Frederick G. Widdowson's TestimonyFrederick G. WiddowsonMy parents were nominal Christians; my father had believed on the Lord Jesus Christ in 1947, when he was 14 years old attending the Baptist Church that his grandfather had started in their town in rural Maryland in the early 1900's. I am not sure if my mother ever received Christ as her saviour. She was raised in a Methodist Church and there wasn't any talk from her about being "born again". I attended the Baptist Church as a child but when we moved away for my father's job we stopped going to church. This was in the early 1970's. Both my parents were good people by American standards but Bible reading and prayer were never important in our home.I spent my high school years in New Jersey without any thought of the necessity or the reality of faith. By the time I went to college at the University of Georgia I was a hopeless child of the 70's; with sex, alcohol, music, and drugs my religion. Finally, I fell in with some very bad people which ended in a prison sentence. Suddenly, I found that the only people who stood by me were the Christians I had mocked. The only people who truly helped me in prison, also were Christians. When I got out I began attending church some and tried to form a ritualistic pattern of religion which wasn't satisfying. Finally, I met a woman at work whom I fell in love with and who returned that feeling. She was a strong, faithful Christian who had suffered a great deal but was patient in the Lord for all answers and resolutions to problems. She led me to receive the Lord Jesus Christ as my saviour on March 19, 1986 at about 6:30pm in the secretary's office at our workplace. We were married on June 7 of that year and hope to celebrate our 20th year together this year. I must say that until the fall of 2002 I was a troubled Christian. One day, while engaging in manuscript and historical evidence study, a hobby of mine, I realized that the Bible I was "using" was God's perfect, inerrant word in English. I got down on my knees and acknowledged that understanding and God blessed me and has continued to bless me immensely. I read that Bible once a month now, teach adult and teen Bible classes, lead several Bible studies, and teach World History to homeschooled children on the assumption that the Bible is true and all secular history must be judged by it. My testimony could run on for pages with subjects like mental illness, the suicide of a beloved child, and many other trials and tribulations but this is enough. God preserved me from many worse things than I experienced for a reason and serving Him is the only thing I can imagine doing. Just one thing more; I had spent my youth in church and was raised in a "Christian" home with at least one saved parent. What is wrong with a country where I didn't even know how to recieve Christ? Why wasn't I asked as a child if I wanted to go to Heaven? Where were the Christians to witness to college kids? Where were the gospel tracts? Many people are dying in their sins and going to Hell every day without ever being told face to face that they needed to get saved and how. We need to get busy. Time is short, for everyone. Thanks. frederickwiddowson@yahoo.com |
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