Walking The HT

[Webers_Home]

.
Hello;

There's hundreds of hikers out there this time of year walking across
America on long distance trail systems like the Pacific Crest Trail (PCT), the
Continental Divide Trail (CDT), and the Appalachian Trail (AT) et al.

The PCT crosses the Columbia river at the community of Cascade Locks +/-
50 miles east from where I live in the Portland Metro area of Oregon. It's fun
to see smelly hiker trash come straggling into town seeking a place to stock
up on supplies, gorge on hamburgers and pancakes, take a bath, and of
course get a tall ice cream cone from the Eastwind drive-in. (The little
burger stand is a must-do stop over)

Beginning the HT (Heavenly Trail)

I was christened an infant into the Roman Catholic Church in 1944, and
eventually attended catechism to complete First Holy Communion and
Confirmation.

My siblings are Catholic, my mother was Catholic, my youngest brother was
an altar body, my eldest brother entered the priesthood and made it to Friar
before passing away in May 2018 of cancer.

My wife is a former Catholic, her dad was Catholic, his wife was Catholic, my
aunt and uncle were Catholics, My sister-in-law was a "religious" for a
number of years before falling out with the hierarchy that controlled her
order, and my wife's cousins are Catholic; one of them is an ordained
Deacon.

I was loyal to Rome up until I was 24, then one day I was approached by a
Protestant who asked me if I was prepared for Christ's return.

Well; I must've been either asleep or absent the day that the nuns talked3
about Jesus coming back because that man's question was the very first
time in my whole life that I can remember somebody telling me.

My initial reaction was alarm because I instinctively knew that were I called
on the carpet for a face-to-face with Jesus, it would not go well for me
because I had a lot to answer for. Well; I don't like being made to feel afraid
so I became indignant and demanded to know why Jesus would come back.
That's when I found out for the very first time that it was in the plan for
Christ to take over the world. (I had somehow missed that in catechism
too.)

Then the Protestant asked me if I was going to heaven. Well; of course I had
no clue because Catholics honestly don't know what to expect when they
pass away. I was crossing my fingers while in the back of my mind dreading
the worst.

Then the man said; "Don't you know that Jesus died for your sins?"

Well; I had been taught in catechism that Jesus died for the sins of the
world; that much I knew; but honestly believed all along that he had been a
victim of unfortunate circumstances. It was a shock to discover that Jesus'
trip to the cross was deliberate, and that his Father was thinking of me when
His son passed away, viz: my sins were among the sins of the world that
Jesus took to the cross with him.

At that very instant-- scarcely a nanosecond --something took over in my
mind as I fully realized, to my great relief, that heaven was no longer out of
reach, rather, well within my grasp!

That was an amazing experience. In just the two or three minutes of
conversation with that Protestant, I obtained an understanding of Jesus'
crucifixion that many tedious catechism classes had somehow failed to get
across. Consequently, my confidence in the Roman Catholic Church was
shattered like a bar of peanut brittle candy dropped to the sidewalk from the
tippy top of the Chrysler building.

Long story short; I eventually went with that man to his church and, side by
side with him and a couple of elders, knelt at the rail down front and prayed
a really simple, naive prayer that went something like this:

"God, I know I'm a sinner. I would like to take advantage of your son's
death"

My prayer wasn't much to brag about; but it was the smartest sixteen words
I'd ever spoken up to that time.

Buen Camino
(Pleasant Journey)
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
I was living solo up in Oregon when my conversion from Catholicism to
Protestantism took place in 1968. Right about that same time, my dad
became disabled back in my home town of San Diego so I started packing to
go down there and be with him.

Before leaving, the man instrumental in initiated my walk on the HT
cautioned me about marriage. I was only 24 at the time and had not yet
become interested in starting a family so he clued me into the fact that I
must not take up with a girl whose beliefs differ from my own. I already
knew that much from my Catholic training, but had never seen it in the Bible
for myself. Well; it's there all right at 2Cor 6:14-18 which says:

"Do not be yoked together with unbelievers. For what do righteousness and
wickedness have in common? Or what fellowship can light have with
darkness? What harmony is there between Christ and Belial? What does a
believer have in common with an unbeliever? What agreement is there
between the temple of God and idols?

