MERRY

CHRISTMAS

2018

The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine upon you; and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and give you peace. 

Marshall K Warren

Why Does God Allow Bad Things to Happen?

I wrestled with this question for years.  When asked I would lapse into a long theological explanation.  When I was finished neither I, who was answering the question nor the person asking, were any closer to the answer.  So, having been asked this question again the other day; that night I prayed about it.  I asked God to give me a straight answer, short and to the point.  Here’s what He said.

I created Adam and Eve with a free will.  I did not create puppets.  They exercised that free will when they choose to believe Satan’s lie instead of Me.  People will always have free will.  Freedom to choose between Me and Satan.  That is, good or evil, sin or righteousness, they are all the same choice.  I will never deprive people of this freedom of choice. So, it isn’t a question of Me allowing bad things to happen, but rather people choosing to do bad things.  Once, when everyone was choosing to do bad things, except Noah and his family, I destroyed everyone but them. I will not do that again until all things are fulfilled and I create a new heaven and a new earth.

Why People Do Bad Things.

The real question we should be asking is; why do I choose to do bad things?  And it isn’t just me, everyone does.  Oh, you’re a good person.  You never choose to do bad things?  I beg to differ.  Everyone and I mean everyone, chooses to do bad things sometimes, no one is perfect.  Rom.3:23 “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Again I prayed.  Why do people choose to do bad things?  God started with Rev. 12:7.  “And war broke out in heaven:  Michael and his angels fought with the dragon, and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer.  So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.”  Rev.12:12:  “Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them!  Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea!  For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.”  I don’t know when that great war took place. However, I do know this, even before the fall his seditious purpose was to usurp God.  Now the devil wants to destroy us and or our relationship with God. 

When Satan was cast down he brought great evil with him.  This evil covered the whole earth.  It permeates the very air we breathe.  It’s like a great pandemic plague infecting everyone.  No one is immune to it, not even nature.  Plants became poisonous and grew thorns.  Everything that swam, crawled, walked or flew became predator or prey.  The earth became unsuitable for life, and now man’s life only lasts about 70 years... 

The reason we do bad things is we are infected with this great evil plague that Satan brought into the world.  It began when Satan deceived  Eve and she ate of the “Tree of the knowledge of good and evil.”  From her, it spread to Adam and then to Cain and then to everyone.

Now I want to show you in scripture that the devil is to blame for the bad things people do.  Eve would never have just walked up to the tree of the knowledge of good and evil and thought, “I don’t believe God.  I’m going to take a bite of its fruit.”  No, the bible says, “that great dragon, the serpent of old, called Satan and the devil,” disguised as a serpent, called to her.  He, by deceiving lies, convinced her to eat of the fruit.

Another example is the flood.  God killed everyone but Noah and his family, who were righteous.  Why didn’t this eradicate sin?  Because Satan was still in the world polluting it with his evil plague. At the last supper with Jesus and his disciples the bible says that Satan entered into Judas and he went forth and betrayed Jesus.  Again Satan.  These are just a couple of arbitrary examples.  So, here is the final analysis.  Before the devil entered the garden of Eden Adam and Eve were without sin.  Satan brought in sin.

The bible says that when our Lord comes back He will do several things, but I want to focus on just two.  When He returns He will bind Satan and his demons and cast them into an abyss for a thousand years.  During this time our Lord will reign over the nations of the world from the Holy city and there will be no sin.  At the end of the thousand years Satan will be loosed and sin comes roaring back and the nations rage against the Holy city, but God will Himself intervene and destroy Satan and his followers forever.  So, here’s the obvious.  When Satan enters the world sin enters the world.  When Satan is taken out of the world sin leaves the world.

People are not our enemies!  Satan is the enemy!  We must get that from our heads into our hearts and stop treating people as if they were the enemy.  The symptoms of the great evil plague are sin and death.  When people do a bad thing it is because they are a victim of the plague.  They need help, not unforgiving condemnation, not criticism; they need someone to take them to the great Healer.

Listen to this good news!  You can be immunized against this plague of sin.  Jesus, the great Healer, can vaccinate you, immunizing you against the plagues symptoms of sin.  Think of those who have been immunized as medics, the church as a hospital and Jesus as the great Physician.  We as medics should be trying to convince victims to come to Jesus and be vaccinated with His precious blood, where upon they will be immunized by the Holy Spirit.

Now this immunization must be maintained.  That’s where the hospital, the Church, comes in.  Come together with the Body of Christ regularly to strengthen your immunization system.  Love, forgiveness, prayer and reading the bible.  Eph.6:11:   “Put on the whole armor of God, that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.”  Confess and repent the moment you find yourself symptomatic.  Don’t do anything that may quench the Holy Spirits immunizing work in you.  Hunger and thirst for our Lord Himself.  Think like Him, talk like Him, act like Him, dress modestly.  Worship Him!  I could on, but I think you get the point.  Take care of yourself first, then you will be an effective medic on the spiritual battlefield.

marshall warren                     

IF ONLY

Oh, the things I would change if only I had another chance.  Words spoken or left unspoken.  Wrong attitudes.  Sinful behavior.  My life has been all about me.  What I want.  I think.  What makes me feel good.  Lust of the eye, the lust of the flesh, and pride of life.  I am ashamed.

“Oh God, blot out my iniquities.  Create in me a clean heart and renew a right spirit in me.”  Oh Lord, You said that if I repented of my ways and turned to You, that my sins would be remembered no more.  You would cast them as far as the east is from the west. 

Oh, thank You Father that You became flesh in the Messiah Jesus.  You have given me another chance. He took my sins on Himself.  By His sacrifice, You took my shame, my guilt, and my punishment.  You have blotted them out and remember them no more.  How wonderful it is to be a child of the living God. 

If only everyone would have this wonderful experience.  

