Son, As far as your recent arrived at atheism.

Your atheism cannot be due to a lack of objective, verifiable evidence that has been placed before you for your consideration over the years. I have for years taught many a lesion on the verifiable evidence for Christianity. I have taught the evidence of History, the evidence of Archeology, the internal evidence of the Scriptures, the evidence of fulfilled prophecy, the evidence from creation etc. Certainly if you are now an atheist in light of all the evidence which has been placed before you over the years, it is not because of a lack of evidence but rather a failure to maintain a relationship with that evidence or feed your faith in any way. A persisted in refusal to nurture your faith has lead you to this position. Would you be willing to sit down with the father and weigh the cumulative evidence for the Bible and Christianity? I would like to do that with you. Your Dad. Son, I have two words which, in a nutshell, identify what happened to your faith: Video Gaming. Even since the desire of your heart was to get away from all other responsibility and get to your video games, you have shut every one else out of your life: Your family and your God. I can remember when you were in your late teens, I wanted help on something, and there you were in your room fighting the particular video battle of the day. So more often than not, in order to avoid a complaint from you, I just got your mom to help me. The lack of joy you felt of thinking about religions was due to one of two things. Either you were never saved or your were (and are) out of fellowship. There was a time when I considered you my most spiritual child. I can remember letting [SISTER] go places with you because I thought, she will be okay, she is with [ME], and [ME] is a good kid. I can remember when you were a young boy, one day when it was real windy outside, you prayed that the Lord would make the wind stop blowing and the wind did not stop blowing and you wondered why the Lord did not answer your prayer. There is no way that the Lord would have blessed your addiction to video gaming with joy and peace, which you said you have lacked for some time. God knows when the desire of your heart is not with him and brings sorrow into your heart when your heart is not right. James 1:8&9 best describes your experience and relationship with the Lord during the days when you were finding no joy. NKJ James 1:7 For let not that man suppose that he will receive anything from the Lord; 8 he is a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways. A double minded man who is attempting to pursue two sources of Joy: The Lord and your favorite addiction or hobby. The Lord is aware of the misplaced affection away from Him and therefore does not bless you with joy and peace. Hurrying up and finishing your devotions so you can get back to what your really enjoy doing does not constitute a relationship with God from which He will flood your soul with joy and peace. It is a relationship with God which will bring sorrow and frustration. I suspect back several years ago, thats what you were trying to get by with. It is probably why your contemplation of spiritual things did not bring your joy and peace. You

have stopped believing because for years it has not brought you any joy and peace. I am telling you these things in hopes that you might remember that, indeed, at one time your did have a relationship with God. But years ago it was pushed aside in favor of your gaming pursuits. The problem your going to run into is that your gaming addiction is harming and is going to harm every other relationship you have. I cant tell me how my time your sisters complained to me about you not spending time with them when you lived with Hilary, because you were in your room playing video games. Looking back, I probably should have not allowed the internet into my home. But for me it was (and is) a necessary tool of my trade. You need to recall that a long time ago, you did have a relationship with the Lord, but you a long time ago turned from it. The Lord invites you back. NKJ Revelation 2:5 "Remember therefore from where you have fallen; repent and do the first works, or else I will come to you quickly and remove your lampstand from its place unless you repent. I miss you a great deal as well. Your Dad Parents, - It was never an issue of fellowship for me. Ever since I was little I have always seen studying the scriptures as a purely academic and cold pursuit. The only joy I ever got out of it was when I thought I was impressing you or mom. I really truly believed in god with all my heart until I was 18 or 19. I believed that I just had to accept the free gift of salvation and I'd be safe for eternity. Then I started having questions. Questions about things that never really made sense before. Like why a loving and benevolent god would condemn people to eternal suffering when he could just move then to a place of comfort but away from his sight (like what you believe happened to Old Testament saints when they died). If the punishment for everyone's sins was already taken out on Christ on the cross, then why would people's souls need to suffer again? The price was already paid. Or how he could condemn all the people living in the Americas or other locations around the world in ancient times which had NO WAY of ever hearing about the god of the Israelites and NO MEANS of ever reaching them. Or the people in the dark ages who couldn't read, who had to take what the church told them as fact, and who lacked the intelligence to question it. Why are there so many different dating methods that point to an earth and universe that is billions of years old? (I know you make the argument that the water canopy from before