Then, as I reached teen age, other things captured my interests. Worldly things like steam trains and later, motor bikes and.... girls!! There seemed less time for church and Bible classes and soon they no longer featured in my life.

Eventually I met one girl that was more special than the others and asked her to marry me. She accepted and we were married in her local Methodist Church - even though she never went there. Back in those days it wasn't such a big deal that my bride walked down the aisle a virgin. But our wedding and the occasional friends' weddings was the only church services we attended as a married couple. But I guess our Christian education never quite left us because we knew right from wrong and had a good marriage.

After about 2 years, my employers made an announcement to staff that tradesmen printers were needed at the firm's associate company in New Zealand. That was when the British Labour government were making life very hard with rampant inflation and there were, of course, the British winters! So my wife and I read up everything we could find about New Zealand and it wasn't long before we had fallen in love with the place - and THAT was before we had even seen it!

So after some discussion with both our families (who all agreed the move was a wonderful idea), it was off to the other side of the world and a new life. New Zealand turned out to be everything and more than the literature had promised. At first, we were, of course, dreadfully homesick for our families and friends and even planned to fulfill my two-year contract and then go home to England. But the one thing we did decide was that we would see as much as possible of New Zealand whilst we were there. That did it! The more we saw, the more we loved the beautiful and diverse South Pacific nation paradise so that, by the time the two years had elapsed, rather than heading back to cold, smoggy Britain we were preparing for just about all our families to join us!

Not long after arriving in Aotearoa (the Maori name for New Zealand meaning Land of the Long White Cloud) my wife, who was a real estate agent, got a job where one of her colleagues was also a Salvation Army officer. He invited us to his church at Tawa and, as new immigrants, we were anxious to meet nice people and so we accepted.

My wife's parents as well as her only brother and his family followed us to our Island Paradise and my parents sold up everything ready to come too. But, just before they were to leave Britain, my mother died suddenly and my Dad came alone and very lonely. At first he lived with us and our new-born first son until, after about two years, he was introduced by neighbors to a lovely newly immigrated British lady who had not long been widowed. It wasn't long before they married and set up their own home. By that time, our second son had arrived and both were dedicated to the Lord at the Salvation Army where we continued to fellowship.

It was that fellowship that kept us going really. I don't honestly remember much of the Christian teaching there but the people were beautiful. By that time I had moved from the printing industry to a job as a sales rep for a photographic equipment wholesaler which involved visiting professional photographers throughout the central part of New Zealand. Then, after about nine years, I had the opportunity to purchase one of my customers' studio in the sunniest part of the country. So we had another move to Hastings. On arrival, we went along to the local Salvation Army but found the welcome there very different to what we had experienced in Tawa and so it wasn't long before we stopped going. That was when I believe I slipped the furthest away from God in my life.

I don't really know but I often wonder how much that separation from Our Lord contributed to the eventual failure of our marriage after 23 years but that is what happened. I had slipped into a sinful life and was certainly not the husband and father my wife and sons deserved. My business occupied most of my waking life with very little time left for my family and we just drifted further and further apart.

I had never lived alone in my life, having moved out of my parents' home into my marriage and the thought of being alone terrified me and so it was that, in a very short time, I had entered a relationship with a young mother of four who told me that her husband had threatened her life and she had left him. I fell in love with her hook, line and sinker! She told me that she had always loved Jesus and that, in itself, was exactly what I needed because the separation from God had never sat very comfortably with me. But there was one thing wrong! Instead of renewing my acquaintance with the Lord, I had a goddess! Yes, I literally broke the very first Commandment and worshiped the ground my new lady friend walked on! As soon as the legally required two year separation from my first wife had passed, my friend and I were married.

I should mention that the old saying that the leopard never changes his spots is not true! When I was married to my first wife, I was a selfish, adulterous animal! With my new wife I was a totally different man. I adored her and she knew it. With her first husband, she had attended a cult church and, although she hated it, she had gone for her husband's sake. So, after we got together, we began to attend a local Pentecostal church where the worship was lively and the fellowship great. I really believed I had "come home" to a Christian family again.

I wanted my new wife to meet my Dad and step-mother who, by that time, had moved to live in Queensland to be closer to her family and so we took a holiday there. My wife fell in love with the tropical climate and the city of Brisbane but, because of her much-loved and ailing father, she was not prepared to move so far away from him. However, about three years later, he died with her by his bedside and she announced that she was now ready to go to Australia. So we sold our home and almost all our belongings and, with my 15-year-old step daughter, crossed the Tasman. My step sons elected to stay in New Zealand with their father.

As soon as we arrived, my wife's behavior became very scary. She spent money like water on really silly things and, when I tried to reason with her about it, she flew off the handle and told me she would leave if I kept it up. I became quite frantic as I could see all our savings disappearing before our eyes. We had only been here for seven weeks when my wife came home late one night and announced that she had met a lady in the city who had taken her to her church and that she intended to join them. When I asked what church that was, you can imagine my absolute horror when she told me it was the Scientologists! That was probably when I completely "lost it!" The more I tried to persuade her to have nothing to do with them, the worse she got until she stormed out and her new "friends" came to collect her belongings the next day.

As if that wasn't devastating enough, a short time later, my wife got a job and, two weeks after starting there, she went to live with a man who worked there. When I went to see her to try to reason with her, he beat me up and threw me out. I have never seen her since.

So here I was in a strange country with only my 90-year-old father and my step-mother to console me. I wrote to and telephoned friends in New Zealand and was quite amazed when they told me that my wife had been playing (as they called it) "emotional ping-pong" with me since the day we met. I asked why they had waited 'til now to tell me and they, of course, defended themselves by saying it wasn't their place to interfere in another's marriage. And I guess I would have done the same in their position.

