God pulling on my Heart

My name is Mike Edwards and have lived all of my life in the U.S., specifically Washington state, known as the Northwest. I haven’t done any formal ministry in the U. S., but have spoken several times in a church. However, just sharing the gospel in Washington, where I live, is challenging. The environment is very liberal and Anti-God. Very accepting of other religions except Christianity.

I was born and raised in the Jewish faith, Bar Mitzvahed at 13 years old and by 16 I began to question the hypocrisy around my Jewish faith as it applied to our lifestyle. Eventually, I quit practicing Judaism and took on the “I’m a good person” religion during my 20’s. During that time I was successful as a corporate Vice- President in building a chain of credit companies in the Western U.S. At 30, I was hired as President of a Point of Sale transaction company at which time I met my wife. When my daughter was born a year later, I was so impacted by her birth that I began searching for God but wanted to know if Jesus was the Messiah. The CEO of the company was a Christian and invited me to join his Men’s Bible Study that was just starting the Book of Hebrews. Within two months of study, I accepted Jesus into my life. I was hungry and began to grow as a man, father, and disciple of Christ.

I feel compelled to speak to the body of Christ, especially men. My dream or vision is to challenge and encourage men to raise their standards of living more in aligning with Jesus, not the world. I see myself as an evangelist, writing books and speaking around the country at churches and conferences.

I think over time a key experience is the continued water down of our identity of what we call ourselves a “Christian.” If someone tells me they are a Christian, I’m not sure what that means to them. Peoples lifestyle and actions many times contradict what I define, or Jesus describes as a disciple or follower of Him. So this casualness motivates me out of love.

The biggest challenge for me is being invited int to speak at churches that are lukewarm on the principles and boundaries that the Word teaches us. My belief is that the Holy Spirit will present me those opportunities to speak nevertheless.

I am between churches right now because of moving to another city but am excited to have found a church body that I can join. But I don have pastor friends that are very supportive of my calling.

My wife is very supportive in me pursuing this calling. Her dad was an Assembly God pastor for 60 years and an amazing example of a Christian man. Our kids are grown and are finding their way in their faith right now. I believe they would support me from a relative perspective, not necessarily involved with me at this time.

A scholarship at CLI would give me an opportunity to give my faith a stronger foundation in me and the credibility that the church likes to see when inviting evangelist speakers.

Your prayers are so appreciated. Please pray that God will open the doors for my opportunity to evangelize and have the financial residual income means to put this first in my life.