Do a web search on the title of this blog, “How’d we get in this mess?” and you’ll find many references to the economic quagmire inspired by greed in the mortgage industry. But those words—that question—could just as easily apply to the war situation in Iraq and Afghanistan. Last week’s blog had some wonderful comments from readers as we considered alternatives to war. My son Andrew proposed that we try a new alternative — to love and educate Muslims. It’s an alternative that’s worth a try.

In this week’s Lesson 11 of my class on Understanding Islam, we delved for a brief half hour into a history of the Crusades. While it’s a difficult period of history to understand, and a murderous period of history on both sides of the conflict, the Crusades have something to teach us about today’s wars in the Middle East.

15th century painting of Pope Urban II at the Council of Clermont, where he preached an impassioned sermon to take back the Holy Land. Source: Wikipedia

In the year 1095, Pope Urban may have well asked the same question “How’d we get in this mess?” Over 400 years earlier, Muslims had seized control of Jerusalem in 638 AD, and in recent months before the Council of Clermont, Muslims had destroyed 30,000 churches across what is modern day Israel and Turkey. Thousands of pilgrims had died as they headed to the Holy Land, tens of thousands of Christians were displaced, and the Byzantine Empire was set upon by deadly attacks from the fierce Seljuk Turks. Pope Urban, seeking to unite Europe under the banner of Christianity, called for a military response to save those who had been persecuted and expelled. Much like our response to 9-11, for example.

196 years later, Crusaders finally abandoned the Middle East after a protracted series of battles, truces, assaults and massacres… death and deceit on both sides of the conflict. As French King Louis IX walked away from his captivity near the end of the Crusades, he well may have wondered “How’d we get into this mess?”

I have two theories about the Crusades and today’s wars, one in response to his question, and one looking back at what history has shown us.

First, we’re “in this mess” because we chose to take the battle to the Middle East instead of letting the battle come to us. Muslim extremists brought an attack to our soil, the first since Pearl Harbor. We had a choice of waiting for the next attack or taking the war back to where the evil of 9-11 originated. When the Byzantine Empire and the Christians of the Middle East called for help, Pope Urban may have seen his options in much the same way—wait for the onslaught, or take the battle back to the perpetrators. Indeed, the first Crusade succeeded in liberating Antioch, the first Christian city, and then Jerusalem, but at a terrible cost. Our wartime actions, liberating Afghanistan from the grip of the Taliban and Iraq from Saddam Hussein, have also come at great cost to both sides. While America’s action in the Middle East is not a repeat of the Crusades, the results and the lessons learned pose striking similarities.

The Siege at Antioch; Source: Wikipedia

Pope Urban took the war to the Middle East. In so doing, many historians judge that the Crusades forced the Muslims to “focus on their own backyard,” and thus prevented the spread of Islam into Europe. Whether or not we agree on war as the proper option, President Bush also took the battle to the land of Islam. Since 9-11, we have successfully defended our homeland from any more attacks. Are these current wars and the loss of lives — American and Muslim lives alike — worth the cost? History will have to decide. We are “too close to the action,” so to speak.

We’ve had 800 years since the end of the Crusades to consider their cost and their value. My second theory is this: While the Crusades were horrific in their scope of loss of life, there was a distinct advantage to taking the war to the Muslims. In so doing, Europe had the opportunity to unite under the banner of Pope Urban’s call to arms. Europe was able to mature and to flourish without defending against the onslaught of the Islamic forces that had been turned back at the Battle of Tours in France, and at Vienna. Europe emerged as a political, scientific, and artistic power, and prospered to be the progenitor of colonization that led to the establishment of the United States of America.

If Pope Urban had not taken the fight to the Middle East, would there be a mosque in the place of St. Peter’s basilica in Rome? Would they teach the Qur’an and Shari’a law as the basis of jurisprudence at Oxford? Would America have been settled, or if it had, would those early colonists have worshipped Allah instead of Jesus Christ?

I submit that, whether or not you appreciate the value of the Crusades, today’s Europeans and Americans are beneficiaries of Pope Urban and his successors, and the blood their “soldiers of the cross” shed in the sands of Islamic lands. Europe took the battle to Islam, and later emerged as an economic and political power. America was founded on Christian values because of the vision and energy of European Christians. Thus, if we can trace our lineage in part to the Crusades, we might also trace the good tidings of future Christians to our nation’s current wartime action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s possible, horrible as war is, that taking the fight to Islam makes it possible for us to survive as a Christian nation, and flourish as Europe did. Chew on that for a while, and then ask yourself. “Is it worth it?”

