Bro. Mark and I were talking after his sermon last week about Peter denying Christ, a failure that altered Peter’s life forever and informed his entire ministry. I got to thinking, what if Peter hadn’t come back from that? What if he’d abandoned ship and never been restored? There’d be no dynamic leader of the early Church as seen in the book of Acts. There’d have been no source for John Mark to write his gospel, which is commonly believed to be the first and a source for Matthew and Luke in their gospels. There would have been no letters from Peter to Asia Minor, where being doers of the Word and not just hearers is a major imperative of the Church. But when he heard the crowing of the rooster as prophesied by Christ, he repented and turned back. The thought I had was, “thank God for the rooster!” And the more I thought of it, the more I thought of it as an interesting point to study. And here we are!

***While studying for this message, I heard a joke about a simple man who called his friend for help. He said he had gotten a jigsaw puzzle but just couldn’t make heads or tails of it. So the friend asked him what the puzzle was supposed to be once finished, and he said there was a rooster on the box. So the friend went over to help him out, and when he got there he finds that he has emptied the box on the table and was thoroughly confused. The friend smiled and said, “go on and relax while I put the Corn Flakes back in the box.”***

Roosters and chickens in general have been one of the most important animals God gave to mankind. Due to their role in the human food chain they are a part of most cultures world-wide despite having only being introduced into the Western Hemisphere for the last few centuries. Some of you even raise chickens for various dietary purposes, and you know as well as anyone how they happen to be the most curious creatures. The sheer number of euphemisms and idioms derived from the ubiquitous chicken are astounding…what are some that you like to use?

• chicken crossing the road
• don’t count your chickens
• early bird gets the worm
• nobody here but us chickens
• hen-pecked
• mad as a wet hen
• eggs in one basket
• hen’s teeth
• Henny Penny/Chicken Little
• banty roosters
• flew the coop
• walk on eggshells
• hard-boiled
• chicken-out
• spring chicken
• And so on

Once you think about it, chickens are a big part of every day life!

You may find it odd, but roosters in particular have a place in Christian history as they are historically a symbol used by the Church like the fish, dove, lamb, and cross. They can be found in ancient Christian grave sites and in very old churches. It was so popular in the Middle Ages that they would often put them on the top of steeples and eventually on weathervanes (which then were sometimes referred to as weathercocks), a practice that continues today. The reason is because roosters have come to symbolize things such as courage, loyalty, and the coming of a new day. Particularly they represent the resurrected Christ as well as His Church in the proclamation of a new day of grace to the world. But there are other things it represents, and we’re going to look into them as we examine Peter’s rooster encounter.

It bears mentioning that God in His absolute authority has often used animals to intervene on His behalf in the middle of human circumstances. Remember Balaam’s donkey who prevented him from running afoul of an armed and dangerous angel? Balaam didn’t see it, but the donkey did, and when he beat the donkey God opened its mount to reprimand him! What about Elisha’s she-bears who tore up a crowd of disrespectful, threatening youths? Of course you know about Jonah’s fish who rescued him from a watery grave! Daniel’s lions had a lot to say despite their mouths being closed. Then there are the Prodigal’s pigs, who brought him back to himself. So we see God making free use of the animal kingdom to accomplish His will for mankind.

Here we will examine what was going on with Peter, and we will see not only what the rooster meant to him, but to us today.

Matthew 26:31-35, 58, 68-75 – ³¹Then saith Jesus unto them, All ye shall be offended because of me this night: for it is written, I will smite the shepherd, and the sheep of the flock shall be scattered abroad. ³²But after I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee. ³³Peter answered and said unto him, Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended. ³⁴Jesus said unto him, Verily I say unto thee, That this night, before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. ³⁵Peter said unto him, Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee. Likewise also said all the disciples.

⁵⁸But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.

⁶⁹Now Peter sat without in the palace: and a damsel came unto him, saying, Thou also wast with Jesus of Galilee. ⁷⁰But he denied before them all, saying, I know not what thou sayest. ⁷¹And when he was gone out into the porch, another maid saw him, and said unto them that were there, This fellow was also with Jesus of Nazareth. ⁷²And again he denied with an oath, I do not know the man. ⁷³And after a while came unto him they that stood by, and said to Peter, Surely thou also art one of them; for thy speech betrayeth thee. ⁷⁴Then began he to curse and to swear, saying, I know not the man. And immediately the cock crew. ⁷⁵And Peter remembered the word of Jesus, which said unto him, Before the cock crow, thou shalt deny me thrice. And he went out, and wept bitterly.

First of all, the rooster revealed to Peter that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he was. Peter said, “Though all men shall be offended because of thee, yet will I never be offended.” Remember: Peter was the spokesman for the disciples because he was the strong one. As a fisherman he was used to tough times and hard labor and as such was physically powerful and mentally tough. He was more bold than the others and more than a little bit brash. Simply put, when it came to getting his hands dirty, Peter was never one to back away. Peter figured there wasn’t anything that he couldn’t handle as a man.

Not only was he physically strong and mentally tough, he was strong in faith. Peter was the one who, when Jesus asked who they thought He was, stood on his two feet and boldly proclaimed, “Thou art the Christ, the Son of the living God!” (Mt 16:16). This was quite the strong and bold statement, and Jesus even called him blessed for it, because that truth had to be revealed to him by the Father Himself.

So what happened to Peter and his power? Peter had a problem with pride. We see when Jesus first mentioned His coming passion that Peter responded incredulously: Mt 16:22 – “’Be it far from thee, Lord: this shall not be unto thee.’” He was most likely hoping like other disciples (James, John, Judas, etc.) that Jesus would overthrow the Romans and start an earthly kingdom, and he wanted to be in on that. Peter knew he was on the winning team, and when Jesus said He would have to suffer and die, well, Peter couldn’t believe it. And when he called Jesus out on it, what was the Lord’s response? Mt 16:23 – “’Get thee behind me, Satan: thou art an offence [hindrance or trap]unto me: for thou savourest [set your mind] not the things that be of God, but those that be of men.’” This was a big blow, coming from One who said he was blessed earlier in the same conversation!

At this point Peter started doubting. From here on it was a roller coaster of emotions, from the high of the Transfiguration, to failing to exorcise a demon from a boy, to the joy of the Triumphal Entry, to his abject failure in Gethsemane, and, at this point, the arrest of Jesus. Things weren’t meeting Peter’s lofty expectations, and once Jesus was taken, it finally dawned upon Peter that what Jesus said would happen (which Peter had gainsaid to His face) was actually happening. If that weren’t bad enough, now even he was at risk. Pride had given way to doubt, and now doubt has escalated into fear. If he had taken Jesus at His word and believed when He said He would suffer and die, he would have remembered that Jesus said He would rise again. Because of this, when he was marked as a follower of Jesus, he couldn’t stand up and be counted. And then the rooster crowed! Before he knew it, he had denied his Lord. At that moment, the rooster taught Peter that he wasn’t as strong as he thought he was.

But what does the rooster teach us in turn? First, we, just like Peter, cannot rely on our own strength. You see, Peter was banking on himself to pull him through, and we’re bad to do that, too. Jesus wanted Peter to strengthen the other disciples. Lk 22:31-32 – “And the Lord said, ‘Simon, Simon, behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he may sift you as wheat: but I have prayed for thee, that thy faith fail not: and when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren.’” It wasn’t Peter’s strength that Jesus needed; it was his faith in Him, and Peter balked. Faith is the currency of the kingdom of heaven. He doesn’t want our ability, but our availability. As the old song goes, “I can hear the Savior say, ‘thy strength indeed is small; child of weakness, watch and pray: find in Me thine all in all.'”

The rooster also shows us that that faith has to be tested. The disciples, and Peter in particular, were tested at various points by their Lord, whether by sleeping through a sea storm, allowing them to fail at casting out demons, to presenting them with unsolvable problems, like feeding multitudes. But James tells us to “count it all joy when ye fall into divers temptations; knowing this, that the trying of your faith worketh patience. But let patience have her perfect work, that ye may be perfect and entire, wanting nothing.” (Js 2:2-4)

But be sure to notice this, as well: while the crowing of the rooster brought conviction to Peter, it also signaled the end of the test. Pass or fail, the Lord brought an end to it, and that is an encouraging thought! 1 Corinthians 10:13 – “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”

Thankfully, graciously, providentially, Peter’s friendly neighborhood rooster and his timely morning wake-up call knocked Peter back to his senses. The rooster tells us that, sometimes, we have to have wake-up calls for our faith to prosper. Consider times when you slipped and had gotten weak in the faith, and something happened, whether a tragic event, a friendly warning, or a bolt from the blue; and you came back to where you should have been all the time. Never forget: “God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble” (Ps 46:1).

The rooster also warns us to be careful of the pitfall of pride. “Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall” (1 Co 10:12). It was not long ago in the life of Peter that he had walked on the water with Jesus (Mt 14). Peter couldn’t have helped but be filled with pride as he sashayed in Jesus’ direction on the Sea of Galilee. But those waves and winds instilled doubt in his mind, and he began to fear for his life. And we know it was doubt because when Jesus caught him by the hand, he asked, “O thou of little faith, wherefore didst thou doubt?”(Mt 14:31) Peter only needed a little faith to walk that way, but it couldn’t stand up to scrutiny, and as such he forgot Jesus’s admonition prior to healing the daughter of Jarius, “be not afraid, only believe.” (Mk 5:36) Again, we see Peter’s same downward progression on full display: from faith, to pride, then to doubt, and finally to fear.

Secondly, the rooster revealed to Peter that he was more wicked than he thought he was. Again, Peter had faith, but he was putting a lot of credit in his own abilities and strengths. But if you want to truly know what’s in someone, shake them up and see what spills out. We see a bit of this when Jesus told the disciples about His passion, and Peter in his sinful pride contradicts Christ! “’Though I should die with thee, yet will I not deny thee.’” (Mt 26:35) He had just gotten through proclaiming Him as the Son of the living God, and now Peter was telling Jesus that He didn’t know what He was talking about!

Next we see Peter slacking off: when Jesus went to Gethsemane to engage in fervent prayer in the very next verse, He had brought His A-Team – Peter, James, and John – to watch and pray. Jesus was facing bloody Calvary, and He needed His best men backing Him up. But the A-Team literally fell asleep on the job: “[Jesus] cometh unto the disciples, and findeth them asleep, and saith unto Peter, ‘what, could ye not watch with me one hour?’” (Mt 26:40) Then He went back to praying, and when He returned they were asleep again! God had to send angels to minister to and strengthen Jesus for the trial ahead.

Peter then acted rashly; “then Simon Peter having a sword drew it, and smote the high priest’s servant, and cut off his right ear.” (Jn 18:10) Can you imagine? Peter was ready to die, alright; and had Jesus not healed Malchus when He did, he would have! Perhaps he thought Jesus would rear up and defy the mob that came to arrest Him, or maybe he just lost his temper. But see what came next: “But Peter followed him afar off unto the high priest’s palace, and went in, and sat with the servants, to see the end.” (Mt 26:58) While he had doubts, he had yet to give in to his fear…the others had fled completely. But this was Peter backsliding: he could have walked all the way with Jesus, or he could have fled away; but he was “afar off”. Jesus would go on to say in Revelation 3:15 – “’I know thy works, that thou art neither cold nor hot: I would thou wert cold or hot.’” And, in the process of backsliding, he starting hanging out with bad company: “And the servants and officers stood there, who had made a fire of coals; for it was cold: and they warmed themselves: and Peter stood with them, and warmed himself.” (Jn 18:18) This was the last place Peter should have been! He set himself up for trouble. He should have been with the other apostles instead of hanging in the wrong crowd. Ps 1:1 – “Blessed is the man that walketh not in the counsel of the ungodly, nor standeth in the way of sinners, nor sitteth in the seat of the scornful.”

It should come as no surprise that they started marking him as a follower of Jesus; they had seen him and could tell by his speech alone that he was part of Jesus’ entourage. That’s when the denial started. This was very serious; Jesus said in Mt 10:33, “’But whosoever shall deny me before men, him will I also deny before my Father which is in heaven.’” But Peter didn’t stop there; he went so far as to blaspheme! We see in Mk 14:71 where Peter said, “…‘I know not this man of whom ye speak,’” about the same One to Whom he boldly said previously, “’Lord, to whom shall we go? thou hast the words of eternal life. And we believe and are sure that thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God.’”

