Is there really a God?

Is there really a God?  This is the big question for all people and all times.  Back in the 1966 the statement of German writer/philosopher Friedrich Nietzschke first published in 1883, made the cover of Time Magazine. "God is Dead"   I'm not one to simply accept what one man says; are you?  If there is or ever was a real God, He would not die.  For many years I have pondered the questions, "Is there really a God?", "What is He like?"  "What does He have to do with us?".  The most ancient authoritative source on the subject is the Hebrew scriptures, referred to by the Jews as the Tanakh and by Christians as the Old Testament.

The Hebrews have been around a long time and their remnant descendents, the Jews, have gone to great sacrifice to preserve this account of their relationship to God over at least 30 centuries.  So is the Old Testament a reliable document?  If you look at the efforts and sacrifice the nation of Israel made to support, protect and defend their scriptures you have to admire the lengths to which they have gone to assure they were preserved in their original form.  We're talking about somewhere around 3500 years ago when Moses put what began as oral history to pen.  

If you are careful and precise about the basis for your beliefs this may not impress you.  Many peoples throughout the world have oral and written traditions which have been shown to be nothing but fanciful and imaginative representations of their history and relationship to home spun gods.  My point here is the credibility this document has earned in it's centuries of existence.  

The New Testament which is approximately 2000 years old, was authored by men who lived during the time of Jesus Christ, who claimed to be the Son of God.  This set of scriptures testifies to the accuracy of the Old Testament.  Part of the credibility of the New Testament includes its support by other many historical writings of the time. The Christian scriptures are the most historically documented writings of all.  If you would believe in the existence of Plato, Socrates, Aristotle and other well known philosophers who lived hundreds of years prior to Christ, then you must believe in those who testified to the life and times of Jesus Christ.  

With this introduction, I begin a series of personal blogs based on what I believe and why I believe it in relation to Jesus Christ and the bible which includes both the New and Old Testaments. 

Eve poses with native of Alaska

Eve, always eager to connect with the locals, found this hairy indiviual in Ketchikan who was willing to paws and stand for a photo.  At Ketchikan we visited a totem pole park, learning about the purpose of totem poles and the life style of the Natives of the area. Then we hung out downtown and did a couple of geocaches. 

Eve and friend in Ketchikan

North to Alaska!

Floatin' on a Boat

In June, Eve and I sailed for Alaska on a Norwegian Cruise ship.  We figured if you can't trust a Norwegian to sail a ship, then who?  As a former US Navy carrier sailor, I can attest the cruise ship was humungus!  We made stops at Ketchikan, Juneau and Skagway before disembarking at Whittier.

Alex poses in front of our fishing house with a cisco caught at the annual Lake of Woods fishing trip.

ANNUAL LAKE OF WOODS FISHING TRIP A SUCCESS!
Alex and I headed for Baudette on Sunday, March 3, 2013 leaving about 8:30 am.  We arrived at Sportsmen's Lodge about 2 pm, loaded our stuff into the snow cat and headed out 10 miles onto the big lake.  We arrived at our happy home for the next 3 days, Otter House.  Alex not only caught many nice sized walleyes, but a bourbot, 3 ciscos, and 3 keeper saugers.  Last year was a bust with 40-50 degree temps and melting snow leaving deep puddles everywhere on the lake.  This year was more seasonable and in fact, we were treated to a nice 8" snowstorm on our last day.  Driving home was a chore, with heavy snow on the highway, but thank the Lord, we made it home safely about 5:15 pm.  The trip festivities ended with a fish cleaning marathon in grandpa's basement. 

One of the several dandy walleyes caught by Al in the Otter House.  All his fish were caught on jigs tipped with minnow heads.

Alex catches some dandy walleyes

Grandpa was 2nd best fisherman

Typical catch on my side of the fish shack.

There I was, sitting just 6 feet away from Alex, staring down two black holes.  It was fun watching Al pull in the fish.  I had a lot of time to do Suduko and I did catch a few walleyes.  My biggest fish was when Al had two on at once and requested my assistance.  I got to crank in a beauty while Al was pulling in another keeper. 

