WANT ADVENTURE?

WANT  ADVENTURE?

The adventure of my life started when we lived in Japan for two years – from June 1969 until June 1971. My husband’s job was with the Federal Aviation Administration, but, while we were overseas, we were employees of the U.S. Embassy.   We lived just outside Tachikawa Air Base because my husband, Dick, was part of a flight crew that flew out of Tachikawa’s Airport.  They checked the navigational aids – the electronic highways in the sky – over most of Southeast Asia.  Little did I expect that God would speak life changing words to me in Japan!

The first year we were in Japan, I enjoyed staying home with my daughter and son—-just enjoying being a Mom and a housewife.  In our second year there, I took a job, so we could save money for a down-payment on a house when we returned to the wonderful United States of America!   Suz, was just 6 years old and Baby Shane was a year and a half, so we had a Japanese maid, who was at our house while I was gone to work.  Even though my husband had an incredible job—pilot in command of a Sabreliner jet, that he flew all over Southeast Asia—he was not a happy man.  He still had demons from a very troubled childhood, and he was so mean to me that I asked God to let me die.

I really thought God would answer that prayer and let me die, so I wondered how it would happen. Would I get really sick and die? Would I have an accident as I drove to and from work through Japanese traffic?  In Japan they drive on the left side of the road, and everyone drives fast! Whoever got to a crossroads first had the right-of-way, which resulted in some crazy dare-devil bluffing.  I was working on Yokota Air Base, which was a seven mile drive each way in that unpredictable traffic!

After I asked God to let me die, the thought occurred to me, “What if I turned my whole life over to God, would He make things better?”  I whispered a prayer to God, “God, I’ll do anything – absolutely anything You say – if you will make things better,” and I HEARD GOD SAY, “READ YOUR BIBLE.”  I heard His audible voice and I was shocked that I heard Him, but I was even more amazed that the answer to my problems could be in the Bible.  He said nothing else, so I dug out my New Testament and put it in my purse.  Every day, on my lunch hour, I read my Bible. The Base Chapel was only two blocks from my office, and I walked there every noon.  Inside the big chapel, was a tiny Chapel where a person could kneel. Every day I knelt, poured my heart out to God, then sat back and read my New Testament.

The New Testament is made up of 27 books, divided by chapters and verses.  I had already read the books of Matthew and Mark, and was reading Luke. I was reading the story of Jesus for the third time – told by a different witness from that day.  As I read, I suddenly realized that Jesus came to be the Savior of whoever will open their heart to him and say, “Come into my life and be my Savior!”  If anyone needed a Savior, it was me!  I was in my second marriage, and it was so bad that I wanted to die!

With everything in me, I asked Jesus to be my Savior!  I told Him that I was incredibly sorry for all the bad things I’d done!  And in that instant my life changed forever!  My sins were gone, and God, who is so holy that He cannot be around sin, drew near to me.   The God of love, peace and truth came into my life!    I sensed His love, and peace!  I was comforted that He was there for me and I knew He would never leave me!

Because God said, “Read your Bible,” I kept on reading it, and discovered countless promises that God made to whoever would search and find them!  I have lost track of the times I read through His Bible – every word, from Genesis through Revelation.  He truly saved me and then He changed my life—all because I told Him, “God, I will do absolutely anything You say, if you will just make things better!”  And He did make things better – and better – and better, as I kept reading His Bible and doing what He said.  I believed everything I read, and for instance, when I read in 1 Thessalonians 5:18  that He said, “In EVERYTHING give thanks, for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you,” I HEARD that as if God has just spoken it to me – because He had!  Think of that!  He wants us to have an attitude of gratitude and be thankful no matter what comes!    Sometimes it is hard to be thankful for everything, but we can always THANK HIM BECAUSE WE TRUST HIM!  The world is filled with people who don’t know this, because they don’t read God’s love letter to them—the Holy Bible.  Even though they have enough of everything and live in the greatest Country in the world, they are angry and ungrateful.  They have missed one of God’s most basic commands to all of us, “In EVERYTHING give thanks!”

Do you want more from life than you have?  Do you want adventure?  Read His Word because, “faith comes by hearing.”  The command to HEAR His word came to people before there were Bibles. Now there are Bibles and we can hear His Word and read His Word.  Where we live, most of us can own a Bible and hear AND read .  If we do, we will have faith.  There are places in the world where 50 people may share one Bible.  Whatever verses they can copy and take home, that is their Bible.  They would give almost anything to have the whole Bible!  They know that faith comes by hearing God’s word and that God will speak to them through the Bible!

You are most wonderfully blessed if you own a Bible.  If you don’t, you can buy one or download one free from the internet.  God will speak to you, as you read it.  It is your treasure!  By reading it you will come to know the God who created the universe – and who created you!  You will come to know your purpose!  You will come to know Him and learn to walk in His Presence!  Walking with God is exciting because God never does the same thing twice and you will never know what He will do next.  Begin the greatest adventure a person can ever know!  There is no end to what He will teach you and where He will lead you!  Just keep on reading your Bible for the adventure of your life!  In 11 Corinthians 6:16, God says, “I will dwell in them, and walk in them, and I will be their God.”