I just want to thank God for all that He has done and is doing in my life.

I, at one time in my life, thought that God did not want anything to do with me.  I had a friend that would talk to me about God that was my response that God did not want someone like me.

As a teenager, I started drinking the summer going into my freshman year, and as time went along, it only got worse.  I got into trouble with the law for stealing.  I would go to school sometimes drunk and done many things that I wish I would have never done.

You may think that I must have had a bad upbringing, but the truth of the matter is that I have been raised in a Christian home all my life.  My father has been a deacon every since I can remember.  They were faithful and taught me that it was very important to be faithful above all else to God first.  

Although being taught and shown the truth, I continued on in my sin until one day my mom by accident found some pictures of me and my friend, during summer break in myrtle beach, drinking with some people that we met there.  My mom told my dad to kick me out.  I have never forgotten that day. 

I remember telling my dad that I never meant to hurt them. The day following, they let me return home.  From that point on I began to think.  Many times before all that happened, I would see news about possibly going to war, or something.  I would turn the channel, or turn the T. V. off because it would scare me to death.  I knew that if the Lord would come back, I would not go to heaven, but to hell forever.  Therefore, from that incident on, I began to change. 

However, even though I stopped cussing and drinking, I still was not satisfied.  I knew in my heart what I needed to do and that was to be saved.  

One night while passing my mom’s bathroom, I noticed a small paper back book that was yellow with red flames and written in red, big words that said, What is Worse Than Going to Hell?  (Not knowing it at the time, but that book had belonged to my grandmother who was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s.) My first thought, being raised in church, was that this guy is crazy.  There is nothing worse than going to hell.

As I began to read, it told me all that was going to be in hell.  Never being one that liked to read, I could not lay that book down.  From that night forward, I wanted to be saved so badly.  However, I was afraid of what my brother and friends would think until one night I realized it did not matter what they thought.  Hell was no place I wanted to go. 

While talking to my dad about thinking about accepting Christ as my personal Savior, he asked, “Son do you want to pray?”  We went down to the basement of our home and all I can remember was crying my eyes out and telling God how sorry I was.  From that day forward, my life has never been the same.