Salvation and call to ministry
I was born in 1940, in Brooklyn, N. Y., the second of five children and was raised in a very good home. When I was ten or eleven years old our family moved to Haddam Neck, CT.. I met my wife Claudia on a blind date at a New Year’s Eve party in 1962. We were married in May of 1963 and now have four children and seven grandchildren. Claudia played a key role in finding us a new church. She knew what to look for, I did'nt. I liked everything about that church except for the way the preacher ended his sermons. He always gave an invitation for people to go forward and receive Jesus as their Savior like Billy Graham did at his crusades. I never did go forward because it made no sense to me; I simply could not get the point of it. After about four months the pastor came over to our apartment for a visit. He asked me two very simple questions that forever changed my life and my eternal destiny.
The first question was, "Do you know John 3:16?" It was the only verse in the Bible that I did know, so I quoted it, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life." Then he asked, "Do you know what that means?" I did'nt have a clue. He told me to recite it again saying my name in place of the word "whosoever.”" So I started to say it again, "For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son that should Art believe in him" & before I finished the sentence the light bulb went on. For the first time in my life I realized that the Bible was something personal, it was for "me". I never saw it that way before!
God had just opened my heart and I became receptive to spiritual truths. He quoted Romans 3:23, "For all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God.” Well, I knew I was a sinner so I agreed with that. Then he told me about Romans 5:8, "But God commendeth his love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.” Again, now I was able to see that what Jesus did, he did for "me.” Then he quoted Romans 6:23, "For the wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord.” I did not fully understand the seriousness of sin but I grasped enough and God who is rich in mercy—was merciful to me, a sinner.
The last passage of Scripture the pastor shared with me was Romans 10: 9-13, "If thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that God that raised him from the dead, thou shalt be saved. For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. For the scripture saith, whosoever believeth on him shall not be ashamed. For there is no difference between the Jew and the Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him. For whosoever shall call upon the name of the Lord shall be saved.” That is exactly what I did. I believed the Bible and trusted in Jesus as my savior.
None of this has anything to do with being a member of any particular denomination or church. There are no denominations in the Bible and there are none in heaven. Because of what Jesus has accomplished for us in his sacrificial death "we” do not have to pay the penalty for our sins. Therefore, no religious group has any business claiming we have to be "one of them” to be on the inside track with God. Divine forgiveness of sin is available to all through repentance towards God and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. This divine forgiveness removes the separation, the barrier between us and God. We become reconciled to God through his merciful and gracious divine pardon—not through religious rituals, traditions, creeds, meritorious deeds, sacraments, or giving money to the church, etc..
I later came to realize that there is some confusion over the issue of earning one’s salvation verses receiving it as a gift. The problem with the concept of meritorious deeds or of trying to earn God’s favor is that the terms carry the idea of putting someone in debt to you. By way of illustration, if you work for an employer the employer has a legal, moral, ethical, obligation to pay you. The employer owes you money and is actually in debt to you. But just think about it, how could we ever do anything that would put our Creator in debt to us? On the other hand "effort” does not carry with it the notion of placing God in a position where he owes us. Of course, we are to do good works, pursue holiness, and bring glory and honor to our great God. All of these good things require effort on our part but they are not done to earn or merit God’s favor because we have already become Christians by faith, that is, by trusting in Jesus. We do good things because that is the natural overflow of the love of God working through us. We are not trying to earn anything or score points with God. It is all of grace so that no one may boast.
I eventually became very alarmed at how I was making my living. We owned a business that rented chairs, tables, and tents for parties and banquets. One of the ways I promoted the business was by showing volunteer organizations how they could raise a lot of money. All they had to do was rent my equipment and promote beer fests. Everything was going well except that I was making my living by helping people to party and get plastered. It became so incompatible with what I was learning about my Christian faith that I just couldn’t in good conscience keep doing it. I sold the business and began teaching in the Christian School our kids were enrolled in. The following year we moved to Colchester and began attending another good church where the pastor was a great Bible teacher.
What distinguishes those on their way to heaven from those on their way to hell? The latter never see their need to exercise repentance towards God and place their faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. They just keep on doing "whatever” while they continue to ignore or oppose God’s will. Tragically, they miss God’s best in this life and then are damned to experience hell in the next. The heaven bound do see that they are guilty of sin and in need of a Savior. They do repent of their sins and place their trust in Jesus. They do become true disciples of the Lord Jesus Christ. They do receive a divine enabling to please God, be useful to others, and live a life that has meaning and purpose. This is living life to the max!
How did I become a pastor?
God never promised us a trouble free life. Struggle and disappointment are an inescapable reality. Back in September of 1992, I was exasperated with my inability to gain victory over a sin that just kept dogging me, and I was disgusted my lousy prayer life. In his own gracious way God kept working on me. I became convicted over those matters and simply purposed to do whatever it would take, with God’s help, to become a man of prayer. Why prayer? Because it just seemed to me that nothing would really change unless I got the prayer thing right. I spent many months in an intense effort to examine myself and learn how to pray. And I began to see many things in my life that needed attention, not just the sin that troubled me so much. After awhile my prayer time became a joy and I looked forward to it. I could sense the nearness of God while praying and began to experience wonderful answers to prayer, sometimes right while I was praying. Needed changes began to take place, and it became clear that God working in my life. It was wonderful. The changes were real and they were significant.
By October of 1995, the Lord saw fit to place me in ministry as pastor of the Lebanon Bible Church. My becoming a pastor was due in large part to my wife’s own devotion to the Lord and her faithful encouragement, the training I was given by the two pastors already mentioned, becoming a guy with a prayer life, and victory over that sin problem. To God be the glory!
Dear friend, I would be happy to talk about spiritual things with you. God bless you.