My Faith Journey Part 8
My mother and father came to a saving knowledge of Jesus Christ when they were 62. I shared the gospel with my mom, and sitting at the kitchen table, she listened attentively, took off her crucifix, and said to me, Jesus isn't on the cross any longer, having given her life to Jesus as Lord and Savior. My father followed a year later and served in the church for twenty years before going home to be with the Lord.
Persevering in Godly Living led to the salvation of my immediate family.
My brother, having been very much involved with the Catholic church but always listened to Billy Graham on television as I did, had no trouble transitioning out of what we came to know as a false gospel and a false institution of religion. In time, my mother developed Alzheimer's and gradually lost her memory, and it was about twenty-four years before she passed. I had the peace of knowing she gave her all to Jesus Christ, even though being with her when she did not recognize me was very difficult.
My father was a wonderful testimony of someone who walked away from Catholicism but never stopped loving his extended family. He gave my children an example of what to shoot for in life. He was never a lover of money. He told me many times growing up, "When it's five o'clock, I turn the key in the door and come home. He also said, "Men are never satisfied; if they have one car, they want two." I could not ask for a better father.
Persevering in Godly Living was the testimony of my wife's family on her mother's side
My wife's aunt Carrol and uncle Bill were committed Christians, and her grandmother Gladys, as seen in the picture to your left, was an exceptional believer who prayed for my wife for many years and took her into her home when things at her home were not the easiest. She worked at the nursing home, where she memorized and quoted a godly poem every month until she went to be with the Lord at 95. Grandma Gladys had the sweetest spirit. I always felt very much loved when she was around.
Persevering in Godly Living in the Church
Persevering in Godly Living continues from last week's post, which saw the Church as a relatively large stumbling block to me. Nevertheless, God's grace has always been sufficient.
In the mid-90s, I decided to join a seeker-sensitive Church before I knew what they were. After making that mistake, I promised myself that I would know what was going on in the Church so I would never blunder into something that would cause me to regret my decisions. That was the beginning of a new me. From that time forward, I began to study in a new way; it was not just learning to serve Jesus in the best way possible for me but also studying to see the Church in the most accurate light. That decision started to turn the lights on like never before so that there were no longer valid reasons for personal biases based on man-centered allegiances and loyalty due to the fear of man. Now, there was only one justifiable allegiance - a loyalty to Christ alone.
God's grace is special because He always makes good out of our misguided choices. From the mid-90s to the early 2000s, I was assistant pastor at a Southern Baptist Church that became seeker-friendly during my time there. That Church so changed during my years there that after a while, I took a second look and had to ask myself, how did I get here?
Persevering in Godly Living Can Touch so Many Lives
At that time, I raised money to go on a mission trip to Russia, and I was thoroughly blessed by going. Furthermore, the Church had numerous ex-drug addicts, and some had a relatively good testimony of recovery because of their relationship with Jesus Christ. I looked over the people there and thought, we have to do something with these people. This thinking was another movement toward how viable all people in the body of Christ are and can be if we see them in that light. That decision started to turn the lights on like never before, so there were no longer valid reasons for personal biases based on man-centered allegiance and loyalty from the fear of man. Now, there was only one justifiable allegiance - a loyalty to Christ alone.
I believe the Holy Spirit moved me to take people into the school system for a drug awareness program. I asked people in the Church to attend a meeting about drug addiction. Over forty people showed up, and I spoke on the text where Jesus asked Peter to row into the deep water. When they did at Christ's request, even though they thought they knew better, the boats began to sink because of the fish caught. When it was over, all the people there agreed to volunteer their time to speak to the students about drug use. I went to a PTA meeting and sat directly across from a teacher. I told her what I wanted to do and was straight up about our being from a Church. She told me with a glare in her eyes, "This will never happen." I didn't answer her but thought to myself, you don't know who I do, and if He wants it to happen, it will. Six months later, I was sitting in front of the head of all Baltimore County and Anne Arundel County schools and told her the same exact thing. She looked at me and said, "You now have access to all Baltimore and Anne Arundel County schools. I leaned in a little bit and said to her, "Did you hear where we're from?" She said, I don't care where you're from; you don't understand how great we need it. Within six weeks, I understood.
I became the founder and director of Teens Under Fire and visited schools an average of three times a week, and it could have been every day if I had a few more volunteers. We did this for nearly four years. I showed a short film, gave a no-nonsense introduction about drug use, and then gave the floor to my volunteers to tell their stories. I had teens stop me in the grocery store and ask me if I had visited such and such a high school. Yup, that was me. Then, they would proceed to tell me how we saved their life. Sometimes, the people would share their faith in Jesus Christ, usually in the classroom but once during an assembly. The principal came running down the aisle telling me we couldn't do that; I said, too late, he already did. On another occasion, a student and a teacher tried to give me the same speech. I told them and the whole class how I grew up watching a father drag his leg from war to ensure our freedom of speech, and religion, in this country, in no uncertain terms. They became very quiet.
1 Timothy 4:11-16 "Prescribe and teach these things. 12 Let no one look down on your youthfulness, but [rather] in speech, conduct, love, faith [and] purity, show yourself an example of those who believe. 13 Until I come, give attention to the [public] reading [of Scripture], to exhortation and teaching. 14 Do not neglect the spiritual gift within you, which was bestowed on you through prophetic utterance with the laying on of hands by the presbytery. 15 Take pains with these things; be [absorbed] in them so that your progress will be evident to all. 16 Pay close attention to yourself and to your teaching; persevere in these things, for as you do this, you will ensure salvation both for yourself and for those who hear you."
Persevering in Godly living is to glorify God, encourage the saints, condemn the world as did Noah, walk by faith, resist the devil, love not the world, and overcome the flesh by finding our identity in Jesus Christ. Be blessed!
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