My name is Matthew Lee Wallace, a humble servant of the Lord our God Almighty. A man born and raised in Fort Payne, Alabama where I have and will always cherish a life that God has so richly blessed me. I am a Christian believer who knows without a shadow of doubt that God exists and Jesus Christ died on a cross at Cavalry for all man’s sins that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life (John 3:16). I need to share something wonderful and amazing with you Sir! After many difficulties and hurdles in my life I became a big fan of the methods and ideas you teach. I know that you are a true man of God because of the most recent events in my life. Lets begin with the journey God has so greatly laid out for me! On May 18, 2012, I came to the Birmingham Jefferson Civic Center in Birmingham to visit with you and your family in a “Night of Hope”. A friend of mine came with me and I never knew about this journey God had in store for me. I am still on this journey and every day is not only a blessing but a miracle of Gods work indeed! After that “Night of Hope” I decided to take your offer of stepping things up in my faith in trying to meet God halfway on finding my future wife! I decided to start a journal devoted to my future wife who would be coming “soon” according to the way you put it. In this journal I decided to use your 90 day devotional on Your Best Life Now that I had already done 2 years prior but thought I would try it again. Well door after door closed and door after door opened! On day 23 of this devotional and journal God moved in my life like no other day before. My day began with a flat tire, then tests and homework nonstop at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and to top it off I ran out of gas later that night! My scripture for that day was Matthew 9:29 and God was testing how well my faith was that day. The events of this day could have angered or frustrated me, but instead I choose to look to God and glorify him anyway. We receive what we believe and I received according to my faith as Jesus puts it in Matthew 9:29. My friend that had attended your “Night of Hope” with me came to my aid with his mother tagging along by bringing me the gas that I needed. His mother asks me if I was looking for a “good Christian woman” and I replied “Well as a matter of fact, yes”. She recommends a young woman to me that attends church with her and her son (my best friend) telling me to look her up on Facebook. When I finally arrive home later to check this young lady out on Facebook, hesitating after seeing her interests and birthday being the day after my ex-wife’s birthday. Deciding that I may try to talk to her anyway, I notice she has a sister so I decide to go on over to her page and check things out before making a decision to talk with the first but older sister. Noticing that her birthday was the day before mine and having a favorite quote of mine which is actually something you say Joel, I felt strongly about asking her to talk with me. Remember my devotion for the day? Matthew 9:29. In which my name is Matthew and my birthday is September 29th and her birthday is September 28th. Well interesting enough the quote I am referring to is “Do what you can do and let God do what you cannot do”. Next thing that is interesting, other than God lining my days up with your devotional readings I was doing every single day, was on the first Sunday I decided to go attend church with her after we had begun to date was that my devotion was on Psalm 139 and after arriving to attend her Sunday School class their lesson was on the very same things out of Psalm 139. Among many things like this, some of the key things that I remember without looking through my journal is that the day I do your devotional titled “Changing the Flow” she tells me that she is beginning to fall for me; then in a few days after that she tells me she loves me on the day I read “On the Edge of Your Promised Land”! Amazingly it gets better and better by God really firing things up more and more. On June 30, 2012 the journey becomes very intriguing. It all begins when we arrive at my parents’ home on Weiss Lake. Our arrival comes to be full of surprises in which my two younger nieces and my son greet us at my car where they invite us to follow them over to an arranged table out by my parents’ outdoor pool. There we are served by very young and humble servants which were very humbling experiences indeed. They went through every detail serving us a wonderful breakfast. Later, showing this young lady my parents’ home and finding another devotional that I had begun maybe 17 years before, I choose to take this devotional with me not knowing the reason at the time but would soon be of great significance. After leaving my parents’ home and driving us to this young lady’s grandparents for another family gathering, I experience the Holy Spirit in a way I had never experienced before where I became inflamed with heat to a point that I had no idea what was happening to me. Our plans was taking us to a youth gathering at her church which was called “Ignite Your Fire Youth Revolution” and while waiting on this young lady to finish preparing