Zosel's Invade Hawaii

JoAnn Bauer welcomes Zosel's to Hawaii

Chuck and Eve Zosel crossed the Pacific Ocean to visit the 50th state.  Why? because the year 2013 is the 50th year of their wedded bliss.

Long time friend, JoAnn Bauer former resident of the Town of Timberland in Wisconsin was there at the Kona airport to greet the Z's with orchid lais.  

Chuck and Eve made a thorough exploration of the Island of Hawaii.  More reports will follow.

Canoe For Sale

My handcrafted cedar strip canoe is for sale.  Note the inlaid spruce design of western red cedar

Several years ago, I purchased a used cedar strip canoe from a friend.  My original interest was to procure a light-weight canoe and this one weighs 48 pounds.  The beauty of the craft was a bonus.  Where ever I stop with the canoe on my pickup, people gather around, admire it and ask if I built it.  The canoe was actually built by Dusty Waters Canoe Works, Iowa City, IA in 1980 with western red cedar hull and ash thwarts. The wood core lies between 2 layers of fiberglass, so it is plenty durable. The hull is designed for racing.  The stern and bow seats are of caning material.  The friend who sold this to me specially built the ash portaging yoke. 

The reason I am selling it is because I like to canoe on the Brule River which is somewhat rocky and though this canoe is no whimp, I can't bear the thought of banging up this work of art.  I am asking $1200 with which I hope to buy a tough and lightweight canoe which is more appropriate for use on the Brule.

Obama Administration Pro-Abortion

I wrote the following article for the Superior Telegram in August 2012.

Everyone knows we have crucial state and national elections coming up this fall.  Our current president claims to be a Christian, but his polices demonstrate the opposite.  Jesus came that we might have life.  Contrarily, our President has demonstrated his willingness to promote death as the most pro-abortion president in history.  According to the newsletter of Wisconsin Right to Life,  “Obama supports the Roe v. Wade decision which legalizes abortion for any reason throughout pregnancy; taxpayer funding of abortions here and overseas; taxpayer funding of abortion providers; sex-selective abortion; partial-birth abortions; no conscience rights for medical professionals; pro-abortion judges; Obamacare which funds abortions and rations care; and much more.”

What will Americans do?  If we persist in defending abortion as “a woman’s right to her own body”, we will be opposing God, the Creator of life.  Abortion is just one tip of the “iceberg” called sin.  It is because of our rebellion against God that we find ourselves in the mess America is in right now with political rancor, materialism, greed, deliberate unhealthy behaviors and general discontent. 

The terms, Christian and Church have lost their original meaning.  Christian was first applied to those in a first century church in Turkey and literally means “little Christs” or Christ followers.  A Church was an assembly of those Christ followers.  Today, in our culture, those terms popularly apply to anything vaguely related to historic Christianity.  We often hide behind the façade of institutionalized religion, which blinds the masses.

To save our selves, let alone our country, there must be a turning back to the foundations of true Christianity - Jesus Christ as revealed in the Bible.  Those who agree should pray for all men and those in authority that righteousness will reign in America. 

Brenda's "Boys"

Riley at left and Reggie on the right in the back yard

Riley and Reggie are Brenda's "boys".  They sleep in the house at night, but live and play in the back yard during the day.  Riley is the lead dog.  Reggie is mild mannered and will do whatever Riley says.  One day, I made the mistake of leaving the yard fence gate open for a minute . . . too long.  Riley looks at Reggie and says, "Now's our chance, lets go for it!"  Off they went into the neighborhood.  I spotted them right away, but it was too late.
I knew I was in trouble with Brenda, so I immediately set about rounding them up.  It didn't take long to herd Reggie back to the security of the fenced-in backyard.  Riley was not so easily subdued.  Up and down the street I went talking kindly, "come on Riley, I just want to pet you and scratch under your chin.  I won't grab you, honest, I won't make you go back into the confinement of the back yard.  Really Riley; pretty please, won't you just come to old Grandpa?"

