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White Horse Media

Steve Wohlberg

The Dash on Your Tombstone

Dear Father in Heaven, thank you for this day.

We've had a good day today here in Lincoln, Nebraska.

And as we are about to get into another talk, we pray for the Holy Spirit.

Lord, you know what I'm going to talk about.

I pray that you will choose my words and speak to all of our hearts about a topic that we all need to think very seriously about.

OK, well, I think you can see the title of my talk on the screen there, the dash on your tombstone.

Have you ever heard a talk with a title like that?

There's 1 person that's heard a talk about this, and I've actually never given this talk before exactly like this, so this is going to be new for me.

This is an ASI event, an ASI rally, and the focus of this weekend or this day is that every member should be a missionary, that we should be motivated to do what we can do to help other people to know Jesus.

And I can't think of a topic really that's more motivating than what we're going to talk about.

Can you imagine putting your name on there?

Steve Wahlberg, born April 5, 1959, and died, well, so far, I'm still here.

And there's a little sentence below that that says, when you die, what will your family, friends, and the world say about the life that you lived?

Well, I'll just be right up front with you that I've been thinking a lot about this recently because in the last 2 years I've lost my mother and my father and my aunt.

There's a picture of my mom in her younger days.

She used to live in Palm Desert near Palm Springs, California.

Here's my wife Kristen and me and our son Seth and little Abby.

My mother died as you can see the date on here February 10, 2017.

She did not, at least during her life, she did not believe in Jesus as her savior.

I became a Christian when I was 20 years old.

And I prayed for my mom and sent her videos and gave her books and had a great relationship with her.

Really, I had a wonderful relationship with my mother.

But she never made that decision, at least that I am aware of, as she finally had a double stroke unexpectedly, and she was in a hospital, and I went and visited her, and she was able to communicate a little bit not not a whole lot and then she went down from there and I have a picture which I won't show you of me with her right before she died.

And I remember saying John 3 16 to her, whispering that in her ear, and talking to her about Jesus and that she can still believe in him and he loves you.

And at 1 point I said to her, I think this was the last time that I saw her, I knew that she didn't have much time left.

And then I said to her, mom, I hope I'll see you in heaven.

And then the last word she said was I love you.

That was the last thing and shortly thereafter I went home that day and then my her husband called me at around 1230 at night and said that you know he had just gotten word from the hospital that she had died.

I remember thinking to myself, as I was right there with her, in her room at the facility, and just watching her breathing, and just looking at her.

She was largely unconscious, but she was still able to understand a little bit.

And I just looked at her and I thought, you know, what is life really all about?

You know, here is my own mother And I just knew that she's not going to be breathing much longer.

And I just, you know, I came to the conclusion life is about God.

Life is about knowing God and about helping other people.

And I remember walking out of that nursing facility in Palm Desert for the last time.

I knew this was the last time that she wasn't going to live much longer.

And I remember thinking to myself, you know, I am done with the devil.

You know, Satan is the author of death and sin and suffering.

And I just want nothing to do with him at all.

I want to completely be on the side of Jesus.

You know, her life, her memory lives on and the lives that she's touched, but you know, the dash really, you know, when it gets right down to it, that's it.

It's the time period in between your birth and your death.

And here's a picture of the 2 of them, Gene Wahlberg when he married my mother, Sandy Wahlberg.

That was now sad to say they got divorced when I was about 16, and I went and lived with my dad.

My brother and sister went and lived with my mom, and A lot of different things happened.

I became a Christian when I was 20 in 1979.

I became a Christian through a long story.

Some of you have read my book, From Hollywood to Heaven, but it was really through reading the book, The Desire of Ages.

I read that book and it was the chapter on Gethsemane, chapter 74, Jesus suffering in the garden of Gethsemane.

And here I was 20 years old, smoking marijuana, drinking alcohol, going to the discos, living a wild life, snorting cocaine, taking LSD.

Sometimes I say I was a pot smoking, cocaine snorting, disco dancing, lost Jew.

I found out about Adventists and met an Adventist pastor.

I took that book back to Cal State Northridge where I was going to school.

My third year of college, brought it into the dormitory that I was in, a co-ed dorm with the marijuana smoke.

You could smell it going down the hallway and guys and girls in my room at night because my roommate invited people.

And there I read Desire of Ages and it changed my life.

God can reach people no matter where they are.

He got a hold of me and it was a desire of ages and it was the chapter on Gethsemane that really opened my eyes.

Well, as soon as I became a Christian, my first thought just about was I've gotta win my dad over because my dad and I are just very, very, very close.

We were living together at the time still.

Actually I just moved out of the house, was in a dorm, but prior to that I lived with him and his second wife for about 3 years.

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The Dash on Your Tombstone

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