God

... I have begun a new study on the sovereignty of God and it is a very thought provoking study. The book is Trusting God, Even When Life Hurt by Jerry Bridges. One of the early items of intense study is the Absolute Sovereignty of our LORD. This is a matter that I have seen very experienced Christians trip over and that is a shame. In the first place it is absolutely necessary to understand and to believe that nothing has ever or will ever sneak up on God and surprise him.
... There are several life examples I can draw from here that will illustrate what I am talking about but I'll just use the one that offends no-one. I have had MS since the early seventies and they have been able to diagnose it for almost twenty years now. That I, a combat veteran and definitely a man have the disease is enough to cause doubt and yet it hasn't. The fact that I have contracted the disease because of the need to defoliate the jungle for our men's protection is another reason to question God's authority and still I do not. Before I was growing inside my mother's womb, God knew that I would volunteer to go serve in Vietnam because I would believe that the South Vietnamese people deserved freedom. None of this has taken God by surprise.
... God knew from the very beginning of the creation that Bill Taylor would get sick with this disease, so the question might be asked, "Did He know and still allow it?" For the answer to that look at the Book of Job. Satan told God that Job was only worshiping Him because He had a hedge of God's protection about him. God took that hedge away and Satan took all of Job's children, all of his possessions and then afflicted him with boils and sores so badly that all Job could do for relief was to scrape them with shells and stones. Job was sorely tested and still his faith remained in God.
... Going, many centuries, in time forward we find Jesus, God's only Son hanging on the cross paying the debt that Bill Taylor owed to God. He was laid down on that cross and nails of about a quarter inch square were driven into the hole in the bone in the center of the wrist, one for each hand. And then His feet were placed atop of each other and a nail of, judging by my feet, at least 8 or 9 inches in length, square and most likely about the same thickness was driven through the bones in His feet. After all of that torture He was lifted upright and dropped into the hole meant to keep Him erect until He would die. And if I had been to only sinner that would ever have accepted His sacrifice, He would have done so, just the same.
... Yes, God knew before I was born that my fate, His plan, included this disease and yes, He could have prevented it but the fact is that He did not because He had a plan to glorify Himself and in doing so to raise up sinners mark on the scales of life a few inches. I absolutely believe that God, through His Wisdom, has allowed me to have MS, to lose my very best friend in life to a mortar in his chest, to receive over three hundred entry holes in my aircraft in a single mission and many other trials for my own good and for His Glory.(Rom. 8:28)
... The question that must be asked by each and everyone of us is, "Are we ready to serve God? No matter what?"

Loving God In Difficult Times

... I have a free puppy that is a half breed Dachshund. Because there is so very much inbreeding with the Dachshund they commonly have a genetic form of mange that is not contagious and my baby, Delilah, has this incurable disease and even though she is just over a year old and in spite of the truth that I am on a very fixed income because of my disability, I have spent better than two thousand dollars to fight this death dealing disease that has no cure. A very logical first question would be, “Why.”
... There are different answers that are all true but there is one that might mean the world to each of you and today I would like to tell you about why a man raised with a Texas farmers values would ever reach the point that he could ignore all the perfectly sound reasoning that he grew up with and instead of using the common sense that he is so proud of, he would fail to use a thirty-eight cent bullet to cure this problem. As I have grown older, I have gained wisdom and a great deal of that wisdom is the result of walking with my LORD, these past eighteen years.
... Some days when I wake up, Delilah is the very first living thing I see and she jumps from the floor, into my lap, in the wheel chair, and she washes every inch of my face and my bald head. On other mornings, the ones I want to concentrate on, she will wait for me to sit in my recliner and then she crawls into my lap and she sets down on my right leg, facing the far wall, and she sits straight up and just tilts back until she is as close to my body as she can possibly be and begins to snuggle until I caress and stroke her bare belly and just love on her. In that defenseless position I could end her life in an instant and yet in that position with my hand stroking her, she snuggles that long nose against and around my neck as she holds still and allows me to love her.
... In Psalm 46:10 God, our Father, has commanded us to be still and to find that true and unfailing love that He has for us. Today, with no expendable income, in the midst of all the rumors of financial ruin and the collapse of bank after bank and companies rolling over and closing, folks ask me to tell them what to do. Well, actually, I have the answer. I need to buy my wife a new truck and with no liquid income I am going to do just that very thing. The Great Depression came about because of foolish men and this recession/depression today is a result of the same thing, foolish men. The Great depression grew to be so incredibly bad because men were foolish enough to forget God and instead to trust in themselves. If this is ever to grow to the same point all that need happen is for foolish men to once more forget who it is that holds them in His hand and to fail to turn back to Him.
... When the brook had no more water to sustain Elijah, God sent him to live with a Widow and her son and they had the makings for one more loaf of bread and then they had planned to die. At the Word of God, Elijah assured her that if she backed that last loaf of bread and would, because of God's promise, feed him first that the ingredients for making one more loaf of bread would always be there when it was needed. And that silly(?) woman believed that God would do what He had promised and baked Elijah the last loaf of bread in the house. Because God loves His children, in much the same way I love that hole digging puppy, they always had just enough flour and oil to make one more loaf, just enough to serve their need.
... I laugh and I take such pure joy in loving that puppy and from loving her and listening to the Holy Spirit of God as I study the Word I have been taught such wonderful lessons about my relationship with the LORD. It is my heart cry for each of your ears to just trust God the way Delilah trusts me. I have trusted Him, in that manor for these past eighteen years and in my darkest moments He has never failed me. Tonight, do as I do most every night. Get ready for bed and instead of just running through your nightly routine, crawl into that bed and just be still and call out to God and just wait and listen to Him. He loves you so much He'll rub your belly for you if that's what you truly need.

