DAVID CARTER
Saved Easter Sunday, 1998
The Old Rugged Cross

     In 1996, there was a Revival going on at Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Bowling Green, KY.  Our former pastor, Brother Jimmy Hogue, was helping in our new pastor, Brother Kenny Hesson, in this meeting.  During Brother Hogue’s sermon on the first night, I realized that I was lost and that I would go to Hell if I died right then.  But I was scared to go to the alter.  During the invitation hymn, though, my dad came and asked me if I was lost.  I told him yes, and he got me to go up to the mourner’s bench.  I didn’t get saved that night though.  I came back every night that week and almost every Sunday for the next couple years.  But every time that I started praying, Satan just seemed to distract me with something.
     In February of 1998, though, something happened.  My parents came to my room early one morning and woke me up.  They told me that Scott, one of my best friends and Brother Hesson’s son, had been killed in a car wreck.  Nobody knew if he was lost or saved.  That changed my life drastically.  For the next two months, I was under such deep conviction that I couldn’t eat, sleep, or do anything.  Even learning that Scott had told one of his friends that he had been saved didn’t ease my pain.  That was because my pain was one that God was placing on me.  I continued to pray and pray, but just couldn’t get to the point that I needed to be in for God to save me.
     By this time, Brother Hesson had left the church and we were searching for a new pastor.  There was one preacher, Brother William House, that had preached there a few times.  Every time, I felt he was talking directly to me.  The week before Easter in 1998, Brother House had been called as our pastor, and two of my friends at church, Heather and Casey were saved.  On Easter Sunday, Brother House had accepted the calling as our pastor.  Heather and Casey also joined the church that day.  People there were so happy.  But God wasn’t done with Faith that day.  I went up to the alter and prayed like I never had before.  Sometime during my prayer—I’m not sure exactly when—God saved me by his wonderful grace through His Son, Jesus Christ.  I didn’t shout like some people have.  I just knew that the burden was gone and that if I died then, I’d go to Heaven.  That is the greatest thing that has ever happened to me.  I stood up and joined Faith Missionary Baptist Church that morning; I was baptized the next Sunday.

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