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This Cross may symbolize a lot of different meanings to many different people, but the only meaning for a Christian is the life of Christ his death and resurrection and His soon return. The cross is not a cliché' but an instrument of judgment that Jesus took in our place for our sins. His return may come in our lifetime or He may tarry but truly our time is always ready as we know not the hour of our departure whether from death or by his snatching away his bride. It is our continual hope and our faith in Jesus that sets the believer apart from the rest of the world. The world may look upon the cross as something to be scoffed at or mocked at as some crutch to lean on but we need Christ to lift our burdens and heal our afflictions and sins we need him as the scripture says the well need not a physician but the sick do. So as we humble ourselves and take upon ourselves the cross our burdens become lighter as he carries them for us. |
This is a true story the testimony of a believer that God had chosen to be saved for His purposes. The story being mine of what the Lord has done in my life. Knowing that some may choose to discredit the testimony of a believer in the gospel but what matters is that its my story and we all have one to tell.
The first years of my life started out in Oregon were I was born in Albany. We lived there moving from one place to another for the first 12 years of my life. I have many fond and wonderful memories from there, going to the archery shooting range with my dad and brother, we would go frog hunting late at night and deer hunting with my dad during archery season. We would stay in our tipi that we built by hand stitching up the green army canvas in our living room one winter. It lasted over 18 years until a strong whirl wind took and ripped it up. My younger brother was staying in it as an extra bedroom at the time. (If you would like to know more about our Tipi experiences check out Cindy's Corner , also the Bitter Sweet Bears Story .)
We spent allot of time following my dad around with our tipi camp as he went out on the road with him.
I was like all young boys that just wanted to play and have fun. I was not a popular kid in school as I was always trying to be accepted in a new school. My family moved many times and we had to change schools several times. That made it hard to make life long school friends. I was made fun of often and ridiculed for my different attitudes. I was not like the rest of the students in class not being able to fit in always an outsider. I was taught to be an independent thinker to make my own decisions not to follow the crowd. I was also taught respect for adults and leaders of the school and never got into trouble for starting fights or for being disruptive. For the most part I was a nice kid, I got along with all my teachers and my parents, I was a "goody two shoes" (as my wife would tell me now) pardon the expression. I did well in school not a straight A student but mostly average B's C's and some A's. The reason I am telling this is because I was not an exceptional child, I didn't clamor for attention and was always in the background I was last to be picked for sports though I was pretty fair and average in most. My morals were such that did not want to hurt anyone and cause others pain. I didn't practice stealing or cheating in class. I was sensitive to the needs of the underdogs who got picked on and I would get shoved around and bullied when I did stand up for them.