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On January 8th of 1983, I was at home getting ready to go to work!
At that time in my life I was a “maintenance mechanic”, and I was
employed by the “Presbyterian Synod Homes of Florida” in Manatee
County. It was a cool early morning, which was not an uncommon
event, in Bradenton, Florida, where I worked and lived with my wife,
and two boys at the time. As I was slowly moving along into my daily
routine I had a cup of coffee, and then went and took a long and hot
needed shower to start my day.
A couple of months prior to this I was visited by a church member
from Bible Baptist Church, in the late afternoon. It was after work,
and I was at home sitting down, watching my cable television. At
that time in my life, there was nothing more relaxing to me then
smoking a marijuana cigarette, and drinking a beer. It had been a
long and busy day, and my wife was out on an errand with our
children! The man’s name was Ron Jarvis, and today he is currently
the pastor of Trinity Baptist Church in Bradenton, Florida.
The timing of his visit did not set with me, at the time. He was
very friendly, however, when he started asking me about my
relationship with God I automatically got on the defensive. Imagine!
The nerve of this guy coming in at my invitation and questioning me
about my relationship with God. Just who did he think he was
speaking to me in such a way, and where did he get off with that
kinda tone? He asked me, “ if I were to die tonight, would I know
for sure where I would spend eternity?” I told him that I thought I
was going to go to Heaven! He then asked me why I thought that. I
explained to him that it was because I was trusting in the Catholic
Church, and trying to keep the Ten Commandments! He showed me from
the Word of God in John 14:6, “Jesus saith unto him, I am the
way, the truth, and the life: no man cometh unto the Father, but by
me.” Telling me that unless I was trusting Jesus Christ as my
way to heaven I was doomed to spend eternity in Hell forever. His
response did not cause any rejoicing in my heart, in fact it did
just the opposite. I went from relaxed to upset in just a matter of
minutes! I also mentioned to him that I was a nice person, and did a
lot of good things for people in my line of work. He quoted again
from that book he was holding (The Word of God) from Ephesians
2:8 & 9, “For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of
yourselves: it is the gift of God: not of works lest any man should
boast.” It appeared each time that he came back with a Scripture
reference to make me look bad. I was not comfortable with this
situation at all! Each time I gave him my reasons for going to
Heaven he very softly reassured me that according to the Word of
God, Paul, you are not going to Heaven. My discomfort was escalating
but, I had several other reasons I thought would justify this matter
of SALVATION. I went on with some other excuses that were not
supported by the Word of God....I gave my tithe of $.50 cents a week
to the church when I go. I believe in God, and pray to the virgin
Mary, and the saints. And finally, surely God will let me into
Heaven because I am attending a Baptist Church, as well as the
Catholic Mass.
All these reasons did not seem to satisfy this man, and I really
wanted him to hurry up and leave but; not until he shared with me
another quote from the Bible in the book of Titus chapter 3,
verse 5, “Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but
according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration,
and renewing of the Holy Ghost;”.
During all this time on and off he was showing me that I was a
sinner, and without having trusted Jesus Christ as my personal Lord
and Savior, based upon the Word of God, I would spend eternity in
Hell, and suffer the 2nd death that is spoken of in Revelation
20:14 & 15, “And death and hell were cast into the lake of fire.
This is the second death. And whosoever was not found written in the
book of life was cast into the lake of fire”. He also went as
far to show me from the Bible that according to Romans 6:23, “For
the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord”. I wasn’t swallowing what he was
trying to tell me! I had my understanding of God (THE Man upstairs)
and how I had been taught to believe, and this SALVATION thing about
trusting Jesus wasn’t making my day. Don’t get me wrong, I had a
respect for God, but for some reason I failed to see the importance
of what seemed like a one-sided conversation. This man was
inconveniencing me tremendously, with his plan of SALVATION. He also
told me about the man Nichodemus that came to Jesus at night, in the
book of John chapter 3.
Other Bible verses that Mr. Jarvis showed and quoted to me were
Romans 3:10 & 11, “As it is written, THERE IS NONE RIGHTEOUS, NO NOT
ONE: THERE IS NONE THAT UNDERSTANDETH, THERE IS NONE THAT SEEKETH
AFTER GOD.” Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned, and come short of the
glory of God;” , and 1st John 5:11 & 12, “And this is the
record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in
his Son. He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the
Son hath not life”.
