The February 2026 Website Update

February 2026 Website Update:

This is a true story that occurred in Alaska between the Fall of 1993 and mid-1997. First some background. In the Fall of 1985, I was transferred from San Francisco to Anchorage Alaska as Sohio’s Vice President of Operations. In that capacity I was in charge of all of Sohio’s operations on the North Slope of Alaska including production, construction, production drilling, and exploration drilling in the winter. Also, in my capacity as VP Operations for Sohio I was the primary contact with Alyeska Pipeline, the Operators of the Trans Alaska Pipeline, for the Prudhoe Bay Unit, an organization of companies, that included major owners ARCO, EXXON, and SOHIO and several minor owners. The purpose of the Prudhoe Bay Unit was to operate the Prudhoe Bay oil field. Sohio operated the West side of the field and ARCO operated the East side of the field. During my time in Alaska the PB Unit reached its peak production rate of 2 million barrels of crude oil per day and production started to slowly decline.

In 1989, the President of BP Exploration and Production asked me to come to London to help him with a corporate change process and then in 1990 I became the Director of HR, for the BP Exploration and Production Company. 

Then in 1993, I was asked to return to Alaska to help solve a major public relations problem that Alyeska Pipeline had developed. Whistleblowers who worked on the Pipeline would contact staff on the House Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight as well as a Wall Street Journal reporter, every time Alyeska had a problem on the pipeline. I returned, as Alyeska’s Senior Vice President of Public and Government Affairs. I hired Jennifer Ruys from a local Anchorage Alaska TV station where she had been an onscreen reporter and sometime anchor as the Alyeska Director of Public Affairs.

She and I tackled the Alyeska Whistleblower problem. The solution we developed was based on our deciding to inform the public just as soon as something happened on the pipeline that might trigger the whistleblowers to also contact Congress and the press. We did that by putting a press release out every time Alyeska had any kind of problem that might be perceived as serious. That made the problem public quickly, and we also offered to take the local press to the site of the problem, so they could see it, and also so they could see what we were doing about it. This new policy, which was much different than prior policy of not notifying the public at all, was totally supported by Alyeska owners ARCO and Sohio, but bitterly opposed by Exxon. We went ahead with the policy, and we added a Washington DC visit to the staff of the Energy & Commerce Sub Committee on Oversight, where we thoroughly explained our new policy. Then Jennifer and I visited the WSJ reporter at his office in San Francisco, who was our nemesis, and explained our new policy. Within about one and a half years of the new policy being implemented Alyeska’s reputation was restored. At about this time I had a visit from one of Exxon’s key managers who admitted that while they didn’t like how we had done it they were very pleased with the result that Alyeska Pipeline’s reputation had been restored.

To me the moral of this story is being totally honest with the public in business is rewarded with a good reputation. And the opposite is also true, that hiding the truth and then being found out, can ruin a company’s reputation needlessly.

The January 2026 Website Update

January 2026 Website Update:

The subject for January is Communion and The Lord’s Prayer. And specifically, my question is, why don’t churches have Communion every Sunday, and also, why don’t churches have a Congregational recitation of The Lord’s Prayer every Sunday?

These questions arise for me because I see both Communion and The Lord’s Prayer as precious gifts that Jesus gave us in the New Testament. Of course, many Protestant churches do appropriately preach the Gospel of Jesus every Sunday, but why don’t they add these other two gifts that Jesus gave us? I am seeing a number of Protestant churches beginning to add Communion every Sunday but many others still limit Communion to once a month or less.

Communion according to Paul in 1 Corinthians 11:23-26: For I received from the Lord what I also delivered to you, that the Lord Jesus on the night when he was betrayed took bread, and when he had given thanks, he broke it, and said, “This is my body, which is for you. Do this in remembrance of me.” In the same way also he took the cup, after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in my blood. Do this, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of me.” For as often as you eat this bread and drink the cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. Why wouldn’t we want to celebrate communion at least every Sunday?

