Testimony: I Heard But Did Not Listen! (08/16/2004) by Robert McGee (Edwards, MS)
I came from a long generation of Christians, so this testimony should not come as a surprise. My great-grand-mother Fannie A. Telton was born a slave, and a devoted Christian. My grandmother Eunice T. Smith also was a Christian, and her husband, Isaac L. Matthew, was one of many Methodist ministers on my mother's side of the family.
My father side of the family was totally different. His mother Emma Williams and father Henry McGee believe in witchcraft. It was said that he could squeeze blood out of a knife. My father was born when Henry McGee and his wife, an older childless couple took in his then young mother. Emma, my father's mother, became pregnant by the woman's husband, Henry. Daddy was her first son.
My parents were like day and night. They have six children, four girls and two boys. I was the third born and the first born son. Mom taught us the word of God. On Friday nights we had family Bible study. We memorized the books of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, and different scriptures.
We also learned gospel songs. But most of all we learned about JESUS CHRIST, why He came to this earth, His walk on this earth, His death and resurrection. My mother was a schoolteacher most of her life, and became a born again believer when she was a teenager. Her name is Mrs. Ann S. McGee, A.K.A., “Miss Ann.” Mom swears that dad used voodoo to trick her into marrying him; and when she realized it, it was too late.
While my mother taught me morals and righteousness, my father taught me how to drink and smoke, and how to be a man of the world. He was a long distance truck driver, gambler, womanizer, and bootlegger among other things. When he became sick he would not see a doctor, he would go to a house deep in the woods in Mississippi; this was the early 60's. The house was decorated outside, and in the yard as a place of witchcraft. My mother never went inside, neither did we.
Because my mother was devout Christian and did not believe in divorce, she stayed with my father even though they disagreed on how to live, how to raise the children, and about God. He did not agree with what mom taught us, but never tried to stop her. My father, Robert McGee, Sr. ,A.K.A., “Black Rat.”
I was born January 1, 1954 in Washington, D.C. We later moved to Edward, MS where I went to school from 1959 to 1958. During that time mom taught us he Word of God, and we also attended church at Worldwide Church of God. We all had an excellent childhood. Mom was devoted to her six children and held us to a higher moral standard than those around us. It did not matter what others did we couldn't do it, or go where they went, or act like they did. She also believed, if you spare the rod you spoil the child and believe me the rod was not spared. She whipped our behinds on a regular basis if we needed it. But we also had fun, playing in the back yard and in the woods, fishing, marbles, basketball, and eating mom's home made dinners together.
I started drinking in the seventh grade. I also sold whiskey to my fellow students. After Junior High, I was bussed to Utica, MS. From 1968 to 1971, I went to Hinds County Agricultural High School. There I became interested in Agricultural and Industrial Art. My interest in girls increased; I also added marijuana, along with the drinking. Still going to church, mom was still teaching me the Word of God, but I was not listening. I had let the LUST OF THE FLESH TAKE OVER AND WAS HEADED TO HELL IN A HAND BASKET!!! At that time in my life, my father's lifestyle was influencing me more than my Christian mother's.
After high school I went to Utica Junior College where I majored in Drafting and Design Technology, from 1971 to 1974. It was a two year program. I enjoyed school because there I learned a lot, and was able to be part of the sinful world; NOW I'm into speed and acid. Half-way through the course, a representative from M.P.I., a furniture manufacturer came to the school looking for a draftsman. They liked my work and hired me. I took the job and finished my studies at night in the Spring of 1974.
The first things I did were to buy a 1972 Monte Carlo and got me an apartment in Jackson, MS. This was what I had been waiting for; I stopped going to church and forgot everything I had learned in church and at home. A world of drugs, sex and all kinds of SIN open up to me and I jumped in with both feet. At that time I was not saved but knew right from wrong.
I quit that job after two years, went back to school and took a one-year course in welding. In 1976, about fifteen of us went to Pascagoula, MS to work at Ingalla Shipyard, male and female. For a young person, a world of sin welcome us: sex, drugs and alcohol, and some of us went as far as heroine and free basing cocaine. That line I never crossed. There was sex, drugs, and alcohol on and off the job. I was there until 1979, rolling around in SIN and enjoying every minute of it. Besides everything I was into I was very good at my job; as an Outfitter, my study in drafting helped, and you had to be able to read blueprints which was part of my job.
