Life Doesn’t Revolve Around Me Anymore, and I’m Okay With That!

My wife and I were very excited to find out that we were going to have a child! It was 10 September of 2001, as I remember it- the day before the infamous World Trade Center terrorist attacks. That’s another story, beyond the scope of this piece, but worth noting. We had found out that we were expecting! Before this time, we were treating our Australian cattle dog, Mr. Moo, as our child, as some folks do. During that time, Aja and I would dream together and move about, hiking and swimming or going sledding- in the winter, or taking road trips whenever we had the money and inclination to do so. It was mostly a carefree time.Then the little boy came.

Now, I have always wanted to have children. I made a wonderful older brother (so says my mother) and was able to look after my siblings, six of them, from an early age. I also enjoyed looking after my baby cousins while I was growing up. I thought,”I’ll make a great dad some day.” One time when one of my cousins was a toddler, she was sick, so I went with her mother, Vikki, to the ER, to get baby Alli checked out. The nurse said,”She’s gonna be fine, Dad.” Vikki and I laughed because I was maybe 17. Years old and Vikki was some ten years my senior. At the same time, the thought stayed with me that it would make me proud to be a father and to raise children of my own. I thought that growing up as an eldest brother and helpful cousin would have well prepared me for the role of father. I never really took into account the fact that I could wait out any difficulty with either my little cousins or my siblings, long enough for their parents to get home, when trouble would arise. Well, I would learn that being an actual parent is way, way different.

As soon as little Isaiah was born, I was so happy. He was so tiny, and his initial crying was so pitiful and cute. I held him and hogged him all to myself whenever I could. I loved to run my finger over his little pink toes. He was just so adorable and his diapers didn’t have an odor yet; and they were like little raviolis!!!I won’t get too in depth with the diaper odor. But it came eventually.

When we brought Isaiah home, all the sweet little bundle wanted to do was sleep… when it was daytime. “Let him SLEEP, Roy!” Aja would scold. I would gaze into his little baby, adorable face! I would adore this teeny person wrapped in his teensy blanket for hours at a time, okay it seemed like hours. Then it was time for bed at night, and Aja and I would go to bed. We all slept through the night , so peacefully, so soundly. NOT! Isaiah was like a little fire siren. “AWAAAAAHAWAAHHHHHH!” He would wail.I thought, “Man alive, does this kid ever stop crying?” Eventually, I would invent something that I still call”Rootin Tootin’ Time”. This is how I learned to get the most out of our awake time at night. I would take Isaiah from the bassinet, and carry him to the living room to watch either “The Andy Griffith Show”, or the film, “Red River” with John Wayne(both on DVD, as we did not and still do not watch TV per se, but use digital or video means to view. ) We watched the Ma & Pa Kettle films a lot in those days, old fashioned shows that still prized old time values. I fed Isaiah a bottle of prepared breast milk, and rock him to sleep in my comfy chair, so Aja would not have to be the only one who got up with him at night. I sometimes did not return to my bed, and Aja wold sense that, and come to take the baby from my limp arms. I sort of miss those days. We’ve done it six times since then, by having more little ones. It’s unique each time, but we always use some similar principles, of course.

At first, I was shocked that Isaiah was a conformist in my domain, my own home! It was a real adjustment for me, a trial by fire and a hurdle! I have worked jobs and have done things to keep my family strong that I may never have done before I had children. I can tell you this: no sacrifice has been too great since the day I held my first son, Isaiah, in my arms. I can see now, that the family that my wife, Aja, and I have begun to raise, is greater than the sum of its parts, and I can see now that it is worth it. I want them to be physically and spiritually cared for. It’s okay if I don’t get all the ME time that I once felt so entitled to. I’m involved in something far more valuable, and it’s only just begun.

I thank God that He has chosen to give this blessing and great responsibility. May we take this seriously and do it as unto the Lord and for His glory.

Amen!

I Dream Deeply of Homesteading

I still receive the little newsletter/magazine from No Greater Joy Ministries, a ministry of Michael and Debi Pearl. This is a Christian ministry that just has an earthy feel to it. I believe that Michael Pearl sounds a lot like Uncle Jesse from the Dukes of Hazzard. I don’t agree with all of his theology, but he is a Christ follower and I believe he is saved. Having said this, I have been an avid reader of the plain, rubber – meets -the road, practical life stuff that I can find in this little free magazine.

