A prodigal son

Keith's Story

I strayed away from what I had learned from my parents,  like the prodigal son in the Bible

I investigated the Bible, and the closer I looked, the more convinced I became. That the one true God I was looking for, was the God of the Bible, the God of Israel. I started reading about the things that Jesus did and said while He was here on the earth, and the impact he had on others around him. I studied the prophesies about Jesus that were written thousands of years before he walked the shores of Lake Galilee, fulfilling them. I soon realized that the Bible's teachings were my, personal instruction manual for my life.  My investigations even took me to the Mid-East on three different trips to visit the places mentioned in the Bible. One of the trips was a dive trip to the Red Sea to look for artifacts left over from the crossing of the Red Sea by the Children of Israel. The artifacts were there. SemperKeith.

I started applying the things I was learning, and I wondered, how would my life would progress. Would my life's experience prove out my decision to make God the Lord of my life was a good one? More than 30 years has passed, I have completed a successful career, been married for 27 years (to the same wife), been a faithful father to three children, and one more thing, I have enjoyed peace and joy in my life. Not that I have been immune to difficult situations. I have experienced some of the difficulties that others face; the death of a daughter, and loved ones, and other difficult situations. Through all of these, the Lord has been very close to me, always faithful. Now at this time in my life, I have the promise of eternal life with the Savior that gave His life for me, in a place, especially designed for those who love and trust Him. God's wonderful gift is free for the asking to anyone. If blessings here on earth, and a confident hope for the future sound like a good deal, please consider giving your heart and life to Jesus. His words and promises are true. Oh, I almost forget, what God wants for us is fellowship (friendship). The Bible's message is that we are designed for eternal friendship with the Creator of the universe. Please consider joining us, here's how.  May God richly bless you,    Keith 

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Bud - I was raised in a traditional Catholic family and as part of that, I was trained and served as an Alter Boy for several years. We would all go to church, and my parents would complain and argue on the way to church, and on the way home. I could see even as a little kid that something was wrong; they were not living the life that they should have been living, even by Catholic standards. at the time that I was 18 years old, the Vietnam war was still raging, and when my brother, who was a highly decorated soldier, returned from the war, the changes I saw in him scared me, and I decided that I did not want to go to Vietnam. So, I enlisted in the Coast Guard and ended up of all places, Vietnam, one of 5,000 Coastees that were assigned there. When I was in Vietnam, I met a fellow by the name of John Clark, and John was a Christian. His life was quite a contrast to mine. While I was fully into all the attractions of a soldier’s life, drinking, fighting, and sexual pleasures, John, was a righteous man. He had peace and joy while I was full of anger. I could see the contrast between his life and mine, but, I had no guilt about my sinful lifestyle, I could beat someone severely, and feel no guilt whatsoever, and I was not interested in John’s Christianity, I just couldn’t stand him.

I spent 4 years in the Coast Guard, and when I got out, I went into a business partnership with a fellow that had a body and radiator shop. Our business prospered, and we added welding to our list of services. Things were going well, and I became interested in square dancing. During one of the dances, I met this girl, and asked her for a date, and she refused. After being rejected for the third or forth time, I confronted her as to why she wouldn’t go out with me, saying  that I was, a “good looking guy,” “successful in business,” and “drove a Corvette”. She responded by saying, “you smoke, you drink, you cuss, and you’re playing around with another gal, but beyond all that, your not a Christian.” Everything else she said didn’t bother me, but when she said that I was not a Christian, that bothered me, I figured that since I was born in this country, I was born a Christian. We still square danced together occasionally, but otherwise, I just shined her on.

About three weeks later, she called me, and asked if I “still wanted to take her out on a date,” and she further explained that it was a Christian function in Sacramento. A preacher named Dave Wilkerson was speaking, and although I had no idea who David Wilkerson was, I said, “ya sure”. So knowing it was a Christian thing, I took her to the meeting where thousands were in attendance. I was not too impressed with pastor Dave’s prophetic message, until he started talking about serving God, and having a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. I had not heard that type of message before, it was like God affected my heart, and when the pastor asked if anyone wanted to serve the Lord Jesus Christ, and turn their life over to Him and ask forgiveness for their sins to come forward, I was probably one of the first ones to go down for salvation. The Lord really convicted me of my sin, I wasn’t seeking Him at all like a lot of people do, but, He was seeking me by working in my heart. I felt such an urgency to get to the alter; I nearly ran over a lady who was also responding to the call for salvation.  About a year later, I married the woman that I took to the Wilkerson meeting, and we have been happily married for over 33 years.

