Mark's Story

Before I received eternal life I learned there were events that I couldn't control. I thought I was in control of my life most of the time, but that was before the tornado.

I was living in a mobile home in Baton Rouge when storms and tornadoes roared in one night. I remember sitting on the sofa in my living room trying to read a book to my four-year-old daughter over the noise of hail on the metal roof. After a few minutes of severe hail and thunderstorms I began to think that a mobile home wasn't the safest place to be. Two things happened then. First, the wind really started howling and roaring, and second, the lights went out. I got a flashlight and yelled at my wife that we needed to leave. The wind was making noises I'd never heard before. We got the kids and went to the front door. It opened inside, but the storm door wouldn't open out. I shined the flashlight through the door and saw tree roots. That's when I realized that the roaring had been a tornado and it blew down the hundred year-old oak tree just in front of our trailer. Though the mobile home was not damaged, I knew that I was as close to death as I've ever been, and there was nothing I could do to change that. I also knew that if I had died right then, I would have gone to heaven. I'm glad I knew that then, and I'm glad I still know because I will surely face other events that I can't control, and one of them will result in my death.

I'm glad someone told me how to have eternal life. It's the best thing that ever happened to me.

Now that I have eternal life, I don't fear dying. I know that I will go to heaven when I die.

The tornado story.

My confidence doesn't come from how good I've lived my life. My confidence comes from how good Jesus lived His life.