Satan tries to kill Tom Roe; God has other plans

We don’t know why bad things happen to good people other than to say that we live on a fallen Earth, and we all are waiting for God to send his son Jesus back to take us home. We desperately look forward to the new Earth that will come after this old one passes away, an Earth where God and man are together as it was meant to be. This blog entry is about faith, and hope, and the constant vigil of the children of light. If this blesses you, please pass it along and show others the faithfulness of our Father God in Heaven. God bless all those who read this, and give them confidence that your Holy Spirit is working in our lives and can turn things which Satan means for evil into wondrous works that demonstrate Your glory. Praise the Lord!

I have no memory of the twelve days that follow... On the 1st of June, 2008, my wife Robin discovered me in an incoherent state in our bed. She called my dad for help, and he and my brother-in-law, tried to get me to a car so they could take me to the emergency room (ER), but I was not cooperative enough to make this possible, so an ambulance was called and they rushed me to the hospital.

It was very late, and the emergency waiting room was empty. This was a good thing because the entire ER staff was needed to hold me down so they could attach the devices necessary to stabilize me and run needed tests. It was said by some of the staff that I tossed them around like rag dolls. This is definitely not my character, and I can only presume that in that state, my subconscious was attempting to fight off what I felt was a spiritual attack. My family spoke of how I was calling out to God for His help in my delirium. The ER staff thought that I must be on something that made me strong; this was proved to be false by the tox-screen results. They asked why I was so strong and my family told them it was yoga. My wife Robin is an instructor of yoga and she teaches it from a Christian perspective. The doctors were worried because I seemed to be having seizures, and they thought that maybe I had had a prolonged seizure before my wife found me that night; there was concern about permanent brain damage. They moved me to the ICU at Lake Cumberland Regional Hospital (LCRH), and while Robin was watching me struggle against the restraints, she worried, and prayed. Then she heard the sound of a loud exhaled breath near her ear and in her spirit she knew this was an angelic presence. She knew that God was preparing her for a difficult time ahead, but wanted her to know that His angels were there, and the Holy Spirit was watching over her husband. In simpler terms, He was saying, "Prepare yourself."

No information was gained about the cause of my condition at LCRH, so they called Lexington, Kentucky's University Hospital. It was determined that my case was “interesting” and they made a bed available in the ICU for me. This word “interesting” generally does not bode well for the patient. In spite of this Robin and my family prepared for the best, not the worst that could happen. Due to bad weather, I was taken there by ambulance by the next day.

A little background may be helpful here. Things were going well for us after two and a half years of mostly unemployment for me, I had gotten a good job as a technical writer in my home town, and things were looking good for our financial future again. My oldest daughter had set a date for her wedding and we were looking forward to that coming to pass in a few weeks. My dad was going to perform the ceremony and all was right with the world. Now, I can tell you what I think happened to me, but after more than 1,000 tests, not even the doctors (there were many) know for sure. I was working for two weeks prior to this on my yard, nearly an acre that I had let get a bit out of hand over the previous years. I spent most of my free time bagging three-year-old leaves and clearing overgrown brush. While clearing, I was frequently dusted with some pretty old, and moldy, debris. I’m not one to get sick; before this situation I hadn’t been to see a doctor since 1989. So I was surprised when the lymph nodes on my left shoulder and neck began to swell up. This continued for a couple of weeks, and I just presumed my body would fight it off and things would return to normal. These were the last two weeks of May, and that brings us up to date.

Back to the Lexington hospital, after a few days of trying to get my symptoms under control, washing my system with lots of drugs including every type of anti-biotic, they had damaged my Kidney’s in the process. I was not responding well, and x-rays showed my lungs filling with infection, so they performed a surgery on my shoulder/neck area to remove the infection that had grown there. They warned my family, specifically Robin and my mom, about the possibility that it may be cancer, and they responded exactly the way I’d expect them to, “I rebuke that in the name of Jesus, he does not have cancer.” The doctor said that they needed to prepare for the worse. My mom said that it wasn’t necessary to prepare for the worst because they were preparing for the best, and God was going to heal their son.

