New Age to Christian through Amy Grant

New Age to Christian Through Amy Grant

By Bill Wevi

The story you are about to read is the true story of how I got involved in the New Age Movement and how I came out of the New Age Movement to become a Born Again Christian. Some of it may seem to be unbelievable, or too far fetched. But it did happen. I want to make one thing very clear from the beginning, none of what you are about to read is a fantasy or an hallucination. Also I have never used drugs in my life, not even once. My motto in life has always been ... “They make those drugs illegal for a reason”

Where I Grew Up

I grew up with loving parents that remained married until death did they part. Although they did not have high income jobs they raised four kids the best way they knew how, keeping us fed and clothed. They gave us love and attention, but when times called for it, they disciplined us for what we did wrong. We seldom moved but when we did we never moved far. I did not have many friends when I was young, but I spent most of my time with the few I did have.

Christianity or “religion” was never pushed on us. We attended a Catholic Church in Algonquin, but that was only on Christmas and Easter. I did believe in God. I believed that he created it all. But in the present times, I figured, he no longer got involved. There were wars, starvation, earthquakes and disease, God would not let that happen unless he was no longer around or did not care any more. So I lost track of God. I put him a box so to speak. He was never really on my mind.

The Book

When I was in the 8th grade, in the fall of 1982, I went to the school library to find something to read. Like most teenage boys I liked science fiction, outer space, knowing about the planets, stuff like that. In this library they had all that on one shelf. They also had “Things of the Supernatural” on the next shelf over. I looked it over and there was that book. I don’t remember the title but I do remember what it looked like. It was black and bright yellow, with a plain image of a man floating. I looked at that book and checked it out. The book was simple to read, no big words, only about 100 pages long. There was about seven chapters. The book was on the New Age Movement and meditation. The book was filled with stories of Out of Body Experiences, Ultra-States of Reality and consciousness. This book fascinated me, to expand you mind beyond this world. Oh yea that is something I wanted to know about.

My First Experience

I remember my first experience so well. I said good night to my parents, and went to my room. I lay in bed and concentrated. Within minutes I was very aware of things around me. I could hear things that I could not hear otherwise. I felt light in my bed. I remember seeing things in my mind that I had no knowledge of. From that point on I had drive to know all that was connected with this experience.

It did not take all to find out more of the New Age Movement. I went back to the library a few days later and found more books on this. They had over 10 book on the Supernatural. I looked at them all. Over time I read most of them. This started my trek down a dark and lonely road.

Astrology

As I continued in the New Age Movement. I got into Astrology. Many times I would read that other New Agers would be involved with Astrology. Time and time again I would read that the stars would tell your future. Of course I needed to find out how Astrology worked. I started with the Encyclopedia I had at home. Then I went to the bookstore and found many books on how to do a personal chart, read the stars, and the significance of the planets to the constellations.

Meanwhile

At this point I should tell you what was going on around me. The date was 1983, in the Summer of that year. We moved across town. That was the first year of High School for me. All my friends went on to South High School, while I had to attend Central High School. I had no friends there at all. So I was started anew and found myself even more alone before. I tried to get involved in after school activities, but that didn’t last long. Some would say they didn’t want me. Others would say they didn’t need me. So like always I would walk alone and have no one to talk to. I can honestly say that the next four of me life were the darkest and loneliest time I ever experienced. Many times I cried when I got home from school. This was not a happy time for me. My New Age meditation was all consuming, like a drug addiction. I would be on a high while I was mediating, but I would be depressed when I came back.

Numerology

As I got deeper into Astrology, many times Numerology would be mention. Time and time again stars, planets, constellations, and Zodiac signs would be assigned a number. As I read about Numerology I found out that you can know your future. Using the numbers that are in your life in combination with the date, you can know the future. After some training, I was surprised at how many time numbers appeared in my life. For me it was 2-8-68-1-11. These numbers would come up many many times. And yes, I would often use them with Astrology. For three years my locker numbers would always match up with a number in my life.

These numbers would not be limited to MY life. Often the numbers of my parents would come up and I would “listen” to what the numbers would say. But Numerology became a vicious circle for me. I could not escape. No matter what numbers I would hear I would constantly run them though mine to see if they had any meaning for me.

