Tuesday, January 21, 2014 Dear friends and brethren that I’ve met in life, - Brothers and sisters in the flesh - Wonderful people Ive met and have known for years on Facebook - Brothers and Sisters in Christ I wish to tell each of you, and those who do not read this, that in this life I can truly look back and be able to call all who my heart remembers as a friend. I now have friends that at one time were my enemies in their own mind. I had no control over that. But regardless, I saw qualities about them that allowed me to see the good side of them as well, blaring through those inequalities we each had. As I write this, each will come into my minds’ eye, for I will be remembering various encounters with each you. I can go back to many memories in life to the time I was four. That be of no big significance, for each of you can do the same. I have pondered the ways of my life walking its’ pathway. Through those walks, I can see how far from the Truth at times I have walked. I kept looking back, seeing, but not truly understanding that Promise which my heart truly sought. Every man born under the sun, for from Adam until now, each of us were born a spirit that is seeking understanding. But what understanding are we seeking? When I was a child, I discovered that I was going to go to school someday. Did not know anything about school, whatsoever, so I remained a child with essentially no permanent fears. Many schools later, I accomplished only 10 years in the educational system, quitting in the 11th grade. I went back to GED school and graduated. Further education came from self-study and evaluation and those which I took in the Air Force, a consultant firm, and then the place I loved, the Penobscot County Sheriffs Office. For it was here that I had a chance to really see those whom life, for some reason, made them servants of sin to the point of no control. It brought back memories when U.L. Allen and I would go to the Crestview County Jail. I saw one mans countenance change after he was baptized into Christ. Right before he was released, another inmate stabbed him on the shoulder with a pencil. He looked at that inmate and said, I forgive you. Before this change, he was one with whom no one would mess with. He could literally crack walnuts with his eyelids. I know I look at the wiles of the devil in the many ways of he affects mankind. All I see is an attempt to duplicate the beauty that the Lord created in the beginning, but all results in death and carnage. It has been a 34 year journey into the wilderness since leaving the Niceville Church of Christ. But the Lord had planted His body everywhere I travelled. It was left up to me to decide if I would join with that body or not. A small body met in Bitburg Germany, and many wonderful brethren attended, though while in New Hampshire, I did not. Bangor, Maine had a small body, and through time, we grew to love one another in the Lord, though at the time I would look in the mirror while at assembly, and then forget what I looked like while back in the world. Through this all, life has been very beautiful, though rugged at times, for now I can see more clearly discern that Home promised to all who, Hear, Believe in the power of the blood, repent for my sins, be baptized in water not to put away the filth of the flesh, but the filth of my sins against Him, and remain faithful to Him as He will be to me. This is what life has taught me: To fear God and that second death for we have no choice over the first. We do have a choice over the second. It is an open invitation from the Lord speaking to come to His Way, and not the ways of the world or the vain teachings of man.
Posted on: Tue, 21 Jan 2014 17:36:31 +0000