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    From the Void to the Throne: Shadow to Substance
    From the Void to the Throne: Shadow to Substance
    From the Void to the Throne: Shadow to Substance
    Ebook110 pages1 hour

    From the Void to the Throne: Shadow to Substance

    By Paul G. Sames

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    About this ebook

    This story shows how the resurrection life of Jesus will transform a life. Read the story of a man who had a head-on encounter with the God he didnt think existed. He was changed forever!

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherWestBow Press
    Release dateAug 6, 2013
    ISBN9781490800097
    From the Void to the Throne: Shadow to Substance
    Author

    Paul G. Sames

    Paul G. Sames has been a Christian since 1974 and has been in public ministry since 1977. His ministry as a pastor and missionary/evangelist spans from this time. Paul and his wife Diana founded and pastored a church with a team ministry in Australia, in the latter half of the 1980’s. Paul was also senior minister of 2 Spirit Filled churches in Marin and Sonoma County, California during the decade of the 90’s. He has also traveled extensively in the USA and around the world in missions evangelism. He holds a Diploma in Biblical Studies and Ministry as well as a Bachelor Degree in Theology. Paul has shared his testimony around the world for almost 40 years as of 2013 and is delighted to finally publish his account. He has been married to Diana for almost 36 years as of 2013 and they have 2 sons, Aaron and Reuben. Aaron went to be with Jesus in 2010, after an epic and heroic battle with malignant lymphoma for over 3 years. Aaron was a man with an incandescent spirit of magnanimous love. He went through the valley of the shadow of death many times in his sufferings but thankfully he awoke to live forevermore in The Presence of the Prince of Life. He now rejoices with joy unspeakable. He is fervently loved and terribly missed by his parents and brother Reuben. He is also greatly missed by an army of faithful friends. The family lives in St Pete Beach, Florida.

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      Book preview

      From the Void to the Throne - Paul G. Sames

      Copyright © 2013 Paul G. Sames.

      All rights reserved. No part of this book may be used or reproduced by any means, graphic, electronic, or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, taping or by any information storage retrieval system without the written permission of the publisher except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews.

      WestBow Press books may be ordered through booksellers or by contacting:

      WestBow Press

      A Division of Thomas Nelson

      1663 Liberty Drive

      Bloomington, IN 47403

      www.westbowpress.com

      1-(866) 928-1240

      Because of the dynamic nature of the Internet, any web addresses or links contained in this book may have changed since publication and may no longer be valid. The views expressed in this work are solely those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the publisher, and the publisher hereby disclaims any responsibility for them.

      Any people depicted in stock imagery provided by Thinkstock are models, and such images are being used for illustrative purposes only.

      Certain stock imagery © Thinkstock.

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-0010-3 (sc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-0011-0 (hc)

      ISBN: 978-1-4908-0009-7 (e)

      Library of Congress Control Number: 2013911888

      WestBow Press rev. date: 8/6/2013

      "Scripture quotations taken from the Amplified® Bible,

      Copyright © 1954, 1958, 1962, 1964, 1965, 1987 by The Lockman Foundation

      Used by permission." (www.Lockman.org)

      Scripture taken from The Message. Copyright © 1993, 1994, 1995, 1996, 2000, 2001, 2002. Used by permission of NavPress Publishing Group.

      Other quotes are from NASB and KJV Bible translations. (public domain)

      Contents

      Chapter 1 (Part 1) The Seeds Of Life Sown!

      Chapter 2 Explosion Of Light

      Chapter 3 The Law Gives Grace

      Chapter 4 Christians Not Perfect?

      Chapter 5 Falling From Grace

      Chapter 6 Miracle Received

      Chapter 7 Demons Flee

      Chapter 8 Revival/ Sunflower Restaurant

      Chapter 9 Gods Prescription

      Chapter 10 Two Friends And Casualties

      Shadow To Substance Part 2

      Chapter 11 Religiosity Revealed

      Chapter 12 Tv Sitcom Or Reality?

      Chapter 13 Football Game Or Fellowship?

      Chapter 15 Lonely In The Crowd?

      Chapter 16 Stage Set Christianity?

      Chapter 16 Gods Coral Or Plastic Mermaids

      Chapter 17 A Dummy Isnt A Real Person

      Chapter 18 Weird Religious Subcultures

      Chapter 19 Cookie Cutter Clone

      Chapter 1 (Part 1)

      THE SEEDS OF LIFE SOWN!