Is it worth today’s cost of lives and dollars in order to defend a future America? I have a son I dearly love who will leave for Iraq in a few months. This war is personal to me, as one who served in the first Gulf conflict, and the father of a warrior headed into combat. Like my son Andrew, I abhor war. Nevertheless, despite the personal and national cost, I believe that history might one day say that “it was worth it”… a horrible but worthy cost in order to advance the cause — and future — of America’s freedom.

Last weekend Cindy and I spent three wonderful days with our son and his beautiful new bride at a cabin retreat during the fall colors on Alabama’s Lookout Mountain. Andrew and I spent the mornings on our bicycles grinding up long grades and zipping down steep curves. Over the course of nearly fifty miles we solved the energy crisis, debated the merits of Obama and McCain, and critiqued my class on “Understanding Islam.” Many of you know Andrew as the introductory voice in the audio segments of my Islamic study.

During one ride, Andrew posed an interesting question that I am compelled to share with you. His question cut me to the quick, challenging sacred assumptions and long-held beliefs. This blog might upset you the way my son’s thesis initially aggravated me… but once I gave it some thought, I realized that Andrew had a point we all need to consider.

Is this war winnable? “No,” Andrew says. At first his statement insulted me; I’m a 25-year veteran of the Navy, the Cold War, and combat operations in El Salvador, Grenada and the first Desert War. Yet, despite my military paradigm, a week of mentally processing Andrew’s comments has changed me. He’s right. We cannot “win” this war.

Here’s why: We’re not at war with terror. Our leaders continue to skirt this issue, to our national peril. Terrorism is not the enemy; we are at war with real people, at war with Muslim extremists bent on destroying our way of life. As George Bush said, we will take the fight to whatever enemy attacks us for as long as it takes to prevail. Yet Andrew maintains that our fighting back after the atrocities of September 11, 2001 has simply given the Muslim extremists exactly what they wanted. We have assaulted the homeland of millions of Muslims, enraging Islamic peoples around the globe.

Our military response to 9-11 may have been just, but in Andrew’s mind it was ill-considered. As he so ably points out, we don’t have an enemy that will roll up and go home when and if we “win” this conflict. This is not WWII, and it’s not the Cold War. The rules have changed and our worst enemies… Wahhabism funded by Saudi Arabia, Al Qaeda, and Osama Bin Laden… exhibit no national sovereignty. Other than our “ally” Saudi Arabia that bankrolls Islamic extremism around the world, our enemy has no national lines, and does not assemble in traditional armies and navies that we can confront. We could identify and attack evil during WWII. Now… it’s not so easy.

“What would Jesus do?” Andrew asked as we sprinted away from half a dozen mangy dogs running loose on a lone country road. “Would Jesus kill a hundred thousand Iraqis and Afghanis?” I had to confess “no,” then asked “but what would you have us do, son? Love them for killing three thousand of our citizens and bankrupting our airlines?”

Andrew never minces words. “Yes. Love them. Did Christians fight back against Rome in the early days of the persecutions?” he asked. “No. They loved their enemies. That’s what Jesus commands. We’ve never tried this. We should embrace the Muslim people. Build schools. Develop trade with them. Educate them. Not fight them.”

At first I thought that Andrew’s idea was nuts, but soon remembered a wonderful book that’s high on the New York Times best seller list, Three Cups of Tea. Greg Mortenson spent enormous personal capital building peace across Afghanistan, one school at a time. It’s a stunning tale of compassion, of impacting the lives of simple people in remarkable ways. But I was not yet convinced. “We are fighting a just war, Andrew. Education and economy are important, but books and bucks won’t turn the tide of radical Islam.”

“And fighting them will?” he snapped back, breathless as we chugged up yet another hill. We climbed for a quarter mile before he continued. “You said it yourself, Dad. We’re not fighting a nation so much as fighting a way of life. When we fight terror, we fight Islam. We’re fighting a theocracy, and that makes us the enemy of Muslims everywhere.”