Meanwhile, my church, Victory Christian Fellowship, was alerted to my condition, and they prayed. This is a large church, and they have connections to many other churches around the country and even the world. This prayer turned into a chain of emails that caused other churches to put me on their prayer lists, and this became a dramatic move of God on his people to intervene on my behalf. I can’t even describe the emotion writing about this brings up in my spirit; I’m so blessed by it. Every time I think about it, tears well up and my spirit is overwhelmed. I’m so unworthy of this love God has given me, but so thankful, as is my family. Everyone’s plans had changed, my daughter decided to put off her wedding until her father could walk her down the isle. My two youngest daughters were staying with their grandmother in another town, and all of my family had put off any personal plans, and instead spend a lot of time with my wonderful wife in Lexington as she sat beside me day after day while I was in a coma. She prayed for me, read to me, and sang to me while my body rested. I know it's what is expected, but I can't imagine what it was like to have that kind of faith, believing that I would come out of this thing. She told me later that after a particularly bad day, she went to the waiting room, which surprisingly was empty and just collapsed into the middle of the floor crying. The attendee there asked if he could do anything, and she said that she needed her husband to come back to her; she needed me to be normal and my brain to be like it was; her children needed their father back.

After one week in the ICU, my dad put his hand on my chest and prayed, “God, I only want one thing for Father’s Day; I want my son back.” This prayer was followed by another bad week. I constantly moved from a little better to much worse. Robin told me about one nurse in the ICU who got close to me and spoke in my ear that she was praying for me to have peace, because unless I had a peaceful night they could not take me off the respirator. That night I slept in peace.

The next morning was the Saturday before Father’s Day, the 12th of June. My eyes opened and I saw my mother’s face staring at me. I heard my dad say, “Do you recognize her?” I couldn’t speak because of the tubes, but nodded in agreement. He then asked if I recognized him, and I agreed. Everyone had been concerned about my memory, so he continued with a question about me remembering my sister, Lori. I gave a puzzled expression and shook my head. Later they were telling everyone about my awakening, and he told Lori that she should prepare herself because I didn’t remember her when he asked me, I didn't mean for this to happen, I was just joking, but he didn’t understand that. As far as I was concerned it was the next day, I didn’t realize that I had been unconscious for nearly two weeks.

Later that day, still Saturday, I asked Robin what had happened to me, and she said it was a long story. Many people wonder what I saw while I was unconscious and all I can say is I have no memory of that time. The folks that sat beside me, praying, singing, and reading to me probably can answer that question easier, because they saw the turmoil my body was in, and I can only presume that my spirit was in a battle. They watched helplessly as I drifted from calm to torment, and they prayed.

The following Sunday, Father’s Day, my church heard the announcement that I was awake and recovering, and they cheered. My younger sister Crissy, always the baby of the family but now a mother of three boys, seemed a bit dismayed at the attention I was getting. She said it was like the movie, “It’s a wonderful life” times ten. I was simply blessed beyond words by it all. You wonder if your life has meant anything to those around you, and it’s times like these when you discover the value others place on your life, possibly a value far greater than you ever placed on yourself. The same can be said for the company I had started working for just a few weeks before the sickness hit me; they were also very concerned with my well being and lifted me up in prayer.

A quick rundown of the following days will help illustrate the wonder of my miraculous healing. Sunday, the tubes were removed, and I was moved to a regular room out of the ICU. While alone, I attempted to stand; my legs had no strength, and I fell like a stone to the floor. It seemed like a long time passed as I attempted to put my legs beneath me and stand, but to no avail. I also tried to use my arms to pull myself up, but finally had to call for help. Just two weeks before I was so strong, but now… In my mind I said, “God, I can’t start over. I’m the only income my family has. I need to work. I need to walk!”