      Many people in life are desperately searching for the answer that will bring fulfillment and purpose and are asking the age old questions:

      How did I get here?

      What is the purpose of this earth walk?

      What happens at death?

      All of the world’s major religions grapple with these questions and attempt to bring adequate answers. For many years I studied world religions, as well as occult, Para psychological and philosophical phenomena. This resulted in much knowledge but did not set me free with love and truth (knowledge puffs up but love edifies). At the time, I was convinced that the paths I had chosen were the paths of life, because I did have many and varied supernatural experiences, some of which were incredibly beautiful.

      The spiritual melting pot that boiled over in the 1960s had a powerful impact on my life. I was fascinated by the whole spiritual/philosophical thrust made popular by the Beatles, Timothy Leary, Eastern religious gurus and many others. I became fascinated with Eastern philosophies, new age spiritualism and experimentation with psychedelic drugs, as did many of my contemporaries. The psychedelic experiences totally altered my perception of the universe and without even realizing it; I started embracing a Buddhist/Hinduistic cosmology. I almost instantaneously developed an insatiable spiritual appetite for all kinds of cosmic theories. This seemed wonderful and I was convinced I had found reality and truth.

      In late 1973, my brother Roger returned to Sydney, Australia, after living in Canada and the U.S. for 7 years. He had been recently living in Oahu, Hawaii for some time and had also been involved in a spiritual odyssey, which led him into yogic teachings from the East. At times Roger would write me, informing me of his latest spiritual discovery, or cosmic revelation. I would relish these letters as profound moments, as I also was on a voyage for spiritual discovery, so to speak. Rogers letters would at times contain impressive Eastern spiritual terminology, such as karma, satori, yoga, etc., and many other Indian terms, to describe different Eastern religious experiences or principles. All this was received with deep appreciation and approval.

      One day in late 1973, I received a letter from Roger with a dramatic and radically different message. At first it shocked and rocked me to my foundations and then it angered me. The very opening line said, Jesus Christ defeated Satan 2000 years ago at Calvary when He died and rose again, thereby stripping Satan of the keys of death and hell. Hallelujah! I could not believe what I was reading. To me, at that time, this was a total sellout to the establishment forces of conservative western politics and religious culture. I was deeply incensed to say the least and threw the letter down in disappointment and disgust. I felt betrayed and made a resolve to avoid Roger and his letters. Amazingly, he returned to Australia a few weeks after his letter was received.

      Just prior to Christmas 1973 Roger returned to Australia and spontaneously, I encountered him in my Mothers apartment. I saw he looked different; his face had a peaceful glow about it that was different to the acid inspired effulgence, of many of my contemporaries. I was challenged and somehow weakened, and got out of his presence as soon as possible. At that time I believed that all religions or spiritual paths, led to the same One God or enlightenment.

      I did not so much mind someone making Jesus Christ their guru or spiritual master, though even this, in my estimation was inferior, because any Christian path, according to Timothy Leary (the 60s trip guru who had become the chief luminary in my particular orbit) could only hope to bring one to level 4 or sensory consciousness. Leary said the highest consciousness was what he termed level 1 or atomic/electronic consciousness. His theory claimed that this state was attained only by the most enlightened Buddhist monks, or the highest strata of psychedelic researchers on large doses of hallucinogens. At level 1 the whole physical world (Oneself included), dissolved into shimmering latticework’s of energy patterns and one had the experience of The White Light of the Void or Nirvana.

      Anyway back to the story, the thing that really irritated me about my brother Roger was that he was declaring that Jesus Christ was the ONLY WAY. This was a powerful affront to my New Age, cosmic/universalist belief system. I was therefore determined to prove that my god was as good as his God or that my light was as bright as or brighter than his Light. I did my best to convey my universalistic spiritual knowledge to him. I hoped I would be able to dazzle my brother with a concoction of contemporary cosmology. I reasoned to myself that I would present my Eastern spirituality with such eloquence that his Jesus Freak teachings would collapse into foolish irrelevance. My mission was to bring him out of his delusion and into my perceived realities of cosmic consciousness. We had a Roman Catholic upbringing, so I thought maybe he had just reverted to childhood conditioning and become an overgrown altar boy. Little did I realize how in fact blind and deceived I was.

      Prior to returning to Oz, my brother had been involved, after his conversion to Jesus Christ, with a Christian fellowship called The Lighthouse. Many of its members had been converted out of former lifestyles of drug use and alternative philosophies. This church had really learnt how to pray and Roger had them praying for me to find Jesus

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