Testimony

Please enjoy this excerpt from Manage Your Mission – Living wisely and abundantly for today and eternity.  This book will help craft your life mission, establish its priorities, and succeed in each area: Faith – Family – Fitness – Field – Friends – Fun – Finances. 

I thought I should share a bit about myself so you’ll know from where I’m coming.

I didn’t have a singular, dramatic conversion experience, but I know what I believe and where my trust is now. Besides my college years, I’ve gone to church my whole life. The problem was that I wasn’t paying attention for the first 28 years.

I rebelled in my teen years but went to church to make my parents happy.  I had a few brief times of feeling spiritual, such as when I was baptized at thirteen, but I am pretty sure I was unsaved.  I can mention this now that the statute of limitations has long passed, but even when going to church camp, my friends and I would sometimes go off and smoke pot.  So it is safe to say we didn’t get the whole Jesus thing.  And that’s just one of many things I could mention but won’t because my mom may read this.  My motto was often, “Breaking most of the commandments, most of the time” — swearing, skipping church, not honoring my parents as well as I should have, coveting, lusting, etc.

I sat in church for most of my 20s to be sociable. By worldly standards, I was a nicely dressed, relatively well-behaved pagan who went to church and only fell asleep during sermons most of the time, didn’t trust in Jesus, didn’t read the Bible, and didn’t pray.  I assumed most people were just “playing church” like I was.

Then a few things happened. First, I noticed people using study Bibles that helped explain the text, which helped me understand it better. Then God gave me the desire to read it more. Finally, an FM rock station converted to a Christian format, and inexplicably I started listening to sermons and Bible shows while driving around. I learned countless things and started thinking about God multiple times per day instead of just once a week.

Ultimately God let me see the truth: Jesus really lived, died for my sins, and rose again. The evidence was there. I was a sinner, and I couldn’t save or forgive myself for my sins against God.  I repented and believed, and I wouldn’t go back for anything.

But he doesn’t just save us to fill up the seats in church. Just as he promised, he transforms our hearts and minds through his Holy Spirit and his Word.  Also, as Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the desires of your heart.” As he transforms us, our desires become more like his.  He has changed my desires in many ways and fulfilled them more thoroughly than I could have asked.  He gave me a real hunger for the Bible and learning about him and why we can trust his Word. As a result, I like to read and teach the Bible.  He has transformed my thinking, so I now see the world more like he does, regardless of the topic. He has given me an eternal perspective, so I think of things more often in a less worldly way. He also converted my wallet and took me from being very stingy to loving to give and looking for ways to give more and more to help advance his Kingdom.

He took me from being afraid to teach Sunday school or even say a quick prayer in class to enjoying opportunities to speak about him. Before, I was petrified, but now it’s like, “Oh look — a microphone.  And I get to talk about Jesus?! You won’t be needing this back.”

I used to avoid religious talk at all costs, but he has given me the passion and the opportunity to share the gospel with countless atheists, agnostics, and people of every major religion and cult.

He took me from being selfish with my time to enjoying serving others.  He gave me a passion for getting involved in the pro-life cause, which I consider the most crucial moral issue of our time.  At CareNet Pregnancy center — where they aim to save lives today and for eternity — I volunteered as a counselor, teacher of pro-life reasoning classes, and board member. I also got involved in prison ministry, which has been truly rewarding.

From a career standpoint, I’ve spent over 38 years in corporate America and over 27 years as a finance and accounting executive, so I’ve accumulated a lot of workplace and financial advice that people may find helpful.  I’ve also found many ways to live out my faith and maintain my employment.  That is getting increasingly difficult for believers, so I’ll spend some time on that in the Field section.

You cannot experience real and sustained joy apart from the author of joy.  I give Jesus all the credit for any good things done in my life or from my life, and I am eternally grateful for him letting me be a part of his plan. It is all by his grace and has nothing to do with any good deeds on my part.

So my challenge is to reflect on what God has done in your life. If you are like I used to be and haven’t trusted in Jesus as your Savior, I encourage you to get with someone as soon as possible and address whatever objections or barriers you have. I love being a Christian, and whether he gives me 30 more days of this life or 30 more years, I want to be relentless about being a good ambassador for him.  I wrote this to love God by exalting his name and all he has done and love my neighbors by sharing life-changing eternal and temporal truths with them.  I pray that this will benefit you in some way.

Copyright 2022

Scripture quotations are from the ESV® Bible

24 thoughts on “Testimony”

  3. Beautiful. Couldn’t have said it better! I hope we’ll have opportunity to meet face to face some day. I feel you’ve become a faithful brother and friend. Incidentally, are your daughters in the Christamas ballet? I don’t plan on coming to Texas anytime soon, but will certainly look forward to your reports and photos.

    P. S. You really stirred up a storm on the last apologetics site I read. I’m amazed at how many people you attract to your site, from so many backgrounds and with so many diverse opinions.

