Through
my blog I share the thoughts of my mind and heart which I believe are
inspired of the Holy Spirit. As I think and meditate on the Holy Scriptures
thoughts come into my mind and I write them. Sometimes I have visions and
dreams that I share. The miracles that God does in my life I share with others.
My hope and desire and prayer are that others will be inspired to place their faith,
hope and trust in God. I pray they too will walk with God and enjoy the peace,
love, blessings and miracles that I and my family have enjoyed throughout our
lives. If even one soul finds a closer relationship with God through my testimony
and blog writings God be praised Jesus be glorified.
My testimony
I was a young man 20 years
of age
I was a young man 20
years of age I had been married to my wife Mary Ann for the past three years we
were starting our family with our first born Charles Wayne. I was a man of the
world desiring all I could get from the world of things and pleasures it had to
offer.
I ran away from home at
the age of thirteen leaving the safety and comfort of my parent’s home to find
my place in this great big world I wanted to make my mark in it. I had decided
what I wanted from life and was going after it. Like the words in the old Faron
Young song my desire was to live fast, love hard, die young and leave a
beautiful memory.
By my physical
appearance I looked older than I really was I did not have any trouble finding
work in restaurants as dish washer and bus boy to support myself, in the 1950’s
if you looked old enough there weren’t many questions asked. I could frequent
any bar or dance hall that I wanted to enter without ever being asked to verify
my age. I met Mary Ann when she was a little past fifteen and I was seventeen
we had been dating for three months and on Saturday night in early August 1959
at a little neighborhood bar with my cousin and her boyfriend present and me
having more to drink than I should have I suddenly dropped to my knees before
all the witnesses in the place and asked this little girl of 15 years to marry
me.
M y cousin’s boyfriend
thought I was joking, so he followed me and popped the big question to my
cousin, needless to say the girls thought we were a bit too drunk to know what
we had just done. We got to our feet and resumed our evening of fun. However on
August 17th 1959 the seriousness of our actions that Saturday night
was confirmed by a double wedding at the Corydon Pike Baptist church New
Albany, Indiana, when two young couples so much in love with each other said “I
Do”.
After three years
together our marriage was in serious trouble, because I didn’t know how and
didn’t want to settle down to a family relationship. I was in danger of losing
my young wife and baby, because I couldn’t stop drinking and partying with
friends of the world. It was at this time that the Lord God began to bring deep
conviction of my sins to my heart and I began to realize that if my marriage
was going to be saved there would have to be a change in my life.
Following is my
testimony of the night my life was changed forever.
The night my life was
changed forever
In the week of December
9,1961 my phone was bombarded with calls from my wife’s sister n law, Margie
Carroll pleading with my wife and I to join her in church, we had always turned
her down by saying maybe next week, but this particular week she was very persistent
with her invitation, so much so that at the latter part of the week my wife and
I felt such a strong urge to go to the Saturday night service just to get her
off our backs my thinking at this time if we visit her church just this one
time maybe she will leave us alone for a while.
Saturday night came and
true to our word we got dressed in our best clothing and drove to a little
white block building situated on North State Street in New Albany, Indiana it
was a street mission pastured by a woman named Lillie Ogden who was an ordained
member of the Methodist church she had established this little house of worship
for the common folks and the street people of the city to have a place of
worship.
Somewhere in the back
side of my mind I was thinking the service won’t last long and we will be out
of here and probably never come back.
Mary and I took our
seats in the very back pew usually called the sinners pew I thought that I
could crunch down and maybe I wouldn’t be noticed back there.
My body was there sitting
on the pew, but my mind was far from where my body was seated, you see my
normal activity for Saturday nights was leaving my wife and baby at home
heading to the city’s down town bars for a night of drinking, dancing and
whatever else I could find to do with my friends of the world much of it too
ugly to speak of, so at this time I will leave it un- said.
