(www.davesevern.com)

God Almighty never makes a mistake. This is precisely the reason I can seriously and honestly tell you that there really are no accidents in the fully committed and obedient living of your own life. While we may not be able to explain why something is happening to us or why some person, place, or thing has confronted or attacked us, we can, by faith, know that God has allowed these unexplained situations to come into our life and to change us, with or without our approval, and whether we like and agree with them or not.

God is sovereign over all the earth including those people, events, and things on it.

God Almighty created each and every human being. We are told this Truth of Life within the Holy Bible. “He fearfully and wonderfully knitted us together while we were still within our mother’s womb”…He has a plan and purpose for every person’s life from their conception until their death. God is omniscient and omnipresent and God’s thoughts are higher and greater than are man’s thoughts. God is not capable of lying or cheating. He will never violate his own character. He will never do something that contradicts or violates what He has said or done in other places within His Word. God will never go back on His promises to us. God is no respecter of persons and His Laws and Promises apply equally to every body regardless of who and what they are or what they have or have not done. These are the very reasons why we as human beings can always totally trust God and fully and completely rely on His Word and what it tells us.

Ours is a loving and just God,…not a teasing or unjust unfair Creator. God has a preplanned purpose for everyone of His Creation. Such plan and purpose for you, as an individual, was placed into action from the instant of your own conception. His special plan for your life will play out as He planned it,…even if you try to divert, adjust, or change it, unless you completely deny, renounce, or reject God and His authority and His sovereignty (See Ephesians 2 :8–10). That is why it is so important for you and I to walk in total faith and belief in God and to fully and completely trust Him as all the good and godly efforts we produce or employ take us in new and different directions, in changes in circumstances, and even changes in personal relationships we have with other people, purposes, or causes.

As you live out your life, personal flexibility has to become the key to your successfully completing God’s Will for your life. You cannot be afraid to make divinely inspired changes as to what and why you do things that God brings into your life. You either will live in faith or you won’t. You will either trust God or you won’t. You will either be obedient to God’s instructions to you or you won’t. That’s It,…Period! It is all a matter of personally choosing what it is that you decide to do and then actually wind up doing,…with the use of your own life while you are here on this earth.

I was “Personally Commanded” to prepare and initiate this entire website by The Divine Power and Authority of God Almighty,…Himself. This all occurred at about 2:00 A.M. early one morning in August 2011 while my bride (Jan) and I were in Reno, Nevada, where she was receiving alternative cancer treatments.

Jan’s physical condition had taken a major change for the worse. None of the treatments she had been, and was taking, seemed to have any good effect. She had gallantly, but unsuccessfully, battled ovarian cancer for over five years. She was definitely “losing ground” by the hour. While Jan slept, I was up praying and asking God for guidance as to what I should do and what direction I should take in the days ahead. At that time, it was becoming totally obvious that Jan’s “last day of life” on this side of eternity was rapidly approaching.

A very good and godly family friend lives with his family in Reno, Nevada. He and his family spent some most enjoyable and blessed time with Jan and me while we were there at the cancer treatment center. One evening, after supper in their home, we were engaged in some very “deep” and “meaningful” conversation about life, personal health, family, faith, business, and success. My friend, who is a strong Christian man and very committed in the living out of his faith, boldly and pointedly asked me, “why, as a strong believing and intelligent Christian, are you so terribly stupid?” At first, my reaction to his query was one of great personal offense. No one likes to be called stupid…I tried to stay cool, and do, as Jesus always did,… I answered his question with another question. I asked, “What do you mean by your offensive question?” His response was direct and as always right to the point….He said, “As much as you know and are always studying the great truths of life and the facts of leadership, spiritual growth, personal relationships, and increased faith and happiness including marriage, manhood, and a strong family unit, as taught by the great and effective leaders in the history of mankind,…why are you so stingy with your knowledge?” He went on to say, “Why don’t you begin to write down what you have learned from all of these great men and women of history and of the present that you have seriously studied and then share your learned knowledge with the world?”

My first response was, as most folk’s would be,…that I immediately spewed off twenty or more good, sensical, intelligent, and weak-kneed excuses as to why I could never do such a thing. How could I prepare, let alone write any type of semi-intelligent discussion surrounding the facts of any particular subject that other people would care to listen to or read?