One day whilst reading the magazine I came across this article by an Erin Harrison, a former worldly girl that decided to set herself apart for Christ. She described how she and her husband  had desired to live a simple lifestyle in which to raise their children. I was so excited to read this because that is exactly my heartfelt desire (ever since I became a Christian) for my family. At the bottom of her article, she left information for joining her new (at the time) “Homestead Community Post” and I joined within three days, I suppose it was. I was warmly welcomed and Mrs. Harrison interacted with me directly. I blogged some over there for some time until I began to need to do more physical stuff on my property, and to do more than just write about it. There are just all kinds of old – fashioned people on the forum there. The forum was pretty to view and a pleasure to post on. One could learn almost anything about Homesteading there. I loved to see all the farm pics. I posted many myself, but mostly of my kids chasing chickens.  I had the best time with my wife as we talked about homesteading and living a simple lifestyle, and possibly even taking on a plain, anabaptist lifestyle, as we are baptists, and we adore the Amish and Mennonites for their agrarian lifestyles, as well as their interesting dress. We thought that maybe doing an overhaul on ourselves in every way would be the best way to change for Christ. I even thought about becoming a Quaker because of the more open theological underpinnings so I would not necessarily have to subscribe to new understandings of who God is. As a baptist and Bible believer, I want to  stay true to my convictions, even though I might borrow a black pair of pants, hat, one or two suspenders, a 4 inch brimmed straw hat, and some plain black shoes from anabaptist tradition for the sake of being set apart. I almost had a hard time seeing my family taking on an agrarian lifestyle without first becoming Amish! Sounds kinda dumb right?  It’s not that I want to cause my family to sacrifice all comforts in order to cling to some vestige of a time past that is not even a tradition that I was raised in. My family had a small subsistence farm when I was growing up. I and six other children assisted with chickens and tending to the garden together, but we still led otherwise 90s children’s lives with “Saved By The Bell” (remember that show?) and Super Nintendo( after we had grown bored of NES and Atari) and when my parents weren’t around to hear it, I liked to listen to  Nirvana, Pearl Jam, and AC/DC, ( but they really hated the bumpin’ sounds of DJ Jazz Jeff & the Fresh Prince and Dad lovingly called it jungle music).No these bands do not all fall into the same category, obviously, but I listened to them more or less against Mom and Dad’s wishes.  Yes, we behaved like nearly every other kids our age and had the same vices. (Even when I was a child, going to VBS every summer, the family that ran the Vacation Bible School program was a family of farmers and the classes were held in the equipment shed!! It was a big metal hoop building. Yes, farmers and Bibles went together, I thought, think, and will think, I suppose.)

As a boy, I recognized that I wanted something wholesome that somehow escaped me in that I couldn’t put my finger on just then. I used to watch a show called Neon Rider in which a man who owned a ranch, took in troubled kids.  My dad always liked that idea of taking in struggling kids (he and my mother had taken in my father’s sister’s children, to keep them out of the system) but wanted to help more children. It was an honorable idea. The desire to be close to the land was strong in my father. He loved to hunt and fish and to camp. He loved to take the old tractor out into the woods so he could cut wood all day and we could stack wood all day. We’d load and offload while he would run the chainsaw. He loved working and being outside. I guess it rubbed off on me.But I never got serious about it. Now I am not sure that I am called to do that, but I always enjoyed the way the man in the show, played by actor Winston Reckert,  used work on the ranch as a healing salve for the troubled teens that stayed on his ranch. On the show, however, there was always some sort of trouble and the man was always trying to protect the kids from gangs and other crazies. Hey! You gotta keep the show on the air, you know. Anyhow, I have found that this type of hard work is very rewarding, and that this is the type of thing that we my ancestors would have been doing to survive.  I see that I should have paid more attention when my parents tried to teach me things about life, especially in learning the old ways.

