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Before my birth September 24, 1938 in the Norfolk, Virginia naval yard my mother June prayed that I would become a minister or teacher. I have my mother – and The God – to thank that such a humble prayer came true. Throughout my life I have had a strong spiritual bent and a particular love of the Bible. This manifest itself first in Hemet, California’s First Baptist Church when I finished my first reading of the King James Bible, followed by baptism.
The next 50+ years have been marked by experience with scores of different sects, including Baptists, Seventh-Day Adventists [my great-great grandfather William Miller being a founding father], Methodists, Nazarene Church, Mormons, and Jehovah’s Witnesses [my great-great grandfather William Miller being a founding father]. This included my five years of seminary education and ordination recognized by the County of Riverside’s draft board in 1960.
In brief the love of the Bible and constant study, mediation and research followed appointments as assistant pastors in a dozen churches and senior pastor in another ten. This included 20 years of missionary work in the U. S., The Bahamas, The Netherlands, and Spain. I then became a seminarian instructor, writer and photographer and research consultant for the largest publisher of Bible literature in the world. I avoid sectarianism and consider myself non-sectarian. I believe I find myself in the field of the Master in which grow both wheat and tares. [Matt 13]
Like Martin Luther in the late 80s I began to realize “my church was wrong.” In 1980 I suffered a catastrophic and traumatic auto wreck. Several times over the following year I came near to death and in fact “flat-lined” as a Code Blue following radical surgery to my spine. Laid up in a hospital bed for almost two years I renewed deep research in the spiritual depths of the Bible. How many times and how many scores of different versions of the Bible I read I cannot comprehend. No one would believe it – 25, 50, 100. I became familiar with Greek and Hebrew.
Finally, in the mid-90s I made a break that destroyed my marriage and family as I was viewed as an apostate. I determined to create a fresh version of the New Testament, at first designed for computer use on the Internet, and now – thanks to answered prayers – Living Waters a hard copy version is being made available. The total of my work between 1996-2000 are available on the Internet.
THE FUTURE: as an arthritic cripple in a 70-year old failing body “the wasting away of the outer man” is speeding up. I thank God that I was able to finish my work and realize my goals. Now full of deep conviction I await the Return of our Nazarene Master in the spirit of the closing words of Revelation: “Come, Lord Jesus!” [MHM]
Birth Place: Norfolk, VA USA
Accomplishments: Two scholarships in swimming and writing.
Registed life guard and life saving instructor.
Ordained minister.
Semanrian professor.
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