Then the cock crew, and the weight of his sin came crashing down on him. Peter realized with horror that he was more wicked than he knew he was, and all he could do was tuck tail and run away as he broke down and cried. But as hard as it was for Peter to deal with, just think how Jesus felt. Luke 22:60-61 says, “…and immediately, while [Peter] yet spake, the cock crew. And the Lord turned, and looked upon Peter [from the palace].”

Without the rooster crowing, how much lower could Peter have gone? He might have dug in and gone too far and never repented of his sins of denial. Thankfully, our faithful Lord had other plans for Peter’s future and sent a rooster to help him get back on track.

With respect to this, the rooster teaches us that we must be watchful. Jesus had told Peter just before the arrest and his denial afterward, “watch and pray, that ye fall not into temptation.” (Mt 26:41). If Peter had been praying rather than sleeping in Gethsemane, things might have been different. But he thought he was strong, when he was actually weak, and as a result he got caught up in a cascade of sin. But we know that Peter learned his lesson, because he wisely warns us years later in 1 Peter 5:6-10: “⁶Humble yourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that he may exalt you in due time: ⁷Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you. ⁸Be sober [self-controlled], be vigilant [watchful]; because your adversary the devil, as a roaring lion, walketh about, seeking whom he may devour: ⁹Whom resist stedfast in the faith, knowing that the same afflictions are accomplished [experienced] in your brethren that are in the world. ¹⁰But the God of all grace, who hath called us unto his eternal glory by Christ Jesus, after that ye have suffered a while, make you perfect, stablish, strengthen, [and] settle you.”

You see, the rooster is renowned for crowing to announce the coming of a new day…but he will also crow when danger is near, or something is wrong. Why? Because he is watchful! And not only must we be watchful for sin in our lives, but we need to watch out each other as well. Pr. 27:6 says, “faithful are the wounds of a friend…” 1 Timothy 5:20 says, “them that sin rebuke before all, that others also may fear.”

The rooster also teaches us the dangers of pride. We mentioned this earlier, but pride is very, very dangerous, as it lowers our defenses and makes us vulnerable to a multitude of sins. Proverbs 16:18 – “Pride goeth before destruction.” Psalm 73:6 compares pride to a chain wrapped around your neck, and Proverbs 11:2 says it brings shame. Romans 12:3 says, “not to think of [one]self more highly than he ought to think; but to think soberly…”, and Philippians 2:5-8 says, “let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ Jesus: Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God…made himself of no reputation…humbled himself…became obedient unto…the death of the cross.” Being watchful and self-humbling saves you many, many problems in your Christian walk!

Lastly, the rooster showed Peter than Jesus loved and understood him better than he knew himself. I couldn’t have faith in a god who was like me! His ways aren’t my ways, and His thoughts aren’t mine. And thank God for that! Jesus, “being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to be equal with God,” is all-knowing (omniscient). As I mentioned in a previous sermon, he sees and hears, but he watches and listens, too. He knew what was coming for not only Himself, but Peter, too, as well as the other disciples. That’s why He told Peter (in the Bro. Scott translation), “now, Peter, the devil wants to sift y’all like wheat (separate them from God)…especially you. But I have been praying for you!” What an amazing thought: Jesus is our intercessor, our great high priest! In John 14 Jesus prayed for the Father to send another Comforter, and the Holy Spirit came. Even now, our Lord Jesus sits at the Father’s right hand, interceding and advocating for us, and because of that we know He’s able to save to the uttermost those who come to God through Him (Hebrews 7:25).

Jesus furthermore told Peter that He prayed so that Peter’s faith wouldn’t fail, and when he is restored to encourage the other disciples and build up the Church. Here’s the ultimate truth of the matter: Jesus knew Peter would fail…and He loved him anyway! Jesus also knew that we would fail…and He loves us anyway! Jesus is our failsafe! A true friend is someone who knows all about you and loves you in spite of it. And the rooster reminded Peter that Jesus had accounted for his failure and was on a mission to overcome and settle it forever by way of Calvary. We know this, because when Jesus prayed for his disciples in dark Gethsemane, He was praying for us, too! John 17:20-21 – “Neither pray I for these [the disciples] alone, but for them also which shall believe on me through their word [all Christians who would come after, i.e., us!]; that they all may be one…that they also may be one in us: that the world may believe that thou hast sent me.”

Thanks to Jesus’ warning and the crowing of the friendly neighborhood rooster, Peter’s faith was salvaged, just as Jesus had prayed it would be. Thank God for that rooster! After the resurrection, Jesus met with the disciples on the shores of Galilee, and it was at that time Jesus would restore their relationship by asking three times, “Simon, son of Jonas, lovest thou Me?” (Jn 21:15, 16, 17) It was hard for Peter to hear it three times, to which he answered finally, “Lord, thou knowest all things; thou knowest that I love thee.” Peter still was far from perfect, but now he knew he didn’t have to be. He knew that his Lord Jesus had him covered…just like He has us covered.

We serve the God of the second chance. He took Peter back, restored him, and transformed him into one of the most dynamic examples for us in scripture. Peter might have sung a song similar to this one:

Empty and broken I came back to him, a vessel unworthy, so scarred with sin. But He did not despair; He started over again. And I bless the day He didn’t throw the clay away.
He is the Potter, and I am the clay; molded in His image, He wants me to stay. When I stumble and fall, and my vessel breaks, He just picks up the pieces. He doesn’t throw the clay away!
Over and over, He molds me and makes me. Into his likeness He fashions the clay. A vessel of honor I am today all because Jesus didn’t throw the clay away.

Jesus was a seeking Savior, and He still is. We are here because Jesus sought us out. Some seek after Jesus, but the motivation is to see what He can do for them. Jesus seeks out people with the motivation of what He can do for them!

People have some weird ideas about Jesus. Some people imagine Jesus as a hippy, or a surfer dude, or still as a little baby. Some think He’s okay with the status quo and not really for or against anything, like a Mush God. Some think He was just one of a whole line of Christs that continues to this day. Some faiths like Islam think He was a great prophet; the supposed Jehovah’s Witnesses think He was the angel, Michael; Mormons consider Him the first created being (and Satan’s literal brother), while Christian Science and other variants of gnosticism consider Him a purely spiritual, nonphysical being. But none of this is what the Bible says about Him.

You can distill a lot of what people think of Jesus to Him being a good Man or a good Teacher, but neither of those hold up on their own. For instance, if Jesus were just a good man, He wouldn’t be of any consequence. When asked in the previous chapter (Luke 18:18-19), “Good Master, what shall I do to inherit eternal life?”, Jesus answered, “why callest thou me good? none is good, save one, that is, God.” It’s not enough for Jesus to be a good man. If Jesus were just a good teacher, He might have been remembered along the likes of Confucius or Buddha, but His teachings would have been blasphemous. Remember when Jesus said, “I and my Father are One,” in John 10:30? What happened? “They picked up stones to stone Him.” Why? It was and is blasphemous to refer to oneself as God!

Calling Himself the Son of Man and Son of God and whatnot is either delusional, deceptive…or, as postulated by C.S. Lewis in his famous trilemma, divine. Liar, Lunatic, or Lord; Mad, Bad, or God. More than good man, more than good teacher: Jesus could only call Himself the Son of Man if He is the good God. The bottom line is that human beings cannot be saved by their goodness or their morals: we need Jesus!

Have you ever heard of a mission statement? It’s simply a short statement as to why something exists, what its goal is, what service it provides, who it is serving, and where it operates. Jesus had a mission statement, and it is found in Luke 19:10. If you want to know what Jesus is all about, and by extension what His Church and His people are all about, see Luke 19:10: “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” And we see this at work very clearly in the life of a man names Zacchaeus.

¹And Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. ²And, behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus, which was the chief among the publicans, and he was rich. ³And he sought to see Jesus who he was; and could not for the press, because he was little of stature. ⁴And he ran before, and climbed up into a sycomore tree to see him: for he was to pass that way. ⁵And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up, and saw him, and said unto him, Zacchaeus, make haste, and come down; for to day I must abide at thy house. ⁶And he made haste, and came down, and received him joyfully. ⁷And when they saw it, they all murmured, saying, That he was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner. ⁸And Zacchaeus stood, and said unto the Lord: Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor; and if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold. ⁹And Jesus said unto him, This day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham. ¹⁰For the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.

Zacchaeus appears no where else in the Word of God, but he’s one of the most well-known. I imagine most of it is on account of going to Bible School as children. Do you still remember the song about Zacchaeus?

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and a wee little man was he!|
He climbed up in a sycamore tree for the Lord he wanted to see!
And when the Savior passed that way, He looked up in the tree!
And said, Zacchaeus, you come down, for I’m going to your house today!
Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but a happy man was he!
For he had seen the Lord that day.

We all know the story, but he reality of the situation was that Zacchaeus was a sad little man, and a sad little man was he. Jericho was a town with a booming economy. It had great tourism due to it being a garden city. There was plenty of spring-fed water available, which lead to it being a Buccee’s-like travel center at the time. They also had a huge trade in balsam from which the famous balm of Gilead was made. You’d think there’d be plenty of opportunity there for someone to make a living, raise a family, and enjoy life.

But for Zacchaeus it wasn’t the case, for the Bible says he was the chief among the publicans. Tax collectors today aren’t liked, but back then it wasn’t just about the money, it was about patriotism. A publican was a man who curried favor with the hated Roman authorities to use their knowledge of the local populace to extract taxes from them. To use a term many southerners know, they were scalawags! And not only was he one of these hated people, he was the boss scalawag.

Not only that, but Zacchaeus was rich. You see, publicans could arbitrarily collect taxes from the people without a hint of fairness or accountability. There wasn’t a form 1040 tax table or a flat rate people could refer to; the tax was whatever the publican said it was. It’s no wonder they were hated so much! So, if a publican was rich, it’s obviously because he was taking more than his “fair share”; he was fleecing the people under his purview. And they knew it, plain as day. So you can imagine that Mrs. Zacchaeus didn’t get invited to Tupperware parties too often. Seriously, would you invite the wife of the biggest crook in town to your house?

However, another thing we know about Zacchaeus was that he wanted to see Jesus. Jesus had cultivated a reputation as the Friend of sinners. Zacchaeus had likely heard about Jesus from the tax collector grapevine (it’s not like he could ask anyone else around him), and it seems to have made an impression on him. I’m sure that he heard how Jesus, unlike all the other teachers, scribes, and Pharisees, didn’t treat the publicans He encountered like trash. Not only that, but He actively looked for them so He could hang out and eat with them. Come to think of it, while traveling through Capernaum some time earlier, Jesus even called another lying crook tax collector named Levi into His inner circle! That disciple apparently went by the name of Matthew these days.

Thinking about it in our terms, it had been a while since Zacchaeus had been to church. After all, the people hated him, and the pastors shunned him. How often does that happen around us today? Zacchaeus may well have felt the effects of a life where he grew up in a faith community but then was ostracized for his lifestyle and wanted to come back. He probably thought how nice it would be to be loved and accepted for himself in the congregation he grew up in, and then he could bring his family into the fold of his old community. It had to have been a lonely existence.

Maybe word of Jesus’ parable of the Pharisee and the publican got to him: we see it in the preceding chapter where in Luke 18:10, “¹⁰Two men went up into the temple to pray; the one a Pharisee, and the other a publican. ¹¹The Pharisee stood and prayed thus with himself, God, I thank thee, that I am not as other men are, extortioners, unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. ¹²I fast twice in the week, I give tithes of all that I possess. ¹³And the publican, standing afar off, would not lift up so much as his eyes unto heaven, but smote upon his breast, saying, God be merciful to me a sinner. ¹⁴I tell you, this man went down to his house justified rather than the other…” As a Southern gospel song once summarized, “one left justified, one just dignified; one prayer reached the heart of God, and the other never left the ground” (Reginald Love, One Left Justified, Megoa Music). Maybe Zacchaeus thought in his heart of hearts, “if Jesus says such a man can be be justified before God, what about me?”

Another thing scripture tells us about Zacchaeus is that he was small of stature. I’m sure he caught it from his friends growing up about being a shrimp or a runt. Nowadays, that was just something people could comment on to add fuel to the fire. “hey, did you see that sawed-off little traitor shaking down the widows for money the other day? What a twerp. If he didn’t have the Roman magistrates backing him up, I’d….” and so on. Perhaps his dishonesty and pursuit of wealth was a means of self-validation, or retaliation, or just the sign of a severe Napolean complex.