. . . For we are the temple of the living God. As God has said: "I will live with
them and walk among them, and I will be their God, and they will be my
people. Therefore come out from them and be separate-- says the Lord -
touch no unclean thing, and I will receive you. I will be a Father to you, and
you will be my sons and daughters-- says the Lord Almighty."

Well, guess what? Not long after I returned to San Diego, found a job, and
was working steady; an olde girl friend showed up wanting to get back
together; and she was eerily close to the very kind of woman that the Bible
instructed me to avoid. HAW! I had scarcely gone but a few miles on the HT
and was already encountering natural hazards.
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
Hikers on the long distance trails not only have to be wary of natural
hazards, rodents, reptiles, beasts, and the elements; but also thieves. For
example; Jesus spoke of thieves in the 10th chapter of John. Out west
thieves that steal livestock are usually called rustlers.

Well; my first encounter with rustlers came about when a cheery Jehovah's
Witness came down my dad's driveway bright and early one Saturday
morning. I was still very inexperienced at that point, and honestly believed
the JW was a fellow Christian well met.

You see: rustlers wear boots, hats, and chaps like real cowboys, they strap
on six-guns like real cowboys, ride horses with a saddle and a lasso like real
cowboys, and talk like real cowboys; so neither their looks nor their manners
give them away. Well; that JW was well groomed and shiny like you'd expect
a real Christian to be, and they carried a Bible like you'd expect a real
Christian to do, and they were polite and courteous which is the kind of
manners you'd expect from a real Christian.

But when I spoke of the JW with an elder; he became alarmed because he'd
been around the block a time or two with those people and knew for himself
just how dangerous they are to youngsters like myself who thus far don't
have enough Bible under their belts to spot a thief when they see one.

Well; my friend told me that the first red flag I would see with JWs is their
refusal to accept that Jesus is a divine theophany, viz; they do not believe
he is a human form of God (a.k.a. Jehovah) instead they insist he was an
angel in human form.

When the JW came back a week later to pick up where they left off; I tested
them with what the elder told me and sure enough my friend was spot-on.
What us sheep believe as the "deity of Christ" is not what they believe of him.
Well; I reacted badly and angrily demanded they leave and not come back.

My friend the elder then urged me to purchase a little book titled "30 Years A
Watchtower Slave" by William J. Schnell, which was a very useful source at
the time because back in 1969 there were no internet services nor even yet
personal computers to work with. In our day, I'd recommend YouTube for
information related to the JWs though Mr. Schnell's book is still available via
book stores and online venders like amazon dot com.
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
I was sort of a juvenile delinquent as a teen-ager with things like arson,
petty theft, fighting, vandalism, possession of alcohol, and shop lifting-- and
after high school did three years in the Army before taking up the welding
trade. So at first my language was less than acceptable for a Christian.

But after three years on the HT, some of the rough and ready men I worked
with began to comment. I mean, guys in my trade and with my background
cuss; so why wasn't I cussing?

Well; oddly, I wasn't aware my language had improved until those guys said
something. The change happened so gradually and so smoothly that I
honestly hadn't noticed.

And that wasn't all. I was prone to deep dark funks wherein I became sullen,
contrary, and very disagreeable. They had dropped off somewhere along the
trail so that psychologically I was enjoying quite a lot of inward peace.

* Those funks concerned me because my mom had them all her life and I
was beginning to worry I might have them that long too. But no; they were
gone, and not just for a while, but instead: permanently-- in the 52 years
since; they've never returned.

While living with my dad because of his disability, he mentioned that a large
percentage of my contributions towards the food budget was going towards
supplying myself with beer and wine. Well; normally I would've become
indignant and defensive, but instead I instantly accepted that my drinking
was impacting dad's quality of life. So I hopped on the wagon that very day
and haven't touched a drop since; not even after he passed.

I know for myself that Christianity isn't just a code of rules and regulations
to live by, but also provides a mysterious influence to exist by. I have no
other explanation for what happened to my tongue, my mind, and my
appetite for alcohol. Something not easily detected was going on with me
very early in my experience that I wouldn't begin thinking about till further
ahead on the HT.
_

 

[quietthinker]

.
I was sort of a juvenile delinquent as a teen-ager with things like arson,
petty theft, fighting, vandalism, possession of alcohol, and shop lifting-- and
after high school did three years in the Army before taking up the welding
trade. So at first my language was less than acceptable for a Christian.