Often if I heard the same number many times in the same day I would see if it would go with my numbers in my life. I would match the numbers with my Horoscope. More often then not these numbers would match up somewhere. But as I look back now I see how silly it was. After all with 30 numbers to look at, any series of numbers would match up somewhere.

The Quija Board

As you can tell my world of the New Age was well established. Like most teenagers I wondered about Ouija Boards. I asked around and met up with a witch. She told me how to make one. Within a few days I had made one. I invited my friend Gary ____ to come over, and we tried it out. We worked the board eagerly, moving back and forth, letter to letter, the board spelling out the answers to the questions we would ask. This was a source of fun for a few days. Then something happened that I will never forget. Gary and I were thinking of a question to ask, when all of a sudden the oracle (pointer) moved by itself. Although it only moved across the board once, that was enough. We quickly got up and stared at the board for a moment. Then I picked it up and threw it out. We never used a Ouija Board again.

Tarot Cards

Time and time again I saw Tarot Cards. I saw how it was done. I went to the local store and bought a deck and a book on Tarot Cards. Again, very simple reading. Within a few weeks I could easily do readings. I would surprise people by the accuracy of my insights. At one reading I was so accurate that the woman turned white with fear. I got so good at reading cards that I could even use ordinary playing cards for a reading and still be quite accurate. As I look back at it now I realize that there are many satanic symbols printed on the cards, such as Pentagrams and goat heads. On many of the cards there would be symbols of the dead, or of a witch.

Michael

As got deeper in to the New Age Movement I met a man named Michael. He was well educated and was well taught in the art of the New Age Movement. His voice was very clear, and he spoke with the most precise grammar I ever heard.

He taught me many things in the New Age Movement. How to use crystals and glass prisms. I looked up to him for thing in my life. How to talk, the way to think, and how to look at things from a different point of view. I was very taken in by him.

My Suicide Attempt

During this entire time I tried suicide a number of times. My loneliness was never ending. Day after day I would go to school and talk to no one. I often said to myself “What is the point of going on. If this is what life is all about then I would rather be dead.” At that time I had no fear of death.

My father was a butcher, but he ran a gun dealership out of our home. He had many guns. One time I went down to his office and chose a gun. I made sure that there would be ammo for it. I figured I would need to do it right after school. I wanted to do it on a Friday because one time someone at school had done the same thing in the middle of the week. Most of the kids at school took advantage of that and said that they were friends of his so they got to go home early. Most of them lied just to get out of school. I wanted to avoid that.

I looked at the calendar. We had a three day weekend coming up. I planed it out carefully. I would take the gun up to my room and do it there, right after school. I was all set.

My family often went on camping trips or had a family get together. They often wouldn’t tell me in advance, and this time was no exception. They told me on Thursday night that the whole family was getting together for the weekend. My dad said that he wouldn’t be going to work on Friday and that he need my help to set things up. Needless to say my plans where ended.

I wanted to make sure that I would succeed in killing myself on the first attempted. I knew about people shooting themselves only to be heard by someone who would call the police. Often the person would live. I wanted to do it when no one would find me for hours. If I didn’t do it right at least I would bleed to death. But my plans had been spoiled.

This was not my last attempted at suicide. The thought of sitting on the railroad tracks came up many times. I had many problems with depression all through high school. Somehow the supernatural side of my life did nothing to fill the void.

The Lies of Michael

As I have said before I was raised Catholic, and the religion was always a presents in my home. There was a time that I asked Michael about God. I asked him, “What is the Bible all about? Is it useful today?" He said, “The Bible was for the first century man not the 20th century man."

Another question I asked him was “What is God” Michael told me, “God is an energy that people can tap into much like people get into their car. So too can people tap into the god energy and make things happen."

There was no doubt in my mind about what Michael was telling me. I trusted him without question.

Mexico City

In September of 1985 there was a major earthquake in Mexico City. I remember seeing it on the news everyday. Piles and piles of rubble. I saw dead people being dug out of the cement and steel. That got me thinking of the after life. I thought ... “Is this how it could be for me: an accident and I would be dead.”

I believed in God and believed that when I died I would go to Heaven. But I was not sure. I did not know for 100% sure. Was I good enough????? I thought of that often.