Time seemed to move slowly, what felt like days were simply hours passing, and I got very little rest. The drugs they had me on distorted my subconscious thoughts and it was during the next two days that I saw glimpses of the battle I had had in the spiritual plane that surrounds us. The images I saw during short spans of sleep still haunt me today, and I’ll have to write that down some day when I’m able to make sense of it. Every time I closed my eyes, even while awake, I saw psychedelic imagery that made it very hard to rest; dark, disturbing images.

That evening the possibility of what lay ahead confronted me as doctors and therapists told me of how long it would take for me to walk again on my own, and how my kidneys were near the stage where I may have to have dialysis. A therapist arrived and spoke with me about my inability to stand or walk. After my first attempt, I was very disturbed about the thought of standing, but the physical therapist (PT) insisted that I try and with the help of two male attendees I stood, though, I didn’t feel very strong. I wanted Robin to work with me to help me walk, but the PT explained that there was big difference between a PT and a yoga instructor and I would need at least three days of intense therapy to get my legs moving again.

Monday morning I got some positive results from blood work that said my kidney’s were heading back toward normal. A rating of 8.0 signifies that I would need regular dialysis, and a rating of 1.0 is normal. After the damage done by the medication, I needed dialysis just to survive while in a coma, but the third time they performed dialysis they stopped it because I seemed to be improving. By this day, Monday, my kidneys were at a 5.6, and were improving by about one and a half points per day; I knew God was healing them.

That evening Robin said she didn't believe that the extensive PT was necessary and we agreed that God would repair my muscles and bones and give me the strength I needed to walk. Robin began working with me and I was standing with the help of the walker and doing leg exercises and simple stretches to prepare to walk. My head was swimming, but I was able to stand without assistance.

By Tuesday, my daughter had decided to have a small ceremony there in the hospital chapel, and my wife and I were determined that I would be able to walk her down that aisle. We would still have a regular ceremony several weeks later the way it was originally planned, but due to honeymoon plans that could not be refunded or changed, it was important to get them married that week. The doctors kept coming back with new potential problems that I might suffer, and when they did, I would ask Robin or another family member to pray with me about it and believed that God would correct the problem so my healing and my return home would not be delayed. Keep in mind that in more than 1,000 tests, one doctor described it as every test known to man; nothing had been found wrong with me. No disease was found, just those symptoms which could not be explained. We could not rely on their knowledge because they didn’t know what was wrong with me and their only course of action was more tests, which now included a desire to re-test for things that I had already been tested for.

By Tuesday afternoon, they removed my catheter and that freed me to move more and Robin walked up and down the hallways with me helping me to get my strength and confidence back. By that evening, I was carrying my walker.

I had tubes coming out of my neck where they had performed dialysis during my coma state, but so far I hadn’t needed further treatments because my kidneys were rapidly recovering. By Wednesday afternoon, they removed those tubes, and I was able to shower and prepare for my daughter’s chapel wedding that afternoon. Quite a few family members were able to make it for the ceremony including my other two lovely daughters. It was amazing, and I did walk Iliea down the aisle and gave her away to Chris Jones, a wonderful young man and a welcome addition to our family.

By Thursday, I was determined to leave, and had packed all my things in preparation for that event. The doctors were amazed at my rapid recovery and I know that, some of them at least, knew that they had witnessed a miracle. By noon that day I was getting in our van and we were praising God while Robin drove us home.

The following Sunday, Robin and I stood before my church congregation and proclaimed God’s glory, and thanked the faithful prayer warriors there for their intervention and my wonderful family for being beside me. Robin spoke as well and blessed me with her faith and the boldness of her testimony about what God had done.

With great thanks, your servant, Tom.

Views of the Revelation - Part 1 - By Tom Roe

Edited by Tom: Dec 2007 -- There is an axiom, "What we don't know is so much bigger than what we do know." This is very true of everything in the universe, and for Christians it is especially true about the Bible. John tells us in Revelation, that anyone who reads or hears the words of Revelation will be blessed by it. I am no expert, but I have been studying it for as long as I've known about God, that was sometime in 1974 I think. I was ten. I am blessed by it, even now, after all the times I've read it. Some people just consider it strange or confusing. That's not God's intended purpose. I believe that God is trying to help you to understand some things about His creation with Revelation. Some things that are so important he went over it several times in the same book. You must understand that at one point Revelation goes all the way back to when Lucifer got on God's bad side, and it also revisits some events several times.