herself, I flipped through this newly acquired devotional in which God leads me to find a devotion called “Learning to Be a Servant of God.” Remembering the children from earlier that day being wonderful servants I was led to read this devotion when the young lady comes rushing out and says that we are going to be late if we don’t hurry up. I politely ask her if she would read this particular devotion to me as I drive us to this event that would touch my life in a way I would never forget. The devotion comes from Jeremiah 18 and 1 Kings 18 teaching of how to become a good servant of God. Astonished after hearing the guest speaker at this youth revolution giving his message from 1 Kings 18, I knew that God was asking me to do a work for him. I wait and wait not knowing exactly what it is God wanted me to do then it came. The message began to be boring and he started back through what it seemed like he had already discussed. The grandmother of this young lady leans over to me and says “Matt, I sure do wish he would hurry up”. Hearing God speak to me through her grandmother telling me to hurry up and do what he had asked me to do, I immediately stand up and go to the front to meet this guest speaker face to face. There I begin sharing my personal testimony of how God was using my life and how I received the message he was giving but that message had another message to go along with it. I read to over 400 youth this night about Jeremiah 18 where God is the potter and we should be the clay where he can mold and shape our lives into what he needs at any given moment daily. I tell this youth that they can have the desires of their hearts by giving everything over to God. In just a few minutes of me leaving the front there was an alter calling and many youth were saved that night. I was amazed and very excited at how God was using me! The very next day, my devotion was called “Healing Words” and I decide that there is no way that God would be healing anyone in front of me this day. Little did I know while attending worship at the young lady’s church again, I receive a message from another guest speaker out of the very next chapter of 1 Kings 19. This message will later be very key in what God is trying to show and tell me about this journey he has me on. The interesting thing about this message is that the speaker stops during the message and asks for a person to raise their hands that had pain in them. A woman near the back raises her hands saying her hands have that pain in them. He immediately goes to her praying a healing prayer over her hands with pain. Once again, God gains my attention with amazement. Later that week on July 4th, 2012 my devotion titled “Bless the Children” from your devotion brought tears to my eyes. Understand that my father is a firm man who has used some harsh words in my life and that is why I turned to you Joel Osteen. Your teachings and great inspirational ideas have been the encouragement used in my life to keep me going. To understand why this devotional was so moving for me then you must look back about fourteen years ago to see that I dropped out of college and my father called me a quitter among many other future cursing phrases in which it took years for me to get over these by blessing my own future. Today my father has changed for the better and that day after my devotion God moves him to send me a text message which said “I love you and I am proud of what you are doing. Jimmy Wallace” emotionally moving me to a point of tears and more amazement at how good God truly is! The next week on July 9th, 2012 I awake to the devotion titled “Trusting through Disappointment” in which I read this devotion during the sunrise early around 5:30 am. Understand that I was very happy with all the blessings and the encouragement God had been giving me. The day then changes with a phone call from the young lady’s mother giving me a head’s up to what would come later that day. She eventually calls me and emotionally breaks things off with me which was a very big disappointment. Fortunately, I continue my day continuously lifting my head up finding motivation from God in many ways that was really not expected. To understand where God is taking me, I must now go into detail about what I have been working on for the past couple of years. For a little over two years I began on a lifelong question I have had about the speed of light constant denoted as “c” that we use in many fields primarily physics. My work is currently trying to prove that this value can increase outside of gravitational fields in which I believe constrain all other energies including light to a constant speed. This is a very complicated subject and could easily take up many pages of text to describe what it is my theory explains. Now the reason for explaining my theory is that from the day I receive the disappointing news from the young lady is the day while attending the University of Alabama in Huntsville in my own attempts try to find someone in the Optics Research Building to help me with my theory. Disappointingly I find a professor and employee of the college who tries to discourage me from persisting on my work in this