I am so happy because I am saved by the blood of the Lamb, my sins have been forgiven, my name is written in The Book of Life, and I’m going to Heaven. How about you? I hope so.
Before I got saved, I had nothing, absolutely nothing going for me. My childhood and youth were vanity, a worthless life. My parents compelled me to go to church and I didn’t like it. I didn’t see anybody zealously serving God. If going to church and acting good was all the church had to offer, who needed it? My buddies at school would tell me about the mischief they were involved in and they sure seemed happy, so that’s the way I drifted… deep into sin, that is, booze, drugs, crime, and other filth.
I grew up during the 1960’s era, and people were saying God is dead. I would say that too, but in my heart, I knew that was a dirty lie. I left home at 16, lived in the streets in Boston, MA, just being a bum, hustling money, taking drugs, getting arrested, fighting with the police, spewing out radical anti-establishment doctrine, just crazy stuff. I kept up this trashy life for about 3 years, till the time I got arrested for forgery and was facing up to 14 years in a state penitentiary. By this time, inside I felt like a wet wrung-out dishrag. I just felt there was nothing else for me. I started crying out to God for help, mercy, and deliverance, and you know what? Jesus answered me. I was delivered from prison time. I was sentenced to one year of probation, which ended in 8 months.
I left Colorado and decided to head to California searching for God and a place to serve and obey Him. I first went to a cult called Children of God in the Colorado Rockies. When I got there inside one of the buildings, I could hear someone yelling something to a group of people, and they would roar back in agreement. It reminded me of movies I had seen about Hitler giving speeches and the crowds roaring their approval. I did not feel the peace of God there and left. I’ve been to a lot of churches and groups. I even went to a Jim Jones meeting in Los Angeles and I felt troubled there and left.
Finally, I got to the Tony and Susan Alamo Christian Foundation on January 23, 1972. Ever since I have been here, all we are taught is to fear God and keep His commandments. You have to seek God yourself. Work out your own salvation with fear and trembling (Phlp. 2:12). I’ve never seen any evil doing or sinfulness in Tony or Sue. If I had, I would have left long, long, long, long ago. The truth is upheld here.
I’m glad God gave me a place in the Body of Christ in this ministry. My life has been so transformed by the power of God from wickedness to a love for godliness. Jesus took away my evil desires and filled me with His attributes, which becomes stronger every day by seeking God in prayer and reading His Word. The power of God is real. I don’t regret one day of my salvation and being in this ministry.
Come join us,
Vern Jordan