Waking the Dead Part 3

                Here is a continuation of my journey through “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge.  I hope you find this as enlightening and I do.

                Proverbs 4:23 “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  The tin man from the Wizard of Oz understood just how important the heart is.  His body had been turned into complete tin and he lost his heart in the process.  He had been standing around a whole year before Dorothy came by and gave him some oil.  He said, “It was a terrible thing to undergo, but during the year I stood there I had time to think that the greatest loss I had known was the loss of my heart.  While I was in love I was the happiest man on earth; but no one can love who has not a heart, and so I am resolved to ask Oz to give me one.”  The Enemy knows how vital your heart is and he is bent on its destruction.  If he can disable or deaden your heart then he has foiled God’s plan of creating a world where love reigns.  For far too long we have seized upon efficiency, busyness, and productivity as the life we live.  We are sleepwalking and in order to find the right way we must return to the heart.

                The heart is central to EVERYTHING.  The fact that we need to be reminded of this shows just how successful the Enemy has been at making us forget the life God has in store for us.  I challenge you to find another topic that’s mentioned more in the Bible than the heart.  Jesus said the greatest commandment was to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength.”  Matthew 22:37 “Man looks at the outward appearance, but the Lord looks at the heart.”  1 Samuel 16:7 “Where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.”  Luke 12:34  “These people honor me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me.”  Matthew 15:8 We all know the heart can feel so many different emotions, both good and bad.  It can be merry, cowardly, valiant, proud, whole, divided, upright, perverse, and so much more.

 In Proverbs 4:23 we are urged to “Above all else, guard your heart, for it is the wellspring of life.”  It is the very center of our existence, that which separates us from other species.  Why are so many people dissatisfied with their jobs or their life?  Why do so many marriages fail today?  Why are so many people struggling with depression, discouragement, and addiction?   It’s because they’ve lost their heart.  God places the heart as the central of the Bible and He placed it in the center of our bodies for a reason.  In order to live a life fully alive we must make our heart central again.

Now I am going to make a distinction between your mind and your heart.  Your heart knows and wrestles with realities: God has heard your prayer, your best friend is getting married tomorrow, you are now and always have been loved.  Your mind processes information and abstractions:  water boils at 212 degrees Fahrenheit, 2+2=4.  The mind takes in and processes information, but for the most part it remains indifferent in our lives.  Your mind may tell you it’s 2 a.m. and your roommate hasn’t come back to the room.  Your heart wonders if this is cause for worry or not.  “The heart lives in far more bloody and magnificent realities of living and dying and loving and hating.”  Sometimes extremely intelligent people live detached from life because they live with their mind.  People confuse them because they can’t comprehend the emotions others are experiencing. 

Some people would equate their heart with emotion and let it make a wreck of their lives without stopping to consider whether it was a good idea to do so.  Equating heart with emotion is the same nonsense as saying that love is just a feeling.  While to some extent it is, it is also so much more.  Could you imagine the emotions Jesus experienced before He went to the cross?  He was man so he was definitely afraid, probably even more so knowing that the fate of the world was laid on His shoulders.  “But in the hour of his greatest trial, his love overcame his fear of what loving would cost Him.”  Emotions are the voice of the heart, a voice.  A mind may stay detached, but we experience life and its fullness through our hearts which can express itself in many ways.

For every decision we’ve ever made we will give our stated reason for doing it and then we’ll have our real reason which is our motive.  You may flatter your teacher or boss because they’re about to grade your test or give you a review.  You remembered your anniversary because you love your spouse or because you were afraid of the consequences of not remembering.  What’s unnerving about the Day of Judgment is this: “He will bring to light what is hidden in darkness and will expose the motives of men’s hearts.”  1 Corinthians 4:5b 

This was the point of the Sermon on the Mount.  In Matthew 5:20 He said, “For I tell you that unless your righteousness surpasses that of the Pharisees and the teachers of the law, you will not enter the Kingdom of God.”  How could we possibly live up to the “model citizen” that the Pharisees were?  On the outside they were “model citizens”, but on the inside they were the biggest hypocrites.  Everything they did was to impress others by their righteousness yet their hearts were far from God.  “A person’s character is determined by his motives, and motive is always a matter of the heart.”  God doesn’t judge us based on our looks, intelligence, or our money; He judges us by our hearts. 

