I was born and raised in a Catholic family. From boyhood I wondered who God was. Even at that young age I understood that Catholicism did not have the answers I was searching for. As I grew older I became more engrained in my family’s religion, and eventually became an altar boy. Yet despite this religious upbringing, I knew something in my life was missing.

Several years later I was asked by a neighbor girl to attend a Bible study. This was my first time actually hearing the Word of God, despite being a devoted Catholic. The leader of the Bible study group showed me how the Bible tells us about our true sin condition. Romans 3:23 says, “All have sinned and come short of the glory of God.” This along with other verses such as John 3:16, “For God so loved the world that he sent his only begotten son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life,” and Acts 3:19, “Repent ye therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, when the times of refreshing shall come from the presence of the Lord.” These words would one day have a deep and lasting impact on my life, but at the moment I pushed them aside to pursue more carnal temptations.

The next time I was presented with the gospel of Jesus Christ, I was attending my local high school, which was sponsoring a guest speaker to discuss the perils of drugs, alcohol and promiscuous women. It was your typical, “Don’t do drugs and stay in school, kids” speech, from someone who now claimed to be a Christian. He talked about turning to Christ for salvation and how God changed him into a “new man.” I scoffed at this life view. I had other plans, and they did not include devoting my life to God like some celibate priest.

Because of my decision to experience the world and all it had to offer, I experienced a very lonely time in my life. I continued living my life of drugs and alcohol, exactly what the guest speaker back in high school had warned us about. I kept up this self-destructive lifestyle for a few years until I found myself in the hospital because of a drug overdose. My life had officially hit rock bottom.

Such a horrible experience should have been the turning point in my life. It was not. A couple of years later I ended up in the county jail. I didn’t think my life could get any worse. A small voice told me something was missing in my life.

I tried turning my life around, so I headed off to business school in Detroit Lakes to study Agriculture. Between sheer willpower and my busy school schedule, I was able to tame my wild lifestyle to a slightly more manageable level.

School was where I met Karen, who would become my wife. She went to the same school and was studying to become a nurse and eventually an EMT. A year later we had our first son and moved to Western ND for a job at a grain elevator.

I remember watching pastor and televangelist Jerry Falwell on Sundays. My wife Karen, having been raised Baptist, wanted to go to church. Since I knew this aspect of my life was lacking and I was already watching a TV evangelist, I agreed to make the two hour round trip drive to the nearest Baptist church. However, this church did not practice what the Bible teaches about salvation and the true life change I had been unknowingly seeking for so many years.

In 1986 we moved again, to Grand Forks, ND, to my new job managing a grain elevator. Looking back, it’s clear to me the Lord was directing our lives according to Matthew 7:7, which says, “Ask, and it shall be given you; seek, and ye shall find; knock, and it shall be opened unto you...”

Soon after we arrived in Grand Forks, a member of Bible Baptist Church knocked on our door and invited us to attend their services. This was a clear sign to me that God was leading our path closer towards him.

Under the preaching of then pastor, Gordon Silcox, I experienced deep conviction over my sin. Before I knew it, I had made a profession of faith. But I still felt that something was missing.

That first profession of faith was false. At the time, pride had kept me from accepting Christ as my Savior, but six years later, in 1992 at Bible Baptist Church’s annual camp, God made it clear to me that I was not truly born again. When I returned from camp I met with the new pastor, Michael Custer, and during a private meeting I repented and accepted Christ as my Savior.

The Lord led me to exactly where I needed to be. God made a promise to those who seek him. Jeremiah 29:13 says, “And ye shall seek me, and find me, when ye shall search for me with all your heart.” Finally, I had peace in my heart.