Preface: The following was first posted in early 2020:
I like to hear the testimonies of conversions. Personal testimonies were the norm in my early Christian walk as a Pentecostal. Today as a Christian whose theology is what would be described as 'Reformed'....testimonies are really not given as formally....not as often anyway....but rather in a conversational setting. We tend to avoid anything that might possibly take the emphasis away from Christ and put it onto ourselves....but on occasion I've waxed sentimental in these posts....and today is one such day.
Both sides of my family were Catholic. My uncle was a priest in Tennessee and would take me to ballgames and other fun things when he was home. I attended Catholic schools through high school....and was married to a Protestant girl but in the Catholic church. Oddly enough my great grandfather was a Presbyterian minister. One of his sons....my grandfather.....was a wild youth who eventually settled down to marry a Catholic girl. He in turn became a devout Catholic....as did his four sons and their families....as I eventually reverted to Presbyterianism.
My mother had a St. Anthony statue by her bedside right up until the last couple years of her life in a nursing home. She never said a negative word about the Catholic church.....until about a year before she died.....and a year into the papacy of Pope Francis. Out of the blue one evening while the nightly news was on in her room.....she looked at me and said...."Special Dog....we have a bad pope."
I attended Our Lady Help of Christians grade school in Buffalo, New York up until the seventh grade. We were encouraged to attend Mass before school which I took advantage of because if you went to communion then you could have a delicious glaze donut to dunk in a cup of tea to begin the first class while the others had to sit there and study something. Somehow....and I don't know how because we did not have much money....I had a daily missal which I treasured. The ultra-thin pages with red and black type....and Latin....mesmerized me....but I did not have a Bible other than the impossible to read pocket New Testament given to me by my uncle at my first communion.
I occasionally attended Mass while in the army.....and then again while attending Pitt after the army. One evening.....I remember it well.....while waiting on the bus after classes I stopped in the National Record Mart that was a few feet away from the bus stop.....and I bought a Living Bible paraphrase of the New Testament....I still have it today. Although other than being touched by the solemnity of what I was reading.....I remained in darkness as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ....as did my future wife raised in Presbyterianism.
In 1981.....now married for five years.....My wife for some reason bought me a hardback Bible for Christmas.....I still have that Bible also. We were attending church regularly at the time.....and after Mass I would gather up all the Catholic newspapers in the back of the church and take them home....spread them out on the dining room table....and devour almost every word. Something was happening.
This was 1982 folks.....wonderful and marvelous things were happening all over America as to the Gospel of Jesus Christ. I stumbled across the 700 Club on television.....(becoming a member of the 700 Club and actually vacationing a few times down at their Founders Inn in Virginia Beach). There were also men at work who told me about being 'born again'.....and there were Christian bookstores.....wonderful Christian bookstores.....something we do not even have anymore because of the Internet. One day while my wife was shopping at Penney's.....I strolled the concourse of the shopping center and stopped out of curiosity at one of these Christian Bookstores. I had my rosary in my pocket.....which had broken.....I asked the lady at the counter if they sold rosaries on which she politely said no. I then browsed around and walked out with Josh McDowell's classic Evidence That Demands a Verdict. An explosion of intense curiosity was set off within my mind. I still purchase and give away that book today!
I wanted something so badly of which I knew not what it was that I planned to attend a Catholic charismatic service on Tuesdays at a local Catholic church. Twice I drove to the church....arriving purposely a little late....and stood outside the doors with my ear to the crack.....listening to the music and the voices but not going in. Out of frustration I called the 700 Club to ask if they knew of a church near me where I could hear this of which I wasn't even sure what it was. They recommended an Assemblies of God about a mile from our home. We were members there for about ten years....and I will always thank God for that church and the wonderful Christians we met there. We were active in the church....often entertaining overnight visiting ministers....once a leader of an apologetics ministry....another time a newspaper editor from Timisoara, Romania.
I was inquisitive about the veracity of the Christian faith from day one.....studying particularly apologetics....and researching what are known as Christian cults in order to defend the true Gospel of Jesus Christ....even putting an ad in the newspaper to reach them. In 1987 on a short term mission down in Paraguay....while walking through a small town one evening.....I saw a Baptist church offset a few yards off the main sidewalk of the town. It was hot....over 100 degrees....and the door of the church was open....I saw about a dozen worshipers sitting in a circle praying....a heavenly golden light contrasting the evening darkness....no music.....no laughter or gaiety.....just a soberness in what they were doing. I knew immediately that I wanted that. When I returned home my attention moved towards church history and I eventually wound up in a small Baptist church....about twelve members....no piano player....and no kids....(our son was about eight years old)....and the pastor was leaving! Somehow we stayed. A new pastor was called who would become a friend for life. Here was a man who owned a successful sign business in North Carolina.....who being 'born again' in his mid 50s.....decided to go to school to become a Southern Baptist pastor. A few years later I attended a Soli Deo Gloria conference (Reformed literature-Puritans in particular) that I heard of on Christian radio....and met there a man who would become our pastor for about the next twelve years....and also became a friend for life. He spoke with a little bit of a stutter.....and in a monotone....and whose sermons would be considered to be dull today in this church culture that demands practical sermons that are uplifting....but the words coming from his mouth....oh the words....about the glories of Christ....they were words from out of the past in the church. If you are upset at who I have become....blame him.
Eventually although working full time.....my wife and I opened a Christian bookstore.....and an odd Christian bookstore it was....very odd.....actually one-third of the books were everyday secular books....but carefully chosen....one-third were children's books.....and one-third were Christian books....but all from a 'Reformed' or 'Reformation' perspective. We had customers from all around Pittsburgh thanks to radio commercials that we made where I spoke about the bookstore as the sound was heard in the background of a hammer pounding a nail......this referencing Martin Luther hammering his 95 theses on the castle church door at Wittenberg.....but locally we did not do as well.....and although having this store was a great blessing.....we closed after two years.
So here I am today.....so thankful that God would take the least of the least.....and the most unlovable of all.....and bless him with a salvation almost indescribable in its wonder.....and a son who is raising a wonderful Christian family. I'm still me....same personality....(hey there's still time....Lord willing)....69 years young (70 years old now) and looking to that day when either Christ returns with His powerful angels in kingly glory....or when I am resurrected.....probably the last in line of multitudes to enter the Celestial City.....but thankful in that God will take glory in having mercy on someone such as I.
There you have it. I'll keep this up for a few hours.....a day or so.....and then try to hide it somewhere in past posts.....only keeping it there....as I do with a post titled 'Thankful For Weaknesses'....that I simply have to bring back from time to time to tell someone....anyone....of how Jesus Christ offers them an eternal salvation if they would but take themselves off of that pedestal long enough to read God's Word to see who should be up there.
