Note to Ann Downing

Originally published in December of 2022. Watching the Gaither Channel nonstop while taking care of 2nd wife Mary afflicted with Alzheimer's. Memories of you, Ann, and your husband Paul coming to our concert in Colorado Springs early 70s with Dave Royer and my late wife Lynne. Later we met Sue Dodge and Harold Lane at Southern California Nazarene District Camp then saw Gaither Trio at Long Beach along with ELVIS??? My first wife was saved at a Billy Graham film. What an adventure!! Thank you and thank you God. #maddogandqueenmary #amazinggrace

Carbon based

Political clarity: are they spying on us?

Yeppers. Maybe by inference rather than directly spying. Scary but useful at the same time. I don't think they're going to haul me to the camps... this year.

Bipartisan problem solvers keep their heads down to keep from being whack-a-moleyed by the extreme partisans. They're there because God is there. He is at work in the hearts of men.

Don't look for waves. See as God sees... into the hearts of men. Look for realignment. We're carbon based. When heat and pressure are applied black carbon realigns and becomes transparent... a jewel. Welcome the adversity. All things work for us who are called. #maddogandqueenmary #amazinggrace #Alzheimers

Loving myself vs Satanic suicide

Self-love is so often allowed to confuse ourselves and justify ourselves for our weaknesses. May I continue? 

If I would be great in God's kingdom, then I must learn to be servant of God's kingdom. Sounds pretty close to what Jesus said, doesn't it? If you would be great in God's kingdom, then learn to be servant of all were the words of Jesus. In a parable called The Good Samaritan, Jesus also said Love your neighbor as yourself.

I take care of myself. I feed myself. I dress myself. I clean myself. And yes, I do love myself. 

When I was younger, I used to be talented and good looking. I am now 76 years old, and still talented, but almost butt ugly. Humility used to be a struggle. Did I ever tell you about the book I wrote...? HUMILITY AND HOW I ATTAINED IT!

Lucifer was the greatest of all angels possibly because he was the first of the Angels that was created. His job was to be a witness to all that God was going to do and to assist God in the care of all God's creation. On the last day the 6th day all the angels had spent.theit time oooohing and aahing like the crowd at a 4th of July fireworks show. Lucifer was even there as the millions and millions of angels were created. He must have been awe struck as he watched God create matter and energy then with His Word in the Power of Holy Spirit flung the stuff across the universe and mold it into stars, galaxies, and even our sun and Earth.

After things cooled down it became apparent that the earth was underneath the ocean and gradually volcanic mountains began to rise, and fuse together, and spew out the air and the moisture that would coalesce into a sky and an ocean.

Life was God's next project, starting from the simplest and gradually building into the more complicated. Genesis gives a pretty accurate description of the sequence. Through the archaeological evidence, they seem to agree. Step by step, life became more and more spectacular, and I'm sure as the angels watched, these epic periods passed by pretty quickly and I'm totally convinced there was no boredom in heaven. 

Like a six-part play, the last day or time period was to be the most dramatic. There in a beautiful garden called Eden, God created a man in his image. Then in a prophetic manner God said... IT IS NOT GOOD FOR MAN TO BE ALONE SO I WILL CREATE A HELPMATE. So He caused Adam to fall into a deep sleep, and from him God drew out a curved substance. Ironic isn't it that DNA is curved in two lines around each other?! 

Lucifer or Satan was designed as all of us are to be skeptical because God wanted Himself to be verified thoroughly. Skepticism and asking questions is not a sin. But in the heart of Satan a seed of pride began to take root and the very beginnings of envy and ungodly jealousy sprouted up, and what was supposed to be God's most spectacular creation, for God intended to reveal His great plan through Adam and Eve. The Bereans were also skeptical and researched everything that the apostle Paul said and found that what he said was in perfect harmony with God's word. 

