“A Grassroots Movement of Cooperation and Unity by The People of God”

Letters From Jim

Jim O'Brien

The Enemy Within

Hi Friend, The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele tweeted out on Monday, “Is there a deliberate plan to destroy the United States from within?  Why are the authorities and some of the media not even commenting on these things?  Why are they letting their beautiful cities rot?” His comment

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Jim O'Brien

The Value of Life

Hi Friend, My grandparents were literate people but I doubt they ever heard the word euthanasia.  Maybe I’m wrong.  They may have euthanized a cow or sheep.  But they would have referred to euthanizing a human being by another word:  murder. They would be shocked that the state of Oregon

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Jim O'Brien

Crossing The Divide

Hi Friend, The name Helen Keller is well known to most people. She was born to a wealthy family in Alabama in 1870 and at nineteen months of age became afflicted with an ailment that left her blind and deaf. Fewer people have heard of Annie Sullivan who became the

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Jim O'Brien

The Economics of Family

Hi Friend, In his book “Men and Marriage,” author George Gilder makes the salient point that it is family that causes a national economy to flourish.  He expands on the theme in his book Wealth and Poverty.  It is a profound and honest recognition of the absolute necessity of stable

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Jim O'Brien

The One That Restrains

Hi Friend, Steve Jobs, the founder and creative genius behind Apple Computers, accomplished some amazing feats during his life but there is one of the most significant is almost unknown.  One surprising narrative is that he was the force of restraint to keep pornography off the iPad.  In a 2010

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Jim O'Brien

The Ultimate Risk

Hi Friend, When boarding a commercial jet, the mind goes to all the things that could go wrong.  It’s more than just moving at over 500 mph—you’re seven miles above the surface of the earth.  I’m nervous about climbing a ladder to clean the gutters.  I tell myself that more

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Jim O'Brien

God’s Repetition

Hi Friend, It is spring when flowers poke their colorful heads out of the ground and the newness of life is celebrated by the Holy Days of God.  The promises begin with the Passover Lamb who was sacrificed for the sins of man.  These sacred days culminate in the fall

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Jim O'Brien

Convincing the Skeptic

Hi Friend, It is a great irony that man can be so gullible to unscrupulous men while doubting the most basic truths of life that are taught in the Bible. Advertisements in various forms of media are designed to elicit a response which will lead people to purchase the product. 

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Jim O'Brien

Wrongful Birth

Hi Friend, Do you know what group was first targeted by Hitler for extermination?  It was the disabled.  Over 400,000 people with disabilities were sterilized then over 70,000 disabled people were killed in the gas chambers. It may come as a shock that today we are following the same path

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Jim O'Brien

The Normalcy Bias

Hi Friend, On May 18, 1980, the most disastrous volcanic eruption in the continental United States occurred on Mount St. Helens in Washington State.  Rumbles had been coming from it for eight weeks and an ominous bulge appeared prompting warnings from scientists that a catastrophe was about to occur. The

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Jim O'Brien

Who Do You Trust?

Hi Friend, Have you known a time in your life that there was so much distrust?  It is no wonder people don’t trust the leaders—they are so corrupt that the absence of trust is so pervasive. Trust is an essential characteristic of a healthy community.  It is the “glue” that

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Jim O'Brien

When the Foundations Are Shaken

Hi Friend, Natural disasters are a fearful reality of life.  The world was turned upside down for residents of Mayfield, Kentucky when a tornado occurred rapidly with little warning.   Entire businesses were destroyed, homes were demolished, people were injured and some died.  It isn’t an overstatement to say the nation

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Jim O'Brien

When the Government is the Terrorist

Hi Friend, The citizens of the free world are experiencing things that many of us thought would never happen.  Recent events are incomprehensible.  Canada has become emblematic for the denial of individual rights by a government which has transformed almost overnight from a free country to ruthless dictatorial oppression of

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Jim O'Brien

More Than a Body – It’s My Freedom

Hi Friend, How do you know if you are free?  Seems like a question with an obvious answer but if you had asked someone in Cuba in 1970 if he was free, he would likely have told you that Castro made him free from the U.S.  He would have said

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Jim O'Brien

The Fall of Rome

Hi Friend, In 1776 Edward Gibbon published the first volume of The Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire. By 1789 he had published the last volume ironically written during the time of America’s crucible of independence. It is considered by many historians to be one of the five greatest

