This is the single most important question you will ever ask your self. Jesus said in Mathew 7:13-14 “  “Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is  the gate, and broad is  the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:Because strait is  the gate, and narrow is  the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.”

What is the straight gate to heaven and how can we be one of the few that find  it? The straight gate is Jesus. Jesus also said “I am the way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by me.”

Who is Jesus and why is he the way to heaven? Jesus is sinless (has never done wrong) he is part God and part man. He  came down to earth to be born of a virgin, to later die by Crucifixion (literally being nailed to a cross after a gruesome beating until death) paying the debt we owe to God for our sin ( the wrong things we do).
“Behold, a virgin shall be with child, and shall bring forth a son, and they shall call His name Emmanuel, which being interpreted is, God with us.” Matthew 1:23

Why do we have a debt to God for our sin? Heaven is a perfect place, God makes it clear that we don’t deserve to go to heaven because we have all willingly disobeyed God in Romans 6:23″For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.”

and here in Romans 3:23″For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;”

so we all do wrong and deserve to be tormented for an eternity in Hell. It began in th garden of Eden  with Adam and Eve the first man and woman God made who willingly disobeyed God just like we do. Romans 5:11-12 ” we also joy in God through our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom we have now received the atonement.Wherefore, as by one man sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned:”

Because we owe this debt for our sin and deserve Hell for disobeying God he loves us so much he made a way for us to go to heaven. It is not through doing good works Ephesians 2:8-9 “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God:Not of works, lest any man should boast.”

Many people have been tricked into believing that their good works can out weigh their bad ones and that will merit them heaven. The Bible clearly states that this is not true, thats one of the reasons that Jesus said “wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction…”

How can I get to heaven if my good works won’t get me there? This is the easy part the strait and narrow path if you will. Romans 10:13 “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.”look also at Acts 3:19 “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord;”

to be even more descriptive the Bible says:

Romans 5:7-10 ” God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.Much more then, being now justified by his blood, we shall be saved from wrath through him.For if, when we were enemies, we were reconciled to God by the death of his Son, much more, being reconciled, we shall be saved by his life.”

Romans 10:9-10″That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”

What do I do now? The Bible says to “confess with your mouth” or pray.

I prayed something like this:

God,

Thank you for the gift of Heaven. I know I am a sinner because I have done wrong things. I know I cannot save my self from Hell. Thats why I need your son Jesus who died for my sins and rose again from the dead to save me. I now put my trust in you alone that I will go to heaven.

Once you have prayed this prayer and truly meant it you don’t need to pray it again you are saved from Hell forever. John 10:30 “My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me:And I give unto them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of my hand.”

You will still sin after your saved and should ask God to forgive you, you won’t go to hell for sinning but your relationship with God won’t be the same. Just like any father with a child when your child disobeys you you expect him to be sorry and if he isn’t chances are you won’t give him a cookie until he is. You can keep your relationship with God good by obeying him and you can expect since he is a loving father him will provide for your needs. Matthew 7:11 “If ye then, being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your children, how much more shall your Father which is in heaven give good things to them that ask him?”

-BAPTISM

The first step of obedience is baptism as a testimony of your faith. It pictures Jesus dieing going to Hell to pay for our sins and rising again. Acts 8:35 “Then Philip opened his mouth, and began at the same scripture, and preached unto him Jesus.And as they went on their way, they came unto a certain water: and the eunuch said, See,here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized? And Philip said, If thou believest with all thine heart, thou mayest. And he answered and said, I believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God. And he commanded the chariot to stand still: and they went down both into the water, both Philip and the eunuch; and he baptized him.”

-ATTEND A BIBLE BELIEVING CHURCH

If you find a good Bible believing church, (I recommend one that uses the King James Version only, other versions have been distorted) it will help you grow in faith and learn more about god. Hebrews 10:23-25 ” Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;)And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching.”

-BIBLE

Get a King James Version Bible of your own and try to read daily. You can ask God to teach you new things about him and show you how to do what is right. It’s a good idea to keep a journal to write down what you learn every day and write down your prayers and the dates when God answered them.

Acts 17:11 “These were more noble than those in Thessalonica, in that they received the word with all readiness of mind, and searched the scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”

If you have any questions feel free to contact me.