There is a lot of imagery in Revelation, and it is big important stuff. Just reading it is cool, but what if you could see it? The imagination is a great place to consider things because there are no limits, but some folks gave up their imagination when they got their first job, or when they entered high school so they might have trouble comprehending some of these images. If that's the case, I would like to take a shot in this series at explaining some of the things I see when I read Revelation in the hope that it will help someone else to better appreciate it. God help me with this so I don't mess up.

I saw Star Wars III recently, (Who hasn't?), and I loved the shots of Corescant, with it massive buildings. This is fiction of course, but I thought it would be neat to illustrate something from the Bible that is just as cool, and even more so because I believe the Bible is true, and therefore know that this is not fiction, it is something I will actually get to see. With that in mind, here goes...

John was on the Island of Patmos near Turkey, and he had visions, a Revelation, about God's creation, past, present, and future. Near the end of the book of Revelation, in chapter 21 verse 10 and 11 John writes, "And he [the angel] carried me away in the Spirit to a great and high mountain, and showed me the great city, the holy Jerusalem, descending out of heaven from God, having the glory of God. Her light was like a most precious stone, like a jasper stone, clear as crystal."

In an effort to comprehend the size of this Holy City, I've begun modeling it to scale in Lightwave 3D version 8.3. Most people can't really appreciate this just by reading it, myself included, so I thought this would be a good way to finally and completely get it through my thick skull, exactly what God was revealing to John that day.

Brace yourself.

This city is so huge, that standing on the tallest mountain, Everest, wouldn't even give you a good view of it unless it was waaay out in space. So I'm assuming it was. So there's John standing on Mt. Everest with this angel and what does he see? Well, he sees the curvature of the Earth for one thing, because the only way to see this massive city is to stand a thousand miles away and that will cause the Earth's edge to somewhat block your view. Also, he sees very little of a wall, unless the angel takes him on a tour and gets him real close to the city so he can examine the particulars of the design, which, of course, the Bible says he did.

The reason he couldn't see the walls from the initial wide view is that they are very small in the grand scheme of things. Imagine that you are looking through one of the massive 12 gates toward the inside of the city. The angel measures the thickness of the walls and you see that they are a mere 80 meters thick, that's 262 feet to us Americans. Nearly the length of a football field.

You may think that's one seriously thick wall, but you ain't seen nuthin yet. (Warning for english teachers or grammar gurus: I will occasionally modify the english language somewhat for dramatic effect or written inflection. Please don't get anal about this, it is just my writing style.) I ignored that number for my illustration because you wouldn't be able to see a wall only 80 meters thick inset into a city that was 1380 miles across, deep, and wide. It would be so small it wouldn't be visible. So, just to balance things out a bit, I made the wall a bit bigger, ok, a thousand times bigger.

Please ignore my use of artistic license there and realize that the fact that I'm telling you about this tweak, implies that I'm not adding aaaanything whatsoever to the book of Revelation. Why am I saying this? Well that's a story for another article. For a preview of why I wouldn't want to add anything to Revelation see chapter 22.

Most of the time when you see this city depicted, it is a giant cube, like something the Borg would build if they assimilated God's kingdom into their collective.

This illustration shows a more city-like city. Not exactly what I want, but for a reasonable amount of design time, it will do.

Let me know what you think at tom@tomroe.com and if you want to use this illustration or article in a sermon, go ahead, just give me credit. If you want to use a higher resolution version of this image in print or in a project you will sale, get permission and rights first. I have to make a living too.

Copyright © 2005, 2007 Tom Roe - All rights reserved.

