In my sophomore year of high
school, I started to drink and party. One beer turned to smoking pot. I started
to bar hop and get deep into rock and roll music. Between the years of 14-24, I
just loved to get drunk and party. My girlfriend was pregnant, we married and
we had a daughter, Jennifer. Her mother left me shortly after that. The next
three years of my life were lost years. I had no idea of my purpose in life. I
played and loved baseball. I tried out for a major league, but I wasn’t good
enough to make a living out of it.
At age 21, I started going to
different race tracks. It was then that I started gambling and betting on
horses. This was the worst time of my life. I loved the high of winning and
seeing your horse cross the finish line. But every time I bet, I lost 90% of
the time. Even when I won, I would lose the money the next day. I would lose my
whole paycheck on those Friday nights and would scrape through the week. Some
weeks I would go 6 days a week.
I would remember leaving the
race track in 1979 with no money. I started crying out to God. I constantly
would think, what is wrong with me? I didn’t realize that God was dealing with
me. I know now that the Holy Spirit was showing me the way out of my mess. God
was creating in me a clean heart and renewing in me a right spirit. I started
hating what I was doing and just started begging God to change my life and help
me. I got so sick and tired of my life style. I started hating the bar life and
partying. I was tired of getting drunk all the time and being high on drugs.
The gambling addiction had messed me up so bad, I never had money. Then, one
day I saw this church that I drove by 9 months earlier. I said, I am going to
give up this life of sin and I am going to serve God 100%. That week-end I went
to the race track that last time and had my last beer. That Sunday morning I
went to that church and totally surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I was
ready to live like the apostles of old. God’s presence was guiding me and
preparing me for a divine appointment with Him. I renounced all my wicked ways.
I asked God to deliver me from addictions of gambling, drugs and drinking. I
remember just crying and crying because God was totally changing my life. Three
days later, a scripture just lifted up my heart. It said, “If any man be in
Christ he is a new creation.” I used to always wonder about when people would
say, “Are you saved?” I now know what they meant. Old things passed away! For
me, that meant drinking, gambling, drugs.
February 2, 1980 Sunday
morning, Oh what a day! That was the day when I made an absolute surrender to
God. I gave my life to Jesus and I experienced a new life in Christ or Christian
Testimony . Old
things passed away and all things became new. I use to wonder about that
phrase, “born again “what did that mean? I loved God, grew up in a beautiful
Christian home, but I had no idea what born again was all about. I knew about
God but to have a real relationship, I never knew. I did not know a life like
this could exist.
It’s been 35 years now and I have
never gone back to those old ways. I now go around sharing the new and
everlasting gospel of Jesus Christ. That sinner, you don’t have to sin anymore!
Jesus saves from sin, sickness, and death! Jesus came to restore our lives! God
Bless you as you read this and may you find God our Father through Jesus Christ
by His power and the wonder working presence of His Holy Spirit. And Jesus
would say to you, “Come unto me! Only believe and I will give
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