This is an 16×20 oil painting just finished for a great friend of our family. Hopefully it is completely dry now so I can bring it to her! The sky always takes longer to dry than the rest. It’s very symbolic of the christian faith with the great Mt. Everest and the low valley, even a lily in the valley and a shadow of an eagle flying over the valley. This one has been bathed in prayer every step of the way and if it turned out at all it’s because the Lord was guiding me. I was actually unsure of what paint I was going to use since my water based oil paint has been cracking a few months after the painting is done. Then someone gave me a few hundred dollars of top of the line oil paint, new brushes, books, and varnish. God provided exactly what I needed!

the gun man luckily just turned the gun on him self. Although I would speculate that he had other plans when he brought the gun to our school. We were very fortunate that he decided not to go through with them. I was surprised to read about the Kip Kinkle school shooting in Spring field, Oregon in 1998. It was right around the same time as the shooting in my school. I was even more surprised to read that after he killed two students and wounded 25 other people, five students restrained him one of whom was wounded already. It makes me wonder where were the adults? Also if one teacher had been carrying a gun how far would kip kinkle have gotten? Could many lives of students be saved each year if teachers were permitted to carry guns? Would a student even think of bringing a gun to school if they knew the teachers were loaded? The reason those five students were able to stop Kip is because they were trained as boy scouts and knew about guns. I wonder how many school shootings would be stopped if teachers were trained the way these five boys were. The practical thing to do seems so obvious, train the teachers to be able to handle guns and let the teachers carry them as a safety measure.

One of the questions that haunted me for years is “why”. Why do kids kill kids or themselves? I was amazed to discover that this has been a more rescent thing in the last 50 years since more evolution has been taught in our schools and less is being taught about God. If the children don’t have a godly foundation at home and aren’t taught right from wrong there, they won’t learn it at school either. When I was taught evolution was true in school I understood that you couldn’t have God and evolution. I realized that I wasn’t really responsible for my actions and that might made right, not marality. Evolution’s philosophy gave me a reason to do what ever I wanted or could get away with. The whole idea that we are just animals and are not responsible to God is not only satanic, it destroys any sense of morality or faith. Especially when the children aren’t taught it at home.

SPLIT COMPLIMENTARY COLOR SCHEME

Oil on canvas 32X20 “River Bend”-Split-complimentary color scheme

Oil on Board 32×40 “Pots Done in Palette Knife”-Split-complimentary color scheme:

oil on canvas 24×16 “Pot’s Still Life”-Split-complimentary color scheme

This is done by using the two colors next to the opposite color on my color wheel (mine would be yellow, blue-violate, and red-violate.

oil on board 12×4 “Butterfly”-Split-complimentary color scheme

water color on paper 8×10 “Empty Cafe”–Split-complimentary color scheme

MONOCHROMATIC COLOR SCHEME

acrylic on paper 8×10 “Tiger Eye” -This is a monochromatic color scheme where you would use one color and change the value or intensity of it.

Oil on Canvas 16×20 “My Cat Figaro”-Monochromatic color scheme

water color on paper 12×8 “oranges”-Monochromatic color scheme

ANALOGOUS COLOR SCHEME

water color on paper 3×5 “Frog in Pond”-Analogous color scheme-using one color from the color wheel like (blue) and the two colors on either side of it like green and purple.

water color on paper 8×10 “Elephants Paradise”-Analogous color scheme

water color on water color paper 8×10 “Angry Tiger”-Analogous color scheme

First oil painting 16×20 oil on canvas “Lion Cub”-Analogous color scheme

COMPLEMENTARY COLOR SCHEME

water color on paper 8×10 “buffalo Field”-Complementary color scheme:

This one is done by using one dominant color (mine is yellow) and the color opposite to it on the color wheel (blue) then using black and white to make different values on these colors.

oil on canvas 8×12 “Sunflower Field”-complementary color scheme

TRIADIC COLOR SCHEME

water color on canvas 16×20 “Grandma’s Cats”-

Triadic color scheme:

This is done by using colors that make a triangle on your color wheel (mine are red, blue, and yellow) then use black and white to get different values.

water color on paper 12×16 “Reflections”-Triadic color scheme:

watercolor on paper 8×10 “Manistee Fishing”-Triadic color scheme

Acrylic on Canvas 16×20 “Flower Vase”-Triadic color scheme

Acrylic on canvas 16×20 “Sleeping bear dunes” (Fan art for mom)-Triadic color scheme:

oil on canvas 12×8 “Starry Night in Red”-Triadic color scheme:

‘You’re a Christian, aren’t you, son?’

‘Yes sir,’ the student says.

‘So you believe in God?’

‘Absolutely.’

‘Is God good?’

‘Sure! God’s good.’

‘Is God all-powerful? Can God do anything?’

‘Yes’

‘Are you good or evil?’

‘The Bible says I’m evil.’

