God's Message to America, He Said It He Meant It.

                        God’s Sign to America

       Has America lost its bearing and claim to being a Christian nation.  Events unfolding in the media daily certainly imply that Biblical values are under assault.

Marriage, an institution created by God himself, is no longer necessarily sanctified in society. Nationally, morals are defined by the individual, not by the church or its measuring stick, the Bible.  Many groups define the Bible as a book of hate speech.  We have entered a time when each individual defines his own moral path and what is, or is not, acceptable speech. It is based on one’s own personal choices and experiences.  The Word of God is more often mocked than held up as a guideline by which one lives their life. 

      Often times I hear people whining and complaining that America is not the Christian nation it used to be.  Many of them are too young to have any idea of what America was like as little as sixty years ago.  When I was growing up you only had two options on Sunday.  You could go to church or you could go fishing and on a good Sunday you did both.  There were no Wal-Marts or K-marts. Convenience stores, filling stations, restaurants and all other businesses were closed on Sundays.  The only ones working were the police, fire department and the hospitals.  Sunday was a day of rest.  It was a day that family’s spent time together.  State’s had blue laws that required all businesses to close on Sunday.  The laws slowly died when challenged in the court system.

    Has or does God speak in this day and age.  His Word says that He is the same, yesterday, today and forever.  So His Word is just as valid today as it was the day he spoke it.  If that is the case the upholding of the Sabbath is still required by God and when we fail to uphold it we are not following God’s Word. He said it way back then and he still means it today, regardless if the most of the world thinks otherwise.

      Blessings and Curses are promised by God for following or failing to follow His Word.  The 28^th chapter of Deuteronomy lays out clearly what the blessings and curses are.  It also makes clear that they are a sign for nations that fall away from following His Word. Verses 45 to 47 make clear the curses will fall on those who abandon following God. Verse 46 makes clear it is a sign.  If you take the time to read the chapter you will see America clearly in the part addressing blessed nations.  When you start reading the curses you will quickly see that America is coming under judgment of God for her actions.

      The truly scary part of God’s Word is when God says he will eventually reach a point where he turns his back on a nation and pour out his judgment on them.  Romans 1: 16-32 gives a pretty clear description of the condition of much of America today.  It makes clear God will give them over to do as they please, but they will suffer the consequences of their actions.

      It is made clear in 2^nd Thessalonians 2:3-12 that there will be a falling away of the church and those that believe at the time of the end.  Most people agree that we are at that point in time.  In Luke 17:20-37 Jesus makes it clear that the end shall be as it was in the days of Noah and at the time when Lot came out of Sodom.  /to really get a grip on what that was like simply read it yourself.  I could put all the scriptures in this post, but if you do not care enough to take the time to read the verses I am giving you, you evidently don’t care, or are ready to go now.

       So what was it like in the days of Noah?  Here is what the Bible says on the matter.

        5And GOD saw that the wickedness of man was great in the earth, and that every imagination of the thoughts of his heart was only evil continually.  

6And it repented the LORD that he had made man on the earth, and it grieved him at his heart. 7And the LORD said, I will destroy man whom I have created from the face of the earth; both man, and beast, and the creeping thing, and the fowls of the air; for it repenteth me that I have made them. 

8But Noah found grace in the eyes of the LORD. 9These are the generations of Noah: Noah was a just man and perfect in his generations, and Noah walked with God.  10And Noah begat three sons, Shem, Ham, and Japheth.

11The earth also was corrupt before God, and the earth was filled with violence. 12And God looked upon the earth, and, behold, it was corrupt; for all flesh had corrupted his way upon the earth.

13And God said unto Noah, The end of all flesh is come before me; for the earth is filled with violence through them; and, behold, I will destroy them with the earth.

 Sound a lot like the world we live in today?

                                                              

Unfinished Business

                  

                        Unfinished Business

     Three years ago today it was my privilege to start out on an adventure and it truly has been one.  Encouraged by my daughter who is a teacher I posted my very first blog.  My goal was to help people who were impacted by the economic downturn.  Being self-employed and having weathered a few economic storms in my life I felt I might be able to help others.

       While it took me some time to get my footing and figure out where I was going with my writing.  If you type in the word MONEY on my blog search bar it will bring up quite a few articles on how to overcome many personal financial crises.  Most of my advice is from the, been there, done that, point of view.  While I am not the sharpest knife in the drawer, I have found I tend to learn from most of my mistakes.

      One of my favorite quotes is, “When you are up to your ass in alligators, it is sometimes hard to stay focused on the fact that you came to drain the swamp.” When you are in the middle of a financial meltdown it sometimes becomes hard to deal with the day to day problems of life.  That is when we need to focus on not only how bad is it and how bad can it get, but what can I do to cut my losses and survive the storm in a worst case scenario.  Sometimes holding onto “things” is what pulls us under.  Letting go and starting over sometimes is not only the better answer.  Sometimes it is the only answer.  One of my most popular posts deals with that issue.  It is “MONEY, Victory  Over Stuffitis.” 6/13/12

    Over the past three years I did tend to get on my soapbox and do quite a few opinion pieces.  Some of them are fairly good, in my personal opinion.  Several also were quite bad.  The best in “my opinion,” you can take that for what it is worth is one called, “A Trucker’s Perspective of Why America Is In a Rut,” 9/9/13 which draws on insights from twenty years of trucking and thirteen years in military logistics. While I had written for a paper in the past, attended a few years of college, and been to a few writer conferences, my writing is basically a work in progress.  It took me some time to discover that the Google site did not have a grammar correction feature.  Some of my early stuff was and is real bad. It is my goal to redo most of them in Word documents and correct most of the mistakes.  While I do have a couple years of college, that did not correct what I missed by dropping out of high school and joining the Army.

