straight to Armageddon.

So why is any of that important? It is not unless you believe the Word of God. Then you know that the event on that date started the first year leading to a Jubilee with Israel in their homeland. It began and would last forty nine years which ends June 7^th2016. Then starts the 50^th year, which is the year of Jubilee. If you read Leviticus 25 you will understand it talks about God bringing his people back into the land and settling accounts with his people. It tells very clearly what Gods people should do and about God keeping His Word across almost 4000 years of history.

If you keep reading into Leviticus 26 you will see what God says he will do if His People fail to follow His Word. It is not pleasant that is for sure, and a lot of it sounds exactly like what is happening in this day and age. In Romans 1:28 it says God will give the people over to their reprobate (depraved) minds. By what is going on in America in this day and age that may have happened already, America is becoming more and more depraved.

Some people will say Israel became a nation in 1948 and it physically did, but it was approved by the United Nations in November 1947. Numbers 32: 11-13 clarifies that issue. No one over the age of 20 years when Israel left Egypt would

enter into the Promised Land. Twenty years old is when men came of age in Israel. God gave them twenty years back in their land before he started the Jubilee period and a march toward judgment.

Luckily for me the Israelis handled everything fine on their own. They did not need us. After a while we stood down and I went on my merry way to Vietnam. Little did I know it was just the beginning of my relationship with God. The vision or dream, whichever it was, and my return to Germany two years later always made me feel I would still be here when the end came. That is part of what I saw. The heavens parted, and God came riding down golden steps on a white horse. Scary stuff if you are a back sliding Christian. I may have heard it in a sermon growing up, but I am pretty sure I never read it myself.

The main thing I learned from years of reading the Bible is that if God says He
is going to do something, He does it. Jubilee is a time of God setting things straight and dealing with the lost. America is a back sliding nation. Read the 28^th Chapter of Deuteronomy which gives the Blessings and Curses God pours out on nations that obey him or fail to obey him. You will very quickly see that while America may have been on the Blessed side at one time, it is definitely on the cursed side in this day and age.

Looking back on it all over the years I see how stupid I was at the time. Like if I volunteered God was going to put everything going on in Creation on hold till I got back. Or that I could run far enough to get away from God. All the years I was trucking I had “The Spirit of Jonah “ on the side of my hood and the verse below it was Proverbs 3:5-6. It was and is my life verse. I just live day to day and am amazed to see the Hand of God working in my life. My life has been Blessed Beyond Measure.

I can’t count the times I have seen God intervene and straighten my paths or open and close doors to guide me and keep me safe. That would take a very long novel and much of what I have written in my blog posts over the years shares many of those experiences in hopes it will help another headed down the same road.

Lord willing I will be attending my grandson Isaiah’s graduation from High School on the 29^th of June. It would be a true Blessing to be here for his little sister’s graduation in June of 2019. That would make seven for seven through High School. Having dropped out of High School myself, that makes me very proud. Not that I had anything to do with it, but that they have all had the willingness and perseverance to go the distance and graduate.

After I left the Army I managed to go to college, I pray they all do too, though I am and will be proud of all of them regardless of what they do. That just leaves my great-granddaughters which won’t graduate till 2029. I fear none of us will be here that long. So my greatest desire is that all my grandchildren come to know the Lord. Three out of seven of them were baptized in 2003, forty-two years to the day from the date I was baptized. God is good. He will never leave us nor forsake us and what is His, is His for all eternity. Thank God, he is such an awesome God.

Monday, May 9, 2016

Mad Dogs of Darkness

Fighting a Holy War, or is it, A Wholly Unholy War

The West and really the whole world have failed to properly deal with ISIS and its brand of terrorism and terrorism in general. Terrorist that only spew hate are nothing more than Mad Dogs and should be dealt with just as you would a mad dog. You do not try to make friends with a rabid dog and you do not try to live in harmony with it. Your only option is to exterminate it. The only solution is to get rid of the problem.

