New Canadian member

[arniem]

I am new to this forum , but not new to Christianity. I am 56 , been a christian for 22 years.I became a Christian in a neat and exciting way. Not knowing any different , whenever I had a question of the day I would just reach for my Bible and God would make it open at the exact page , exact chapter , exact verse , to exactly answer my exact question of the day. No preachers , no church folks , just me , a bible and the finger of God choosing the pages. What a neat thing to experience.Hundreds and hundreds of times this would happened. Talk about a faith builder for a new Christian back then. Actually , I thought this happened to everyone ....... told you .... I didn't know any different. I am thankful .I spent most of my life as a businessman and operated a medium sized autobody shop in the small city where I lived. I am an automotive technitian , painter , some custom painting and airbrush etc. I semi-retired at the age of 38 (18 years ago)to live a quiet modest life in the countryside of Canada, I am an avid reader and my main interests are of course Christianity , all things Israel and eschatology along with an eye on world developments. I take 7 months off every winter , sit by the fire and read and research.As well as being a car guy , I like helicopters , I am liscenced to fly the Bell 47 G2 helicopter on a solo pilot permit , used to be a meteorite hunter and collector , Raised on a farm , love the rural life (peacefull).Mostly now I still read a lot , spend a lot of time on the internet , keep an eye on world events from a Christian perspective etc.I have a great fondness for the Jewish people , the nation of Israel , I am not sure why. The Lord must have put those things in my heart and I am thankful that he did.I look forward to participating on this forum .Many thanksArnie

 

[Learning]

Welcome Arnie! I can't wait to read your future posts. It sounds like you have such a deep, loving, and close relationship with our Creator. I am striving for that.

 

[arniem]

There is nothing special about me.....But special things have happened to me. It was a happy time in my life. It was 1986 , I was 36 and I had acheived most of my (modest)goals and dreams. I had a thriving autobody shop in a small city , owned a small house in town, an older Cadillac Eldorado , a honking big 4X4 , a 1949 Packard , a 1968 Chev convertable and had just bought the little cottage of my dreams. My "things" were modest in value , nothing fancy or expensive , but they were all the things I wanted.I had recently bought the cottage from a widow lady who lived in Winnipeg Canada. She did not drive or travel and asked if I could sort through the furniture and contents and keep what I wanted and throw the rest out.I saved a few items and hauled the rest to the burning barrel. On the headboard of the bed was a little white King James Bible. I had no religion in my life , but I knew not to throw a Bible in the burning barrel. I did not like the Bible , Mostly because I could not understand it , it was a dead book to me and that really bothered me since I am an avid reader. I can read 6 volumes on Albert Einstien and understand most of it. I can read a book a day , or 10 books in 10 days or a hundred books .... well ... you get the picture.But not the Bible , it was dead , dead , dead to my reading eyes. I had always wanted to read it end to end , determine if it was true or not and go from there. I only care to read true stories , factual and educational material. I do not care to read fiction. Waste of time to me.

 

[arniem]

(Learning;41096)
Welcome Arnie! I can't wait to read your future posts. It sounds like you have such a deep, loving, and close relationship with our Creator. I am striving for that.
Thank you so much for the welcome. I am going to post a few of my experiences here and I hope you find them interesting. For some reason I get quite a bit of direct action from above as I make my way thru life. Not sure why the Lord does those things for me , I dont deserve it , but am thankfull.I have been on a couple of other (secular) forums for a couple of years. Mostly aviation and helicopter related. The other night I decided to find a good Christian forum to join. Did a google search , got 3,930,000 search results , mumbled kind of a prayer , and ended up here . Neat.Glad to be here , glad you are here , these things are meant to be as far as I am concerned.Thanks again for the nice welcome. Talk later.Arnie

 

[arniem]

So here I was , happy as heck , well almost , something was missing and I was not sure what. So I am at my cottage , needed a fix of reading material but had none. Every night when I went to bed I would glance at that little Bible and wish I could understand it. Very frustrating. Finally , one night I just picked it up and said: "...GOD ... Help me understand... THIS STUPID BOOK .." Those were my words , pretty crude , but I meant it. Well God must have thought I was praying or something because that Bible opened up on it's own to a page where two verses stood out to me and I could understand them . Proverbs I think it was. I could not read what came before or after these two verses. It was like the rest was "darkened out" or something. Those two verses read to my heart , neat I thought , I turned the light off and went to sleep.

