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Stories of my relationship with God More

Stories of my relationship with God

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  • Note: This story is not for everyone to read. If you have any questions about whether you should read it, don't read it. It may not be for anyone to read. It records some of my sin in detail - not as confession, but as a statement of fact. You can't tell about repentance, without telling about the sin.

    So...

    When I was young, I wanted to be a priest. As I grew older, a few things happened that got in the way of that.

    One was that I began to rebel against my Mom.

    Perhaps because I was weakened by that rebe

  • I was living in Newport News at the time I had this dream.

    In any case, in my dream I found myself in a cave, sitting at a desk much like a school desk. As I looked around me, I saw many people whom I did not recognize, and some whom I did recognize. One in particular I recognized as a classmate from elementary school who was also named "Michael" like me.

    For the longest time, nothing happened. There was a general feeling of waiting. Occasionally, I would get up and visit those around me, but not particul

  • First, let me note that when we were in America, I had an issue with the social security system, that prevented me from working for pay for a time. Despite that, Laura ended up deciding to marry me, and for a time she worked in the shipyard, and I worked on helping out a prepublishing business that she and two others owned. That said, the business had been formed with 10% of the proceeds going to a fund for widows, orphans, and foreigners: we intended it to be God's business first.

    The time came when the

  • Sometimes, it's easier just to copy in an email that came out. Here is a reply from Neil Rhodes of Times Square Church, in response to an email of mine that tells the next story. I should note that his reply was right on.

    Thank you for your email addressed to Brother Dave Wilkerson. Unfortunately he is unable to answer you personally, but I am replying on his behalf.

    Michael, love is a fruit of the Spirit, and it comes forth from a Spirit filled life, yielded to the Lord, as in John 15:4-5, "Abide in me, an

  • When I was come to Bayshore Cape Charles, I had prayed over whether to take the job, and the answer I got back was "take the job, but be loyal and do not try to rise high."

    I was hired on as a surveyor, and worked under Terry Robinson. We finished up the segmental bridge project, and there were many layoffs -- perhaps 150. Rather than have us be laid off, Terry chose to take a demotion.

    Meanwhile, I started getting a call to fast and pray again. I did attempt it, but almost "fell out" (fainted), and gave i

    • Note: Dad has suggested that I should write down my thoughts on the Bible. I have started doing that by email, and filing it in my email under "Sermons". Yeah, I'm not a preacher, but that word is about as accurate as I can get. Nonetheless, most of what I preach is primarily targeted at myself. I am a firm believer that the best guidance we can get is directly from God, and that God through the Holy Spirit does speak directly to a Christian's heart. If that is so, then every sermon should be heard fi

  • When we were getting ready to leave Lithuania, Virginija came and asked me to give a talk on faith to a group of girls in her Sunday School class.

    Now, in reality, what she later said she actually wanted most was to have an American to talk to her class -- but I did my best to give such a talk.

    It was at this time, that I knew we were leaving Lithuania, that God had called us out, and I didn't know what we were going to.

    What I did know, at the time, was that Laura had handed me a book "The Wonderful Spirit-Fi

  • Every so often I gain an understanding of certain Bible verses -- some of which are decidedly standard, and some of which are decidedly nonstandard. Even though I am not authorized to teach these as teachings, I still feel that there is something of value in them.

    In some cases, such as my understanding of Isaiah 28, I didn't understand it, until I prayed and asked God to explain it to me... and then over the next few weeks came to an understanding of it. Other understandings (such as that of Isaiah 6 actu

    • Recently, Peter asked me to read from the Bible. So I opened up my bible, and read Isaiah 56. He asked me to read more, so I decided to take him to the New Testament. I read Luke 7.

      These two go together so well, that I decided to put them together.

      All Bible quotes below are used under fair use, from the New American Standard Bible ©; however, any translation may do.

      ((Isaiah 56))
      1 Thus says the LORD,
      "Preserve justice and do righteousness,
      For My salvation is about to come
      And My righteousness to be reve

    • I was thinking about the explanation of judgement day, when Christ divides the peoples as a shepherd divides sheep from goats (Matt 25), and how some will have worked miracles in His name but will still be condemned (Matt 7).

      Matt 7:21 "Not everyone who says to Me, 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the kingdom of heaven, but he who does the will of My Father who is in heaven will enter. "Many will say to Me on that day, 'Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in Your name, and in Your name cast out demons, and in Your name

    • Caveat: The following is something which I have thought on, but is not necessarily Catholic doctrine, or true doctrine, or both.

      I recently attended a Wed. night lecture on Mary. Needless to say, a lot of what they said was that the Church's doctrines on Mary came out of the Church's doctrines on Christ. These, in turn, largely came out of the Councils of Ephesus and Nicea, in response to difficulty that people were having in reconciling the concept of a perfect, unchanging, unsuffering God, with God the

    • Psalm 84:
      1 How lovely are Your dwelling places,
      O LORD of hosts!
      2 My soul longed and even yearned for the courts of the LORD;
      My heart and my flesh sing for joy to the living God.
      3 The bird also has found a house,
      And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young,
      Close to Your altars, O LORD of hosts,
      My King and my God.
      4 How blessed are those who dwell in Your house!
      They are ever praising You. Selah

      In this first verse, the psalmist marvels at how good it is to be close to God's altar. Indeed,

    • In Col 1:24, Paul says,
      "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking 14 in the afflictions of Christ on behalf of his body, which is the church, of which I am a minister in accordance with God's stewardship given to me to bring to completion for you the word of God, the mystery hidden from ages and from generations past."

      How could there be anything lacking in the sufferings of Christ? It almost seems heretical.

      Let us turn back to Isaiah 5, and look

    • This one writing requires better formatting than is available on Slashdot.
      So I published it as a google docs webpage, and am referencing it from here.

      It includes my notes on what I get out of Isaiah's song of woe (his initial vision), Isaiah's Song of Salvation (also known as the apocalypse of Isaiah), and then the continuation of his prophecies about the objections of the Pharisees to Christ's ministry (Is. 28), the crucifixion of Christ (Is. 29), and the early church (Is 30 and on).

      Note that before I knew

    • I had some thoughts on John 21:15-18.

      At the Last Supper, Jesus said, "You will all desert me, for scripture says 'I will strike the shepherd, and the sheep will scatter.'". But Peter said, "Lord, even if everyone else deserts you, I will not." Initially, it appears that Peter's words are true, for Peter raises a sword in Jesus' defense. Yet Jesus tells him to put the sword away, and in the end, the trial proves too much for Peter. After Peter's triple denial of Jesus, the cock crows, and Jesus looks at

    • Three things that last

      I was thinking about hope today, and it occured to me that I don't know the true, eternal shape of hope.

      The Bible tells us, "There are three things that last: faith, hope, and love; and the greatest of these is love." If something lasts in this sense, though, then it is eternal; and if it is eternal, then we will have it in heaven.

      But in heaven, we too will be eternal; we will see all that is, was, and will be. So what purpose, then, will hope serve? Or to ask it another way, what

  • Okay, here are some books that I find worth reading:

    (1) The Bible. However, you do need to enter this prayerfully, and with your heart turned over to God.
    (2) Almost anything by John Bunyan. Pilgrim's Progress is quite good; also extremely good is his spiritual biography.
    (3) Wigglesworth: A man who walked with God
    (4) Helps to Holiness
    (5) The wonderful spirit-filled life

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