Kim Warren

 SALVATION
A word about salvation.  Because no human is good enough to enter the Kingdom of God, and I mean no one, it became necessary for God to make a way for us.  The alternative to Gods Kingdom is unthinkably hellish.  Therefore He doesn’t want anyone to suffer that reality.
God's way for us was for Him to become flesh in the man Jesus, the Messiah, who being without sin, bore the punishment for our sins; reconciling us to God.  Not only did Jesus die in our place, But He was also raised from the dead and now sits at the right hand of God continually interceding for us; covering all our sins past, present, and future with His innocent blood.
All God asks of us is to believe what I have just written, admit we’re not perfect and ask Jesus to cover us with His Blood.  Then be baptized in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.  Baptism is necessary to “fulfill all righteousness” and symbolizes being born again in Christ.  If we are sincere in our belief God will then indwell us with His Holy Spirit guaranteeing us as belonging to Him and give us the promise of resurrection, just as Jesus was, and eternal life in His Kingdom.
If we think we are a good person and don’t need help; we are greatly deceived.  Good is the enemy of perfect and God demands perfection, which can be obtained only by believing in Jesus as our Lord and Savior, for He is our perfection.
God bless you,
Marshall Warren   

Nature's Way

I had an experience the other day that caused me to think about the savagery of nature.  A male bear (boar) killed a fairly good sized cub in the backyard of a neighbor.  As is the bear's habit, he covered the dead cub to hide it and stayed with his kill to protect it. We couldn’t chase the old boar away, in fact, he had no fear of us at all.  There are children living nearby, so we had a problem.

As we stood by and watched him tear the cub apart and eat it, the decision was made that the bear had to be killed.  He was just too dangerous.  When wild animals lose their fear of humans they don’t become cute and friendly, they become dangerous.  

Eating one’s own kind in nature is not uncommon.  Nature is killing to live; there is one rule…survive!  By our standards, surviving in nature is savage; but for this adult bear, simply a necessity.

Wild animals rarely kill for fun.  There’s a good reason they don‘t.  The killing of any creature, regardless of the size differences, is dangerous.  The predator can’t afford an injury.   

I watched a dog I had hunt field mice.  One of them jumped at least a foot and latched on to the end of my dog's nose.  He yelped and shook his head violently until the mouse let go and went flying.  Dripping blood from the end of his nose he tucked his tail and trotted home. 

There are exceptions. I once lived in an area called the Callahan Divide, a rough mountainous region of west Texas.  In the last century, this was a big ranch country.  The descendants of one of the ranches broke it up into 50-acre tracts, creating a large subdivision.  Occasionally at night the family dogs would form packs and kill sheep and goats of the ranchers.  I have also witnessed them killing deer, just for fun.  I have seen documentaries saying domestic cats lead the world's list for predators.  In the above area quails and rabbits almost disappeared over a 25-year period.

Humans have always been hunter-gatherers and fishers.  Many peoples today still hunt and fish for survival.  In modern society, we have people that raise and kill animals for us.  Most people have lost touch with the reality that the meat they eat was an animal that someone killed for them.

Hunting for sport has been with us from antiquity.  “The poor kill to live, the rich live to kill.”  I was a professional hunter (PH) in Mozambique for a while.  People come to Africa from all over the world to hunt for fun.  Trophy hunters.  It’s a big business here in Alaska too.  I admit to having a problem with trophy hunting.  I was also responsible for anti-poaching on our 1,500,000 acre hunting concession in Mozambique.  I say this because the money raised by the controlled selling of wild animals to hunters is a major source of revenue to fight poaching.  The truth is poaching, not trophy hunting is what threatens African wildlife.
  There is no such thing as cannibalism or savagery in nature, just necessity. It is a mistake to attribute human characteristics to animals, because we are the true savages, killing without necessity.     

Marshall Warren

SHE

The day was beautiful, the day we met…the sky clear, the temperature just the right cool, with not a hint of wind.
I looked to my left and there she was, watching me. Our eyes met and locked.  Neither of us moved, she like a statue and I rooted like a tree.
Her eyes gave away nothing, no fear, no surprise, no assessment.  My eyes were the same as we watched each other, unblinking, waiting.  Two beings in an ageless relationship,  the most intimate of all relationships, life or death.
Neither of us would move until a decision was made. She was hunting, as I was. She for her family and me for mine.  We have been enemies, she and I, since our beginnings. The fleeting thought passed through my mind that it was to nice a day to die.  She caught my indecision and blinked in agreement.
As the light in my eyes softened she turned and started away in that stiff-legged trot wolves have.  After a few steps, she stopped, looked back at me with her yellow eyes and expressionless face, just long enough to tell me, “Enjoy the day, human.”

Marshall Warren         

Coast Guard station Juneau calling the F/V Infinity, over…..

