A Life Story Greg Reinert

A Life Story Greg Reinert

by | Apr 28, 2023 | Dealing with Death, Life Stories, Tribute

A Life Story Greg Reinert 

I just got off the phone with my cousin and I am a bit dazed, to be honest.

Greg is dying and in hospice in Minnesota.

I talked with his mom, my Aunt Joan the day before, and she said Greg would like to hear from me so I called him right away that night.

I had not talked with Greg in a long time so I was a bit hesitant at first.

What do you talk about with someone that has only a short time to live?

Since I am a decent writer and write articles for a Christian Apologetic website and do interviews for a podcasting organization, I decided I would do a written interview with him, if he felt up to it, on his life story.

I set up a time with him for me to call him the next day when he had more energy.

He became very animated and thought it would be a great idea.

Who doesn’t like to talk about themselves, their history, and their family?

This journey would be interesting to unpack for him and me both because our lives intersected so many times in our younger years.

I am a Born Again Christian now but I was a very nasty atheist until I was 30 years old.

I understand what it is like to have a burning hatred toward God and want nothing to do with Him.

I did not believe in an Intelligent Designer behind the creation of the universe but at 30 years old I could not argue with science.

The Big Bang says the universe was created 13.8 billion years old, so if that is true, who pulled the trigger?

Who set time and space into motion at one point in time in the cosmos?

The universe could not just pop into being from nothing.

I started our interview by asking Greg when he was born?

July 22, 1958, was his answer, Evanston Hospital was the location, in the town of Evanston, Illinois. 

I asked him, what was your earliest recollection as a child?

He said he remembers riding his bike and falling off and hurting himself on a Cul-de-sac where they lived on Huron Ct. in Arlington Heights in Illinois.

He also remembers putting on ice skates after an ice storm and skating up and down his street.

Grandma Detzner holding Greg as a baby.

Greg 3 years old

Greg at grandma Detzner’ house – 1 1/2 years old

Grandma and Grandpa Reinert, Uncle Jack (Tony’s brother) and Mom and Greg 4 1/2.

Mom and Greg. Greg’s about 4.

Greg, Grandma Reinert holding Nancy. My and mom. Grandpa Reinert. 1970?

Mom, Nancy, Greg, Linda and dad. 1970?

Greg 2nd grade

Greg 4 and Mom 

Greg, 4th grade 

His father, Tony, was a dentist and he remembers going to his dad’s office and his dad showing him what he did for people when it came to having their teeth fixed.

Tony did all own lab work as well as working on dentures.

Greg said he was fascinated by that and thought that at the time he would like to do that work also and maybe he and his dad could work together someday.

He remembers his dad taking him to lunch from time to time.

When Greg told me this story, I remember going to see my uncle, Tony, when I needed work done on my teeth as a teenager and young adult.

In my junior and senior year of high school, I worked for a photography studio and the studio needed help photographing a wedding, so I remember asking my uncle Tony, who I knew was interested in photography, if he would like to photograph a wedding.

Tony took Greg with him on a couple of these weddings and Greg told me he remembers doing that very clearly and that he liked it so much he started a photography club in Junior High and High School.

I had no idea!

Greg 13 years old

Mom, Dad, Greg, Linda and Nancy. Greg 14 years old

Greg said he went to school his freshman year at Hershey high school in Arlington Heights and then his last three years at Buffalo Grove.

He said he remembers graduating from High School and how proud he was and how proud his parents were of him.

He said he entered a junior college soon after graduation but did not graduate from that school.

Greg said he was a bit aimless at that point and a friend invited him to meet with an Army recruiter, which he did.

He members thinking, “What do I have to lose”.

He liked the visit and learned much about the military.

The recruiter asked him what he like to do and he told them, working with computers, was a fairly young field at the time.

The Amy recruiter had him take a few tests to find out his strengths and interests.

They said the Army would be a good fit for him and would train him in computers as well as electronics.

He decided to join and went through basic training.

Greg said that basic training was quite an experience all by itself.

He said he was not too surprised at how hard the drill sergeant was on all the recruits because he had watched some movies before he went in.

