To all of the people who have attended any of my survival or disaster preparedness, or outdoor education classes, or who read this blog, I wish to give you the following message. After you read this message, how you respond to the message will be your choice. Please read the whole message.
My wife and I took a three and a half week long exploration trip this spring through southern Idaho, most of Utah and the eastern desert areas of Oregon. We had been planning this trip for five years. My personal goal was to explore the nature, wildlife, climate and Native American heritage of these areas and to practice and learn the survival skills that would be needed in these areas as opposed to what I use and teach in Washington state.
The trip was a great success, I did a lot of driving and we saw how beautiful our world is outside of the populated, paved over and polluted areas around the large cities and the inter-state highway system. Rural America has a lot of value that we are losing because of our lifestyle.
We visited several Native American museums and heritage sites such as Hovenweep and a few Anasazi village sites where large populations at one time lived. Now they are abandoned ruins and nobody knows why the people left them or what happened to them. There are several theories, but no one really knows. Climate change is one of them. Today we are constantly being told about global warming and the world wide disasters that are about to happen. In my lifetime they were predicting a new ice-age, Y-2K and now global warming. In school I was taught that they have found fossils of palm trees and tropical plants and animals in Antarctica and above the Arctic tree line. If you visit the John Day Fossil Beds National Monument in eastern Oregon today, they have museum displays and fossils that show that in the past the climate there was similar to today’s climate of Louisiana. What is really the truth? What really happened to the Mayans, or the Incas, or the Egyptian pyramid builders? What really happened to cause past civilizations to fail? We know they did, we have the ruins to prove it. Why did these civilizations not survive? We have been taught that all life evolved from simple one cell animals that became two cells and then multi-celled animals and plants, and eventually over millions of years apes evolved and then we evolved from apes. Where is the proof of that theory? I know you will say the fossil record proves it. But does it really, and where did the first single cell animals come from? Science fiction will tell you that aliens from outer space seeded the earth. Really, for what purpose? When I plant a seed, I expect a harvest.
What is truth? Now science is trying to develop artificial intelligence. Why? We can’t properly use the intelligence we now have. If we used the intelligence we possess, working together, we could end homelessness, poverty, cancer, starvation, drinking water shortages, unemployment, welfare, warfare, abortions, pollution, dictatorships, terrorism, school and public shootings. The list could go on and on never ending. And racial hatred, I believe we are all the human race, we are just different skin tones, we all started at the same place. We all have our faults and weaknesses. So where do we find truth and what are the real problems in the world? The media will tell you, the politicians, government, big business and science will tell you and so will cable television, but what is truth and what is a lie, and how do we tell the difference?
When this country was founded it was based on values found in the Bible, both Old and New Testaments. That is a fact that can be verified if you do the research. You may not like it and you may not believe it, but before you disavow it, research it. Then you can chose wisely and benefit from it and reap the rewards or you can choose to ignore the truth. You have been given the freedom to choose. Today there are people that are trying to change our history and the freedoms that have been granted us by the choices that the founders of our country made to benefit us. the United States of America has been a great country in the past but we are giving that up by the choices that we make. Someone once stated that great civilizations begin their destruction from within. That allows the destruction from outside sources to finish the process of destruction.
The Bible tells us that when nations turn away from God then He removes His protection from that nation. Look at the history of Israel. Our nation has been turning away from God for many years now. At times God has removed His protection from our nation and allowed outside sources to attack our nation. Think about Pearl Harbor and the 9/11 2001 attack on New York City.
I believe the truth is to be found in the Word of God written in the Bible. That is my choice, you can make your own. We will all live or die by the choices we make. God says that He will judge individuals as well as the nations. God gives us many warnings before our final judgment, whether that is a judgment on an individual or a nation. We as individuals and nations can choose to turn our backs on God, or pretend God doesn’t exist, or that He loves us so much that He won’t judge or discipline us. But the truth will still be true no matter what you choose to believe or act upon.
The most important thing that I saw and learned on my trip was that there have been many advanced civilizations in the past that have failed. I believe they failed because of choices their individual citizens made, and their governments and then the nations as a whole made. They all chose to turn away from God.
Our nation is turning away from God, but it started with individuals choosing to turn away from God. I cannot tell you what the final outcome will be for our nation but God knows. But I can predict that if our nation continues in the way that our leaders have chosen and there is no turning back (repentance) the outcome for us as a nation and as individuals will not be good.
Oh and it is not just our nation, all nations are to be judged for their actions or lack of actions. This applies to every individual also.
So I leave you with this from now on, what choices will you make?
Joshua 24:15- …”as for me and my house, we will serve the Lord.”
John 3:16- “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish, but have eternal life.”
John 14:6- “Jesus said to him,”I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one comes to the Father, but through Me.”
I am seeking God’s direction as to whether or not to continue teaching the classes I offer. If I do continue there will be an emphasis on God, our creator and our choices and how we tend the world we live on, and how we care for and use the resources. We are to be caretakers not abusers, not just of our world and its resources, but of our fellow humans. When I stand before God to be judged I hope He will tell me, well done good and faithful servant, enter into a place reserved for you. I don’t want to be told to depart from Him because He never knew me. My choices will determine the outcome. Our only hope is in the Lord Jesus Christ. This belief does not mean we have a Bible study in the woods or that any of my classes push religion of any kind. I know many people find any mention of God or religion offensive or convicting so I won’t go there, but I will not deny my own beliefs either. My goal has always been to teach people how to survive the circumstances that they find themselves in whether it be a wilderness survival situation or surviving a natural or man made or terrorist caused disaster.
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