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Tuesday, April 28, 2015

Fresh 6.7 magnitude earthquake strikes Nepal; tremors across north India





10 Then Jesus said to them, “Nations and kingdoms will fight against each other.11 There will be great earthquakes and wide-scale food shortages and epidemics. There will also be terrifying sights and great signs in the sky. Luke 21





We have neighbors who are originally from India. They are US citizens and America is now home to them; yet, they travel back occasionally to see their parents who continue to make India home. I thought of them tonight when I heard these quakes extended into northern India.

As I watched these BBC reports I discovered that the impact of these earthquakes went far beyond Nepal into Northern India. BBC is now reporting that 8 million people are effected by these quakes. One person interviewed by BBC said they didn't have the proper tools to dig out their loved ones. They were using small hand held tools ill equipped to do the job. Another report revealed that they were shifting from search and rescue to body recovery and were requesting more body bags be sent over to them.

Shock, pain, depression were all of the typical emotions I felt listening to the reports coming out of Nepal. I was once again reminded how we really do not have control over our destinies.

As I watched these BBC reports I ask my self one question: Why aren't we seeing these on our American televisions? Why are we so occupied by the 'hands up' people? Why are we so absorbed by the antics of reality television. Why are we so immune to the pain and destruction happening in Nepal and Northern India?

At the very end of one of these reports I heard one gentleman being interview that " we are asking God to help us".

We are so afraid in this country to offend any one person that we cannot even acknowledge God's name or tell someone 'I will pray for you.'

What type of foundation are you basing your life on? Is it on the sand of temporary things of worldly accomplishments or  is it based on the God's well tested word that has stood the test of time and changes millions of peoples lives forever?

As I watch the devastation I was reminded of the decision I made for Jesus Christ in the spring of 1974. The moment I uttered those words I was assured of my eternal destiny. Instead of building my life on sand it was build on the solid rock that no matter what happens to me Christ will be there with me every time the ground shakes, the Bears stampede and threaten my portfolio, and sorrow enters in when a loved one dies.

Let us remember the people in Nepal and Northern India in our prayers in the coming days for relief supplies, smart humanitarian aide, and for God to help them in their devastation.








Sunday, April 26, 2015

So how does the grandson of prominent Orange county physician become the American voice for Osama Bin Laden?




11 Faith is the reality of what we hope for, the proof of what we don’t see. Hebrews 11:1


This week in the news I read about the American born terrorist who became the voice of Osama Bin Laden being killed in a drone attack. Why would a young man throw everything away in a 'blessed' life he had in America and travel far away to fight Jihad?

As I search the scriptures I am reminded over again that it really takes a few short generations before the good things of God are forgotten and evil and wickedness enter into the family system. When it does the evil wrecks havoc on everyone exposed to it.

Our Prison system which are filled with men and woman who veered off the beaten path of doing the right things is a prime example of this point.

As I read the story of Adam Gahhn better known as Assam the American I again began to understand how and why this happened.
Adam Gadahn was the son of Seth Gadahn who was the son of Carl Perlman who was a prominent 

Orange county Physician.

So how did it happen? Why would a young man who supposedly had everything going for him throw it all away and be responsible for inciting the terror attacks against innocent people? To understand young Adam you first need to understand his father.

Before he changed his name he was Phil Perlman, college student at the University of California, Irvine during the radicalized 60's. UC Irvine was considered a public 'Ivy' school.

Phil came from a family that loved music. His father played the violin while his mom played the piano. His father was a devoted Jew and staunch supporter of Israel. One can probably assume frp, this that he grew up in upper middle class family.

He entered college during the most tumultuous time period in American history. Young Phil loved music equally as much as his parents, but his love was for music of a psychedelic kind. People who knew him were amazed how he seem to know well heeled music people in the San Francisco music scene and how he would use those influences to bring various bands to the college campus. He was always thinking ahead because before it was even popular he would help these bands set up light shows.

.He self-produced and released several records, including a 1967 album by his band, called the Beat of the Earth.

Like a lot of teenagers of the 60's Phil grew his hair out and began driving around campus in a daisy covered Volkswagen.

In 1969 Phil dropped out of UC without earning his degree.

At one time he wanted to travel to the middle east, but his father was able to convince young Phil through a meeting with a middle eastern friend of his to not go.

He produced his last record in 1976 and within 2 years he married a woman 10 years younger. In 1978 they had their first son while living in Oregon and named him Adam.. At one point Phil became a Christian when he found a bible on the beach.

An essay written by young Adam confirmed that fact.

