Good to hear from you. Yes, I appreciate our ability to agree on many things and disagree on others. This is what happens when we get older – we share with each other when our next operations are. I have another lithotripsy in July as well, although I am sure it is much milder than what you have had to endure. Best of luck to you with your surgery.
It strikes me that we have a lot in common – an intellectual bent toward reason, science, evidence, and the like; observations about the changing climate (which I believe are real, regardless of their cause), and a concern about the future of our nation and possible hyperinflation.
By the way, I heard an interview with a private investigator who has a friend who is high up in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. His friend indicated that the Department of Homeland Security is anticipating hyperinflation in the U.S. and great civil unrest. The term he used is “massive civil war”. Perhaps that is why the Department of Homeland Security recently purchased 450 million hollow point bullets, enough to kill every American 1½ times. So the huge federal debt, which we have discussed and which everyone has known is unsustainable, will likely lead to a financial crisis that will be terrible for our nation and probably the rest of the world.
I confess that when I visited you in your hospital bed, I thought it might be the last time I would see you. But you are a tough guy, and have survived to live another day. You have been given another chance at life. Good for you. As a friend, I would encourage you to think about what happens when you die.
Simon Greenleaf was the nation’s most eminent legal scholar on the rules of evidence, and the U.S. Supreme Court often referred to his books on tough cases. A Jew, Greenleaf occasionally would speak disparagingly about Christianity. When his students challenged him by asking if he had ever examined the evidence for Christianity, he replied that he had not, but agreed to do so. After several months of examining the evidence for Christianity, Greenleaf converted to Christianity, convinced that the evidence was so compelling, he had no other choice.
Ken, some day you (and I) will meet the Lord. We will stand before Him and give an account of our lives. The key will not be what we have done to help the poor, to alert people about global warming, or how much we know. The key will be whether or not we know Jesus, the son of the sovereign, living God, who died for our sins and set us free, and whether or not we have accepted Him as our Lord and Savior.
Now we have that choice. Once we cross the line from this earth to eternity, it will be too late. The Lord does not force people to go to heaven, but He welcomes all who seek to spend eternity with Him and His son, Jesus Christ.
I hope this note finds all is well with you and your beloved.
Best regards,
Life in the Spirit 