    ~donkimrey

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  4. Thanks, Don! Yes, I hope we meet face to face someday. Your encouragement has meant a lot to me.

    Yes, they are in the Nutcracker – 5 performances this weekend starting Friday night. I’m actually in it with them in the opening party scene, believe it or not (they need some dads to complete the families . . . let’s just say we aren’t in it as eye candy). I’ll definitely post some photos. I took 650 tonight and am in the process of editing them (I take them of all the kids and put them on Picasa so everyone can access them).

    Yep, we attract quite an interesting crowd here! Seriously, I really appreciate all the commentary here. I truly enjoy the friends I’ve made through blogging.

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  6. Neil,
    It was nice to finally read about you after jumping around different forum topics on your website. I don’t even remember how I found you, but I’m glad I did. Good story. Do you record the number of hits you have received?
    Bill

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  7. Hi Bill,

    Thanks for visiting and commenting. Glad you’re here. Not sure how many hits this has received. There are probably stats somewhere in WordPress. I review the overall stats but you can’t know how many really read it, how many were repeat visitors, etc.

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  8. , as Psalm 37:4 says, “Delight yourself in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart.” As He transforms us our desire become more like his. He has changed my desires in many ways and fulfilled them more fully than I could have asked for, a friend asked me to read this am so pleased but will not forget to remind us thatsalvation is ONLY possible if we maintian it, read JUDE 5 thanks to Ly Syin

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  9. Hi Green,

    Thanks for visiting and commenting!

    Re. Jude 5 (“Though you already know all this, I want to remind you that the Lord delivered his people out of Egypt, but later destroyed those who did not believe.”) — that appears to me that the ones destroyed never really believed. Yes, we should persevere, but that is just evidence that we were really saved.

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  11. Hi Philippa,

    Thanks for visiting and commenting. Please use the “wallet” comment all you like. I think Luther or some other famous person said it first (something along the lines of people going through two conversions, first the heart and then the wallet . . . and the second can be more difficult than the first!).

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  12. Good stuff. Sharing this kind of thing is important. I too was a “happy pagan” who attended church in body (off and on) for thirty years… but not mind or heart.

    I particularly like your line: “When in doubt, I try to agree with whatever He says.” Amen!! (Easy to say, hard to do.) I think I may borrow that, if you don’t mind! 🙂

    God bless.

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  13. Neil, I found you on another blog’s comments (an atheist’s). I appreciate your zeal for truth!

    Take care, and hopefully I’ll stop by more often.

    peace
    james

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  14. Thanks for sharing your testimony, wow what a wonderful saviour you have….my saviour Jesus did the same with me and my heart swells to read your written words. Press on brother. I thank God for your website.

    Liz

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  15. Pingback: Tweets that mention Testimony « Eternity Matters -- Topsy.com

  17. I was impressed by your testimony. I was raised Catholic and will be indebted to the nuns for teaching me about Jesus and his love. As an adult I find I want something more than the Catholic mass on Sunday. I struggle with finding a church home, but have recently met a lovely person who goes to a non-denominational church in our little town. She is such a kind and loving person I really would like to go and learn more. I frequently find myself asking question after question, challenging my born-again sister-in-law, not because I want to make her uncomfortable, but because I am seriously looking for answers and I struggle with my faith, even questioning the existence of God at times. Do you have any suggestions for me on this spiritual quest of mine? I am not looking for easy answers, I am looking for my personal truth.

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  19. In the Medium page below, you will find an open letter written by a combination of former staff, leaders, and members of Mission Community Church who were closely involved with the church ministry and Ryan and Bethany Carson from 2013-2020. Ryan Carson continually spiritually and emotionally abused staff, members, and leaders of Mission Community Church for seven years. He stepped down from his position in September of 2020 when his leadership team attempted to hold him accountable, and left completely unrepentant, publicly spreading false narratives about what led to his resignation. The Elder Board of Mission Community Church officially put him under church discipline due to his unrepentant status, and have a process set up for him to go through to be reconciled. Unfortunately, as a non-denominational church there is not much they can do if another church hires Ryan.
    We send you this email asking for help. Ryan was recently hired by his father-in-law, David Chadwick, who was the former Lead Pastor of Forest Hill Church and is the founding pastor of Moments of Hope Church. David Chadwick and the Moments of Hope Advisory Board have been notified that Ryan is under church discipline and has been disqualified for ministry by the elders of Mission Community Church, and they have decided to hire him as a pastor anyways.

    https://momentsoftruth21.medium.com/moments-of-hope-church-an-open-letter-regarding-ryan-carson-86a77ae2fa73

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    1. Thanks so much for sharing! I’m so glad there is visibility of this. I’m actually surprised he finally got elders who could hold him accountable. He reached out to me recently and gave a different story. I predicted that Chadwick would hire him. Sometimes I hate being right. Feel free to reach out to me personally if you like.

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