Suffering – Pathway Journey

May 25, 2026May 25, 2026

Lasting Sacrifice Lingers on this Memorial Day

Memorial Day is distinguished from Veteran’s Day. We honor all veterans, living and dead. Memorial Day is a day of remembrance for the ultimate sacrifice of one’s life. From what I have read, there have been over 1.1 million Americans who have died during wartime. Some from combat and others from disease.

My 4th-great-grandfather, Shadrack Whitt died at Valley Forge from disease (mostly likely smallpox). He was buried in a mass grave in May of 1778. He left behind a widow with two small boys, one was William Whitt, my 3rd-great-grandfather. Who knows the great sacrifice my long-ago grandmother and her sons endured after his death?

There was a great sacrifice of those who died in war. We honor them. There is also a continual sacrifice of the families that remain. The warriors fought and died. Their families weep and continue to grieve.

I married into the Stanley family in 1977. Robert Houston and Annie Sue Stanley blessed me with their daughter Jennie as my forever wife. They warmly embraced me as their son. This family was a Gold Star Family. By marriage covenant and love, I joined their ranks.

April 17, 2026April 17, 2026

Tension: Strengthening by Two Forces

I have been thinking about the concept of tension for a few weeks. In the physical world, you need two opposing forces to have tension. Think of limp rope that is tied securely on one end to an object. It will remain limp until the other end is attached to another object and the slack pulled from the rope. In society and everyday life, people dislike tension in their lives. We gravitate to one side while despising the other end.

We grow stronger by having some tension in our lives. There is no need to look for trouble/tension because it has a way of finding us. We need to see the opportunity of becoming stronger when trouble comes.

April 2, 2026April 2, 2026

Jesus on the Cross

This week is Holy Week when we remember and declare Jesus Christ’s trial, crucifixion and resurrection. As we approach Good Friday and His crucifixion, I wanted to share the first chapter in my book, Journey of the Messiah — The Awakening. It describes not only the horror of the cross imagined from His perspective but also the ramification of His redemption to a lost world. Note: The book is written in the first person of Jesus, as if He is telling the story. It is from the author’s perspective and imagination.

Chapter 1: To the Cross, from the Cross

For He made Him who knew no sin to be sin for us, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. (2 Corinthians 5:21 NKJV).

From the beginning, I knew My life as the Son of Man would come to this torturous end. It was the redemptive plan of God for man, before man was to be. This knowledge did not make My pain any less but added grief to My agony. The weight of the sinful guilt for man is a knife to My soul as the nails are to My flesh. I hang between heaven and earth, bridging the gap for all time and for all who come by faith to drink My blood and eat My flesh.

September 26, 2025September 26, 2025

Christian Martyrdom

Most of us have read accounts of religious martyrdom in historical books and the Bible. Few of us have witnessed it with our own eyes. Recently, we saw Charlie Kirk killed at one of his events. Some would argue that this was a political hit, not a religious one. Whether you loved or hated him, he was an adamant Christian who never minced his words.

The original Greek New Testament word for martyr is the word ‘martus’ pronounced [mar’-toos]. Its basic meaning is witness. A martyr is a person killed for his witness.

It is estimated that over 70 million Christians have been martyred since Jesus Christ himself was martyred on the cross. Most of those have been in the 1900s under fascist and communist rulers. Depending on the historian, some estimates say that since 2000 there has been an average of 100,000 per year. Martyrdom is not just in biblical times but also in relative modern times.

September 6, 2025September 29, 2025

Behind the Curtain

We live our lives in the sunshine of the day. Then as darkness comes upon the earth we sleep on the backside of locked doors. Some folks watch horror films, so their broken world seems more normal. Others watch sitcoms so the stupid suddenly looks silly and funny.

There is a reality that people want to ignore. It is the reality of another dimension that is sightless to our eyes and soundless to our ears. The result of it is obvious to the perceptive watcher. It is the reality of a spiritual realm that has a direct correlation in the visual world. It is a realm of warfare, deception, intrigue, and supernatural persuasion. It is more than a little spooky.

April 25, 2025April 24, 2025

Paul and Silas’ Response to Persecution

Join me in a little stroll through Acts chapter 16 as we journey with Paul and Silas.

We must minister to those God sends us and work with those God brings alongside us.
Paul on his second missionary journey was accompanied by Silas. Silas was not Paul’s first choice as a traveling partner. Barnabas was Paul’s first missionary partner on the first journey. While planning the second missionary journey, Paul and Barnabas had an argument about whether to take Mark who had abandoned them on the first trip. Paul did not want him to go, but Barnabas insisted. Unable to come to an agreement, they separated and went different ways.

August 21, 2024August 21, 2024

History-Long Hatred of Children: A Ploy of Satan

Children are the most vulnerable humans on the planet. They are very dependent upon adults for provision, shelter, protection, and education. Through the course of world history, children have been neglected and worse of all targeted for exploitation or even destruction. Why?

In our present age, we see children used as slave labor, sex slaves, so-called collateral damage in endless wars, starved by abject poverty, and easy fields for organ harvesting in less humane societies.

Then in our more so-called civilized cultures, we see children harmed in sex abuse, physical abuse, emotional abuse, neglect, objects of child pornography, sexual mutilation, destructive drug therapy, warped by dysfunctional families, and killed by abortion.

July 9, 2024July 8, 2024

Why the Rage?

There are a lot of angry people in the world. Some get caught up in a frenzy over things they do not understand. They simply share the rage of their colleagues with the same psychology as a mob. People do things in a mob that they would never do in a one-on-one encounter.

There is much Antisemitism rising to the surface in our country at the present time. This hatred was present before Israel’s military response after the Hamas attack in October 2023, but is more evident now. It is ironic that some of the people and groups in the United States who are pro-Hamas would only survive about five minutes on the streets of Gaza. They are caught up in a frenzy of hatred that defies logic.

But why such vile rage? What line do people cross from being an opponent to a vile enemy? How does an opposing opinion abscess into bloodshed and outright genocide? Hatred multiplies like dangerous bacteria in a petri dish.

May 27, 2024May 27, 2024

Blood, Sweat, and Tears (Memorial Day)

My father, T. V. Whitt was on Okinawa when the Japanese surrendered to end World War II in 1945. I heard him recount with tears that when he left the island headed for home, he looked at the graves of the fallen and thought, “I am headed home to my two little children, but these will not be going home to their little children.”

He came home and continued his family to add three more kids and live to within seven days of the age of ninety. The moment was not lost on him of the great sacrifice given by the dead soldiers, marines, and sailors.

The victories of life afforded our children are won by tears (pain and suffering), sweat (labor and toil), and blood (the sacrifice of injury and ultimately of life).

April 19, 2024April 18, 2024

Ordinary Days

I remember during a very busy season of my life hearing someone say, “I’m bored!” and wishing I had time to be bored. For the record, I hate being bored.

Many of us have a “first world problem” (as opposed to someone living in a third world country) of possibly despising a simple ordinary day with nothing special happening. We need to appreciate ordinary days. I love simple, ordinary days.

It is wonderful to wake in the morning and have a few minutes to thank God for another day, to give a phrase of worship to Him, pray for my family, and pray for a few folks who I know are not having an ordinary day. Then staggering down the hallway to the smell of fresh brewed coffee, savoring the slow, unhurried sipping of brown liquid gold.