I was hauling our shrimp pots, with my wife and a deckhand, on our fishing boat Infinity at the head of Tenakee inlet when; “Coast Guard station Juneau calling the Fishing Vessel Infinity, over” blared out of the deck speaker.  We had arrived from Sitka three days earlier, after a frustrating trip and late start for the shrimp opener.
On the run up, in the middle of Chatham Strait, my engine started vibrating badly.  I shut it down, leaving Carolyn on radar watch as we drifted, and went down into the engine room to check out the problem.  I had spent most of my working life flying jets. Jet engines just suck, squeeze and blow.  I knew how they worked, but these old 671 Detroit jimmies were something else.  I hollered up for Carolyn to start it up again.  Immediately I saw the problem.  A flywheel looking thing on the drive shaft at the front of the engine was wobbling badly.  Quickly I grabbed the manual shutoff and stopped the engine.  This was not good.
I went back up to the wheelhouse and started calling on channel 16 for anyone in our vicinity.  One of my sons answered.  We switched channels and he asked what was up?  I told him the problem and he said he was two hours behind me and would give me a tow into Tenakee Springs, which was both our destination.
The weather was fair and the tow was uneventful.  After tying up I went to a telephone that was on the dock and called the diesel mechanic in Sitka.  I explained the problem.  He called it a vibration isolator and said he would send me a new one by float plane asap.  As the shrimping season opened the next morning and only lasted fifteen days time was big money for me and he knew it.
The part arrived the next morning and it took me all day to repair the Jimmie, so we missed the opening day.  That night I ran up to the head of Tenakee inlet and anchored.  The other boats had a days start to stake out their areas, so I knew it would be hard to find a good bottom.  As it turned out we found a stretch of water just the right size for us and in a good area.  God is good.
On the afternoon of the third day the call came.  We finished hauling the string of pots and I stripped off my gloves and headed for the wheelhouse.  “Coast Guard station Juneau this is the F/V Infinity, over,”  I repeated the call.  “Roger Infinity, request you proceed to the nearest landline and call the Juneau Coast Guard station, over.”  “Roger Coast Guard Juneau, what’s up?”  “Infinity Juneau Coast Guard.  You have an urgent message.  That’s all I know, over.”  “Okay Juneau, we’re on our way.  ETA in an hour and a half.  Thank you, out.”
I looked around, Carolyn and our deckhand were standing behind me.  They had the same look on their faces that I had on mine.  Something was bad wrong.  We all three knew something was bad wrong.  There was no other explanation for this most unusual call.
We made the run back to Tenakee Springs in silence.  I suspect we were all praying.  I know I was.  It was a terrible situation.  Both our sons were fishing and our daughter lived in L.A.  I couldn’t bring myself to think it, but there it was.  If it isn’t my family then it has to be my deckhands.  How do you hope your family is okay and it is your deckhands family that is in trouble.  We looked at each other knowing what we were all thinking.
When we arrived at the dock one of my son’s and another young man that is as a son were waiting.  They had heard the call and had beaten us back to the dock and called the Coast Guard. Both had tears running down their faces.  We tied up in silence, with our emotions ragged, we all started to cry.  Finally, the boys said to my deckhand, “Your son has been lost at sea.  He was washed overboard in heavy weather out west last night and they couldn’t find him.  They’ve been searching for over twelve hours now.”
I wanted to yell, “Thank God it’s your family and not mine, but my heart was breaking as I looked at my deckhand.”  He said, “Somehow I knew it was my son.”  We all blubbered how sorry we were, but he knew that we were glad it wasn’t our family and understood. He went into the wheelhouse and came out with his sleeping bag and simply said, “Don’t wait for me.  I don’t know when I’ll be back.”  Then walked off into the rain forest.
Sorry, but relieved, we untied the boat in silence and headed back out to sea.  We had shrimp pots to run, a season to make…..A life to live.   

Marshall Warren

Misted

The other day I heard a noise in our carport.  Suspecting a bear I got my rifle and bear spray.  I opened the back door and sure enough, a bear was dragging a trash bag out of the carport.  I yelled at him, but the bear just looked at me and kept dragging the trash bag out into the yard.  He showed no fear.  As I tried to get close enough to spray him, about 15 feet, he would move away dragging the trash bag.  I got real aggressive, yelling and walking fast toward him.  He bowed up his back, hissed at me, picked up the bag and walked across the road into the woods, leaving a trail of trash.
I asked Carolyn, who was standing in the door watching, to bring me a trash bag.  As I followed the bear, I picked up the trash and caught up with him on the other side of the road.  He was just sitting there picking through the bag looking for something to eat.  I kept advancing on him trying to scare him away, but he would pick up the trash bag and move another 20 feet, sit down and start going through the bag again.
This went on for about 100 yards and by then I had all the trash in my bag, so I turned around and headed back to my house.  The bear followed me like a puppy dog.  I thought, “enough is enough,” so I got the bear spray ready, checked the wind, it was calm and sprayed.  He was no more than 15 feet away.  The orange mist shot out to about 10 feet and stopped.  The bear sat there looking at the mist.  Suddenly the orange mist reversed direction.  Before I could get out of the way it passed over me.
The effect wasn’t terrible, but my eyes were pouring tears, my nose was running a stream and burning right smart like.  Everything was a blur.  I danced around for what seemed like five minutes holding the trash bag, rifle and spray.  When I could finally see, the bear was still sitting there 15 feet away, patiently watching my antics.  I made my way through the woods to my neighbor’s yard with the bear right on my tail.  He, my neighbor, came running over yelling and waving.  The reinforcements were finally too much for the bear so he trotted off into woods.
Another bear had a story to tell his friends about the crazy carryings on of humans.  “All that,” the bear must have thought, “over a stupid bag of trash.”