The Book on the Roman Empire

I have had a fascination with history since I was in the 6th grade. No matter what the period, if it was “history” you had my attention. In the Winter of 1984 I took a job as a janitor at a grade school. Every day I had a 30 minute break and would often read. In one of the rooms was a book on the Roman Empire. When I saw this book I had to read it. Most of the book was on how the Roman Empire got started and the expansion. The last few chapters where about the spread of Christianity though the Roman world. It started of course with Jesus Christ and the twelve Apostles. And from there to the legalization of Christianity in the Roman Empire. I must have read those chapters five times at least. I wanted to know more. But I had nowhere to turn. I suppose at that point I was “searching”. I had that job for two and a half years, but I still did not know God at that time.

At some point NBC aired the mini-series “Jesus of Nazareth”, I watched it and liked it. But again, I did not come to know God.

My First Bible Study

As I have mentioned many times in this story, Gary ____ was and still is a very good friend of mine. He was well known to have a dry sense of humor. He had always been very intelligent and quick to learn. I didn’t see him that often when we started high school. He went to South High, and I went to Central. The only time we saw each other was on some weekends and in the summer. One day he called me up to invite me to a Bible study. There were about 25 kids there. I had to borrow a Bible. They were studying the book of Job, and when they walked though the study I got lost. I could not keep up, and I did not understand what was going on. I tried to follow along, but I couldn’t. I went a few more times but eventually stopped.

I did notice a BIG change in Gary. He was a completely new person. His laugh, his smile, his sense of humor had totally changed. This was not the same person that I had known all those years. I said to myself, “I want whatever he is on.” But this Bible study was just too hard for me. I told Gary that I would read the Bible on my own. I did own a Bible. Some years earlier my aunt had come to visit and left me a New Testament. I just put it in my dresser drawer, and it sat there for years. After I stopped going to the Bible studies I got this Bible out and read it. I put it in my car and would read it on my lunch hour or whenever I had a free moment.

The Word in Song

At that time I got a job at a fast food restaurant. Like most restaurants, there were many high school kids working there. I made a few friends there, and one of them gave me a Christian music tape of Amy Grant’s The Collection Album. I listened to this tape and loved it. I listened to it almost continuously. I thought “Here is the best way for me to understand the Bible: set to music.” I listened to the tape so much that I wore the writing off the label, so I couldn’t even tell which side I was on. Listening to this tape was the first time I heard that God loved me for who I am, and also the fact that God loved me no matter what I did. I really did like that.

As time rolled on I found two cartoons that caught my attention. Superbook and Flying House. They were the Bible in cartoon form. I watched them everyday and even recorded them. Here was the Bible; I drank it up. With each new episode I grew more and more involved in it. But that did not stop me from my New Age Meditation, Astrology, Numerology and other activities. I continued as though it was all right and acceptable to God.

August 27, 1987

My days had become an empty ritual. I would get up, have my bowl of cereal, and do my New Age Meditation for an hour or so regardless of the hollow way it always left me.

On that day Gary called me and said that a local radio station called WCRM 103.9 was doing a live remote and that he would try to get on the air to say hello to me. I said okay and hung up.

I was driving to another friend’s house. I turned my radio to 103.9, but then instead of playing the radio, I found myself listening to the Amy Grant tape. As I was in the car listening to the tape, it jammed and stopped playing. This happened a lot, and I would usually eject the tape and tap it on my leg. Whenever I did that, the radio would come back on. Well it did.

At that precise moment there was a commercial for an evangelist who was coming to the area. And I will remember his words for the rest of my life. He said, “We must get our young people back into the Bible studies or Satan will play on their ignorance.” I suddenly recognized my own ignorance of God’s Word, and I was shocked beyond belief.

I put in the tape and immediately the song “Thy Word” came on. It said on the tape cover that the song was based on Psalm 119:105. “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path.” I was suddenly overwhelmed. It was as if the tape were playing on the same frequency as the radio and tuned right into my thoughts. I had no doubt that God reached down and touched me at that moment. I have no other explanation for the power that moment held for me. In a rush, I knew what had been missing in my life.

