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Phil's Story... |
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Philip's testimony of salvation: When I was nine years old, I had a horrifying dream that I was burning in hell. It was awful. I remember that it seemed to go on for a long time. There was nothing else in the dream, just me burning in agony. In the
dream, I kept thinking: "This isn't fair, I know who Christ is, I'm a good
person, and my parents are Christians." But I knew as I burned that that
was not enough, that I had to accept Christ as my SAVIOR and to make that a personal decision. I really don't think that it ever sunk in to me until
that point. I mean, I had been to church my whole life and I had heard the
salvation message, but it just hadn't sunk in until I was burning in hell in
my dream. Just as I could see the flame eating through one of my hands, in my
dream I let out the loudest scream I could. That's when I woke up from my
sleep. When I realized it had been a dream, I said the sinner's prayer over
and over again. I just had to be sure! I fully believe that the dream was
from God, sent to show me that being a good person would land me in hell no matter who my parents were. How did our relationship get started? Debby and I became good friends when I moved out here in the summer of '95. I knew that she had a
crush on me for a while, but there was something about her that I felt uncomfortable about. I didn't
know what it was. Everybody in Chi Alpha kept urging us to get together! In May of '97, Debby received the Baptism in the Holy Spirit at the
Pentecost Rally. At the time I had
no idea that she had not received. Suddenly I thought about her an awful lot. Whatever had held me
back before was not doing so now. Oddly enough, it was at this time that she took me aside and told me that she was getting tired of chasing me. Debby wanted to know if she should just give up or not.
She was quite shocked to learn that I had just started to have feelings for her! Well, since we were such good friends before we started dating, we
had only been going out for a couple of weeks when we started discussing
marriage. We were already "compatible" as a couple.
We just needed the romance, and once that started we really took off! Debby and I are continually surprised to learn how much we think alike. From the start, God has had
his hand on us. He has played "matchmaker." For a while when we started dating, I had trouble visiting Debby. I had an
allergic reaction to her cats. One Sunday, I went forward for healing at
Capital City Church and the Lord healed me. I knew it when it happened. When I went back to me
seat, Debby seemed to know why I had gone down for healing and what had happened, even though I hadn't told her anything yet. |
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