A Memory from Vietnam

 --Bill Petite

When I got to Vietnam and assigned to my rifle company in the 1^st Battalion, 5^th Marine Regiment, I was told that most guys get wounded or killed in the third or ninth month of their tour. I didn’t ask questions and didn’t think much about that because I was seeing guys wounded and killed in every month. But I didn’t know which month of their tour it was. I’ll never forget the first man I saw wounded. I didn’t see him but I did see part of his leg flying through the air after he stepped on a pressure release mortar round buried in the ground. He stepped on it and when he lifted his foot, or released the pressure, it blew and took the lower part of his leg off. I saw him after the explosion; he was calm, in shock, and was being prepared for a medivac.  We were in a heavily booby-trapped area and we were always told to follow in the footsteps of the man in front of us. That is unless he didn’t follow in the footsteps of the man in front of him and he stepped on a booby trap.

I wasn’t a Christian when I was in Vietnam but I prayed every night to a God I didn’t know. I was in church as a young boy and my parents were Christians, although backslidden. So, I knew all about Jesus but not as my savior. I would tell Him, “I’ll give up a finger or something small just to get out of here.” But that all changed after I witnessed that first booby trap incident. Following that, it was simply, “Lord, get me out of here in one piece.” I prayed that almost every night and over time, God calmed my nerves and gave me the boldness required to survive that mess. And, as I said, I didn’t even know God as my personal savior yet.

The 5^th Marines operated in an area known as the Arizona Territory. It was named after the old west Arizona Territory which was known for an area where there was a lot of bad stuff going on all the time. Gun battles with each other, with Native American tribes, ambushes by everyone, thieves and other bad and illegal activity. The Arizona Territory in South Vietnam was given that name because of the bad guys operating in that area. Not to mention, it was a straight path to Da Nang from the Ho Chi Minh trail as well as a great food source for the NVA army. It was also occupied by a lot of Viet Cong and many civilian sympathizers. So, when a battalion from the 5^th Marines was in the Arizona, they had they hands full. And, we were always in the Arizona.

So, what’s this memory which the title to this post suggests?

I already told you about the superstition concerning the third and ninth month; I never really gave it a lot of thought since I had other things to be concerned with. It was September 19^th, 1969 and we were in the Arizona. We had been out there about  two weeks and had already been hit by NVA forces with everything they had. Mortar rounds, RPG rockets, small arms and machine gun fire. I think it was the first week out there, I was part of a squad sized ambush set in along a river bank which had a trail used by the VC and NVA. We weren’t set in an hour yet when they hit the company lines. We were secure and invisible until a VC soldier tried to use that trail as an escape route and the man set in where the trail entered along the river shot him and now, we were exposed.

The company, Bravo 1/5, was set up on what we called the Hot Dog because it was a narrow piece of high ground which stretched on and on. We had set up on the Hot Dog in various locations during my time there. But this night, it had been only the lines taking firing, but now our ambush was getting hit. We were in a good position because we were below ground level and everything was flying over us. Except for someone creeping up and seeing if there were more VC coming our way, we weren’t in any danger of getting hit. We had set off the claymores we set out and I’m sure that kept these guys away and soon they were in full retreat mode.

As a company, we were getting this about every other night. Now, back to September 19^th, 1969. The word was out that were going to get hit again and we were on a 50% watch. The night before, a man who had been in country for months, handed me a starlight scope (a night scope which operated from the light of the moon and stars unless there was no moon or star light.) He told me where to look and I could see a couple of VC out there jumping up and down and trying to get someone to shoot at them. That way, they could tell where the position was and make it easier for them to know where to hit.

So, I and a Marine by the name of Paul Kuntz were in the hole together. His name was pronounced Koontz but I’m sure you can imagine how those guys said it. He received a lot of harassment because of his name and also because he was a Christian and would boldly tell everyone that he and his fiancé were virgins and would wait until they were married to have sex. As I said, I was not a Christian but I never jumped in on the harassment aimed at him.

But he did have some hang ups and wasn’t the most aggressive Marine. So, we were standing the first watch and Kuntz kept nodding off and I would jab him in the ribs with my elbow to wake him up. He would grunt and I would tell him to stay awake so he wouldn’t get killed. There was about six inches of water in the bottom of that fox hole and I kept my feet propped up on the front edge of it. I don’t remember exactly how long we were on watch when we got hit. And just as I was jabbing Kuntz in the ribs and at that exact moment, they unleashed everything they had at us. My first thought was to wake the guys sleeping in the poncho hooch about thirty feet behind the hole. You might be wondering why I would have to wake them if we were getting hit with all that stuff. Every night and all night, there was what we called H&I (harassment and interdiction) rounds being fired by the mortar section. Not only that but artillery fire was being fired throughout the night also. Every twenty minutes, the mortar section would fire a couple of rounds around the outside of the lines. So, when we got hit, that wouldn’t wake most guys. I jumped up telling Kuntz what I was doing and took off running back to where these guys were asleep. You don’t really stop and think about what is going on around you, you just react. At least that’s what I did. I have thought about that many times over the years and considered how dangerous that was and if I would ever do it again. And Kuntz was down in the hole in six inches of water.

I got to where they were sleeping and started yelling at them to get up and we were getting hit. The three of them were up and gone just as I felt a piece of shrapnel hit me in my right face cheek. I got down and crawled between the bush line and the poncho hooch. I could hear the rounds flying over me and thought that I needed to get back to the hole but then realized there were already four guys there and not enough room for five. I was stuck; I was pinned down with nowhere to go. It was then I also realized I wasn’t even safe where I was at because the bushes weren’t going to stop any rounds. I was laughing at myself because I thought I was safe and really wasn’t.

Finally, it all stopped; it was then I realized that grenade was supposed to be for the gun position which was steadily firing away but it fell short. The A gunner at the gun position had been hit with shrapnel from the same grenade. He was hit in the neck and appeared to be in pain. I felt nothing. It was just a thud and minor heat but nothing painful. It’s what we called a cheap heart (purple heart).