If you’ve followed our class these last ten weeks, you realize that Andrew has a great point. Our response to 9-11 may be just, but vengeance is not Jesus’ way, and attacking Islam could embroil us in irresolvable conflict for decades. By the end of the bike ride, I was starting to wonder if my adamant support for battling terrorists really made sense. Islam aside, I couldn’t state with certainty that Jesus would have attacked Afghanistan in response to September 11th. Ponder this: If Jesus was President, where would we be today?

I don’t have all the answers. As a military man, I’ve believed that our attacks on Afghanistan were justified. The world was endangered by Saddam Hussein and he needed to go. But are we on the correct path if we continue this war on terror? What would Jesus do? Can we really fight Islam… tackle a radical worldwide theocracy… and hope to win? Should we even try?

Challenge your assumptions! Seek God’s wisdom in prayer and ask how our nation is called to respond to the murderous assault of radical Islam. The more I come to understand Islam, and honestly consider Andrew’s question of “What would Jesus do?” I am led to the conclusion that we need to take a different path. A trillion dollar war has not yet defeated the real enemy—radical Islam.

We should try Andrew’s approach: Let’s follow Jesus’ two great commandments to the letter…love God and love others. We must seek first to understand… seek to change hearts and minds before we resort to more war. Jesus wants us to value life and to bring others to Him.

Will Andrew’s approach work? I think so. It certainly can’t hurt to try.

Hushe village schoolgirls, Karakoram mountains, Pakistan - Source: Amazon.com

What does it take to get into heaven? In our 8th lesson in Understanding Islam, we take that question seriously with an analysis of the Five Pillars of Islam. A student asked, during the section of the class focused on daily ablutions, “why do Muslims pray five times a day?” The answer to that question—and its corollary in Christianity—speaks volumes about the differences between the two religions. If you want to go to heaven, “how good is good enough?” It depends on which faith you follow.

Islam is a religion of works. It’s a faith revealed by Allah to Muhammad through the angel Jib’riel, documented in the Qur’an, regimented in tens of thousands of traditions organized into the Hadith (see Lesson 9) and embodied within the strict covenants of Shari’a law (literally, “the path”). The antithesis of Islam is Christianity. Instead of Islam’s religion of “do”…that is, what you do to attain salvation…Christianity is a religion of “done”…what Christ has done for you.

Dome of the Rock mosque in Jerusalem. Source: www.bibleplaces.com

The Five Pillars of Islam describe a strict code of action for the serious Muslim: recitation of the Creed (“There is no god but Allah. Muhammad is the messenger of Allah”); prayers (salat) five times each day; almsgiving (zakat) of 2.5% of your net income; fasting (sawm) from sunup to sundown during Ramadan; and hajj, the spiritually climactic journey to Mecca. That’s lots of work, each faithful action building on the last as a Muslim seeks to tip the scales of Allah’s judgment in his or her favor. You’d better be very good if you’re not a man; Islamic tradition teaches that Muhammad once saw hell, and warned it was predominantly populated by women.

So, back to the question from our class: “Why pray five times a day?” Islam teaches that prayer in the mosque is worth twenty five times the prayer done alone in home or at work. “Why not just pray once in the mosque and save yourself all that trouble for the next five days?” one student asked, his query followed by a ripple of laughter. Why not indeed? The answer is chilling. Muslims pray often, not only as an act of obedient worship, but to “stay safe.” Any act of sin is covered by regular prayers throughout the day. If you “banked your prayers” for five days as the student proposed, you might die in the interim and be damned.

Muslims performing salat (prayer) at the Umayyad Mosque. Source: Wikipedia.com

Jesus instructs us differently, atoning for our sins through His sacrifice on the cross. Jesus (Isa in Arabic) is the Son of God; He is who He says He is. Jesus isn’t simply a great prophet written about in the Qur’an, a mortal man squirreled away in haste while Judas was crucified in His place. Jesus is the Christ… the Messiah… the Son of God who died for all of our sins, and rose again, fully alive. He tells us that, if we ask Him to forgive our sins and then follow Him, we can enter heaven. It’s that simple. No scales, no daily balances weighing whether we’ve been bad or good. No worries that missing one prayer might catch us unprepared, and no worries that breaking a single Ramadan fast… eating one morsel during a lifetime of strict 30-day fasts… would damn us to an eternity in hell.

