Shawn Stoever shared a wonderful testimony about a man who was instrumental in bringing many men to maturity in Christ. He would have them ask three questions, “What does God want me to know? Who does God want me to be? What does God want me to do?” I really identified with that illustration because, after months of hearing about God and His Kingdom, I knew that I was facing a fork in the road. Was I going to go down the same old path and watch my family become another one of my failures, or was I going to respond to the challenge of walking with Bob Stewart and start following Jesus?
In early November 1964, I asked Bob if Linda and I could come to his home and visit with him and his wife. He joyfully invited us over, and I learned the answers to the above-mentioned questions. God wanted me to know that Jesus is the way, the truth, and the life and that I could trust Him to help me with my addictions. He wanted me to be a follower of Jesus and submit to Him as the Lord and master of my life. And God wanted me to let Bob Stewart be my friend, my mentor, and my teacher.
That night, I said yes to all three challenges, and a weight was lifted from my shoulders. I made peace with God, and I started walking in the freedom of Christ. God set me free that night from my desire for alcohol, and immediately, things began to change in my life and family. We joined a church, I was baptized, and I started studying my Bible. The next office party was a few weeks away and when I didn’t sign up to go, the other people in the office wondered why. I simply told them I wanted to follow Jesus and that I would volunteer to work that night so somebody else could go.
God saved our family, and now Linda and I have been married for over sixty years. We have six children and numerous grandchildren and great-grandchildren.