Everyone was good and I was the only one hit at our position. The Lieutenant did a line check once everything settled down. When he got to our position, he asked, “Anyone hit here? Is everyone alright? I told him I was hit with grenade shrapnel and he didn’t believe me. One of the guys said, “Yes he was hit while getting us up and down to the hole.” I told him again I was hit and he hesitantly told the corpsman to check me out. We went into the poncho hooch and they covered both ends so Doc could use his flashlight. He saw the wound and went out and told the Lieutenant that I was definitely hit in the cheek.

I asked the Lieutenant if I was going to be medivacked out and he just laughed and told me my squad was down to seven guys and he couldn’t allow me to go anywhere. I accepted that but also thought about a slacker who the week before while we were getting hit used a P-38 can opener to slice the back of his neck and said it happened during the attack. He spent a week on a hospital ship. I was told to go see the battalion corpsman in the morning and get it taken care of. Battalion was sitting with us at our position. So, no trip to 1^st Med in Da Nang or a hospital ship. I wasn’t that upset over it since I knew there were worse cases than me who really needed to be in one of those places.

It also occurred to me that I was in my third month in country. Add me to that stat was my thought and when my ninth month rolled around, I was very careful but not so much that I was distracted by it. It was actually something of an opposite. In my ninth month, I spent a week in Sydney Australia. But not only did I not get a trip out of the bush but the Marines never gave me my Purple Heart. I had to buy my own medal and ribbon. I knew the Marines were stingy on awards but that was bad. There was a guy who slept above me at Parris Island boot camp who was in the same company I was and he assaulted a machine gun position and took it out and was wounded in the process. He was put in for a Silver Star but it was denied. And I saw Army guys with Bronze Stars given to them just for rotating back to the states, or the world as we called it. (I wasn’t complaining for not being awarded for that night. It never entered my mind. My award was coming home in one piece.)

Again, would I jump up in enemy fire and do that again? I don’t know. We all did things we would never imagine doing. My only goal was to get back home in one piece and I thank my God He made that happen. I didn’t know Him back then but He knew me and He knew He was going to use me.

It was about fifteen years after I returned from Vietnam that I was saved and began that personal relationship with Him. When He saved me from a life of sin, misery and alcohol, He also took the Vietnam monkey off of my back. It’s the only real cure for PTSD. If you don’t know Jesus, call on Him today. He is ready to welcome you in and delivery you from your misery and life of sin.

Note: What I have described in this memory is true and I have not stretched the truth at all. It all happened just as I have said and it was written strictly as a memory and not to bring attention to myself. It’s just the way life was in Vietnam for a Marine grunt. Many acts of selflessness were committed by others who served in Vietnam. This account is minute in comparison to some of those. This account and more can be found in my book, Memories of Vietnam. It can be found on Amazon.

 

 

God is Still on the Throne

--Bill Petite

  It’s been a couple of days now since the election and most of the dust has settled. But there are some Christians who actually believe this is the end of Christianity in this country. My question to them is this: “Have you read the Bible lately?” Come on, are politicians more powerful than God? Is any type of government more powerful than God? Is anything more powerful than God? The answer to all of these questions is no. My question, in general, is why do some Christians allow themselves to become so wrapped up in a political process? I don’t know what the numbers are but there are a lot of Christians who have made politics a major part of their Christian lives.

Over the years, I have heard it all from Christians who believe that they can make a difference in any election by they way they vote and insist that other Christians vote the same as they do. Notice, I didn’t say encourage other Christians, they insist and when you don’t, they look at you like you’re from another planet. They insist that the Bible demands that we vote. That’s not in the Bible anywhere. They start pulling scriptures out of the Old Testament which deals with the Law that governed Israel or they twist something in the New Testament in order to make it say something about voting and for which candidate. Some Christians, who seldom read the Bible, are convinced by a pastor or friend that the Bible commands us to vote. That’s as misleading as a false doctrine.

We have a right to vote and for any candidate on the ballot. We should consider ourselves blessed that we have that right. People in some countries in this world don’t have that right. Jesus walked this earth for about 33 years. His ministry lasted about 3 years; never once in that time did He ever talk about politics or rebellion against the Roman government. The Bible tells us to pray for those in authority and obey them. Jesus knew how corrupt and evil the Roman government was; He knew how wrong the religious leaders of Israel were and could have wiped them out with just a spoken word. But that isn’t why He came and He warned His disciples they would suffer under these governments.

The Apostle Paul traveled throughout the Roman Empire from country to country and never spoke about politics and governmental issues. He preached the gospel of Jesus and was beaten and left for dead and thrown into dungeons. Did he ever blame the Romans for any of this? No, he did not. He was placed in a Roman prison and bided his time until he could stand before Caesar and plead his case. Actually, he was prepared to die for preaching the gospel. While he was in prison, he didn’t lead a revolt from his cell or place of holding but instead preached the gospel and people were saved. A story has been told and I have no way of verifying it, but Roman guards were changed often because Paul continued to tell them about Jesus and they continued to be saved. Even as he was led to his death, he was telling them about Jesus.

Christians simply need to read and study their Bible and pray and seek the guidance of the Holy Spirit in their lives. Christians have the same right to vote as anyone else does in this country but maybe they should spend more time in God’s word. God doesn’t need us worrying about getting our favorite politician elected. He has that under control.

Everyone must submit to governing authorities. For all authority comes from God, and those in positions of authority have been placed there by God. So anyone who rebels against authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and they will be punished.       Romans 13:1-2

I have heard Christians say, concerning an elected politician, “He’s not my ______!” The blank being the political office the person was elected to. But when you read the verses from Romans 13, this statement is actually a rebellion against what God has done. And that is a rebellion against God and that is not a very good position to be in.

God has instituted governments and put them in place with the people He wants in those positions of authority. Why, as a Christian, would anyone want to rebel against God and what He has done?” Have they confused who God really is, almighty God, and what any worldly government is in comparison? Do they actually believe God is weak and cannot control any part of His creation? If these people would spend as much time reading and studying the Bible as they do in political activities, they would learn that God knows the beginning from the end and everything in between.

          Remember the things I have done in the past.