Why is it that whenever new, beneficial, and frightening opportunities are presented to most of we human beings,…our first response is to say “No” and then to begin making what we perceive as valid excuses as to why we could not ever do such a thing and why we lack the talents and abilities to ever succeed at doing this great challenge or opportunity? I told my questioning friend that I didn’t even own a personal computer, let alone know how to turn one “on” or “off.” I related to him that I didn’t even know how to type,…that I hadn’t taken a typing class since I was in the ninth grade in 1959, over a half century ago. I kept on telling my friend how incapable I was; how inept I was to the world of computers and cyber-space. Besides that, at 66 years of age, it was time to start simplifying my life, instead of starting something new and complicated such as any type of computerized public communications. My friend never reacted, challenged, or argued with me. He only gave the same response to every excuse I offered,…“What does that have to do with anything?,” he kept responding with a smirk. Frankly his refusal to accept any of my best and most logical excuses was most irritating.

On our way home that night to our leased condominium, Jan and I had a long and completely honest talk about starting a website and sharing what we as a couple,…and each of us as individuals,…had come to learn and know about the truths of life through our own personal growth and experiences, and our subsequent presentation of our acquired knowledge and wisdom on and within our own business operations and our planned proposed website. We had a most detailed and serious, complete, and searching, open discussion. We reasoned that this website would initially consist of a weekly blog, and maybe contain a few additional discussion sections concerning the really important areas of life for any individual or family, regardless of what they did or what was their chosen arena of performance.

This time of deep concern and consideration was both exciting and frightening. I was reminded of what I always say, “All the great success in life occurs in the fringe of fear.” We were definitely at that exact location.

Once back to our condominium, Jan and I immediately crashed into bed. It had been a long and exhausting day. As I laid there beside her, wide awake, my mind raced all around the topic of the evening’s discussion. As always, the dark side of life (Satan) began putting mostly doubt and some fear into my mind concerning this new idea that had been planted into the “grounds of my mind” by my personal friend. It all seemed so far beyond my known talents and abilities,…and capabilities,…my known strengths, my known and admitted weaknesses, and my great lack of experience with a computer. I started to pray to my personal Lord, Master, and Savior, Jesus Christ. How could I ever do this website thing? What would I ever be able to say that might positively impact another person? I am without a computer or the knowledge as to how to use it. How could I have enough knowledge and experience on the “web” to keep me from embarrassing myself and family? Who would listen to what I have to say? Who could I find that would be willing to help me put the whole website together? How could it possibly all come together and actually happen at this time of my life with an ever-so-sick bride to care for? There were just so many unanswered questions. The more I thought, the more I tossed and turned through the late night hours.

I had already made the personal decision that I would become the personal caretaker and caregiver to my bride, Jany. No one would or could take as good of care of her as could I. Of course, with that decision already made, I had to then seriously ask the question and then figure out the best answer to it as to how I could keep all of my businesses operating for a profit, continue taking care of my bride and family, and then start a new website and create and prepare all of the postings that would be made to it daily, weekly, monthly and yearly. It all seemed a daunting and herculean task. Did God really want to have me take on all of this newfound responsibility? And the great amount of extra time and work that it would require to do it correctly and righteously?

Finally I crawled out of bed and went to the kitchen table, where I pulled out a pen and legal sized writing tablet, and started to “argue with God.” I should have known it would be presumptuous and to no avail to argue with the One who made me, who knitted me together. And, of course, it was….

Every time I gave God a good excuse as to why I could not do such a thing as start my own website, His resounding answer (and what I perceived as an audible response) was the same,…a deep throated, articulate, male bass voice providing His short swift and to the point answer…“So What.” I would say, I can’t type,….“So What,…you can learn!” I don’t know how to write well,…“So what take some lessons and remember what your earthly father taught you about writing!” But God, I don’t know what to write about,…“So What,…just start writing! Permit Me to guide you!” This see-saw battle continued for well over an hour. Nothing I could or did say in rebuttal to His directions was accepted by God. He always shoved his response back down my throat side-ways so that I had no acceptable rebuttal response to His commands. After all of this praying, arguing, doubting, and questioning,…I finally realized that nothing I could say or do was going to trump what I was being commanded to do,…by my Heavenly Father.

I knew my God is not a God of confusion. I knew in my heart that I was not being asked to do what seemed to me to be an overwhelming and Herculean task, but rather I was being commanded to do it. God’s direction was not a suggestion. I stopped arguing with God and began to think of the possibilities,…of the things I might be able to do about beginning a website, and about being obedient to my Creator’s commands.

