About Me

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Born in the Southern USA to a traditional family, my views tend to be both traditional and conservative. I am a Christian by family background and a follower of Jesus Christ by personal choice.

I flunked out of one school (Georgia Tech - Mechanical Engineering), graduated from another(Middle Tennessee State University - Political science) and completed the course work for a Masters degree at another( University of Tennessee - Political Science). This experience taught me a valuable lesson. Enjoy what you are doing or you will not do well at it. I wish I had taken that lesson to heart early on. 

 Full time work has included high school teacher and coach, industrial engineer, life insurance sales, stock broker, business owner, insurance brokerage department head, real estate and retail. Part time work has been as a part time local pastor for two rural churches in Middle Tennessee.

"View From the Fall" is my attempt to pass on some of the wisdom learned from my life experiences. It also attempts to fill a void I feel in my own family experience. I know very little about my own father and mother or any of my grandparents. I would love to know their thoughts and advice as well as their historic information. The "View.." is written so that my grandchildren do not have a similar void in their family experience.

"I Believe" is both a personal blog as well as one attempting to pass on my religious views to my descendants. On the personal side, I need to explore my faith more completely. I can carry myself well in a good religious discussion but writing establishes a base line to which others can hold me accountable. 

Spiritually, I was raised and spent most of my early years in the United Methodist Church. I was christened  as a baby, and latter baptized by sprinkling as a young 10 years old in the Presbyterian Church. Currently, my wife and I attend a Southern Baptist Church. In February, 2011, I was baptized by immersion so that I could pursue my faith more fully in that Church.  It's a long story I will gladly share but not in this blog. 

As a United Methodist, I taught Sunday school for twenty years to a group of young adults.  At the end of that time, I began working as a part time Pastor in five small rural Methodist Churches in Middle Tennessee. I was a pretty good pulpit preacher but a lousy  administrator, hated paperwork and reports, and an okay pastor to my congregations. Because of the distance and the time commitment, I could not visit as much as I should and did very little in evangelism. My greatest moment came when I baptized my brother who was dying of cancer. Perhaps, God lead me to be a part time pastor for that single moment when a dying man was saved from an life separated eternally from The Father's presence.

WHY THIS BLOG?

Born and raised in the Bible Belt, it never occurred to me that someone might not believe in  God and Jesus. They might not believe in Jesus, surely, they believed in God. And then I went into the world and met other people.

Many non-Christians say, "If Christians can’t agree, then why should I believe them? Christianity has hundreds of closely held positions of various tenants of the faith. Is baptism necessary, what form should baptism take, should women be allowed to lead a congregation of worshipers, what about musical instruments in worship, which translation of the Bible is the “true” word of God, what is the nature of God, should the Bible be read literally, is the earth only 5000 years old, were Adam and Eve real people, and on and on. No wonder there is confusion.

I have many of these same questions. So I wanted to explore just what it is that I do believe. What are that things about which I have no questions? What are the things that logic, facts, threats or any other forces can not change? This blog will look into this very personal question.

I am also writing for my grandchildren and their grandchildren. It will be interesting for them to know what their ancestors believed and compare the beliefs to their current time. I love you all in advance.

Hopefully, as you read this blog it will lead to you asking yourself, “What do I believe?” In the final analysis, your actions will be determined by what you truly believe and not what you profess to believe. It is important to know what you believe and why! God Bless you on your journey.

WRITING THIS BLOG HAS BEEN MORE THAN I EXPECTED!

Blogging about my Christianity has forced me to think; think about what I believe and dig deeper than I have ever done before. God works in mysterious ways. He has both humbled me and caused me to begin developing a deeper and stronger faith.

When I started this blog in July, 2010, I made a personal commitment to read more and study more about Christianity. I always considered myself fairly well read and knowledgeable about my Christianity. Additionally, I considered myself a pretty good writer. This experience has been very humbling. I found quickly I was neither well read nor knowledgeable about my faith.  I had surface knowledge but the authors of my study materials dug well below the surface and forced me to go deeper into my beliefs. Additionally, they are significantly more eloquent than I in presenting their thoughts. With that said, I press on, as much for my benefit as for any others.

The views expressed in the blog are my own. If I reprint any author's material, it will be properly noted.


Random Addendum

11/24/2010 You remember the story of God appearing to Moses in a Burning Bush? Are you like me and wish God would appear in a Burning Bush to tell you what to do? I have been struggling with this Blog. Not in writing it but whether I should be writing it. When you are honestly trying to do what God wants, it is easy, at least for me, to slip into the ego trap of thinking, "I am doing God's work." And, of course, that is the wrong reasons.



Well, I had a relatively small burning bush recently, maybe just a burning blade of grass, but you take signs were you find them.  At the store, I had a customer who is a Christian writer and lecturer.  Like a fledging song writer pitching a song, I asked her to visit my site.  "I would appreciate your comments and recommendations." She was very gracious and said she would.  That evening, I opened the statistics for the blog and found 4 visitors, one of whom spent 26 minutes on the Blog; the most popular page among all visitors this week was "Verses to Ponder". There were two additional visitors from Russia. And one visitor from California was a repeat visitor.  But the  gasoline on my burning grass blade flame were two rather lengthy comments on two separate posts. Thank you visitors from Russia, and the other countries over the past months; thank you my visitor from California; thank you for my Anonymous reader!

11/4/2010 Still pondering my hesitation to write because of feeling the writing is for the wrong reasons, ie to satisfy my ego.  Talked to my brother.  He observed that ego is part of what makes us male.  Most, if not all men have a strong ego and having it is not necessarily bad unless it expands to arrogance.


I opened the blog this morning and went to the statistics. Today, there were 31 page views!  This week there have been visitors from Russia (8), China (2), Poland (8), and South Korea (7) and United States (67).  A good many from the US are my page views as I write and re-write pages, but not all.  The most viewed page was "Bible Verses to Ponder".  I can't help but wonder (hope) if God is encouraging me to continue.

11/1/10 Over the past few weeks, I have been thinking about my reasons for writing this blog. The trigger for this line of thought  was a comment made by a friend of mine to the affect that I was dong this for my ego more than anything else. In retrospect, there may be more than a kernel of truth in his observation.  I regularly go to the blog and check the statistics to see how many, if any, have logged onto the site.  I feel a slight tinge of pride when someone has logged on and especially if someone from a foreign country has visited. I get few compliments or comments on the site and honestly feel a bit depressed about it.


As I think back over my life, I have enjoyed those moments when I was the center of attention. Teaching Sunday School or preaching or participating in a speech contest were always enjoyable. Now days, those things are not available to me but writing is available and I am not getting the same response and thus my depression over the writing.  I don't even have any comments from my wife, if she has ever even read these posts.

Now I am beginning to whine.  No matter, no one will read it except me!

07/08/2020 Ten years later, I am still writing! The articles written for this blog over the years are the basis for the book.  A reference to the book, Dare To Doubt, is on the front page. It looks like I will have to publish it myself as it is probably not good enough for a traditional book publisher. Nevertheless, I press on still wondering if I am being driven by ego or the hand of God. I pray it is the latter.



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