Sinaly Diabagate

Well, I am an Muslim born Evangelist from Africa and my testimony is unique in that after I received Christ I had to not only testify to my Muslim parents,but above all face persecution and ex communication! 

We remember that at some point Abraham had to watch over a sacrifice he offered to the Lord. Every one who comes to Christ has to watch over his sacrifice so to speak. Salvation is FREE, but we must be willing to follow Christ beyond the camp, we must be willing to live by faith, be scorned at, and like Abraham embark on a journey without having details of the itinerary! 

Being the first born of my father/ mother, I had a very peculiar childhood. Most importantly, I was exposed to the Gospel as my mother ministered to the needs of an evangelistic team that visited our village for the first time. My mother s hospitality and ministration to the servants of God positioned me as her first born to special blessings according to Christ when He commissioned the early disciples. 

Anyway, as I grew up the seed that was planted in me from childhood with laying of hands of the valiant men of God began to prosper and before long I had sought the Lord, being led to Him by an Assembly of God evangelist, and soon began leading hundreds to the Lord myself. Hallelujah! Pastors, apostles, university lecturers, international lawyers have come out of me. I look forward to presenting them to the Lord when we get to Beulah Land for the Lamb's Supper! Many in my own family who persecuted me are now saved and serving Christ Jesus! I am putting the last hand to a book GREATER RICHES where I provided extensive details of my testimony. 

Evang Sinaly DIABAGATE

June 13 2015 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Paul Bayne Business Owner, Husband and Father of Four Kids & Blogger

2009…the year I was saved. The year I was brought to my knees in humbled brokenness. The year God looked down on this pathetic worm and delivered me from His wrath.

1983…Abbotsford, BC eight years old, I prayed a prayer, was patted on the back and was declared saved. Little did I know, but my pastor was responsible for creating a false-confession, thus a false convert. I would imagine if he is still alive today, he is still a false convert himself leading others in that damnable prayer–God help him.

I lived the lie for 26 years, went to church, owned numerous Bibles, a Concordance and other study materials but was lost in my sin and false sense of security as the sin piled up and the fires of hell were stoked. The clock was ticking. But God wrote my life’s story and was in control of even my lostness. Every step, mistake and wrong turn was perfectly coordinated by His sovereignty…in essence I was NOT lost, but was being guided to the place where I would be brought to the cross through the horrid truths of the Law.

I was a disciple of the Prosperity movement. My mother followed the Copelands whilst I followed Frederick KC Price. I assumed they were right for they were rich and powerful, driving fancy cars and living in mansions. I was taught to “speak in tongues”, look for signs and wonders and expect the impossible–but was never once told about the Gospel. Never once did I ever hear a sermon on the Law, my sin and my need for repentance and forgiveness. I just took it all for granted.

God was at work in me and I didn’t even know it. God was stoking His own fires and the temperature was rising within my soul.

I remember it like it was yesterday. I was on Craig’s List looking at someone’s ad who was selling Bibles, and I wrote him concerning one in particular. He wrote back and we emailed back and forth for a while and he was astonished over my faith (ugh…). He wanted me to lay my hands on him and give him what I had. Now that I look back on this and shake my head in utter shock over the foolishness of it all. I did refuse tellling him that it wasn’t mine to give. He got mad at me and refused to answer any of my emails from then on. Then one night Cole, was his name, sent me a video called the Revival Hymn. I sat down with my wife and watched it. I had never heard anything like it before. It was strange and almost frightening. I was within minutes of turning it off when I felt compelled to keep watching. For the next week I watched it probably three times a day and I felt something happening. I felt a terrible guilt and remorse creeping over me. I then looked online for anything else that might help and found ChurchSalt, Defending Contending, Sola Dei Gloria and a few other videos and I began a journey to watch, listen and pray.