     Time and reader response has allowed me to see the good and the bad.  Never in my life did I think people in over seventy countries would read my writing.  What is really neat is when a piece takes on a life of its own and people all over the world start reading it.  One piece had readers in places as diverse as China, Mongolia and Morocco.  My post “You Need No Man Teach You,” of 5/4/12 was one of my first to acquire a life of its own and have many people read it.  It helped me see that while I am not a pastor, sometimes a lay person can say something that may help others grow in their faith.  

      Over the course of the last couple years I have found the adage, “Write what you know.” Has a lot of truth in it.  That has led me to write mostly on my personal experiences in trucking and faith.  My one other area of expertise I had been hesitant to write about.  Not because I did not know what I was talking about, but because I left the sport in 1979 due to and injury.  The sport has truly progressed way beyond the level it was at when I was involved in it.  To cure that problem I used my recent financial blessing to take a three week vacation and update and upgrade myself so I don’t put out any information that goes against the latest trends in the sport.  Basically I went to Florida and watched skydivers in action for a several days and met many really neat people.

        The Canadian Contingent, escaping Mother Nature's Wrath

     The trip was a true adventure and it showed me that travel is almost mandatory if you want to grow as a writer.  In the course of the trip I visited several places I had been to in the past.  The trip allowed me to see the growth and changes that are taking place all over.

Tybee Lighthouse and Beach near Savannah, GA

    Today has been an awesome day as most of my children, grandchildren and even my twin great granddaughters have spent the day with me.  It has been a truly blessed day. Even is I have been getting flack for not participating in what is going on. My wife and I have our Twin Great Grand Daughters a couple days a week and they are a joy to behold.  So full of life and curiosity.  My pen may never write the great world shaking masterpiece, but if it helps a few souls find a few minutes of piece in their quest to survive it will make me happy.  The main thing that keeps me going though is seeing what is next.

     It is a mystery to me where my life is taking me and where I will end up.  My goal is to enjoy the here and now of life.  Always looking for the Blessings God has bestowed on me. 

   In the course of my life I have seen four plane crashes live and a couple far closer than I cared to be. Three of them were military aircraft and if you consider the fourth had been hijacked and turned into a missile, they could technically all be considered military crashes.  I also lost one of my best friends in a plane crash when we were in our mid-twenties.  He had a young daughter in Germany he had never seen when he died.  It made me see the fragile hold we have on this thing called life.  At any moment we can be called home and we may not have a chance to say good bye or finish all the things we have planned in our life. That is the just the nature of life.

     The good thing is that at any time in our life we can ask God to come into our lives and know that at least there is one important piece of business we took care of.  Tomorrow is promised to no one.  With my Biblical end time mindset it is my hope that everyone will make their peace with God and know that on Judgment Day there is one piece of business they do not have to worry about.

    Jesus said we would not know the day, nor the hour of the time of the end.  He did say, however, we would be able to discern the time we are in.  Every year at Easter I have to wonder if this is the one when he comes back.  If you read enough of my writing you will see I am a bit out there when it comes to the Bible.  I just believe the Bible simply says what God has said he is going to do, and I am silly enough to believe, he is actually going to do what he says he is going to do.

    Lord Willing my next post will be about my trip to Savannah, GA and to Florida. Till then, keep looking up.

 

                    Yes he likes Black and Gold, must be his viking heritage

                       
 Where I spent most of my time, This is Mecca for Skydivers, 3 twin Otters and a professional staff that keep the lifts moving. They have a topflight tandem and Advanced Free Fall instruction program.  It is also nice and warm in Jan/Feb

This is why I love Savannah, GA and the Gulf Coast area.

A Wannabe Sky God

                        A Wannabe Sky God

      The old saying hindsight is 20/20 is certainly true when it comes to some events in our lives.  About 1963 the Golden Knights came to my hometown airport.  They made several jumps.  They had to repack their parachutes and one of them picked me to stand in the harness.  I was totally enthralled by the whole display.  I asked the jumper who had chosen me how you got to do such a neat thing.  He stopped folding the canopy and looked at me as if to size me up. He then said, “Join the Army, volunteer for jump school and then join a sky diving club. When you get enough jumps and experience apply to try out for the team.”

      With those few words that man changed the whole course of my life.  All of a sudden I had a goal and a purpose in life. In July 1965 I dropped out of high school and enlisted in the United States Army. Remembering what he said I volunteered for jump school.  As Vietnam was taking off and on the front pages I also volunteered to go to Vietnam. 

      The Army took its part in the program seriously.  Several of us from my Basic Training Company shipped to Ft. Gordon, Georgia and went through a specialized Advanced Infantry Training Course.  It was unique in that almost every one of us had volunteered to go to jump school. They assured us they would have us in condition to make it through jump school and they pushed us harder than many of the people could take.  They stuffed 200+ of us into two old World War II type wood barracks, that were designed to hold about 50 men each.  To say the conditions were tight would be a major understatement.  When you got up in the morning you could put your foot on the guys bunk next to yours to lace up your boots.  They were also all double bunks.