At the end of the day, we see a small man making himself into a bigwig with money and power, at the expense of being feared, hated, and reviled. But then Jesus entered and passed through Jericho. There was a crowd gathered to see him and be part of the show: after all, it was a big deal when a renowned healer, preacher, and teacher like this rolled in! Zacchaeus wanted to see Him, but because of his diminutive height, Zacchaeus couldn’t see over their heads to spot Jesus. It just so happened that Jericho was filled with sycomore trees…not the maple-like, deciduous sycamore trees typically thought of by that name, but a bushy fig tree that grows tall and wide and bears five times a year with low-hanging branches. It was perfect for Zacchaeus and his short arms and legs to scurry up and sit on a branch and wait for Jesus to pass.

Zacchaeus got more than he bargained for with Jesus. But isn’t that always the case? First, he found out that Jesus saw him. Remember, Zacchaeus was a wee little man, and you have to think that he wasn’t the only genius in the crowd to figure that a sycomore tree was a good way to watch the entourage. But out of everyone in that crowd and in the trees, Jesus spied and looked straight at him! What did Jesus see? He locked eyes on a man who wanted to see Him, too. I don’t it would be a stretch to say that Jesus’ plan on going to Jericho may have been expressly to see Zacchaeus. We know from Proverbs 15:3 that “the eyes of the Lord are in every place, keeping watch on the evil and the good,” and in Psalm 32:8, “I will guide you with My eye.”

But more than that, Zacchaeus found out that Jesus knew him. Jesus called Zacchaeus by his name! He was probably used to shirking when he heard his name called publicly, knowing it was likely going to be accompanied by some really harsh things and foul language directed towards it. But in the midst of a thronging crowd, Jesus called him out by name. Didn’t Jesus know Zacchaeus was a liar, thief, crook, outcast, traitor? Why, of course He did! But He called him anyway.

Why? Because Zacchaeus found out that Jesus saw him, knew him, and wanted him. Jesus told him to “make haste” (Gr. speudo→“speed,” duh) “and come down.” To Jesus it was an urgent matter for Zacchaeus to descend from the tree: “for today I must abide at thy house.” Not tonight, not tomorrow, but today…and not only that: right now! The word used there for “I must” is the same as found in John 4:4 where Jesus “must needs go to Samaria”. The word speaks of necessity; it was necessary that Jesus go to Jericho for He “must needs” stay at Zacchaeus’s house. Not for a trip to the restroom, not for a quick snack, but to “abide”, or stay for awhile. Jesus doesn’t do us like that: when He comes, when He makes His presence known, He’s there to stay, to fellowship, to make things right, to make things well, to make things new.

Aren’t you glad that Jesus sees you? It’s easy to disappear in the eyes of the world and go unseen. It’s how we have such an epidemic of depression and despondence. People don’t feel that they matter because they often go unnoticed. Mrs. Barbara Breckenridge, the guidance counselor at my high school, once told my mother that children often misbehave because they want to be noticed by their parents. We’ve all known that feeling of being marginalized and minimized to the point of irrelevance and reduced to being a fly on the wall. But God not only sees you, He knows you, and even knowing all about you, He chose to look, anyway! Proverbs 18:24 says, “there is a friend that sticketh closer than a brother,” and in 17:17, “a friend loveth at all times.” What a friend we have in Jesus!

More than seeing and knowing us, Jesus wants us. Jesus said in John 6:37, “All that the Father giveth me shall come to me; and him that cometh to me I will in no wise cast out.” He won’t turn you away. Think of the Lord’s supper, where He says, “this is my body…this is my blood…given for you.” (Luke 22:19-20) Ephesians 1:4 says that God “has chosen us in [Jesus] before the foundation of the world”!1 John 3:1 says, “behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God!” Ephesians 2:4-7 goes further: “God, who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved us, even when we were dead in sins, hath quickened us together with Christ, and hath raised us up together, and made us sit together in heavenly places in Christ Jesus…” Why? “…that in the ages to come he might shew the exceeding riches of his grace in his kindness toward us through Christ Jesus.”

This world would have you think that you are worthless and without merit. The people around Jesus and Zacchaeus “all murmured, saying, that He was gone to be guest with a man that is a sinner.” First of all, the world doesn’t realize that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God” (Romans 3:23) I mean, who else was Jesus going to eat with? He is the only perfect, sinless Man to have ever lived! Of course, He’s going to eat with sinners, if He’s gonna ever eat with anyone! But that’s the world for you; don’t listen to it. God finds value in you, just like He did with Zacchaeus. He sees you, He knows all about you, and He wants to love you and be with you and bless you forever and ever. What a great truth in this short story from Scripture! I think everyone across the globe should hear about it!

So, what happened? Jesus said, “make haste, and come down, for to day I must abide at thy house.” Verse six says Zacchaeus “made haste, and came down, and received Him”. That’s about the most perfect obedience you will ever see. Zacchaeus trusted in Jesus…then he obeyed him. But that’s not the end of the verse: he did so “joyfully”. Joyfully! Remember the old hymn song, “Trust and Obey”, and its chorus? “Trust and obey, for there’s no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.” As Bro. Oscar Poole used to say, Zacchaeus joined the T&O club! I used to call it the Christian Formula 409, since that was the hymn number for that song in the old hymnal, but I digress. Zacchaeus learned about trusting and obeying and being happy in Jesus.

I believe it’s right here at this very moment that Zacchaeus became a follower of Jesus, because after the people murmured about it, he announced to Jesus something astounding. “Look, Lord, I’m giving half of my wealth to the poor.” Zacchaeus was rich, but half? That’s a lot! He’s suddenly not concerned with keeping score or keeping up with the Joneses, or proving himself, or getting back at others. That calls to mind another song from our hymnal: “what a wonderful change in my life has been wrought since Jesus came into my heart!” But he didn’t stop there: he went over and above when he said, “if I have taken any thing from any man by false accusation, I restore him fourfold.” In the Old Testament law found in Leviticus 6:5, the rule for restoration of ill-gotten gains was “the principal, and…the fifth part more”. In other words, if I stole a hundred dollars from you, I should be handing you back a Benjamin AND a Jackson: a hundred and twenty dollars. Zacchaeus said, “I’ll give them four hundred dollars back!” By this we know that Zacchaeus was serious, and we know he was sincere.

By the way: the “if” didn’t mean, “just in case I did it” but “since I did it”; literally “forasmuch as”. We see an echo of that in Jesus’ response: “this day is salvation come to this house, forsomuch as he also is a son of Abraham.” Many people read this as meaning it was because Zacchaeus was a Jew that salvation had come, and it is true that the Gospel was first given to the Jewish people. In fact, Jesus said in John 4 that salvation was of the Jews, essentially because He was one of them. But remember that Abraham was the father of faith: “And he (Abraham) believed in the Lord; and he (the Lord) counted it to him for righteousness” (Genesis 15:6) Paul commented on this scripture by direction of the Holy Spirit in Romans 4:5, “But to him that worketh not, but believeth on him that justifieth the ungodly, his faith is counted for righteousness.” While a Jew is a physical child of Abraham, he truly receives that inheritance by moving past rite and ritual and accepting God by faith as father Abraham did…the same basis by which all must come to Him. Hebrews 11:6 tell us that “without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.”

Have you turned to Jesus like Zacchaeus did? Are you seeking to see Jesus and who He is like Zacchaeus did? I can assure you beyond question that Jesus, “the Son of man is come to seek and to save that which was lost.” That’s His mission statement: it’s who He is, and that’s what He does. If you have received Him, like Zacchaeus did so long ago, is there joy in your life? Has Jesus made the difference in your eternal future? A good indication is what difference Jesus has made in your life here and now. Like Zacchaeus, have you let go of your hangups, your crooked dealings, your hard feelings, the things that have hurt and offended you in the past? Have you forgiven those who have wronged you? Have you sought to restore those you have alienated? Would you like to? Come to Jesus.

Zacchaeus was a wee little man, but he was also a changed man and a brother in Christ. So, one day, when you chance to look him up in glory, don’t forget to sing his song for him!

The Southern Gospel Music world sighed collectively with sorrow last night as news broke of the passing of a giant of the industry, Squire Parsons. After having been admitted to the hospital following a heart attack and being placed on ventilation in critical care, one of the greatest singer-songwriters in the history of gospel music stepped into the eternity he so eloquently and consistently wrote and sang about for over fifty-five years at the age of 77. In his wake he leaves behind a beloved yet grieving family and a sorrowful but thankful Christian body…but based on Psalm 116:15 which says, “precious in the sight of the LORD is the death of his saints,” he now basks in the presence of Whom I would presume to be a quite satisfied and welcoming Lord Jesus Christ.

The impact of Squire’s contributions to Christian music cannot be overestimated. Since he began his musical ministry with the Calvarymen Quartet and service as a minister of music in various churches in 1969, he became a blessing to his field in a number of ways. The first thing people may have noticed about him was the nuanced timbre of his powerful baritone voice that was introduced to a national audience by the Kingsmen Quartet in 1975. However, it didn’t take long for his greatest and most important talent to evince itself: that of song-writer. Many of the songs he performed with the Kingsmen were songs he had written himself, such as “It Made News In Heaven,” “Hello Mama,” and “Master of the Sea.”

Of all his songs one stood out above them all, and that one was “Sweet Beulah Land.” If the Lord tarries, that song in particular will be sung by Christians of all backgrounds, denominations, and musical styles for decades, perhaps centuries, to come. Having won Song of the Year for the Kingsmen in 1981, it has gone on to be one of (if not the) most recorded songs in SGM history, and it has since become a staple of church specials and particularly funerary programs. With its focus on the heavenly home of the saved by grace and the desire to remain there, there is no wondering why to this day the poignant lyrics and lilting melody pulls the heartstrings of Christians around the world.

It certainly remains one of the most requested songs on Sunday Morning Gospel, and I’ve seen no sign of that changing in the near future.

Squire began a period of solo and self-owned groups after 1979 that he would maintain until his retirement in 2019. His fertile pen, fueled by a strong grasp of theological and not a small bit of divine inspiration continued to stream lyrics and tunes that would eventually make him a household name in the world of SGM. His music runs the gamut from toe-tapping, fun numbers like “It’s Not What’s Over the Door,” “I’m Not Giving Up,” and “Help Is on the Way;” to songs of encouragement like “It’s in the Savior’s Hands,” “I Sing Because,” and “You’re Not Alone;” to songs about our heavenly home such as “Look for Me at Jesus’ Feet,” “I Call It Home,” and “I’ve Got a Reservation.” There is something for everyone in his personal catalog…a catalog that numbers somewhere around 600 songs.

I’ve certainly been influenced by Squire’s work in a multitude of ways. His was a voice many younger baritones tried to emulate, as it was quite distinctive and beautifully melodic, and I was not immune to this. As a result, I find many of his songs fit my own vocal register, and as a result I use many of them in my personal repertoire. It helps that his songs, as I mentioned earlier, are of such lyrical and theological quality and cover so many thematic and circumstantial bases as to present a “one-stop shop”, if you will, when it comes to finding and selecting songs to fit any occasion. With Squire Parsons’ music, you simply can’t go wrong! Add the fact that so many of his songs have become beloved classics, and you’re almost guaranteed to find material that will touch someone in a special way.

When you take stock of the life and work of Squire Parsons, his was a life that was simultanously well-lived and far-too short. Had he continued longer he may have graced us with more and more wonderful works, but as he said in his most famous song:

I’m kind of homesick for a country
To which I’ve never been before.
No sad goodbyes will there be spoken,
For time won’t matter anymore.

I’m looking now, across the river,
To where my faith, shall end in sight.
There’s just a few more days to labor;
Then I will take my heavenly flight.

Beulah Land, I’m longing for you,
And some day on thee I’ll stand.
There my home shall be eternal:
Beulah Land, sweet Beulah Land!

In remembrance of Brother Squire Parsons, please enjoy a few of his most wonderful songs, starting with the cream of the crop. Thanks for reading!

I haven’t felt this way about a celebrity death since my favorite singer died in 1999.

Leach was someone my brother was wild about in the late nineties during his stint with Hal Mumme at Kentucky. I was still big into football at the time, and when he took over at Texas Tech I really took notice. It was like he took the passing attacks of some of my favorite coaches like Bill Walsh and Steve Spurrier and weaponized them in the Air Raid. For a guy who came up playing football in the old-school mold of three yards and a cloud of dust it was a marvel to behold. And the guy was just unbelievable on a personal level, coming across as a nut or a savant or some combination thereof. The man was a hoot, and he got results.

