On May 17th, 1972, I RECEIVED THE LORD into my heart. That was 51 years ago!!! I would love to share this experience with you now.
At age 14 I traveled from Washington State to Oakland California, to stay with my older half-brother. We went to a friends house to work in their yard, it was a very hot day and they fixed me a glass of what I thought was water. They said it was foul tasting water and I needed to drink it down fast to keep me from heat stroke, so I held my breath and drank it down, it was vodka, and it gave me a little buzz so, I drank some more and for the first time I got drunk.
I liked the way it made me feel, so I started sneaking a little from my dad’s supply. He was an alcoholic, so he kept a lot around. That started my path to becoming addicted to alcohol and the lifestyle that went along with that. I joined the Marine Corps in 1963, after a couple years of college, and ended up in Electronics School and somehow did exceptionally well. Soon after that I was sent to Vietnam to set up a high-end repair center for communication equipment. On many an occasion we would get drunk and act stupid and somehow stayed out of trouble.
I came home from Vietnam and began a career in Engineering Circuit Design in the Aerospace industry I discovered that having a hangover made it difficult to concentrate on my projects so I got involved in drugs and found I could think more clearly (so I thought). I designed and was able to Patent some of those designs, with the help of a technician the worked for me, Tim Nelson. He was a very smart young Christian man, whom the Lord helped to put up with my foul mouth and rudeness. After working with Tim for about a year and discovering that what he said was always correct, one Saturday I walked to work smoking a pipe full of Acapulco Gold marijuana, it had a hallucinogenic effect (I had just bought 10 bags of it). Tim began to share about a friend of his who was just delivered from demonic possession. Everything he told me over the past year was true, so I believed him.
On Wednesday May 17th I entered my private bathroom, and someone PUT THEIR ARMS AROUND ME and said “Bill, I love you” those words penetrated my very being, I was OVERWHELMED WITH CONVICTION! I dropped down on my knees and cried out “I am so sorry” I did not know what to say, tears began to flow but what I so clearly remember was the HUGE BURDEN that was lifted off of me!!! I left the restroom and tried to go out and tell Tim, but I must not have described it well, he just looked at me funny. I went home and found an old zip up bible my grandma gave me. I brought to work along with a couple joints, so Tim could help me study the bible. He very kindly refused the joint but helped me study the bible. More to come. “But now in Christ Jesus you who once were FAR OFF have been BROUGHT NEAR by the blood of Christ.” (Ephesians 2:13)
Your Personal Pastor -Bill Stockham