My mom and dad separated when I was a baby. I remember seeing my dad 3 times. I grew up in the inner city. I saw some things no child should see, like my mom being an alcoholic, see her passed out on the sidewalk and then in jail over night. I saw my mom stabbed by her boy friend, and experienced living at the Salvation Army because we had no where to go. I hated seeing the life my mom lived and wanted God to help me live a good life where I did not have to lie to cover up my bad actions.

I can remember in my junior year in high school someone asking me what would happen if I died that night. I told them confidently that I would go to heaven because I believed that Jesus died and rose from the dead. I was confident that I would go to heaven.

A year later someone shared with me that the free gift of salvation God had for me, involved me calling out to Jesus by faith to be the Lord of my life. And that Lord was not just another name for Jesus, it meant boss. God knew if I really wanted to trust Jesus to be my Lord and lose my life for His sake and the Gospel’s.

I realized then that I had been treating God like a stock broker, instead of being my Lord.. I wanted him to help me live a good life, so I did not have to lie to avoid getting into trouble, and I wanted God to help me pick out the right wife, the right job ….. But either Jesus was Lord of everything or He was not my Lord at all. I realized my belief was like the devil’s. The devil knows Jesus Christ died and rose from the dead.

I realized that if I had died the year before I would have gone to hell and that now was the day of Salvation. God graciously saved me my senior year in high school, back in 1971. I then had a commitment to do what ever I saw in God’s Word. I attended a large Baptist Church and wanted to go into the ministry right away. I went to Bible College for a year and almost went oversees as a missionary. But God showed me He had more work to do in my life right here in the States.

I am thankful to attend this church and have people around me who are not playing a game but are serious in being soldiers for Christ in the world around us. People who are not perfect, but they are not man pleasers but care about me enough that if I stumble in sin they will come to me to help me get back up.