The Army taught him mainframe, and computer repair and made him responsible for maintaining two generators to power the computers, in a semi-van.

He remembers going back to see his mom when on leave and she would take him to church in his uniform.

She was so proud of him he said.

US Army Bases in Germany

He was stationed at different locations in the world but his favorite was in Germany where he was for 3+ years.

He said he lived on base with other German Nationals.

Greg said he made some close friends.

“I miss many of my German friends to this day” 

He remembers getting a Euro Travel Pack for the train and he would travel all over Germany for next to nothing.

He enjoyed the people and the lifestyle in German very much.

“It was more laid back than the US and more friendly” he said.

When he would sometime travel near the DMZ, the border between Germany and Russia, and the tension was always very high.

When ever there was an alert between Germany and Russia, all the US personnel were required to drop what they were doing and pare up with the German military and be ready for action.

One regret was he never got to meet any Russians.

One day, his Master Sergeant asked him if he would like to take over procuring Christmas trees for the different American bases all over Germany.

To see if he liked it, he went with his Sargent to see what it was all about.

It was so much fun that he took on that responsibility right away.

Greg said Germany goes all out celebrating Christmas.

This job took him all over Germany for a couple of years.

He met many great people in the process.

Boy Scouts in Germany would come in and decorate the trees on the bases.

Greg said he really loved this job.

Greg got the chance to drive a A1 Abrams tank

Greg got the chance to train with all kinds of automatic weapons including Grenade Launchers

Greg said he learned German right way and the language was not foreign to him because he remembers hearing his grandmother and mother speak it all the time while he was growing up.

This was something I remember also as a child and teenager. Whenever our families got together the older generation would speak German with each other.

While in the Army in Germany, the military on both sides would make sure you were proficient on many different weapons so they would pare him with different German Nationals for training and then receive a certificate.

He would learn both American and German weapons such as different automatic guns and grenade launchers.

Some machine guns would only fire off a three-round burst every time you pulled the trigger.

He said that was a hoot learning those weapons.

Greg also told me about the time they taught him how to drive an A1 Abrams tank.

He said “Not many people got a chance to do that”

He also said, the funny thing was that they would teach one side of the tread and someone else would run the other side unless they put it in automatic mode.

“The power and complexity behind that machine was amazing” he said.

He was separated from his daughter, Amanda, at this time in Germany and he tried to talk her into coming to live with him, but she did not want to go live there.

She ended up living in a foster home for a while so Greg asked for a transfer back to the United States so he could be closer to her.

Greg said “I was very sad to leave the many friends I had made and leaving Germany”

The military stationed him at Fort Campbell at the Kentucky-Tennessee border.

He retired from the Army at this location after spending 8 years in the military.

While he was stationed at Fort Campbell, Greg said he and his wife Anne bought a house and lived there for a while together with his daughter Amanda.

Greg said the US Army was very good to him.

Before he left the military, he applied for jobs in the private sector and landed a very good one doing computer repair, replacing motherboards, circuit boards, and keypunching as well as computer diagnostics. 

Greg and Matthew 2007 

Greg and Linda’s oldest son Steve. Last time we saw him in 2011. 

He said his relationship was not good with his daughter, Amanda, for many years but it improved before got sick.

I was able to gather this information on my first two interviews with Greg up to this point.

We had a third one scheduled but Greg went downhill at the hospice care very quickly.

The last conversation I had with him, he was in a lot of pain but he said he still wanted to talk because he still had information to give me.

I did not want to push it because of his frail condition.

I wish I had pushed it for his sake.

I did share my belief in Jesus Christ and what it meant to be born again from Jesus’s perspective and enter the kingdom of God.

I told him of my journey of finding God one spring and summer of 1982 and traveling up the coast of California and Oregon to a small community and church in the Little Applegate outside of Medford, Oregon.

This was a story of how I went from a nasty atheist to a believer in an Intelligent Designer and Jesus.

Greg liked my story and wanted to know more.

God had other plans for the end of this story.

I sure hope my cousin and I can finish it up together at some point.