When I was in Vietnam, I had a fungus growth in my left ear, and when I got out of the military, they did a major mastoid operation to try to get all the infection out, and they found that I had a tumor that was growing against my brain. They tried to remove as much of the tumor as they could, and in the process, removed most of my ear bones and my hearing, but they could not get it all. I had a continuous foul smelling drainage coming from my left ear, and every few weeks, I had to go to the Veterans Hospital where they would suck out as much as they could. The procedure helped, but there was no cure in sight, in fact, the doctors said that unless the entire tumor could be removed, I would probably only live another eight years. Eight years later I was still alive, but along with the constant drainage, I was having severe headaches deep inside my head. About this time, I was the president of a gospel outreach association, and we oftentimes, had special speakers at our meetings. One time the speaker, Ray Garing, was asking if there were people present that needed healing. My thoughts about people praying for healing went back to my childhood, when my brothers and I would mock Oral Roberts by pretending we were healing each other with as much theatrics as we could muster. Being a Christian, I knew that God could do anything, but when it came to healing and people praying for each other, I thought that all the supposed healings, were just a fraud. Now at this meeting of about 150 people, Ray said that there was someone in the meeting with an ear problem, or a problem with their head, to come forward because God wanted to heal them. Three or four old people with hearing aids came forward, and Ray said that the Lord would touch these people that came up, but they are not the one he was looking for. There was someone still out there that had a major problem inside their head, maybe a tumor or something else related to an ear, or inside the ear. Since I was the president, I was on the platform with the speaker, he had no way of knowing of my problem, and I caught a glance from my wife which said, “what do you have to loose”. So I whispered to Ray, who was seated next to me, that I had this “tumor inside my head, but, there is nothing that you can do about it.” He smiled, and said, “praise God buddy, you’ve got it right, there is absolutely nothing I can do about it, but I can pray, and I think God is going to heal you.” I thought, “oh ya, ok, fine.” I had already put myself up front, so he prayed for me, and then asked if I could hear with the bad ear, and he had me walk down the hall, and cover my good ear while he asked. I snapped my fingers in front of my bad ear, and, sure enough, I could hear. It was not as good as my good ear, but, I could hear, and we went home praising the Lord that I had been healed.

For many years in the mornings, I had been used to seeing a 2 inch diameter sized spot, of the ear drainage material on my pillow, but on the morning following my healing, the side of my head was just covered with the drainage. It was so bad that the pillow was stuck to my head, my reaction was to shake my fist at God, Ray Gearing, and myself, thinking that my healing was a crock, and that I had been psyched into thinking that I had been healed. While I cleaned up, my wife asked me if I could still hear out of “that ear,” and I said, “I don’t think so,” but, I again snapped my fingers in front of my bad ear, and I could still hear. I didn’t know what going on, I thought I was dying but, that was the last time that I had any drainage out of my ear. When I went to the Veterans Hospital to be checked a few weeks later, my regular doctor examined me, and asked, “what did you do, I see no signs of the tumor or signs of drainage, no signs of anything at all, what did you do?” I said, “doc, I didn’t do anything. Some guy prayed for me and God healed me, that’s all I can say.” And he got all excited, and said, “I’ve seen it one time before” and he just kept looking inside my ear, and repeating, “I’ve seen it one time before”. What I learned from this is that God is sovereign and He heals at His pleasure, despite our attitude of faith or lack of it, Praise the Lord!

Before I was saved, my pursuit of life involved pleasure and material things. The result of this pursuit was that I was angry inside, and I had no peace in my heart, it was a life of darkness. Now, I have a personal relationship with God through His Son, Jesus. Although I fall short of the righteousness of God, my desire is to live as righteous a life as I can, because I want to be closer to Him, and more like Him.

Dear reader, maybe you can see some of yourself in my story, maybe you’re chasing joy and peace through material things, and pleasure, and you find that it is not working. I offer the solution, pray to the God of the universe to open your heart, and to open the eyes of your understanding. Tell Him that you want to be one of His children, but you don’t know how, and for Him to show you. Confess that you are a sinner, and He is a Holy God. He will help you if you search for Him with all your heart. Read the Gospel of John, and learn about how much God loves you. Find a Bible believing church, so you can fellowship with other believers. You will experience joy and peace and the hope of eternal life with the Lord, not based on how well things are going, or what you have, but in knowing that your are right with God. 

 The Lord bless you,

 Bud Mailhot                                        Do you want what Bud got?