Marshall Warren     

BEAR AND BIRDSHOT
It had been an unusual summer for us and the bears.  We had had a late frost in the spring causing the loss of the wild berry crop and also a poor salmon run in the river and creeks.  The bears depend on these food sources to fatten up for the long winter here in Southeast Alaska.  We have a large bear population here and they were hungry.  Because they were hungry they started expanding their search area, which brought them to our homes.  Anyone leaving food outside or failing to properly dispose of garbage became a target.  Overnight the word was out among the bears and here they came. We were seeing more bears in our yards than in recent memory.  Trouble and conflict were on the way.
Since August my grandchildren had been restricted to the house unless an armed adult was with them outside.  On August 26 I had to kill a bear that had chased a neighbor and his daughter into their house, then charged me when I came over and tried to run it off.  Some pets had been attacked as well. I had begun to see bears on my property almost daily. It seemed the whole community was having problems.
It isn’t unusual to see bears in the yard.  It happens every year.  Normally they just pass through and run as soon as they see you.  I don’t molest them and they don’t molest me or my property.  That year was different.  Hunger had caused them to lose their natural fear of humans.  That’s a bad situation for them and us.
It was about 9pm when I heard the shot.  It was close.  The next morning I checked with my neighbors and one had fired the shot.  A bear had climbed into his daughter's car to get some snack food damaging it.  I asked if he killed the bear?  No, he hadn’t killed it.  Unfortunately, he had shot it with birdshot.  The word was spread to all the neighbors we had a wounded bear on our hands.
Birdshot or even an air rifle causes festering sores and infection that can lead to a slow death.  An injured bear is a dangerous critter.  If a person can’t chase a dangerous bear away with noise or spray, then it’s better and more humane to kill it.
Over the next few days, bears broke into two other freezers, destroying the people's winter meat supply, and ripped the back wall out of a storage shed.  People were going to their outhouses armed.  The situation was becoming difficult.
Late one evening I got a call.  Another neighbor had come home and found a bear in his garage.  As he grabbed his 300 Winchester Magnum from behind his pickup seat the bear took off.  My neighbor fired a quick shot just as the bear entered the tree line.  He was certain he had hit the bear and wanted me to come over and help him look for it before it got dark.
I picked up my .458 loaded with 400gr. Barnes-x bullets and went next door to get my son and his dog to help track the bear.  We followed it into a dense spruce thicket.  By then we had to use our flashlights.  I picked up the bears eyes no more than twenty-five feet away.  Putting my crosshairs on him I snapped off a one-handed shot.  It was difficult, but it connected, putting the poor fellow out of his misery.
When we examined him we found birdshot in his shoulder and neck.  They must have been causing a lot of pain.  The 300 win mag had caused a nasty flesh wound.  My 400gr. Bullet had killed it instantly.  Some may think the .458 an overkill, but under those conditions I wanted to inflict maximum damage and the .458 Winchester Magnum did just that.
Since then we had a sow and her two cubs pay us a visit.  Our dog treed the cubs and sparred with the sow until my son called off the dog.  That gave the sow enough of a scare that she didn’t return.  I still saw bear signs around and wondered how many would survive the coming winter.
If we choose to live in the bush and share our lives with the animals we must be responsible neighbors to them.  Don’t attract them with citified practices.  Proper trash disposal is imperative.  Keep freezers in your house.  Don’t leave food in cars or hang suet bird feeders on your porch.  Burning food in a burn pit is like sending up smoke signals saying “Food!”  And above all don’t try and scare a bear away by injuring it.  The best way to get rid of a pesky bear is to remove all enticements.  Of course you can dump dog food on your neighbors property.  That always works.

Marshall Warren                 

HOW GREAT IS THAT LIGHT!

For 37 years I lived in darkness.  Yet I thought I could see just fine.  Then one day God called me and I was chosen.  The light of Christ opened my eyes and I began living in His light.  How wonderful is that light!  I hungered and thirsted for His righteousness.  I wanted to help others be delivered from darkness into His light.  That’s when I realized how much darkness hates Light.  I had an enemy! He came at me from every direction trying to put out the light of Christ in me.  Satan knows he can’t take the Light from me.  He is happy if he can trip me up and cause me to sin, so he can use me as an example to cause others to stumble.
I had cataract surgery about seven years ago.  After its removal, I was shocked at how bright everything looked.  I had no idea my vision was so affected, so dark.  It was nice to see the brightness again.  I was doing great, then last month the eye doctor said I had a cataract in my other eye, so I had cataract surgery again.  Wow!  I had no idea how dim my vision had become.  Sometimes Satan and his demons are like cataracts, they slowly dim the light until you trip and fall into a pit of darkness.
I am so thankful for surgeons that can remove cataracts, restoring the light to our eyes.  But I am so much more thankful for a loving, forgiving, praying body of Christ that can lift me out of that pit of darkness.  A people willing to wash my feet and clean my garments, restoring the true Light to my eyes.
“For while I was yet a sinner Christ died for me.”  He took my guilt and shame onto Himself and washed me in His blood.  Now, when I fall, he picks me up, blots out my sins, and they are remembered no more.
HOW GREAT IS THAT LIGHT!

