GodFire.net is a comprehensive bible study resource based in Alamogordo, NM
Title
THE PATHFINDER: Reconciliation, Salvation of All, Kingdom of God, Sons of God
Description
Excerpted from the website:
- Margit and I both were initially saved when we were in our late 20's. That was in the summer of 1971.
There are many things that I am not aware of, I am sure, that brought me to the place of what is commonly called salvation; but those things that I do know, I will relate.
My family has always been very loving and supportive. As far back as I can remember, not only my immediate family, but all my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandparents have been close-knit. Therefore, I was fortunate to have such an atmosphere in which to grow up. Nevertheless, there has always been an element in our family’s fabric which was responsible for shipwrecking lives — alcoholism. My oldest brother, Bobby, died in 2002 at the age of 64 due to excessive drinking and smoking, as did my uncle, Delmar, at the age of 62. They were afflicted with that demon more so than the others.
Bobby, being my older brother by four years, was my standard by which to live, my idol. Wherever he went or whatever he did, I was there and doing it along with him, and most often, everything revolved around drinking and smoking. He taught me how to inhale cigarettes at the age of six years old. I can remember at that age, we used to sneak our grandpa’s beer from underneath his and our grandma’s bed and sitting in the scorching desert heat drinking a hot can of beer. We couldn’t take a cold beer from the refrigerator, for he only kept one or two in it at a time, and it would be missed if we took it from there.
It goes without saying, that by the time I was fourteen, my mind and habits were set fairly strong toward destruction, and by the time I was twenty-one years old, the tree of my life seemed to be permanently bent in that direction. I lived to have fun, and fun to me was drinking, smoking, motorcycle racing, and frequenting bars with my brother.
I met and married Margit while stationed near Nuerenburg, Germany (Fürth), she was nineteen (19) and I was twenty (20). We had three beautiful children, two boys and girl. Even with a family I loved dearly, they were second to my brother and our drinking together.
God gave me a wife who could not easily go home to Mamma, due to lack of finances on both sides of the ocean. If I had married a local girl, there is no way she could have lived with me for six years; but with Margit being trapped, she endured until the day of my end, and that end came in a very unusual way, and it was after I have been drinking beer all day and riding motorcycles with my brother.
My brother and Shirley, his wife, and Margit and myself, were visiting our parents for awhile before going home. We were drinking beer and complaining about the long-haired hippies who were ruining my barber business. You see, I had just gotten out of barber college and went to work at by my cousin's barber shop, this was 1971. Even the business men were going longer between hair cuts, and this was not good for a new barber struggling to build a clientele with a family to support.
In the midst of our disgruntled discussion, my mother said, "Do you know that there is a place in the Bible that says it is a shame for a man to have long hair." I replied that I didn’t believe such a thing would be in the Bible, which would be good if it was; for I’ve always worn short hair, and such a verse would go along with our dispute about those "long-haired hippies." But it just didn’t seem to me that there would be anything like that in the Bible.
Nevertheless, she let us know that it was there, and she would prove it if she could find her Bible. She went to her bedroom closet and in less than a minute she returned with her Bible, which had not been read for more than twenty years. (My mother and dad had read it some when they were attending a country Seventh Day Adventist church, hoping to prove the preacher wrong.)
The first miracle was that she found her Bible, the second miracle was that she opened the Bible to the scripture. She didn’t have to spend time looking for it, and the verse wasn’t marked. It was simply God setting the stage for a lost young man of twenty-seven years old who thought he knew what he wanted in life. My mother read the verse: "Doth not even nature itself teach you, that, if a man have long hair, it is a shame unto him?" 1 Cor. 11:14
Even after she read the verse, I didn’t believe it was there. I thought she was making it up. And that is what I told her. She said, "Here, read it for yourself." The picture is still clearly imbedded in my mind with finger pointing to the verse as she handed me the Bible. I took the Book and read the verse for myself, and what an explosion of life that erupted in me! I felt like reading and absorbing every word in the Bible.