I sort of lost track of him as he left TT unceremoniously and took up with Washington State, and I didn’t take notice again until their 11-2 season, and I was thrilled when I heard he’d been poached away for my alma mater. After the mess Dan Mullen left them in and the hole Joe Moorhead dug in his tenure, State needed a proven winner to turn the program around and give them the juice to ascend to their wanted level. After some big wins and a season where they should have been 10-2, MSU was flying high.

It all came crashing down Sunday night.

And it’s interesting to see something I didn’t know could happen in this overly cynical and polarized day and age: people almost universally heralded and celebrated the life of a football coach, from fans to players to other coaches. As whiny and bitchy as people tend to be, seemingly looking to top each other in eloquent extremity and crass commentary, you read stories about his impact on people from his commentary on marriage planning and Halloween candy to his mentorship of former players and coaches to everyday interactions where he just treated people like they were the only persons in the world. Mike Leach was a good man on top of being a visionary coach and protean mind.

Mike Leach was someone I’d have loved to have a long rambling conversation with. Maybe I’ll get the chance some day far away.

I recently learned that a local shooting club was looking to restart its monthly competition schedule since shutting them down in the wake of the pandemic ammo crunch. My first inclination was to immediately spread the word to my Facebook friends, and since then I’ve received at least one verbal RSVP and am hoping for more.

After describing the shoot, the first thing I was asked about aside from driving directions was, “what should I bring with me?” And that provoked quite a bit of thought because I’ve never gone to a shoot with everything I needed. Even with a check-list, I always manage to either forget something or not bring enough of it. Hence this article. I am not an expert competitor, but I have been a first-time competitor, and as such feel qualified to render recommendations.

EVERYONE AT THE RANGE NEEDS TO READ THIS

Whether you intend to watch from the side or jump right in, you will need to bring a few things to make your trip enjoyable. First and foremost is eye and ear protection: a pair of safety glasses and some sound-deadening ear plugs or muffs are the most important items you will need. One might think sunglasses and manually covering the ears would be enough, but don’t take chances with your eyesight and hearing. I usually bring an extra set of shooting glasses and spare ear plugs, and I’m likely not the only one, but don’t rely on that. And this applies whether you are shooting or not. There’s a Walmart ten miles out from the range, and a number of sporting good providers in the area; avail yourself of them. **I personally use a set of Tactical Rx ballistic prescription shooting glasses with Transitions in Rudy Project frames and a set of Walker Razor electronic muffs with gel pad inserts.**

Next would be creature comforts, by which I mean things like water/sports drinks and food/snacks. Competitions usually start around 9AM and, depending on the shoot, can go past lunch and into the afternoon. So, come prepared to stay awhile. On that note, I also keep other things in my range bag to get me through a long morning and afternoon, such as sunblock (even if it’s cold) and toilet paper (you know why). Like the Boy Scouts might say: be prepared. As always, be sure to dress for the predicted weather conditions; this shoot in January will likely be the coldest of the year, so wear layers, and be prepared to don and doff as needed.

Having said all that: if you don’t intend to participate because you lack equipment, don’t let that stop you. One need not own all-star, expensive gear to compete; it’s nice but not necessary. For instance, if all you have is a Glock 19 in a plastic holster on a leather belt, hey, go with what you know. Those at shooting ranges tend to be very welcoming of new people, and what better place to find out what works, what works well, and what doesn’t? However, if you just want to observe or aren’t confident in your ability to handle firearms safely enough, that’s completely understandable.

But if you feel like you want to dip your toe in the competitive arena, it may sound disappointing, but it must be said: come prepared to learn, not win. An issue some new competitors have is trying to replicate what everyone else is doing rather than building upon their own skillset. That’s a sure way to turn it into a drudgery; at your first shoot, take it slow, work within your comfort zone, and establish connections with your fellow competitors. As you do this more and more and begin to push yourself, you will see improvement, and friends made at the range will be a help to you as you go forward.

SAFETY IS THE NUMBER ONE PRIORITY

However, safety is the most important part of this whole thing: one of the first things that will be conducted is a shooter’s meeting before the start of the competition. Here you will be told, in case you’ve never heard them, the four rules of gun safety. They are as follows:

1) treat all guns as if they are loaded.
2) do not point the gun at anything you aren’t willing to destroy.
3) keep your finger off the trigger until ready to fire.
4) be aware of what’s in front of and behind your target.

The rules are set up so that you could break three of them and still be safe, but if you are found in violation of any of them, you will be disqualified from competition and may be asked to leave. It’s severe, but safety is paramount.

There will also be an overview of commands that will be issued by a range officer, or RO. The range officers must be heeded at all times: they are responsible for maintaining safety at the event. The commands they issue will be as follows:

• “Make Ready” – the shooter is cleared to prepare gear for use (remove chamber flags, insert magazines, chamber rounds, etc).
• “Are you ready?” – the RO verifies the shooter has completed preparation (the shooter must indicate if they haven’t).
• “Standby” – the RO verifies the shooter has assumed a starting position and sets the shot timer to start.
• “Stop” & “Unload and show clear” – in the event of a safety infraction, equipment failure, or external interference, the RO will order the shooter to stop and follow the instruction below.
• “If you are finished, unload and show clear” – when the competitor is finished, the RO directs the shooter to remove magazines, clear the chamber, and allow verification.
• “If clear, hammer down, holster” – the RO commands the shooter to close the chamber and pull the trigger to confirm the firearms are unloaded. Then handguns are holstered and chamber flags are inserted into shotguns and rifles.
• “Range is safe” – the RO gives the all-clear; the shooter is dismissed, and the stage is prepared for the next shooter.

The meeting will also cover things like the 180 rule. What this means is that the shooter cannot point the firearm at anything not in the target bay of the range or behind them. Imagine facing directly down range and a horizontal line extending from left and right sides at a 180° angle; if the end of the firearm points behind that line, the result will be immediate disqualification. The reasoning is because the second rule of gun safety was broken and put everyone not in the bay at risk. One easy way you can break this (ask me how I know…) is by a right-handed shooter running right-to-left while attempting a reload, or simply holding the pistol at low-ready (hands on the pistol pulled closely to the body): the pistol will naturally point toward the left of the shooter and thus break the 180 rule during the shooter’s transition. Always be aware of the 180!

HERE’S WHAT YOU’LL NEED TO SHOOT

In a pistol shoot, bring a pistol of a general caliber (generally 9x19mm Luger, .40S&W, or .45ACP), at least three magazines (one for loading and two spares), a solid holster, and a strong belt. I personally recommend bringing as many spare mags as possible, a very stiff, wide belt with a plastic or kydex holster with strong passive retention, and at least two mag holders. The shoots normally held at Battlefield will be USPSA-style or 2/3-gun, so I recommend a duty-sized 9mm pistol with at least 15 round capacity, and preferably more. **I usually use a 9x19mm caliber CZ-75B with iron sights and LokGrips Bogies tuned by Cajun Gun Works or a 9x19mm caliber CZ Shadow 2 OR with a Trijicon SRO red-dot optic in a Comp-Tac International holster mounted with a Ben Stoeger Pro Shop BOSS hanger on a BladeTech Velocity Competition belt system with Mec-Gar extended capacity magazines,Taylor Freelance basepads and Grams magazine springs and followers in BladeTech mag carriers.**

For rifle components, the virtually universal recommendation is an AR-15 of some sort. There is a reason these are referred to in the industry these days as modern sporting rifles: they’re almost perfectly suited to competition. An MSR of any variety will serve, and due to being America’s favorite rifle, they’re easy to find and prepare for use. I’m not sure what sort of distance we’re looking at on the rifle stage this go-around, but make sure you have a good set of sights on it for 20 to 300 yard ranges. Also, a sling is always good to have on any rifle, and if you’re firing free-standing at range you’ll want one on yours. I would, however, recommend a nicely-lightened single-stage trigger, not just for a competitive AR but any: for instance, a 3.5lb CMG drop-in usually goes for a shade over $100 and installs in minutes, and I use those on most of my rifles. **For competition I use a Modern Outfitters MC6 carbine (no longer available) with a Geiselle SSA single-stage 3.5lb trigger, Magpul Pro backup sights, Primary Arms SLx 1-6x ACSS 5.56 illuminated scope and Griffin Armament FlashComp muzzle device with Magpul MS4 sling.**

The competition I’ve been shilling for lately is 2-gun, but for 3-gun shoots you’ll need a shotgun. The shotgun component tends to be the most equipment-centric part of the sport which is a big reason why we don’t often hold those shoots: they just aren’t new or occasional shooter-friendly. Grandpa’s old pump Remington 870 will work, but it’ll be slow to load and clunky to shoot. For this reason most people use semi-automatic shotguns like Mossbergs, Berettas, and predominantly Benellis. You’d also need a way of carrying spare shells on you, whether in a pocket, bag, belt caddy, or rig mount; or even in a side-saddle on the shotty itself. If you can swap chokes, given our limited use I’d just stick a modified on it and call it good, but pump users are usually stuck with cylinder. **I use a Stoeger M3000 shotgun for 3-gun (as it’s basically the same action as a Benelli M2 for less than a third of the price) with significant modification and mag-tube parts by way of MOA Precision in Grants Pass, OR; a set of Carlson knurled chokes (modified and improved cylinder), and a match-saver I cut out of some electrical conduit and mounted with a Chicago screw. I also recommend using shotgun shells with a 3 dram equivalent load to promote proper cycling of the action; it’s not the everyday loading, so you need to look. I haven’t shot 3-gun in ages, but when I do again it will be with a Beretta 1301 Comp Pro with a Nordic Components mag extension kit. I also have some shell caddies for use in storing shells on your person, but I cannot remember the sources for them as I use them so infrequently!**

Another item that will prove helpful is some way to carry your gear. A belt was already mentioned for carrying the holster, mag carriers, and shell caddies. For a pistol shoot a small range bag will suffice, but for rifle, 2- and 3-gun shoots a rifle bag will be super helpful. Sure, you could shlep around with rifle in hand or sling it over your shoulder, but you still have mags and ammo to deal with, and you need to put it down sometime somewhere, particularly if conditions become adverse. So I recommend at least a large range and rifle bag. You’ll see many folks have tricked-out carts (jogging strollers tend to be popular…here’s an example) and even will bring out a side-by-side to hold their assorted gear (as is my go-to method these days…but I’m the lazy sort), but none of that is necessary. A good bag goes a long way and is a good thing to have outside the competitive realm, as well. Some people also use chest rigs or plate carriers to assist with carrying gear on their person, but I wouldn’t personally recommend that, especially for your first time out.

I didn’t mention how many rounds to bring, as that differs at every shoot. However, to give a general idea, I’d say 3x the advertised round count will get you through if you’re not a practiced shooter. You have to be the judge; keep in mind that steel targets can be narrow and difficult to hit. This newest shoot we’re conducting will consciously feature lower round counts than typical given the cost of ammunition over the past couple years, but come prepared…especially if you’re not a great shot!

Also, you should bring some sort of chamber flag if you have one. This is not a commonly thought-of piece of equipment outside of competition, but it often comes with new firearms out of the box: it’s generally a piece of brightly-colored plastic that plugs into the chamber to indicate that there is no round present and the slide, cylinder, or bolt is open. However, one need not necessarily go out in search of such a thing; a large, brightly-colored zip tie stuck in the chamber will work, or a piece of trimmer line (which I had on-hand and have to use as I cannot find my old flags at the moment!) or drinking straws with brightly-colored electrical tape (notice the trend of “brightly-colored”?). You can be creative, or you can pay for some.

Lastly, all your equipment should be in good working order (as referred to in the Second Amendment’s “well-regulated” descriptor), but you might want to bring spare parts depending on your platform. For instance, since I like shooting CZ-75s I typically bring a spare slide stop and a firing pin retaining pin. Your mileage may vary. I usually bring a spare gun for each platform for expedience, but that’s just me.

IN SUMMARY

So, having typed and made you read all that, here’s a convenient check-list!

