Excerpts & T.O.C. - from "Crystal Beyond The Curtain"

FOREWORD

I Have Banged My Head Against The Wall

Trying to achieve financial success in my life and, more importantly, personal success that cries out, "I finally made it!"  But much of my desire for great achievement had, at the root of it, what the Bible calls the "pride of life."  Alas, my life had been filled with much frustration and embarrassment at not being what others would call truly successful. 

The Father gave me many talents, yet I could never really seem to succeed completely or accomplish the goals I longed to accomplish.  Perhaps self-centeredness was also a root cause. 

Wanting to make my family and friends proud of me was also important.  Yet, maybe I missed the point - that life is in the living and that the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow that  I sought was there, buried in my life all along, waiting to be found in the ordinary day-to-day journey of life.

When I was five years old, a man asked me, "What do you want to do when you grow up?"  I said, "I want to help people." He seemed amazed, I imagine, because of my young age.  He congratulated me on my noble pursuit. 

Yet on the path of my life, I strayed away from God after having been miraculously "saved" by Him personally in my room at a young age.  I left him - He did not leave me - but still my life became a mess.  Yet He brought me back to Himself tenderly.  Through many grueling years, He sustained and helped me in spite of many "deep waters."

Now, I am writing to you about the One who has always been there for me as well as for you.  Sometimes, we get mad at Him for things He actually did not do to us or to the people we love, but He understands our frailties in His Gentle Wisdom. 

You see, God gets the "bad rap" much of the time instead of our real enemy, Satan.  God is not a baby slayer or a killer of those who perish in auto accidents or at the hands of violent people.  He says, "Death is an enemy." "The Thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy, but I have come that they might have life, and life more abundantly." 

Ultimately, man's sin has been the tool that has released Satan's ability to kill, steal, and destroy.  All the while, the Father has been protecting and deflecting the enemy from our loved ones and us whenever He can.  But God set up certain rules in the universe that even He must abide by, or He would be a liar and would perish.