The Danger of Toleration

“What one generation tolerates, the next generation will embrace.” 

― John Wesley

Twin Falls to Kelso

Well, after a good night sleep we woke up early. We got ready, packed the car and pulled out of the motel before 4:00 AM headed for home. Normally I have enjoyed Idaho and Irene really likes the northern portion of the state. I was still apprehensive about some eager-beaver trooper pulling us over for having Washington license plates.

Fortunately nothing like that happened, praise God! We traveled a couple of hours in the dark and decided to go ahead and wait to eat and get gas in Ontario, OR. We hit Ontario around 6:00 AM and I was looking for an off ramp with food. I didn't see one and didn't realize we had blinked and past Ontario. No problem I thought, Baker City is just 71 miles ahead according to the sign. I had 1/4 tank of gas, should be enough, right?

The closer to Baker City we got the faster that needle moved. For the first time on any trip and especially this one I was getting worried. By now we are both hungry, I want a sausage biscuit and Irene wants hot water for her oatmeal and the car needs a major hit of fuel. Needless to say when I finally saw the Baker City exit I was both overjoyed and exhausted from anticipation.

We pulled in to a Chevron and told the guy to fill it up (you can't pump your own gas in OR.) We used the

friendly facilities and went back to colllect the receipt for the fuel. Well, I have a 15 gallon tank. The attendant added 13.5 gallons of gas. And that is without topping it off, the Oregon attendants do not "top off" or over fill. Wow! We had a gallon and a half of gas left. Too close for comfort, never again!

We found a Mickey D's where Irene got her hot water and I got my biscuit and coffee. We pulled out of Baker City much relieved, in more ways than one! :) Back on the interstate and pointed towards home.

The drive from Baker City to The Dalles (OR) is gorgeous. It is high desert. The sage brush was blooming along with the desert flowers. The sun was up and shinning bright. (We had a full tank of gas) It is desolate with just a few cities or towns in between. There's La Grande, Pendleton, Boardman, and then The Dalles. Yes, it is The Dalles, OR. At The Dalles we stopped for lunch and yes you guessed it fuel. At least that would be the last stop before home for both food or gas. Of course there were a few "rest stops" along the way.

The drive from The Dalles to Portland is beautiful. You find yourself winding along the way with the great Columbia River. But the drive seems intermnible. It goes on forever. All you want to do is hit Portland so you can jump on the I-205 cross the Columbia and head for home. I didn't think we would ever get to Portland. But we did!

We finally saw the wonderful beautiful sign that said Portland. We exited off of I-84 onto I-205 N and headed for home. We caught some rain. Naturally! This is the Pacific Northwest. We drove the final hour home and pulled in our driveway, Sunday afternoon around 4:00 PM. It was good to see the "Ye Ole" Tartan House Apartments.

We unloaded the few things that were in the trailer - Irene's tools that she had brought to "doll up" Sharon's house, my powerchair, and some snacks/drinks. I took the trailer back to UHaul and dropped it off to avoid further charges.

We hit the shower. I hit my recliner and we relaxed the rest of the evening thankful we weren't in a moving car. It was a great trip! WE had a blast. We would do it again and we both thought it was worth it!

Thank you for letting me share the trip with you!

Rawlins, WY to Twin Falls, ID

First of all, I am sorry this is late today. I was finishing Sunday's message yesterday and ran out of time. One of the things that I have learned from John Piper is that Pastor's must teach their people how to suffer. Many believers think that having become a Christian that they should be exempt from suffering. Most of us despise suffering, run from suffering, or at best hope/pray it never reaches our door.

Every preaching plan must include a purposeful plan to teach the church how to suffer for their own good and the glory of God. I have included this "topic" in my 5 year preaching plan. We have taken a small break from our study of 1 John recently. I have developed a couple of introductory messages on the subject of pain and suffering in the life of true believers.

Last Sunday we explored the idea from the standpoint of "Can You Trust God? We know that God can be trusted and we know that we are able and permitted to trust God. The question is can YOU trust Him? This coming Lord's day we will be looking at Five Reasons Believers Think They Should Be Exempt From Suffering.

Second, the leg from Rawlins to Twin Falls. I have to say this leg was uneventful. There is nothing to report. Thanks be to God the car ran great, we had no problems. It was fun to talk and laugh about various things including the trip and the visit.
Irene fell in love with north eastern Utah. She loved the mountains and the rock formations. She took a number of pics on her cell phone. I was shocked at how clear they looked on a cell phone, through a car window, and from a moving car at that. (Click on the pics to enlarge them)


We left Utah and entered Idaho. Once again I was a bit apprehensive about driving through that state. But we arrived at Twin Falls around 2:00 PM and had to wait until 2:45 for the room to be readied. We were an hour early. We had gotten an early start. We grabbed a subway sandwich for lunch and waited.

The room was gorgeous and very comfortable. We had a great afternoon of relaxing. Irene used the weight room. We went to bed early and got up early. We hit the road on the last leg for home about 4:00 AM.

