The Lord says that those who are chosen are chosen from the beginning of time.

Looking back on my life I can see that that is true. When I was a young boy, I used to watch Kathryn Kuhlman. I was very, very moved by her, but when I asked my Mother about the program, she said I could continue to watch her, but only if I promised not to believe what she was saying. She explained that was because our family didnt believe those things. So I promised and I kept watching. I didnt think to accept Jesus then because I was told not to, and it was part of my agreement. Sounds silly now, but at seven you mostly do what your Mother says. Then when I grew up on Miami Beach, there was this preacher everyone called Holy Joe. Holy Joe would preach on the beaches, on the streets of Lincoln Road Mall and just about anywhere else he could find a crowd. When he preached out loud on the Mall, people mostly walked past him. When he preached on the Beach to us teenagers, they would mostly throw things at him. I never threw anything at him, but I didnt take him seriously, either. One day when I was about seventeen, I found Joe on the bench, waiting for a bus. I stopped to talk to him because I was curious about his real name. He seemed real reluctant to tell me what it was. We had passed each other many times (he was quite an active Evangelist), and he knew I never took him seriously. I guess I felt safe to approach him because he wasnt yelling and he almost looked vulnerable just sitting there, instead of being on what I thought was his high horse. When he told me his name, he looked even more vulnerable. We talked for a while and I asked him some questions. It was almost forty years ago so I cant remember anything else except two things. One was that his name was Bill and the other was that when I got up to leave he told me that I would one day come to believe. I told him that I very seriously doubted that, but he said that in the short time we spoke, he thought I had the temperament of a Believer and he was certain I one day would become one. Forty years later, I dont remember anything else, but his real name and his certainty that one day I would come to believe. As I started to question myself after he said that, I was led to a small Messianic Temple on Miami Beach. It must have been one of the first, because I had never heard of such a thing at that point. I went once or twice, but when I told my Mother about it, she told me to learn my own religion first, before looking elsewhere. She was a smart woman, and this made sense, so I never went back. Many years later, on Yom Kippur 1979, a good friend I had known for a while asked me if I was fasting. When I told him I was, he asked me why. I said that even though my religion didnt mean very much to me, I felt like this was the one thing I was supposed to do. When I told him that, he held up his index finger and said, In the beginning there was one people. And in the end there will be one people. Something about the way he held up his finger and the certainty in his voice held my attention. He then proceeded to give me the Gospel. I guess because I already knew him and liked him, I hadnt developed the filters and barriers I normally would have when confronted by a Believer. He was wise enough to have waited to tell me these things. He gave me a copy of the Late Great Planet Earth and when I finished it, I logically figured out that if a book written twenty years earlier, based on a book written two thousand years before was accurate, it must all be true. So I accepted Jesus as Messiah, but since it was only head knowledge, not as Lord. However, since the Holy Spirit was now in me, over the years The Lord has worked mightily in me. Over time, I have witnessed more and more of a willingness to turn to Him and away from things that displease Him. Even now, I observe myself disliking things I used to like and being offended at things that I used to find either funny or at least benign. As I write this, it now comes back to me that my argument with Joe/Bill then was that you could never know that you had the gift of eternal life. That you could only believe that you know. That you just couldnt know without having been there. I couldnt understand how you could know such a thing since it was only a belief. However, I now know what he meant. A few days before my Mother passed away, I asked her, Just for the record, have you accepted Jesus as your Lord and Savior? She said, Yes, I even pray to Him now. Because she said that, my experience of her death, just days later, was transformed more than words can say. I frequently thank the Father for His great mercy at having chosen me. Richard