ACTS III Global Ministries
"Sometimes what you need the most...you don't even know you need."
Testimonies
Many people ask me, 'what exactly is a testimony?'
The best way to think of a testimony is to think of it in legal terms. In essence, it is an eyewitness account of something. So in the life of a Christian, our individual testimony is our account of how we met The Life Changer - Jesus Christ - and how He changed our lives. I will give mine below as an example. If you would like to add yours to this site, use the link at the bottom of the page.
The
Testimony of Randy McEwen
When I was growing up, we
were not a church going family nor did we have much. Many weekends
in my early teens I would spend the night with my best friend and would
attend church with him. The church was probably one of the largest
Baptist churches in the county where I lived (near Atlanta). When I
attended, I did not have nice dress clothes to wear--as I stated, our
family did not have much. Anyway, because of my undesirable attire,
I was made to sit in the back of the church and Sunday School. As you can
imagine, this gave me a very hard heart towards churches in general.
I was convinced at that early age of 12 or 13 that if God was ashamed of
me because of the way I dressed or if God only wanted people that dressed
nice in "His House" then I wanted nothing to do with Him.
My heart was hard for nearly 20 years all because of the actions and attitudes of the Pastor's and attendees of just one Baptist church in the Atlanta area. To that congregation at that time, Church was about social status and such and not about worshipping their Lord and Savior. I can still remember comparing the teachings of Jesus that I learned in Sunday School and the way that that Church behaved. I remember that Jesus met with, spoke to and dined with prostitutes, the poor, tax-collectors, common people, etc. Yet here was this Church-that was turning the same kind of people away that Jesus came to the earth for. It was then that I decided that churches were bad, and that I would just try and do good, and decide in my own mind what God wanted from me, and decide what His rules were.
Like most lost people in the world, I thought that I was a "Good Person" by comparison to the rest of the world. In fact, I even founded a non-profit organization to prove it (Together for Georgia). It was a successful charity by secular standards. It was self-supporting--we never solicited for cash donations, and we gave away millions of dollars in assistance in its first few years of existence. It was successful, yet I was still empty inside.
On
Memorial Day, 2000, I woke up in the middle of the night thinking I was
having a heart attack at 31 years of age. That problem turned out to
be something simple. However, during all of the weeks of testing, I
noticed that I was losing my sight. A few weeks later, I was
diagnosed with a rare medical condition (some type of anterior optic
neuropathy) that was causing me to rapidly go blind.
In the span of only 3 short months, I had lost approximately 90% of
the vision in my left eye and 10% of my right.
After visiting many doctors in Savannah and Emory University in
Atlanta, I was told that there was no hope, that I would soon be blind.
There was no treatment for it and no surgery could correct it.
But the strange thing was that I was not scared or angry.
This
condition caused my family and I to begin seeking out “God” although
we really did not know Who God was at the time. We just trusted that
there was a reason and a "higher purpose" for the blindness and
that there was a God in control somewhere.
We eventually ended up at Grace Community Church in Rincon, GA.
It was evident to us that God was (and still is) in this place.
After
a couple of weeks, the Pastor, Wesley Corbitt, came to our house and
shared with us the amazing sacrifice that Jesus had made for us.
He showed us and explained what the Bible said about heaven and
hell, and how your choice here determines which one end up in for all
eternity. It was that night
that I realized that I on my own could NEVER have been Good
Enough to
enter into heaven on my own – no
matter how many charities I started or how many millions we gave away –
none of it was good enough. It
was that night that we understood that Jesus had made a way for us to
enter heaven. And it is only
through Him that we can ever hope to enter the Kingdom of Heaven.
It was on that night that the scales fell off our eyes and we could
see clearly. Even though I
was going blind physically, my spiritual eyes were opened wide.
The
last 2 ˝ years have been like a second childhood after being reborn in
Christ through the power of His Holy Spirit.
It is like having a second chance on life to do things right.
We realized that the resources that God had blessed us with were
not being used to bring Him glory or further His message to His creation.
We do not want to waste this opportunity.
Everything we do will be focused toward glorifying the One True God
and spreading His message of Salvation through Jesus Christ to all the
lost.
If
we can leave you with one thought it would be this.
I use to think that I could just decide who God was and what His
rules were based on my opinions of what was “fair” and
“reasonable.” I use to
think that all Good
People
went to heaven. I use to
think that all of these “religions” were the same.
I was WRONG, and it almost cost me the souls of my family and
myself.
God
used my blindness to get my attention—how
is He trying to get yours?
Maybe this web site? If
He is knocking, open the door and let Him in.
Just so you know, my
blindness was completely healed
in the Spring of 2001. The
Doctors were astonished. It
was a miracle! Praise God!
Even though I am thankful for my physical vision, I am indescribably more
appreciative of my God Given Spiritual Vision. I
cannot explain to the lost person what it means to finally have my
spiritual blinders removed after 31 years. I would much rather be
blind physically than live without the Peace that passes all understanding
that comes with being born again as a child of God and being
filled with His Holy Spirit.
Please
call me directly or email me if you have any questions or comments, I
would love to hear from you. randy@acts3.org
or 912-826-2981.
Would
you like to post
your Testimony on our Web Site?
Main Links
About Us
Churches
Salvation
Testimonies
Which
God?
Muslim
Catholic
Mormon
Jehovah
Witness
Bible Study
Lessons
Apologetics
Creation
Evolution
Cults
Interactive
Links
Guestbook
