Growing up in a home where drugs, alcohol, and violence were normal, it is no wonder that when I was just a young boy, I took to drugs and alcohol myself. I am not proud of the things that I did in the past, but I am not ashamed to share with you the same power that saved me from not only drugs and alcohol, but also from a life filled with hatred, emptiness and abandonment.

For years, I blamed my parents for the problems I had in my life. I was raised in what we call today a dysfunctional family. My mother was 15 when she was pregnant with me and my father was 18. My father soon quit high school and went to work at U.S. Steel in order to raise a family. Growing up, I saw things everyday that children should not have to see in a lifetime. My home was filled with alcoholism and domestic violence. My mother tried her best not to express what I knew was a broken heart and a broken spirit. I hated my home, and I hated GOD because my life stunk.

So, as a young boy, I began to learn ways to hide the pain I felt inside. Drugs were readily accessible so I began to use them. I quickly learned that they made all of the normal pressures of my life disappear. What I did not know at the time is how they would follow me into adulthood causing more problems and more pain than I was trying to cover up. It didn't take long before the hurt from my childhood and the trouble I had brought myself through unrighteous living began to cause me to consider suicide. I hated my family, I hated myself and I hated the world. I felt I had tried everything. At 16 years old, I entered into drug rehab for 42 days. Within a month after being discharged, I was back again due to a relapse. I felt nothing would help me, I'd just as soon die.

I kept on using drugs for years, into my twenties. But one day GOD sent a messenger to me at my place of work. He began telling me about JESUS and HIS love for me. At first, I felt that I was too tough to accept JESUS as my Lord and Savior. I also felt like JESUS would not have me because I had been so bad. My negative feelings about my earthly father carried over to hurt my impression of my heavenly Father. But this person that GOD had sent to me continued to witness to me about JESUS no matter how hard I fought him. He even prayed and fasted for me for 7 whole days without me knowing. Little did he or I know that GOD was going to answer in response to his prayer and fasting one Friday night on the side of the interstate in Birmingham, Alabama.

I had just left two adult bars, driving drunk on the interstate one night when I fell asleep at the wheel causing me to have a minor accident. The police, knowing that I had been drinking, arrested me and placed me in the back of the police car not knowing that just one month prior, I had demolished a $17,000.00 sports car not far from where we were on this particular night. However, in the back of this police car, GOD began to remind me of the things that the guy at work had been telling me about JESUS. It was there, inside the back of that police car, that I found the hope that I would soon be telling other people about.

Friend, I gave my heart to JESUS having never been to church hardly in my life. Never having opened a Bible, GOD saved my soul, gave me a new life, renewed my heart, and forgave me of ALL the terrible sins in my past. Friend, I was BORN-AGAIN. It wasn't long before I was telling others about JESUS. Not long after that, I surrendered to preach the Gospel. Now, I am pastor of a growing church in North Alabama. Not only did JESUS save me, but HE also saved my mother, my father, my brother and sister.

No longer do we live in the sin and bondage of the past. JESUS gave us everything we lacked. Drugs, alcohol, violence, and hatred no longer have a place in our lives. Friend, JESUS can do this for you and for your family the same way HE did it for mine. Just do what I did: Confess to Him that you need help, ask Him to forgive yo of your sins, and ask Him to help you. Believe that HE loves you, and that HE died for you and your family. Ask Him to come into your heart today and help you to start a brand new.

Romans 10:9-11 tells us "that if thou shalt confess with thy mouth the Lord Jesus, and shalt believe in thine heart that GOD hath raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved." " For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness; and with the mouth, confession is made unto salvation."

"For the scripture saith, Whosoever believeth on Him shall not be ashamed."

Friend, the only way to have a new life is to let the old one go.

 

Yours in Christ

Bro. Jason Conger