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About Jesus Steve Sweetman My Story My Early Years I was born in Belleville Ontario Canada on Dec. 4th , 1951. At the time my mother was a Christian and my father wasn't. My father, a railroader with the Canadian National Railroad played guitar in a country band. They had their own weekly radio show on our local radio station. CJBQ Within my first two years there appeared to be something seriously wrong with my vision. I had to get extremely close to everything to see things properly. My first recollection in life was my mother dropping a penny on the living room floor. I was probably two or more years old at the time. She asked me to pick it up but I had trouble finding it since the colour of the penny and the colour of the carpet were similar. My mom got upset because I did not pick up the penny for her. She thought I was ignoring her request. She soon discovered that I had major problems seeing. I am legally blind to this day. My son can read a one inch letter 28 feet away. For me to read the same letter I need to be 3 inches from the same letter. This has had a major effect on my life over the years as you could expect. As I type these words my nose almost scrapes the monitor. There was another problem in my young life that manifested itself around the age of 4 years. I remember taking 5 or 6 cookies to bed with me and drinking a lot of water in those days. My parents became concerned and to make a long story short I ended up in Sick Children's Hospital in Toronto, very sick with Juvenile Diabetes. My mother was a part of a new church plant in our town that met in the basement of a home. It was the Free Methodist Church that was just starting up in Belleville. With news of my illness the pastor and others laid hands on me one Sunday to pray for my healing. Our Lord did a miracle. My dad saw the change in me and knew that Jesus had healed me. As a result he became a Christian. He took me back to the hospital in Toronto where the doctors concluded that this was a miracle from God. Once I was close to death with Diabetes and now there was no trace of the illness within my body. Truly the Lord Jesus healed me. For some reason, which is beyond my understanding, Jesus did not heal my eye problem. Why, I really don't know. I think at times that my life could have been far more productive to the Lord if I could see as others see, but He has not decided to fix the problem, at least not yet. That's His choice. I don't demand from Him. I only thank Him for what He has done for me. Besides, we live in this fallen world. The exact problem with my eyes is that the nerve endings that connect my eye to my brain are dead, or not even there. I have one eye doctor in Toronto who has more than 10,000 patients and he has only 4 other people like me. It's a pretty uncommon problem. Concerning me not being healed, I view it this way. Remember the 3 Hebrew men that were thrown into the furnace of fire in the book of Daniel. In Dan. 3:17-18 they said that they believed God could deliver them from the fire, but even if He didn't they would still trust Him and not bow to the King's idols. To me that is true faith, true trust in their God. They believed and would continue to believe in God even if He did not do as they asked. It's the same for me. Some have suggested over the years that a lack of faith on my part has caused me to remain legally blind. I say that I know our Lord can heal me, but if He doesn't I will continue to trust in Him anyway. To me that is true faith. That is faith that stands firm until the end. The Hall of Faith in Hebrews 11 shows many people who believed to the bitter end yet did not see the result of their faith. Faith that cannot stand the test is not faith. Faith is not not trying to convince yourself in a humanistic way that God can do anything for you. It's simply resting in Him. It's simply trusting Him no matter what happens, good or bad. Since the time of my healing of diabetes and my father's conversion, throughout my growing up years my dad would take his guitar here and there and play with others in camp meetings and in church services. He would never fail to tell the story of my healing every time he had the chance. Me being centered out like that became a little embarrassing to me after a while but that did not stop my dad from relating such a miracle of Jesus to others over and over again. The story of my healing was last spoken on my father's death bed to his neighbour who came to visit him. At the time my father was too far gone to talk. I told the neighbour how my father became a Christian. I told him how the Lord had healed me. I told the story for my father one last time since he couldn't tell the story himself. After I told the story my wife told me that my father had one tear fall down his cheek as I gave testimony to the power of Jesus. I knew he could hear what I had said. Within a half hour my father left this planet to be with Jesus. What a fitting way for him to go. Altar Calls While growing up in an evangelical church in the 50's and 60's you had ample opportunities to commit your life to the Lord and to get saved. These opportunities were called altar calls. Every Sunday morning and evening we all had the chance to get saved. So I did. That is, I got saved every other week or so. It was usually an emotional time of prayer that made me feel good after it was all over. The problem was