Finally! This dedicated man of God left my residence leaving me in a
state of frustration, anger, and doubt, but I was so relieved when
he left. Right after he left, I had to get a little higher to try
and escape my season of vexation.
I still continued to go to St. John’s Catholic Church for the early
Mass, and then I would go with my wife and children over to Bible
Baptist Church where Pastor Gary Byram was the preacher. I truly
enjoyed going to church it was helping me to feel better about
myself, even though what Ron Jarvis had shared with me seemed
pointless at the time. Each time I went to Bible Baptist Church
something was going on inside of me. The services did not provoke me
to weariness, or sleep, in fact they kept me alert, and grabbed hold
of my attention. The preacher was not boring, and the messages seem
to target me more and more.
You see, my wife Susan is a Christian! At that time she was terribly
back-slidden and living in sin with me. She started going back to
church with her parents, and after having visited many churches with
her mom and dad found Bible Baptist Church, which naturally I
started to attend. I started going because I had noticed a change, A
BIG CHANGE, in my wife’s life and I was curious as to why
this had happened!
Now here I am on January 8th, 1983 getting ready for work, along
with taking a shower. I’m thinking to myself (or at least I thought
I was alone) this is a good day for me, and it is my 30th birthday.
Yes that’s right, I had just turned 30 years old on January 8th. You
see I was born on January 8th, 1953 and it was looking like a great
day to be alive. Here I am in the shower, and I’m all soaped up
all-over! But something which I had never expected was taking place.
God had me right where He wanted me, and there was no way out for
this birthday boy. Suddenly I wasn’t feeling so good about myself,
and the Holy Spirit of God was speaking to my heart. It was like a
light bulb that just clicked on in my life, and I realized according
to the Word of God that I was a sinner in need of a Savior.
So I stopped what I was doing soap and all, and got down on my knees
and cried out to God for forgiveness, and received Jesus into my
heart as my personal Lord and Savior. The Bible says in ROMANS
10:13, “For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be
saved.” And praise God, that whosoever was me. I kept hearing
the words of the preacher over and over again in my head quoted from
ROMANS 10:9 & 10, “That if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the
Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God hath raised
him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man
believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made
unto salvation.” It must have been the soap that flicked the
switch that the Holy Spirit was using to bring me to that place of
repentance. I was getting cleaned on the outside, but then I
realized how filthy I was on the inside with sin. I had to receive
what I could never purchase, because Jesus purchased it on my behalf
on Mount Calvary when He died in my place, for my sins, and the sins
of all mankind. Tears pushed away the soap and suds from my eyes,
and the washing of water by the Word washed all my sins away. Today
I’m a Christian because back on January 8th, of 1983 I made a
conscience decision to trust Jesus Christ as my way to Heaven. I now
celebrate 2 birthdays at the same time, and showers have a
completely different meaning to me. God is not willing that any
should perish, and He reached out to me when I was dead in my sins.
A person does not have to be in church to accept Christ and get
gloriously saved, but if you are like I used to be it wouldn’t be
such a bad idea to get the rest of the story. And maybe someone like
Bro. Ron Jarvis, someone who loves God and is concerned about where
you will spend eternity might be your next visitor. If not take it
from me you can believe in God, or anything for that matter, but
unless you have trusted completely by faith(verbally and
actively)you are only deceiving and denying yourself of the greatest
blessing this side of Heaven...being a new creation, a child of the
Living God.
Today by the grace of God, I am drug and alcohol free, and have been
since that day in 1983. God delivered me from the treacherous perils
of pornography, profanity, selfishness, and tobacco to boot on the
day that I got wondrously saved. I’m still married with three
children, and In am a preacher of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I am
saved by grace, and I am a Baptist by choice. But best of all, Dear
Reader, when I die based upon the Word of God, I will not spend
eternity in Hell. My eternal destination is Heaven, hallelujah.
Remember Jesus did not come for a RELIGION, He came for a
RELATIONSHIP. RELIGION is man made, and man in his own ability
reaching out to God. SALVATION is a RELATIONSHIP, with God reaching
out to man through the person of Jesus Christ. We all make personal
decisions and choices everyday: some good, some bad, and some
MIRACULOUS. It is my prayer that you know the Savior in a very
personal way, and if not it is my prayer that my personal testimony
will flick that switch in your life to bring you into the family of
God. I have no regrets, as I am praising the Lord for the many
blessings that I do not deserve! Thus began an end to a beginning.
Thank you Lord for doing for me what I was not capable of doing for
myself! |