"Dear Pastor Max," Elaine wrote, "I am sending your my testimony."

Elaine and her family -- husband and children -- had been "doing church" for many years, but she still felt an emptiness in her life. When she met a woman who talked about a profound experience of Christ, Elaine felt even more empty. She knew she had never had that.

So she began to pray.

"Every day I prayed, morning and night, for 'what she had,'" wrote Elaine. "I talked to my pastor. I joined a sharing group."

And she prayed.

Driving home from a group session, she found herself asking -- even demanding -- God to show her why she was unworthy to know God more fully.

That's when she had her "encounter."

In Elaine's words: "God came, very literally, right into that car with me. God replayed for me, in my mind, certain moments of my life, in very specific detail. He replayed all of the prayers I had been praying. I heard them, word for word, as I had prayed them. God made it clear to me that He was correcting my misconceptions of Him."

"Then I saw and felt this overwhelming light, and I saw myself kneeling before it. (Yes, I was still driving my car.) The light flowed around me and through me. It was a light with substance, filled with love and compassion. I cannot describe the awesome power and love and fear that I felt." "Needless to say, by this time I was crying hysterically. I had wanted to hear the voice of God. What I received was a full manifestation of God's glory."

"And I will never be the same again. I died to self, and for the first time in my life, became fully, spiritually alive."

That's a shortened version of Elaine's story. It may sound strange -- but I know enough about religious experience to recognize Elaine's as a classic example.

And I know Elaine. I share her story with you as a reminder that God is real. Our prayers are heard. And the Gospel is true.

Elaine will tell her story herself at the 11:00 service this Sunday at St. Matthew.