These words came to me from something I had learned over thirty years before: When your life is filled with purpose, you measure what you have done according to what you were created to do. I realized that the course of my life had so changed over that same time period that it all had to be a preplanned purpose given to me by my Creator God. I had to be obedient and make the required changes…and I had to do it right now! There simply were no acceptable arguments or excuses that I could use from this point forward in my life. From that instant forward I became a real “Possibility Thinker.”

The first question for which I needed an answer was what could I possibly write about? I began making a list on my legal pad of one,..two,…and three word topics about which I knew something and maybe could have something of significance to say concerning them. The list started out painfully slow…I realized that God was already beginning to teach me about patience and the real power of a human thought and the needed faith and obedience to pursue such a thought through to completion. The first topics were simple in size but huge and complex in meaning, nature, and purpose.

Love,…Patience,…Gratitude, Honor, Loyalty, Self-discipline, Marriage, Friendship, Obedience,…and on and on went the list. A few hours later, as the sun was beginning to rise on a new day, I suddenly realized that I had written a list of over 500 possible topics of future analysis and discussion! Over the three remaining days of the week when all of this was happening, my list of subjects had grown to over 5,000! Hmmm, I thought,…maybe, just maybe, I do have something of importance to write and talk about that someone, somewhere, out there in the big beautiful world,…just might be interested in reading about or listening to that could be benefitted by what I had to say….I very reluctantly began “to think about” how this proposed website might look and how the information I would write about would actually be presented to readers, listeners, and other potential users.

My mind once again began racing as I mulled over what I was to do next. I never did well in drawing pictures, people, or landscapes while I attended elementary school. I still don’t draw well. None-the-less, as I began to stretch myself out of my own comfort zone,…and into the fringe of fear, I began to seriously consider just what I knew other people really possessed too little of and really needed to learn and know more about. Spiritual Truths kept popping up in the back of my mind. God kept telling me to tell His people more about His Spiritual Truths as recorded within the pages of Holy Scripture!

O.K. God, I get it. I will obey your instructions.

I started sketching out what I envisioned might be some good ideas as to how the website might actually look. My “Creative Juices” were beginning to flow…slowly, but at least it was a start. www.davesevern.com was mentally and unofficially launched out into the unknown with full reliance on only what God wanted to do with it. The words of one of my personal mentors rang loudly in my ears: “Beginning is half done!” A life time journey of walking, writing, talking, and growing had begun right before my very eyes. It was time for Jany and me to walk in total faith with our Creator. We didn’t really have to have all of the answers to all of the potential questions completely answered before beginning to go to work.

All the while I was taking care of Jan, and flying to speaking engagements, and attempting to keep my business working and growing, my mind just kept refocusing on this website….and the great positive impact it could potentially have on other people’s lives! The possibilities were limitless. Sure there was continuing doubt, but caring as best I could for my bride, and being obedient to God’s command to begin a website remained uppermost in my mind. It was there on these two topics that I focused my full attention. Looking back now six years later, it is plain to me that God Almighty was really teaching me how to truly walk in faith while simultaneously being led by Him. He was teaching me how to truly trust Him to supply all my needs just as He promises in the Holy Scriptures. (See Philippians, Chapters 1, 2, 3, and 4). Those most comforting thoughts and guidance kept me on an even keel through all of the storms that were then raging in my life, and even the more and vicious storms that would continue to rage in the days ahead.

The time had finally come to have an “acid test” for my ability as a writer. I chose (using the Blind Stab Method) three separate topics from the master list of topics for discussion, and wrote an article (800-1,000 words) on each one of the three. I then sent these drafts to three close personal friends that were not in business with me. They were people who I truly respected and fully trusted. They were people of achievement. I wanted completely objective and honest answers regarding my writing. I wanted candor and unbiased feedback as to whether what I had to say was worth the reading or listening to and, most importantly, I wanted to know if my thoughts and words had a positive benefit to the reader? I mailed out the three “test run” articles on a Monday morning, and requested an immediate response by week’s end.

A week later all three of the replies were returned to me. All three were bold and straight-forward in their response. All three were highly positive. All three urged me to proceed at full speed ahead with my intended life project. There was not one bit of negative, not one bit of criticism, not one bit of anything other than totally positive feedback. I was humbled, honored, and well pleased with this “blind trial run.” God’s Providence in my life began to show itself and I praised God for it, and gave Him all the honor and glory for choosing me to begin this project for Him.

It was not that I needed man’s approval for doing what my God had commanded me to do,….but it was truly a wonderful uplifting and encouraging response from my three real friends.