Kelso, here we come!

York, NE to Rawlins, WY

Somebody get me out of this car, please! What a long, monotonous drive across Nebraska. It is just as desolate and long going west as it was going east. It is all cattle country. Having grown up in cattle country I have nothing against it. As a matter of fact I really love it. But 6 or so hours at one stretch makes the drive very long.

There was one event however that broke up the monotony. About 15 miles east of North Platte, Nebraska my check engine light came on. At first I was rattled. Here I was in the middle of no-wheres ville with an engine problem. Up until this point the car had run like a champ. Of course I thought it had a drinking problem. The car couldn't seem to pass many gas stations without needing a hit. But that is what I get for pulling a trailer.

I realized that on my Magellan, I had a column for AAA approved repair shops. I pressed the icon and Bud's Auto Repair came up and was only about 12 miles ahead. I programmed it into the trip and "Kate" led me to the repair shop.

At first the manager didn't want to take us. Here it was late Friday afternoon on a long weekend. He was slammed as  it was. He took pity and agreed to read the code in order to determine the problem. The code said it was an Oxygen sensor. I pleaded with him to fix it. He was nice. He didn't pull any mechanics off their jobs, he came off the desk, got the part, and changed it himself. An hour later we were back on the road.

The rest of the way home we had no problems with the car, other than dealing with its drinking problem. I can't be to hard on it. Under normal driving conditions on the highway I get around 30-33 MPG. Pulling the trailer we dropped to a low of 22 MPG (climbing the great divide to 8800 feet) and an average of 26-28 MPG. I like 33 better than 26. Don't you?

One thing I can comment on,we in the Pacific Northwest, are getting ripped off by the gas companies. The further east we went the cheaper gas got. I filled up here in Kelso at 3.97 the day before we left. I filled up in Streator, IL for 3.23. And I don't use cheap gas. When we got home gas was 3.99.

Well, we finally crossed into Wyoming. Once again I really love that state. It is so beautiful. The desert smells so good. There is nothing like the smell of sage brush in the desert. I would have like to have stopped in Cheyenne but it was way to early. We drove uneventfully into Rawlins.

We checked into the 1st Choice Inn. This motel was a little rough on the outside. Wasn't quite like its pictures online. Inside it was OK. It was clean but older and a little worn. But the bed was comfortable and the room was large. However, it had a side walk that ran all the way around the building. There was no ramp or path for a wheel chair to gain access to the sidewalk. I had to run my power chair up onto the sidewalk. The doors had a large threshold that I had to get the chair over. It was not wheel-chair friendly.

We checked in, unpacked a couple of things. While Irene was in the shower I ordered a pizza from
Domino's. They delivered about 25 minutes later and we had dinner for the night without even going out. First time I have ever ordered a pizza to a motel room.







We went to bed very early. Which meant we got up at 3:00 AM. So we showered, dressed, packed the car and loaded up. I plugged in the next address into the Magellan, turned the swoop light on and we pulled out of the driveway at 3:45 AM. Next stop - Twin Falls, Idaho!

Streator to York, NE

Thursday morning came way to early. We got up around 4:00ish. After a shower, getting dressed, at last look around the motel to make sure that we didn't leave anything, we pulled out of the parking lot at exactly 5:00 AM. It was hard. Just 2 miles down the road and a left turn was our daughter, grandson, and son-in-law. But we had to go home.

It is about a 20 minute drive to Ottawa, Illinois. I like Ottawa very much. If the Lord opened a door I would move to Ottawa in a heartbeat. If the Lord said you had 30 minutes to pack for a move to Ottawa, I would ask Him what He wanted me to do with the remaining 29 minutes.

About an hour later the sun came up. Shortly after that we crossed the Mississippi River leaving Illinois and entered Iowa. Most of the day was an uneventful drive across Iowa. The country was gorgeous. It was pretty flat and straight. Our conversation centered on how short the visit seemed, how happy Sharon was with all that Irene brought, and what a good time we had.

There is really nothing to say about this leg of the trip. The weather was great. The car ran like a champ. Thank God for talk radio and sports radio to break the periodic monotony. However, this trip did something that nothing else had done in 59 years. I became a basketball fan.

Up until arriving at my son-in-law's home, I hadn't seen a complete basketball game. I watched playoffs at his house on that magnificent 71 inch TV. Most of the radio programs was sports radio that featured on Miami's bid for a three-peat; whether Labron James would stay in Miami or go to Cleveland. All that basketball talk was broken up now and then with talk that centered around Johnny Football in Cleveland. After getting home, I have now watched the Spurs eliminate the Thunder. I have decided that my favorite basketball team is the Portland Trailblazers and ANY team that beats the Thunder.

