How I Came To Christ (Our Conversion Stories)

[Telaquapacky]

One day I came to John and Mary’s apartment, and John had a beautiful, white Bible with silver page ends. He also had a paperback book about Bible Prophecy, called, The Late Great Planet Earth, by Hal Lindsay

Lindsay rolled out all the evangelical speculation about struggles in the Middle East in the mid- 1970’s being the fulfillment of end-times Bible prophecy. He predicted a lot of political events that never came true.

He also predicted the secret rapture of true Christians that Tim LaHaye later wrote about in the Left Behind series. All the predictions about the Middle East were fascinating and John and I conjectured about them endlessly, but I never accepted the Secret Rapture theory. I knew that in the past there were other great times of trouble in which true believers were imprisoned, their property confiscated, tortured, some burned at the stake because they did not yield to a world-dominating, church and state political machine. I could not accept the idea that modern Christians who live in our comfortable age would be swept up to heaven on a carpeted escalator without so much as messing up their blow-dried hair. It seemed to me to be self-serving wishful thinking.

But one thing Lindsay’s book did for me was that it alerted me to a concept I had never before encountered or thought about, even in the churches I had attended- The second coming of Christ!

Hal Lindsay’s book made me read the New Testament, and realize that the second coming was the biggest promise in the Bible! But somehow it didn’t make me change my habits or lifestyle. It only provided more an excuse not to join any church. Why go to church if they weren’t telling the truth?

In time, John’s music got better and better, and I got more serious about wanting to be in his group. Then, when I stopped going to school, I started working and saving up money. John and I bought instruments and equipment for home studio recording, and started working on new songs, preparing for a serious demo we would market for a record contract

We would begin each session by smoking marijuana. John thought it would free up our minds to be more creative. John also obtained some pharmaceutical grade Cocaine, and went on a month-long binge. I tried it once, but the cost, and fear of addiction kept me from making a habit of it. When John came down from that month-long cocaine high, he was more obnoxious than usual. John and I did not always get along, and this time became especially difficult.

John also did not know that I was doing my own experimenting on the side with LSD. Some of my friends at my newspaper job shared the drug with me. I only took LSD three times. The third time I went hiking in the Santa Monica Mountains to Topanga State Park, on a trail to a rock called Eagle Rock, a large sandstone cliff formation jutting out from a ridge east of Topanga Canyon. This time I took more LSD than ever before, and I found out that I had exceeded my limit. I had a bad trip.

Of the four of us on the hike, I was the one who was supposed to know the way. I got lost at first. When I finally got us there, I was embarrassed and becoming fearful of my companions, what we call Paranoid. I stopped talking.

The others said, “Telaquapacky’s acting weird.” They tried unsuccessfully to get me to relax and open up. We made a perilous climb along a narrow ledge with a 200 foot cliff below, And I was completely ripped out of my mind. We came to a cave in the rock, about the size of a booth in a coffee shop and relaxed in the cool sand. Then the conversation began:

Danny chuckled and said, “I just can’t understand how anyone could believe in God- I mean, it’s so obvious that it’s just a myth.”

That was when a fantastic hallucination took control of my mind. I was dead, and there was no God, no Jesus to save me. Without speaking, I got up and left the cave. After awhile when I did not return, my friends became concerned and came out to the top of Eagle Rock, where I was having a major psychotic panic attack.

Eagle Rock was surrounded on three sides with cliffs, and sloped off on each side too steeply to travel on without rappelling on ropes. Falls off Eagle Rock were usually fatal.

My friends, seeing me running around dangerously on the rock, surrounded me. This made me even more fearful, and I took a wild leap to get away from them. Then I found myself rolling out of control down a steep rock face toward a ledge and a cliff. The sandstone was scraping the skin off my legs and arms like a grinding wheel. At that moment, the adrenaline rush brought me back to my senses- now that it was too late to do anything but to roll over a rock cliff like a human avalanche, to a unknown fate below. “How pathetic,” I thought to myself, “Now you’ve done it. You’ll probably end up dead or paralyzed.” I silently hoped that whatever happened to me would be something I could accept.

I tumbled to the point where the rock surface curved down and dropped off, where my body flopped over like a rag doll, facing the rock. I grabbed the rock to slow my fall, but the slope and the momentum were to great, and I only slid over the rounded sandstone ledge, scraping the tips off my fingers and toes, Then came an awful free fall downwards, and the harsh impact of rock and woody brush, and I fell unconscious.

 

[Telaquapacky]

When I came to, I found myself hung up in a scrub brush on a mountainside. A few feet away was a smooth, flat rock. I spider-crawled over to it and laid down, thankful that I wasn’t paralyzed. Then I passed out again.

