July 2008 Newsletter

“Erick and I have been dating for three and a half years, and we have been having problems lately because of spiritual differences. He has been a strong Christian his entire life, and I have been struggling, as I am scientific and need valid, reliable data to have faith in anything. We love each other and wanted to get married, but instead we decided to break up because the Bible says, “Ye shall not be yoked with non believers.” We made our peace with the decision, and we felt we were being responsible and true to our individual spiritual beliefs. I will be graduating with a Master’s in Behavior Analysis soon, and I planned to move out of state. God had other plans.

Last Tuesday, I found out I am pregnant. My first reaction was I couldn’t keep the baby because of our decision. I went online to find out how to go about having an abortion. When I got to the clinic, I found out they were a Christian-based pregnancy center and didn’t perform abortions at all. The clinic confirmed my pregnancy and sat me down for a counseling session. I told them all about the problems Erick and I had. The counselors stated the baby was a miracle from God, and they clearly felt it was the wrong decision to terminate the pregnancy. Before I left, they prayed for me, specifically asking God to send me a sign to show me the way to Him. They also gave me your book, One Heartbeat Away: Your Journey Into Eternity. The counselor told me your book contained answers to my questions including scientific evidence!

Ready to rip apart your data, I started reading your book right away. On one hand, I was motivated to buy-in to the Christian faith because of Erick, but on the other hand, I felt the question of God’s existence was non-empirical; therefore, I could never achieve the necessary faith. When you wrote that it takes more faith to believe everything in this world came from nothing than from something, I started to agree! Then you went into the differences in micro- and macro- evolution which also made sense. The chapter about historical, archaeological, and scientific evidence supporting the Bible moved into fulfilling prophecy, and I almost stopped reading because I felt it was circular logic. Every prophecy example you gave came true in the Bible. My thought was how do I know the prophecy really came true? Because the Bible says so? The prophecy was in the Bible to begin with, so of course, the same book will validate itself! I had to re-read the chapter to understand outside sources also validated the accuracy of these prophecies. Each chapter brought me new perspective, despite my skepticism.

I hadn’t prayed in a very long time. I wasn’t sure I knew how to pray! But I was thinking about spiritual matters and working through the problems in my mind, and since God can read minds, I figured that was pretty much the same as praying. The problem I was working on was “the sign.” What if God sends me a sign and I miss it? What if I see something amazing and assume it’s the sign, but it wasn’t really a sign? These were my concerns. So, I decided to ask for a specific sign, so I would be sure not to miss it. I asked for rain on Friday. Then I decided even if it rained on Friday, I wouldn’t believe it because it’s summertime in Florida and it rains frequently. So, I decided to get more specific. I asked for a rainbow above the pool in my apartment complex. I promised myself if I saw the rainbow in any shape or form above my pool, I wouldn’t let myself reason or logic my way into disbelief. I had doubts my “sign” would come, so I didn’t tell anyone about my little experiment. It didn’t rain on Friday. I wasn’t too disappointed; like I said, I had my doubts. I kept reading the book, and it continued to resonate.

Saturday morning (this morning) it poured rain. I didn’t think much of it, because, like I said, this is Florida in the Spring, and it rains. I was reading the chapter, “Decisions, Decisions’ about how the “devils crowd” won’t agree with, or like, people who have faith in Jesus. Well, I didn’t like to consider myself part of the “devils crowd,” but your book makes it clear if you’re not in the Jesus camp, you’re in the Devil’s camp by default. Despite this, I was thinking, I’m not hostile to Erick, I like him and treat him and his faith with respect. Why do I deserve to be in the ‘Devil’s crowd? On the next page, you wrote that people who react positively to the faith “are not far from the Kingdom.” This gave me goose bumps, and I thought if this is true then I am not far from the Kingdom. At that moment, I looked outside at the pool area and checked the sky for the rainbow, just in case. No rainbow. I looked down at the pool area and could not believe what I saw: a child’s birthday pool party with the entire pool deck decorated with rainbow colored balloons! Every single color of the rainbow was represented in those balloons: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, and purple. The parents were sitting under an enormous rainbow striped umbrella. These colors were clearly rainbow, not light yellow, or pink, or blue-green, or mango. They were true primary and secondary colors. The rainbows were all over the pool area, not far up in the sky but five feet above the pool! I knew in that moment what Erick had been telling me about God was the truth; what I was reading was real.