In the late 1970s, Phil made a radical decision to change his life by changing his name to Seth Philip Gadahn and moving his wife, Jennifer, and Adam to 60 acres of land his parents owned in rural Riverside County. Gadahn told the Register in 2004 that his new surname was a variation of the biblical name Gideon, who was a Jewish hero from the Old Testament.

He decided he wanted to make a fresh start..So He built a 10x10 wooden shack on the side of a hill with no running water and no electricity with an outhouse nearby which became their home. Seth and his wife began home schooling young Adam.

To support his family he raised a few 100 goats and sold them to a growing Muslin market in Los Angeles.One can assume that young Adam grew sympathetic toward the Muslim faith whenever they travel to Los Angeles with the goats they were bringing to market.

One article pointed out that Seth's new found Christianity slowly evolved into a Universalisitic belief system which takes the best of all religions. Where once Seth had a firm Christian foundation built on the death and resurrection of Jesus Christ that faith now became a conglomeration of many beliefs and in short a foundation built on the sands of uncertainty.

It was this upbringing that the seeds were planted for his son's ultimate conversion to radical Islam.

As a teenager Adam tried to learn as much about the Christian and Islamic faiths. Whenever he was visiting his grandparents he would often research the internet those differences. Remember, Adam grew up in a home with no electricity or running water and consequently had no internet.

Since his dad's faith had become lukewarm young Adam had nothing to claim this faith for himself. It was while he was at his grandparents that Adam read about Jihad that lead him to reject his dad's faith just has his dad had rejected his dad's faith. Just as his dad had done so Adam changed his name.

Adam the Assam isn't an anomaly because there are many more 'Adam's in this world who are searching for something of substance to bring meaning to a mundane existence. When things do not go right or our path deviates off into nowhere land it is easy to reject everything we stood for up to that point.


 Traumatic grief is one such example and is often used by many why they turned against God in the first place. It is one of the primary reasons why people turn to atheism. "If there is a good God then why did my loved one have to die?"

My response to my son when he asked if he had to go to church since he wasn't feeling well after his sister died the week before was "we could all stay home because I know mom doesn't feel well and I know I am not feeling well, but if we do then we will miss out on the encouraging and inspiring words of our friends at church."

Life is going to be hard. It will be filled with peaks and valleys. There will be good things that will happen, but there will be untold grief. Our goal should be to trust God enough that he truly knows what he is doing with our grief. He gave us a savior who personally will walk with us when we walk these uncertain roads in life, if we allow him.

If we keep this in mind then I am convinced we always have a generation of people after us who will do the same.














Monday, April 20, 2015

My God lives!






14 The amazing grace of the Master, Jesus Christ, the extravagant love of God, the intimate friendship of the Holy Spirit, be with all of you. I Corinthians 13:14



Once again, the holy spirit within me was encouraged through an hour of worship time, Adult Sunday school, the church wide prayer we had and finally dinner out with our life group.

The word that best summarizes my Sunday experience is amazing grace. It seems that the people I spoke with all had remarkable stories to share about God's healing grace and how through unspeakable pain healing takes place inside.

There was a gentleman I spoke with who 50 years ago still remembers the unspeakable horrors that happened to his family. They were believers who simply wanted to make Jesus Christ known to those who didn't know him.

Jesus helped healed him. Amazing grace best summarizes that healing.

When my family and I decided to keep the ritual of our weekly worship after our tragic loss I could hear heavenly rejoicing. 

I could sense that God was going to bring people into my life that he has healed to encourage my family. 

Attending church was different in a lot of ways after our loss, but in a good way.

God revealed to me that heaven is a very real place, not a time in space.

He revealed his biblical truths in all of it's high definition color, not the flat dimension I once saw them in.

He blessed me with rich friendships with people who had their own stories to share.

Like iron sharpens iron our lives were enriched.

Healing comes when we put one foot in front of the other, trusting God that he knows what he is doing and continue attending a Christian church near you.

Healing also comes as you listen to peoples stories of God's amazing grace in their lives!


Sunday, April 19, 2015

Open up your eyes, look around, God still does miracles!




10 The name of the LORD is a strong tower; the righteous run to it and are safe. Proverbs 18:10

Throughout my grief journey there have been moments of sensing the very presence of God. While there have been moments where I truly felt that God had abandoned me there have also been moments where God had made his presence felt in my life.

 The year 2015 would have been the year Maria would have graduated from Legacy Christian Academy in Andover, Minnesota.. Had she lived we would have been helping her make decisions on which college to attend and watching her enjoy her senior year with her friends and planning her open house.

 Had  she lived we would have stayed closer in touch with all of Maria's friends  and their families. The moment  she died it was as though this big iron castle door got suddenly closed  producing a loud  thunderous sound as it did. We were on the outside trying to look in. 