So went the humiliating pursuit.  Up the street and back again. Neighbors stood at their windows, chuckling to themselves as this old geezer approached Riley to almost within reach and then scampered way, enjoying the 'game'.  As we went by Brenda's one more time, Eve stood outside with the gate open.  For some unknown reason Riley took off for the home gate as if to say, "finally, why didn't you ask me before?"   The dog hunt was over.  Riley was home once again in the backyard haunt with ol' buddy Reggie.

Helping Brenda in Post Falls, ID

Brenda and her Dad plant shrubs in the front yard.

Brenda is a busy gal, so Chuck and Eve decided to head out west to see if we could lend a hand getting her new house shaped up.  We spend a week there doing odd jobs around the house and a variety of fun activities.  Some of the jobs we did were, wash windows, plant some new shrubs, help organize the garage, mow the lawn, fix a couple of screens, fix a leaking toilet, fix a door latch and just general fun stuff.  Brenda was working every day, but we cooked out, ate out, geocached, took our day trip, attended her softball game, attended her Rotary luncheon, etc.  By the way, Brenda was the 2010 Rotarian of the Year in Coeur d'Alene and we are proud of her!  I also was able to cruise around town on Rachel's bike which is stored in Brenda's garage.  Every morning, I went for a short walk in the neighborhood and would pick a fresh bouquet of flowers from the vacant lots in the area. (No wonder my allergies were fussing all week.)

Side Trip to Priest Lake Area

Priest Lake in Northern Idaho

Our little 'vacation within a vacation' consisted of a day trip to Priest Lake, about 60 miles north of Post Falls.  We rented a car for the day and Eve and I headed north.  We had heard that this was a premier mountain and lake paradise of Idaho.  Much of the area is National Forest and Woodchuck was in his glory with trees and wild flowers in abundance.  We visited the cedar grove (next post), several spots along the lake, a US Forest Service museum, ate lunch at a resort along the lake, drove up the west side of the lake, the east side of the lake and made many stops along the way to look at and photograph wild flowers.  Perhaps Woodchuck will feature more posts in the future featuring some of the flowers.  On the way home, we stopped for supper at a restaurant at Old Town, ID on the border with Washington State with a view overlooking the snow melt-filled Ponderay River.

Saw the Cedars

300 year old western red cedars make up a remnant grove that survived a 1926 forest fire

One of the stops that was on our 'must see' list was the Hanna Grove of old growth cedars.  Even though this was in an area of ponderosa, white and lodgepole pine, it was a springy damp area and so was spared a devastating forest fire in 1926.  This was on a tract of land that a family by the name of Hanna had claimed, but when they saw the sized of the trees, they moved on to find a claim with less daunting-sized trees to use to build their cabin.  Some of these trees were 4 feet in diameter and over 100 feet tall.  Loggers were only interested in white pine at this time. 

Geocaching in Post Falls

Woodchuck demonstrates his gps technique as Brenda and John look on.

Some of our fun times in Post Falls were spent geocaching with Brenda and her friend, John.  There were oodles of caches right around their neighborhood and all over the city.  We found quite a few, but there were some real "stumpers".  Once, John sniffed one out that the rest of us had walked by.  Another that we had made a second trip to look for, old Woodchuck bungled into.  Some had to be chalked up to: "must have been muggled", "the coordinates must be off" and just plain "lets give this one up". 

Caching at the Hot Rod Cafe

One of the caches we found was at this "California Surfer" type cafe.

We found a cache on the shady boulevard alongside this unusual cafe in Post Falls.

A Walk In The Park

Eve, Me and Brenda along the Spokane River in Post Falls Photo by John.

On a beautiful Sunday afternoon, Brenda, John, Eve and I stopped by the Post Falls Pita Pit.  We picked up our pitas and headed for the Kiwanis Park on the Spokane River.  Sitting at a picnic table in the shade of magnificent aromatic pines we enjoyed our healthy and delicious lunch.  Then, gps's in hand, we strolled toward the river searching for 2 geocaches along the way.  No luck - "muggled", but it was great just being there together.