1Corinthians 6:19 Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own?
John 16:7-8 “But I tell you the truth, it is to your advantage that I go away; for if I do not go away, the Helper will not come to you; but if I go, I will send Him to you. “And He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin and righteousness and judgment;
At this time I was in high school, I think the 9th grade, about five years after my first three brushes with death. I was born again just the year before. Not long after the Lord drew me to Him, my Mother and Father came for me, they came up with the money and made a down payment on a house in South Bend, Indiana. My father continued his heavy drinking, plus my Mother was a strong willed and outspoken person which together caused a lot of pain and strain in our family. I quit going to church and began to live a life that was not pleasing to the Lord. Through 8th grade I was a good student getting A’s and B’s. I began to hate school with the result that I began to get very bad grades, and get out of school any day, and way I could.
It was on one of those days, about 1 year after being saved, when I decided to have a day of freedom from school. That was when my fourth brush with death happened. I was walking along the same gravel pit where I had almost drowned, and was just coming out from behind a pile of sand and gravel. I heard a flutter of something go past my ear just missing me by a few inches. I had no idea what it was until I heard the sound of a gun shot. All of you that have been in battle or in a firing range pit know what it is like to hear the bullet before you hear the sound. I turned to my right and saw three young people enjoying target practice by shooting at floating cans and bottles on the water. That first bullet must have ricocheted off the water. When they saw, and heard me, they stopped. Of course they were not firing at me and I thought no more about it until later, just went on my own dense, hard headed way.
As I looked back over the years I finally realized that God’s Spirit was in, me and Protecting me from myself and others, what a blessing, what grace. When I was saved No body came along side to help me study, or even read God’s word. There was no one to demonstrate a Godly walk, or an example of what a Christian was supposed to sound, and look like, so I did it my way. Praise God, even though I was unresponsive to Him he stayed after me, and eventually provided the people to help me get closer to and know Him better..