Repeatedly throughout the Gospel Jesus refers to the heart as the place where we do our deepest thinking.  The Great Modern Mistake is that “the mind equals reason and the heart equals emotion.”  This is complete crap.  Solomon is remembered as the wisest man to ever live and when God gave him the choice of anything he wanted, he asked for a wise and discerning heart.  Our deepest thoughts are held in our hearts.  Hebrews 4:12 says, “For the word of God…it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.”  It did not say the feelings of the heart; it said the thoughts and attitudes.  If you have a fear of heights, no amount of reasoning will convince you to go bungee jumping.  It isn’t a rational fear, but rather something you can’t really explain.  “It is the thoughts and intents of the heart that shape a person’s life.”  “For if you confess with your mouth, ‘Jesus is Lord,’ and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved.  For it is with your heart that you believe and are justified…” Romans 10:10-9  Saving comes from the heart and is the dwelling place of our true beliefs.

Our heart also stirs many things inside of us such as memories, creativity, and most importantly courage.  It takes courage to love, to trust someone with your life, to believe in what you can’t see, and to follow Christ.  “He shall say: ‘Hear, O Israel, today you are going into battle against your enemies.  Do not be fainthearted or afraid; do not be terrified or give way to panic before them.’”  Deuteronomy 20:3  “Success or failure can be pretty well predicted by the degree to which the heart is fully in it.”  The battle for our hearts is going to take everything we have.

Many people have wondered what the purpose of living is and how they can be truly happy.  Jesus flat out told us this in Scripture: love God and love your neighbor.  It’s amazing that this is such a simple thing yet we keep searching for other stuff to fill our lives.  Let me ask you a question “Is it possible to love without your heart?”  I really don’t believe it is and it is essential to fight for your heart.  Especially in the past century, humans have become extremely efficient. How much have we grown in love though?  Honestly, we’ve probably grown away from love and that’s why people are so unsatisfied.  To listen to God, you must listen with your heart.  To love God, you must love Him with all your heart.  You won’t live the life God has in store for you if you don’t live from the heart.

I keep on talking about your heart, but perhaps you are still a bit confused on what exactly your heart is.  Every time you hear the word heart in the Bible, you should think of it as saying “me.”  My heart is me.  The real me.  Your heart is you.  The deepest, truest you.  Christ didn’t come into this world to die for an idea, He came to die for a person, you.  Ask people why they think Christ came into the world and you could find a ton of answers.  “He came to bring world peace.”  “He came to teach us how to love.”  “He came to die so that we might go to heaven.”  While these answers have a partial truth, they still miss the point.  Jesus quoted from Isaiah this “The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor.  He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed.”  Luke 4:18

I’ll put that into plain English for you.  “God has sent me on a mission.  I have some great news for you.  God has sent me to restore and release something.  And that something is you.  I am here to give you back your heart and set you free.”  This is why the glory of God is man fully alive.  The fact that we’ve overlooked this truth for so long is just plain evil.  The war we are in would explain such a great loss.  This is the last thing the Enemy wants you to know.  “Make them so busy, they ignore the heart.  Would them so deeply, they don’t want a heart.  Twist their ideology, so they despise the heart.  Take away their courage.  Make intimacy with God impossible for them.”  This is the Enemy’s strategy and we need to be aware of it if we’re going to fight it.  Without your heart you can’t have God, love, faith, purpose, or life.

If you have any questions, prayers requests, or just want to talk, that’s what I’m here for.  My hope and prayer is that you will live from the heart and fully alive.

In love,

Bill

A Much Needed Break

I'm still working on Waking the Dead Part 3, but I figured I would blog a bit and write about what's been going on recently in my life.  God just keeps speaking to me in volumes and I figured I would share because I like to talk about what God's doing.  I don't want to keep this inside of me.

