We love to laugh!  Over 2,000 years ago, God said in Proverbs 17:22 (KJV) that laughter is good medicine.  Scientists are just now theorizing that the muscular exertions involved in laughing releases endorphins, the brain chemical known for its feel good effect.

Emo Philips has the best religious joke.
Once I saw this guy on a bridge about to jump.

I said, “Don’t do it!”
He said, “Nobody loves me.”
I said, “God loves you. Do you believe in God?”
He said, “Yes.”
I said, “Are you a Christian or a Jew?”
He said, “A Christian.”
I said, “Me, too! Protestant or Catholic?”
He said, “Protestant.”
I said, “Me, too! What franchise?”
He said, “Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Baptist or Southern Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist or Northern Liberal Baptist?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region, or Northern Conservative Baptist Eastern Region?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region.”
I said, “Me, too! Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1879, or Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912?”
He said, “Northern Conservative Baptist Great Lakes Region Council of 1912.”

I said, “Die, heretic!” And I pushed him over.

Laughter is good for your health. It has the following benefits, according to helpguide.org:
-Laughter relaxes the whole body. A good healthy laugh relieves physical
tension and stress, leaving your muscles relaxed for up to 45 minutes after.
– Laughter boosts the immune system. It decreases stress hormones and
increases immune cells and infection-fighting antibodies, improving your
resistance to disease.
-Laughter triggers the release of endorphins, the body’s natural feel-good
chemicals. Endorphins promote an overall sense of well-being and relieve pain.
-Laughter protects the heart by improving the function of blood vessels and
increasing blood flow, which protects against heart attacks and other
cardiovascular problems.

  Proverbs 17:22  A cheerful heart is good medicine.
I’ll always remember the last words of my grandfather, who said, “Look out, a truck”—-Emo Philips

Now that’s funny.  Or how about when Rodney Dangerfield said, “I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother.”  Or these…

I love astronomy, so I installed a skylight in my living room.  Boy, were the people who live in the apartment above me mad.

They say that giving birth underwater is less traumatic for the baby as it resembles the mother’s womb.  But it’s also more traumatic for the other people in the pool.

My husband says I feed him like he’s a god….every meal is a burnt offering.

I was on a date recently and the guy took me horseback riding.  That was kind of fun, until we ran out of quarters.

There’s even mental health benefits:
-Laughter dissolves distressing emotions. You don’t feel anxious, angry, or sad when
you’re laughing.
-It helps you relax and recharge by reducing stress and increasing energy, enabling
you to stay focused and accomplish more.
-It helps you to shift focus, allowing you to see situations in a more realistic, less
threatening light. A humorous perspective creates psychological distance, which can
help you avoid feeling overwhelmed.

It also has the following social benefits:
-It strengthens relationships
-Enhances teamwork
-Helps defuse conflicts
-Promotes group bonding
-Attracts others to our personality

There, there….now don’t you feel a little bit better?  God invented laughter.

Martin Luther said that if there’s no laughter in heaven, he didn’t want to go there.  Heck, that’s reason enough to want to go to heaven.  Luke 6:21 says we will laugh & its OK to do it (providing its appropriate).  Jesus says one of the terrible things about Hell is the absence of laughter (Luke 6:25).

Laughter is an instant vacation—Milton Berle

A day without laughter is a day wasted—Charlie Chaplin

Laughter is the sun that drives winter from the human face—Victor Hugo

Do you agree with the Bible that laughter is good medicine?

Laughing for His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard

     He grew up in the church…a very ritualistic church that used words he didn’t understand. He NEVER gained any knowledge of the bible. He took the chance to work on Sunday mornings at his first job so he wouldn’t have to go to church. He studied physics, astronomy, chemistry and math in high school and college.
     It was in college that he became an agnostic. Even though he knew some Christians in college, they couldn’t answer any of his questions about why Christianity was true or rational. He began to look on Christians as intellectual weaklings, whose religion was based on blind faith. He vowed he would build his life on logic, rationality and his own strength of character. Disappointments in life had never stopped him from pulling up his own boot-straps and moving on.
In college, he began his first serious relationship with a girl he wanted to build his life around. After college graduation, and more than two years of pushing him to get married, she took up with a married man and dumped him. When this married man didn’t work out, as they never do, she then went out with just about any man, married or not, in their small college town.
He was devastated. He had built his life around their relationship and it had collapsed. The small town became even smaller when he continually heard bad things about her. He had been truly humbled and had thought that he would never love anyone as much as he had loved her. He felt his life was going to be a 2^nd class existence.
     So he decided to run…all the way from Michigan to California. He figured a new atmosphere would break the power that these memories of her had over him. Before he left, he reluctantly went to his brother’s church just to appease him. They hadn’t been as close in these last few years and he had seen a good change in his brother’s life. What he saw there literally blew him away. He was shocked at the sincerity of these Christians and how Jesus had turned their lives around. He felt the presence of the living God there.
When he got to California, he discovered that the change in atmosphere did nothing to break the power of those memories of his ex-girlfriend. He had come to the end of his rope. He realized that he wasn’t as smart as he thought and that his life was at a dead end. He humbly asked Jesus to change his life like He had changed his brother’s life. Over the next few months, as he read his bible, he began to feel hopeful. Thru an acquaintance, he started attending weekly meetings of a bible training institute. Questions he had that no one could answer before, were being answered in the course of just studying the bible. He kept going there and was being transformed without really realizing it.  Why hadn’t he heard this before?
Eight months after accepting Jesus as his Savior, he met his future wife. She was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen. From the moment he met her, the power of those past memories of his ex-girlfriend vanished. Within two years, they were married. This year, 2021, they will celebrate 45 years of marriage. They have 3 adult sons, 3 daughters-in-love and 9 grandchildren. In that time, his passion to teach the rationality and logic of the Christian faith, a field known as apologetics, has become a reality. He has put these teachings on a website…http://BSSSB-LLC.com.
     I know this man quite well, because you see… he’s me. I once was lost but now am found, was blind but now I see.

