A family is a place where a body can share the no-account things, can talk of the little matters important only to ourselves, where we can laugh and cry and tell of the day-to-day happenings and then forget them.”
              –Louis L’Amour (The Cherokee Trail)

    “Let your wife be a fountain of blessing for you. Rejoice in the wife of your youth.”
              –Proverbs 5:18 (NLT)
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If God is in charge of our lives then we should be a person, a son/daughter of obedience.  Last Monday, we looked at some facts of obedience.  Look at what we read last week to review.
         1)  Obedience is not an option.
         2)  When we obey God, He gives guidance.
         3)  God does not want to make us miserable when we obey.
Let’s look at a few other facts about obedience.
         4)  Obedience makes us free.
                  People clamor for freedom, but they don’t really know what that means.  It is when we abide in God’s Word that we truly become free.  Bonhoeffer put it this way, “If you set out to seek freedom, then learn above all things to govern your soul and your senses… .  Only through discipline may a man learn to be free.”  Hmmm, look at those on the streets protesting–do they know how to “govern their souls and senses”?
         5)  Obedience is not only done out of duty.
                  “For the love of Christ controls us….(2 Corinthians 5:14, ESV)  What is it that controls you?  It is a fact that people usually do, either consciously or unconsciously, what they want to do.  Love changes our wants.
         6)  We have a Helper in our obedience.
                  Listen, we are not called to obedience by ourselves.  When you walk down the road of obedience you don’t walk it by yourself, but the Holy Spirit is there by your side.  God is sovereign, and we cannot be obedient except through the power of the Holy Spirit.  F.W. Faber said the following:  “We must wait for God, long, meekly, in the wind and wet, in the thunder and lightning, in the cold and dark.  Wait, and He will come.  He never comes to those who do not wait… .  When He comes, go with Him, but go slowly, fall a little behind, when He quickens His pace, be sure of it before you quicken yours.  But when He slackens, slacken at once and do not be slow only, but silent, very silent, for He is God.”
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    “Who can find a virtuous wife?  For her worth is far above rubies.”
              –Proverbs 31:10

Well, this ol’ fellow found one 47 years ago.  Yep, it has been 47 years since we got ourselves hitched.  I remember, Pappy, Annie’s Dad, offered me $20 and a ladder to elope, but we decided on having him walk her down the aisle and give her to me.  
    It has been a grand journey, that’s for sure.  We’ve covered a few miles together, and drank more than a few cups of coffee on our way.  What a gal–she stuck with me through thick and thin and there ain’t nobody around can match her when it comes to making a pie.
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The Echoes may be a little sporadic.  We have just moved into our new house, but don’t have internet yet.  Using Annie’s phone until that happens.

Each man must, in his strength, honor his ancestors.  Without them we would not be.”
              –Donald L. Robertson  (Logan’s Word)

    “Don’t let the excitement of youth cause you to forget your Creator. Honor him in your youth before you grow old and say, ‘Life is not pleasant anymore.'”
              –Ecclesiastes 12:1 (NLT)
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I don’t know when or where entertainers thought that they were so important.  There has been the tendency for people in certain positions to have an arrogant attitude.  It jerks my jaws to see some of them malign the country in which they were raised and given an opportunity.  Sure there are things wrong, but it is still the best country on the face of the earth.  When all of those folks said they would leave if Trump became President, well, I notice none of them left.  Hmmmm, that sure tells you something about them.
    Spitting in someone’s face–what do you think about that?  Spitting at or on someone is considered one of the greatest insults, but there was a man who saved his life by spitting in the face of a doctor.  Let me briefly tell you the story of that man–Roy P. Benavidez.  He was severely injured when he stepped on a land mine on his first tour in Vietnam in 1965.  He was told that he would never walk again.  Benavidez, a man of faith, perseverance and dedication walked out of the hospital in 1966 and back to active duty.
     It was in 1968, again back in Vietnam, while he was attending a prayer service that he heard the plea coming from the radio.  “Get us out of here!”  Benavidez jumped into a copter with a knife and medical bag.  Ten feet off the ground, Benavidez leaped from the copter.  He was shot in his right leg, sprang to his feet and was knocked off his feet by a hand grenade that ripped his back and neck.
    Praying aloud he rose and ran under fire to the wounded 12-man squad.  He found 4 dead and 8 severely wounded.  He passed ammo to those able to fight and injected morphine into the wounded, calling in for air strikes and was wounded again.  He dragged dead and injured men to the hovering chopper providing cover fire with a rifle he found on the ground.  He took another round to the stomach and additional shrapnel fragments to his back.  Coughing up blood he attempted to return to the chopper to see the pilot receive a mortal wound and the chopper crash.  He then began to pull the wounded from the chopper to put them on another.
    He was wounded several more times.  He continued to pray and slung a wounded soldier over his shoulder.  While heading for the new chopper an enemy soldier jumped up and clubbed him with the butt of his rifle.  He fell to the earth and was bayoneted in both arms.  He managed to grab the bayonet, pull a knife and kill the enemy soldier.  Finally, he was able to assist the last remaining injured man into the chopper and was pulled in himself.
    Benavidez held his intestine in his hands during the 20 minute trip back to his base.  He was pronounced dead and as the doctor was attempting to zip up the body bag in which he was placed Benavidez could only do one thing–he spit in the doctor’s face.  During his fight, he received thirty-seven separate wounds.  He couldn’t speak as his jaw had been broken, and he was weak from loss of blood; all he could do was spit.
    He was told later, after surviving that his exploit was awesome to which he replied, “No, that’s duty.”  Let me recount his injuries from which he spent a year in hospitals to recover.  He had seven major gunshot wounds, twenty-eight shrapnel holes and both arms had been slashed by a bayonet.  He had shrapnel in his head, scalp, shoulder, buttocks, feet, and legs.  His right lung was destroyed.  He had injuries to his mouth and back of the head from being clubbed.  One bullet went just below his heart.  He was in the chopper, bathed in his own blood, holding his intestines in his hands.
    Following his service he would often speak in schools.  He always spoke of his faith, and said the heroes were those that never came home.  He always told young people, “An education is the key to success.  Bad habits and bad company will ruin you.”
    Bow when the anthem is played, not me.  And when a hero is in the room, as another great man, Dave Roever said, “You stand.”  If you have time, no, make the time to go to youtube and listen to Roy Benavidez tell his story.