But after three years on the HT, some of the rough and ready men I worked
with began to comment. I mean, guys in my trade and with my background
cuss; so why wasn't I cussing?

Well; oddly, I wasn't aware my language had improved until those guys said
something. The change happened so gradually and so smoothly that I
honestly hadn't noticed.

And that wasn't all. I was prone to deep dark funks wherein I became sullen,
contrary, and very disagreeable. They had dropped off somewhere along the
trail so that psychologically I was enjoying quite a lot of inward peace.

* Those funks concerned me because my mom had them all her life and I
was beginning to worry I might have them that long too. But no; they were
gone, and not just for a while, but instead: permanently-- in the 52 years
since; they've never returned.

While living with my dad because of his disability, he mentioned that a large
percentage of my contributions towards the food budget was going towards
supplying myself with beer and wine. Well; normally I would've become
indignant and defensive, but instead I instantly accepted that my drinking
was impacting dad's quality of life. So I hopped on the wagon that very day
and haven't touched a drop since; not even after he passed.

I know for myself that Christianity isn't just a code of rules and regulations
to live by, but also provides a mysterious influence to exist by. I have no
other explanation for what happened to my tongue, my mind, and my
appetite for alcohol. Something not easily detected was going on with me
very early in my experience that I wouldn't begin thinking about till further
ahead on the HT.
_

good on you W_H

 

[Webers_Home]

.
You had your time, you had the power,
You've yet to have your finest hour.
Radio Ga-Ga, QUEEN, 1984

Along about 1972 I was reading the Bible often enough but not really getting
all that much out of it till I remembered that my Protestant friend had made
me aware that there were Bible studies available on the radio.

So I began searching for some and eventually ran across programs like Thru
The Bible w/J. Vernon McGee, Back To The Bible w/Ted Epp and Ord Morrow,
The Family Altar w/Lester Roloff, and The Christian Jew Hour w/Charles Halff.

Those olde programs were the cat's meow for obtaining the solid material I
needed at the time to prepare my mind for advanced concepts. Honestly,
without their assistance, it's fairly certain I would've eventually become
thoroughly confused and given up.

If I have seen further than others,
It is by standing upon the shoulders of giants.
Isaac Newton
_

 

[Cassandra]

I love this!! so what happened next? Did ya get married?

 

[Webers_Home]

.
Prior to my wife's conversion, she was a feminist. But you'd never guess
because Christianity has been remarkably thorough in breaking that
movement's hold on her thinking and on the way she associated with men.

I myself was a hard-core misogynist prior to my conversion and was convinced
I could never be happy with any woman. But 44+ years of marriage to the
former feminist girl I live with has proven me mistaken. viz: we've both
benefited tremendously from Christianity, most especially from Rom 8:11
which says:

"If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His spirit, who lives in you."

Now; that passage may seem to be talking about characteristics pertaining
to the resurrected body, but I'm convinced from personal experience that it
actually pertains to the mortal body. So then Christians who start out in a
deplorable spiritual condition like I did really ought to be experiencing
improvements from time to time. Maybe they themselves won't notice, but
others who've known them for an extended period should very definitely be
impressed.

● 1Tim 4:15 . . Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so
that everyone may see your progress.

Well; if not impressed then at least curious.

● John 3:6-8 . . Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit .
. .The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of
the Spirit.

Back in the 20th century, I worked nearly thirteen years in a boatyard
located on Shelter Island San Diego. After about ten years there-- and by
then well known thereabouts as a woman-hating loner --I realized that my
strong dislike for women had softened and I was wanting to be a daddy. So I
bought some decent clothes, repainted my car, joined a massive single's
group in a church located in Spring Valley, and started looking for a spouse.

Well; the boatyard supervisor became very curious about my attitude
adjustment and wanted to know what brought this on. Was it due to my own
initiative? I replied that people were praying for me. Well; that was true, but
it wasn't the whole truth. He was also seeing some of the results of Rom 8:11
but I couldn't tell him that because he was a pragmatic man and could
never be expected to buy into a supernatural explanation.
_

 

[Cassandra]

Honestly this is one of the best threads I've ever seen or read on here. I hope your story continues. Very well written,BTW

 

[amigo de christo]

Let all that has breath praise n thank the glorious LORD .

 

[Webers_Home]

Very well written

That shouldn't be because I flunked English during senior year in high school
and had to make it up during summer vacation.