Maybe, having lunch together on one of the moons of Jupiter.

I would like to invite my grandparents and parents to that meeting.

As I end this writing, I feel honored and blessed that my cousin Greg and I were able to connect and that he was in a place to share his life story, and that he could look back with fondness over his past.

What a journey each and every one of us are on!!

 

A Life Story Greg Reinert

Check out two other articles I wrote What Makes an Atheist and What Made Me Become Pro-Life

Follow Us On Facebook

Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.

What Are the Messianics?


What Are the Messianics?


by | Apr 26, 2023 | Apologetics, Christian Thought, Messianic Jews

What Are the Messianics?

Guest Blog by Lynwood Johnson

The Messianic movement or Messianism is as old as the days in which Jesus lived in Israel and identified Himself as Israel’s promised Messiah. It is also a contemporary and growing presence throughout Israel, the United States, and other nations.

Many Christians are surprised to learn that all the New Testament writers were Messianic Jews, with the possible exception of Luke.  None of them ceased being Jews active in their synagogue communities, but rather they continued living as practicing Jews who understood Jesus’ words and attesting miracles supporting His claim of being Israel’s Messiah anticipated by numerous prophets.  We read in Acts 6:7, “And the word of God kept on spreading; and the number of disciples continued to increase greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests were becoming obedient to the faith.”  Guess what?  These priests and the other ‘disciples’ were Messianic Jews.  Remember too, Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea were followers, and members of Judea’s highest religious authority, the Sanhedrin.

To summarize a lot of Messianic history, across the centuries there was a ‘faithful remnant’ of Jewish men (yes, men; for historic cultural reasons) who read the Hebrew Torah (the first five O.T. books) and the Tanakh (the balance of the OT) and quietly concluded that Yeshua (“Jesus”) was Israel’s promised Messiah.  To hold these views publicly meant heavy persecution and ostracism from their community. That outcome often meant loss of livelihood.

The modern Messianic movement began to take shape in the 1960s and 1970s, almost parallel with the “Jesus Movement” here in the US. A number of organizations and leaders emerged who sought to build a bridge between Judaism and Christianity with messaging appropriate to each.  To the Jewish, the message is that the concept of the Messiah was a hope and future that was alluded to in numerous places in the Jewish scriptures, and in the person of Yeshua HaNazret (Jesus of Nazareth) is the complete fulfillment of messianic prophecy.  Jewish people have only to read their scriptures for themselves to notice the connections.  Once they do, they start asking questions their rabbis would rather not answer.

To the Christian community the message is that the cradle of Christianity is Judaism. Where do we get the notion that God is One, there is no other; He has given His word and His word is authoritative?  Where do we learn our God has given His people numerous promises and He has not failed in the fulfillment of any?  The Jewish scriptures, of course.

I like to picture the Jewish/Christian differences in theology to an epic movie with an intermission.  The first part of the movie is a digest of Jewish history which tells a huge story of God calling out a man, a family, a nation a race – to be His chosen people. These chosen people reject Him repeatedly; and He in His grace rushes to forgive them, repeatedly.  We learn tons about God and His love in this first part of the movie. And we learn that the Jews are not the only ones who reject God, over and over.  We do it, too.  The Jewish story is ours, as well. 

However, come the movie’s intermission, the Jewish folks walk out.  They want nothing to do with this ‘Jesus of Nazareth.’ Most Jews reject the blossom, the flower (‘Lily of the Valley’) the culmination of the Father of Israel’s intention: “The Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world,” (John 1:29), our great Cohen HaGadol (Great High Priest) who entered the heavenly most holy place only once to remove the sins of all mankind. (Hebrews 9: 22-28)

But that’s not all.  While the Jewish people are leaving the theater at intermission, they’re passing another group coming in – the Christians!  For them, three fourths of their Bibles are somewhat interesting material, but the real juice begins at Matthew, Chapter One.

To put it succinctly, Jewish people and Christians could both strongly benefit from deeper study of both.  The ‘New Testament’ is an elaboration and fulfillment of the Old.  When one reads the Old Testament though a lens of pattern recognition it is amazing what God has implicitly put into His great story. 