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Jim O'Brien

The Ground Cries for Justice

Hi Friend, Since the world began evil men have existed. From the Pharaohs of Egypt to the Caesars of Rome, the Shogun’s of the Far East down through Hitler and Stalin, the list is endless. What will happen to them? Is there an accounting system that requires payment for their

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Jim O'Brien

A Friend’s Promise

Hi Friend, If your closest friend made a significant and solemn promise to you, and reneged on it, would it affect your relationship?  What about God?  Could God forget a solemn promise to a faithful servant? Since no living person has ever seen God, it’s hard for us to conceive

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Jim O'Brien

The Birth of the Furries

Hi Friend, There’s a new term coined by kids—“furries.”  It refers to a child who identifies as an animal, and they are multiplying faster than rabbits.  There is a story in the news about a substitute teacher who was fired because one of the grade school students she was teaching

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Jim O'Brien

Moses Derangement Syndrome

Hi Friend, When God sent Moses to Pharaoh to demand freedom for the Israelites, the king of the most powerful nation on earth laughed.  Moses was a shepherd.  Of all animals, sheep may have held the distinction of being the creature most despised by the Egyptians.  For forty years Moses

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Jim O'Brien

Yeast of Our Culture

Hi Friend, Once when Jesus had finished teaching a large crowd, he wanted to feed them, but the disciples had forgotten to bring food, except for one loaf of bread.  As they were leaving Jesus warned them, “Be careful. Watch out for the yeast of the Pharisees and that of Herod.” (Mark

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Jim O'Brien

The Preflight Checklist

Hi Friend, When I was a pilot there was a preflight check—a list of things to KNOW before ever starting the engine.  Every pilot checks the oil level because, as instructors teach their students, there are no repair facilities in the clouds.  They also check the tires, the nuts and

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Jim O'Brien

Citizenship in the Kingdom of God

Hi Friend, The idea of citizenship has been a subject of interest for mankind since people first gathered in communities.  It occupied the minds of Greek philosophers and Roman Senators—as well as the writers of the U.S. Constitution.  So it should be no surprise that it’s a concept at the

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Jim O'Brien

The Speakeasy Nation

Hi Friend, One infamous period in the history of our nation is known as the era of Prohibition.  Well-intentioned people recognized the damage that the misuse of alcohol was causing our country and they sought to save the family through legislation.  The Eighteenth Amendment was passed and from 1920 until

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Jim O'Brien

Making Sense of Evil

Hi Friend, The world, and especially the Western Culture, is entering a time of music to celebrate peace on earth.  Who doesn’t want peace on earth? As it turns out there are many who want anarchy and revolution.  Normal people are appalled that twenty-five cars could surround the entrance of

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Jim O'Brien

First Thanksgiving

Hi Friend, A favorite picture in our home depicts the early Pilgrims celebrating the first Thanksgiving in America at Plymouth, Massachusetts.   It took place in the fall of 1621 following a difficult beginning in the new world. After the fall harvest Governor Bradford sent men out to hunt for fowl

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Jim O'Brien

Saving The Good

Hi Friend, For many people the story of Noah’s flood is disturbing.  Understanding the concept that a compassionate God concluded that every human except Noah and his family should die requires some soul searching.  Yet, that is what the Bible teaches.  There is no way to get around the fact

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Jim O'Brien

You May Not Want War…

Hi Friend, The chilling phrase, “You may not want war, but war wants you,” is known to students of history.  It’s a loose translation of words spoken by Leon Trotsky, a Russian Marxist revolutionary who was one of the fathers of communism and the leader of the Red Army.  He

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Jim O'Brien

On the Wings of an Eagle

Hi Friend, It’s no accident that the Founding Fathers saw God’s hand in the exodus of America from England and the exodus of Israel from Egypt as parallel events.  Even a casual reader of the Bible or an armchair historian can recognize the astounding similarities. When a group of historians

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Jim O'Brien

Obedience By Things Suffered

Hi Friend, The most popular series from a well-known magazine was entitled “My Most Unforgettable Character.”   The concept left an indelible impression on me.  One of the unforgettable people in my life was a former prisoner of Bergen Belsen, a Nazi Concentration Camp.  I invited him to lunch and

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Jim O'Brien

Lost In The Woods

Hi Friend, Have you ever been lost in the woods?  Dan Fogelberg made popular the hit song “Run for the Roses” that tells the story of a horse that was born and raised among the rolling hills and green valleys of Western Kentucky.  It’s personally nostalgic because I grew up

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