But, Lord, I'm A Southern Baptist

Freedom

When the fog lifted, a joy like I had never experienced before began to sweep through me. It was a feeling of unspeakable joy. "I�M FREE. GOD LOVES ME. I�M AS FREE AS CAN BE!" I never knew what unspeakable joy was until that moment. I began to wail before the Lord. I cried partly out of remorse, for who I�d been, but mostly because of the residual effect of being allowed the privilege of being in the presence of God.

Eventually, I stumbled to my feet. As I focused my eyes, I noticed that everything around me looked like milky water. This milky water began to swirl and back down I went! Three times I tried to get up, and three times the glory of God knocked me on my face. God late revealed to me that He was humbling me by putting me on my face.

Each time I fell, I wailed some more. All the pride, all the pain, all the dryness, and all the frustration I had been feeling for the last two years was channeled into my sobs as I cried out to God. And He lifted the burdens from me as I humbled myself before Him. I actually thought I had dehydrated from crying so much.

After awhile of this, I felt Melissa hug me. So I lifted myself onto the step and hugged her. I couldn�t move or talk. I just sat silently, with an indescribable joy in my heart. I didn�t care about anything. All the things that had been so important to me before�money, cars, television, clothes�became absolutely nothing, compared to the presence of God. I had experienced a total rebirth.

We sat there for another 30 minutes. Finally, we got up and made our way to the car. As I grabbed the door handle of my new Jeep Cherokee, the Holy Spirit spoke very plainly to me: "GET YOUR HOUSE IN ORDER." I immediately knew that He was referring to my "financial house." After I opened the door, climbed into the cab, and placed my hands on the steering wheel, the Holy Spirit spoke again: "TELL YOUR CHURCH WHAT I HAVE DONE IN YOUR LIFE."

I knew these two commands of God would work together. I turned to Melissa and said, "I have to tell the church what happened, and then we will have to leave." Then I began to make plans to "get my financial house in order."