I will tell you something that will either make you feel safe or make the hair stand up on the back of your neck.

I was in the Navy and therefore ships and submarines have always interested me. There is probably only a hand full out of a thousand people that have even heard of an Ohio Class Submarine. The United States has 18 Ohio Class subs of which 14 carry the Trident ballistic nuclear missiles. Every sub always has two complete crews (14 officers & 120 enlisted) and each patrol lasts 70-90 days. Four subs are always on patrol, four are always stand-by ready and the balance are being resupplied and waiting for their rotation turn. Each Sub carries 24 Trident missiles with a range of seven thousand miles and each missile has eight separate nuclear war heads that split off and are set to different targets. Therefore, each Ohio Class sub has the capability to launch a nuclear attack on 192 different targets at the same time. Multiply that times four and you have the US nuclear capacity 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.

Now, the nuclear bomb that the US dropped on Hiroshima in 1945 at the end of WWII was a 15-Kiloton atomic/nuclear bomb.  The 192 nuclear war heads on each sub are approximately 475 kilotons each. Meaning that each one is 31 times the power of the original atomic bomb dropped on Hiroshima. To put this in context, should one of these nuclear war heads detonate on Atlanta, it would take out 1/3 – 1/2 of the state of Georgia.

These Ohio Class Subs have never been called to deploy these nuclear missiles and hopefully they never will. Ronald Reagan said, “the greatest cold war strategy is peace through strength.” These Ohio class submarines are the front-line defense of the world that not only protects the interest of the United States but that of other allied countries as well.

So, any given night that you are asleep safe in your bed, know that four Navy Ohio Class Subs are always on patrol all over the world because it is the show of strength that keeps peace in a radical world. KT

I recently received a double doctorate degree on money and what some scoundrels will do to get it. Ha. Over the years I have watched money destroy friendships, business and families and it always amazed me how small some people can become over money. It is also sort of comical to watch some people lie and cheat their way through life.

The bible has a couple of little verses for these lovely kinds of people. James 3:16 says, “for where envying and strife is, there is confusion and every evil work.” 1^st Timothy 6:10 says “for the love of money is the root of all evil.” Lastly, Galatians 6:7-9 tells us “do not be deceived, God is not mocked, for whatsoever a man (or woman) soweth, he/she shall also reap.”

I recently ran into a situation with a person where I was literally astounded to find out how corrupt the person was. I had to laugh at myself for not seeing it coming. My scoundrel meter didn’t even send off an alarm. Ha. Wanting money that you didn’t earn will lead to all kinds of misconduct, falsehoods and deception and will destroy the fabric of any relationship. See, I believe that when someone cheats and steals they do not live as long as they may have, had they been honest. Being dishonest takes a toll on your health, peace, sleep and the joy of life that seem to be the basis for longevity. Oh, sure there is the occasional scoundrel that lives a long life, but that would not be the norm. Deceit is a very powerful inhibitor to long life because it basically eats you from the inside out. It is like a cancer that grows with each passing day, week, month and year.

Self-esteem is something you earn by doing what is right in your heart. It is often a term that is overlooked but has great impact on our health. Without it, you know when the lights are out who you really are and it has significant impact to your life and health.

We learned as children in the first grade the value of doing what is right. In fact, so many of the values we know today, were learned in the first grade. God says, don’t be fooled into thinking you have gotten away with something. He knows everything we do and the honestly behind it.

The world will always have scoundrels and they will always be among us, so the advice is to be alert in our interactions and just do what is right. KT

This morning I was awake at 1am and couldn’t go back to sleep. As often happens in our lives, we are many times our own worst critic. This morning my mind was playing back all the times I messed up, didn’t say the right thing, wasn’t hired on deal, was talked about by others, every bad investment I made and yada, yada, yada. That ever happen to you? Of course, it has.

See, Satan’s greatest weapon in our life is the video player of our past mistakes. He knows if he can get us to complexly immerse ourselves in past failures, he can control what we do today. You might want to read those last two sentences again. If you know the enemy’s playbook, it shouldn’t surprise you when he tries to use it against you.

So, at 2:30 this morning I finally got up and tiptoed to the family room because I knew there was reason I was supposed to be up. Here it is and I will share it with you. I literally opened my iPad to the bible app I read from and staring me in the face was the following word from God this morning.

It comes from James 3: 13 in the NLT translation. It reads, “if you are wise and understand God’s ways, prove it by living an honorable life, doing good works with humility that comes from wisdom. But, if you are bitterly jealous and there is selfish ambition in your heart, don’t cover up the truth with boasting and lying. For jealousy and selfishness are not God’s kind of wisdom. Such things are earthly, unspiritual and demonic. For wherever there is jealousy and selfish ambition, there you will find disorder and evil of every kind. The wisdom from above is first pure. It is also peace loving, gentle at all times and willing to yield to others. It is full of mercy and the fruit of good deeds. It shows no favoritism and is always sincere. Those who are peacemakers will plant seeds of peace and reap a harvest of righteousness.”

How is that for a word from God? KT

Sometimes people don’t appreciate what they currently have until they no longer have it. Perhaps it is something in their life they took for granted and wished they had paid more attention to it when they had it. This could be relationships, family, finances, health etc. and the list could go on. There are times people wish they could roll back the clock to a time before decisions were made that altered their life as they know it. Every one of us have made decisions we wished we could undo. It’s called life.

If we all have made decisions we wish we could undo, then you might ask, what is the answer. The answer is, there are decisions that can easily be remedied and then there are decisions that can take time to repair. The real spiritual question is, did God know you were going to make that decision before you did it? The resounding answer is yes, he did. If you believe that (which I do) then God, being God, would already know what you need to do about it if you would simply humble yourself and ask. We all make mistakes in our lives and the revised plan (in our mind) may not be as perfect as the original plan but the funny thing is that God can pick up the pieces and restore us in unimaginable ways. Literally, in ways you cannot imagine.

When you are following a GPS in your car and miss a turn, it will announce that it is recalculating your route. In much that same fashion, God will redirect your route in life so you still end up at the appointed destination. One such poor decision I remember well was investing in some restaurants only to find myself in great debt with a very uncertain future. It would take a long time to explain all the happenings, but God redirected my future in a way that was unimaginable to me and used that loss as the basis for me being able to sell hotels today. Keep in mind that we view life in short contexts like this week or this year and God views our life over a longer period. He is the only one that can see our future and know best how to get us there.

I want you to hear this. We make a mistake and think, this will determine the rest of my life where God sees how the mistake can move us to where he wants us to be. There is never a perfect rebound in life but I believe if we put our trust in him, he will direct our paths forward. This is easy to believe with our minds but very hard to accept with our hearts. When you are in the middle of a life decision that appears to have gone wrong, remember what the bible says in Galatians 6:9. “Let us not become weary in well doing, for at the proper time we will reap a harvest if we do not give up.” KT