It All Started From A Movie? Yes!

ON FACEBOOK TODAY, my nephew, Brad Gray and his beautiful wife, Denise, posted photos of their June 20th Wedding Anniversary visit to St Augustine and Key West, Florida.   Their Anniversary trip brings back such sweet memories - for in 1980 my bride and I made a trip to Hawaii to celebrate our anniversary and to renew our vows.  But an even better story is how it all began for Dory and me.

About 50 years ago I saw the movie "No Man Is An Island" - the true story of an American sailor, George Tweed, trapped on Guam when the Japanese captured the island.  A Filipino family hid him in caves for several years until the American forces recaptured Guam.  In the movie, Tweed fell in love with the Filipina daughter played by Barbara Perez, a Pinoy actress then known as the Audrey Hepburn of the Philippines.  The story of George Tweed is true, the story of their romance was Hollywood - for Tweed was happily married to his wife in America.

But when I saw Barbara Perez, I told myself, "The Filipina is the perfect woman.  She has the fire of the Latina with the grace and femininity of the Asian."   And that day I decided that I was going to marry a Filipina.  I only had one problem - where to find one.  Today I know that problem could have been solved by either going to church - or by going to a medical clinic or hospital. 

But, in those days, I was not a Christian believer so church was out. And since I was in good health, medical clinics and hospitals were not on my To Do List either.  My church in those days was the bars and nightclubs of Southern California - and I was healthy, so no help there.  Yet I knew I was not going to find a Filipina in a bar or night club that I could take home to mom.

But God is good.  He found me in my place - a nightclub at the Saddleback Hotel in Santa Ana, California.   And guess what?  The Red Carpet Real Estate company held their weekly meetings on Wednesday evenings in one of the Saddleback Hotel conference rooms.   That fateful evening as I was preparing for my evening of frivolity, one of my friends, Lupe, looked toward the lobby and told me, "Bill, there is Rita."  Rita was a Filipina I had been dating - but not one I would take home to mom.

I told Lupe, "No, that is not Rita.  But I definitely want to meet that beautiful lady."  And, to make a long story a wee bit shorter - Dory and her girl friend, Phil, were just coming out of the Red Carpet meeting and were still in the lobby.  I managed to introduce myself, we talked for awhile, and a week later, on a Saturday, we had our first date. 

The next morning I went to church with her, not my usual Sunday routine, but pleasant.  That afternoon we went for a ride, went to a movie at Fashion Island in Newport Beach, and then had our first dinner date at the Quiet Cannon (now just named The Cannon) in Dana Point.  That was a defining evening.  We had a booth which looked out over the Dana Point Marina, it was dusk, and the whole scene had that magical glow.  Just the kind of environment to cause love to blossom and start growing.

From that day, we never dated anyone else.   And on September 2, 1977, Dory became my wife, partner, soul mate, and eternal love.  We were wed at the court house in Santa Ana, California, and had a short honeymoon in Ensenada, Mexico. 

I still wanted us to have a real honeymoon and for some reason I wanted us to have a church wedding.  Why did I, not a believer, want a church wedding?  I can think of several reasons.  First, I knew that church was important to Dory.  And, second, after having been a Christian believer for over 30 years - I now know that God is always tugging at our hearts, knocking on the door of our hearts (Revelation 3:20), wanting us to choose to be part of His Eternal Family.

So, on September 2, 1980, we had our romantic church wedding in Honolulu and we had our Hawaiian honeymoon.

A wee side note:  On our 6th anniversary we decided to go to Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, for another honeymoon and to get married again.   But, search as we might, and with help from an Hispanic couple vacationing there at their timeshare, the only Protestant church we could find was a burnt-out hull.  So, we had to settle for an Anniversary Dinner with this nice couple and their family.

My mom asked Dory, "Why does Bill like to get married again every three years?"  Mom was a Southern Belle and did not understand such thinking.  Dory told her, "That way he always feels like he has only been married for three years."   I told you my Filipina wife is smart!

In 1983, I accepted a position as Western Regional Sales Manager for Phoenix Computer Graphics, a computer graphics company based in Lafayette, Louisiana.  One of my stipulations was that I be given the first week of September 1983 off to get married again.  