The professor grins knowingly. ‘Aha! The Bible!’ He considers for a moment. ‘Here’s one for you. Let’s say there’s
a sick person over here and you can cure him. You can do it. Would you help him? Would you try?’

‘Yes sir, I would.’

‘So you’re good…!’

‘I wouldn’t say that.’

‘But why not say that? You’d help a sick and maimed person if you could. Most of us would if we could. But God doesn’t.’

The student does not answer, so the professor continues. ‘He doesn’t, does he? My brother was a Christian who
died of cancer, even though he prayed to Jesus to heal him. How is this Jesus good?  Hmmm? Can you answer that one?’

The student remains silent.

‘No, you can’t, can you?’ the professor says. He takes a sip of water from a glass on his desk to give the student time
to relax.

‘Let’s start again, young fella. Is God good?’

‘Er..yes,’ the student says.

‘Is Satan good?’

The student doesn’t hesitate on this one. ‘No.’

‘Then where does Satan come from?’

The student falters. ‘From God’

‘That’s right. God made Satan, didn’t he? Tell me, son. Is there evil in this world?’

‘Yes, sir.’

‘Evil’s everywhere, isn’t it? And God did make everything correct??

‘Yes’

‘So who created evil?’ The professor continued, ‘If God created everything, then God created evil, since evil exists,
and according to the principle that our works define who we are, then God is evil.’

Again, the student has no answer. ‘Is there sickness? Immorality? Hatred? Ugliness? All these terrible things, do they
exist in this world?’

The student squirms on his feet. ‘Yes.’

‘So who created them?’

The student does not answer again, so the professor repeats his question. ‘Who created them?’ There is still no answer.
Suddenly the lecturer breaks away to pace in front of the classroom.  The class is mesmerized.

‘Tell me,’ he continues onto another student. ‘Do you believe in Jesus Christ, son?’

The student’s voice betrays him and cracks. ‘Yes, professor, I do.’

The old man stops pacing. ‘Science says you have five senses you use to identify and observe the world around you.
Have you ever seen Jesus?’

‘No sir. I’ve never seen Him.’

‘Then tell us if you’ve ever heard your Jesus?’

‘No, sir, I have not.’

‘Have you ever felt your Jesus, tasted your Jesus or smelled your Jesus? Have you ever had any sensory perception of
Jesus Christ, or God for that matter?’

‘No, sir, I’m afraid I haven’t.’

‘Yet you still believe in him?’

‘Yes’

‘According to the rules of empirical, testable, demonstrable protocol, science says your God doesn’t exist. What do
you say to that, son?’

‘Nothing,’ the student replies. ‘I only have my faith.’

‘Yes, faith,’  the professor repeats. ‘And that is the problem science has with God. There is no evidence, only faith.’

The student stands quietly for a moment, before asking a question of His own. ‘Professor, is there such thing as heat?’

‘Yes.’

‘And is there such a thing as cold?’

‘Yes, son, there’s cold too.’

‘No sir, there isn’t.’

The professor turns to face the student, obviously interested.

The room suddenly becomes very quiet. The student begins to explain.

‘You can have lots of heat, even more heat, super-heat, mega-heat, unlimited heat, white heat, a little heat or no
heat, but we don’t have anything called ‘cold’. We can hit up to 458 degrees below zero, which is no heat, but we
can’t go any further after that. There is no such thing as cold; otherwise we would be able to go colder than the
lowest -458 degrees.

‘Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter
have or transmit energy. Absolute zero (-458 F) is the total absence of heat. You see, sir, cold is only a word we use
to describe the absence of heat. We cannot measure cold. Heat we can measure in thermal units because heat is energy.
Cold is not the opposite of heat, sir, just the absence of it.’

Silence across the room. A pen drops somewhere in the classroom, sounding like a hammer.

‘What about darkness, professor. Is there such a thing as darkness?’

‘Yes,’  the professor replies without hesitation. ‘What is night if it isn’t darkness?’

‘You’re wrong again, sir. Darkness is not something; it is the absence of something. You can have low light, normal
light, bright light, flashing light, but if you have no light constantly you have nothing and it’s called darkness,
isn’t it? That’s the meaning we use to define the word.

‘In reality, darkness isn’t. If it were, you would be able to make darkness darker, wouldn’t you?’

The professor begins to smile at the student in front of him. This will be a good semester. ‘So what point are you
making, young man?

‘Yes, professor. My point is, your philosophical premise is flawed to start with, and so your conclusion must also
be flawed.’

The professor’s face cannot hide his surprise this time. ‘Flawed? Can you explain how?’

