My Testimony
Dr. Ken Savage - Founder of Savage Ministries
I was raised in a dysfunctional home before dysfunctional became popular. My father left when I was young. My only early memory of him was when I was four years old. I was crying because I did not want to go to bed and he came up and suffocated me with a pillow. I passed out...
My mother was gone most of the time. She was a drug user and an alcoholic. By the time I was in high school I was a drunk and had been arrested twice, incarcerated once. I would drive around, find someone walking and beat that person up for no reason other than I could. I would or would not rob them depending on how messed up I was. By the time I was 19 many of my friends were either dead or in jail. I knew my life was headed in the same direction.
Someone invited me to a David Wilkerson meeting. I had never been to a church or a meeting like that. I heard something that changed my life forever. The guy said that most people thought God was either mad at them, or so distant he cared little about our world. God was like the absent father who never contacts his kids. God never did anything for me, so I thought God was like my dad. I was a "nobody" to Him. I had heard of Jesus before but I didn't know much about him. I did know he and Santa Claus were in charge of Christmas, but that was the extent of my theology. Jesus was not relevant to my life, or so I thought.
Wilkerson said, "Everybody has messed up and no one has lived a perfect life except Jesus." (For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Rom 3:23 NASU) I could not discount the fact that I had done more than my share of crimes and things wrong. My life was far from perfect. As it was explained to me, the problem is that God is a perfect being by definition as well as action. It is therefore impossible for sinful man (me) to have a meaningful relationship with a perfect, just, and righteous God, because all the sin stuff gets in the way. The cost for my sin stuff is death. Bad news for me. (For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 6:23 NASU)
He went on to tell the reason why Jesus came to earth, which I had never heard before. He said that "God loved me so much that He had to come up with a solution to the screw-ups of my life. That solution was to send His son to died in my place. It is like I am standing before a judge and I am found guilty of all these charges, so the judge has to sentence me to death. I deserved it and the sentence is fair, but the judge then asks his son if he would be willing to pay the price for me. Because of love, the son says “yes” and fulfills my sentence by dying in my place. The judge then comes from behind the bench and calls me his son and takes me as his child. (He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. 2 Cor 5:21 NASB) (Do not be afraid - I am with you! I am your God — let nothing terrify you! I will make you strong and help you; Iwill protect you and save you. Is 41:10 GNT)" This made sense to me so all I wanted to know was how to receive the pardon and begin to get to know God.
The preacher went on to say that Jesus came that you might have life and that life in abundance (Jn 10:10) The good news about Jesus was not limited to the fact that He paid the price for my mistakes or sins, but after paying that price Jesus rose from the grave by the power of God's grace. Jesus was not dead and gone but alive and well. After paying the price for sin, God raise Him up to show that sin no longer has power over those who God forgives and has relationship with. All I had to do was confess with my mouth and believe in my heart that God paid the price through Jesus and afterwards raised Him from the dead and I would be part of God's family. I would be saved. (Rom 10:9-10)
I was all over that. I went forward and prayed a prayer they lead me in, and felt absolutely nothing. I went home that night and slept a sound sleep. When lwoke up I did not need a drink, I did not suffer from DTs, and for the life of me I could not even remember how to curse. It dawned on me that I was a new person. I still had my issues but I was new somehow. I was delivered from drugs, alcohol and cursing and had a whole new perspective on life.
I had problems still but God was with me and I knew it. My drug friends dropped me because I was a Jesus Freak. I used to beat up and bully the Christians so they did not want to hang out with me either. So I was alone and it was uncomfortable but I was OK with it. I was getting to know Jesus and He was showing me how much He knew me. After five months God placed two Christian guys into my life. I moved across the country with them and began the life I now live.
I got saved from my destructive life style in 1973 and have been growing in my relationship ever since. I mess up and have blown it hundreds upon hundreds of times but God has always been there loving me unconditionally and giving me the grace to forgive myself. The same can happen to you this moment. This stuff is not rocket science. Get it in your heart that God sent Jesus to pay for your mistakes. Understand that the price He paid was full payment. The proof of that full payment was the fact that Jesus rose from the dead and now lives in heaven waiting for you. Believe and receive this in your heart and come to God now. Use your own words and tell Him what's going on with you. Surrender your life to him and begin the process today. Call or write me and I will help you.