I was raised in a home without God but it was a good home full of love but also turmoil that I had no idea even existed.  It wasn't until our family moved from the city into the country that I began to witness the wonders of creation.  During the warm summer nights I would lay out in the front yard and gaze up at the moon and stars in total wonderment. Although I wasn't really sure what this Higher Power was that was speaking to my total being when I marveled at creation I knew that there was more than this.  At the age of about 10 or so some people came to our door and gave my mother a book that talked about God and creation. I read it with relish. So this Higher Power that I knew existed now had a name "GOD".

        As the years passed by and I entered into my teen years God was always there prompting me and letting me know that He was there waiting.  Then in the year of 1975 after I read the book, The Late Great Planet Earth by Hal Lindsey and my Christian friends talked to me and prayed for me, I was saved.  I was standing at a desk doing my job when suddenly a feeling like nothing I ever experienced before overcame me with a vengeance.  I saw Jesus hanging on the cross shedding His blood for me and the words that came out of my mouth were simply this---------My God, you know, Jesus did die for me. He entered my heart right there on the spot. My friends could see it and my family could definitely see the change in me. A weight of sin had been lifted but it was at the moment of salvation that I finally realized and knew that all I had been witnessing all through my life, the sun, the moon, the stars, the clouds the awesome expanse of the heavens was given to me, to you, to everyone by El Shaddai, God Almighty. The pieces finally came together in one great forever life-changing moment in time.

        Satan was not a happy camper knowing that he had lost another one.  Just a couple days later the devil came at me with both barrels. I was at work walking to another part of the work area when suddenly the presence of evil permeated that whole area. It literally drove me down to a sitting position. I wasn't used to praying yet but this ole boy did his best, God heard me and my friends whom I asked to pray for me as well. Greater is He that is in you than he that is in the world. Those are comforting words taken from Scripture. 

        God never told us that we would be without trials and tribulation but what He did say was that He would always be there and all we need to do is call upon Him, through the good and bad times.  Did I always do what I was supposed too in my walk with Jesus? Nope, I did not and I paid dearly for some of my stupid decisions. Did I ever blame God for my trials, no I didn't but what I did do was question His reasoning for them. Of course later I realized that God does not tempt with evil nor is He tempted with evil. Granted God does allow certain things to happen in our lives to help us grow in faith but for the most part we bring the trouble that we experience throughout life, onto ourselves. Thank the Lord God Almighty that His Son, Jesus Christ died so that we wouldn't have to. The sting of death is no longer there.

        I praise and thank God all the time for letting me know that He was there from an early age onward up into adulthood and beyond.  As we read in Romans 1:20-----" For since the creation of the world His invisible attributes, His eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly seen, being understood through what has been made, so they are without excuse."

        All of mankind is without excuse before God because it is very plain that He exists and if one chooses not to acknowledge God his blood is upon his own head if he dies without Christ.  I am eternally grateful to God for instilling His attributes into His creation and I thank Him for calling me all of the years before I was saved. I love Him so very much and I thank Him that I listened to His still small voice that whispers throughout His creation.