The Lord’s Prayer: When Jesus was preaching the Sermon on the Mount he taught his disciples the Lord’s Prayer. A very key part of The Lord’s Prayer is Matthew 6:10: “Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” This verse, in my opinion, has not been given appropriate attention in our churches today. In Bruner’s commentary on Matthew on page 300 of the first volume, he says: “Only two modern scientific interpreters of Matthew, to my knowledge, understand the coming of the kingdom in a less than end-time way…for either the gradual penetration on earth of that kingdom (Trilling, 134), or Gundry, 106…sees “a prayer that at the present time more people become children of God through taking on themselves the yoke of discipleship and so do the will of God on earth as it is done in heaven.” Bruner’s commentary was published in 2004 and in 2008 N. T. Wright published Surprised By Hope. And I include how Wright addressed this topic on pages 43 & 44 of my new book Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven: “When describing his book Wright says, “The book Surprised By Hope attempts to reflect the Lord’s Prayer itself when it says, “Thy kingdom come on earth as in heaven.” That remains one of the most powerful and revolutionary sentences we can ever say. As I see it, the prayer was powerfully answered at the first Easter and will finally be answered fully when heaven and earth are joined in the City of New Jerusalem.” He goes on to say, “Our task in the present…is to live as resurrection people in between the first Easter and the final day, with our Christian life, corporate and individual, in both worship and mission, as a sign of the first and a foretaste of the second.” My final comment on Matthew 6:10 is by Dr. Chauncey Crandall the author of Touching Heaven where Dr. Crandall gives many examples of how he has been helping bring heaven to earth. Here is his comment about Matthew 6:10: When Jesus prayed, “Father in heaven…Your kingdom come, your will be done, on earth as it is in heaven.” He wasn’t giving us a sweet sentiment with which to soothe ourselves; I believe it was a battle cry to all who would call him Lord and Savior. We are to go to war on this earth with this truth on our lips: we can have hope because heaven is.”

I pray that more churches decide to make Communion a key part of every Sunday service. And further I pray that more Protestant churches start including a Congregational recitation of The Lord’s Prayer in their Sunday services.

The December 2025 Website Update

The December 2025 Website Update will be based on Charlie Kirk’s conversation with a college student where he: Unpacked Jesus’ Message of Love and Truth.

Charlie said: “John 8 best embodies both Christ’s mercy and love but also his commitment to truth and sometimes in the modern gospel we overemphasize the grace, and we underemphasize the truth and so we are far to willing to say hey Jesus loved everybody, but we don’t get to the second part of the conversation that says Jesus doesn’t want you to live in sin. What Jesus said to the prostitute after those there to stone her for adultery had dropped their rocks and left was, go and sin no more. This was a great example of Jesus showing both love and truth to a condemned woman.”

John 8:7, 10, 11 And as they continued to ask him, he stood up and said to them, “Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her.” Jesus stood up and said to her, “Woman, where are they? Has no one condemned you?” She said, “No one, Lord.” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you; go, and from now on sin no more.’

In this update we will discuss in what ways we tend to underemphasize the truth as found in the New Testament.

I can remember a time in my early years as a Christian reading the Sermon on the Mount where I kept wanting those hard commandments to not be relevant today. But, of course, they are totally relevant today.

I certainly agree with Charlie that many churches that call themselves Christian do not talk about sin and Satan being real. They don’t teach that we are in the midst of spiritual warfare where Satan and his demons are trying to groom people for hell, while God’s Holy Spirit is working to counteract Satan’s efforts. And, of course our worldly culture seems to be helping Satan.

In my new book: Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven, on page 22 I quote my good friend Pastor Taylor who writes about “…a shift in the content of the Sunday morning message.” She says, “The gospel offered today is centered on the individual. A few months ago, I visited a church. Not once was the name of God or Jesus mentioned…The Gospel of Jesus was substituted with live streaming life coaching. The Gospel has been replaced with cosmetic self-improvement talks. The contemporary mental health crisis has also contributed to a gospel that focusses on the individual.” One has to ask: How can a church like this even call itself Christian? I feel sorry for the people going to a church like Pastor Taylor described and thinking they were going to a Christian church. But I think that more and more churches are compromising with our worldly culture, and they are ignoring the truth of the Bible.

