In the fall of 1996 at the suggestion of my parents, I began attending a divorce/single parents fellowship at Parkcrest Christian Church in Long beach, Ca. Over the following year or so I also got involved in other areas of service and fellowship. I also started reading the Bible for the first time in many years. I don't remember if this was at the suggestion of someone else or if I just felt the need to do so. Either way for some time I began reading the Bible every morning before I would even get out of bed. As I started reading through the New Testament I found myself surprised that gospels were all telling the same story. I guess before that I just thought the Bible was like any other book, that it was something of a more sequential story. Either way...I don't think I made it very far outside the gospels before I lost interest.
And so over the next few years my Bible was just something I carried around with me when I went to church. You know...That is the thing to do, right? That and use it as a bulletin holder when you are filling in the blanks with those little yellow golf pencils. I'm just glad no one asked me to look something up in the book of Hezekiah. I would have fallen for it. 8)
As time went on though I did start taking a stronger interest in spiritual things. At the suggestion of a friend I picked up a copy of "The New Evidence That Demands A Verdict," by Josh McDowell. And what an incredible book it was. A great personal testimony by the author and tons of answers to questions that challenge peoples faith. But I still hadn't really spent much time in the Bible.
In early spring 2001, I began attending a Sunday night young adult church service at Knott Avenue Christian Church, in Anaheim Ca. And it would be this group of people/church that would push me to the next level spiritually. Although I still really hadn't spent much time in my Bible, I did feel a need to better understand what was in this book I was carrying around with me. So I started reading through J. Vernon McGee's Thru the Bible commentaries. These were a transcribed version of his Thru the Bible radio broadcast. It was these commentaries that really began peaking my interest to study more. Mainly because of his view of the end times. I had really never even heard anything about the rapture, the anti-christ, the beast, etc. until that time. And man...Was I hooked.
Ok...Back to this new church that I was going to. The one thing that was markedly different about Knott Ave. Christian Church was the people. These people were much more in touch with God than anyone I'd ever seen. I honestly don't even know if I'd ever seen someone raise their hands in praise to God till then. Another thing that was different was the men. Most of these guys knew there Bible's really well. Something that I didn't. But I wasn't discouraged. I pressed on and started reading more commentaries and even a big old thick systematic theology. 8)
But I still hadn't read all of my Bible...
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