Marshall Warren     

S O G
(Studies and Observation Group)
Chapter 1
S O G 1962
Okinawa
A suspected temporary POW compound was reported by an aircraft.  I was on the team to be sent in to recon the site.  At our briefing, we were told it would be a night insertion from altitude.  The brass had chosen an abandoned landing strip for the drop zone, as it was the only clear area near the site.  Pictures showed cultivation, a few huts, and a road.  Since we were to come and go undetected we were told to avoid those areas. We were also told to expect enemy patrols.
After landing we would conceal our parachutes and marshal at where an old road entered the airfield, then proceed to the coordinates of the suspected compound and do our “study and observation.”  We would return using a different route to the landing strip for a helicopter extraction at 0400 hrs.  Since this was to be an in and out operation we would travel light.  Just water, radio, ammo, frags, and smoke.  We were told to fall out at 1800 the next evening having had. (dinner)  A simple, straight forward exercise.  Should be fun.
We spent departure day studying the map, planning our route, washing all clothing and field gear with fresh water, showered the same and had no smokes.  Weapons were cleaned, inspected and oil removed.  All this was done to make us as odorless as possible.  At 1600 we drew ordinance, at 1700 ate our evening meal of rice and fish.  We put on our makeup and fell out at 1800, were inspected, then loaded a duce and a half truck and headed for the airfield.
By the time we got to Naha airbase, collected our parachutes and put them on, it was almost dark.  We took off heading out into the growing darkness over the China Sea and began our climb to cruising altitude.  Ceiling and visibility were unlimited, with no moon, a beautiful night for a high altitude low opening jump.  As we approached the drop zone the C-130 descended to 10,000 feet, our jump altitude. We checked equipment and the crew chief lowered the loading ramp.  Standing on the ramp looking into the darkness, as we waited for the green light, I thought about what I was doing.  Civilian life seemed so shallow and frivolous. I yelled, “Yes!” I was 21 years old and I owned it! We rechecked our altimeters and stopwatches.  “Green light!” The five of us dove out into the night.
I soon reached terminal velocity, the cool wind buffeted me.  I could barely make out the slightly darker area of ground that was the landing strip, our drop zone.  I watched my stopwatch and altimeter.  At 2500 feet I pulled my main and felt the opening shock. The harness dug in and my head whipped forward.  Then silence…. I gently swung beneath my canopy.
As I got closer to the ground I could see what appeared to be a  cleared circle.  I thought it was a potato patch. Using my risers I guided my parachute for it.  The air was cool and calm so I set up for a standing landing in the middle of the circle.  As my feet touched down I mentally complimented myself on my accuracy.  Exuberance suddenly changed to shock as I sank up to my chest in the muck.  My circle wasn’t a potato patch at all, but a honey bucket.  (Honey bucket:  a hole used to store human and animal waste to be used as fertilizer.)  At our rendezvous point, I was greeted with gags and “What the hell happened to you?  You smell like shit!” I replied with, “Odor camouflage. let’s move out.”
Leaving the landing strip we immediately entered the dense jungle.  I was miserable, but after an hour or so my clothes were crusted and I got used to the smell.  We came to the old road again.  It had curved around and now cut us off.  It had to be crossed.  I strained to see and listen, nothing.  Crossing the road in three strides I dropped out of sight in the jungle.  McComber, from Deer Lodge, Montana, was next.  He stepped out and was greeted by a yell from down the road.  He had been spotted.  Instantly Mac dove back into the jungle. I could hear them rapidly moving away as the patrol came running up the road.  As they looked for the spot Mac had entered the jungle one of them turned around and walked over to my side of the road.  Stopping two meters from me he sniffed the air, put his hand to his nose and walked back to the other side.  Then they cautiously moved into the dark jungle in pursuit.
Alone now I was determined to finish the mission.  As the stars crept across the night sky I crept through the jungle.  Two hours later I broke out.  Waist high saw grass ran to the coral shoreline of the China Sea about 600 meters away.  The shoreline curved to my left forming a shallow bay.  On the far side, maybe two klicks away, I could barely see a couple of dim lights.  That was my objective.
It was dark enough that I decided to stay outside the tree line in the saw grass so as to make better time.  Jogging along in the tall grass the ground suddenly disappeared.  I crashed heavily into the far side of a concrete drainage ditch.  My rifle and helmet went flying.  Rolling around in agony I felt sure my shins were broken.  Time passed and the pain subsided.  Feeling my legs I was much relieved to find nothing broken.  Searching blindly in the grass I recovered my rifle and helmet and began limping toward the dim lights.
Giving the place a good looking over I drew a diagram and made some notes.  Mission accomplished I began my painful walk back to the extraction point. Mac and the others were already there and were busy picking leeches off each other. I didn’t have any on me.   The Huey arrived right on time.  I popped smoke and as the Huey hovered we scrambled aboard amid flying debris.
Back at base I reported to the Platoon leader, Lt Tersek and Platoon Sergeant Amada.  I gave them my written report and briefed them on the mission as they held their noses and mumbled something about “good job.” I saluted Lt. Tersek, he reluctantly removed his hand from his nose and returned my salute.
In time my shins healed and my squad members moved back into their bunks over and next to mine.  I heard nothing more about the SOG mission. I think I should have gotten the Purple Heart for being “Stinked in Action.”

 Chapter 2
S O G 2013
Gustavus, Alaska

I told my grand kids about the Studies and Observation Group and suggested we form one and go exploring.  They loved the idea and roped in a couple of cousins.  So, SOG 2013, another mission.
I assembled my team, Observers 1st Class Jesse, Stephanie, Cody and Fisher.  “All right team,” I said in my best military voice, “we have a mission.  We are to move to the Jump Creek area, find a suitable location, establish a base camp and build a bridge across Jump Creek.”  I continued with the briefing, “Our departure area will be the end of Trudy Lane at 0900 hrs tomorrow.  Uniform will be for cold rainy weather.  Equipment to be full packs including all your camping gear, tents, sleeping bags, air mattress, if you have one, food for two days, hatchet, knives, etc. and etc.  Transportation to the DA will be by Mamaw’s minivan.  Any questions?  Good, let’s get started packing our gear.”
We left Trudy Lane at, well, close to 0900 hrs.  Leaving most of our gear in the van we went looking for an appropriate site for base camp.  We crossed the drainage ditch at what is now Martha’s house and followed the park line until it hit Jump Creek.  (Jesse had named this nameless creek “Jump Creek” because we had to jump it to go moose hunting out passed the tree farm.)  We then scouted up and down the creek until we found the perfect spot.  It was on a small peninsula formed by a sharp “U” of the creek.  A tree had fallen across the creek just downstream from our campsite making a great place to play.  Militarily speaking.
By this time I was tired.  Since my last SOG mission (over 50 years ago) my physical condition had deteriorated a little, so I sent the team back for the remainder of their gear and mine.  By noon all our gear was in place.  While the rest of us gathered wood Ob 1st Jesse started work on a fire.  Not an easy task in this land of wet wood, but he finally managed.  We all sat around the fire and had lunch.  No “C” rations here.
For the next couple of hours the kids, I mean my Studies and Observation Group, reconnoitered the area while I took a nap.  When I woke up I joined them on the other side of the creek.  They had found a neat open grassy area that was bathed in sunlight(the sky had cleared).  The eerie sounds of Snipes on the wing filled the air as we explored.  The field had several round pools about fifteen feet in diameter filled with crystal clear water.  The team was tempted to go swimming in one, but Ob 1st Fisher pointed out the squiggly little white worms on the bottom and they decided it was to cold to swim.  The team continued to study and observe for a while then went back to finish setting up camp.
We pitched our tents, stored our gear and began to get things organized.  Fixing up the campsite is the fun part.  Ob 1st Stephanie and Ob 1st Fisher said they were going to build our toilet facility, so they gathered up hatchet and shovel and moved out.  Ob 1st Jesse loves organizing the cooking area.  A place for everything.  He dug steps in the creek bank and made a little landing to stand on where we could do dishes or collect water.  This activity, along with more recon (goofing around), took up the rest of the afternoon.
By 1800 hrs we had a roaring fire going and a kettle of water boiling, so we gathered around it for dinner.  After saying a prayer we had pork and beans, vegetable and noodle cups(the kind you pour hot water in) and of course peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.  I also had a ham sandwich and topped the meal with a steaming cup of tea.
As the sun set and we watched a porcupine rustle by on the other side of the creek Ob 1st Fisher decided he had better go back home, he being our youngest member at seven years old, we understood.  Ob 1st Stephanie and Ob 1st Cody volunteered to escort him home.  The rest busied themselves with camp chores and I visited the outdoor privy.  Ob 1st Stephanie had done a good job.  The hole was neatly dug and well concealed with a spruce branch wall.  She had even driven a stick in the ground next to the hole for a toilet paper holder.  I later commended her on the Latrine construction.
It was just starting to get dark when Ob 1st Cody and Ob 1st Stephanie got back.  I had begun to worry, we had seen bear signs so was relieved to see them.  We sat around the fire talking until 2100.  We were all tired so off to our tents we went.  I had put a tarp under my tent to protect me from the damp moss.  The tent was small so I put my pack outside under the tent fly.
I don’t know what time it started, but it poured.  My little tent was warm and dry, but unfortunately the tarp under the tent filled with water.  It was like sleeping on a water bed.  I squished my way through the night.  Next morning it was still lightly raining.  My pack was sitting in three inches of water, everything in it was soaked.  I had forgotten how much fun camping was. A fire was out of the question so I got out my one burner Coleman camp stove and boiled water for tea.  Crouching under a spruce tree Ob 1st Jesse made watery pancake mix and one pancake at a time we had a pancake breakfast followed by bacon.  It tasted wonderful!
By the time we finished cleaning up the rain had stopped, well almost.  After much work and coaxing Ob 1st Jesse got a smoky little fire going.  We all helped find burnable dead branches and after a while, by golly, we had a real fire.  That cheered us all up.  Ob 1st Jesse, in good spirit now, made a running jump across the creek.  That started it.  We all started jumping back and forth across the creek.  After that passed we hiked up the creek beyond where we had been before.  We found another “perfect” spot for a campsite.  All of us agreed, next time we would camp there. By lunchtime, I was beat.  The building of the bridge would have to wait for another SOG mission. 
And in fact we did go back and camp at the new site and build the bridge. I’m looking forward to adding great grand children to the team.  SOG’s forever!
   