A quick example:  Passover and the death angel passing over.  Fathers of Hebrew households were given specific instructions through Moses on what to do. (Genesis 12) The instructions included slaughtering the lamb, draining its blood into a basin, and daubing the lamb’s blood with hyssop on the doorposts and lentil of their doors (lentil is the horizontal part of the door frame.

Of course, some blood would drop to the ground beneath the two doorposts, as well as from the lentil.  3 puddles of blood.  Think: a crown of thorns and spiked ankles. Spiked wrists. Hyssop. Sour wine.

The death angel “passes over” every one who has put their faith, trust, life – in this Man.

For Messianics, Passover is our “Easter.”  The killing of the lambs foreshadows Calvary.  The “Lamb of God” took our place there, for us. Once. For all. By our faith in Him and trust in what He has done in our behalf, we find the complete freedom He promises.

As said, the above is just one of many examples.

So, what are Messianic Congregations like? Well, like 90% of Christian churches, they’re small – 30 – 150 people or so; with a few rather large assemblies.  There are an estimated 300 Messianic congregations or synagogues in the U.S.  Thirty years ago there where hardly any Messianic gatherings in Israel.  Now, there are about 200.  It is amazing what God is doing in these last of the latter days!

Messianic congregations are unified in the mission of seeing Jewish people come to embrace Yeshua as their Savior, Lord, and God.  God’s chosen people are our favorite people! 

The worship service itself is very similar to synagogue order of service. 

This is very comfortable for Jewish people checking us out. Christian visitors remark regarding the strongly Biblical message they are familiar with, and almost stunned by the added depth of the “Old Testament” foundations and parallels.  A remark often heard: “How come I never heard such depth of teaching in our church?”

 

Who would a Messianic congregation be a great fit for? 

For couples in which one is Jewish and the other is Christian. Both are comfortable in this space.  Also for Jewish people who have an awakened ‘itch’ that there is something more to their faith than what they’ve been hearing from their rabbis.

 And, similarly for Christian believers who have a restlessness wherein they sense the Spirit has something more. 

And, truly He does. 

Lynwood Johnson holds the Doctor of Ministry Degree from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, and has pastored churches in Illinois, Michigan, and Phoenix.  He is a Messianic Teacher at Tree of Life Congregation, Scottsdale, Arizona.  In his spare time he cleans his garage.

**You Can Watch The Podcast Here.**

What Are the Messianics?

Go here for more articles Two Measures Foolish Blogs

Follow Us On Facebook

Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.

What Made Me Become Pro-life?

What Made Me Become Pro-life?

by | May 4, 2022 | Abortion, Atheism, Evolution, John Tarr

What Made Me Become Pro-life?

I was an atheist until I was 30 years old.

Being an atheist, I also had the liberal mindset on many issues including evolution and abortion.

My BIG catalyst was my belief in evolution. Either you believed in an intelligent designer (God) or you did not.

To me, evolution gave me and others like me, the platform to believe that all life came from non-life.

Life sprang up from the primordial ooze on its own without guidance from something or someone else.

No God needed.

Evolution does not have morals.

Survival of the fittest is its main tenant.

Nothing is good or bad, it just is…

Murder is not bad…

Stealing is not bad…

Lying is not bad…

Nothing is good or bad it just IS…

Whatever it takes for an animal or species to survive including humans is OK or even needed.

Morals are things that exist because they are a human construct or a made up, imaginary fairy tale by religious people or a law to keep people in line.

Abortion is OK because that is also survival of the fittest.

As a human, that life that is growing in your body really does not constitute a real living, breathing organism capable of complex thought that will turn into something much like you are in the future.

Remember, survival of the fittest.

Your life, your survival.

Only you are important.

Selfishness is a big deal when it comes to evolution.

That is what I believed when I was an atheist.

It helped me to live with myself and put together my limited knowledge of the puzzle of life before me.

When I became a Christian, all that changed.

I then believed that there was a guiding force behind the universe or intelligent designer behind it all.