Don't lose hope. This longer post has a point. We don't appreciate just how thoroughly God work this plan through and his infinite mind and He went down every possibility and decided to continue with the creation of Adam and Eve in God's image and part of that image is that we have a free will. Lucifer with that little seed of pride combined with the powerful force of skepticism came to the conclusion that God was doing this all wrong and he intended to show that from the very beginning. And so, as part of his job, he decided to reveal to God that these weak creatures the woman and the man would disobey him if given the right opportunity. 

And so it happened. Adam and Eve disobeyed and were cast out of the garden. But I am so grateful that is not the end of the story. God knew just totally he was doing. He is the alpha and Omega the beginning and the end, because unlike us, and the angels, He exists outside of time and even outside of heaven and  He was not lazy or a deceiver and He knew His plan would work. He knew that in the middle of written history God would send his son Jesus to Earth to be conceived of a virgin, and raised as a human child in a loving family, and begin ministry at the age of 30 which would culminate in his Holy Son Jesus being crucified and then resurrected so that we can have the perfect example of a man and a woman and marriage. 

Fast forward to the California fires. There has been division and hostility but also love and harmony between men and women, and especially between a godly man and a godly woman if we follow the example especially men of Jesus Christ. One of those requirements is that for the husband and the wife to be on the same page and listen to each other as all the duties of marriage and raising children take place. I am convinced that the Republicans are the party for men, and the Democrat party seems to gravitate and illustrate the thinking of women. When it's done right, a godly couple can raise up godly children. Notice that I did not say perfect. In so many ways all of us have failed and/or made mistakes that have cost money and/or lives. 

I won't mince words. In the history of the Republican party men have at times been pretty disappointing to women. We men have from time to time then thoughtless and even sometimes cruel and abusive towards women, and understandably, women have blamed men for much of their troubles. I'm not here to pick a side. I'm just here to say 2 things. 

1.Stop fighting. 

2. Listen, and work together before destructive fires destroys our homes and our future. 

I love Democrats. I'm not going to go into details because there are lots of angry Republicans who are blaming Democrats for the failures of the cities and for disasters like the California fires. It's time for us to start working together, leaving the blame out of the game, and work together to rebuild.

I think this is enough for now. Thank you for listening. 

Later Gators 

MAD DOG

January 20th 2025

Continuing my protocol of commenting first and then reading Don's blog. I see this is shaping up to be a historic day, of course, but also to me and remember I'm only 90% right because I do a lot of guessing because I don't like to keep no cards and all of that other crap that means I have to stay tied to the desk which then comes to the conclusion that I am exactly where I need to be exactly... I noted our enemy which is Satan and his allies love to set up numbers. For example the number 911. That's the same number as our 911 phone number for calling emergency services. God, the fearsome opposition to the forces of darkness, is also good at numbers and slogans. A year ago I noted, since I'm a word Smith, that REMEMBER OCTOBER 7TH! Carried a lot of punch. Does Satan get it yet that God is always a step ahead of him?? This January 20th 2025 was a confluence of events that illustrate the necessity of several themes. In the land of sports the winning college football playoff was between two godly teams, Notre Dame, and Ohio State. I will be able to hammer or repeat or suggest repeatedly that these two teams represent the broad stroke of the gods grace. Since I live in the neighborhood of Notre Dame and my daughter was the first female cop of Roseland which is adjacent to Notre Dame I'm very well acquainted with some of the stories. But I'm also part of the modern revival movement which started in Europe and England and Scotland with most importantly the Wesley Brothers, but also must include the black race as illustrated by Ohio State. I will say more later, but one of the things that has been happening recently at Ohio State is a revival that included by the athletes with testimonies and bucket baptisms. This is easily researched on Google AI by just asking the question and you get a quick snapshot of what has been happening and since I was also present at the California hippie revival that was illustrated by the church Calvary Chapel and the maranatha music movement I'll be able to really illustrate that during the final quarter of my life and allow me to sigh it appears obvious to me that God is wanting me to hang around to my 99. Here in my man cave with a girlfriend that's 40 ish and I admit after going through the ringer losing two wives and everybody that I know named William Michael God has placed leashes and threads of grace around my enemy and it appears that I am at the point like Job where everything that I fear becomes the opposite and it's not a bad place to be. Later Gators.

