My father being Catholic, I was "Christened", or "sprinkled", in a Catholic church shortly after being born in October of 1975. I was named after my Father's two favorite books in the Bible, Matthew and Peter.
Through out elementary school at Reed I was in "Catechism", followed by "First Holy Communion". Through junior high at John Muir and high school at Gunderson I was an Altar Boy, and was "Senior Alkalite". Being an Altar Boy was kind of like performing the same play over and over again. The messages every Sunday are scripted out decades in advance, and some repeat from year to year. (Like the Easter and Christmas Mass.) (You can find this information in any Catholic Missal.) Then when I was in high school I did two years of "Confirmation" classes. The week I was suppose to be "Confirmed" as a Catholic, I decided not to go through with it. It just did not feel right to me at that time in my life. At that point, I still didn't have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ. Had I stayed a Catholic, I probably would have never truly given my life to Jesus, and when I died I know now I would have gone straight to Hell. (Eternal separation from God.) Even though I was part of a Bible Club in high school, and believed I was a "good person", I still didn't get it, and nobody ever explained Christianity to me or lead me to the Lord to be saved. I did not see anything special about the Christian kids in the Bible Club, and they treated me no better than any of the other students in high school. (Like crap.) I hated school, and wanted to die on more than one occasion in order to stop the pain. I was searching all through my childhood and teenage years, and quit searching for the next 10 years of my life because of kids like those in that Bible Club. I had given up on the whole church, religion, Jesus and God thing. I was living life with no emotions, I felt nothing, neither for myself or others. I was quite content to be drinking, swearing, stealing, shop lifting, fornicating, and viewing and watching porn whenever I could. Most of which occurred when I was still involved in the church, and afterwards.
After becoming a Christian, I didn't want to do any of those things anymore, even though I really enjoyed all of it. I can't explain why, it was like a switch being flipped.
It wasn't till after getting married to a non-believer, having two boys at the age of 18 and 22 that my wife and I finally gave our lives to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ in July/August of 2002.
My wife and I went to an Easter Service at Hope Center in Pleasant Hill, California earlier that same year with her Mom and her boyfriend, and started going to church there on a regular basis. Even though it was about thirty to forty-five minutes away, my wife wanted to keep going back. Which for her was surprising because she did not believe in going to church. She had gone to church with me a long time ago back when I was an Altar Boy. During communion my mother told her she couldn't take communion because she wasn't Catholic, so she sat there while everybody else got up to take communion. Then we started attending Family Community Church in San Jose, California, which was much closer to home, in July after talking with a woman at the Santa Clara County Fair. At that point I still hadn't really gotten it. My wife was growing closer to God, and I was still stuck in the same place because I had so many doubts. I had never seen any "proof" that God was real, and things in the Bible didn't make sense at first. I did a lot of research, and in a nut shell the historical evidence lead me to Christianity, and not any other religion. No other religion stood up to the evidence like Christianity did.
Sometime from July to August is when I was laying in bed all by myself one night and gave my life to Jesus. A few weeks later Shawnna and I were both baptized together, fully dunked, in the water fountain in front of Family Community Church. After that time, I wanted to turn away from the things that were sinful in my life, porn, swearing, blasphemy, drinking, stealing even though I really liked doing all those things and acting that way.
I made a bet with God to see if He was real or not, "God, if you soften the heart of this one person who I severely wronged for no reason other than jealousy, then I will follow you for the rest of my days." Well, Christmas Day, that prayer came true against all odds. Even if for only a moment this person's heart was softened, and has not really spoken to me since, I know that it was God. It is all in Gods timing, and not ours. I lost the bet.
For us, our coming to faith was a gradual process over our entire lives to that point. Looking back, over my entire life, it is no coincidence that God has been working in my life, through other people, even though I didn't see it at the time.
I finally realized one day that the strong desire and loneliness in my heart that I had felt all throughout my life. Was really a desire and need to have Jesus in my life, and not a big sister. Wanting a big sister dominated my every thought, my every birthday wish, wishing upon stars, tossing coins in a fountain or wishing well. Ever since then I don't get as lonely or depressed over feeling that desire tugging on my heart. I still get the blues and sometimes I still get really depressed, but at least I have a friend I can always turn to when the world is against me. As Christians it is so important to lift each other up everyday! You never know what a difference it will make in their lives or yours!
Lets see here, Shawnna and I started dating back in 1991 while we were in high school, we got married in 1995 just under a year after our first son Jace was born in 1994. I was a Junior and Shawnna was a Sophomore at a different high school, Lincoln. We actually met while talking over a pair of C.B. radios hooked up at each of our houses. I was talking to her brother, Midnight Caller, and I asked him if he had a sister, and she got on the radio and that was the first time we talked. We met at the local mall, Oakridge, shortly after that and had lunch at Taco Bell. We have been together ever since. I could not have asked God for a better wife and friend. I don't know anybody who could put up with me everyday the way she does. I do not deserve such a wonderful woman! The rest is history.
We both grew up in San Jose, California. We lived in Reno, Nevada for about nine months, then moved back to San Jose. We transferred to Peoria, Illinois in 2004 with our two boys, Jace & Brayden, and our dog Kye. It was either transfer to another contract with my company or be out of a job. Probably one of the hardest decisions we have had to make, but we are glad we did. If it wasn't for finding
http://www.rcpeoria.org
we wouldn't have any "family" at all here. We have slowly made some very close friends here, and have hosted a small group, FOUNDATIONS, out of our house every other week on Thursday's for RockChurch. We are currently meeting at the church, and I co-lead the group now as well. We enjoy spending time with all of our very close friends and sharing meals with one another.
If you click on "remembering sean", it is a link that will take you to a story about my best friend that was murdered in 1994. He was the only friend at the time who lived his life as if he was Jesus with skin on. He became a Christian shortly before he was murdered. I spent ten years learning the lessons he taught me through the way he lived his life. It took a sinner's prayer in bed one night, a baptism, and a bet with God to be a fully devoted follower of Jesus Christ. I lost the bet, so my promise is to follow Jesus Christ all the days of my life.
http://www.fray.com/criminal/sean
Sean