After high school, I was arrested for joy riding in a stolen car and in
possession of a couple of bottles of Seagram's 7 whisky. The cops gave me
an ultimatum-- they said one week to find a job or enlist in the service. If
not one of those two, then after the week, I'd be sent up the river for a
while. So I joined the Army and became a grunt with the 101st Airborne
Division.

After the Army I tried selling Kirby vacuums for awhile before settling on
welding for a career path, which is a trade not well known for its IQ.

All in all, nothing in my background prepared me for composing material any
more complex than a shopping list or filling out a job application and yet
here I am winging it on the world wide web where every so often I get
accused of plagiarism, and of late: using AI too! (Maybe if I threw in some
extra spelling errors they'd leave me alone.)
_

 

[amigo de christo]

That shouldn't be because I flunked English during senior year in high school
and had to make it up during summer vacation.

After high school, I was arrested for joy riding in a stolen car and in
possession of a couple of bottles of Seagram's 7 whisky. The cops gave me
an ultimatum-- they said one week to find a job or enlist in the service. If
not one of those two, then after the week, I'd be sent up the river for a
while. So I joined the Army and became a grunt with the 101st Airborne
Division.

After the Army I tried selling Kirby vacuums for awhile before settling on
welding for a career path, which is a trade not well known for its IQ.

All in all, nothing in my background prepared me for composing material any
more complex than a shopping list or filling out a job application and yet
here I am winging it on the world wide web where every so often I get
accused of plagiarism, and of late: using AI too! (Maybe if I threw in some
extra spelling errors they'd leave me alone.)
_

whether you type well or type fast as do i and thus have mispelled words
THEY WONT attack and dont attack because of the format
But rather because WHEN TRUTH EXPOSES THEIR ERROR , they make and will make any excuse to accuse
the writer of said words of said truth that did expose their error . BELEVE YOU ME , i know this well .

 

[Cassandra]

Kirby vacuums! How well I remember! the salesman that came to our house vacuumed an area and it had dirt, and it highlighted the word "Kirby" on the filter that caught the dirt. and if you weren't interested, they would spill it back out on to your carpet !

 

[Webers_Home]

.
Some of my very favorite science fiction movies came out during last
century's closing decades, for example: 2001 A Space Odyssey (1968) Star
Wars (1977) Close Encounters Of A Third Kind (1977) E.T. the Extra
Terrestrial (1982) and Contact (1997).

The best science fiction I'd seen in a theater up till those was War Of The
Worlds (1953) which came out before the dawn of the space age when in
1957 Russia sent Sputnik1 into orbit. Science fiction was never quite the
same after Sputnik because space travel was no longer a fantasy; it was
suddenly a reality.

ET, Phone Home.

That weird hammer headed little guy --marooned on Earth-- needed
desperately to rejoin his family in space because he wasn't biologically suited
for life on our world, viz: ET was dying and only his own people had the
means to keep him alive.

Well; I myself, unlike ET, was very stubborn and reluctant at first to get a
dialogue going with Heaven, i.e. a rapport. Bible teachers on the radio, one
after the other, kept insisting over and over again that it was essential for
Christians to stay in contact with God per 1John 1:5-10. I knew within
myself that they were right because not only was my Christian intuition
seeing the truth in what they were saying, but my spiritual life's progress
had stalled, i.e. I was dying, so to speak.

But at the time it made no sense to me why Christ's followers should speak
with God about the sins in their lives. I mean; Jesus took them all to the
cross so then why so much emphasis upon confession? Well; it turns out
that God values honesty and transparency in His personal associations; plus,
Christians get their feet dirty, so to speak, and need them scrubbed from
time to time. (John 13:3-10) So after a while I gave in and complied. Well;
my spiritual life's progress immediately brightened up, and I never left my
phone to God off the hook ever again after that. (cf. Psalm 32)
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
When I was a little boy, my mom taught me how to say the "lay me down to
sleep" prayer. Later, in catechism, I was taught advanced versions of rote
prayer like the Hail Mary, the Our father, the Act of Contrition, and Grace
Before Meals.

After converting to Protestantism, I discovered rote prayers may be an okay
place to begin, but not a good way to continue.

● Heb 4:15-16 . .We do not have an high priest who cannot be touched with
the feeling of our infirmities; but was in all points tempted like as we are,
yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly unto the throne of grace, that
we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help in time of need.