Noah's time increased the rate of radioactive decay and makes materials appear older than they actually are... but this would have the OPPOSITE effect and make things appear younger than they actually are!) Not to mention that there are so many different methods besides carbon and radiometric dating. Tree rings, ice cores, archeological evidence. Why do pyramids exist today that should have been destroyed during the flood? Why does god seem to get less powerful as humanity gains more means to measure and record miracles? Why do men have nipples?!?! At the least, these questions refute a literal interpretation of the bible and show it to be just a collection of tales and proverbs. All these questions that I could not find acceptable answers to eventually made me decide that I wasn't comfortable ignoring all the logical fallacies I saw. During my transition I intently studied the reasoning of both yourself and other creationists, but everything was based on shaky science and bad logic. I don't really feel like getting into a big argument about it, I just wanted to show you that it wasn't a lackadaisical decision I made, it took several years of stressful, thoughtful research. - You mentioned that you thought I was a good kid. Does this revelation really change any of that? I'm still the same responsible, caring, compassionate, moral, intelligent young man that I've always been. It seems like all my life I've been trying to measure up to your standards: Doing well in school, working hard at my job, getting into a good college with scholarships, staying away from the wrong crowd, getting into internships, keeping my GPA up, getting a good job out of college. But you always looked at me with that same scowl and downwards look on your face because I lacked your interest in a 2000 year-old book. Maybe I'm coming off as a bit harsh. I don't mind what you or anyone else believes. You were still a better father than 95% of what I saw out there. You were a good provider, you taught me the skills I needed in life to become a good man. But emotionally you were just never there. Most of the time you were home you were in your study, writing another sermon or recording a radio program.. When we did spend time together it was always work. Work work work all weekend. Something else to fix or build, more wood to cut. Never anyone my own age to play with either. It's sad looking back that my best friend was probably [FRIEND] and I only saw him once a year. Anyway, I'm just rambling at this

point. - I probably have spent too much time on video games this summer, but that was because I was unemployed and it was a pursuit that didn't cost me any money. [OLDER SISTER] and [YOUNGER SISTER] were almost never home anyway, when they were we pretty much kept to ourselves. Currently other things are occupying my life. My new job, spending time with Ashley and her mom, taking care of my new place, reading, getting to know the town around me. I probably only have time for video games about 3 days a week now. Video games have lead me to most of my best and supportive friends. All the friends I made through church never wanted anything to do with me. My friends that I've made in the past 3-4 years actually enjoy my company and like hanging out on a regular basis. - I have finally arrived at a place in my life where I feel truly happy. I cannot stress that enough. For some reason it's just been better in the last year. Even when I was unemployed all summer and had to deal with Ashley's dad dying. Sometimes I do miss the old days. When I thought my father was right about everything. When I thought there was an all knowing, all caring god that would right all the wrongs and that I just wasn't trying hard enough. That I just needed to try with all my might to just enjoy studying this one book. I realized that everything I was doing was just pretending. I was lying to myself and everyone around me. My future is bright, I am financially secure, I have a woman who loves me, and I no longer feel like I have religious baggage holding me back. All I need is a family that won't judge me based on my beliefs. If I can't have that, then I don't know what we'll do. I understand if it grieves you too much to be around me. I know how you believe, and how that will gnaw at you in the back of your head whenever you see me. Especially for the next few months. I just hope that eventually we can go back to normal. For both of our sakes and for your grand-children's sake. I love you both, Son Son, I appreciated your letter and in fact agree with most of it. I will respond in greater detail later. Dad Son, The lack of playmates that you guys grew up with is very unfortunate. It is due to a large degree to what I was going through at the time in my faith. I was a truly isolated pastor out here in the wilderness. I was not about to compromise on the gospel of grace and join with some works teaching church, so we were alone. I had come away from the idiot Baptists out of Bible college and was not going to submit myself to their narrow beliefs, nor was I a liberal, nor was I a Calvinist, nor was I a charismatic. So here I was, in a little town teaching truth. Alone and lonely. I had hoped along the way to pick up some families with children, I had hoped the home school group would have met some of that need, to produce for you kids some playmates. I had hoped that the church would have pickup up some families for you kids. I had hoped that AWANA would have produced more children. But in the final analysis, it didnt pan out. Awana fell apart due to a lack of people who were willing to be leaders. The home school moms selfishly disbanded their organization when they got the information they wanted out of the group, and our church has never had enough