Brian Shive

 Because God Let Me Know

The day was Sunday, June 10, 1979. I was 12 years old. We were in our regular morning service at Southside Missionary Baptist Church. Elder Marvin Emberton was our pastor then. We were having, or I should say, they were having, a good service. At some point while all this was going on, I came to the realization that I was missing something. I had been to the altar once before, but I didn’t have a true conviction then. That had been about a year or so earlier.
Like many other 12-year old boys, I was in little league. I had a game starting at noon on this particular Sunday. As far as Sunday games went, Mom’s rules were, “Church first, then the game!” During the preaching, that didn’t matter much. I had realized I was lost and needed to be saved. As I quietly sat in my seat, I began to pray. Nothing out loud, just from the heart. While I was praying, Marvin finished preaching, and the service changed to song and handshakes. I don’t really know what they were doing–I was too busy working on what I needed to take care of.
As I prayed, I wanted to be saved, but I wanted to hold on to Mom, Dad and my bike that I really liked a lot. I soon found out I would have to give up on keeping my bike. Before God would save me, I eventually gave up everything I could for Him, including life itself. I also promised I would do everything I could for him, including preach His word, if that’s what it would take.
Well, at that point, this great feeling of lightness rushed over me. I was sure I had just gotten saved, but then came the question: “How do you know that’s what just happened?” Quickly, the Lord made me to remember something I had heard Elder Hugh Hudson, a former pastor, say in one of his sermons: “When God saves you, the first thing the devil will do is try to make you doubt it.” Now I was sure! The devil was aksing the question, and my answer was, “Because God let me know.”
For the las couple of years, Sister Nana Russell had been a thorn in my side. (I’m sorry Nana…I have to tell it like it was.) It seemed like every service, she would come to me crying and asking if I was lost. I couldn’t stand her. But now, all of that changed. She was the sweetest person I could see. God gave me a sweet love for her and I’ve been blessed to share many precious moments with her through the years.
I’d always heard of the burden being rolled away. As a young boy, the only thing I could think of to compare this great feeling of my burden of sins being rolled away was that it was like I was under one of those huge, round hay bales and God just rolled it off me.
For some unknown reason, I turned and looked at the clock. It was 12:0. I was late for my game, but who cared? I sat there for 40 minutes and promised God I would tell everyone when service was over. I don’t know why I did it that way, but I did. So, at 20 minutes past one, after dismissal, Mom came rushing toward me saying, “Hurry up, so we can get to your game.” I told her I had something to tell her, and took her by the hand and went to Brother Marvin. Right there is when Mom began shouting. People going out the doors were soon coming back in to see what was happening. I joined the church that morning and was baptized in Fall Creek on the east side of town the following Sunday. I have never regretted, nor been ashamed of, being a member of Southside. She is, and I suppose always will be, home!

Celeste Shive

 With A Shout, I Replied, “Heaven”!

I was basically raised in church. My first time in church was when I was two weeks old–the same day my dad announced his call to preach. From that day on, I was brought to church and exposed to the Gospel. Hearing about salvation was almost inevitable, but understanding it was a different story. I guess I started realizing I was under conviction at around 9-years old, but serious praying didn’t kick in until about 10 and a half after a missionary travel with my father. Revival after revival, Sunday after Sunday, I would go to the altar with unbelief in my heart and mind. Ultimately, I would get up with nothing but a handful of Kleenex that wiped tears that were in vain.
At the age of 12, my best friend, Ginger McClain, was praying during a revival when she came up with a shout, telling that she had been saved. Well, instantly, I was jealous! We had always done things together, and now she had something I didn’t have. This just wouldn’t do. I began to, once again, try it on my own.
Then, in the fall of ’84, my sister’s fiance was killed in a motorcycle accident. That accident woke me up! It made me realize how fast life can flash by. On the morning of September 23, 1984, the Spirit was so strong, you could feel it when you walked in the door of the church. The songs were sung, the sermon was preached and, I guess you could say, the stage was set. The sinners went to the altar with strong conviction, but not me. I just wasn’t going to do it. I was going to let my stubbornness show. Then, Ginger started walking towards me. I said to myself, “If she’ll just come to me, I’ll go!” Well, she didn’t even get all of her words out before I took off for the altar. I hadn’t been praying long at all until I just couldn’t pray anymore. The burden was gone. “So, what do I do now?” I said to myself. I then proceeded to get up without a word and head to the restroom. After a few minutes, I returned to my seat upstairs. I hadn’t been seated long until my dad came to me and hugged me. I then told him I felt different. He said, “What do you mean?” I told him, “I think I got saved!” He then asked the infamous question, “If you died today, where would you go?” With a shout, I replied, “Heaven!” After just a few minutes, people began to pop up like popcorn, it seemed, telling about being saved. There were five saved that day and I will never forget it as long as I live!