For I alone am God!
I am God, and there is none like me.
Only I can tell you the future
before it even happens.
Everything I plan will come to pass,
for I do whatever I wish.     Isaiah 46:9-10

God knew who was going to win seats in this recent election before he formed the world, the universe. Do these people actually believe God couldn’t put a candidate in a seat without their help? He already knew who would prevail in this election and I have, in the past, explained that to Christians and they still didn’t want to believe it. Now, I will say this and some have asked; if God already knew who He was going to place in an elected seat, why should we bother voting at all? I heard a great Christian man of God explain it this way: God needs a means by which His work can be completed. We are that means. If His plan is for candidate A to be elected, He makes that happen through those who vote for candidate A. Does that sound too simple or silly? How were you saved? You didn’t wake up one morning and decide to get saved. No one does but since God chose you for salvation before He created anything (Eph 1:4), He makes that happen through people. It could be a pastor preaching the gospel or it could be through a series of witnesses from Christians telling you over a period of time. But He knows the exact time you would be saved and it happened. It was accomplished by the means of Christian people telling you about Jesus.

And to bring it back to the problem of politics among Christians, it is so much more important to tell people about Jesus than to tell them about a political candidate. One will get a person saved and the other will get them confused and lost and pushed farther from the gospel. Jesus can return any day now at any time. What’s more important, a political candidate or Jesus? A human being, regardless of his position here in this world, cannot come close to the importance of knowing Jesus as your Lord and savior. Christians must make the wise choice; it’s Jesus every time. And God is still on the throne!

At What Point Does This Happen?

 --Bill Petite

Within the Church today, there are numerous Christians who believe the lie that you can lose you salvation. They believe what they have been taught concerning this false teaching and will site verses which are taken out of context and actually contradict what Jesus says about our salvation.

However, those the Father has given me will come to me, and I will never reject them. For I have come down from heaven to do the will of God who sent me, not to do my own will. And this is the will of God, that I should not lose even one of all those he has given me, but that I should raise them up at the last day. For it is my Father’s will that all who see his Son and believe in him should have eternal life. I will raise them up at the last day.” John 6:37-40

So, in this passage, Jesus says that He will not lose one of those that God has given Him. So, for the person who is truly saved by Jesus and Jesus saying that not even one of those, who are saved, will be lost, how is it that they can lose there salvation? But one who believes it is still possible to lose their salvation will go right to their favorite passage in Hebrews 6 and quote it in an attempt to prove it is possible. Forget what Jesus said in John 6 and other passages, Hebrews 6 is their final answer on this lie.

 For it is impossible to bring back to repentance those who were once enlightened—those who have experienced the good things of heaven and shared in the Holy Spirit, who have tasted the goodness of the word of God and the power of the age to come—and who then turn away from God. It is impossible to bring such people back to repentance; by rejecting the Son of God, they themselves are nailing him to the cross once again and holding him up to public shame.     Hebrews 6:4-6

The first thing that needs to be mentioned concerning this passage is that it has been taken out of context with the first 12 verses of this chapter. Those who the writer is addressing have been stalled in their spiritual growth and he is encouraging them to put aside the elementary things and move on to more spiritual teachings and growth.

Hebrews 6:4-6 has been interpreted by scholars in two different ways. The first is concerning the person who has been listening to teachings concerning Jesus and His Holy Spirit. The person has heard and listened to these teachings but has never accepted Jesus and walked away. The person was never saved. The second explanation is that of a Christian who has backslidden in their walk with Jesus. They can’t be saved again because they were already saved. Both sound reasonable but I, personally, believe it is speaking of a person who heard and experienced but was never saved. They might have been in a church for months listening and hearing about Jesus and His work on the cross but they were never saved. They have walked away from Jesus; they have turned away and can never be brought back again.

These people are known as Apostates. William MacDonald describes them this way:

Apostates are people who hear the gospel, make a profession of being Christians, become identified with a Christian church, and then abandon their profession of faith, decisively repudiate Christ, desert the Christian fellowship and take their place with enemies of the Lord Jesus Christ.[i]

I have witnessed this more than once; in the first case, the person appeared to be saved and on fire for Jesus. But as time went on, this person became involved with a serious sin and then refused to repent of that sin and simply walked away and refused to listen to anything concerning Jesus or the Christian life. Another case involved a person who never exhibited any desire for true Christianity but acted like they were on fire to be in a fellowship of believers. I never saw any fruit displayed in their life as being a Christian. After not seeing this person for a period of time, I asked someone close to them where the person was and I was told the person simply left their family and the church fellowship and wasn’t heard from. I never believed the person was saved but it wasn’t my place to judge their heart.

Hebrews 6 doesn’t speak of a person losing his or her salvation, it speaks of those who are enlightened (exposed to) by the teaching concerning Jesus but then walks away and rejects Jesus. Verses 7 & 8 give us a good explanation of what the writer is saying in verses 4-6.

 When the ground soaks up the falling rain and bears a good crop for the farmer, it has God’s blessing. But if a field bears thorns and thistles, it is useless. The farmer will soon condemn that field and burn it.               Hebrews 6:7-8

The rain has fallen on the same field and it will either produce a good crop which the farmer will harvest or it will produce thorns and thistles which the farmer will destroy. The rain is the gospel and it falls where it may. Some will hear it and be saved and others will hear it and reject Jesus. God is the farmer and He either blesses the people who are saved or condemn those who reject Jesus.

These people left our churches, but they never really belonged with us; otherwise they would have stayed with us. When they left, it proved that they did not belong with us.     1 John 2:19

They left because they never really were saved. They were playing church. Jesus is not in the business of repossessing salvation from believers. For those who have been taught this lie, I have a question. At what point does this happen? I mean what does a Christian have to do to lose his/her salvation? Is there a certain number of sins committed for this to happen? Is there one really big sin which is committed that causes this to happen? I really want to know because no one has ever been able to give me an answer to these questions. I have heard that it can happen if you no longer abide in Christ (1 Cor 15). But when does a Christian no longer abide in Christ? We have the Holy Spirit living within us. How do we chase Him out? I have, at one time, attempted to run from God; I tried to turn away from Jesus but it was like I had a bungie cord attached to me and I was drawn right back to Him. I just couldn’t do it. But for a person who was never saved, never had the Holy Spirit living within them, it’s easy to turn and walk away from Jesus. There is nothing holding them there and stopping them. They were never saved so they are not losing their salvation, they are simply walking away. You can’t lose something you never had.