prestige in the community for the spiritual elites to want to be a part of it. Most parents when looking for a church want to find a church that will have something for their kids. I have never had anyone who wanted to step up to the plate in that area, although I have more than once requested it of the young people of the church. I had requested that Rachel do that, Jon North a while back had mentioned wanting something like that and I had hopes for that group. For a while Scott was trying to regularly take some of you to hockey games. But they never seemed to last. Ministry takes commitment, and few people have it. We live in an instant society where people want instant success. It doesnt work that way. Furthermore, I would not measure success in ministry by the number of butts in the pew. Success in the ministry is measured by the people we impact toward genuine fruit

bearing. That number is and will always be small. If during my life, I have helped 30 people genuinely grow to maturity, I will have considered my life a success. I know that I have already impacted many more than that during my life. As far as our relationship goes. I look back on your youth with sorrow for the time we didnt spend together. When you were entering your teenage years, we had talked about putting a basketball court in the back yard. But you are right, there was always another radio program to record, always another sermon to write. I think it is the price that a lot of leaders pay with reference to their families. We are so focused on trying to change our world that we fail to focus on our families. Of course the added burden for us was the fact that, in addition to pastorng and radio stuff, I had a full time secular career. I could have quit my job and we could have lived in poverty or taken a large church and been subjugated to some false doctrine embracing deacon board. But I wanted to be able to discover bible truth free from the intimidation of others. So it is what it is. In the last several years of my life, that decision may prove to be the right one, as far as ministry is concerned. I did not want to be some other preacher's parrot. Most Father I know second guess their parenting after the fact. Its in the past and we cannot undue it so why focus on it. I had to make some tough choices when it came to your kids formal education. I could either send you to a Christian college and you emerge from such an institution with no real visible means of support (like most of your cousins on your moms side) or I could encourage you kids to stay home, go to a secular college, get a degree with which you could make a living and hopefully keep you close enough to church to protect your beliefs. That was my strategy for your kids college. I looked at IPFW as a somewhat harmless place where you kids could go and graduate without a 60 thousand dollar school bill to pay off. Plus most of the religious colleges around here were very liberal. There was Pensecola in Florida, but I did not like their stance on some matters of faith so we encouraged you to go to IPFW. Of course [FRIEND'S DAD] chose a different path for [FRIEND]. But now [FRIEND] has no marketable skills outside of fundamental Baptist circles. Moreover, even within fundamental Baptist circles, his earning potential is probably somewhere around 26K a year tops. I guess I wanted you kids to have more options than that. Too many Christian young people spend tens of thousands of dollars on a college degree only to wind up with a 25K a year job. I know you kids complained about not having many friends, but friendships are made in life. The friends I have today are peoples that I have become friends with after having graduated from high school. John Hinkley is the only childhood friend of mine who is still in my life (and Diana Savoie but for obvious reasons it would be inappropriate to nurture that relationship) Most of the people who were friends in my youth are long gone out of my life. That happens. You kids were never very good at developing friends and that is probably my fault. I have always been guarded in my friendships. After you get hurt a couple of times with people who you thought were your friends leaving your church, you begin to wonder if you have any genuine friends. And unfortunately, and it should not be this way, but some of your most enduring friendships will be people outside the church. and I have some people in my life who I should be better friends with, but are not. More Later, Dad

Dad, I guess I shouldn't have been so harsh in my email. I know you did your best. And I know you always did what you thought was right concerning your family and your church. It's just unfortunate that your beliefs and the beliefs of others in the area didn't match up. And I think the things I described are something that every PK goes through. -Son Son, i did not think your email was too harsh -Dad Son, Now to address your questions in your email in the order in which they were received, But first of all, if you believe that the creation in which we exist is the result of random forces operating on the elements, then your heart is veiled with a supernatural blindness brought on by your own negative volition. There is a point to which people can arrive in which they are given over to a disqualified mind as we read in Romans chapter 1 and 2. A mind which rejects the obvious. I am not sure how far you are down that path. But it appears you have started down it, at least from some of the basic questions you have posed. To not believe in a creator is to miss some very obvious facts, like the fact of intelligent design. Now granted, intelligent design does not verify the God of the Scriptures, but it does give evidence to an omniscient, omnipotent purposeful creator. First the question concerning hell. How could a benevolent and loving God when me could move them to a place of comfort. Several things about that question. What makes you think that God is the chief architect of torment in hell. From several passages it appears that at least part of the misery is the taunting of others. The book of Isaiah gives us a glimpse of Hell. Here it is. NKJ Isaiah 14:9 "Hell from beneath is excited about you, To meet you at your coming; It stirs up the dead for you, All the chief ones of the earth; It has raised up from their thrones All the kings of the nations. 