Subject: Testimonial
Date: Mon, 11 Nov 2002 20:33:05 -0600
To: webmaster@jesus-is-lord.com

Dear Tracy,

My name is B--- L----- and I live in the tip of the boot in Southeast
Louisiana.  I have really enjoyed reading what few articles that I have read
and look forward to reading the rest.  I hope you don't mind me sharing my
testimony of faith in Jesus Christ.

I don't really know where to begin, but I'll start by saying, that opposite
from you, I was raised by God-fearing Christian parents and grandparents.  I
was in Church every Sunday from the time I was born.  You would assume that
this would give a person an edge on salvation, but like you have said in
your articles, everyone has a choice to make.  I belive that because I was
raised in Church, the Holy Spirit revealed to me early in life, like maybe
10 or 11 years old, that I was lost and on the road to hell.  This would
have been the perfect time in my life to except Jesus as my Lord and
Saviour, but I didn't.  I rejected Him every Sunday from the first time I
heard that "still small voice" calling for me to be saved until one
uneventful time in my life when I was 17 years old.  I had gotten with the
wrong crowd unbeknowingly to my parents and by the time I was 15 years old I
was a regular weekend partier.(beer, whisky, wine, and of course women).  I
was what is termed today for girls as an early bloomer.  I wasn't even asked
for identification when entering bar rooms at 15, 16 and 17 years of age.

Back to that uneventful night that I mentioned earlier.  On Thursday night,
October 29, 2002, twenty-one years ago which was in 1981, I had skipped
school that day along which some other "friends" and we started early that
afternoon drinking.  We started out on beer and soon that got old.  Next we
moved on to wine and that too soon got old.  Next we hit the hard stuff,
whisky and coca-cola.  A holloween carnival was being held in a nearby
country town and off we went.  We didn't stay there long because of all the
people there that I knew would have informed my parents so we headed off to
a holloween party at some more "friends" house.  While there we went even
further by taking some pills with even more liquour.

By 9:00pm, I knew that I would have to leave and go somewhere to start
sobering up before I could return home to my parents.  I've been told that
several people tried to keep me from leaving the party because they knew I
was in no shape to drive.  But you see, I was the star football player.  I
was the strongest man on the team.  I was used to kicking butt and taking
names and there was no way someone was going to drive me anywhere.  I
thought I was 10 feet tall and bullet proof.  I have no idea how I made it
the 7 or 8 miles down the curvy roads, except the mercy of the Lord was with
me, but I eventually ran out of road.  At approximately 85 or so miles an
hour, I hit 3 pine trees and a sweetgun tree headon.  I was ejected through
the front windshield and the car was totally destroyed.  I have completely
no recollection of having the wreck.  The next thing I remember is waking up
in East Jefferson Hospital in New Orleans Louisiana one week later.  I
received stitches between my eyes and over my left eye.  I riped my right
shoulder from back to front and broke my left leg and I was in a comma for a
week due to my head injuries.

I realized for the first time since that "still small voice" came on the
scene 7 years earlier that I wasn't guaranteed a tommorrow.  I realized for
the first time that not only was I not 10 feet tall and bullet proof, but
that I wasn't fireproof.  Hell became very, very real to me.  The first
Church service that I attended after the wreck seemed to mean more to me.  I
didn't have as hard a time hearing the sermon being preached and it even
seemed to be directed right at me.  I realized that God had just given me a
second chance on life...something that many, many people had not been
given.  I personally know something about MERCY, GRACE, and
LONGSUFFERINGNESS.  Luke 16 had a special impact on me one Sunday moring and
I saw that life was so uncertain and that death was sure.  I saw the need to
cry out for mercy on this side of lifting my eyes in hell, PRAISE GOD!

If I don't die or the Lord come back before November 21, 2002, I will
be celebrating my 20th birthday in the Lord.  I'm 38 years old...my name is
recorded in the Lambs Book of Life...I've been baptized into the Lord's
Church...my wife of 18 years is saved...my 14 year old son is saved...and my
11 year old daughter has yet to be bothered about her soul, but I'm praying
and you please pray that she too will be saved early in life.