Six Mile Poll

House of Thought

Bourne with an Opinion

To believe or not to believe; that is the question at hand

By Jason Bourne
Staff writer

When I was young I used to wonder if there really is a God that one day would wash away all of my sins. After I was baptized in the mid-nineties, I began to believe more in the presence of God.

Immediately following the events of Sept. 11, 2001, I guess you could say that I lost a little faith in God. However, about six months after the events, I started to read the Bible more and even got back in church, a place I had not been to on a regular basis in about five years.

After being in church for about two weeks, and reading the Bible on a regular basis, I began to realize that there indeed is a God and that He did die for my sins. But nothing made me more convinced in His presence than a church service about a month or so ago.

I got up about 7 a.m. that morning and left for Sunday School about 8:45 a.m. And let me tell you, as soon as I stepped, or in my case, rolled into church I could feel something special was going to happen. Boy, what an understatement!

After Sunday School, the worship service began, and what a service it was. Members of the youth were testifying about the presence of God during mission trips and His affect in their lives. But what really got my attention was the testimonies of three ladies.

The first lady, about my age, had hurt her leg playing basketball, I think, a few days before. Amazingly she was able to walk on stage and give thanks to the Lord for healing her.

The second woman's testimony really stirred emotions I didn't know existed. Her family returned home after visiting her son in North Carolina around Christmas. They returned late one night and cooked a pizza and didn't even unload the truck.

Her son fell asleep on the couch watching television and she fell asleep in another room. Around two in the morning she heard an explosion and discovered the other end of the house was ablaze.

Apparently the stove must have shorted out and caught fire. Luckily her son was not in his room, which was directly above where the fire began. She finally got her son up and they both made it out okay.

Her animals were at friends' houses while they were out of town so they were spared. The only animal in the house was a tortoise. She realized the tortoise was still inside and when she opened the front door that tortoise was standing right there.

Finally, a young girl, about 16 I would say, had surgery a couple weeks earlier and everyone was praying for her. The youth group even prayed for her and found out that 30 minutes after they prayed that she was being sent home.

Based on these last two awesome testimonies of God's grace, I ask you is God real? I know I can speak for all of the people at West Cartersville Baptist Church when I say: DUH!!!