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me, for my Father has given them to me, and he is more powerful than anyone else. No one can snatch them from the Father’s hand. The Father and I are one.”     John 10:27-30

Another passage those believing this lie will turn to is this from 2 Peter 2.

And when people escape from the wickedness of the world by knowing our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ and then get tangled up and enslaved by sin again, they are worse off than before. It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. They prove the truth of this proverb: “A dog returns to its vomit.” And another says, “A washed pig returns to the mud.”       2 Peter 2:20-22

It would be better if they had never known the way to righteousness than to know it and then reject the command they were given to live a holy life. This verse lines up with Hebrews 6 which speaks of being enlightened and then turning away. It is a most dangerous thing to start pulling verses and passages in the Bible out of context. It is what creates false teachings. When I was first saved, and for a few years after, I was taught, and believed, that I could lose my salvation. But I could never seem to get that to gel with scripture. Then came the point in time when I realized as I studied deeper, that wasn’t true. Then, everything fell into place and I knew that was a lie. Jesus doesn’t lie; if He says it in scripture, it’s true. It doesn’t matter what a person might tell you, the Bible trumps what any false teachers says. It's easy to misinterpret scripture and create false doctrines from it but it’s not safe.

But really, at what point would a Christian lose their salvation? How does that really work? And why would anyone want to contradict what Jesus clearly tells us in His word. When you are saved, you are saved for eternity. Read your Bible; study your Bible and know the truth.

---

[i] Believer's Bible Commentary, William MacDonald, p. 2174

The Attitude of Jonah

-Bill Petite

I have read through the book of Jonah at least 40 times in my daily read of the Bible in a year. I have always recognized Jonah’s misguided empathy for a plant and his neglect for compassion for the lost souls of Ninevah. He initially ran from God when sent to Ninevah to warn the people there if they didn’t repent God would destroy the city. After a brief visit to the belly of a big fish, (this was not a whale) he goes to Ninevah and warns the people there and they repent. This angers Jonah and he goes out of the city and God raises up a plant to provide shade for Jonah. But the next morning, God sends a worm to eat at the stem of the plant and it withers and dies. Jonah became furious and asks to die.

 This change of plans greatly upset Jonah, and he became very angry.  So he complained to the LORD about it: “Didn’t I say before I left home that you would do this, LORD? That is why I ran away to Tarshish! I knew that you are a merciful and compassionate God, slow to get angry and filled with unfailing love. You are eager to turn back from destroying people. Just kill me now, LORD! I’d rather be dead than alive if what I predicted will not happen.”    Jonah 4:1-3

At this point, Jonah goes outside of the city and waits.

 Then God said to Jonah, “Is it right for you to be angry because the plant died?”
“Yes,” Jonah retorted, “even angry enough to die!”
Then the LORD said, “You feel sorry about the plant, though you did nothing to put it there. It came quickly and died quickly. But Nineveh has more than 120,000 people living in spiritual darkness, not to mention all the animals. Shouldn’t I feel sorry for such a great city?” Jonah 4:9-11

Jonah cared more about a plant than he did about the lost lives of 120,000 people who God would have destroyed along with the city had they not repented. He was so angry he asks God to take his life. Well, guess what? That thinking still exists today among Christians. They have a really bad habit of remembering what Jesus did for them. Jesus has forgiven those of us who have been saved for some very nasty and evil sins which we are guilty of in our past lives. But He not only forgives us for our past sin but also for our current and future sin. But for those who have the same attitude as Jonah, they can’t seem to remember that.

 Allow me to give you a fictional account of what this might look like.

Jim was a terrible husband and father before he was saved. He drank too much and even cheated on his wife a few times. He never spent time with his three children who were young and needed his attention as a father. He spent more time with his friends than with his family. He had a good paying job and was able to support his family financially but was never there with them or when they needed him. He was always with the boys. When he was home, he was either looking at his laptop or watching a ball game on TV. He was a big “fan boy” and enjoyed commenting on social media about it. He thought of himself as an expert when it came to commenting on sports but the truth was, he wasn’t.

One day at work, a Christian man in his work area began to talk to him and the subject eventually turned to Jesus. The words that the Christian said seemed to dig right into Jim’s heart. Jim began to realize what a terrible husband and father he had been. When the Christian finished sharing the gospel with Jim, he asked him if he wanted to accept Jesus into his life and Jim immediately said he did. So, on that day at work, Jim was saved. But that’s not the end of the story; A lot of Jim’s attitude had not changed. Oh yeah, he did become a better husband and father but when it came to sharing his faith with a nonbeliever, he simply didn’t want to.

Jim was definitely saved; he was taking his family to church, he read his Bible sometimes and he even prayed sometimes. Jim had the attitude which a lot of Christians have; I’m saved, I have my fire insurance but don’t bother me with that evangelism stuff. I got mine and the other losers can get theirs from someone else.

That sounds pretty rough coming from someone who says they are saved. But many Christians have this type of attitude when it comes to sharing the gospel with nonbelievers. They simply don’t want to be bothered with telling people about Jesus. They just want to bump along through their life and not be bothered. They slip into church just as the service is starting and they sit in the back and when it ends, they are out the door before the pastor is finished with his closing prayer. This is not an exaggeration; I have witnessed it myself. And yes, the fictional account of Jim might be a bit extreme but there are Christians who fit this mold.

Many Christians get caught up in the world outside of the church and find themselves involved not only in worldly activities but also in worldly attitudes.