So the president of the company, a very distinguished, white haired lawyer turned businessman, wrote in my offer letter:  "And we will give you one week off so that you may legitimize your already legitimate marriage."   Who said lawyers do not have a sense of humor?

September of this year will mark MY 34-44-84 YEAR!   THIRTY-FOUR years as a Christian believer ~ FORTY-FOUR years wed to my Filipina Bride ~ and on July 23rd, I will be EIGHTY-FOUR years young.  God has truly blessed me. 

In closing, this collage is my memories if how it all got started - all because of a movie!  I thank Brad & Denise Gray, my Alabama family, for their new memories which they have been creating this week in Florida - gave me another blessed deja vu moment leading to this blog.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

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Is Free Will A Gift From God To All People?

CAN WE FIND GOD'S GIFT OF "FREE WILL" IN THE BIBLE? 

That is a major point of contention between brethren in the Calvinist theology and we who differ with those brethren on theology.  I recall a Home Bible Study about 15 years ago in our Corona International Christian Fellowship (CICF). 

One of the teenage girls in our fellowship invited her high school classmate to our Bible study.  And I was very impressed by the classmate's father, for not knowing us nor what our fellowship teaches, he came with this daughter to our Bible study.  That is the kind of parental stewardship which warms my heart.

At one point in our study, we began to discuss salvation and the meaning behind these Scripture verses:

John 3:16, "For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.

Ephesians 1:13, "In Him you also trusted, after you heard the word of truth, the Gospel of your salvation; in whom also, having believed, you were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise."

Ephesians 2:8-9, "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast."

The father spoke up and told us that John 3:16 does not mean that God was offering salvation and eternal life to all people, i.e., the world - but only to the Pre-Creation Elect.  For a few minutes Pastor Ed Dacio and I shared with him that the word "world" means just that, all people in the world - and that the word "whoever" means anyone who will.  Therefore we have to interpret this verse as telling us that God loved the whole world - and that whoever, among the people of that world, will believe and receive His Son WILL HAVE eternal life.  Personally I can see no other meaning for that verse.

But the father persisted that God was only referencing those He had chosen to be His Elect before the Creation.  So that our Bible study would not be totally sidetracked, I asked him, "Do you believe that God gave man, all mankind, the Gift of Free Will?"  He adamantly replied, "No, I do not believe that."  At that point, I suggested we leave the fuller discussion of that point until a later time, and continue with the study of our Scripture passage chosen for that evening.

As I said, I highly respected that man for being there so that he would know what his daughter was hearing that evening in our study.  And I believe with all my heart that he was being the steward of his child that God intends for all of us.  Will a belief in the Calvinist doctrine of Predestination affect his or his daughter's eternal salvation?  No, not in any way.   Although I would ask him, if we could meet in a later discussion, "If only those Elected before the Creation will be saved, and there is nothing man to do to seek eternal life in Christ - then how do you know that you and your daughter have eternal life?"

I have asked that question of many Calvinist brethren, lay people and clergy, and no one has ever been able to tell me how he (she) can know he HAS eternal life - if it was done before the Creation.  Think about it.  If only Pre-Creation Elect will be saved, there is only one way for anyone to know:  A direct revelation spoken from God to that person.  And while I do believe that God has spoken to individuals - and at times still does - I have never yet met anyone who will tell me that God spoke to him, telling him that he was chosen before the Creation to be among the Pre-Creation Elect.

And I believe that is the heart of my earlier blog:  Free Will or No Free Will - as defined in the Bible.  So let's explore the Bible to see if we can find God's gift of Free Will to mankind:

We will start in Genesis.  God created Adam and Eve in His own image, i.e., He created them to be triune beings:  body, soul, spirit - just as He is Father, Son, Holy Spirit.  They were not created as deity, for only God, the Trinity, is deity.   God gave them great intelligence, obvious in that Adam named all the animals.  And God obviously gave them the gift of Free Will - for when tempted, they did choose to disobey God. 

The result of their disobedience was (1) spiritual death, i.e, their spiritual link with God was broken, (2) the process of physical death was begun, (3) they were evicted from the perfect Garden of Eden and made to suffer hardships which they did not have before the disobedience, and (4) their descendants, starting with Cain and Abel, were born with the curse of an innate sin nature.   That curse has carried down to all mankind.

