Now you can use this to chat to each other

How about we begin by sharing how we came to be Christians and what we feel God has install for us?

No one ready to share there story yet ha? Ok i will start with mine then.

I first heard about Jesus Christ when i was a boy about 8yrs old maybe, when my foster mom took me to the salvation army church to teach me morals. ( I was baptized in a Presbyterian church when i was a baby, not that i knew much more then the certificate mentions.) i went there for a few years and liked the Sunday school but hated the rest i left it at about 12yrs old noticing many hypocrites in church. Many years later when i was about 22yrs old i was convinced by a friend to go to the Christian Out Reach Center in the town i live. I was basically by then more agnostic since school had shown me evolution theory and all that stuff so wasn't convinced any belief was true.

I am a logical person and so struggled to
understand a God u cant see hear or touch so i thought anyway. So I simply
examined varies things such as creation over evolution, and i found that
evolution for me didn't warrant the risk with its lack of real solid cant argue
against proofs, many of them were false evidences which i found out about and so annoyed me all the more. If u have truth u don't need to manipulate it or falsify evidences for it,
unless u haven't got enough to prove its legitimate. I was told this much. If
God doesn't exists and u believe in Him and u die and nothing happens as
evolution suggests then u lose nothing, but if God exists and u don't believe
then your going to face the wrath of God so you better be 100% sure He doesn't exist
because u have a lot more to lose if He does and u don't believe then if He
doesn't and u do believe. That assured me i would be as unbiased as possible. I believe
the evidences are pointing toward a creator more and more. It's far to complex
and yet so incredibly well organized and purposeful for me to agree with the
flimsy evidences they claim they have for evolution. So that all got me into
believing God exists or most likely to. I believed in Christ again
by examining the evidences for Him what proofs were out there? i found lots both
from the bible and out side of it, so many that showed he existed and did all
that the bible said. I examined the bible to see how legit it was and found it
to be amazingly accurate for such ancient holy writings. backed up by
science, history, archeology and tens of thousands of manuscripts and parchments that u could
build on to determine if the copies were false or not, or inaccurate to an
extent that it wouldn't be the same as the original. Its trust worthy as it turned
out. So i have to say that these proofs gave me the chance to open my heart to
all of this and then i became a born again and i felt Christ in my life in ways
i cant truly describe well. That's when i stopped believing Christ existed and knew He did. I passed from knowing about Him to knowing Him in a deeper sense of relationship wise. As said before;

We cant have all the answers to our beliefs. That requires faith to fill the gaps we cant as yet explain. So i don’t take risks and say no God is possible If it can still be argued so well for. Again God is not something u can find or understand with your mind as u do most things, He is something u find with your soul or being. No one can see, hear, feel or understand Him, until u open your heart and truly seek Him and the answers without being self righteous about it or Him. Once u get to experience God in your soul u cant help but believe and understand Him or where ur meant to be or do. Romans 1:18-20 (Amplified Bible) 18 For God's [holy] wrath and indignation are revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who in their wickedness repress and hinder the truth and make it inoperative. 19 For that which is known about God is evident to them and made plain in their inner consciousness, because God [Himself] has shown it to them. 20 For ever since the creation of the world His invisible nature and attributes, that is, His eternal power and divinity, have been made intelligible and clearly discernible in and through the things that have been made (His handiwork's). So [men] are without excuse [altogether without any defense or justification], Jeremiah 29:13-14 (Amplified Bible) 13 Then you will seek Me, inquire for, and require Me [as a vital necessity] and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.(A) 14 I will be found by you, says the Lord,

Ian_Sinclair, thanks for sharing your story.  I guess I'm one of those hypocrites who turned you away from the church to begin with.

I was born and raised in a Christian home (Presbyterian).  My dad was a Presbyterian minister and pastoral psychotherapist, working mainly with alcoholics and drug addicts.  He and Dr. Brown did the original research on the addictive personality disorder.  My maternal great-grandfather was a Presbyterian minister who started three churches in Colorado.  My maternal grandfather was a Presbyterian minister, who served as a missionary in the Sudan (hosting President Teddy Roosevelt on one of his African Safaris).  When he came back to the states, he was on the committee that translated the Bible, which became known as the Standard Version (later it was updated to the Revised Standard Version, and now the New Revised Standard Version).  He taught for a while at the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, then was instrumental in the early development of the Bible Institute of Los Angeles (now known as Biola University).