I've been busy and feeling a bit overwhelmed recently.  Between classes, Thrive, and cheering on the Razorbacks I haven't had much downtime to just relax.  I finally got a chance these past couple days because of Fall Break and I've been praying about some stuff.  I remember Jordan explaining this analogy for how he felt sometimes and it really stuck with me because I feel the same way.  I feel like this little boat that's being tossed out in a storm with a huge tidal wave about to smash me to bits.  God has just been telling me that I need to rely on Him more.  After coming to this conclusion, it helped explain a lot more.

I've been starting to really think about my career and the long-run of things which is another reason why I had been stressed out.  I usually freak out about things whenever I plan for more than a day or two haha.  Some of my friends are starting to look into internships and it's really hard for me not to want to do something career-related this summer.  It would look really good if I started doing internships after my sophomore year and I would get the experience I need.  God is telling me that I need to work at Fuge this summer though.  I don't know why but I know that's where He wants me.  I just have to trust Him for these decisions.

I got to go to the 7 Tour with some buddies of mine in Tulsa and I experienced some intense worship there.  It was an awesome concert, but I could definitely feel God's presence there and it was just so easy to hear Him speak.  It was comforting to hear Him say that He's in control, no matter what doubts I may have.  I don't have to doubt any longer, I just have to trust.  I also watched Furious Love and it was an incredible movie.  You may have never considered spiritual warfare, but it is real and intense.  There is a war being waged for our hearts and the power of God's love can stand against all.  It can heal, it can change others, and it is POWERFUL.  I guess I never realized how much I underestimated God's love until I watched this movie.

That's what has been going through my mind recently anyways.  Please let me know if there's any way I can pray for you and I hope that you realize God's in control.  Trust in Him and He will take care of you.

In Love,

Bill

Waking the Dead Part 2

This is a continuation on my journey reading through “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge.  I really recommend that you read this book as well or at least read this because I’ve been silent for far too long.  I hope this challenges and comforts you the way it does for me.

                A really encouraging passage of Scripture is 2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “Therefore we do not lose heart.  Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day.  For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all.  So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.  For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”  Try reading that first line again.  “Therefore we do not lose heart.”  Coming from Paul, that is just absolutely incredible.  Here was a man who had been beaten to an inch of death multiple times, shipwrecked at sea, mocked, abused, and all sorts of terrible things had happened to him but he said don’t lose heart?  I don’t know about you, but I tend to lose heart too often sometimes.  We’re just living in a time that it so full of selfishness, indulgence, and suffering that it seems overwhelming at times.  Losing heart is the single most unifying quality shared by the human race.

                How can we not lose heart like Paul encourages us to in this passage though?  2 Corinthians 4:18 “So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen.”  Great.  That’s sooooooo helpful.  That’s like some metaphor that sounds really cool and mystical but how in the world is that actually applicable to my life?  What does that really mean?  The only way we can focus on the unseen is by seeing with the eyes of our heart.  Ephesians 1:18 “I pray…that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened.” 

                So the Son of the Living God comes to earth and his primary job is to communicate the truth so His precious children can be saved and He chooses to speak to us in parables.  When I first thought of it that way, I was like “Really?  We’re supposed to find the meanings to these random stories?  Why didn’t He just tell it plain and simple?”  I have grown up in the age of the Internet and I just want knowledge of the facts.  It is a fact that I’m typing this right now with Tyler asleep on his bed about five feet away, only slightly snoring, and it is a fact the Civil War was fought between the years of 1861-1865.  The history that we read will never truly describe the horrors of the fighting that occurred at Bull Run or Antietam though.  Why don’t we understand this in relation to God?  God loves you; you matter to Him.  That is a fact.  Why aren’t Christians the happiest people on Earth then?  The fact that He loves us is in our mind, but facts don’t speak on the level that we need to hear.  The facts speak to the mind, but a story speaks to the heart.  For thousands of years humans have told stories as a way of communicating universal truths which is exactly why Jesus speaks in parables. 