We crossed Iowa with nothing to report and drove into Nebraska. I

think we drove a couple of hours into Nebraska when we came to our first motel stop which was in York, NE. York is a city and county seat of York County, Nebraska, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 7,766. It is the home of York College and the Nebraska Correctional Center for Women

Our first motel was The New Victorian Inn. What a motel! It was a little slice of heaven. The room was gorgeous. It had a recliner for a side chair. A recliner! You don't know what that means to me. I can only sleep for a couple hours and then the pain in my knees and legs wake me up. I switch directions on the bed and I get another couple of hours sleep. The pain wakes me up again. I go out into the living room and sleep in my recliner and I get a good nights sleep. So having this recliner meant I would get a good nights sleep.

I unloaded my power chair and "wheeled" my way to McDonald's for a chicken sandwich. We took a "walk" and then went in and got ready for the night. Was able to finish Iain Murray's book, Evangelicalism Divided before bed. Now I need to do a review on it for The Banner of Truth Trust. Let me say this is an excellent book, it is a must read, and I think you should drop what you are doing and go out and purchase this book or order it online ASAP! Thus far it is my best book of 2014.

Sorry, lights out! Time to hit the hay. Already put the do not disturb sign on the door.Tomorrow -  the leg from York, NE to Rawlins, Wyoming.

Streator, Illinois

Well, we pulled in to my daughter's driveway at 1:00 PM on Sunday afternoon (18th). They have a cute little two bedroom house in Streator. They welcomed us with kisses and hugs and we went in and sat down to relax after 3 1/2 days on the road.

My daughter had gone over board on hospitality and goodies. She had enough snacks for an army. After we rested a bit and had a light lunch, we commenced to unload the trailer. My daughter loved everything that her mother had brought. She squealed in girlish delight as each item came off the trailer. She and my wife then spent the next two full days putting up, setting up, and  decorating her house.

We had Sharon buy a griddle before we arrived. I love to cook breakfast. I cooked everyone breakfast the 4 mornings we were there. We gave her the money for the griddle and left it with them so she could continue to use it. Jasson is now spoiled and wants breakfast each morning.

Streator is a quaint, small,  nice little mid-west town of about 13,000. Streator is a city in LaSalle and partially in Livingston counties in the US state of Illinois. The city is situated on the Vermilion River approximately 81 miles southwest of Chicago, Illinois in the prairie and farm land of north-central Illinois. The city is the hometown of Clyde Tombaugh, who in 1930 discovered the dwarf planet Pluto, the first object to be discovered in what would later be identified as the Kuiper Belt; and George "Honey Boy" Evans, who wrote "In the Good Old Summer Time." 

Irene and I fell in love with it. (This is our second visit there. We flew to Chicago and rented a car back in 2010) I brought my power chair and we were able to "wheel" downtown and around town. 

We would get up around 5:30 - 6:00 AM shower, dress, have some coffee. We would leisurely head over from the motel to their house about 7:00ish and then visit all day and head back to the motel around 9:00 or 9:30. Irene and Sharon spent every minute doing something together. When Jasson got home from work about 7:30 AM, I would cook breakfast. He would watch some sports with me until about 10:00 AM and he would go to bed. He worked the night shift 7:00 to 7:00.


I can't get over the fact that they have a 71 inch HD TV. Watching baseball or basket ball was amazing.The HD is so powerful you could see the moles and freckles on the actresses and the beard growing on the actors. I am ruined. I don't think I will ever be able to afford a 71 inch TV but I sure would like one.

One interesting tid-bit about our motel. Irene and Sharon checked us in while I watched TV with Diontre. She checked us in Sunday evening and said we would be there until Thurs morning and paid the fare. Wednesday evening we went back to the room for the night and our keys didn't work. Irene went to the desk and low and behold they had checked us out. They took everything we had in the room to the office and re-keyed the keys. They told us that they thought we were leaving on Wednesday and they hadn't seen us that day. Duh! We told them we just sleep there. But they checked the computer and gave us new keys and returned all our things.

Three and 1/2 days went by quick. Irene prettied up Sharon's house. We had a great visit. The weather was perfect. Sunshine and warm everyday. It was hard leaving Wednesday evening. The tears were flowing. We said our good-byes when we left because we were leaving for home from the Motel early Thursday morning.

We went back to the room. We relaxed a bit and went to sleep. We got up about 4:00 AM and we were on the road by 5:00 AM. It was tempting to turn around a couple of times but we had to head for home.

Tomorrow Streator to York, NE

Can You Trust God?

SERMON            GMT14-018

SERIES:              Topical – Helping the Church Learn to Suffer

SETTING:          North Kelso Baptist Church

SERVICE:          Sunday AM

SUBTITLE:        Can You Trust God?

SCRIPTURE:     Selected Scriptures

SUBJ:                  Trusting God when it hurts

SUMMARY:       I propose to you that God can be trusted in every circumstance of your life

SCHEME:           The aim of this message is that the members of NKBC trust God regardless of circumstances

1A     In order to trust God we must realize we are not exempt from suffering

2A     In order to trust God we must view circumstances through faith

3A     In order to trust God we must trust when we don’t understand

4A     In order to trust God we must know God intimately

5A     In order to trust God we must desire God’s glory