So, my story is that I cannot recall a time in life when I did not know about God and Jesus.  Growing up we would discuss theology at the dinner table.  When I was in second grade, about 8 years old, I first sensed God was calling me to the ministry.  God continued to work on my heart through my teen years, and when I was in college I made the decision (well not really, I had no choice, see Moses' story) to go into the ministry.  I went straight from college to seminary, then into parish ministry.  Throughout my 24 years of ministry I can see how God has steadily led me, providing opportunities to grow in faith and ministry.

Yet I still fall short of the glory of God.  Everyday, I struggle to be the person God wants me to be, and I still fall short.  I am a sin-filled follower of Christ.  But the beauty of faith is God's amazing grace.  We live under grace, not the law which condemns us all.  A book I highly recommend is Phillip Yancey's What's So Amazing About Grace.

So, Ian_Sinclair, I see many hypocrites in church, including myself.  But I believe the church is a hospital for sinners, not a shrine for saints, so I guess it doesn't bother me so much.  But I am concerned about our witness as Christians in the world.  What does our lifestyle say about our true beliefs?  How do our words and actions reflect either positively or negatively on the gospel message?  So, what I look for is the sincere desire of all Christians to encourage each other, challenge each other, and journey together on the road of faith and life.  When we do, I truly believe God  matures us in faith and uses us to build up His Kingdom.

Thanks for sharing your story Bishopson!I hope your not one of those hypocrites because the bible is clear there will be no hypocrites in heaven. Our faith is genuine in both what we say and what we do or we are cast into hell.

Yes no one can be perfect that is for sure but i have found the closer i am to Christ the more i hate sin, either in me or anyone else. I strive to live the life Christ would expect in heaven now. I notice a lot however who tread the grace of God underfoot and forget u need to walk ur faith not just talk it or u will go to hell literally anyway. Many times the apostles warned us about this and how they are glad for grace because other wise all our good deeds for Christ would be worthless without him.

My calling is something i was reluctant to do as i felt i wasn't good enough, who am i that u would ask me to teach and evangelise. God simply says on ur own ur nothing but with Me and for My will you can and will do all the things i have asked of you. Something like that anyway.

Has anyone else got a great story on how they begun?

Ian_Sinclair, I think we all are reluctant, at times, to pursue our calling.  I recall a time several years ago being at a crossroads -- continue my ministry where I was, or launch an inner-city, multi-cultural new church development.  I was driving in the car praying about it, when God simply said to me, "I will show you how far down you have to go."  At that point, I did not know what God meant, but I knew it was a sign to stay in my current ministry, which I did.  Within a year, a couple of folks started a vicious attack on me as pastor.  It was a terrible time in my ministry and my life.  What kept me going, though, was the words God spoke, "I will show you how far down you have to go."  I knew God had a plan.  With help from colleagues and some other church leaders, there was an end to the attacks, and an uneasy resolution.  (During the whole time, my main concern was for the church, which had experienced phenomenal growth over the previous three years.  The devil attacks when we do good works for the Kingdom of God.)  When we came through the whole ordeal, God called me to move one to my current position.  As my family and I moved, I wondered why God had put me through that ordeal.  Then I discovered it was to prepare for what He had in store next.  Anyway, the long and short of it is that now I go into troubled churches as an outside consultant to help them follow the Lord's leading through conflict into productive resolution.  But without my previous experience, I would be unable to do what I do know.

Deep down, I am a Calvinist.  Any good I do is not me, but God's Spirit working through me.  I am always amazed at what God has done through my life.  Things I would never be able to do myself.  I am always amazed that God called me.  When I look back over the journey God has led me on, all I can think is "Wow!  What a ride!"  And when the day comes for me to stand before God, like Billy Graham, I have only one question to ask God, "Why me?"

Blessings brother.  You are in my prayers.