In 1979 I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, a city where there were no rules. At this time I was ready to meet the world head on. Working making more money and getting closer to HELL everyday. In summer of 1980 I got married to a young lady with three kids - only God knows why; it was lust in a different way. I was working at Brown & Roots building oil production platforms, dealing with a group of guys, young and old, black and white; all of us living a sinful life. All the time my mother never stopped praying for my salvation.
Then a change took place. Two guys that I smoked pot and drank with became BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS. They came to work one day telling everyone about JESUS CHRIST, how He came into the world to save the sinners, and about His death and resurrection. They witnessed to all of us, some listen, some did not. Some said they were crazy, but I knew they were not. Things that I had learned, I started to remember. I knew it was GOD bringing these thoughts to mind.
David and I work as a team and we car pooled to work; he was my helper. All day long he's witnessing for JESUS. He wrote down some scriptures for me to read and I look at them. They were abbreviations of several books with chapters and verses. He wanted to tell what they were, but I told him what they were; he was amazed. Then I told him how I was raised, and that somebody had to go to HELL and I was one of those DESIGNATED to go to HELL!!!
He read II Peter 3:9: “ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” I know mom read this to us; I heard but did not listen. Jesus started to deal with me, bringing mom's teachings and the Word back to my remembrance, and a conviction in my heart that I had never felt before. I began to bring my family to church and Bible study where David and Melvin were going. The devil was still in me but JESUS was about to EVICT him. Now I was ready to hear and listen.
The first scripture an unbeliever learns is John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” At “House Hold of Faith,” where I had began attending church, 95% of the members were between 24 to 35 years old, and we were all ready to learn about the Word of God. The Word of God dealt with me and my sinful ways. In the midst of this my suspicion about my wife came to light; she was unfaithful; I already knew she was a liar, etc.
One Saturday night in October 1981, my wife at work [I THINK), and I was getting ready to go out on the town. I had made plans to be unfaithful. But every time I got to the door I could not leave. I knew that drugs, drinking, and adultery would not solve anything. My heart, mind and soul were being convicted. The devil was saying go on out and have some fun. Jesus was saying, “Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke unto you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your soul” (Matthew 11:28-29). I went to my room and closed the door, and I asked Jesus to forgive me my sins, and that I believe why He died and that He was raised from the dead. I knew Jesus was the way to life. After I prayed, before I could get off my knees, it felt like the whole world was lifted off my shoulders. I knew I was saved, a born-again-believer. After telling my wife, she said if I wanted a Christian husband, I would have married one.
We remarried in June 1980 and had been separated three time, but for no more than three months at a time. The last time we separated was in September 1988, and I was tied of trying. After all this, being single again, I found myself easing back into the world. God was telling me to come back, but I didn't listen. All the joy and peace that Jesus had given me had now vanished, knowing that God would punish me of what I was doing. Conviction was strong at first but I put it out of my mind.
This sinful lifestyle went on for years. I went to jail twice for D.W.I. I always had a good paying job, even made supervisor on most of them, plus a good car. But a lot of money I threw away in night clubs.
It was twenty-two years later, in 2001, a lot of guys in my line of work started to travel out of New Orleans on other job sites. I went to Philadelpha, Pennsylvania to work at Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, earning two and half times more a week. Philadelphia, the “city of brotherly love,” NO WAY!!! This was truly Satan's palace. A preacher from Mississippi came up to work with us, the next thing we knew he had fallen to our level. I wanted to tell him about himself, but God said “look at yourself.” God began telling me, “stop drinking and start back reading His Word,” but I still had fornication in my heart. I was a supervisor at time, and I began hearing, “Repent, renew your fellowship with God.” In my heart I was being convicted, I knew it was God talking. I did not listen. Then I heard God saying, “You will not be working here this Fall, and you will not be fired.” He spoked to me in my heart on many occasions.
I began to lose weight and was experiencing pain in the back of my neck. My doctors couldn't find anything wrong until one day I bumped my head inside the ship and went to the work physician, who sent me home, then I started to experiencing weakness and inability to hold my head up. Then I was sent to the hospital for a M.R.I. by my doctor. After the M.R.I. I was immediately hospitalized. It revealed a huge mass in my nasal area and some in my neck. After a biopsy they found the mass was cancerous; it was diagnose as Nasopharynx. It had started in my nasal and grew down into my neck. All the pain was in my neck; the muscle in my neck would not support my head at all. Now as more symptoms progressed I became unable to speak clearly and swallow. They put a tube in my stomach. God has my attention now!!