Later that night I knelt at my bedside and said to God, “Oh LORD God, I have no doubt that you want me as your child. I don’t know how to pray to you so I say simply that I give my life to you. I ask you LORD to reach down and touch me, show me Yourself, make Yourself real to me.” I cried a little and went to sleep.

The Next Day

I woke up that next day and I knew that I knew that I knew that I was a new person. I saw the world differently. Certain things became instantly clear. I knew that the New Age stuff had to go. Books on Astrology-out the door. Charts of the stars-garbage. Crystal, prisms: they were junk. I gathered them and threw them in the garbage can and dumped old kitty litter on top of them. And I made a promise to myself that I would no longer have anything to do with the New Age practices. I even got rid of my secular music. Some time later I told Gary about all of this, and he was amazed by it all. Once I had worshipped the stars. Now I worship the One who made those stars. Once I looked for light in what the world had, but now I had found that Jesus is the light of the world. In him I have found peace, love, and understanding. Now I had hunger for the Word of God. I could not get enough.

My First Day at Church

I remember my first day in church so clearly. I got up, had breakfast, and got dressed. My parents where already working outside in the yard. As I walked past them I said, “I am going to church.” My mother stood up in shock. She could not believe it.

I drove to Gary’s church, “Hope Covenant Church.” I had never been to church so I didn’t know what to do. They gave me a bulletin. I just shoved it into my Bible, which I had bought a few days earlier, and sat down. I waited for Gary to show up and for church to start. Then I read the cover of the bulletin; it read Psalm 119:105, “Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet.” The same Bible verse from the Amy Grant song. I still have that bulletin to this day. As the weeks went on I got involved in four Bible studies a week. I went to one Tuesday, one on Wednesday, and two on Sunday.

Bible Studies on the Road

As I said before I worked at a fast food restaurant. After I graduated from high school I continued to work there. The management moved me to the morning shift, which started at seven AM. On WCRM they had ministry shows or church/Bible study’s on the air from six AM to Noon every work day. Because I wanted to know more of God every day, I listened to the shows every day. On one show in October they devoted the entire month to the study of the occult and the New Age Movement. Having just gotten out of that, I knew I had to listen.

The show started with the usual intro and introduction of what subject would be on that day. The entire show was in a studio not in front of an audience. It would start with a testimony of someone who had been in the occult. Often it was on Satanism, but some of the testimonies were on the New Age Movement. I would listen very carefully. At the end of the testimonial the preacher would come on and give a short Bible study on how that person had been deceived by the devil. The preacher would read off Bible verses and they would stick in my mind.

The most profound verses where Deuteronomy 18; 10-11 which reads “And do not let your people practice fortune-telling or sorcery, or allow them to interprets omens, or engage in witchcraft, or cast spells or function as mediums of psychics or consult the dead.” The other was 1 Peter 5:8 it says ..Be sober, watchful because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.”

As the months rolled on I learned a lot about the world I was in and the many lies that I had believed in. It took some time for me to rid all the New Age Movement from my mind. I sought help from others as much as I could.

Today

It has now been over a decade since I gave my heart to the LORD. I have had hard times. One year to the month of after I came to know the LORD, my Dad passed away. I have had doubts of my salvation. A lot of hatred towards my bother. But I have had a lot of good times too. I work at a factory where there are only a few other Christians out of a work force of 1000 people. I have appointed myself as a missionary to my work place.

I have often wonder why the LORD put me in this job where there are few Christians. I went to the LORD in pray for an answer. And I feel that the LORD did answer my prayer. I feel that the LORD has put me there to show that God is still in the world and that he can still reach down and touch people and heal people of their pain. And through my testimony he can show that he still cares for you and loves you.

So I ask you ... Do you know Jesus? Do you have a living personal relationship with Jesus Christ?

And now I will end my story with the words of that Amy Grant song that I heard that day, words that will always have a soft place in my heart.

Thy Word is a lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Path.
When I feel afraid and think I’ve lost my way, still you’re there right
beside me, and nothing will I fear as long as you are near.
Please be near me to the end.
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Path.
I will not forget your love for me, and yet my heart forever is wandering.
Jesus be my guide and hold me to your side, and I will love you to the end.
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Path.
Thy Word is a Lamp unto my feet and a Light unto my Path.

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The above article was posted on this Web site in May 31, 2001.

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