King James Bible
King James Version (KJV)
Testimony: He Saved A Wretch Like Me
SIMEONN's testimony "He Saved A Wretch Like Me" on 1/09/2014, 4:28pm...
“For by grace are ye saved through faith; and that not of yourselves: it is the gift of God…” (Eph. 2:8)
My name is Simeonn J. Washington. I was born on January 5, 1986 in Queens, NY. I was adopted and raised in Columbia, SC outside Fort Jackson by 2 of the greatest parents in the world (though looking back now, I didn’t realize it at the time.) My father, Mr. Clarence Washington Jr. is a retired Army First Sergeant and my mother; Mrs. Sheliaand Washington left the Navy as a Naval Officer. I have two sisters, Etha and Keturah Washington. Etha is 7 months older than me and Keturah is 2 years younger than me. I’m the middle child and the only boy. Both of my parents are true Bible believing Christians. My sisters and I were raised in a Christian home and went to a Baptist Bible believing church. We’d go to church every Sunday, Wednesday, my parents would send their kids to Christian camp every summer, and we’d have Bible study every morning before going to school. I enjoyed every minute of it, especially when I got to go to church camp and hang out with my friends. One summer when I was 8 or 9, while my sisters and I were at camp, the invitation to accept Jesus Christ as our savior was given. Both my sisters went up and accepted the Lord. Well…I didn’t want to feel left out so I figured, why not. I’ll get saved too. All three of us got saved…or so I thought. Came back home, parents were excited about our decisions and then we followed in believers baptism. I was really under the impression that I got saved.
Growing up, nothing in my life showed that The Lord was in control of my life. Worshiping God became a habit, not a desire. I didn’t act, speak, or think like a person who was truly saved. I figured, yeah I’m saved because my parents and my sisters are. My family moved to New York in December 2001 when I was 14 and within 2 months I took it upon myself to leave home at the age of 15 to live a rebellious and worldly lifestyle. I had no time for the things of God and He was far from my mind during that time. The only way I survived during this time of rebellion was because I had praying parents and a God who answers prayer. I joined the Army in 2005 at the age of 19 and finally got back a sense of stability. At the age of 23, while stationed in Hawaii, I went back to South Carolina to visit my parents. I was there to surprise my mother for her birthday and ended up going to the same church I grew up in. This one particular Sunday as usual, the Pastor gave the invitation for those who didn’t know Jesus as their Savior to come and accept Him and to truly repent from their sins. Now…It was not the first time I had heard of this, I just never felt the need to go up there, but THIS particular service…I felt something come over me. I felt like he was speaking directly to me. I started to cry and just kept crying, and crying, and I was fighting not to go up to the pulpit. The whole time I was thinking, “What will they think of me if I go up there and acknowledge that I didn’t believe I was saved?” It was an internal spiritual BATTLE! I guess the Pastor was moved by the spirit as well because He did NOT end the invitation. He kept it going and finally I was like, OK! I cannot fight this anymore and I did. I got saved that day in January of 2010.
Now…when one becomes TRULY saved, they are saved for good. Their name is written in the Lambs Book of Life and Eternal Life is theirs. NOTHING they do after that will take away their salvation. Well, once I left to go back home I felt this time I was saved and I tried to live like a person who truly knows The Lord. Within a month, I fell back into my old habits. I was the same old worldly living Simeonn, but this time I had NO PEACE. For 3 years I had nothing but drama and heartache. I didn’t go to church, read my bible, or speak of The Lord to anybody. This time, everything that I did and was accustomed to doing I felt out of place. There was this feeling of not belonging, yet I fought to still deal and live with the things of the world. I was searching for something but, I didn’t want to let go of the world. I finally got stationed to Fort Irwin, CA in July of 2013 which is in the middle of the desert. There is LITERALLY NOTHING OUT HERE. The closest “town” is an hour away and any major city is almost 3 hours away. I was MAD! I was nowhere near the clubs, the people, the things I found happiness in that were clearly not of God. So I fought with every fiber of my being to still get involved with the world and leave this isolated base. God was NOT HAVING IT! For 3 months I made every effort to leave and I started to spiral out of control. I was getting involved and doing things that not only could have ended my military career but could have ended my life. The life of Sin was taking me to an early grave and I could see it but I didn’t want to let go. I would look at myself in the mirror and I was disgusted but it wasn’t enough. The more I saw the danger, the more I drew closer. It was getting BAD.