Man cannot change the physical death, nor the innate sin nature - but man can restore his spiritual connection with God.  Yet, the only way that man can restore his spiritual connection with God is by the grace of God, through faith in Jesus Christ.  And that is done through the gift of Free Will which God gave to Adam and Eve - and which has been our perpetual gift and blessing since Adam.  You will see nothing in the Bible that tells us Adam lost the gift of Free Will. 

How about Abraham and Noah?  Did they have Free Will?  I would say they did, for several reasons:

Hebrews 11:8, "By faith Abraham obeyed.  .   ."   Abraham left his homeland and wandered into unknown countries - only in faith that God had something better for him.

Hebrews 11:7, "By faith Noah.  .  .  prepared an ark.  .  . according to faith."  To survive the flood, despite the fact that there had never been a flood nor rain before, Noah trusted God, by faith, to provide the water for the flood.

Could Abraham and Noah have refused to obey God's calling?  Since they both acted "by faith" I have to say, "Yes, they could have chosen to not obey."

And the greatest leap of faith in the Old Testament was in Hebrews 11:17, "By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac.  .  ."   Abraham and Sarah had believed God would provide a son, even though Abraham was 100 and Sarah 90 years old when they finally had Isaac.  Then God told Abraham to build an altar and sacrifice his only son, Isaac. 

Genesis 22:1-2 (nkjv), "Now it came to pass after these things that God tested Abraham, and said to him, 'Abraham!'  And he said, 'Here I am.'  Then He said, 'Take now your son, your only son Isaac, whom you love, and go to the land of Moriah, and offer him there as a burnt offering on one of the mountains of which I shall tell you.'"

Could Abraham have refused to follow God's instructions?  YES, for in Genesis 22:1 we read, "God tested Abraham."  If Abraham did not have the gift of Free Will to refuse - then this would not have been a test of his obedience. 

During the Exodus, through Moses God gave the Israelites the Ten Commandments and the Law.  We all know the Ten Commandments, but do you know the reason for, and the extent of, the Law?  The Ten Commandments is like our Constitution, giving a broad outline of the Founder/founders' intent. 

The Ten Commandments give us the big picture guiding God's people.  The Constitution gives us the big picture governing America.  Then we have thousands of statutes and laws further expanding upon our legal rights and obligations, derived from our Constitution.  In the Law, God gave the Israelites over 600 detailed laws and statutes to further explain His intent in the Ten Commandments.

In Exodus we see the Ten Commandments.  In Deuteronomy we find the over 600 statutes making up the Law.

In Deuteronomy 30:19 God tells Israel, "I call heaven and earth as witnesses today against you, that I have set before you life and death, blessing and cursing; therefore choose life, that both you and your descendants may live;"  God is giving the Israelites a choice:  Follow My Laws and live.  Disobey my Laws and die.  That clearly shows that God gave the Israelites the gift of Free Will.
 
In Ezekiel 18 the prophet Ezekiel is explaining the justice of a righteous God.  In chapter 18:21-22 we read, "But if a wicked man turns from all his sins which he has committed, keeps all My statutes, and does what is lawful and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die. . .  (22) None of the transgressions which he has committed shall be remembered against him; because of the righteousness which he has done, he shall live."   Ezekiel is surely telling the people of Israel that God gives them a choice:  Follow His laws and statutes and live.  Disobey His laws and statutes and die.  That clearly shows that God gave the Israelites the gift of Free Will.

Ezekiel 18:5, 9, 21 (esv), "If a man is righteous and does what is just and right - walks in my statutes, and keeps my rules by acting faithfully - he is righteous; he shall surely live, declares the Lord GOD.  But if a wicked person turns away from all his sins that he has committed and keeps all my statutes and does what is just and right, he shall surely live; he shall not die."   God gave the Israelites the gift of Free Will.

Now Let's Look In The New Testament:

John 3:14, 12:32, "And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even so must the Son of Man be lifted up, .  .  . And I, if I am lifted up from the earth, will draw ALL peoples to Myself."  Not just the pre-Creation Elect, but all peoples.

1 Timothy 2:3-4, "For this is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth."   God desires that ALL men be saved, but He does not force them - for we know from Matthew 7:13-14 that many will choose to disobey God.