Spectators:

• Eye protection
• Hearing protection
• Clothing fitting the weather
• Food/snacks and drinks
• Assorted creature comforts (sunblock, TP, etc)

Shooters:

• Everything listed above
• Pistol and accessories w/holster, mags w/carriers, belt to carry them on
• Rifle and accessories w/sling, mags with carrier(s)
• Shotgun with accessories, caddies
• Bullets for each firearm (3x the advertised round count)
• Chamber flags, particularly for the long guns
• Any spare parts or hardware you may need and tools to install them

Here’s my personal list:

Firearms

• Pistol
  • Magazines (min. 3)
  • holster
• Pistol (standby)
  • Magazines (min. 3)
  • holster
• Rifle
  • Magazines (min. 2)
  • sling
• Rifle (standby)
  • Magazines (min. 2)
  • sling
• Shotgun (main)
• PCC
  • Magazines (min. 2)
  • sling

Competitive Gear

• 3x rounds needed to complete (estimate)
• PPE (MANDATORY, eyes, ears)
• Chamber flags (esp. for long guns)
• Competition belt (2-pieces)
• Mag/shell carriers
  • Main pistol, min. 2
  • Main PCC, min. 1
  • Main rifle, min. 1
  • Shell caddy (variable)
• Maintenance equipment
  • Gun parts/componentry (slide stops, pins, optic screws)
  • Tools (pliers, drivers, bits)
  • Cleaning kit (CLP, patches, rod, etc.)

Accessories

• Range bag
• Bucket/crate (ammo & supplies)
• Reloaders
  • MagLula (pistol)
  • MagLula (PCC)
  • MagLula (rifle)
• First aid/trauma kit

Extras

• Additional clothing
  • Gloves (for cold weather)
  • Jacket/sleeved overshirt (for cold weather)
  • Undershirt, sleeved (for cold weather)
  • Hats (ballcap, wide-brimmed, etc)
• Sunscreen
• Notepad w/pen or sharpie
• Cart (carriage/wagon/ATV)
• Folding/straight chair
• Umbrella/poncho
• Drinks/snacks
• Towel (regular & cooling)
• TP for my bung hole

Finally, if any of this seems overwhelming, don’t sweat it: the experienced shooters in the group will be glad to explain things as you go. The shooting community is one of the most welcoming and newbie-friendly groups of people you’re likely to meet…we want everyone to be safe, enjoy themselves, and come again the next time. Be sure to leave a comment or question if you have one.

The Battlefield Shooting Range can be found on Facebook for more information on upcoming events and directions.

• Maxpedition Beefy Pocket Organizer – I got this at a local gun/pawn shop on clearance. I like Maxpedition products (even if the company head is a prig) as they are generally well-made and virtually a standard unto themselves.
• Tiny Craftsman adjustable wrench (vintage) – This is a tool from my office that was one of the first ones I ever used. I like having a sentimental tool in my kits (my truck kit has one of my dad’s hammers in it; a previous EDC kit had a folding hex of his) as a form of encouragement. This little guy is inobtrusive and works nicely as a “good-luck charm”, though I have used it a time or two.

Here’s what it looks like opened up:

¡Ay, caramba! Let’s break it down.

Left side (this is a “flatter” side of the pouch, so I try to keep the thinner stuff here):

• Craftsman multi-bit precision set – I work on a lot of electronics, so I like having a set of precision drivers at hand at all times. I like this as it has a nice pouch of its own, and it has picks, to boot. However, I’m not a fan of the way the bits are held in the driver; they tend to work loose easily. I’m thinking seriously about replacing it with this little set, as I keep one in my range bag/gunsmith kit and in my desk at work.
• Craftsman small slot & Phillips driver – Again, I work on a lot of stuff with tiny screws. A small dedicated flat-blade and Phillips driver are nice to have on-hand.
• Craftsman pocket LED light – I bought a set of these for my coworkers one Christmas when Sears had them for five bucks a pop, and I have gotten far more use out of it than I ever expected. The magnetic base is a bonus: working on the back-side of a large autoclave in a poorly-lit back room in surgery brought that one home.
• Irwin Vise-Grip mini tongue-in-grove plier – You always need a decent set of pliers, and these work pretty well on a wide variety of surfaces. As the Bard said, “though she be but little, she is fierce.”
• Craftsman adjustable wrench, 6″ – I’ve gotten more use out of this thing than I can ever tell. Shockingly enough, reversing the head makes for a pretty decent small pipe wrench. I’ve worked on two water heaters with it.
• Irwin Vise-Grip locking plier, 5″ – See below.
• Irwin Vise-Grip locking plier, 6″, needle-nose – Admittedly I haven’t had cause to use these, but I have a set at work that are slightly larger that I’ve used for all sorts of purposes from extricating screws with stripped heads to hemostats for infusion pump testing.
• Olfa XA-1 box cutter – I carry a knife in my pocket, but sometimes you need something really sharp and really flexible. I’ve most recently used this to trim back some sheetrock while replacing some sockets.
• Stanley Wonder Bar – Pry bars are one of the more useful things you can have…while bigger is generally better, I’ve found lots of use for this doo-dad. Most recently I pulled up some carpet in my house, and this did an admirable job of pulling up the tack strips and the nails holding them to the concrete slab below.
• Electrical/vinyl tape, gray (generic) – You will always need tape for something, and this stuff is good for a great many things. This is more convenient than carrying a roll of it as it provides a bit of hand-grip to the little pry bar without taking up any room to speak of. If I need duct tape, I’ll go to the truck…otherwise its getting stuck on with this!

Right side:

• Leatherman Wave – This is the requisite multitool in the kit. I’m not a fan of multitools in general, but their sheer handiness cannot be denied. And the Wave (original: not the “Plus”, the OG Wave) is one of the best. Particularly when you add the driver extension, ratcheting extension, and bit sets to the mix…then you can really wring some real functionality out of this device. And the fact that the extensions can handle standard 1/4″ bits is icing on the cake (I keep a set of these in my larger day pack).
• Klein 10-in-1 folding driver – For those times when you need a larger driver, this fits the bill: two slotted, two Philips, two Torx, two square, 1/4″ and 5/16″ drivers, and the ability to put it in pistol-grip formation.
• Stanley LeverLock tape measure, 12′ – I find myself using this more often than any other tape I own. I like the compact-ness of it, but I also love its normal-on retention as opposed to the conventional normal-off operation.
• Craftsman LED head lamp – If one hand’s good, two hands are better: you need a head lamp. It is not rechargeable, and I like that because there’s nothing worse than needing a flash light and only having a dead one that can’t take a quick battery change.
• 8″ zip ties w/rubber band (generic) – Zip ties are about as useful as paracord (which I don’t have in this kit but I do in my day pack) and possibly duct tape. You need this, and they just live out of the way in the hinge of the pouch.
• Southwire compact electrical strippers – I replace a lot of power plugs and switches in my line of work. Sure, you can use dikes (or your teeth), but…this is the way.
• Fluke VoltAlert 1AC-A II circuit tester – Getting shocked sucks. Ask me how I know. Check it before you wreck it.
• Craftsman magnetic pickup tool – Never appreciated until needed. Then it’s priceless.
• Lowes Build and Grow 4oz hammer – Don’t laugh at my itty-bitty baby hammer…you’d be surprised how often I use it. Sometimes you just need a quick tap-tap-tap to work something loose or flatten a proud trim nail, and while it can deliver a sharp blow it isn’t going to bash holes into stuff.
• Mechanix gloves – Gloves aren’t always needed, but if you’re torquing down on something you really should have some and save those hands. I like the Mechanix because they generally wear better than the house brands, and I like the FastFit because I hate fiddling with velcro straps on gloves. These are not top quality ruggedized gloves, but they work great for light to medium or occasional use. And they’re comfy.
• Craftsman diagonal cutters – Anything my pocket tool (a Gerber Armbar Drive, which is my current favorite, which deserves an article by itself) isn’t fit to cut with its on-board cutting tools will be visited by this small set of dikes. I most often use it to trim back insulation.
• Craftsman needle-nose pliers – Needle-nose pliers are an essential tool to keep around. I used to keep a larger plier for this, but I generally will use the locking plier or tiny not-Channellock for anything bigger.

You’ll notice a number of these items were sourced at Lowe’s: this is because there is a Lowe’s local to me. A Harbor Freight is nearby, and my general-use tool kit is home to a lot of their stuff (which as I use it more gets better quality tools commensurate with my experience with them), but their selection is not as good for the form factor I was buying for. An Ace Hardware opened relatively recently, so future iterations my incorporate items from there, but the selection will still be better at the Lowe’s. If I visited the next large-ish town nearby I could avail myself of their Home Depot, but I honestly don’t think I’d do any better and really don’t want to be in the epicenter of Roll Tide Nation any more than I need to be.

Good work depends on having the right tools. Expedient work depends on having tools right now. This covers the latter. What do you think of this assortment? Leave a comment below.

EDIT: I have upgraded my kit. It’s no longer what I would call “mini,” but it remains portable.

Now more of a toolbag than a toolkit, everything is shlepped in a WYNEX Tactical Molle Admin Pouch with a complementary (not “complimentary”, mind you) Shoulder Strap/Pad. They also sell chest rigs to hold these, but that would be overkill for my selected purpose for it. However, if used as a first aid kit, it might be a good buy to go with the bag.

The price is cheap, particularly in comparison to the Maxpedition pouch used previously. Despite this the assembly has proven itself to be durable. Whiile I wish it had a carrying handle I used the included MOLLE straps on the back for that purpose. They also enable lashing it to a larger MOLLE system if the need ever arose (it hasn’t and likely won’t, but they’re there).

It includes an interior partition with a clear zippered pocket specifically for the inclusion of maps…which I basically binned. Looking back it might have been useful for the inclusion of instruction/user/service manuals, customer comment cards, inspection stickers, PO reports, etc. However, given how filled the brim it is with tools at the current time I believe I made the right call.

This system is conducive to a variety of upgrades to my previous kit which is pictured below:

I require a multitude of bits and sockets at my disposal at all times, and the Wera Tool-Check PLUS kits delivers that as well as micro-sized tools (a tiny ratchet, screwdriver, and a quick-switch extension) to bring them to bear. The Tool-Check is a marvel of engineering elegance (though the tools fall out too easily), and with the various types of equipment I’ve worked on in the past I deemed it wise to have both Imperial and Metric versions. However, having a standard ratchet set is always a plus, and as I had room for one and had this Stanley 1/4″ ratchet set (no longer available) lying around, here it is. It doesn’t have a lot more over the Wera kits, but the ratchet is far more usable and therefore more serviceable in more situations.

All three of these discrete kits fit perfectly in the front (admin) pocket of the bag. I removed the included paracord used to hold it open as it was unnecessary for my purposes, as was the afore-mentioned zippered partition. Not much else can fit in this front section, but I like how it *just* fits the kits and allows them to be removed for orderly use and for spreading the love if I have others working with me.

That brings us to the main compartment:

Granted, most of the contents were covered in the earlier version of the toolkit. However, the additional space allowed for a bit more “padding out”. For one thing, I included a Wera Kraftform Kompact ratcheting 1/4″ driver with incorporated bits for those jobs that require a full-sized driver. This is a really nice driver with self-contained bits, so it’s useful even if you just grab it and go.

I included a very inexpensive set of Neiko nut driver sockets for convenience and in case I need something quick and dirty with my compact impact driver (beyond the scope of this article, but I own a bunch of 12V Skil power tools, starting with this set when it was on-sale for $100 at Lowe’s, and later picked up the fan and tire inflator: I recommend them). Being a driver nut (heh) I also picked up an Amazon Basics 4V electric screwdriver. However, don’t discount it because I paid $22 for it on-sale…it’s made by Skil and is technically part of their Amazon-only Denali branding. It’s got fair power, a light, and 3 torque settings. It’s proven itself very handy, and the battery life on it has been amazing. It also has its own small set of bits that I keep with the driver sockets in the front pocket of the organizer.

Furthermore, I picked up this Icon locking flex-head ratchet & bit set from Harbor Freight (shut up) on an Inside Track deal (shut up, I say) for $25 (normally $40). Yes, I have ratchets and bits and sockets out the wazoo, but the Icon set is nicely laid out with one of the better mini-ratchets I’ve used. The head pivots, locks in place, has a bit holder on the end of the handle to use as a screwdriver, and can use the ratchet extension as a t-handle. Versatility is certainly its strong suit, and it goes great with the Neiko driver sockets.

