My name is Michael John Rech. I was born in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 18, 1950. All my life, I have been living in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. I come from a loving family, and growing up in a rough neighborhood, from time to time or occasionally, I’d be in a fight with or against other kids. Being outnumbered, I lost all the fights I was in. In January of 1970, I graduated from Polaski High School in Milwaukee and joined the U.S. Marine Corps to learn how to fight.

I was brought up in a Catholic home. I do not remember why, but at age nine, when I completed my catechism, I realized I was not going to heaven. At that age, with poor reading skills, I did not think about reading the Bible. Knowing I was not going to heaven, I did not want to go to church anymore. I told my Mom I was getting sick from the smell of the incense from communion, and that I hated to leave mass all the time, so she said I did not have to come to church. 

I thought why go to church if I am going to hell. I decided if I am going to hell, whatever sins I do, I might as well do it all the way and enjoy it. I am going to pay for my sins anyway, so why not go all the way? Before I continue, because of the things I am going to say, I do not want people to get the wrong impression of what I believe. I believe I am not perfect, and I am no better than anyone else. The only difference is that I am now striving to live my life without sin.

Let’s go on, by society, because I do not break the laws of the land, and I am not a criminal, so I am a good man. Like any other good man, I did sinful things against God that are accepted in society as being ok. When I was 19 in February of 1970, I went to the Marine Corps boot camp. In the infantry, I went to the jungle or bush in Vietnam. Unlike other soldiers, I did not see a lot of action, but what I did see two times in the natural world, I should not have walked away alive. You will read about that in my book. I am not a hero. I know a lot of soldiers faced more danger than I did.    

Back from Vietnam in Camp Pendleton, I received my honorable discharge in February of 1972. Traveling home by car, I had a terrifying accident, facing death once again. While in the hospital in Big Spring, Texas, I accepted Jesus Christ as my Savior. You will read all about that in my book. God changed my life. I got married and raised three sons. Two of my boys have gotten married. I have two granddaughters and two grandsons. 

After years of reading and studying the Bible, listening to sermons in church since 1972, God prompted me to write this book to help people completely understand what it means to be born again. I heard from people different ways of what being born again meant to them, most of which did not exactly line up with what the Bible teaches. I read commentaries on each verse that I talked about to be correct on what the verses are saying. With a lot of rereading and restudying, it took me 10 years to write this book. 

The purpose of this book is to teach the salvation that God has given us through Jesus Christ our Lord. It is to show the doctrine of the Bible, not of any religion, in the hope that people will be saved through Jesus Christ. May God bless you.