The Adventure of Knowing God Personally
I was raised in a praying home. Every Sunday
we would go to church, no matter what. I went to catechism classes and
later to parochial school. I thought of my soul as a white sheet, sins
made black spots and prayers of confession cleaned them off. God was
very distant, more of an accountant counting up good deeds and bad.
As I grew older, I tried to do just enough good to out weigh the bad.
I was really trying to be as bad as possible without losing out on heaven.
As I approached adulthood, I saw that
this system didn't make sense. I grew less and less interested in traditional
answers. Why were some people born with more talent, intelligence or
financial resources? Could the answer be found in their past lives?
I read more and more books and adopted this as my philosophy. My answer
was in sincerely seeking truth, not in going to church.
One thing still puzzled me, the books
said that if you had above average abilities, you must be in a higher
incarnation and were to seek to know god. Funny, but the books didn't
explain how to find him!
At about the same time, I met some people
who called themselves "Christians." I had known Catholics,
Protestants, Baptists and Episcopalians but had never met anyone who
claimed to be a CHRISTIAN. "You mean you try to follow the teachings
of Jesus Christ," I replied, "You don't mean that you have
actually become something." One of them quickly replied, "If
anyone is in Christ, he is a NEW creation; the old is gone, the new
has come!" (2 Cor. 5:17) He told me that being a Christian wasn't
something you tried or strived for, it was KNOWING JESUS as your personal
Savior and Lord.
Something about that struck a chord...the
goal was to KNOW GOD... and these people claimed to know this person,
the creator of the universe. They explained to me that the Bible promised
that Jesus would come into my heart and have dinner with me, that He
was standing at the door, waiting for me to ask Him in (Rev 3:20). I
figured that I didn't have much to lose, it would have to be exciting,
if it were possibly true, I would give it a try. A few weeks later,
I asked Jesus to come into my heart. I can still remember feeling lighter,
as if a load had been lifted off my shoulders.
Unfortunately, I didn't know much about
what I was getting into. I briefly renounced my use of alcohol and grass
and read the New Testament through. I still didn't want God calling
the shots in my life. I thought I could clean up my life on my own (now
that I knew I was going to heaven).
The University of Wisconsin can be pretty
lonely with 40,000 other strangers so I found some friends to get high
with. We smoked every night but we did even more on the weekends. Once
I met someone who thought I looked familiar. She finally remembered
seeing me three years before (making a fool of myself) at the football
games. She could still describe what I was wearing. At a Madison game,
nearly all the students were drunk and rowdy so I must have been pretty
memorable.
Again, "coincidentally", I was
found by other Christians. They said that Jesus couldn't be the Lord
of my life with me still getting high. I wasn't very worried, I called
myself a Christian and believed that I was going to heaven. Looking
back, I'm not so sure where I was headed.
My pot-head friends finally shook my confidence.
They thought I was getting too high too often (imagine that).
Suddenly, I realized how hooked I was.
I cried out to God, "Lord help me!" I asked Jesus to take
control of my life and straighten it out. I wanted to live God's way,
on His terms.
Within a matter of days, my life started
to change. I hungered for both God's word and fellowship with other
Christians. I got involved with campus ministries. I even had the privilege
of leading others to Christ and training them.
With my philosophy and ancient history
degree I intended to go into seminary and onto full time ministry. Every
option I had seemed to close. I took a few jobs, just to pass the time
and kept praying for doors to open. A pastor and several others said
that God needed Christians in business. That had never occurred to me!
How could God call someone to get a job? Yet, after much prayer, I felt
that I should commit myself to business. I gave the Lord five years
in which I would not try to get into full time Christian work but go
as far as I could in the business world. ...Within two weeks, I got
laid off.
I prayed for a miracle job, I had been
giving to the Lord's work faithfully and felt it was time to ask for
a dividend. Within three months, I was a marketing consultant. I was
terribly insecure, I hadn't ever taken a marketing course. I believed
that what God called me to, He could equip me for. I seemed to have
a knack, I could understand the concepts quickly. When the five years
were over I had already presented two national seminars and spoken at
two national conventions. I became Vice President of Marketing for a
$15 million company.
January 2, 1990 (on a day's notice) God
led me to start Miglautsch Marketing. Since starting, I have seen an
almost unending stream of miracles, God's confirmation of his will.
Just starting a business with one day's notice was interesting. Within
the first three months, all revolving credit was paid off. However,
in the next month we were down to our last $50 (simple cash flow). After
almost a week of prayer and finally turning over all worry to the Lord....over
$10,000 came in on one day!
I have had the opportunity to publish
several articles in direct marketing publications. I have also spoken
regularly at major universities and conventions. The Lord has blessed
me with a beautiful wife, three precious daughters and a wonderful son.
I believe that all these things have been added because I have sought
to put God's will completely first in my life (Mat 6:32). Praise God
from whom all blessings flow!
All this is exciting (to me) but none
of it matters more than knowing my Lord and Savior Jesus the Messiah!
This present adventure is just the first tiny taste of the everlasting
excitement of eternity.
I believe that this unique Messiah, God
become man, has made life with God possible. His first visit was to
restore human nature, pay the price for your sins (and mine) and begin
the restoration from death to life.
In '99 as an elder
at the non-denominational denominational church I helped found... there
was a 'tussle' between the pastors and a few of the elders. Many good
friends left. I confided to a former Baptist pastor friend that, "People
don't have any concept of church - not as family you stick with through
thick and thin - but especially not as the Body of Christ that we should
be laying down our life for." He suggested I look into Eastern
Orthodox Christianity. After years of searching, I found the Church
where it had been all along... in 2009 my wife and I converted into
the Antiochian Orthodox Church. True Christianity has always been grounded
in true worship (orthodoxy) within the Church. If you would like more
information on the adventure of knowing God personally, call or write:
Miglautsch Marketing,
555 Industrial Dr., Ste 5,
Hartland, WI 53029
(262)369-3900
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