Everything else is basically the same, though I do keep a cloth rag for greasy wiping and an old 6″ Office Depot ruler in the middle area. Also, all the pliers are in the back organizer pocket. The old headlamp died, and I replaced it with one from the Nebo subline that was half-price at one of our local outfitters…with its 45° swiveling head it can be carried like a compact pocket flashlight or inserted in a head-mounted elastic band and work hands-free. I keep it in the truck on its magnetic charging cable or with my power bank I keep in my travel electronics kit (likely the subject of a future article).

I like this setup. It’s too heavy with overly redundant tools, but I always find a use for the different iterations and am thus hesitant to consolidate further.

As a bonafide child of the eighties, Masters of the Universe was inescapable. Like many others of my generation it was imperative to tune in the daily episodes of the Filmation show and re-enact them on my own using my own collection at home. The primary setting for these epic conflicts was, naturally, the same as the show: Castle Grayskull, fortress of mystery and power!

While imagination made all the difference back in the day, when you look back forty years later you begin to realize that this was…well, not the highest quality item by any stretch. The structure was dreadfully thin and wobbly. Sure, it went together well, but there was only so much rough-housing it could handle. The parts were cast in cheap, brittle plastic…just consider all the broken thrones, trap doors, and elevators. There’s a reason complete castles with undamaged components go for so much! And the paint decoration was certainly not uniform, except for how uniformly awful it tended to be.

But…we can rebuild it. We have the technology. At the very least, we can repaint the thing!

This idea has been in my head since I was a child. But while I’ve always enjoyed looking at painted action figures and models from the peanut gallery I’ve never entered that arena due to time and intimidation. Many of these folks are artists in their own right, whose submissions are simply outstanding, having been generated using talent cultivated over years of effort and critique. I just never had the time (or gall) to devote to it in order to get to an acceptable level. Besides, repainting that generated old monument to 80’s childhood smacked of sacrilege! (The only figure I’d ever tried to doctor was a Generations Thunderwing from 2010 which was in dire need of some panel lines, but I digress.)

Enter: Masters of the Universe Origins. When I saw this was coming out, I took notice because, unlike earlier lines, this one was designed to emulate the original line from the 80’s with actual joint articulation. And it was an opportunity to entertain that inner 5 year old in a whole new way. And one of the promised offerings was a NEW Castle Grayskull! Surely this would make a great canvas for such an undertaking…but modern life grabbed hold, with the pandemic and modern distribution lines breaking down and throwing a wrench into the works. It was a year before I actually saw one, and when I did…it’s just not the same. The old castle has a creepy, almost living feel with its disproportionate face and skewed-from-center orientation. The new one just won’t do!

Luckily, a few months ago, some friends and I visited a toy fair held at a local community college. It was fun looking at all the old vintage stuff, but in the middle of it all I ran across a whole shelf of original Castle Grayskulls for around thirty bucks! I looked through them and knew I’d hit the jackpot. The seller was willing to let go of a shell with the two big floors inside (one with a melted Orko figure stick on it, but anyway :p) and some broken latches for $20…score! The guy was probably glad to offload an old hunk of plastic, and I finally had my canvas.

Having followed model and action figure customization over the years I have picked up a lot of information about painting techniques and methods that would prove valuable in this pursuit. The first decision was to use acrylic paints due to them being easy to find and clean up behind. I practiced on a spare Origins Skeletor (my all-time favorite fictional character…myah, ha, hah, ha!) I had picked up for a song to get a feel for painting. I think it turned out okay, particularly for a first try. It gave me some confidence and really motivated me to get started on the big boy.

Naturally I started with the door: bark brown with silver metal work and crest. It looked good, and the hint of green showing through gave it a neat moldy look. But the two tone paint job was just a good start: a little dark gray on the nails, lock bar, and crest swords have nice contrast; and some antique copper really brought out the crest shield. It also created a very nice sense of rust running down from the metal parts. The final touch was the golden crest wings and some sneakily placed “glow” paint! I’m not done with it as I’m contemplating a little black and glow in the cracks, but overall I’m very pleased with how it turned out. It nearly flamed out, though, because after the first session of painting I dropped the door onto the kitchen floor, shattering one of the corner hinges! After a mild meltdown I serious-ed up, assembled the broken pieces, fetched the super glue and modeling compound, and set about to work, and–voilà!–a repaired door ready to be repainted! Crisis averted.

Then I set forth to work on the inside of the door–which was historically known as the jawbridge–which brought me to another valley of decision. Should it be set as plain green, a stoney-gray construct, or should the inside of a giant mouth? I chose the latter, as I’ve never seen it done that way before, and I thought it’d be striking. And it was! A burgundy-red tongue with ivory teeth all blotched with black gave it a somewhat unsettling but undeniably fresh look…insofar as a deteriorating mouth in a skull-faced castle can look. That brought the door design to a satisfying conclusion, which meant it was time to really get down to business and tackle the front fascia.

My first shot at the castle proper involved laying down a base-coat of thicket green paint, which seemed to be a misstep. I decided against black as I figured it would be difficult to paint over, and green would go over better and give a lichen-y bleed under the gray brickwork. The latter wasn’t the case, but it does show up between the bricks, which means I’ll have to do a black paint-wash before it’s over with. But this led up to a welcome development that will be explained later! In any case, it was base-coated green, and it wasn’t horrible.

Q: What is a paint-wash?
A: Paint-washing is a technique where paint is thinned in order to color low-lying or difficult-to-brush areas via gravity or capillary action. The general area is typically wiped with a damp paper towel or sponge to remove the wash from the top-most part. This technique is often used to bring out sculpted details and create depth. It works best when washing darker colors on top of lighter ones.

Now for a time of inspiration separate from the initial project! There was a scene in some of the mini-comics that came with the vintage action figures that involved a “spirit” emanating from the castle at times to prophesy of the coming king of the castle (i.e., He-Man), who was regarded to be the Spirit of Castle Grayskull. There have been some enterprising individuals who’ve taken that artwork and put it in the form of a component that can be mounted on the castle, often in glowing colors. While I considered buying one of these, I couldn’t countenance paying as much for this piece as I did for the castle itself…and 150% of that in additional shipping! So I bought a sheet of polystyrene plastic at Hobby Lobby, printed an outline of the artwork, and cut it from the styrene sheet. The first attempt, using an 0.8mil sheet and an exact-o blade, was not very good, with a number of mistakes that couldn’t be repaired cleanly and easily: a second effort with 0.4mil styrene and a pair of very sharp scissors went much better. I assembled a make-shift base using old scrape of styrene tubing onto which it could be mounted, and I had a $4 Spirit of Castle Grayskull!

After hitting the woody supports with the same bark brown used on the jaw-bridge door, I selected a medium gray for the towers which came out pretty well, but I wasn’t sure how the ramparts would look in the same color. I didn’t want to start mixing odd-ball colors for each brick as that would take forever. So I mixed the silver gray I used on the door’s “shiny-er” parts with a dab of black, and wound up with a dark metallic gray that looked great! It especially shows well on the brickwork supporting the crown.

Speaking of which, I put that on the crown’s backing, but I dry-brushed it so as to look weather-worn. And on the horns of the crown I dry-brushed gold paint on the green backing which came out smashing! I was conflicted as to how to approach the crown, but that quickly became one of my favorite parts of the project. The crown with the door really makes a statement! Lastly, I used the same ivory white from the jawbridge teeth for the exterior teeth and skull, which at first looked like it might not go over well as it “washed-out” the face due to its tremendous uniformity. To correct that issue, I brushed on a black paint-wash to fill the detailed crevices and wiped it with a damp paper towel, yielding a very weathered and detailed face for the castle. The bulk of the castle was complete, and it looks amazing!

It’s at this point that I first called it finished, but looking back there are a number of other things to do before I can truly say that. I need to complete the brick-lining/paint-wash on the front brickwork. To this end, I remembered that I’d added some glow paint onto the door, and figured I’d hit the spirit with it, as well…and it went marvelously! A few more coats, and it’ll be bright as can be under black light. Then I mixed a small amount of black with plenty of glow paint, wound up with a solid black mix, brushed it onto a clear plastic package, and hit it with a black light….and the black paint glows! Guess what’s going to be paint-washed into the cracks of the brickwork now? So, that earlier misstep in the basecoat is not only rectified but completely justified!

I also have the entire rear of the castle to complete, but that’s going to be a job for another day. Real-life intrudes and requires attention. But when I have plenty of time (and, more importantly, room) to resume the project, I will either append the progress to this article or create a second part to settle the affair.

MORE TO COME!

As I don’t hunt or shoot long distance ranges, I decided I wanted a rifle that would suit both purposes. I have bolt actions in 6.5 Creedmoor that fit those bills, but there’s something about an AR that appeals to me. For one, I like semiautomatics more than manual actions, and for another, I like the customizability found in an AR. There’s a little more of “me” in them. That said, it’s tricky to make decisions on that basis without a defined mission (which sounds presumptuous as heck as it is), so I thought it’d be interesting to go through those choices in case anyone is interested in a do-anything build that’s more than a mostly-already-done kit build.

Why 6.5 Grendel?

As there’s no specified “mission” here, the true starting point is selecting the the caliber around which to be built. I’ve long wanted to explore the realm of the 6.5 Grendel…despite it’s relatively niche position in the AR market, in my estimation it’s truly the best all-around AR cartridge. Why?

1. Delivered Energy – The 6.5 Grendel packs more energy than a .300 Blackout, 7.62×39, 5.56×45/.223 Rem, .224 Valk and most other typical AR calibers due to the velocity of the bullet and its weight. Additionally, by virtue of its relatively-high sectional density (ratio of a bullet’s weight to cross-sectional area) the bullet tends to penetrate better and dump its energy deeper making it more effective at stopping whatever it’s being fired at.
2. Recoil – With the Grendel you’re getting in the neighborhood of .308 Winchester capability with a kick that’s a little heavier than a 5.56 round. Less punishment, quicker follow-up shots, eaiser target spotting through the scope….what’s not to like about less recoil?
3. Range – While other cartridges do just as well and better at distance in an AR package (.224 Valkyrie springs to mind) the Grendel is remarkably flat-shooting up to 800 yards and quite capable of hitting at 1000 yards. The 6.5 caliber is renowned for bucking wind sheer and flat-flying trajectory by virtue of its relatively-low ballistic coefficient (determined by bullet geometry), and the Grendel round benefits greatly from this.
4. Price – Bullets can be had for less than 6.5 Creedmoor or .308 Win despite comparable capability, and an AR-15 are generally cheaper than an AR-10. The main cost of the build comes in the higher cost of a bolt and magazines, which is not a day-to-day factor.
5. Size – In short you get many of the benefits of an AR-10 in a far lighter, more balanced, easier to maneuver AR-15 package.

Certainly, there are negatives to the cartridge. Barrels are said to wear faster, but chances are I will never shoot out a barrel, and if I did it’s a matter of swapping another in its place. Plus, some parts can get pricey, but that’s custom for you.

To be completely honest, I’d come to this cartridge conclusion years ago but decided to concentrate on 3-gun. Since that’s not been an option most of this year I finally gave in to this rather long-term inclination.

Choices, Choices…

So, once the caliber was decided, it was time to figure out what components would go into this build. I determined that it would not be a budget build but not hyper-premium, either. Therefore, no bargain-basement parts would be considered, and no high-end part would be dismissed out of hand unless a lower-tiered part would serve just as well.

Barrel and bolt

Since the heart of any rifle build is the barrel, I started looking at Grendel barrel makers. While there are more than a few there are not scads of them which helps in choices. I had determined I wanted a stainless steel barrel since it’d be easier to maintain at the expense of lower bore life (but, again, I don’t expect to ever shoot it out). I wanted a bull barrel with fluting for heat dissipation and lightening, and I originally wanted everything in a raw stainless finish. However, it’s here where supply issues began to crop up, and I wound up looking into lighter profiles out of necesssity. Having gone with a Faxon Firearms barrel in my .300BLK pistol build (which would make for an interesting write-up itself) I looked hard at them again…they aren’t top-tier, but they tend to be good, and my previous FF barrel was great. It turns out they have a complete bolt carrier group in Grendel as well, so I bought both from Rainier Arms, as they had a service to check the headspacing of the bolt to the barrel chamber. However, as both parts shipped from separate facilities halfway across the nation from each other, I suspect that never happened.

Uppers and Lowers and Hardguards, Oh My!