He gave us morals and things as humans that we should or should not do to keep us alive and functioning without so much chaos and pain.

He also gave us freewill.

Freewill to make certain choices in our lives.

Many of these choices that impact others.

I then understood there was something much bigger than me in control.

When it comes to abortion, we are telling this intelligent designer or God, that He has made a mistake.

Think of it, God has made a mistake!

We are the final decider in our lives and have the right to terminate this life inside our bodies.

We are god and not Him because we know best.

History has proven that humans know best throughout human civilization.

We have the modern, complex notions of what works and does not work because we can see into the future.

Remember in Job 38:34 when God asked Job “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know so much.”

This is Rhett. He came into this world on 4/26/22. He is the grandson of my friend Joe.

Our culture and modern times truly believes we need no god the tell us what to think or believe.

Our opinions is our god.

But of course, our arrogance knows no bounds.

When I was an atheist, I believed abortion was OK and even needed.

I paid for 3 of them and drove one individual to have the procedure.

I have been on both sides of this debate.

I now feel very foolish and have asked God to forgive me.

My arrogance knew no bounds.

I really believed God had made many mistakes when it came to human life and other issues.

Over 66 million mistakes when it has come to abortion since Roe v. Wade took effect since 1973.

Think of it, 66 million…

I guess Supreme Court knew better than God that year.

Many of our current politicians believe they know better than God as this issue comes before the Supreme Court once again.

The wounds of abortion have not healed after all, since 1973.

Maybe God is asking us “Where were you when I laid the foundations of the earth? Tell me if you know so much.”

 

Go here if you would like to read how I became a Christian “What Makes an Atheist”

 

What Made Me Become Pro-life?

Go here for more articles Two Measures Foolish Blogs

Follow Us On Facebook

Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.

What Makes an Atheist?

What Makes an Atheist?

by | Mar 23, 2021 | Apologetics, Evolution, Intelligent Design, John Tarr

What Makes an Atheist?

Are we born not believing in God or an intelligent designer of the universe?

Is it something else or a combination of things that come to a head in people’s minds that helps us make that fateful decision?

I am sure many reasons are closely related because it may not be a simple process. Is it an intellectual process or something more profound, like an emotional response that clouds our minds that happened from the past?

This world we live in is a tough place for many people and always has been. Life has been physically hard in past generations, but it has also been brutal to the human psyche.

It still hard for many people in our modern times depending on where you live, but even in the best locations, such in the USA and Europe, the human psyche is still a struggle.

One question that one of the top Christian apologetics, Dr William Lane Greig, at Reasonable Faith, asked: “Is this the best of all possible worlds?”

Considering freewill, it appears that this is the best possible of all worlds. 

Why God has decided to make our world this way, becomes more evident as time goes on in human history. 

To me anyway.  

Also, how and why He takes an individual spirit and drops it into a human shell of a body at a particular moment in time and space is an interesting question that only God Himself can answer.

I think it is called Middle Knowledge or Molinism in the apologetic Christian world, meaning only God would have this understanding because He has omniscience.

“First, it is assumed that for an action to be free, it must be determined by the agent performing the action. This means that God cannot will a free creature to act in a particular way and the act still be free. 

Free actions must be self-determinative.”

I tend to think it has something to do with our success in this life that we live in. 

By success, I do not mean how much stuff we have accumulated or how successful we were in rising to the top of whatever human station that humans would consider a success, but what God Himself would consider a successful life. 

From God’s point of view, success would be if we connected with Him, at some point in our temporary life span, for the sake of eternity, together, for the both of us.

Is that not what He designed us for in the first place? Spending eternity with Him so we can share His kingdom with Him? 

Why else would he create us?

What would be the point from His perspective?

My Battle Was an Emotional One 

As for me and my life, I was an atheist until I was thirty years old, so I will come from my perspective and experience. 

I have a feeling many people will identify with me. 

Being raised Catholic from a German background, I attended Catholic grade school in the late 1950s.

I was a tough kid in that I had specific disabilities that Catholic nuns were not equipped to handle.

Even today, most teachers are not.

