I would like to introduce myself as I am new to the Reader Magnet’s Author Lounge. My name is David Wersler. I had my first book published in 2015 titled Time to Get Going – A Collection of Poems about God’s Good News. I had started writing the poems when I was in college and continued for about twenty-five years after that. People who had read them urged me to get them published but I did not know how. I found a website for another publisher and decided to go for it.

            The reader from the front title will understand that the poetry in this book that it contains good news. Although I had been in church all my life, it was not until I was ten years old that I understood the good news message found in the Bible.  I will explain that later in this blog. Before I do that, I need to recount another event in my life that was a preparation for me to write the poems found in my book. It was Christmas 1969; my father was driving my grandmother home. She was visiting us for the holiday, and we were planning to leave the next day to visit my aunt and uncle in South Carolina. I had wanted to ride with my father and grandmother but was told to ride with my mother. Thank God, I listened and obeyed my dad. Everything was going okay. It had started to snow so my mother was driving cautiously behind my dad. We came to an intersection and my dad was able to continue while my mother and I had to wait for the light to change. When it did, we proceeded and not far along my mother said to the effect that it looked like there was a car accident ahead. When we got closer, we realized that it was my dad and grandmother had been hit head-on by another vehicle that had traveled into their lane. Upon examination of the situation, I realized that my grandmother had died on impact and my dad was

seriously injured. My dad was in the hospital for nearly a month. After he was released, he spent more than a month at home recuperating.

                It was during this time that our family was introduced to a young man named Rick Goodman. He wanted to start a Youth Ranch and a friend of ours thought our basement was the perfect place. The reason why was because my dad was a square dance caller and our basement was decorated with old farm paraphernalia like wagon wheels and lanterns. Rick saw our basement and he was sold on it. So, on the first Monday of March 1970, the first meeting of the Doylestown Youth Ranch occurred. The main purpose of Ranch was to provide high school students a place where they could bring their friends to hear the good news that God loved them and had provided the way that anyone can have their sin forgiven and receive eternal life by trusting Jesus Christ as their personal savior. It also had the purpose of training those that came to Ranch how to share the gospel with their friends. Ranch continued for eight years. During that time, we had annual summer conferences where we traveled down to Hollywood, FL. During the summer months, we had special activities as well. In addition, there were Christmas and Easter camps in the Pocono Mountains. It was because of Ranch that I developed my poetry writing and wanted to use it as a means to share the gospel with others as well as encourage others not to be afraid to share the gospel. Ranch also had another consequence that came about in 1974 when I met a girl by the name of Pamela Sonnie. She was brought by another girl one night in October. At the Ranch meeting that night, she accepted Christ as her savior. I can not say it was love at first sight, but on June 21, 1980 she and I were married. The minister that officiated the ceremony was Rick Goodman, the young man who I met ten years previously.

            Having said all of this background, I want to let those who read this blog in the Author’s Forum, that I am convinced that the poetry which I have written in Time to Get Going are based on my own experience what God has done in my life. The best part is that you too can experience what God has done for you. The start is realizing that all of us has missed the mark of God’s perfection. This simply means that all of us have sinned. The Bible says in Romans3:23 that the penalty for our sin is death. Not just physical death, but spiritual death as well. This means that we are separated from God. Eventually, it leads separation from God in hell for eternity. The bad news does not stop there. The Bible says that there is nothing that we can do that can merit us salvation. In the Book of Ephesians, it is written, “For by grace you are saved through faith and that not of yourselves. Not of works lest anyone should boast.” So, if we cannot earn it, how can we get the perfection or righteousness that we need. This is where the good news begins. In Second Corinthians 5:21, the Bible says that God sent His Son who was Jesus Christ and God could give us the righteousness or perfection we need to get to heaven. Here comes the best part. The way that we receive this righteousness, perfection and forgiveness of our sin is to simply believe or trust that Jesus Christ died on the cross and shed his blood for our sins. That is it. God will give us eternal life as a free gift; and we can never lose it.

I urge you to do it today as one never knows what will happen around the next corner. In my next blog in the Author’s Lounge, I will share some of the poetry found in my book.