When a person gets in trouble, many will call on Jesus for help. I did what I should have done years ago, renewed my fellowship with Christ. After asking God for forgiveness, He restored my soul. I asked God to heal my body, He told me “I would be healed over a period of time.” I was in so much PAIN that I wanted Christ Himself to come down from heaven and lay His hands on me. He did but from heaven Christ guided the doctor with the Chemotherapy and Radiation; that was a experience I will never forget. I have been pain-free with no signs of cancer since December 2003. I have trouble talking, swallowing and double vision at times, but I know everything will be alright. I'm retired now and have more time to pray and study, and this keeps me closer to God. In the end my mother's way won out.
When I look back over the many years of backsliding, I was not happy in the Spirit, only in the flesh. Do not let this happen to you. To maintain fellowship with God you must submit to Him completely, and include Him in every aspect of your life. Communicate with God every chance you get in song, praying, and reading the Bible. Talk to Him about things that are going on in your life. Live in the Spirit: “For if we live after the flesh, ye shall die; but with we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). We should walk in the newness of life and renew the mind: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). “That ye put off concerning the former manner of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the Spirit of the mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-23,24). There is a war going on between God's children and Satan: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). “Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, where with ye shall be able to quench all fiery darts of the wicked; And take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:14-15,16-17). These are some things to do. Stay in fellowship with God.
If you are a born-again believer, stay on the right track. When you find yourself backsliding, STOP, think about where you are heading. PRAY, go to God for help!!! The devil want you away form God; that will be the biggest mistake in your life.
Those who are UNBELIEVERS in Jesus Christ, it's time to start LISTENING, the WORD OF GOD is being preached all around you. GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS. HE LOVES EVERYONE. HE DIED FOR OUR SINS. HE WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD. Don't miss out on the Greatest LOVE in the Universe. Jesus loves us UNCONDITIONALLY. It will bring you: JOY~and~PEACE!!!
My father side of the family was totally different. His mother Emma Williams and father Henry McGee believe in witchcraft. It was said that he could squeeze blood out of a knife. My father was born when Henry McGee and his wife, an older childless couple took in his then young mother. Emma, my father's mother, became pregnant by the woman's husband, Henry. Daddy was her first son.
My parents were like day and night. They have six children, four girls and two boys. I was the third born and the first born son. Mom taught us the word of God. On Friday nights we had family Bible study. We memorized the books of the Bible, both Old and New Testament, and different scriptures.
We also learned gospel songs. But most of all we learned about JESUS CHRIST, why He came to this earth, His walk on this earth, His death and resurrection. My mother was a schoolteacher most of her life, and became a born again believer when she was a teenager. Her name is Mrs. Ann S. McGee, A.K.A., “Miss Ann.” Mom swears that dad used voodoo to trick her into marrying him; and when she realized it, it was too late.
While my mother taught me morals and righteousness, my father taught me how to drink and smoke, and how to be a man of the world. He was a long distance truck driver, gambler, womanizer, and bootlegger among other things. When he became sick he would not see a doctor, he would go to a house deep in the woods in Mississippi; this was the early 60's. The house was decorated outside, and in the yard as a place of witchcraft. My mother never went inside, neither did we.
Because my mother was devout Christian and did not believe in divorce, she stayed with my father even though they disagreed on how to live, how to raise the children, and about God. He did not agree with what mom taught us, but never tried to stop her. My father, Robert McGee, Sr. ,A.K.A., “Black Rat.”
I was born January 1, 1954 in Washington, D.C. We later moved to Edward, MS where I went to school from 1959 to 1958. During that time mom taught us he Word of God, and we also attended church at Worldwide Church of God. We all had an excellent childhood. Mom was devoted to her six children and held us to a higher moral standard than those around us. It did not matter what others did we couldn't do it, or go where they went, or act like they did. She also believed, if you spare the rod you spoil the child and believe me the rod was not spared. She whipped our behinds on a regular basis if we needed it. But we also had fun, playing in the back yard and in the woods, fishing, marbles, basketball, and eating mom's home made dinners together.
I started drinking in the seventh grade. I also sold whiskey to my fellow students. After Junior High, I was bussed to Utica, MS. From 1968 to 1971, I went to Hinds County Agricultural High School. There I became interested in Agricultural and Industrial Art. My interest in girls increased; I also added marijuana, along with the drinking. Still going to church, mom was still teaching me the Word of God, but I was not listening. I had let the LUST OF THE FLESH TAKE OVER AND WAS HEADED TO HELL IN A HAND BASKET!!! At that time in my life, my father's lifestyle was influencing me more than my Christian mother's.
