This is a tract version of my testimony; I use it as a tract.
I got the idea when some Jehovah's Witnesses came to my door.
After talking with them for some time and arranging to meet with them the next Saturday, I tried to give them what they thought was a "tract" (which it is... sort of) and they told me they would not take it or even read it. But when I told them that I wrote it; that it was the story of how I met The God of The Bible, they all took one (there were three of them) and promised to read it!
This is...
How I Met The God Of The Bible
"I was found by those who did not seek Me, I became known to those who did not ask after Me." Romans 10:20
“Salvation is far from the wicked, for they do not seek Your statutes.” Psalm 119:155
I was a teenager in the early '70s, heavily influenced by music and the Hippie movement, with all that it entails; drugs, sex, self-indulgence, eastern philosophy, rebelling against authority and on and on. I wanted to be a rich and famous rock star--a very common fantasy for teenagers at the time. Lots of kids (including Myself) had electric guitars, were playing in bands and dreaming of stardom.
Moving forward to My twenties, I was still holding on to the dream of stardom. I was living a normal life oblivious to everything but My own needs and desires when a friend I'd known since high school but hadn't seen in a while stopped over to jam with Me. After we had jammed for a while he started talking to Me about "God" and then went out to his car to get something. Sensing what he was about to do... LOOK OUT! He's got a bible… and he's going to use it! I told him that if he was going to take a bible out of his car I was going to scream. He proceeded to take a bible out of his car. I didn't scream but I thought he was weird. My reaction to that incident at the time was: he had a new girlfriend and she was a "Christian" which accounted for his new-found interest in the bible.
I couldn't have cared less about God or the bible.
One of My pursuits at that time was to become a "Constitutional Lawyer" because of the promise of not having to pay taxes. I started reading the Constitution and was quite impressed with it. I would tell everyone I met that they should read it. But I couldn't find many who even knew what it was, or anyone who had actually read it. Every time I told someone what the Constitution said about what our government could or could not do, (quoting it verbatim) they would look at Me like I was crazy, or some kind of a radical anarchist. One person (a civil servant for ten years) told Me that I shouldn't be reading it. She said it was outdated and no longer of any use to us in this modern time; even going so far as to say that we needed to write a new one that would be more relevant to us.
It just so happened that the same friend with the bible and the "Christian" girlfriend (who was now his wife) knew where I could get a copy of the Constitution to display on My wall. After showing Me how to get one, our conversation turned to God and the bible. I told them that the bible was just an old book written by Moses, to try to keep the people of that time moral. (Of course, I had never read it. But I knew all about it. I didn't need the bible. Having a number of eastern philosophies to pick and choose from I had made Myself My own god.) I also mentioned the "fact" that there were so many people who called themselves "Christians" but were just hypocrites. (I had never met any personally. But I'd heard other people say that… and it sounded good.)
You have to understand something about Me at that time. I thought of Myself as an "Intellectual" and I loved to twist people's words around and play games with their thinking. It was a sport to Me and I was good at it. I played mind games with virtually everyone I talked to… so what happened next was not My usual method of operation.
The hand of God was about to stop Me from playing mind games
For the first time in My adult life I was about to respect someone else enough to actually listen to what they had to say. They said two things to Me. First, Maybe I should read the Bible before dismissing it out of hand. And, Just because other “Christians” couldn't live the way they should, did that mean I couldn't either???
Completely out of character for Me...
I agreed that I should read the bible. AND… Just because other people were hypocrites… That didn’t mean I had to be one also. That second question became a challenge to Me. I could do what others had failed to do!
Shortly after this My wife and I quit our jobs and went to visit her brother in Florida. We stopped at a motel for the night and “found” a Gideon's bible. We started reading it every night before going to sleep. I had trouble falling asleep since My teenage years but reading the bible helped Me to fall asleep quickly. I thought this is great; reading the bible helps Me to sleep.
We took the bible with Us when We left that motel.
I started in Genesis but when I got to the genealogies they wore Me out. So I came up with a new approach, a question really...
What was it about Jesus that caused people, even two thousand years later, to give their lives to Him???
