When we first receive the Lord we believe the Gospel is true. After fifty years of walking with God we know it is true. How do we know? Because of what we have heard with our ears and seen with our eyes.

God has been utterly faithful to us. He has answered our prayers to the smallest detail. He has led us through many fires. Looking back we can see the need for our fiery trials. We are being saved with difficulty. We are coming to know that God is God. He is the Lord.

I was not raised in a Christian home. By the age of eighteen I was not certain there was a God. God in His goodness brought me into contact with a young man who did know the Gospel. He told me of Christ, of the blood atonement—mostly because I kept pumping him. He was backslidden at the time.

I prayed for faith and God gave me faith. I told the Lord that I would do His will as I understood it and I wanted Him to reveal Himself to me. I said (in my youthful idealism) "If this way proves to be truth I will tell others that it is true. If I find there is nothing to it I also will testify to that."

That was fifty-four years ago. I have kept my part of the bargain and God has kept His. I am here to say, to bear witness, that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God and the New Testament is a true and accurate account of spiritual realities.

There is no use reasoning with me. I have heard. I have seen. There have been many miracles in my life, some of them fairly dramatic and most minor. When I have prayed in Jesus' name I have almost always received a direct answer—far more times than could be attributed to chance. I know that the unanswered prayers will be fulfilled at a later time, that is, if they will bring me joy and peace.

I will testify that God has not failed me once in fifty-four years. I have gone through many dangers but God has brought me forth. It has not been easy. It has not been without pain. But then, everyone suffers pain in this world so what's the big deal?

I now can see the purpose in the pain, in the confusion, in the delays, in the frustrations. God took a Gentile youngster who did not know the difference between the resurrection of Jesus Christ and the Easter bunny and made him a man of God.

I was a pretty poor specimen when I started out. But now I hope one day to stand among the princes of Judah. God has done this for me. I am not really religious. I am pastoring a church and writing these words to you because that is what my friend Jesus wants. I would rather be out enjoying nature, out in the weather, relishing the wind and snow that prevailed where I was raised.

But my Friend wants me here in Southern California. The least I can do is to help with His Kingdom. After all He made something of my life. I am positive I would be dead now, having accomplished little or nothing, had it not been for Jesus.

To be continued.