However, one friend wrote to me to tell me that one of the "big name" American evangelists was holding a rally in Brisbane in just a few days time and suggested that I should go along for some "uplifting." Since I sure needed some, I decided to go. At first, all the "hype" and the apparent concentration on raking in as much money as possible really put me off to the point where I walked out, but a very nice lady I had been sitting next to came after me and persuaded me to go back where she got some "counselors" to pray over me. In my desperation, I stuck with it and, after the rally, I began attending a local church that had been very prominent there. It was what might be called a "radical" church in that the "pastor" was an ex-heroin addict house-breaker who had accepted Jesus and instantly changed his life and the congregation all had similar backgrounds. Most of them rode motor cycles and wore leathers with a cross on the back.

Whilst I didn't really "fit" there, the worship was vigorous and the preaching dynamic and so I attended every Sunday. Because I had no one to spend my spare time with, I began to study the Bible as never before. In particular, there were some aspects of the church that were concerning me so I got into some really intensive research of both Scripture and other sources. One of the things I realized was that I should do no work on the Sabbath and so, pretty soon, my Sundays were devoted entirely to "religious" activities. I would get up at about 6:00 am and watch Christian broadcasts on the local community TV station until it was time to go to church (actually held in a disused factory!) where I would join in the worship until lunch time when the congregation shared a barbecue lunch. After lunch, most of us would go to another newly-started church at a nearby hall to help boost their numbers and then return to our own church for tea and an evening service. As soon as the service was over, I raced home as fast as I could to watch more Christian TV from America until retiring at about 11:00 pm. Sunday was totally devoted to God - or so I believed at the time!

It was at this time that I began to write some notes about my researches and those notes gradually became small booklets which I shared with whoever would read them. One of those booklets was about the Ten Commandments and was called "The Deal." The more I researched, the more I began to wonder why I was doing all those things I have described on a Sunday. Search as I might, I could find absolutely nothing in my Bible to suggest that God's holy Sabbath had ever been changed from the seventh day to the first. This naturally concerned me. Then I found some writings in Roman Catholic records that clearly stated that the Roman Catholic Church had changed the sacred day from Saturday to Sunday totally unilaterally. They even stated that any other church that apportioned holiness to the first day had no Biblical reason to do so as Sunday was the Catholic holy day. THAT really concerned me! So I put it all into "The Deal" manuscript and, one Sunday, gave a copy to the pastor for his comment. After church, as usual, I raced home to watch Jimmy Swaggart on TV and, right in the middle of his program, there was an advertisement for an upcoming "New World Order" seminar series about 25 kms from my home. As I had no idea at that time what this New world Order was about it caught my attention. Until I actually attended I had no idea that it was all prophesied in Scripture. Then the ad gave a few ideas of what the seminars would be about and I decided to go along.

Imagine my surprise when, on the third evening, the speaker talked about the true Sabbath and completely endorsed everything I had researched. My heart soared! Then, the very next day, I received a phone call from the pastor of the church I had been attending telling me that I was totally mad with what I had written and that, if I ever set foot in "his" church again, I would be bodily thrown out. At the time I was stunned, but I now realize that God had plans for my life which have been fulfilled with Beloved King Ministries.

Not long after that, whilst moving furniture at home one night, I stupidly tried to lift a particularly large item and fractured my spine. That laid me up for over three months and with nothing else to do, I dramatically stepped up my research work and writing. Along with several of the other booklets I had written, including "The Message," "The Mark of the Beast" and "Why Worry," after a further 3½ years research and collating, "The Deal" became part of a full-length book, "God's Deal With YOU" (which can be read either at the Beloved King Ministries' web site or in paperback). Since it is readily available to anyone who wants to know the truth I won't preach here but pray in Jesus' name that, if you read it, you will find enlightenment that will change your life for ever.

God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son that all who believe in Him should not perish but have life everlasting. Wow!! That's really something ain't it? He did that for me! I love Him because He first loved me. From the ashes of my life God has raised me up to the point where I am a new creation. The Holy Spirit is the only company I now need. From wanting to die I have a joy of living that I never knew before. I love nothing more than sharing what I have learned with whoever will listen - although not many want to! They are too entrenched in their lifelong apostate doctrines to want to change! I have done as God instructed in Ezekiel 3:18-21 and so my conscience is clear.

Beloved King Ministries has a fortnightly online Internet magazine called "Making A Difference" in which contributions from all over the world are shared. It was originally started in February 2000 as a short generic email to answer questions that were coming in about "God's Deal With YOU" that was sent to 51 people and, after just over two years, in June 2002, over 6000 copies were emailed out! Praise God!!

If I can help bring just one of those people into a more understanding relationship with their Creator and Saviour, my life will have been worthwhile. Of course, I would like to bring a lot more than that to know and understand God and I know that I am in His hands every day of the rest of my mortal life. Satan is working overtime to deceive and indoctrinate beautiful and sincere people into his counterfeit worship. The Bible predicted it almost 2000 years ago in Revelation 13:8 and we now live in the last days before Jesus returns to resurrect His faithful. Personally, I can hardly wait to see Him coming in the clouds with ten thousand times ten thousand and thousands and thousands of angels. The only reason I don't want it to be right now is because I know there are wonderful people out there who don't yet know the truth.

In the words of that great hymn, "Amazing Grace, that saved a wretch like me. I once was lost but now I'm found; was blind, but now I see." Amen.

If you would like to correspond with me you can email me at drh@belovedking.org or check out my website at http://www.belovedking.org/ 

David Rex Holt