I always encourage people to read their Bible, pray, and try to live a sinless and holy life.  STAY CONNECTED to God I say.  But in thinking about it, I think I am confusing the issue.  It is arrogant to think that my denomination, my rites & rituals, prayer, worship, Bible study, and a holy life are this magical bridge to God.  Is this backwards & legalistic like most major religions will tell us? YES!  Of course we should pray, read our Bibles, and work through our walk of

Sometimes I feel like I’m going a little crazy.  Granted, I have severe PTSD and my nightmares are horrific.  I pray about this all of the time as it all is so utterly exhausting.  Certain combat scenarios are especially disturbing and make me not want to go back to sleep after I wake up in a cold sweat, heart rate goes high, and my arms and legs flail.  I self-assess in perpetuity.  There are days on end that I can’t even leave the property.  There are days when I have to re

You know what?  I have failed more times I can count.  I’ve been kicked, beaten down, humiliated, spoken down to, cheated on, bruised, and bloodied.  So what?!  I was blessed with parents taught me about faith instead of government subsidies.  Granted, I rely plenty on my wife, mainly because I trust in her faith in God, but God ALWAYS comes first.  The key is every time I have been knocked down, I got up. In Russian, “stoyashchiy mooshzeek” or “chelovek” or “the standing man

God will hold men responsible FIRST!  God did not create Adam and Eve at the same time.  God gave Adam his responsibility, imparted His word on Adam—and this leads me to seriously believe that God holds men responsible FIRST.  When men abandon their responsibility of Christian leadership, knowing full well that the role and purpose of women is critical and essential, read Genesis 2:8 and that phrase of EZER COGNEGDO with “Ezer” meaning “strong ally” and “Cognegdo” meaning “c

Just think about it...where does you money go each Sunday? I did a little research on numbers for Quincy, Illinois—& this is the mien with my education and experience: Pastor/Rabbi (4 Masters, 1 MBA, & 2 Doctorates):    $120,000.00 Church Property Manager:                                        $52,000.00 Church Secretary:                                                     $49,000.00 Nursing Home Pastor:                                                                $80,000.

An appeal to emotion is a rhetorical or persuasive strategy where the media personality, politicians, writers, or clergy seek to elicit an emotional response from the audience to convince them of a particular viewpoint or action.  We see this on the 24/7 news cycle, politicians on the campaign trail, newspapers, and clergy begging for money or an altar call.  This “appeal to emotion” focuses in invoking fear, pity, love, anger, or really any emotion to persuade the audience,

1. A cross on a website doesn’t mean legitimacy.  I learned—expensively—that impressive seals, Latin mottos, and “Grand” titles are easy to design and hard to verify. Provenance matters. Paper trails matter. Silence when you ask hard questions matters even more. 2. Titles are currency, i.e. reverend, pastor, father, congressman, mayor—and some people print their own money.  If promotions come fast, unearned, or conveniently timed after donations… that’s not Christian. That’s

First of all, I have been trying to study what the Bible says, if anything, about immigration. I want to try to follow what God says about any subject versus a political party, pundit, or individual looking for followers. And certainly, there’s always the chance that whatever is said gets viewed through someone’s personal filters and taken in unintended ways. What’s said below seems Biblically accurate as far as what I’ve been able to discern. If you have insight otherwise, p

The entire US Constitution shows way more than just the first 10 Amendments (Bill of Rights). It even shows more than the entire 27 Amendments. The entire US Constitution consists of:- A Preamble stating the purpose: to form a more perfect Union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for common defense, promote general welfare, and secure liberty's blessings.- Seven original Articles outlining government structure and powers.- 27 Amendments added over time (

This is a Godless religion of self-hatred and loathing and definitely NOT freedom under Christ.  This religion teaches that the patriarchy is to blame for everything.  It has allowed emotional feminism into the church.  This religion teaches to hate yourself and be immersed in guilt because you are white, and teaches all minorities that they aren’t good enough to be self-sufficient—so bow at the altar of equity provided by the new god called government.  Churches have altered