     One of the major events of the training cycle was to go and watch a Live Fire Exercise.  They gave us a briefing and started showing us how the weapons would work.  They talked us through what being assaulted would be like. They demonstrated and displayed each weapon’s capability.  At the end they fired all the weapons simultaneously. The announcer stated that a determined enemy would get through that firestorm they had laid down.  Quite a few guys decided they did not want to go to jump school.  Especially after the narrator encouraged us to imagine being under a parachute and coming down through that hellfire.

    Things went fine till graduation. Then we all got on buses to go to Ft. Benning for jump school.  Those who decided not to go to jump school were put on another bus and taken to the airport and shipped directly to Vietnam.  Quitting had a price.

     Succeeding had a price also.  We got off the bus at Ft. Benning and were put in the same kind of barracks.  There was one difference these had old coal boilers.  They only worked sporadically.  In December this is a problem even in South Georgia. Mopping the floors in the morning was a nightmare as the water froze to the floor.  No heat, also meant, no hot water. It was a fun three weeks.

      On Friday night at the end of the second week they started reading off the orders.  Smith, 101^st,Vietnam.  Jones,173^rd , Vietnam,   Everybody was going to Vietnam.  The following Monday I hurt my ankle on the swing landing trainer.  They did not kick me out but put several of us casualties on light duty.  We shined boots for cadre, swept their offices and were used as dummies for demonstrations.  The second time through tower week was not near as tough as the first one.

     The next Friday they read off the orders again.  Just as the week before all the names were going to Vietnam.  That included me.  At the end of the roll call and reading of assignments they asked if anybody wanted to volunteer for rigger school.  I was not the sharpest knife in the drawer, but I was pretty sure, if it was a school it was not in Vietnam.  The fire power demonstration had made an impact on me and Vietnam seemed a little less hospitable.

        That was not the only reason. We had graduated AIT around Thanksgiving. One of the guys who decided he no longer wanted to go to jump school was nicknamed "the Swede" He was six foot plus, built like and inverted pyramid, blond, very likable and his real name was something like Schwelgein.  Anyhow the Army Times obituary list for the 17th of December had the Swedes name and another one of the people who decided not to go to jump schools names in it. Suddenly Vietnam was very real and very personal.

      Quite a few of us volunteered but they only needed fifty people.  They started eliminating people and finally the person in charge started counting from the first seat.  He hit fifty, two seats before mine, which put me in the eliminated bunch.  Then he stated that he left out one minor disqualification.  You could not be a draftee.  Several of the people he had already picked got up and went to the back.  Suddenly I was in school by the skin of my teeth.  I still did not know for sure what a rigger was, but found out it was a three month long school at Ft. Lee, Virginia. We also got to go home for Christmas.  We graduated from jump school on the 22nd of December.

       I took a bus to Indianapolis and got there late Christmas Eve. Nothing was moving toward my hometown of Logansport so I took a bus to South Bend and got off at the junctions US 31 and US 24. Standing there in a blizzard at 3 A.M. I started to doubt my wisdom.  Shortly later a semi stopped and picked me up. It happened that his son was in Vietnam at the time.  He took me and dropped me right in front of  my house. How he turned those corners to do it I have no clue. I drove a truck for twenty years and still don't know if I could do it. I went in the house at 4 A.M., we didn't lock doors back then. My Mom about had a heart attack when she saw me in the kitchen. She thought I was a burglar.  I spent a week at home and then went to Ft. Lee, Virginia for rigger school.

      Little did I know that I had just received one the first couple of divine interventions in my life. Later I would look back and see that it was only by providence I was not in the group going to Vietnam any longer.  It also was an event that aided me in accomplishing my life dream.  Even if I did not realize it at the time.

     After Rigger school I was assigned to the 101^st Airborne at Fort Campbell, Ky.  It was too close to home and I bought a car and kept it off base.  My First Sergeant considered me a screw up.  He sent me to Fort Stewart, Georgia.  He thought he was sending me to Vietnam as most of the units on the base were shipping out.  In reality I ended up at the Army’s Fixed Wing Aviation School and my job was going out and checking the parachutes for the pilots to make sure they were currently packed and safe to use in an emergency.  Once a month myself or the sergeant I worked for had to take the parachutes that were not current to Fort Rucker, Alabama on a school bus and wait two days for them to be packed.  We were the only two paratroopers on the base and it was an experience.  I arrived in the middle of a Hurricane.  You could not see the road as it was flooded over.  My last stop before entering the base through one of the back gates I asked how to get to the main base. The guy told me keep it centered between the pine trees and go slow.  Fortunately there were no dips.  There were no rises either and I drove almost twenty miles and never saw the road. I did however see swimming snakes and alligators.

    The one good thing about Fort Stewart was that it had a sky diving club. I joined in June of 1966 and on July 3^rd made my first jumps at Barnwell, SC at a private airfield.  Three years later I would make it to the 7^th Army Parachute Team.  It was not the Golden Knights though several of the team members had been Golden Knights.  We did demonstrations and competitions all over Europe. It happened by doing just what that guy had told me to do in my home town.