 

[forgivenWretch]

(arniem;41076)
I am new to this forum , but not new to Christianity. I am 56 , been a christian for 22 years.I became a Christian in a neat and exciting way. Not knowing any different , whenever I had a question of the day I would just reach for my Bible and God would make it open at the exact page , exact chapter , exact verse , to exactly answer my exact question of the day. No preachers , no church folks , just me , a bible and the finger of God choosing the pages. What a neat thing to experience.Hundreds and hundreds of times this would happened. Talk about a faith builder for a new Christian back then. Actually , I thought this happened to everyone ....... told you .... I didn't know any different. I am thankful .I spent most of my life as a businessman and operated a medium sized autobody shop in the small city where I lived. I am an automotive technitian , painter , some custom painting and airbrush etc. I semi-retired at the age of 38 (18 years ago)to live a quiet modest life in the countryside of Canada, I am an avid reader and my main interests are of course Christianity , all things Israel and eschatology along with an eye on world developments. I take 7 months off every winter , sit by the fire and read and research.As well as being a car guy , I like helicopters , I am liscenced to fly the Bell 47 G2 helicopter on a solo pilot permit , used to be a meteorite hunter and collector , Raised on a farm , love the rural life (peacefull).Mostly now I still read a lot , spend a lot of time on the internet , keep an eye on world events from a Christian perspective etc.I have a great fondness for the Jewish people , the nation of Israel , I am not sure why. The Lord must have put those things in my heart and I am thankful that he did.I look forward to participating on this forum .Many thanksArnie
Welcome Arnie! and AMEN. God and His Word are so AWESOME. He talks to me everyday when I open my bible. Looking forward to getting to know a new (as in Here on this forum) brother better. God bless!

 

[Christina]

Glad to have you aboardglad you found us looking forward to getting to know you let me know if you need any help God Bless kriss

 

[David161099]

Welcome to the forum Arnie!

 

[Learning]

Arnie, that was a wonderful experience about the Bible. Thanks for sharing all your replies.

 

[arniem]

Thank you forgivenWretch (wish I knew your first name)I read somewhere you are married , 3 kids and a dog. Bless you.I am single , my daughter lives 3000 miles away and the only daily companion I had was the little dog on my shoulders. For 9 years and 8 months "Bailey" rode on my shoulders everywhere I went. Never fell off.Thanks for the welcomeThank you also to David , learning , and Denver for your welcomes.Kriss ...... I will deal with you later .....

Thanks.Arnie.

 

[Christina]

Well that sounds ominousLOL... I know what you mean ArnieAs the mom of two little dogs I understand that statement Arnieoh yeah I have real kids too

 

[arniem]

(kriss;41324)
Glad to have you aboardglad you found us looking forward to getting to know you let me know if you need any help God Bless kriss
Thank you kriss and yes I do need your help on a couple of matters. I have some questions I needed answered and I already know you have some information for me as I research.Mainly at this time I want you to know how you played a part in bringing me to this forum. I had been considering joining a Christian forum to gather some information and the other evening I got serious and did a Google search. The search brought up 3,900,000 results. I clicked on only one link. It came up as one of your posts. Neat eh!! Next thing I did a quick internal search on the forum "Columbia Shuttle" and it brought me again to one of your posts with the exact information I needed.This all happened within about 3 minutes. Could be coincidence , I think otherwise , we will see where it goes. I will deal with this Columbia question maybe in a day or two in a seperate thread. I will seek your advice at that time in those regards. I will PM you to get your input when I am ready. In the meantime kriss , what I have decided to do here on this thread is give a bit of my background and testimony. Sort of an introduction, if you will. I would like to continue this thread in such a manner and record a few more details of my background.Is this appropriate kriss ?? May I continue ?? Thank you for your help and advice. I need your guidance and opinion on this.Arnie M.

 

[Christina]

Yes that is fine Arniem to keep posting here and I am glad to help with anything I can when you are ready. And I dont believe in coicendence I think the lord moves in mysterious ways and guides us where we need to be. I am really quite enjoying your postsGod Bless

 

[arniem]