Want to know what I mean by that? Just read the comments following a story or article on any news site. Regardless if it is news, a special interests feel good story or sports. The comments following it display for all to see that the attitudes of people in society today are hateful, nasty and in full on attack mode. This country is full of hate and abusive attitudes toward one another. And it is obvious that the world of politics is a heavy influence concerning this. I read today the comments following a sports story where men were arguing back and forth over the meaning of a single word! And the comments weren’t pleasant, they were said in an attack mode and intended to make each other look stupid and less than themselves. How silly! You want to scream out, “You are arguing over the meaning of a word when you need to recognize your sin and know if you don’t repent, you are going to hell where that word will be absolutely meaningless!”

When Christians find themselves falling into this trap and joining in on this nonsense, they need to begin to pray and ask God to bring them back where He wants them. They must have a wake-up call whether it’s being rebuked by another believer or an event that wakes them back to Christian reality.

 You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.    James 4:4

No Christian should want this in their life. What Christian would want to be an enemy of God. Yes, when you are saved, you are saved for eternity and God continues to forgive us but that Christian might be smelling like smoke as he/she squeezes into heaven. Alright, no one squeezes into heaven smelling like smoke but you should get the idea. As Christians, we should all have a desire to tell others about Jesus. We should want to tell others what Jesus has done in our life and how He saved us. We should never have the selfish attitude of I got mine so the rest can go find theirs. It doesn’t work that way; we all had to be told about Jesus and His gospel. We don’t find Jesus; He saves us and as someone shares the gospel with us, the Holy Spirit draws us closer to God and eventually, we understand and the Holy Spirit awakens our spirit and we accept Jesus into our lives.

That’s the gospel in a nutshell but easy enough to understand. As a Christian, we should never have the attitude which Jonah had. That is basically the attitude of a nonbeliever and a Christian should never think that way.

If you are wronged, you should have the attitude of forgiveness toward the person. But I have heard far too many Christians say, “I will never forgive him/her!”

Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Colossians 3:13

Paul in writing this does not say you might consider forgiving others; he says you must forgive others. And of course, Paul was writing under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit or God. That’s an imperative. What’s an imperative? Absolutely necessary or required; something that must be done. So, it’s not a suggestion, it is a command. So, when a Christian refuses to forgive someone, they are acting in disobedience to God. That’s not where I want to be.

So again, don’t adopt the attitude of the world around us. Don’t have more compassion for a worldly object than a lost soul. Read and study the Bible and know God better and understand how He wants us to live as a Christian. It’s sad but far too many Christians today do not live this way. Don’t be one of them.

  

Do You Know the Why?

 

--Bill Petite

Have you ever made the comment to a nonbeliever that they need Jesus? And then they ask you why and you can’t answer? If this has happened to you, you’re probably not alone. People grow up in churches across the country, leave and go off to college or the work place and can’t answer questions put to them by either skeptics or those sincerely interested in Christianity. Considering the youth in churches, they hear all of the stories and the teachings from the Bible but there are vast numbers of them headed off to college who can’t answer the simple questions of why. Why do I need Jesus? Why did Jesus die on a cross? Why did God flood the world and was it a worldwide flood? Is Jesus really God? And many other inquisitive questions concerning our Christian faith.

When a young person graduates from high school and goes off to college, that person is subject to Atheist professors and students. Many of those professors love to make Christian students look silly by challenging them with questions which the professor knows they can’t answer. Christian youth, in many cases, are not being prepared with the answers within the Bible. Now, not all local churches are guilty of this but far too many are. The Youth Group consists of just about any kind of activity except Bible study. Many lower grade Sunday School classes are taught by unqualified teachers who struggle to make the important point in the lesson. Or, maybe they are using a lesson plan that is weak in its explanation of the Bible lesson.

And, maybe the biggest problem is right at home where the parents are actually depending on Sunday School classes and Youth Group to teach their children what the Bible really says. The Sunday morning church service is a pit stop; it’s a refueling point in our week. That doesn’t mean it’s not important because it is but we don’t simply use that as our main support system in our walk with Jesus. Our Christian life and our walk with Jesus is a daily, and sometimes hourly, process. As parents and individuals, we should be reading the Bible daily and not whenever I have time. Then we should be monitoring our children’s progress in their Christian lives.

Parents should be talking to their children and seeking answers from them concerning their Christianity.

When you leave church on Sunday, it’s not a time to critique the pastor’s message. If you have children, you should be asking them what they learned in class or youth group that morning. You can’t pass your responsibilities as a Christian parent off on a Sunday School class; you are responsible for that.

So, the Christian youth finds himself or herself in a college classroom being lectured to by an Atheist professor or an unbeliever who is a skeptic. He/she is asked how every book in the Bible can be God’s word when it was actually written by men? Will either one be able to explain with a thorough answer? Or will they stumble and finally tell the professor they don’t know. That’s what the professor is trying to accomplish; another self-proclaiming Christian kid who can’t answer simple questions concerning their made-up faith.

Regardless of what the question is, if it is Bible centered, the answer is in the Bible. If it’s not a Biblical based question, then an answer is still required. There was a question which skeptics used to ask some years ago. Did Adam have a belly button? The Bible doesn’t tell us and a medical field specialist, nurse or doctor, could probably really break that down but the question is not important since it does not deal with any Bible doctrine.

Here is the only point that is to be made concerning all of this. Every Christian should read and study the Bible for their own Christian good. This practice is not only to prepare for the skeptic but for our own spiritual growth and wellbeing. Yes, we need to know the why and also the where, the how and the what. If you can’t give an answer as to why we need Jesus, your level of Biblical knowledge is at zero. I was in a church as a newer Christian where the pastor had encouraged us to read the Bible through in a year and proceeded to give us a plan to follow. A few weeks later a woman who was the Sunday School director and had been saved for about 30 years stood in a Wednesday evening service and said she never realized how bloody the Old Testament was. Had she not read any of that in her 30 years of Christianity?

Here is where the problem lies; Christians don’t read the Bible and they don’t know what the Bible says. When they are approached and asked a question concerning our faith, they cannot answer and are made to look ignorant.

