In April of 1993 my son Luke was born. We were kind of members of a local Catholic church, St. Joe's of Fond du Lac. We went in to see about getting Luke baptized. I remembered the teachings on baptism and that it was important to have it done as soon as possible. When we asked this priest about getting Luke baptized he asked if we had attended baptism classes yet. I said, "I went to Catholic grade school for eight years and understood baptism." He said, "You still need to go to the classes." I said, "Okay, but lets get Luke baptized as soon as possible." You see, I was always taught that if the child died before being baptized, that the parents would have a mortal sin on their soul for not getting him baptized as soon as possible. When I told him what I was taught and that we wanted Luke baptized soon, he said, "You must have had an old priest and that it's not that way anymore." I said, "Yes I did have an old priest and he retired while I was in high school." I asked, "But what does that have to do with it?" He said, "Original sin isn't looked at the same way any more." I asked, "Did God sent down a memo or something to change it?"

All this gave me some serious doubts as to whether I had been taught from the Bible or from some board of directors high up in the Catholic church.

Almost a year later I took a new job at Marquette Medical Systems in Milwaukee. There was this one guy there with a big 4' by 6' U.S. flag outside his office. Being the patriot that I consider myself, I introduced myself to this man and we had some conversations from time to time. His name was Joe Schartle. He would bring up the Bible once in a while and he would also state that if I ever had any questions, that I was welcome to attend a noon hour Bible study that they have. I had a lot of questions about baptism so I attended once. We went through what the Bible has to say about it and some other stuff. Through this Bible study I met a man named Paul Treloar.

Paul came to a study one time and he talked with me about the fact that the Bible says that we are all sinners. "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God;" (Romans 6:23) Well I knew I was a sinner. To say the least. Jody and I lived together for two years BEFORE we got married. Paul also showed me the penalty for sin. "For the wages of sin is death;" (Romans 6:23a) Yes, I knew that we all die someday. But he said that it is worse than that. The Bible talks about the second death. "And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire. This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the lake of fire." (Rev 20:15-16) Well this was new to me. I had heard of hell being fire but, I never knew that it was called the second death. Paul asked me, "If you died today where would you go?" I stated that I would probably go to hell. I hadn't hardly gone to Church over the past several years, much less confession. I always wondered how I would get to heaven anyway. I mean, I was taught that I had to confess my sins to the priest and say a penance to get them forgiven. I figured the only way I'd get to heaven is if I died right after I said my penance. Otherwise I would usually goof up and sin before the day was out and be in need of confession again.

Then Paul showed me the second half of Romans 6:23 "but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord." See that word "gift"? I started to realize that you can't "earn" a gift. Paul then showed me Romans 10:13 "For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved." Saved was a word that I had never used in the sense of eternity. I knew how to say the Hail Mary, say prayers to saints, not eat meat on Fridays during Lent, etc. I even adhered to the old way of only taking "communion" in my mouth and not touching it with my hands like the "new" catholic teaching permitted. Paul showed me that all the works that I was trying to do to get to heaven someday didn't get me one step closer to it. "For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: Not of works, lest any man should boast." (Eph 2:8-9) There those words are again, "gift" and "saved" and this verse even shows that eternal life is "Not of works".

Paul showed me that if I had never placed my trust only on Jesus Christ, that I was bound for eternal torment in hell. John chapter 3 talks about the need to be born again. Well I had never been "born again". In the next week or so all this stuff worked around in my brain and heart. I did not know where I was going to go when I died. I had really been just hoping that I maybe did the right amount of things that I was taught to do and that it might be enough to get me to heaven.

In August of 1994, I finally asked Jesus to save me. I told Him that I know I'm a sinner, that I can't do anything on my own to get to heaven, that I knew that He shed His Blood for me on the cross and that I needed to accept His Gift. I asked Him to please save me from eternal torment in flame and take me to heaven when I die. He gave His life for me, I surrendered my life to Him.

Now I am saved and on my way to heaven. "These things have I written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God; that ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that ye may believe on the name of the Son of God." (1 John 5:13) My life started to change over the next year. I sought out a church that doesn't have all of the man-made tradition and non-biblical baloney that I had been raised in. I wanted a church that just preaches from God's Word (the King James Bible). I found one in Oshkosh. They have a group of ladies that visit other women on Tuesdays. I had been trying to explain to my wife Jody that she needs to get saved. Between that and the church members showing Jody what the Bible has to say. My wife got saved on Dec. 5th, 1995! My mom got saved in Spring of 1996 and my brother Eric got saved in September of 1996!

I read the Bible almost every night to my wife and children, and His Word has helped our marriage, our children's disciplining and many other areas. Mostly, the assurance of salvation makes living in this sin cursed world a little easier.