   What can be better than getting paid to do something you absolutely love.  After leaving the team I managed to work in several skydiving clubs, first as a rigger. As I gained experience I became an instructor and then a club manager.  It was the dream job of a lifetime. It was my pleasure to train a couple thousand students over an almost ten year period. I hope to run into some of them in the course of my travels in the near future.

     Parachuting even allowed me to meet my wife.  I was teaching college students to jump in Vincennes, Indiana, which is where I live now.  I worked for a guy from Indianapolis.  I jumped at his place a few times and he found out I was stationed at Ft. Campbell.  He offered me a weekend job which was very generous for a guy in the Army.  One weekend while taking in the local atmosphere I met my wife.  That was almost forty-two years ago.

This is the before shot, my bio has the after shot

Delta Death my transition canopy from round to square notice the canvas strap on the left rear of the canopy which you wrapped around your color coded lines and velcroed it shut so as the nose opened it pulled the velcro off.  Six to eight hundred feet could easily be eaten up by the opening process. It always opened though. Unlike the hydraulicly reefed canopies that depended on fluids to control the openings. 

    The first of October I received my Agent Orange settlement and Lord Willing this Saturday I will be leaving on an adventure in my new life. I hope to start writing for magazines and doing travel stories.  My first adventure is to go spend time at Savannah Beach, GA and then to Zephyrhills, FL to watch skydivers for a few days.  Zephyrhills is to skydivers what Mecca is to Muslims.  Sooner or later you will end up there if you truly love jumping and being part of what is happening in the jumping world. 

      Hope to be back by the 28^th of February.  Don’t know yet if I will write while on the road, but I may.  I will be living out of my 94 Chevy panel van and eating out of a cooler.  Hope it is half the adventure I remember it being.  Seeing and hearing parachutes in the air is like hearing the whop, whop, whop of helicopter blades is to a Vietnam Vet.   It stirs up memories of long ago and far away, but never forgotten experiences.

     Hopefully this will inspire someone to follow in my tracks and get free schooling to become a rigger, take advantage of the three hots and a cot, plus free jumps after a nominal club membership fee. Plus making some decent money that if you set aside a little and don't blow, can give you a head start in life.  Something like being an owner and operator of your own truck and traveling the country and stopping at any DZ on your route.  The only bad part for me was I compressed my back on my first and only civilian jump. (Which is another story) It worked for me, outside of being out of jumping, before I got into the trucking. Both were taught to me courtesy of the military. So was writing though.  I worked for the newspaper as a photo/journalist my last year in the Army. One door closes and another one opens. I was appointed to the job after entering a photo contest at the base Photography Club.

Thing$ "I" Learned The Hardway

             

           Thing$ “I” Learned the Hard Way

      Much of life is about learning things.  Sometimes we learn how to do something.  Other times we learn how not to do something.  Sometimes learning is hard and sometimes it is expensive.  The price or value of learning is sometimes hard to measure.  Often lessons are learnt simply based on Murphy’s Law.  If you are very old you have heard of Murphy.  If you are younger you may not know Murphy by name, but he has probably been involved in some of your learning experiences. What is Murphy’s Law?

     Murphy’s Law states simply that things will happen in certain predictable ways. Basically the worst possible thing that can happen, will happen.  It will also happen at the worst possible moment.  For instance you have new tires put on your truck. As it is time to get your brakes done you get them done also, because you are a responsible person.  You had a brake cam over so you are sure that is the problem. You only have a million four hundred thousand plus miles on your truck.  So you take the risk and spend all your cash reserves to get the work done.

     Proud of yourself you leave the truck stop, freshly showered and in your last clean outfit.  You hit your brakes to turn up the on ramp.  Then the brakes cam over,  again.  You pull over to the shoulder and crawl under the truck.  Of course you left your coveralls at home because it was supposed to be a short week.  They were dirty from greasing the truck and adjusting the brakes.   Regardless you crawl under the truck in the rain and back off the bad brake. Then you go back to the truck stop.  Your goal is to have them fix the brake they supposedly already fixed.  It is at this point you learn all your brake drums need replaced because they have worn so far down.  That is why the brakes kept camming over even with new shoes.

      You resolve yourself to the situation and organize the finances to get the job done.  Only one minor problem comes up.  It seems they only have one front rim and three rear rims in stock.  They have to special order the parts and they will not arrive till tomorrow.  Another problem arises.  The truck is in the shop and the wheels are off.  You discover you can’t sleep in the truck.

   No problem you whip out the handy dandy emergency cash reserve more commonly called a credit card.  The problem is solved.  However, the problems keep happening and you keep solving them.  The next thing you know you are $120,000+ dollars in the hole. You are making the payments, but this is no way to run a business. Finally you are reading in the Bible and come across a verse you have read often but never taken to heart.  Well it was at that time I took it to heart.  I said, “Lord, Your Word says we have not because we ask not.  I have never wanted to bother you with my financial problems but I seem to be digging a hole and I need your help and guidance to get out of it. I know I am not supposed to borrow money.  Show me the way to get out of this debt and manage my finances according to your word.”