Thank you for sharing that! It does seem like u have been through some challenges indeed with God and ur ministry. Perhaps you could bless us someday with some great lessons or sermons sometime if ur so inclined. In the mean time may God bless ur ministry and all your doing for His will.

Please praise God!!!  My pastor and his wife were in a car accident.  Their car was totaled, but they sustained only a few cuts!!!

Wow that is a miracle in itself. We all will pray for them and their families as well.

Thank you!!!

Ian Sinclair, and Bishopson, thanks for your testimonies. Will post mine shortly as well.

Where abouts in Australia are you Ian? I am in Ipswich, Queensland.

I'm in Taree New South Wales. Look forward to ur testimony soon mate.

Here is my testimony of the mercy and grace of a loving God who was able to forgive me.

 

I am often asked, “How did I become a Christian?” The fact that I have become a Christian is something that shocks people who knew me before I changed. They knew me for who I was. I was someone that regularly smoked Marijuana, drank until I was well drunk, had a very fowl mouth, drove recklessly at very high speeds, often crashing my cars. I also could not stand Christianity and I would not keep this hatred a secret.

So the question is, ‘What made me change? How or why did I become a Christian?’

To answer this, I have to start right back to when I was a young child.

  When I was a young kid, my parents had dragged me off to their Church and to Sunday school. During this time, I could see that the Christian people had something different that I did not have. I was told by different people that to become a Christian, simply ask Jesus into your heart. I decided to give it a go and tried to get onto ‘the Jesus thing’, but nothing amazing seemed to happen. I tried again, and again, but still nothing happened, so I eventually came to the conclusion that either I was not one of the chosen ones, or that there was no God. Looking back at this, I now realise that it was not God who had rejected me, but that I had rejected God. You see, God in his word says, ‘That if you confess with your mouth and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead you will be saved’. My mouth remained closed and my heart said, ‘later God, wait until I am twelve’. That turned to sixteen, then to twenty-one, and then into a thought that I would probably think about it before the year 2000.

  Over this time I was regularly exposed to Christian people and was often asked, “Do you believe in God?” often followed by, “Why not?” I learnt very quickly how to silence them by telling them why I did not believe in Santa Clause, fairies and fairy land, God, elves, or pixies.

  “Ahh, but God is real” they would tell me. “Look at all the things He has made”.

  “Have you seen him” I would ask. “I have seen Santa, and he used to give me some pretty cool stuff” I would taunt. “If your God exists, then prove it”.

  Any attempt to prove the existence of God, I was able to match as proof that fairies existed. No one I meet was able to prove to me the existence of God. After one such encounter that went on for over three hours, I had one guy who admitted he did not know if he was right or wrong, but that was what he wanted to put his faith into. That seemed just as stupid to me as an adult who still wanted to believe in Santa Clause. I hardened my heart even further and treated it like a sport to go and challenge the Christians and make fun of them for believing what they did. Every now and then, I would come across some points they would make, that try as hard as I could, I was not able to deny, but there was no way I would ever admit it.

  I developed a real hatred for Christianity, and would persecute anyone dumb enough to believe in Jesus Christ.

  One day something really strange happened. I had had many different car accidents as I only knew one way to drive, and that was to keep the foot hard down on the accelerator, or hard down on the brake pedal, and lift the inside front wheel going into the corners, and lift the back wheel while exiting the corners. On this day, I was driving through a gorge that had a steep drop on one side of the road, and a high rock wall on the other side. As I was taking a corner after a good-sized straight, I realised something with the car was not right. The outside rear tyre had lost most of the air pressure due to a puncture I had picked up on the straight, and as I took the corner at speed, the back end of the car stepped right out of line and had my car lined up for another car coming the other way. I over corrected the car and then found myself over hanging a two hundred foot cliff, and through the front window, I was able to see all the way down to the bottom. It was then that I saw a vision of what I believed was Jesus holding me on His knee, and in the vision, both the image of Jesus, and the image of myself looked up at me and smiled, then my car went back up and caught the beginning of a concrete barrier then spun safely into the rock wall on the other side. I could not explain to myself how the car managed to come back up to hit the barrier I had already missed. Was this the thing that changed my heart and convert to Christianity?