that the next morning I woke up feeling like I always did. Nothing really changed. The feeling from the night before was long gone and I didn't know if I got saved or not. Usually at bed time I would read a few verses of the Bible and say a short prayer, just enough to relieve my feelings of guilt. I now know that guilt is not a feeling but a position in which we stand before the Lord. Whether we feel guilty or not, without Christ, we all are guilty. I also know that feelings aren't that relevant when it comes to salvation. Some of these guilty feelings were a result of my lack of understanding of Scripture. Some were from the teaching I got in Sunday School. I remember one teacher telling us that if we told a little white lie and did not ask to be forgiven, and if we died, we would go to hell. Well I was always truthful but I knew I was not perfect, so how would I ever make Heaven under those conditions. I never knew if I was in or out when it came to salvation. So back and forth I went. Up front to the altar and back home to the usual routine of trying to satisfy my guilt by reading a couple of Bible verses and praying a short prayer each day. That did not work. Such activity to relieve our guilt will never work. Billy Graham Saturday nights were reserved for me to watch Hockey Night In Canada on CBC television. Hockey Night In Canada was on channel 11. The TV was set at channel 8 this night. We did not have remote controls in those days so I could not just key channel 11 into a remote control and get to channel 11 immediately. I had to turn the knob and work my way up from channel 8 to 11 the slow way. To my distress I noticed that Billy Graham was preaching on channel 10. I had a real problem. I wanted to watch hockey but my weak evangelical conscience would not let me pass Billy Graham on channel 10. If I did not stay on channel 10, at least for a few minutes I would feel pretty bad and guilty. So I watched all of Billy Graham that night. He preached on being hot or cold. He told us that the Lord didn't like lukewarm Christians (Rev. 3:15-16), and that was me. I was definitely lukewarm. After watching the program I went to bed. As usual I prayed my short prayer but this one was a little different. I simply said to the Lord, "Lord, if I am not forgiven, please forgive me". That was it. It took 5 seconds or less. I then went to sleep. The Next Day The next day, which was in mid February 1970 was different for me. Unlike all of the emotional times at the altar this unemotional short prayer the evening before did something in my life. Or should I say, Jesus did something in my life as a result of the prayer. That day I wanted to read my Bible. I wanted to pray. I wanted to do the things Christians do. I did not want to do these things to appease my so-called guilty feelings. And one other thing, those feelings left me for good. They have never returned. I know where I stand with Jesus now. I know my destination after this life is with the Lord. I have never doubted my salvation since that night. One of the first things I did after watching Billy Graham on TV was to go and buy a new very large print Bible. Thus from that day onward I have had a strong desire to know, understand and teach what it has to say. The Holy Spirit The next year, in 1971 I started hearing things about the Holy Spirit and speaking in tongues. All the things I heard sounded good to me. People were telling me about this experience called the Baptism in the Holy Spirit. From what I had been told this was something I needed, and so I wanted it real bad. During the March vacation of 1971 when I was in grade 13 I went to Kentucky to a place called Christ Centre with my good friends Jim and Marlene Williams. Christ Centre was located in Lexington in a large outdated elementary school. It was in one of their classrooms, in a Tuesday night meeting that I asked for this experience called the Baptism in the Spirit. The meeting was like something that I had never seen. The room was packed with old and young alike, from long haired young guys to bald headed seniors. This really impressed me. To see such a variety of people squeezed all together in the same room in the name of the Lord was great. I was not used to this. I was used of church life being segregated into young, old, seniors, kids, young married, college and careers, and so on. The worship impressed me as well. At one point some people started singing in tongues. I had never heard that either in my life to that date. I could not get over how beautiful it sounded. This made me want this experience of the Baptism in the Spirit even more. The meeting came to an end. Those who wanted prayer were encouraged to stay afterwards. I stayed. I was nervous, but they told me that was natural. After explaining a few things to me they laid their hands on me to receive this experience called the Baptism In The Spirit. Nothing happened to me, absolutely nothing. I felt no empowerment. I felt nothing at all. Someone told me to except it by faith. That meant, "tell yourself that you received it, even though you're not sure you did". I went home from Kentucky somewhat disappointed, not receiving what I really wanted. My best friend went to Elim Bible College in Lima New York that same week. To my amazement he came back speaking in tongues. I could not believe that he had received what I was asking for. Both of us knew nothing of these things before that March