Author's Bio
Dr Shafer was a PK, otherwise known as a preacher’s kid. He grew up during the great depression. He was the third child in a very strict religious family. As an adolescent and young adult, he believed everything his parents taught him, only even more so. His father once told him Glenn you believe more than anyone I have ever known; it’s not 100% with you, but more like 1000%.
All his formal education including college was obtained at church sponsored schools which all reinforced his parent’s unique doctrinal beliefs. However, when getting out into the world to earn a living, things didn’t seem to go as they were supposed to. His plan was to be a minister like his father, but one tragic occurrence after another began to turn up deficiencies in his belief system. One year after marriage, his beautiful talented young spouse became seriously ill, eventually ending up in a wheelchair as an invalid for life. His goal to serve the Lord as a minister slipped further and further from possibility. When he was finally able to enter the seminary at age 29 he was exposed to serious questions on doctrines that totally upset his whole belief system. His faith crisis was similar to that of Clarence Darwin who lost his faith while attending the seminary. In the midst of this faith crisis, he was hired by his denomination to be the pastor of a church.
He needed a job to provide for his family so he accepted the position, but the resulting emotional stress was enormous. On the outside he continued to be a happy and energetic defender of the faith, but on the inside his soul was in constant turmoil. He spent thousands of hours in serious prayer and bible study trying to make sense of everything, but the tremendous guilt he felt for teaching error to his flock was overwhelming. Finally he took a leave of absence to study and find a solution to his heart wrenching faith crisis. He took additional class work at an Episcopal seminary. He started and failed at several business ventures. He studied the bible with only one goal in mind, to prove it unreliable. He thought that if it really had many errors and contradictions as some critics claimed, then it would be unreliable and he could discard it altogether. However, after a two year exhaustive study combing through the whole bible, he found no real errors or contradictions that were not fully explained by context. Instead of discarding it he became totally convinced that the bible was indeed authentic. So then if the bible is really true and authentic, why was he so troubled?
After 7 years of leave, a doctor degree, a business bankruptcy and two children added to his family, he returned to the ministry, only to find that all the old church doctrine uncertainties continued to plague his soul. It seemed like the harder he tried to be a good person and obey all the rules, the worse things got. A few years later, the stress took its toll and he was hospitalized with a heart attack at age 44. He resigned the ministry to work in the construction industry. A year later his precious wife of 27 years died from a heart attack. He was totally burned out and spiritually devastated.
For the children’s sake he determined to carry on. He married a school teacher and continued to work in construction. A year later he was injured in an accident at work that disabled him for life. Then a couple of years later his second wife’s health failed. He invested all their life savings into building a business that was to provide for their retirement. However, just as it was beginning to show tremendous promise doing over a million a month in sales, it was stolen from him by a hostile takeover and he lost it all. At the age of 59 he was, deeply in debt, facing bankruptcy for the 3rd time, so exhausted he could hardly put one foot in front of the other and completely discouraged. He had sincerely tried to do it his parent’s way and that had failed. He tried his churches way with all his might and that had failed. Now he had tried it his own way and given it the last once of his faith trust and ingenuity and it had failed. He believed himself to be a total failure. He was totally overwhelmed, hopeless, ready to die and be done with it. Then it happened!!! God actually spoke 7 words to him! Not in the mind, it was a real voice loud and clear. It said this: “Will you PLEASE let ME handle it?”
He fell to his knees in tears. Finally he knew God Is Real. The next 10 years are the story of how he was able under the guidance of the Holy Spirit to throw away all the old church commentaries and publications, eliminate from his mind all the teachings of his youth and formal education. With nothing more than the bible and the leading of the Holy Spirit, he was able to find the pure unbiased truths taught in the bible. Learn how to believe them way down in the core of his being, and the truly abundant life that resulted. An old man now, he continually feels like jumping up in the air to click his heels. He claims to be the single happiest man in the world that he knows. Yet when he endeavors to tell others about the secret he has found, no one wants to hear the ramblings of an old man who has failed more than most.
The moral to this powerful heart wrenching story is this: You are what you believe.
YES! There is a real, truly awesome God out there and he wants you to know him. He really wants to be your best friend and most intimate companion and guide you into a truly abundant life. All you need to do is trust him with total abandon, way down deep in your soul and it is yours.