The Pit

The miry clay sucked me inexorably down for the last time.

Jesus stood above me, silently gazing down from the lip of the deep, unclimbable pit. He had every right to watch and enjoy my predicament and suffering, so I had no one to blame but myself for being here. I knew this was what I deserved.

This was me in 1977 in my room at Marine Corps Air Station, El Toro, California. I had been saved when I was a young boy. But now I was so far from the Lord I was not even sure that He existed, and I was doing things a Christian had no business being involved in, giving myself permission to sin with a married woman, partying, and all the other activities, forgetting the One who had saved me from my sins, Jesus.

At an Easter Sunday service in 1957, an evangelist was preaching, and he said, “If you die without Jesus, you will die and go to hell.” I believed him completely, and, when the altar call came, I walked right past my father and down to the front. When I accepted the Lord, He came into my heart and saved me. I knew I was born again, but since I was only three, my parents and siblings thought I did not understand, and they doubted me. When no one would listen to what had happened to me, I went home without telling my father, who found me later at home in a closet preaching everything the evangelist had said. Of course I got corrected for that. Sorry, Dad. We were in that town for a little while longer.

My father began a new job in Vancouver, Washington, working for White’s Construction Company shortly thereafter, and he moved us to Camas, Washington, where he had bought a house, and found another church to attend. The pastor of the new church asked him to fix and upgrade the church, and my father faithfully donated his time and abilities to accommodate him. The pastor did not care that my father worked hard as a carpenter at his job, and so he was correspondingly exhausted when the weekend came, and yet the pastor continued to ask for more work to be done. Finally, my father became offended by the whole church scene and stopped going to church.

There was a Baptist church up the road from our new home that my brother, sisters, and I went to, but it was so dead. It demonstrated no spiritual growth. There was just a bunch of bodies sitting there Sunday after Sunday, like bumps on a log. They sang the great gospel songs with no enthusiasm, no spirit, and I wondered why they even came to church. During the rest of my childhood, I did not grow any in Christ, so when I graduated high school in 1971 and was ready to be an adult, I went to work with my father at his company as an apprentice carpenter. That lasted two months before my father refused to let me go to the drive-in on a Friday.

Since I had my own car, and I had had enough of his oppression, I took off for California and my older sister’s house near Los Angeles, California. A job and friends soon followed, and I was introduced to alcohol, drugs, and women. Two of those friends got caught with a large amount of heroin and decided to take the out of joining the Marine Corps instead. Yours truly also enlisted.

After two tours in Okinawa, I was back in the States on my way to staff sergeant on the next promotion list. As I said before, I was living my life without any thought of God, and one day, while working my part-time job off base at a fast-food restaurant, I met a man, who I will call John, dressed in a very unusual outfit. John had a white robe, a blue jacket, and a rope belt, I think. I cannot recall what he called his belief or sect. Next, I did something stupid. I went back to the base, grabbed some more civilian clothes, and left with him. I was not thinking about my future in real life as such. I only knew that something was missing, and I had to find it, and if John was close to the Lord, then I could get back with Him also.

The doctrine that John followed did not include preaching Jesus or sharing the Bible with others. It concerned his welfare, meaning food and money, and sometimes a place to stay for a brief period. John wanted me to follow him, sell my vehicle, and leave my past behind. We were to walk and hitchhike around the country, panhandling for money and living off other people. We came to a parting of ways when I finally realized the falsity of his beliefs, and he asked me to leave him on the side of the road near a small Texas town. I decided that I would sleep that night and head back to the base in the morning, or so I thought. I parked in a large empty church parking lot and shortly thereafter was arrested when a police officer arrived and found out that I was AWOL.

When I returned to base, I faced my commanding officer, who told me the punishment for my leaving was not getting promoted. The rest was a blur, but I was glad to be back, and I reassured my CO that my head was on straight for the first time in years. I got back into the routine on base and began studying scripture again, seeking my way back to the Lord. Which brings me to the day, weeks later, after work and alone in my room. In retrospect, I had much less understanding of scripture then than I do now. Everywhere I turned, in my mind, in scripture, and in my spirit, I encountered condemnation and the just reward for my abandonment of Jesus. And so, it came down to this.

