Lessons Learned Along the Way to Becoming a Boomer

By Dave Muehlbauer

As a baby boomer, born in 1947, author Dave Muehlbauer has seen a lot of history being made. He’s experienced an array of emotions, overcome physical challenges, and fought spiritual battles. But through it all, he’s accumulated wisdom. In Lessons Learned along the Way to Becoming a Boomer, he shares some of that wisdom to help the next generations.

Through scripture, Bible stories, and his personal experiences, Muehlbauer offers insight into a range of topics from life and death to God’s plan for us, to loving God, and learning to pray. He discusses how to develop a faith to boldly face the trials and tribulations against the body and spirit, how to attain the ability to remove fear from the thought of dying, and how to acquire a peaceful spirit with only three fingers.

Delivering an array of messages, Lessons Learned along the Way to Becoming a Boomer is meant to help you overcome any fears about the future and understand that, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can do amazing things.

• Language: English
• Publisher: WestBow Press
• Release date: Aug 5, 2022
• ISBN: 9781664273481

Dave Muehlbauer

Dave Muehlbauer served in the US Air Force in Southeast Asia during the Vietnam War. He still works full time after having failed to retire three times. Muehlbauer is a husband, father, and grandfather.

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To the Holy Spirit, for never giving up on me.

A special thank you to my beautiful wife, Susan, and my awesome aunt

Marilyn, who took on the gargantuan task of making my ramblings

into a cohesive and hopefully rewarding experience for the reader.

CONTENTS

Preface

Lesson 1   Death

Lesson 2   Power Words

Lesson 3   Heart

Lesson 4   All

Lesson 5   I Gate

Lesson 6   Splatter

PREFACE

I am a boomer. Born in 1947, you could say I am on the cutting edge of this generation. With today’s political and social climate so full of hate, I want to bring a little counterbalance instead of counterculture to the world.

I am borderline ADD. You will see it plainly as you follow along through the book. I am not ashamed of it, nor should anyone who has this condition. I poke fun at myself about this because sometimes it can be really funny. Please do not be offended by the references to this condition. Let this book be an inspiration to show you, with the help of the Holy Spirit, you can do amazing things.

I was sixty-two years old when one Thanksgiving dinner our oldest daughter looked at me and said, Daddy, you are ADD. She made this statement as we were standing in my woodworking shop, looking at all the projects scattered around in various stages of completeness. We counted them, and the total was fourteen. I should also add that it took me eighteen years to finish putting the last piece of trim on remodeling our bathroom. I confess I am guilty. Fortunately, I am blessed by being married to a woman of industrial-strength patience.

Today, the news is full of gloom and doom, but this is nothing to us boomers. How many of you readers remember going through civil defense drills by hiding under your desk in your classrooms and waiting for the atom bomb to drop and turn us all into crispy critters?

This book is to help you to overcome any fears you are having about the future. In the Old Testament, the Lord said in Numbers 6:24–26 (NIV), The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you; the Lord turn His face toward you and give you peace.

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DEATH

DEATH

If you are like me, sometimes you do not read the preface. Please take the time and read it now. It will give you insight as to why and how I wrote this book.

Finally, the start of this book. I don’t know how this book will affect the people who read it, but it’s my deep passion that it will make my generation (the boomer generation) move to action to complete Jesus’s last command, Go ye therefore and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit (Matthew 28:19 KJV).

If you continue to read this book, be prepared to enter into a fierce spiritual battle that will manifest itself in the physical world. I was going to sit down last night and start writing but came down with food poisoning. The enemy may finally see that they are losing this fight with me and will not keep me from writing this book.

I have debated whether I should make the lesson on death the first or last lesson. Being in my seventies makes me a little closer to seeing Jesus face-to-face than a good portion of the population.

Wisdom is the tool that we use to put knowledge into action.

This book is primarily for us boomers, but it is valid reading for almost any age. As boomers, at this stage of our lives, some of us start to think of our transition into the next world. We have seen a lot of history being made. We have experienced a lot of emotions, had physical challenges to overcome, and had spiritual battles to fight.

But through all of this, God has been accumulating, in us, a most valuable gift—wisdom. This wisdom we have is a valuable treasure and must be shared with all humankind. I believe information and knowledge accumulation can be taught, but wisdom needs to be experienced. Wisdom is the tool that we use to put knowledge into action.