theory. After minutes of persistent discouragement I quote Philippians 4:13 upsetting the woman so I apologize for upsetting her. Looking back with hindsight of twenty-twenty vision I realize now that God was testing to see if I would stand for him no matter the setting or resistance. Not understanding why the young lady had broken things off with me I write an apology letter two days later in which my devotion was “Forgive and Move On”. In the attempt of delivering this letter with a rose, the day does not go very well so I decide to move on. That week God moves through those around me guiding me to attend a church service on the upcoming Sunday of July 15, 2012. Guidance first comes from my friend who is a preacher which is who I was working with at the time. He mentions to me that I should get two to three hours away from everything considering what had happened to me that week. The very next day a man who is employed with my father sends me a text message asking me to come visit his church and get away from everything including my family for the upcoming Sunday. Feeling the Holy Spirit touching me I immediately reply with my answer that I would be there. My devotion for Sunday July 15th takes us back to that message I had received while visiting the young lady’s church. 1 Kings 19 was that devotion and then visiting my friend’s church God gives me another message to address the message of a whisper. The worship last for two and a half hours and the guest speaker gives a message from the scripture of Jonah. I realize that God has intentions for me to prove this physics theory of mine and expects me to give a message to the entire world giving Him all the glory. The theory I am working on when proven will win the Noble Physics Prize and winning this prize there will be an acceptance speech to the world. My speech will be the whisper to the world from the small town of Fort Payne, Alabama. The gentleman delivering this message also tells me afterwards that God has told him to tell me to be patient with the young lady because He is dealing with her. Two days later, July 17th, 2012, my day is rather normal but the devotion for that day is titled “Tear Down the Walls” and later that evening after work I am arrested for harassment communication from the letter I had written to that young lady. The entire trip on my way to the jail I kept my chin up looking toward God not understanding why this was happening. Where else would anyone want more to tear down the walls than in a room inside this jail? Amazingly, I meet a man I am sharing this jail cell with that had written the entire verse of John 3:16 inside a cross up on the wall. I begin to share with this man in which the conversation turns to my theory where we discuss many physics and chemistry concepts that I had never thought of before. This entire time becomes very enthusiastic and during this conversation the man stops me describing what he believed to be a sign from God written on the wall next to my head. After he points it out to me I read LORD with ife under the L and eath under the D. Astonishingly the next morning I wake up at home looking at my Facebook account with your scripture for the day being the first post to my wall. Your post read from Proverbs 18:21 saying “Death and life are in the power of the tongue: and they that love it shall eat the fruit thereof.” This conversation in the jail cell completely diverted my thoughts, direction, and understanding of this theory I had worked on for so long. Then on Sunday July 22nd, 2012 I wake up feeling very upset and depressed for how else should I have felt with the turn of events that the previous week had unfolded. My devotion was uplifting but not as uplifting as the things that were about to take place at my own church of First Baptist Church of Fort Payne, Alabama. Attending my Sunday school class our lesson was on the devotion that I realize I had already done previously in my journal before I ever met the young lady. I revert back through the pages of my journal to find the devotion that lined up with the lesson we were discussing in our Sunday school class that morning. The lesson was on Judges 6 about how Gideon was not the man we would consider to complete the job at hand that God needed to be accomplished but God uses Gideon because God sees that he is a man of mighty valour. I also was telling God that morning that I could not be the man He wanted to take that message to the world. The encouraging part of this entire message is the fact that the day I received this message was on June 5th, 2012 which is the day that Venus passed in front of the Sun which only happens every one hundred and thirteen years. You may ask, what is so special about this event? Well to understand the magnitude in this event is to know that the speed of light was first measured by the astronomer “Ole Roemer” in the 1600’s by studying the eclipses of Jupiter’s moon Io. Being an astronomer myself I was encouraged more than you can realize. Then during worship following this encouraging Sunday school class I am picking up the offertory and a woman that I know very well tears out a page from her personal devotional, writing