A New Creature. . . an Apostolic Pentecostal blog

I spoke at our church August 17th, 2025, which was the 25th anniversary of my being filled with God's Spirit.  Here are my notes:   2025-08-17 Good morning all.  I give a special good morning to my family members who have come today to help celebrate this day with me. A couple of months ago Pastor asked if I could teach on 4 dates over the coming months.  The only one I had an issue with was August 10th.  Jackie and I were planning on going camping that weekend.  He then asked if I would be available August 17th, and I said yes. It wasn’t until a few days later that I realized the significance of that day, this day, for it was 25 years ago today, August 17th of 2000 that I was filled with God’s Spirit.  I was 46 years old.  Jackie and I had recently come to God.  I had been an unbeliever for most of the first 45 years of my life.  Jackie was a Christian lady.  We had been together for 10 years, and she had prayed for my conversion, ...

I recently read this quote of Albert Einstein's: “There are only two ways to live your life. One is as though nothing is a miracle. The other is as though everything is a miracle.” I lived the first 45 years of my life as a hard-core atheist. I knew there was no God. In a series of amazing occurrences, God revealed Himself to me, and my unbelief was gone. The above quote perfectly describes the two halves of my life (coming to God @ 45 years old, if I live to be 90, it will be two halves). . . In the first half everything was luck, or random chance. The second half, the scales have been lifted from my eyes, and I see the hand of God in everything around me. . . God gave me a vision of maybe 12-15 happenings in my early life, where I should have been seriously hurt, even killed, or in great trouble, and every single time something 'lucky' happened to prevent disaster. Looking at them only one at a time, I could attribute them to random chance, or luck, but seen all togeth...

2025-08-17 Eastern Screech Owl I will be teaching at church Sunday morning August, 17th.  Here are my notes for that lesson. A couple of months ago Pastor asked if I could teach on 4 dates over the coming months.  The only one I had an issue with was August 10th.  Jackie and I were planning on being gone camping that weekend.  He then asked if I would be available August 17th, and I said yes. It wasn’t until a few days later that I realized the significance of that day, for it was 25 years ago, August 17th of 2000 that I was filled with God’s Spirit.  I was 46 years old.  Jackie and I had recently come to God.  I had been an unbeliever for most of the first 45 years of my life.  Jackie was a Christian lady.  We had been together for 10 years, and she had prayed for my conversion, before God did an absolutely amazing work, and my eyes were opened.  I was baptized Sunday July 16th. Before this I had no experience with Spirit filled people....