I was a Christian seeking Christ and wanting to experience Him more. I was raised in a Christian home and was taken to church services regularly. I one day received Christ myself, and genuinely experienced Him. My experience was so much better than I had ever imagined. As I went on as a Christian I discovered that I wanted more and more of the experience of this wonderful person, Christ. In the place where I was meeting, the people seemed to be satisfied with a ritualistic experience of Christ, or only with a doctrinal knowledge of Christ. I had experienced Christ from my salvation experience in a personal as well as in a scriptural way. I wanted to maintain this experience but found it difficult to do so. One day I became so desperate that I prayed to the Lord for hours in tears asking Him that if there was anyone on earth who really experienced the Bible in the way it was written, He would lead me to those people. After praying this prayer I came across a book in the bookstore called The Spiritual Man by Watchman Nee. This book explained that man has three parts: a spirit, a soul and a body. I received so much help from that book. Later that year, I moved to Houston, Texas to go to the University of Houston. I had come early to the dormitory and was staying there. I was walking on campus and met a Christian brother on campus who invited me to a meeting of the local church. At first I did not want to come because I thought it was just another Christian meeting but when I met some Christian brothers on campus who also met with the local church I felt the Holy Spirit was with those brothers and I decided to attend. That night I went to a meeting there and it was so good. I enjoyed the simple but real Christian services. In that meeting everyone spoke. I did not know who was the pastor. I felt that this must have been the way the early Christians met. I began meeting regularly with the local church there and I enjoyed Christ tremendously. The believers there taught me the practice of reading the word prayerfully and calling on the name of the Lord which helped my enjoyment of Christ greatly. Also I enjoy meeting in a place where the experience of God’s family is so real. I am 47 years old now and I meet with the local church in San Antonio.

Richard W. Wash

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