Happy 2024!

 So this post is about religion. If you don't want to know about what I believe or will be offended by the talk of Christ, punch out now. Come back when you need to know peace, this post will be here. 

I've been a Christian for as long as I can remember. Literally Sunday School at a small Baptist church in Hutchinsion, Kansas to moving to Missouri so dad could go to Southwest Baptist University and going to Mount Olive Baptist Church with our neighbors and even pastor lived across the alley for a while. Got baptized in the Pomme DeTerre river. It was cold. 

Always believed I was saved after that, said a prayer, did the baptism. Then life happens and things happen and you wonder if you're saved like you thought. You maybe get worried about it and say your prayer again just to be sure. You proceed about your life always knowing you've got that Ace card! No matter what, you're good! Look how good you are! You and your good deeds for all to see! If nothing else you can fake your way into salvation. And yes, you do need salvation. You do need repentance, and if you're asking, "who me?" Probably after you hear what I have to say or better yet have better men than I tell you themselves. 

I believe in the Jonathan Edwards' version of an angry God hanging by a thread of His Mercy. When you understand repentance, you understand what that means and you are driven to your knees by one question only, "Why Me, Lord?" That's it, your life is different from that point on. When you understand what repentance is and that it's not saying a prayer once when you were 9, that's when your life is different. You won't understand how, and your journey might take a very long time as mine has to reach this level of understanding. Thanks in large part to lots of time in the parking lots waiting on orders. 

One of my absolute favorite theologians is Dr. R.C. Sproul. His teaching genius is that he can relay incredibly complex topics in terms anyone can understand and give the reasons how and why while asking what you're thinking while you're thinking it. 

This is reformed theology by the best teacher in my lifetime. Dr. R.C. Sproul. 

This is far harsher. This is Dr. John MacArthur and on the universal question, "If God exists, why is there suffering!"

Dr. Voddie Baucham inspires me. This is his sermon entitled, "The Politically Incorrect Guide to God's War on the Wicked."

Paul Washer is the most intense pastor I've ever heard. He's nothing but the Gospel, it consumes him. Christ and nothing but Christ for him. Mr. Washer has many many incredibly powerful sermons and he does not play nice. If you are a fake Christian, trusting in something you may have silently muttered once and living like hell on earth, you are in for a reckoning if you listen to this sermon. He's famous for being very blunt and straightforward and this is the intensity of what the world needs right now for a true world wide repentance. 

I never know when my last day will be, neither will you. We don't know when that last heartbeat is coming through illness or accident or catastrophe. I never know when the last time it is to tell you I love you, so be prepared to hear it. When I'm gone, many decades from now I'm sure but I don't know, don't be sorry. Don't be sad. Know I'm with family that I know will be there. I'm with many amazing saints and theologians. I'm in a very good place and I hope you will find repentance. 

I did so many stupid things after my divorce. I lived it up and it wore me down. I felt empty still. I've documented for years life at my job and how it became a way of life. I've documented many many things about me that may be of help to someone someday. 

When you truly understand what Grace is, how unworthy we are of it, and how it's freely given. Then you will understand how this right here is where I'll be. This is prehaps the most uplifting sermon I've ever seen about how great it is to be a Christian. Dr. Derek Thomas goes into great detail on if there's dogs in Heaven. 

Look, if nothing else understand this parable from Jesus from the Gospel of Luke: 

The Rich Man and Lazarus

19 “There was a rich man who was dressed in purple and fine linen and lived in luxury every day. 20 At his gate was laid a beggar named Lazarus, covered with sores 21 and longing to eat what fell from the rich man’s table. Even the dogs came and licked his sores.

22 “The time came when the beggar died and the angels carried him to Abraham’s side. The rich man also died and was buried. 23 In Hades, where he was in torment, he looked up and saw Abraham far away, with Lazarus by his side. 24 So he called to him, ‘Father Abraham, have pity on me and send Lazarus to dip the tip of his finger in water and cool my tongue, because I am in agony in this fire.’

25 “But Abraham replied, ‘Son, remember that in your lifetime you received your good things, while Lazarus received bad things, but now he is comforted here and you are in agony. 26 And besides all this, between us and you a great chasm has been set in place, so that those who want to go from here to you cannot, nor can anyone cross over from there to us.’

27 “He answered, ‘Then I beg you, father, send Lazarus to my family, 28 for I have five brothers. Let him warn them, so that they will not also come to this place of torment.’

29 “Abraham replied, ‘They have Moses and the Prophets; let them listen to them.’

30 “‘No, father Abraham,’ he said, ‘but if someone from the dead goes to them, they will repent.’

31 “He said to him, ‘If they do not listen to Moses and the Prophets, they will not be convinced even if someone rises from the dead.’”

I want to see you there and I love you so much, whoever is reading this. I don't want you to be in God's Wrath in unrepentant sin and yes it is God's Wrath. 

Let's see what 2024 brings, shall we?

The Death Dealer and 2023

 This will be my year end reflection. My final project of 2023 is The Death Dealer from Frank Frazetta. I'm putting the story of why I like it and why I painted it the way I have in the description so you don't have to reread it here. It marks an end of a turbulent year in the world and I am glad it's leaving. 

So 2023 started off as a real chance to put the pandemic behind us and get on with our normal lives again. I had applied for plenty of jobs and got a handful of interviews. Nothing much to speak of but I was doing ok driving and trying to find myself again without the base anymore. Without knowing it I had become institutionalized where I came to depend on the place. It became engrained in me and a way of life.

Getting over that was hard. It took a lot of time to get over and to even understand what was happening. I was driving every day and making the ends but not gaining anywhere. I was ok with that though, I had a comfortable life. Drive in the morning, hobby until bed. Enjoy being free. 

I went to the Christmas party and my shop wasn't my shop anymore. The office where I spent the majority of my adult working life was gone. Just space now, the decal room is now the office. The shop looks horrible now overall it's meh, not the same feeling. The whole vibe was different, uninviting, colder. The whole building was different but it kept me from being overly nostalgic about the place. Talking to all my buddies again was great and confirmed I made the right decision. 

Then August came around. An event that changed my life and turns out was pretty good now. It was a very rocky start though, I told the stories of how I was going to walk anytime I felt it wasn't working. Well those days are over, I feel invested in my job now. I enjoy it on a few levels too. 

I've been doing things the way I know how to do, deconstruct it, look at it from a few different angles, put it back together and get rid of the spare parts. 

That's what I've done and I've found ways to get the students interested in learning this tech to make a living at things. I mean it is school right? We all get educated in some capacity to wind up in the supply chain at some point from a producer to a consumer, we all share this in the workforce. The more education, the theory goes, the better place you have in the supply chain. 

So why not get the students learning how to make something with their own imagination and profit from it? I mean it's kind of my class and I'm in charge of teaching what I think needs to be taught within the bounds of school policy. So that gave me a mission to figure out how to do it for this second semester and keep it within school policy. 

Goodbye 2023, hello 2024, let's do better huh?

You can check out my painting video of The Death Dealer here on my channel, RetJetPainter.