     A short time later I stopped at a place called The Road Angel Centre, it is at the northeast corner of Exit 68 off of I-70 in Illinois, which was and is run by the Association of Christian Truckers.  It is a Christian outreach to and for truckers.  It was a place I stopped often when leaving home and going or coming from the West.  It was near where I would get off the interstate and take the back roads to the house.  Loved to sit in front of the wood burner and just kick back and relax. Fellowshipping with other Christian truckers was always a pleasant experience.  It was on one of those stops that my life got turned around.  Not the Christian part, but how I handled my finances.  There were some free books laying there and I took one. It really changed my financial perspectives.  The book challenged me to a new way of looking at my finances.

       The book taught me too not only believe God’s Word, but to take it to heart. It meant putting my whole life in God’s hands.  I had given my life to the Lord, but I still wanted to be in charge.  Often I did not give it over to the Lord till I was in a real jam.  The book was “I didn’t Do It, God Did” by a guy named Woody Clark.  He is the owner and head of Woodpecker Trucks in Pendleton, OR.  It was a short easy reading book that laid out how to put your total trust in God and His Word.  The book laid out how God had changed his life and guided his paths.

     After reading the book I started changing how I did my finances.  Especially  in my relationship to God.  It helped me go from over a $120,000 dollars in credit card debt to being a God dependent Christian.   The latter is a far better situation to be in.  The reason being you learn money is not the answer to your problems.  God is the answer

    There is one small irony in this situation. From 1988 till Thanksgiving Day of 1993 I was a company driver hauling chicken for a meat wholesaler in Vincennes, Indiana from Albertville, Alabama. It meant I passed through Nashville, Tennessee six days a week for that whole period of time. It was my last job as a company driver and allowed me to listen to a guy named Dave Ramsey who was just getting started at the time. His program gave me the foundation to apply what I learned from Woody Clark’s book. My chicken hauling days ended the day before Thanksgiving in 1993 when the company I worked for closed the doors, without notice. That story is on my blog.

     The problem was not that I wasn’t blessed by the Lord.  If you read my post of 7/4/13 Driving on Prayer, you will see how God can take care of things even when you can’t figure out how.  The problem was as I progressed in my trucking career as an owner/operator I started to think it was more and more about me and how I needed to do things.  One little problem or bump after another happened as I became more and more independent.  When I found Woody’s book I had been just going from bump to bump to bump.   The book made me realize why I was having all the bumps.  It was from not taking things to the Lord. It was from not letting him clear my paths before me.  I was not allowing him to make my way smooth as he promises in His Word, which he had already done without me even realizing that it was happening.

      It amazed me how quickly things turned around when I finally realized where and what the problem was.  Following God is not a part time, when you feel like it thing.  It has to be a 24/7 experience or your only fooling yourself.  I have seen the Lord open doors and take care of things.  In Malachi 3: 9-11God makes it clear if you follow the Lord in the way he says, he will open the windows of heaven and pour out a blessing you can’t contain.  I truly believe that and can show it from my own life.

     Ten years ago yesterday I had a heart attack.  It is in my 6/23/2016 post.  Just scroll down to where it says TESTIMONY in big letters and you will see why I know it is not all about money. Even after I had to quit driving and had no income God did not come up short.  I had the heart attack on 22^nd of January 2004 and did not get my first disability check till August.  I had no savings and no money in the bank.  Yet I never missed a payment or was late on a bill during that whole six month period.

     This all came to mind yesterday the 10th anniversary of my heart attack as I attended the funeral service for one of my church brothers who left that church we met in and went off to pastor another church.  A mutual friend of ours who passed away several years ago asked me one time if I had a retirement plan.  I told him that I didn’t.  I also had no insurance other than that provided by my wife’s employer.  He said aren’t you concerned about how you will survive in retirement.  My answer to him was what I truly believed at that time.  “The Good Lord got me this far, I believe he will get me home.  It is in his hands.”  My friend, whose funeral I was at yesterday agreed with me and he lived it till the end. There were four of us in that conversation and I am the only one of us left alive.

    Here is another testimony that is true and I can prove. I only made about $14,500 a year on disability.  Yet over the last two years I have given away over $100,000 dollars.  No it was not my money, but a couple church brothers and myself had to give it away to close the doors on a church that did not live in light of God’s Word.  If the $50,000 the church had in the bank had been used for the Lord’s work, maybe the doors would not have to be closed and the building sold. The irony to me is that I never had a say in the church until the bitter end.  Even though I was in my sixties and had been in the church well over twenty years I was not a senior member till it became time to pull the plug.

    About three months ago my income was quadrupled overnight by divine providence.  It came about by a chance meeting that I believe the Lord had orchestrated on my behalf.  Yes I had to do the leg work, but he opened the doors.   God handles the details.

When God Answers

                When God Answers

   

       Have you ever been so troubled by something you take it to God in the form of a question?  Then have God answer you.  Knowing the answer has to be from God because the answer is so clear and it comes from his Word.  When this happens it truly strengthens your faith.  After a couple of times it gets kind of scary, but at the same time reassuring.  In my well over a half century of life it is an experience I have learned to cherish.  It is like God says, “Yep, I am still here.”

     When I first started trying to follow and understand the Lord there was an issue that deeply troubled me.  If the God I was following was a loving, caring and kind God?  How could he allow what happened to the Jewish people in WWII to happen? After all these were His chosen people.  It troubled me to the point I was having trouble committing my life to following him.  

