BVOV Magazine 2013 - present

time to reflect on his life. Somehow the pain in his shoulder had loosed memories better-off forgotten. He'd been raised in northern Michigan. His parents always went to church, and at 9 he'd been saved at church camp. At 14, he'd received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit and was called into the ministry. At 15, Denver had left home and traveled 758 miles to attend a Christian school. After high school, at 16 he had enrolled for one year in Evangel College and later graduated from North Central Bible College at 19. After working as a youth pastor and assistant pastor, he'd accepted the pastorate of a church in Michigan. He'd married and had five children. It hadn't been a marriage made in heaven, Denver remembers. Most wives tell their husbands how much they love them. His wife told him on a regular basis that she didn't love him. Things started coming apart at the seams in 1986, when he'd fallen and cut his foot under a lawn mower. Then a fire destroyed the parsonage where he and his family lived. They lost everything. At a conference, Denver shared what had happened with another attendee. "God is after you," the man said. "You'd better duck or He's going to kill you." That confirmed what Denver had always suspected. God didn't love him either. He resigned from pastoring and went to work for the Michigan State Police. A while after, his marriage ended in divorce. Wounded and unloved, he'd worked hard in other businesses until he'd met and married Stacey. Moving to Alaska, they had started over. Now this. Arriving at the hospital, Denver was rushed to the emergency room. In a blur of activity, he had an EKG, X-rays and bloodwork. Then the doctor laid it on the line. "You had a heart attack," he said. "Your heart is screaming for oxygen. You need a stent. If you don't get it, you'll be dead by morning. You could die before we get it in. Your body could reject the stent after the procedure. But without it, you don't have a chance to live." Denver knew that in the next second he could see God. He had no idea what God would say to him— and no time to make it right. Facing Eternity "When you come within one heartbeat from seeing God, you don't care what anybody else thinks," Denver recalls. "You just want to know what God thinks. I'd heard a lot of people talk about what they believed God thought. I'd been among the Lutherans, the Assemblies of God and the Baptists. "Everyone had an opinion: Once saved always saved. You could backslide. You could lose your salvation. But when you come close to seeing eternity, you just want the truth. I believed in Jesus, but I was spiritually conflicted. I'd made so many bad choices. So many wrong decisions. Did God love me? Could I be forgiven?" As soon as Denver returned home from the hospital, he did something he hadn't done in 20 years. "I turned on Christian television," Denver recalls. "I was feeling sorry for myself. I kept thinking that if I hadn't made so many mistakes, I might have impacted people for Jesus. T.D. Jakes was preaching, and I liked him. When the camera panned the audience, my bitterness spewed out. "I pointed at a man and said, 'He's a drug dealer, yet he's sitting in church!' I looked at a lady and said, 'She's a hooker.' To the next guy I said, 'He must be a pimp!' "I heard the Lord say, I love those people. '"Sure, You love everybody,' I quipped. "God grabbed me by the collar and sat me straight up on that couch. I felt His finger in my face. He said, I love those people just like I love Jesus! Like I love you! How do you think you can get people to come to Jesus when you don't even like them? I need you to start loving people. "For the next 30 minutes, God shined a light on my prejudices," said Denver. "I had reasons for not liking people. I didn't like Germans because they killed the Jews, even though I was of German descent. I didn't like the Japanese 2 2 : B V O V Old Testament New Testament JAN READ THROUGH THE BIBLE Sun 1 Ps. 1-5; Prov. 1:1-19 Mon 2 Gen. 1:1-3:7 Matt. 1 Tue 3 Gen. 3:8-5:20 Matt. 2 Wed 4 Gen. 5:21-8:5 Matt. 3 Thu 5 Gen. 8:6-10:19 Matt. 4 Fri 6 Gen. 10:20-12:20 Matt. 5 Sat 7 Gen. 13-15 Sun 8 Ps. 6-9; Prov. 1:20-33 Mon 9 Gen. 16:1-18:21 Matt. 6 Tue 10 Gen. 18:22-20:13 Matt. 7 Wed 11 Gen. 20:14-22:24 Matt. 8 Thu 12 Gen. 23:1-24:49 Matt. 9 Fri 13 Gen. 24:50-26:11 Matt. 10 Sat 14 Gen. 26:12-27:40 Sun 15 Ps. 10-13; Prov. 2 Mon 16 Gen. 27: 41-29:35 Matt. 11 Tue 17 Gen. 30:1-31:21 Matt. 12 Wed 17 Gen. 31:22-32:32 Matt. 13 Thu 19 Gen. 33:1-35:8 Matt. 14 Fri 20 Gen. 35:9-36:43 Matt. 15 Sat 21 Gen. 37-38 Sun 22 Ps. 14-17; Prov. 3:1-18 Mon 23 Gen. 39:1-41:13 Matt. 16 Tue 24 Gen. 41:14-42:24 Matt. 17 Wed 25 Gen. 42:25-44:17 Matt. 18 Thu 26 Gen. 44:18-48:16 Matt. 19 Fri 27 Gen. 48:17-50:26 Matt. 20 Sat 28 Ex. 1:1-3:12 Sun 29 Ps. 18; Prov. 3:19-35 Mon 30 Ex. 3:13-5:21 Matt. 21 Tue 31 Ex. 5:22-7:25 Matt. 22

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