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I was born the first time on June 10, 1943 and raised in a Southern
Baptist Church. I was born again at the age of 10 years old. During a
revival I was brought under conviction by the Holy Spirit and the preacher
preaching on Hell and I knew that if I died I would certainly go to Hell.
Being very shy, I kept putting off going down to be saved at the
invitation. After several weeks of deep conviction, I stepped out at the
invitation and that burden of sin was lifted. I was saved before I ever
got to the front of the church. Eph 2:8,9 For by grace are ye saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God: 9 Not of
works, lest any man should boast. I was saved because I completely trusted
what the Lord Jesus Christ did for me on the cross.
Because I wasn't exhorted to read and study the bible, before long as a
teenager I quit going to church and was backslid until I was about 30
years old. During that time, the Lord whipped me through motorcycle falls
5 times and other things that happened to me and my family,
Hebrews 12:6,7. For whom the Lord loveth he
chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth. If ye endure
chastening, God dealeth with you as with sons; for what son is he whom the
father chasteneth not? I saw that I had to get back in church or the Lord was going to
kill me, so I made myself go to church for three weeks straight. It was a
struggle every Sunday Morning, but on the third Sunday, during the
invitation, I went forward all torn up and rededicated my life to the
Lord. After that I started listening to Oliver B. Green and some other
independent Baptist preachers on the radio and they got me interested in
reading and studying the bible.
However, soon I was fooled into believing that you had to know Greek or
Hebrew in order to understand the bible. I bought Oliver Green's books,
then got a Sword of the Lord and bought John R. Rice's books and thought I
was going to learn something, I didn't. It was about that time that I
changed jobs and ran into a man that believed the King James Bible was the
perfect word of God. We argued for three months. Every time I would meet
up with him, we would go at it until one day he gave
Psalms 12:6,7 The words of the LORD are pure
words: as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven times. Thou
shalt keep them, O LORD, thou shalt preserve them from this generation for
ever. and I
couldn't seem to get around that verse. The Holy Spirit took that verse
and stabbed me in the heart. I decided that if God had ever given us any
words, they had to be in a perfect form somewhere. During that time, I
knew the Lord wanted me to go to school somewhere, so I made a trip to
Greenville, SC to Tabernacle Baptist School and church where brother
Harold Sightler was the Pastor. That was a blank! I then went to Tennessee
Temple Schools and that was a blank. The man that I argued with for three
months about the bible let me listen to a set of tapes by Dr. Peter S.
Ruckman and I liked them, so I took a trip down to Pensacola, Florida to
check him out. I went to church that night and the Lord tore me up so bad
that I was balling like a baby and completely turned myself over to the
Lord for Him to do whatever He wanted with me.
I went back up to North Carolina, sold my house and land, quit my job and
went to Pensacola Bible Institute in 1979. After Graduation in 1982, I
asked the Lord where He wanted me to go and the only place that came into
my head was Belmont, NC. When we moved back here, Some folks in Charlotte,
NC wanted to start a church, so I pastored Bible Believers Baptist Church
for three years and shut it down after all the people left. I'm sure I got
out of the Lord's will by not trying to keep that church open and I guess
I was put on the shelf for a while because of quitting when the Lord
didn't tell me to quit. We haven't gotten to Belmont yet, but we're in
Lowell, which is just about 10 miles away and who knows, the Lord could
open up a building in Belmont anytime. It's just been 33 years since I
prayed that prayer.
My Website
If you are not 100% sure that you are going to
Heaven when you die, enter in at the the door:
 John 10:9 I am the door: by me if
any man enter in, he shall be saved, and shall go in and out, and find
pasture.
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