Greetings everyone. My name is Shaine and I am finally joining the forum discussions. I have been reading the material on this site for about 2 years now and have been so affected by Ray's teachings. I suppose that I will give you all a little bit of my testimony.
Well for starters, I am a 22 year old carpenter from Sacramento, California, but originally born and raised in Oklahoma City. I am very happily married to my wife of 2 1/2 years, Casey(who like me has been reading and disgesting all of the material on this site.). I am also the proud father of a beautiful baby girl, Jolie, who is a little over a year old.
I have been a believer in the Lord Jesus Christ for around 10 years or so, but for about the last 6 years have I really tried to follow him. After having a very profound encounter with Him at a church camp, I have felt the calling to follow Him. I attended a small non-denominational church in OKC for about 4 or 5 years during high school where I saw the good, the bad, and the ugly of Christendom. In February 2006 I flew to Australia to attend a missionary training school fronted by YWAM(Youth with a Mission). It was there that I met my wife and we both felt like God showed us that we were called to be together. It was one of the most miraculous and beautiful experiences of my life seeing the Lord work in my life to orchestrate those events.
Anyways, fast foward a year or so later and we are married, living in Sacramento. It was September 2007 and I first really started discovering this website. At first I was bitterly opposed to this website because I had falsely assumed from just reading the front page that Ray was another fire and brimstone preacher and I was very turned off by that kind of preaching( I still refer to that kind of preaching as "terror tactics Christianity"). My mother in law was telling us that this guy Ray was talking about the salvation of all mankind. I had heard of this teaching before but I had just always brushed it off as some heretical teaching. One day my wife and I were talking about it. My wife at that time was facing a very severe trial in her faith, being very severly tortured in her mind over the reality of "hell" and that if it was true, nothing else in this life mattered besides telling other people how to avoid this terrible thing. She was so depressed over this that she thought about killing herself, God forbid. One day I said to her that she was not alone because any honest Christian had thought about such things and how terrible they were. So one day we decided to look at this website with an open heart and and an open mind, weighing it in our hearts. Needless to say, within the first couple of pages of reading Lake of Fire 1 , I felt a deep churning in my heart over this. I knew this was God and that this is what He was saying to me. It was like my entire world was flipped upside down and my eyes were opened. It was the most marvelous revelation I had ever experienced, discovering that God will not torture all of mankind in hell but rather that he was going to SAVE all of mankind! PRAISE GOD! Still some of the best news I have ever heard! I read all of the articles on the Lake of Fire within a matter of weeks, absolutely devouring the material on the site.
What really shook me ,though, was when Ray started teaching about coming out of Babylon, that God commands it! Realizing that this was talking about coming out of church, coming out of the pagan doctrines and the pagan traditions of men, I was scared and cut to the core. What would my family and friends think of me? This issue weighed heavily on my mind and I struggled with it for some time. As time has gone on, though, I have seen the truth in this and have found much peace in it.
My goal in life now is to run the race with endurance and try to attain the High Calling. I have been so blessed by both Ray and the faithful brethren on this site who tirelessly seek the truth in all things, just like the Berieans(sp?). I am looking forward to getting to know you all and ask for your prayers for my familiy and I's life, that it would be lived in accordance with the will of God.
Sincerely seeking with you all,
Shaine
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Topic: First Post from Shaine (Read 7568 times)