"All that fervor" is the direct result of what he did for me, and what I feel in my soul, even now as I type this reply. If you could just feel what I feel, know what I know, know WHO I know, have what I have, you'd be as fervent as I am! Tonight was church, and I jumped, I ran, I raised my hands, I cried, I SHOUTED for joy in the presence of the Lord! And to think I was an ultra-introvert before.... It was Jesus Christ, Buddha didn't have a thing to do with it. Buddha's dead and rotten in the ground. Jesus OTOH is alive and well, and makes his abode inside me and many others. Dead men don't deliver, set free, make new, give joy and peace, and you don't feel their presence.

I've even seen the VISIBLE glory of the Lord come down like a mist in the church house, like it did at Solomon's temple in the Old Testament. A lot of the old timers often tell of 50 years ago, when they saw it very often, and every single service was filled with deliverance, healing, and great manifestations of the power of God. The churches today no longer believe what they did 50 years ago, and certainly don't live what they lived 50 years ago, and that's why you don't see it, don't hear of it, and why most of the church world today is regarded as nothing but "your religion of choice." The born-again salvation, the new and abundant life, and freedom from sin are no longer taught very much.

But, it's still just as real today as then, still just as real as when the 120 in the upper room were baptized with the Holy Ghost after Christ's ascension, just as real as when Paul, Philip, and Peter worked miracles, healed the sick, raised the dead, and cast out demons. For anyone who'll believe and pay the price in humbling themself and seeking God's face with a whole heart, witholding nothing, God still does what he did back then. God today doesn't move in the old-time way of the early/mid 1900's campmeetings and revivals, because people don't believe or live the old-time way! But the real power is still there.

My mind comes to an old friend of mine, who ended up a youth evangelist. He was a longtime heroin addict, who was contemplating suicide one day while sitting in the park. He looked up and said, "God, if you're real, show yourself and save me." He had just shot up a lot of smack, and he said the INSTANT those words left his mouth, he was stone cold sober..... He broke down, and repented and got saved right there. He never had a single withdrawl symptom, no, not one.......... REAL salvation power, not a religion!

My best friend before I got saved was one of the worst alcoholics I've ever known, and was doing a lot of speed as well. He was in his early '20s, and his parents were divorcing after 25 years of marriage. He ended up with the family home, which was filled with all the family memories. He turned to more and more drink and drugs to drown his sorrows, and just went deeper into depression.

We had went to trade school together, and had worked together for about 2 years. He played drums in a very popular local country band, I played guitar in a local rock band, and we'd jam together just for fun, me and him. I knew him more than well enough to know he was really hurting badly, and was falling into deep depression and anger.

Well, he came into work one Monday morning, and was a COMPLETELY different person than he was when he left work Friday evening. I was flabbergasted. Everybody there was! We were all talking about what happened to this fellow, and what could have done it. I mean IT BLEW PEOPLE'S MINDS. Well, he said he got saved the day before, after a friend of his who had recently gotten saved told him what the answer to his problems were.

That's when I realized this thing HAD to be real. I got saved at home that Wednesday night.... 6 co-workers got saved soon afterward by our witness. One was a really bad druggie, who was completely, instantly delivered. They were all blown away by the instantaneous night and day change in me, just like we all had been by my friend. There was no denying what had happened!

My friend and I ended up going to the same church together. We had quit our bands, and were the regular drummer and lead guitarist in that church for years. He's now a preacher as well.

Weekend before last, I saw a bandmate from that old rock band in a local store. I hadn't seen him in a long time, but I knew the second I laid eyes on him what had happened. Sure enough, had gotten saved a few weeks before. The look of life in the eyes, the lifting up of the countenance, the glow of salvation.......... to someone who is saved, it's instantly recognizable, as is the kindred spirit of Christ that you can feel so clearly.

He was a heavy partier with a very bad, rude, negative attitude, one of the foulest mouths in existence, and smoked 2 packs of cigarettes a day. The cigarettes were gone with no craving or withdrawl, the foul mouth was gone, he was clean and sober with no desire for a drink or drugs, his spirit was meek and gentle, and I've certainly never seen him so happy and bubbling over with joy. That's what the blood of Christ can do for anyone, whether the vilest and lowest, or the best moral "good" person.

My pastor was the town drunk, and had a reputation as the baddest dude around. He was well known as a brutal fighter, and could and would whip anybody who challenged him. He was raised by alcoholic parents who had him and his siblings drinking and smoking before their teens. By his late teens, he was totally bound by nicotine, alcohol, and drugs and had been in a lot of trouble. He wanted loose, but couldn't get help.

He went to all the religious churches in town, and they all signed him up on the roll, took him along on their functions, and had him sing in the choir. Every church in town baptized him. He went under the water dry and bound, and came up wet and bound. But one day, he found a church that still lived and believed the old-time gospel the other churches had abandoned years before. Do a Google for "Azusa Street Revival" and you can read what I'm talking about!

He went with a friend of his on a joke, to see what all these crazy people were doing down there. He said he could hear them having church 2 blocks away with all the windows closed. But he could also FEEL something far away as well.....

He sat down on the back pew, and something got hold of him. He ran to the altar, and in 5 minutes was delivered. In the 42 years since the moment he got up from that altar, he has never used tobacco, drank a drop, done drugs, or said a single curse word again. I've known him for 10 years, and he's one of the greatest men of God I've ever met. He and his wife, I myself, and my wife just started a new church together 4 months ago. 17 sinners have prayed in the altars so far, and we've seen several healings.

Like my pastor, I tried religion myself for awhile in my teens, and abandoned it after I found there was nothing real about it. But in salvation, I found what I was looking for, something real. There's nothing on this Earth that compares to a real experience with God through Jesus Christ his son. I've been lost and I've been saved, and believe me, saved is better.

You see Manualblock, I wasn't just an average Joe Schmoe with a little drinking problem. I didn't tell you the whole story. My mother had left my father (a career criminal) when I was an infant. I never knew her, and my dad got sent back to the pen soon afterwards. I was raised by my abusive grandfather, who would mercilessly beat me and verbally abuse me. My friends were terrified of my grandpa, and wouldn't come over. I never had a mother or father, no family, no nothing. All my family was drunks and dopers, and never talked to each other. My grandpa died when I was barely 16, leaving me and my elderly grandma alone.

I had so much hurt and pain in me you can't imagine, and the alcohol and drugs were the way of dealing with it. But I finally got help one day, and it wasn't from a shrink or his mind-altering drugs, and it wasn't from a religious "crutch." It didn't cost me a penny, and I didn't have to wait to see the results, either. And it's just as real and as good today (actually better) than it was then.

Thermionic