To God be all the Glory (If you are following read from the first post)

My whole purpose of writing this is to share the depths of Christ’s love.  I had fallen very deep. The things that I describe here are really the tip of the iceberg. I guess that I could “change the names to protect the innocent” but then what is the point? I want to share with you the truth, the truth of God's love for humanity. I heard my friend David Tucker say that God is really a dumpster diver. Now don’t get upset, he did not mean any disrespect, he was only illustrating how far God will go to save His children.  Considering that, have we really understood His investment, that He sent His own Son to the cross? Will He not with Him freely give us all things? I declare that I know this yet I may struggle with receiving His blessing. Obedience to the Father is good. I would encourage us all to obey, but I must struggle not step in with my humanity to attempt to replace his grace with my obedience. It is a poor exchange at best.

We were living on the mountain, Joani and I. We were into some bad stuff. Years before I had run into some people who were cooking meth-amphetamine. I started adding the numbers and I realized that this was the most profitable venture that I had ever seen, by far. The people that I was associated with were manufacturing a poor product. I hung around and gathered enough information to have an overview of the process. About a year later I went to a university library to successfully figure out the rest.

I was manufacturing a high grade pure product, so pure and clean that I was accused of getting it from a government lab. This knowledge of how to do this caused me to be in constant danger.  I could make more money in a week than most people make in year.  After attempted kidnappings and many near misses, I started believing myself to invincible. This along with the spiritual doctrine that I had developed made me particularly dangerous.

I pictured myself as an “esoteric warrior” as I was well versed in several of the occultist arts. I was a nut, that’s what I was. And as is often with people who are nuts I had a pretty good opinion of myself.  

Ever since that night with Joani’s uncle Glenn I had a gnawing feeling that God was not pleased with me. I also began to sense a call of God on my life. It was weird. Here I was manufacturing drugs, smoking pot all day, and living like a renegade. I began to see Him in everything. I had signs, subtle and blatant urging me to think about Him.

Joani had brought her Grandfathers’ Bible home with us. I had begun to casually read it. I would open it up, and let my eyes fall on the part of the page I felt like I was supposed to read.  Meanwhile things had started to get tense, with some strange happenings, one of which really had me own edge. We had not received any mail in like three weeks. No bills, no junk mail, nothing. This was beginning to bother me and in my mind I had an explanation. “The postal authorities were working with the DEA (Drug Enforcement Agency). They were trying to spook me and get me to move the lab. When I attempted to move it they would converge on me” I was beginning to get nervous to say the least.

Anyway one day I picked up that Bible and opened it up to the place between the Old and the New Testament. There was an insert with phrases written on it. One of the sayings was “You must abstain from Alcohol”. “That’s not in the Bible” I thought as my eyes wandered over the rest of the page. What I saw next put me over the edge. It said “you are either a child of God or a child of the devil”! I slammed the Bible shut, thinking “I am not reading that Bible anymore, some man put that stuff in there, and I am done reading that!”

Disturbed to say the least I jumped in the Suburban and headed down the dirt road, driving way too fast. I drove the half mile or so to the highway. I pulled over, jumped out and approached the large locked mailboxes. There were about a dozen boxes in the big aluminum cubicle. My heart was racing, indicting that somehow my being knew that something significant was going to happen to me. I opened our cubicle; I breathed a sigh of relief! I saw that we had mail in the box and somehow I was feeling the release of some of the pressure. I reached into the box. This box had no slot; the only way to put anything in it was to open it with a key.  I saw there was one lone item as I pulled it out. My heart began to race again; I noticed that this is no bill or letter.  It is a gospel track, one like the street preachers hand out down on skid row.

As I pull the folded paper out I notice that there is no address, and no postmark. “How did this get into the box” I thought. My eyes scanned the paper until I saw the words.

YOU ARE EITHER A CHILD OF GOD OR A CHILD OF THE DEVIL!!!