John’s Personal Testimony - 2014
I grew up with my mother in a home of divorce and an alcoholic stepfather. I had an older brother. I also had a younger sister, who drowned in a drainage ditch when she was about 22 months old. The death of my sister was devastating to me because I was about eighteen months older than she was and we were always together.
When I was a pre-teen, my mother remarried a third time and had two children, so I also have another brother and sister who are younger than me. Growing up, I was pretty much a loner. I loved to go exploring in the woods with my dog in Sarasota and the Fort Myers area. Much of my time with relatives was spent with my uncle, aunt, and grandparents.
Starting school was a terrifying experience for me. I longed to be in the woods. No one talked to me about school or helped prepare me for it. All I remember is my mother dragging me across the parking lot to the entrance of the school. I was never taught to read. I was passed from one grade to the next without ever completing an assignment. As the years went on, I was the student who served milk in the lunchroom, cleaned the trash from the playground, or helped the custodian in some way.
I stopped going to school when I was in 7th grade. I would walk in the front door and out the back. I had started to get into trouble and into fights. My parents believed that I was incorrigible and at 14 years old, I was sent to the Okeechobee School for Boys. I’ll save that story and the following troubles for another time. Suffice it to say, that I was always getting into trouble or a fight of some kind.
The years went on. I never let anyone know that I could not read. I worked in stucco, pressure cleaning, carpentry, and painting. When I was approximately 30 years old, I was in a bar in which I frequently fought. I was there for lunch with my boss. As I was sitting at the bar, I heard a loud voice behind me say to me, “Read the Bible!” I immediately whipped around ready to punch someone, but no one was there. I went home that evening; I shared the story with my girlfriend, and we had a good laugh about it.
One day, not knowing that I couldn’t read, my girlfriend brought home a large print Bible for me to read. I put it on my desk. Since I came home from work before she did, every afternoon I would sit at my desk and stare at the Bible. Each day, I had a greater desire to read what was in that book. One afternoon, my desire to read it peaked and I opened the book. To my surprise and amazement, I could read every word!
It was as if the words jumped out at me! Just like a child, I believed everything I read. A friend then invited me to his church even though he ever knew about my experience with the Bible. I went to the church of 11 people and God really touched me. One Sunday, I felt compelled to go to the altar to tell God how much I loved Him. As I raised my hands, eyes closed, expressing my love for Him, I could feel a vat of warm oil being poured over me. The more I praised and kept my hands raised, the more the oil poured. I don’t know how long I was there, but afterwards people told me of several miracles that had occurred during that time. One example was that the preacher, who had bad knees, was skipping across the tops of the pews, knees healed. The Bible says to go out and share the Good News. So, I went out to the neighborhood, which at that time was the crack capital of the U.S. Within one year, over 100 people were attending the church.
This testimony was written when John was 69 years old. He studied the Bible extensively for over 30 years. He said that he was always amazed that after studying for so many years, he was always learning something new. He attended the Christian Retreat School of Ministry from which he received his pastoral credentials with the Gospel Crusade Ministerial Fellowship. Through the years of study, he realized that the bottom line of Christianity is love. Jesus said, in Matthew 22:34-36, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, and with all your mind. This is the greatest and most important commandment. The second is like it: Love your neighbor as yourself. All the Law and the Prophets depend on these two commandments." And in John 13:34-35, Jesus said, "A new command I give you. Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another." John embraced Jesus' words and spent his life sharing the love of God, through Jesus Christ. He dedicated his life to loving others as Christ loves us.
Because of his life experiences, John could have lived a life full of anger, bitterness, and unforgiveness. Instead, John chose to invite Jesus Christ into his life as his Lord and Savior. John chose to study the Bible and learn about what would be pleasing to the Lord and then live his life accordingly. As a result, he lived with the Peace of God filling his life and the love of God flowing through him to everyone he met.
God loves us more than we can ever imagine and all He wants in return is for us to show our love for Him by wanting to have a relationship with Him. We can do that by realizing that we are all sinners, accepting His Son, Jesus Christ as our Savior who paid the price to redeem us from our sins, and turning away from the ways of the world and to Him for guidance, direction, love, protection, and provision. God created Adam and Eve to fellowship with Him, to walk in the garden with Him in the cool of the evening; to be happy and at peace, with all their needs met. What is different now? Nothing. God is still the same. He still wants a personal relationship with you. On John’s pages, I will be sharing more of what he learned through the years. May his writings be an encouragement to you.
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