The Change

[James Ellis]

Elder Mickey Dodd is the pastor of The Church of Jesus Christ in Dyersburg, TN.
The church web site is http://www.tcojc.org/.
Each week Eld. Dodd sends out a devotion by email.
This week's devotion is titled "The Change."
Below is a copy of this week's online devotion.

The Change

Please forgive the length of this weeks devotional, but I want to share my story with you.)

For me it came relatively early in life. It started when I was around nine. Up to that point I had not been raised in church, but at the same time was familiar with it. I had attended semi-regularly with my grandmother, mainly on Sunday mornings, sometimes on Sunday nights (the night visits were more so the result of her habit of taking me to the local Dairy Queen afterwards, rather than any real desire on my part for attending services). However my mother started going to church regularly and got saved, and naturally my sister and I went with her. As our attendance became regular more and more I began to enjoy going. The pastor's wife played the piano and sang with a couple other sisters before church started, and she would let me play the tambourine, which made me feel very special. During congregational songs I would sit in the men's choir area, even though I wasn't a “man” and didn't know the songs. I enjoyed the sense of belonging, of being part of something good. The part I did not enjoy was the preaching.

Every time the preacher ministered about sin, it was as if a spotlight was shining on me. Some may be thinking, “What would a nine or ten year old boy know about sin?” All I can say is … enough. At home in my neighborhood my cousins and I were running around with boys my age and their older brothers, which were in their teens. I was already experimenting with cigarettes, and was developing a foul mouth. I had also begun lying and stealing. I was definitely headed the wrong direction and the sermons clearly pointed that out to me. Even at that age I understood that if I didn't change and died, I would be lost, and would spend eternity with the Devil in hell. I didn't want to be lost. I wanted to know that if I died, I would live with the Lord in heaven forever. I saw other young people in the church getting saved. They were so excited about what they were experiencing. I wanted to experience the same thing. I wanted to be part of that group.

I had already prayed and asked the Lord to forgive me for the things I had done wrong, so the next thing I did was ask my mom if I could get baptized. After talking with me and making sure I had repented she agreed, and on a Sunday morning, August 25th, 1974 my sins were washed away in baptism in the name of Jesus Christ. I began to seek the Lord in the altar services, asking him to fill me with the Holy Ghost. Many months passed by and finally on a Monday, July 14th, 1975 the Lord came into me and brought my soul to life. It was at a youth camp near Centralia, IL. It was during the worship part of the service prior to the sermon. The Holy Ghost began to fill the place where we were gathered, and I began to feel the Lord like I never had before. I felt the love of God so strongly it was as if I was enveloped by it. Everything and everybody disappeared from my thoughts. I could sense him reaching for me and I was reaching for him. Tears streamed down my face as I opened my heart in total surrender to him. His Spirit came into me and I began to speak in other tongues. It was amazing. I have never been the same. The Lord has blessed me in so many ways I could never tell it all. To be sure I have made mistakes and stumbled along the way, but he has always lifted me back up. Thanks to God, and caring ministers and friends in the church, I am still walking with the Lord today, still growing, and looking forward to living with the Lord and his saints in heaven one day.

This is my story. I'd love to hear yours. What was your life like before the Lord changed you? What circumstances in your life led you to him? You can e-mail your story to me at [e-mail]. If you have not experienced “The Change” in your life, I pray you will soon.


God Bless and Have a Great Week!


Feel free to visit us on the web at http://www.tcojc.org

-------------

Since Eld. Dodd asked others to share their story with him. I sent him mine which appears below:


Thanks, Elder Dodd, for publishing the story of how the Lord changed you. You asked for others to respond with the story of their change so here is mine.

I was not raised in church. My mother was a member of a local Congregational Church and I had to go to Sunday School for a while when I was little but objected so strongly that she finally gave in and I no longer had to go. None of my family went. My grandfather had been a member of that church for about 50 years and read his Bible and prayed every night.

As a teenager I got into my share of trouble with the law. One time I was spared going to jail because a friend lied and said I was not with him when he committed a couple of crimes so he went to jail alone and I was spared. About that time I started reaching out to the Lord and began reading the Bible.

One Monday night I went to a service at a the local Baptist Church. This was March 28, 1955. They were having a week or two (don't remember) of services with an evangelist. I did not respond to the altar call but later at home I surrendered my life to Jesus Christ. I asked Him to come into my life and take charge. The change was instantaneous. I was 17 years old and in the 11th grade. Over the next few days people at school knew that I was different. I was a new creation in Christ. The Bible took on new meaning as I read it.

I joined the local Baptist Church and became active in the Youth Group and even taught Sunday School a few times for the High School Class. As I read the Bible and heard some preachers on the radio and read some other books and magazines I realized that there was more available for me. I was taught in that Baptist Church that the gifts of the Spirit had ceased around the end of the first century and were no longer available for us today. I believed that there was an experience for me known as the Holy Ghost Baptism and I began to seek God to receive that blessing. I continued to attend the Baptist church and continued praying (alone and a few times when attending a Pentecostal Church)
to receive the Holy Ghost Baptism.

On October 27, 1955 I was baptized in Jesus' name and shortly after that I started attending Bethel Tabernacle (UPC) in Racine, Wisconsin. On Sunday May 28, 1956 I was baptized in the Spirit at the altar in that Church.

Over the past 50 some years the Lord has been very good to me. Attached is a picture of my wife and me that was taken in the early fall of 1958. This was at The Church of Jesus Christ in Indianapolis, Indiana. Bishop G.R. Brock was the pastor and was also the Presiding Bishop of an organization called The Church of Jesus Christ Pentecostal Faith. Since then I've lost a lot of hair and gained a lot of pounds.

Eld. James Ellis

[Bishop Steven M.A.J.K.Liberty Sr]

YOU WERE CALL TO A GREAT TASK THAT IS YET UNFOLDING ITSELF. YOU HAVE WITHIN YOU A GREAT POWER WITH WORDS ; INVESTIGATE AND USE IT MORE AND MORE TO THE GLORY OF GOD.