Marshall Warren           

BECALMED

Here I sit becalmed, my sails are slack, the rudder dead in my hand.  What purpose I cry, as I drift on a windless sea looking for land.

The current slowly carries me along to who knows where.  I scan the horizon again, nothing is there.

Only yesterday, or was it the day before, a fair wind was blowing and I could see the shore.

When did it quit, I don’t even know?  I wasn’t aware when it ceased to blow.

Well, I’ll close for now, since I don’t know where I’m going, and finish when the wind again starts to blowing.

Marshall Warren

BEWARE AMERICA!

"And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of GOD, and GOD delivered them into the hand of the Philistines forty years."

Without GOD life is a pointless journey to destruction.  Wake up and live!  We are created beings and deeply loved by our creator, GOD.  He became flesh and took the punishment for our sins.  Remember, all have sinned and are in need of reconciliation with GOD.  By His blood, you have been redeemed.  Only believe in the Messiah Jesus, who was GOD in the flesh and suffered death that we may live.

Marshall Warren

DIFFERENCES

Differences in religion, politics, race, age, etc. are just differences. There is no reason for them to be

divisive. In fact, our differences should be a source of strength, like sand, gravel and cement make concrete. That is unless you are divisive. Then you don't really need an excuse. For you dividing never ends.

Marshall Warren

MY BIBLE

I believe what the Bible says to be the truth. It speaks to me concerning God's directions on how I am to live my life. I will listen to what it says and I will apply God's teaching into my life.

Marshall Warren

WE HAVE THE SICKNESS, GIVE US THE CURE.

If you were to ask me how to change the world, I could answer in two words “Change yourself.”  So the real question is “How to change ourselves?”  For me, it began with looking at society, which was a reflection of me, and admitting it had gone badly wrong.  Oh, you don’t agree?  Well, then you are the problem.  Just like I was.  Notice I no longer consider myself part of the problem. That’s because I have discovered the solution.  I’ll be specific about what the problem is and how to remedy it.

The Problem
The problem is two-part. 1)  Where Godlessness exists there is no foundation to base life on.  People are blown about by every whim with no boundaries to their perverted desires.  They are a rebellious people calling evil good and good evil. They are the enemies of a family-based society.  Not being satisfied with simply holding to their own unbelief they are determined to attack and destroy the beliefs of others.  Look at the USA.  Divorce, abortion, adultery, homosexuality, and fornication are the norm under Godlessness.  2)  Religious people having a form of Godliness.  “But know this, that in the last days perilous times will come:  For men will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful, unholy, unloving, unforgiving, slanderers, without self-control, brutal, despisers of God, traitors, headstrong, haughty, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, having a form of Godliness but denying its power.”  “…always learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”  These two groups are responsible for the majority of our social ills.

The Solution
The solution has been staring us in the face for two thousand years.  Simply read the New Testament and do what it says.  If you don’t know what the New Testament is it is in the Christian Bible.  Last part.  Most people that criticize Christianity have never read the New Testament.  Instead, they look at how people that say they are Christians act and judge by their misconduct.  Remember, “having a form of Godliness, but denying its power.” Unfortunately, there are a lot more people that say they are Christians and go to church than there really are.  Read how GOD says we Christians who, by His power and guidance, are able to live.

If you aren’t up to reading the whole thing just read the Gospel of Matthew and the Book of Ephesians.  They’re both in the New Testament.  I defy anyone to find anything wrong with what it says.  Here are some examples.  The New Testament says that some of the benefits of being a child of God through belief in Jesus the Messiah are “love, joy, peace, patience, gentleness, goodness, kindness, faith and self-control.”  Another example is to love your neighbors as yourself and put their needs before your own.  How about, love your enemy.  If he strikes you on one cheek turn to him the other.  Jesus himself taught “Blessed are the poor in spirit.  Blessed are those who mourn.  Blessed are the meek.  Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness.  Blessed are the merciful.  Blessed are the pure in heart.  Blessed are the peacemakers.  Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness sake.”  How can anyone possibly find fault with such teaching?

So, I encourage you to seek out someone who is striving to be a living example of a Christian and ask him or her to tell you how to become a child of GOD through Jesus “the way, the truth, and the life.”