Years ago, the Apostle Paul wrote a letter to the church in Ephesus, in the area that is modern-day Turkey. He told us that “it is by grace you have been saved, through faith—and this not from yourselves, it is the gift of God—not by works so that no one can boast.” Those are powerful words. Jesus came to save men and women through love, not by weighing their good deeds over their bad. We can bring others to know Jesus by following His example. We must love the unlovable, even when they are wickedly opposed to everything we stand for.

This month, Iranian religious leaders are debating passage of a new law that demands execution for any citizen who leaves Islam to convert to Christianity. That law could easily be extended to require the execution of all Iranian Christians and Jews. Can we love the murderous Persians who would do such a thing? We are commanded to. Jesus tells us to love those who hate us, and that includes brothers and sisters blinded by radical Islam. We must love them in order to share the incredible forgiving love of Jesus Christ. Hard words for some. Essential words for all.

If I want to go to heaven, how good is good enough? I know that I can never be good enough to warrant the love of a Savior who accepts me just as I am—a chief sinner among sinners. Praise God that He still loves me unconditionally. He forgives me when I confess my sins and place my trust in Him.

Tell others about Jesus so that they may repent and trust Him, too. You can’t get to heaven on your own merits, no matter how hard you try. Faithful adherence to the Five Pillars of Islam will certainly never get you there. But trusting Jesus is always good enough.

Celtic Cross Source: Wikipedia

When Will It All End?

In our seventh lesson of the “Understanding Islam” series, I presented an overview of “Sects and Splinters,” with a particular focus on the origin of the Shi’a and Sunni division. For those of you who have not had time to review that lesson, Muslim followers of the fourth Imam, Ali bin al Taleb, fought in the first civil war (fitna) against opponents who were supported by Muhammad’s last wife, Aisha. Ali was assassinated in 661 AD and the great split began.

From that killing, nearly 1400 years of bloody battles have raged between the largest group of Muslims, the Sunni, and the minority Shi’ites who believe that any leader of the Islamic world must trace his roots to a blood relationship with Muhammad. The Shi’a, literally “the faction of Ali,” now await the return of the Mahdi, a messianic figure who will arise after a period of deadly upheaval and usher in a new period of history. Most believe this Mahdi was five years old when he disappeared in an ‘occultation’ that has held him in hiding for many hundreds of years.

Arabic signs of the glorious appearing of the 12th Imam

Is the Mahdi a Messiah? A Savior? It depends how you define ‘salvation.’ As we learned, the Iranian President Ahmadenijad, an outspoken Shi’a Muslim, is committed to inciting worldwide chaos that will encourage the return of the Shi’a Mahdi… a bold warrior whom some Muslim clerics compare directly to the Antichrist of the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

In the class, one of our students asked “when will it all end? Will Shi’a ever stop fighting the Sunnis?” I started to give my answer, based more on book learning than real life, when a member of our class piped up. This young woman had converted from Islam to Christianity years ago, and her answer was so stark that the room went deathly silent.

“No, it won’t ever end,” she said. She described in graphic detail the death of Ali, saying “we” when she spoke of her Sunni ancestors and the grisly atrocities committed against Ali and his followers. “They will never forget,” she said, speaking as an ex-Sunni, “not until we are all dead.”

After hearing President Ahmadenijad’s statements about his goal to eliminate Israel, and his call for the quick return of the Mahdi, the point struck home with everyone in the room. This conflict will not end in a peaceful way. Muslim clerics who compare the Mahdi to the Antichrist raise the specter of a chaotic and deadly future in the battle between Islam’s two major factions… two deeply divided factions whose irresolvable hatreds will prove pivotal in the world’s future.

Muqtada al-Sadr’s “Jaish al-Mahdi Army” has been responsible for murderous sectarian violence in Iraq. (Photo: Wissam al-Okaili / AFP-Getty Images)

What can we do? Do we throw in the towel and wait on the Tribulation? Do Christians simply pray for a rapture and hope to be pulled out of the coming conflict? Or do we get engaged and try to make a difference? I opt for the second approach. I want to understand this conflict, get to the core of the issues between Sunni and Shi’a and find a way to share the love of Jesus Christ with both sides. Understanding Islam is essential to sharing faith in Jesus, because we have to earn the right to be heard when we wade into a morass as deadly as the Sunni-Shi’a turmoil.