SEAL TEAM USA & ISRAEL

Warfare is fun if you are on the winning side. And I am... on God's side. MAD DOG N

My new profile pic. Restrained by the Spirit. Filled with joy.

Mary's buddy.

Mary with my grandkids when we were alot younger.

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TRUMP AND THE SNOWNADO

Merrianne, thank you for your encouraging words. I am in the process of organizing my writings on blogger and the Dakotas were such a central part of my life. As I get into this project, I am beginning to see that God really wants me to do this. I have had some spectacular answers to specific prayers and I see now this is at God's direction where he leads us into all truth. January the 20th 2025 is perhaps the most spectacular answer to my specific prayer. and could be central to my message. I have liberal friends, and please understand being a liberal is not a sin but a perspective, that are angry at me because of my being taught by my mother to be a bully fighter and for my strong desire to have financial leadership in office that understood what Jesus taught about finances, IE the story of the coin in the fish. I will say more about this in my blog so feel free to explore my writings. I wrote a book called The rain parables.

It details a series of events that started when a farmer asked me to pray for rain in mohall North Dakota and ended with a spectacular healing of a young lady who was healed overnight of stage 4 bone cancer, painful blood clots in her legs, and 105° fever. I will share more as I have time to write out my thoughts on Facebook and blogger, but it all ties together. 

To answer the question of why God raised up Trump? Because I asked God to. I asked for him to rain on Mohall North Dakota and God answered that specific prayer. I asked and God answer spectacularly answered our prayer for a boatload of snow w

for a little boy so he could run his snowmobile for the first time in 2 years. We got the next morning 4 ft a small circle of a dozen miles around our farmhouse. Lake effect. Lakeside Michigan City got 4 inches. Then, 45 miles away, as revealed by the weather map, the narrow finger of God turned into concentric circles. I imagine it might have looked like a snownado. Plymouth, received just a dribble but in the snownado we received 4 feet.

You can find nine of these stories in my book entitled THE RAIN PARABLES but I have published the stories of my prayers and especially my prayer for Trump in my blogs and if you dig around do your own research you can find them. I have several liberal friends who have seen some other miracles and are mad at me now because they know that not only did I vote for Trump three times but I prayed for him specifically back in Mishawaka at standard motor. I'm going to retitle this Trump and the snownado.

Later Gators 

The tech CEOs are sincere.

Since I am a shepherd and not a professional anything I'm 99% certain that the CEO tech guys are sincere. It's pretty nice but at the same time pretty scary to be able with the help of God look into a man's or a woman's heart and then also listen to the heart of God. And please understand I've had enough terror stories happen in my life that I'm well aware of the danger and I'm grateful that God actually put me through the mill so to speak, losing two wives a son and a grandson and having health limitations that keep me inside my man cave but then how else was I going to sit and write almost abundantly so that I could reach thousands on the crazy potential of the internet. 

I think that's enough for now. You are, my dearest friends, an inspiration to me along with our fearless leader and you help me get started on being a prodigious writer. Now I'm going to play the sympathy violin so I can elicit your tears on how tough I have it speaking to my pixel AI phone secretary watching the events of the inauguration and having had my first cup of coffee with the cat on my lap sitting in an extremely comfortable lift chair. No tears? Sigh. Later Gators.

3 hostages headed from Gaza to home.

 Praise God. Three hostages from Gaza are in Red Cross vehicles and headed for home. I love it when God's plan comes together. Anybody got a cigar? God's A-Team is the best team.

EISENHOWER, EXPRESSWAYS, AND DITTMER'S.

