Occupy Wall Street

I’ve heard the young people who are protesting on Wall Street and other large U.S. cities don’t have one identifiable reason for being there.
Some say they’re fussing because the Wall Street Fat Cats are licking up too much financial milk. Others talk about unemployment.
Some of them are there because they’ve been paid by unions and other organizations to go out and demonstrate, according to journalists who uncovered some of the advertising.
Whatever each person demonstrating says is the reason the crowds are creating a mess in New York and other cities, I discern they all have an inner basic yearning for which they are living on the streets—to make a difference in the world with their lives. To make their lives count for something bigger than themselves. They’re searching—but I don’t think they’ve found it.
When you’ve been taught you are no different from an animal and you arrived on earth by some accident that just happened to land you here with a perfect body and everything you need to sustain you available, including gravity to hold you, it’s difficult to find something meaningful to which you can devote your life.
In contrast, my family became devoted Spirit-filled Christians about the time I was born. I learned early that God—the Creator of the Universe—loves me and has a plan for my life. Now that I’ve lived a large percentage of my years, I see how His plan unfolded. Never in my dreams would I have thought I would have the privilege to be a newspaper reporter who in my columns and in meeting so many people could make an impact on people's lives.
I couldn’t have imagined that my writing in Christian publications could guide and encourage thousands of folks I’ve never met. My first book, Confessions of a Pentecostal, sold 7,000 copies while it was in print, but people are still asking for it, buying used copies on the internet and soon it will be an e-book.
My latest project, “Swallowed by LIFE: Mysteries of Death, Resurrection and the Eternal,” will be available on Amazon in November and I'm hoping it helps those with a terminal diagnosis, those who fear death, and the grieving.
Our wonderful children and grandchildren are other ways God has blessed my life.
Anyone who wants to make a difference in his own life and impact the world should investigate the Bible and who Jesus Christ is.
Christians created most of the hospitals around the world and missionaries, without fanfare, take medical relief to the poor here and in foreign countries. Churches now are drilling water wells in drought- and famine-stricken nations. They house the homeless and orphans, visit the lonely in prisons, nursing homes and mental centers. Christians started most of the educational institutions around the world, including our most prestigious universities. Harvard to train preachers. Yale for training in church work, civil duties, the arts and sciences. Vanderbilt for teaching law, medicine, theology and the arts. Baylor was the fruit of the Baptist General Convention. Boston University was started by Methodists for training in theology. Boston College was Catholic, as was Fordham. Cornell College was Methodist. Rutgers University for 80 years included the New Brunswick Theological Seminary of the Reformed Church of America.
The world still is being educated by Christians. Wycliff Translators, who are Christian missionaries, live with primitive tribes and give them a written language and then teach them to read. Wycliff translated the Bible into hundreds of languages, and brought literacy to many nations.
If you want to make a difference in the world, give your life to Jesus Christ. It’s a choice, you know. He will never barge into your heart without you inviting Him.
Jesus said, “Look! I stand at the door and knock. If you hear my voice and open the door, I will come in, and we will share a meal together as friends” (Revelation 3:19-21).