Finding God and Being Used By Him
I was born in 1959 in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I had the privilege of traveling around the USA and world as a “military brat.” My parents made sure (Thank Jesus!) that I was in Sunday School often. Sometimes church, too. But they did not regularly go themselves. God’s grace in my life is prevenient and redeeming. He prevented me from many sinful things most young people do. I never knew a time when I was not interested in Jesus. I prayed the prayer of salvation every time I heard it, just to make sure. Much of it was avoiding the fear of hell.
When I was in high school and 14 years old, I got a new lab partner – a Christian named Chris Cox (not the former Congressman from California!) who asked me first “Are you saved?” and second “Do you believe in Jesus as Lord and Savior?” My answers were not encouraging to him. Chris brought me a tract and asked me about it. I was interested but felt I was already saved. (That may be true but I had no assurance. I was afraid I had not done enough to be saved.) Chris Cox asked me what football team I liked. I said the Dallas Cowboys, and he got me one of those Spire comic books about Tom Landry, the Cowboys’ first coach and a strong Christian. I identified with Landry’s lots of success (I had just been elected as a freshman to a school-wide Student Government office Treasurer) but still had an emptiness in life. Landry said only Jesus filled that emptiness. I recall that day on the second floor of the high school, praying for Jesus in my life.
I am an attorney and active member of Hope Community (formerly Hanover) Church of the Nazarene. I started as a sole practitioner in Woodbridge, VA from 1986 to 1996. After that, I was Virginia’s first Appellate Defender (the original title was Director, Capital and Appellate Services), a statewide office that appeals convictions of indigents convicted of crimes. Then I joined a larger firm, the Framme Law Firm, for over six years. Now I work as an Appellate Procedure Consultant for Lantagne Legal Printing. I assist other attorneys in making sure their appellate work meets the rules of the state courts in Virginia.
I also was on the adjunct faculty at the School of Continuing Studies at, then, University of Richmond (UR). While there I taught Terrorism Law (the new law emerging after the 9/11 attacks) and was asked to teach Judicial Studies. I also promulgated a new course “International Legal Institutions” covering the international courts starting with the World Court, the WTO, the specialized tribunals for Rwanda and Yugoslavia, and finishing with the International Criminal Court. I won a $3000 grant for that course in a contest open to adjuncts and full-time faculty. I also taught for a year at the law school for UR. I have also taught Law for Accountants at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) and taught online at Trevecca Nazarene University.
I have written ten scholarly law review articles and several practice-oriented articles. I am keenly interested in missions, especially in Eastern/Central Europe and the former Soviet Union, especially the Baltic republics. I was on a team that taught pastors and pastoral students in the Ukraine in 2006. That was exciting! I am even working on several novels. I also am an amateur astronomer with a six-inch reflecting telescope. I use it to show people the wonders of God’s Creation! I also have taken it to retreats. I believe God gives talents and abilities to each follower of Christ and we must be good stewards in using them!
Dr. Elwood Sanders has been teaching for NBC since 2009.
Published: 08/26/2020
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