Brant Hansen in his wonderful book, Unoffendable, on page 149 says, “By the way, I’ve learned it’s worth remembering that extending grace does not mean, and has never meant, that there is “no such thing as sin,” or that there’s no such thing as right or wrong, or that God smiles on all of our actions. There is sin, there is right and wrong, and God, like any loving father, of course cares about what we do and who we are.” I love this quote by Brant Hansen. And it is a shame that many so-called Christian churches do not teach these simple truths.

In my September Website Update I discussed what the Gospel of Christ Jesus is. I repeat it here to demonstrate what our churches need to be preaching and teaching about that Gospel:

We hear pastors often refer to the importance of the Gospel, but they don’t often then go on to explain what exactly the Gospel is. Several months ago, I sought to briefly define the Gospel. I am not at all sure I got close to a really accurate statement of the Gospel, but I am happy with the result and more than willing to have others correct me. The first paragraph of what follows is my attempt to define the Gospel and the next two paragraphs seemed to be important enhancements.

This is the Gospel of Christ Jesus!!

Father God sent his only Son to earth to be fully God and fully man. Then, that Son, a totally innocent and perfect Jesus, was convicted, mistreated, crucified and died for our sins. He died in our place and made us righteous in God’s eyes. When God now sees us, he sees Jesus. To be saved we must choose to believe in Jesus and in choosing to believe, we must repent of our sins. None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God. After his crucified death on the cross Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day. After forty days with his disciples, he then ascended into heaven, and he now sits on God’s right hand on his throne in heaven.

If we believe in Jesus, we will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. According to Colossians 3:12-14: there are seven virtues that Christians are to follow: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and most important of all is love, which binds things together in perfect harmony. I firmly believe that those virtues are what the Holy Spirit is focusing on in his lifelong effort to sanctify us.

Once saved we need to focus on developing a relationship between ourselves and Jesus. Then, while on this earth our role is to help bring heaven to earth as taught in the Lord’s prayer. That is often done by sharing a kindness with a neighbor.

When we lived in Texas, we went to church at the Restoration Church of Southlake TX and we were blessed to have a Senior Pastor and primary preacher Ryan Welsh, who  preached directly from Scripture. I can remember when he preached the entire gospel of Luke, and that took him a year and a half. He preached every verse including all the verses  in Luke 6 that included the ‘truth’ verses 27 to 36 that teach us to love our enemies. We must all admit that it is very difficult today to love our enemies, but nonetheless Jesus requires that of his followers.

I think one way to recognize the truth in the Bible and to quit ignoring it or bypassing it as unimportant, is to pray to God for insight and help in following his commandments where we exercise his truth.

Our churches need to acknowledge the sin nature that we all have and the need for all of us to fight temptation. Our churches also need to acknowledge the spiritual battles between Satan and his demons and God and his angels that are constantly taking place all around us where Satan is trying to undermine our faith and God is fighting to help us maintain and grow our faith.

The November 2025 Website Update

The November 2025 Website Update will expand on a quote from my friend Derek from Chapter 4 of my new book: Bringing Heaven to Earth & The Intermediate Heaven on page 66.

Derek is answering a question that I had asked in my interview of him when he answered seven questions about Heaven. This question was from N. T. Wright from his book Surprised by Hope: “How will we humans contribute to that renewal of creation and to the fresh projects that the creator God will launch in his new world?”

At the end of Derek’s response to that question he says this: “It is a real failing of the church that we gather, we preach, we teach, we pray, but we don’t do. We are not out doing things in the community as a church, and if some of that is done, we usually don’t explain our intentions.” This website update will expand on Derek’s answer.

To be fair there are churches that do a lot during the Christmas season, which is commendable. But that lasts for about one month. What about doing something commendable for the other eleven months?

Our more recent church we attended in Texas, Restoration Church in Southlake TX, took on a ministry of helping Foster families and families that Adopted children. They had training and other activities in support of fostering and adoption throughout the year.

Another opportunity for actively doing good works is available in Bible Study groups, or Community groups or Life groups. For example, in Texas for several years we led a Bible Study group under Gateway Church Southlake. As a Bible Study group, we decided we wanted to periodically do service projects. We found two service projects to do with our group. We found a ministry that gathered clothes that could be given to Foster-families that often needed the clothes at odd times of the day or night. Our group would all gather on a Saturday morning at the ministry location and unpack donated clothes and sort the clothes and put them on hangers in the proper place for Foster-families to be able to find what they needed. We usually did that for 4 hours + on a Saturday morning. Second, we discovered a Gateway group that every Saturday took food to distribute to Homeless people near the Ft Worth Mission. Our Bible Study group joined them with food to distribute, on several Saturdays.