Jan’s health continued to decline and finally on September 9, 2011, the doctors at the cancer treatment clinic and the hospital in Reno informed me that Jan’s time had finally come. She was given only a day or two more to live. Reality, Belief, Faith, and Love all come into play at that kind of time in a person’s life. Jany began begging me to take her back to Spokane so that she could be in her own home when it came time for her to “go home to be with her Jesus.”

With the most loving and generous acts of kindness and concern, Amway Corporation provided us with one of their medically equipped jet airplanes to fly to Reno, Nevada, and from there take Jan back to her own home in Spokane, Washington. This all occurred on September 10, 2011. The next day, Sunday, September 11, 2011, my personal bride of forty-two years breathed her last breath and slipped the bonds of this earth and went to her heavenly home to be with her Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. What a blessed moment in time that was. She passed from physical life on into eternal, spiritual life, as I held her in my arms in her home in Spokane, Washington. It was a calm, peace-filled time of rejoicing as she looked out across the back yard and its large fresh water lake with a great ear-to-ear smile beaming across her face. She sat up in her hospital bed, stared lovingly at me and then out across the water. She then leaned over to kiss me good-bye and then quietly lay her head on my shoulder and closed her eyes and passed on into eternity. It as indeed one of the most precious, blessed, and intimate times of my entire life.

In the days that immediately followed Jan’s passing over and into heaven,…reality set in. I soon discovered what a great blow it was to me that my blessed wife of 42 years was no longer living with me here on earth. My heart was broken, but I had no choice. I simply had to complete my God inspired mission and commitment to and with my bride. While she was indeed gone, she would never be forgotten. I simply would not permit that to ever happen. So with great faith, fear, love, and personal commitment, I began to move forward as best I was able using no more than just the resources, time, talents, and abilities that I then possessed. I had to ask other people, much more talented and wiser than was I, to help me design and set up www.davesevern.com. I had no choice but to go on; to go ahead with our last plans for our own family legacy. I had to swallow my pride and take advice from other people much less accomplished than was I. While I was recovering from the loss of my bride, I started writing my blog articles that would one day be published on my planned website. I wrote a blog article everyday for about one year, so as to have sufficient articles to post as an every Saturday morning blog, thereby eliminating any mental stress or pressure to produce new articles each week. I full well knew how fast time can fly by. Once sufficient articles had been written and inventoried, and other preparations completed for the required official launch date, I just kept reading, learning, studying, and writing different type and kinds of articles that I knew one day would find their way into my new website. As I was readying all things necessary to be able to obediently follow my Lord’s personal commands, I just kept mentally focused on what I should think, say, or do in communicating to the people around the globe who I knew would one day read my created articles of discussion. The launch date was selected, and my personal excitement was running at full flow. So we (my wife’s spirit and I), launched www.davesevern.com on January 1, 2013.

Oh from such little and most humbling “beginnings” do the really great projects and efforts in this life actually begin. What was most amazing to me personally was how my Creator, God Almighty, began to work in my life. He began to bring people into my life that I didn’t even know; website designers and layout specialists. Helpers and assistants whose creative powers answered all the right questions and at just the right time. Everything just started to fall into place, as if by magic. My son, Dodd Severn, was my secret confidant regarding the publishing of my website. He made up for all of my short-comings and ignorance in the use of computers and the publishing of a website.

There were many things and aspects surrounding this project for which I was not prepared and for which I lacked the technical abilities. I had many more questions than I had answers. But as is always the case when one is working in total faith,…obedience to God’s commands is much more important than mental or physical ability. We became a living testimony to God’s truth that if we would simply begin and do the very best we could with what we had to work with, He, our God, would bring other people into our lives that would provide the missing ingredients. That is precisely what happened. Designers, technicians, good and godly counsel, a ready supply of resource documentation (my own library), and 35 years of personal experience in working with people and studying God’s Word proved to be invaluable sources of assistance. Some of the people who assisted us we previously knew, most of them we did not. All praise and glory be to God for all of His wonderful provision.

