I was born just outside of Washington D.C. in May of 1980.

I came to understand that Jesus died for my sins at summer camp when I was nine years old. It was real, my life changed. Even at nine years old, I knew what it meant to be a sinner. I was not confused about my capacity for evil. I was so moved by the love of God demonstrated in the person of Jesus, I was born-again, right there in the bunkhouse that June evening.

Lots of people have had a similar experience, but as life rolls along they come to realize there are lots of conflicting interpretations of what Jesus taught. Many, like I did, slowly walk away from their faith because of blatant logical inconsistencies or rampant hypocritical behavior.

I never stopped believing that God loved me. I never stopped knowing that Jesus died for my sin debt, but I did come to have little use for “organized religion.”

In 2008, a song-writer that I admire, David Eugene Edwards, was staying at my home after a show on tour, and he told me about pastor Aaron Budjen and Living God Ministries (LGM).

From 2008 - 2010 my wife Eileen and I listened to every teaching from LGM we could get our hands on. For a while we had a small group of other church expats who gathered at our home to listen to the teachings on Sundays. Eventually we had exhausted all that was available, but seeds had been planted in me that began to grow.

Time moves quickly when you have kids and Eileen and I have three. Ten years flew by in a blink and now it’s 2018 and I’m at the LGM website and realize that a lot of new content has been added.

Over the course of the next 12 - 18 months I listen to everything. Most of the early teachings I had heard ten years earlier had been re-recorded, so I listened to the entire Radio Archives that Aaron Budjen has created. It’s well over two hundred hours of teaching. I’d listen on my way to and from work, I’d listen at work if I had a tedious enough task to do for a while, I’d listen on the weekends, cutting grass, whenever.

I love Aaron Budjen, I find him to be brilliant and hilarious, but he can be a bit long-winded. I appreciate how thorough he is, so I don’t mind at all, but it did occur to me that many people might not be willing to sit through 200 hours of his teaching. I started wondering why he wouldn’t just write a book, summarizing the major tenants of the New Covenant.

This idea kept rolling around in my head, for weeks. Why doesn’t Aaron write a book? Eventually, the Holy Spirit whispered to me one day: Why don’t you write the book?

Whoa. I am not qualified, I am not a writer. I’m an amateur song-writer at best. The disqualifications piled up in my mind. But eventually, weeks later, the truth of what I had begun to believe won out: if the Gospel is true then Jesus Himself lives within each person who believes. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” (Phil 4:13) Who am I to say that I can’t write a book?

I started writing in June of 2019. I finished a first draft by August. I wrote like a possessed person. I would spend an entire day, sometimes the entire weekend in bed with my laptop. I had so much information in my head, so much truth in my heart that I was desperate for the world to hear.

The first draft was a mess, it was disjointed and highly redundant. Thankfully my wife is a much better writer and she sat down, read it and ripped it apart. She printed it all out and helped me realize that I needed to completely reorganize. Her edits were intense and I needed some time to think. I didn’t work on the book for several months. When I came back to it, I started from scratch, though I ended up copy and pasting a lot from the first version.

I still do not fancy myself a writer. I don’t know that I’ll ever write another book, but I know that God wanted me to share what He has been showing me. The process has been so amazing. I hope you read the book. I hope it blesses your life.

I would love to hear your thoughts. You can write to me at:

mike@knightkingpress.com

To download the ebook: click

And be sure to check out: Living God Ministries