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My Personal Testimony Craig Emerson Strain In in late sixty's I was a college student. I attended Ball State University in Indiana, and also a Community College in Leesburg, Florida. I was voted the most popular student, I got a special page in the year book. And was given a special award as the most outstanding student. When I left school though, I was deep in drugs, the occult, rock music, etc. Went to Rock concerts, knew some of the groups well enough to be invited to be with the bands before the concerts in the motels. I began to realize that this life style was not a good one. I said a silent prayer to God (where ever he was) that if he'd bless me with a job, I'd go back to Church and put in the offering plate again. I went to a Methodist Church, lighted up a "joint" of marijuana to enjoy the music, but when the minister said, "Let us pray." this little old woman next to me began to speak to the Lord! It broke my heart, "She knows Him!!!" If he exists and she knows him, maybe I could know him too!!! I had been looking everywhere for a job for weeks, but that week, a company offered me a job to wash their cars. I kinda wondered if it was God that answered my prayer and I went to work. I returned to that Church as I promised and it was great! Over the next few months the Lord promoted me (Psa 75:6-7 For promotion cometh neither from the east, nor from the west, nor from the south. But God is the judge: he putteth down one, and setteth up another.) and I went from being a boy washing cars to the Manager of Avis Rent-A-Car at Disney World. I was there for about a month and one day I was called in to ask if I wanted a new job. They couldn't tell me where, they just asked, "Do you want the new job? Yes or no." For the first time in my life "I felt the Holy Ghost" I knew that was where the Lord wanted me.So I said "yes". They had the tickets already for me. I left at 7:30 the next morning. I was now the youngest (23 years old) Airport Manager (Panama City. Florida) that Avis ever had. I was now a VIP with the company with a company car, expense account, and could fly anywhere in the continental US for free, a beautiful home on the Gulf of Mexico, and a fine Italian Sports Car. I met and became friends with a fellow that carried bags for the airlines. He was a Christian so he began to witness to me little by little. One day he ask me, Mat 16:26 For what is a man profited, if he shall gain the whole world, and lose his own soul? or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul? He totally describe me with one scripture. In the process three months, I asked him to pray for me, we prayed right then and I asked the Lord to forgive me of my sin. I felt the most wonderful feeling sweep over me. Tears of joy, a burden lifted from my soul, what ever it was, it was everything combined. I knew that I was forgiven!!! The durring the next week I read the Bible each night, on the next Saturday, I realized that my heavy drug use was forgotten. So I knelt down in my living room floor to thank the Lord for what He'd done in my life. As I prayed, I began to speak in another language!!! I stopped praying because I didn't want to possibly go in some other kinda of mistake like I had before. I had never heard of this before! So I told the Lord if this was his will, He would have to show me in His Word, so I opened up the Bible to where ever it opened to an began to read. It opened to the 2nd Chapter of the Book of Acts. I realized that this was one of the books we never studied in the Methodist Church. It amazed me that this is exactly what happened to me! I read most of the evening and saw what great works that the Apostles did and how similar it was with what Jesus did. I really saw that the Bible was the same for them as it is for us. The same inspiration that Peter, Paul, etc. was the same inspiration that I had. During the next few months I was able to pray with and lead several of my office staff to the Lord. They couldn't believe the change that came in my life. We had a revival in my office at the airport. We had devotions each morning and even began to pray with our customers that rented cars. Then the Lord dealt
with my heart through the scripture in Mark 10:21 Then Jesus
beholding him loved him, and said unto him, "One thing thou lackest:
go thy way, sell whatsoever thou hast, and give to the poor, and thou
shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, take up the cross, and I met a pastor in Florida, I stayed in his Church for a weekend, I had told him what the Lord had done for me, I was sprinkled when I was a child, but now that I understood who that I believed in, I wanted to be Baptized as the disciples were in the Bible. He had a little Baptism pool in the front of the Church. It said "See, here is water; what doth hinder me to be baptized?" Acts8:36 That night in Church, I went forth to be Baptized and before the service was over, 150 people came forward to be Baptized in the Name of Jesus and rededicate their lives. I thought that I had reached the top of life, but Jesus said in John 10:10 "The thief cometh not, but for to steal, and to kill, and to destroy: I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly." For the next 12 years, I worked with a group in Tennessee. I started and oversaw a Printing Department where we printed over a million pieces of Gospel literature each year. I also had spoken in prisons, schools, radio programs, and different Television programs across the country. Durring the last 3 years with the organization, I was the Presbyter of the Ministerial Association. We grew to over 10,000 minister ordained World Wide. Since that time, I have taken over 2 dozen mission trips to the Bahamas, Jamaica, and Haiti. I quit counting the miles traveled for the Lord at over 1.8 million miles. The Bible also says, Mat 19:29 "And every one that hath forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father, or mother, or wife, or children, or lands, for my name's sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall inherit everlasting life." Psa 37:23 The
steps of a good man are ordered by the LORD: and he delighteth in his
way. I saw the Lord change our walk to reach people that wouldn't come to church. Luke 14:23 And the lord said unto the servant, "Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled." The Lord let us start a business. It was interesting to get into the "secular world" again. This time with a greater desire to be a witness for the Lord. Owners of companies would call me up and ask me to stop by. Many times it was only for conversation, but each time they knew that I would share the Lord with them. (Luke 2:52) Years have come and gone, we now have clients in 28 states. And who knows what tomorrow will bring. "Jesus Christ Knows!" Heb 10:23-25 Let us hold fast the profession of our faith without wavering; (for he is faithful that promised;) And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another: and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching. So Long a letter, but I hope a blessing. Don't ever think that a lowly baggage boy can't win a VIP to Jesus. Sincerely: Creator and Host of www.jcknows.org |