John Otey's Testimony

Hello to all,

My name is John Otey and I would like to take a few moments to share with you how I met my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ on 13 April, 1974. Let me start by saying that my decision to accept Christ was pretty basic and simple, yet with eternal life changing significance. At 14, I was really a pretty good kid that had been brought up in church all my life, and had a family that attended church regularly and loved me while providing me with a proper environment to grow up in. I did not have any desire to use drugs or alcohol, but still I had sins in my life and knew I was lost. How did I know that I didn't have Jesus in my heart? Because I had been waging a "white knuckle pew" wrestling match for about seven years. I had known inside of me that I needed to walk down the church aisle and had kept putting it off. Well on this particular Saturday I was about to experience the power of the Holy Spirit telling me that today was going to be my day of salvation.

This was Easter weekend and my family and I were visiting at my Mother's parents home in Crab Orchard. My Grandfather was a preacher and my Grandmother was a homemaker. In their home Christ was the head of their household and their lives. My Grandparents loved and cared for me more like a son than a grandson. They had helped Mom and I get through some tough times when my Father had died in 1962 and we spent quite a bit of time in their home. Please bear with me as I relate family information because it is very important, and relevant to my spiritual beginnings as a new Christian. Grandpa knew that I was lost and without Jesus in my heart. He had guided me by giving me Bibles with passages of scripture underlined, introduced me to "The Roman Road to Salvation," and generally loved me and encouraged me.
This particular Saturday, Grandpa had asked me if I wanted to go with him to Johnston City in the afternoon. He had to go see the funeral home director because he was preaching a funeral on Easter Sunday afternoon. So I rode along and we talked, as always in length, and the conversation turned to my spiritual condition. The further we drove, the more I could feel the Holy Spirit working on my heart and when we pulled up in front of the funeral home, it was there that I prayed and ask Jesus into my heart. Folks there is no doubting that at the point when I asked Jesus to forgive me for my sins and come into my heart-he did what he promises us in the Bible-HE SAVED ME! You must realize, that even as much as my wonderful family loved and cared for me, they could not save me, only Jesus Christ could, and did on that warm April 1974 afternoon, sitting in front of a funeral home in a little brown Chevrolet.

Later, when we returned home, the sharing of the good news began. I can remember my Mom, Step-Father, Grandma and Grandpa all rejoicing in my decision. The next day I went forward at church at the invitation time and that was a little intimidating because it was Easter and the church was packed. Here I shared my decision publicly and was encouraged by so many folks that had known me from my birth in 1959. The next Sunday morning found us back home in the Peoria area and I walked down our home church aisle to share my decision and present myself as a candidate for baptism and church membership. Let me share a very powerful, if not disturbing exchange I had with one of my Sunday School teachers earlier that morning. I had shared with everyone my decision of the prior weekend and I will never forget the look of shock, for lack of a better term on my teacher's face. Very sadly, she said to me, "John, I always thought you WERE a Christian." Those words hit me like a hammer that day, and as I have grown older I use that as a great realization, NEVER ASSUME A PERSON IS SAVED IF YOU DON'T REALY KNOW. The most important decision we make while on this earth is what do we do with Jesus?-accept or reject. Share Jesus with everyone and let God and His Holy Spirit do their work.

I am combining years of life experiences and bringing this to a conclusion. I have had times in my adult life when my relationship with Jesus has brought him grief and pain due to my sins. All of us experience disappointment, disgust, and discouragement. Some of us can add a fourth "d-word" to that list also-divorce. My first marriage ended in divorce and this was a low point in my life in all aspects. A few months after trying to be "intelligent" and get my life on track with all of my wisdom, I found that what I really needed was to get God back into my life and get on my knees and ask him to forgive me for my sins. One of the first steps was to get back into church. I started coming to Second Baptist and you know what? The people I met came at me with open arms of Christian love, not judgment and persecution, or telling me I was a "second class person" because I was divorced. They encouraged me to come back to God and to get back to work for him in His Church here at Second Baptist. That was 1989 and I can truthfully say that once I quit trying to manage my life, and let the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit set in the driver's seat-what a change it has made.

Please understand, I could not make it through my life without Jesus Christ at its center. I could share so much that he has done for me and my family to bring us through all times, good, bad, and otherwise. He brought me a loving, Christian wife when I just gave everything up to God one cold December night and looked up at the stars and prayed, "God, I have made such a mess of my life, I'm tired of doing things my way-please take over and take care of me, because I can't take care of me." You know one of the first things God did was force me to take inventory of my blessings and then proceeded to give me the strength to be the Father, Son, Husband, and Believer that only He could help me to be.

I leave you with this thought-God is ABLE! He is ABLE to bring us through diseases, sickness,
deaths, hurt, family struggles and pains, divorce, suicide, unemployment, and the list goes on.
I invite anyone who reads this and says, "You know I just don't know how I am going to make it much further in this life." Jesus tells us that: "I AM THE WAY, THE TRUTH, AND THE LIFE, AND THAT NO ONE COMES TO THE FATHER EXCEPT THROUGH ME."
All you have to do is ask Jesus into your heart, and start living at that moment for HIM!
Thank you-John Otey