This type of group ‘doing’ is such a blessing both to those in need and to the group itself. Our Bible Study group became closer to each other doing service projects together.

What are some ways that church groups can help out in the community outside of the Christmas season?

·      Organize food-coops including having food drives to collect food for poor families.

·      Partner with shelters to provide hot meals.

·      Provide resources like job training or healthcare access.

·      Host clothing drives.

·      Organize family-friendly fairs of various kinds.

·      Organize programs or volunteer opportunities for seniors.

These are just a few ways that a church can be a ‘doing’ church during the eleven months outside the Christmas season.

I do want to commend a local church in Portland OR called Crossroads church for having a year-round ministry called Crossroads Food Bank which started in 1989 and is open on Thursdays and Saturdays to provide food to serve about 400 families per week. When open they have banners up to remind the community of what they are doing. This is, in my opinion, an excellent ministry that gives year-round help to those in need in the surrounding community. I think my friend Derek would approve.

Another way that a church can help the community using the church is through organized prayer. Prayer is a powerful tool that Christians have been using for 2000 years, and it works. I suggest that organizing a church group to pray for a community and specific needs in that community will get results. Then once a church has an organized prayer group operating it can invite other churches to also develop their own organized community support prayer group. What could be more powerful than multiple churches taking part each with organized prayer group all praying for their mutual community.

Please respond to this update with other ways your church has found to be a ‘doing’ church year-round. I will include your examples of a ‘doing’ church in December’s Website update.

The October 2025 Website Update

This October 2025 Website Update will be a recent Bible Study that I have developed for 2 Corinthians 12:1-10. Of course, you will recognize these verses because of Paul’s discussion of his ‘thorn’ that Jesus gave him to prevent him from becoming proud (or conceited, or exalting himself, or becoming too elated.) because of his trip to the 3rd Heaven. This Bible Study also includes narrative comments from N. T. Wright from his book: Paul A Biography.

Bible Study 2 Corinthians 12:1-10:

Chronology[i] leading to Paul’s writing of 2 Corinthians:

Birth of Jesus of Nazareth                                             ?4BC

This date of the birth of Jesus is based on when Herod the

Great died which is believed to be 1 BC. See Matthew 2:13 & 19-23. Scholars disagree on Herod’s death being in 4BC or 1BC. It seems to turn on the historian Josephus saying that Herod died shortly after a lunar eclipse. Astronomer John A. Cramer argues that the lunar eclipse of 4BC was too minor to be the one Josephus described. Instead, he proposes that a more significant eclipse on December 29, 1BC, is more likely the one Josephus was referring to.

Crucifixion and Resurrection of Jesus                          30AD

Revelation of Jesus to Saul on the road to Damascus ?33AD

Paul’s time in Arabia.                                                 33–36AD

Paul in Tarsus; brought to Antioch by Barnabas     36-46AD

Paul & Barnabas 1st Missionary Journey            47 & 48AD

Paul’s 3rd Missionary Journey                                  52/53AD

Paul’s Letter 1 Corinthians                                           ?53AD

Imprisonment in Ephesus                                          ?55-56AD

Paul’s Letter 2 Corinthians                                          56-57AD

While in Corinth Paul writes his letter to the Romans    57AD

Travel from Corinth to Jerusalem                                    57AD

N. T. Wright’s Paul A Biography:[ii]

Pages 238-240;

At the beginning of 2 Corinthians Paul was “dictating from a heart that…has been heavier than it knew possible. He sounds exhausted.”

There are signs that the letter [2 Corinthians] is actually being written while Paul was on the road around Northern Greece, on his way from Ephesus to Corinth by the land route. He went from Ephesus to Colossae to Troas across the Aegean to Macedonia to Philippi and to Thessalonica and then by land through Macedonia and Greece to Corinth.

The best guess…is that Paul was imprisoned in Ephesus and put on trial for his life. And that made a “perfect storm,” because it followed hard on the heels of a nasty shock from Corinth. The church there had turned against him.

