It was on this day 40 years ago that our Lord Jesus Christ spoke to me in an audible voice changing my life forever. It happened on the bank of this pond in Richmond, Virginia.
Awakened by a frightening nightmare in which my future was revealed, I quickly dressed and ran down to this pond about 400 yards behind the house in which I lived at the time. I had to end my life; I had no choice. Evil was in me and had conquered.
Desperate to end this perpetuation of generational evil, I intended to plunge into the cold waters of the pond and die. As I ran, a cloud of noise circled overhead; it was a cacophony of all the wicked music I had loved and played. Voices shouted blistering condemnations at me, informing me it was too late for mercy.
At the shore of the pond a great weight pressed me to the earth, holding me down forcefully. My cheek in the dirt, I uttered words I had never admitted before:
"God, I know I deserve to go to hell -- but please save all the people I've been pushing away from you."
Instantly all the noise stopped. There was perfect silence in the wood. The weight lifted. And then I heard this majestic voice audibly address me:
Johnny, don't kill yourself. While you live for yourself you're already dead. Come and live for Me, and I'll lead you into life.
The voice was the voice of perfect authority. Perfect knowledge. Perfect compassion. The Speaker knew everything about me.
Other men may doubt the existence of God, but I can not. He delivered me from a completely rotten and ruined life on this day in 1985. Oh, my good and loving Lord Jesus Christ! I can never thank you enough if I had 10,000 lifetimes to repent and live for You. And I know I have failed You miserably too many times to count. Please finish the work You began in me and let me not be ashamed. Yours I am, and Yours I wish to be.
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