What generally defines a Mad Dog is one that bites the hand that feeds it. By that definition ISIS is truly a group of mad dogs. They have no boundaries. They attack followers of Islam as quickly as anyone else. Suicide bombers show a total lack of respect for life. Which according to most faiths is a gift given by God and should be respected.

The true evil of the ISIS brand of hate that masquerades itself as faith was made clear to me when the attack in San Bernardino, CA took place. The Mad Dogs who performed this vicious act lived with and worked with the people they killed, for almost a year. They did not discriminate as they killed men and women, black and white, Asians, Indians and religious people.

Their actions bit the hand of the local Islamic community that took them in and supported them in following their faith. If the locals interviewed were telling the truth they never had a clue of the evil in their midst and did not and do not support the acts that they performed.

Some argue that terrorists are protected under the Geneva Convention. If my reading of Article III of the convention and the issue of Grave Breaches of Articles says they are to be found and punished for their crimes and are not protected from punishment. Based on my reading of Article III ISIS is in violation of the Convention and in my view should be exterminated just as they would be in society. They should receive capital punishment or at minimum removed from society and caged like the wild animals they are. They are not acting as soldiers but as hate filled animals that should be exterminated and removed from society.

All the nations involved in the actions which have created ISIS and all the refugees from the horrors of war should be responsible for protecting and aiding the refugees wherever they are. With at least five armies killing people in Syria, escape is the only way to save one’s life. If you think I am wrong. You have the Syrian Army, the Syrian Rebels, the Iraqi Army, ISIS Army, The Turkish military, the Kurdish military, The Russian Army and the American Army along with the forces of NATO. With all those groups bent on destroying each other, your only chance of survival is to get out of the line of fire, which means becoming a refugee.

Having spent thirteen years in military logistics and twenty years in trucking I understand one thing. No group survives without logistics. If you cut off their supplies they cease to exist. ISIS is no exception. They can practice San Bernardino type operations without a country on small scale and continue to be terrorists, but to field an Army requires, weapons, food and other supplies.

America and its allies need to develop what I call Rattlesnake Drones that strafe anything that moves in ISIS held territory. We should not see the ISIS pickup truck parades or any vehicles with ISIS flags especially American military vehicles. They should be strafed day and night till they do not exist and until they understand that the only ISIS that exist are dead ISIS.

Large parts of the world live under Islam, Indonesia is a good example. You do not see mass suicide bombings there. Sure it happens when outsiders come and do it, but is not the nature of Islam except in the Middle East. It is a product exported by the Saudi type of Islam. It is time for the world to call a spade a spade and turn its back on Saudi Arabia. Let them cut their own throats and sell hundreds of billions of dollars of American assets. It shows where their true loyalty was and is to the dollar. When they do it they will find you only make pennies on the dollar when you have a fire sale. It will cause world markets to collapse that will hurt them far more than us.

Destroying ISIS is as simple as making sure “NOTHING” goes into or out of ISIS territory. That includes people. Then apply pressure and it will blow away with the wind as it loses its support. You are either part of the solution or part of the problem. Any group or nation allowing supplies into the ISIS area should be treated the same as if they are a part of ISIS, cut them off also. No supplies, no bullets and no guns, mean no Army. That is logistics in action.

Thursday, April 21, 2016

The Last Passover.

The Last Passover before the Jubilee

Sometimes I am pretty dense but I have learned sometimes things happen so God can get our attention. Recently I had one of those events. It was totally unexpected. I was only doing a good deed by going to a banquet for the FFA(Future Farmers of America) with my great nephew. He lives with me and I am sort of his guardian. He asked both me and my wife to go but she was already committed to something else.

I had the pleasure watching Gabe actually sit on the board and speak. You would have to know how quiet he is to understand how significant that action was. In the few years he has lived with me I have learned several things, some by accident. Did you know Gabriel was the Angel who spoke to both Mary and Daniel? Both are linked to the end time and being able to understand what God is doing.

