Personal Testimony of Faith

I grew up attending church at the Lee's Summit First Church of the Nazarene. When I was around 6 or 7 years of age, I went forward during an altar call at a revival service being held, and prayed a prayer, and then got baptised a couple of weeks later. Despite my profession of faith, my life as I grew older did not demonstrate any sort of true repentence unto salvation. All through middle school and high school, I did pretty much the same thing all the other kids did: I lied, I gossiped, I made fun of other kids, I cursed, and so forth. I had little to no interest in reading the Bible, and going to church was really more just a chore I did three times a week than anything else.
When I went to college, my new-found freedom only encouraged my own lawlessness. Gradually, I began to grow ever more enamoured with alcohol, starting my sophomore year. I drank constantly, though at a low enough level that I rarely got drunk (but even once is too many times). I also dated women I shouldn't have, most of whom were Roman Catholics. Thanks be to God, though, that I still had enough of what I'd heard growing up in my head that I was able to keep my purity. I also began to smoke my senior year of undergrad, first cigars, and then clove cigarettes, and finally just about any type of cigarette I could get my hands on. I was up to nearly two packs a day before I quit when I got saved. My language was foul, my thoughts continually evil, and my treatment of other people often high-handed and inconsiderate in the extreme.
In addition, when I was a freshman, I met a fellow who belonged to a group known as "Christian Identity". What these folks essentially believe is that white Anglo-Saxon and Germanic people are the "real" Israelites, and that Jews are "usurpers". Christian Identity people HATE Jews and aren't too fond of anyone else who is not a white Northern European descended person. They consider blacks and other races to be "mud-people" who are not descended from Adam, but are really just "beasts" and descended from "inferior, pre-Adamic races". Also, these people are big on hating the "Jew-controlled" government and white separatism. Sort of like the Klan, except more virulent. In other words, these folks are hereticks of the worse sort on a dozen different grounds. Needless to say, as I grew to be closer friends with this guy, he began to proselytise me concerning Christian Identity beliefs, misusing some of the more mysterious Old Testament scriptures out of mysterious books like Isaiah and Ezekiel (so they seemed to my unsaved mind at the time). Unfortunately, much of what I had read and heard began to sink in and caused me to dislike the Jewish people. I praise the LORD that He freed me from that senselessness when He saved me! In my life, it seems the Lord has done a lot to thrust me into situations which run absolutely contrary to what the Christian Identity people tried to teach me. For instance, in graduate school, my research adviser was, of all things, Jewish! One of my best Christian friends in the Lord is a Jewish man whom the Lord saved by His grace. The Lord has led me to many friends, both in and out of the church, who are not white, yet whom I love dearly and seek to win those who are unsaved to the Lord.
I came to North Carolina for graduate school in this state, and by now had pretty much stopped attending church at all. However, October of 1998, I visited Calvary Baptist Church, Dr. Webb's church. I'd never heard preaching like this before! Even in my reprobate state, I was attracted to what I heard and began to attend regularly. This began to have an effect on my personal living, I stopped drinking by December. However, this outward improvement did not mean that my heart was changed.
This change in my life, however, was to come in 1999. Calvary was having a revival service one week, and on the Tuesday night of that week, I had decided that I'd just go ahead and skip the service that night. "It's Tuesday, I'll go tomorrow and it'll be alright", I told myself. That evening, about half an hour before the service, I was in the drive through line at Burger King, when the Holy Spirit really began to lay a heavy burden on my heart about going to the revival service. I tried to ignore it, but the Spirit just kept after me. Finally, I broke down and decided to go. I drove on through without getting my food, went home, got dressed, and went to service. I thank God eternally for His calling on me that night. The revivalist, a brother by the name of Finley Cutshaw, preached a TREMENDOUS sermon on hell, and it really made me start to think about the state of my own soul. The altar call was made, and I surrendered to the Spirit's urging and went forward, and got saved. I knew I was a sinner, that I had never truly repented, and thus, was going straight to a literal, burning, fiery hell if I didn't do something about it right then and there. The night of my salvation, looking back, is the greatest night in my whole life. If not for that night, I would have no hope in the return of my Saviour, Jesus Christ. I'd have no hope in anything at all except an eternity in hell. Thank God, because now I KNOW I am heaven-bound!
I cannot say that my walk with God has been one of rosy, picture-perfect Christian growth. I've had my stumbles along the way. I've backsliden at times. But the Lord has always been there to restore me with his loving, chastising hand. He has set me on a path going ever-upwards, waiting for that day when Jesus comes down to the clouds and calls me home. -