Where To Start.... "

I never thought I would find myself doing this, but as in all things, life has a way of changing when you least expect it.  The thought came to me just a few days ago that sharing my personal life experience with people that have been important to me might somehow be worth something and, might I say, might even benefit someone somehow.  I don't imagine that I am unique or that my experience is special in any sense of the word, but it struck me that I have never shared my journey with the people I most care about.  So, here goes!  Take it for what it's worth.

I had no idea what I was about to get into.  All I wanted was to pick up a baby carriage.  Frank and Janet were in the process of moving to Woodland Park Foundation, a self-supporting institution just outside South River, Ontario.  They had just recently become Seventh-day Adventists and were entering an adventure like no other.  Of course, they were somewhat oblivious as to what the future held for them, as we were with our own.  When I arrived in their home, we engaged in a conversation that soon led to the subject of religion and the Bible's predictions of what to expect for the future.  I had always been very uncomfortable with the new direction their life had taken, but for some strange reason, I ventured to ask them questions.  Remember that all I had wanted was a baby carriage they promised they would sell me.  Two hours later, I left with my purchase and more questions than my poor little head could handle.

When I got home, I brought the carriage in the house with me, and I could see that Janice was somewhat perturbed at the length of my absence.  We sat in the living room together and I told her of my visit with Frank and Janet.  I told her that for two hours, I asked them questions on the Bible and what it contained, and for two hours they told me things that just blew me away.  I remember saying to Janice: "How is it, that we believe we belong to the only true Christian church and yet, live as if God, who supposedly created us, hardly has so much as a passing thought in our minds?  We claimed to have the truth, yet knew nothing concerning what our own church considered to be God's Holy Book?  Frank and Janet knew more about the Bible in the short time that they had been studying then we had learned in our entire lives.Why is it that we had the truth, yet lived so carelessly in so many ways.  We smoked, we got tipsy with alcohol, we thought nothing of using foul language, tell dirty jokes, indulged in sexual innuendo, etc., etc., etc.  Here Frank and Janet were getting involved in some strange religion that couldn't possibly be of God, yet they spoke fondly of Him constantly.  They cleaned up their lives, they knew the Scriptures, and they never seemed so happy.  Yet, we somehow comforted ourselves with the assumption that we had the truth!"  All of a sudden, life didn't make sense anymore and I knew that something had to change.

Now, what happened next wasn't so pretty.  Janice wasn't ready for this, as I am sure I wouldn't have been either had our roles been turned around.  Let's face it, it scared her out of her mind, and she went on the defensive!  Quite frankly, I don't remember all the details of our fight, but somehow in the end, we were able to calm down and talk things through.  We agreed that we would start reading the Bible together, just so we'd be able to know for ourselves what it really said.

And so, began an experience that forever altered the course of our lives.  Do we regret it? absolutely not!  If I were to sum it up in one small phrase, it is this: We discovered that God had set us up for an encounter with Him that we never knew could exist or was even possible for humans to have!  And all this, not via some strange New Age experience or by nebulous experiences produced by some ecstatic emotion, but through an instrument that had been under our noses our entire lives... the Holy Bible.  And so, from this simple beginning, our journey began.

    "Now unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, according to the power that works in us,..."  Ephesians 3:20.

Now you have My Life As It Is... Part I.