In the course of the dinner the gentleman I was sharing my table with. (His daughter was also in FFA and very involved) asked me if I drove a truck for a living. I told him I used too. He then informed me that he had been the one who pulled my truck out of a ditch on my birthday in 1997. There was an ice storm and I was leaving Saturday night to be in Laredo on Monday morning like a good little trucker. My whole family was at my house, but duty called and I left. Down the road I learned from that experience and if I had things to do at home I did them. That is why instead of delivering to Bayonne, New Jersey on Monday 10^th September 2001, I unloaded a day later and was an eyewitness to the events of 9/11.

His revelation of our connection in the past really moved me. I was sure there was some significance that I had yet to grasp. If you read my post Coming Full Circle you will have a better understanding of why timing of events in life are sometimes prophetic. At least in my life they seem to be.

In nineteen sixty-seven Israel fought the six day war. At that time I was a paratrooper stationed in Germany and on orders to go to Vietnam. Then their war started and all of a sudden I had a vision of going to Armageddon instead of Vietnam. Fortunately things worked out. We had troops who had left Germany and landed in Turkey in route to Israel. Had things not gone the way they did America was fully committed to backing Israel up. I also learned a new measure to tell if our excercise was just training or reality. We had rigged live ammo for deployment many times, but we had never rigged blood plasma for a parachute drop. That became for me the what defined maybe from reality. We didn’t have to back Israel up and a few days later I was off to Vietnam.

It was shortly after the dinner that I had a bit of a revelation. Because of a dream/vision (not sure which it was) I always believed I would be here for the coming of Christ. My health has made me question that wisdom and made me take a harder look at the events in the vision. I was in my room looking out and down when it happened. So now maybe it was not me in the vision, but it is still going to happen. With Gabe living here and my brother now living next door I realized they might be the ones in the vision.

I am not sure how I came to the realization but I had not noticed before that this is the last Passover before the start of the Jubilee year that should start June 7^th. That will be the end of the forty nine year period leading up to the first Jubilee since Israel recaptured the temple mound. To me the Passover has reminded me of the promise of God to return to his people. Reading Leviticus 25 will give one a better understanding of what the Jubilee is all about. It is about honoring God and turning to him.

So if you believe the Bible and take it to heart the start of the year of Jubilee starts a series of events that climax with the return of God to fulfill His Word to those who believe in him. A Jubilee year lasts the whole year. It is sort of like we are living in the 21st century. The year 2100 has not come but each day brings us closer to it. All events before the year 2000 started were not part of the 21st century. All events that happen before June 7th are not part of the Jubilee, but they lead up to it. Yes there will be a Passover in 2017 and it will be part of the Jubilee year. The only point I am making, and not doing very well at it, is that we will be entering a period of time prophesied by God over 4000 years ago, at the time of the writing of the Book of Leviticus. A prophecy made "before" Israel entered the Promised Land and before they were removed from the land, which also was prophesied, just as their return at a future point in time. A time which came to pass in November 1947 by a United Nations mandate and the physical return in May of 1948. Just as promised in the Word of God.

Does that mean the world ends on June 7^th 2017? There are still a lot of prophecies to be fulfilled, like the two witnesses to the end time. They testify for three and a half years. What can happen though is the beginning of the time of tribulation. If you read Matthew 24: 29-31 it makes clear that those who believe will not be delivered till “after” the period of tribulation starts. This is contrary to the popular series of books that stirred interest in the end time. Just remember they are fiction and not the Bible. So my advice is if you believe the Word of God. Do you believe it to be literal or figurative? For me it is the literal Word of God.

Will I be here to see it all happen? It really doesn’t matter. I have shared everything I think the Lord has Blessed me with. So whether I am here or there is really irrelevant. The point is that His Word will come to pass, Every jot and tittle. The only way you really know God is too know His Word, as it testifies of him.

Wednesday, April 6, 2016

Trump versus the Status Quo

My only problem with Donald Trump being President is if the Oval Office will have a roulette table or slot machines and whether the Rose Garden will be the 18^th hole or the teeing off spot for the Washington Mall golf course. Some may not find this humorous but the present election cycle needs some humor, it is a very sad situation.

