AUGUST 1972
With a new VW I no longer needed to hitchhike. Instead, I was able to pick up hitchhikers and on my drive from Milwaukee to Jacksonville, I did just that. On the freeway somewhere between those two cities I picked up 2 guys hitchhiking.
I don't remember how we got on the topic of Christ, in those days I just found ways to bring Christ into the conversation. I looked for any opportunity and the opportunities came. Most people I talked to didn't have a problem with it either. Sometimes people would argue and in those cases I let them say their say and let it go; but most of the times they would listen and oftentimes they would make decisions for Christ. Preaching the Gospel was rarely offensive to others.
I do remember one time I was on the beach in Ft. Lauderdale at the same time a lot of Jesus People were witnessing. I was talking to one guy about Christ when his friend came by and said, "If I see one more Jesus Freak, I am going to hit him." The guy I was talking to corrected him, "This guy's different, he makes sense." But his friend got the upper hand and they left.
Back to my drive back to FL from WI. I picked up these 2 guys and somehow we got to talking about Christ. Both were into drugs, one was brought up Christian and the other brought up Jehovah Witness.
Now understand, Jehovah Witnesses believe that only 1,000 people will go to heaven, because at one time the religion was less than 1,000, but once the church grew bigger than 1,000 the doctrine changed. They still teach that only 1,000 will go to heaven, but the rest they say, will live on the earth that will be changed into a paradise.
During our conversation, the guy who was brought up Christian rededicated his life to Christ which annoyed his JW friend and seemed to spark new dedication to JW. While we continued our dialogue the rededicated Christian and I got excited about heaven. His Jehovah Witness friend said, "I'm not going to heaven!" We both knew that he meant he was going to live on the earth forever, but we both chimed in, "I'm going to heaven!"
Friday, February 13, 2009
Thursday, February 12, 2009
The Vision
November 1972
I wanted to be spiritual more than anything. I wanted God to talk to me regularly and when I heard preachers and Christian teachers, it seemed like God talked to them all the time. I wanted that for me too. I had a few times where it was clear to me that God was talking to me through a song, or a friend, or even a quiet something inside. But it wasn't enough, I always wanted more, so I began mistaking my own feelings and thoughts for those of God's voice.
In the middle of all this I had a real vision. I was at Ray's house lying down on his sofa and I went almost but not quite asleep. In the vision I saw a rock in the distance and it was awesome and beautiful. I marvelled at it and said, "I want to build my house right here!" But then I heard a voice saying, "Why don't you build on the rock?"
I got up from the couch and made nothing of the vision / dream, because it made no sense to me, but within four months I would know exactly what it meant and I wasn't too proud of what I learned.
I wanted to be spiritual more than anything. I wanted God to talk to me regularly and when I heard preachers and Christian teachers, it seemed like God talked to them all the time. I wanted that for me too. I had a few times where it was clear to me that God was talking to me through a song, or a friend, or even a quiet something inside. But it wasn't enough, I always wanted more, so I began mistaking my own feelings and thoughts for those of God's voice.
In the middle of all this I had a real vision. I was at Ray's house lying down on his sofa and I went almost but not quite asleep. In the vision I saw a rock in the distance and it was awesome and beautiful. I marvelled at it and said, "I want to build my house right here!" But then I heard a voice saying, "Why don't you build on the rock?"
I got up from the couch and made nothing of the vision / dream, because it made no sense to me, but within four months I would know exactly what it meant and I wasn't too proud of what I learned.
Wednesday, February 11, 2009
The Prophecy
I was driving around some guys from church and some of their friends when one of the girls said she had some messages from God. Supposedly she had a gift of prophecy which meant she could prophesy about our lives and about our futures. She began with the others telling them how they struggled and how God was going to help them and so on.
When it was my turn she told me that God had plans for me to become a great prophet.
I was floored. I didn't expect that and was absolutely awed by what she said. When I got back to the ship that night I thought about it over and over. What I did not see was how close this was to my LSD experience 2 1/2 years previously when I was told that God would make me a great musician after the death of Hendrix. I didn't connect the lines and fell into the trap.
When it was my turn she told me that God had plans for me to become a great prophet.