As is promised within the pages of Holy Scripture, “Satan cometh immediately” (See Mark chapter 4, verse 14). No sooner had I really begun to write and initiate the publishing of the contents of the website than did overt criticism, negative feedback, critical brutal personal jabs, harsh and untrue criticism, and back-stabbing from both friend and foe alike, and even threats begin to enter my all ready stress-filled life. On September 11, 2011 my life changed forever. Jany was no longer physically with me. It wasn’t in any way joyful or humorous, but I did have to acknowledge that I was permitted by God Himself to see and witness the truths of God’s Word come alive before my very eyes. His words, “Trust Me”, continually rang in my ears and caused me to focus my thoughts on Him. Peace and comfort flowed over me. I knew I would see Jany again. And I knew I would forever keep my commitments to her and our family.

When my critics raised their ugly voices in protest to what I was doing, I just had to comfort myself in the Lord. When I was threatened I just gave the threats to God and asked Him to take care of them. I just did all that I could, I just kept writing and posting my blog and other articles covering the really important areas of life as I viewed and understood them. I just kept walking and working in total faith. I had a long and most difficult battle to fight and I needed all of the faith, strength, and energy I could muster up to persevere and get on through any negative experiences or events. I tried to “flush” the negative and keep my mind focused on all of the great and wonderful things that I was convinced would come about from my efforts in the months and years that lay ahead….No matter how long it took. This is exactly what I did. I started doing what I knew how to do as best I could,…and then just kept on keeping on,…kept on doing it…kept on studying, reading, and writing. I knew in my spiritual heart that God rewards the diligent and those who persevere consistently and persistently in passionate pursuit of their own dreams and goals.

Well, I first began publishing blog articles covering a wide variety of subjects regarding several different categories of life. These first articles were in written form only. As I gained greater ability from expanded efforts,…the type and kind of new articles of discussion began to unfold and grow. From January 1, 2013 through May 1, 2013 I published only the important lessons I had learned as I had grown up and matured. My background was cemented in solid concrete as provided me through my education, family, wonderful parents, military training, work experience as a C.P.A., and finally my own business experiences from over forty years of reading, studying, and building international sales and marketing businesses all over the world.

The greatest hurt that came crashing into my life,…came from what I, up to that point in time, had erroneously considered to be my best and closest personal friends. It is interesting to note that the loudest and most harmful critics called themselves good Christians. One Evangelist pastor actually challenged my personally “talking directly with Almighty God.” He doubted and questioned that I had actually “talked with God and heard His audible responses. He actually tried to correct my thinking regarding this intimate personal communication. I have learned that only God Himself has the ability to look into another person’s mind and determine what he or she is thinking, experiencing, or deciding. The Bible I read says that control over one’s personal thought processes is the unencumbered right that only the owner of the human mind in question has control over it and its use, and that God Himself would never interfere with said right of ownership, possession, or usage. Only God can look into another man’s heart.

Pastor, author, speaker, and a great man of God, Dr. Tony Evans of Dallas Texas, gave me some great personal advice as regards using my life for the very purpose that God intended. It was what really caused me to rethink what I was doing with my life and make some immediate changes and corrections for the dreams and purposes I would begin to make starting in the year of 2013 and in all the years thereafter. Dr. Evans told me: “Your personal destiny is the customized life calling God has ordained and equipped you to accomplish in order to bring Him the greatest glory and achieve the maximum expansion of His kingdom.” My life, from that moment on, took a major change in purpose and direction. I was resolved and resolutely determined that no man would ever steal my dream or thwart my purpose. My personal destiny was now locked onto the crosshairs of my aim and would dictate the use of what years I had left on this earth.

Many things, people, events, and situations have happened over the past six years that have changed my life. But no matter what happens, occurs, or comes down and into my personal life, whether it is to my personal benefit or not,…I can always comfort myself knowing that I am being protected and cared for by my heavenly Father. The words of Dr. Robert H. Schuller’s “Possibility Thinker’s Creed”…..have helped keep me on course, keep me headed in the right direction, keep me calm and steady at doing what needs to be done, and brought me great comfort in all times of crisis.

“When faced with a mountain
I will not quit.
I will keep on striving
until I climb over,
find a pass through,
tunnel underneath,
or simply stay and
turn the mountain
into a gold mine!
With God’s help!”

There is but one way to get to the top of life…to reach your goals and to accomplish your life’s purpose. Get started right where you presently are, with only that which you presently possess, do and continue to do the best possible job you can do using only your best personal efforts,…and never give up. Just keep on,…keeping on,…and never ever quit. Continually grow your own capacity and capability, and work and keep on working towards your own dreams and goals. You will get to where it is that you are resolutely determined to go or to become. That’s It!…Period!

Enjoy the journey!

Only God knows where it all goes from here.

Peace And Love To All Of You………………..Poppa Bear