holiday. I asked my friend Robert Bailey, "how do you speak in tongues"? He told me in jesting, that if I said halleluiah real fast ten times that my tongue would flip over and I would start speaking in tongues right away. I am not sure I actually tried Robert's suggestion but a couple weeks later in a small prayer meeting while praying, one funny little word escaped my mouth. "This must be a word in tongues" I thought. I was so happy. A month pasted and discouragement returned. How could one word be a real supernatural gift. Yet every time I was in a prayer meeting I would pray this one funny little word until one day another word came. I was happy again, at least for a week or so when discouragement returned. Two words, how could this be tongues. Still again, I would say these two words when I would pray, until in another meeting a third word came. I only had those three funny words all summer. I almost gave up on the whole thing. It was September 1971 in my own bedroom with my guitar in hand singing to the Lord when I decided to sing those three words when all of a sudden the presence of Jesus came and those three words exploded into sentences and paragraphs. On and on I went for at least a half hour or more. I had finally received what I asked for, or did I? Redefining My Experience Why did nothing happen in Kentucky when those people prayed for me? Should I have "excepted it by faith", in such a way that it would trick me into thinking I had received something that I hadn't. My friend Bob Cary told me years ago that he called that type of thinking "mental gymnastics". I have never been one to say something happened when it didn't and claim it by faith, although I did try for a while in the early 70's. In 1972 I bought a very small print new testament "by faith" because I knew beyond a doubt that the Lord had healed me already, or at least would heal me because I exercised my faith. Well, I still have that Bible and I still can't read it today. I've learned that Jesus is my Lord, not my servant who bows to my demands. The reason why nothing happened to me in Kentucky was that those people were praying for me to receive the Baptism in the Spirit which I have since come to know is the same thing as receiving the Holy Spirit. It is not a second work of grace. So when they prayed for me to receive the Baptism in the Spirit as a second work of grace, that could not happen. The reason why it could not happen is because I already had the Spirit in my life. I was a born again Christian and when I initially became a Christian I received the Spirit then, thus receiving the Baptism in the Spirit then. How could I receive something I already had. One thing that I did not have at the time though was the gift of tongues. That I received over the period of a few months in 1971 culminating in the experience in my bedroom in September 1971. The glorious time I had in my bedroom was not the Baptism in the Spirit, but was an experience with the Lord in which He gave me a gift. Since then I have had many experiences like that. I do not call them Baptisms in the Spirit 2, 3, 4 or 5. I call them times in which God has poured His Spirit out on me. These are Acts 4 experiences. The same people who were filled with the Spirit in Acts 2 were also filled again in Acts 4. If you would like to understand my thinking more clearly on this point you can read my article called, "The Baptism In The Spirit Rethought". The Jesus People Movement In 1971, I, Jim and Marlene Williams, along with a couple friends moved into a farm house just outside of Trenton Ontario. We had met up with the Children of God, who turned into a cult. Some of my friends left home to join The Children of God. My friends and I were actually the group that invited this cult into Canada, although we did not know they were a cult at the time. We didn't know anything about them and if we had, we would not have extended an invitation to them. Jim and Marlene had joined the group and then left after 2 months. Some of my other friends stayed in the group for years. After Jim and Marlene left the Children of God we decided to live together in a Christian Commune. It was the Jesus People Movement in our area. We experienced many exciting times in the first half of the 1970's. There are way too many things to recall in this format. We street witnessed a lot, which included being punched by drunks. It included witnessing in bars, schools and churches and singing in parks. Once we gathered a crowd of kids in a locker area at a local high school and started preaching. The crowd grew to the point that the principle came down and told us to stop. One of my friends told him that he could not stop us from preaching in the name of the Lord. The principle told us that he didn't want us to stop, only to do it in a more organized fashion. So he gave us a room after school to preach in. It was announced on the school PA system that we'd be there talking about Jesus after school. The classroom was full of students and teachers alike. We had a couple of coffee house ministries. Once again one time turned violent with someone off the street. He literally kicked me in the head, causing me to fly over a table and on to the floor. When I got up and found my balance, he kicked me again and back to the floor I went. We had a Jesus People News Paper along with our own tracts we handed out. The paper was called "Into Jesus". Once we had a chance to witness