My Testimony of Salvation
by Gene Easley
I think we all want to tell
our story, and I think we should. If
God has done something for us, we need to tell others.
In the next few pages, I attempt to share some of my story of how
the Lord brought me to an experience of salvation.
A
Student at Ole Miss
I was
saved on February 18, 1962 at the Assembly of God Church in
I had
made a promise to one of my uncles, Dick Easley, who, after his
conversion, had become a Baptist preacher.
I knew him before he was saved, and even though he was always a
very likable person and was always extra good to all the kids, his
lifestyle was far from being Christian. But while on vacation to visit
Dick and other members of my dad’s family, I was amazed to see a total
change in my uncle. He no
longer did the things he used to do. Now,
he just wanted to talk about the Lord.
He and his wife, Geraldine, sang Gospel songs as I rode with them
in their car. Their lives
centered around Christ.
One night
I sat and listened to Uncle Dick witness to my dad about what God had done
in his life. My heart burned
within me as he shared the Gospel of Christ.
Tears were in his eyes as he encouraged Dad to give his heart and
life to Christ. I wanted what
he had.
A day or
two later, when I was alone with him, Dick encouraged me to start
attending church when we returned home and made me promise to do so.
He said, “If no one else in your family goes, you go.
Will you promise me you will do that?”
I said, “Yes,” but in my heart I knew I wouldn’t.
But I did make a promise to myself that as soon as I left home and
got out on my own, I would start to church and serve God.
After I
had been at Ole Miss for a few weeks, I remembered that promise.
I began to talk with my roommate, Charlie, about going to church.
Charlie had been raised a Methodist before entering college and had
been a good church goer. He
decided he needed to get back in church.
So we got ready Sunday morning and attended a local Methodist
church. They put us in a
Sunday school class off to one side of the sanctuary for college students.
We didn’t really study the Bible, but rather just discussed
different subjects that they felt would relate to us.
I remember looking into the sanctuary and seeing a man standing
before a small class with an open Bible in his hand.
I thought to myself, “That’s where I would like to be,”
because I felt a drawing to learn the Bible.
After
Sunday school, I wanted to stay for the main service, but Charlie did not
want to stay. Being afraid to
attend by myself, fearful I would not know what to do or what would be
expected of me, I went back to the campus with Charlie.
On the way back, I felt a heavy sense of conviction upon me, as if
God was telling me to go back to the service.
God would require more of me than partial service.
Knowing I should obey His voice, but being too weak, I continued
toward the campus, feeling about as miserable as one could feel.
A week or
two later, Charlie and I again attended Sunday school at the same church.
Again, after our class was over, we returned to our dorms.
And, again, I felt that strong sense of conviction fall upon me.
It was as if I was saying, “No,” to God, and He was saying I
could not serve Him without putting my whole self into it.
I didn’t go to church again that semester.
I became caught up in other things, so that attending church
didn’t seem as urgent or necessary as before.
Is
there a God?
Then, a
question began to bother me. I
realized it was one of the biggest questions that I would ever have to
answer. The question was,
“Is there really a God?” I
didn’t necessarily want to deal with it, but I knew it had to be
answered. I knew that if there
was a God, I needed to serve and obey Him.
And if there wasn’t a God, then I needed to forget about that
religious stuff and chart my own course.
I decided
I had to find out if God was real. I
really didn’t know how to do it, but I thought, in my own feeble way, I
could reason it all out and come to a satisfactory answer.
This, of course, is not the way to find God, but I didn’t know
any better. I began a
reasoning process I felt would bring me to some sound conclusions.
I considered how creation bears witness to design and evidence of a
plan. The food we eat from the
field supplies our body with exactly what it needs to support life.
The orbiting of the planets reveals design and purpose.
I considered many things of this nature concerning creation and
came to the conclusion that there has to be a God.
There had to be a Creator of the universe.
It couldn’t all just have happened.
I came to
the conclusion there must be a God, but I realized there was still
something missing. I could not
say with one-hundred percent certainty that there was a God, because I
could not see Him or hear Him or touch Him.
I concluded that this is all that anyone can do.
They just reason it out, and no one knows for sure.
Little did I know that in just a few months God would erase that
thinking totally from my mind, because I would know without any doubt that
God was real. And I would know
that there are many others who also know Him in a personal way.
Transferring to
One day
toward the end of October, a thought suddenly came into my mind.
I did not know where it came from.
Now, I have no doubt that it was the Lord putting it there.
The thought of transferring from Ole Miss to Arkansas State College
(now
Later,
the thought returned that I should transfer to
