My Testimony of Salvation
Categories: [Faith]
Hi everyone,
I wanted to type this up for a long time now and the Lord has weighed it on me to share it with you all. I was born and raised in a home that attend a Presbyterian congregation every Sunday (I don't think we missed more than two or three times a year). That group, and my family, all used the NIV and my first Bible that I tried to study from was also an NIV. I remember praying a prayer at VBS one year and asking Jesus to save me. I doubt I was saved, I may have been 8 and remember getting a bracelet after letting some know I prayed "the" prayer.
I pretty much dropped all faith in high school and lived exactly like all my unsaved friends. The only difference was that my parents still got me up every Sunday to attend their "church". The dragging stopped once I got to college and I did not do much by way of faith there either. With the exception of one summer after a drug scare. I was almost kicked out of school because the head of the dorm found marijuana that a friend set down on my table and walked out leaving the door open. What a scare that was. After that I got into the NIV and really started to search for the truth. That summer I was a counselor at a Summer camp aimed at getting children and teens saved. It was a great experience but not enough to keep me out of the Occult.
After I graduated college I joined the Free Masons, started mediating, using crystals, making "orgonite", and using divination. It was a wild ride and I saw some things... One example was with a crystal pendulum I had; I would ask a question and let the "spirits" (devils) swing the crystal on a string to give me an answer. One day I was reminded of the verse about testing the spirits to see if they are of God.
Beloved, believe not every spirit, but try the spirits whether they are of God: because many false prophets are gone out into the world. (I John 4:1)
So I did, right in the middle of the session and immediately the pendulum stopped dead and did not budge an inch. I did not use that pendulum from that day forward but still dabbled in the Occult until one day mid September of 2015. I was watching some videos on the rapture and what the Bible says about the doctrine (now I know that video was more about what that man thought than the Bible). It was that day, at work mind you, that my life changed. I knew if the rapture happened right then I would be left behind. That I was a sinner, that I was set on the path to Hell and God's wrath. I left my desk, found a vacant meeting room and prayed for forgiveness and for God to save my sole.
Once I got home I disposed of all my books, crystals, special candles, bracelets, you name it. Hundreds of dollars of stuff, possibly close to a thousand. Shortly after that I rejected Free Masonry and the rest of my occult practices. My life has not been the same since. Still far from perfect and my flesh still wins at times but those close to me noticed the difference. After getting rid of all my stuff I dove in and started to learn as much as I could about God's Word. I felt like I wasted so much of my life and needed to catch up. It was in that time that I started looking into what the best Bible translation is and of course all the fact point to the King James Version. I am grateful that my wife even followed me and we got new Bibles (she was shocked to see what he NIV was missing when I told her).
I was attending a "church" near my hometown but I believe God's Word is clear that we are not to gather in special buildings to worship. (Getting my wife on board with that was much more difficult than getting her on the KJV). It was a bit hard since the pastor there is sound in doctrine and preaches the Truth of the Bible, but for me, I want to follow God's Word for our time as accurately as possible.
God bless, and if you have any questions please let me know.