10 They all shall speak and say to you: 'Have you also become as weak as we? Have you become like us? 11 Your pomp is brought down to Sheol, And the sound of your stringed instruments; The maggot is spread under you, And worms cover you.' 12 " How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning! How you are cut down to the ground, You who weakened the nations! 13 For you have said in your heart: 'I will ascend into heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will also sit on the mount of the congregation On the farthest sides of the north; 14 I will ascend above the heights of the clouds, I will be like the Most High.' Quite frankly a great deal of the torment of Hell is the unbridled depravity of the inhabitants. The inhabitants of Hell are allowed to function in their depravity unrestrained by the restraints of the law abiding. Consider also the following, NKJ Proverbs 1:29 Because they hated knowledge And did not choose the fear of the LORD, 30 They would have none of my counsel And despised my every rebuke. 31 Therefore they shall eat the fruit of their own way, And be filled to the full with their own fancies. The reason Christians believe in a hell is because Jesus, who is God, warned

us about it. That it is a place where we do not want to go. Likewise history is full of accounts of dying infidels whose dying words indicated they were on their way there. Here is a transcript of some famous peoples dying words. I could have done a whole week on these quotes, but here were enough of them for a 150 second radio commentary. Greetings friends this is Pastor [DAD] of the Weston Street Bible church in rome city and today on issues for the heart I would like to talk about the last words uttered by some famous people that is their last words as they were about to depart from this world In The Scriptures, on of the most profound final experiences was had by the Evangelist Stephen in closing verse of Acts Chapter 7. Stephen as he is about to be stoned to death by an obstinate Jewish Assembly gazes into heaven and, instead of Jesus being seated at the right hand of the Father, sees Jesus standing at the right hand of the Father, honoring the faithfulness of Stephen as Stephen is about to be ushered into His presence. . More recently According to the sister of Steve Jobs, the founder of Apple Computer, as he was passing, .gazed past his family and exclaimed. Oh wow, Oh Wow, OH WOW. And with that he breathed his last. Now we dont know what Mr Jobs saw but apparently it must have been pretty amazing. Here is another record of a famous final experience, Thomas Edison, a man who quite frequently belittled those of faith made the following statement as he was dying, He said. 'It's very beautiful over there'. I don't know where there is, but I believe it's somewhere, and I hope,,,,,,,,,,, Its Beautiful. Notice Edison describe his vision as over there that is he saw something at a distance, not to dissimilar to the Rich man in Luke chapter 16 who say Abraham afar off. Joseph Stalin, tyrannical dictator of the Soviet union, According to His daughter Svetlana, as Stalin was dying, apparently saw the other side sat half way up in his bed, defiantly shook his fist toward heaven, collapsed and died. Charles Haddon Spurgeon, beloved preacher and author, on his deathbed exclaimed: I can hearthem coming! He sat straight up in bed and asked: Dont you hear them? This is mycoronation day. I can see the chariots, Im ready to board Contrast these final words with the last words of Sir Francis Newport First Earl of Bradford, who in his day boasted of being the head of one of Englands infidel clubs. His final words were Oh, the insufferable pangs of hell. Billy Joel once sang he would rather live with the sinners than die with the saints,, well after reading some of the final words of the sinners, Ill die with the saints, but that is an issue for the heart. By the way, all of these accounts are very well documented. Just some additional food for thought, if your no longer find the Scriptures worthy of attention. -Dad Here is an interesting article concerning hebrew influence in central and south America. Notice the point made that 20- percent of the words of the zapotecs are hebrew. This demonstrates that indeed, God sent His message to the Americas. http://ensignmessage.com/archives/trailblazing.html http://www.hope-of-israel.org/hebinusa.htm In the first place, you never once asked my about any of these doubts that you were experiencing. Someone who had genuine doubts and was my own son I would have thought would have asked his dad who by the way is one of the