One night in November of 2013, I was sitting in a hotel in Vegas because I was supposed to go on a date and I went looking online for a movie to see. I happen to come across a movie premiere called FINAL: The Rapture. Again, I am very familiar with the Bible and what the rapture is. The rapture of course is the second coming of Jesus when He comes back to take those who are and have been truly saved to Heaven. So, it sparked my curiosity to watch the trailer, and after watching it, something rubbed me funny. One of the male characters was left behind during the rapture and when everybody else in the film was trying to figure out what happened, HE KNEW. I believe everything that is in The Bible. The book of Revelation has ALWAYS terrified me. That is how much I believe it. I started to Google the rapture and finding any and everything about it and this dread kept coming over me. I just kept thinking, “If Jesus were to come back tonight, would I be left behind?” “Am I truly saved?” This thought haunted me to my core and I really took a GOOD LOOK at myself. I called my parents crying. I called my sisters crying. I was a HOT MESS! The Holy Spirit got a hold of me and I was just not myself! I needed to be sure! For a whole week, I wasn’t myself and my parents told me to pray. Go to God with your issue and He will lead you. I had been running from God for so long and I felt that because of the life I had been living, the things I had been doing and done that He didn’t want to hear me. Praying was a foreign language to me. I felt beyond filthy and disgusting trying to talk to God but finally I did the best I could. I said, “OK LORD! You have my undivided attention now. I am listening and I am tired. Wherever you lead me, I will go.” I was determined to get the assurance I needed and I asked The Lord to lead me to a Bible believing church. My mom 4 months earlier gave me a card with a website on it called Truelife dot(.) org. I never once checked out the website and I stashed it in my wallet and forgot all about it. I remembered it somehow and I went to the website and I was blown away by the messages it presented. It had a section to locate a church within your area that was True Bible Believing and that Sunday I went to Temple Baptist Church. I sat down with the pastor and I told him of my spiritual struggle and you know what he told me? He said, the fact that it bothers you so much about being left behind and needing to have the assurance of your salvation is a very good indication that you ARE truly saved. The issue isn’t that you are not saved; the issue is that you haven’t grown as a Christian. You got saved and did nothing with it. So, for a whole month I continued to go to church. I was hungry for the Word of God. The things of the world that I found pleasure in, I lost interest in doing. I wanted nothing but to live for The Lord. I finally understood that once you let God take control of your life, things are so much BETTER. I was happier, more productive, and I found REAL PEACE. I was baptized at Temple Baptist Church and I re-dedicated my life to Christ. My past was officially MY PAST. My interest in The Lord was real this time and not habit. I make it a point to verbalize my beliefs and tell people that will listen that no matter how far you have fallen, God is still there. Jesus is waiting for you. I was no longer living on my parent’s faith but my own. I have my own identity with Christ and I know now for sure, if He were to come back today, I’d be taken up with Him. The gift of Salvation and Eternal Life is something I want everyone to know because I not only feel different but…I have a whole new mind frame. Why would I want to keep something of this MAGNITUDE a secret? Of course I paraphrased a lot of my life up until this point but the fact is…Jesus died for me and He died for you. The gift of salvation is something everybody should want. A life of Sin is only good for a season. Living in a life that only ends in a dead in with no real happiness and is empty will destroy anybody, like it almost did me. I am NOT perfect and I still have my issues but this time…I’m more aware of God’s grace and I don’t want to displease Him. People CAN CHANGE if they turn to The Lord. It isn’t an easy road but the finish line is SO WORTH IT. Looking back now at my life, I truly believe God had a plan from the start for me. Every decision I made, every road I took led me to this point. It has made me beyond grateful and appreciative of The Lords forgiveness and redemption. My goal in life is to have a deeper and closer relationship with The Lord. I want people to see HIS light shining through me. I want people to know that the time is now to turn their life to Jesus and grow as a True Believer. Repentance and Faith is key! Jesus is the answer and I know that for sure now. He saved a sinner like me and I will be ETERNALLY grateful. I just pray that those I come into contact with will see how grateful I am and see the change that only The Lord can make. I want people to not only hear my change but see the change as well. It’s not by anything I have done but what HE has done.
“For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” (John 3:16)