Chuck Martin’s Testimony!

Hello All,

I plan on getting much more personal as soon as I have the time to write. In the meantime I’ve decided to post my friend Chuck Martin’s testimony. Chuck owns several Culver’s franchises in the Chicago market and is a great guy in every respect. He’s bold, genuine and caring with a big heart.

I got a taste of that big heart at dinner when his wife Lynnaea joined Tara and I at Seasons 52 in Schaumburg a few weeks ago. We talked about a lot of things including how sometimes Lynnaea wished she had a testimony of her own. She went on to explain how she’s always had a relationship with GOD because she was lucky enough to be raised that way. I can’t imagine having what I’ve had for the past five months my entire life. How many less mistakes I would’ve made with the Holy Spirit guiding me. The fact that she’s had the Holy Spirit guiding her is clear in every aspect of her life. Neither of them drink at all, both look about fifteen years younger than they are, they’re visibly in love and you can see and hear the Holy Spirit radiating from her at all times. It’s amazing!

Once we started talking about what GOD has done in Chucks life his big heart was on full display. The tears streaming down his face and the clear utmost appreciation for GODS grace when he didn’t deserve it. All the earmarks of someone who allows the Holy Spirit to guide his life in every way. I can tell you that once the Holy Spirit starts working in you, you better get used to crying, usually not tears of sadness or pain but cleansing tears of joy, happiness and appreciation of GOD. It was a great dinner and Tara and I hope to do it again soon.

To the people who read my blog who know the truth about GOD, I want to mention that this testimony, that great dinner, knowing Chuck and his wife in a much fuller more personal way are all a product of me emailing my testimony to everyone in my contact list. It’s just one of several unexpected benefits that has come from letting everyone around me know that I’m a Christian. There hasn’t been one negative. As Romans 8:31 says “If GOD is for us, who can be against us?” The thing about professing your faith is this. The people who don’t know the truth have no convictions (unless you’re an atheist like I was which I can assure you is very rare). They’re going to see your testimony and not think twice about it. It’s like Chik Fil A, they get the staunch support of the most convicted group of people on the planet, Christians, but all the atheists, agnostics and non truth seekers are just neutral and eat there anyway. In the very unlikely, worst case scenario where you get fired from your job for your faith, how do you think GOD will handle both the firee and firer? You have to trust GOD. Jesus promises all through the Bible that if you follow The Great Commission and do GODS work that you’ll be blessed. There is no possible downside to professing your faith and unlimited upside. The Great Commission is one of the most important responsibilities we have to GOD and if we all did our part this world be drastically different. Please consider typing up your testimony and/or the things GOD has done in your life and sending it to everyone around you. It’s simply a personal story about something that happened in your life, you’re not asking anything of anyone, you’re not pushing anything on anyone, you’re simply letting people get to know you better in the most important way.

Thank you Chuck for sending this to me. I hope it can make a differance in someones life or put it on someones heart to start seeking truth.

Holy Spirit Watermark

Jesus says in John 3: 5-7, “Very truly I tell you, no one can enter the kingdom of God unless they are born of water and the Spirit. Flesh gives birth to flesh, but the Spirit gives birth to spirit.  You should not be surprised at my saying, “you must be born again.”  My name is Chuck Martin and I’d like to tell you my story … in my own words of how the Holy Spirit entered into my life to where I truly was born again.

My life growing up was turbulent.  I had an alcoholic father who died of that disease when I was eleven.  As a result, I struggled greatly with self-confidence, self-esteem, and insomnia.  By the time I got to college, I joined a fraternity and chose to fill my time with plenty of parties and drinking.  Yet, those behaviors created more emptiness in my life than the fulfillment I expected.  I was in various stages of depression, and living life on my terms wasn’t working.

By the end of my junior year, my mom had checked herself into a facility for codependency rehabilitation where I went to support her.  Through my mom’s counseling process, I realized that much of what I had become was a result of my broken family story.  I knew I desperately wanted to rewrite my story going forward.   Thankfully, while in high school, I heard the Gospel message after a friend invited me to youth group, but I chose not to act on it at that time.  Now that I was in college, I realized it was time to act on that invitation to ask Jesus into my heart.  All alone, in a hotel room, I prayed the simple prayer I had heard four years before – and my story forever began to change.

I didn’t realize until the next morning that as soon as I rolled over, I had fallen right to sleep.  That had NEVER happened to this insomniac unless I had been drinking the night before.  Each night thereafter, I had a conversation of prayer with God and would fall right to sleep – something dramatic HAD truly happened!   Within a week of my conversion, I was back in the fraternity house where I was given a unique gift; God was about to allow me to experience him through his Holy Spirit for an entire year without the aid of a church, a spiritual mentor, or a bible.

During one of my nightly prayers, I asked God to speak to me through my heart.  It was the only thing I could think of that made sense.  If you ask Jesus into your heart, can’t he then speak to you through your heart?  It was an extremely earnest prayer from someone who was fully engaged and fully submitted to his new heavenly father.  It was clear to me over the next year that God answered my prayer, and I was listening to his voice.

I had a new sense of right and wrong.  What had been acceptable behavior to me in the past was not any more.  My self-confidence was growing and my self-esteem was increasing literally on a daily basis. No one outside of the Lord was causing these things to happen.  I couldn’t control it, but I received them like a child running downstairs to see their gifts on Christmas morning – except I got to do it every day!   I believe that God was removing the fear rooted in my childhood from deep inside my heart, and then filling it back up with his love and his peace that transcends all understanding.  I was being reborn.

It wasn’t until almost a year later that I fully understood what had been going on inside me.  I was home for the weekend and attended the church where I had heard the Gospel message in high school.  The sermon was on the Holy Spirit. I listened intently as the pastor spoke about how we receive something called the Holy Spirit when we trust Christ and surrender our lives over to him.  It was at that point where I almost blurted out loud “THAT’S WHAT IT IS!  I DIDN’T KNOW IT HAD A NAME!”  It became even clearer to me when, later, I read Jesus’ words in John 16:7:  “But very truly I tell you, it is for your good that I am going away.  Unless I go away, the Advocate (Holy Spirit) will not come to you; but if I go, I will send him to you.”   I was a living example of the truth of these words.

My journey with the Holy Spirit began almost 25 years ago, yet I still desire to earnestly seek God today and humbly submit to him, so I can allow the Holy Spirit to continue to speak to me, lead me chapter by chapter, and shape my story for His glory and my good.

If anyone has questions about the Bible, GOD, Jesus and how they play into real life this website is phenomenal. Just search for any question about life and it’ll tell you how the Bible relates. What about dinasuars, what about the holocaust, how did people live to be 900 in the Bible, etc… You’ll start to see quickly how logical, rational and applicable the Bible and GOD really are.

gotquestions.org

“If GOD is for us, who can be against us?” (Romans 8:31)