my name on this devotion, and then handing this page to me. What is amazing is how I had moved seats prior to all this happening making it different than all the times before. By moving seats I changed the side of the church I was picking the offertory up for making it different than all the other times I had picked up the offertory. The devotion I received from this lady was about signs from God on how God encourages us through these signs and they look like coincidences. Amazingly, I flip the page over to discover the title to the very next devotion to be “Glorifying God in Life and Death”. Remembering the sign I received on the wall in that jail cell I was beginning to accept what God is trying to bestow upon me. Many great inspirational things happen to me daily and I would love to share all of them but I must limit them considering the length of this letter. A few of these great things I cannot find myself to leave out of this letter happens on August 2nd, 2012 when my devotion for the day “God is a Giver” comes true. I promise a friend that I would buy him lunch and finding out that I have no money to buy it with I tell him we must have faith that God will provide. We end up with a free lunch from Chick-fil-a and I cannot help but laugh at my friend with the “I cannot believe that this has just happened” look on his face with his eyes wide open. Next, on Sunday August 5th, 2012 I receive a message from my pastor that comes from Philippians 3:12 that amazingly I see on a T-shirt of a young man at the theater later that day. My son and I attend the movie Batman the Dark Knight Rises and my son darts out on me immediately after the movie is over so I must pass many people to catch him putting me right behind this young man with the T-shirt that has the scripture on his back. The scripture is very encouraging considering that my theory is the seeking of the Noble Physics Prize. “I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus. Philippians 3:12” This entire week following this Sunday leads me toward the helping of others because how can God place anything into a closed hand. This is when I first notice that God is pointing towards a new young lady but I will get into that later. This is also the week that I attend a revival at a Church of God where they speak in tongues. Astonished being a Baptist my entire life was seeing these things that before this incredible summer I probably would have left saying that these people were crazy. The last night that I attended this revival I hear a tongue throughout the church in which it is interpreted into English. The message given said that “I know the things that I have been showing you and these things will come to pass. Through these things your family will change for the better. Also know that you are looking for a door of opportunity and you will pass through a door of opportunity and once you pass through this door of opportunity you will know without a shadow of doubt that this was the door of opportunity you were looking for.” Writing this letter I realize what was meant by all of it through and through because the title for my devotion that day was “How to have a Big Harvest” and by delivering that whisper of a speech for the Noble Physics Prize will bring a very big harvest for God! What is very intriguing is the very next day of Friday August 10th, 2012 I was discussing with my best friend how my phone had died earlier that summer just like his phone had just done during our discussion. Our discussion was the planning for us to meet the next morning for a day at what we call “Trade Day” in the town Collinsville just south of Fort Payne. Well the next morning I was running a little late and could not call my friend because of his phone dying the night before. My friend left without me and I drive down to the “Trade Day” looking for him but never actually going in I leave after not finding his truck in the parking lot. Come to find out later he had changed his mind and decided to sale some things which he was inside of this outdoor market sale. On the entrance of the interstate I find a hitchhiker in which I decide to give this man a ride in my car. This journey leads me to help this man out and what is wonderful is this man helps me beyond what I was willing to help him. The man needed to get all the way to Chattanooga, Tennessee where he was trying to get there to see some friends of his. I decided to give this man a ride and he goes with me to discuss things with the young lady’s father that had me arrested earlier this summer. After this unplanned event I carry this man over to downtown Chattanooga where we meet his friends standing in a food line. This food line is being held by a man that I meet and I realize how much I can actually help God if I would be open to suggestion just by helping with the feeding of the hungry. Later I get back to Fort Payne finding my best friend telling him how God had carried me to Chattanooga to see the hungry being fed. Amazingly, my friend figures out that he knows the man I met that day that was feeding the hungry and before the day is out we figure out where he is from and also that he is married kinsman to a