Observers at a mountain rescue station had seen the whole thing, and already had crews coming over in 4WD’s to help me. I came to and saw rescuers coming down, rapelling on ropes- not from Eagle Rock, but from a cliff nearby. They asked me many questions,

When they asked me where I had fallen from, I told them, “Eagle Rock.”

They said, “No, you didn’t fall from Eagle Rock. Where did you fall from?”

When I insisted that I had fallen from on top of Eagle Rock, they did not believe me, and silently proceeded to examine my injuries and prepare me for evacuation. They had sent for a helicopter, because I could not be hoisted up the cliff. Meanwhile, my friends had gone to get the ranger, and met him coming up the road. The ranger asked my friends where I had fallen from, and when they told him I had fallen from Eagle Rock, he did not believe them, in fact, he accused them of throwing me off another cliff. He couldn’t believe I could get to where I was from falling off Eagle Rock.

The helicopter took me away to Moorpark Hospital, where I was admitted in serious condition and spent 5 days. The end result was three broken ribs, a collapsed lung, and many deep scrapes and contusions. But I was very happy to be alive and able to walk. In a month I painfully hobbled back to work.

Needless to say, I never did LSD again. But after I had recovered, One day when I was fully sober and in my right mind, I returned to Eagle Rock. I pushed through the brush to a place where I could see where I had landed. I couldn’t believe my eyes. Something had lifted me off Eagle rock and placed me there, a safe distance away. Instead of bouncing off the side of Eagle Rock on the way down, and breaking my neck or worse, as I would have done under normal gravity, I had free-fallen at about 45 degrees from vertical. Something carried me there- A miracle had saved my life

Psalm 91:11,12 says, “For he will command his angels concerning you to guard you in all your ways; they will lift you up in their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone.”

I returned to my jobs, throwing newspapers in the morning, and during the day, working as a pest control operator in Brentwood, Pacific Palisades and Malibu. The exterminator company I worked for had the slogan, “Erase All Doubts,” with a neon sign with a question mark and an eraser going through it. At night only the question mark would show.

I remembered from my early boyhood, before my parents separated, we lived in a house close to the exterminator company. At night, if you stood in the back yard, you would see that eerie question mark glowing in the sky, and it would bathe the back of the house in a soft, blue light.

Later, I got tired of exterminator work, and I got a cleaner, better-paying, less health-risky job working as a unit secretary at a hospital in midtown L.A. I worked the 3-11 swing shift. In the morning, I would go to John’s apartment in Pacific Palisades. We would get high and record arrangements of songs, or we'd go hiking. Sometimes we'd drive up the coast, but sometimes we'd just walk out. His place was in a canyon next to a wilderness area with trails. Then, in the afternoon, I would go to work at the hospital.

The music kept getting better, and John had a big record producer interested in working with him. Now it looked like it was really going to happen, but the more I learned about the raucous life of rock musicians on tour, the less I thought that kind of life suited me.

John and I were in a way like brothers, but in other ways we did not get along very well. Sometimes he made me feel as if I was going to be recording and touring with him, sometimes only touring, sometimes not involved at all. I would be essentially riding on someone else’s coat tails when I wasn’t really very secure of my future in his band. When you are not the songwriter, or one of the principal songwriters, you are like a hired hand.

Also I wondered if I was good enough- could I really do it? I thought I was pretty good, but I didn't know if I was good enough to get into the league I wanted to be in- the level of professionals I wanted to play with. Even if I was good enough, once John made it big, he could get any bass player he wanted. I could lose my place and have to start over, looking for other acts to play with. I might not find something this good again, and most rock bands don't stay together for long.

My other friends, who had stayed in school were on their way to earning degrees and had great futures ahead of them. A friend of the family about my age, had parleyed his scuba diving hobby into a multi-million dollar seashell business. I imagined that everyone I knew, including John, were on the beach, and each of them had found a nice sea shell for themselves- a way to rise in the world and make a life. But what did I have? I was standing only temporarily in someone else’s shadow. How I wished I had a sign to point me what direction to take in life.

Ironically, to get to John’s apartment each morning, I had to drive through the intersection of Sepulveda and Santa Monica Blvd, where some years ago I had had a dream and saw a sign with the most important life instruction I had ever seen. One morning I was sitting at that intersection, I was wondering what that sign said. I was in the left turn lane, waiting for the signal, when I heard a rumbling sound. An old black clunker station wagon pulled ahead on the right. On the dull, black tailgate, it had a bright yellow bumper sticker, with black block letters. It looked exactly like the sign I had seen in my dream years earlier! What really got my attention was what it said.

