Our Mission
Our Mission is to proclaim the gospel of Jesus Christ, call sinners to turn from their sins and trust in Jesus for their only hope and salvation, and to call believers to a deeper relationship with Jesus Christ.
Our TestimoniesJakeJake | KJKJ | DustyDusty
I like to call my testimony, “God’s grace to a blasphemous heathen who called Himself a Christian.” How’s that for a title? But in all honesty that is what I was. I was very similar to the Pharisees that Jesus was continually so angry at for their hypocrisy. They were masters at cleaning the outside of the cup for all to see while the inside of the cup (their hearts) were filthy. I was led in a “sinner’s prayer” at 12 and baptized a week after. I learned how to play the part of a good kid in front of adults and my church family but inwardly I was as self-consumed as I could be. Jesus was not precious to me nor was His Word because I never read it. He was my ride to Heaven and way out of Hell. I never spoke of Him unless someone asked me if I was a Christian and of course I told them I was and had all the right answers as to why I was. But I lived for myself. I did what pleased Jake and wasn’t too concerned about who I hurt along the way. I was a people pleaser too but that was purely selfish and prideful because I liked being looked at as a nice guy. When I went to Austin to play baseball for UT as a freshman my lustful heart was given more freedom than it had ever had. I tried to restrain a little from all the sinful things I wanted to do as to not do anything really stupid and lose my reputation as a good kid but my restraint was to no avail. As I filled my mind with sexual images on the TV screen and in real life, my lustful appetite began to take over. It culminated one night when I betrayed my circle of friends closest to me at that point in my life. In the wake of one terrible decision that tore multiple relationships to shreds, I found myself on the floor in my bedroom broken and ashamed with no one to talk to. As I lay in my tears of absolute hopelessness, I received a phone call around 2am with a familiar voice on the other end. A girl from my Intro to Acting (blow off class) named Amanda Poole randomly called and asked if I was ok and if she could pray for me. Obviously in shock I said ok and listened to her cry out to God on my behalf. She prayed for restored relationships and for God to bring good out of the bad situation. She then praised God for sending Christ to drink down the wrath of God we deserved to drink ourselves. She worshipped Him for the Cross. I had heard all this before to a certain extent but not like this. I thanked her. We hung up. And I then began to weep tears of repentance to God for all my sin. My rebellious heart was exposed that night for what it truly was and I knew God saw it clearly. I cried for a second chance and I pleaded for His grace and mercy. I knew I deserved condemnation but I also believed that Jesus had come to take the punishment I deserved to take myself. I clung to the cross in my tears of brokenness and thankfulness that night for Christ’s substitutionary death in my place. I woke up in the morning a different person. I had a peace and the weirdest part was that I wanted to tell people about Jesus. He had become precious to me overnight. It took me a while to understand that was the night God washed away my sins and made me His child. Before that night I was dead in my sins and a slave to them. But in God’s mercy He sent me a miraculous phone call at 2am and I am forever grateful. My life is now spent battling the habits of sin (that I taught myself for 19 yrs) in order to see Christ more clearly. Please email me if you have any questions about what I have written. This website is geared at helping others to see their need for Christ and then to grow together in Him. Thank you for reading this testimony to God’s grace.
(Matthew 7:13-14–Enter through the narrow gate. For wide is the gate and broad is the road that leads to destruction, and many enter through it. But small is the gate and narrow the road that leads to life; and only a few find it).
I have been a believer in the gospel for as long as I can remember. I was a professing Christian that would acknowledge the Lord with his lips, and yet lived a life to try and fulfill selfish desires (James 1:22–Do not merely listen to the word, and so deceive yourselves. Do what it says). Throughout high school, college, and my first five years of playing professional baseball, I lived a very worldly lifestyle. I believed in God, and had even repented of my sins before; so I thought. Yet, I was in inner turmoil all the time, and living a very self-destructive way of life. Something was wrong with this picture, but what? Due to a culmination of many tough events in my life all pretty much coming together in one night, I hit rock bottom in an old hotel room in North Carolina while playing in the Baltimore Orioles organization. Hitting rock bottom caused me to look in the mirror and examine my life as well as my relationship with God (2nd Co. 5:10–For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive what is due him for the things done while in the body, whether good or bad). I was broken that night! I saw that God wasn’t even close to central in my life. I had a piece of my heart for God, and the rest entrenched in the sins of the world. This can’t be. You are either for Him, or you are against Him. There is no middle. My eternal destiny at this point was very much in question. I needed to get this right to say the least! So on June 14, 2006, I hit my knees. I began to cry as I sat there and thought about all the times I had sinned against a Holy God. That night for the first time I asked God to radically change my heart and put in me anew. A heart that totally thirsted for Him at all times, and wanted nothing of the worldly. I surrendered my life, and completely let go. I earnestly repented of my sins (repent means to turn from), and made the decision to totally trust in the blood Jesus spilled on the cross for our sins (Isa. 53:5-6–He was pierced for our transgressions, He was crushed for our iniquities; the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him, and by His wounds we are healed). I thought I had really been “livin the life” up until that point…The veil that had blinded me was lifted and I was able to see just how wrong I was…God filled me with an instant peace that night, and I knew at that moment that my eternal destiny was without a doubt in Heaven. I had received God’s gift of eternal salvation, and rose from praying a totally new person (2nd Co. 5:17–If anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; the old has gone, the new has come!). God’s grace is amazing!!! I will live for a higher purpose, and I will let God drive the car of my life from now on, and I will sit in the back and put all my trust in Him. My goal from here on out is to glorify the Lord in all that I do, and to go into the world and spread the message of salvation (Mark 16:15–Go into the world and preach the good news to all creation). When my life here on earth is over, I want to stand in front of God and Him to be proud of the life I lived for Him (Phil. 1:21–to live is Christ, and to die is gain). I will be a spiritual warrior for Christ (Eph. 6:10-18) until it’s time for me to go to my eternal home in Heaven!
(Phil. 3:12-14–I have not yet reached my goal, and I am not perfect. But Christ has taken hold of me. So I keep on running and struggling to take hold of the prize. My friends, I don’t feel that I have already arrived. But I forget what is behind, and I struggle for what is ahead. I run toward the goal, so that I can win the prize of being called to Heaven. This is the prize that God offers because of what Christ Jesus has done.)
My dad has been a pastor all of my life which means I was in church for nine months before I was born. All of my life the Lord has been protecting me. I feel very blessed to have grown up in a Christian family with strong, supportive Christian parents. At the age of 8 I began to ask my parents about what it meant to be saved. They were cautious because of my young age and they decided to wait and see if I continued to ask them questions about being saved or if I would forget.
Over the next month I continued to ask questions until finally they were convinced that even though I was young God really was drawing me. Notice I said GOD was drawing me. Only by His grace are any of us saved. We would never choose God on our own in fact God’s word says “there is none who seeks after God, not even one”. So we know that it is God who not only saves us by his grace, but He draws us by His grace. The Bible tells us that “no one can come to the Father unless the Spirit draws him”.
My parents realized it was God drawing me and my dad took me and sat me down and began to explain to me the gospel that I had already heard so many times, but this times I believed the gospel unto salvation by the grace of God. I was immediately different and excited, and by the boldness of God I even stood up and shared my salvation with my second grade class. Since then every time I have sinned or fallen into periods of sin I immediately felt God’s conviction and turned to Him in repentance. Repentance is not just something takes place at salvation, it is a way of life for the believer.
My life has never been the same since accepting Christ and I am daily grateful for His continued grace towards me. Praise the Lord for His faithfulness.