The match was lit. My soul exploded. For the next weeks, every sin I had ever committed was brought up out of the well of my soul, and I realized through the revelation of the Holy Spirit, that I, ME personally was responsible for murdering Jesus Christ. It was my sin that put Him there. I knew He died for my sin, but the reality of my sin being responsible for killing Him–that was just too much for me to bear and I crumbled before the holiness and wrath of the God of the Universe. I wept. And wept. And wept. I could see Christ on the cross in my mind as real as anything I had ever seen. I could hear the clang of the nails, I could see His beautiful face staring at me and I could no longer hide behind my false confession–I was guilty. I repented before Him and begged for mercy.
The wrath of God was soaked up by my Saviour and best friend in all the Universe. Jesus took every drop of God’s wrath FOR ME! He saved me from Himself, for Himself and by Himself. He chose me for salvation when He could have just as easily by-passed me....click the link for the rest of my testimony.

https://paultheslave.wordpress.com/the-pilgrimage-of-this-slave/

June 13 2015 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Tim Maas Retired Quality Assurance Specialist with the U.S. Army

I was raised and confirmed (that is, received into communicant membership) (at age 14 in 1968) in the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod)(LCMS), a large denomination (2.1 million members) that had been founded in 1847 by German immigrants to the U.S., and where the German influence was still sufficiently strong (at least in Cincinnati when I was growing up there) that our church at that time was still conducting a German-language worship service (in addition to English services) every week. I received biblical and catechetical instruction from a pastor (in preparation for confirmation) starting at age 12.

However, right around the time that I was confirmed, the LCMS was undergoing a great deal of internal doctrinal upheaval (particularly at its main seminary in St. Louis), centering on the use of the historical-critical method of interpreting and teaching (which the LCMS opposed) with regard to Biblical instruction, ultimately resulting in those who could not support the LCMS position breaking away and forming what was referred to as Seminex (seminary-in-exile).

This dispute then widened throughout the LCMS, resulting in many individual congregations leaving the Synod and forming the American Evangelical Lutheran Church (AELC), which later merged with the Lutheran Church in America (LCA) to form the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).

Doctrinally, I was probably as conservative as anyone in the LCMS. However, I had already been struck by what I perceived as the isolation of the LCMS from other Christian (and even other Lutheran) denominations, and now it seemed to me that the LCMS could not even have fellowship within itself. This was quite disillusioning to me at that age, and led to a decline in my affiliation with any religious denomination after I left home for college.

However, while at college, I still occasionally attended ecumenical Protestant services at the college chapel, where all Protestants were welcome and could take communion, and no one was ever questioned or turned away based on the specific denomination to which they belonged. This was quite a change from my previous experience, and affected my thinking.

Then, at age 26, I was introduced to the Christian essays of the English writer C.S. Lewis (the author of the Chronicles of Narnia series), and, in particular, his book Mere Christianity. Lewis' logical, reasoned approach to the faith (Christianity in general, apart from any specific denomination) greatly influenced and spoke to me in a manner that my previous instruction had not, and led to my committing myself to Christ in a more personal way than I had before. 

And, looking back over the last forty-plus years, I can plainly see repeated instances (too numerous and too specific to have been mere coincidence, and (as a testimony to God's mercy and care) even though I may not yet have been a fully committed or mature Christian) of how God caused me to be in particular places at particular times in order to experience events that resulted in either immediate or long-term benefit for me or my family, and/or (even if they seemed to be unpleasant or difficult while I was actually going through them) that created opportunities for me, or prepared me to deal with or persevere through future challenging life stages or contingencies, and that I would not have had if the time or the place had been different.

Those events caused or resulted in my finding and advancing in the life's work that God intended me to pursue; having the opportunity to earn a post-graduate degree (which aided in my career progression, and for which my employer paid nearly 90% of the cost); being married for thirty years (and counting) to the one woman with whom I believe I was intended to be (and with our marriage having been directly facilitated by events connected with my job); and having and nurturing our unique children, including such factors as where they received their education and how they met their spouses.

January 29 2016 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report

Billy P Eldred

I was attending an Amway convention years ago and attended the Sunday morning church service with the rest of our group. Former Miss America Cheryl Pruitt was the speaker that day and to be honest, I have no idea what she was speaking about but she was doing a good job and I was trying to pay attention. She would make a point and maybe quote a scripture. As she would make a point, I would mentally (and totally silently) ask a question. Her next words would then answer my mental question. Exactly. I don't remember the actual questions I would ask or the answers but I remember she answered every question exactly. What I mean by exactly is, for example, if I were to ask "If as you say, God loves us, then why does he allow evil". Her very next words would be, "Yes God loves us and he allows evil because.....". If i asked, again, totally mentally, "Why is the sky blue?" Her next words would be "If you are asking why the sky is blue, it is because....". Everything that she said was totally in her message as if she knew exactly what I was asking and exactly when I would ask it. Every time I asked a new question, I became more and more astounded. I thought, "something is going on here, how can this be?"