There may well be a Mahdi, a returning warrior who arrives during a period of murderous upheaval to lead men, with marks on their foreheads, to prostrate themselves before him. Messianic? Not in my book. But I do know a Messiah, Jesus Christ, who loves all men and forgives those who turn to Him. I want to understand my Muslim brothers and lead them to a Jesus they already believe in, but do not yet worship.

Be sure…this conflict will not ever end. Not until the Son of God returns. In the meantime, my goal is to thin the ranks of the Shia, the “Mahdi army,” and their Sunni opponents by at least a few men and women while there is still time. I want to love them into God’s Kingdom…not kill them.

Here’s a thorny question.

If the President of the United States tells you that Allah and the God of the Bible are one and the same, do you believe him? After all, if you’re the President, you’re supposed to understand these kinds of things, right? If George W. Bush says it’s so… that they’re the same God… and if the media and many of the people you read or watch on television say they are the same God, does that make the statement true? Are they the same God… the Christian Jesus, the Jewish Jehovah and the Muslim’s Allah?

They are not. President Bush, and millions more Americans, have it terribly wrong.

Allah is not God, and that’s the subject of this week’s lesson at Equipping the Saints: Understanding Islam ™. It’s a core issue, one that we have to deal with early before we learn more about who Muhammad was, or where the Qur’an came from. If you believe that they are one and the same… Allah and Jesus… then nothing we’ll discuss for the next year will make much sense.

On October 26, 2004 President George W. Bush was on the campaign trail, about a week prior to Election Day and his second term. Here’s what he had to say to ABC News in an exclusive interview with reporter Charles Gibson:

Q. “Do we all worship the same God, Christian and Muslim?”
A. “I think we do. We have different routes of getting to the Almighty.”

Q. “Do Christians and non-Christians and Muslims go to heaven in your mind?”
A. “Yes they do. We have different routes of getting there.”

President Bush is wrong and he’s not alone. Many people, unaware of what the Bible and the Qur’an say, draw the same conclusion. If you’ll dive into this week’s lesson, you’ll learn why they are wrong. Islamic scholars and practicing Muslims all agree on this, even if President Bush and millions of others miss the point: according to Islam, Jesus is not part of the Holy Trinity. He did not die on the cross. He did not take our sins upon Himself and does not offer us a path to Heaven through His atoning grace. In fact, Muslims are quite adamant about the fact that Jesus is not the Son of God, so much so as to state that belief in a Holy Trinity is blasphemy. So, if Muslims and the Qur’an are of one mind about this issue, why does the rest of the world have such a tough time getting it right?

Allah is not God. Learn more about what the Qur’an says in this week’s Equipping the Saints: Understanding Islam ™. And join us each week to learn more about Islam and how to share your faith in Christ with Muslim friends and co-workers. Students across the nation have joined this course, with participation from Oregon to Virginia, from Wisconsin to Texas, and about 80 people in Huntsville, Alabama. Tell your friends, and share the link to Equipping the Saints. Join us each week. Our next lesson: “Who was Muhammad?”

Thanks for your interest in our year-long course designed to help you better understand Muslims and develop relationships with them. Equip yourself to tell others about the REAL Jesus Christ.

In Christ,

Austin Boyd

Are you equipped to share the hope within you? When confronted, are you ready to tell others about why you believe what you believe?

Equipping the Saints ™ is my latest project, a new digital media experience to equip Christians with the tools they need to share their faith in Jesus Christ. We are commanded in 2 Timothy 4:2 to “preach the word… in season and out of season; to reprove, rebuke, and exhort, with great patience and instruction.” (New American Standard Version, 1995). So, the big question is “How can we be equipped?” I believe that the answer, being ready to reprove, rebuke and exhort, requires a patient understanding of the people we relate with.

That leads me to the subject of relational evangelism. Literally, this is the sharing of your faith with someone you’ve taken the time to get to know WELL. That relationship might take a few days, or in some cases it can take years. But once you take the time to know someone WELL, to walk in their shoes and to understand them, then you earn the right to be heard. Understanding someone similar to you isn’t too hard, but if you’re like most Christians (my primary audience) then you’re intimidated when you try to relate to, much less understand, a Muslim. For most of us, Islam is the great unknown, emblematic of terror, violence, and thorny Middle East political problems.