Iron Sharpens Iron - Stepping Out of my Comfort Zone

A new acquaintance of mine on the web recently gave me some advice concerning stepping out of my comfort zone so that I can accomplish things for God's kingdom. My point of view on this is probably tainted by many years of doing just that, but in retrospect I realize that faith is more than clever cliches or one liners. Sometimes faith is waiting. What follows is an slightly edited version of my response to him. Hopefully it will give you some insight into my though process and maybe God can use this to help someone.

I have seen the sacrifices some were willing to make and are still making. I myself thought, that for service to the church I am attending, I should make whatever sacrifice necessary to accomplish the goals of my pastor and the church. I served for three years running digital video and power point. I quit this when I discovered my children were growing up without me, and my wife was becoming distant. However, many of those who have sacrificed in this manner, have lost their families, or their job, and then experienced financial ruin because they have forgotten the priorities established in their lives. My priorities are...

God - This is the keystone to your life, it involves a personal relationship with God through His son, Jesus Christ. This is not church attendance.

Family - If you have entered into a marriage, then you have an obligation to keep that together and serve and nourish it spiritually, emotionally, and economically. Job or Church do not take precedence because that could destroy the commitment to Family.

Job - This is how you keep things together at home, by providing stability, food, and a roof over your families' heads.

Other stuff - Some things I haven’t though of, but they are important.

Church - What most people associate with a building where believers meet. This would probably be better if it were simply home groups, but nevertheless it is important, and you should gather together with believers because iron does indeed sharpen iron.

As a 40 year old man, saved since I was ten, I have had plenty of opportunities to screw my life up (just read my resume on the home page http://tomroe.com for example), so the catch phrases "everything has a price" and "move out of your comfort zone", are all too familiar to me.

Many Christians don't realize how important a contract is to God, probably because they haven't actually studied the Bible cover to cover. In august I will have been married 20 years. A marriage is a contract proclaimed before man and God. Letting obligations like this fail because of service to a job or a church (which, in spite of its good work is still just a building not a God) is a mistake, and an error in judgment.

"Comfort zone" is a funny place - Most people associate it with home and family, but those things aren't always comfortable, and sometimes holding a family together is the most uncomfortable thing to do. Sometimes keeping your family together in spite of fellow church folks abandoning you as friends because you've stopped attending their church temporarily is the hardest thing in the world to do, but if you are a man of God, you will fight to keep the contract you made, and keep your family in love and together. This is a battle worth winning. Sometimes you have to abandon your dreams temporarily, because other priorities have precedence and need to be nurtured and cared for. If you loose sight of this, you will loose sight of God's will for you because there will be no peace in your life. There will be no time for you to enJOY the life God has given you.

There are some wonderful things God has given me to do for His kingdom. But, I am willing to wait for Him to open the way, clear the path, and provide the means for me to accomplish those things. I don't have to run over my family to get there. Sometimes the road ahead looks like it is crowded with opposition. God can fight those battles for you, you don't have to forsake contracts and obligations to fight them yourself.

Sometimes, the best way for a man to demonstrate God's love is to show that he loves his wife, and his children. We are living the example God has given us when we truly understand what it means to leave your mother and father and take a wife. The children that are born of that relationship are living reminders of what God must feel toward us. Every time I hear my child say daddy help me. I realize that God is listening to me with the same compassionate ear, and He wants what is best for me.

This letter is meant to show you a bit of what I mean by "not going to jeopardize my family". Hopefully it will mean more to you than a catch phrase or a clever saying. Hopefully it will reveal to you some of the values God has placed in me.

Your turn - Iron Sharpens Iron.

In His Service,

Tom Roe - tom@tomroe.com

International Tragedy

International Tragedy

I am saddened by what has happened. The tsunamis have taken a terrible toll.

The dead of course will sort themselves out in the presence of God, but the living must go on living. Children have been separated from their parents, and parents have been separated from their children. This is the greatest tragedy I see here. As a parent of three lovely daughters, I shudder at the prospect of this happening to me. It is very disturbing. As a prayer for the living, I would like to write the following...

