forbygrace
July 21st, 2007, 11:58 AM
There is a thread in the Breaking News and Prophecy section about Hal Lindsey's latest weekly update, and several have shared their stories with regard to reading Hal's book...which have reminded me that I too owe Hal Lindsey a VERY great deal! So I thought I would start this for any other like-minded people who wish to post their thanks to Mr. Lindsey here.
This is more a personal testimony than it is "breaking news," so I thought it should have its own thread.
So such as they are, here is my praise and thanks to Hal Lindsey, and to our Lord Jesus Christ, for using Mr. L in such an unprecedented and amazing way.
Thank you, Hal. You will never really know the impact you have had in my life.
Thank You Lord God, for using this man's gifts the way You have.
************************
I'm going to write my story about Hal Lindsey and the Late Great Planet Earth, because I want to give Hal credit for being so wonderfully used of the Holy Spirit of God in my life, and I want to praise and thank Jesus that he could use a seemingly simple string of events and even a teenager's foolishness, naivete, and impetuosity to save her soul and bring her new life!! I am so filled with thankfulness to Him for His grace and mercy, His depthless love and mercy, I have to acknowledge this wonderful thing He did with that book! :yeah
So here is my story.
I was a 15 year old, a typical kid in every way, happy and carefree, my world filled with safety and breezy teen aged confidence. I was caught up in the usual things of a teenager living in the 70's-friends, parties, fashions, music, fun! I lived like there was no thought of tomorrow, sadness had never touched my world-life was great!
We lived in the country, way out in the boonies, and so going to the little one horse town about ten miles from our house was a big weekly adventure!
I loved to go to the little corner drugstore to hang out with my friends and gawk at the latest fashion magazines and the cute guys on the covers of the rock star magazines like "Tiger Beat"! :lol2
Anyway, one day my eye was caught by a book called, "The Chariots of the Gods," by Erich Von Danniken. The printing on the front cover was in capitalized block style letters, very cool looking, and really stood out against the background. ANYTHING about UFO's and occult was right up my alley, so I bought the book and took it home, settled comfortably into our big barn hayloft, and read away!
I was SO captivated by that book, and the thought that there might be wise, all-powerful aliens and superior civlizations with advanced technologies out there who were going to swoop down, and give us a hand to clean up this mess we'd made of our world, that I wanted MORE! Clearly, THIS was the answer to humanity's problems-aliens were gonna come and rescue us!
Next time we went into "the big city" I scoured the magazine and book racks to see if there was anything else in about UFO's and ancient civilizations for me to devour. Sure enough, there WAS a book with the exact same cool capital block letters on the cover! It was called "The Late Great Planet Earth," and so of course I HAD to have it! I bought it with the last of my allowance money and hurried home to read it! Wow, more cool stuff about bug eyed aliens with superior intellects who had all the answers!
This was gonna be SO great!
Imagine my horror and absolute disappointment when I got into my room, settled in for an exciting read, only to discover that it was a book about THE BIBLE. ACKKKKKKK!!! The Bible??? What a RIP OFF!! I was SO mad!! A book about Bible prophecy??? Oh brrrrrotherrrrr!! What a cheat! BIBLE PROPHECY??? This wasn't more like Erich von Danniken, it was BORING old DUSTY Bible nonsense!!
I was SO furious I threw the book into my bottom junk drawer in UTTER disgust and totally forgot about it for the next four years. It eventually made its way into a junk box in the barn, lying there collecting dust and straw until the day we moved to the city.
Now, thanks to the utter drear, meaninglessness, doom 'n' gloom, existentialist nature of the curriculum in the city public high school I was in, my thoughts began to turn pessimistic and eventually hopeless as I realized more and more about the deteriorating condition of our world. Our teachers had us reading books which talked about pollution, overpopulation, and the coming famines, and thus the utter hopelessness of our future. We had to read, "The Limits to Growth" by the Club of Rome, which warned of massive death by starvation on a world-wide scale in the next few decades. We had to read about the coming Ice Age (yes, I said Ice Age. Back in the 70's we were being breathlessly warned about the coming of severe global cooling!) In English class all our novels were about the futility of man's existence, the emptiness of life, and I understood that the meaninglessness of MY whole existence shone through.
Also, at that time, my favorite aunt, the one I loved most in the world, had just lost her two day old son in a totally sudden and tragic crib death. It was the most terrible time of my life, watching her grieve and suffer so utterly hopelessly. She became totally self-destructive, drinking heavily, taking anti-depression pills, and lying on the floor out of her mind for days on end. The day they put that little casket into the frozen snow covered ground is one I will never forget, because I was so sure that my aunt would try to follow her beautiful baby into the ground.
What a horrible feeling, being so sad for someone else's pain, and yet being totally unable to do a thing to comfort them. I had no comfort for myself, much less for her.
Also, at that time, one of our beloved horses became ill, and a few days after my little cousin's funeral, she died a horrible, painful death. It was as if anything that could go wrong, was going wrong. This just seemed to be the final straw.
I was convinced there was no meaning to life, no hope but to look forward to but the inevitable death which would come to us all one day. Then that would be the end to what was by and large an empty, tear-filled existence on a decaying and hopeless planet.