For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard

P.S., Watch my full story at http://BSSSB-LLC.com, click on the youtube link, then click on the My Life videos and watch My Life 7, 8 & 9 videos.

Well….it depends on what you mean by a #Christian nation. If you mean are we a theocracy like ancient Israel was, then NO, America is not a theocracy. But we are not a #democracy either (where everything is voted on and the majority rules). In fact, our founding fathers spoke very disparagingly about democracies. Read faithofourfathers.net.  Ben Franklin said that, “A democracy is 2 wolves and a lamb voting on what to have for lunch. Liberty is a well-armed lamb contesting the vote.” According to our founders, America is a constitutional republic, which is a representative government ruled by law.

Interesting point….law has to be based on some moral system. Laws can be moral or immoral but not amoral. Even speeding laws are moral as they determine what a safe speed is to preserve life.  In the USA, our laws are based on:

-the Bible and

-the English system, which is mainly based on the Bible

What do you think of this John Adams quote? John Adams was a signer of the Declaration of Independence and the 2^nd President of the USA. “The general principles on which the fathers achieved independence were the general principles of Christianity.”

What do you think of this George Washington quote? “It is impossible to rightly govern a nation without God and the Bible.”

Did you know that while the phrase “No taxation without representation” was a popular battle cry of the American revolutionaries another popular cry was “No King but King Jesus”?

The #Declaration of Independence, our country’s 1^st founding document, has God written into it in several places.  Over 50 of the 56 signers of the Declaration were active members of their churches.  And I mean ACTIVE. Many of them were founders or members of their state’s bible societies. For example, Elias Boudinot was President of the Continental Congress, Founder and first President of the American Bible Society, President of the New Jersey Bible Society, member of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions and member of the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. The evidence is clear that not only can NONE of them be called an atheist, only the smallest handful could be called deists or agnostics. Even a deist back then is much different than a deist today.  Ben Franklin called himself a deist but he totally rejected the ‘clockmaker’ concept of God, believed that prayer was worthwhile and that God did intervene in our daily affairs. The Constitution doesn’t have God in it because it’s much like an instruction manual.  It tells us the structure of our new nation only….i.e., how to run our new nation. For a great but long article on the Christian foundations of the rule of law in the West, read www.creation.com/the-christian-foundations-of-the-rule-of-law-in-the-west-a-legacy-of-liberty-and-resistance-against-tyranny.  Another good article showing how all 50 state constitutions were dedicated to Jesus Christ is at www.christunlimited.com/answers/aamerica.html. Scroll down and click onto “Preambles to State Constitutions based on the Bibles influence”. You may have to copy and paste this site into your internet browser as clicking on it here may not work. Also read the excellent book, “America’s God and Country: Encyclopedia of Quotations” by William J. Federer. I cannot recommend this reference book highly enough. It is simply the best out there.

So no, we are not a Christian nation but our country’s foundation is built on biblical and Christian values. This was taught in public schools in the early 20^th century. Then, over years, it was weeded out until my generation, schooled in the 1950’s, didn’t learn this at all. Does this surprise you?  What do you think?

For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard

     I love some of the old Hollywood movie battle scenes where the wagon train gets attacked by Indians, when the cavalry defends its fort, when there’s a big Roman army battle or a cowboy gunfight. But what I soon learned is that Hollywood movies are not very accurate in their history.