   When the answer came I knew it was not something I had figured out.  I had read the passage several times and never noticed the verse or what it implied.  It was in the 16^th Chapter of Jeremiah that the answer sprang out at me.  It is a chapter that deals with the end time. It talks about God kicking Israel out of their land and then bringing them back.  It was when I got to verse eighteen that the light came on.   It basically says God punished his people before he kicked them out of their land and that he would punish them before he bought them back into their land.  He very simply said he would punish them double for their iniquity.  As bad as it was, God was simply doing exactly what he had prophesied he would do.  This gave me peace knowing he was fulfilling His Word.

     Little did I know this would be the start of a long term revelation to me of things he was doing or had done in the past, which are laid out in His Word.  Things that have a connection to this very day and age, and are unfolding just as His Word had said it would.  The understanding came to me by learning to simply understand that His Word says what it means and means what it says.

     The next verse that caught my attention was in Exodus.  It caught my attention because of the way it was worded.  It says in12:41 “And it came to pass at the end of the four hundred and thirty years, even the selfsame day it came to pass, that all the hosts of the LORD went out from the land of Egypt.”  Why was it the selfsame day?  What was the significance of that wording? There had to be a reason for saying it that way.  It would be several years later that I found a verse than showed me I was onto something.   The answer was in the Bible somewhere because His Word said so.   Micah 7:15 made me see that it was the fulfillment of a prophecy God had made to both Abraham and Jacob.  He told them both that their people would be returned to their land.  It was a promise that was made several times in the Old Testament.

    Early in my Bible studies I noticed that the children were killed at the time of Moses.  Then again the children were killed at the time of Christ.  Both of these events seemed to happen as Satan tried to prevent God’s people from being delivered from evil.  It made me wonder if there is any connection between the prevalence of abortion in this day and age and Biblical prophecy. When reading in Isaiah 57 it became clear to me that Israel went into the captivity because of their sacrificing children.  Leviticus 20:1-5 gives God’s view on the matter and it may be one of the main reasons America is in such decline.

      

      “And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying, 2Again, thou shalt say to the children of Israel, Whosoever he be of the children of Israel, or of the strangers that sojourn in Israel, that giveth any of his seed unto Molech; he shall surely be put to death: the people of the land shall stone him with stones. 3And I will set my face against that man, and will cut him off from among his people; because he hath given of his seed unto Molech, to defile my sanctuary, and to profane my holy name. 4And if the people of the land do any ways hide their eyes from the man, when he giveth of his seed unto Molech, and kill him not: 5Then I will set my face against that man, and against his family, and will cut him off, and all that go a whoring after him, to commit whoredom with Molech, from among their people.”

       The above passage makes it pretty clear that it is not a God thing to kill children.  Therefore it must be a tool of Satan to try and prevent God’s Will from being done.  It was while reading in Amos that I realized that God, according to His Word, had punished or would punish Damascus, Gaza, Tyrus and several others four times.  Using simple logic, if God allowed the other nations four chances?  Then surely he would allow Israel four times as well.  If that is the case then abortion today may be to prevent one last unfulfilled prophecy.  Could it be to prevent the coming forth of the two witnesses to the end time mentioned in Revelation?

       Coming to this realization made me wonder if Exodus 12:41 is correct could there be other periods of four hundred and thirty years.  Sure enough I found one in Ezekiel 4:5-6.  Paul made clear that in Galatians 3:17 that there was a four hundred thirty year period between the captivity and the coming of Christ.  That makes clear that there were three 430 year periods in the Old Testament. 

      In the course of my reading it became clear that there were some seventy year periods also.  Israel was in the captivity for seventy years.  From the birth of Christ to the destruction of the temple was also seventy years.  Both of these events had followed a four hundred and thirty year period.  So where was the seventy year period at the time of Moses?  At first I thought there was not one until I was reading in Joshua and was reading about his death at a hundred and ten years old. Having done all God gave him to do.  It was then I realized that Joshua 14:7 makes clear that from the time Moses sent Joshua in to search out the land till he finished his work was a period of seventy years.  Joshua was forty when Moses sent him into search the land and one hundred and ten when he died.  It is pretty simple math, but it raises a couple of questions?

     If there is a fourth four hundred and thirty period when did it start? And when did/will the fourth seventy year period start.  It was when I was helping my daughter do a paper for school on Martin Luther that the answer may have been discovered to at least one of the questions.  Martin Luther nailed his treatise to the door on All Saint’s Day 1517.  If you add four hundred and thirty years to that date you come up with 1947.  Close but not close enough.  Note that in Exodus it says "to the day." Besides I always thought Israel became a nation in 1948, So I got out the World Book and looked it up.  Yes Israel became a nation in 1948, but it was bought before and voted on in the United Nations in November 1947.  When you allow for the time it took to write the bill and its passage it is very close to the exact date.