I can remember saying, "Wow! That is interesting!" I then asked my mother if I could borrow her Bible, since I didn’t have one. She, of course, said "Sure. Take it as long as you like. I don’t read it anyway," and I took it home with every intention of reading it. However, I did not feel the same way the next morning. The fact is, I was very embarrassed for showing such weakness in front of my brother, my wife and sister-in-law, and my parents. I remember thinking that I must have been really drunk to have pulled such a stunt as telling everyone that I wanted to read the Bible; for to me, that was a sign of weakness, and I certainly didn’t want my family to think I was some kind of a weak cripple.
After a couple of weeks, Margit, asked me if we should return my mother’s Bible, since I was not reading it. I told her to take it back for I had no plans of reading it, and I didn’t. Ah, but God had other plans. From that fateful night of reading that seemingly insignificant verse, the very presence of Christ Jesus was with me. I did not know that was what it was at the time; but I can remember the warm feeling in my soul, and the desire to experience the joy and happiness that Jesus was experiencing at all times with His Father. And this was a God and Jesus, so I thought, that I did not believe really existed; yet I wanted their joy and happiness.
I did not stop drinking; but for three months after that initial experience with 1 Corinthians 11:14, the more I drank the worse I felt. Where I used to know a similitude of joy, I could no longer find it, and this was terrifying; for the joy of drinking was my life. If I could not enjoy drinking, my life was over. There was no reason to live, so it seemed. But my thoughts kept going back to wanting to experience the joy and happiness I knew Jesus was experiencing all the time. This, however, was an impossibility, as far as I could see. For my concept of such joy could only be known in heaven, and, of course, I knew I couldn’t go to church every Sunday for the rest of my life, which I thought would be necessary make it to heaven after I died. Such a thing would be a much too severe hell for me to endure. I knew I didn’t have it in me to be obediently and do for the rest of my life that which was contrary to everything I had always lived for. Therefore, I resigned myself to live the rest of my life as I had always done, but now without the joy I once had in drinking, and wind up in the tormenting flames of hell forever. What a terrible dilemma I was in. No solution was in sight.
But God knew exactly how to draw me into the loving arms of Jesus Christ. A fellow barber was reading Billy Graham’s book, "World Aflame," and he commented on how the prophecies in it was like reading the daily newspaper. I politely responded that I would like to read it sometime. Being the good Baptist that he was, I found the book instantly shoved into my hands, with him saying, "Here. Go ahead and read it." I tried to wiggle out of the trap I had set for myself, and said, "No, I mean, after you read it." He quickly responded, "I’ve read it several times. I was just glancing back over it." I quickly processed thoughts in my mind and deduced, "I can take this challenge. I will read the book; for if the life-style I have always known is right for me, and I believe it is," I can recall thinking, "then nothing, not even this book can change my believes, shake me, or alter my course of life." Although I was thoroughly miserable, I could not turn loose.
The book was entitled, "World Aflame," and it set my world aflame. Every word was like the verse I had read three months prior to this. I was deluged with waves of excitement, of encouragement, of enlightenment — of Life. When I read the part about Jesus dying for the sins of the world, which included my own, that salvation comes by confessing Him as Lord, and being born again of His Spirit. — I knew something with crystal clarity. I knew that if I was born of Him, and His Spirit was in me, then I did not have to go to church every Sunday the rest of my life and wait until I died to go to heaven in order to know the Joy of Jesus Christ. If He was in me, then I could know that joy right now. That is what I was looking for all my life, but could not find it. There was a fragment of joy in the bottle; but now I knew this was the real joy, and I would be a fool to turn from it. I then confessed Jesus as my Lord to the glory of God my Father, and the weight of the world was suddenly lifted from my weary shoulders. Life, and life more abundantly was mine forever! It was at that time that I had a burning desire to share this wonderful phenomenon to the world. (http://godfire.net/)
Languages
English
Address
- PO Box 4004
- Alamogordo NM 88311 US
Contact
- Godfire.Net
Additional Information
email: 
Related Domains
External Links
- Alexa: GodFire.net
- WHOIS for GodFire.net