I heard the comments directed at those who could not answer. “How can you call yourself a Christian?” or “You’re just like every other Christian. You don’t know anything about your so-called faith.” I was in an auto parts store with a Christian friend of mine who had on a T-Shirt with a verse from Nehemiah. A man came in and saw his shirt and asked him what the verse meant. He had the smell of alcohol on his breath but that didn’t matter; my friend couldn’t give him an answer. The man said nothing but the look on his face said what he was thinking. I advised my friend not to wear shirts with Bible verses on he couldn’t explain.

Our churches should be teaching the whys and all the background information concerning the teachings in the Bible. Children and youth need to be taught that Jesus had to die on a cross because He was the only sinless sacrifice who could. They need to know that the Bible teaches that sin entered the world when Adam and Eve disobeyed God’s command and all that entails. They need to know that every person born following that is born with a sin nature except Jesus. They need to know that Romans chapter 3 tells us the following:

“No one is righteous—
not even one.
No one is truly wise;
no one is seeking God.
All have turned away;
all have become useless.
No one does good,
not a single one.”    Romans 3:10-12

We need Jesus because in our sin, we never seek after Him. We will continue to live in our sin satisfying the sin nature within us. The passage in Romans 3 continues:

For everyone has sinned; we all fall short of God’s glorious standard.  Yet God, in his grace, freely makes us right in his sight. He did this through Christ Jesus when he freed us from the penalty for our sins.  For God presented Jesus as the sacrifice for sin. People are made right with God when they believe that Jesus sacrificed his life, shedding his blood.     Romans 3:23-25

The answers are in the Bible. When you are asked why, there’s the answer. It’s the answer to why do we need Jesus. If local churches are not teaching the why and just the basic stories, they are cheating these students and adults. Feel good sermonettes might satisfy some who are in a hurry to get to lunch but they do nothing to feed the spirit and soul.

Every now and then, I read a few posts from an online Christian magazine. The magazine itself is not what I would classify as a really good Christian publication but I check it to see what the content is on any given day. After I read a post or article which is related to Christianity, I read the comments and they are, at times, more interesting than the main document which they are commenting on. The point here is that some of these comments made by Christians tell me that these people have not been or maybe never have, been reading the Bible or studying it. When I read a comment about Jesus appearing to them in a vision and giving them a message, that’s not happening. I don’t know who was appearing to this person (I have a good idea) but it wasn’t Jesus. Jesus told His disciples He was going to ask the Father to send the Holy Spirit and He did. We have the Holy Spirit with us to teach us, guide us and to even speak to us in our own private way.

I could probably continue to write pages on why we need to read and study the Bible and prepare our children to meet the unbelieving world around us. I have been in ministry in local churches which teach the why and the what and the who and every other part of context not just to the children but to the adults also. It’s called expositional Bible teaching and the process of expounding on every scripture in the Bible in the process of teaching through the Bible. Cute and feel-good sermons don’t do that. This method can be taught at every level in the church in a way that each level can understand it. And don’t ever use AI to prepare your lesson or teaching. It is something which has been happening in recent years. When a pastor or teacher at any level uses AI to prepare for them, it’s strictly a sign of laziness and apathy toward their service for Jesus.

I would suggest that if you are in a church that doesn’t teach the answers to the questions, find one that does. I’m not one to promote church hopping but I do advise when the local church is cheating the people out of good solid Bible teaching, move on. Remember, this doesn’t just apply to youth and children.

It applies to every Christian at every age level. We should all be able to give an answer as to why we are a Christian who follows Jesus.

Instead, you must worship Christ as Lord of your life. And if someone asks about your hope as a believer, always be ready to explain it. But do this in a gentle and respectful way.    1 Peter 3:15-16

Don’t get caught not knowing the answer and also be able to detect when it’s not Biblical but some skeptical nonsense. And if you don’t know, then that’s your answer along with, “I will get the answer and let you know.” One last item to help explain the importance of this. I was doing an outreach on a city street which was the site of a craft fair. A friend and myself had set up a makeshift booth and were handing out the wordless gospel in the form of a keychain. I would ask if they wanted a keychain and when they accepted one, I would then take the opportunity to explain the different colored beads on the keychain. Of course, the different colors explained the gospel. One young man wanted to know if he could talk to me and I told he could. We sat down and he asked me why God would allow those planes to fly into the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and a field in PA. I thought for a few seconds thinking of the words to use so he would understand. In so many words I explained that God is sovereign and He always has a purpose for everything He does. At the time, we don’t know exactly what His reason was but by faith, we accept it all happened because He allowed it to happen and maybe someday, we will know why.

I didn’t want to go too deep into God’s sovereignty and providence and basically confuse him without giving him the opportunity to grasp what I was saying and not lose him in a grand theological explanation. When I finished, he smiled and said, “Ok, I just wanted to see if you really knew what you were talking about.”

Be ready. This young man wasn’t being argumentative and actually seemed to be curious about what my answer would be. But you never know what the motive of the questioner really is. He actually did catch me by surprise but the Lord by His Holy Spirit kept me calm with the ability to give him his answer. Be ready and allow the Holy Spirit to bring back to your mind what you have learned by reading and studying the Bible.

Christianity?? In the 21st Century

--Bill Petite 

A pastor was removed from the pulpit for three months for horse whipping a man in his office….more than 10 years ago. A PCUSA (Presbyterian) church in SC has hired a transgender Lesbian as their pastor. A pastor in GA has claimed the word, abracadabra, is what Romans 4:17 is referring to. And, finally, four pastors in a GA church falsely accused a popular East TX pastor of plagiarizing his sermons and then apologized for the false accusation and resigned.

Some of this might sound like I found an old National Inquirer and got these stories. But that’s not where I found these. I read them in an online Christian (??) publication. But let’s stop and think for a minute or two and consider if we could have found any one of these stories say, 20 or 30 or 40 years ago? Maybe; I was writing for an online Christian magazine about 15 years ago and I can say I don’t remember coming across anything like these. Well, except for the PCUSA story since they have been inviting Satan and his minions into that organization for the past, I don’t know, put a number on it. I had a nephew who was a pastor in that organization before his untimely death and he fought hard against all the evil they were proposing. He wasn’t alone; he was just one of about 700 pastors between the PCUSA and the UMC (Methodist) who met regularly with the purpose of opposing these non-Biblical practices the two churches (I use that term very loosely) were attempting, at that time, to bring into the denominations. Since then, the two organizations have allowed a lot of these practices to be a part of their being.