  NO! I kept this vision quiet, not telling anyone, eventually believing it was just an illusion caused by emotion from the moment. I realise now that in all my foolish ways, God still loved me, and had protected me even though I had rejected him and had set about to persecute His people.

  A few years passed by after this, when I was heading to a function with the aim of drinking as much free beer as I could hold, when I took a little diversion down a lovely loose metal piece of road that had lots of tight twisty corners. On one of the very last corners of this road, I had a huge moment. The side of the car went into solid bank while going around 140km/h and bounced back the way it came from on its side. I had had previous accidents at higher speeds, but this accident stopped the car the quickest. As a result of this accident, I was having regular blackouts for four months, and had a bad headache that lasted for two years. During this time, I was forced to sit quietly, because if I tried to do any kind of work for longer than 20 minutes, I would blackout, and 15 minutes work would require a three hour sleep. I was also left with a very severe speech impediment where I could hardly talk due to a very severe stutter. I had to give up drinking, and smoking marijuana, as these would also make me blackout. I started to think that death would be better than this continuous headache from which there was no break, however suicide was something that I steered away from, because I still had hope that one day I would get over this problem, though I didn’t know when. I had plenty of time on my hands unable to do anything; feeling like there was nothing wrong with me until I tried to do something, so I was able to have plenty of time to do nothing but think. Again, Christian friends of the family came to me and said, “turn to God for help. God is the answer”. My heart became even harder. I would think, “What God?” I thought I would be the last one on earth that would ever be stupid enough to believe in a fairy tale God. I thought I had all the answers worked out.

  I eventually recovered from this accident and carried on right where I had left off. I met a lovely young lady who later became my wife. We planned our wedding and I went out of my way to exclude anything Christian from our wedding. It was harder than I first imagined to get rid of all the things to do with Christianity from our wedding. I had arranged for a garden ceremony, with a justice of the peace to marry us, and it all went well until someone asked my father to say grace for the wedding lunch. I was fuming mad. I said, that if I wanted God at my wedding, then I would of sent Him an invite. Little did I know that we can’t even breathe without God.

  We had lots of presents for our wedding and then to my disgust, I found that my wife’s Nana had given us a Bible in a special presentation box with our names and the date we were married on the inside cover. That felt like a knife going into my back, and I wanted to take that Bible and burn it. My wife wouldn’t let me do that as it was special to her as her Nana had given it to us; so she put the bible in its box and put it into a china cabinet.

  Two years later feeling so in control of everything, My wife and I decided we were in a position financially to have a baby. So we planned for a baby, buying a single push chair etc for a baby. Went to have a pregnancy ultrasound scan and realised that we were not in control after all when we were told, that it was not one baby, but two. I realised very quickly that it was not me who was in control, as we were all of a sudden in a position where we now needed two of everything. We went along to anti-natal class, where a midwife explained to us how a baby was designed for the birth process etc, and it really did hit home to me that there was too much going on to say it was all by chance. I came to realise there that very possibly, if there was design, then there was a designer. I didn’t think much more about it for awhile after that, but had opened my mind up a wee bit about the possibility of God actually existing.

Sometime after this we had a knock on our door. A friend of my parents turned up at my house at 11pm. This woman told me she had had a very vivid dream and in her dream, she had seen me killed in a car accident. It was her belief that this dream was going to come true, and that I needed to convert to Christianity there and then on the spot; though the accident would still occur. Could she pray for me right now she asked? “No way”, I said, and despatched her as quick as I could; while assigning her to the fruit basket for being another nutty Christian. The strange thing about this was that although I laughed this off on the outside; whenever I put the seat belt on when I got into my car, I would think, was this the day her dream would come true?

  Over a period of a year this had an effect of making me re-think about the possibility of life after death. Over this year I softened more, and this same lady bumped into me again, and had the smallest of opportunities to talk to me. She took her opportunity! She asked if I had ever asked God into my life as a child going to Sunday school. Not wanting to admit this, I mumbled, “possibly”. At this point she became so very excited, hugged me and said, 'Good, because God won't give up on you', and while I was still in shock, she grabbed my hand and placed a Gideon’s new testament in it, urging me to keep hold of it. I threw it into my car thinking I would throw it out later but forgot all about it.