God please be with them in this difficult time and help them to rely on You most of all. Help them to see that life is not certain, and death is not always far from us. Help them to see the bigger picture. Right now they see death and destruction all around them, but allow them to see that this life is short even if you live it to the end of your expected years, and it is so important that we seek Your will in our lives and allow the grace you've given us through your son Jesus Christ to cover them in life and death. Many more will perish because of disease so God be with those who help the sick and afflicted, to get there quickly. Give them the strength, the constitution necessary to deal with the environment they are entering. Provide the funds and other resources necessary to save lives, and heal the sick.

Thank you God that the United States will lead the way in this, that we the people of the US will not rely solely on our government to step up and meet the needs of these nations but that the people of this blessed United States will step up and give beyond the worlds wildest imaginings to provide the money necessary to carry out the recovery and repair of the nations struck by this disaster. The people of this nation give more than all the governments of all the nations of the world including our own. Let this truth be told so that the people of the world will see that we are blessed by God, and that we do what You told us to do. We give, we help, we feed, we save. We are blessed because You have blessed us. We bless others because You told us to do that. As my eyes tear up from the thought of the horror that is awaiting those who are going to the nations in need right now. I apologize that I have not done more for You and your people God. Forgive me of my shortcomings. Forgive me of my fear. Allow me to do what I can to help and hear my prayer. You said that if we pray demons will flee, so now I join millions across the planet who are praying for the people who live and work in these decimated countries. Keep Satan and his minions from them, and allow your grace to show in the hearts and faces of the people that are there.

Amen.

I hope that everyone who reads this will pray for the nations of this tragedy, and for the nations that are helping to recover the wounded, the dead, and to repair the damage that has been done. Also, find a trustworthy organization, such as those listed at

http://www.usaid.gov/locations/asia_near_east/tsunami/ngolist.html

If you can't give money, don't underestimate the power of prayer.

Software, Movie, and Music Piracy

I have a teenage daughter, and lately, her friends have been bestowing on her these wonderful gifts of CDs and DVDs that she can add to her collections. She is almost legally an adult, so I'm going to run through these guidelines with her now and let her work out how much of it pertains to her later.

You see, it really doesn't matter what we say or what we say we are going to do, or what we say that we did. What really matters is what we believe and how much of our beliefs have become core values that we cling to and that the world can not take away from us.

I can preach until I'm blue in the face about what is right and wrong, but it's my life as a whole and my persistent actions that really matter. The word persistent here is meant to represent that occasionally we all make mistakes, and as a Christian I am forgiven for those mistakes. They do not become an example of who I am, they are mistakes, and as such, are suppose to be avoided in the future to the best of my ability. However, since they are attached to me, a human being, there is a good chance I will make those mistakes again in the future.

There is only one moment that can truly cover the sum of one's life, and that is the moment that one decides to believe in the gospel of Jesus Christ. That is a life changing event. Everything else is a variable.

Back in the heyday of the Commodore 64 and later the Commodore Amiga computers I was a great pirate of computer software and I used all of the classic justifications.

• I don't have the money to buy this program so they're not loosing anything on me anyway.


• It's not really stealing because I'm not taking anything. It's just data. It's not like I'm stealing floppy disks from the store.


• When I'm rich enough to buy these programs I will, but now I'm just learning how to use them.

If these excuses sound familiar then you are now, or have been in the past, struggling with the same stuff I was then, and indeed still struggle with today. This is my rule, you get your own (ok - if you don't have one you can use this one)...

Do unto others as you would have them do unto you.

NO WAY - It can't be that simple can it?

Well, yes it can. I'm an artist, and I'm wondering how I would feel if something I created was just taken and used without my permission? I have given this a lot of thought, and I think it lines up pretty well with the word of God. It's based on the golden rule after all.

God does not expect you to do unto others as Billy Graham would do unto you. You see how that works? You should do unto others as you would have them do unto you. That means that this rule is based on your sincere beliefs of what is right and wrong. The law is another matter entirely. The law says the following..