12-12-2006  Do you want what Bud got? Here's how

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Dawn's Story

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A Surprise Funeral

September 6th, 2006

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After spending a nice weekend of fellowship in the mountains about an hours drive from our home community this last Labor day weekend,  8 of us Eternal Riders, went to the Lake Almanor Community Church, were we were wonderfully blessed by the service, and impressed by the loving attitudes of the people and the pastor. They were amazed we were there, and here is why. There was an biker that lived across from the pastor, named Dick. Dick liked beer a lot and spent most of his days drinking himself into a stupor on the front porch while staring out toward the pastor’s house. The pastor had spoken to his neighbor on occasion, but nothing very deep and over the years, Dick had commented, that he (the pastor), really had a nice family. Not many months ago, Dick received the diagnosis that he had terminal cancer, and it was not long before he told one of his household, to "get the preacher-man", that he wanted to get things right with the Lord. The pastor came, and led Dick to the Lord last June. As a result, Dick gave up drinking and turned his life around. Dick had 2 requests, that the pastor preach at his funeral, and that "bikers” would escort him to the graveyard, and carry his coffin. You can probably start guessing where this is going, but there is more.

As Dick was getting more and more ill, there was a problem brewing. The pastor was scheduled to go to Europe for a 30 day trip, leaving on Sunday, Sept 3rd at 2:00 PM. This trip had been a 10 year old dream, and the tickets for the trip were not refundable. The pastor told Dick about this, and Dick said that he would "work with it". Dick's cancer took him on Friday, September 1st. The mortuary said the earliest that they could get Dick ready for interment, was on Sunday at 1:00 PM, an hour before the pastor was leaving for San Francisco Airport. But what about the "bikers" that Dick requested. The pastor was told that due to the short notice combined with the holiday, most of Dick’s biker friends could not make it. This is why the church attendees were amazed by our appearing at their service, because, Dick’s funeral was going to be right after church and the CMA Eternal Riders, showed up at the very time of need.

We all realized that this was the Lord's doing, and could see the Lord's hand on the timing, so, after the service, we followed the pastor's wife to the small mountain town where we were to meet the hearse. Exactly as we arrived in town, the hearse was pulling out with Dick on board. We added our 5 motorcycles to the 2 existing ones, and provided a decent escort for Dick. At the cemetery, 5 of us Eternal Riders, and one biker brother from the church, carried his casket. Inside was Dick, wearing a tee shirt that showed an illustration of a saddle and a loosely coiled rope with the words, "I found Jesus, at the end of my rope".

The pastor spoke and soon the service was over. We were all stunned with what God had done, as we comforted Dick's brother, who had also accepted the Lord, in fact, a total of 5 people raised their hands for salvation in the 11:00 service church service, including a couple of Dick's friends. God reveals Himself in many ways but almost always, subtlety. Yesterday, He was revealed through His timing; Praise the Lord! This event arranged by the Lord, was really a blessing to us involved with the Eternal Riders, and, what a send off it was to the pastor as well; we all rejoiced.

Keith Sorrels - 2006

P.S. In April 2007, Chuck Norris wrote an article in World Net Daily about Dick Edgar,

you can read it here

Neal's Story

John 3:16 - For God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish but have everlasting life.  (KJV)

FUTILE AND WASTED

I was raised without much interaction with my father, who divorced my mother when I was 8 yrs. Old, so, my mother had the responsibility for my upbringing. In that role, she did her best to prepare me for life with a sprinkling of well proven sayings like: “You can lead a horse to water but you can’t make him drink.” And like the horse in the proverb, I didn’t partake of the wisdom that she offered. I enlisted in the Army and spent time in Germany doing my job in telecommunications, but my time in the Army really didn’t change the way I approached life. After being honorably discharged, I conducted life in a godless way, as prescribed by my peers. By the time I was 22, I found myself in prison for some of my “peer approved” conduct.  

At the age of 26, shortly after I was released from prison, my brother, who had become a believer in Christ, invited me to his church. The love I felt coming from the people there toward me, a stranger, was overwhelming, and soon, I was attending regularly. I accepted Jesus as my Savior and the Lord of my life. I would like to say that my life was immediately cleaned up, but, it took awhile for my actions to catch up with my new heart. I look at my life before Jesus as being futile and wasted, now my life is filled with purpose and hope for the future, not a hope based on some man made religion, but, based on God’s Word, the Bible, which is God’s way to save mankind.

Maybe while you are reading this brief account about my life, you to feel that your life is “futile and wasted,” and you are uncertain about the future.” I invite you to consider letting go of your will, and giving yourself to God by accepting the one He sent to die for your sins. Humble yourself before God and ask Him to reveal Himself to you. Read an eyewitness account of the things that Jesus did and said, while here on the earth, I suggest the gospel of John, see if it speaks to your heart. He won’t clean up your heart; He will give you a new one, like he did me.

Would you like purpose and hope in your life like Neal has?

Bud's Story

Dawn's Story

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