Foreword
For approximately 90 days, I have been torn dramatically with what I see taking place in our country. The division between the country has never been broader than it is now. Not even since Vietnam was it this divided. Democrats and Republicans and the new entity, the Mega Party. That division has grown dramatically.
I woke one morning, and I’m certain the Lord woke me, and said, I need you to start writing stories. Not antagonistically, but using facts and Scripture. I want your purpose to be to allow the scales to fall off the people’s eyes, that they can truly see what I’m trying to teach them all the way back since Moses come down from the mountain and they built the golden calf.
I have diligently tried to do that over a 90-day period of time.
Recently, I ran into a bottleneck that I cannot overcome. I’ve described before that the problem is not that I can’t write. I’m reasonably intelligent. But I’m 69 years old. I’m suffering from macular degeneration. Even with a large monitor, it’s hard to read because when I focus, I can’t see the words. I’m exceptionally dyslexic. Have been from childhood. Was never able to spell. I put letters backwards, etc. I’m missing an index finger. I did not go to high school. I barely went to middle school. At age 13, I moved out of my house and got a job as a herdsman on a dairy farm. I’ve worked my entire life, probably since I was eight years old. There was a lot of abuse in my life, and I’ve learned to carry burdens for a lot of people.
At the age of 17, I made an allotment to my father, and he allowed me to go in the Marine Corps at that age, signing the papers. I just had to give him my paycheck for the first year.
By God’s grace, as I said, I’m reasonably intelligent, but I never considered myself to be an author. I never tried to learn computer stuff, any technical data whatsoever. I would rather send smoke signals than turn on a computer.
But as I got moved, I ran into a platform called ChatGPT, which made it possible for me to put my thoughts by use of the microphone, and this program is 99.9% accurate with the microphone. It took away a great deal of struggle and anguish by utilizing that. Spelling was always correct. Paragraph was in the correct formats. Punctuation was proper. Capitalization was proper. I didn’t have to say things like next paragraph or whatever. This brilliant little computer fellow just knew exactly what to do.
I’ve created about 75 stories, and the title of the series has made the scales fall off our eyes, with some political drawings, etc. Those are now available.
But the last day in July, the platform changed. I started getting notices that they cannot write the story or even use the same verbiage I used and was changing the story, not using my own verbiage, and would been able to continue in the political realm that I was doing.
The interesting thing, I knew that I was suffering AFib before I moved to Florida about five months ago. I went through a divorce approximately five years ago, and I’m still in the process of healing from that. After being married for 20 years and preparing to finally be able to retire and enjoy walking through the Garden of Eden together, we no longer are together. It was devastating for me. Difficult to learn.
When I moved to Florida, I have, because of AFib, I have a heart monitor implanted in my chest. Occasionally when I was in South Carolina, the doctor would call and say, you’re having an episode. Not severe enough to do anything, we’ll continue to monitor and potentially prescribe medication down the road.
As I was writing these stories, especially during July, there’s more to it than that, but I won’t go into all that. No one contacted me over the monitor. It was transferred to Florida. I became exceptionally fatigued and chest pains and palpitations, I could sense skin temperature changes, etc. As I wrestled with the chat fellow to continue to try and write the political stories, I realized that I could no longer do it.
I’ve said this prayer many times with my wife. We had a construction company that was as much as a ministry as it was a construction company. We helped many people get into houses well below cost because I was able to physically perform so much of the work myself. We could hold the price down dramatically.
She would ask me sometimes, how do you pray so quickly and get up in the morning and just go to work and start the day without having God’s answer?
I said, His answer is not necessary. My job is, I go pick up the nail, I start hammering it in. Just pretend there’s a log there with a large spike and I’ve got a sledgehammer. I have to keep the nail straight and pound on that nail as effectively as I possibly can. If the nail goes in, I know it’s the Lord’s will. If it doesn’t, I know it’s not His will. I don’t try and figure it out. I just go forward each day in prayer, making effort, and trusting the Lord.
When this malfunction came, for whatever reason during this political environment, the platform has changed where political stories are now very difficult to write because of the changes in the chat program. I realized that it was no longer the Lord’s will, whether it was for my own physical protection or not.
I went to bed that evening worried. I’ve been willing, and the Marine Corps, I took an oath to defend the Constitution of this country, and I feel the Constitution has been under significant attack. I would be willing to die to defend that Constitution.
I went to bed praying, Lord, do I continue to battle even though it’s significantly physically harming me now, or do I wave the white flag and give up?
The answer came back with this novel or this book that we’re going to be trying to write. It will be hypothetical, a novel format based upon a couple other books that I’ve read and heard about, and a movie, The Last Day or whatever the name of it is. I will use the characteristics of those messages to try and incorporate in this novel to do what I know the Lord is still calling me to do.
May the scales fall off our eyes.
As you read this book, I’m not asking you to lend to any political party one way or the other. This is a hypothetical equation of what potentially could happen, and it is my desire as you read it that you will understand that we all have a civic and moral responsibility, that we all carry consequences, and our entire nation will be affected by the decisions that citizens make.
If I accomplish that by writing this book, then I can go on with my life these last few years without the stress and the anxiety of trying to carry the weight of the world on my own shoulders.
I’m laying the weight down and asking each individual person that reads this book to pick the weight up within their own capacity.
But overall, the greatest thing you can do is to pay attention, study, become informed, and cast your ballot.