Computers and Their Cost

... It has been some time now since my last rant on computers. I was working up an estimate for a friend the other day and was once more slapped in the face with the cost of the operating system that Microsoft charges. The cheapest I found a full copy of WindowsXP Pro for was $189.00 plus Shipping and the best I've found Windows Vista Ultimate for is $360.00 plus the shipping. For less than $600.00 I can build a terrific computer complete with a dual core processor but if the person wants Windows on their unit the price automatically jumps by more that two hundred dollars and that is indecent.
... Because of my age and my status in the system I have ceased to charge folks for my labor and have began to push hard the Ubuntu operating system. Ubuntu operates with the same type of point and click system that Windows users love. The huge problem with the system is the cost, it is free and people do not like free. If it doesn't cost them money they do not trust it. The biggest advantage to the Ubuntu system is the fact that one need not run an Anti-Virus or a Firewall program. Being a security freak I run both any way. Another large plus is the fact that there are thousands of programs from a complete Office (Microsoft's costs over $600) and thousands of programs available for taking the time to download them and the office apps will even save in the Microsoft native formats plus these apps will open documents and such from the Windows machines. Not only that but if you are really hung up on the MS Apps you just point and click to download Wine and the install that app inside your Wine program and it runs as a native of Ubuntu.
... Are you afraid that you will not be able to test it? Maybe you have the room or another disk you can put it on but your not smart enough to set up a dual boot system so that you have your windows system for a safety net. Well, to just test the system all you need is a Live CD and to get that you can contact me at gods-servant@sbcglobal.net and I'll burn and ship you a copy for ten dollars labor and shipping cost, the software is free. Another method, even cheaper is to go to Ubuntu.com and download the .iso file and burn your own copy. Then you put the disk into your computer, do a restart and it should boot from the CD allowing you to test the system a reduced speed because it will not write to you hard drive. These Live CDs are also the complete system for the install if you choose to install it. And now, about that dual boot system, it is cover for you by the disk. If you already have Windows on your 'puter the Live CD will automatically set you up for a dual boot of both systems.
... I can do no more than to beg you to stop tossing your hard earned money into file thirteen at MS and give this OS a try, it will cost you nothing and will, over your life save you thousands of dollars.

Are you free?

... One of the things that is so very hard for the new Christian to get a girp on is their sinful nature and I believe that this has a great deal to do with why we see folks come into the church, make a profession of faith and then they are lost to us. Galatians is a book that these folks need to study a bit. It is only five short chapters long, so it is a quick read though a person can spend a life time in the study of this short book of the Bible.
... In this letter to the church there we see that Paul's work is being undone by the Jews trying to force the Christians to live by the Law and to forget God's grace. The very first thing I believe that every new Christian needs to understand is that they are free from their former life style. That means that we now have the option to refuse to sin and not that we will never be tempted. We will be tempted and there might even be a time that we slip because we become so distracted that we forget that we have the option to please God and by doing so, to please our selves without being ashamed of what we have done. I suppose the best way to say this is that we are now changed because we no longer plan to sin as we did, at least I did, before we were saved. And as we grow in our walk with Christ we will slip less and less.
... When we are saved we are indwelt with the Holy Spirit but early on we are not practiced at listening to that influence and it is easy to ignore. As we walk with God we are also chastised by Him when we fail to listen to the Spirit and through this process we become more attuned to what the Spirit is trying to tell us. This is exactly the way we were raised when we were youngsters and God has always been the Good Father. For example, if, when we were young, we lived beside a busy street or highway our mom and dad would forbid us to go into the street and if we did they would spank us to get our attention focused. We were not told to avoid the street because they did not want us to enjoy our lives, it was so that we would enjoy our life. It is exactly the same with God.
... From the Law we all learn that we are sinners but no one has ever been saved by following the Law. From the time of Abraham, salvation has been a product of grace and only by grace. This will never change and we in the church have got to stop killing the wounded and instead learn to give them a hand up. We are called, by God, to restore the fallen and when we learn to live our mission out we will stop scaring the new Christian away.