Mom used to can veggies and fruit every year. We would gather the vegetables and fruit and my mom would keep us out of the kitchen as she and grandma and maybe a kid or two, would work as fast and as safely as possible. If we would have run in and out, Mom warned, the jars would fail to seal, and might also break, if the cold air and wind would come into the kitchen area.

I did not give it the attention that it probably deserved at the time. It wasn’t until I became a believer in Jesus Christ that I became more interested in living a more agrarian lifestyle. But somehow, we haven’t totally realized how our idea of Homesteading and being close to the land. We haven’t yet found a way to quit my job so far. Neither have we been able to purchase a suitable piece of land so that we might get some livestock- other- than- chickens. We have not been able to do any of the pioneer things that i desire. I’m lucky to stay away form the social media and email. I struggle to keep a Christ centered focus in so many areas that it hardly surprises me when I haven’t prayed or read scripture for a couple days or a week at a time. Let  alone adhering  to a worldview that puts agrarianism to the fore along with growing a beard and having daughters and a wife who cover and wear pinafores and sons who have mustache- less beards and Buster Brown hairdos. So I confess that I oversimplify the issue when I think of godliness and agrarian living as being synonymous or even related. What is it that makes so many of us long for the days of the horse & buggy? Why do we pine for home grown foods and textiles? Is there something that is inherently more holy in farming or homesteading than in other careers or lifestyle choices? Certainly it is not the only righteous way to live. Is it?????

But I still long for the opportunity to live peaceably in the land of my forefathers and to see God’s ways exemplified in my life;whether through farming or child rearing. As it turns out, though, I am a military man and I can only do homesteading activities while not on duty. I thrill in the moments when I can savor old fashioned work shared between my children, my wife, and I as we try to figure out what God has in store for us next. It is sometimes hard, often a mystery and always in His hands. I hope to revisit this idea again soon. Love in Christ. Maplelattefamily

Soli Deo Gloria

Why I Decided to Meet With the Mormon Missionaries Part III

In my last piece I went into some of my history as an independent, fundamental baptist and some local church and denominational struggles that I had faced during that time. I may have been less – than generous or kind in laying it out on the table in the way that I did. I apologize for my crudeness in that, but I am speaking from my own experience and I had to be raw with explaining it. By the way, I do still consider myself a fundamental baptist, but also reformed. Reformed. Fundamental. Baptist. Reformed because I more closely identify with many tenants of reformed theology. Fundamental because fundamentals are what make up anything at all. These are merely basic elements-rudiments, you see. Baptist because I believe that  believers alone covenant with God. I certainly haven’t got this all figured out, but now you can see a bit of where I am at. I trust Christ above all, but I will be exploring and sharing the journey as we go along.

My studies of church history and of some of the ancient religions have caused me to wonder if my faith in Christ was for nothing.

Despair set in and is a recurring thing that I have struggled with. I recall the time that I was just sitting and daydreaming about how the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – Day Saints seems to shine above other groups that name the name of Christ(a different Christ according to Gordon B. Hinckley, the previous Prophet /President of the Church).  I really began to think about how Joseph Smith Jun. sought wisdom, as James tells us to do in our very own New Testament(James 1:5). Amen.  I tried listening to great evangelical Christian teachers to try and help me to be faithful to what I learned as a fundamental baptist. I tried listening to podcasts and to read blogs that use apologetics to convince Latter Day Saints that Mormonism is false and that Joseph Smith is a huge liar. The critics of the Church point out dubious things like: “Smith couldn’t have been a prophet: because he practiced polygamy!” I would be shocked at first and be offended into despising the Prophet for his alleged sexual misbehavior. “Eww. He was marrying other men’s wives and even some young ones.What kind of a freak does such things?”I have two names to give you for what kind of person does such things  King David and King Solomon, who were prophets that wrote scripture.  So why do I mention this? It is because one sure thing about apologetics websites is that-if fighting against Latter-Day Saints theology, one sure argument will be to discredit the Prophet with charges of Polygamy among other things like glass looking and being hot – tempered. Going after the prophet and his friends is the number one way that LDS theology appears to be attacked. No, I’m not saying that fair minded scrutiny is never applied, but that many times the prophet alone is pecked to death, and not the theology. The prophet Joseph Smith suffered for his teachings and even was murdered/ martyred for it. I wonder if we would be willing to defy man for a religion that we created “out of whole cloth” to use a term used by Elder Jeffrey R. Holland, an LDS apostle in his message “Safety For the Soul”. So attacking the prophet for his shortcomings as a man, no matter how egregious his foibles, must not sway me: I don’t lend credence to that. Do the exegesis and prove from scripture the truth, but the mindless parroting of- essentially rumors about Joseph Smith and Brigham Young turn the target audience, believing Mormons. By the way, if you want to engage with LDS folks at Temple Square, carrying an “LSD” sign and a pic of Joseph Smith’s face and showing him burning in fire and calling him a mean name is going to create attention for you. But you will not bring a single one to your side and to your understanding of Jesus Christ. You create enemies. Seriously. 

