09-11-2026 PART 2: Before I Knew Him, God Was Already There

Section 1

Looking back across a lifetime can reveal God’s kindness operating long before we understood what He was doing. Dr. Dave begins his testimony with Isaiah 63, choosing to tell of the Lord’s kindness, compassion, and deeds worthy of praise. Raised in a Jewish family in the Detroit area, he grew up surrounded by financial success, Hebrew education, sports, comic books, friendships, and the normal complications of family life. Yet something spiritually significant was happening quietly within the household. Sarah, the family’s Christian housekeeper, believed God had placed her there to pray for the children. She did not preach at them or pressure them; she prayed. Years later, her faithful intercession became part of a much larger story that only God could have seen developing.

Section 2

Everything changed socially when the family moved from Southfield to the Bloomfield Hills area. The friendships and sense of belonging Dr. Dave had previously enjoyed disappeared, leaving him struggling to connect in unfamiliar surroundings. Searching for acceptance, he followed a pathway his brother had already traveled and became heavily involved with drugs. The drug culture offered immediate companionship when he felt he belonged nowhere else. Dr. Dave points to a painful irony within that experience: people trapped in destructive lifestyles can sometimes appear more immediately accepting than churches that should be welcoming hurting people exactly where they are. What began as a search for connection eventually became increasingly dangerous, pulling him deeply into circumstances that repeatedly placed his life at risk.

Section 3

Psalm 68:20—declaring that God saves and provides escape from death—became extraordinarily personal because Dr. Dave can now recognize occasions when God preserved his life before he even knew Him personally. One terrifying encounter involved an adult pointing a loaded revolver at him and threatening to kill him, yet somehow he walked away alive. There were other dangerous moments as well, all occurring during years of rebellion when he did not understand that God personally cared about him. He believed God existed, but he could not imagine that the God of the universe actually knew him or was involved in his life. Looking backward changes the perspective: what once appeared like survival can now be recognized as providence. Long before Dr. Dave knew God personally, God already knew Dr. Dave—and He was preserving his life for what was still ahead.