Have you ever looked into a mirror and didn’t like what you saw? That happened to me one day and I’m glad it did. I had known about God and His love since I was a young boy attending Sunday School, singing those children’s songs and hearing all those Bible stories. It was fun and good, but in my teenage years I started associating with the wrong crowd. I wanted to fit in and eventually I did, not for a moment considering the consequences. I started smoking, then drinking, thinking it was the “in thing.” All this time I lied to my parents and tried the best I could to cover up all I was doing. I tried to be happy, but in the middle of a crowd I was lonely.
When I went away to college I thought things would be better. Being away from parental influences and restraints would be great. My first night away I started using drugs. I thought it was great. I was free to do my own thing, only to find out that it was the same thing others were doing. I got deeper and deeper into drugs and a life filled with emptiness and disappointment. Things didn’t get better after I graduated. I continued on that roller coaster ride until one night, following a fight I was in, I looked in the mirror. With blood on my face and loneliness in my heart I heard a voice speak to me and say, “What are you doing?” I said to myself, “I don’t know what I’m doing, but I can’t go on this way.” Without thinking about the “friends” I came to the nightclub with, I walked out and left that lifestyle behind. God was being so good and kind to me. About year later I found myself in the hospital with hepatitis due to some contaminated food I had eaten. Pain the doctors couldn’t explain had me bound. Nothing they did or gave me would alleviate the pain. I cried out to Jesus for help and He did help me. The pain was gone, and I vowed to serve him with my life. About a year after that, I was invited to a revival meeting where I sought for God and was filled with the Holy Ghost with the evidence of speaking in another tongue as the Bible says. Jesus was continuing to lead me.
In 1976, my wife and I met Pastor Spite and his wife from New Life Assembly. We were in despair with our son in the hospital, very sick. They gave us such words of hope and encouragement and we were greatly impacted by their sincere love and concern. Jesus again was speaking and leading. We began attending the church, but I was very skeptical. The preaching that I heard crossed my thinking. I searched for the answers to my questions, and through many Bible studies with Pastor Spite I came to realize that truth was being preached. I saw my need to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sin. I obeyed the word of God, His command, and was baptized. That was life changing for me.
It’s a beautiful life living for Jesus and being connected to His church, which is His body on the earth. The love, care, and acceptance that is exhibited is truly of God. New Life Assembly has ministered greatly to me and my desire is for God to minister through me as part of His church.
~ David S.