 Our memories with her had come to an abrupt end while her friends parents continued to enjoy moments with their kids. 

 Occasionally, we would get a glimpse from afar of their parents at occasional basketball and volleyball games, but  the loss of our daughter had broken any normal communications with them. 

 A few   weeks ago I brought up the idea   with my wife and son of providing a couple of scholarships in Maria's memory.   No, we didn't receive any settlement from a wrongful death suit.  God lead me on  a path of forgiveness, not years of hatred.

My wife and son  thought it was a good idea for the scholarships and so  I sent an e mail to the school guidance counselor with a brief summary of our daughter and how this would have been her graduation year. She said the story I wrote was so touching that it made her cry. 

This last  Friday I went down to  the local TCF bank near work to withdraw two cashiers checks  from Maria's account. Sensing that the teller didn't  quite know how to handle this transaction I noticed a blond lady standing at her side.   She  knew exactly how to process this request proceeded to explain it to the teller. Then she said she knew Maria and James/

 She once babysat Maria and my son. It turns out that she went to the same school James and Maria attended. While baby sitting them she played a game with them whereby the object was to knock blocks and Maria won every time. Maria said that she always wins at this game. 

Right there in TCF bank was a bank employee who knew our kids and just happened to be there at that moment  to help me with this transaction. Just happened? I don't   think so. I believe that the creator of the universe and the redeemer of men and woman enabled this lady to be there right at the moment I needed someone. God really does work in mysterious ways.

Friday, April 17, 2015

The unresolved grief of losing his dad at 16 may have cause Aaron Hernandez life to spiral downward


19 Understand [this], my beloved brethren. Let every man be quick to hear [a ready listener], slow to speak, slow to take offense and to get angry. James 1:19



It is never what it seems. A rising star who seemingly had it all with a 40 million NFL contract and a successful career ahead of him goes off the beaten path hanging out with the wrong crowd. Why would a 'good' guy like Aaron be found guilty of 1st degree murder? Why would someone like him throw his life away and change forever the lives around him?  I read today that his life went astray when as a high school kid his dad died.  In the USA Today newspaper I read:

'But there have been signs of trouble in Hernandez's personal life dating back to high school, issues that followed him to the University of Florida and now to his life as an NFL star.
In previous interviews and multiple news reports, Hernandez and his family said Hernandez was devastated by the sudden death of his father, Dennis, in January 2006, when Hernandez was 16. 

Aaron's father had gone in for what was thought to be routine hernia surgery. Something that normally isn't suppose to cause death.

'Dennis' death, the result of complications from hernia surgery, left Hernandez feeling lost and angry, his mother, Terri, and brother, D.J., told USA TODAY Sports in 2009. 

Hernia surgery? Something that doctors do routinely on a daily basis? I picture the Hernandez family sitting in the Surgery waiting area just as thousands of other families have done making small talk about school, work, and life  as they waited for the news to come to them that surgery is done and Dennis had been brought to his post opt room just like thousands of others do. They probably for making plans about what to have for supper that night or  what television shows to watch that night.

In this single case Dennis became a casualty and young Aaron, still a developing teenager, was now thrust into a whirlwind of emotions he knew very little about. When a loved one dies a sudden and unexplained way we often come to a fork in the road.  What I found in my grief journey is how little people know about how to help someone entering grief.  As American's, we seem to have a 6 month rule about grief that after 6 months we should be able to work completely through our grief and  be back the way we were before our loved died. It doesn't work that way.

 None of the Hernandez family even remotely consider the possibility of death from something as simple as this surgery . None of us do. Yet, Aaron responded by lashing out at his family, smoking marijuana and spending his free time hanging with a rough crowd of young men.

"He would rebel. It was very, very hard, and he was very, very angry. He wasn't the same kid, the way he spoke to me. The shock of losing his dad, there was so much anger," Terri Hernandez told USA TODAY Sports in 2009.The death of his father thrust him into a sea of intense emotions that he didn't have a clue how to process.

Sudden deaths  from routine surgery do occasionally occur. Somehow when the intense feelings of grief occur following this type of loss we must find a way to process those feelings. Many of us try to sedate the pain of our grief by sleeping too much, doing a lot of physical exercise, or even turning to alcohol and drugs. These are temporary fixes, not permanent solutions.

It was a year after the Hernandez family entered their painful grief journey that we entered ours. Like the Hernandez family it was a seemingly routine surgery that had been done to thousands of children each year that caused the pain in each of us. Each of us grieved differently. While each one of us  grieved differently we continue to attend  the same church we attended when our daughter was alive.  The pain was still there and the pain persisted for many months and years following her death, but I noticed a phenomenal thing had happened: Jesus Christ was walking with us every painful step of the way. 

