Legal Ethics
and Reform
What It Means If You Believe That GOD Exists?
................................................................... by Joseph Flood
1) There are some very important questions that a person needs to answer that have a great effect on how they lead their life.
These are the following questions:
...A) Do you believe in the existence of God?
...B) Do you believe that the Bible is the word of God?
...C) Do you believe that there is a heaven and a hell?
...D) Do you believe that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came to this earth to save man and gave us directions on how we are to live our lives if we wish to get to heaven?
2) I just finished reading a book whose title “Every Other Monday” by John Kasich. It is about a group of men (from 8 to 12) who meet every other Monday for lunch in a public eating place and discuss a book or passage from the Bible and discuss how the information presented in that book or passage from the Bible can have an effect on their lives. They met for over a period of 20 years and have gone over the Bible at least 3 times during that period of time. This is not like a regular Bible Study Group, these men are really trying to understand how this information has an effect on their lives. What they are concerned about is trying to find out how to live their lives since they are concerned about what happens when they die. The question is whether death is the real end of life or is there another life after this life is over. What must we do in this life that really prepares us for the next phase of our life. That is why the above (4) questions are so important on how we answer these questions. If we answer yes to these questions, then we believe in God and that there is a heaven and a hell. How we get to heaven has been defined in the information that is presented in the Bible which is the word of God. Jesus Christ came to this earth to atone for the original sin of Adam and Eve, God made a deal or covenant with man and this is presented in the Bible in both the Old and New Testament on many occasions. Jesus Christ set the example on how we should lead our lives if we wish to follow him. It is not easy to live that kind of life but it is worth it if we wish to get into heaven. If you really believe that there is a heaven which is a place of eternal happiness, then there is good cause and reason to lead a good life and learn to accept the good and bad things that can happen to you since our life on earth is limited but our life in heaven or hell is for all eternity which is a very long time. The question is whether or not you want to go to heaven which requires real effort on your part. From the Bible we learn that God did not put everything in motion and then walked away from it. God who is all knowing and powerful cares about mankind and desires that we humans join with him in heaven. It is also clear that there is evil in the world and evil does not want you to get to heaven and works hard at making it hard to lead a good life. God gave us free will and we make the choices on the way in which we conduct our lives..
3) I look at my own life. I was born in the United States of America. My parents came from Ireland and I was raised in the Catholic faith. My brothers and I went to private Catholic grade school, Ursa lent Nuns, Catholic high school, Bendictine Monks, and Catholic university, Jesuit order and my youngest brother became a priest and my twin brother studied to be a priest but left in his last year of studies. My mother and father were very religious and my mother had a very deep devotion to St. Thereasa, The Little Flower. She used to have the Carmolite nuns pray for us that God would look over us and help us in our lives. She would write to the nuns and tell them what was going on in our lives and asked the nuns to pray for us and have God give us help when we needed help. I only recently became aware of this situation with the Carmolite nuns when my brother, Father Flood told me the story of him actually meeting the nun who got my mother’s letters and told Father Flood about the letters and she knew all about our family. I know that in my life there were things that happened to me that I could not explain, but I knew that God was looking out for me.
When I was in Engineering school at the University of Detroit, it was tough and I was not sure that I was going to make it, but I did and was able to work as a Mechanical Engineer for 42 years in the very exciting field of Aerospace and had the opportunity to work on missiles, re-entry vehicles, spacecraft, Project Mercury, aircraft and propulsion test facilities. As an example, I was always interested in airplanes and space travel when I was in grade school. I was interested in propulsion. It was one of my dreams that I would work on airplanes and someday work on spacecraft. When I graduated from the University of Detroit in 1957, I accepted a job offer from McDonnell Aircraft Company working in the Thermodynamics and Propulsion department. I did not know much about this company and when they won the Project Mercury contract from NASA, I requested that I be transferred to that project and I got to work on a project that built a one man spacecraft that put an American into space for the first time. My dream came through and I believe that there was someone out there that was leading me in the right direction and I believe that God was looking after me. In engineering school, it turned out that Thermodynamics was my best subject and I took a real interest in the subject and got the opportunity to work in this field of engineering. Another thing I found out working as an engineer was that I was very good at designing things and had the opportunity to analyze and design an entire series of small scale propulsion test facilities. As a result of this work I was able to win a series of test programs from NASA Lewis which was the main Propulsion Test Facility of NASA. This ability to design things and do it quite well was something that I was not really aware of but I found that I had a gift for design and really enjoyed doing it.
I truly believe in God and there was a time in my life that I was thinking about becoming a Trappist monk, and I did spend a lot of my time in reading about God and the saints who are people that believe in God and lead lives that show their belief in God. I answer yes to the above (4) questions. I am getting older and I have bladder cancer and had a bypass operation, (2) of the arteries leading to my heart including my main artery were blocked. I made it a point to have a heart stress test conducted each year and this is how they found that I had a blockage problem. As a result I go to Cardiac Rehab (5) days a week where I do exercises to improve my physical condition plus I take medication to reduce my blood pressure and cholesterol levels. I go for a checkup every (6) months to see how I am doing. I bring this story out since I learned about the heart stress test when my wife and I were dancing a lot and I met a fellow who told me about this type of testing and recommended it as something I should do. I took his advice and I am glad I did since they found out that my main artery to my heart was 95 percent blocked. If that gets fully blocked, you are dead. It is not easy to live a good life, you have to work at it all the time, but it is sure worth the effort if you want to get to heaven.
Think about it, you have no control on who your parents will be, where you will be born or what your parents will be like. Being raised a Catholic, having wonderful parents and getting a great religious education sure helps a person on the right path in getting to heaven. I also was very fortunate in meeting my wife who is also Catholic and also got a great Catholic education. I met my wife at a YMCA dance and she was just recovering from a very serious automobile accident where she crashed her car into a brick wall when her car went out of control. When I was single and dating, one of my goals was to meet a young lady that was Catholic, had a college education and liked children and liked to dance. My wife Mary Catherine met all of these items and she was a kindergarten teacher, worked with young children. She still works with young children and has been a very good person which I love very much. We have (2) sons that are good men, they do not drink, smoke or take drugs.
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