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Personal Testimony

In 1983 at the age of twenty-three, I was your typical, average, no-good American guy. At that time in my life, as James Brown would say, “I was doing my thing.” I did most of the dirty dozen, nasty nine, filthy five, and I may have done one of the slack two, but never did the unthinkable one. I got most of that from Dr. Tony Evans.

I was reared in a small community called Cross, South Carolina, where I lived with my parents and siblings, and my mom took us to church every week. After high school, I went off to technical college, where I became a welder and resided in Denmark and Columbia, South Carolina. I later moved to Tampa, Florida, for work but after a few months decided to go back home to Cross because like they say, “There’s no place like home.” One day in Tampa, I met a young man that was about my age (twenty-one) who had bought a house. This inspired me to build my own house (after paying rent all over the place), but although I had a new plan, I had my same old problem, not drugs, alcohol, smoking, gambling, and not even child support or alimony; I had a “she weakness”—women.

Even with my new desire to build a house, a couple of years passed, and I was still living with my mom and doing my thing. I realized that I was not making any headway with my plan, and then I remembered what Richard Pryor used to say, “Anytime you cannot stop yourself from doing what you love to do and at the very same time all the problems you got come from the things you love to do, you got a problem and need some help.” At the end of every year, all I had were memories and no money, so I knew that I needed help if I was to get out of that rut.

My mom was a good Christian woman, and I saw how God was blessing and helping her. While staying with her, she always reminded me about church and the Lord. I always believed in God and that there was a heaven and hell, so I began going to church every Sunday with her. After about a month, I was convicted by the Word and Spirit and accepted Christ into my life, and the rest was history.

Well, after about two years of faithfully attending church (a Pentecostal church) and trying to be a good member and a good Christian, I began to have a problem because my church leaders told me I was saved, but that I needed to receive the Holy Ghost. At that time, I was doing everything they told me to do; I was fasting, praying, tarrying, and reading my Bible. Reading my Bible showed me that if I am saved, I have the Holy Ghost, so I started asking questions. I realized the answers I received sounded good but either were not consistent or did not make good Bible sense. Then I started to do a study on the Holy Ghost, and that’s when I found out that every believer has the Holy Ghost, also that He resides or abides with us forever. This led me to see, believe, and I became convinced that eternal salvation is true. Unfortunately, sharing my understanding with my church leaders did not go well. My pastor was bishop of the state of my denomination, and he did not believe in eternal salvation. He had a son who had received a doctrine degree in theology, so I approached him in hopes that he would understand my point of view and would help convey it to his dad. After a few meetings, he expressed that he did not believe in eternal salvation, but he did believe that every Christian has the Holy Ghost. He revealed to me that he knew this was not being taught correctly, but this was the way it had been taught for years, and he did not see how anything could be done.

Experiences and conversations with church leaders throughout the years such as this fueled me to help others understand the Gospel in the right way. A few years ago, my mom and dad died as believers who did not know of the assurance we have in Christ. To this day (thirty-five years later), my siblings and most of my family, friends, community, and believers that I know don’t know how good the Good News is because they do not believe in eternal salvation. For this reason, I have dedicated myself to be my family and community spiritual paralegal. This was done to give them a better understanding of the Gospel. My prayer is that reading this booklet will help someone begin to understand and appreciate all that God has done for us. Thank you, and I ask that you pray for me and may the Lord bless us all.