best defenders of the faith in this area. You apparently have no idea how I would have instructed you in these areas. People who want to honor God but who have genuine doubts seek out godly council over such issues. You apparently went to some atheist web site and allowed yourself to be duped by infidels. Some of your objections you raised in your letter demonstrate that you indeed DID NOT understand my position on geological evidence and the bible. For example, the canopy would have resulted in less, and not more radio active carbon 14 isotope, making the remaining carbon containing artifact appearing to be much older than it really is. Since there would be much less radio activity remaining in the carbon 14 isotope, because of the canopy acting like a huge filter, the net result would be exponentially less radioactivity which would cause the remains to appear older, not younger than they really are. Why do pyramids exist today? Simply because the flood of Noah occurred between 400 and 800 years before the pyramids were built. In fact some believe that Tutmose, under whose direction one of the pyramids was built, was in fact Moses. There is also abundant evidence that Joseph and Imhotep were in fact the same person. http://s8int.com/joseph.html If you would have asked me about that doubt, I could have pointed that out to you in about two seconds. As far as people around the world not having access to truth, once again you apparently have not sought out the historical record. You have followed the myth the Columbus was the first believer to arriave in America. I have written articles and done radio programs documenting the influence of the Jewish Religion all around the world. Once again you apparently were not concerned enough with the truth to ask me. On September 7th 2007 I did a message on the world wide influence of Judeo Christianity, how that the God routinely sent His word to the ends of the earth. the Jewish religion was not limited to a narrow strip of land on the east side of the Mediterranean Sea. Whoever told you that simply does not know his history or has not studied the evidence. Another thing you should learn is the debating tactics. Those on the left routinely belittle the position of the saints so as t intimidate them away from their positions. Intimidation does not constitute good evidence. As far as the non carbon based dating methods such as lead-argon strontiumrubidium the parent-daughter element dating methods. It is not outside of the pail of orthodoxy to believer the God created the earth out of pre-existing materials. I have often flirted with the Idea that God created the earth out of a cold dead rock; Or at least pre-existing compositions. To be quite honest, it is not a big enough of an issue to argue over. But I do know that the existence of Polystrate fossils blows a hole clear through the uniformitarianists (evolutionists) explanation of the geologic column. I would suggest that you enter the word polystrate in your search engine sometime. Polystate fossils are fossils that extend vertically through what, according to secular geologists, are suppose to be millions of years of the geological column. Polystate fossils demonstrate that the geological column is not the product of millions of years of gradual deposits, but rather the result of a rapid deposit of sediment, such as would occur during a flood. Secular geologist are constantly seeking to re-invent the landscape with upheavals etc, every time they find a polystrate fossil. And by the way, geology is just one line of evidence that can be cited. What about the evidence of history, what about the internal evidence of the

Scriptures, what about fulfilled prophecy. All those lines of evidence certainly add to the sum total of the weight for the Bible. Back to your experience of the study of the bible being academic. Once again there are three possibilities, either God does not exist and the Bible is not His book, or you were never saved, or you were not searching the Scriptures with the right priorities. Quite frankly I dont know why the religion of your youth did not sustain you. I only know that my church contains many people who have been delivered from ruin by its principles. And by the way they are not a bunch of simple minded hicks. Most of them are accomplished professionals. As far as nothing ever being good enough for your Dad. I think I have heard that from each of you at least once. But I will also say that each of you, as far as the world goes, are some of most successful kids I know. [SISTER] worked her butt off to get strait As to get accepted into her college. I noticed your accomplishments and brag on each of you kids every chance I get. But I would like to think that at least part of the reason each of you kids excelled is because I did not pass out praise for mediocre achievement. You have an IQ of 138 and I think [OTHER SISTER] was around 134 when I tested her. You better believe I expected a great deal out of you. You were my kids and I was proud of you. You were not the hicks that lived in [HOME TOWN], You were [DAD]'S KIDS. And you were all smart and I expected your grades to reflect that. I never ascribed to the theory that kids needed high self esteem to achieve in school. Kids need to have esteem for the authority figures in their lives. You had esteem for me and wanted to please your Dad. I raised you like that so you all would achieve in life. The reason you probably felt that I felt nothing was good enough was probably because my comparing my own study of the book with your kids lack of interest in the Bible. And by the way the bible is not just a 2000 year old book filled with fables and legends. Once again that is the voice of ignorance, like I would hear from some mindless infidel, and not the voice of scholarly investigation. You say that you are now tired of living to please me. All people live to please their God-ordained head. God designed us to have an authority figure in our lives and for children, the esteem of their parents is where children are suppose to derive their joy until their relationship with God becomes fully developed. I understand that now you should be on your own and no longer addicted to the esteem of your father. I raised you kids to desire my esteem because I thought that That