About
Family
My name is Jack Selcher. I live near Middletown, Pennsylvania, USA. I am married to the former Diane McAdams. I have two children, Krista and Kelly, and twin grandchildren -- Liam and Aria Carlen.
Education and Experience
I graduated from Millersville State College, The University of Michigan, and Trinity Evangelical Divinity School. I worked for the Pennsylvania Fish Commission and Campus Crusade for Christ. I pastored churches in the Churches of God General Conference and served as an Associate for Discipleship for the Eastern Regional Conference.
Hobbies
I enjoy coaching track and field throwers, reading, fishing, gardening, and writing Christian blogs.
My Vision
My vision is to provide free internet resources to equip as many people as possible to share their faith, become more like Jesus, and help others do the same.
My Story
I was born a twin in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania. I emerged second and shocked my mother and father, who expected only one child! Because I was bigger and stronger than my twin, I spent my first 15 years bullying him.
I didn’t value spiritual things very much during my first 19 years, even though I spent at least 1,000 hours riding church pews. Although my body was present, my mind was elsewhere—usually thinking about sports.
Outside the church, I rarely thought about God, never prayed voluntarily, and never read the Bible. My purpose was to excel in sports and my studies to win the love and acceptance of others. I graduated fifth in my high school class and broke Middletown’s javelin throw record when I was a junior. Still, achieving these goals and many others brought only fleeting happiness.
The thought of dying scared me, and a cloud of guilt hung over me. I believed in heaven but was not sure I’d go there when I died.
In my church, I often heard that Jesus had died on the cross to pay the penalty for my moral and spiritual failures. I knew I wasn’t perfect, but I didn’t understand how Jesus’ death solved the problem. I pictured it as a down payment on my passage to heaven, and I thought I had to make regular payments with the good things I did.
During the fall of 1968, I understood 1 John 5:11-12 for the first time. I didn’t have to make any payments at all. Jesus had paid the penalty for my spiritual imperfections in full. “And this is what God has testified: He has given us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have God’s Son does not have life” (NLT). That evening in my dorm room, I trusted in Jesus’ sacrifice alone to give me the right standing with God and invited Him into my life. That evening was a turning point. Because God loved and accepted me as I was, I wanted to do what pleased Him. Little by little, love began to displace fear as a dominant motivator in my spiritual life.
My fear of death significantly diminished. God lifted the weight of guilt for my moral failures from my shoulders when I trusted Jesus’ death as payment in full. I had assurance that I’d go to heaven because Jesus had paid my admission fee, and I knew I could trust Him to keep his promise to take me there.
When Jesus came into my life, He wouldn’t allow me to relate to God or others in the same old ways. I remember feeling a twinge of conscience after talking negatively about people who weren’t present—something I’d done repeatedly for years without thinking twice about it. He convinced me that my language needed some attention. My words were a symptom of the anger and desire for control that swirled within me. Gradually I saw improvement. Little by little, God’s love for and acceptance of me freed me to love and accept others. I slowly developed a strong desire to serve others that I didn’t have before the fall of 1968. My goal was to know Jesus better and help others know Him. Working toward that goal has brought a measure of fulfillment I’d never known when doing my own thing.
God dramatically changed the direction of my life. I majored in biology and earned a master’s degree in fishery biology. I landed my “perfect” job as an aquatic biologist with the Pennsylvania Fish Commission, which I thought would bring me happiness. It didn’t. I enjoyed “playing in the water,” but it brought no sense of fulfillment or significance.
I sensed a persistent pressure toward full-time Christian service. That is not God’s will for everybody, but it was for me. I resisted it for several years but finally gave in. My life hasn’t always been easy, but it’s far more fulfilling than when I was in the driver’s seat of my life. New pages of my spiritual story are being written every day.
I’m far from the person I want to be, but I’m thankful I’m not the person I used to be. I don’t have all the answers to life’s problems, but through this website, I’m sharing what I’ve learned since I began my spiritual journey with Jesus, and it’s all accessible to you at no cost.