When the intensity of emotions are left unprocessed  from a sudden death they can lead to devastating consequences.   For some unprocessed grief emotions can lead to cancer and tumors. For others it can lead to a life of alcohol/drug addictions and  to others a life of losing jobs  and turning tocrime. There are things you can do if you are faced with these intensity of emotions following a sudden death:
(1.) tell someone you can trust about these feelings. 

(2.) Do as my family did which is to continue your daily rituals the same way you did when your loved one was alive.

(3). Seek professional help when these feelings become so overwhelming to you. No, you are not crazy going to a Psychologist.

(4) Trust God that he knows what he is doing with your grief. Start a daily journal where you can express all of your thoughts and emotions. Sometimes when we get things out on paper those emotions become less threatening and easier to handle

(5) Accept the reality that this type of grief journey will take time and while we want the pain to end immediately life does get gradually better in time.

If your in the  throes of this pain from a sudden death I encourage you to visit my website www.soaringonwingsofeagles.org where you will find information from what this grief is like, to faith testimonies, to some worship songs that particularly had an impact on me in my grief, to all sorts of grief support that is presently available. 

Yes, it is possible to navigate through this type of grief journey.  It takes time and making the right choices on a daily basis.

Saturday, April 4, 2015

Worthy is the Lamb


In a loud voice they were saying: "Worthy is the Lamb, who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and strength and honor and glory and praise!" Revelations 5:12


On Friday evening our family of three attended the Good Friday service at church. My wife had to be at the church earlier than us so we dropped her up and drove to the local Carabou to mentally prepare our selves through a reading out of 1 John.

As my son and I entered the sanctuary we were each given a strip of cloth. As I sat down I saw the word Love on the very front of the Sanctuary. In our section my eyes took a gentle sweep around the section we sat in. I noticed many people I knew. People who knew first hand what the sour taste of grief tastes like.

Toward the front sat a man who's son took his life. I personally remember listening to him share his pain in the months following his loss. Just to the right of this man sat a couple who understood the pain of a life altering diagnosis and what it meant for their family and for their future.

Several rows behind this couple sat a bereaved man who's wife left this world prematurely through sudden circumstances. Beside him sat his daughter who lost her role model and mentor, her mom. As my eyes glanced to the right I noticed one of our Pastors who personally understood the sour taste of grief just being their with loved ones as they experience a sudden death.

This good Friday service started off with a series of worship songs. Then our Pastor began speaking about what love means. He said that on a universal level everyone agrees that 'God is love'. He read from I John 4:10:



10 In this is love: not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation (the atoning sacrifice) for our sins.

1. God loved us
2.He sent his son to pay the price for our sins.

The pastor talked about the cross as our ground zero. The cross where God paid the wrath of our sin through the painful sacrifice of his son. This cross was meant for us, but God paved the way for all of us to have our sin's wiped clean through Jesus Christ who took our place on the cross so we can receive favor.

The cross of Jesus is pained, scratched and there is no greater love than someone who lays down his life for his enemy (us)
We were asked to recognize that we are spiritually bankrupt and that Jesus came to pay the price of that bankruptcy. We then asked to confess to the Lord our spiritual bankruptcy as the choir sang in the background.

When communion began each row walked to the front of the church with our strip of cloth. On the cloth we were asked to write a confession of our sin. Once at the front we were to take our strip and slide it under the metal grid. The couple helping at the front knew this sour taste of grief through the premature loss of their sister/sister-in-law. By the time our son and I reached the front there was a tapestry of different colored strips already in place. Each of us slid our strip between the grids before taking a wafer and communion glass.


As I glanced around this section at the people I knew who personally understood the sour taste of grief I was reminded that we also had a Savior who loved us so much that he laid his life down for each of us, including our loved ones who prematurely left us. That, my friends, is the greatest news we could all possibly know.
If you are not sure you know this savior you can with this simple prayer:

Dear Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and that it is my sin that separates me from God.  I want you to come into my life and give me the peace that I see in those around me who know you personally. I open up the door of my heart and invite you to come into me and become my savior and Lord. I thank you Lord for the assurance of salvation just as I John 5:13 says, 'And this is the testimony: God has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. The one who has the Son has this eternal life; the one who does not have the Son of God does not have this eternal life. I have written these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God so that you may know that you have eternal life.

God is no stranger of knowing what the sour taste of grief is like. He sacrificed his son to demonstrate his love for us and to pay the penalty of the cross rightfully reserved for us.

 This same God who accompanied your loved one home to heaven is the same God who desires to be part of your life when grief and pain enter it. As I made one final glance around my section I saw each of these friends placing their trust in the Savior through this sour taste of sorrow.