Walking The HT

[Beetow]

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Hello;

There's hundreds of hikers out there this time of year walking across America on long
distance trail systems like the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the Continental Divide Trail
(CDT), and the Appalachian Trail (AT) et al.

The PCT crosses the Columbia river at the community of Cascade Locks +/- 50 miles
east from where I live in the Portland Metro area of Oregon. It's fun to see smelly hiker
trash come straggling into town seeking a place to stock up on supplies, gorge on
hamburgers and pancakes, take a bath, and of course get a tall ice cream cone from
the Eastwind drive-in. (The little burger stand is a must-do stop over)

I was living solo up in Oregon when my conversion from Catholicism to Protestantism
took place in 1968. Right about that same time, my dad became disabled back in my
home town of San Diego so I started packing to go down there and be with him.

Before leaving, the man instrumental in initiated my walk on the Heavenly Trail (HT)
cautioned me about marriage. I was only 24 at the time and had not yet become
interested in starting a family so he clued me into the fact that I must not take up with a
girl whose beliefs differ from my own. I already knew that much from my Catholic
training, but had never seen it in the Bible for myself. Well; it's there all right at 2Cor
6:14-18 which says:

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and wickedness
have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with darkness? What harmony is
there between Christ and Belial? What does a believer have in common with an
unbeliever? What agreement is there between the temple of God and idols?

. . . For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with them and
walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my people. Therefore come
out from them and be separate-- says the Lord - touch no unclean thing, and I will
receive you. I will be a Father to you, and you will be my sons and daughters-- says the
Lord Almighty."

Well, guess what? Not long after I returned to San Diego, found a job, and was working
steady; an olde girl friend showed up wanting to get back together; and she was eerily
close to the very kind of woman that the Bible instructed me to avoid. HAW! I had
scarcely gone but a few miles on the HT and was already encountering natural hazards.
_

 

[Beetow]

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Hikers on the long distance trails not only have to be wary of natural hazards,
rodents, reptiles, beasts, and the elements; but also thieves. For example; Jesus
spoke of thieves in the 10th chapter of John. Out west thieves that steal livestock
are usually called rustlers.

Well; my first encounter with rustlers came about when a cheery Jehovah's Witness
came down my dad's driveway bright and early one Saturday morning. I was still
very inexperienced at that point, and honestly believed the JW was a fellow
Christian well met.

You see: rustlers wear boots, hats, and chaps like real cowboys, they strap on six
guns like real cowboys, ride horses with a saddle and a lasso like real cowboys, and
talk like real cowboys; so neither their looks nor their manners give them away.
Well; that JW was well groomed and shiny like you'd expect a real Christian to be,
and they carried a Bible like you'd expect a real Christian to do, and they were
polite and courteous which is the kind of manners you'd expect from a real
Christian.

But when I spoke of the JW with an elder; he became alarmed because he'd been
around the block a time or two with those people and knew for himself just how
dangerous they are to youngsters like myself who thus far don't have enough Bible
under their belts to spot a thief when they see one.

Well; my friend told me that the first red flag I would see with JWs is their refusal
to accept that Jesus is a divine theophany, viz; they do not believe he is a human
form of God (a.k.a. Jehovah) instead they insist he was an angel in human form.

When the JW came back a week later to pick up where they left off; I tested them
with what the elder told me and sure enough my friend was spot-on. What us
sheep believe as the "deity of Christ" is not what they believe of him. Well; I
reacted badly and angrily demanded they leave and not come back.

My friend the elder then urged me to purchase a little book titled "30 Years A
Watchtower Slave" by William J. Schnell, which was a very useful source at the
time because back in 1969 there were no internet services nor even yet personal
computers to work with. In our day, I'd recommend YouTube for information
related to the JWs though Mr. Schnell's story is still available via book stores and
online venders like amazon dot com.
_

 

[Beetow]

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I was sort of a juvenile delinquent as a teen-ager with things like arson, petty theft,
fighting, vandalism, possession of alcohol, and shop lifting-- and after high school
did three years in the Army before taking up the welding trade. So at first my
language was less than acceptable for a Christian.

But after three years on the HT, some of the rough and ready men I worked with
began to comment. I mean, guys in my trade and with my background cuss; so
why wasn't I cussing?

Well; oddly, I wasn't aware my language had improved until those guys said
something. The change happened so gradually and so smoothly that I honestly
hadn't noticed.

And that wasn't all. I was prone to deep dark funks wherein I became sullen,
contrary, and very disagreeable. They had dropped off somewhere along the trail so
that psychologically I was enjoying quite a lot of inward peace.