The Greek word translated "boldly" pertains to out-spokenness, i.e. candor,
frankness, confidence, and bluntness.

So it was that I discovered God prefers conversational prayer rather than
rote primarily because reciting the same lines verbatim over and over is
impersonal, i.e. it neither speaks one's mind nor speaks in one's own words.

Well; this new approach was a bit strange at first, and a mite uncomfortable,
but in time I came to appreciate addressing Heaven as I would confide in a
familiar friend.

* The switch from Catholicism to Protestantism didn't give me a new God
and/or a new Jesus to work with-- no; I kept the same God and the same
Jesus with whom I'd grown up. But the switch sure did give me a much
improved way to associate with them.
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
● Phil 4:6-7 . . Do not be anxious about anything, but in everything, by
prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And
the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts
and your minds in Christ Jesus.

I was diagnosed with esophageal cancer Nov 2024.

At the time, I was devastated; so much so that I feared a nervous
breakdown and seriously considered suicide by drowning myself in the
bathtub because if you know anything about esophageal cancer, then you
know that the condition is bad enough but the treatment options are worse.

Well; as it turned out Phil 4:6-7 was my safety net-- not by reciting scripted
prayers. I obtained freedom from anxiety by telling God in my own words
exactly how I felt: straight from the shoulder, man to man.

Mother Teresa complained in her private letters written to spiritual
counselors that she felt not the slightest glimmer of the Lord's presence
during virtually the entire five decades she was a missionary in India; plus
lamented that her prayers returned to her like sharp knives, cutting her soul.

I'm not talking about sporadic returns; no, it was always that way with her,
and it was very discouraging-- so discouraging that after a while Teresa
began to seriously question whether there's really a God out there.

Well; I would hazard to guess that as a good Catholic girl, Teresa didn't
practice conversational prayer, instead she practiced rosary prayer; and she
likely expected God to read her thoughts so she wouldn't have to spell them
out.

God's IQ is at least equal to that of our loved ones, our associates, our BFF,
and the drivers that deliver pizza. Well; if we don't talk them in rote lest we
appear to them as mental cases, then why in God's name are Christians
talking to the supernatural genius who created the universe-- all of its forms
of life, matter, and energy --as if He were a totem pole?

● 1Cor 13:11 . .When I was a child, I talked like a child, I thought like a
child, and I reasoned like a child. When I became a man, I put childish ways
behind me.

* Honestly: some Christians really need to grow up.
_

 

[Webers_Home]

.
Prior to my wife's conversion, she was a feminist. But you'd never guess
because Christianity has been remarkably thorough in breaking that
movement's hold on her thinking and on the way she associated with men.

I myself was a hard-core misogynist prior to my conversion and was
convinced I could never be happy with any woman. But 44+ years of
marriage to the former feminist girl I live with has proven me mistaken. viz:
we've both benefited tremendously from Christianity, most especially from
Rom 8:11 which says:

"If the Spirit of Him who raised Jesus from the dead is living in you, He who
raised Christ from the dead will also give life to your mortal bodies through
His spirit, who lives in you."

Now; that passage may seem to be talking about characteristics pertaining
to the resurrected body, but I'm convinced from personal experience that it
actually pertains to the mortal body. So then Christians who start out in a
deplorable spiritual condition like I did really ought to be experiencing
improvements from time to time. Maybe they themselves won't notice, but
others who've known them for an extended period should very definitely be
impressed.

● 1Tim 4:15 . . Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so
that everyone may see your progress.

Well; if not impressed then at least curious.

● John 3:6-8 . . Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit .
. .The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot
tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of
the Spirit.

Back in the 20th century, I worked nearly thirteen years in a boatyard
located on Shelter Island San Diego. After about ten years there-- and by
then well known thereabouts as a woman-hating loner --I realized that my
strong dislike for women had softened and I was wanting to be a daddy. So I
bought some decent clothes, repainted my car, joined a massive single's
group in a church located in Spring Valley, and started looking for a spouse.

Well; the boatyard supervisor became very curious about my attitude
adjustment and wanted to know what brought this on. Was it due to my own
initiative? I replied that people were praying for me. Well; that was true, but
it wasn't the whole truth. He was also seeing some of the results of Rom
8:11 but I couldn't tell him that because he was a pragmatic man and could
never be expected to buy into a supernatural explanation.
_