In the letter to Philemon [from prison], Paul asks Philemon to “get a guest room ready” for him. Philemon lived in Colossae, about 125 miles inland from Ephesus. Paul also wrote Philippians, Colossians and Ephesians from prison.

Pages 303-307;

Paul was released from prison (in middle or late 56AD). Imprisonment leaves a lasting scar…in Ephesus he had experienced torture at a deeper level. His emotions, his imagination, his innermost heart had been unbearably crushed. On being released from prison he took his prison scars, and we can be sure, he went to Colossae. Philemon’s guest room was ready for him. Perhaps he spent some weeks there, slowly allowing the nightmares to subside.

Paul wanted to know, well in advance, what sort of reception he might get in Corinth. Would they, after all, be loyal to him? This involved meeting up with Titus. After the debacle of the “sorrowful visit,” Paul had written the “painful letter,” no doubt rebuking the church members for the way had treated him and urging them toward reconciliation.

…the letter we call 2 Corinthians seems itself to be dragged out of Paul in bits and pieces…It isn’t just that Paul is writing it in bits, on the move around northern Greece in late 56 or early 57…It is also that he is genuinely anxious; he still doesn’t know if the “painful letter” has simply caused more trouble, or if the Corinthians have abandoned their hostility toward him and now want to be reconciled. Titus had taken the letter, but where was he?

So once more…he moves on from Troas to Macedonia…he still cannot relax or rest. And always the nagging question: Has it, after all, been all in vain? Then, suddenly, the clouds roll away and the sun comes out, and Paul says in 2 Corinthians 7:6 & 7:

“The God who comforts the downcast comforted us by the arrival of Titus, and not only by his arrival but in the comfort he had received from you, as he told us about your longing for us, your lamenting, and your enthusiasm for me personally.”

Pages 315-316.

Paul then continues in chapter 12 with his spiritual experiences, but he seems strangely reticent: “Someone…fourteen years ago…was snatched up to the third heaven…and heard words…humans are not allowed to repeat.” It’s the same point. Yes, obviously Paul has had extraordinary experiences, but that isn’t the basis on which he stands before them as an apostle of the crucified Messiah. The main thing is that Paul, at the end of it all, received “a thorn in the flesh,” but Paul doesn’t say what “the thorn” is. What he does say, and it’s worth more than all the actual information we could have, is what he had learned through that experience and particularly, we may suppose, through the entire horrible process of the confrontation in Corinth and the breakdown in Ephesus. “My grace is enough for you,” said the Lord. “My power comes to perfection in weakness.” Exactly what Paul needed to hear; exactly what the Corinthians did not want to hear. But hear it they must, because at the end of the most powerful and personal letter Paul has written to date, 2 Corinthians 9b & 10:

“So I will be all the more pleased to boast of my weaknesses, so that the Messiah’s power may rest upon me. So I’m delighted when I’m weak, insulted, in difficulties, persecuted, and facing disasters, for the Messiah’s sake. When I’m weak, you see, then I am strong.”

2 Corinthians 12:1-10 ESV

“I must go on boasting. Though there is nothing to be gained by it, I will go on to visions and revelations of the Lord. I know a man in Christ who fourteen years ago was caught up to the third heaven – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows. And I know that this man was caught up into paradise – whether in the body or out of the body I do not know, God knows – and he heard things that cannot be told, which man may not utter. On behalf of this man I will boast, but on my own behalf I will not boast, except of my weaknesses – though if I should wish to boast, I would not be a fool, for I would be speaking the truth; but I refrain from it, so that no one may think more of me than he sees in me or hears from me. So to keep me from being conceited because of the surpassing greatness of the revelations, a thorn was given me in the flesh, a messenger of Satan to harass me, to keep me from becoming conceited. Three times I pleaded with the Lord about this, that it should leave me. But he said to me, “My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness.” Therefore I will boast all the more gladly of my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ may rest upon me. For the sake of Christ, then, I am content with weaknesses, insults, hardships, persecutions, and calamities. For when I am weak, then I am strong.”