Back to the Bible for a minute .......For the next 6 months or so, every night before I went to sleep , I would pick up that little bible and it would open on its own to a couple of verses that I could completely understand,Well not every night , sometimes after a hard day at work I would be dead tired and not bother with any reading. A pattern began to emerge, as I was learning quite a bit of the bible , it began to make me have questions of every sort. I began to notice , every time I had a new question , when I picked up the bible , it would always open on the exact page , the exact chapter , the exact verse , to exactly answer my question of the day.This was not simply coincidence. As I became more learned , I could see most of these verses were one of a kind and not found elsewhere in the bible. In later years , if I share this information with my Christan freinds , I get some strange looks. Dont blame them. I am not normal. I am so abnormal I actually think God has enough strength to occasionally be able to turn the thin onion skin pages of a book with his writings in it. That is how naive and simple my mind can be.I wish to apologize to anyone reading my ramblings. I do not like my style of writing. When I re-read it I sound self centered and boastful. Sorry . My motive , or my heart or whatever you want to call it is to share exciting little and big things God can do in our lives. My hope is that it is beneficial to you and encouraging as well. It is not always fun. Have you ever read all of Psalm 119 in one sitting ?? Longest darn chapter in the whole bible. 176 verses I think ..yikes !!! Try reading Psalm 119 four times in one day , on your busiest day , when you have to skip an appointment with your banker , when you have customers waiting , when your employees need you . OUCH !! I had a lot of flesh ripped as I sort of tried to be obedient by dropping all my duties to go off and read Psalm 119 . Another story for another day.

 

[arniem]

Thanks kriss.I hadnt planned to but today I will try finish the Psalm 119 story. It is 2 AM here and my days and nights are out of whack , something to do with daylight savings time switch recently. Glad I dont have to go to work in the morning. Bless all of you who keep up with work and hectic lifestyles , raising children and being responsible. It is not an easy life down here and so many things pull us in every direction. I hope my ramblings encourage everyone to know our Lord is always around somewhere. Doesnt always seem like it but he is.Before I continue with the Psalm 119 story I want to try and explain something. Not easy to do. Bear with me as I try to explain it.I guarantee you there is nothing special about me. I am not some pure , holy Christian man living in Canada. Far from it. Most of you folks do more good Christian works , and live more productive Christian lives than I do.I employ no special tactics to make the bible open a certain way. No magic , no ceremonies , no rituals , no special prayers , no golden candlesticks , no holy water sprinkled around the room. No religiosity whatsoever. None. Never have. Never will.It is more like I will be prompted to go pick up my bible , if it is sitting on a table my fingers seem to open it up in the exact place. The truth is it is God who does the prompting , and he guides the fingers. Simple as that. I contribute very little except the physical movements. I will also add that I do not always obey the message. Told you , I am far from perfect. I deserve a lot less help than I receive.I will only claim credit for a couple of things. First I am naive enough to believe that The Lord The God Of Isreal actually has sufficient strength to manipulate the thin paper pages of his Bible from time to time. I am also guilty of having a child-like curiousity wondering what he is up to next. Something like that anyway. Actually I think all of us Christians continually have many of these neat little circumstances happen on a daily basis. We just don't notice them enough. Jesus did say he would build his Church through his message and through us. Doesn't seem like it some days but his hand is in everything.......I have to go find my old study bible , I made a bunch of notes in the margins of Psalm 119 and will compile them for the next example. It involved several people in a dusty noisy autobody shop , a Federal Courthouse 'swearing in" bible and on and on.Talk LaterThanksArnie

 

[arniem]

My Bible with the notes are packed away somewhere so the Psalm 119 stuff will have to wait.I dont know about you folks , but everytime , as a new Christian I would be so happy and free and at peace and then it is like the Lord or myself or whatever would drag me through a knothole in life . Conditioning they call it , or spiritual growth , or changing direction in life. I look back and see how it all worked out and am thankfull. Sure didnt like it at the time though.Every girl likes flowers , I think they were created especially for you.Any men reading this? Don't we know flowers are created for us to buy for women so they are reminded we love them. They sometimes forget we love them and we usually forget to buy them flowers right ?? MEN !!! ... and I am one of them. Here is a flower story just for us guys. We fellows have to stick together you know.Rough and tumble men sometimes get prayers answered too. I call this example "The Yellow Flower"You see there was this real pretty girl in a yellow Corvette ......

