Teleguy
02-25-2005, 03:38 AM
QUOTE (Lucky13 @ Feb 22 2005, 09:05 PM)
...But, now then, you've entered the public arena with that statement and I'd like to know how you "know" the man. I am not trying to sound scientific or argumentative, after all, we are trying to crack this nut, but I would like to hear a few particulars based on some good evidence...
The only "evidence" I can offer is that nothing ever changed me the way Jesus has.
I sure never saw god anywhere in Vietnam. After knocking around the country a few years I kinda hit bottom financially, emotionally, and I guess spiritually.
Pretty well read guy here, in the late sixties and seventies, but I had no peace whatsoever. No peace of mind, that's for sure.
My wreckage was all around me in the form of wounded people who had been in relationships with me, including my kids from a broken and dysfunctional attempt at family life. Doomed from the beginning.
Kinda funny actually: once I was in a car (beater Torino) full of musicians going from Denver to Kansas City, through a Winter storm -with NOT tool ONE in the car- not even a spare tire!
I seethed the whole way at these fools. I mean, I just knew we were gonna break down and freeze to death in the middle of Kansas (and there ain't NOTHIN' there)!
Y'know, it never occurred to me back then: that I was running through my LIFE with absolutely no tools for living. And there was a red light on the dashboard glowing, but I was not about to pull over and see what all the smoke and stench was about!
One day I could just see that the people I cared about, my family, were all going to be terribly hurt when I hit bottom (again). But there didn't seem to be anything I could do to stop the slide. My life was just slipping through my fingers like so much beach sand, and I was powerless over anything! No hope, no future, and the past and recent past was just a big bad blur.
I was as my "friends" had always said: a loser.
At that moment I remembered a friend of mine from 'Nam who had become a Christian. I sought him out and was really ready for a new life.
He led me to pray and except Jesus as my Saviour, and confess to other people that I believed and trusted in Jesus.
I didn't see any visions, or levitate, or get all warm and fuzzy feeling. But after I took a shower I was walking back down the hall -and I felt clean for the first time since I was about nine years old! Kinda strange, but a good feeling.
For the next couple of weeks it seemed everywhere I looked life was new and full of possibilities. And I felt peace! I had never felt that before in my life. Peace of mind; peace in my heart; my emotions settled down; I felt "sane" somehow.
Life went on. I married the gal I'd been living with.
But there was trouble with her 13 year old daughter (and two boys, 9 & 10).
They were like cats and dogs (my wife and the daughter), and I kept getting appealed to for support from both sides (a real no-win situation). It was awful. They kept falling into these "roles" with each other, and I was pretty frustrated.
Welp, it blew up one night between them and I had to referee. I resented having to be the peacemaker, and in my usually hothead way was about to lay down the law and tell them to go to separate corners, when it occured to me to ask God's help, which I did under my breath as I stepped into the room and closed the door.
All that came out of me was love, and I could somehow "see" to the root of the issue and gently persuaded them to give each other some time and space, and come back to the issue at an appointed time. There was peace in the room, and a feeling of love.
Then I went outside in private and balled my eyes out, because I had just experienced the "reality" of Jesus, living in me and coming through me. I sure "knew" it wasn't any of "my" doing (except for praying and getting out of the way of what God wanted to do right then)!
That was in 1978. As I look back over the last 28 years of life, not only has this "peace" never left me (except when I'm really sick with the flu, and can't sense ANYTHING) but my life has developed into a life worth living. Blessing after blessing (and trial after trial).
I am still me, and get to choose every day how I want things to go: my way, or God's way. I have learned over many failures to trust God, let go, and get out of the way.
People who have known me long term will tell you: I was once an amoral loser with a violent streak and some heavy addictions and personality defects.
I still am all that when I wake up every day. But I have learned to DIE to that life every day, and now have a set of tools (and a manual, and a Counselor), for my life.
Believe me: nothing ever changed me like that except belief and trust in Jesus Christ.
I cannot speak for the Inquisition, Christianity -as it exists in America today- or what men do in the name of god (or Atheism), but this is what has happened with me (and millions of others), and why today I believe Jesus is STILL who he says he is.