A few days after the funeral, feeling restless and needing something, ANYTHING to do to take my mind off of life, I was cleaning out some old boxes of junk that I had moved with us to the city from our house in the country.
And what did I find under a pile of old teen magazines?
That blasted "Late Great Planet Earth" book, covered in dust and straw from being stored in the barn for a year. I had forgotten all about it, and was surprised that it had actually made the move with me! Somehow that book had survived being in the barn and a move and five years of neglect.
I picked it up and started flipping the pages, thinking, "Maybe this has something to say to me?...Well, hey, why not...?"
I began to read it, wondering if a book about Bible prophecy could give me any idea where my baby cousin had gone, and maybe where I was going too at the end of it all...
The first chapter was so totally and unexpectedly captivating and fascinating I couldn't put it down. What made the difference in five years I will never know, other than to say it was the Holy Spirit of God, HE had prepared the soil of my heart and soul.
The more I read the more compelling Hal Lindsey's words became to me.
I snooped around the house and found a dusty old Bible somewhere and looked up each and every verse this guy was writing to see if what he claimed was true. I had never been able to BEGIN to understand the Bible before but now the verses seemed to stand out for some reason. I found myself actually understanding what I was reading. That was odd, almost unsettling.
I put Hal's book down for a few days and started reading the Gospel of John. It all seemed to be right there in front of my eyes. The gospel seemed so simple, so clear, I wondered why no one had ever suggested this to me before, not even at church had anyone told me I should read the Bible.
Then I got back to Hal's book, and finished the last few chapters.
Why hadn't I ever been told about this before, all the years I sat in a boring, dull church?? Why had there been talk of feeding the starving kids in Africa and Asia every single Sunday, talk of building wells and schools and other very good things, but nothing about asking Jesus to be my Savior? This was all totally new to me!
Something kept nudging in my heart and soul that there was the ring of truth to these words. Something inside spoke out to me that they were so. I will never be able to explain, but there was a surety in my mind that this was for real. Everything I knew from current events and my history classes rang true (I was a history and English major in my second year by this time).
There was a prayer at the back of the book. He called it the sinner's prayer I think. All I remember doing is saying the words he had written there, and adding my own in my mind as I prayed, "Jesus, please forgive ME my sins and be MY savior."
Simply put, something happened in that moment that changed me forever! It was incredible, the quiet sense of peace and calm, the simultaneous sense of joy and praise and sheer awesomeness. All I know is that I was born again that day, July 13, 1975.
All praise and glory to our wonderful God, He was able to reach down and hold the hand of a confused and sad teen aged girl, using a book I had cursed, buried in dust and straw for four years in a barn!
Thanks Hal, God used you to change my life and bring me home!
:yeah
This is more a personal testimony than it is "breaking news," so I thought it should have its own thread.
So such as they are, here is my praise and thanks to Hal Lindsey, and to our Lord Jesus Christ, for using Mr. L in such an unprecedented and amazing way.
Thank you, Hal. You will never really know the impact you have had in my life.
Thank You Lord God, for using this man's gifts the way You have.
************************
I'm going to write my story about Hal Lindsey and the Late Great Planet Earth, because I want to give Hal credit for being so wonderfully used of the Holy Spirit of God in my life, and I want to praise and thank Jesus that he could use a seemingly simple string of events and even a teenager's foolishness, naivete, and impetuosity to save her soul and bring her new life!! I am so filled with thankfulness to Him for His grace and mercy, His depthless love and mercy, I have to acknowledge this wonderful thing He did with that book! :yeah
So here is my story.
I was a 15 year old, a typical kid in every way, happy and carefree, my world filled with safety and breezy teen aged confidence. I was caught up in the usual things of a teenager living in the 70's-friends, parties, fashions, music, fun! I lived like there was no thought of tomorrow, sadness had never touched my world-life was great!
We lived in the country, way out in the boonies, and so going to the little one horse town about ten miles from our house was a big weekly adventure!
I loved to go to the little corner drugstore to hang out with my friends and gawk at the latest fashion magazines and the cute guys on the covers of the rock star magazines like "Tiger Beat"! :lol2
Anyway, one day my eye was caught by a book called, "The Chariots of the Gods," by Erich Von Danniken. The printing on the front cover was in capitalized block style letters, very cool looking, and really stood out against the background. ANYTHING about UFO's and occult was right up my alley, so I bought the book and took it home, settled comfortably into our big barn hayloft, and read away!
I was SO captivated by that book, and the thought that there might be wise, all-powerful aliens and superior civlizations with advanced technologies out there who were going to swoop down, and give us a hand to clean up this mess we'd made of our world, that I wanted MORE! Clearly, THIS was the answer to humanity's problems-aliens were gonna come and rescue us!
Next time we went into "the big city" I scoured the magazine and book racks to see if there was anything else in about UFO's and ancient civilizations for me to devour. Sure enough, there WAS a book with the exact same cool capital block letters on the cover! It was called "The Late Great Planet Earth," and so of course I HAD to have it! I bought it with the last of my allowance money and hurried home to read it! Wow, more cool stuff about bug eyed aliens with superior intellects who had all the answers!
