You know, I love a good story! I mean, really love…a well thought out and well understood, well told story and I don’t particularly care if it’s a written story, or a story given out loud. I have been that way ever since I was a little kid and at times I would make up stories, when other stories weren’t available, (not lies mind you). Sometimes I would have a bit of a story and nothing else and I would be able to fill in on the story, just for myself, and it often made me feel really good inside.

I remember when I was a kid, maybe five or six years of age and my dad and I had gone to the store for whatever and he asked me to sit on a bench and wait for him. Back in those days, if your mom or dad told you to do something, you just did it or you paid the consequences with your butt. Also, back in those times, we didn’t have the predators running around like we do today!

Since my dad was in the military, other parents would watch out for the kids also, whether theirs or anyone else’s kids, we were military families and we all looked out for each other, plain and simple. Once I saw a very old couple walking along, hand in hand and I couldn’t help but notice, they had been together so long, they looked somewhat alike. They definitely looked like they belonged together and this sort of intrigued me, even with me being so young, I was sort of awe struck by them.

I didn’t know it back then, but by observing them, their hair and their facial features, the way they walked, how they talked to each other, and even by how they comforted each other by holding hands, I instinctively knew they had been “in love” with each other for many, many, years and this sort of melted my very young heart. Inside my head, I heard my own voice say, “I want that…when I get that old.”

In my head I was able to know that the couple had been born before the turn of the century, probably married during the very early years of the 20thcentury, I was mesmerized by this. I remember that I had thought about this all that day and have remembered this ever since at times throughout my life. I would hopefully seek to be like them. I had filled in the gaps that I didn’t and also would never know. I made up a story in my head about them, about children and nieces and nephews, aunts and uncles and somehow it sort of came out like a fairy tale, if you will. The one underlying thought was always that one day, I wanted to be in a relationship with someone and be just like that couple.

I remember as a young man, watching my dad chase my mom around the house. It always began with me hearing my mom…sort of chirp! And then the race was on, up and down the hallway, through the rooms, sometimes out front and then through the back door, my mom giggling the entire way! It always ended with them hugging each other and a kiss and I was hooked on love. This took place many, many times and even in the last year of my dad’s life and it was something my mom could never forget. She knew beyond doubt, my dad loved her!

A few years after my dad passed away, my mom tried dating a couple of times and it never was the same for her, and I know why. Mom told me so one day. They had never been to anything but a dinner somewhere, but there was this lack of a special sort of excitement for her. She told me, there could never be another for her than dad, some how, some way, HE had always been different and would always stay that way with her, She sort of settle into that mind set, happy and content with just that and in another three years, she passed away from pancreatic cancer.

Now it is important to know, my mom and dad were born-again Christians and just before my mom passed, she told me that she loved my dad so very, very, much and she was happy knowing she was going to be with the Lord and my dad once again. Though it killed my heart when my dad passed, it was equally bad for me when my mom passed. Now, as an old man myself, I still miss them terribly, but in my mind, I KNOW they are simply on vacation and waiting for me and my wife to arrive.

John 10.11-15: “I am the good shepherd: the good shepherd giveth his life for the sheep. But he that is an hireling, and not the shepherd, whose own the sheep are not, seeth the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth: and the wolf catcheth them, and scattereth the sheep. The hireling fleeth, because he is an hireling, and careth not for the sheep. I am the good shepherd, and know my sheep, and am known of mine. As the Father knoweth me, even so know I the Father: and I lay down my life for the sheep.”

Scripture like this, proves to me that the Bible is a love story, no matter what else is happening at the time (like wars and problems between people). The underlying feeling is always one of pure love, the kind of love that makes an old couple look alike or has Mom and Dad chasing each other around. I didn’t always know this about the Bible, many times in my youth, it was more like a textbook for school. For the most part, other than music, I did not like school and I definitely did not apply myself. And it was music that filled many, many, hours in my life and the majority of my mountains and valleys were expressed in my heart with music.

