Dear friends:

During the night last night I was awakened with an overwhelming sense of
gratitude to God for His amazing and undeserved grace in my life.  I have
sensed this before, but last night was special.  In the dark of night, I
repeatedly expressed humble thanksgiving.

God showed me His grace by taking me back to my childhood's earliest memories.

He reminded me that I was born to a low-income, unchurched young couple in
Tennessee during the Great Depression.  Both parents were drinkers.  They
divorced when I was age 6.  My mother went to work and supported us in a
low-salaried office job.  Times were really tough.  It was the pits.  A
typical lunch was canned pork 'n beans and white bread.  Government aid was
not available in those days.  People only ate from the labor of their
hands.  God gave us grace.

One day I was playing on a street corner when a nice, gray-haired old lady
came up to me and invited me to her Methodist church.  I went, and learned
about Jesus and His Word.  I didn't know much, but what I did know stuck,
although becoming dormant later.  It was a divine appointment. Grace.

World War 2 hit.  My mother remarried after the war to a war veteran and
laborer.  My step-father was a kind, milquetoast kind of man, but
unchurched, and also a drinker.  Their nights were spent drinking.  Yet
this hard-working, loving woman sacrificed greatly for me, and even put me
through an expensive private university, the University of Miami, on a
secretary's salary.  (We had all moved to Miami to be near my step-father's
aunts.)  My part-time work parking cars in downtown Miami (behind Burdines)
hardly made a dent in the cost.  My real father never paid a dime.  To this
day I do not know how she did it.  It was God's grace.  Years later, just
before she had a stroke and died, I was able to lead her in prayer to
invite Jesus into her heart.  I baptized her on her deathbed.  The Lord has
clearly shown me that she is in heaven.  Grace.

Somehow God put a shield of protection around me throughout my childhood
and life.  In spite of a poor environment and a poor fatherly example, I
always wanted to do right and do my best.  I was an honor student in grade
school and college.  Through Air Force ROTC, where I became the
senior-ranking cadet officer in large cadet corps, I received a commission
in the U. S. Air Force, which God used to get me away from a depressing
home atmosphere and give me a new life.  However, in college I began to
ignore the spiritual teachings I learned as a youth and went the way of the
world.  Although I reaped what I sowed, many times the Lord supernaturally
spared me from danger, trouble and embarrassment.  I spent 20 years in the
military and never got shot at once.  Grace.

In my mid-30s, about halfway through my Air Force career, God began to yank
my chain and get my attention.  That led to increasing searching,
revelation about Jesus, the Scriptures, His modern-day presence and power,
His plan for the ages, and a whole new life.  God has graced me with three
wonderful sons and daughters-in-law, all believers, and ten wonderful
grandchildren.  The Bible says that my "sons are a heritage (gift) from the
LORD..." (Psalm 127:3, NIV).  God also says that He will instruct them.  I
believe that.  They are His.  Grace.

God has also given me a sweet and loving wife who deeply loves Jesus, whom
I do not deserve, and for whom I am eternally grateful.  Jesus is the Lord
and center of our home.  Grace.

By human logic, at age 74, I should not be here, but should be dead, or a
deadbeat, except for God's grace.  Male members of my family died in their
50s.  My father died at age 50.  I have had many supernatural healings,
which I learned in the 1970s that God still does and which I have learned
to believe for and receive by faith.  In spite of many symptoms and attacks
from Satan, some very serious and which God has taken care of, I have not
been to the doctor in 15 years except to get some cough medicine 11 years
ago.  I have not had surgery in over 50 years, the last in college only to
correct a nasal blockage caused by sports contact.  I not only believe in
divine healing, but also divine health.  I have a litany of Scripture
promises from God that I confess and claim daily.  I will not allow Satan
to deny me what Jesus paid for with His own blood.  Grace.

My unworthy, wretched life is a testimony of God's grace, and I just want
to praise Him for it today.  Thank you, Father!  Thank you, Jesus!  Thank
you, Holy Spirit!  I love you.  I really, really do.

And thank you, friends, for listening!

Jim