* Those funks concerned me because my mom had them all her life and I was
beginning to worry I might have them that long too. But no; they were gone, and
not just for a while, but instead: permanently-- in the 52 years since; they've never
returned.

While living with my dad because of his disability, he mentioned that a large
percentage of my contributions towards the food budget was going towards
supplying myself with beer and wine. Well; normally I would've become indignant
and defensive, but instead I instantly accepted that my drinking was impacting
dad's quality of life. So I hopped on the wagon that very day and haven't touched a
drop since; not even after he passed.

I know for myself that Christianity isn't just a code of rules and regulations to live
by, but also provides a mysterious influence to exist by. I have no other
explanation for what happened to my tongue, my mind, and my appetite for
alcohol. Something not easily detected was going on with me very early in my
experience that I wouldn't begin thinking about till further ahead on the HT.
_

 

[Beetow]

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You had your time, you had the power,
You've yet to have your finest hour.
Radio Ga-Ga, QUEEN, 1984

Along about 1972 I was reading the Bible often enough but not really getting all
that much out of it till I remembered that my Protestant friend had made me aware
that there were Bible studies available on the radio.

So I began searching for some and eventually ran across programs like Thru The
Bible w/J. Vernon McGee, Back To The Bible w/Ted Epp and Ord Morrow, The
Family Altar w/Lester Roloff, and The Christian Jew Hour w/Charles Halff.

Those olde programs were the cat's meow for obtaining the solid material I needed
at the time to prepare my mind for advanced concepts. Honestly, without their
assistance, it's fairly certain I would've eventually become thoroughly confused and
given up.

If I have seen further than others,
It is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton
_

 

[Beetow]

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Some of my very favorite science fiction movies came out during last century's
closing decades, for example: 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) Star Wars (1977)
Close Encounters Of A Third Kind (1977) E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982) and
Contact (1997).

The best science fiction I'd seen in a theater up till those was War Of The Worlds
(1953) which came out before the dawn of the space age when in 1957 Russia sent
Sputnik1 into orbit. Science fiction was never quite the same after Sputnik because
space travel was no longer a fantasy; it was suddenly a reality.

ET, Phone Home.

That weird hammer headed little guy --marooned on Earth-- needed desperately to
rejoin his family in space because he wasn't biologically suited for life on our world,
viz: ET was dying and only his own people had the means to keep him alive.

Well; I myself, unlike ET, was very stubborn and reluctant at first to get a dialogue
going with Heaven, i.e. a rapport. Bible teachers on the radio, one after the other,
kept insisting over and over again that it was essential for Christians to stay in
contact with God per 1John 1:5-10. I knew within myself that they were right
because not only was my Christian intuition seeing the truth in what they were
saying, but my spiritual life's progress had stalled, i.e. I was dying, so to speak.

But at the time it made no sense to me why Christ's followers should speak with
God about the sins in their lives. I mean; Jesus took them all to the cross so then
why so much emphasis upon confession? Well; it turns out that God values honesty
and transparency in His personal associations; plus, Christians get their feet dirty,
so to speak, and need them scrubbed from time to time. (John 13:3-10) So after a
while I gave in and complied. Well; my spiritual life's progress immediately
brightened up, and I never left my phone to God off the hook ever again after that.
(cf. Psalm 32)
_

 

[Beetow]

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When I was a little boy, my mom taught me how to say the "lay me down to sleep"
prayer. Later, in catechism, I was taught advanced versions of rote prayer like the
Hail Mary, the Our father, the Act of Contrition, and Grace Before Meals.

After converting to Protestantism, I discovered rote prayers may be an okay place
to begin, but not a good way to continue.

● Heb 4:15-16 . .We do not have an high priest who cannot be touched with the
feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are, yet without
sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that we may obtain
mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The Greek word translated "boldly" pertains to out-spokenness, i.e. candor,
frankness, confidence, and bluntness.

So it was that I discovered God prefers conversational prayer rather than rote
primarily because reciting the same lines verbatim over and over is impersonal, i.e.
it neither speaks one's mind nor speaks in one's own words.

Well; this new approach was a bit strange at first, and a mite uncomfortable, but in
time I came to appreciate addressing Heaven as I would confide in a familiar friend.

* The switch from Catholicism to Protestantism didn't give me a new God and/or a
new Jesus to work with-- no; I kept the same God and the same Jesus with whom
I'd grown up. But the switch sure did give me a much improved way to associate
with them.
_