 

[Telaquapacky]

It said, “Prepare to Meet Thy God.”

I drove to John’s place. All the way I felt a sense of amazement, Could it be that God was trying to reach me?

I came to John’s apartment, and our session started the usual way, with us getting high on some powerful, high quality marijuana, then setting up the instruments and recording equipment.

John says to me, “You know, Tel, when the first album comes out, they’ll all say that we were an overnight sensation, but you and I know we have been working on this for years”

Then came something I wasn’t prepared for. I heard a voice in my head saying these words: “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and His righteousness and all these things shall be added unto you.”

Then John said something I had heard him say before: “When I was only seven I marched into the living room and told my parents, ‘My name will ring around the world.’”

Then in my head came the reply: “Know ye know that the friendship of the world is enmity to God. Whosoever therefore will be a friend of the world is the enemy of God.”

Now it wasn’t unusual when you’re on pot to hear voices and sounds, but not voices quoting Scripture. I had not touched a Bible in a long time and had never memorized verses. What was going on?

John said, “Mary and I have been going down to Montecito a lot. We want to buy a house there when this thing really takes off. And we’ve been thinking- we want to buy a sailboat and take a round-the-world sailing trip. And we want you to come with us.”

Then the voice said, “For what shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?”

Now this was getting really annoying. Part of me wished that both John and the voice would go away and leave me alone. Again I kept a straight face and pretended nothing was happening. I started feeling more detached from the music that had been my obsession up to then. After the session I drove to work, wondering what all this meant.

That night after work, I went home to my apartment and dug out of my old steamer chest my long neglected Bible, dusted it off, and found all those verses the voice had said to me. It was clear to me that now it was time for me to stop smoking grass! Anyway I had always hated being a druggie- it made me feel unclean, degraded and rinky-dink. The next time I met with John, I told him I was not going to smoke pot anymore, He took it as a betrayal.

I didn’t hear any more voices, but I kept getting impressions. Something told me it was time to quit John’s music effort. I could not make a clean break without leaving behind a few thousand dollars I had invested in it. We had no written contract. But I had started listening to Christian Radio, and one of the preachers I heard on the radio told a story. He said, “You’re all children, playing with toys on the floor. You’re fighting over the toys, all selfish, mistreating one another, caring only about your toys. Get up, leave the toys and walk away.”

The next time I saw John, I told him I was quitting the music effort. He almost punched me out. He pointed out that I had promised to help him finish two more songs. So I came a few more times to finish those song arrangements, but then I left and felt free- strangely, happily free from something that for some time had been my biggest obsession and hope in life. I felt like something was coming that was more than enough to replace it.

 

[Telaquapacky]

I worked in the hospital in the evening, and spent the mornings reading and studying the Bible. I studied Revelation because I wanted to know about the second coming of Christ- This was the one thing that I felt the other churches had cheated me of- the truth about Christ’s second coming. I had taken upper division European history at UCLA. The Western Civilization class I took started with the Middle Ages. I knew all about the Papal domination of Europe and the Inquisition. So when I read Revelation, I learned from my own study that the Pope was the antichrist. This was not much to know. Revelation is a very complicated book. Studying it alone was not easy.

Each night at the hospital, the busy-ness quieted down around 8 or 9 o’clock, when the doctors had all made their rounds, the last patients had been admitted and the patients were going to sleep, I got into a conversation with a nurse on the floor where I worked- Somehow we got onto the topic of spiritual things, and I mentioned that I was reading the book of Revelation.

She said, “Oh there’s always someone preaching doomsday. I know this guy, He’s a priest! He believes in reincarnation, and he says that soon all the churches are going to come out and start teaching reincarnation. Imagine! You can keep being born again and again and eventually become good enough to go to heaven!”

I said, “That’s why I don’t go to any church.”

When I drove home that night, I was thinking just like an Adventist. “Apostasy in the churches.” I thought, “A sure sign of the end!”

Then I came into my apartment, and as I sat down in my overstuffed chair, and put my feet up on the ottoman, I felt this wave of discouragement sweep over me. “What am I doing?” I thought. “I’m not getting anywhere!” I knew I had gone as far as I could studying Revelation by myself. There must be somewhere where I could fellowship with other believers who had discovered what I had and could open up more of it to me. But how would I find them? Would I go from church to church with a clip board, surveying what each church teaches? How would I have the wisdom to tell truth from error? What then? Go to wherever they were nice to me and made me feel at home, where the pastor preached sermons that made me feel the warm fuzzies? I needed a better plan than that. If there was anything worse than trusting my own wisdom, it was trusting my feelings. So there I was in mankind’s classic pickle- how to find the truth.

