In 1976 I ‘CHALLENGED’ God…to PROVE to me, that HE is REAL.
I look back on that brief moment in time and I am amazed at the audacity of that statement. My close friend and co-worker, Mark Bagby, had come to a new reality. He talked to me about a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and he in turn, challenged me to say a simple prayer, whenever I would think about such things. Well, I did. Three times as a matter of fact. And by the end of that week my entire world –and belief system—turned upside down.
Jesus spoke to me in many profound ways over the next weeks, months and years. And to say I have never been the same is a serious understatement. I was, I thought, an intellectual. A systems analyst and entrepreneur by day…and a budding master-criminal by night. I sought out those involved in circumventing the law, in any way that would make money…for that was MY god at the time. And because I had made a conscious decision to be amoral and be a ‘player’ in whatever organization I could sell my creative, technical expertise to (EFTS); I was definitely headed for either an early grave or prison.
While I thought I had everything figured out about science and evolution and history and people’s ways and motivations, I was truly a person suffering from ‘Young-Man’s Disease’. I was 24 at the time. Since that time, when God “smacked me upside the head with a 2x4”, as my Grandpa would say, I have learned quite a bit, about myself, other people, and above all, the nature and character of God –the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit.
eChrista.com’s purpose or mission is to not espouse merely things that I have learned along this journey, but rather bring hundreds of others into this webspace to share THEIR insights and experiences. While we will be centered around REAL TESTIMONIES of what God has been doing or has done, in their lives; we will also create various videos and illustrations that will hopefully ‘lift the veil’ that ALL non-believer’s have over their mind’s-eye. That is, they may THINK the earth is flat, as far as they can SEE…but in reality the earth is round and NOT the center of our solar system, galaxy or the universe. All of what ‘Conventional Wisdom’ once believed has, over the years been proven to be FALSE. That was the state of my beliefs and I found, that with a little faith, Jesus took that veil of pride away so that I could find, or see, the TRUTH…in so many areas that it would take a lifetime to study. I now know, more fully, that I don’t know even a small percentage of the extent of His ‘Intelligent Design’ and engineering of the world we live in.
I believe, that IF you too would be willing to open up YOUR mind, just a tiny bit to what we will be discussing here, on this website, over the next months, that you also will have that VEIL lifted from YOUR eyes as well. Now I also understand that there are those out there that a skeptics and feel Christianity is just a crutch for weak-minded people. I will tell you that I was once a preeminent skeptic and I strove to be the toughest, hardest, most fearless person anyone would ever meet. And if given the smallest slight or disrespect, I was highly motivated to correct their impression of me.
There’s an old saying that goes: “If you knew me then, the way I was, and know me now; you’d understand how far I have come”. I used to brag that; “I don’t change much, and I don’t change often”. And it is because of that nature that accepting God’s true GRACE was hard for me to fully understand. I didn’t understand receiving SO much for so little…a simple act of faith, (which in reality also came from His demonstrated love and faithfulness in my life) brought me to repentance, or a turning around and making Jesus, my boss and master-advisor/expert (aka LORD). And I found that even while I was zealously trying to lead other’s down a different path HE was actively involved in working on my behalf. It was that revelation that He loved me from the beginning, and that I was indeed a sinner, that brought about a profound change in my life.
I was a person that was working overtime to break every single law and commandment He ever laid down. I finally was able to see myself clearly in the mirror, without the VEIL –or prism—of my moral relativism. I was a GOOD person by MY standards and from the perspective of how I saw others around me. The problem is most of those people were liars, thieves, and did not believe in ANY laws, but their own, at the time (which changed periodically, on a case by case basis). I hope that some of this rings true to YOU as well. I am not asking you to be convinced, but merely SEEK out the same truth and reality that about a billion Christians live out day by day, all over the world. If you let Him, Jesus will reveal Himself to YOU, just as He did to me.
IF you already know Jesus personally, as your Savior, and would like to SHARE some insight or miracle that He has personally worked in YOUR life, then please write me and we’ll see if we can’t post it here, on this website. That way others that are referred to eChrista will perhaps find a story or note that reaches them as much as my friend Mark’s challenge, reached me, all those years ago.
God Bless, and good hunting…for THE Truth, in Life, from THE only Way…Jesus
Dave