very good friend of ours. All this time I could have known this man but I find out about him through a hitchhiker. The following weekend comes a time that I believe that God is really pointing towards a young lady that I believe to be the virtuous woman that I have been seeking with God’s help. Sunday, August 19, 2012, I attend my Sunday school class at my own church with a lesson directly out of Ruth talking about Ruth being a virtuous woman. Well amazingly this was the first Sunday in which this new young lady and I had finally made arrangements for me to come visit out at her church. While attending her church I receive a message from John chapter 10 about Jesus keeping the wolf from getting to his followers. Later this same day, I attend another church making it three different churches in one day. At this third church I hear a message on the three little pigs and we should all be careful of what we are building our spiritual houses out of because the wolf may come to destroy them. I call this the three churches Sunday and at that third church which happens to be where I had heard the tongue spoken on the door of opportunity. Now we return to that door of opportunity and how I found it by pure coincidence. On Wednesday September 5th, 2012 I am at school at the University of Alabama in Huntsville where I lose my watch during one of my classes through the day. Having no idea where my watch was I continue as the day progresses in looking for my watch from classroom to classroom that I had previously been in earlier that day. The very last classroom at the very end of my day I walk in asking some now very good friends of mine if they had seen a watch in this room. They answer me saying no but asking me if I was there for the meeting. I ask “What meeting?” and they answer me with the ASCE which stands for the American Society of Civil Engineers. I ask again “Which one is that?” since a week earlier I had attended the American Society of Mechanical Engineers meeting. They reply that this is the organization that builds the concrete canoe and being that my grandfather poured concrete his entire life or the fact that I had seen this canoe during Open House earlier that summer, I decide to stay for the meeting. Come to find out during this meeting they hold officer elections and I (not really wanting to) somehow find myself volunteering to run for the president position where I am surprisingly voted in. Little did I know at this time that this was the door of opportunity, but would not find out until later in the next few weeks. As I take on the responsibilities of this new position that is very overwhelming and full of surprises, I come to realize that Dr. John Gilbert is a man of great stature at the University of Alabama in Huntsville and he also has an office in the Optics Building. Then on September 20th, 2012 I go over to the Optics Building to meet with Dr. Gilbert about matters dealing with the ASCE and mention to him during this meeting about my faith and how I needed to talk to him more about a physics theory of mine. He prints off a letter from his computer and asks me to read this article whenever I find the time to read it. Later on Monday, September 24, 2012, I pick this letter up reading this very intriguing article which contains quite a bit of information regarding a class called STARS that Dr. Gilbert teaches. STARS is an acronym that signifies Strategically Tuned Absolutely Resilient Structures and is a class that begins from the help of Dr. Mark V. Bower in 2004 where some students petition him to begin this class which is a hands on experience in helping with the ASCE in the concrete canoe build from year to year. Then in 2007 Dr. Bower passes away and the dean of the college request for Dr. Gilbert to give his eulogy. Dr. Gilbert is not so sure about doing this but with persistence he agrees to do so. Struggling with what to say at Dr. Bower’s funeral, Dr. Gilbert is traveling in Virginia on the interstate where there is some woman who causes him to slow down in traffic. This woman has a tag on her car that says “PRAZ 2EM” in which has Dr. Gilbert paying attention to what seems to be the answer to what he needed to say and sure enough he spots three crucifixes subtly tucked away atop a hill at a mile marker he clearly remembers to read “201.9”. What is amazing to me is the fact that Dr. Gilbert goes on to explain how important Dr. Bower was in his life in the fact that when Dr. Gilbert had no explanation for unheard of and unexplainable incidents or should we say coincidences. Also Dr. Bower helps Dr. Gilbert in a prayer before his death that leads Dr. Gilbert to finding Christ! After reading this article, it touches my heart in a way that I find myself calling someone that I normally do not call very much especially while I am at school. The gentleman I am referring to works for my father and for some odd reason I find myself reading this article to him where he claims that he needed this encouragement exactly this night I chose to call him. What is incredible is that he points out to me what this “201.9” actually means and I must admit to him that I believe that he is right. There are five