My Story: Life Before Tragedy (Part 1)

I have spent my life in the church.  Faith in Jesus and a relationship with God have been key to my life.  I feel that now I am learning some how the Holy Spirit operates.  I don’t think I was aware much of that role and relationship but I am extra thankful the Holy Spirit has been present in my life.   Now I am trying to read more and read books and the bible nearly daily.  I am ashamed to say I’ve read further in the bible as I ever have.  I do not know how many times I have started reading the bible with a reading plan and read Genesis and maybe parts of Exodus then life has happened and I would stop.  Most of the bible reading plans out there say you need to read this certain list of chapters per day.  When life would happen and I would get off it would seem too challenging to get back on schedule so I would just stop trying.  Now I am just reading, some days I read multiple chapters but most days I normally read two or three and that has made the difference.  Just read and as you read the living word of God listen for his voice.

As I have said, my faith has been a huge part of my life.  As kids my parents took my sister and I to church often.  Here we learned about God, the forgiveness offered to us through faith in Jesus Christ, and how to serve in the church.  I can remember at an early age being afraid to die.  I would go to my parent’s room at night, very upset and scared.  I remember the first time this happened.  I could not tell them what was bothering me but related my fear of death back to the baptismal at church.  I remember just being able to tell them my fear was coming from the “Blue Curtains” at church.  At our church the baptismal was covered by large blue curtains.  It is amazing to me that even though this was not my fear I know now that it was part of the solution.  Even at an early age I related these two things together.  I continued to have these spells of fear where I would go crying to my parents.  They would describe the solution which was faith in Jesus then I would go back to bed without doing anything.  I attribute this response to being young.  Then I will never forget it.  It was in April 1996.  As a family we watched the Ten Commandments movie that night on TV.  One scene is where the spirit of God passes over the houses and the houses without the lamb’s blood on the door have its youngest child taken (this is one of the plagues – I encourage you to read more about in the biblical book of Exodus if you’re unfamiliar).  After this scene the TV went to a commercial.  I just slipped out of the living room, prayed admitting I was a sinner, believing that Jesus died for my sin, and confessed Jesus as Lord of my life.  I then slipped back into the living room and finished the movie with my family and did not say anything.  After the movie I told my parents and they prayed with me.  The next morning was Sunday, my parents took me to meet with our pastor during Sunday School.  In our worship service that morning the invitation was given and I went down front in the church to make my decision public.  That evening in the PM service I was baptized.  Baptism is to let everyone know of the decision and is symbolic of the cleansing from sin that salvation brings.  

As I have said this was in April of 1996.  I do not say any of this salvation story to say that I have lived a perfect life (one without sin) but I believe that when I prayed I was forgiven of sin I had committed and sin that I would commit.  The Bible says Jesus died once for all for sin, it is my belief this covered them all.  If not there would need to be a continual sacrifice just as there had been in times past.  Jesus was the perfect sacrifice for all sin.  It was at this moment of salvation that my fear of death left me.  I know everyone dies but my faith tells me the reward is coming in heaven.

In high school at our youth ministry I was asked to serve with our worship band with technology and put the words on a screen as they sang.  Being a technical person I agreed and also learned how to adjust the controls for their sound.  Our church had a Microsoft Powerpoint file with the words to many of the worship songs we sang.  We found that in Microsoft Powerpoint you could type a number to the starting slide of the song to display it quickly.  So I also had a multiple page document that listed the song and the number of the first slide of that song.   Years later while in college a friend of mine was doing this for our church in Monticello but had a Sunday where he had multiple things to do so I volunteered to do this for him.  At this church we used a very different slide display program but it was nice to be serving at this again.  I truly believe at this time technology was a gifted area in my life that I could use to serve my God.  While others can serve in many ways, mine was technology.  I have served in many roles as a technology volunteer for our church for years and is something I am slowly getting back to.  

I have been a part of two church families in my life.  The church I grew up in was Cullendale First Baptist Church in Camden, Arkansas.  I was a member of this church with my parents and grandparents.  This church played such a huge role in my life and will always be a part of my story.  After graduating high school I moved to Monticello, Arkansas for college and joined Pauline Baptist Church.  Pauline is the church my family is a part of today.  It is the church my wife and I were married in and the church both of my kids were baptized in.

In college I tried several churches but never felt at home like I did at Pauline.   I started attending Pauline because they were the main sponsor of the Missionary Baptist Student Fellowship (MBSF) ministry that I was a part of in college and there I had many friends.  Pauline was a Missionary Baptist Church, a little different than Southern Baptists not that I have ever been too concerned with denomination but it was what I knew.  I immediately felt at home with this church and its members and joined its membership in 2005.  Both these churches were such a huge praying force while I was in the hospital.

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