‘You are working on the premise of duality,’ the student explains. ‘You argue that there is life and then there’s
death; a good God and a bad God. You are viewing the concept of God as something finite, something we can measure.
Sir, science can’t even explain a thought.

‘It uses electricity and magnetism, but has never seen, much less fully understood either one. To view death as the
opposite of life is to be ignorant of the fact that death cannot exist as a substantive thing.  Death is not the
opposite of life, just the absence of it.

‘Now tell me, professor. Do you teach your students that they evolved from a monkey?’

‘If you are referring to the natural evolutionary process, young man, yes, of course I do.’

‘Have you ever observed evolution with your own eyes, sir?’

The professor begins to shake his head, still smiling, as he realizes where the argument is going. A very good
semester, indeed.

‘Since no one has ever observed the process of evolution at work and cannot even prove that this process is an
on-going endeavor, are you not teaching your opinion, sir? Are you now not a scientist, but a preacher?’

The class is in uproar. The student remains silent until the commotion has subsided.

‘To continue the point you were making earlier to the other student, let me give you an example of what I mean.’

The student looks around the room. ‘Is there anyone in the class who has ever seen the professor’s brain?’

The class breaks out into laughter.

‘Is there anyone here who has ever heard the professor’s brain, felt the professor’s brain, touched or smelled
the professor’s brain? No one appears to have done so. So, according to the established rules of empirical, stable,
demonstrable protocol, science says that you have no brain, with all due respect, sir.

‘So if science says you have no brain, how can we trust your lectures, sir?’

Now the room is silent. The professor just stares at the student, his face unreadable.

Finally, after what seems an eternity, the old man answers. ‘I guess you’ll have to take them on faith.’

‘Now, you accept that there is faith, and, in fact, faith exists with life,’ the student continues. ‘Now, sir, is
there such a thing as evil?’

Now uncertain, the professor responds, ‘Of course, there is.  We see it everyday. It is in the daily example of man’s
inhumanity to man.  It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world.  These manifestations are
nothing else but evil.’

To this the student replied, ‘Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the
absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did
not create evil. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like
the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.’

The professor sat down.

The student was Albert Einstein.   Albert Einstein did write a book titled God vs. Science in 1921…

“For we walk by faith, not by sight.” 2 Corinthians 5:7

Science is something that is testable,observable, and repeatable. Evolution is none of these things it is merely all taken by faith.

Evolution is becoming one of the biggest religions in our country, many people who call themselves Christians,most atheist and many other religions believe evolution. I don’t know if they realize that you can’t be a Christian if you believe evolution. A real Christian believes the whole Bible front to back. They have  asked Jesus to save them from the burning fire of Hell. They Know he died on the cross to pay the debt they could not pay for their sins. No matter how hard they work they know they won’t make it to heaven on their own, they need Jesus Christ.

Evolution directly refutes the first book of the Bible, where God makes every thing in six literal days. You either believe the Bible or you don’t there is no gray area. It’s either all true or all false. If your a Christian who believes evolution realize that it means there would be death and corruption before Adam’s sin. That would mean death and suffering are not a result of Adam’s sin, like 1 Corinthians 15:22 says “For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive.” That line if thinking would make the death of Jesus meaningless and the Bible a lie.

Evolution states that every thing came from nothing billions of years ago and it exploded. There are many logical and scientific problems with this. First of all we never see nothing become something in science.This goes against the laws of thermo dynamics. The first one states that matter cannot be created or destroyed and the seconds law states that everything tends towards disorder not order. Our DNA contains information, information by definition must have a sender. If you take this a step further if evolution was true how would you be able to tell right from wrong? Some logical questions to ask your self if you believe evolution are: What is the purpose to life? Where will I go when I die?Where did matter and energy come from? If logic alone doesn’t rule it out, look at the evidence for your self the whole idea of the rock layers being different ages is ridiculous and proven so by polystrate fossils. The whole fossil column is not found any where but in the text books. The fossils verify the Bible and Noah’s world wide flood a few thousand years ago, not millions of years of slow gradual processes of sediment being slowly laid down. If evolution was true we would see millions of intermediate species, scientist have a handful of specimens they dispute about amongst themselves. Being one who strongly believed in evolution at one time, I realize in order to do so you must not investigate creation science or logic at all in order to stay an evolutionist.

The Polystrate Trees and Coal Seams of Joggins Fossil Cliffs

Large lycopod tree arising from shale into sandstone.

