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In the course of this last month, it was very encouraging to meet John Beckett by telephone as part of a project we are working on to get the JESUS film into Flash videon on the Internet. John is a businessman in Ohio that God has greatly blessed as John has sought to honor God in his business practices. But John's passion is not his business - it's seeking the Lord and His kingdom. Several years ago he worked with the Global Media Outreach ministry of Campus Crusade for Christ to write his life story and put it onto the Internet. Since then John has seen over a million people visit his page . The website has a place for people to indicate if they've made a spiritual decision for Christ and John has seen nearly 1 in 8 people visiting his page make such a decision and receive follow up help. Praie God! We look forward to helping John with his vision to add the JESUS film and media to his website to more effectively minister to people that are searching for answers to Life's Greatest Question!
My Story
by Irv Klaschus
Click here to see the full-size version of our Christmas 2007 letter.We were best friends; neighbors. I don’t even remember what made me so mad at my friend. I just remember feeling rage as my childish blows beat down on his neck and shoulders. It felt both good to express my anger and horrible that I was so out of control. I ran home horrified at what I had done.
Even now as I relate that story, it doesn’t seem to fit with the picture of a little boy that was trying to be good. I had grown up in a home where we read the Bible daily, talked about Jesus and went to church 3 times a week. I knew a lot about Jesus from parents that lived humbly and prayed sincerely. They prayed like they were talking to a friend. What was wrong with me? Why wasn’t it getting to my heart?
It wasn’t until I was 12 at a Christian summer camp that it made sense one night. I don’t even remember what the speaker said as we sat around the campfire. I only remember that the words he shared from the Bible that night started to grip me at a very deep level. Hearing these words made me aware that God was completely and morally perfect; what the Bible calls holy. I knew that I was not holy because of wrong things I had done; something the Bible calls sin. My sins meant that when I died I could not be with God in heaven.
I prayed a simple prayer that night, thanking God for providing a way I could be forgiven through what Jesus had done for me. I invited Him to be the boss of my life. I didn’t hear angels sing or see lightning flash, but I knew that something had changed in my life. I had moved from knowledge about God to a relationship with God.
After that night I began to slowly see changes in my life that I had longed for. I began to view prayer as a conversation with a person that loved me. Instead of viewing going to church as a duty, it was now a place that helped me get to know God, this person that already knew me. I was learning about God along with people that were also on the same journey. The Bible was starting to become personal and meaningful to me. God was using it to change me and to give purpose to my life.
One of the most wonderful parts of my new relationship with God was coming to understand that He wanted to use my interests and passions. I’ve even seen Jesus use things like my interest in computers and films in a way that is incredibly fulfilling for me and a blessing for other people. I have so much to learn, but now the desire and power to change doesn’t come from me – I’m discovering it in the context of a relationship with God.
If you would like to know more about a personal relationship with God click here
This is the start of an update to our web page. There is some saying to the effect that "the cobbler's own children go without shoes...". Things have been so busy that I haven't spent much time on our web page, partly because I first started it with technology from 10 years ago.
Things have become much more dynamic now, and I want to take advantage of a few of the developments that better fulfill the dream we had for our web page: that it would be very dynamic and reflective of what is going on in our life and ministry. But this only happens if the tools of updating a website are super easy to use. Hopefully I am fulfilling that now for our familiy and the ability to update it easily. Check back often to see how we are doing. We consider your prayer partnership vital to doing this work and we would love to have the privilege to pray for you as well!
Irv