 

  At work, I had a bit of a reputation for being an angry madman. I would work extremely long hours, and if my workmates would dare to disturb me; watch out! I would throw spanners and screwdrivers at them.
  One day a new employee started work with us, and his job was the most mundane job ever; cutting plastic scraps into smaller pieces and feeding them into a hopper. This guy was always happy and would sing Hymns as he worked. At lunchtime, he would always give thanks to God for his food out loud. As could be imagined, I gave him such a hard time, as it was like a sport to me to upset the Christians; but I never seemed to get through to him, no matter how rude I was to him or his God. Later another Christian, a med student working in the holidays, joined him. He asked me why I do not believe, so I pointed out my logic. He could not argue against this but left saying, there is still hope for you. This comment turned out to be very important.

 One day I arrived at work in the wee hours of the morning and was not looking forward to yet another very long day at work. I sat in the car for a few moments before going in, and had a bit of a look around in my car, and found the Gideon New Testament. I flipped it open and read the very first verse I saw which was Acts 2:21, 'and it shall come to pass that whoever calls upon the name of the Lord shall be saved'. To me, this confirmed what the lady who had given me the testament had said, and it gave me a kind of hope. From this point on I would sneak a read of the bible when I thought no one was looking, and often re-reading this passage. At home, I would also sneak a quick read of the Bible sitting in the china cabinet. It was here that while re-reading the passage in Acts 2:21 that I saw a reference in that Bible to Romans 10:13, and again to Joel 2:32. They all said the same thing, and I was starting to believe that if God was real, then this was true.

  Time passed by again and on one particular day I was under work pressure again, trying to finish a job in time for a tight deadline; when I discovered I had thrown a rag soaked in solvents onto my calculator, dissolving some plastic, preventing the number 4 from working. Needing a calculator and no time to go to the shops to buy a new one, I undid the screws on the back and cut the button free to make it work. I then knocked the 6 screws onto the floor in amongst plastic swarf that was the same shape and colour as the screws. Not knowing what to do, I prayed to God for help as unbelievers often do when all else fails. After a few minutes, I found five out the six screws, which was quite amazing, and was enough to make the calculator work. I was very pleased with myself for finding the screws until my next thought challenged me. Was it God that I had called upon that had helped me to find those screws? As I was about to dismiss this as pure chance, I found myself saying out loud, 'God is perfect, 6 (screws) out of 6'. (I only had 5 out of 6) I then found myself turning around, and my hand went straight out before me, right to the missing screw! As Thomas said, when he felt the holes in the hands of Jesus, 'My Lord and my God'. I was blown away. I knew I could not live another minute without God. I accepted Christ as my savour there and then. My eyes were opened and I realised just how blind I had been.

No matter how far from God we stray, while we still have breath there is hope for us. His love has no boundries. His mercy, His grace are endless. ‘But God demonstrates His own love toward us, in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.’ (Romans 5:8)

 

  After I had accepted Christ as my saviour, God placed the right people into my life. A Pastor from a church 100km away heard about my conversion from a young couple who were also young Christians. This Pastor took it upon himself to shepherd us, and would travel over 100km each way once a week to have a bible study with us. God sure took care of my needs. This Pastor installed some very important foundation blocks into me that set me off on the path to great growth in the Lord.

 

  At work, my work mates all noticed a rapid change in me, and the rumours were flying around. One guy overcame his fear of me and asked me what happened? Did I become a Christian? He suspected I had, but when I answered, ‘yes’, it was still quite a surprise to him. Everyone at work was very surprised at the sudden change in me. It was not long before another work mate became a Christian, followed by another Christian then one more. That became an amazing place to work in because at one stage, everyone on the factory floor except one Buddhist guy, had given their life to the Lord, and that Buddhist guy was accepting Christian tracts and a New Testament. Morning tea, lunch and often after work, we would share with each other what we had learnt at Church or our different bible study groups. We all grew together in Christ.

