Quote:
Originally Posted by Ferd
...I’ve lived just long enough to know that epiphanies are rare and the purview of the novice. Almost always for people who have been around for any amount of time, the moment of change occurs after a period of reflection.... often a period that is long and internally torturous.
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I asked Jesus Christ to come into my heart and life on a Monday night. I it was March 27, 1955 and I was 17 years old. I had been reaching out to God for some time and had been reading the Bible. I consider that night to be the date of my "salvation" although God and I had been reaching out to each other for some time.
My life was changed! I became a new creature! People around me could see the change. I joined a local Baptist church and took an active part in youth activities and even did some speaking in Sunday School and youth meetings. I felt like I had been called by God to ministry but I didn't know just what.
As I read the Word and some other stuff and heard some preachers on the radio I realized there was more available for me than what I had received so far. I read about an experience called "the baptism in the Holy Ghost" and I wanted it. In my searching, reading, and praying I encountered a form of water baptism that was different than the one I had received as a child in the Congregational Church and later in the Baptist Church. I submitted to that water baptism and started attending a UPC. A few months later I was baptized in the Spirit.
I attended a year of Bible School in St. Paul, MN. There I heard some more "new" stuff. Some I could believe and some I could not. It bothered me that I was given the impression that I was not really a child of God, not really sincere, not really saved, not really rapture ready, not really part of the New Testament church until I had spoken with tongues more than a year after my life changing conversion experience. But, I began to preach/teach that in spite of misgivings and that was what "we all believed."
Things worked out that I was not able to return to Bible School and I served/ministered in various capacities in the UPC and ALJC for over a decade. I felt like I had to leave the ALJC church and for a while did not regularly attend any church.
Over time I have prayed, fasted, and studied and I currently feel/believe that I am where God wants me to be and doing what God wants me to do.
Over the years I have changed with respect to some of the things I believe.