After high school I went to Utica Junior College where I majored in Drafting and Design Technology, from 1971 to 1974. It was a two year program. I enjoyed school because there I learned a lot, and was able to be part of the sinful world; NOW I'm into speed and acid. Half-way through the course, a representative from M.P.I., a furniture manufacturer came to the school looking for a draftsman. They liked my work and hired me. I took the job and finished my studies at night in the Spring of 1974.
The first things I did were to buy a 1972 Monte Carlo and got me an apartment in Jackson, MS. This was what I had been waiting for; I stopped going to church and forgot everything I had learned in church and at home. A world of drugs, sex and all kinds of SIN open up to me and I jumped in with both feet. At that time I was not saved but knew right from wrong.
I quit that job after two years, went back to school and took a one-year course in welding. In 1976, about fifteen of us went to Pascagoula, MS to work at Ingalla Shipyard, male and female. For a young person, a world of sin welcome us: sex, drugs and alcohol, and some of us went as far as heroine and free basing cocaine. That line I never crossed. There was sex, drugs, and alcohol on and off the job. I was there until 1979, rolling around in SIN and enjoying every minute of it. Besides everything I was into I was very good at my job; as an Outfitter, my study in drafting helped, and you had to be able to read blueprints which was part of my job.
In 1979 I moved to New Orleans, Louisiana, a city where there were no rules. At this time I was ready to meet the world head on. Working making more money and getting closer to HELL everyday. In summer of 1980 I got married to a young lady with three kids - only God knows why; it was lust in a different way. I was working at Brown & Roots building oil production platforms, dealing with a group of guys, young and old, black and white; all of us living a sinful life. All the time my mother never stopped praying for my salvation.
Then a change took place. Two guys that I smoked pot and drank with became BORN-AGAIN BELIEVERS. They came to work one day telling everyone about JESUS CHRIST, how He came into the world to save the sinners, and about His death and resurrection. They witnessed to all of us, some listen, some did not. Some said they were crazy, but I knew they were not. Things that I had learned, I started to remember. I knew it was GOD bringing these thoughts to mind.
David and I work as a team and we car pooled to work; he was my helper. All day long he's witnessing for JESUS. He wrote down some scriptures for me to read and I look at them. They were abbreviations of several books with chapters and verses. He wanted to tell what they were, but I told him what they were; he was amazed. Then I told him how I was raised, and that somebody had to go to HELL and I was one of those DESIGNATED to go to HELL!!!
He read II Peter 3:9: “ The Lord is not slack concerning His promise, as some men count slackness, but is long suffering toward us not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance.” I know mom read this to us; I heard but did not listen. Jesus started to deal with me, bringing mom's teachings and the Word back to my remembrance, and a conviction in my heart that I had never felt before. I began to bring my family to church and Bible study where David and Melvin were going. The devil was still in me but JESUS was about to EVICT him. Now I was ready to hear and listen.
The first scripture an unbeliever learns is John 3:16: “God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten Son. That whosoever believe in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life.” At “House Hold of Faith,” where I had began attending church, 95% of the members were between 24 to 35 years old, and we were all ready to learn about the Word of God. The Word of God dealt with me and my sinful ways. In the midst of this my suspicion about my wife came to light; she was unfaithful; I already knew she was a liar, etc.
One Saturday night in October 1981, my wife at work [I THINK), and I was getting ready to go out on the town. I had made plans to be unfaithful. But every time I got to the door I could not leave. I knew that drugs, drinking, and adultery would not solve anything. My heart, mind and soul were being convicted. The devil was saying go on out and have some fun. Jesus was saying, “Come unto me all that labor and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke unto you, and learn of Me; for I am meek and lowly in heart, and ye shall find rest unto your soul” (Matthew 11:28-29). I went to my room and closed the door, and I asked Jesus to forgive me my sins, and that I believe why He died and that He was raised from the dead. I knew Jesus was the way to life. After I prayed, before I could get off my knees, it felt like the whole world was lifted off my shoulders. I knew I was saved, a born-again-believer. After telling my wife, she said if I wanted a Christian husband, I would have married one.