Getting back to the
little church I found myself seated in, the time was around seven o clock pm
the service was called to order and everyone was asked to pick up a hymn book
and join the singing well this was new for me so with hymn book in hand holding
it high covering my mouth I pretended to sing.
After a few songs about
Jesus and his love the speaker for the evening took the pulpit a tall Black haired
burley man they called Brother Earl Doan he pastured another Methodist church
in the city. Brother Doan begin to speak and I thought it’s about over he won’t
talk too long, but his sermon seemed to take forever I can’t tell you what
exactly he said, but it seemed that every word was directed to me telling me
what an awful sinner I was and that Jesus loved me.
My heart began to beat
rapidly inside my chest as I gripped the pew in front of me with such force
that I believe if I could see that pew today there would be imprints of my
fingers still imbedded in the hard oak wood.
After what seemed to me
to be an eternity brother Doan closed his sermon and gave an alter call for all
lost sinners who wanted to repent of sin and come to Jesus.
As I said I can’t remember
the message but I do remember the closing song “Who at my door is standing”.
I knew a voice that I had heard many times in my life was speaking saying this
is your last opportunity sinner harden not your heart, don’t neglect so great a
salvation if you turn away tonight it’s your last call.
I pushed his still small
voice aside and held the pew with such a tight grip that I believe if someone
had tried to pry my hands off it they would have taken the pew with me.One of
the good things about sitting in the back pew is it was close to the door and
my wife and I could slip out quickly, before any of the church people could
reach us.
We got in our car and drove silently home
We got in our car and
drove silently home, after reaching our home I still had not silenced the
Spirit of God who was speaking to my heart, I sat down in the living room and
tried to get my mind on other things, but nothing silenced the voice I was
hearing, finally I could not stand the conviction any longer I got up from my
chair and went into our bath room locking the door behind me, while my wife was
in the kitchen doing something. I kneeled in front of our bath tub and began to
cry out to God in my most miserable condition, saying O God if you are real, if
you can forgive my sins, if you can give me a new and better life here I am
Lord prove to me you are real please change my heart, forgive me of sin, give
me a clean heart. I must have been exceptionally loud in my crying and prayer,
because Mary wanted to know what was wrong I needed to unlock that door and
come out of there, she was getting very concerned about me. After what seemed
to be a very long time my tears stopped and I had a peace like I had never had
before his voice spoke to my heart saying “you are forgiven my son, you are
clean now go and sin no more”. When I came out of that bathroom I knew I was a
new man nothing would ever be like it was before, I was a new creation in
Christ Jesus, God had proven to me that indeed He is Almighty God and that He
could do, and did do in me what the preacher had said he could do.
That night was December
9th 1961 I was born again of the spirit of God the old Charles Elmer
Lee was gone the new Charles Elmer Lee began a new and better life in Christ
Jesus. It has been 52 years now and I still live my life in Him. Many times
over the years He has picked me up when I have fallen, He has forgiven me when
I have messed up and sinned, He has delivered me from and out of many troubles
many of them I brought upon myself, some from the devil and some from wicked
humans, God has given me, Mary and our family many miracles in our years of
trusting in Him, He has healed our bodies of deadly sicknesses He has allowed
us to live ,when the devil would have killed us and He has provided everything
that we have ever needed to sustain us and keep us in the way we go.
Yes truly my life was
changed forever that glorious night in December 1961 no one that has known me
and how I once lived in all my wickedness can deny the change they have seen in
me over the years. Those who know me now cannot deny the peace, the love, the
hope, the faith and the strength they see in me in these troubled times we are
living in.
It is not me you see,
but Christ Jesus who lives in me, in Him I live and move and have my being!
In and by and through
the Lord Jesus Christ I live forever! One day I will leave this temporary home
and move into my eternal home built by the hands of God for those who love Him
and are called according to his purpose.
From the left me Mary
standing next to me being baptized by pastor Earl Doan in the Ohio river near
New Albany Indiana