The State of the Union and the Christian

... I have been busy the past month trying to convince folks claiming the name of Christ that God really does care about who they vote for and since the election it has been my goal to get folks to pray for the President that our LORD has put into the White House whether they approve of the gentleman or not. Having pursued these ends that are well within the wishes of God I have been ignoring this blog. To any of you that are bored enough to care to read the ramblings of an old man, I apologize for ignoring my duty here. I will attempt to be more faithful in my rants and my attempts to teach the Gospel.
... Since I have noticed, at www.bibleforums.org, that so many folks today are not concerned with seeking after the will of God for every action they take I'd like to spend just a moment on that subject. God is concerned about every detail of your life. The Bible even assures us of this truth. (Luke 12:7) If God knows the exact number of hairs on your head at any given moment in time, could there ever be a single thing that you can do that God does not know? God has been so concerned about this servant that He has even sent folks to see that I recieve enough money in any given month to feed my wife and my daughter, even though I'll never be able to work another day of my life. Because I can't sleep at night unless I am proped up in an expensive hospital bed, God has provided me with just that. Because I have a drop foot because of the disease that is caused by my wounds and chemical exposure from the war, God has even provided a, just invented, special brace that is spring loaded and lifts the toe of my foot so that I do not take a header when I walk.
... To believe that God does not care about how one of His children votes is a very small box to try to put the creator of the universe into.

Who do you trust?

... We are living in, perhaps, the most exciting time ever to be recorded in History, short of the appearance of our LORD in Israel and most Christians are not even aware of it. I do not expect the unbeliever to understand or to recognize that the Rapture is about to occure but the Christian that goes to church every Sunday and to Prayer Meeting on Wednesday should roll out of the bed every morning with the thought that this would be a great day to go home because so much has happened and it could occure before I finish writing this article or before you finish reading it.
... Ezekiel 37 and 38 and 39 are the chapters that I will basing my comments on and they are such exciting chapters to read. In Chapter 37, verses 1 thru 14 we see that God is bringing to life, Israel, even though they are a nation no more. In 1948 God did exactly that and Israel was a nation again, in one, single, day. Now in verses 15 thru 22 we are taught that God will do exactly what He has done, The Jewish nations are now one nation and the faithful have been assembled from every nation in the world to become one united Jewish nation. Verse 23 is such an important one to make note of because the Chosen People of God have been guilty of every sin the other nations have committed but they are being cleansed and will be cleansed by God and by God alone. God is demonstrating His faithfulness, even as we look on.
... In verses 24 thru the last we see the promise of God to the Jew and in the newspapers, right now, we see that promise being fulfilled. In verse 26 we see that God has made a covenant of peace for the nation of Israel and as we look at the history of the People from 1948 through the present, no-one has prevailed against them, even when it was impossible for them to be victorious. God has magnified Himself through Israel, that we, the Christian, might see and the best is yet to come. In chapters 38 and 39 we find Russia and Iran with other allies attacking Israel, to put an end to what God has restored. And it is there that we find what I have coined from the book of the same title, "The Ezekiel Option." The forces that will come up against Israel will be so many that they will be irresistible,except that God defend Israel. He will!
... So, what does this have to do with you? Everything! The Stock Markets around the world are crashing and people are losing thousands and even millions of dollars and find themselves hopeless. And here I sit without any financial hope for any future and yet I am calm and resting in my LORD, giving any time I am presented with the chance. Many are they that will call me a fool and a large number of those are resident in the church. Not God"s Church but they are card carrying members of many denominations. And all I can say to them is that they have missed the whole point and I must pray for them.
... When Abram took his family and left his home to follow God, it was the most irrational action he could have possibly taken. When God had Samuel anoint David as King, usurping Saul it made perfect sense to kill Saul and David was given the opportunity to do so more than once, but David waited on God. When Elijah informed the nation that there would be no rain until he said so, the monarchy put a death warrant out on him. There was no way for him to feed himself and when the brook that God sent him to there was no way for him to even drink water except that God hold true to His word, and he did.
... I fell off the side of my diesel truck a few years ago because the Agent Orange exposure had finally knocked me down and except that God step in, there was no hope for me and my wife. We trusted His promise to care for His servants and we are doing ok. We are not going to the steak house to eat every night and we are not riding in a Rolls Royce but we are taken care of because we have trusted God. I can only beg you, please, trust God!

Prayer for India Missions

... I received an email today, 10/9/'08 from a dear friend of mine, Jeff Mills, on the field in Guatemala. Being with the Final Harvest Ministries, he is well informed and stays informed about the current events, even when the media does not report on the circumstances. Upon reading his forwarded notice of the mess I searched for a news release on the violence and that is the link I have included. http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/new.php?n=13957
... In the email from the missionary, on location, he told of bombings, buildings being set on fire and reported how the orphans, rescued from starvation, in the streets, were being sought after to be eliminated by the Hindus. I call on everyone of you to pray for these children and for the missionaries that are fleeing with them to the jungle, seeking God's safety. I do not care if you call yourself liberal or fundamentalist, pray!

The Election

... The Founding Fathers of the United States of America designed a Government that was founded on Judeo-Christian values and as per the much misquoted Jefferson letter was never intended to separate the government from the influence of the church. In the Jefferson Letter the eight words used to justify the incorrect decision of separation of church and state, when read in the context of that document are expressed to assure the church that the Government of the U.S. will never designate a national religion as many of the countries in Europe had done.

