Hey friends! I hope you had a great Halloween! I certainly enjoyed dressing up like old Taylor Swift (from the You Belong With Me music video) and getting some cheap Chipotle!

Today I’m going to share a little bit about a special book I just read for my first goal: read 6 impactful books. Although I don’t often read non-fiction books, this one is impactful because my grandfather wrote it!

I remember a few years ago, I got an unusual voicemail from Grandpa. He had called me excitedly to share the first poem that he had written – The Jesus Way. Even a few years later, I can still hear his singsong voice reciting it to me. After writing his first poem, Grandpa was soon consumed with writing poetry that incorporated scripture and prophecy. In 2015, he published his first book, Finding God through Poetry: From Faith to Fact.

This book is the response to God’s call on my grandfather’s life. He first writes about various manifestations and revelations of the Lord in different seasons of his life, and how they prove the reality of God. Here is an excerpt from the book about his first manifestation of the presence of God:

One night over forty-five years ago at about three a.m., I awoke with a very real sense of the presence of someone in the room. Strange! Very strange!
I couldn’t sleep.
I got up…went into the family room…switched on the light over the desk…looked around.
Nothing!
But, whoever or whatever that “presence” was, he or she or it was still there.
I waited, as if expecting to hear the Presence speak audibly.
Silence.
Instantly, my thoughts raced to recall the Bible story of Samuel. He too was awakened, actually heard an audible voice, and felt a Presence, perhaps the same One I felt.
My response to the situation was, “Lord, are you trying to tell me something?”
At that particular time, I had finished all of my course work at the University of Southern California and was scheduled to make an oral defense of my dissertation for the PhD degree.
My professional career was about to begin, full-time, with undivided attention.
Just at Samuel received his call, this was my moment. This was My Call!
My Living Bible was on the desk. I looked at it. Could it be that God has a message for me? I reached down, pulled it under the light, opened it, and began to read. These were the first words I read:

Sing to the Lord, all the earth! Sing of his glorious name! Tell the world how wonderful he is. How awe-inspiring are your deeds, O God! How great your power! (Psalm 66:1-2, TLB)

The verses were from the Bible, God’s Word. That night, the Word was specifically for me. I call this my first manifestation.
Each of the first three sentences in the scripture quotes above begins with an action word, a verb. For the subject, I inserted the pronoun, “You.”
I heard a voice that night, loud and clear:
“Mike! You sing to the Lord! You sing of his glorious name! You tell the world how wonderful He is. This is My Call to you!”
The Presence was so real, there was absolutely no doubt in my mind; “My Call” was from the invisible, but Living God. Immediately, I said, “Yes, Lord, I accept! I will!”

While I loved being refreshed by the scripture and reminded of God’s love for me, what I loved most about Finding God through Poetry was that I got to know and appreciate my grandfather better than before. His book is extremely personal, revealing God’s goodness and faithfulness through his personal history and the history of mankind.

It also has many impressive facts about prophecies – both fulfilled and ones that have yet to be fulfilled. He is passionate about sharing the love of Christ both through his faith and through the facts! You can buy his book on amazon, and I also encourage you to check out his website prophecyfacts.com. It has several of his poems and interesting facts about prophecy on them. And you can also watch him on his youtube channel.

Thanks for letting me brag about my grandpa for a bit! See you next time!