It was] a place I could have stayed forever.  How many times I have found such campsites!  Places so beautiful it gave a man the wistfuls to see or to think back on.  So many times we said, ‘We’ve got to come back some time!’ an’ knowin’ all the while we never would.”
              –Louis L’Amour  (Lonely on the Mountain)

    “Before the mountains were born, before you gave birth to the earth and the world, from beginning to end, you are God. For you, a thousand years are as a passing day, as brief as a few night hours.”
              –Psalm 90:2,4 (NLT)
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It was a week ago when I discussed the “perilous times” in which we live.  Listen people, we are not journeying toward the last days, we do not need to be wondering when they will be here; we have entered the last days.  Paul, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit wrote, “But understand this, that in the last days will come (set in) perilous times of great stress and trouble [hard to deal with and hard to bear].” (2 Timothy 3:1, AMPC)  Following this verse he begins to describe what the characteristics of the last days will be.

         “For people will be lovers of self and [utterly] self-centered, lovers of money and aroused by an inordinate [greedy] desire for wealth, proud and arrogant and contemptuous boasters. They will be abusive (blasphemous, scoffing), disobedient to parents, ungrateful, unholy and profane.”
              –2 Timothy 3:2 (AMPC)

Read through that slowly; look carefully at each characteristic.  One thing noticeable is the sign of self-love, self-consumption, and selfishness.  People will be self-focused, self-centered, and self-consumed.  Oh, but you say, people give to charities, and yes, but many times the reason is to show off that they are giving, and possibly to ease their conscience.
    People will be so committed to their own self-promotion and agenda that they will be willing to exaggerate, embellish a story, or even lie if it will get them the position desired.  I like what Rick Renner, the Greek scholar and preacher has said, men will have “floating ethics.”  Their ethics and morals float from how it helps them.  My mercy, just look at the politics!  They will believe that they have the right to set the agenda for everybody else.  They have the right to control your life, control my life.  
    If you do not following along with their agenda then comes the slander.  The term “abusive” or in some versions “blasphemers” means more than being disrespectful of the things of God.  It is “to rail against by bring abusive, debasing, degrading accusations against those with whom one does not agree.” (hmmm, remember the comedian holding up a head of a decapitated Trump?)  They will be disobedient to parents; which means unpersuadable, uncontrollable, unleadable.  Did you happen to see the guy cursing with vile obscenities and hitting the man who told him to quit keying people’s cars?  
    Man will come to the point rather than thanking God for their blessings, they are selfish and claim they deserve more than they are getting.  My mercy, look at the snowflakes!  They are void of any sense of gratitude.  They protest that they don’t have enough.  “When people stop expressing a heart of gratitude toward God, unholy attitudes begin to materialize, then followed by unholy behavior.” (Renner)
    There term “unholy” means actions that are impure, ill-mannered, improper, unclean, indecent, coarse, vulgar, crude, or lewd.  These are actions that are unsanctioned by God.  It is not ironic that what God has called unholy is what society thinks is funny.  “Lost society is oblivious to the deception that is dragging it lower and lower into depravity and judgment.” (Renner)
    Take time to read those characteristics and think of how they are coming to pass.  Next week, we’ll take a look at verse 3, but verse 2 is enough to set one’s teeth on edge.  The last days- we are in them.  One of the main signs is that people will be “blinded” by Satan.  Keep your eyes open to guard yourself in these last days.
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    Three years ago, on this date, I was in the throes of a heart attack.  The Lord has been good to give me a few more years.  Listen, He is in charge, and I’ve lived each day since then with that realization.  I always knew that, but it wasn’t necessarily brought to “heart.”  
    So, my friends, thank you for your prayers during that time, and your continued prayers and concern since that time.  The ol’ heart is still a tickin’.