... Our form of government was designed to have three separate branches and the weakest of those three was the Judicial Branch. The Supreme Court, not even being elected, do not represent the people of the nation, in any form and the government of our country is to be the government of, by and for the people. When the Judges declared prayer in the school to be illegal there was no such law ever written by the congress and so was never signed by the President. When the Judges decided that abortion was legal, there were laws in every state of the Union declaring the act to be illegal and to this date there has been no law written nor one signed to supersede the states authority in the matter. Abortion is against the law and the purveyors of this murderous act, every one of them should be sitting on Death Row awaiting their sentence for the commission of the crimes they have committed.

... There needs to be a point to every rant and of course there is one to this explosion. While the numbers are in decline, just as promised by our LORD in the scriptures, the majority of the population of the U.S. claim to be Christian. As a Christian we are to obey the commandments of our LORD and Stewardship is taught throughout the Bible and is particularly noted and emphasized by Jesus in the New Testament.

Genesis 2:2-3 - God rested
Psalm 118:24 - The Lord's Day
Ecclesiastes 3:1 - A time for everything
Matthew 25:15-30 - Parable of Talents
Luke 12:15 - Abundance
Matthew 6:20 - Treasures in heaven
Matthew 10:8 - Freely given, freely give
I Kings 17:1-16 - Widow of Zarephath
Genesis 1: 31 - Creation is Good
Genesis 2:15-20 - Adam as steward
Psalm 104 - Creation Psalm
Matthew 6:25-34 - Lilies of the Field
Matthew 19:16-22 - Love neighbor
Luke 19:1-10 - Zaccheus
Mark 12:41-44 - Widow's Mite
Luke 10:30-37 - Good Samaritan
John 6:1-14 - Feeding 5000
Luke 15:11-32 - Forgiving Father

Leviticus 27:30-32 -Tithing
Deuteronomy 16:17 - Give as blessed
Matthew 6:31-34 - First things first
Matthew 22:34-30 - 2 commandments
Mark 10:17-25 - Riches
Luke 16 - Faithful stewardship
Luke 18:9-14 - Pharisee A tax collector
Romans 12:1 - Offer yourself to God
I Corinthians 16:1- 2 - Money to help
II Corinthians 5:16- 6:2 - Work together
II Corinthians 8:1-12 - Generosity
II Corinthians 9:6-15 - Generosity
Ephesians 2:1-10 - Created for good work
I Peter 1:3-5 - Born anew
I Peter 2:9-10 - God's own people
I John 4:13-21 - We love because of God's love for us

In less than one month we vote for the new President of the U.S. And as the Stewards of God Almighty we must seek to do His will and not the World's will. We must seek after the will of Our Father in Heaven and not what we think is best for us. There have been over forty million babies sacrificed on the Alter of Convenience and there is no scripture that can support even one such death.

... Some will argue that a child does not have life until it exits the mother's body even though any mother will tell anyone that her child was reacting to stimuli long before it was born. Some will say that an infant does not live until a certain number of months have passed with the child being resident in the mother's body. There are even some that will, in spite of scientific evidence, say that the infant is not human until after the first three months. First evidence, without even going to the Word of God, any human conception, left alone, produces a complete human being. Second evidence, at just ten weeks after conception the baby has ten tiny toes, ten tiny fingers, a heart beat and a brain scan demonstrates mental activity. Ten weeks is before a woman even knows, for sure, that she has conceived. Further more, when we go to the Bible we find the God declared that when a man kills the fetus (Old Testament Law) he must be killed and in the Book of Jerimiah we learn the God told Jeremiah that before he was conceived (in his mother's womb) that He knew Him. God knew every one of the soon to be fifty million babies by name before the mother and the father produced them.

... Then we have two items and they both require the same repair to be applied. I will receive hate mail and remarks on the bulletin boards for this but it is the truth. The War will not be won by the armies and the economy will respond in exactly the way that God has predetermined that it will. You see, it all goes back to our sins and God is not pleased with the way the church has allowed the world to come into it's presence to influence it and turn it away from Him. Just ignore all our other sin and remember those millions of babies that were exterminated, do you really think we can mock God and not be punished? God back and study the Old Testament and the ways that God punished the Chosen Ones when they disobeyed Him, over and over. God is slow to come to wrath but when He does, His wrath is unbearable.

... Just imagine, this is not even the beginning of the Great Tribulation, that will be far worse.

... How in the world are you going to vote next month?

Is Jesus our Bud?

Joh 1:1 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.
Joh 1:2 The same was in the beginning with God.
Joh 1:3 All things were made through him; and without him was not anything made that hath been made.