What does it matter if evolution is wrong? A Christian friend of mine told me that if I was right about evolution being true he had nothing to lose he lived a good life and had a great family, but if he was right and I was wrong I was going to spend an eternity burning in fire. I started to think I better do some research and figure out why I believe evolution. I realized I believed evolution because my teachers did, my parents did, it was on TV and in the magazines I just never questioned it. There have been lots of things the majority has believed that have been proven wrong, the majority

believed blood letting was a good medical practice, the majority at one time also believed the world was flat (even though the Bible said that it was round Isiah 40:22). Just because the majority believes it does not make it right. God says in the end times the majority won’t believe in him and they will scoff at the Bible.

Hitler believed evolution that is why he killed millions of Jews he thought that they were less evolved. If evolution is true then he was right to murder millions of Men, women and children. We are just animals and it does not really matter what we do. If evolution is true you are just a bunch of random chemicals that got together by chance and you have no purpose to life. If evolution is true you can through monogamous marriages out the window (we are just animals), murder, rape,incest, theft, abuse… are all just fine too because all morality goes out the window if evolution is true.

The kids that did the columbine shootings believed strongly in evolution, they were wearing natural selection t-shirts. They thought they  were doing society a favor by killing blacks and christians whom they considered less evolved. Millions of kids every day in our schools are being taught evolution, and it is destroying their faith in God and sense of morality. We can see the results of a continued increase of evolution being taught in our schools since the 1950’s unwed pregnancies have increased, abortion has increased, drug use has increased, alcohol use has increased, rape, school shootings, teen suicide, violence…and the list goes on. Everything that makes up our society is breaking down, because we are tossing God out of our schools, our homes, our court houses and our country. We can see the results of communist countries who do not allow God in their country, they kill christians, sometimes limit the number of children you can have to one and you have to murder the rest, you can’t have a Bible, or attend church. Many of the freedoms we take for granted are gone in these countries, yet we steadily progress into this same situation. In the Bible God makes it clear what we need to do “If my people will humble themselves and seek my face I will restore their land”.

Links

-If Methuselah lived to be 900 how can the Bible be true?

-How can we tell the Bible is truly the word of God?

-science and the Bible videos

-More information on Polystrate Trees and creation science

16 x 20 Oil on canvas

(To purchase please contact me though my contact page)

These oil paintings that were done from the Ludington state park, one of my favorite places to go in Ludington.

top 16 x 20 Oil on canvas

bottom 8×10 oil on canvas

If the Bible is true, then how did Methuselah live to be 969 years old?

This is another question an atheist asked me, although I was ready with an answer for this one! The Bible says in Genesis 5:27 “And all the days of Methuselah were nine hundred sixty and nine years: and he died.” Even the average reader of the Bible who loves God might wonder a little about this one. Here’s what someone showed me to help explain how Methuselah could live to be 900.

Genesis 1:6-8 “And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.” So God made a canopy of water around the earth, it says he divided the waters which were under the firmament(sky) from the waters above the firmament(sky) and called the firmament heaven. Here in Genesis 1:20″And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.” (We see birds flying in the firmament s

o we know it was the sky and there was a layer of water above the sky). It is reasonable to believe this would be a canopy.

If there was a canopy around the earth we would be protected from the sun’s UV rays, oxygen pressure would increase (we can tell from air bubbles found in amber oxygen was much richer at one time), animals (dinosaurs), people and plants would live a lot longer and grow to be much bigger! Now I think there is plenty of evidence that the canopy was broken up in Noah’s flood. There is tons of evidence for Noah’s world wide flood found is the fossils, there have been foss That would explain why we see life spans drop off gradually through out the Bible in Genesis.The canopy theory makes sense to me, much more than evolution. The thought that something came from nothing and that living material “evolved” from non living material is ridiculous. I used to believe evolution when I was in school until someone started showing me all the problems with it. If your theory is correct you should be able to examine the contrary evidence and not have a problem, if you choose not to your not being scientific.

Here is a good resource for more on the canopy theory:

http://www.sentex.net/~tcc/fcanopy.html

Another good resource to learn more about creation science is:

http://www.icr.org/index.php?module=articles&action=search&f_typeID=2

or:

http://answersingenesis.org/

This is a fossil of a fish giving birth, one of billions of fossils we find all over the earth that proves there was a world wide flood in Noah’s day. Fossils are made when a lot mud covers animals quickly, not from billions of years. If your cat died in your driveway today if would not fossilize in a million years. Fossils take special circumstances to form(like a world wide flood talked about in the Bible).

this is a glass I sketched in 11th grade

this was from 11th grade

this was from 9th grade

some lady one of my friends wanted me to draw.