The Pastor's Testimony
The Reason Into The Light Ministries Was Formed

30 plus years ago, my life was on a downhill slide. At 35 years of age, I had already reached the height of my profession (law enforcement) and had retired to start my own security business which was becoming one of the top rated security corporations in the state.

Career-wise, it seemed as though I had it all, but once you scratched the surface, you began to see the dark side. For years I had been a user of pharmaceutical drugs both for real ailments and for manufactured ones. I found life was much easier to deal with if I could take something. Early in my career, rather than face and deal with the problems I was having at home, I became a workaholic. Being a police officer allowed me to escape into a world that was totally different from dull everyday living. But because my job brought me into daily close contact with the criminal element, I began to seek more and more excitement from that group.

I was associating on a regular basis with pimps, prostitutes, extortionists and every other manner of vile personality. As far as I was concerned my home life offered me nothing, my job was becoming routine, and I wanted something 'better'.

I was never satisfied with the place and position I was at and was continually striving to rise to the top. I didn't care what I had to do or who I had to step on to get there. Being the best at everything was more important to me than those around me. With that kind of drive I soon reached the top of my profession and was given the position of Chief of Police. Because this was as far as I could go, even this position became too mundane for me eventually and I retired to start my own business. By this time I was using prescription drugs on a regular basis. Once I started my business, my associations became almost exclusively of the criminal element. I became a pimp, an extortionist and was very heavily involved in prostitution, among other things.

If anyone would have asked me what caused this 'drive' to be the best at everything I would have told them I was reacting to my upbringing and my childhood. I was raised in an atmosphere of drunken orgies and fighting, and I never knew from one day to the next if there would be any food, where I would sleep, or even whether or not my mother would be alive when I came home. (My father was constantly threatening to kill her). At a very young age, I was sexually assaulted by the neighbor's teenage son and that, coupled with the fact that I had no one to turn to, caused a great hatred to rise up within me. I swore that one day I would get even with them all. I am convinced that it was this great hatred that fueled the fire for my drive to succeed at everything I did.

By the time I was thirty five, I reached the top and began a rapid downhill slide. My drug habit had changed from prescription drugs to street drugs and my habit was running between $500 and $800 a week. I had broken all of the commandments of God including murder and I was seriously contemplating suicide when a woman my wife and I knew invited us to go with her to a prayer meeting. I decided I had nothing to lose, so we went with her.

We were met at the door by a man who was so filled with joy that I thought he must be on drugs too. (I found out later he was filled with the Holy Spirit, not narcotics.) This man took us to a room where there were several people just kneeling on the floor and praying. I didn't want to be too noticeable so I told my wife to kneel down and act like she was praying and I did the same. It was very quiet in this place and I was nervous.

I began looking around and my eyes came to rest on a cross with Jesus on it on the wall in front of me. All of a sudden the hopelessness of my life overcame me and I silently cried out to God, "If you're real, if you can hear me, then do something with my life. Change it, straighten it out. Help me. And if you do I will do whatever you tell me to do, go wherever you tell me to go, and say whatever you tell me to say. I will serve you from this day forward." All of a sudden the cross with Jesus on it lit up and I began to feel a light and warmth run through my body that I had never felt before.

Prior to this I hated my father and tried to kill him several times without success. (Glory be to God!) At one point I tried to blow up his car with him in it and another time left him to freeze to death in some woods in the northern part of the country. Each time he walked away and each time I vowed to try again. The hatred I felt for him was all consuming and yet, at the moment that cross on the wall lit up, I was filled with an unbelievable amount of love for him.

Shortly after my salvation my wife and I went to the local police department because there were arrest warrants out for me. When we got there the sergeant on duty could not believe I had actually walked into the station without a fight. He checked all of the files and all of the computer records and could not find a thing. I walked out of that police station a free man. Before my salvation I was also approximately $85,000.00 in debt but God miraculously wiped away every cent owed. Again, I experienced freedom in Christ.

Approximately a week after my salvation experience, we were invited to visit with a couple who had been saved for quite some time and whose background was similar to ours. While sitting in their living room listening to their testimony, suddenly I felt myself being transported and I was before the Lord. Words cannot adequately describe all that I saw and there are some things that the Lord has not yet given me a freedom to share, but one of the things the Lord told me was that He had called me to bring an end times message to the church. The basis of the message is as follows: people are looking at denominations, buildings, personalities and programs rather than Jesus for their salvation. In a time of crisis or confrontation they will cling to their denomination or church as though it were their lifeline, instead of clinging to Christ who truly is the ONLY lifeline. There are but two things that matter: the first being repentance and true salvation, the second being to live a life of faith in the Son of God. I don't mean just saying the words, but doing it. (Be ye not a hearer of the Word only, but a doer.) How many people are trusting in their jobs, their paycheck and their benefits rather than looking to God as their only source, the supplier of all their needs and their healer?

For the past twenty years the Lord has had me minister throughout the United States and around the world and He has always confirmed my ministry with signs, wonders and miracles as He promised He would do. All that God has done for me, at the beginning and throughout the years since, He can and will do for you because God is no respecter of persons. Situations and circumstances may vary but what God will do for one He will do for another.

God says He will meet you where you are. When He speaks of us giving Him our whole heart and lives He says in Malachi 3:10, "Test me in this and see if I will not throw open the floodgates of heaven and pour out so much blessing that you will not have room enough for it." If you know you are a sinner, if you believe Jesus is the Son of God who died to pay the price for your sins - tell Him! Ask forgiveness and for Him to come into your heart to live forever. You don't need any fancy words or formula, just a heart open and honest toward God. And then begin to share your Lord and Savior Jesus Christ with anyone and everyone. Not everyone is called to go to other countries, but everyone is called to share Jesus where they are; with the man at the local gas station, the lady at the checkout counter at Wal-Mart, and so on. Or are you too ashamed of Jesus to tell others about Him? He is calling to you now and He already knows everything you have done and all you are going to do in the future. You aren't going to surprise Him. There is NOTHING you have done He won't forgive. Just try Him. You do your part and He WILL do His.

As in Genesis when He called out, "Adam, where are you?," so, too, is He calling out today to all who would hear Him. So I ask you, Adam, where are you? Today we have multitudes who call themselves Christians but are in fact hypocrites. They say to the Lord, send me to another country and I will share Your Gospel, while at the same time not possessing the courage and internal fortitude to share Christ with their families, their friends, people they work with or people that they encounter every day. And they do this because they are ashamed of Christ and afraid of being ridiculed. Are you willing to trust Him to turn your life over to Him completely, to allow His Holy Spirit to do is work within you, to mold you and to shape you? If not then I fear you shall hear His words in judgment, "Away from Me, I never knew you." It's time to quit playing church and really start serving God.

During my vision I was taken to heaven for approximately two hours of our earthly time. In that time the Lord showed me many things and spoke many things which I have neither the time or space to share with you now, but I hope to see you soon at one of our meetings.

Yours in Christ's love.

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