characters in STARS and there are also five characters in 201.9 where my friend points out that he believes this to be Exodus 1:9. The next morning I make arrangements with Dr. Gilbert to come over to our shop to see the progress and he agrees to come by. On Wednesday, September 26, 2012, Dr. Gilbert comes by to what he is well pleased with the progress of our work towards this year’s concrete canoe. During this meeting I finally get Dr. Gilbert outside where I approach him with my physics theory. Explaining in some detail to him what it is I have been working towards and how this entire summer was a very overwhelming experience in how I came to know him. Dr. Gilbert looks at me with astonishment and says to me that he believes that I am on to something. The very next day on a Thursday I wake up to the fact that I have no more funding available to me and with a very disappointing response from my mother, I decide to go back up to Dr. Gilbert’s office to seek him for help. Arriving, Dr. Gilbert is not present so looking at the trophy case and then out the exterior window, I notice that someone had written with their finger in the dirty window for God to please help. I immediately began to pray for God to please help me and before I can get the prayer finished, Dr. Gilbert comes from around the corner to open up his office. In his office we are discussing matters dealing with the ASCE and trying to take care of the business at hand. He receives a phone call in which he mentions my name that arises my curiosity of who was bringing up my name. When he completes this phone call he goes on to explain to me that a friend of his had a dream which was incredibly emotional for me to hear. We both find ourselves emotionally tearing up and he explains to me that this friend had told him to tell me that my theory was correct. After all of these things I finally realize exactly why God had given him Exodus 1:9. You see this verse refers to the promise God had made to Abraham that his seed would outnumber the stars and the name of Dr. Gilbert’s class is called STARS. Also this verse comes at a period in which Israel was in bondage under the Egyptians but how they had come to be under bondage was due the fact that Joseph the dreamer had saved them long before this because of the famine. Joseph being a dreamer is in fact what Dr. Gilbert’s friend is as well. Later that evening the new young lady that I referred to about being a virtuous woman told me that she normally does not talk to anyone about things like this, but she had had a dream about feeding the hungry. God has placed it in my heart to feed world hunger after that Saturday seeing the hungry being fed. After all of these wonderful coincidences and unpredictable outcomes I have realized with great respect to God our Father that this is the door of opportunity that he had promised me this summer. The reason I say this is because being my first year at the University of Alabama in Huntsville, I now have my own office in the Optics Building. Just last week I received my key for entrance to the entire building and while receiving my key I notice hanging on the walls of this main foyer on the fourth floor some very important pictures of three men that I am trying to build on their works. These three men are Albert Einstein, James Clerk Maxwell, and Albert Abraham Michelson where the Michelson was the founder of the current known constant speed c of the speed of light. I have read many books about how we determined the constant speed c, but my research will take us beyond what they could not prove. Dr. Gilbert is currently helping me with my research and I am very thankful for the great opportunities that God has placed before me. Knowing now what God wants me to do and where I am going has really put a test of faith on me because of the very hard situations I am currently in. That is the importance of faith. Knowing the outcome but not understanding how that outcome will come to pass. Trusting even when we have nothing to put our trust in. Satan continues to try and demoralize me and continues to tell me that I am not good enough. The most important fact here is that I am not good enough except that through Jesus Christ I am good enough. When will we all realize that we were made to need our Lord and we will never be anything without Him? I wrote this letter to you Joel Osteen, who is a man that is always giving others the encouragement but how many ever give you that encouragement in return? Today I am giving you that encouragement because through your God sent devotional my life is now headed in a direction that just only a few years ago I thought to be impossible. I want to personally thank you Joel Osteen for all of your encouragement, your uplifting gestures, and your faithfulness in what I also believe to be the best days ahead in all of our lives. I understand that this letter is very long and I do apologize for what seems to be a lengthy story. Please know that I told you of what I thought to be the most important and continue to pray for me as I will continue to pray for you.
Posted on: Fri, 01 Nov 2013 05:29:51 +0000
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