Matthew 7:13-14, "Enter by the narrow gate; for wide is the gate and broad is the way that leads to destruction, and there are many who go in by it.  Because narrow is the gate and difficult is the way which leads to life, and there are few who find it."   Obviously describing a Free Will choice.

Matthew 13:49, "So it will be at the end of the age. The angels will come forth, separate the wicked from among the just."

Matthew 25:31-33, "When the Son of Man comes in His glory, and all the holy angels with Him, then He will sit on the throne of His glory.  (32)  ALL the nations will be gathered before Him, and He will separate them one from another, as a shepherd divides his sheep from the goats.  (33) And He will set the sheep on His right hand, but the goats on the left."

Notice that Christ separates the wicked from the just in Matthew 13:49 - and the sheep (believers) from the goats (non-believers) in Matthew 25:31-33.  There is no mention anywhere in the Bible of separating the Elect from the Reprobate.

Based upon the Scriptures shared above, I can find no Scriptural support which would cause me to believe in the Calvinist Predestination teaching, that before the Creation God Elected some to eternal life and many others, the Reprobates, to eternal condemnation - nor can I accept the Arminian Conditional Salvation, i.e., that a believer indwelled by the Holy Spirit can lose salvation.  Therefore I have to stand with an Exegetical reading FROM the Bible, etc, an Exegetical Biblicist theology.

I pray that this blog has been a fruitful read for you, as it has been extremely fruitful to my knowledge of God's Word in writing it.  I realize that it is a rather long read - but prayerfully some will have the desire and time to read through it  - and just as prayerfully that others will find a few Golden Nuggets which will enhance your understanding of God's Word.

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill

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What's In A Name?

LAYING IN BED THIS MORNING, the question, "What's in a name?" popped into my thoughts - and laying there, the answer almost composed itself.  So I had to get up and start writing it.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?  I guess it all depends upon the name and the purpose behind that name.  In 1987 I became a born-again Christian believer under the tutelage of Pastor Sam Lacanienta at the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA).  And through his encouragement, I began doing Christian writing.  In the early 1990s I began to write, publish, and mail a Christian newsletter, The Good News.  I did that, mailing it to about 400 homes across America and to about 60 homes in 12 other countries, for as long as I could afford to do it on my own financially. 

Then the computer company I worked for closed our division, and after a while I had to stop publishing the newsletter, for I was in a period of unemployment.  And I have never, not then and nor now, felt right about asking others to pay or help pay for what I write.  I felt, and still feel, that God gave me a writing ministry and He gave me the knowledge and understanding to do that writing.  How can I ask folks to pay for what God had given me freely?  I have seen some get very wealthy writing and selling Christian books, but that is beyond my comfort zone.

For several years I did the Christian newsletter and church bulletins.  This I did using the name Bill & Dory Gray.  Later Dory and I, believing God would make an extended ministry possible through her international transactions - we made plans to expand our Christian ministry beyond just my writing, to include programs to help the homeless, to create jobs for the homeless, and through other Christian ventures.  For that we needed a name, so we chose the name "International Christian Fellowship" - and at that time it most definitely was a non-profit venture.

Circa 1998/99 we moved to Riverside, California, and in 1999, I became one of three elders for the Fil-Am Church of Corona, a church planted by our senior pastor, Pastor Sam Lacanienta, and for the past 24 years, Pastor Ed Dacio has been the senior pastor in Corona.  In the early years, he was a full time pastor while attending Talbot Seminary at Biola University and working as an OR nurse.  Pastor Ed appointed three elders for our first Corona church elder board: Ferdy Cancino, Tony Alagao, and myself.

One Sunday morning, as I was getting dressed to attend our worship service, which has always been at 1:30 PM, I was listening to KWVE Christian radio.  At a church in Yorba Linda, the pastor, to emphasize the diversity within their fellowship was asking the congregation to tell him the country where they were born before immigrating to America. For a few minutes, folks would raise their hands and call out their country of origin. When it got to about 25 countries other than America - the pastor stopped the counting, telling them, "You can see that our Christian faith, and our local church - truly extends to all people, worldwide."