I remember my very first experience with love or maybe it would be better to say, I remember my very first heartache. My First true girlfriend was Debra and her dad was in the military like my dad and we met in the Philippines. She was also my very first kiss. When she and her family rotated back to the USA, my heart broke in half and to this day, I can still feel that pain. Yes, I know, that was puppy-love, but it was for me, my first love and at times love hurts. But with experience and perseverance, one learns how to love better and more openly, as with my wife, Monika today. I’m simply crazy about her!

My dad let me out of the car on the curb, after Debra left and I watched her plane pass overhead while my little transistor radio played, “Rhythm of the Rain” by the Cascades. I sat there and cried my heart out and I felt like I wanted to die! When I got home, eyes swollen from crying, my mom hugged me and told me not to worry or feel bad, there would definitely be someone, someday, that would catch my eye and my heart. She also told me something I will never forget, “Love really hurts sometimes but that is how it teaches you how to love better and better. Then someday, when that special someone comes along, you’ll fall in love and that love will grow and grow.”

She was so very right!

So, I guess the question is, “What turns love…into true love?” Usually, for humans it has to do with things that brings certain people together, like music. I remember, my mom and dad, on special occasions, would “cut a rug” with a song like Glenn Miller’s “In the Mood.” I was mesmerized by them, they sure knew how to dance! Actually it could be many, many, other things as well, but whatever it is, it brings two people together as a start.

It takes time and then it blossoms and roots start growing deeper, until one day, with a lot of work and care, real love sets in. The Bible tells us it is like a grapevine, it starts out very small, but with good soil and proper watering and sunlight, the vine begins to grow. It stretches out its arms and leaves and begins to crawl up the trellis and the roots slowly go deeper. It even produces grapes, but until the entire vine is mature, the grapes are never as sweet. It goes on to tell, that without the Vine (Jesus) the branches (You and me) will never grow and become mature. Without the vine, the entire plant will wither and die!

John 15.4-6: “Abide in me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, except it abide in the vine; no more can ye, except ye abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches: He that abideth in me, and I in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit: for without me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not in me, he is cast forth as a branch, and is withered; and men gather them, and cast them into the fire, and they are burned.”

When I fell in love the first time, I was immature, too young for that experience. Years later I met and fell in love with my wife, Monika, and now I KNOW what true love is. Best of all, it prepared me for the greatest love of my life, with Jesus Christ. Monika and I have been married for 38 years and we have been fruitful in so many ways, not only with children, but friends and other family members and we continue to grow in the maturity of Jesus Christ.

In my almost fifty years in medicine, I have witnessed many things; but life is precious, a baby is a precious new life. I also know if all the factors are not correct life will never begin, it is a very intricate and specific set of circumstances that brings about life. The very first and most essential part is God the Almighty. It is the very essence of love that gives you and me the next breath of air! It is also the love of our Abba Father that allows for the conception of a child, the first division of one cell into two cells. Where do you think those chromosones, that RNA and DNA come from? From there the list goes on and on, almost without end, because that life is so very, very, complex. From there that complex life-form becomes a Glenn Miller or a member of the Cascades and the music rolls out, but who placed that music in their hearts to begin with?

Have you ever sat back and wondered to yourself, where has all that music gone? Why is it that some of the very best music is no longer around? Where have all the thrills of heart, the depths of love, real love, gone ? I remember the Christmases of old, when I was a kid, the trees and the tensil, the good smells and even better food. I remember the cold evenings when we would go out for the entire evening and search for that one special tree from all the trees lots that were around.

Giggling and laughing and chilled to the bone, but happy! We would jump in the old car and dash home, a nice warm home and sit down to have a bowl of hot potato soup and a loaf of French bread! For most of the people nowdays, that would sound dull and boring or something that “common-folk” would do. Maybe it is, but for us…it was the absolute BEST of times! Who do you think, made those times so wonderful and then made them last in a person’s heart for so many years? Abba Father, our Lord and Savior…HE is LOVE!

Am I the only one that sits and thinks of these things and then asks the question “Where has all that Love gone ?” Most have their imitation trees and their processed meals and pre-wrapped gifts and even now days, where did all the good cold evenings go ? Does anyone still enjoy cranberry juice with cinnamon sticks warmed on the stove, anymore? Do we pass on the old and time honored traditions anymore, or have we placed them in the coffins of our parents and buried them as well?