They resorted to physical and emotional abuse to get me to function like the rest of the kids in my classroom.

It did not work and only scared me emotionally for many years.

When I came of age to make decisions for myself and my well-being, I jettisoned all belief in God. 

The word Jesus Christ was a cuss word to me. 

Not only did I discard the Catholic and Christian version of God, but I also dumped the mere thought of an intelligent designer behind the making of the universe itself.

Who needs a powerful being behind the curtain like the Great OZ, when Darwin came up with a perfect solution that proved a god was not needed?

Evolution was my god and how we (all life) came to be in this universe we live in.

It was a done deal, or so I thought.

Star Stuff

American astronomer Carl Sagan was my intellectual hero. I would follow him and all his books and writings. I looked forward to his programs, especially the one called Cosmos: A Personal Voyage. 

When he said we were all just star stuff, it made me feel I was worshipping at the feet of an astrophysicist and a cosmologist icon that had ALL the answers to human origins. 

In college, I would attend debates between scientists and atheists versus bible thumpers. I would root for the atheist and think how little understanding the religious bible believing people had on the workings of life around them. 

I finished school, got married, started a business, had children. My life came to a stop when my marriage came crashing down. I had a hard soul, and my wife wanted nothing more to do with it any more.

Hard questions were being asked of me from the inside-out because of the pain I was in. 

The oldest question that has haunted mankind since the beginning of time, emerged from me.

Is This All There Is? 

When we die, is that just the end, and nothing more.

The answers that I got from science did not help at all. The universe became a dark and cold place without any real rhyme or reason.

True meaning was nonexistent. Survival of the fittest was an empty phrase.

God cracked my shell and used the tough things that turned me into this empty atheist into an individual asking more profound questions for the first time in my life.

On a lonely journey, far from those I loved and cared about, God heard my feeble call and answered me.

I had no idea what I was doing when I asked him into my heart the first time. All I knew was I was empty and needed BIG time help, now that I think back on it. 

I still had a conflict with science and Christian belief that would take many years to resolve.

I had a hard time resolving evolution and Darwin’s version of how life came to be versus Genesis in the bible.

I knew the Christian worldview answered so many questions about so many things, especially why men are and have been so evil towards each other since the beginning of time, and it was not just survival of the fittest.

I found an organization called Reasons to Believe, led by astronomer Hugh Ross.

For the first time, I ran into Christians that believed that science and religion could live together. 

Their subtitle is “Where science and faith converge.”

I joined a local science group that is an offshoot of Reasons to Believe in Phoenix that I attended every month.

I also began following Christian Apogeic teachers like Dr. William Lane Craig of Reasonable Faith. 

Dr. Craig is a philosopher of the highest order and will make you stretch your brain to Christian circles and bonder life to its deepest depths. 

He debates many atheists regularly and has left me thinking about what it was that attracted me to being an atheist in the first place.

As I dug deeper into Darwinian evolution theory, I realized there turned out to be many problems with it. 

Today, many scientists turn their backs on it because they believe life is too complex to come from an unguided force of nature.

To this day, no scientist has life come from non-life, even in the perfect conditions of any laboratory on our planet. 

“Too Complex” are the two words that you hear again and again.  

I recently found a website that has over 1,000 scientists in the world today that no longer believe in evolution called A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism.

It shows that even scientists have an ax to grind when it comes to the truth.

 

Going back to the original question, What Makes an Atheist?

For me, it was not an intellectual search for the truth but an emotional cloud that blinded me from digging deeper into things that I held dear. 

My childhood wounds blinded me if you want to know the truth. 

When I found God and Jesus in a small church in Oregon, I learned for the first time who Jesus Christ was and not from some abusive nuns with an agenda. 

I believe that is what makes most people, young and old, male and female, rich or poor, and atheists. They cannot lean on intellectual arguments because they do not exist. 

Only emotional wounds from the past that blind us.

Psalm 19:1 Says 

“The heavens declare the glory of God; the skies proclaim the work of His hands.”

I look up in the night sky, and all my old intellectual arguments are laid to waste.