It just so happened there was a red letter bible among the books in the guest room we were sleeping in. So every night... I sat down with the crowds of people in ancient Israel and listened to the words of Jesus. I was fascinated with Jesus. I started to love those red lettered words. I was shocked to find that Jesus was hated for doing good and for the things He was saying. All of the eastern books I'd read had always put the guru or hero in such a good light that it was obvious to everyone he was from God and was telling Us everything We needed to know to become perfect/gods Ourselves. But…
Jesus wasn't like these gurus at all!
When I heard Jesus say, in John 14:6 "I am The Way, The Truth, and The Life: no one comes to the Father, but by Me."
ALL of the eastern philosophy I had believed for years vaporized in an instant. I no longer believed ANY of it.
I knew there was something different about Jesus.
("My sheep hear My voice... and they follow Me." John 10:27)
Fast-forward several weeks. I was now staying in My parents little house up north alone. I was unemployed and didn't want to stay with My wife at her parents' house. That would cramp My drug use and "freedom". She was working and would come up on the weekends.
I spent a lot of time alone. I continued Smoking pot, Blasting My music, Dreaming of stardom, Being Self-indulgent, and reading the Bible. What happened next shook Me out of twenty-six years of complacency.
GOD SENT A STORM... A VERY BAD STORM.
The little house I was staying in was out in the woods. It was late at night when the storm hit.
The electricity was gone and I was ALONE in the dark for hours as the storm showed Me... THE WRATH OF GOD!!!
This was the worst storm I had ever been in. There was no basement. NO PLACE OF SAFETY ANYWHERE!!!
As the storm grew more intense I became very frightened. I could tell this was the kind of storm that could produce a tornado.
I felt an odd pressure in My chest that I had never felt before. I had a strong feeling that something bad was about to happen...
AND... I was TERRIFIED!!!
There was only one thing on My mind...
I KNEW THAT I MIGHT DIE THAT NIGHT.
I KNEW THAT IF I DIED I WOULD STAND GUILTY BEFORE A RIGHTEOUS, HOLY GOD.
I KNEW THAT IF I DIED I WOULD GO TO HELL.
I KNEW I DESERVED TO GO TO HELL.
I KNEW BECAUSE THE BIBLE SHOWED ME I WAS A SINNER.
“The word of God is alive and active, sharper than any double-edged sword. It cuts all the way through, to where soul and spirit meet, to where joints and marrow come together. It judges the desires and thoughts of the heart. There is nothing that can be hidden from God; everything in all creation is exposed and lies open before His eyes. And it is to Him that we must all give an account of ourselves.”
“Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.”
i GOT ON my KNEES AND i BEGGED GOD NOT TO KILL me!
HE DIDN'T... The storm passed... and i went to sleep.
The next morning the sun was shining, the birds were singing, the air was fresh and clear. And... I was angry at God for putting Me on My knees and begging him to spare My life. After all it was just a thunderstorm. I had simply overreacted. My life was probably never really in jeopardy.
My brother stopped by and walked around outside to see if there was any serious damage. On his way over he had seen branches and trees knocked down from the storm that night. When he came inside he asked Me if I had looked behind the house. I told him no and asked why. He said that a tornado had touched down behind the house. I went outside to see the damage. Twenty yards from the back of the house about a half dozen large oak trees had been snapped in half. They were laying down in a circle where the tornado had touched down. It then went up over the house and shredded the tops of the trees on the other side of the house.
The pressure drop I had felt in my chest during the storm that night was indeed...
A TORNADO TRAVELING DIRECTLY OVER MY HEAD!
I realized that God had spared my life that night. He answered my first prayer to Him with mercy and compassion, and not with the judgment I so richly deserved. I also considered that maybe I shouldn’t be playing around with the mercy and patience of God. After all, if a near miss with a tornado couldn’t wake me up, what would He have to use next!
Just how hard WAS my head anyway!
Shortly after this my wife and I asked God to forgive our sins, and we asked Jesus to save us. When we next saw my friend and his wife we asked, “What must we do to be saved?" They told us that if we believe Jesus died for our sins we should ask God to forgive us; we should repent (turn from our sins), and ask Jesus to save us. We told them we had done that, and they said, “Then you’re saved”. This was a great relief and joy to us.