to a collage class. The teacher was Jewish. She questioned us seriously about our faith. The next week she was killed in a car accident. As I said earlier. There are way too many events to relate to you from these days. We learned a lot in those days. We learned how to share our faith, what community meant as a Christian, and the basic foundations of our faith was strengthen. Elim Bible Institute In June 1975 my friend and mentor Glenn Shaver suggested that I go to Elim Bible College. At the time I worked in a factory and could not get that thought out of my mind for three days as I worked. As a result I decided to enroll at Elim, located just south of Rochester New York. It was a last minute thing and lots had to be done including a student visa in a very short time. I was not sure that it all could be done in time but the Lord wanted me there and He made sure that the government acted swiftly. Now that's a miracle. I spent two good years at Elim. I learned many things that I most likely could not have learned anywhere else. Those day have had a lasting effect on me. My appreciation for the Word of God grew with a better understanding on how to study it. I also learned that there are many other very good Christians that may not think exactly like me. That has made me somewhat tolerant of other true Christians in His Church. We can't disagree on the basic issues of salvation, but when it comes to secondary issues, we should know why we believe them but not separate over them. I also met my first wife Cathy Marion at Elim. She's the reason why I never went back for the last year. From our marriage (June 25, 1977 ) of 16 years I have two great sons, Jeremy born in 1983 and and Jonathan born in 1988. Back Home To Shepherding While away at Elim our small church got connected to Bob Mumford, Charles Simpson, Don Basham, Derek Prince, Ern Baxter and the Shepherding Movement. If you would like to read some of my thoughts on those days I do have an article about the subject of Shepherding in the 1970's. I returned to Belleville in June 1977 from Elim as a new husband and to a new church situation. We had asked a man named Jim Covert and his family to come to be our pastor. He was from Virginia. Thus the Shepherding Movement came to Canada. Once again we were the instigators of something new coming to Canada. Those days were good as well. We had many exciting times. Although there were some abuses reported in this new movement I never really felt that we were involved in them here in Belleville. We stressed having relationships with one another. The church was not a building. It was a group of people relating to one another properly in love. I never fully embraced all aspects of shepherding, but I did embrace those to whom Jesus had placed me with in the Body of Christ. Our Move To Virginia Our Pastor, Jim Covert decided to return to Virginia in 1980 after experiencing a major heart attack. Glenn Shaver would take oversight of the church in his place. Jim had suggested that my wife and I move to Virginia with them. So we did. We lived just outside of Washington D.C. for about 8 months and then decided to move south to Richmond Virginia to another related church. We spent more than three years in Richmond being very involved in the church. In those days we were all encouraged to shepherd others. I had four other families that I was responsible for. We believed that the work of the Lord was done outside of meetings as well as inside the meeting. By building relationships we could properly care for those in our charge and that is what I and we attempted to do. In June 1983 my first son Jeremy was born. It still ranks as one of the best days of my life. For various reason we decided to return to Canada in 1984. We lived in Virginia for four years. These too were good years. I met people and did things that I would not have otherwise met and done. It was a growing experience. And to experience the American south was an unforgettable thing. A New Home In June 1984 we returned to Belleville ready to start all over again, With no place to stay we stored all of our things in my father's garage. We slept on the floor in his basement. The first night back while trying to sleep my heart sank, wandering if we made the right decision. Glenn Shaver suggested that we think about buying a house. How could we buy a house I thought? We had no jobs and no down payment money. I did talk to a lady at a bank and asked her if she believed in "creative financing" but after hearing my story she told me that the bank was not that creative. To make a long story short we bought a townhouse. We needed about $8,500.00 to put down. We had $2000.00 of our own money and the rest was given to us by family and friends. We bought a townhouse for $29,500.00. We put some money down and assumed a mortgage that we did not have to qualify for. We assumed a $22,000.00 mortgage. We were buying a townhouse, paying le ss every month than our neighbours who were renting theirs. To make another long story short, in the fall of 1986 we sold that townhouse for almost $55,000.00. The prices of properties just shot up very quickly in 2 shorts years and as a result we made about $31,000.00. Through a couple of miracles we bought the house that I am in today. We put $25,000.00 down on the house, paid the realtor and the lawyer and had $2,000.00 left over. That was our initial $2,000.00 investment that we made when we bought the