Suddenly, as though my very life’s energy was draining away, and as I sat at the desk with my head on the top of it,

My strength was gone; I was unable to move.

The world around me receded to a very distant reality, and I found myself in the spiritual realm at the bottom of a deep pit, stuck in the miry clay. Jesus stood calmly gazing down at me from the top, and I began to go down and under for the first time. Fighting back to the surface, I struggled to remain there only to find my strength ebbing. And I sank beneath the surface again.

More terrified than I had ever been in my life, I thrashed with all my remaining energy, struggling back to the surface, and I knew that the next time would be my last. I looked up at Jesus and said, “Jesus, if You don’t reach down and pull me out, I’m gone.” Jesus leaned forward and put out His hand, and then an amazing thing happened! As He reached down, the pit was instantly only inches deep. He grasped my hand, pulled me up out of the mire of the clay, and as He did so, all that filthiness fell away, and I was immediately wearing a pure white gown again.

As He set me on solid ground, He told me, “OK, let’s go,” and we began walking along through that spiritual realm setting. I could see many more holes in the ground as we walked, which I now knew were pitfalls to avoid. Jesus said one final thing to me before He left, and I returned to reality in this world. He told me that at a certain time in the future, He would return and speak with me, which He did, but that is another story.

One of the marvelous things that Jesus showed me and taught me that day was that all we had to do was repent, ask His forgiveness, and go on in Him, because He already paid for our sins on the Cross, even the ones we committed after we accepted Him. His Word says, “And their sins and iniquities will I remember no more.” (Heb. 10:17 KJV). Our God loves us so much!

So, the next time you think you may have committed the unpardonable sin, just run to Him like the prodigal son did and find out that Jesus and our Heavenly Father are always there waiting for you with open arms to receive you back again. In the Book of Hebrews, chapter 13, verse 5 says that Jesus said, “I will never leave you nor forsake you.” And the cool thing about God is that He never chews you out or gives you a big to-do list before you can come back home or be accepted by Him again. All Jesus says is, “OK. Let us go,” and off you go with Jesus at your side, continuing your journey through this world and on to heaven and eternity with Him!

In Closing

, if there is anyone reading this short testimony and you want to accept Jesus as your own personal Lord and Savior, you can do it right where you are, just as you are. He does not expect anything other than the following prayer.

Prayer for Salvation

‘Dear Jesus, I believe that you died for my sins on the cross and rose again from the dead so that I might have everlasting life through you. I accept you as my Lord and Savior. Please come into my heart and save me! Thank you, Jesus, for answering my prayer. You are now my Lord, and I am a child of God.’

Encouragement

  If you prayed this prayer, my new brother or sister in Christ, let me be the first to welcome you to the Kingdom of Heaven. Please tell a pastor or a Christian about your decision. Read the first five books of the New Testament three times in a month and go on from there to read and study the rest of the Bible. Find a good church to go to and fellowship with Christians and tell the world about Jesus! You are now a new creation in Christ; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new (2 Cor. 5:17 NKJV).

I would love to hear your salvation story. Please feel free to write at mysteryministries@yahoo.com so that we can rejoice together. If you have any questions, I wil answer them unless I do not know, and then I will pray, receive an answer from the Lord and share with you what the Lord says.

Holy Spirit

Please do not stop there. Read Acts Chapter 2. After Jesus rose from the dead on the third day, He commanded the disciples to tarry in Jerusalem until they were imbued or filled with power from on high. He spoke of the same Holy Spirit He received at the beginning of His ministry. So, the disciples waited in Jerusalem in the upper room as Jesus had commanded them. They were all praying with one accord when suddenly there was a mighty rushing wind and they were all filled with the Spirit, with the evidence of speaking in tongues. This is what is called the baptism in the Holy Spirit.

Now, the Holy Spirit is a gentleman, and He will not come in, unless you ask our Father for Him. So, ask your Heavenly Father to baptize you with the Holy Spirit as the disciples were in Acts Chapter 2, so that the Holy Spirit can lead and guide you into all truth and empower you for living a Christian life and for whatever your ministry is. Thank you, and you will never be the same, in Jesus’ Name!