I now believe I didn’t really ask for my own sign. I don’t think God could be bossed around that way! I believe the rainbow was His idea. I think He put the rainbow in my head, so I would know which sign to look for. What an amazing way to be saved: an unexpected pregnancy.

I haven’t yet told Erick about my experience with the rainbow, so this will be the second life-changing, amazing news he will get this week. I don’t know what will happen between us, but I suspect we will be fine.

Thank you for your book.”

“But he answered and said unto them, An evil and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonas:”

“I go to the Potter’s House Church in Santa Rosa, CA. Every summer, our church changes our midweek service to Thursday nights so that we can street evangelize our local Market Place on Wednesdays. About 3,000 people walk through the downtown streets, so it’s an awesome place to go and talk to people. My favorite people to talk to are young girls (I’m 23 years old), and I’ve been having a blast this year so far, especially having read your book. Last night, I talked to a girl that I went to school with in middle school, who I hadn’t seen in about 9 years, and we talked for about 1/2 an hour. She was Catholic but didn’t really know everything Catholics believe in (raised in it) but we ended up having a good conversation. I didn’t expect her to stay and talk to me because when I first approached her, she seemed like she was in a hurry to get somewhere. Anyways, in the course of the conversation, I used some of the tools you laid out in your book, and she was really receptive to the gospel. I went through the 10 Commandments with her and she admitted she was a sinner (our church watched the Ray Comfort films on the Way of the Master) and then I helped her to see that through Jesus, she could be saved only, not through the priests. Towards the end, she thanked me for talking to her and said that I had brought up some things she never knew before. No one that I had ever witnessed to before has thanked me like that! It was good, and although she wasn’t too concerned with going to hell yet, I know she won’t forget our conversation!”

“And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple, of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, heard us: whose heart the Lord opened, that she attended unto the things which were spoken of Paul.”

“Hello Mark, I wanted to share this with you.

Last night, our Wednesday night men’s group went to a local park with our families and had a cook out. The park was full of awesome witnessing potential, and after dinner, Chip, our Pastor, and I created an opportunity (actually God Created The opportunity) and we engaged in a conversation with a group of college kids.

The conversation started in the Natural and Chip swung to the spiritual with the question: “Let me ask you all an interesting question, what do you think happens when we die, when we finally walk off this planet?” Then, we were off and running. At times, we had as many as 6 kids listening but finally we were down to 3 and when we finished taking them thru the Ten Commandments and the Gospel, they were on the edge of their seats.

We handed out the “Why Christianity Tract” and answered tons of Questions about the Bible. When we were close to wrapping up, Chip shared how recently our Church has seen some awesome miracles and Healings and asked if there was anything that they needed prayer for and one of the college kids said yes, Her brother in law’s father was in the hospital (Larry is his name) after being beaten up, and was in critical condition and could only breath with the help of a respirator. We prayed and thanked them for their time, and I gave them my phone number and e-mail. When we were walking away, we looked at each other and I just said, “that was awesome.” So, when we got back with the group, we prayed for the college kids and for Larry again before going home.

Here is the awesome part. Later that evening, I received a text message from the Girl who asked us to pray for her friend and here is what it said, “Hi this is Becca from the park. I wanted to thank you for talking to us and praying with me. I just got a call from the ICU; Larry just woke up Thank you so much”.

WOW!!!

When you step out in Faith watch out! God will make things happen.”

“And he said unto them, Why are ye so fearful? how is it that ye have no faith?”

“His lord said unto him, Well done, thou good and faithful servant: thou hast been faithful over a few things, I will make thee ruler over many things: enter thou into the joy of thy lord.”

“That your faith should not stand in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.”

“(For we walk by faith, not by sight:)”

Until the nets are full,