This year’s Equipping the Saints ™ is targeted at that intimidation problem. Understanding Islam ©, my first course under the Equipping the Saints ™ banner, will help you to learn more about Islam and understand the Muslim people you meet and work with. There are more than six million Muslim men and women in the United States, and more are immigrating, or converting, every day. Will you take the time to understand them and their faith so that you can share the true word of God with them? I hope so. As the renowned Seven Habits author Steven Covey says, we must seek to understand before we are understood. I want to equip you to understand, and then share the word of God, in and out of season.

Surf over to our Equipping the Saints ™ page and learn more about this new material. You can follow the Sunday school class that I teach each week, with audio downloads and my class notes, all cached for you to consult when you have some free time. Please remember that this material is copyrighted and cannot be reproduced without permission of the author (me).

Post a comment about a class, critique the Equipping the Saints ™ concept, or share some questions about my work. I want hear what you have to say. I’ll check in frequently with comments about updates to my class as well as some snippets about my upcoming novels.

Best wishes,

Austin Boyd

I didn’t know until Brannon Hollingsworth, a close friend and fellow employee at SAIC told me about his new web company that could revamp my old web site. It was a very old and dated web site. Some of you would agree, I’m sure. WOOTfish is the name of Brannon’s company, and if you’ve been to the new www.austinboyd.com, you’ve seen what he can do! We’re launching a completely revamped site the week before Christmas 2007 with new images, new graphics, a new logo and the technology you’d expect from a techno-thriller author. MP3 files are up today from the first three chapters of each book, and .pdf files of my books, videos of my television shows and recent talks, are all on the way. It’s going to be a great place to visit on the web.

But what’s a WOOTfish?

I think you’d have a hard time pinning Brannon down on that one, but I have an idea.
A WOOTfish is an entrepreneur, someone who doesn’t take ‘no’ for an answer. And that’s the kind of person I like to work with. Brannon and I both have full time jobs. Our wives tell us that our jobs at SAIC are more than full time. We sometimes joke that our company’s acronym stands for “Saturdays are included, Chump.” It’s a great place to work, incredibly fulfilling, brimming with the latest in bleeding edge technology, and the office runs at light speed every day. And that pace can drain you, sometimes overnight.

As with my writing career, Brannon has found time to launch a second career that he does in the evenings and weekends. I write in the mornings between 4:00 and 6:30 AM, and he revamps web sites at night. We are each pursuing our passions while doing a full time job to keep the family fed. Did you know that the Apostle Paul was a WOOTfish? Passionate about Jesus Christ, and a tentmaker by day, he shared the Gospel every time he had a chance. Making tents kept him fed and self-sufficient, but his passion was his ministry.

WOOTfish is a ministry for Brannon, sharing the Gospel through his own novels, working with folks who need web support, and never ashamed to share the Good News in the process. My writing is my ministry, but it doesn’t cover the house payment. My tentmaking at SAIC does that, as does his work with me at the office. Many of you are in the same situation.

Are you a WOOTfish? Have you taken on the extra time to pursue your passion, even if it doesn’t pay the bills? If not, and that passion is gnawing at you every time you see a reminder of your personal dream, then I encourage you to strike out and give your passion some room to run. Give it some sunlight and encourage it to grow. Keep making tents for now, wherever that is, because like Brannon and I, making tents is what keeps the food on the table. But if you branch out now, one day you may be able to pursue your dream and pay the mortgage, too. Won’t that be fun?

I’m a WOOTfish, and I’m a www.WOOTfish.com fan. Want to know more about striking out on your own? Want to know where it is God calls you? Walk a few miles as you pray about God’s call in your life today. Pray out loud. People will think you’re nuts and they’ll leave you alone, but God will appreciate the long conversation. I know. Folks run inside when I come walking by, hands raised, telling Jesus how much I appreciate Him. Read Henry Blackaby’s Experiencing God. Work through the exercises in What Color Is Your Parachute? And write to us and to ask how to become a WOOTfish.

If you don’t know where you’re going, any road will get you there. Ask God what His plan is for you, and feed that dream a little bit today. Be a WOOTfish and feed your dream.

And… if you need a brother in the Lord to help you set up a nice web site…give Brannon a jingle. You can reach him at WOOTfish.

This is my first Blog post in history. Thanks for bringing me into the 21st century, Brannon! I appreciate your support and encouragement. I hope that others enjoy my new website as much as I do.

Blessings to you all this Christmas season. Jesus is Lord. Tell Him how much you appreciate His blessings as we celebrate His birth.

Austin Boyd