It's All True!: A Sinner's Journey to the Truth

By James H. Dickey

From the hills of Mexico through the valleys of Kenya to a small town in the Midwest, James Dickey's faith-based journey finds compelling truth through his amazing experiences. The word of God is revealed in a most loving and personal way that has the reader asking what will happen next. This informative, scriptural journey is rich with wisdom. Enjoy the ride and see what God has in store for you.

• Language: English
• Publisher: BookBaby
• Release date: Jul 24, 2019
• ISBN: 9781543980080

Book preview

heart.

ENTERING INTO THE JOURNEY

My sheep listen to my voice; I know them, and they follow me. I give them eternal life, and they will never perish. No one can snatch them away from me. (John 10:27-28)

Thanks for joining my journey. I hope you put yourself into the story. These are the accounts that led me to open the pages of the Bible and what happened when I tested the different teachings of Jesus Christ. I do want to ask a favor of you. I can almost assure you that parts of this book will not have you wide-eyed in amazement, but I ask that you stay vigilant to the end. I believe you will feel God speaking to you in only a way that He can.

In spring, 2012 at about 10:30 p.m., I was riding in the back seat with my engineer friend, as our translator sat up front with our driver. It had been a very long day that started at 4:00 a.m. outside of Mulot, Kenya. On this dark, cloudy evening, we traveled on roads with no lines. If you can imagine this, people were walking alongside the road at this very hour! All of a sudden, our vehicle violently veered off the side of the road and then back onto the road!

WAIT A MINUTE….I AM GETTING AHEAD OF MYSELF!

Jesus said to the people who believed in him, You are truly my disciples if you remain faithful to my teachings. And you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free. (John 8:31-32)

So, let’s get to the truth. I was born in 1962, and being a child of the sixties and seventies, I was exposed to the amplified views on sex, drugs and rock and roll. One evening not so long ago, I was giving my Christian witness to a 7th grade class when I stated, God gave us the Ten Commandments, and I have broken all ten of them.

1. You shall worship the Lord your God and Him only shall you serve.

2. You shall not take the name of the Lord your God in vain.

3. Remember the Sabbath day, to keep it holy.

4. Honor your father and your mother.

5. You shall not kill.

6. You shall not commit adultery.

7. You shall not steal.

8. You shall not bear false witness against your neighbor.

9. You shall not covet your neighbor’s wife.

10. You shall not covet your neighbor’s goods.

One of the students questioned, You killed somebody?

I answered, Yes, I have killed many, but it was with my tongue.

The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit. (Proverbs 18:21)

I believe it to be true that you can lift someone up with kind words as well as tear someone down with unloving words. In the book of James, he states:

But no one can tame the tongue. It is restless and evil, full of deadly poison. Sometimes it praises our Lord and Father, and sometimes it curses those who have been made in the image of God. (James 3:8-9)

The point that I am trying to convey is that so many times in my life, I have regretted what came out of my mouth. When my father came home from serving in the armed forces, he had picked up the habit of using God’s name in vain, a habit that I noticed that I picked up by the time I was 14. It was a habit that I was so happy to get rid of when the light went off in my head, making me realize that I was asking the God of all creation, all beauty, the all-powerful God, to damn someone or something. I feel that if you continually ask God to damn someone or something…well, certainly not in all cases, but I believe in some cases, the situation will be damned.

In regard to the sin of adultery, But I say to you that everyone who looks at a woman with lust has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (Matthew 5:28)

The men of the past two and now three generations have been exposed to pornography at a level that is nearly beyond measure. From television, print and even just the dress code in many places in the world, men are being challenged not to stray.

I am filled with hope when I read what the Apostle Paul said, This is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners! (1st Timothy 1:15)

In the parable of the lost sheep, from the book of Luke, Chapter 15, all of the tax collectors and sinners were gathering around to hear Jesus. However, the Pharisees and the teachers of the law muttered, This man welcomes sinners and eats with them. Then Jesus told them this parable: Suppose one of you has a hundred sheep and loses one of them. Doesn’t he leave the ninety-nine in the open country and go after the lost sheep until he finds it? And when he finds it, he joyfully puts it on his shoulders and goes home. Then he calls his friends and neighbors together and says, ‘Rejoice with me; I have found my lost sheep.’ Jesus then goes on to say, I tell you in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over the ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent."

The parable of the lost sheep, representing the sinner, should bring great hope to your heart and soul as it does mine! This parable illustrates the love and mercy of God and shows how earnest He is to bring us home. I would think this parable would bring great hope to everyone I know.

THE DROWNING

I think this is a good place to speak of someone who really touched my heart. When I was 15, I met and fell in love with a girl who I dated for a couple of years. Just as I turned 17 and was thinking, She is the one, tragedy struck her family with the death of her mother. Her father took a job in a nearby state and she, as a graduated senior, not surprisingly went with him. So, here I am in my senior year of high school and my girlfriend now lives a state away…who has just lost her mother…well it just wasn’t going to work and she, as kindly as she could, made that clear.

I read that it is better to love and lost than to never have loved at all. Well, that’s all and good I guess, but it wasn’t doing me any good at the time, as my heart lay in pieces. I let God know that I didn’t care anymore and looking back, I think He made it clear that He heard me. In the midst of all of this I went duck hunting with four of my friends. I don’t even remember who shot the duck, but I volunteered to get into the canoe and retrieve it. As I was getting into the boat my friend warned, Hand me your gun, this canoe tips at the slightest shift of your weight. No big deal, I thought and handed him my gun.

[Note: The gun was handed down from my dad to me and a cherished item for that reason; Dad was quite the hunter in his day and that gun was involved in a multitude of great stories.]

Well, I think you know where this is going. I leaned over, grabbed the duck and over went the canoe with me in it! In the middle of the winter, the water is probably around 45 degrees or colder, and now I am…drowning. I was a cross-country runner as a senior in high school, and I was in good physical condition. The problem was that I had three or four layers of clothing on and most importantly, my boots were on tight. I knew if I could get my boots off, I would be OK. I went under once and tried to kick one boot off by using the other…and then I went under for the second time trying again to get those boots off. When I went under for the third time, I cried out from my heart, I want to live!

In my desperation I prayed, and the LORD LISTENED; HE SAVED ME FROM ALL MY TROUBLES. (Psalm 34:6)

As I lifted my head out of the water, one of my friends was almost undressed, and the others were just telling me to swim forward a couple of feet, which I did. Then they shouted, STAND UP! So I stood up. My head was a good foot above the water. I had fallen out of the boat near a ledge in the floor of the lake and nearly drowned three feet from walking out of the shallow water.

Though it wasn’t funny, there was some laughing after I was safe on land. However, I was so consumed with drowning