                Chesterton said, “I am concerned with a certain way of looking at life, which was created in me by the fairy tales, but has since been ratified by the mere facts.”  Instead of fairy tales, a better way to describe parables would be to call them myths.  And this is where someone might tune me out so just listen for a second.  Most people think of a myth as not being factually true.  A myth is a story, like a parable, that speaks of Eternal Truths.  I am in no way referring to Greek mythology but meaning a myth to be “any story that awakens your heart to the deep truths of life.”  Myths transcend time because they just speak the truth.  Jesus told a story about a sower who went out to sow some seed.  He and his seed are far more significant than a farmer and a bag of corn.  In this case, they are symbols for the Son of God and the Word.  This story is a myth because it transcends times and is relevant centuries after it was written.

 I am a huge Lord of the Rings fan but a fan doesn’t question the factual sense of the trilogy because that would be ridiculous to think it was true.  The appeal in a myth like this lies in something deeper, in the realm of the heart.  A Wheaton College professor of literature said “Myth is the name of a way of seeing, a way of knowing.  They are the kind of story that wakes you up, and suddenly you say, ‘Yes, yes, this is what my life has really been about!  Here is where my meaning and my destiny lie!”  And we both need to start waking up because Christians have been asleep for far too long.

One common theme in myths is that things are not always what they seem.  There is a whole lot more going on than what meets the eye.  When Dorothy enters the land of Oz color is introduced for the first time in the movie and everything here is different, so much more than she was aware of at first.  In Genesis 28, Jacob has a dream about a ladder reaching to heaven and he awakes from his dream more alive than he’s ever been in his life.  He begins to realize things are more than he could have ever imagined.  Genesis 28:16 “Surely the Lord is in this place, and I was not aware of it.” 

In Luke 24, two Christians are walking along the road back to their place after being so dejected the one they put all of their trust in had been crucified.  Jesus meets up with them and begins to speak with them and he asks them why they are so depressed.  Luke 24:21 “The chief priests and our rulers handed him over to be sentenced to death, and they crucified him; but we had hoped that he was the one who was going to redeem Israel.”  They “had hoped.”  I’ve hoped for many things in life and I know you have too.  What is probably the coolest thing ever is that we can be hopeful because we know how this whole thing turns out.  Later on in the story, Jesus chides the Christians for being “slow of heart to believe” as he reminds us of all the prophets had written.  Then He broke bread and disappeared.  Why would this story be included in the Bible?  Maybe it was to remind us that things are not as they seem?  Maybe our interpretation of events might be more than just a little off?  If we start there, and with a little humility, we might just have the eyes to see the rest of the story in our lives.  There is more going on here than we first imagined. 

This is exactly what the Bible has been telling us all these years too, we live in two worlds.  A world that we can see and one we cannot.  This is why the Bible urges us to treat the unseen world even more important than the world that we live in right now.  This is an important truth that we must realize, THINGS ARE NOT WHAT THEY SEEM.  THERE IS MORE GOING ON THAN MEETS THE EYE.

Another important truth is that the world we live in now is under siege and in a desperate time.  I love The Message’s version of Ephesians 5:14-16 “Wake up from your sleep, Climb out of your coffins; Christ will show you the light!  So watch your step.  Use your Head.  Make the most of every chance you get.  These are desperate times!”  “Christianity isn’t a religion about going to Sunday school, potluck suppers, being nice, holding car washes, sending our secondhand clothes off to Mexico-as good as those things might be.  This is a world at war.”  We are surrounded by it and there is no doubt in my mind that every single person has a key role to play in it. 

Enter Daniel, a young man originally taken hostage when Jerusalem was ransacked in 605 B.C.  He becomes a counselor among the royal cabinet because he seeks out God’s guidance and God reveals to him many things.  I was astonished when I heard about this particular story the first time so I had to look it up, Daniel 10.  I really do recommend reading it to see what’s going on.  I’ll sum it up for you though.  Daniel is given a revelation of a great war that troubles him so much that he fasts and prays for 3 weeks with no food or wine until an angel of the Lord finally comes.  After 21 days, an angel finally appears.  Daniel 10:12-13 “….Since the first day that you set your mind to gain understanding and to humble yourself before your God, your words were heard, and I have come in response to them.  But the prince of the Persian kingdom resisted me 21 days.  Then Michael, one of the chief princes, came to help me, because I was detained there with the king of Persia.”