This was gonna be SO great!
Imagine my horror and absolute disappointment when I got into my room, settled in for an exciting read, only to discover that it was a book about THE BIBLE. ACKKKKKKK!!! The Bible??? What a RIP OFF!! I was SO mad!! A book about Bible prophecy??? Oh brrrrrotherrrrr!! What a cheat! BIBLE PROPHECY??? This wasn't more like Erich von Danniken, it was BORING old DUSTY Bible nonsense!!
I was SO furious I threw the book into my bottom junk drawer in UTTER disgust and totally forgot about it for the next four years. It eventually made its way into a junk box in the barn, lying there collecting dust and straw until the day we moved to the city.
Now, thanks to the utter drear, meaninglessness, doom 'n' gloom, existentialist nature of the curriculum in the city public high school I was in, my thoughts began to turn pessimistic and eventually hopeless as I realized more and more about the deteriorating condition of our world. Our teachers had us reading books which talked about pollution, overpopulation, and the coming famines, and thus the utter hopelessness of our future. We had to read, "The Limits to Growth" by the Club of Rome, which warned of massive death by starvation on a world-wide scale in the next few decades. We had to read about the coming Ice Age (yes, I said Ice Age. Back in the 70's we were being breathlessly warned about the coming of severe global cooling!) In English class all our novels were about the futility of man's existence, the emptiness of life, and I understood that the meaninglessness of MY whole existence shone through.
Also, at that time, my favorite aunt, the one I loved most in the world, had just lost her two day old son in a totally sudden and tragic crib death. It was the most terrible time of my life, watching her grieve and suffer so utterly hopelessly. She became totally self-destructive, drinking heavily, taking anti-depression pills, and lying on the floor out of her mind for days on end. The day they put that little casket into the frozen snow covered ground is one I will never forget, because I was so sure that my aunt would try to follow her beautiful baby into the ground.
What a horrible feeling, being so sad for someone else's pain, and yet being totally unable to do a thing to comfort them. I had no comfort for myself, much less for her.
Also, at that time, one of our beloved horses became ill, and a few days after my little cousin's funeral, she died a horrible, painful death. It was as if anything that could go wrong, was going wrong. This just seemed to be the final straw.
I was convinced there was no meaning to life, no hope but to look forward to but the inevitable death which would come to us all one day. Then that would be the end to what was by and large an empty, tear-filled existence on a decaying and hopeless planet.
A few days after the funeral, feeling restless and needing something, ANYTHING to do to take my mind off of life, I was cleaning out some old boxes of junk that I had moved with us to the city from our house in the country.
And what did I find under a pile of old teen magazines?
That blasted "Late Great Planet Earth" book, covered in dust and straw from being stored in the barn for a year. I had forgotten all about it, and was surprised that it had actually made the move with me! Somehow that book had survived being in the barn and a move and five years of neglect.
I picked it up and started flipping the pages, thinking, "Maybe this has something to say to me?...Well, hey, why not...?"
I began to read it, wondering if a book about Bible prophecy could give me any idea where my baby cousin had gone, and maybe where I was going too at the end of it all...
The first chapter was so totally and unexpectedly captivating and fascinating I couldn't put it down. What made the difference in five years I will never know, other than to say it was the Holy Spirit of God, HE had prepared the soil of my heart and soul.
The more I read the more compelling Hal Lindsey's words became to me.
I snooped around the house and found a dusty old Bible somewhere and looked up each and every verse this guy was writing to see if what he claimed was true. I had never been able to BEGIN to understand the Bible before but now the verses seemed to stand out for some reason. I found myself actually understanding what I was reading. That was odd, almost unsettling.
I put Hal's book down for a few days and started reading the Gospel of John. It all seemed to be right there in front of my eyes. The gospel seemed so simple, so clear, I wondered why no one had ever suggested this to me before, not even at church had anyone told me I should read the Bible.
Then I got back to Hal's book, and finished the last few chapters.
Why hadn't I ever been told about this before, all the years I sat in a boring, dull church?? Why had there been talk of feeding the starving kids in Africa and Asia every single Sunday, talk of building wells and schools and other very good things, but nothing about asking Jesus to be my Savior? This was all totally new to me!
Something kept nudging in my heart and soul that there was the ring of truth to these words. Something inside spoke out to me that they were so. I will never be able to explain, but there was a surety in my mind that this was for real. Everything I knew from current events and my history classes rang true (I was a history and English major in my second year by this time).
There was a prayer at the back of the book. He called it the sinner's prayer I think. All I remember doing is saying the words he had written there, and adding my own in my mind as I prayed, "Jesus, please forgive ME my sins and be MY savior."
Simply put, something happened in that moment that changed me forever! It was incredible, the quiet sense of peace and calm, the simultaneous sense of joy and praise and sheer awesomeness. All I know is that I was born again that day, July 13, 1975.
All praise and glory to our wonderful God, He was able to reach down and hold the hand of a confused and sad teen aged girl, using a book I had cursed, buried in dust and straw for four years in a barn!
Thanks Hal, God used you to change my life and bring me home!
:yeah