townhouse from our own money. We got that back. Now we were in a house and still paying less monthly payment than our old neighbours were paying to rent their townhouse. I felt extremely blessed. Another Son In Feb. 1988, in Belleville General Hospital my second son Jonathan was born. His birth was not as pleasant as Jeremy's, yet I loved him from the moment I first laid eyes on him. Our Church Closes By 1988 our church had dwindled to about five couples. We seemed to be stagnant. As a result of a joint decision we all decided to not meet together as a church but to go our own ways and find new church homes. We had met for 18 years. It was a sad day but there seemed to be no other choice to make. Although we did not meet together any more we still remain good friends, and still do right to this day, which is in the year 2008 - 20 years later. Family Breakdowns Around 1989, within a couple months of each other, my best friend Robert and my brother went through a marriage breakup. In both cases their wives had left them. Those were two very sad situations. I walked through Robert's divorce with him since we had known each other from birth and lived in the same city. What I did not know at the time was that the same thing would happen to me as well. In the spring of 1991 my wife decided she would leave me as well and actually left in the spring of 1992. Although being separate we raised Jeremy and Jonathan jointly. Every other night they'd move from my house to her house and back. As far as divorces go, it went well, although divorce is never nice. You can read my article on divorce if you lie. A New Church A new church began in Belleville in 1991. I became a part of the church in the spring of 1992. As in previous years I found myself quite involved in church activity. It seems that I am most happy in a church situation when I am functioning in the roll the Lord has called me too. This churches lasted about ten years and folded because our pastor felt led to move to another city. Way too often we seem to be in the church building business, and I do use the word business. We build our organizations as if they are a business and the Body of Christ gets left behind. I'm committed to be joined to those in the Body of Christ. I'm not so committed to the organization and business of the church any more. A New Wife In March of 1994 I was at one of our Tuesday night church meetings. Before the meeting began I made an announcement. I repeated what I heard on the news that day, which was, men in eastern Canada had a easier time finding a wife than those in western Canada. After making the announcement I sat down. A new lady was visiting that night and Bill our pastor asked her to introduce herself. She said, "I am Dianne Bradley", and as she turned to look at me, she said, "and I am from eastern Canada". I replied by saying, "O no, what does that mean". Dianne and a friend drove me home from that meeting, but not before I bumped into a wall. It was dark, and for some reason didn't see it well, or else I was just nervous being driven home by Dianne. Anyway, after hitting the wall she said, "are you blind or something"? I answered by saying, "as a matter of fact I am". I explained myself in somewhat of a humorous way which relieved her of her embarrassment. Well, we had seen each other in meetings until one day I asked her out for coffee. Two days before that coffee in a prayer meeting another lady prophesied over me that my life would come into a new alignment. She had no idea that I had asked Dianne out for coffee. This too is a long story but on May 13, 1995 we were married and my life certainly was re-aligned. Since 2000 Since around 2001 when the church we had been a part of for the previous 10 years or so folded, we've tried a few other traditional churches in town, none of which really satisfied us, and especially me. One church had the worst split I've ever seen. One man actually walked out of a Sunday morning meeting yelling, "I hope you like the fire and brimstone, you bastards". The fire and brimstone was in reference to the judgment of God. A couple of the other churches weren't all that friendly and highly organized. Since about 2003 we have not attended an organized traditional church. We have not forsaken the Body of Christ nor people in the traditional church. I'm not saying that we'll never return to the traditional church either. But for now, we meet in homes. And for now, we seek to be joined in functional relationships with others in the Body of Christ. We are far from being isolated Christians. Concerning church, I strongly feel that we need to return to New Testament thinking.
In Closing It is hard to put your life into a short story. Of course lots has happened in my life over the last 56 plus years, just like lots has happened in your life. I came to the Lord at an early age. I am still walking with Him through all of the good times and through all of the bad times. It isn't the guy that starts the race that wins. It's the guy who finishes the race that wins the prize. I want to finish the race with the Lord. I did not come to Jesus for all of the benefits He has to offer. I came to Him because I found that He is the central Truth of the universe. Once knowing this fact I had no other logical choice to make but to follow Him. May He give me His grace to follow Him to the end. As I close, it's now 2008.
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