desire would protect you when you left home, and it did for a while. But it would have been far better if, you would have come to me with your questions concerning your faith instead of allowing them to develop into a full blown evil heart of unbelief, departing from the living God (Hebrews 3:12). In our later teenage years, your grew to resent my headship over your soul. That is typical of most children who are striving for their independence. By the way, I never resented my father like that. It might be because I witnessed first hand the rebellion of my brother and my sister over my parents. How they treated my parents with contempt. I felt sorry for my parents. I thought both of the aforementioned siblings were a couple of assholes for having treated my parents the way they did in their youth. My dad was a hard working guy and a very intelligent engineer in his own way who managed to make a very good living on 144 acres. Looking back at the way he tried to work smart, he could have excelled as a mechanical engineer anywhere if he had applied himself in formal studies in that area. To this day, I feel sad that I left the farm in pursuit of another career. My dad wanted his boys by his side, farming along side of him. As you have heard

me say before, farming taught me that there were easier ways to make a living. It still makes me sad today to visit that farm, and remember the bustling livestock operation it once was. The hard work that I did on the farm and know how that shaped my character made me want to make sure that I introduced all you kids to the concept of hard work. That is why I insisted that you work your way through college. So you would learn to budget your time and money. I believed that hard work would mold your character so that you kids would become successful people. I stood ready to bail your out if I had to. If your car blew up, I could have replaced it, But I rather you learn delayed gratification and budgetary prudence. By the way, to this day, the two aforementioned siblings are paying for their rebellion against their parents. My brother who is in his mid 50s is working a back breaking job in a hot aluminum foundry and my sister is practically out on the street, waiting to be evicted from a house she hasnt made a payment on in I dont know how long. Truly they both should have remembered the 5th commandment (Deut 5:16). They should have humbled themselves to listen to a couple of loving parents. To this day, I still seek my Dads advise, in fact, he is hesitant to give it. And although I did not always follow my dads advise, I never despised him for giving it. My Dad did not want me going to Bible college, but looking back I think my Dad believes I have made some right decisions. Apparently so or they would not have made me the executor of their estate. By the way I am not saying I think you despise my advice. But for some reason, you rarely sought it. By the way [OLDER SISTER] struggled with the same doubts that you did concerning the bible, but she sought after evidence and books to sustain her faith. You did not. You left one nagging doubt after another unresolved, until you wound up the unbeliever your are today. Apparently you did not want to maintain your faith. Perhaps you wanted to avoid persecution because of your faith. Perhaps you wanted to avoid your friends thinking you were a goody two shoes. I too desired to avoid being bullied because of my faith. But what I did to avoid bullying is I because the pit bull when it came to defending the faith. It doesnt bother me so much that you have lost your faith, what bothers me more is it appears that, for a long time, you have had no desire to preserve it. I only hope that my belief in security is correct and that you at one point in your childhood, genuinely believed. Because with the amount of light that you have been given, but neglected, your judgment would be intolerable. You described the religion of your youth as religious baggage holding you back. I dont know were that came from. For me the yoke of Christ is easy and His burden is light. It is liberty, joy and peace. It is wisdom and mercy which has lead me to the success I have today in every area of my life. It, in every way, has proven itself to be evidential in my cognitive reasoning. The burden on your shoulders was probably the Holy Spirit grieving you because of your disobedience to HIM, your immoral relationship with your girlfriend, your carousing with alcohol, your conscience bothering you because you knew those behaviors were not acceptable to your Head. You apparently now want to take out your negative experience with religion on the religion and God who was striving for your well being. In short, the negative baggage holding you back was conviction. But apparently you have despise the chastening of the Lord (Heb. 12:5). By the way, the Lord is a gentleman, he will not kick in the doors of your heart. But neither will the hedge which existed around Job exist in your

life.. You will be on your own, taking your lumps with the world so to speak. The consequences of the choices you have recently made may not manifest themselves for years. Quite frankly you may not experience the consequences of them until your own children reach their teenage years. Until you attempt to pick up the pieces of trying to raise a family without the wisdom of God, of trying to hold together a marriage without it being bathed by the mercy of God, of trying to hold together a household without the favor of God holding it all together. I hope when things begin falling apart you will remember to seek the God of your youth, the God which brought your parents joy and peace. If I am still around when that happens, I will be there to help you return. With Love, Your Dad.