Back in 1994 Theresa and I were married and we had a group of people who were in Theresa’s sister’s Life Group at Sunridge praying for us, not for our well being but our salvation, for the next two and a half years they prayed for us and our kids that came along the way. They prayed each and every week they met. We were so far from God, situations arose in those two years that made us needing Him, our marriage was on the rocks, we were financially ruined, there wasn’t much love for each other.

Theresa brother-in-law John was giving us verses, never writing them out, just the book and verse, with the hope that we would open the Bible and never close it. On a day where Theresa found herself weeping in our bedroom at my parents house we were living with them, she heard a knock on the door and it was my dad carrying my mom’s Bible, she had passed away earlier that year and he just said that he would leave something on the table.Theresa came out of the bedroom and found the Bible and looked for the verses that John had given her, Phil 4:4- 8.

With that simple act Theresa’s life was changed, I was slow to follow. We moved to the Temecula are to “save” our marriage, with hope we pushed forward without God leading the way and our situation being the same. Theresa started going to church (Sunridge) on Sunday’s and I was working full time on the weekends, so I had an out. One day she asked me that the next time I had a Sunday off that I needed to come with her and the kids to church, at least to be an example to our kids, I agreed and waited for that Sunday to happen.

Easter came and my store was closed on Sunday so I went with them, I grew up in church, I knew what to do, what to say, how to act, but I wasn’t ready for what happened that day, my wife received Christ that day in the back row. I was moved by the message and felt God moving so I also put that I was with her in this but my heart was not His yet. I told Theresa that whenever I have a Sunday off of work I would attend church, well, God is for real and He arranged for me to have every Sunday off, my position at work changed where I had every weekend off, for those who know retail, God is the only one that can arrange that. So what do I do? Now I have to live up to what I had promised.

I started to attend on Sunday, joined a Life Group, and fellowshipped with others, but that moment didn’t happen, receiving Christ. We were in a Life Group, that had multiplied off of the Life Group that had been praying for us, but they hadn’t put 2 and 2 together yet, that we were the couple they had been praying for. One week, I was fighting God, sitting in the back row at Sunridge, throwing punches, running, trying to go toe to toe with HIM, a fight I could never win.

That week as we grew closer to our night at Life Group I kept going to the Bible and looking for why I was fighting God. That Wed. night at Life Group while we were praying over prayer request, I threw in the towel, I gave up my life and made the choice to follow Jesus the rest of my life, the best fight I have ever lost. I found out later that my Sister-in-law Mary had a bookmark that had my name on it, she had been praying for my for almost three years, God put it on her heart everyday to pray for me. God is for real, he chose the time, the place, the people, the MOMENT!!! No one else could have arranged this. There is so much more to this story believe it or not. Those are all things showing how God is real.

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