Part 4

I briefly considered going back to school for a computer science degree, but a Residence Hall Counselor’s position — and its generous benefits — didn’t come through, so I had to find work. I was doing aerobics at the time, and as I was driving into town one night to go to the gym, I prayed that God would give me a job and a church home. After aerobics, I put on a Purdue sweatshirt and went to Wal-Mart. There, a guy came up to me and asked me if I had gone to Purdue. I said yes. He explained that he was an Industrial Engineer from Purdue himself. He asked where I was working. I told him I needed a job. He told me about a position at his place of work. (I later blew the opportunity, but it was nonetheless an answer to one half of my prayer.) He asked me, these being tough times (spring of ’91 was indeed tough for graduating engineers; I continue to hear about it from others who graduated about that time), if I had God on my side. I told him that I liked to think that I did, but that I needed to find a church home. He told me about The World of Pentecost, an Apostolic Pentecostal church right there in Columbus. I told him I’d try it. Hey, it started at 2:00 in the afternoon; I wouldn’t even have to get up early!

This church was alive, I’m telling you. I went a couple Sundays and met some young people that seemed nice, but I was skipping the Wednesday service. Reggie, the guy from Wal-Mart, told me that the pastor’s father was going to be preaching on the next Wednesday, so I thought it would be nice to hear him speak and showed up for that service. That night, I heard one of the simplest and yet most provocative things I have even heard: “If church isn’t your favorite place to be, what are you going to do in Heaven?” With that one statement, I was convinced. I would start going to all the services I could, every time the door was open.

And so it was that I began to “commit my way unto the Lord.” I talked to the pastor one afternoon after service, and he suggested that I come talk to him and really meet him. So I did. In that meeting, I explained to him where I was had been doing, and where I had problems with my faith. I was stuck one simple point. (The subject is not worth going into here.) Other preachers were quick to lay down the law about the matter, but Brother Mitchell suggested a different approach. As one who promotes two things above all else, that “prayer is where the action is,” and “God’s house is a house of prayer,” he allows folks to have prayer meetings in the church at any given time. He told me that sometime after getting really close to God in prayer (or “prayed through” as we Pentecostals put it), just ask Him what He thought about my concern. So one night, after feeling the awesome presence of God to the point of weeping because I felt so small in comparison (which still happens from time to time today, by the way; it’s not a one-time experience), I did exactly what pastor Mitchell suggested and asked God what His opinion was. And He told me. As surely as you are reading these words. What did He say? I’ll tell you the same thing Pastor Mitchell told me. Pray through and ask Him yourself. I’ve no doubt that we’ll have the same answer.

This was the missing key! The real life! This is what I had been searching for: A real one-on-one relationship with my Creator, my Father, my Lord!

You have to understand that being filled with the Holy Ghost and living a dedicated life is only the beginning. When I “came to God,” it wasn’t clean and innocent like some kids who are filled at age 5 or something. I had a lot of baggage, and will forever carry some of it around in my head. However, God has brought me out of darkness and into His marvelous light by degrees. Another significant chapter of my story is intertwined with my involvement with Dungeons and Dragons.

It also takes a lot of good people and prayer to come out of all the levels of darkness I was buried under, and I have been blessed with many strong friends who have prayed earnestly for me, as well as one of the best pastors in the world. Not only does being delivered by God take being filled with the Holy Ghost and living a separated life, it also takes a church; a group of people that you can help and be helped by, led by a person who is fair, balanced, and above all, striving for the good of the people he’s leading. The body of Christ is literally that: God’s presence in this world since He went back up to Heaven, and it will be so until He comes again. If you want to be saved, you’re going to have to find a church to attend, a Holy Ghost-filled church that teaches the same thing that the apostles taught. For more on my church in particular, see The World of Pentecost.

It took many years of searching – no, fumbling is a better word – but He worked it out. He has never left me alone since that very first prayer. He’s waiting to draw close to you, too, but you have to ask. But asking for God to come close isn’t the whole story. There are other things that you will want to do, if you are to draw close to God in return. God hates sin. And really, deep down inside, if your life is full of sin, you hate it too. There are a lot of excuses for not living the life you know you can, a life of victory over sin and the pain and the bitterness and especially the loneliness of living apart from God, but they all sound hollow — even to yourself — don’t they?

When I got back to college after that Christmas-break “rebirth,” and started studying the scriptures to prove to myself what they contained, I wrote down the things I found and my thoughts about them. I edited and expanded these bible studies and have reproduced them on my Doctrine pages. If you’d like to read more about the truth and about God’s plan for salvation, read through these. I think you’ll find, as I have, that they’re not hard to read or difficult to understand. You don’t have to be a “bible scholar” to be saved. In fact, God’s Truth is really straightforward. But don’t take my word for it. Get out your bible (everyone has at least one), and study along with them. Prove it for yourself too. That’s the only way it will truly “stick” anyway.

[ BACK ] [ UP ]