In addition we hear people pointing fingers at Joseph Smith saying that he teaches a different view of God and the Godhead. Let me ask you this: Did the Old Testament describe God as a trinity? I doubt it. I don’t see it. We could discuss the times when we see different terms used to describe God. We could talk about the times when the word “son” is used in the OT (to describe Israel) and then applied in the New Testament or in theloogical writings to describe Jesus, but we have to read those back into the OT in order to see Christ there. A rabbi friend of mine calls that “reverse engineering the scriptures”.  Before I get ahead of myself, I believe that the Bible is divinely inspired. I believe it and I make no bones about it. What you read next may be difficult, but don’t lose heart. I will just try to make a point. Okay?

Here goes:

Does Joseph Smith make claims about God that are contrary to the Scripture? It could be that we could show from scripture that this is the case, but so could we show from scripture that Jesus Christ was not called “Emmanuel” or that the sign that Isaiah prophesied of and was meant to answer King Ahaz was never to be recognized for 700 more years. How’s that for a prophecy? I can just see it now! Isaiah says,

“Will you win the battle against these two foreign kings, Ahaz? Well you just wait 700 years and we’ll show you.”  Yeah. Kind of a stretch. Yet we understand this as being a prophecy of Jesus Christ, when any rabbi will show that somebody in chapter 8 of Isaiah is being called by the name, Emmanuel. They will further point out that “almah” does not mean virgin, specifically, but means young woman. They will tell you that “betulah” is the word for virgin that must have been used to denote a virgin birth. How can we keep telling everyone that the scriptures are so clear and squeaky clean from the possibility of misunderstanding when we know that there are real difficulties such as the ones listed? Is it cognitive dissonance? Are we unassailably correct?

Here is another thing: We like to say that the seed of the woman in Genesis 3 is referring to a virgin birth. But it is not. Not really. It refers to offspring. Why? Because God tells Hagar in a later chapter that her seed would also be multiplied. The word “seed” is used there also. Am I trying to tear down anybody here? Not at all. I am saying that we like to cherry pick verses that particular meanings (in a particular frame of reference) to the original audiences for the particular period of time when they were written. Did God intend for them to have an almost metaphorical allegorical meaning from the beginning? I would argue that-if we are to believe in Christ as Messiah, then we have to assert this.

But there are other arguments and examples. How about the prophecy about Jeconiah as never having an heir to the throne? Well, Jesus has Jeconiah in his genealogy. Unless something changed later in scripture, Jesus could not be an heir to the throne. Therefore He could not be the Messiah. Not if we must take a wooden view of scripture in every case. Also, John the Baptist  denied that he was Elijah. This is something that Jewish people look for every year. A place setting is put out for Elijah, who will precede the Messiah. Yet we accept John The Baptist as Elijah that precedes Christ, because Jesus rose from the dead. He proved that He was who he said He was.   

Who decides? Who can make the case that this or that is true? Don’t let go of Jesus Christ. Cling to Him and we will get through this. We can discuss more about this coming up next. Hang in there until next time, believers in Christ. Amen? 