I was so impressed by what I heard in that Yorba Linda church service, that later at our church I told Pastor Ed about it.  And I suggested that maybe we should consider a name change to reflect our desire to include folks from other countries and other cultures in our fellowship - but still maintaining our Pinoy heart.  A couple of weeks later, we had an elder meeting to discuss a name change.  In the meeting were we three elders, Ferdy, Tony, and myself, Pastor Ed, and our elder board secretary, Venny Camino.

Looking for a name which would reflect our desire to be inviting to all people, I suggested the name "International Christian Fellowship of Corona" - to follow the pattern of our current "Fil-Am Church of Corona."  Pastor Ed suggested we rearrange it a wee bit and call it the "Corona International Christian Fellowship."  We all liked that name, so that name was adopted.  Thereafter our church bulletins reflected our new name "Corona International Christian Fellowship" with the tag line, "A Filipino-American Christian Outreach Ministry" - just to make sure that folks know we are a church with a Pinoy Heart, but welcoming to all people.

At that point I knew that I could not keep using the name International Christian Fellowship for our personal Christian ministry - so I changed it to World Christian Fellowship.  That went well for a time and I used it in my Friends Ministry eNewsletters, on other venues such as the TimesDaily Religion Forum, The Conservative Voice, and other venues where I had opportunities to post my writings.

One day I received an e-mail from a gentleman in Africa telling me that he had been ordained through my World Christian Fellowship.  I wrote back that I could not ordain him, for I was only a Christian believer and not officially ordained myself.  About six months later, I received an e-mail from another gentleman in an African country telling me he had been ordained in my ministry.  I sent him the same reply - but decided to do some investigating to see who was using the same name and selling ordinations.

I found a fellow near Fresno, California, who was using the name World Christian Fellowship and selling ordinations for $75 to any and all who wanted to perform weddings and do other "for pay" activities that were specific to ordained pastors.  Realizing I could not sue him, for I had only unofficially coined the name - my only alternative was to do another name change.  But this time to a name reflective of Dory and me, but less likely to be chosen by anyone else.  Thus the name Bill & Dory Gray Christian Ministries.  At first Dory resisted, not wanting to use our personal names, and in her typical Pinay mindset, she did not want folks to think we were trying to personally declare ourselves to be self-righteous. 

But over years, she has mellowed on accepting the name. So our Christian ministry business card carries the logo:  "Bill & Dory Gray Christian Ministry, A Non-Profit Christian Ministry."  Am I claiming to be a 501c3 non-profit ministry?  No, only reflecting the truth - that in over 30 years of doing the Christian writing ministry which God gave me - I have not received any money nor any other financial support nor profit from it. 

Only one time have I been given any financial help - and that was from a Christian sister, Bles, in our original home church, the Fil-Am Church of Irvine.  One Sunday Bles gave me 30 postage stamps to help us with the cost of mailing our Friends Ministry Newsletter via snail-mail to over 400 homes in America and to 60 homes in 12 other countries. Considering that I have been doing the Christian writing ministry for over 30 years - that equals one postage stamp per year.  Not a great profit.  But then the only real profit I have ever wanted is from God, a heavenly mansion one of these days.

But I will be honest.  I can only imagine the glorious feeling if, one day when I am in heaven, and someone comes to me and says, "Thank you. For your witness in your blog, newsletter, etc., made me want to know more about Jesus Christ."  Wow!   All of Bill Gates money could not equal that reward.

So Dory and I can wear the tag line:  "A Non-Profit Christian Ministry" with no legal worries - for we most certainly are non-profit.

During the years, 2007-2015, when I was posting on the TimesDaily Religion Forum, the atheists, agnostics, and other vanilla-flavored non-believers used to accuse me of making money off what they wrote in response to my blogs on that forum.  Yes, I often did post the same blogs on The Conservative Voice online newspaper and in my Facebook Notes - but never for profit.  But trying to tell that to the Liberal Anti-God crowd on the forum was like spitting into the wind.  So when I did repost a blog on another venue, I changed or deleted the pseudonyms the detractors on the Religion Forum were using - to protect the privacy of the not-so-innocent.

So, what's in a name?  That all depends upon your reason and purpose for the name.  For Dory and me, we just want to share God's Word with as many people around the world as possible - and pray that we do it in a manner which glorifies His name.  

God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,

Bill 

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