Streams of Salvation Ministry

I began my journey as a servant of Christ many years ago. At the young age of twenty six I met my wife and soon began growing spiritually. We began attending church together. I first heard the gospel message from a preacher who served in a Council Bluffs, Iowa, Church of Christ. My wife Janet had quietly and very effectively led me to attend this church and respond to the Lord’s call. Throughout our dating and engagement she consistently modeled a Christian woman, greatly influencing my interest in the Lord. She never stopped. As the years went by we continued as active members of the church learning to teach bible studies. At one point, a small congregation of Church of Christ members invited me to preach until they could hire a full time preacher. As I grew in the Lord, many questions began to come to mind.

In mid-nineteen-nineties, I set out to research what took place when I first decided to obey the Gospel. The interest reaches back to 1978.

The minister taught me the basics of salvation and I obeyed. However, at this point in time I could not have understood very much of what took place by the hand of God. I barely understood how to serve Him. From this moment, I became increasingly interested in learning what took place and what continues to take place in my life as a servant of Christ. Thus, I began a systematic study of salvation. As I accumulated more knowledge and research information the thought occurred to me to share what I have learned. As a result, my research began to grow from a rough outline to many manuscripts, and finally this book.

Through many years of writing, I included other books and ending up with a series of books in various stages of completion. They speak about salvation, sin, the Lord’s work of salvation, the covenant.

All of the books include the integration of many different types of theology: theology—information about God, Christology—the work of Jesus, pneumatology—what the Holy Spirit is doing, ecclesiatology—about the Lord’s church, anthropology—mankind’s response and accountability to God, soteriology—the process of salvation, and eschatology—concerning the end of time and eternal life in the body of Christ.

This book is an overview. I have organized the chapters to briefly look at many differing aspects of salvation as it affects life. It has nine sections which include basic steps of information leading to a greater insight about God, what takes place when responding to His free offer of salvation in Christ, and spiritual confidence.

The parts of each chapter are like stepping stones, one of many crossing a stream of spiritual water. As the reader progresses from one step to another he will begin to grow in a better understanding concerning his present fellowship with Jesus and knowledge of what lies ahead. Once he reaches the other side he is able to look back across the stream and see the wonders of God’s grace as it flows through his life.

My hope for this book is to better equip the reader to recognize and understand his participation and partnership in the Lord’s eternal plan.

May God richly bless your efforts to understand the blessings of salvation which the Lord so lovingly gave to all humanity. I pray God will give you the confidence and faith to witness the wondrous grace of God to the lost and fellow servant’s in the Lord.