Rewired for the Journey

  Seven weeks are now in the books and I am getting better by the week. I have had a lot of time for reflection I am getting closer to the winter time of my mortal existence. I watch my dog and learn so much from her, Cali lives in the moment and makes us feel special when she greets us at the door. My dog was so sensitive when I came home from the hospital. Cali smelled my heart pillow and gently sniffed me and my right side. Cali would not go to my right but left side and would come and just sit with me or lay by my side. She was empathetic to my condition. Cali made recovery a bit more easier getting to pet her and talk to her. I would like to have a little more empathy like Cali. It seems through the years life has beaten some of the empathy out of me. I see and feel I have hardened somewhat through the years to survive this fallen world of depravity and sinful evil. Maybe Cali has some time to teach this old dog some new ways of approaching life. Cali is a tiny little dog but she

  Greetings, I am now on the other side of my heart surgery. I praise my Lord and Savior for giving me more years on earth with my loved ones. Even though it is far better in Heaven than here in this fallen sin-filled world there is still beauty and love to be shared and experienced on Earth. Surgery was always a great fear of mine. But after a couple of months of praying for courage and strength to face this Golith, I found God faithful and gave me a supernatural calm and a peace that all was going to be alright. As the nurse pushed my bed down the hallway it got quiet and cooler. Through some big metal doors and in another area it felt colder and I thought they were wheeling me to the morgue! My strange sense of humor. Once in the surgery room, they put me to sleep and this is where the "God story" comes into the picture. The family saw the surgeon walking towards them just after an hour after my surgery began which was to take about five hours. The family immediately thoug

  Well, it is getting real now that I have a date for my open-heart surgery. It is ironic like the song from Atlanta Morrisett's album Jagged Little Pill that I never had surgery in my life and now at the young age of sixty-four I am finally going to have surgery and it is open heart! Go big or go home! When I first was told I needed heart surgery three months ago I was at first scared. I felt bad that I was scared thinking I should be showing more faith than I was. But it is not natural to be sick or die, that is not what God originally intended for us in the Garden of Eden.  I started to pray that God would give me the courage to face my surgery and not be afraid. I wanted my faith to be real and active. O'me of little faith. I did not want to be a follower of Jesus Christ and it just be lip service and not actively living my faith. In my heart, I knew I did not want to be a coward. I had three months of prayer and God was merciful and when I went this week for the final two

I have always been a gym rat and played sports. At sixty-three I prided myself in being fit and trim. I ate close to a Mediterranean diet, slept adequately, and did not smoke or party. I was smug enough to believe I would never have any serious health issues because I cared for my health so well. There is an old saying that pride comes before the fall, and fall I did. It started two years ago at an annual check-up when the doctor heard a slight heart murmur. My poor man's insurance would not pay for an echocardiogram. So I went on with life. The last four months leading up to July 1st I had been gaining weight and losing breath ever so gradually. My energy level was slowly going.  I got a strange virus that made me sicker than a dog for three days with a fever. I went to bed and felt like I was drowning so I coughed and choked and fought for breath. I then decided I was getting older and maybe I developed asthma so I headed to a clinic. The nurse practitioner said I did not have as

  There seem to be so many Christians who are doubting their salvation or living on a prayer that they are good enough to be saved. This is very sad to me for the Holy Bible has many a verse of scripture declaring that a believer of faith in Jesus Christ has or should have the assurance of their eternal destiny! I want to share a handful of verses with you that are a great comfort to me and I hope they will be to you as well. John 10:28-30 ESV   I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.   29  My Father, who has given them to me, is greater than all, and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father's hand.   30  I and the Father are one.” Wow! Absolutely no one and nothing can take our salvation away for it is in the hands of God and that is a comfort to know. This means that Satan himself cannot take it from us or his demons. This also means that the world and all its lusts, riches, and power cannot take us from the Lord an

Saturday nights usually you go to dinner and then go dancing. Sometimes you take in a movie or take in a play or concert. But one does not think it would be entertaining to be in the ER with a cardiac event. But that is where I found myself last Saturday night. All month long I have had different signs that something was wrong but did not connect the dots. Bouts of tiredness, trying to catch my breath, back pain, gaining weight with water retention, and rapid heart rate. Finally a trip to the care express where they discovered a very loud heart murmur at which they wanted to move me via ambulance to the hospital. I refused the ambulance ride and drove to pick up Roma and she drove me the rest of the way to the hospital. In the ER they hooked me up to so many tubes and wires I looked like the Borg from Star Trek. Lying there as helpless as a lamb to the slaughter I felt like I was in one of the shows of Grey's Anatomy. I realized as this was all going on I really had no control. Yes