Then I looked at the Bible sitting next to me, and I held it in my hands and felt this exhilarating sense of wonder. It was a miracle that I had this book at all. There were past ages, even places in the world now, where you could go to prison for having a Bible. In the Middle Ages, Bibles were confiscated and burned- but somehow the Book made it through- and I now held this treasure in my hands. God had gone to a lot of trouble to make sure this document got to me. I realized that if God had communicated with me, if He had given me this book, Surely He would be interested in helping me understand it! I was asking God to do a favor that He would fall out of His chair to do for me!

Do you know that I had been studying the Bible by myself for about a month, and had not yet prayed at all? I didn’t feel clean enough. I had been sneaking a peek at God without formally introducing myself, because I did not feel good enough to merit His attention. Suddenly I realized how silly that was. But I did have some housecleaning to do. I still had in my apartment things that did not fit the new life I wanted -certain magazines and pictures, drug paraphernalia. I searched my bungalow from top to bottom and carried all those things out to the trash, smashing and tearing them apart.

Then I knelt in my kitchen and prayed for the first time. I gave my heart and life to Christ. I asked God, “Please lead me to the True Church. If there is more than one, then lead me to A True Church, most of all, lead me to the church where You want me to be, where I can best grow in Jesus and serve you.”

When I went to bed that night, I slept the most peaceful and sound sleep I had had in ages, because I knew God would answer my prayer. I had made a win-win deal with Someone who never fails, who was as eager to help me as I was eager for help.

 

[Telaquapacky]

The following night at the hospital, around 9:00 p.m. things again started quieting down. I was finishing up a census report of how many patients we had, at what levels of care each needed, which the hospital used as a guide to understaff the floor and overwork the nurses.

Then came a familiar voice with a West Indian Accent. “Mr. Telaquapacky, May I talk with you?”

Jemima James came from Dominica in the Caribbean. I was the one who always gave her the unhappy news that some patient needed a bed pan or needed their sheets changed. Jemima was usually irritated with me, but this time she was unusually nice.

“Sure,” I said, “What do you want to talk about?”

“Well, I was going to invite you to come to church with me, tomorrow but I don’t know,” She said shyly. This must have been very difficult for her. I was the last person anyone would invite to their church.

I said, “Sure, I’ll go. What kind of church is it?”

“Seventh-day Adventist,” she said.

Hmmmmm. To my knowledge I had never met anyone from that church. And here it was Friday, and she was inviting me to church the next day- Saturday. “Seventh-day” I thought. I started getting it that these people worship on Saturday like the Jews. What did I know about the Jews? They did not believe in Jesus, but they knew God’s law and were particular about keeping it.

“Oh that’s right,” I said, “You worship on Saturday. Why is that? Is it a Christian Church?”

“Oh, yes, it’s a Christian Church,” she said, “You see the Pope changed the day from Saturday to Sunday.”

We’re told never to say that aren’t we? But I had learned from my own study that the Papacy was the antichrist, so the light bulb came on, And without any fancy arguments or Bible studies, I became a convicted life-long Sabbath keeper in zero seconds flat.

Then Jemima told me about the second coming, She told me about the health message- I had already stopped eating red meat and was eating more vegetables- This was getting better and better.

The next day I picked up Jemima and her sister, Rachel and drove them across town, westward on the 10 freeway. We got off on 20th street. That was the exit that led to Santa Monica College, where I went to Chemistry lab on the weekends. We turned left on Delaware.

Remember the little black church where I said I would go if I was invited? That was it! God held me to my promise, I was invited, and there I was. It was the second week of April, 1980, and the Sabbath School Quarterly was just starting on the Book of Revelation, the book I most wanted to learn more about.

Remember the experience I had in the Reverend Wendy Church of the Universal Master? Can you imagine how I felt when they told me about the state of the dead? Well, I didn’t accept it at first. You can’t imagine how powerful the brainwashing is for people who hold the traditional Christian view. But when I studied it out for myself, I became convinced that the Adventist teaching about the state of the dead was true- and now I know from experience why it is so important. I finally understood what happened that day, when Wendy had been communicating with evil angels that impersonated Nana and tried to flatter my ego, saying, “You’re psychic! You’re going to write a book!” I narrowly escaped being hooked by Satan into the occult.