So Daniel fasted and prayed for 3 weeks with no result from God so he was most likely thinking what we think all the time.  We’re either blowing it or God is holding out on me.  If he lived in the 21^st century, he might try confessing every sin in hopes of opening up communication with God.  He might withdraw into a sort of disappointed resignation, drop the fast, and turn on the TV.  He might accept this as part of “God’s will for his life” or read a book on “the silence of God.”  He would also be totally WRONG.  What was really going on was a war.  After 21 days, an angel finally appears and tells Daniel that he’s been busy fighting a terrible enemy, someone so powerful he had to go ask Michael for help.  Something that is so imperative to living a life fully alive is understanding that we are at war people.   Now is the most desperate hour and the devil will try everything he can to make us ignore the fact that spiritual powers are real and things are not as they seem.

 

The last thing I want to mention to you in this post is that during this time, we each have a crucial role to play.  Maybe you’re thinking you aren’t special.  Your life is full of mostly mundane things that are just hassles.  What could God possibly use me to do?  In The Lord of the Rings, out of all the people who could have carried the ring into Mordor to destroy it Frodo, a hobbit of all races, was the one who did it.  Joan of Arc, an illiterate farm girl, was given a vision from God and she ended up leading the French armies to war.  This theme is played throughout Scripture too.  A little boy slays a giant, a loudmouthed fisherman who can’t hold a job will lead the church, a whore with a golden heart performed a deed that Jesus has asked us to tell “wherever the gospel is preached throughout the world.”  Mark 14:9  Things are not as they seem and we are not as we seem.

Out of everything I have told you so far, this is probably the hardest one for you to believe.  Why?  Because we doubt so much that we are extraordinary and we feel like we disappoint God so much.  Well let me be the one to tell you, “You are not what you think you are.”  There is a glory in your life that the Enemy fears and is hell-bent on destroying that glory before you act on it.  Once you accept this from the bottom of your heart, everything will change.  “The story of your life is the story of the long and brutal assault on your heart by the one who knows what you could be and fears it.”

In a theatrical trailer for The Lord of the Rings movie, these lines flash across the screen:

                Fate has chosen him.

                A Fellowship will protect him.

                Evil will hunt him.

                This is exactly the life Christianity is trying to explain to the world.  If we could believe that about our lives, and come to know that it is true, everything would change.  We would be able to see what’s really going on around us, discover the task that God has called us to do, and we would find our courage.  We are needed.  Where is our heart?  We’ll ask ourselves that in my next post as I answer this important question.  If there are any questions you have or comments you would like to make, please do so.  I would love to hear feedback!

In love,

Bill

Waking the Dead Part 1

So a good friend of mine gave me this book entitled “Waking the Dead” by John Eldredge and I have never read a book before that has impacted me like this.  So I decided I would re-read the book and just write down my thoughts as I read it in order to share the awesome truth about Christianity with anyone who will read this.  If I write even one thing that makes you think, then it was worth keeping up with this. I feel like in our society that people think it’s OK to be a Christian, but nobody talks about it whether to not offend anybody or just because people believe it’s a personal thing.  It is deeply personal, but I can’t be silent about how God is working in me.  God is/has been waking me up and I hope He slaps you in the face so you can be what He has meant for you all along.

Why is life so freakin hard sometimes?  I wake up some days wondering what God has in store for me today and just feeling utterly lost.  Have you ever woken up like that?  Like you have no idea who you really are, why you’re here, what’s happened to you, and why?  Things happen in life that you can’t explain and you wonder what the heck God is up to.  You wonder if you’re blowing it and this is God’s way of punishing you or if God is just holding out on you.  When the Twin Towers fell, it was hard to imagine a good God that would allow something to happen.  How are we supposed to know what’s really going on?  Simple, ask Him.  Jesus is talking in Luke 4:18 when He says, “He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind.”  That’s exactly why Jesus came!  He came to lift the veil over our eyes and hearts and to give us sight to see when we’re blind.