I am amazed at how timeless the Holy Bible’s writings are and its relevance. This ancient collection of books and letters, poems and songs, advice and guidance; with the greatest message humankind ever needed which is how to be saved from our sins and have eternal life in Heaven. This ancient book has been under attack for thousands of years and yet it still stands. The objective truths within its pages still remain true. If the people of this world would heed its warnings they would be so better off. But sin keeps us from obeying the greatest book on earth. Men and women can get closer to God by reading and obeying this book than any other book on the face of the earth. The Lord even has His message in the Holy Bible to us testify of itself. 2 Timothy 3:15-16 New King James Version 15  and that from childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures, which are able to make you wise for salvation through faith which is in Christ Jesus. 16  All Scripture  is  given by inspiration of God, and 

  I ran out of checks and it was time to reorder another set, so no problem. I got online with my credit union and started my re-order. This is where I fell into shock at the cost of getting checks that used to be about ten to twelve dollars for about 120 checks delivered to the mailbox at home. The price was going to be close to fifty dollars and you only got 80 checks! What in God's name is happening?!? I called my youngest child who is in the Millennial generation. I said to her, "Do you use checks to pay bills?" She said, "No they are too expensive," and I said what do you do then? She then began to explain that they pay bills online with their bank. Also when they have a bill that only takes checks they go to the grocery store and pay .89 cents for a money order. My daughter went on to explain that she and her husband are paying for store-bought items or online shopping with ApplePay.  Dad, she said, "Everything is digital online with money and just a

  At the beginning of this year, I left behind the smells and bells of liturgical worship. I entered the evangelical praise and worship church environment with heavy doses of Bible study and expository preaching. Raising our hands heavenward as we sing praise songs of worship to Jesus. I have now watched three seasons of the show called The Chosen, which is about the earthly ministry of Jesus and his followers. It hit me this past week of the vast differences between denominations and non-denominational churches by watching that show and what I am now experiencing in my faith life. Jesus called the common person on the street in daily life to minister with him. Jesus did not require expensive years of schooling. Jesus did not require special clothing to preach and do the work of the Lord. Jesus used the ordinary things of life to build faith in others.   I used to believe I needed to have clergy apparel on and preach and teach from the hard-to-understand versions of the Bible like the

  On February 5th, 2023 around 12 noon at Mt. Pleasant Christian Church in Greenwood, Indiana I had an immersion baptism. I was sprinkled in the United Methodist Church when I was four months old on April 17th, 1960.  There are a lot of theological debates on baptism and why sprinkling and other methods can be considered a baptism. But if you simply look at the Holy Bible it reads that every baptism was an immersion. Even the Jewish faith baptizes and it is always an immersive baptism. John 3:23 / Matthew 3:16 / Acts 8:38 The leader of my Men's Bible Study did the honor of baptizing me. Another simple teaching in the Holy Bible is that when you become a believer in Jesus Christ you enter into the priesthood of believers. This means you can perform acts and rites of faith without any special schooling or man-made rules of apostolic lines of succession. There is no need to wear robes, or clerical clothing to be a minister of faith as a Christian.  1 Peter 2:5-9 Jesus wanted to simpli

  I had a great insight the other day that illuminated within me an understanding of myself. So to explain this I have to back up to my childhood. I had a great awakening within my soul at the age of fourteen when a brother of a friend shared the story of Jesus Christ with me. I went home after that conversation and went to my room. I closed the door and got on my knees and prayed to God to forgive me of my sins and come into my heart. I caught fire for the Lord after that short time in my bedroom. After that experience, I started to read the Holy Bible every chance I got and I was fascinated by what I was reading. As time went on I felt the desire to be a preacher. Now, this led to my Dad getting me opportunities to be a guest preacher at different churches around the city. Then people started telling me I would be the next Billy Graham. This started me to think maybe that is what God wanted me to do on planet earth?!?    Now it is obvious that I was not the next Billy Graham. But bec

  Some in our culture nowadays would think this blog will be about politics since the word evangelical has been hijacked to mean a far right-wing Republican using the Bible as a weapon. How sad is that definition and so closed-minded?  But no I am going to look at this from its original meaning. Just know that not all evangelicals are political nuts nor are we showy TV preachers faking holiness to get easy money.  I took a test some years ago that was quite lengthy and at the end, it evaluated that I was evangelical in my beliefs. An evangelical believes in four major foundations to qualify them into this category. I will not go into deep detail but give a cliff note summary so let us begin. The first belief is that a person must be born-again meaning repent of one's sins and acknowledge that Jesus Christ died on the cross and rose from the dead three days later. This is also called being converted and one changes the way one lives. You live for Jesus and not for the world or one&#