Remember when politicians talked about budget deficits and balanced budgets. It may be because you have to have a special calculator with extra digits just to put in the numbers that it is not mentioned anymore. Cutting spending is not even a topic, Let alone balancing the budget. The size of the government was another favorite that has gone by the wayside. If the real dark horse, Sanders, were to win, the present budget would double over night. He will give everybody, everything they could ever want at tax payers expense. I actually heard him say raising our Federal taxes from 700 to 800 dollars a year would be a good thing for America. The last time you could use a regular calculator and do the national budget was during the Clinton administration. Wars and terror have not been good for the budget.

Trump has definitely stirred up a hornet’s nest. It has a lot of ironies if you sit back and look at it. The more popular Donald has become the harder the mainline Republican Party has tried to discount him as a serious candidate. The more they do so, the more popular he becomes. His outside of regular politics status fuels that growth. As other candidates have come and gone Trump has capitalized on his ability to rock the boat. He has insulted almost every possible constituency in America. Yet he has continued to stretch his lead.

When I look at Trump the sixth chapter of Proverbs keeps coming to mind. Especially verses sixteen thru twenty. It makes clear that there are seven things that God hates. Trump is seven for seven and is the only reason I see him becoming President. It is simply God giving America what it deserves based on what America has become.

He has no comprehension of national security. His threats to use nukes and to give nukes to South Korea and Japan as well as pulling out of NATO have finally brought his ignorance of the duties of the presidency into clear view. He does not seem to comprehend that he will have to contend with Congress to pass all his wild ideas. Of course he may be considering following Obama’s use of executive orders as a means to get things done.

The only reality I have seen in this cycle is that Hilary Clinton may very well be the next President of the United States, that would be a God thing too. If Trump gets the Republican nomination she is almost guaranteed a win. Trump’s only way of talking to women is by insulting them. He has proven that matter over and over. When you constantly insult half of the voting base, your chances are slim to none. His only hope is that all the Bernie Sander’s voters will come over to him. Many believe Sander’s popularity is simply people voting against Hilary, not for Sanders.

One irony is the very thing that is making him popular is the same reason that many say is the reason he can’t beat Hilary, but if any candidate is part of the system it is Hilary. Which may be the only reason Trump might beat her in the election as people are fed up with the Good Old Boy system of politics. We are doomed either way.

Beating Sanders would be a piece of cake for Trump. Sander’s is a non-Democratic Democrat. Sander’s is a lifelong politician who has always been an independent third party candidate. At least till this election cycle. His changing horses to get elected will probably cost him the election if he gets the nomination.

Then there is the Cruz question. How can he win when half his party hates him? America can’t afford another eight years of grid lock which his unwillingness to compromise on anything would guarantee. Cruz would probably be buried alive by the Clinton campaign. Against Sander’s he would be very iffy in a head to head.

Finally there is John Kasich whose only hope is a brokered convention. If it comes down to a brokered convention he might get nominated as the least of three evils. He is probably the only hope the Republicans really have of winning the White House. Unfortunately those chances are slim to none.

The next few months ought to be interesting. The only thing that could save America is if all of the states would put a box on their ballots for none of the above. Trump could get serious and threaten to do away with the Electoral College and make the popular vote the winner in all elections. Doing away with super delegates who have the power to swing elections would make the system a little more of the people, by the people and for the people that Lincoln proclaimed it should be.

At this point I will be checking the block for none of the above, well maybe for Kasich, but that is probably a throw away vote. The only thing I know for sure is that America will get the President that God thinks we deserve and will accomplish his God’s) desires, be it wrath, or a collapse of the system. At least as we know it, the dice are being cast. The only real question is can America survive this election cycle with so little hope for the future.

I guess in the fall election I will be doing a write in vote for Willy Nelson. He is probably the only person who could win no matter which side he ran on. Unfortunately he is smarter than the average politician and isn’t running. A lack of smarts seems to be a qualifying characteristic for politicians.

Having finally put in my two bits, maybe I can get back too things a lot more important than this election cycle, at least it is out of my mind.