My mother’s unfailingly cheerful faith in a very personal, loving and helping God encouraged me and helped my own faith to grow.

My father’s view that theology should be simple, easily understood and easily explained has kept me focused on what I see as the basic truths of the Gospel.

I want to thank all of the many, many wonderful people who have given me a “nudge from God”. This list especially includes my wife, Darlene; my children David, Paul and Joy; their partners and spouses Karen, Kari and Brian; all my beautiful grandchildren and many dear Christian friends. I want to give a special “Thank You” to my son, Paul, for his technical help and advice on building this web site. I also want to thank Deloris Giltner who read and re-read these chapters and gives me great feedback on content, grammar and spelling, always urging me to do a better job. To everyone I have mentioned and to all of my readers I say “Thank you and God bless you!”

What I believe:

I have been asked about my beliefs. My answer is “Read my writings on this web site and you will know what I believe.”

Why I write:

Every once in a while it seems that God gives me a sharp nudge in the ribs with his elbow and says something like “Did you see that? That’s a small part of who I am. Learn from it.”

Some of these “nudges” come from various books I read. Others come in the middle of the night when I can’t sleep and still others catch me unawares when I least expect them. I am sharing these “nudges” in the hope that they might be of some small help to others. None of  them are theologically profound. But, to me, life is not “theologically profound” either.

My father always told me, theology should be kept simple enough for a child to understand. As Jesus said, “I assure you, unless you turn from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven.” (Matthew 18:3, NLT)

You see, to me life is a journey, the greatest of adventures. Life is to be enjoyed and savored — like the taste of cold, creamy home–made ice cream on a hot July day; like a warm, blazing fireplace and a good book on a cold winter day; like the taste of Grandma Leatha’s (my mother–in–law) cinnamon rolls fresh from the oven or like a hug and a kiss from my wife, my children or my grandchildren.

Now let me share with you a totally unexpected discovery. When I had written down a number of “nudges” I looked at them for the first time together and not simply as individual thoughts. It was then I discovered the common theme running through each one — God is saying “Choose life, not death.”  Thus the name for this web site.

You will notice that I have included several excerpts from books by Andrew Greeley. I find his stories to be fun, encouraging and eye opening to the vast love and generosity of God. If you enjoy a good mystery novel, I encourage you to seek out his books and read them yourself, especially the “Blackie Ryan” series.

After reading my writings, I hope that you don’t think that I never suffer from depression, sin, envy or any of the other weaknesses discussed. BECAUSE I DO! That’s why I wrote these in the first place — to help me rely more on God. It was only much later that I realized they might also help someone else. My prayer is that this web site will help you in some small way.

Go Ahead and Print and Copy:

It is okay to print out these pages or chapters. Go ahead and copy them and distribute them. I only ask for two things...

1. Never charge anyone anything for a copy, including to cover the printing or copying costs.

2. Always include the bottom copyright statement with each copy.

That's it. Have fun. Use these chapters for group discussions, Sunday School, your personal devotions, whatever works for you. I'd appreciate hearing from you if you do use them.

1. I have identified the source for all quoted passages. I hope they will encourage you to seek out the entire book and read it.

2. Any underlined or bold passages in the scriptures were underlined and/or bolded by me to call your special attention to them. Italics within quoted sections are from the original source.

My wife, Darlene, and I were married in 1963. We have three grown children and ten grandchildren. We have been active in church music for many years — Darlene as an organist, pianist and choir director, myself as a choir director.

Between us we have worshipped in over a dozen different denominations — from Baptist to Roman Catholic with Evangelical Lutheran, United Methodist, Christian & Missionary Alliance, Presbyterian and others thrown in for good measure. EVERYWHERE we have worshipped we have found God’s people. Sometimes it was only a remnant, but other times we found a large, active, caring, loving congregation.

For more information, please visit my other web sites at www.longmontsanta.com and www.chilsonresources.com — I do try to keep busy <grin>.

If you have comments, suggestions or insights you would like to share, please click here to email me.