... In Romans 1:18 through the last verse we find out that God will turn man over to a Reprobate mind and it is my contention that He has done so. While it is true that those who choose to accept the free gift of Salvation become the adopted children of God and it is true that Jesus, the Christ, is the Son of God, we must not assume that we speak of Him in the familiar way that folks do today.
... There is so little focus today that it is frightening. In the first verse of The Gospel of John we are taught several things about our Messiah. First we learn that Jesus has always existed and this point alone is cause for much study and meditation on the Word of God. This point, along, is one of great distinction. We are taught that one name for Jesus is The Word and of course the Bible is The Word of God. Continuing along this path, in verse three we see that there is nothing, in the entire Creation of God, that was not made by Him.
Many, are they that, have separated the Old and the New Testaments by having the New to replace the Old. In the Old Testament the Creator, God, has promised, never to change. (Mal. 3:6) This same quality of God is demonstrated in the New Testament. (Heb. 6:17,18) If we never study the Old Testament we wilol not understand the New Testament because much of the New is, in fact, commentary on the Old. When Jesus was asked what was the greatest Commandment He went directly to the Books of the Law. The same Jesus that taught us The Sermon on the Mount is the writer of the Old Testament.
... Consider for a moment that I once worked for Texas Industries (TXI) as a Mixer Driver/Operator. As an employee of the company I was vested in the 401k and owned stock in TXI. The CEO also worked for TXI and owned stock in the company but each of us had a different roll to fulfill. I owned stock, just as the CEO did but I was not equal to him in position. I am a Son of God because He has adopted me into His Family but Jesus, the Son of God is God. While Heaven is mine to inherit Heaven is Jesus' in that He created it.
... When my dad was still alive, he loved me and I loved him. We were both war veterans and as such, we had a great respect, one for the other but while, in many ways, we were equal, we were never equal. What was true of my dad and myself is also true of Jesus and each of us. Just as I gave much greater stature to my dad, each of us must find Jesus to hold an even greater position in our lives. When I tell you that I feared my dad I do not mean that I lived in fear of some possible punishment he might administer. I feared not being pleasing to him. I, in an even greater way live in fear of Jesus. My salvation is settled but I never want to displease my LORD.
... You see, Jesus is not my buddy. Just like my friends, I am free to approach Him with any concern I might have but just as I would not walk up and wrap my arm around the President I respect Jesus even more than the Supreme Commander of the Army I am so proud of. When we love God, we will offer Him our deepest respect.

Lessons About Trouble

... Living in Southeast Texas there are many object lessons to be learned and God has provided us with so many sources of information that it is difficult to miss the information. All the lessons we will ever need are found in the manuscript left for us by Our Heavenly Father but today I want to look at a source that most of us are close to on a daily basis. My Pastor, Joe Arms, is presently teaching on the location of the God of Elijah and it is a very deep and very good set of sermons on trusting and obeying God, even when it seems to make no sense.
... I'm not going there, instead, look at your dog. We all want the same thing from Phido (somethings about me just prefere Cajun.) First, like God, we want our pet to love us and if it could not do that I would never have the beast around mt children. God can live without human-beings just as we do not need the dog to raise our children but what a blessing it is for that four legged creature to go everywhere our, often, defenseless children go. My wife and I owned a snow white Alaskan Tundra Wolf for almost seventeen years and the very best thing about Sugarbear was that she was willing to die to protect my wife, her master. My question, "Should we, the Children of God, be willing to do less for our Master?" God laid aside all His Divinity and descended to the Earth for no other reason than to give us the key to the door into Heaven. That key is to believe that He died for our sins and as soon as we do that He leads us into repentance. I know because the year I was saved and became a Christian, God worked all that year on me to repent of my sins.
... During Hurricane Ike and particularly, the aftermath, my new pal, Delilah was ever busy demonstrating how we should worship and serve the LORD. Delilah has ranked her humans for their importance and position in her life. She is often cuddled by the women, my wife and my daughter, in my house and for this and other reasons I rank third in importance and that is as it should be. She plays with me but she does not guard me at night and I do not feed her. The second in ranking is my wife, she feeds her but my daughter, Barbara is number one. Delilah sleeps with her, she gives her her baths and she plays with her the most. The dog knows what is important to her. When we had to clean the mess up from Ike's visit, Barb and my wife were saddled with that job because I have been strapped into this wheel chair for the remainder of my time here. Delilah is a Dachshund and a minature to boot. She loves to hunt and kill moles but she is not much of a beast of burden and yet, every night she came in with the ladies, bone tired. One of the girls would pick up the end of a branch and begin to drag it to the fire pile and Delilah would find one small enough for her to move and off she went, right behind them. All she could carry was a twig but she looked, saw what her masters were doing and she did all she could to jion in with them, she want to help. When was the last time you looked to see what your Master was doing and went over to do you part? Are we less important than av dog? Or is God calling us to help Him?

Following Jesus

Following Jesus

Luk 18:18 And a certain ruler asked him, saying, Good Teacher, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?
Luk 18:19 And Jesus said unto him, Why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, even God.
Luk 18:20 Thou knowest the commandments, Do not commit adultery, Do not kill, Do not steal, Do not bear false witness, Honor thy father and mother.
Luk 18:21 And he said, All these things have I observed from my youth up.
Luk 18:22 And when Jesus heard it, he said unto him, One thing thou lackest yet: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Luk 18:23 But when he heard these things, he became exceeding sorrowful; for he was very rich.
Luk 18:24 And Jesus seeing him said, How hardly shall they that have riches enter into the kingdom of God!
Luk 18:25 For it is easier for a camel to enter in through a needle's eye, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.