-Steve Yetter, Santa Cruz, CA- AKA "Yetto-Blaster!"
...But, now then, you've entered the public arena with that statement and I'd like to know how you "know" the man. I am not trying to sound scientific or argumentative, after all, we are trying to crack this nut, but I would like to hear a few particulars based on some good evidence...
The only "evidence" I can offer is that nothing ever changed me the way Jesus has.
I sure never saw god anywhere in Vietnam. After knocking around the country a few years I kinda hit bottom financially, emotionally, and I guess spiritually.
Pretty well read guy here, in the late sixties and seventies, but I had no peace whatsoever. No peace of mind, that's for sure.
My wreckage was all around me in the form of wounded people who had been in relationships with me, including my kids from a broken and dysfunctional attempt at family life. Doomed from the beginning.
Kinda funny actually: once I was in a car (beater Torino) full of musicians going from Denver to Kansas City, through a Winter storm -with NOT tool ONE in the car- not even a spare tire!
I seethed the whole way at these fools. I mean, I just knew we were gonna break down and freeze to death in the middle of Kansas (and there ain't NOTHIN' there)!
Y'know, it never occurred to me back then: that I was running through my LIFE with absolutely no tools for living. And there was a red light on the dashboard glowing, but I was not about to pull over and see what all the smoke and stench was about!
One day I could just see that the people I cared about, my family, were all going to be terribly hurt when I hit bottom (again). But there didn't seem to be anything I could do to stop the slide. My life was just slipping through my fingers like so much beach sand, and I was powerless over anything! No hope, no future, and the past and recent past was just a big bad blur.
I was as my "friends" had always said: a loser.
At that moment I remembered a friend of mine from 'Nam who had become a Christian. I sought him out and was really ready for a new life.
He led me to pray and except Jesus as my Saviour, and confess to other people that I believed and trusted in Jesus.
I didn't see any visions, or levitate, or get all warm and fuzzy feeling. But after I took a shower I was walking back down the hall -and I felt clean for the first time since I was about nine years old! Kinda strange, but a good feeling.
For the next couple of weeks it seemed everywhere I looked life was new and full of possibilities. And I felt peace! I had never felt that before in my life. Peace of mind; peace in my heart; my emotions settled down; I felt "sane" somehow.
Life went on. I married the gal I'd been living with.
But there was trouble with her 13 year old daughter (and two boys, 9 & 10).
They were like cats and dogs (my wife and the daughter), and I kept getting appealed to for support from both sides (a real no-win situation). It was awful. They kept falling into these "roles" with each other, and I was pretty frustrated.
Welp, it blew up one night between them and I had to referee. I resented having to be the peacemaker, and in my usually hothead way was about to lay down the law and tell them to go to separate corners, when it occured to me to ask God's help, which I did under my breath as I stepped into the room and closed the door.
All that came out of me was love, and I could somehow "see" to the root of the issue and gently persuaded them to give each other some time and space, and come back to the issue at an appointed time. There was peace in the room, and a feeling of love.
Then I went outside in private and balled my eyes out, because I had just experienced the "reality" of Jesus, living in me and coming through me. I sure "knew" it wasn't any of "my" doing (except for praying and getting out of the way of what God wanted to do right then)!
That was in 1978. As I look back over the last 28 years of life, not only has this "peace" never left me (except when I'm really sick with the flu, and can't sense ANYTHING) but my life has developed into a life worth living. Blessing after blessing (and trial after trial).
I am still me, and get to choose every day how I want things to go: my way, or God's way. I have learned over many failures to trust God, let go, and get out of the way.
People who have known me long term will tell you: I was once an amoral loser with a violent streak and some heavy addictions and personality defects.
I still am all that when I wake up every day. But I have learned to DIE to that life every day, and now have a set of tools (and a manual, and a Counselor), for my life.
Believe me: nothing ever changed me like that except belief and trust in Jesus Christ.
I cannot speak for the Inquisition, Christianity -as it exists in America today- or what men do in the name of god (or Atheism), but this is what has happened with me (and millions of others), and why today I believe Jesus is STILL who he says he is.
-Steve Yetter, Santa Cruz, CA- AKA "Yetto-Blaster!"