I was floored. I didn't expect that and was absolutely awed by what she said. When I got back to the ship that night I thought about it over and over. What I did not see was how close this was to my LSD experience 2 1/2 years previously when I was told that God would make me a great musician after the death of Hendrix. I didn't connect the lines and fell into the trap.
Tuesday, February 10, 2009
The Great Prophet Ted
From the moment a prophecy was given to me that I would be a great prophet I was a new person. I felt honored and proud. I dug into the bible with a renewed interest and studied it diligently and for the next 3 months, I considered myself in preparation for greatness, but I was under a cloud of deception.
Somebody once said that no one is tempted who does not want to be tempted. I wanted to be great and I wanted every part of what it would be to be a great prophet. I imagined myself along the lines of Derek Prince speaking to large crowds in auditoriums about scriptural truths that were revealed just to me.
But something bothered me during those three months: I studied the bible but never learned about Jesus and his ministry on earth. I never learned about the cross and the resurrection and what they meant. When I prayed about it, I felt like God was telling me that it was O.K. and that would come later. But after 3 months of this I read 1 John 4:1-3:
Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.
The inward battle was huge. I saw the ramifications of these verses very clearly. I once again had fallen into a lie. Even though I was reading the bible, I was being misled. That night I decided to start all over again in my faith. Up until that night I had gravitated toward just about every new teaching and preaching that came along because I wanted everything God had, but I needed to start all over.
This is where I started:
1. Jesus Christ in the flesh, death and resurrection is first and foremost in the faith.
2. One must be born again to receive eternal life.
3. There is a Baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers with the evidence of praying in tongues. I did refine this one in the following years, but that night I held strongly to it.
As I saw it, everything else had to go... all my experiences, training and teachings - even what I was learning in the bible. I trusted no one to give me truth unless it was founded in one of the three statements I mentioned above. I felt like I had to destroy the building of faith that I had constructed for a year and a half and that was hard for me. I took comfort in the fact that there was a lot of material in the rubble of that building that could be used to build a new building. I just didn't know what material would fit where.
I didn't think about it then, but months later I remembered the vision I had at Ray's house - the vision where I wanted to build my house NEAR a huge and glorious rock and I heard a voice, "Why don't you build ON the Rock?" The night I read 1 John 4 - the night I started all over was the night I began building on the Rock.
Somebody once said that no one is tempted who does not want to be tempted. I wanted to be great and I wanted every part of what it would be to be a great prophet. I imagined myself along the lines of Derek Prince speaking to large crowds in auditoriums about scriptural truths that were revealed just to me.
But something bothered me during those three months: I studied the bible but never learned about Jesus and his ministry on earth. I never learned about the cross and the resurrection and what they meant. When I prayed about it, I felt like God was telling me that it was O.K. and that would come later. But after 3 months of this I read 1 John 4:1-3:
Beloved, do not trust every spirit but test the spirits to see whether they belong to God, because many false prophets have gone out into the world. This is how you can know the Spirit of God: every spirit that acknowledges Jesus Christ come in the flesh belongs to God, and every spirit that does not acknowledge Jesus does not belong to God. This is the spirit of the antichrist that, as you heard, is to come, but in fact is already in the world.
The inward battle was huge. I saw the ramifications of these verses very clearly. I once again had fallen into a lie. Even though I was reading the bible, I was being misled. That night I decided to start all over again in my faith. Up until that night I had gravitated toward just about every new teaching and preaching that came along because I wanted everything God had, but I needed to start all over.
This is where I started:
1. Jesus Christ in the flesh, death and resurrection is first and foremost in the faith.
2. One must be born again to receive eternal life.
3. There is a Baptism of the Holy Spirit for believers with the evidence of praying in tongues. I did refine this one in the following years, but that night I held strongly to it.
As I saw it, everything else had to go... all my experiences, training and teachings - even what I was learning in the bible. I trusted no one to give me truth unless it was founded in one of the three statements I mentioned above. I felt like I had to destroy the building of faith that I had constructed for a year and a half and that was hard for me. I took comfort in the fact that there was a lot of material in the rubble of that building that could be used to build a new building. I just didn't know what material would fit where.