If you distribute copyrighted material in any way, you are breaking the law and are potentially subject to litigation and penalties. End of conversation.

But, but, but - I know there are some objections, unknown variables, subtle rule deviations, etc., that may come to mind at this point, but the law is still the law, and I am suppose to follow the laws of the government over me unless they directly conflict with God's law. For instance, I'm not suppose to bow down to graven images, other gods, and pagan rulers and such. But we accept that as an axiom so I won't go there.

• My personal beliefs, which will probably keep me out of music industry litigation, are the following..


• It's ok for me to share a song with someone, but not a complete CD.


• It's okay to invite them to my house to watch a DVD I bought or rented but it's not ok to give them a copy of that DVD.


• It's okay for me to mix several CDs that I own into a special mix for someone in my household, but not for someone who doesn't own the CDs in question.

Concerning software, it's okay for me to use a program like 3D Studio Max or Maya 3D or Lightwave 3D to learn how to use the program, but it's not okay for me to create revenue from that software until I own the right to use it that way. (This rule is very personal, and is probably pretty easy to defeat in a court of law, but the software in question is very expensive, and is intended for graphics professionals, not novices and people experimenting with it for learning purposes.) So if you make money with it, or use it in your work, then buy it. That's why it was created.

This is the simplest way to think about something like a piece of software, a DVD, or a Music CD.

It's like a book from the library. You can't create a situation where two people in two different locations could read the same book at the same time. You can loan it to someone and let them read it, but you can't make a photocopy of the book, and give it to them.

There is a reference to this in Romans chapter 2 titled, "Jews Are Judged with Impartiality". It's the reason I'm writing this article.

For there is no partiality with God. For as many as have sinned without law will also perish without law, and as many as have sinned in the law will be judged by the law (for not the hearers of the law are just in the sight of God, but the doers of the law will be justified; for when Gentiles, who do not have the law, by nature do the things in the law, these, although not having the law, are a law to themselves, who show the work of the law written in their hearts, their conscience also bearing witness, and between themselves their thoughts accusing or else excusing them) in the day when God will judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ, according to my gospel.

What this is saying is what I said at the beginning of this article. It matters what you do persistently, innately. Not what you say is the right or wrong thing to do. Some people are living according to God's will without the law. It's simply in them, and you don't have to teach it to them. However, no one is completely without sin, and therefore we all need forgiveness.

Indeed you are called a Jew, and rest on the law, and make your boast in God, and know His will, and approve the things that are excellent, being instructed out of the law, and are confident that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of babes, having the form of knowledge and truth in the law. You, therefore, who teach another, do you not teach yourself? You who preach that a man should not steal, do you steal?...

This is where the rubber meets the road isn't it?

Do what I say AND what I do!

As you can see, my quandary is to teach my daughter what she is suppose to do and lead her by example. I'm not perfect and I've made some (ok many) mistakes, so how can I expect her to do the right thing? Well, I can teach her in the way she should go and she will not (usually) depart from it. That's about the best any of us can do for our children. I put the word usually there because I know she is going to make mistakes just like I have, and I know that because she is a Christian, she is forgiven as well.

Copyright 2004 - Tom Roe - WWW.TOMROE.COM

Tomorrow is the day we vote.

Tomorrow is the day we vote.

Pray for our nation, that its people will vote for security, and keep President Bush for four more years. He has been a great blessing to all of us, and the world's history will show some day that his impact against the terrorist has been a deadly blow indeed. He has led the charge that few were willing to take. The gathering threat didn't form on his watch; it was simply ignored for ten years. If there is hope against world-wide terrorism it lies in the hands of principled, God-fearing men like George Bush. This is world war three; the world just hasn't figured that out yet.