As a small child, I attended, with my parents, my uncle’s church. He was a hell fire and brimstone preacher but he spoke the truth of the Bible. I recall entering the church for a Sunday evening service and he came out of the men’s room and was irate. Someone had written on the walls of a stall and he was into a heavy rant about it. The church building was still pretty new and now, I can understand his anger at this. But back then, that was possibly the biggest thing he had to be put off by in that church. He never horse whipped anyone; he wasn’t Gay and masquerading as a pastor in Jesus’ Church and he never took material from someone else for his sermons. None of that stuff would have been heard of back then; many, many years ago.

 

In the late 1960s, there were a lot of denominations and local churches who thought Chuck Smith was out of his mind when he welcomed in a generation of hippies and young people who were considered rebellious and against all authority. But Chuck took the time to know them and understand them. Then, a revival broke out in what we remember as the Jesus People and it spread across the country like gasoline on a wild fire.

But God had ordained that; it was His plan and His will for all of that to happen. But God never had or has in His plan for Gays to be in Church leadership. Actually, God never had in His will for active Gay people to be a part of His ministry without first, being saved and delivered from the adverse lifestyle. There are very, very many former Gay people in the Church who have been saved by Jesus and removed from that sinful lifestyle and have never had a desire for it again. This is not a Gay bashing attack; it is just a reminder of God’s truth found in His word concerning the Gay lifestyle. It is abhorrent to Him. In other words, He strongly hates it. That’s the sin as with any sin and not the person. He will never throw out the person who is guilty of the sin but He will remove the sin from the person.

I can assure you that the person who was hired by that church in SC is not there by the will of God. That person, if he/she will not repent and ask Jesus to forgive him/her for the sin in his/her life, he/she is in danger of hearing what is recorded in MT chapter 7:23:  But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’   (That's a lot of pronouns for one person)

There are many today who actually believe they are doing God’s work but they are doing it their way and not God’s way. Those words from Jesus might be the scariest words in the Bible and I really would never want to be a person who hears them. But when people insist on keeping their worldly, sinful desires in their life and insisting that God approves of it, they are only fooling themselves and they will fool themselves right into eternal suffering if they don’t repent.

Why would four pastors in a GA church accuse a pastor in East TX of taking material from another pastor for the purpose of trying to make it his own? Even if they knew each other, and they might, what can you gain from that lie. It cost all of them their pastoral position and might have a really hard time finding another one. Who wants to hire a lying pastor?

I guess I can’t finish this with a little magic. Okay, that was bad but when you really stop and think about it, these false teachers have no fear of saying some of the dumbest things about God’s word. The pastor in GA took the word abracadabra to mean the same as what Romans 4:17 says. The meaning of the word in Aramaic/Hebrew: “I create as I speak”

That is what the Scriptures mean when God told him, “I have made you the father of many nations.” This happened because Abraham believed in the God who brings the dead back to life and who creates new things out of nothing. Romans 4:17

This pastor’s emphasis was on that last phrase of this verse and was telling his church that they too could create something from nothing or they could speak it into existence. That would be quite a magic trick since only God Himself can do this. It’s exactly how He created the heavens and the earth; He spoke it all into existence. But we are not God and we cannot do that. But here’s the question; how many people walked out of that building actually thinking they could speak something into being. Or as Pastor Donnie McClurkin, who exposed this lie, asked if you can speak away your bills? Listen, this is nothing more than positive confession which has been taught by the Faith Teachers for over a century. Name it and claim it.

I can’t imagine God will put up with all of this nonsense in His Church for much longer. I am not some crazy date setter but I do believe we are in the very last of times. I am no longer active in any Church ministry but if I still was, I’d be teaching anyone who would listen that God is not to be mocked and He will not tolerate His word being used for the personal agendas of false teachers. He will not put up with abhorrent lifestyles occupying any pulpit in any church. The worship of God is serious and as a pastor, I would not want to be caught up in any kind of un-Godly activities and foolishness when He returns.

His Church is not a social club with annexes around the state or the country. It’s not a project to see how many people can be lured inside in order to pump up the numbers. His Church is not to be presented as a show instead of a place to worship Him. His Church is to be made up of those who truly love and worship Him and only want to please Him and praise Him for who He truly is and that is the one and only true God of this universe.

If you have no problem with the stories I used as an example at the beginning of this post, you should probably check your Christianity and see where the gapping holes are located and then pray and ask God to fill them. He is a truly loving and forgiving God but He is also a just God and sin cannot stand in His presence. So, examine yourself and check your Christianity for holes and then get right with God. And, we all have some holes but some are bigger than others and we just overlook them. I just can’t imagine that God is pleased by what He sees in some of the churches around this nation, not to mention the world. That’s’ what passes for Christianity in the 21^st century.

One Step is More Than Twelve

--Bill Petite
 

 I was lounging by the public pool on the military installation where I was stationed and recovering from a four-day drinking binge. I was sobering up slowly and soaking up the hot sun. I looked to my left and saw my commander and my First Sgt walking toward me. My first thought was there must be an emergency at the vehicle maintenance shop where I was the NCO in charge. This is what I thought because I was on leave this week following the 4^th of July holiday. Why would they be coming to see me when I was on leave?

I was sitting at the edge of the pool with my feet dangling in the water when they approached me. The First Sgt said, “Sgt, we need you to come with us back to the Troop (building where the unit was housed and the command offices). I asked him what the issue was and he answered, “You need to just come with us. So, I went with them and when we got back to his office, the First Sgt told me, “Your wife called the commander and wanted to know why you were being so pressured in your job that it makes you drink so much.” I was speechless for a few seconds and couldn’t believe that Jeanne, my wife, had called the commander for any reason.