Well, I am privileged to make the first comment today. It's my new hybrid night owl/day lark personality. Since I like to keep it short I will suggest that you use my first half of my email address to find my other social sites. Facebook, I am discovering, does a pretty good job of sorting my pictures into albums, and even now making videos, so I would suggest if you're curious about the historical background of Mike ditmer and that's with 2 Ts... Then you will need to incorporate Facebook into your routine. I have a little clearer picture of what my job will be and it seems to be obvious that God is planning to keep me around till I'm 100 years old or more. Sigh. I was born during the age of Eisenhower and like his German enemies in Europe, he was known for starting the interstate highway system. During that same historic world War II, we faced down The Japanese until within a 3-year. Give or take a few months, we beat the living stuffings out of them. During this time the Dittmer brothers were an integral part of that. William Michael Dittmer, or Bill was the wild child the younger child of that dynamic duo. And I, if you are from Homeland security, am William Michael Dittmer Jr. May I suggest if you are an American citizen, that you join and become part of what I call SURBER NATION MENTAL HEALTH SUPPORT GROUP? This group was started during the end of the professional politicians era which lasted about 50 years. During this last 4 years sensorship was strong in this one, an evil force that tried through various beings, to tap down free thought because, as they rightly said, free thought is dangerous. Well, boys and girls, that's enough for now. As usual, I will post this on Facebook and blogspot. 

Later Gators.

JOB'S CURSE REVERSED

 TRUMPONIZATION The weaponization by the grace of God of Donald J Trump continues. The governor of California and the mayor of the burnt to the ground Los Angeles have announced they are going to get rid of the rules and regulations that will slow down the rebuilding of Southern California after the fire, I meant fires.

The original William Michael Dittmer.

On a personal note, today is the 20th heavenly birthday of my grandson who of course was named William Michael. My father's name is William Michael Dittmer. I am William Michael Dittmer Jr. William Michael Dittmer III was buried in a cemetery plot in the little town of Mohall North Dakota, 16 mi south of the Canadian border. 

The original Dittmer Brothers had started a business in Southern Illinois?? During the depression just before world War II. Both Dad and Uncle John had a caterpillar bulldozer and also were experts in the use of the very dangerous and unregulated sticks of dynamite that they used to blow out tree stumps for farmers. They were good enough to blow a tree out with half a stick but they usually used four or five for advertisement. Shortly thereafter world War II started and sometime in there, I'm not sure when, Uncle John became one of the original Navy seals, only back then they were called frogmen. He was there on Normandy Beach in the dark doing underwater blowtorch cutting of the obstacles that would have prevented the landing craft and then putting up marking buoys.  He was underneath the cliffs relaxing when the second or third bulldozer operator was shot by a sniper and the call went out DOES ANYBODY KNOW HOW TO DRIVE A BULLDOZER? And of course someone said Dittmer does. Just like the hand of God protected my favorite president it is obvious that God kept alive my uncle and later in life He and Dad became a preaching tag team working often together for they both had churches. In the Church of the Nazarene. 

The name William means burden bearer. Michael is the name of the second angel who took charge of heavens angels after the fall of Lucifer or Satan. I suspect that Satan smelled the hand of God's blessing even back in those early days because Dad was struck at an early age with polio. Since my ambition to conquer the world with the gospel was literally infinite just like my God, I think Satan sensed that I was a danger and like Job, free The devil's wrath, which may explain why both of my wives had an early demise and why everybody named William Michael is now in heaven. But sooner or later Satan runs out of leash and now I seem to be experiencing the opposite of Job's curse. Everything that I have been afraid of has turned into a blessing and that might explain why at the age of 76 I am having my largest congregation of thousands on the internet, I have the lovely attentions of an adorable 41-year-old woman and I'm having more fun than ever. And I think that's enough for now. Later Gators

UNMARKETABLE SKILL

 Since I am a lifetime nightowl, and being 76 years old has turned this into a non-marketable skill I will update you on my wrapping my mind around my immense but highly unprofitable success as a blogger. First, let me brag on my international scope, which I am kind of understanding but I will not be able to communicate it in normal staticians speak, but like music, I will have to make up my terms as I go. On Facebook, the percentage of US citizens reading my blog is 3%. Three other nations, all of which speak very good eh English, are India, Pakistan, and the largest audience is Bangladesh. That doesn't explain The rest of the countries, but I will say once, I did a log on how many countries viewed my blog for several weeks and I quit at 120 cuz I got tired of keeping the log. Blogger blogspot was the source of my stats.