      So what does all that mean?  If you add seventy to 1947 it comes out to November 2017, or maybe May of 1948 when they physically possessed the land.  The Book of Daniel talks several times of a period of 1290 days or three and a half years.  Yet in Daniel 12:12 it talks about those being blessed who wait till the 1335^th day, which is another 45 days.  The question is when does the 1290 day period start?  If you count back from November 2017 it would be the end of April 2014 to somewhere around November 2014.  The point is not to set a date.  The point is to show that by the Bible’s own timeline we are somewhere near the end of time. Jesus said it would end sometime, we can take that to the bank.  We can also take that he said we would be able to discern the time, but not the date to the bank.

     There are a couple of good indicators why this may be a fulfillment of Biblical prophecy.  Daniel 12:4 makes clear that in the end knowledge shall be increased and people shall travel to and fro throughout the world.  Well that all started in the mid 1400’s with the invention of the printing press and beginning of the voyages of discovery, which made it possible to fulfill the commandment Christ gave in Matthew 28:19-20 to, “Go into all nations baptizing and teaching.”

   

    The final thing that says to me that we are definitely living in the end time is in Revelation 11:9-13 where it makes clear that the whole world shall see the two dead witnesses laying in the streets of Jerusalem for three and a half days.  That definitely could not have happened until just the last few years.

     For those who believe the “Left Behind” version of the end time and things starting with the rapture.  You might want to read Matthew 24:29-30 that clearly says “after” the tribulation of those days, shall appear the sign of the son of man in heaven.  Jesus said at the end it would be as it was in the days of Noah before the flood.  The Bible makes it pretty clear in Genesis chapter six that we are in very similar times.

 These verses make it pretty clear what God says is happening and what is expected of us.

6My people are destroyed for lack of knowledge: because thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me: seeing thou hast forgotten the law of thy God, I will also forget thy children.  7As they were increased, so they sinned against me: therefore will I change their glory into shame. 8They eat up the sin of my people, and they set their heart on their iniquity.  9And there shall be, like people, like priest: and I will punish them for their ways, and reward them their doings.   10For they shall eat, and not have enough: they shall commit whoredom, and shall not increase: because they have left off to take heed to the LORD. 11Whoredom and wine and new wine take away the heart.

All power is given unto me in heaven and in earth. 19Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:  20Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world. Amen.

     For anyone interested there is a free book on my blog called, “Farther Down the Path” and it is done in seven parts and starts on my 3/23/12 blog post.  Yes it has a lot of me in it, but that was not and is not the intent.  My goal was to show people how I came to understand all I have figured out and let them make their own decisions on the matter.  Most of what it talks about is summarized here. Thanks for reading and your comments are welcome…..

The Best and Most Popular. Based on readership

     Thank you, to all those who read my blog. As I enter my third year and look back I have found some posts are more popular than others.  I took the liberty of listing the top 25 most read posts for anybody who might be interested. Ten are trucking related, while nine are faith based, but some of the faith based are centered on trucking experiences.  The balance are personal opinion and financial advice pieces.  There are also two of my favorites that did not make the cut at least on the hit count list. I hope some people will take the time to read some of the ones they may not have read over the years.

       This blog is not advertised and has grown simply on word of mouth.  With over 11,000 hits and in over seventy countries it must appeal to some readers.  For me as a writer it is really enjoyable when a post takes on a life of its own and starts getting hits from all over the world.  The post "You Need No Man Teach You," was my first one to do that.  It did not really catch on till almost a year after it was posted.

       This blog started out giving financial advice.  Having been self employed I wanted to help those who had financial problems.  As I made my living trucking many of my adventures made it into my blog,  Especially as I hope to put them into a book format.  Finally I found many people liked some of the faith based posts I entered and the blog is definitely moving in that direction.  God is the center of my life and my whole reason for being here.  My free book on my blog "Further Down The Path"  is in seven parts and tells my life experiences, but also some Biblical truths that many would find interesting.  Yes there is to much of me in it, but I want people to see and know how I came to understand what I have written.  If you read none of the rest of it, read part seven.  You may learn somethings about the Bible you did not know.  There is a definite pattern and path in the Bible and there is a purpose in what it says.  My personal belief is that we are standing near the final fulfillment of all prophecy.  That is just my view though.

      Thank You Again, for any and all the time you spend reading any of the stories. They will only grow and spread if you share them.  I am not into advertising or selling.  I just enjoy sharing how the Good Lord has Blessed Me.  Especially if it might help someone else.  The two posts that reference 2012 may have gotten much of there popularity due to the end time obsession of many in December 2012. The rest seem to make it on their own merit.

MONEY.. Victory Over Stuffitis  6/13/2012
2012, The Bible versus The Mayan Calendar, Points to Ponder  5/10/2012
MONEY..From Trash to Treasures with Pictures---------How  2/15/2012
Is America's Economy Getting Better 3/21/2012
Deadhead? Or Not? How To Judge 9/14/2012
You Need No Man Teach You 5/4/2012
The Stock Market Balloon<Ready To Pop? 3/4/2013
America What Is Wrong and How to Turn It Around 1/29/2012
Trucker Logic 5/28/2012
America's Greatest Treasure Our Youth 7/13/2012
Beware of Self Righteousness 11/25/2013
A Trucker's Perspective-Why America Is Losing the Manufacturing and Marketing Battle 9/9/2013
My Scrooged Birthday 12/7/2013
The Fiscal Cliff Is Not The Problem,The Debt Tsunami Is 11/29/2012
1984" & Big Brother, A Prophecy or A Reality 2/13/2013
The Shutdown Before The Meltdown 10/3/2013
Building A Hedge Of God's Protection 5/22/2013
2012, Global Turmoil, What The Bible Says, Part 2 8/7/2012
Truck Smarter, Not Harder 5/2/2011
Solving America's Problems 3/1/2013
Have You Ever Made A Leap of Faith? 8/27/2013
Recycled Container For Starting Cuttings 9/16/2013
How To Not Go Down A Hill..or Murphy's Law At Work 11/7/2011
Pot Legalized !!!!..Really? 11/29/2012
How Not To Go Down A Hill-- Vietnam 4/12/2012
How Did The Wealth Meltdown Occur 3/9/2011
Church of the Eighty Foot Parking Lot 8/30/2013