  We also had a position in the factory that had a high staff turn around. Nobody stayed in that particular job for more than 6 months, some even less than that. We found that whoever had that job, that they would be very open to the gospel. While we are not aware of any of these people accepting Christ as their saviour while working with us, we could clearly see some of these guys warming to the Lord. We could also see that God had placed other Christian people into the lives of some of these people who would take over sharing their faith with these guys long after they had left us. 

 

  On the home front, things were not going that smoothly. My wife took some time to accept that this once atheist, was now a new man, and was not sure if she wanted to remain married to a Christian. I had changed very much from the old me to the new man in Christ I now am. God and I have to say, only God, kept our marriage together. It was a rocky transition at first but eventually my wife came to accept that I had changed for the better. My wife at this point in time (nine years after I was saved by the Grace of God), still has not accepted Christ as her personal saviour but has changed slowly over the years to now having Christian values. Will she ever accept Christ as her Lord and saviour? I do not know the answer to this, but I can see the hand of God at work in her life. If Christ can change someone as stubborn and as blind to the truth as I was, then there sure is hope for everyone else.                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                              

 

Very touching story mike! God sure got through a lot with u praise Him for all that. It amazed me you grew through all this and have learned what it really is all about ur change is truly the work of God. Amazing what things managed to change ur thinking until u could open up to Him. Thank you for sharing your very insightful journey with us. May God continue to help you grow and help others who go through similar issues as you did.

I have a brother in law named Paul who has had an amazingly hard life himself. I pray for him to come to Christ. My sister Joanne is a true passionate Christian woman he married, for her to help in that by God guiding hands. So i believe God is working through his life too. I cant wait for that day he finally gives Christ his life and can share his amazing story with everyone.

It's great to see people being delivered from themselves and the righteous anger of God and taking His promises and changing our lives and transforming us to become his visible imagine on earth til He takes us to our true home in heaven with Him. May our love for people and God and our fear of His righteous justice drive us to share our testimony with others and bring them to Christ through sound biblical evangelism as well, while we still can.

So can anyone else share there story how u came to be Christian?

I became a Christian because of my parents. But if my mommy's friend did not tell my mommy about Jesus and if my mom did not tell my daddy about Jesus, who knows what kind of person I would be? Wait a minute.....God would know! I don't know if I would have became a christian. I am glad that God worked it out that way! 

I stole a Bible. Then I stole 2 or 3 more because stealing was 'cool' and I was feeling like a bad kid (I was in my early teens). But somewhere along the way, I decided to read the Bible I had first stolen. For whatever reason, I knew to start at the New Testiment and not at Genesis. After reading the first 3 gospels, I got the idea that it would be the same story again, and I was faced with a choice. Do I believe this story about a Son of God coming to earth and dying so that I can go to heaven?

 

Compared to Buddhism (I grew up in a Buddhist home), this Christian answer to sin made a WHOLE lot of sense. If you do something wrong, you ask the appropriate person for forgiveness. Usually, there is some sort of punishment along with the forgiveness -- but sometimes you get lucky. My understanding of the  Buddhist faith was that when you do something wrong, points are deducted from your net life score (karma). When you so something good, points are added and the sum total of your points determins what happens to you when you die. Except Buddhism can't answer the question of WHO keeps score because there is no God. Buddha is an example of what you can become if you play your cards right. There are spritis you can pray/chat to -- but this seems to go against the Karma point system. If you can get intercession, then what does it matter how many points you lose for killing someone or how many points you get for saving a person's life. It didn't make sense...

 

But here was a story -- if it was true -- of a man who was the son of God. His death granted me my forgiveness. When I do something wrong, I ask God for forgiveness. When I'm in need, God can come to my rescue. It just added up.

 

Of course, I have grown in my faith much more than that simple understanding of God and forgiveness through Jesus. Yet the simplicity of salvation stays true. Looking back, I can see how the Holy Spirit was involved in guiding me the New Testiment -- and the Bibles I stole were intended to be used for such a purpose by the Gideons. My salvation is a testimoney to the power of the Word of God.

 

I stole a Bible. I read it. I believed.