     For example, I grew up in the 1950’s watching TV, so there were NEVER any cowboys who were black. Years later, I found out that 25% of cowboys were black. I was shocked!
     Wagon trains were another example of inaccurate history. Hollywood always shows the big white cloth covered Conestoga wagons travelling in a single file.  But Conestoga wagons weren’t used in wagon trains as their center of gravity was too high and a good stiff plains state wind would blow them over. They used regular wagons without the big white cloth covering them. And they only traveled in single file when going thru the mountains or a very narrow pass. Travelling single file would have kicked up a tremendous of dust for any wagon that was behind the lead wagon. They normally traveled side-by-side in a long row.

They also never circled the wagons in an Indian fight. They wouldn’t have had time to do that. The Indians also never circled the wagons. Indians weren’t dumb. Circling the wagons would have made them all moving targets. Instead, Indians attacked the wagons head on. They did, however, circle their wagons at night to keep the animals in.
All of these things, the Conestoga wagons, traveling in single file, circling the wagons in an Indian attack and the Indians circling around the wagons were inventions of Hollywood writers because they all looked better on camera.

     Regarding cowboy gun duals, Hollywood became obsessed with the fastest gun winning. But when Wyatt Earp was interviewed shortly before his death in the 1920’s, he exploded this myth. He said the fastest gun that shot first generally missed their target and that the guy that took time to AIM usually won. And cowboys who “fanned” their guns almost always missed as “fanning” your gun threw off your aim.
We often hear about how violent the old West was with all those gunfights going on.  But the old West wasn’t nearly as violent as Hollywood might have us think. Read https://www.wideopenspaces.com/10-misconceptions-guns-wild-west-pics/ and https://history.howstuffworks.com/historical-events/ridiculous-history-the-wild-wild-west-was-really-the-mild-mild-west.htm.

     In the movie “Gladiator” starring Russell Crowe, they have the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius being killed by his son, Commodus, who then became Emperor. But in real life, Marcus Aurelius retired and Commodus succeeded him as Emperor. In the movie, Commodus is killed by Russell Crowe’s character but in real life, he was poisoned by his wife. When that didn’t work, his wrestling partner strangled him while he was bathing.

     Also at the end of the movie, Rome returned to being a republic. In real life, Rome NEVER returned to a republic but kept on being an empire. Finally, there is no evidence that Marcus Aurelius wanted to restore Rome to a republic. This was an obvious appeal to 21^st century democratic ideals. While Marcus Aurelius wasn’t a terrible Emperor (as Emperors went), he wasn’t the wise philosopher-king the movie made him out to be. He did violently persecute Christians.

     So, as you can see, it’s best not to get your history from the movies. Hollywood’s purpose is to entertain and to make money, not to be a history teacher. It’s a shame because their influence on gullible Americans is great. While you may like seeing battle scenes in the old West or the ancient world (I sure do), don’t trust Hollywood to be real accurate. They have got it right a few times, like in 1964’s ‘The Longest Day’ or 1970’s ‘Tora, Tora, Tora’, but overall, they’re not very accurate.

     What I learned from this little episode in my life was to watch what I accepted as truth. Was the source of a particular truth claim reliable? Did that source have an agenda? It made me appreciate the one source that I do have that guides my life…the Bible. I know when I look to that source that it is the ultimate truth that has my best interests at heart.

For His Kingdom and picky moviegoers,
Dave Maynard
https://bsssb-llc.com

                                                     Warning: This article contains graphic descriptions of torture & death

     S-21 was an interrogation, torture & execution center. From 1975-1979 the communist Khmer Rouge forcibly took over Cambodia. Of 14,000 prisoners who entered S-21, only 7 are known to have survived. Out of a population of 8 million people, 2 million were killed. Out of 11,000 university students, only 450 survived. 9 out of 10 doctors were killed. They killed anyone who was educated so they wouldn’t be a threat to them.

     In 1976, the Khmer Rouge converted a high school complex into S-21. The head of it was Comrade Duch (pronounced DOIK). He was an extremely efficient killing machine. He kept detailed records of every torture session, every murder. His henchmen would hang prisoners upside down with their head in a bucket of urine and feces. Throats were slit, heads were bashed with a shovel, necks were broken with a hoe. Babies were killed by swinging them by the legs and smashing their heads against a tree. Comrade Duch was extremely efficient.

     In 1979, the Vietnamese invaded Cambodia, put a stop to the Khmer Rouge and handed the country over to the Cambodians. Duch didn’t have time to destroy his records. He just disappeared. He was presumed dead. Christopher LaPel had lived thru this disasterous time by the grace of God. He became a believer, then a pastor, then he started training other pastors at his Institute. Today over 200 churches can trace their origins back to his ministry. His cousin was killed at S-21.

