A  Personal  Testimony

 

by Benjamin McCauley

From the beginning the Lord had a plan to glorify himself through my life. The trials and tests were all for the future purposes of the Lord. As with David, the Lord brought me up and out of the deep mire and clay of sin. He established my goings in Him.

In the months before January 2nd, 1980, my mother was being beaten by my biological father while pregnant with me. He would hit her in the stomach, and abuse her in the midst of her pregnancy. This was thought to be the reason for the birth defects I suffered.

The troubles increased in 1982. At just a year and a half old, I was in a terrible car accident. I took a great amount of damage to my face and abdomen. I was sitting on my mother's lap in the front seat of the car when the accident happened. Upon impact with a truck, my stomach burst like a dropped watermelon and my intestines were on my lap. My Grandfather's Doctor, who was in the emergency room when I was brought in, told him he wouldn't give a plugged nickel for my life at that point. (A plugged nickel is a useless round piece of metal that they knock out of the bottom of an electrical box where the wires go in at. People in the old days used them in the soda machines to get free sodas hence the name "Plugged Nickel".) The people at ICU told my Aunt that I had a 1% chance of living through the night. Through prayer, I was only in the hospital ten days.

In the early days of my life things didn't seem to be going too good. The situation was one of little hope. As I was growing up at about the age of 15 I began to get in trouble. Whether at school, with the police, or at home, I always seemed to be in trouble. I began to fight, do drugs, drink, smoke, swear, lie, and steal and all this in a short time.

However, in the midst of all this God still kept me and was dealing with me to turn from my sin and to Jesus Christ. After smoking for about four years, partying and wasting my life away, the Lord saw fit to save me in a most interesting way. Just about every Wednesday night my mother and I would drive down the seven-mile hill from Pleasantville to Titusville, Pennsylvania. My mother would try to get me to go with her to church. I wanted to go to town to hang out with my sinner friends. The Lord had other plans.

While at my friend's house just about a mile from the church, my friend left his house and told me that I had to go because he couldn't leave me there alone. So I walked to the church and sat outside in the van. I was under great conviction there. I knew I was a sinner and was bound for hell. I wanted to go to heaven, so I made God an offer.  I said "If You'll send someone out of the little store front church to come out here and get me then I will go in and repent of all my sins. I will turn from my sinful ways and serve You Lord forever."

Before the thought left my mind, as I still looked at the church door, my Holiness mother came out the church door in the middle of that service. She opened the van door and asked me into the church and to give my life to Jesus. I realized that God had my number and that I didn't just need Him, but also wanted Him to be the Lord of my wrecked life. The very same moment that I asked, "God send someone" He sent my mother to come out and get me. I went in as a drug addict and left that church a child of the KING!

John 8:36 "If the Son therefore shall make you free, ye shall be free indeed." Shortly there after God filled me with the Holy Ghost and called me to preach. He has until this day continued to prove Himself Faithful, Holy, Powerful, Almighty, and worthy of all I could possibly do for Him. He's my King, my Redeemer, God, my Father and so much more.  

If your life is heading downhill and you need help from above, I'd like to talk to  you. Jesus is the hope-giver, the life-changer, and the home-re-arranger.  He is right now standing with arms outstretched to you, calling your name and saying, "Come unto me!"

 

---Benjamin McCauley

    bmccauley@fgbi.org