The Greek word that was translated to English as ‘conceited’ in the ESV is: hyperairomai and is translated differently in other translations:

NRSV ‘too elated’

ASV    ‘exalted too much’

NLT    ‘proud’

NASB 1995 ‘exalting’

Why the third heaven? What are the 1st and 2nd Heavens?

Our ancient Christian brothers seemed to talk about the three heavens where the 1st heaven was the earth’s atmosphere and the 2nd heaven was the stellar heaven – the sun, moon and stars. God was present in the 3rd heaven.

Questions to ponder:

How many years back from the writing of 2 Corinthians has Paul had the “thorn’?

What was Paul doing at the time he was taken to the third heaven?

Why do you think Jesus took Paul to the third heaven when he wasn’t going to allow him to talk about it?

Might it have been seen by Jesus as part of Paul’s education as the Apostle to the Gentiles, before Paul started writing such a large and significant part of the New Testament?

Wright mentions Paul’s apparent reticence when he starts writing about his journey to the 3rdheaven. Could that reticence stem from Paul being told he couldn’t talk about some of what he learned during that trip to God’s home in heaven?

What year will be the 2000th anniversary of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus based on N. T. Wright’s Chronology?

Do you think that possibly Paul’s two negative experiences with his church in Corinth and his time in the Ephesus Prison further made his “thorn” weakness experience more real to him?

What other two prisons did Paul spend time in besides Ephesus?

Like almost any attempt to dig into Scripture there will be underlying controversies. In this presentation I see at least two such controversies. The first was the year that Herod died, either 1BC or 4BC. And the second is did Paul spend time in prison in Ephesus or not. This comes up because Luke did not mention Paul being in prison in Ephesus in Acts. Also, Philippians was thought to be written in prison in Rome because of two Roman references in the epistle. But Philemon does not fit Rome but does fit Ephesus. One way to look at it is to assume Philemon was written in prison in Ephesus and Philippians was written during Paul’s house arrest in Rome. As to the other two prison letters: Colossians and Ephesians, Ephesus sure makes sense, but it may have been Rome. This is another mystery we will find out the answer to someday.

[i] N. T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Page 433 & 434

[ii] N.  T. Wright, Paul A Biography, 2018, Pages 238-240; 303-307; 315-316

The September 2025 Website Update

The September 2025 Website Update dealt with the question of what is the Gospel of Christ Jesus? We hear pastors often refer to the importance of the Gospel, but they usually don’t then go on to explain what exactly the Gospel is. Several months ago, I sought to try to briefly define the Gospel. I am not at all sure I got close to a really accurate statement of the Gospel, but I am happy with the result and more than willing to have others correct me. The first paragraph of what follows is my attempt to define the Gospel and the next two paragraphs seemed to be important enhancements:

This is the Gospel of Christ Jesus!!

Father God sent his only Son to earth to be fully God and fully man. Then, that Son, a totally innocent and perfect Jesus, was convicted, mistreated, crucified and died for our sins. He died in our place and made us righteous in God’s eyes. When God now sees us, he sees Jesus. To be saved we must choose to believe in Jesus and in choosing to believe, we must repent of our sins. None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God. After his crucified death on the cross Jesus rose from the dead on the 3rd day. After forty days with his disciples, he then ascended into heaven, and he now sits on God’s right hand on his throne in heaven.

If we believe in Jesus, we will be indwelt by the Holy Spirit. According to Colossians 3:12-14: there are seven virtues that Christians are to follow: compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, patience, forgiveness, and most important of all is love, which binds things together in perfect harmony. I firmly believe that those virtues are what the Holy Spirit is focusing on in his lifelong effort to sanctify us.

Once saved we need to focus on developing a relationship between ourselves and Jesus. Then, while on this earth our role is to help bring heaven to earth as taught in the Lord’s prayer. That is often done by sharing a kindness with a neighbor.

If this prompts questions, please ask and we can discuss the questions. To do so just respond at:

 dmwebb13@yahoo.com

One question I anticipate some might have, is when I say, “None of this is our doing, it is all a gift to us from God.” You might think, wait a minute, if I have to choose to believe in Jesus, isn’t that my doing? Well, that choosing we do is influenced greatly by the Holy Spirit which is part of God’s gift to us. How much of our choosing is the Holy Spirit and how much is us, is a mystery, but I think it is predominately the Holy Spirit.