In the beginning,GOD...!

I will argue that these four words, not even a complete sentence, are the most important words, the most valuable we can know. This insight came to me in 2019 as the covid-19 madness ravaged the world. My situation found me working 80 hrs per week, two full time jobs becuase I had accumulated horrific debt 20 years earlier. I was a Christian, having accepted Jesus Christ on a bed of brokenness on a very cold December day in 1983, but the significance of these four words took Covid-19 to crash into my conciousness. They remain for me something like a mantra, something to think about during pauses in a day when one has time to think. Or if I should encounter a bad spot, a problem, a heartache,

then a brief refocusing on them, before my emotions can sweep me away into despair, prooves helpful. I would encourage everyone to consider them. Everything starts with God.

However, this blog will deal with my evolving journey. I am, like you, one of God's walking wounded. My wounds, like yours are many. Some of these wounds have healed, some have left scars in my flesh or and soul, some fester still. We all share this condition because we are fallen created creatures and this fallen world exposes us to hardship, toil and wounds. Some of you reading these words are now taking umbrage, that's ok, I will hope to be peruasive as long as this venture lasts. You see, through over 78 years of life I have incurred numerous wounds, to both flesh and soul, a couple that fester still.I am persuaded that my encounter with Jesus Christ in that winter of 1983 was His intrusion, His gracious, loving act at perhaps the lowest point up to that moment in my. life. You will hear me say that lower points would surface later. My journey of discovery had many painful bumps in the road. They will persist as long as I occupy space in this world. That's alright. I want to help you understand why.

My heart aches for unblelievers and what I call nominal Christians. A nominal Christian professes a belief in the God of the Bible but doesn't really know why. They consider the Bible too difficult to understand. They rely on pastors and Bible study leaders to untie the knots. Unbelievers are confident in their atheism or believe in other religious traditions, other gods. Agnostics just admit they don't know. My hope is to interest as many of these who will read these posts. My hope is to share just how my faith in Christ emerged into a passion. This happened by virtue of my clinging to the text of the Bible through awful and lengthy periods of time. I read books, have always read books. I even have a library of books. No book has penetrated my concsiousness like it has, not even close. Now, the only books I read besides the text of the Bible, are books about the text by authors, living and dead, men and women who love it as well. I will share my experiences with these texts in order to help you see the value in this for yourselves.

So won't you join me on this venture. You might enjoy it. If it directs you to a closer encounter with the Bible I will trust the Holy Spirit to take it from there. I intend a post once a week. I am an old man and new a this, so bear with me some. I can promise you an interesting encounter regardless.

"Ever since I have known Christ, I have put Christ in the center of my sun, and each secular science revolves around it as a planet, while the minor sciences are satellites to their planets."

CH Spurgeon

April 10, 1857

SRJensen