my testimony

I have been asked to say a few words about my experience in coming to the Heavenly Father and His Great Love. What a privilege this is and how excited I am about it, Praise the Lord!

In the summer of 1977, I was busy publishing my little newspaper, THE NEW AGE DAWN and organizing retreats for the new age folks in the area where I then lived, the beautiful province of British Columbia. One day when talking to one of the featured speakers, Dr. Margaret Marsh, she handed me a book entitled ‘True Gospel Revealed Anew by Jesus’.

I looked at the book with no small measure of skepticism and disdain and reproached her, ‘Margaret why are you giving me some book about Christianity, you know how I feel about that crap!’ Nonetheless I took the book home and began to read it. I was absolutely thrilled and astonished at its content and read the whole volume in one day.

I rushed back to Margaret asking her where she got the book and did she have any more. She was of course flabbergasted and said ‘You liked it??’ ‘Heck yeah’, I replied ‘it’s the truth’.  Little did I know then though how that event would shape my whole life for the next few decades and beyond. There has not been one day go by that I have not started my day with a message from the ‘Padgett volumes’.

But here, dear reader, I rush my story. That same year, I packed up my little newspaper and travelled down the coast of America, settling in the little town of Santa Cruz, Ca. a lovely little town set beside the sparkling jewel that is the Pacific Ocean. There I began to attend spiritual gatherings and at one such meeting, organized by ‘The Holy Order of Mans’,  I shared an excerpt from the Volumes, to which someone replied, ‘Oh you must be with that group.’, I am not with any group, I scornfully replied, dismissing the remark.

Yet that person persisted, saying, ‘those people who study from that book are here in Santa Cruz.’ I literally leapt from my seat, asking where. I immediately rushed to that site, and there was a man in trance talking about God in the most loving way! I spent a few years with this wonderful ‘Family of Mankind’ led by Dr. George Stokes, a chiropractor who pioneered the science of ‘Neuropsychics’ a discipline which he had legalized in three states.

At last, the truth was finally mine, yet it was The Love that brought me to the truth, for without love, the truth cannot even be recognized for what it is and this is perhaps the only point of contention that I had with this group; for they continually talked about the Truth but I wanted only to talk about the Love, for without this Wonderful Love, the Volumes remain but mere words.

And yet, my life’s story had only merely begun, for now I had to deal with the demons deep within me, who began to torture me with memories of a childhood racked with sexual abuse and severe physical beatings, one of which left me  bloody and unconscious.

These memories seared through my mind burning all hope of redemption, for the abused child often blames him/herself, for reasons only known by God, the Creator. I was possessed of enormous physical lust which was quite insatiable and when indulged in only created more lust, for the need for love cannot be satisfied through the flesh, though its need drives the mind to extreme perversion!

Decades passed and my worship of Him was merely lip service, though I postured myself as a great lover of God! I continued daily to read the volumes, but I noted I merely skimmed them, not even bothering to underline the most beautiful passages. I suffered a terrible stroke in 2007, which temporarily left me with partial paralysis of speech and limb; yet through sincere prayer I was able to completely recover.

Still this did not make the proud, vain person that I was bow to Him. I continued my negative ways even if only more in thought than deeds. Events transpired in my life that left me completely alone, bereft of friends and family! Loneliness pervaded my spirit! Disconsolate, I wandered alone!

Now I turned to Him in great desperation! I gave up my whole body, mind and soul to Him, for I had become consumed with depression  and that great arch villain, self-pity. I wandered throughout Africa, my soul rent asunder, crying out for Him and alternating crying for itself.

Gradually., I began to develop a very Personal relationship with Him, talking to Him directly, beseeching Him, entreating Him, trusting Him, and finally, loving Him. O how the vicissitudes of life can break us and then make us, for in His Great Beneficence, the awful weakness can become the wonderful Strength! We go through the fires of the kiln of life, all the soul’s excresencies  burn away and the clay emerges into a proud cup, set to serve.

A cup that is double moulded is a cup that has been forged by the Potter’s Hand into a cup that cannot be broken, that has double the strength of a cup that has been forged only once!

And now, dearest most patient reader, let us fast forward to the present for this story has a happy ending! Now I walk with Him daily, minute by minute, my soul telling him of my happiness and thanking Him with daily tears, washed in His Love, He wipes away every tear as I reach up to grasp His big Hand, for He is my Big Daddy, and though I am yet a child still toddling,  He steadies me with His Loving Guidance, His Great Arms of Love encircling  me in an indescribable  Love that envelops mind, body and soul.

I am now a happy little camper and my only desire is to bring the hurting to Him. I believe now that all His children carry within them great pain and suffering that only Divine Love, that wonderful balm, can Heal.

O, how I Praise Him for what He has done for me! The world did not give me this wonderfully-marvellous happiness and so the world cannot ever take it away! The Great Potter has molded me from broken pieces into a strong cup, blessed be the name of the Lord! Amen.