WE WERE SAVED!!!
It's been a long and bumpy road and we've been through a lot; including a six-year detour through the "Faith Message" which shipwrecked our trust in God. We have struggled with the issues of trusting God and relying on Him alone after being Self-Reliant "Overcomers," Members of God's Elite "End Time Army," trusting in Our Own Spiritual Prowess ("Faith") to get Us through this life and take Us to Our Special Rewards in heaven, reserved only for Those who “Overcome”.
We now believe the Biblical definition of faith.
Still... GOD HAS BEEN FAITHFUL TO US!
HE brought us back to trust and reliance IN JESUS.
HE has kept me and my wife together, and in love. (we were teenagers when we met and married)
HE has revived and strengthened our love for HIM and our commitment to HIM.
HE will complete the work that HE started in us so long ago.
"Being confident of this very thing, that God who has begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus The Messiah." Philippians 1:6
PLEASE! Get a Bible and read It! THE BIBLE IS GOD’S WORD. It is how God speaks directly to us. Read It every day.
Please keep this in mind as you start your journey: GOD DOES NOT WANT YOU TO BECOME “RELIGIOUS”
(Read Matthew 7:21-23, 23:13-39 to see what Jesus thinks about “religious” people.)
God Wants a Personal Relationship with you.
A Relationship as Real, as Important, and as Meaningful as a Father and His Child/a Husband and Wife. (2 Corinthians 6:18)
When we have a love relationship in our life, we know that if we want to keep our love alive, we must work at it every day or we will lose it. When we first meet someone we love, we naturally want to spend as much time together as we can. We hate being apart, and we can’t wait to be together again. Our relationship with God should be exactly the same. The only way to get to know someone is by spending time with them, speaking with them, and listening to them. If you spend only one or two hours a week with someone you claim to love; I would doubt that you wanted a relationship with that person at all. The Bible is God’s chosen way to speak to us. To get to know God we must spend time with Him. Reading God’s word every day is spending time with Someone we love in order to build and strengthen our relationship with Him. Start in the Gospel of John or Luke (Gospel means good news). Ask God to give you eyes to see, ears to hear, and a heart and mind to receive, understand, and obey His Word. Keep reading all four Gospels until you know Jesus. He will turn you, change you, open your spiritual eyes, forgive your sins and set you free from them. Jesus will give you a new birth (a spiritual birth), and make you completely whole.
GOD TELLS US IN HIS WORD:
“It is your sins that have cut you off from God” Isaiah 59:2
“There is none that does good, no, not one. All have sinned” Romans 3:12, 23
“He that believes on the Son has everlasting life: and he that does not believe the Son shall not see life; but the wrath of God remains on him.” John 3:36
”Nothing unclean, no one who does anything detestable, and no liars will ever enter heaven. Only those whose names are written in the lamb's Book of Life.” Revelation 21:27
“But the faithless, and unbelieving, and the unclean, and murderers, and the sexually immoral, and drug users, and idolaters, and all liars,
will be thrown into the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death." Revelation 21:8
“The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus The Messiah our Lord.” Romans 6:23
“Repent, turn away from your sins, and turn to God. Then your sins will be taken away.” Acts 3:19
"Choose this day whom you will serve... as for me and my family, we will serve the Lord." Joshua 24:15
"Believe [entrust your spiritual well-being] in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you shall be saved" Acts 16:31
“Being born again, not of corruptible seed, but of incorruptible, by the word of God, which lives and endures forever.” 1Peter 1:23
"For by grace you have been saved through faith. This is not your own doing; it is the gift of God, not a result of anything you’ve done, so that no one may boast." Ephesians 2:8, 9
“Looking unto Jesus the author and finisher of our faith” Hebrews 12:2
"My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me: and I give to them eternal life; and they shall never perish, neither shall any man pluck them out of My hand.
My Father, which gave them to Me, is greater than all; and no man is able to pluck them out of My Father's hand." John 10:27-29
I hope to see you in eternity with Jesus our Savior!
For the glory of Jesus The Messiah, my Lord and my God.
His servant and yours, Tom
(You can E-Mail me at
LetUsReasonTogether@live.com)
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