LITS,
Thank you for the kind words.
I don't mean to sound like a used car dealer, but I would like to add a few details to my post above. Shortly after I arrived on campus in the fall of 1976 I received news that my grandmom had passed. Her funeral was performed by the kind pastor previously mentioned, this was my gradmoms final wish. I cannot recall one thing he said that day but I do remember him taking the time to speak once again to me.
My college was in West Virginia and we lived in New Jersey, which is about 450 miles distant and very different in many ways. I recall looking up "Bibles" in the phone book and driving to the store which was 15 miles away. I purchased my Bible and started reading it. For some odd reason, and I don't have an explanation for it, but from day 1 I took everything on those pages as being literally true. It isn't a case of growing up in a church family or anything like that, but this is what happened.
As I mentioned before, I met some people (students) who were Christians and I also got involved with the campus student ministry. After about 6 months, I confessed my sins and accepted Jesus as my Lord and Savior. Over the years I have bobbed and weaved on my faith and had periods of inactivity or question. The effort though is not in performing God favors, it is in taking the time to study His Word and speaking to Him in prayer. Do this on a regular basis and God will do the rest.
The watchtower is (in theory) correct on one point and that is we must pray to and worship the correct God. It is my opinion though that the god of the WT is not the God of the Bible. The God of the Bible tells us that if we want to know Him, we should "seek FIRST His kingdom, THEN His rightnousness", and THEN after that, "ALL these thing will be given to you". It is my opinion that during the seeking stage, the individual will search the scriptures to get a definitive answer to the 64 thousand dollar question, the same question Jesus asked his deciples in Matt 16, and that is "who do you say I (Jesus) am? My answer to that question is he is "God with us" or simply, the Word become flesh, one (not 2, 3 or 4) with the Father. This is why for me, God's Amazing Grace is so ...Amazing.
It is a fact that some of God's redeemed people are not always lovely. Sometimes I'm not lovely, just ask my wife. But when I reflect on the fact that God became a man for the sole purpose of purchasing my redemption on the cross, it makes it easy to overlook the defect and see the need to love my neighbor. I don't think that the pastor previously mentioned has any idea that his taking the time to show my family Chrtistian love resulted in my past 35 years of trusting in Jesus. My goal is to return the favor and so effect another.
Thanks for your time,
Tom