                “The glory of God is man fully alive.”  (Saint Irenaeus)  I want you to read that.  Read it again.  Logically, we could believe this because the Bible is full of promises of fullness and life but then we experience the realities of everyday life we just get worn out.  Can this statement actually be true?  John 10:10b “I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  This seems a bit more than just being forgiven.  God doesn’t just forgive us and cleanse of us our sins, He gives us LIFE.  I was really surprised to find that this point is emphasized everywhere in the Bible.  Psalm 16:11a “You have made known to me the path of life.”  John 1:4 “In him was life, and that life was the light of men.”  Acts 5:20b “…and tell the people the full message of this new life.”

                Right now you may be thinking, “OK Bill.  I already understood that God can/has given me eternal life.  What good does that do me now?”  While God has promised you eternal security in heaven, He has also promised you so much here on Earth. Psalm 27:13 “I am confident of this: I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living.”  Luke 18:29-30 “’I tell you the truth,’ Jesus said to them, ‘no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.”  Whenever we think of eternal life, we think of life after we die.  The word eternal means “unending”, not “later” though.  Life begins now.  The glory of God is man fully alive?  Now?  My coming fully alive is what God is committed to?   This is freakin sweet!  If we hold on to this truth then things would start looking a lot better.  So if this is what God is offering, where is it and why is it so rare?

                Here is the full verse of John 10:10 “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full.”  There’s a reason Jesus spoke these two things at the same time.  God is offering life, but the Enemy is set against us so we’re going to have to fight for it.  WE ARE AT WAR.  This was something that totally blew my mind when I first heard it because how often do we picture a battle going on?  It isn’t a pleasant thought, but it’s true.  “The world in which we live is a combat zone, a violent clash of kingdoms, a bitter struggle unto the death.  I’m sorry if I’m the one to break this news to you: you were born into a world at war, and you will live all your days in the midst of a great battle, involving all the forces of heaven and hell and played out here on Earth.” 

                So before sin came into this world we all know that everything was perfect.  We hear a lot about the original sin but how often do we hear about original glory?  Genesis 1:27 “So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him: male and female he created them.”  Psalm 8:5 “For you made them only a little lower than God, and you crowned them with glory and honor.”  You may doubt that you were made for this glory because this glory has been the object of a long and brutal war.  Satan was once full of glory too.  Then he was cast out of heaven.  He couldn’t conquer the Mighty One so he’s set his sights on us, who were made in the image of God. 

                Think about all of the war in the Old Testament.  In Exodus when God sent Moses to set his people free, war was as plain as day.  Blood.  Hail.  Locusts.  Frogs.  Darkness.  Death.  After Pharaoh conceded he ended up chasing after the Israelites and then God decimated them in the Red Sea.  Then it’s war after war to get into the Promised Land.  Deborah, Gideon, Elijah, David, and Jehoshaphat all fought in wars.  This just didn’t end with the Old Testament either.  Jesus said in Matthew 10:34 “Do not suppose that I have come to bring peace to the earth.  I did not come to bring peach, but a sword.”  When Christ came to Earth, it was an invasion and the Enemy knew it.  That’s why Herod tried so hard to kill Him.  When Christ comes again, He will come to end the war and throwing Satan into the fiery lake.  The entire focus of the Bible is about war, about setting our hearts free so that man can become fully alive. 

                Until you come to terms with the fact that we are at war, you will not understand life.  It’s hard for us to believe that God wants life for us, now, and that we aren’t somehow blowing it when we see 4 year old girls’ molested by their fathers or your own family going through a divorce unless you can accept that there is something set against us.  Maybe you’re at a point in your life right now where you feel that God is rather silent.  I know this sucks because at times I feel so overwhelmed by everything, but the day will come when Christ will set everything right and destroy the enemy.  Until then though, this is going to be a bloody war.  When Jesus said that the thief came to steal, kill, and destroy why don’t we think that the thief literally wants to steal, kill, and destroy?   This war that’s being waged is for your heart and to fight it we’re going to have to see with the eyes of our heart. 

                If this sounds completely metaphorical right now then you will just have to keep on reading these, I guess I’ll call em journals, as I post em.  I would love to hear input from other people whether you think I’m crazy or if you have questions.  I’ve been challenged this year to not keep this news hidden and maybe this will help you in some way.  My prayer is that God opens your eyes like He’s continually opening mine.

In Love,

Bill