Marshall Warren

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT LIFE

Introduction

This essay is not about religion, but the human condition.  I, the author, am neither scientist nor theologian, therefore I am simply writing some thoughts about life as I see it.

Part 1 Evolution

I’ve been thinking again.  This time I’ve been thinking about life.  Sometimes thinking leads me into strange places, so bear with me while I see where this goes.

Now I’m just thinking about regular old flesh and blood, fish and fowl, bark and sap life.  Of these I consider myself to be at the top of the life forms.  Therefore I think everything on this planet is subject to my needs or wants.  Here is where I get into trouble.  Assuming all life started by chance and I am the product of evolutionary development, what kind of creature does that make me?  I don't see myself as some highly developed life form sitting on an ivory tower.  I’m sitting on a gigantic pile of bones.  I have killed my way to the top.  I have killed everything that threatened my developmental path.  I killed for food, killed off others of similar species and killed for sport. I have killed to impose my will on others and in times passed I have sacrificed(killed) my own kind for the greater good.  I do this because I think my right to live supersedes the rights of other living creatures.

If all life is the product of an evolutionary process then why is one life form of more value than another?  Truth is it isn’t.  In this system, all life is existing and evolving by living off one another.  In the grand scheme of things, I have no more right to exist than does a mouse.  The evolutionary process that put my species at the top of the list was simply chance.  In fact, if you look at the earth from the perspective of space/time I am a carbon-based infestation destroying its host planet.  That makes me the most undesirable of all life forms.

On the other hand, I may say all life exists at the expense of something else, just like I can’t produce energy without fuel, life is divided between predator and prey.  Well, I’ve never seen an impala stand there and let a lion walk up to kill and eat it.  That impala doesn’t think the lion has a right to eat him. So where does this leave me?  Do I just accept the fact that I am part of a chance system in this vast universe that exists by perpetually killing and being killed? 

Perhaps I’m being too harsh.  Perhaps nature is a happily revolving circle of life.  The grass grows so the impala can eat it, so the lion can eat the impala.  Then, in turn, the lion, in the fullness of years dies, as do the trees and grasses replenishing the soil so new grass and trees can grow for the impala to eat, so the lion can…  Hold on. There is no point in my trying to sugar coat it.  The evolutionary system is based on the self-sustaining principal of kill to live another day.  Knowing full well that I am only postponing the inevitable I will continue to kill until my last breath.  That is how the system works.  There is no big picture. It is simply a monstrous pointless circle of death!   

Part 2 Creation

Wait a minute.  I need to take a deep breath and count to ten. Maybe I’m overlooking something. What if there is more to life than meets the eye?  I mean, what if there is an unseen spiritual realm of intelligent beings?  What if creation wasn’t a chance happening, but the work of a creator?  A Creator with a plan. Could it be I didn’t evolve but was created for a specific purpose?  And that something went terribly wrong producing the monstrous world I live in.  Could this be where I got my sense of right and wrong?

In Darwin’s theory of evolution, there is no built-in value system of right and wrong.  It’s simply survival of the fittest.  So now I have to address the issue of where did I come up with a value system.  The idea that I have evolved into a higher order of life form that has come to realize there are a right and wrong is baloney. All I have become is a more perfect killer.  I have learned better ways, through medicine and food production, to sustain my species, and developed better means of killing.  All I have to do is look back over the last two hundred years to see that.

A by-product of my lofty life form is the ability to disassociate myself from the killing.  Other people do my killing for me while I live in blissful denial.  For my food, I have slaughterhouses (livestock), broiler houses (chickens and turkeys), and butchers to cut up the meat.  Commercial fishermen and processing plants provide me with seafood.  For people killing I have the police to protect me and my stuff and the military, of course, to enforce my national will on other peoples.  And because everyone is like me I have to use the military to keep others from forcing their will on me.  Oh, what a happy world I live in.

I like the phrase “it outta been different.”  Well, maybe it was different, “in the beginning.”  I like that phrase too.  The only source I am personally aware of for the theory of creation is the biblical account.  “In the beginning God created”.  God being my word for an unseen all-powerful intelligent being that has a plan.

Part 3 The Plan

Now bear with me as I’m no bible scholar and since God is beyond my understanding and the bible says God can do everything, my views are very limited, as was Darwin’s and his theories.

Basically, as I understand it, the plan goes like this.  In the spiritual realm, God is eternal and all beings were created by God.  At some point, God decided He wanted to create a physical world with physical life on it.  For the purpose of this discussion, I’ll limit His creation to the earth.  So, over a period of time, God did just that.  Created the earth, water,  light, and even time, then covered it with all types of vegetation that were capable of reproducing after its own kind.  Then God created animals, fish, and fowl.  And made them able to reproduce after their own kind.  The bible refers to a Garden of (in) Eden as the center of all this.  God created the plants as food for every living thing.  (Presumably, lions ate grass like bears do today.  There were no predators.)  Now, God created this paradise by speaking it into existence. Before I think, “What a fairy tale,” I have to admit the theory of evolution, that is, in the beginning, there was nothing and somehow I evolved from nothing, is pretty far fetched too.

The purpose of this paradise was to be home to the people God wanted to create.  People to be objects of Gods love and fellowship.  Not unlike our desire for children.  So, God created a first man and woman in “His own image” and told them to be “fruitful and multiply.” God told them to tend the garden and eat freely of all the fruits and vegetables. (They were vegans)  All, that is, except for one tree.  Uh oh, what’s up with that.

It seems all was not well in God’s spiritual kingdom.  There was a usurper named Lucifer, the fairest of all God’s created beings, that began to think of himself as better than God.  Lucifer began to undermine God's authority and recruit followers.  He wanted to overthrow God. Lucifer wanted to take over the rule of all of God's kingdom and creation.  And he wanted Adam and Eve to worship him. (And all future people.)  We witness here the birth of good and evil.  God is loving and good, while Lucifer being prideful and self-serving, evil.