 

[arniem]

"The Yellow Flower"I am a car guy. I owned an autobody shop for over 25 years. Smash your car up on the freeway and I will make it like new again. If you want a custom paint job for a car show , I can do that too. If I had to choose between being in a flower shop or a paint booth , put me in the paint booth please.However , I have been in the flower shop from time to time , not often enough according to some people. Probably I buy flowers for folks maybe two or three times a year. Nobody has ever bought me flowers until one day .....I did'nt become a Christian until I was 35. Best thing that ever happened to me. So now I am a Christian , running a bodyshop , lots of things can go wrong in that business. An atmosphere of wrecked cars , grinders , welders , broken glass , dust and noise. Yet we must produce a perfect dust free , flawless paint and repair to our customer's car.It was one of those days and weeks where everything that could go wrong did. I do not discourage easily but now I was at the end. I quit what I was doing and told my guys I was going for a coffee. The local coffee shop was beside a car wash , as I walked from my 4X4 I noticed a girl waving me over. Turns out it was a girl named Cory. She had her own fitness show on TV , She was a part time model , her husband owned the local MacDonalds , and she had locked herself out of her car at the car wash. it was a brand new beautiful yellow Corvette. She was beautiful too .....She told me she was totally embarrased and had been pretending to wipe and chamois her car for quite some time as she waited for someone she knew who might be able to help her... and then I pulled up.A damsel in distress and she wanted ME to help. Gosh , maybe I can do something useful today after all. We men dream about stuff like this. As a businesman and certified shop owner , I have the tools to unlock disabled cars in such a situation. No problem , until after half an hour trying to jimmy the lock I remembered the newer Corvettes were built with extra security to prevent theft. I am failing again, just like everything else that had been going wrong. I offered to drive her to the MacDonalds to get her husbands keys. Here is this pretty girl , nicely dressed , and I load her in my dusty 4X4 and away we go. Of course her husband was not at his restaurant. We then went to his Electrical contracting office .... not there either. Finally she asked me to drop her at her husbands electrical construction site and I did. This was an industrial area , no office , asphalt plant nearby . In the middle of the rail yards .... this is where I dropped her off. A pretty girl with a yellow Corvette looking for help and all I do is drop her off in the middle of nowhere. Some help I was . !!Failure failure failure was my name that day. I could do nothing right. I gave up. Instead of going back to work I picked up a take out chicken dinner and went to our local park for lunch. In the peace and quiet of the park I said LORD , I quit. If you want me to do something else with my life , tell me loud and clear. What I am doing now is not working. I continued to waste 2 more hours avoiding going back to the office. I was discouraged and depressed. Around 3 pm I forced myself back to work. LORD , I need some positive sign that I should continue.Do you ever notice how gloomy everything looks at such times ? Despair , depression , darkness. I have never taken drugs in my life , but I felt like it then. I had never turned to alcohol to drown my problems , but I felt like it then.Not many things I am afraid of , not many problems I can't handle , I am a man , and we men can battle our own way thru life. Don't need no crutches ... dont need no religion .....well not usually anyway. I forced myself to step back in my office and mumbled ... Lord ... remember what I said , you will have to put something under my foot as I take one more step , I gave up , remember !! This next step is going to be my last.....Funny thing about my employees , they were all smiling and watching me step into the shop. Where have you been Arnie? What have you been doing ? Some beautiful girl drove up in a Yellow Corvette and was dissapointed you were not here. I think she left a note on your desk.A single yellow flower with one of the nicest thank you notes I have ever received was sitting on my desk. Talk about a positive sign , made my day , made my year , made me even more confident Jesus Christ had a hand in my life. He must have even heard that feeble prayer I mumbled out.That is all I cared about. Everything went along quite well for about a year after that........

 

[arniem]

