The Making of a Man by Tim Brown
Author:Tim Brown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: ebook
Publisher: Thomas Nelson
Published: 2014-03-01T05:00:00+00:00
11
FAITH IS FOR LIFE
Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfector of our faith.
HEBREWS 12:2
God has been part of my life for as long as I can remember. One night when I was seven, I began to understand the spiritual forces at work in our world and how important my faith would be.
It was a Friday evening, and as usual I was in church with my family. Victory Chapel on Agnes Street was about as modest as it gets. The sanctuary wasn’t much larger than a living room, so there was no falling asleep during the sermon. My uncle Johnnie was the pastor, and he could see you at all times.
This night was different than most services, however. My twenty-year-old cousin had fallen into a wayward lifestyle, and Uncle Johnnie decided it was time to give her some focused prayer. He called her up to the front of the church, then had us all gather round and lay our hands on her.
My uncle started praying. Suddenly, he pulled his hands away. “There’s demons in her!” he said. Uncle Johnnie told all of us kids to get our Bibles and put them over our chests to protect our hearts. Then he placed his hands on my cousin again.
She immediately backed away. In a low, guttural voice, she said, “I won’t come out. I won’t come out!”
Next, my cousin fell to the floor and started slithering and wiggling like a snake. Uncle Johnnie didn’t hesitate. He reached down and grabbed her. “We have to get the demons out of you!” he shouted. “In the name of Jesus, I command you to come out now!”
My cousin started screaming, again in a low, masculine voice.
You’d better believe that I was freaked out. I’d never seen anything like it. There wasn’t any green vomit like in the Exorcist movies, but the scene had everything else.
Twenty or thirty minutes later, it was over. My cousin had settled down, her expression changed from extreme agitation to a bewildered calm. The demons were gone. She didn’t remember a thing about what had just happened.
I sure remembered, though. I could hardly believe what I’d seen with my own eyes. It was a lot for a seven-year-old to take in. I left church that night understanding for the first time that God was real, that there were both good and evil in the world, and that I’d better get on the good side with Him. It became an important step in my faith.
I took church and Bible studies more seriously after that night. As I’ve already related, however, my relationship with God sputtered for years starting in high school. The longer I pursued good times with women, the less I wanted to look in that mirror. I was a conflicted and unhappy man.
Early in 1996, I’d just finished my eighth year in the NFL and I was dating a beautiful recording artist. I loved “Vanessa” and we got along great, but somehow I knew that our time together had to end.
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