But the thing that finally won me over was when I read The Great Controversy. Everything I read there fit what I knew about history and made spiritual sense to me. At the time I had not yet heard that any of it was “borrowed.” I only believed it was true, and where it came from did not matter to me.

I was baptized at Delaware Seventh-day Adventist church in Santa Monica on July 12, 1980. I have never doubted that God has led me here. If I ever had to leave the Seventh-day Adventist Church, my attitude is like Peter’s when he told Jesus, in John 6:68, “"Lord, to whom shall we go? You have the words of eternal life.”

I have a deep commitment to see this thing through to the end, in Jesus’ strength, depending totally upon Him, come what may.

Since becoming an Adventist, I have finished school and entered my profession. I met the love of my life, and she and I worked together in Africa as missionaries for seven and a half years, doing first-world quality eyecare in the third world. We had patients and friends from a number of different countries, and we helped start churches. Today I own a two-office optometry practice and am my own boss. God has blessed me more than I ever could have imagined- best of all by coming into my life personally and revealing Himself to me. I am convinced that He will do this for anyone who asks, provided that they will act faithfully on what He reveals.

I play music in church now, singing, playing guitar, 5-string banjo and bass, and I use a music program on my computer to make updated arrangements of old Advent hymns. People sometimes tell me I should make CD's and go into music professionally. A lady told me, "you could make it." I told her, "I already have made it. This is what I want to do."

 

[smooze]

I always feared Christ and HIS message with love and obedience I kept to HIS principles. I was mislead away from the body of christ until my wife asked me to come to an Adventist Cell meeting. Hmmm seems like a decent group so I started to fellowship with them. In time though their fire or whatever they had for me fizzled out. I tell you the Truth if you have finacial hardships people will avoid you like the plague. I felt like we were the token welfare case of the month then on to the next person. I can't say I went to the SDA church to get help it was only after losing my job people started treating me differently. I have to say ChristianForums have made me open my eyes and NOT give up totally on Christianity. I enjoy our fellowship together. At first I thought the SDA worshiped EGW but eventually it was discovered how her role in the church was and its cool. Please dont about EGW I dont care if she had premonitions hallucinations revelations or whatever. Its all about JESUS and HIS wonderful message AMEN.

 

[TrustAndObey]

Oh my goodness, I didn't see Telaquapacky's testimony on here until just now and I have to go shower and do a treatment.....I will DEFINITELY read it when I get done.

I'm thinking maybe I should start a sticky called "How I Came to the Adventist Church" too, so that these stories can be about our Savior, and not necessarily about our church.

And amen Jonathan, it's all about Jesus!!

 

[maco]

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[maco]

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[maco]

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[TrustAndObey]

Wow Maco, thank you for sharing that wonderful testimony! It's very inspiring.

And you're right, God is good!

I read the last part of Telaquepacky's testimony and I already have tears in my eyes from his too, so I'm going to go read the rest of it.

 

[TrustAndObey]

If you haven't taken the time to read Telaquapacky's testimony....DO IT!

He's an excellent writer, and he made me laugh and cry.

One part of it had me weeping!

Very good Telaquapacky, thank you so much for sharing that with us!

Your story has a lot of similarities to TruthMagnet's testimony. Have you read hers yet?

 

[TrustAndObey]

As I've mentioned before, I really don't feel comfortable telling my entire testimony on here because I do feel some people would use it as "ammo" later.

But here it is, in all its great symbology, in a nutshell:

I was told by God to go to Nineveh.

I didn't want to go there because I didn't think the people there deserved God's mercy, so I hid. I hid from God.

The ship I was hiding on was swept up in a horrible storm, and I was thrown overboard.

I was swallowed by a huge fish.

I realized God was a lot more powerful than I am, and I eventually listened to Him, even though I still didn't understand.

I went to Nineveh and did what God told me to do. I could've saved myself a lot of trouble if I had just gone in the first place, but it was way out of my comfort zone.

 

[Telaquapacky]

I was swallowed by a huge fish.

That explains that fish I saw gargling with Listerine .

 

[TrustAndObey]

That explains that fish I saw gargling with Listerine .

I didn't make fun of YOUR testimony.

THWWWWAAACCCKKKKK!

 

[Telaquapacky]

I didn't make fun of YOUR testimony.

THWWWWAAACCCKKKKK!

Ow! A Thousand Pardons, please. Indeed, you did not make fun of my testimony, but were very nice about it. I'll just put my gargling fish back in my pocket where I keep it with a cold slice of pizza.

 

[ADNox2]

There's a long history of scandal in the Catholic church that hasn't stopped them to date. Yet people still cling on to the beliefs held within the system.