     Hang Pin started coming to LaPel’s meetings. He was 55 years old, frail, depressed and heavily burdened. LaPel lead him to the Lord. When he was baptized, an immediate transformation took place. For every teaching, Pin took extensive notes. He couldn’t get enough teaching about Jesus. He was excited. His dress even reflected his new demeanor. He had a new lease on life and he wanted to tell everybody about Jesus and His forgiveness. Before long, Pin received his pastoral certificate. In their graduation picture, LaPel had his hand on Pin’s shoulder. He considered him to be his best student. Pin went back to his hometown, lead his children to the Lord and started a small, thriving church. He also worked with World Vision, a Christian aid group. LaPel eventually lost touch with Pin.

     Then in 1999, LaPel got a phone call from 2 American reporters that rocked his world.The reporters had proof that Pastor Hang Pin was Comrade Duch. When they told LaPel that they had confronted Pin with their suspicions he confessed that it was true. Pin readily confessed his crimes and gave himself up to authorities. He was put on trial by United Nations tribunal and found guilty. He was sentenced to life imprisonment. In Cambodia, there is no appeal or parole ever. Pin said, “They have my body. Jesus has my soul.” Pin (Duch) told the tribunal everything he could remember. He identified his signature on the death & torture records that were found at S-21, which was now a museum. He has asked the relatives for forgiveness but only expects that from God. Duch tells everyone who will listen about his crimes and about the grace & forgiveness of God that set him free.

     In 2008, LaPel came face-to-face with Duch in his prison cell. LaPel’s first words to Duch were, “…I love you as a brother in Christ. I forgive you for what you did to my family.” LaPel said it wasn’t easy buthow could he (LaPel) receive forgiveness from Jesus for his sins and then refuse to forgive Duch for his sins, no matter how egregious they were. Duch’s testimony made headlines all over the world. And so did his story about God’s forgiveness and grace. Today Duch is peaceful and filled with the joy of the Lord. Duch shares Jesus with the guards and the other Khmer Rouge prisoners. LaPel visits him regularly. Duch says, “I’m not a prisoner, I’m a free man…I deserve death, I deserve punishment…” but Jesus has set me free.

     In Buddhism, the main religion of Cambodia, there is no forgiveness of sins. In the next life, you’ll get payback for what you’ve done in this life. LaPel & Duch thank God for His forgiveness and His grace. LaPel has said many Cambodians are hearing of Duch’s strong faith. They’re beginning to understand that Jesus offers forgiveness and grace in this life. These things are unknown to Buddhists. Isn’t it just like God to turn the Killing Fields into the Harvest Fields. Now that’s resurrection power.

     For a detailed account of this story and many more about God’s grace, read the book “The Case for Grace” by Lee Strobel.

For His kingdom,
Dave Maynard
http://BSSSB-LLC.com

     He condemned Jesus to death. He stood by while his soldiers beat Jesus up. He had Him flogged and crucified. But did you ever wonder what happened to Pilate after this? The historian Josephus said he was recalled to Rome to explain his mishandling of a Samaritan riot in 36AD. But we hear nothing about him after this.

     By the 2nd century AD, the so-called “Acts of Pilate” document began to circulate among Christians. This document, allegedly derived from Pilate’s own records, says that he and his wife became believers in Jesus. Tertullian, the late, great 2nd century Christian theologian & apologist, was convinced of this as was the 4th century  Saint Augustine. While most Christians didn’t believe it, the Eastern Orthodox church did, making Pilate’s wife a saint. The Coptic & Ethiopian Christians went further and canonized Pilate. His feast day is the 25th of the summer month of Sanne, a day shared with his wife Procla and the saints Jude, Peter and Paul.

     Most theologians today discount this document as fake. There is really no way to prove what it says. I am always suspect of documents like this, so please understand that I am not presenting the “Acts of Pilate” as fact. It is in a class of documents called New Testament apocraphal writings. The fact that some Christians believed it is interesting at best. But in the end, the fate of Pontius Pilate remains a mystery.

     But if he did become a Christian, wouldn’t this be the ultimate act of  forgiveness on God’s part? We have examples of this in the Bible. In Acts 6:7 many of the Jewish priests (some of whom probably called for Jesus’ crucifixion) became believers. The thief crucified next to Jesus mocked Him, then turned silent. That silence then turned to repentance and he was immediately welcomed into God’s kingdom (Mark 15:32 & Luke 23:323-43). And Rabbi Saul of Tarsus persecuted & killed Christians (Acts 7:58, 8:3 & 9:1,2), yet he became the apostle Paul.  A modern day example was when the Amish quickly forgave the man who murdered 10 Amish school girls (lancasterpa.com/amish/amish-forgiveness/).
This kind of forgiveness can only come from God. Aren’t you glad God’s forgiveness goes this deep? 

One thing we can say for certain…IF Pilate did ask God to forgive him, he most assuredly would have received it.

Reference: www.historytoday.com/kevin-butcher/strange-afterlife-pontius-pilate

For His Kingdom,
Dave Maynard
https://bsssb-llc.com