Everything I'm going to say for the next six minutes is true. We are each entitled to our own opinion, yet none of us are entitled to our own truth. Truth, like the air we breathe, applies to everyone...or it applies to no one.
First Encounter: Epilepsy
...my first Encounter with GOD was at the age of 10 when I passed out from my first grand mall seizure! I know what you're thinking: what does GOD have to do with epilepsy? In ancient times epilepsy has been associated with everything from witchcraft to demonic possession. At the time of my seizure, however, I knew none of this…I just thought I was dying and I felt absolutely helpless.
Coming face-to-face as a 10-year-old child with my own mortality and the prospect of death, I came to deeply appreciate the historical Fact of Christ's Physical Resurrection, and i found comfort in knowing that even Death could not separate me from the Love of Jesus (oh BTW, 10 years later The Lord Jesus healed me of epilepsy, I stopped taking the barbiturates and I can tell you as a 64-year-old man, the seizures have NEVER returned!).
Second Encounter: Nowhere
My second Encounter with God was in my early-teens. At that time i was a horrible person to be around. Though I had lots of religion in my head, GOD was a Stranger to my heart. My older brother believes my personality was altered by the barbiturates i took to control my epilepsy...i'm not so sure.
While working one summer at the Congress of Racial Equality, i met a wheelchair-bound ex-member of the Black Panther Party named Chris. Chris was the accountant, and during lunch Chris would share his Christian faith with me and invited me to his church in Long Beach, California named The Shekinah Fellowship. I consented, and on a Saturday night he picked me up and drove me to the church in a van that was engineered so that he could operate the brake and accelerator pedals with his hands.
We came to an abandoned movie theatre with a huge, raised stage and large scarlet curtain which was drawn open during each service. The people there engaged in a style of worship I had never seen before. After a short sermon a prayer line was formed which my friend Chris constrained me to join. The pastor was touching people in the prayer line, and many of them were collapsing on the floor in some kind of fainting spell; I, on the other hand, had no intention of fainting for anybody, but the truth was that I trusted Chris and took my place in the line.
When it came my turn the Pastor barely touched my forehead with some kind of oil as he whispered the word "glory."
For one immeasurable moment of time the Universe disappeared...ALL of the Universe. Most people use the word "nowhere" facetiously; i no longer have that luxury. Within this Great Nowhere The Lord said to me "It's all over...you can rest now...." and every atom in my body relaxed into a Transcendent Perfect Peace that time and words would fail me to describe.
A moment later the Universe returned, and I was sitting on a stage in Long Beach, California...incredibly angry that I had to return to this world.
Third Encounter: Glory!
25 years later, i was divorced, living in a West-Los Angeles apartment and doing well financially. My third Encounter was on a Wednesday and i had just returned home from church. My former brother-in-law Jimmie, with whom i continue to enjoy a close friendship, was in the bedroom-turned-office next door playing games, and i was settling down in bed for the night. It was nearly midnight, and i was still winding down mentally when This Light shined down on me from Heaven.
Within a few moments, the Light that started out so gentle grew into a blaze of Glory so intense, at that moment i was certain that the entire County of Los Angeles had been destroyed. The Light became brighter and stronger than the core of the Sun.
The Light was alive; the Light was a Person; The Light was The Lord Jesus Christ Himself.
I was shown many wonderful things, some of which i have written about in my books. Before He left me, Jesus allowed me to experience what Sinless Perfection is like; He did this by exchanging my organs with His. When He was done, I was as perfect as Jesus!
Then, just as quickly as He appeared, my God Jesus Christ withdrew into Heaven, and I went back to being plain old pathetic Calvin.
Epilogue
Perhaps you can appreciate how impossible it is for me to see Jesus as a "religious figure" (translation: "fictitious character"). To me He is neither religious nor fictitious; He is The Creator of All Reality...and He's coming back to Earth to make all things new...
...and that is the truth!
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