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When I became a Christian at the age of eighteen The Holy Spirit filled me with the love of Christ for all people, the priceless peace of Christ, and God's own pleasure in righteousness. It was wonderful! Romans 14:17 It was a pleasure to walk in his commands and this was done out of love not compulsion. I didn't have to earn his love and salvation since I had already received it without any effort on my part other than asking him to be my Lord. As Jesus said ‘this is the work God requires, to believe in the one he has sent’ (Jesus). I was a clean lamp from which the love of Christ was shining and people saw it! Jesus said ‘they will know you are my disciples by your love ‘.  Sadly, many in the body of Christ have fallen from this great height and don't even realize it. Somewhere along the way they were led into the political area and told to reclaim the godly heritage of this nation by voting in leaders who would legislate godly values thus returning this nation to God. In the course of doing this these members have lost God's love for the lost and began hating them instead. There is nothing wrong with voting for leaders that champion godly values but not at the expense of Christ's mission to a lost world. Your hatred is burning the priceless bridge of Christ's love! We need to remember what the big picture is. It's about bringing Christ's love to his enemies, the same way it was delivered to us! Remember one must be born again to see the kingdom of heaven and until that point a person remains at enmity with God. The devil understands this and loves to distract us from this. Someone once said if the devil can't get you to do wrong, he'll get you to do right wrong! It's not our task to enter Christ's rule on earth but to continue the work of his Father as long as daylight lasts which is the salvation of souls. We've got a 5th seal to fill so let's get to it and ‘think from what a height we have fallen and repent and do as we once did’. 

The year was 1977 and I was 14 and a strange thing would happen to me over the entire year. Every night when I would go to bed I would lay there and think how much I loved my parents and life itself and how horrible that it would all end someday…forever! I would see myself drifting away in space never to exist again. I would get so upset I would have to stop thinking about it! I knew me nothing of God and was taught evolution in school. Stranger still was the fact that this ended as soon as I turned 15 and I remember even noticing that at the time. Fast forward to September 1980. Mom and Dad moved to Phoenix Arizona with my brother Grant and I. I had just turned 17 and my brother was 16. My Dad bought a service station in Scottsdale after I was unable to get a decent job because of my age and lack of a high school diploma. Initially it was very difficult adjusting since we had moved to a completely new country and knew no one and had left all our friends in Canada. Dad actually sent the three of us (Mom, Grant, and I) back to see if we really wanted to go back but we were all cured after a couple of weeks wondering what is was we missed? I made new friends and starting smoking weed with everyone else with the occasional taking of harder drugs. And booze of course which was a long-standing staple in our family. Nevertheless we were responsible and hard working but we loved to party! Early 1982 One night a bunch of us were taking mescaline and were going to meet at shroom rock and I had arranged to go with someone after work. So I went home just after 5 and had a shower and popped the mescaline (I took a hit and a half). Then I headed to my friend's place. Shortly after arriving I started tripping and sure enough my friend bailed on me! So I jumped in the tow truck I was driving and headed out alone and tripping! I never made it to the party. The trip was so intense I had to get off the road and ended up in echo canyon. I was bombarded by lights and noises (like traffic). I had to lay down so I couldn't see outside the truck. I spent all night there tripping! When morning came it had finally settled down enough for me to make my way home. Mom and Dad had company from Winnipeg and I was now totally paranoid!!! Later that day I went to the station and was so paranoid I had to hide in the back room. I was a mess!!! Following this the paranoia continued everyday and I always felt like I was being watched. I was very distressed! I started crying out to God for help even though I didn't know there was a God! One night I was on my way to a bar to meet coworkers and had stopped at a convenience store across the street from the bar which was also around the corner from our station. I was standing out front drinking some milk I had bought to coat my stomach for a night of heavy drinking. Really I was stalling because I knew as soon as I walked into the bar I would be totally paranoid! So this lowly looking dude rides up on his motorcycle. I knew him because he was a patron of our service station which was only a block away. We start chatting and I remember having the thought 'what would the store clerks think about me talking to this guy ' since they knew me too. I rejected thought as wrong. Somewhere during the conversation he mentioned God and I told him I had been looking for God. He asked me if I knew Jesus and I said I didn't. We went around to the back of the store and he told me about Jesus and asked me if I wanted to receive Him and I said yes. He led me in the sinner's prayer which I repeated to God. Instantly I felt His Spirit stir inside me and I told Pat (that was his name) at the time. I was instantly healed from the oppression!!! We chatted a little more and I went straight home rejoicing!!! The next day I was at work leaning up against the doorframe with a big smile on my face and our mechanic asked me what happened to me the night before? I told him I got saved and he replied with a thumbs up. I wondered why he didn't ask what I got saved from since I hadn't told him? I knew nothing about sin, salvation, eternal life etc. but he obviously did! That same day Pat came by the station with some information about Jesus and after he left one of my friends took me aside and said 'you're not getting into that crap are you?'. I told him it wasn't crap and since I had been healed there would be no dissuading me and I knew nothing about the stigma of believers. I learned later that the thought of the clerks looking down on me for taking to this lowly looking dude and my friend's statement were all attempts by the devil to steal the seed!!! Shortly after I took a vacation with another friend who was exploring all sorts of explanations for the origin of life. We were staying at a cabin that he said he knew the owner which turned out to be a lie. The owner, a cop, sent his copy buddies down to use the cabin and when they found us there we were arrested!!! We also had large quantities of weed since we were on a month long vacation and they thought we were dealing it! Explaining that I managed a service station in Scottsdale didn't seem to believable to them. So we taking to jail and all our things were locked in a local storage. We were released and had very little cash on us so bought bus tickets towards where our stuff was and then had to hitchhike the rest of the way. We got a ride from a guy that would take us the rest of the way but we would have to spend a night at his place first. He had all kinds of ideas on how life began also and since I didn't know any better I was open but knew Jesus had to have something to do with it! I decided to stop smoking weed as a result of this incident. Later that year I went out to shoot pool with another friend and found out he had just become a Christian and his uncle was giving him different books on the subject, one of which was The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey which is lent to me. This was my first introduction to Christianity (aside from The Holy Spirit!) and man was I excited!!!! I now knew about eternal life and God's wonderful plans for us!!!! So that's how I became a Christian! God has been very merciful to me along the way since I had some major struggles with 'the world' and at one point made the decision to give up what God had given me so I could party with everyone again since I knew I couldn't do that and stay with God. Man, what an idiot!!! God snatched me from the fire!!!!! And here I am over 40 years later and safe and sound in Jesus and wanting to help others receive the greatest gift in the universe…Jesus and a future!!!