I am what is called an Old Earther, meaning that I am a Christian who believes that the universe is 13.8 billion years old. I have found out that I am not alone, and many Christian scientists believe the same thing.

If you look in Genesis, before the first day was made, the universe was already here. Please read it for yourself.

I believe in the Big Bang or the Cosmological Singularity. Albert Einstein discovered it when he worked on the Theory of Relativity.

The Big Bang states that the universe started at one point in time. Most scientists, up until the time Einstein discovered it, believed that the universe had always been in existence. A Steady State. Always been here.

If the universe started at one specific point in time, who or what pulled the trigger on the Big Bang?

Genesis says God spoke it ALL into existence. Therefore, He spoke the universe into being at one point in time.

Science did not even know that until the 1930s.

A illustration of what the Big Bang may of looked like over time.

I ask people if they know how big the universe is?

Here is something that will blow your mind.

There are more stars in our Milky Way Galaxy than there are grains of sand on all the beaches on planet earth. The number: 10 to the 15th power.

But, did you know there are more Galaxies in our universe than grains of sand on the beaches on planet earth?  The number: 10 to the 120th power.

Wrap your head around that.

Who is this Intelligent Designer we call God, that could do such a thing?

 

Mad at God

To be honest with myself, I think I was mad at God for letting me be abused by people that confessed they were followers of Jesus, even though, I would say that I did not believe in Him.

Crazy, I know.

Anger and hate can cause an unstable mind, void of rationality in certain areas of one’s own mind, even in the most rational of people.

You find scientist are like this all the time. They have preconceived beliefs even in the field that they have undertaken.

Albert Einstein was one of these people. When he came up with the Big Bang, he spent a number of years trying to find holes in it because he knew what the implications were.

Who was behind the Big Bang?

It was not until the 1930’s that Edwin Hubble, the great astronomer, invited Einstein out to California for the summer, and proved to him that Einstein’s mathematical equations for the Big Bang where correct when viewing the universe through his telescope.

The universe did start at one specific point in time.

If that is true, who pulled the trigger and got this time and space rolling.

Things do not just pop into being from nothing!

 

Check out the other blogs I wrote. Life from Non-life. Is it possible?  or Who Made God?

 

What Makes an Atheist?

Follow Us On Facebook

Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.

 

 

Lift Off

Lift Off

by | Nov 23, 2020 | Gratefulness, John Tarr, Tribute

Lift Off

 

My friend Charlie lifted off from this planet and universe in the very early morning hours November 17th, in the arms of his wife.

By all indications, from the telemetry, the launch went smoothly without a hitch.

He soon touched down into another set of arms that were patiently waiting for him.

That touchdown also went without a problem, after all, he was caught by the Creator of the Universe.

This Creator, who so carefully designed time and space, in His infinite wisdom, made our universe so vast in size, that all the grains of sand on all the beaches on planet earth would not add up to all the sun’s in our Milky Way Galaxy. 

To top that off, He made more galaxy’s in this cosmos that we live in, than all the grains of sand on our little blue planet’s beaches.

Wrap your head around that!

 

I would say, Charlie, is in very good arms and hands indeed.

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

A very proud Charley as he walks down the aisle with his daughter Mary. 

Lift Off

 

Charlie knew this was the location he wanted to end up in when he took his last breath and many breaths in-between.

He has moved on from this boot camp called life, leaving behind a legacy of life that touched many people.

A wonderful wife and three precious children and grandchildren were his main contribution to this legacy.

 

Charlie was the Star Wars Mandalorian when it came to the Christian faith.

 

He was always ready to defend this faith and to spread the hope he had within himself when he accepted Jesus Christ as his Lord and Savior.

He knew where his treasures were stored.

Charlie was a huge success in this life by the mere fact of accepting Christ.

That alone is something that heaven celebrated beyond all measure.

I can just imagine when he touched down in his new existence, what he must have felt and seen with all his new senses.

All the things he read about and studied from church and the Bible came to life in an instant.

I wish I could have been there to see his face and soul upon meeting Jesus face to face.

