I am a Crackpot

I used to be a party guy as a teenager. Pictured below is farmer I would work for in the hay field... Dallas would shout at work, shout in the hay field, and shout in church. He would also speak in tongues and run the aisles. He and his wife would operate a dairy farm and he would also work at the local ammunition plant. A very large soul his shouting would ring through the building. In the altar services he would kneel behind me in prayer and tears would roll off his cheek and onto my shoulders. A wonderfully large soul. Along with Dallas there were many others like him who would let the praises roll during church service. During the altar service old Evans Linkous used to weep like a baby. And if he were to look back to catch the amazed look in my eye he would weep, "The Holy Ghost! The Holy Ghost!" And point to all the souls being blessed around the altar. After I experienced these things for myself the people would make a fuss, or in the words of the Apostle Paul, glorify God in me. One day, after a beautiful autumnal week of beautiful Virginia fall and revival I lay on my bed with open door, listening to the Katydids sing their praises to God, reading Run Baby Run, with fireflies lighting up the mountain as they would fly, and heard the Spirit ask... "Put the book down" and then continue, "Where is all that hatred, strife, and bad feeling?" In which examining my eternal man there was nothing there but sheer beauty. I thought to myself... Oh my! I got exactly what those folks got!



And in the words of George Clark Rankin, "It was the third Sunday in September, 1866 (in my case much later), and those Church vows became a living principle in my heart and life. During these forty-five long years, with their alternations of sunshine and shadow, daylight and darkness, success and failure, rejoicing and weeping, fears within and fightings without, I have never ceased to thank God for that autumnal day in the long ago when my name was registered in the Lamb's Book of Life." - The Life of George Clark Rankin

Now... I was brought up in the Marine Corp and returned to my parents house. When my old friends came by they would want me to go bowling with them and get drunk. I also was enrolled in college and was invited to the pizza parlor where my sociology professor was trying his best to get me good and drunk. It was then I heard the Spirit speak again...."Get out of there!" I hesitated and heard the voice speak yet again, "Get out of there!" I walked out of that place sober and heard the voice speak a third time, "Don't do that again!"

Forasmuch then as Christ hath suffered for us in the flesh, arm yourselves likewise with the same mind: for he that hath suffered in the flesh hath ceased from sin; That he no longer should live the rest of his time in the flesh to the lusts of men, but to the will of God. For the time past of our life may suffice us to have wrought the will of the Gentiles, when we walked in lasciviousness, lusts, excess of wine, revellings, banquetings, and abominable idolatries: Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them to the same excess of riot, speaking evil of you: - 1 Peter 4:1-4

Noting, especially... "Wherein they think it strange that ye run not with them!" They will think it strange that you do not run with them! And this is the way it became with me.

1. I have no interest in smoking or drugs
2. I have no interest in strong drink
3. I have no interest in tattoos
4. I have no interest in the party scene
5. I have no interest in Christianity where it is very obvious the people are walking in the flesh rather than the Spirit.

In my beginnings....

1. I would work the restaurant of the morning
2. Hayfield in the afternoon
3. Revival at night.
4. Our youth group was active.

Our old preacher loved revival and we had them frequently. I miss the old way of life! I am afraid that I am considered a religious crackpot in this day and time.