I told Top, the First Sgt, “I’m not pressured in my job by anyone. That’s not why I was drinking.” The First Sgt talked to me for a while and then took me into the commander’s office. I had always got along with the commander. He was a stern commanding officer but fair. He didn’t pull any punches and told me, “You are going to Detox at the hospital. There are MPs waiting to escort you there. You are very good at your job and I don’t want to lose you but you need help and you’re going to get it now.” That was it; Top escorted me out to the MPs and they took me to the hospital. I wasn’t happy about being stuck in a hospital ward with a bunch of other drunks who were sent there for the same reason I was. We drank too much alcohol and we needed dried out. I was put in an exam room and a psyche assistant came in and asked me a bunch of questions and then left. He told me to sit on a bench outside of the room until the doctor came.

By the time the doc arrived I was almost completely sober. He sat down next to me on the bench and said, “I want to admit you.” Oh no, was my thought. Then he said, “But I can’t.

There are twenty beds in Detox and they are all full. So, I have no place to put you.” My next thought was, “Yay! I’m free.” He gave me a prescription for Valium and told me to get it filled at the pharmacy in the hospital and take it to the MPs office near the main entrance and show them it’s filled and have them call me and I’ll release you. I did all of that and they called Top and told him I was released and he could come and get me. He couldn’t believe it but came and took me home. I vowed to stop drinking following that episode and did, for about three months. I tried and had tried for a couple of years to stop but it never worked. I even went to AA meetings but they made me feel worse.

Jeanne and I had attended a meeting where there were about eighty to one hundred people there and they all took turns telling how they drank away businesses, families and relationships as well as jobs. When we left, I felt terrible and the only thing I could think of was how much worse these people’s lives were than mine. I went to another one on a Friday evening by myself and I sat there listening to what I considered a bunch of meaningless talk. The longer the meeting went on, the more I began to feel sick. I thought, “This meeting can’t be this bad that it is making me feel sick.”

I left and went home and went to bed and Jeanne came in and checked on me and discovered I had a raging fever and a virus. So, it wasn’t the AA meeting that made me sick, it was a flu virus. But I never went back to another AA meeting for the simple reason that it never did anything for me. I just couldn’t figure out how these meetings were supposed to help keep people from drinking. I know, a sponsor is supposed to be there for you to call and keep you from taking a drink. That would have never worked for me. In the twelve-step program, my foot never got in motion for the first step.

I left the military and went to Southern California and to work for a government contractor. The  beer drinking got worse and maybe worse than ever. When I returned from Vietnam, it started and just became a part of my life I could never totally shake. There were times when I would stop for a period of time and then start again. When I met my wife, it stopped until a short time after our wedding. By the time we got to California it was, again, starting to get bad. For two and a half years after arriving in California, it might have been as bad as it ever was. We had three children by this time and that realization never was enough to stop me.

Finally, on December 2^nd, 1984, following an all-day drinking binge, on that Sunday morning lying in my bed waking up and with a groggy head, I heard a voice. For the previous three or four months, I had been reading Bible tracts my kids would bring home from church. Also, a friend at work who was a Christian had been talking to me about Jesus and giving me Bible passages to read in the evening which I did. I knew I had to stop and I tried but the temptation was too strong and I kept on drinking beer.

But on that Sunday morning, I heard that voice as clear as if someone was standing right next to my bed talking to me. I realized it was the voice of Jesus and He asked, “Are you ready to let me deal with this now?” It was that simple and that clear. It wasn’t in King James or some crazy tongue, it was specifically clear English in words I could comprehend. I’ve had people tell me Jesus doesn’t speak out loud to us; He doesn’t speak to us at all. But I heard it and I gave my addiction to Him and it was gone. On that Sunday morning, I was saved and delivered from my alcohol addiction. That was almost 42 years ago and I have never had another drop of booze in that time. I have never craved or desired it. Jesus took it and broke down that wall which separated us. A week later, I heard someone curse and realized that I had not used one swear or curse word since that Sunday morning encounter with Jesus.

Now, I didn’t write this post to get people to stop drinking alcohol or be the ex-whatever who preaches, “You need to stop smoking or you need to stop using salt or stop doing drugs.” No, I’m the person who will tell you that Jesus is the most powerful force in His created universe. He is saddened by programs like AA and NA and whatever other ‘A’ programs are out there. I’ve had several people who are stuck in the AA program tell that I’m still an alcoholic and I tell them I used the one step program and they ask what that is and I tell them, “Jesus!” Jesus has instantly sobered and saved people strung out on some drug. It was witnessed by many people who were quick to tell others.

So no, this is not some written document to preach to those who are hung up and being held captive by booze or drugs and the useless programs who keep them trapped into believing it’s the only help. I’m not the only person who has ever been delivered from booze or drugs or any other deadly habit. The Church is full of Christians who have experienced being saved and delivered by Jesus.

You see, the one step program is a one-time action on Jesus’ part. We never have to go back and repeatedly ask Him to help us with that same addiction because when He heals and delivers, it’s a finished deal. There is no, “I need to go to Jesus again to keep me from drinking.” Jesus heals and delivers us one time. We are saved one time. There is no going back to get saved over and over. That’s AA; you have to keep attending those meetings. You have to stay in contact with that sponsor who will talk you down from your craving. That’s actually one sinner trying to keep another sinner from sinning. It’s a trap which provides no delivery. The addiction is forever hanging over the person’s head and a fear of always falling back into the addiction. I know this aggravates and irritates AA people but it’s the truth.

When nonbelievers and skeptics refuse to believe Jesus is real, Jesus is God and is all powerful, the truth of His power and His love for us is everywhere. It’s all around for them to see but their eyes are blind to this because they don’t want to believe it. I simply tell them, “I am living proof and then explain why I say that.” Finally, this is what I say to those who just simply can’t or don’t want to believe what is all around them. “Jesus is real and waiting with arms wide open and wants to save you and deliver you from the traps in your life. He did it for me and many, many others and He can do it for you.” Trust in Jesus and ask Him to forgive you and invite Him in to be your Lord and savior. It’s that simple.

Are you trapped by a no win worldly program like AA? Consider the words above and let Jesus give you freedom from your addictions and the traps of this world.