I will soon enough in my own time, and most of all, in God’s time.

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

Charley presenting his daughter Mary to his new son-in-law, Josh, at wedding. 

Lift Off

 

For the time being, I have been reflecting on the times, my family shared with the Atwell family.

What a historic life we celebrated together.

“Papa, papa, please help me” Charlie’s oldest son, Jimmy would cry out with a big smile on his face when he was small. “Shaun and Jason are picking on me.” Charlie would laugh as he watched his son fly through the air from one of my boys to the other, and always reply “I am not getting in the middle of those two. You’re on your own”

I imagine, my two sons picked on Mary and Jack the same way.

 

Mr. Atwell, was how I would address Charlie from time to time, loved to fish and he loved taking his family on these adventures to different lakes.

I took my small boat one time to one of these adventures, with my son Shaun and my wife, Monica, to Lake Mary in Northern, Arizona.

We wanted to catch something bigger from what you could hook into from shore. We left our wives sitting onshore waving at us.

After fishing for a period of time, a storm started to move in. The waves started to grow large and were lapping at the edges at the top of the boat.

Out of safety and concern, we dropped my son off on the other side of the lake to lessen the load in the boat.

Charlie and I were NOT small people, so this baby road low in the water, even in calm conditions.

By the time we made it halfway across the lake, Charlie and I were in some serious prayer and having a conversation with the Almighty.

To this day I still do not know how we made it with only a trolling motor for propulsion.

When we landed on shore, I thought I could see Charlie’s hand impressions of where he had squeezed the front of the boat on each side.

When he placed both feet on the rocky shore, he bent down and kissed the ground.

 

Big, bad, fisherman we both were.

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

Charley dancing his daughter Mary with his wife Susan dancing with Jack in the background. 

Lift Off

 

There were many stories like that we all have replayed in our heads in our time with this interesting, creative, and funny individual called Charles August Atwell.

One of the best memories for me, was sharing his daughter Mary’s wedding with the Atwell family, friends, and relatives.

What a blast that was for my whole family, including grandchildren.

My daughter-in-law, Candace, and my son, Jason, took the wedding photographs that you see here on this blog.

My grandson, Zeke was the ring bearer and my granddaughter Fran Cesca was the flower girl.

It was a weekend we will never forget! 

 

Our families were not perfect by any means, and if it were not for forgiveness that our Christian Faith believed in, and Jesus made the forefront of His message, I have no idea how our families would have survived.

I think the restoration of the rebellious human spirit is God’s greatest miracle He can perform.

With everything else in the universe, God can just breathe into existence, material things out of nothing.

 

He is the Word!

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

The Atwell Family. (from left to right) Charley and Susan in front. Along the back, Jack, Jimmy and Mary.  

Lift Off

 

When it comes to us humans, it’s a different story when you consider freewill in the mix of our existence.

God is the perfect gentlemen and will not go unless He is invited.

What patience He has for the human race and us as individuals.

He keeps setting up scenarios for us to connect with Him over and over again.

Some are very hard scenarios that are absolutely heartbreaking in the human mindset, but God will use everything in our lives to bring us to Him.

 

Eternity is in the balance.

 

Most people will not embrace God throughout their lifetime which is very sad, and I can only imagine how God Himself must feel.

We did not have this problem where Charlie, me, and our families are concerned.

As it says in John 14:6, our families have all embraced The Word, The Way, The Truth, and The Life.

See you soon my brother, save a spot for me.

Do not forget the lunch date we made to have in heaven, out on one of many planets in the universe, and we can watch as a distant sun goes supernova.

What Are the Benefits of Being Grateful?

Charley with his wife Susan, my wife Monica and me (John) after one of the many photo shoots we shared every year at the Salvation Army Christmas event in Phoenix.

He loved doing this event and got so much joy bringing happiness to people less fortunate with the gift of a family portrait.

Lift Off

 

We have written many articles from a Christian Apologetic perspective that you might like to read here Two Measures Foolish Blogs

Follow Us On Facebook

Two Measures Foolish: Foolish to God for we sin – Foolish to the world for the cross.