Prelude

I was shouting as loud as I could and only got the attention of a few of the people around me. My mother had died of cancer a few months earlier and we, my siblings and I were traveling through Chicago with my dad on our way east to meet our new mother. My dad was planning on marrying his first sweet heart, the girl he had never had the courage to follow through with the first time around. She was now fifty and had never married and she was to become our new mother.

We had been riding the rail from the west coast and decided to take a break in Chicago. Dad had taken us to the old historic Gospel Mission. It was testimony time and I had a testimony. I was asked to repeat it and then I was told to get up and stand on the chair and say it again as loud as I could - so I bellered out "I love Jesus and Jesus loves me". That time it worked. The crowd applauded and nice comments were made from the stage, people wanted to shake my hand and I was hooked. I was going to be a preacher. It felt good, really good. But I needed a great story, you know, the kind of story that makes people cry and want to get right with God. For many years I grieved about the smallness of my story....Christian kid, Christian home.

A few weeks later with our new mother, we were again at a revival meeting some where in Ontario. I don't remember much about the service, but when the alter call was made I slipped out of my seat and by myself made my way through the stadium to the front. From there I was ushered into a side room where counselors were waiting to pray with those wanting to give their lives to Jesus. I was only five years old and went completely undetected. In a corner all by myself I fell on my knees and invited Jesus into my heart. The tears flowed freely and the warmth of His presence filled the room and I knew beyond a shadow of doubt that I was loved and forgiven. I now had the real story and I was going to be a preacher some day just like Billy Graham and Oral Roberts, two of my real life heroes.

My birth mother, Ruby, was the first born in a family of preachers. My heritage is rich. Looking back over these past 55 years since that day of new beginning, I have done my share of preaching and have enjoyed the applause of men and God. But my story has undergone much tribulation and trial along the way. I have had to fight for it. It didn't come easy, but this is my story ... this is my song. "He loves me". I fulfill a longing in His heart, as does He in mine. He is satisfied in me and I am satisfied in Him. Day after day the revelation grows. He loves me isn't just a chapter in the book. It is the book and every chapter is a spin off of that one central truth/revelation. He loves me is the center and the focal point of life.

And that is the legacy I leave for my kids. That is my ceiling and their floor. Knowing that I am so loved by God is the best gift I could give them. Not that we love Him but that He loves us. They will have to fight for that one like I had to but hopefully not as hard. I pray that Mary and my legacy will be an extention of our Fathers. A legacy of love. And my heart is that His love will be released through our lives in our kids, their kids and grand kids. And that this love will color and flavor thier world. This testimony (God's love story) is the Power of God to Salvation to everyone who believes.