...Following the LORD is a difficult thing for the natural man because just like the young ruler, we all have our personal property that we seem to be stuck on. As I sit here on 9/11/08 there are many things that run through my mind. I do, indeed, recall the thousands of folks tha6 were murdered for the cause of Mohammad, on this date and I also must think about the hurricane that appears to be targeting SE Texas, where I live. Life is full of items of concern and yet if we have chosen to follow God, these are already beyond our grasp for our LORD has taken command of our lives and has chosen our fate in all matters. (Matt. 6:25,26)
...When I served in Vietnam as a Killer Spade, my life, by legal contract, belonged to the United States Army, to do with as they chose. My pilot, when I was 24 years old, was a 19 year old Warrant Officer, whose only promise to me was to die trying to get me out of the messes he promised to get me into. Such a man deserves to be followed because he went everywhere I went. Today, I serve Jesus and He has made the most astonishing collection of promises that have ever been heard and then He, intentionally, died on the cross to prove His ability to honor His promises. He rose on the third day and proved His claim to be Second in the God Head. Having gone ahead of me, in time past, and walking with me, at this very moment, I cannot find reason to distrust Him.
...Having lived my life, along the Gulf Coast, I have seen thousands of folks die in the wake of the storms that are common here but if my LORD, Jesus, feeds the Sparrow and provides a home for the sparrow's babies, what can I, His loyal servant, ever have to fear? Paul said that to live is to live for Christ but to die is to profit. Today, after having had my aircraft shot to pieces with has many as 300 entry holes and not one of the 11 men on board injured, can I ever distrust God? I just cannot bring myself to ever distrust Him.
... Saturday. the storm could kill me, if that is God's plan but I will not be dead. Long ago, my wife and I, sold out to God and we have done our very best to live for His glory from that moment forward. Unlike the Young Ruler, we have given all that we hold over to the LORD to do with as it pleases Him, including our lives. And if the storm does get bad, maybe, God will need a witness, especially then and to serve and to follow is all I ever want to do.

Democrat, Republican or Christian?

Mark 7:7

... When asked I most commonly answer that I am an independent voter that of late has been voting Republican because they plain truth is shocking to most people. The truth is that I an a Christian and subscribe to the venues of neither party. When Moses was called by God to lead the people out of Egypt he was a sheep herder, empowered by God to work the will of God. When Joshua was commissioned as the Supreme Commander of the Israeli Army he was the student of Moses. Gideon was a farmer threshing his wheat, under cover when he was called to greatness and I could go on and on but the point is that God's servants are exactly that, His servants.
... The servant of God is neither Democrat nor Republican and neither party has a lock on the will of God. If any person loves God he or she seeks to be obedient to Him and cannot vote for anyone that flies policies in the face of what God has said. By the same token it is very unlikely that any candidate will align perfectly with the Christian's ideas of what God has said.
... At the same time we must never forget our first love and stray from the path. If a person is called by God they are called to obey Him before any other! This year we Christians are faced with a decision that has become the Gold Standard for us, once more, we must decide to vote for or against abortion, there is no other choice. The Obama/Biden ticket have made it clear that they will promote the Abortion Agenda and the McCain/Palin ticket have made it very clear that they are horizontally, vertically and diagonally opposed to abortion. At this time our nation is just one vote away from ceasing to slaughter thousands of babies each day and the balence of the Supreme Court is at issue in this election.
... The question that must be answered is, "Who's servant are you?"

Who Are We?

1Pet. 2:9
Who Are We?

1Pe 2:9 But ye are an elect race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for God's own possession, that ye may show forth the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvellous light:
1Pe 2:10 who in time past were no people, but now are the people of God: who had not obtained mercy, but now have obtained mercy.

... The Christian is a special person and most of the people calling themselves by that name disapprove of my position on the matter and yet I cannot find it in myself to back up and to take a more liberal stance. I feel that if I am to err, it must be on the conservative side. Before I was saved I believed that determining whether a person was a Christian or not was much the same as determining who was a Killer Spade. When I became a Spade I obeyed the commands of the lowest of ranks above me and yet was prone to disregard even the commands of the Generals if they were not Spades and of course, some wished they were but they were not. I have long been of the opinion that the Christian can be spotted in the same manor as the Spades were recognizable, they obey their commander. I am not telling anyone that they are not saved but when I became a Spade I had a set of orders that “elected” me to be a Killer Spade and in 1 Peter I have my orders once more and they are directly from the Supreme Commander. I am a Christian and just as I flew, in spite of the weapons used against me as a Spade, as a Christian I cannot find it in myself to fear what people might think of me.
... I am now a member of the people of God and as such, you might spray me with Agent Orange, Agent Blue and Agent White and take my legs out from under me but you cannot stop me, I belong to God and I will live forever and that does not begin tomorrow, I began my eternal life the very moment I surrendered to God, picked up my guitar and walked off that stage and bid farewell to all my fans and the fame that had just one week before been offered to me and that was sought for over twenty-five years. Since I am an eternal being and since I love God, I hope somewhat in the manor He loves me, how could I ever seek to ignore His commands to me? Since I live in pain, twenty-four hours a day, why would I ever fear moving from this realm into the next? I am a Christian, devoted servant of my Heavenly Father through His Son, Jesus Christ.