My hope is that is war can be resolved over there so that it doesn't land on our shores again. The fact remains that even though it is terrible that our troops and our allies including the people of Iraq have to die in this war, it is more important that we gather those that oppose freedom to a distant place for battle. We can’t simply wait for them to attack us on our own soil again. The real threat is not that we have to fight such a war, it is that there are those forces in the world that would not hesitate to detonate a nuclear weapon in the heart of a large city such as New York, Los Angeles, London, or Paris. They would simply say they did it for Allah. We have to stand up and show them that God is on the side of the righteous and that is why we succeed. God is against those that defile His word, and that is why they fail.

I continue to be distressed by the lack of objective news reporting around the world concerning the importance of this war. It was front page news in papers all over the world that the Americans lost more than 1,000 soldiers in this war a few months ago, but it seems to be back page news that the Americans lost 30,622 to suicide in 2001 (These are the most current statistics to date).
http://www.cdc.gov/nchs/data/dvs/nvsr52_09p9.pdf

The above link is a PDF so I’m adding this link to a new page of similar info.
http://www.cdc.gov/ncipc/fact_book/26_Suicide.htm

There is a curious lack of perspective in this reporting that can not be a coincidence. Don't be fooled by the majority of the world’s media into believing that this is not a just war, it is not only just but imperative that we fight it. Saddam had unmarked mass graves that exceeded hundreds of thousands of people who's only crime seems to have been disagreeing with the monster in charge and his minions.
http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/27000.htm

The information the world media is doling out to the public is so slanted toward a Kerry victory, that it is shocking to see them fall all over themselves to try to make that happen. In spite of all they have done, possibly billions of dollars of free press promoting their candidate, he is still having trouble breaking even with the President in this run for the highest office in the land. If the worldwide press had been fair and balanced in their coverage - imagine what the polls would show now.

Tom Roe - tom@tomroe.com

The Day After Tomorrow? - By Tom Roe

"The Day After Tomorrow" was fun to watch. I enjoyed the effects especially. You don't have to watch long to feel uncomfortable about how far they've reached into the implausible to shore up the premise for this movie. I'm a 3D artist and animator, so I was very excited to see the movie, but I shuddered inside each time they took a jab at modern politics like there is something we could do to stop or start such a catastrophe. First of all the movie says that we could enter into a similar climate change like the one that happened, according to their science, 10,000 years ago. They then proceed to imply that humanities use of fossil fuels and combustion engines is the cause of this change. This is really weird for a premise because it disproves itself. We can not effect the global climate with anything less than a nuclear holocaust. The fact that it supposedly happened 10,000 years ago without our help demonstrates that in massive catastrophic earth-wide disasters happen when they happen, not when we make them happen. So it's not us. That doesn't mean we can't hurt things. Desserts now exist in places where there were once forests. The dust bowl happened long ago because of over-farming the land and some days in big cities like LA you can't go out of the house because of smog. We have moved from a mostly industrial planet to a more and more technological planet and this is changing the amount of hazardous waste we pump into the air. We can do better and we are doing dramatically better than we were 50 years ago, but you have to keep things in perspective. Did you know that a single volcanic eruption spews more greenhouse gas into the earth's atmosphere in one moment at one location than mankind has created in many years.

LINKS

• National Review weighs in
  http://www.nationalreview.com/hibbs/hibbs200406010819.asp
• Bad emissions are trending down rapidly - We must be doing something right eh?
  http://www.pacificresearch.org/pub/sab/enviro/04_enviroindex/09_air.html
• Junk Science (Where science gets it wrong)
  http://www.junkscience.com/news/prma2.html
• Volcanoes destroy ozone more than humans
  http://pubs.usgs.gov/pinatubo/self/index.html

After reading some of the material at the above links, I'm really starting to get annoyed at the rhetoric of the liberal loons. Would you people just shut your cake holes! We no more can control the destiny of this planet's global climate than we can stop the earth from spinning on its axis.

It is by the grace of God that we are spared from the catastrophes depicted in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow". The fear of the Lord is the beginning of Wisdom! It is by God's own hand that the universe and our solar system remains balanced in perfect harmony. Should God remove His influence for a moment, we would all perish. Realize from where you receive grace! Thank God for the grace he has shown you.

Tom Roe - October 15th, 2004