I grew up in a nominal Christian home. My parents both believed in the God of the Bible, and they were members of a Methodist church where they, along with me and my older sister and younger brother, attended infrequently. On those occasions when we did attend church we were worshipping Him with our lips only, our hearts were far from Him, as our everyday lifestyle revealed.

At about the age of 9, I thought that the Bible was only the word of man, because the Bible seemed egocentric in the Book of Genesis 1:26 since it says:

"Let us make man in our image and after our likeness, and let them have dominion over all the earth."

After reading this portion of Scripture I was convinced that the Bible certainly had to be written only by a man because I thought only a man would make such a statement.

Upon graduation from high school I was awarded an athletic scholarship to a Southern Baptist University in Richmond, Virginia. It was not until then that my understanding and belief in God took root. To me God and Jesus, His Son, was just a sometimes thought when someone got sick or was about to die.

After completing my sophomore year I decided to fulfill my active duty military obligation as mandated by the Universal Military Training Act which was enacted by the United States Congress at the beginning of the Korean war.

I enlisted in the United States Air Force, rather than be drafted, and I graduated from their Air University School of Aviation Medicine.

Upon completion of a required eighteen month deployment to Europe with a combat medical evacuation squadron in Evreux, France, I was awarded a honorable discharge at an Air Force Base located in Tennessee which completed my eight year military obligation.

While in Tennessee I met and married a girl that I met in Old Hickory, just a short distance away from the air force base. After the aforementioned discharge we decided to relocate to California in order to be near my family.

After the birth of our first daughter we moved to a small apartment in San Bernardino, California. There we were invited to attend a spring revival where our next door neighbor attended church.

As the message of the Second Coming of Jesus was ending the Pastor began giving an invitation to the congregation to receive Jesus Christ as Saviour.

As he continued the invitation I began to pray and I said in my heart; 'Lord Jesus if you are real please give me the faith to believe that you died in my place to pay my sin debt, and not mine only, but for all mankind as well.

The Pastor then recited Ephesians 2:8-9 and I was suddenly filled with peace, love and joy as I went forward to kneel at the alter asking Jesus Christ to save me as set out in the Book of Romans 10:9-10. At the same time I became a New Creature in Him according to 2 Corinthians 5:17.

Since that special day I first believed and received Jesus Christ as my Saviour, my life has been filled with meaning and joy. His amazing grace has lifted me to the mountain top and His mercy has carried me through times of testing, and it will also comfort me as I pass through the valley of the shadow of death if He takes my breath away before He catches me up to meet Him in the air.

By His Spirit I have found the purpose of my existence, and by receiving Him as Saviour my life has radically changed along with my perspective of the world around me.

If you have not yet believed in, or received Jesus Christ as your Lord and Saviour, I challenge you to pray my simple prayer, "Lord Jesus, if you are real, give me faith to believe that you died for me and all mankind," and see what happens.

I am confident that it will change your life just like it did mine and you will at last find joy unspeakable, full of glory to the only begotten Son of God.