Jesus Christ, our Abba Father is still here! So who dropped the ball and killed love?

We have spent some time looking at SIN and then moving on to looking at how our bodies are and why. We have also talked about our spirit as well. I have decided that I want to continue in this direction, about the spirit. In this you will see how interesting our spirit truly is, how we refer to it and act with it. It is so important that we understand this phenomenon; that we have come to label so incorrectly.

In Part Two, we talked about our bodies and asked questions of why we hold our chest when the heart is hurts, or why we think thoughts come from our head. We also looked at how we see our nervous system, how we are able to play an instrument and so forth. The real truth is that our entire body is an actual part of our spirit, an extension of our spirit, if you will. We now know that our human brain does not produce or interact with the ideas or thoughts we have, because our brain is a “physical” mass and yet, our “spirit” is never seen.

In all actuality, we often give our “spirit” the wrong name, especially after the death of our body. We THINK there are ghosts, because we know inherently, we have a spirit in us. We have thought we are able to see the ghosts of those that have passed on, yet according to the Bible, we are either in heaven or we are in hell, at the very second of our death here on earth. So…what exactly are we experiencing, when we think we are witnessing a ghost?

To find this out we must do one of two things, look in the Word of God or accept the ideas of other men. Lets be clear here, other than Jesus Christ, no man or woman has ever died (completely medically died and stayed dead) and returned some time later to tell us what there is on the other side of death. Therefore, we can either believe the Word of God or disbelieve it and again, that is in accordance with Scripture as well, according to our chosen final destination in eternity.

Luke 10.18: “And he said unto them, I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven.”

This passage of Scripture is easy to read and understand and yet none of us, you or me, have ever seen Satan or his ilk. Yet…we have proof every day that Satan and his ilk do indeed exist! Simply knowing that evil does exist in this world, we can also know that righteousness exists as well, if there is SIN in the world, there is forgiveness for SIN as well, through Jesus Christ. Having said that, with some who are not saved accepting it as well, we KNOW there is a GOD.

We need only to take a deep breath of sweet air or drink a glass of clean water to know the wonders of  our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, it’s that simple. We already see the murders, thefts and any other SIN in the world to see Satan’s handiwork. For the life of me, I am not able to understand how anyone is not able to make sense of this!

Now, we are able to see that Satan and his ilk are spiritual beings. What is better is that Jesus Christ was a human at one time, HE died for you and m, was resurrected and is now in heaven, waiting on you and me to arrive at HIS will or when HE comes for us in the Rapture. Herein lies the biggest problem for us humans, we have only had these bodies for a short while and we think that this is all there is, we don’t know any better.

We have “finite minds” therefore we are only able to know so much and that’s it, see so much and nothing more. The Bible says so. Yet we have people that “choose” NOT to believe the Bible. Evidently they don’t understand─that makes them dumber than  believers, weird, right?

Back to my earlier point, I want you to understand that God does NOT need to prove HIMSELF to you and me, it is enough for the Bible to state, HE is, who HE says HE is! It is also enough that Satan and his ilk must abide by God’s rules as a well, the Lord God Almighty is sufficient for all. We know from the Bible that demons do exist and they have some abilities in this world.

Do you remember the story of Jesus Christ casting the demons from a man into a herd of pigs? We know there are such things as possessions of people, the stories abound of this, in our world. We also know that Satan and his demonis forces are able to seduce people into committing horrible actions and still as yet, no one has ever seen him or his ilk. They are spirits and they are definitely against everything dealing with our Lord and Savior!

Looking at all the evidence, we are able to see that we are in a life and death struggle, between our God Almighty and Satan and his demons. The one SIN that Satan loves to use against us, is deception! It is also known through the Bible, that Satan is the father of lies and flies and deceiving you and me, is what he loves to use to cripple us and keep us from our Lord and Savior.