Sarah Palin

... I was very proud of the Old Fox today as he blew my socks off with his Vice Presidential nomination. On various boards I have seen unsubstantiated lies spread concerning John McCain's Christianity, claiming the lack of it and I knowing that he is respected by his captures as well as by the men he served with in the Hanoi Hilton have been unable to sit still and just watch folks slander a true American Hero that way. The Honorable Senator John McCain was held prisoner for almost six full years while he was tortured and watched some of his friends murdered by the North Vietnamese guards.

http://www.mishalov.com/Vietnam_hanoi_hilton.html

... People like myself respect Lt. Comm. McCain because he exhibited the highest honor during his capture, setting men's broken arms with sticks and dirty rags while he, himself was being tortured. His guards respect him because he never showed a sign of breaking. I will not, presume, to tell you that he never considered taking the easy way out, I was never in Hanoi and I considered eating the barrel of my side arm to end the constant uncertainty of when they would kill me and I was just being shot at every day. When I grew up my stepfather was in the Airforce and we were forever building plastic models of Fighter Planes and I built rubber band powered paper and balsa aircraft. All I ever wanted to do was to fly a fighter but not off a postage stamp! When I was in Vietnam I once had the honor of landing on a Carrier in my Helicopter, no mean feat at all. As we approached at 100 knots it looked incredably small out there in the water. Before that time I always respected any man that would put a super-sonic aircraft down on that tossing and yawing surface while being in-bound at that speed but after that day they held my highest regard for thier intestenal fortitude (just plain guts.)
... My friends and I respect John McCain for any number of reasons. It is very likely that he flew some of the missions that covered our landings and takeoffs when we were pulling some group of Infantrymen out of a particularly bad situation and I will never cease to remember how the machine guns would fall silent when the Navy and the Airforce Fighters would roll hot on them as we landed. God bless John McCain and every other nut that has no better sense than to swoop down out of the sky, where they are safe, and get down inside the trees with an aircraft that should never be in any kind of a hole and do the work they did for us.
... Now, Sarah! I'd never heard of her before today, after all, I live in Texas and we will never forgive the Alaskans for stealing our Thunder. This young, and good-looking, Goveror of Alaska never proclaimed her religion and yet, before the Liberal Democratic Media cut her speach short I knew she was a child of God. She spoke of "a servants heart" and she and her husband refused to abort their new son even though they knew that he would be born with Downs Syndrom. I have done some research on this Washington Outsider and I urge everyone to do the same, she's quite a lady.

Reading the Bible and Heresy

... In 2Tim. 2:15 we learn that we are to handle the word of God carefully or that we are to study to understand what God has said. Since the day of my salvation, I have held tight to the truth that "no" book can be understood without reading the entire book. In the case of the scriptures I have made it a practice to read the Bible through, from beginning to end just as I read a novel. I will, in the case of a novel, put it on the shelf, after reading it and the best ones are reread after a few years. With the Bible, I do not read it through every year, in fact it has taken me as long as three years, reading just one chapter a day and I have been so focused on a topic study that I have gone through long periods 0f time where I was not reading through but was instead researching a particular topic or two. The point is though that no one scripture, nor any portion of scripture can be taken from the Bible and isolated, this is how heresy begins. It sounds like the scripture is correct because we've heard those words from the Bible before so it gains popularity because man likes to have the upper hand and, generally, we are to lazy to check it out ourselves. After all, didn't that preacher teach it?
...A great example of this is 1Ti 2:4 who would have all men to be saved, and come to the knowledge of the truth. (CEV) This is one of the verses used as a mainstay to support Universal Salvation. This scripture must, however, be taken in the light of what the rest of scripture says and since I have only used one of the heretic's favorites, I'll only point to one place to refute the case and illustrate the truth;
Mat 7:13 Enter ye in by the narrow gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many are they that enter in thereby.
Mat 7:14 For narrow is the gate, and straitened the way, that leadeth unto life, and few are they that find it.
Mat 7:15 Beware of false prophets, who come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly are ravening wolves. (ASV)
... The case is made by the Universalist that 1 Tim. 2:4 is the perfect will of God and for that reason all men will be saved. They totally ignore that Jesus taught, in The Sermon on the Mount that there would be few that will find the path and they lend no importance to the fact that Jesus, throughout the Bible taught more on Hell and the perils there-of than He did on Heaven and the rewards.
... For the Christian that desires to follow God and has not been able to find it in themselves to develop the habit of daily study of the word of God, I have a very inexpensive, paperback book that will be found essential after it is purchased. Where to Find it in the Bible, by Ken Anderson is less than ten dollars and is very simple to use. I cannot urge you strongly enough to own a Bible that is easy for you to understand and to keep this book by Ken Anderson with it.