Why I Decided to Meet With The Mormon Missionaries Part II

Part Two : My experience as a Christian has been quite spotty and has been inconsistent with the strong and steady examples from many of our church heroes. I never felt as though I measured up. I still have days when I feel the same way now, but things are different now. That may be a story for another time. I have been terrified as a professing Calvinist to see friends move from active belief and ministry to anti-belief and humanistic agnosticism. I hate that the assurance of salvation on one day becomes fear and loathing of myself on another day. I believe that this has been the hardest part of being a Christian in my life. I have seen some really strange things happen in churches that I have attended and have been a member of. My best friend of several years, grade school to Marine boot camp on the buddy program, to the same church memberships, and through the same bible college. He and I became involved in operating a small congregation in his home and I was an elder in the little group, in support of his leadership, but after a small period of time, we disbanded the small congregation. Not long after that, we got into learning about Christian Universalism, the belief that eventually all would be reconciled to the Father. That idea sounds so great. This would mean that Christ was 100% successful in His mission to save the world. Well, J. And I both fell into a trap of reading all up on that one thing and then J. Approached the pastor of the baptist church that we were attending at the time, and the pastor called a little session and pretty well kicked J. Out of the church. There was no due process, no attempt to counsel or to plead for his soul. Just POOF!!! “You’re outta there!!”that’s all. Well, I foolishly, had stopped going to the church, and had stopped talking to my friend, J. For some time. I had not gone as far into the universalism belief as he had done, and wanted to distance myself from the damage that had been done when the church had caught wind of what we had been studying. Well, then J. Felt betrayed and so did I. It was a breakdown in communication and I accept responsibility. But J. Is no longer a part of the Christian community, but rather of the humanists, agnostic, whatever. He could not reconcile the OT with the NT and could not imagine God burning anyone for millions of years. I get it. I continued to search for truth, but I figured that whateverI had learned up to that point from the baptists may have been fairly corrupt, based on the way in which they dealt with my friend, and by the way the preaching in the case of that church and of its ilk was a lot of illustrations, and less biblical exegesis, in many cases. Well, learning about Reformed theology more or less saved the day. It caused me to respect church history and the process by which we received our bible. It made me look beyond “The Sword of The Lord”which is a Christian newspaper that was begun by John R. Rice, an old southern fundamentalist evangelist. It is still in print and available today. I have contacted and have exchanged a few emails and have had my letter printed in the paper, with Dr. Shelton Smith, Editor and President of the Sword, responding to me directly. I admire much of the content. But if you want Biblical material that will teach you things, I would look elsewhere. The Sword is very shallow in some ways. The content that can be read within its pages does encourage one to be responsible, and to live a clean Christian life, but these are frequently pragmatic and not based on intense scriptural interpretation. If one could listen to the preaching from the Sword’s own conferences, then it could be seen that the preaching is mostly anecdotal and not based on sound biblical doctrine. One such sermon was preached by Dr. Tom Malone, one of my former favorites, who preached on “Go Work Today In My Vineyard.” The message was predominately about one passage in scripture with lots of pulpit pounding and one or two stories about dubious incidents that probably did not occur. I was and still am moved to work for the Lord, but not because of great biblical exegesis. It is alright to have some preaching like that. It is better to preach verse by verse. That is the best way to be sure that the scriptures remain intact and untwisted. I don’t always know where I stand in reference to this type of preaching because I enjoy it at times when the preacher pounds the pulpit to say what I want to hear, but then what?

What Can Baby Chicks Teach Us About Life?

Reflection on New Chicks for the Thompson Children!So, Aja went to Tractor Supply Company! She brought back six little cute baby chickens. They are so sweet looking. The kids are ecstatic and my wife is as well. I am so glad for them. Six new lives that can be held in the hand and closely admired by curious children. The kids are ready to learn. What can be learned from baby chickens?

 It is no wonder that we search for eggs during Easter. Eggs are fertile, or at least are supposed to be and so we get little peeps from fertile eggs. Toy Easter eggs give us candy, money, or other small gifts that may be enjoyed for awhile as a reminder of the blessings of life that are here for now and then gone in a moment’s notice. We learn the fleeting nature of the good things of this world. Chicks are kind of the same way, but they are generally much harder to part with than candy or money.. Sometimes they die. This helps to teach children the rhythm of nature and about life and death, which are invaluable lessons to learn at a young age(or at any age, but hopefully at a young age). We, and children can learn about the fragility of life, or the fleeting way of precious life. Here it is today, there it has gone tomorrow. So it goes. 

“Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow. For what is your life? It is even a vapour, that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.” James 4: 14 (King James Version)

Above see two of our new chicks!^

 It is painful for us all to lose something valuable like a new best friend, in the form of a peep, or anything or anyone that has added value to our lives. We can explore this idea in another post, I suppose. There is no need to fear The experience of sharing in the moments that bring us joy. It is okay to hold the chick in your hand, though loosely enough to let it breathe freely, firmly enough to not drop it accidentally, realizing that it is a gift from the Creator and does not exist without His provision and will. 

We must learn that all things are fragile and can pass away at any moment. But we must take comfort in the fact that God is there and that He wants to give us something that will never pass away. He wants to give us eternal life and a forever – home with Him that never will pass away. I hope that the chicks are with us and are able to provide us with eggs for a year or so to come. I hope that no wild or domestic animals will harm them, though I know that our chickens have all been destroyed, save 3 by wild beasts.

 But I hope that the children can enjoy them and can grow as they learn to care for them. I can grow by helping my children and my wife as we share in the responsibility of raising these egg laying chickens. We will look towards our Heavenly Father and depend upon Him to provide and to comfort when He decides to withdraw that earthly provision (whatever it may be) from us and know that He is good. If our children and their parents can learn this, then we can say that baby chicks are mighty good

instruments in the hands of Our Lord.

 *A closeup of one of our new baby chicks!

Blessings: R.M. Thompson, Jr.