So here I am , all renewed and invigorated and a yellow flower on my desk. And it was delivered by a pretty girl in a Yellow Corvette. Remember I said , I am not a flower guy , I am a car guy , yet I know a dusty dry autobody shop is no place to keep a flower alive. It was a potted plant and I took it home and actually remembered to water it once in a while. I never forget to put gas in my car , but I will always forget to water my plants. Actually , I dont have any plants .... I always forget to water themNevertheless the flower lived for quite a while. Eventually it faded away and died. The plant dried up to a withered brown stem. I saved the pot and note as a cherished reminder and had no plans to throw it out.Trouble is , some kind of little fly or bug lives in potting soil. I am not the worlds greatest housekeeper but was puzzeled where all these tiny flies were coming from. Once I realized they were coming from the potting soil that had held the yellow flower .... then I dumped it out. I took it outside and dumped the soil beside my house and solved the problem. I washed the pot and kept it and the thank you note as a momento to answered prayer. On with life , life was good.-----------------Around 1972 When I was 20 or 21 I had a good job with the Campbell soup Company here in Canada. I lived in a small city of 13,000. I had always wanted to paint my own car so I rented part of an old shop with a spray booth. Turned out I was a good painter and It eventually turned into a full time business.Jump ahead now to 1986 - 1987 , I am a brand new Christian , running a thriving shop , found everything I was looking for (in Christ) and often wondered why I devoted day and night and all my energy to running a busines.Nothing wrong with that , it is just that my heart was not in it any more. I had no calling to be a missionary , go to Bible college , join the ministry , none of that. I just knew I did not want to spend the next 20 years burning myself out with work. I wanted out. I wanted a quiet peaceful life at my cottage in the country. This is a very hard decision for a man to make .... especially a car guy with his own shop. It goes against the grain of just about everything ... except within Christianity. Or so I hoped.Trying to make a decision put me into a gloomy , depressing mood , I was unsure , did not want to do the wrong thing .... didnt know what to do. I gave up trying to decide. Need some help down here LORD. !!I had been agonizing over this for days and weeks and months and as usual made a monster out of it in my mind. Finally one day when I was at home for lunch I said "Jesus , I dont want to go on like this. I need some help. I want to sell my shop to my brother and be free of it. If I am wrong , let me know. If I am to sell , give me a sign, something positive , some proof , and I will get out of the business. I mumbled ....am going to take one more step and head back to work ... You will have to put something under my foot as I take that step ..... I give up AGAIN ........===============================Normally , when I head to work , I am a man on a mission. I head out the door and bound off to work. Not this day however. After mumbling my prayer that day and looking for a positive sign that I should hand my business over to my brother , I did not bound out the door .Instead , for some reason I stood on my front doorstep. Never done that before. Also for some reason , I was compelled to look around the corner of my house. It was springtime , still about 4 inches of snow on the ground , I had not looked around my yard since last summer. On the side of my house , on a warm spring day , poking up though the snow was that same yellow flower.I think it was a tulip. They grow from a bulb I think.. I had discarded it there 10 months ago. On exactly the right day , at the right time , in the right circumstances , the LORD had that flower squeak thru the snow .... and he made me look around the corner of my house..... I had my answer. 2008 , I am still at my cottage in the country ... peaceful and happy ..... wondering what comes next.Here's hoping all you men get a flower some day too. Hope you're prayers are answered too.

 

[Christina]

What a great testomy you have given us Arniem It touched me in may ways thank you for sharing it with us. I must admitt I kind of skipped over your telling me how you got here through my name it kinda of left me for a lack of words. Which doesnt happen often Im sure anyone will tell you It is pretty humbling to think God may have used my name to get you here but after reading all you have shared perhaps he just used my name to bring you here to provide for Us with some very beatiful from the heart moving words. So often we look for God to do grand and big things we miss the little things he does everyday the little yellow flowers so to speak, I love this testomy because it is how God works most everday in our lives the question is do we pay attention. thank you again

 

[Christina]

I have to tell you a story Once when I was about six my family took us on a camping trip. I got up early one morning before anyone and as children do began playing and running around in the woods after sometime I decided I better go back to camp before I got myself into trouble but as I looked around I didnt know which way to go to get back nothing looked familar to me.I decided on a direction and started off after a time I realized I might be lost and I began to get really scared and cry. I had no clue where to go or where I was. Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw a little clearing with a small patch of snow the snow of course drew my attention being a kid. As I walked through that clearing towards the little white patch of snow I was stuck with the most beatiful thing right in the center of this prestein patch of snow was a red flower it was somewhat the size and shape of a tulip. I can not put into words how awestruck I was. It was the most amazing beautiful thing I had ever seen I knelt down by it and all the fear and thoughts of being lost were gone from my head I could only see this flower and wonder in amazment how it could grow in this snow. The thought crossed my mind to pick it for my mother but something to this day I cant really explain except being from God stoped me it just felt majestic, and I knew from somewhere deep inside it was not met to be picked the feeling and the sight spellbound me I dont for how long but the silence was broken with my mother yelling my name. I got up and ran toward her voiceWhen I got to her all I wanted her to do was come see the flower.All she wanted to do was lecture me about wandering away from camp as she pointed toward the camp and told me I had better get moving as fast as my legs would take me. I tried to find the flower again over the next couple days but never could.I know now it was called a snow flower and had I not been so taken by its beauty I might have really wandered far away and been truly lost or hurt. To this day in my minds eye even though I have traveled the country seen the beauty of mother nature in her glory I have felt such awe or seen anything as beautiful as that flower in the woods standing in a little patch of snow In my heart I know now God was watching over that little dumb six year old girl keeping her put until my mother could find me.God woking in his purest form through a sinlge crimson flower in the woods