Why I have learned to avoid Windows

... I used to test Beta software for Microsoft but in doing so I was always displeased with the condition they would release their new software in. There were always bugs that were being worked on, at least I would hope they did not ignore the reports from the testers, and still the programs would go on sale. One program Iwas very happy I tested was Windows One Care, as a result of running it alongside my normal, free, maintainence software I knew before hand that it was a dismal flop. I then began to question the eforts of the MS Team and they released Windows Vista, which I immediately went along with the techs at ZD Net and called it Windows 95+12.
... I was, at that time, the member of a Christian Forum where a Linux Convert posted, proclaiming the attributes of the Ubuntu release of Linux. Being my normally cautious self I began to research this idea while several other Christian users switched and also proclaimed the wonders of Ubuntu, There was even a Christian Edition that was, apparently being worked on by Missionaries on the ground. The more I researched and asked questions the more I was impressed. This system, as it was then, was made to do everything the Windows Vista system had claimed to be ready to do when it was released and it was virtually impregnable to viruses and mal-ware was not a problem at all.
... After about four months research I finally downloaded the free image file of the Live CD and burned it to disk. After two days of intense testing I was so impressed I loaded it onto my Windows Computer and had a dual boot system set up for me automatically. I loved the system so much that I never booted Windows again because with my downloading a program called "wine," all my required Windows programs run as native on the Ubuntu system. The only fault I found in the system turned out to not be a fault at all. I installed the e-Sword Bible program, written, only for Windows and was finding that several dll files must be downloaded and placed into the proper file, That was fine for a nerd like myself but was not going to be possible for most of my friends. The solution was there the entire time and all I had to do was to ask on the twenty-four hour support forumm and I was introduced to "esword4linux." This nifty little program installs all the required files into the proper directories and provides the user with a point and click Application that will download and install every bible version, commentary, maps and all theb rest of the options that are available, all free of charge.
... By this time everyone knows that Bill Gates and crew are multi-billionaires and we have all noticed that the new Windows programs just continue to increase in cost, so what does this, Ubuntu, cost? First, let me tell you that there are well over four thousand programs available for this system that do everything that Windows programs do and that is just the free ones. The system, it's the same price and you are free to install it on as many computers as you might choose. You are free t0 go to ubuntu.com and pay about 40 dollars for a disk, you can have someone like myself burn you a legal copy for ten dollars or you can downl;oad the image and make your own disk.

Pro-choice Christian?

... I have been seeing and hearing a lot of discussion on the matter of pro-choice Christians. It seems that the pro-choice (a.k.a. pro-abortion/murder) group is being heavily influenced by the world God intends them to influence. I notice that many of them want to run down rabbit trails and divert attention from the issue. That tactic was very popular in the sixties and used very effectively used by the atheist, Bill Taylor and is now considered, by the Christian, Bill Taylor, as the strongest and clearest sign of the inability to justify one's position. Often the pro-abortionist will attempt to mix such matters as taking the life of a convicted murderer and many more unrelated issues to muddy the water and to confuse the dedicated servants of God. As the bond servants of God, purchased with the price paid by God, in the flesh, on the cross, it is therefore imperative, not that we know every answer but, that we read the scriptures, on a regular basis so that we show ourselves approved and are equipped to be used of God when the need is there.
... Christian, in it's first usage meant Christ-like or Little Christ. Christ is the Greek word for Messiah and to this day when one takes that name for themselves they are openly proclaiming themselves to be the Slave of Jesus, the Christ who was, is and will remain, God. In John 1, right from the beginning of the book we learn that Jesus, God in the flesh of man, is the creator of everything. It, then follows that He is the author, not the writer but the one that dictated the Old Testament. Folks like Samuel and Ezekiel were the secretaries that penned the words dictated to them. (A bit simplified but accurate.)
... Exodus 21:22-25 says:“If men strive, and hurt a woman with child, so
that her fruit depart from her [the New King James says “gives birth prematurely”], and yet no
mischief follow: he shall be surely punished, according as the woman’s husband will lay upon
him; and he shall pay as the judges determine. And if any mischief follow, then thou shalt give
life for life, Eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot, Burning for burning, wound
for wound, stripe for stripe.”
... Searching the scriptures reveals many other verses in an assortment of the Books of the Bible. The first one that always stands out is the statement by Our Creator in Jeremiah that He knew him before he was in his mother's womb. There are others in Isaiah and so on. Even a Google search for harm the unborn Bible, reveals the truth. It also reveals the lie is being told by many but for the discerning, the truth is there. If a man or a woman has committed their life to God and turns around and supports abortion, at the very best, they are one very Carnal Christian and since we will know our brethren by their fruits it should cause considerable pause to the Committed Christian when confronted by these folks.
... As a Bond Servant to God I cannot and I will never support murder, in any form, any more than I will support an unrepentant homosexual or rapist.