How I Became a Christian

This morning I am wanting to write down about my journey to God. I was raised by parents that went to church as long as I can remember. I was in Sunday School and what they called Gleaners, the name for pre teenage children group in the church I was raised in. As Teenagers we then became VLB's, Victory Leaders Band.  I remember praying as a 4 or 5 year old child. My earliest memory of a prayer I prayed. I was with my Dad out in the country surrounding Bismark North Dakota where Dad was unloading a load of dirt off his pickup truck. Dad was digging a basement under the house at Bismark North Dakota. Shovel by shovel unto the back of his truck and then into the country to dump it. Dad's truck wouldn't start this particular time and he was angry. I was scared. I walked a few steps away and asked God to please let the truck start. The truck started. I remember that time as Dad said to me you better start praying. I didn't know how he knew I was praying. I remember praying at an altar when I was 11 during some sort of church service, a revival or convention or something in Bismark North Dakota. I remember asking God to take me home, I didn't want to live anymore. I was saved and I wanted to go home with him while I knew I was OK. Of course that was 50 plus years ago and I am still here. I remember there were some older men, older than me praying with me.  I remember hearing them say to each other, did you hear what he is praying? I remember being in Sunday School and I was in a class with teenagers, I was probably pre teen age and they didn't have a class for my age group and they put me with the teenagers. It was pre 1965, because one of the boys in the class said he didn't believe the 1965 cars would come out before the second coming of Christ.  Just some memories that stuck with me for whatever the reason over the years.  I know there were many times I prayed at an altar for salvation in my going up years in church.  Once in a youth camp at about 18 or perhaps it was a men's retreat or something like that as I was a young adult, I remember thinking I wanted to work for God and felt I needed to be a minister or something like that. I didn't want to be around the secular influence of my job at the time. Now I realize that is probably where we do the most work for God, just in our everyday lives as we live out our Christianity before others in what ever we do. I was somewhat active in doing church things even in to my twenties. I became a church treasurer for the small church I attended in my mid twenties. I did a good job of keeping the books for the church, I always had the books balanced down to the penny, I actually loved doing that job as far as record keeping and handling the money. It was also my downfall, because in that position I saw what every member in the church was doing financially. It was foreign to me that some Christians didn't pay tithes regularly.  I remember  one preacher from my youth saying if you have a member that is not paying his tithe, you don't have a saint, you have a sinner. I allowed a root of bitterness to grow in my heart because of the lack of faithfulness in the financial area of church members. I was in a church that taught perfection and I guess I thought that Christians were perfect.  I dropped out of church and thought all Christians were hypocrites for several years. I walked away from church, and thought, its not for me. God didn't let me go. My marriage was also troubled at this time. I got laid off from the job I really liked. It seemed life was really going down hill. I went up into the mountains east of Everett on a logging road as far as I could get. I had a 22 rifle with me and I intended to kill my self. I prayed God if you really love me send someone to help me.  I put the rifle under my chin, but I couldn't pull the trigger.  I cried and cried, feeling like nobody cared, but I couldn't do it. I got the pinto wagon turned around and took the long way home through Darrington. When I got home the momma goat I had at home with triplets had tore herself up in a fence and I didn't have any money for a vet so I took her into the woods to shoot her and the 22 wouldn't fire. I had to borrow a gun to put her down and bury her.  I limped along in life, very discouraged, my marriage was troubled, I was laid off from work, and it just seemed life sucked. My father-in-law called and asked if I would bring Jenie up to a revival he was having in his church to sing. I said sure, no problem, I hadn't been to church in a long time but I was sure I could sit through another church service no problem. I went, it was in Burlington,  WA,  the first Sunday night after the New Years holiday in 1984.  The service progressed, they sang songs, they took up an offering, Jenie sang her special song. It was time for the preacher of the evening. His name was Mike Mathis, he had come from Texas to pastor the little church in Arlington that I had been a member of. Mike got into the pulpit to preach his sermon and he said from the pulpit; "Leon, someday you will stand before God to give an answer for your life. God is not going to ask you who hurt you or who did what to you. The only question he will ask is; What have you done with Jesus? Have you accepted him or rejected him?"  After just those few words I made my way to the altar and asked God to forgive me again. My marriage didn't heal, in fact I went through 4 divorces in about 11 years. I did get back on with the job I loved, but even there I went through more troubles, to the point one day I asked God to help me to go in there, because I was hated.  I had more ups and downs in life, but something had changed.  Every situation God was with me and helped me through it.  I have never regretted that decision to ask Jesus into my heart and life that January night in 1984.  I have sinned and had to repent many times over different things over the years. I have not lived a perfect life. But God had stuck with me through the journey.  I suppose there are more parts to the story, like the prayer I prayed in 2001 when I was driving down Yakima Street in Tacoma and God answered that prayer as I was still driving. I have had ups and downs but God has been with me all the way. I am thankful for that day in 1984 when it seemed everything changed. I still had troubles but God was there to help me and even forgive me when I sinned. I realized life is not perfect but God will help us through every difficulty. When I have sinned he has been there to pick me up and clean me up.  It took me a long time to turn everything over to God. There are still areas of my life God is working on. I am blessed to have known God for these many years. I am eternally grateful for that night in 1984 when I repented of my sins and asked Jesus to come into my heart and life. God bless, LVZ.