09/02/2026
Here's this week's Focus - part 1 of possibly 3 parts. Thanks for stopping by! đź’–
By Dick Burckhart (c) 2026
“This Pilgrim's Progress”
Part One
I never read “The Pilgrim’s Progress” by Paul Bunyan, but I understand what it’s about, and thought I’d share my “pilgrim’s progress” story of my life from my rebirth until the present day. This is geared toward new Christians or those who haven’t yet surrendered their lives to Jesus, to share a glimpse of my journey from being lost, to being a baby Christian, to where I’m at today.
I attended a UCC church with my parents until I was 18, then never went back. The church was very dry and lifeless to me, and because my Dad was raised in the Mennonite faith, I saw “religion” as boring, unexciting, and wanted no part of it. When I was a young teen in the UCC, I went through a catechism class, and after completing the class, we all stood in front of the church and recited the Nicene creed (basically the “sinners prayer,”) and became members of the church, but nothing was ever said about being born again or saved.
2 Cor. 5:17 says: “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new.” (NKJV) Nothing changed in me that day, the words I recited held no meaning for me, other than I was now a member of a rather lifeless church, and those words would NOT have gotten me into heaven, because they didn’t come from my heart!
When I was around 30 years old, I was in a serious car crash - both my car and the other (at fault) one were totaled, but thankfully nobody was seriously injured. Shortly thereafter, one of my neighbors, a born again Catholic, shared the gospel with me, saying I needed to be born again. He gave me some Christian material, and I “sniffed around”a little, but I was having too much fun as a sinner, and certainly not ready for what I saw as a boring, restrictive “religion.”
Over the next dozen years, I occasionally prayed for others, and sometimes I would even ask God to forgive me for not being born again yet, but told Him I was having too much fun sinning! That all changed when my co-worker George committed su***de.
I worked in a factory, and there were a number of Christians around me, so one day I asked Nick if God heard my prayers for George’s family.The Lord prompted Nick to say what I needed to hear. He said “Jesus said that when we pray, we should pray and ask in Jesus name, and if Jesus isn’t your Lord and Savior, what do you think?” I was crushed! Come back next week for more of the story…Amen!