My more recent success simply comes from the fact that I've activated the blog again the shepherd's Journal, and I'm beginning to understand what's happening. In the last year I have seen hits in Russia and China and that always gets me excited for I have always dreamed of taking my eclectic style of preaching the gospel to the world but I am limited because like my hero Don I don't have a face for television nor a voice for radio nor even the journalistic patience to have worked full-time at any job that involves sitting at a desk. But now with my new secretary pixel phone I can easily dictate my thoughts in a way that doesn't offend too highly the English majors. I think that's enough for now. It's only 11:00 p.m. and it's going to be at least two or three hours before I go to sleep so I will say my traditional good night. Later Gators. 

MAD DOG R E V M AD D O G 1948.

Allstate and California fires.

 Allstate and my clan of the Dittmer Sinclair's go back a long way. Sears used to be the big boy on the stock market and business in America's world at least as far as I can remember back in the '50s and '60s. Two of my uncles, Uncle CB and Uncle Sam not that Uncle Sam, were managers of Sears stores. Sears had a nice retirement plan and that left my uncle's with a hefty retirement package so that when they retired they both bought trailer parks in Florida and move down there. 

All state was part of that whole package you can go into a Sears store and update your Allstate insurance plan at the same time. All in one shopping. Sears was normally the anchor of all of those malls that spread across United States and the major cities. 

With the decline of the box stores and the gradual shift away from catalog stores and online shopping Sears decided to divest Allstate because it was very valuable and that slowed their decline along with the value of all of their real estate, especially the huge mighty Sears Tower. 

I wandered away from Allstate and usually stuck with whoever supplied the church insurance because everybody got you a good deal when you combined everything and I like saving money. 

Somewhere in there, my auto insurance went way up with my local insurance company, so I decided to check into my old friend Allstate. Shockingly, the difference in price was amazing and Allstate really was inexpensive. I remember precisely the formula that they use to get more business they drew a line on US-6 and those that were north of US 6 were folded into South bend with a much higher accident rate and the more modest country areas below US 6. A revelation! 

The next time the question of Allstate came up was when Mary and I moved to Plymouth, and even with the fuse competition of online insurance like Geico and others I decided to try the local office of Allstate, and they had a job dropping low price because we had very low mileage and they had a little Gizmo you could attach to your car and when you got up to $75 worth of insurance and mileage they'd send you a bill actually they build it online and sometimes we got that bill every other month and sometimes every third month because we didn't drive much. 

Now to the current moment. I'm sure you're aware of the California fires and the insurance tragedy of State farm who got out of the neighborhood cuz they can see the disaster coming and I am 99.9% sure that all states saw it coming too. But I suspect they took a much longer view and figured they'd make a lot of happy people if they stood by these Ford burnt out homes in Southern California. I didn't hear anything on the news that Allstate has stayed. I just just put two and two together and came up with four and looked it up online and sure enough Allstate is staying. There's going to be a lot of happy people in California. Good job, Allstate.

State of flux

 I have been in a state of flux last few days probably because of my very good feelings about the election and the future and also The return of my adorable neighbor. So today and yesterday I changed my protocol to actually reading Don's blog first. I was up at 3:00 reviewing extensively my flagship blog THE SHEPHERD'S JOURNAL and got all the way back to 2011. That seemed to satisfy my need to be inspirational by writing posting texting etc etc. And so I will finish this comment by saying thank you, Don and friends, for being history buffs although Don is a professional, legitimately so, and with his profound knowledge of current events he has my undying admiration. 

Later Gators.

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