I didn't think about it then, but months later I remembered the vision I had at Ray's house - the vision where I wanted to build my house NEAR a huge and glorious rock and I heard a voice, "Why don't you build ON the Rock?" The night I read 1 John 4 - the night I started all over was the night I began building on the Rock.
Monday, February 9, 2009
What Is Wrong with Joe?
Joe was a different kind of guy, I guess I'd call him an oddball. His personality was annoying and clueless of social skills, yet every believer on the ship tried to help him become a strong Christian and every believer eventually gave up trying.
Before we all gave up on Joe, several of us with Joe had finished a meal at a restaraunt and were on our way out. Joe went up to the hostess and with all seriousness said, "Jesus is coming back tomorrow!" I cringed inside. I would like to say I couldn't believe what he just did, but that would not be true. I could believe that Joe would say something like that, he was weird. As embarrased as I was, I noticed something I did not expect - the hostess was not only surprised, she was genuinely concerned.
So I turned to her and told her, "He's not coming tomorrow, but if he did, would you be ready?" She said, "No." I couldn't pray for her (that would be real tacky in the middle of her work), so I told her how to turn her life around for Christ and we left.
Within time we all gave up on Joe, but God didn't as you will see in the next blog.
Before we all gave up on Joe, several of us with Joe had finished a meal at a restaraunt and were on our way out. Joe went up to the hostess and with all seriousness said, "Jesus is coming back tomorrow!" I cringed inside. I would like to say I couldn't believe what he just did, but that would not be true. I could believe that Joe would say something like that, he was weird. As embarrased as I was, I noticed something I did not expect - the hostess was not only surprised, she was genuinely concerned.
So I turned to her and told her, "He's not coming tomorrow, but if he did, would you be ready?" She said, "No." I couldn't pray for her (that would be real tacky in the middle of her work), so I told her how to turn her life around for Christ and we left.
Within time we all gave up on Joe, but God didn't as you will see in the next blog.
Sunday, February 8, 2009
Joe and the Unbelievable Lady
MARCH 1973
I moved to a lot of different cities and visited a lot of different churches during my 4 years in the Coast Guard and in many of them, after church services I seemed to gravitate toward older ladies, probably because they reminded me of my Grandmother in ways. The ones I liked were sweet, wise, spiritual and most of the time, prayer warriors.
In 1975 I talked a lot to Sister Sarah who was a lady bound to her wheel chair, but I was sure had a direct line with God. I brought up prayer requests with her on many occasions. In Baltimore, there was one lady who was simply awesome. I don't know how I found these people, but I did.
The Setup
There were two churches I visited in Baltimore. The first was a Pentecostal Church that was very anti-Charismatic and the second was a Charismatic church. The Pentecostal one had a pair of children's crutches on the wall to commemorate the healing of one of their kids. The Charismatic church had nothing special in it except one older lady who was very gifted - genuinely gifted. Oh yes, and there was another weird lady who hung out there, but that's another story entirely.
Joe
Besides being odd, Joe was the kind of guy who was Christian one day and partier/drunk the next. He just couldn't make up his mind which direction to go. All of the Christians on board the ship had tried to help him but gave up on him, eventually I too gave up - Joe was hopeless.
One night I was going to go to a Bible Study headed by this awesome older lady, but while I was preparing to go I was facing an internal struggle. I felt that I should take Joe to the Bible Study but I didn't want to. The feeling was very strong so I finally gave in and asked Joe to go with me.
For the next 45 minutes in the car Joe told me that he had his whole life planned out - finding a woman to marry, settle down, be happy and not be strong Christian but not a bad one either. During those 45 minutes I said nothing- I was disgusted.
We walked into the Study and the older lady started talking about seeing many visions of heaven and hell. She said heaven was marvelous, but she wouldn't wish her worst enemy to go to hell, but the bible says that God would rather us be hot or cold, not lukewarm for if we are lukewarm Jesus will spit us out of his mouth. She then addressed every issue Joe brought up in the car. She did not miss one issue that Joe brought up - she brought up the fact that life isn't a bed of roses where you find the perfect wife and you live happily ever after. She mentioned everything Joe talked about and mentioned nothing more. It was just like she was there listening to us.
