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| Welcome to my bible study page. When I accepted the Lord a few years ago, I was confronted with the problem of not knowing any christian men my age. I was 33 at the time and most of the christians men I knew were 50 plus.That wasn't a bad thing because there maturity helped me out a lot but it wasn't the same as talking to men my own age and I longed for that. I prayed that God would put me in contact with men my age for support and friendship. I was afraid that if I didn't meet someone soon that I would be tempted to rejoin my old,secular,non-believing friends and I wasn't sure I could deal with them ,and ,the new life God had given me too. I knew someday I would have to face them( and I wanted desparetly to tell them what God had done for me and them too) but I knew I wasn't strong enough to do that until God had prepared me more. As I sat in a coffee shop in Strathroy ,waiting for a friend of mine whom I,d argued with days before ( part of the reason God started working on me overtime) ,to apologise and to ask his forgiveness, a guy whom I hadn't seen since public school walked in. He was with a real nerdy looking guy and they ordered a bunch of doughnuts and some coffee's.He was just about to leave and I felt a strong ,irrisistible ,urge to shout his name."STEVE" I yelled and he turned around. He didn't recognize me but he came back over and we talked and I told him who I was. I had changed alot since school (my picture then) and I guess he had too! We sat and talked like a couple of regular guys( this I'm almost embarassed to admit because it wasn't exactly christian dialogue!) and caught up on life. All along , this guy with him, whose name was Dave, sat squirming and sighing and finally said " come on Steve , we have to go"! So I asked Steve where were they going in such a hurry, and he said " well,ah,we,ah,,,I'm sort of,ah, we're ,umm, going to a kind of mens group, a bible study really, we sit around and drink coffee and study Gods word." I couldn't believe what I was hearing! I said " your a christian , man , so am I". So we talked about that for a few minutes and he invited me to come with him but I couldn't because I was waiting for my fried Mike. Steve gave me his number and said to call him if I wanted to go with him next week. I couldn't believe this ,God had brought a christian man, my age , going to a bible study with other christian christian guys my age, right in front of me , answered my prayer and I had to say "no" . I was amazed and disappointed in the same breath.I waited for Mike , talked , made ammends and went home.I tried to call Steve that night and for the next week but we just played phone tag. Finally, we connected and had agreed to pick me up and take me next week. Wednesday came and Steve picked me up and took me to his friend Dougs. There were about 8 or 9 guys there and friendships started immediatley for me. These guys were real, my kind of guys, almost rednecks but not quite. We went to the basement and Carl was skinning a racoon and I knew the Lord had sent me to the right guys, not because he was skinning but because they were into hunting and fishing and enjoying life. No booze or drugs, just life and God. I am very happy to say that we have all been friends now for about 5 years and i that time I have grown. Over the years I have witnessed to Christ and brought others to bible study and to the Lord. It is now 2003 and somethings have changed, people have changed, but God hasn't. We decided, because we are all married now,( i have remarried my first wife and been blessed with my family together again) to have a couples study and change the direction of the group. I have also been able to go back and talk to some of my old friends and found the Lord truly gave me victory over my addictions. I started to bring my friends daughter to sunday school and did that for over a year, all the time talking to my friend and occassionaly inviting him to give Christ a chance in his life..A few months ago , I couldnt pick his daughter up as I was going to another worship service with another friend and he said he would drop his daughter off for Sunday school and pick her up after. I thought that was a good sign , but found out later that evening that he not only brought her but attended the adult class and took part in it! Then he stayed for the service and promised to return the next week. Well he has been coming for months now and 3months ago at a Teen Challenge Banquet, Nikki Cruz was speaking , my friend heard his testimony and accepted the Lord then and there. Praise God!! 3 weeks ago his daughter attended our church camp, Forest Cliff camp, and well as she put it" Uncle Dan,I accepted Jesus into my heart at camp!!" God is doing amazing things in my life and theirs, and he will do them in your life to, if you ask him to. Yours in Christ, Dan Howard |
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| "I have brought you glory on earth by completing the work you gave me to do" john17:4 *********************** Bible Study Links: >Gospel Outlines |