My Testimony

My rebellion against God began as a teenager.  Our family situation was difficult.  My father was a heavy alcoholic who was also abusive to my mother.  Money was very tight.  I guess I was looking for love and found it through alcohol and drugs.  I felt accepted by that crowd.  They were my friends.  It was also a way to try and hide the pain within.

In spite of my rebellion against God and my attempts to destroy myself, God blessed me by sending me to college and becoming a certified public accountant.  I gave up the drugs in college but continued to be an alcoholic.  God granted me great success and I soon was earning a large income.  However, my heart had grow very hard and very cold.  I wanted nothing to do with God.  I had proven that I could take care of myself ... or so I thought.

When I was around 30, my marriage began to have severe problems.  My job had become long hours and high stress.  I wasn't spending much time with my family.  In my mind, I was trying to be the good provider that I thought they needed.  However, I failed to realize that what they needed was me.  What we all needed was Jesus.

The divorce proceedings began and I found myself torn in two.  My hard heart had been ripped open wide.  One night, at the age of 31, while still in the middle of the divorce proceedings, I began to think about suicide.  As I thought about it for quite awhile, I began thinking of some other things as well.  I suddenly realized that since the time I was 14, God had sent me at least a dozen people who had shared the gospel with me.  I began to see their faces and hear the words that they said unto me.  I realized that none of my problems were God's fault.  They were all my fault.  It was my sin which had brought all of this upon me.

I knew what I had to do.  I knelt down on the floor of my dingy apartment and began to tell Jesus how sorry I was for messing up this life.  I told Him that I no longer wanted my life on my terms.  I asked Him to forgive me and take control of my life.  I gave my life to Him and did not want it back.  When I had prayed, the love of God filled the room.  It was as if I had jumped into a swimming pool filled with pure love and was kneeling at the bottom.  I fell into a heap on the floor and cried like a baby for over an hour.

My life has never been the same.  Jesus has delivered me of many things.  He has healed me of many things.  He is still working on me in other areas.  He is my life.  The only thing I have ever really wanted to do since my conversion is to serve Him full time.  The older I get, the more intense that desire becomes.  I have been to Bible College and have served in a variety of ministry activities, but still work a secular job.  I await the day when God opens the door to full-time ministry.

The Lord has blessed me in many ways.  Among these blessings are Linda my spouse and Melissa my daughter.  Thanks be to God.



The following scriptures are my life's verses:

Jude 20-23:  "But ye, beloved, building up yourselves on your most holy faith, praying in the Holy Ghost, keep yourselves in the love of God, looking for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ unto eternal life. And of some have compassion, making a difference, and others save with fear, pulling them out of the fire." (KJV)

Luke 4:18-19:   "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because He hath anointed me to preach the gospel to the poor; He hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord." (KJV)

Matthew 25:34-40:   "Then shall the King say unto them on His right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world, for I was an hungred, and ye gave me meat.  I was thirsty, and ye gave me drink.  I was a stranger, and ye took me in. Naked, and ye clothed me.  I was sick, and ye visited me.  I was in prison, and ye came unto me. Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when saw we thee an hungred, and fed thee? or thirsty, and gave thee drink?  When saw we thee a stranger, and took thee in? or naked, and clothed thee? Or when saw we thee sick, or in prison, and came unto thee? And the King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." (KJV) 

Colossians 2:8-9:  "See to it that no one takes you captive through hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depends on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ [the Anointed One and His anointing].  For in Christ [the Anointed One and His anointing], all the fullness of the Deity lives in bodily form."  (NIV)

Galatians 2:9-10: "James, Peter and John, those reputed to be pillars, gave me and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship when they recognized the grace given to me. They agreed that we should go to the Gentiles, and they to the Jews [evangelism]. All they asked was that we should continue to remember the poor, the very thing I was eager to do."

James 1:27:  "Religion that God our Father accepts as pure and faultless is this:  to look after orphans and widows in their distress and to keep oneself from being polluted by the world."