So, what’s with the tree.  Well, it seems the fruit of the tree held the knowledge of good and evil that had erupted in God's kingdom.  So God says “You may eat of every tree in the garden except this particular tree.  If you do eat from it you will die.”  Of course, I don’t know if the fruit of the tree actually held hidden knowledge.  However, the act of them eating the fruit would be an act of disobedience and would open a floodgate of evil into them.  Lucifer, knowing this, enticed Eve to disobey God and eat from the tree.  Bingo, she was filled with the knowledge of good and evil.  And just as Lucifer had said, she didn’t drop dead.  Instead, she was instantly full of herself.  “I don’t have to obey anyone.  I can do as I please,” she must have thought.  She held life and death in her hands.  She felt like a God!  What she didn’t know was that act of disobedience forfeited her eternal life.  “You shall surely die.”  And cut her off from spiritual fellowship with God.  At this point, she was not unlike the other animal's God created.

Well, Adam went looking for Eve and found her, all aglow, standing by the tree.  She then enticed Adam to take a bite of the fruit.  Now, this isn’t biblical, but I think that after Adam ate of the fruit he looked at Eve standing there naked and thought, “WOW!”  It’s been downhill ever since.

Realizing now that they were naked Adam and Eve made aprons for themselves out of leaves and hid from God.  Of course, being God, He knew what they had done and was extremely disappointed with them.  God kicked them out of the Garden and they took their evil side with them.  Then God cursed His creation.  Now it was weeds in the garden, predator, and prey and through Cain, their son, I learned how to kill.

The battle between Lucifer and God intensified until finally Lucifer and his followers were cast out of God's spiritual kingdom down to earth.  The bible says, “Woe to the inhabitants of the earth.  That great serpent Satan (Lucifer) has been cast down.”  The bible says he took a third of the angels with him.(Demons)  In Satan’s fierce anger at being cast out of heaven, he and his demons are like “roaring lions looking to whom they may destroy.”  So, according to the Bible, Lucifer (Satan) and the evil he introduced is responsible for this stinking mess.  Not chance and evolution.

Adam and Eve brought the knowledge of good as well as evil into my consciousness.  That is the reason for the dichotomy.  I have to kill to live, but I hate it.  Back to my earlier question, “So, where does this leave me?”  Am I stuck in a world filled with evil, driven by my own good/evil desires?  Is there no hope?

Part 4 Deliverance

   In the generations after Adam and Eve left the Garden things got really bad.  Violence and evil finally reached a point that God “repented” of making man.  On all the earth there was only one family that held to goodness.  To make a long story short God destroyed everyone on the earth except Noah and his family.

Noah and his family then repopulated the earth.  More generations passed and of course, mankind was in a mess again.  Again, one man, Abraham found favor with God.  God was so pleased with Abraham that He promised him his descendants, through his son Issac, would be many and that He God would bless them and establish them as His chosen people.  God told Abraham all the land, that became Israel, would belong to his descendants forever.

So, over the centuries God nurtured Abraham's descendants and created a people out of them, the Hebrew people.  Most everyone knows the story of Moses and how God lead him and the Hebrew people out of Egypt into what became the land of Israel.

The centuries rocked along and Israel waxed and waned in God’s favor while the rest of the world continued to kill and be killed.  At some point, the Hebrew people, because of their identification as Judeans, began to be called Jews.  In time the people of the bible became divided into Jews and gentiles.  In other words the Jews, God’s chosen people, and everyone else.  By now the situation in Israel was really looking grim.  They were under Roman rule and hating it.   The situation looked hopeless for both the Jews and gentiles.  Now even though God had kept His promise to Abraham, that the Jews would remain His chosen people, God never the less loved the gentiles just as much.  They were, after all, His creation too.

Since God is all-knowing.  None of this caught Him by surprise.  Before the foundation of the world, God had a plan.  A plan to deliver both groups from bondage to evil (sin), which leads to eternal death (“you shall surely die”) and reconcile the whole world to Himself.

Part 5 Messiah

For more than a millennium God had spoken to Israel through prophets.  From the beginning there had been a thread of hope, the promise of a Messiah(Savior), God would send.  Someone to deliver them from the mess their world was in.  Well, God finally did.  The bible says about two thousand years ago God became flesh in the miraculous birth of Jesus.  “For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believed in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

From the earliest times, the man understood that there was no forgiveness without the shedding of blood.  God, having put this knowledge in their spiritual DNA sent His "only begotten son" Jesus, the Christ, who being completely sinless, would be God's blood sacrifice for my sins and be killed instead of me.  The love of God was poured out on mankind in this great sacrificial act to redeem God's creation, me and you.

God said that if I admitted my sinfulness, believed that Jesus died for my sins and that He rose from the dead defeating death, I would be forgiven.  And in addition, I would be born again by the indwelling power of God's Holy Spirit, thus giving me eternal life.

The Bible further states that at some point in the future Jesus will return and resurrecting me, I will join Him.  At that time Satan and his followers will be bound for one thousand years awaiting final judgment and the destruction of the old cursed world. God will then create a  “New heaven and a new earth” where there is no sin or death (predator and prey) and I will live in an eternal “Garden of Eden” with God and all those who believed.

Well, that's how I understand the two theories.  Perhaps if I were Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim or some other persuasion I would be more broad-minded, but since I'm not I'm limited to Evolution or Creationism.  After due consideration, I feel I must recommend the latter.  Creationism is a no-lose option.

  Marshall Kimbrough-Warren

IT'S A MYSTERY TO ME.....

It's a mystery to me why God is rejected because of the conduct of people.  Jesus and His Apostles taught to love your neighbor as yourself.  To treat others as you would have them treat you.  When an enemy slaps you turn the other cheek.  If he is hungry feed him, thirsty give him drink.  If he commands you to carry his burden a mile, carry it two. Jesus taught if you have angry thoughts toward someone you have committed murder in your heart.  If lustful thoughts you have committed adultery in your heart.

What is the down side of this.  Why can anyone condemn such attitudes.  It's a mystery to me.

Marshall Warren