Isaiah 53

4Surely he took up our pain

and bore our suffering,

yet we considered him punished by God,

stricken by him, and afflicted.

5But he was pierced for our transgressions,

he was crushed for our iniquities;

the punishment that brought us peace was on him,

and by his wounds we are healed.

6We all, like sheep, have gone astray,

each of us has turned to our own way;

and the Lord has laid on him

the iniquity of us all. Isaiah 53:4-6 

This passage of scripture is a prophecy of Jesus. God sent Jesus to die on a cross for the sins of the whole world.  I was raised in the church and probably before I was born had been to church but as an adult, I walked away from God.  I am reading in the book of Jeremiah as I make my way through the Bible. Judah and Israel have walked away from God. God repeatedly warns them again and again of disaster coming their way. They will not listen. Just like the story of Jonah, God had warned of the disaster that was coming, At least for a time Ninevah listen and turned back to God. That is all God wanted. His people to return to him. But Judah would not listen and disaster finally came and the only ones left in the land are the poor. Back to me in the early 1980s. My world was falling apart. My first marriage was already on the rocks. I got laid off from the job I really loved. I lived on five acres in a run-down mobile home without running water or electricity. I was really down. I went up into Green Mountain on a logging road as far as I could go with that little old Pinto station wagon. I had a 22 rifle with me intending to take my own life. That is how far down I was. Discouraged, despondent, lower than a snake, it seemed there was nothing to live for.  I couldn't pull the trigger. I had figured even if I survived the gunshot, no one would find me, I could never make my way out of there. God help me I cried. If you really love me as you say, help me. That is when my life turned around. I still went through my first divorce, and then 3 more divorces in the  11 years after my first divorce, but something was different.  My life didn't just magically turn around in an instant. In January of 1984, I recommitted my life to God. I asked him to help me. Things turned around ever so slowly. I was restored to the job I loved, but even there I faced more trouble than I had ever been through, different kinds of trouble. I got into trouble where I did not want to go to work. I sat in tears one day in the parking lot, telling God, I don't want to go in there. God help me and he did. I think it was about that time, I think it actually might have been an angel that came to me, I am really not sure. But this man came to me where I was working, I had never seen him before that I can recall. After he spoke to me I never saw him again. There are many people that worked there I never laid eyes on but I knew everyone in our particular shop.  I heard talk about you in the shop, he said, but people say you are a Christian and saying terrible things about you. The Bible says no one can say, Jesus is Lord except by the spirit of God. Therefore I want you to know that no one who is speaking by the Spirit of God says, "Jesus be cursed," and no one can say, "Jesus is Lord," except by the Holy Spirit. 1 Corinthians 12:3  This man asked me can you say Jesus is Lord?  I was almost angry, I am thinking why are you harassing me, I don't even know you. But I struggled and said, "Jesus is Lord".  The man said to me that is good enough for me and walked away and I never saw him again. God stayed with me through that trouble and many more things. I didn't live a perfect life. I struggled with sin but since that day in January of 1984, it was God has been with me through every struggle since then. I look back and I lived a good life, I have been blessed and it started to go uphill instead of downhill since that night. In January of 1984 when a preacher in Burlington WA got up into the pulpit and spoke directly to me. I had gone to take Jenie to sing a special song at a revival. I was still in my downward spiral but Papa had asked me to bring her and I said I would. I sat at the back of the church, I hadn't been to church in over 4 years. I thought I can sit through another service. The preacher got up to the pulpit and these are his words as best I can remember:  "Leon, someday you are going to stand before God to give an account for your life, and God is not going to ask who hurt you or who did you wrong? God is going to ask one question, what have you done with Jesus, have you accepted him or rejected him?" I made my way to the altar and repented of my sins. As I said I went through 4 divorces, troubles on the job many times. Not everything went right from that time forward. There were hills to climb and valleys to walk through but Jesus was with me every step of the way. I point to that night in January 1984 when my life turned around. Even to this day, I have made some bad decisions and suffered for them but Jesus walked with me through every trial since that night. I have never regretted that decision to turn my life over to God. Today I still think it was the best decision I ever made in my life. It was Jesus in my heart that has made the difference.  I think perhaps people think that when they accept Jesus into their heart they will never face another trouble, but that is not true, it is just that Jesus is with you all the way. Sometimes as the footsteps in the sand poem tell us, there is only one set of footprints in the sand, that is when Jesus is carrying us.  Jesus is the best thing that ever happened to me. There is salvation in no other name under heaven where men can be saved. Jesus is the only way to God.  God bless, LVZ.