Now see if these actions apply to you: The first section of the newspaper we head for, after scanning the headlines, is the obituary column. As the old saying goes If I don’t see my name in the obituary, let’s go fishin’. (I come from Minnesota, land of ten thousand lakes and ten million fishing stories, along with mosquitoes too numerous to count).

After looking at the obituary, we then look at how our favorite sports team is doing, and then on to sudoku and the crossword puzzle. It’s funny how the more candles that go on my birthday cake, the less I care about what’s on the front page of the paper. The front-page news is actually fulfilling Jesus’s words about the end-times. But more on that later.

An argument can be made that death is the scariest word in any of the 6,912 (according to Google) languages and dialects used in the world today. Very few people want to talk about or even think about death.

Job 18:14 (KJV) calls death the king of terrors.

David wrote, My heart is sore pained within me, and the terrors of death are fallen upon me (Psalm 55:4 KJV).

These two Old Testament writers did not have the comforting knowledge that we have. Jesus defeated death. Jesus said, These things I have spoken unto you, that in Me, ye might have peace. In the world, ye shall have tribulation: but be of good cheer; I have overcome the world (John 16:33 KJV).

We have nothing to fear about death. They had hope that there was more to come after taking their last breath. But they did not have the many comforting words of Jesus to give them peace.

In my lifetime, the devil has made numerous attempts to kill me. I am a Vietnam vet. The enemy couldn’t kill me, malaria didn’t kill me, and a blood clot in my left arm didn’t kill me. There was also a surgically caused ulcer where I lost almost 40 percent of my blood volume, a blood clot in my right leg, a heart attack, and being run into by an inattentive driver while walking across a parking lot.

None of this killed me (I found out that I bounce pretty well). Not to mention numerous near misses in automobiles that didn’t kill me.

THE TOE TAG

The one thing I wish I could have brought back from Southeast Asia was my toe tag. For those of you who haven’t heard the term, a toe tag is a small form containing information about a dead person, and it is tied to the big toe of that person.

During my Southeast Asia tour of duty of 1968 and 1969, I contracted a serious fever. As it was explained to me later, I came into the field hospital weak, feverish, and delirious.

I had a fever of 103 to 105 degrees. After three days of no letup, my toe tag was filled out. I was, in today’s vernacular, microwaving myself (cooking myself inside out).

I can still remember very vividly the delirious thoughts the fever caused me to have. There were purple trees with yellow fruit on them and cows floating through the sky. Some accounts of people who were high on LSD would accurately describe my delirium. I remember having thoughts about getting a grip on my sanity, getting control of the situation. But it was to no avail.

After a week of unconsciousness, the fever broke, and the medic explained what had happened to me. There was nothing they could do for me medically. Back then, they did not have the medical knowledge we have now. And we were in a combat zone.

They figured it was useless to send me to Clark Air Base in the Philippines. It would be easier to send me home in a body bag than to get me on a stretcher and send me to Clark. That may sound harsh, but I understand the reasoning and have never had any hateful thoughts about that situation.

Years later, I finally got to see my medical records. As I opened the file, I expected to see numerous pages of medical charts. Instead, I found one page with one note scribbled on it: unspecified viral or bacterial infection.

I am honored to have served my country and proud of our military. There is one thing that I take issue with, and it is that, for so many years, the military stonewalled us Vietnam vets on our medical issues. Finally, fifty years later, the government is recognizing Agent Orange exposure in Thailand.

To close out this story, the medic said the staff had a nickname for me, Sgt. Stinky. I got it because, with the delirium, they could not take my temperature orally. It had to be taken rectally. Back then, they did not have all the fantastic medical technology we have now. It’s great to be alive at this time in history.

Jesus said, The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy (John 10:10 KJV). The thief that Jesus was referring to was the devil.

"It was faith that kept Enoch from dying. Instead, he was

taken up to God, and nobody could find him because

God had taken him up" (Hebrews 11:5 GNT).

The Bible only records two people having not seen physical death. Genesis 5:21–24 tells us the first person was Enoch, who was someone who spent three hundred of his 365 years of life in fellowship with God. He then disappeared because God took him away.

