"I want to be remembered for courage for my faith"

Sybren and I discovered this wooden carved Statue of Liberty at the Oakhurst Best Western outside Yosemite on our big road trip. I think Charlie would have liked this as much as I did.

If you want to hear the back story about Charlie Kirk’s last days, listen to Charlie’s preacher, Rob McCoy, from Godspeak Calvary Chapel. You will learn things that will surprise you about the political happenings, how the CCP is taking hold in South Korea, how Christians are now being persecuted, even arrested, and how Charlie was there a week ago in order to advise and help young Christian leaders.

This is truly an amazing sermon. Pastor McCoy then goes deeper into a study of Moses and Joshua. It's an amazing tribute to an amazing man. You will be enlightened and uplifted. Here's the link.

 https://rumble.com/v6yylim-godspeak-calvary-chapel...

What is so providential is that on the day that Charlie was killed, I published a story (which some of you have read) about a murder of a Christian young man from South Korea. If you haven't read it yet, here it is. It's called "The Ripple Effect of Forgiveness." https://share.google/wrcMjIBwliwjopBe9

After I published it, I was checking out Facebook, and I was surprised at all the negative comments that I saw popping up everywhere about Charlie, and a couple of them were on my page in response to a post. At first, I ignored them. Why bother? Why stir up a fuss?

Then I thought, "Is that what Charlie would do?" No, he would engage. He would be kind, but he would be direct. So, I wrote a post which I will share here with you. Feel free to use my words if you need to, but maybe they will inspire your own.

This is a turning point. Over 5,000,000 people protested in Great Britain yesterday and Charlie was publicly mourned. He was mourned by thousands in a street protest in South Korea. There were 4000 chapters of Turning Point USA before his death. Today, the number is 30,000. As my friend, Jordan Wukovich, said, "There will be the time before Charlie Kirk was killed, and the time after Charlie Kirk was killed."

When Martin Luther King was assassinated, I was eight years old. I knew hardly anything about him, but I watched my mother fall into the chair and begin weeping when she saw the news. Like Martin Luther King, I think Jordan is right. This is a huge turning point. I will have more to say about this. For now, watch Rob McCoy's sermon and consider how you will make a response to the haters of Charlie Kirk. I want to be the kind of person who has courage, like Charlie did. I want to stand for my faith and my country and our constitution.

Here's my rebuttal to the Charlie Kirk haters.

Whatever your views on Charlie Kirk are, please be considerate and remember there are a lot of people hurting now, including me. I never met Charlie personally, but his organization helped me with my Biblical Citizenship classes, and I have a friend, my doctor, actually, who did volunteer work for him and knew him.

How someone speaks about the dead is a window into that person's character.

Charlie was assassinated because a coward who could not stand Charlie's opinions and who could not mindfully debate and counter Charlie's logic and reason, resorted to a bullet.

Charlie was a civil rights leader. He stood for the FIRST AMENDMENT which forbids GOVERNMENT from making laws that interfere with religious freedom and worship, speech, the press, the right of the people to assemble, the right to debate ideas, and to petition our government for redress of grievances.

Charlie Kirk upheld a biblical world view as did our Founding Fathers.

Yes, Charlie defended the 2nd Amendment because self-defense is biblical.

Yes, Charlie defended the rights of the unborn because love of life is biblical and sacrifice of babies is most abhorrent to God.

Yes, Charlie defended traditional families because that is biblical.

Yes, Charlie decried movements that harm children: pornography, pedophilia, and transgenderism.

Charlie did not hate. He loved to engage people of all kinds. Some of his friends were gay.

He was not a bigot. He even talked to prostitutes.

Once I heard Charlie say that the professors and students at Brown University, one of the most prestigious schools in the nation, reviled him and were shaking with anger when he declared that our rights come from God, not government.

This is a stunning problem and should cause alarm to everyone reading this post. It is the crux of the matter. There is a fundamental disagreement on the source of our rights. That is the foundational difference between leftism and conservatism.

Thankfully, our Declaration of Independence and Constitution acknowledge our Creator as the source of our rights and these leftists have so far been unsuccessful in destroying the foundations of our government and our faith, try as hard as they can.

Charlie would contend if our rights were granted by government, that this would lead to a culture of death. He's right. If the government gives you rights, in the next breath, in the next election cycle, in the next revolution, it can take them away. Every radical, revolutionary movement from Lenin to Hitler to Stalin to Mao to Cambodia, to Castro has been a power movement aimed at controlling all people, in all places, at all times.

I will end with this.

We live in a beautiful country. We live in the most free, the most prosperous, the most beneficial society for women and minorities in the history of the world. Let's honor each other and lift each other up, especially now.

God loves you and has a beautiful plan for your life.

He gave us free will to believe in Him or not. He gave us the power to choose Christ as our Savior or not.

We took a big road trip and visited Grand Canyon this summer. Doesn't this look like a painting?

Sybren and Kathryn at Yosemite on our big road trip.

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