As for upper and lower receivers, I wanted something that was not yet another mil-spec standard set, but I wasn’t interested in getting a billet set. I like elegance in my stuff, so I wanted something that looked nice and stood out but understated and not overly priced at the same time. If you’re going to get a billet set, why get something sedate? So I looked into the forged M4E1 sets from Aero Precision, and I found exactly what I was looking for: good looks and fair price for a matched set. Again, supply issues cropped up, and it was tough finding one. I eventually found a lower from Primary Arms’ site.

Finding an upper was no mean feat, however. I backordered one from Midway USA with no idea how long that would take. However, Aero Precision had a blemished unit available for less on their site…since I’d already intended to have it refinished I figured that would be fine. I was right; there were about three nigh-imperceptible blemishes above the ejection port and a tiny void under the brass deflector. All of which would disappear under a coat of ceramic polymer. Naturally, after I’d received it the Midway order arrived far ahead of schedule, but Midway being an awesome dealer took it back with no trouble.

The next thing I wanted to look at was a handguard. While perusing one of my local dealers, The Range at 601, I noticed they had a lineup of nice pieces, some from Odin Works (really, really nice), some house brands (weren’t bad at all), but I kept looking at the Aero Precision ATLAS units. They went perfectly with my upper and lower, and there was a choice of an R-one (full rail across the top) or an S-one (only a short rail on the muzzle end). Loving the light weight and clean look, I chose the 15″ M-LOK unit (I like the longer rail for arm extension, and the M-LOK/KeyMod war is over, and Magpul won), and since it was in stock I didn’t have to worry about shipping or backordering anything!

To Paint or Not to Paint?

From the beginning I had planned to have this project Cerakoted. For those not in the know, Cerakote is a baked-on ceramic/polymer coating that provides corrosion, wear, and abrasive resistance and comes in a variety of colors. While black nitride and anodization is fine for a typical firearm, I wanted more protection and more color to set things off. I’d built a Glock-style pistol for competition earlier in the year and decided I wanted a similar color to the “Blue Titanium” used on the slide of that gun…I liked that blue, but there were a lot of other color choices that made that gun stand out. It wouldn’t really “pop” on a rifle, in my mind.

The color I wound up going with is called “Northern Lights”…as described by the web site it’s “a stunning color-changing navy blue that transforms into a greenish teal with glistening gold metallics.” I liked the sound of that. The Range at 601 handles Cerakote jobs through a local applicator, so I asked them to run my receivers and handguard out to Lockhart Munitions just southeast of town. I asked for the Northern Lights Cerakote with a distressed finish in order to keep it from being shiny.

The Waiting Is The Hardest Part

I figured the Cerakote job would take up to six weeks, so I started looking into things like furniture, muzzle devices, and the like. I was already sure I wanted a Griffin Armament muzzle device with taper mount so I could use my GA Recce 7 suppressor on it. The Recce 7 was awesome on the Creedmoor bolt actions, and I just put a FlashComp unit on my competition AR so I just picked up the same thing for this build. Plus, 601 had it in stock. I also picked up miscellaneous build parts there, the majority of which were Aero Precision because that’s what they had available.

I went with an Odin Works Low-Profile Adjustable Gas Block because it was in-stock, as well, but also because the previous adjustable block I’d used, a Superlative Arms bleed-off, was not available anywhere…besides, I didn’t really care for the bleed-off function, as it just made it more complicated with its 30 adjustments and dirtier with more gas and carbon blowing out the front.

I also knew I wanted a stock with a nice cheek-weld, so I was leaning toward the Magpul MOE-SL stock. One of the guys at 601, Les, said he liked the B5 Systems SOPMOD Bravo. While researching it I found the BCM Gunfighter Mod-1 SOPMOD stock with storage compartment that looked like everything I wanted in a stock.

While checking into charging handles, I knew I wanted an ambidexterous T-handle, and I wanted one that re-routed blowback gases for use with a suppressor. The Radian was a natural choice, but Griffin Armament had one, as well, and the main thing they had in common was a high price. I found one from Armaspec, the Victory Charging Handle, that did everything they did for less. I had also been looking at Armaspec’s Stealth Recoil Spring system, as I loved the JP Enterprises Silent Captured Spring system in my .300 pistol build but couldn’t see spending so much on a unit that won’t be suppressed full-time. I’ll be getting one as soon as 601 gets them in stock, but until then I’ll just stick with a standard buffer and spring set I had in my parts box.

I also decided to go with a ratcheting castle nut rather than a standard one so it would hold solidly without having to torque the stew out of it or stake it. I found also a QD mount was included in the set, so I was quite gratified to place an order for the Primary Weapons Ratcheting Castle Nut and QD End Plate…this of course is backordered, so I’m using a conventional set I had on-hand until it arrives.

Another problem with the Grendel choice is magazines…you can’t just grab a PMag off the shelf and expect it to work given the feed lips must be spread more than on a standard STANAG 5.56/.223 magazine. So I went back to the originator of the 6.5 Grendel platform, Alexander Arms, for the answer: I ordered three each of the E-Lander steel 10- and 24-round magazines.

Finally, the trigger…for some reason I screw up installing mil-spec triggers all the time. I know how to do it, but I either have pins walking out or put the hammer spring in backwards (hello, James! Hope it’s running better now since I corrected it). I went with a drop-in recommended by Paul at 601, and for the price and availability I couldn’t argue with a CMC Drop-in Standard Curved Trigger (3.5 lb Pull).

Assembly notes

Once the receivers and handguard arrived from Cerakote, I was ready to do some assembly. But first, the oohs and ahhs…everyone loved the color. Kudos to Ben at Lockhart Munitions on a great job! I think there will be a few more Northern Lights units running around Meridian area in the near future. While there I got Paul at 601 to install the barrel and handguard as I don’t have a bench vice or a reaction rod at home. Once I got it to the house I started assembly, and let me tell you, from now on I will likely be using the M4E1 series of receivers. They’re so easy to put together…no punches or hammers required at all! Everything is put in place with set screws. No marred finish, no pins that look like they were hammered in with a sledge. I will say that before I build another AR I will be buying a 1/4″ clevis pin for putting in the front take-down pin detent. I will be heading over to 601 next week to have the muzzle device torqued in place. I have a wrench but no crow’s foot to fit. Plus, the lack of a bench vise is really hurting my home capability. Everything else is ready to rock, except for one thing…

Scope of Work

I knew this would not be a CQB gun (although it could be), so a proper scope was in order. This is where I was most clueless, as I’ve never been much of a rifleman…most of my rifle work involves shooting varmints with various firearms at distances easily surveyed by the naked eye and open sights or red dots. The only real scope work I’ve done is using an Primary Arms ACSS scope on my 3-gun AR which is just a bit like cheating as there is no figuring required to be good enough to excel. But when it comes to ranging and calculating distances and bullet drop and doping, I’m virtually a neophyte who is barely able to speak the jargon. I knew I wanted quality glass with a gun with this capability with a good reticle to accompany it. And quite frankly I didn’t want to buy yet another Chinese-made scope, no matter how good the company behind it is (I say this as a repeat Primary Arms customer).

Amongst all the options I was checking out I happened on a Steiner P4Xi 4.16-56mm scope with reticle and adjustments in mils for a pretty hard to believe price at Camera Land New York. Reading the reviews, earlier versions had a problem with turrets that had apparently been resolved after it was discovered, but the stink of those early low scores seems to have driven the price down some. Looking on the site I was able to get the Steiner P-series cantilever mount along with it for about half the MSRP…score!

Of course, when I went to torque it down I nearly had a meltdown when my torx bit broke off in on of the mount’s screw heads…luckily it wasn’t wedged in and fell right out. Oddly enough, I don’t know why it broke, as the screw wasn’t even hand tight in the mount. It’s what you get for using cheap bits, I suppose. I was having to use my torque wrench on it, which couldn’t have helped: I was going to use a torque driver from work, but lo and behold it was broken when I picked it up. That stuff drive me nuts, so I guess I’ll have to get someone to mount it for me or find a torque driver myself.

Finished results

The result is pretty nice looking. I decided against shooting it as neither the muzzle device nor the scope have been completely mounted yet. I received the three ten-round mags yesterday, so it’s ready to shoot. I’m still somewhat worried about head-spacing, but I’m not detaching the barrel and sending it back…I’ll just trust that they’re actually mil-spec.

Construction continues, but updates to this article will be posted as they happen. A final price list will also be posted.

Final Parts list

Faxon Firearms 6.5 Grendel 416-R Stainless Gunner Barrel MATCH SERIES – 18″ – $232.75, Rainier Arms
Faxon Firearms 6.5 Grendel 9310 Bolt Carrier Group (BCG) – Nitride – $156.75, Rainier Arms
Aero Precision M4E1 Stripped Lower Receiver – Black – $84.99, Primary Arms
M4E1 Threaded Stripped Upper Receiver – Anodized Black – $78.74 (blem), Aero Precision
ATLAS S-ONE M-LOK Handguard – $199.00, The Range at 601
Aero Precision AR15 Upper Parts Kit – $19.99, The Range at 601
Aero Precision AR15 MOE Lower Parts Kit – $49.99, The Range at 601
Aero Precision Enhanced Buffer Tube – $33.99, Brownells
Aero Precision Mid-length Melonite Gas Tube – $14.99, The Range at 601
Odin Works Low-Profile Adjustable Gas Block – $79.99, The Range at 601
BCM Gunfighter Mod-1 SOPMOD stock with storage compartment – $69.99, Brownells
Armaspec Stealth Recoil Spring system – pending
Armaspec Victory Charging Handle – $54.99, Brownells
Primary Weapons Ratcheting Castle Nut and QD End Plate – $26.99, Brownells
E-Lander 10-round Steel 6.5 Grendel Magazines – $29.99, Brownells
E-Lander 24-round Steel 6.5 Grendel Magazines – $29.99, Brownells
CMC Drop-in Standard Curved Trigger (3.5 lb Pull) – $157.24, Brownells
Steiner P4Xi 4.16-56mm scope
Steiner P-series cantilever mount – $929.99 (scope/mount combo), Camera Land NY

EDIT (2025-10-10): I finished building the rifle right before getting hammered with “The Virus” early that fall. A week after contracting it I realized that I felt somewhat better, the temperatures outside was relatively mild, and there was little to no wind. So let’s wind up the prep on this new rifle!

I proceeded to set up a shooting table with lead sled and mounted the rifle to it. After getting it bore sighted and zeroed at 100 yards with single bullet mags, I loaded two rounds in the mag and fired again and found no hammer follow malfunctions (i.e., the rifle did not fire the second bullet automatically). It seemed to operate safely, so after repeating the process a few times with success I loaded a full mag and transitioned to my 300- and 400-yd targets. After recording dope and dialing in the distances I started hitting steel after just a few shots.

Then, after I’d been at it a grand total of thirty minutes, I felt like I was sucking wind through my backside and decided rifle shooting was no longer the thing to do. I drug all the kit back to the shed, put the rifle back in the safe, and retreated to the house from which I didn’t exit again for another week. I was one sick puppy, yet thankfully I lived without serious repercussions.

And I haven’t shot the rifle since

What they propose is the construction within their service area of a dedicated fiber optic network…the ultimate in internet access for their rural customers. The advent of gigabit internet speed will be a major game changer, positively impacting our lives in many ways from opening up better choices in television and telephone service, much improved and expansive online learning, expanded opportunities to work from home, higher quality gaming, media, shopping, and browsing experiences; more reliable emergency communications, a more business friendly environment, etc.

The email address is provided in the magazine; I won’t reprint it here due to online spam abuse, but I’ll attach a link to the article when it becomes available online). To all EMEPA customers and everyone living in east central Mississippi counties of Winston, Kemper, Lauderdale, and Clarke: please take a moment to write a note to Randy in support of their proposed networking deployment.

Mr. Randy Carroll:

Thank you for your call for support in the rural broadband effort. For far too long it has felt like no one cares about our need for improved and more modern internet access.

I wholeheartedly support and recommend the proposed endeavor by the East Mississippi Electric Power Associationn on the behalf of its membership to install fiber-optic infrastructure for the delivery of high-speed internet service to the areas currently covered under the cooperative’s electric power system. Existing avenues for online access in my area are paltry at best and nonexistent at worst. DSL service is no better than it was when introduced over 10 years ago (if as good) and is less available to new subscribers due to the inability or unwillingness of the responsible telecommunication companies to scale up capacity or through-put. Fixed wireless is dependent on nearness to cell towers, which are far too sparse for reliable cell coverage, let alone millimeter wave transmission. Satellite internet is fundamentally flawed as a delivery medium due to latency and bandwidth issues on top of exorbitant cost. And forget cable-based internet in the rural landscape.