Barb Patterson

From Nature to Grace

As a 17-year old girl, I became acquainted with Larry Patterson. We began dating and he asked me to go to church with him. I was reared from my childhood in an American Baptist Church. We didn’t hear the words “repentance”, “conviction” or “salvation”. My entire Sunday School class was instructed to come forward, accept the Lord and be baptized. I recall I was around six. Then, as a teenager, I went to a Billy Graham Crusade. The Lord began to deal with me and I felt so spiritually unfulfilled. I came forward again. The took me in a back room and a counselor prayed for me and talked to me. They gave me some literature on how to live right and sent me on my way. Nothing had changed, but I thought I was all right because I didn’t know any different. Then I met Larry and started going to church with him. The first time scared me to death. How strange to see everyone praying at once. How could anyone hear? Then shouting. That was really bizarre. I thought they had lost their minds. Through all that, though, there was this strange drawing to see and feel more. It took six years of coming to Southside before I couldn’t stand it anymore. The doubts about my salvation were eating me alive. I had to know where I stood once and for all.
I remember so vividly that Sunday morning, April 28, 1968, in the old building on Cruft St., I found the Lord. We had a quartet up from Tennessee to sing that morning. They began singing “In The Great Beyond” and my heart began pounding. Everyone started shaking hands and rejoicing. I had to have an answer. Was I saved or lost? I started around in the handshake, but fell on the altar. I didn’t even pray for God to show me where I stood. I prayed for salvation. At some point, I completely lost sight of this world. It was just between me and my Saviour. After I prayed and prayed, I thought that God wasn’t going to save me that day. Then all of a sudden, my heart began pounding so hard that I thought people around me surely could hear it. Then, the Lord told me I was saved and to get up and tell it. I was so happy. I remember I just wanted to tell the whole world what God had done for me. I’m so thankful God put Larry in my life. I probably would be hell-bound today if He hadn’t. I’m mostly thankful for my Jesus dying for me and my church preaching the Gospel to me!

Andrew Horton

andrewhortonOn the night of February 16th, 1997, I became under great conviction of the Holy Spirit. It was revealed unto me that I was lost, not saved, and unprepared to meet God. I became overwhelmingly afraid, and in deep contrition. I began to pray and seek God for the Salvation of my young soul. I confessed with my mouth that I was a sinner, and believed that Jesus was the son of God, and offered God every possession I had at eight years old. However, I didn’t experience a change, nothing felt different, I hadn’t received the gift that is referenced in Eph 2:8. So I prayed all the more, praying and begging aloud for God to save me, still no change. I began to get desperate, I was not aware of anything else I could do to be saved. I promised I would be obedient, that I would make a good servant, that I would always give my absolute all for the work of God, yet still no Salvation. It was at that point I completely surrendered myself before and the most high God, and expressed that I had nothing else to offer him, my exact words were, ” I give up”. It was in that moment of complete helplessness, and total dependency, the The Lord reached down, and cleansed my sinful soul in the cleansing blood of Jesus Christ. I joined Harmony Missionary Baptist Church(Nashville, TN) the next Sunday, and was baptized in to the congregation soon there after.