Why I Decided to Meet With Mormon Missionaries. Part I

Why I Decided to Meet With Mormon Missionaries
Part One:
I have been enthralled and fascinated by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – Day Saints since 2002, when I trusted in Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.
In our cozy apartment in Massena, New York, after a delicious dinner prepared by my wife, Aja(which I cannot recall, but know it was great because the girl can cook, y’all!),there was a loud and musical knock on the door. Now I had perceived the knock to be that of my best friend of that day, J.S. but it was actually made by an Elder Brown, of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. This guy was tall and well put together with not a dark brown hair out of place. He was lean and clean cut. His companion, Elder Limutau was a big and burly Samoan type, and just as impressive looking, but he was very quiet while Elder Brown spoke. These guys had starchy pressed white shirts, and pressed black pants and-as far as one could tell, matching ties. The black ID tags were quite fancy and official looking.
They asked me about the Book of Mormon and whether I might have been aware of the story behind Joseph Smith’s first vision, etc. I knew at that time just enough to insult and embarrass these fine young men, and so I shooed them away and they left, never to return.
Apparently they forgot to never return and so they appeared again at my front step. I very politely shooed them away. They left me, though, with a copy of the Book of Mormon. In it they wrote down their names and a little challenge to my wife and I to “Read, Ponder, Pray” about the Book of Mormon, and to ask God the Father whether it is true. They wrote the pertinent scripture passage(s) that we could look up on our own. I wrote something on the Book of Mormon, which I later came to regret:
“HERESY!!FOR INFORMATIONAL USE ONLY!!!” In later years, I tried once to wash off my foolish comments, and the words had stained the cover. I was able to cover them up to some degree, but the cover had been marred and stained.
I borrowed a video from a dear friend, and my mother in the Lord about Mormonism. It was entitled “The Dark Side of Mormonism” The film heavily borrowed from the God Makers films by Ed Dekker, a so-called anti-Mormon apologist. The film was produced by Jeremiah Films. I realize now that the cases described within might be true of any cult or religion, and could very well happen in any religious setting, but probably do not represent the truth in general. I believe the stories were true, but not representative of the whole church. Of course not.
It was a bit of propaganda. If you are aware of the famous Jack Chick tract ministry, then the scholarship was probably pretty close to equally shoddy, or at least quite one sided. Just because somebody leaves a system of belief and has had a very negative experience, or experiences does not mean the system itself is the problem. Not necessarily anyway. I can tell you from years of being in the Fundamental Baptist and also Pentecostal churches, that the church is for believers, but there be wheat and tares in these congregations. I am not here to promote the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter – Day Saints, but just want to say that if aberrant behavior is a disqualifying factor for a church or religious group with respect to Truth, then throw them all in the garbage!!!!! The church is made up of sinners. Duh!!!! Sorry about the”Duh”. You get it, though, right? OK.
I kept my copy for a long time, before I ordered one that I could take notes in, because I did not like the way I had marked up the other copy. Not very long after I had purchased it, I became absolutely absorbed into learning about this religion and its teachings. I found the official website of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints. I was thrilled to find all of these articles and videos from various conferences, along with online scriptures and a store. The site had a blue background with an image of the Christus statue on the top of the screen, which also served as an icon, when the page was open. I enjoyed learning from the site as I read works from Mormonism Research Ministry, or MRM. This is a contra-LDS teaching ministry by Bill McKeever and Eric Johnson. They are two Christian men who care about the Mormon people and who want to expose error in the LDS teachings. Other people are involved in the ministry but these guys are maybe the most visible and Bill McKeever is the one to create the ministry. I subscribed to the newsletter for awhile and I don’t know why it stopped coming,but I might have failed to renew my subscription. Anyhow, I have seriously enjoyed learning about Joseph Smith ‘a life and about the early days of the Mormon pioneers, after Joseph and brother Hyrum were martyred. The Willie and Martin Handcart companies trek to the Utah territory is my kind of story. I began to get really excited and started receiving Deseret Book catalogs and would dream of being a Mormon myself. Still, a nagging feeling would stop me short of commitment to the Church.
When I was a boy, I must have gone to an LDS chapel or some sort of place that had the Book of Mormon. I recall the painting Moroni, burying the golden plates in a snowy wooded area with a gloomy grey blue sky. Moroni prayed as he entrusted the plates to the earth. The trees, standing naked in the snow were thick enough to shield him as he prayed. I remember seeing him. I also recall a painting of Jesus Christ in the Americas. But not just the one in the Book of Mormon itself. I mean one hanging on a wall. I don’t know how it’s possible. I just recall the items.
But ever since being visited and then recalling these paintings from the front pages of the Book of Mormon, I began to feel as though the Latter Day Saints were in fact my own people. I have felt that more strongly than I have felt about my own brethren in the local independent baptist churches with which I have associated for the last 15 + years. As a matter of fact, when the sister missionaries have visited our home and have brought membership of the local ward to meet us, my wife and I agree that it was as if we had known them at another time and place, but it would have been impossible to know any of these people before.

Today in a Foreign Land!!

Today in Foreign Land
I am a stranger in a strange land and I feel once again a kinship with Joseph Smith Jun. This is because the separation from family and friends back in my homeland are of little consolation to me as I labor in this strange place: not that the work is too hard or that the surroundings are too harsh, no. I am alright. I just feel a spiritual barrenness and a desire to feel God’s presence. I feel like I am quite alone. Yet, before I left home, our Mormon Sister missionaries and their associated brothers and sisters continued to regularly visit our home to encourage and to hopefully persuade us to become members of the Church. All was to no avail as far as they were concerned, though. We have not and probably will not join. Anyway, this is my thought for now.

Introducing Maple Lattes, Family & God!!!

SO here it is-today. I have decided to begin blogging and to sharing my life’s story with whosoever wants to read about it. We will be talking about the following topics, s’il vous plait:(the following are merely bullets and may not represent proper sentence or grammatical structure!!)
-Being a man of faith and twisty spiritual journey
-Being a husband and father and stories about it.
-Serving in the military and all that it has meant
-Fitness journey
-Sharing my views on various topics including controversial ones.
-I’ll review books that I have read.
-I’ll discuss my seemingly bipolar dreams of homesteading and RV adventuring with my family.
– Alt-right views, which was kind of covered under controversial views.
-I will post up a blog roll which will probably appear to be pretty eclectic, because I am a pretty eclectic individual.
-I will share ideas and desires of the heart and soul with you whether in seriousness or in jest, but I will try to bring fresh content regularly.
– I am forty years old and  I have not arrived. Far from it, but I want to share this adventure with you, my readers.