Portland Power + Light Church
What an amazing life I have been given!
I offer the following example:
It began that fall afternoon in Alaska 1957. I was hiding at the edge of the forrest across the road from my house, terrified of being discovered as a thief by Mr. Tassler. He owned the old wrecking yard that was down the way from our DeBarr Road home on the outskirts of Anchorage. All the neighborhood boys loved to play "army" in the wrecks.
I had pilfered a pearl of great price from that place: a perfect red dome from a wrecked police car. I knew he was going to find me and, well, pounce on me somehow. In the dimming light I crouched in sight of the junkyard fence and, I assumed, Mr. Tassler's accusing gaze, and our little house. I yearned intensely in my heart to be rescued. Specifically, for my five-years-older sister to defy the cold and come out our front door and save me. Shortly, she did. I was rescued. Turns out, in more ways than one. I was apparently praying in my heart and I now know, He heard me. That was just for openers.
A few months later, I was bicycling home literally from my first date with my first girlfriend in the first grade. We had spaghetti in her living room watching the Honymooners on their round screen TV. I was hit by a 6000 pound, four hole, green Buick driven by a drunken doctor out on a date with a woman other than his wife.
Boom! It switched me off like a floor lamp.
My seven year old body was thrown an estimated fourty feet. I woke up in one of the huge roadside ditches they had back in those days. I wish I had a picture of my bicycle. It looked like something out of a Salvador Dali painting, a twisted mess. In the suburban darkness people were swarming around and over me in a state of panic. I knew I was massively injured but I had absolutely no fear of death. I was in no real pain, just calm. I now understand this was because I was sheltered by His loving power at that young age and didn't even know it.
I knew zero about God.
Looking through the lense of the last sixty years I see He has been at my side the whole way. What a fool I have been. Not believing, I ignored His entreaties until 2005 when, for a second time, the Holy Spirit presented himself to me as I walked down San Vicente Blvd. in Brentwood, CA. My first encounter was in Glastonbury, UK, but I will save that for another time. I was heading back to my car after getting blue prints for the house project I was the architect for when my downcast eyes passed over what looked to me like orange tagger paint on the sidewalk across my path that read: Time is Short. I didn't stop but the next few steps I walked echoed that lonley feeling of being alone on the planet, waiting for his presence to find me. I dropped the prints in the car and returned the thirty feet back but the message was gone. I was right, He was here now.
I turned and walked back to the car when suddenly, there He was, the same as Glastonbury. Though there was nothing seen by my eyes, I instantly knew who it was. I could point to where He stood as the world around me fell away. His presence was so palpable, so wonderful. Like I was utterly submerged in a river of the most fabulous love. I have not sufficient superlatives to describe the pure, genuine love that was again shown to me. Through that river shown the light from holy beings that laboured simply to tell me that day that I was supremely, absolutly, utterly, unconditionally loved.
The same awaits your single choice for Him. Make it now. Just turn to face Him in your heart and ask Him. He will hear. He will take you in. Guaranteed. Believe it.
I accepted it, I basked in its silent peace. Time stood still. We on battelfield Earth don't know what real love is. His is wonderfully intense, beamed through us in utter acceptance to say the least. I went home and immediately got on my knees and gave myself up to Him. I haven't looked back since.
I am His now. He is the author and finisher of my faith. He wants to do the same for you. I wasted many years but you don't have to. Talk about a testament to His patience. Believe in the supernatural.
Believe in Him.
Truly, He will never leave me or forsake me. But I feel I owe Him for all the years of my selfish folly. It has always been my style, for better or worse, to start slow but finish big. I should have been dead back in that ditch but here I sit, fully invested in his plan for me. Once again, He has spoken directly into my right ear and this time simply saying: "start a church"... Me? ... a church? ... Yessir, ASAP Lord. Hence, I invite you to the Portland Power + Light Home Church.
You are all so very welcome. What an honor.
It's not about me, It's about Him.
Noah made the ark but he didn't drive it... Same here.