We remarried in June 1980 and had been separated three time, but for no more than three months at a time. The last time we separated was in September 1988, and I was tied of trying. After all this, being single again, I found myself easing back into the world. God was telling me to come back, but I didn't listen. All the joy and peace that Jesus had given me had now vanished, knowing that God would punish me of what I was doing. Conviction was strong at first but I put it out of my mind.
This sinful lifestyle went on for years. I went to jail twice for D.W.I. I always had a good paying job, even made supervisor on most of them, plus a good car. But a lot of money I threw away in night clubs.
It was twenty-two years later, in 2001, a lot of guys in my line of work started to travel out of New Orleans on other job sites. I went to Philadelpha, Pennsylvania to work at Kvaerner Philadelphia Shipyard, earning two and half times more a week. Philadelphia, the “city of brotherly love,” NO WAY!!! This was truly Satan's palace. A preacher from Mississippi came up to work with us, the next thing we knew he had fallen to our level. I wanted to tell him about himself, but God said “look at yourself.” God began telling me, “stop drinking and start back reading His Word,” but I still had fornication in my heart. I was a supervisor at time, and I began hearing, “Repent, renew your fellowship with God.” In my heart I was being convicted, I knew it was God talking. I did not listen. Then I heard God saying, “You will not be working here this Fall, and you will not be fired.” He spoked to me in my heart on many occasions.
I began to lose weight and was experiencing pain in the back of my neck. My doctors couldn't find anything wrong until one day I bumped my head inside the ship and went to the work physician, who sent me home, then I started to experiencing weakness and inability to hold my head up. Then I was sent to the hospital for a M.R.I. by my doctor. After the M.R.I. I was immediately hospitalized. It revealed a huge mass in my nasal area and some in my neck. After a biopsy they found the mass was cancerous; it was diagnose as Nasopharynx. It had started in my nasal and grew down into my neck. All the pain was in my neck; the muscle in my neck would not support my head at all. Now as more symptoms progressed I became unable to speak clearly and swallow. They put a tube in my stomach. God has my attention now!!
When a person gets in trouble, many will call on Jesus for help. I did what I should have done years ago, renewed my fellowship with Christ. After asking God for forgiveness, He restored my soul. I asked God to heal my body, He told me “I would be healed over a period of time.” I was in so much PAIN that I wanted Christ Himself to come down from heaven and lay His hands on me. He did but from heaven Christ guided the doctor with the Chemotherapy and Radiation; that was a experience I will never forget. I have been pain-free with no signs of cancer since December 2003. I have trouble talking, swallowing and double vision at times, but I know everything will be alright. I'm retired now and have more time to pray and study, and this keeps me closer to God. In the end my mother's way won out.
When I look back over the many years of backsliding, I was not happy in the Spirit, only in the flesh. Do not let this happen to you. To maintain fellowship with God you must submit to Him completely, and include Him in every aspect of your life. Communicate with God every chance you get in song, praying, and reading the Bible. Talk to Him about things that are going on in your life. Live in the Spirit: “For if we live after the flesh, ye shall die; but with we through the Spirit do mortify the deeds of the body, ye shall live” (Romans 8:13). We should walk in the newness of life and renew the mind: “Therefore if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature; old things are passed away; behold, all things become new” (II Corinthians 5:17). “That ye put off concerning the former manner of life the old man, which is corrupt according to the deceitful lusts; And be renewed in the Spirit of the mind; And that ye put on the new man, which after God created in righteousness and true holiness” (Ephesians 4:22-23,24). There is a war going on between God's children and Satan: “Put on the whole armor of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil” (Ephesians 6:11). “Stand therefore, having your loins girded about with truth, having on the breastplate of righteousness; And your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of peace; Above all, taking the shield of faith, where with ye shall be able to quench all fiery darts of the wicked; And take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God” (Eph. 6:14-15,16-17). These are some things to do. Stay in fellowship with God.
If you are a born-again believer, stay on the right track. When you find yourself backsliding, STOP, think about where you are heading. PRAY, go to God for help!!! The devil want you away form God; that will be the biggest mistake in your life.
Those who are UNBELIEVERS in Jesus Christ, it's time to start LISTENING, the WORD OF GOD is being preached all around you. GIVE YOUR LIFE TO JESUS. HE LOVES EVERYONE. HE DIED FOR OUR SINS. HE WAS RAISED FROM THE DEAD. Don't miss out on the Greatest LOVE in the Universe. Jesus loves us UNCONDITIONALLY. It will bring you: JOY~and~PEACE!!!