The woke ideology always sounds so grand and noble—compassion, justice, equality, & progress.  Yet, this begs the question “progress to what?”  No one in this group seems to desire to do the thoughtful work of the process and simply wants to receive the fruits of other people’s labor.  I find that progressive ideas are like virtues as the woke just keep playing with them and they get more difficult to identify.  This turns into dialectics—a fusion of the thesis with the anti-

As for total transparency, you ALL know I am a huge fan and believer of the Bible as well as a study of our Constitution that I know and love.  I am what I would consider a “constructionalist” it that I believe the founding fathers of our great republic wrote what the meant with little room for interpretation—a law-based society to protect the rights of all.  I also love the philosophy of so many authors but can easily point to the Scripture to back that thought.  As a Consti

PSALM 119:104  “ Through your precepts I get understanding; therefore I hate every false way” -             IF YOU LOSE THE AUTHORITY OF THE SCRIPTURE, YOU LOSE CHRIST.  THIS IS BECAUSE YOU END UP WITH A CHRIST THAT YOU FALSELY INVENTED.    There are those who stand in a pit of flame and refuse the offered hand to lift them out. Instead they curse the hand and throw more fuel on their own fire, all the while blaming everything outside the pit for their own torment. I present

1.   Greed : Greed is so destructive as it leads to resentment and is generally tied to all sins of the flesh. God wants to compel all of us to a deeper understanding of Him to best recognize His glory, after all, that’s why He made us.  Greed is one of those things that transcend the metaphysical across the entirety of society, religion, and essentially natural law. Wanting the solid things in this life through enduring faith in God is SO much greater than fleeting emotional

HAVE YOU EVER TRIED TO HAVE A FACTUAL AND INTELLIGENT CONVERSATION WITH SOMEONE AND YOU REALIZE WITHIN FIVE MINUTES, YOU WANT TO “LAY HANDS” ON THEM…AND ITS NOT IN PRAYER…WELL, I HAVE FOUND IT IMPORTANT TO AVOID SUCH PEOPLE AS GOD REALLY WANTS ME TO HAVE A DEGREE OF COMPASSION…BUT, AGAIN, THESE ARE THE FIVE TYPES OF PEOPLE GOD IN HIS INFINITE WISDOM WANTS ME TO AVOID…AND SOMETIMES ITS NOT EASY ESPECIALLY WHEN THEY ARE FAMILY…FORGIVING AND FORGETTING AREN’T EASY… #1—People who

AUTHORITY OF SCRIPTURE Parkview teaches—Scripture John 17:17 “Your Word is Truth” Denominations teach—the “church” only defines authentic interpretation. This places dogma over Scripture that Scripture NEVER authorizes.   SALVATION Parkview teaches Ephesian 2:8-9 “For by grace you have been saved through faith…not be works. Denominations teach—faith, plus sacraments, plus an ongoing merit system. Again, this is counter to the Scripture in John 19:30 that salvation is complete

Interesting history. In 1963 Congressman Herbert Sydney Herlong, Jr., a DEMOCRAT from Florida entered his concerns of 45 goals of Marxist influence over American education stemming from the Communist Manifesto. Some key points: #17 get control over the schools, use them as catalyst for socialist thought & behavior, soften the curriculum & get control over the teachers’ unions; #26 breakdown standards of morality by promoting pornography & obscenity in schools, present homosex

“The Spirit of the Lord GOD is upon me; because the LORD hath anointed me to preach good tidings unto the meek; he hath sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are bound; To proclaim the acceptable year of the LORD, and the day of vengeance of our God; to comfort all that mourn; To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the garment of p

“But let all those that put their trust in thee rejoice: let them ever shout for joy, because thou defendest them: let them also that love thy name be joyful in thee.” (Psalm 5:11) Hello, my friend… David was a man after God’s own heart. As a young boy, he grew up tending his father’s sheep. When he became a teenager, he was anointed as the king-in-waiting, to succeed Saul. In the following years, David was pulled into the king’s tutelage and served as a musician in

“And they said one to another, Did not our heart burn within us, while he talked with us by the way, and while he opened to us the scriptures?” (Lue 24:32) Hello, my friend… Today we consider a verse hidden away that is little addressed. In fact, I don’t know that I have ever heard someone preach from this particular individual verse before, so here we go. As we come into this whole preceding passage, we find Jesus crucified and buried in the Garden tomb. The disc