Out With the Old, and In with the New, Yes It's A Dog Story

Merry Christmas and A Prosperous and Gourdeous Year Too All

                                                    Forrest Says, Have a Merry Christmas!!!


       May all God's best be received and enjoyed by those who read this post.  Spending Christmas day alone is a first time for me in my sixty-seven years of life.  My daughter just went to work at CVS and she was happy too, because she is getting double time.  Later today I will have supper with my twin Great Grand Daughters and their Mom.  Lord Willing I will get there on time.  My wife is in Mexico visiting her aunt's, uncle's and cousins.  My other daughters are spending the day at their homes with their family's. This has been one of the strangest holidays I can remember.  I have been in perpetual motion since the 21st and got home late last night. Thought I would be taking off again the 26th but my Great Nephew's Other Great Uncle will be bringing him back on Saturday.

       This has been a very, very blessed year for me. Many things have happened and I do not know where to start on it all.  Financial blessings are always easy to see and remember.  Especially when you suddenly become debt free and have your income suddenly rise to meet all your needs and more.  Of course I paid some dues to get that benefit.  Little did I know that when I was in Vietnam and we were waving at the Air Force helicopters spraying our compound for weeds, we were being poisoned by our government. That is where my blessing came from though.  It was my settlement for being exposed to Agent Orange in Vietnam.  Anyone who is a Vietnam veteran and has a heart condition and is not getting some kind of compensation should definitely apply for the benefits and let the government see if you qualify.  It was a total shock to me that I was and had another veteran not told me to apply I might never have received the benefits.

     My favorite dog Scruffy died this year.  He was about eight years old and went the same way his mom did.  Hit by a car.  My daughter found him and his sister along U.S. 41.  Their mother had been hit by a car.  The irony was my daughter was bringing me a couple pet carriers to sell and my second hand shop.  The pen I had built for my German Shepherd years before was a ready made home. Our neighbors adopted his sister.  Scruff was an awesome dog and was always dragging up pieces of deer carcasses the hunters had failed to find. He had one habit that I could never cure him of.   He hated cats and he killed them.  We can now have cats and plan to have many as we have a severe mouse problem living in the country.   While I miss him dearly I wanted to travel in the coming year and at least this way I don't have to worry about him.  He would never accept a collar or chain, which would have been necessary for travel.  When I tried to secure him he would always get it off or loose in record time.

    Dogs have always been special to me.  My first one was Mike, a Cocker Spaniel, he was with me from before I could walk and stayed with me till I was sixteen.  Mike was an awesome dog and he hated cars and would chase them.  He would actually try to bite the tires.  He spent several months recovering from his attacks, but as soon as he could walk again he was back at it.  Mike also hated cats, but he made an exception for my cat George.  George just showed up one day and stayed a few years. Then he disappeared.  He left many of his lineage behind though.  He was a bob tailed Manx and one bad to the bone cat. Mike did not like him when they met, but George put three bloody racing stripes across the end of Mike's nose and Mike decided they would tolerate each other and actually became friends.  Other dogs in the neighborhood would walk across the street to avoid George.  He did not run from dogs.  He would actually attack them.  One time a German Shepherd attacked Mike and had him on his back.  The next thing I knew George was on the Shepherd's back.  The last I saw of that fight Mike and George were chasing the German Shepherd down the alley.

     My present dog and the only one I have left is Forrest Gump.  He was my youngest daughter's dog and she left him to me in her Will.  She passed away in August 2010 after a seven year battle with a brain tumor.  It seems all my most memorable pets were given to me.  It must be some unwritten rule.  My Mom had many dogs, but in reality she never had one that was really hers.  They were all left with her by my brother.  He would get them and then move and not take the dog with him for whatever reason.  Mom always had dogs though.

      My brother moved in to live with me for awhile and brought two dogs and a cat. I warned him the cat would not survive and less than a week later Scruff made that prophecy come true.  He was here for several months and both his dogs died while he was here.  He adopted another dog shortly before leaving and Sheba has been with him a couple years.

      Why a post mostly about dogs?  I guess because dogs always bring good memories to mind for me.  Whether it is Mike chasing cars, following me through the woods or keeping my feet warm at night. Most of the memories are good ones.  Good memories is what Christmas is about and as I type this and listen to Forrest laying beside me on my bed snoring, I can't help but think of my daughter Glenda and that starts off a whole lot of memories.  So I guess dogs are my window to the past.  I wish all those who read my blog A Merry Christmas and A Prosperous and Gourdeous New Year.  For those who do not
know I am into Gourds as a hobby.