Our bodies are very weak and very susceptible to many, many, things; diseases, thirst, hunger, pain and the list goes on and on. We must understand that it is our spirit, that gives us life in these bodies, not the other way around. Seventy to eighty years is not very long! In that time frame though, we go through many changes, from the beginning as young and vibrant, to old age and our senses are dulled.

Have you ever wondered why we may feel 20 something years of age inside, even though our bodies are old and run down, why is that? The question is, does our spirit age? I believe that our spirit does not age, that God does not age! As the Bible truthfully states, We are created in HIS Image.

This will show that we do indeed have an expiration date! In other words, Satan and his minions do not have a lot of time to convince us that God does not exist. He must pull every trick in the book to keep your eyes off Jesus Christ and on everything else, therefore they are demons that we “THINK” we see, in terms of ghosts. We have already discussed that for believers, “to be absent from the body, is to be present with the Lord.” At death, we humans simply drop off this cumbersome body and continue to move forward into eternity.

Therefore, we now understand, that it is our spirit that feels and senses everything, that aches when our heart is hurt and it is this, that continues on into eternity. Our spirit is constantly awake and aware of everything and at death, we remember the past, know what is going on right now and what awaits us in the future. How crazy is that, right? And the Bible tells us this, or do you not remember the “story not a parable” about the Rich man and Lazarus?

Can you imagine for a moment, what the people listening to Jesus were thinking, when Jesus told them that story? Jaws in the dust, for sure! “The intent of the heart” means what your spirit was thinking, NOT your brain or your beating heart in your chest! That is what is counted by our Lord and Savior, as we live here on this earth and it would be more simple to say, “The intent of our spirit”. It is either SIN or it is not! So…what have we learned thus far?

Our bodies are animated because of our spirit! God Breathed!

The sense we feel, like love and sorrow, etc., are a component of our spirit!

The “Tug of War” between God and Satan, is about our spirit, not our bodies!

Our “thinking” is of our spirit…NOT our brain!

Without the spirit…our bodies will not live!

We are already living a “spiritual life”…the “ball-n-chain” are our bodies! (While on earth.)

Our “spiritual life” is either for our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ…or Satan! (YOU choose!)

All of a sudden, my life here on earth, has taken on an entirely different point of view, than what it did before, not because of this article but because of the Holy Word of God Almighty! Our “spirit” is who we truly are, not our earthly bodies, but what we think and do, while we are in these bodies here on earth, makes all the difference for our spiritual lives in eternity! That is the reason, that we believers are out there talking to everyone that will listen, about Jesus Christ who IS God Almighty!

If you go out and ask everyone who will answer, “Where would you like to go when you die? Heaven or hell?” I can safely say 95% will want heaven! Now ask those same people, “Do you know anything about Jesus Christ?” The majority will want to stop talking with you and walk away. Stop for a moment and reread the above, make a serious note of it, read your Bible and then ask yourself, “Why did they want to stop talking with you and walk away?” Do you think that maybe Satan and his demons just stepped in and made them feel uncomfortable…ya think? Wow! Now that’s deception!

To think for one moment, everyone wants to be loved and loved unconditionally, right? Everyone wants to be taken care of; no disease or hunger, whatever…and never have to worry ever again, right? Everyone wants to be happy, truly happy, everyone wants to be rich beyond comparison, yet, when you tell them they can have all of this, there’s that same old cynicism “How do I get that? What do I have to do? There ain’t no way I can have all that!”

All you have to say is the name Jesus Christ…they’ll just blow you off and walk away! That’s Satan! And in the end, if they never believe and accept Jesus Christ, they get everything they have ever been afraid of in spades and for eternity! Now THAT is crazy “spirtual thinking!” Odd isn’t it, to want it all, to know it can be just that way and then they say, “NO!”

WHAT?

You want to scream at them and ask them “Are you a loon-a-tick or what?”

We read our Bible and the words come to life…we see the possibilities and the promises of Jesus Christ, how could it be any better? We don’t know because we take it by FAITH, because we have a FINITE SPIRIT. We TRUST in Jesus Christ and HIS Holy Spirit assures us every hour of every day! Our job is to get people to look past their “discomfort” and listen to the Bible and accept Jesus Christ!