This continued throughout her message. I probably asked 10 or more mental questions and every time, she directly and exactly answered my questions, her very next words.

Also, during her message, at various points she would ask a question of the audience. Questions like "If you ever _____, please stand up." She had done this just about as many times as I had asked questions and generally right after I had asked my mental questions. I pretty much just ignored them whether they applied to me or not, but after she had answered about ten or so of my questions in a row, I made a mental vow. SOMETHING IS DEFINITELY GOING ON HERE, if this happens one more time, I am standing up! 

She made another point. I mentally asked another question. She directly answered it. I stood up! Others from our group came and put there arms around me for support and someone handed me a brochure. Others in the audience stood up as well and most were crying. You see, the question that she asked and that everyone in our group but me heard, was "If you were ever abused as a child, please stand up". I was never abused as a child. I was listening very closely and I heard nothing about being abused. I heard the answer to my mental question. Something was going on! I was experiencing something akin to the tongues at Pentacost. I was having a conversation with the Holy Spirit!

From that day on, I KNEW there was a God. And I knew He wanted my surrender. I never got much monetarily from Amway, but what I got was worth so much more! I got saved!

January 29 2016 • 1 response • Vote Up • Share • Report

Jack Gutknecht ABC/DTS graduate, guitar music ministry Baptist church

Before I accepted Christ, I lived for 3 things, girls (young women), grades--striving for the best grades I could get in school to please my parents who were both quite intelligent themselves, and sports (games). I loved playing football, basketball, and baseball. But off the playing field, I got involved in a bad group of guys. One night after dark in our new neighborhood where about 10 houses were under construction, we snuck out of our homes and with our pellet guns and BB gun rifles shot out all the windows of these new houses. The police were going door-to-door to find out who did it, but when asked by my Dad, if it was me, I said, "no." (lying). But I was guilty and felt guilty. Also, this one guy in our group and I stole about 100 major "League" hardballs from a Batting Cage in Tempe, AZ. And we were caught!

This was after I stole jewelry from a Ben Franklin store in Wisconsin, for girls to try to win favor with them. Imagine how embarrassed I felt when I was caught and had to ask the girls to give me back their new jewelry so I could return it to the store! So, I felt guilty for all this vandalism of windows and sliding glass doors in AZ ($5,000 worth!) and for my theft, and for my lust after young women. Besides all this, my parents were going through a divorce when I was 16. I felt bad and lonesome. But this is when my Christian grandmother came for a visit to where we lived in Arizona. She took my sister and me to a Billy Graham Evangelistic Campain.

I was saved @ a Billy Graham Crusade in Tempe, Arizona Sunday, April 24, 1964. I was discipled in Young Life and CC (Cru) which used to be Campus Crusade for Christ. At Scottsdale Bible Church in Scottsdale, Arizona I grew in the Lord through their BMA program (Bible Memory Association) which is now Scripture Memory Fellowship (5-8 Bible verses/week) and serving in their Junior Church program. My folks divorced when I was 16, my sister 14 or 15 (she's 18 months younger). That's when Gram took us two to this evangelistic crusade meeting. 

I thought I was to be a missionary but when I returned from a 3-week stint south of the border, I had lost 10 pounds so decided to stay stateside. I went to Arizona Bible College and Dallas Theological Seminary and became a pastor for 7 years, married and had 2 girls but left the ministry b/c of my wife. That was after I had pastored the Genoa City Bible Church in Genoa City, Wisconsin, for that long.

I taught kids for 14 years as a paid Children's Teacher @ a Baptist church and have played my 12-string guitar and helped lead singing in a bilingual Baptist church weekly (weakly, hopefully not!). In the summer of 2020, I joined the SMF (Scripture Memory Fellowship, see above) with their summer program of memorizing 5 verses a week for the whole summer (60 verses).

September 07 2021 • 0 responses • Vote Up • Share • Report