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Bill Nelan shares his favorite verses from the Bible and how they have impacted his life. He discusses 1 Corinthians 2:9, which talks about the things God has prepared for those who love Him. He reflects on his upbringing and experiences being bullied and feeling ashamed of his body. He shares how he found faith and overcame his struggles through counseling and support from his family. He emphasizes the importance of not being anxious and turning to prayer and petition, as mentioned in Philippians 4:6. Lastly, he discusses Psalm 23 and how it reminds him of the guidance and protection of God in his life. Welcome to this episode of, I Believe He's Not Done Yet, with Bill Nelan. Hi, I'm your host, Bill Nelan. Today we are going to go through some of my favorite verses, and why they are my favorites, and how they spoke to me, and how they can relate to you. The first one is 1 Corinthians 2, verse 9. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God has prepared for those who love Him. This is such a powerful verse and filled with His promise. Let me give you some of my background and a little how I was raised. I'm one of seven kids in a Catholic family, four sisters and two older brothers besides me. We attended a Catholic grade school for eight years. Some of us went to the local Catholic high school, and some went on to the local public school in town. I always had my brothers and sisters to play with growing up. We'd always be outside, no matter how warm or how cold it was. We'd play interactive games, and of course, we were most of the team. At school, though, I was a loner, except for my friendship with this one guy. I considered him my best friend. I met him in kindergarten and have known him ever since. He would be great to me outside of school, but would bully me in school. He gave me the nickname of Bones because I was skinny. Well, that made me very self-conscious of my body, and I was ashamed of it. I don't know what age I was, but I tried out for the basketball team at school, but failed miserably. I tried to run for student council, but had such a fear of speaking in public that I couldn't even give the campaign speech, and I thought I was going to get sick. I graduated by the grace of God and my teachers, because looking back, I don't think I should have gone on and should have repeated that grade. I moved on, however, to public school, which wasn't a good choice. I went from a class with 30-some kids that I'd known for eight years to 30 kids in a class that I didn't know anyone, and there was over 500 kids in just three grades, and we had maybe 200 in the whole school for eight grades. At the same time, my oldest brother went away to college for his third year of college. My oldest sister was getting married, and my other brother decided to join the Navy, and another sister soon would be going away to college. I lost all my playmates within a few years, and I was a loner. I only really had my bully friend and my family around me. I started attending junior high, went for one week, and then skipped school for a week, and I'd hide in our camper during school hours. Mind you, this was seven hours in a camper. There was maybe one book to read, no cell phones or tablets said. Well, I got busted when I left the camper and went inside a few minutes too early. They called the school and found out I hadn't been to school for a week, and that gained my parents a visit to the school dean. I was told to go to school, but I would have to report to the dean, but then I'd skip the rest of the day. Of course, I got busted for that. Then I had to have my sister walk me to school and leave me at the dean's office. They said, yes, you're right, I'd leave right after. But this time, the dean saw me leave and chased after me in his car. Yes, in his car. So I started going to school again. At about the same time, I got busted for shoplifting. I made friends with some neighbor brothers and, well, broke into a grade school and did some vandalism and also lit a dumpster on fire. I was in trouble with the law and facing up to 30 days in jail at one point. It was during that time that one of those cases, I was ordered by a judge to get counseling. So my dad suggested I see a pastor of a local non-denominational church. Well, he was very nice and suggested I work with his son that was an assistant pastor. So weekly, I would meet with him, but at some point, the court said that wasn't the kind of counseling they wanted me to have, so I went to a regular social worker. Through both of them, I was able to overcome a lot of issues. I became a born-again Christian, and I realized I shouldn't be ashamed of my body and just live my life being who I was. Mind you, I still had issues. All of them didn't go away. I was learning more about being a Christian, but like I said, I had issues to deal with. I remember one singles retreat that we went on a church outing, and I was at a really down time in my life. I was working, but I couldn't find anything I really liked doing. I didn't have a car. I was living at home. I liked this girl that I was afraid to talk to, and was dealing with my version of emptiness syndrome with my siblings being gone, and I contemplated suicide. I was sitting on the dock over this river looking at the rope swing, thinking I could use that as a noose, but I couldn't do it. I couldn't put my family and friends through that. I kept going to church, but then something happened at church that I didn't agree with, so I quit going, and I rebelled. I started doing drugs this time, smoking pot to be specific, and occasionally doing cocaine, but my parents and many of my family were and are Christians, and I believe they were my prayer warriors. At one point, I had moved out and was working. One day, my dad called and asked if I wanted to buy his used car, and I said I would, and he gave me a good price, free. So I got his old car, and my mom mentioned that the church I'd gone to moved away and were only a few blocks away from my parents' house. She also told me they had a fire and it did some damage to the church. So on Sunday, I'd drive by to see if they were holding services. Finally, one Sunday, they were, so I parked and went inside. I walked in, and the assistant pastor's mom was standing inside. She was like a grandma to me. She saw me, smiled, and said, Welcome home. We've missed you. And I've been going to that church ever since. No mind can imagine. Sometime after going back to church, God led me to preach a sermon at church. Yeah, me preach. The guy who was a loner, the guy who was ashamed of his looks at one time, the guy who felt sick trying to give a campaign speech in grade school, was in front of a group of people at church preaching the Bible. No mind can imagine. Nope, I would have never imagined being in that position. In the last few years, I've been attending the Catholic church I grew up in. My mom still goes to. And I started doing the Bible readings there as part of the mass. Yes, no human mind can conceive. If someone told me after once I was getting sick in the gym, trying to give a speech in grade school, that I would be preaching in church and doing the Bible readings during mass, I think you were crazy. But this is what God did in my life. He took this shy, lonely, skinny boy who was facing jail time and turned him into an outgoing, funny, confident public speaker. What no eye has seen, what no ear has heard, and what no human mind has conceived, the things God can do. My second favorite verse is from Philippians 4, verse 6. Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. That's another mouthful. I'm a very anxious person. I want to know what's going to happen today, tomorrow, next week. I want to know what I'm having for lunch, for dinner, what the weather will be. But Paul's letter to the Philippians says not to be anxious about anything, but we should pray with prayer and petition. When we pray, any request we ask God for is a petition. God promises he will answer our prayer, but we have to be asking for the right reason. It shouldn't be for selfish reasons. It shouldn't be to hurt others. It should be out of kindness and thanksgiving. I find that when I pray, I pray for everyone and everything that I can think of. Then I ask prayer for myself lastly. When we pray like that, Paul says, The peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and minds. That sentence alone should send shivers down your spine. He is offering us a peace that surpasses all understanding, that will guard our hearts and minds. What more could we ask for? I know in today's world, we face a lot of obstacles. We worry about the stability of our health, our family's health. I worry about my mom's health. I worry about our state and our country, about my job, the condition the country is in, the crime and everything else. And yes, it can be depressing. But we as Christians have something most don't have. We have the armor of God protecting us. We have the peace that God will give us. He will provide for us. He will guard our paths. Which brings me to my third favorite Bible verse or verses, which is Psalm 23. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. He guides me along the right paths for his namesake. Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Your rod and your staff will comfort me. You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. Surely your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Another wow. The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. Did you know that sheep are not very smart? If they didn't have a shepherd or someone to watch over them, they could get hurt or even get themselves killed. But we are not sheep. But David says, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want. If the Lord is over us and we honor him and worship him and trust him and do our best to serve him, he will be our shepherd. He will protect us. He makes me lie down in green pastures. He leads me besides quiet waters. He refreshes my soul. One of the things I loved about growing up, and mind you, I have many great memories of growing up with my family. We always had a good time. My parents decided once, well, maybe just my dad, that we should go camping. Yes, nine people in one tent. What could go wrong? Yes, we pitched the borrowed tent in a low spot and under a tree. So it rained that night and flooded the tent. When the rain was over, we thought it was still raining because the tree was grippy, even though we could hear kids playing outside. I believe that was also when my next oldest brother sprained his ankle and dad and him were gone hours trying to get a doctor to look at it. Yes, this was before cell phones and GPS and Internet. They were gone hours and freaked my mom out. But we still kept going camping over the years and made many great memories, and some of us still do to this day. But what I'm getting at is there is nothing more peaceful than getting outside by a lake out in the middle of nowhere and enjoying God's creation. It was one of those times when God spoke to me that I should preach and I laughed, but God wasn't laughing. I spoke to my minister and said, God's leaving me to preach. And he says, okay, go for it. And from that one conversation with God and with God's help, he was able to get me to speak out in public. When you are outside, away from TV, Internet, cell phones, and everything else, and just chill out and listen to God, that does refresh your soul. He guides me along the right paths. One time I had someone prophesy over me saying they could see me in a canoe lying down on the bottom of it looking up, and he said, don't sit up. Don't look to see where you're going. Just let God push you in the direction he wants you to go. Yes, he has guided my path for his name's sake. Even though I walk through the valley of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me. Thy rod and thy staff comfort me. I truly believe the world we live in is a valley of death. The crime, the immorality, everything going on in the U.S. and the world is pretty disgusting. I believe we are in a dark valley, but God is with us. He will take care of us. This is not a time to get depressed. This is a time to trust in God and know behind a shadow of a doubt he will take care of us. The last sentence I believe says a lot, as much as the other two scriptures I've used. You prepare a table before me in the presence of mine enemies. You anoint my head with oil. My cup overflows. I believe what he's saying here is even though we are among people who might be our enemies, he will anoint us, and our cup will overflow with his goodness. Surely, your goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever. Yes, we will keep the Lord as our shepherd. If we pray with prayer and petition, with thanksgiving in our hearts, and we are not anxious, if we follow him no matter what happens, he will guide us along the right path. He will restore our soul, and we will dwell in his house forever because we claimed that we know that God can do anything for whoever it may be. Even the guy on the cross next to Jesus was forgiven. We will have God with us forever. Thank you for allowing me into your home. Please reach out to God every day. Trust in him for your needs. If you have any questions or comments, please reach out to me by email at IBelieveHe'sNotDone at yahoo.com Thank you for listening to I Believe He's Not Done Yet with Bill Nelan.