My name is Chris Foley. I will be 31 years old this year in 2013. On November 1, 2008, I accepted Jesus into my heart, and was born again of the Holy Spirit. As a young child, I always wondered if God existed. I remember on occasion looking up to the sky and wondering if God was up above somewhere. I had a very pleasant early childhood, growing up in a small, quiet, peaceful suburb in northern New Jersey. Life at the time to me was carefree, and I would play with friends in various activities in an upper middle class neighborhood. It seemed that life was pretty good as a child. The world seemed so big to me, so many people, ideas, beliefs, activities; but where did God fit in? Where was God? I didn’t see Him! And being raised as a Catholic, I was never told by anyone the real Gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ.
As I grew up I began to try to feel out my own way, my own path, but I always wondered, “How does the Bible apply today? Where is the God of the Bible today?” The Lord by His Holy Spirit began to really deal with me after I graduated College. I had gotten into so much sin and wanted to overcome this darkness that I felt; I was determined to make something of myself in the world.
I was trying to get a foothold in the occupational field of finance, and was able to finally get a job in New York City. Working in NY gave me a real taste of the chaotic world I had been shielded from most of my life. I remember commuting through the Lincoln Tunnel every day, and seeing armored vehicles, K-9 dogs, and dozens of police with machine guns guarding the entrances. Everything seemed so unstable, uncertain; accidents that claimed people’s lives were occurring close to my office in every direction on a weekly basis. I began to realize life was so vapory, quick, fragile, and there was no guarantee I was going to live another day. Anything could have happened to me on any given day. This tormented me; the thought of dying scared me immensely. I thought, “Maybe there is just something wrong with me, that death is a natural thing, and I just need to come to grips with it in my own way.” Day after day, I would read and hear more and more accounts of tragedies, death, and horrifying stories on the news and through conversations of people around me. I thought about death every day; I tried to come to grips with it, but could not live in denial. Something was terribly wrong! The activities I was involved in couldn’t help me escape anymore from this reality. I kept thinking, “I am going to get it someday; someday these things that are tearing people’s lives apart are going to reach me.” I knew I was not ready, not prepared. I tried different things for a brief time in a desperate search to find peace of mind, which included talking with people about my troubles, medications, philosophies; I even went to Catholic Church services on my own, but nothing brought me that assurance that I was going to be okay. I felt I needed to commit myself to something, but what?
One desperate night in my room I cried out to God, and in my heart screamed, “Jesus, help me!” I thought if there was a God, only He could help me. I began to seek Him. The Lord began to deal with me through the book of Revelation. I stumbled upon it on the internet and read the whole book on my computer at work one day. It seemed mysterious to me, but I was drawn by its speaking on the last days. “Were these the last days?” I asked myself, “Did, in fact, the Bible talk about this time I was living in?”
One day on a Friday, I was leaving work and was ready for another riotous weekend. Usually my co-workers would be huddled together, laughing and joking by the computer, unwinding. However, as I was walking out, it struck me how quiet they were this time. I decided to see what they were watching, and it immediately captured my attention when I discovered it was a video of the World Trade Center collapsing on 9/11. I had always heard of conspiracies concerning the event, but dismissed it as foolishness. As I took a closer look at the video, it showed little white puffs of smoke shooting out in perfect unison every ten floors or so, as the building collapsed, similar to a demolition. This was the spark the Lord used that opened my understanding that my life was a lie, everything I had known, everything I was living for.
I began doing research on my own and learned of the great evil of the Vatican and one world government, and how it was all prophesied in the Bible. My question was answered; we are in the last days! The last seconds of time! Jesus is coming back. I now believed God was real, His Word was real, but, “Who knew God?! Who could tell me what to do? How do I get a hold of God,” I asked myself.
I discovered the Tony Alamo Ministries website a week later. The literature I read was unique. It had authority and power in the teachings of the Word of God. I discovered that they had services 8 blocks from my office in Manhattan. I went that Sunday to a service. I knew the Lord was in the midst of that service as well. I heard the testimonies of the brothers and sisters in the church, and realized that this was not by chance that I was there. God led me there. I realized and believed there was a place called Hell, and I was scared to know I was heading there. I now understood that I had been following the devil, and Satan had been leading me to destruction, but now I wanted to do what God wanted me to do, and what He required of me! So at the end of the service, I asked Jesus to forgive my sins, and wash them away in His precious blood, in prayer, and knew God had saved me and transformed me by His Holy Spirit entering me.
I knew this was the commitment I needed to make. I was saved, and I needed to follow God, His Word, learn of Him, fear Him, tell people about Him, and keep His commandments, or else I would be in Hell when I died, forever! I left the service and the fear of death that tortured my soul was gone. I had real peace! I realized that this fear was caused because I had not been right with God. I had had sin on my soul and had been heading to Hell, but now the greatest miracle had occurred because Jesus shed His sinless blood to atone for my former sins, on the cross at Calvary. I was now born again of the Spirit; I had light inside (Jesus inside!). Now I was on the path leading to the Kingdom of Heaven; my name was now in the Book of Life, Praise God! Two days later while moving my car in Hoboken, NJ, where I lived, a piece of Gospel literature was on my car from the Tony Alamo Christian Ministries, which I had never heard of until two days prior. God was confirming that this was where He wanted me to be, and proved to me His all-knowing, almighty power!
I know this Ministry is a work of God, and I have been fed the real Gospel of the Lord Jesus through Pastor Alamo’s Spirit-filled messages and literature. I praise and thank the Lord for salvation and leading me to His highly anointed Pastor and Ministry. He (Jesus) was there all the time, and can be there for you too if you call upon Him. If you are not saved, time is so short, and eternity is so long; make sure you accept Jesus as your personal Savior now!
Praise the Lord,
Chris Foley