Speaking personally, my current service (AT&T FastAccess DSL) is rated for 1.5Mbps download speed but has never measured higher than 1.1Mbps…typically it’s much lower. That’s when it works…it routinely drops out for anywhere between a few seconds to a few hours. Neighbors living down the road have even less bandwidth and stability. And I’m fortunate in that I signed up for this when it was first introduced; anyone who came in late to the game will not be able to subscribe to it at all. And what I have now has not been eligible for upgrade since it was introduced around a dozen years ago. For perspective, I had better quality–higher speed and more reliable–access to the internet as a Mississippi State University student while living in the dormitories during the *1990s*.

Furthermore, I have no cellular reception inside my home, and a cellular signal booster would be ineffective due to the very weak signal outside my home. Any use of my cellular telephone has to be made using the DSL line…marginal, at best. Traditional telephone landlines have been rumored to be on the telcom’s chopping block for years, and given their tendency to fail during torrential rain and power outages (only recently having been addressed), having a stable, quality means of communication is all the more important. As an on-call biomedical service engineer at a local medical center, it is imperative that I maintain contact for the sake of my own employment as well as hospital patient safety.

The fact that telecommunications companies benefit from grants under color of making improvements is appalling and infuriating when all they’re doing is barely maintaining the pathetic status quo. There has to be another approach than throwing more tax-payer money at conglomerates who apparently do nothing but ask for more. I believe EMEPA can effectively and decisively address this urgent need that has gone ignored and unheralded for so long.

I will pledge to be a charter member of this new effort if necessary and possible, and I will notify my family, friends, and neighbors of the need for their active involvement. I hereby give permission to reprint this email for promotional purposes and its retransmission to any local, state or national representatives in the course of securing support and funding.

Thank you,

Scott Wiggins
xxxx xxxxxxx xxx xxxx
xxxxxxxxxxx, xx  xxxxx
xxx-xxx-xxxx
xxx-xxx-xxxx
xxxxx@xxxxxxxx.xxx
https://www.shwiggie.com/emepa-letter/ ‎

Asking why is a good way of getting information and understanding things, but the problem with asking why is that there isn’t always a reason for things, let alone a good one. And then many times the answer doesn’t really satisfy the question, which many times is asked to demand explanation rather than to request information. So the question becomes, why ask why?

The children of Israel asked why a lot, but they like us tend to ask questions that shouldn’t be asked. That’s where we pick up in Exodus 17:1-7.

¹ And all the congregation of the children of Israel journeyed from the wilderness of Sin, after their journeys, according to the commandment of the Lord, and pitched in Rephidim [rest]: and there was no water for the people to drink. ² Wherefore the people did chide with Moses, and said, Give us water that we may drink. And Moses said unto them, Why chide ye with me? wherefore do ye tempt the Lord? ³ And the people thirsted there for water; and the people murmured against Moses, and said, Wherefore is this that thou hast brought us up out of Egypt, to kill us and our children and our cattle with thirst? ⁴ And Moses cried unto the Lord, saying, What shall I do unto this people? they be almost ready to stone me. ⁵ And the Lord said unto Moses, Go on before the people, and take with thee of the elders of Israel; and thy rod, wherewith thou smotest the river, take in thine hand, and go. ⁶ Behold, I will stand before thee there upon the rock in Horeb; and thou shalt smite the rock, and there shall come water out of it, that the people may drink. And Moses did so in the sight of the elders of Israel. ⁷ And he called the name of the place Massah [testing], and Meribah [strife], because of the chiding of the children of Israel, and because they tempted the Lord, saying, Is the Lord among us, or not?

The Subtle Mistake of Asking Why (Ex 17:1-4)

The children of Israel were given to grumbling. If you look up grumbling in the dictionary, you’ll find Israelites. They were always fussing, grumbling, and complaining about something! Granted, wandering around in a barren desert was no fun. Things started out so cool! Their God had supernaturally and very obviously made mockery of the power of Egypt’s gods. The blood of lambs marked the doorways of those who were to be saved from the destroying hand of God Himself that massacred all the Egyptian first-born, from Pharaoh’s own family down to the livestock. They’d left Egypt as an army bearing tribute while being led away by God in a cloud by day and pillar of fire by night. They had witnessed the miracle at the Red Sea, and they sang and danced following the destruction of Pharaoh’s infamous charioteers under the collapsing water.

But, now, wilderness living had set in. Sure, Moses had purified the bitter waters of Marah in chapter 15 when they needed water. When they whined in chapter 16 about starvation, God sent manna (the original Wonder Bread) from heaven for breakfast and quail for dinner. But this wasn’t lifestyles of the rich and famous. They were walking around all the time. They had no place to call home. They were nowhere near town. There was no running water in the camp. There were no big meals. They didn’t even have cell phone coverage. So they started complaining to Moses, their hero, leader, and advocate. “Okay, tough guy, where’s the water?” Moses replies, “well, there isn’t any.” “Why’d you bring us all out here to die of thirst?” And they were pretty mad about it, too, because Moses was expecting them to stone him over it!

Consider the need for water. Water is a necessity for life. We are nearly 70% made of water. In the survivalist rule of threes, you can go 3 seconds without hope, 3 minutes without air, 3 hours without shelter, 3 days without water, and 3 weeks without food. Sure, they had manna and quail, but now there were no wells or streams, and they were parched with thirst.

It was a serious problem, all right, but they were really blaming God! He was the cloud and pillar of fire they were following there in the first place. He had provided a water purification system two chapters ago and their food the previous chapter, so why did they freak out? The same reason we do: hard times reveal hard attitudes. They had an attitude of rebellion; that’s why in verse 2 Moses noted that they were really questioning God’s plan. In verse 7 it says that they pushed God’s patience by saying, “is the Lord here or not?” when they were plainly led there by Him. As Moses cried to the Lord in verse 4, they were saying that if God wasn’t going to show up, they’d show Him by killing His man! (Remember that the next time you gripe about your preacher…)

The Lord cares for His people, but He doesn’t care for our stinking attitudes any more than parents care for the stinking attitudes of their own children. He was all too willing to hear their concerns and cares and had proven Himself time and time again, but instead of depending on Him they were passing judgment on God! It’s supposed to be the other way around! That’s the mistake of asking why. Those who ask why may do so in misery and depression, but don’t forget that asking someone why is to demand an explanation, and God is not going to snap to attention and explain Himself to you.

The Sweet Mercy of Answering Why (Ex 17:5-7)

So, did God smite them over it? He could have, had He wanted to: He certainly would have been within His right to. But our God is a longsuffering and patient Father who is willing to put up with those He loves. Romans 2:4 – “…the goodness of God leadeth thee to repentance.” As usual, the Lord works in mysterious ways; His wonders to perform: He whipped up another industrial-strength miracle to not only rescue them from death by dehydration but also to refresh their sagging spirits and restore their flagging faith. He told Moses to take his ever-dependable staff along with the elders of the nation to Horeb [dry-place]. The Lord said He’d be standing on a rock there, and to smack the staff against the rock so that potable water would gush out of it. Imagine: a rock containing water for around 2 million people and all their herds…that’s unbelievable! But they survived, and God never gave them any explanations. I’d love to ask about this awesome rock He created with the ability to flood drinkable water from it, but all we need to know is that what God requires, He supplies.

Now, the scripture seems to point toward the staff more than its wielder. This staff was Moses’ walking stick from the first time he encountered God at the burning bush (Ex. 4:1-17) and had been transformed into a snake (v. 3). Moses used it to smite the river Nile and turn it into blood (Ex. 7:17, 19) and had it when the hail fell on Egypt (Ex. 9:23) It was referred to as the staff of God in Ex. 4:20 and 17:9.

However, when God told him who and what to take to Horeb, He said to take the staff he had struck the river with. While this staff symbolizes Moses’ personal dependence on the Lord, it also represented God’s judgment power. When it struck the water, it removed its life-saving power. When it struck the lifeless rock, it brought forth life-saving water. The Nile was struck in judgment, leading to Israel’s salvation in the Exodus. The rock was struck in judgment, leading to Israel’s salvation from thirst. While one strike was for condemnation, this strike was in mercy.

If the rod represents the power of God in judgment, what did the rock represent? Remember God said, “I’m going to stand before you on the rock in Horeb.” God was the source of the water. The rock represents the Lord Himself!

The Sublime Marvel of Acknowledging Who (1 Cor. 10:1-4)

Psalmists wrote about what happened at Meribah, but the apostle Paul was led to write about it over a thousand years later. In his first letter to the troubled church in Corinth, he reviewed the history of the wandering nation of Israel under Moses and found parallels with their own experience. We see this, as well, in our own lives, and Paul explained in 1 Cor. 10:6, “now these things were our examples…” and in verse 11, “Now all these things happened unto them for examples: and they are written for our admonition, upon whom the ends of the world are come.” Don’t ever forget that the Old Testament is not just historical fact; it’s devotional literature!

1 Corinthians 10:1-4

¹ Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea; ² And were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea; ³ And did all eat the same spiritual meat; ⁴ And did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ.

We have a spiritual kinship with Moses and the Israelites as our ancestors in faith. We see in their case how ALL were under the cloud (God’s special protection and guidance), ALL passed through the sea (God’s sovereign deliverance), ALL were baptized into Moses (God’s spiritual leadership), and ALL ate the same spiritual food and drink (God’s saving provision).

In turn, ALL Christians have God’s special protection and guidance (Rom 8:14 – “For as many as are led by the Spirit of God, they are the sons of God”). ALL Christians have God’s sovereign deliverance (1 John 5:13 – “These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God”). ALL Christians have God’s spiritual leadership (Romans 6:3-4 – “Know ye not, that so many of us as were baptized into Jesus Christ were baptized into his death? Therefore we are buried with him by baptism into death: that like as Christ was raised up from the dead by the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of life”). ALL Christians have God’s saving provision (1 Peter 2:1-3 – “Wherefore laying aside all malice, and all guile, and hypocrisies, and envies, and all evil speakings, as newborn babes, desire the sincere milk of the word, that ye may grow thereby: if so be ye have tasted that the Lord is gracious”).

Now, we see that the Israelites still had evil desires. Remember those hard times revealed hard attitudes: they had that despite the goodness of God toward them. That’s why they wandered 40 years in the wilderness to start with; they were “overthrown in the wilderness” in v. 5. Paul challenged the Corinthians to heed the warning of the Israelites in scripture as an example.

But “the Rock was Christ“. Jesus was struck in obedience to the will of God (Luke 22:42 – “…Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done.” Isaiah 53:5 – “But he was wounded [pierced] for our transgressions, he was bruised [crushed] for our iniquities: the chastisement [punishment] of our peace was upon him; and with his stripes [death-blow] we are healed.” Isaiah 53:10 – “Yet it pleased the Lord to bruise [crush] him…”).

The smiting of the rock brought forth salvation from literal death by thirst, and the gift of continued life. The smiting of the Savior brought forth salvation from the second death, and the gift of a brand new life. Paul mentioned “that spiritual Rock that followed them,” but notice he didn’t say “that literal rock” in verse 4. The Rock of our salvation, the Lord Jesus Christ, was with the Hebrew people everywhere they went. And this struck Rock is with us everywhere we go, providing life-giving water for us daily (John 7:38 – “He that believeth on me…out of his belly shall flow rivers of living water.”).

Looking back at Exodus 17 in light of 1 Corinthians 10 helps us look ahead in our own Christian lives. We don’t have to fail like the Israelites did…despite their many blessings they still let selfish desires put themselves in a position of judging God. We win when we stop asking the why question and start acknowledging the Who answer, as the story of Moses striking the rock in Exodus points us to Christ crucified. And we must share this water of life that quenches our selfishness with the spiritually thirsty around us. Jesus said in John 4:14, “whosoever drinketh of the water that I shall give him shall never thirst; but the water that I shall give him shall be in him a well of water springing up into everlasting life.”

Have you been to Jesus? No better invitation can I give than the final invitation in all the Bible from Revelation 22:17 – “And the Spirit and the bride say, Come. And let him that heareth say, Come. And let him that is athirst come. And whosoever will, let him take the water of life freely.”