After she had been talking about 10 minutes Joe spoke up, "I guess I've been lukewarm." We prayed for him that night and several days later I was transfered to Peteluma, CA, where a whole new chapter of my life began. I never saw Joe again.
I moved to a lot of different cities and visited a lot of different churches during my 4 years in the Coast Guard and in many of them, after church services I seemed to gravitate toward older ladies, probably because they reminded me of my Grandmother in ways. The ones I liked were sweet, wise, spiritual and most of the time, prayer warriors.
In 1975 I talked a lot to Sister Sarah who was a lady bound to her wheel chair, but I was sure had a direct line with God. I brought up prayer requests with her on many occasions. In Baltimore, there was one lady who was simply awesome. I don't know how I found these people, but I did.
The Setup
There were two churches I visited in Baltimore. The first was a Pentecostal Church that was very anti-Charismatic and the second was a Charismatic church. The Pentecostal one had a pair of children's crutches on the wall to commemorate the healing of one of their kids. The Charismatic church had nothing special in it except one older lady who was very gifted - genuinely gifted. Oh yes, and there was another weird lady who hung out there, but that's another story entirely.
Joe
Besides being odd, Joe was the kind of guy who was Christian one day and partier/drunk the next. He just couldn't make up his mind which direction to go. All of the Christians on board the ship had tried to help him but gave up on him, eventually I too gave up - Joe was hopeless.
One night I was going to go to a Bible Study headed by this awesome older lady, but while I was preparing to go I was facing an internal struggle. I felt that I should take Joe to the Bible Study but I didn't want to. The feeling was very strong so I finally gave in and asked Joe to go with me.
For the next 45 minutes in the car Joe told me that he had his whole life planned out - finding a woman to marry, settle down, be happy and not be strong Christian but not a bad one either. During those 45 minutes I said nothing- I was disgusted.
We walked into the Study and the older lady started talking about seeing many visions of heaven and hell. She said heaven was marvelous, but she wouldn't wish her worst enemy to go to hell, but the bible says that God would rather us be hot or cold, not lukewarm for if we are lukewarm Jesus will spit us out of his mouth. She then addressed every issue Joe brought up in the car. She did not miss one issue that Joe brought up - she brought up the fact that life isn't a bed of roses where you find the perfect wife and you live happily ever after. She mentioned everything Joe talked about and mentioned nothing more. It was just like she was there listening to us.
After she had been talking about 10 minutes Joe spoke up, "I guess I've been lukewarm." We prayed for him that night and several days later I was transfered to Peteluma, CA, where a whole new chapter of my life began. I never saw Joe again.
Saturday, February 7, 2009
California
APRIL 1973
I went to California to study 3 months to be a Storekeeper. Storekeepers took care of the finances of ships and stations. I was good with numbers and Storekeeper's school was the place for me.
I learned from a California hitchhiker that because of a lot of rain the California hills were greener than they had been for years. It was a great introduction to California for me.
The Coast Guard station was several miles out of Peteluma in a very pretty area filled with rolling hills only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Peteluma was a cute little city that was so quaint that George Lucas chose Peteluma in which to film American Graffiti.
In 1973 California was still in the 60s. Hippies still remained, San Francisco's Haight Ashbury section was still alive but no longer the dream it once promised. And there were still hippie communes, one of which I will tell you about within the next blog or two.
I went to California to study 3 months to be a Storekeeper. Storekeepers took care of the finances of ships and stations. I was good with numbers and Storekeeper's school was the place for me.
I learned from a California hitchhiker that because of a lot of rain the California hills were greener than they had been for years. It was a great introduction to California for me.
The Coast Guard station was several miles out of Peteluma in a very pretty area filled with rolling hills only a few miles from the Pacific Ocean. Peteluma was a cute little city that was so quaint that George Lucas chose Peteluma in which to film American Graffiti.
In 1973 California was still in the 60s. Hippies still remained, San Francisco's Haight Ashbury section was still alive but no longer the dream it once promised. And there were still hippie communes, one of which I will tell you about within the next blog or two.
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