The second person to not see physical death was the prophet Elijah. In 2 Kings 2:11 (KJV), Elijah and Elisha kept talking as they walked on; then suddenly a chariot of fire, pulled by horses of fire, came between them. Elijah was taken up to heaven in a whirlwind.

Some Bible scholars believe these two men are the two witnesses who are to appear.

I will send my two witnesses dressed in sackcloth, and they will proclaim God’s message during those 1,260 days. The two witnesses are the two olive trees and the two lamps that stand before the Lord of the earth. If anyone tries to harm them, fire comes out of their mouths and destroys their enemies; and in this way, whoever tries to harm them will be killed. They have authority to shut up the sky, so that there will be no rain during the time they proclaim God’s message. They have authority also over the springs of water, to turn them into blood; they have authority also to strike the earth with every kind of plague as often as they wish. When they finish proclaiming their message, the beast that comes up out of the abyss will fight against them. He will defeat them and kill them, and their bodies will lie in the street of the great city, where their Lord was crucified. The symbolic name of that city is Sodom, or Egypt. (Revelation 11:3–8 GNT)

These scriptures would satisfy the argument that nonbelievers bring up about the Bible having inaccuracies. "For as in Adam all die, even so in Christ shall all be made alive" (1 Corinthians 15:22 KJV).

If all men die, how about Enoch and Elijah? According to scripture, they did not see death. Revelation seems to answer that argument. Remember, in the spirit world, there is no time. I cannot stress enough the need to read your Bible.

The Bible is like a big jigsaw puzzle. The Ten Commandments and the Gospels are like the border pieces, and the rest of the Bible verses are the centerpieces. The more you study the Bible, the more pieces you will understand. The more pieces you put together, the clearer you will understand the will of the Father. Let the Holy Spirit put a peace in your spirit about how all things work for the glory of the Lord.

And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose (Romans 8:28 ESV).

So, we are convinced that every detail of our lives is continually woven together for good, for we are his lovers who have been called to fulfill his designed purpose (Romans 8:28 The Passion Translation).

There are several references about people dying and being brought back to life. The most talked about one is Jesus’s death and resurrection, but the next most talked about is Jesus bringing Lazarus back to life. Jesus also brought Jairus’s daughter back to life:

But he took her by the hand and said, My child, get up! Her spirit returned, and at once she stood up. Then Jesus told them to give her something to eat. (Luke 8:54–55a NIV)

For something to return, it first must leave. This accounting tells us very clearly that spirit and body can be separated and rejoined.

Some other examples of Godly men bring people back to life are: Elijah brought the son of the Zarephath widow back to life; the apostle Peter brings Dorcas back to life. There are several other accounts of people coming back to life.

Why does death bring so much fear into people’s hearts? We can think of several reasons right away. Sadness because of separation with a loved one. Death is a reminder of our frailness.

But I think the biggest reason for fear is the unknown when we take our last breath. The big question as one passes through death is, what happens next?

In literature, death is described as the final door or curtain of our lives. Death separates us from what we know on this side of the door or curtain and what we do not know on the other side. Not knowing something brings a natural fear into our spirit.

Make no mistake about the forces of evil. They do not give time-outs. They want to take you out!

Question: what gives more fear, going to the hospital for tests or waiting for the test results to come back? The tests may only take a few minutes, but the results may take days to be provided, and all the while, the devil and his helpers are flooding your mind with dread, doubt, and fear. They are trying their best to get you away from the one thing that can defeat them: the Word of God. They know every second they keep you from God’s healing scriptures keeps you from your victory over doubt and fear.

Make no mistake about the forces of evil. They do not give time-outs. They want to take you out!

I have not been afraid of death for many years. This lack of fear of death was created by being raised by a loving mother and grandparents who were grounded in the Word of God. It was also reinforced by going to a Bible-based elementary school. The teachers were demanding but fair. In their hearts, they took the responsibility of Proverbs 22:6 (ESV): Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.

PHYSICAL HEALING—THE MOLE

Jesus has also done many physical activities with my body that have reinforced my dominion over the fear of death.

When you get into your sixties, you look yourself over as a preventative measure. I had a mole-like growth starting to grow on the right side of my face. Being a guy, I figured it was no big deal because I am prone to develop moles. Months went by, and there were changes to the size and color of the mole.

The love of my life (my wife) had been prompting me to see