Our 50th Anniversary: The Lord and Me, That Is
I was baptized exactly 50 years ago today, September 1, 1961, at the First Baptist Church of Brewton, Alabama. Here is my salvation testimony:
I was born and raised in Brewton, Alabama, a sleepy sawmill town situated just north of the Florida-Alabama line due north of Pensacola. From my earliest memories my family attended the First Baptist Church of Brewton, my ancestors having been steeped in the Baptist faith as far back as the mid-eighteen hundreds through the efforts and legacy of the patriarch of my grandmother’s family, Rev. James Lazarus Bryars, a circuit riding Baptist minister who founded a Baptist church at Bluff Springs, Florida.
One of my earliest memories is of my friend, Emile Harold, taking a sizable bite out of my arm in the church nursery one Sunday morning. (I never held it against him.) Suffice it to say that church was pretty much the center of our family’s social life. My dad was a deacon and my mother was a pillar of the WMU and could go on for hours about Lottie Moon and other notable foreign missionaries. My two older sisters and I spent many a Sunday morning being upbraided for making the family late to church – I learned later with my own family that this was a Baptist tradition of sorts. We also had perfect attendance for Training Union and church on Sunday nights, Wednesday night supper and prayer meeting and for each and every revival week(s). This celebratory record of attendance was made much more sufferable through the collegiality of other children my age. Bible drills and Sunday school lessons were bearable as Emile and Deborah Harold, Robert Crenshaw, Brooks Steel and Susan Kelly, the very sweet and pretty preacher’s daughter, were ever-present and available for commensuration.
As I hit double digits in age my outlook on life began to expand, and quite frankly, I became extraordinary self-centered. I found myself constantly in quarrels with my church friends, and I was constantly on probation or under sanction at home and school. I’ll never forget that even my oldest sister, Patty, who I adored, took the time to chew me out for something ugly I said as she was leaving for college. I had a fist fight with Robert Crenshaw after school one day for no apparent reason other than being egged on by some other passing boys, for which I was immediately, and have been permanently, remorseful and heartbroken and deeply disturbed at how I could have ever engaged in something like with anyone, much less a close friend.
And, believe it or not, things went downhill from there. One Sunday morning while I was killing time waiting for my sisters to get ready and make us late, I took my trusty Franklin pellet gun out in the back yard, and, I can hardly believe this now, almost as if in an out-of-body experience, I shot a Mocking Bird! Why did I do it? As I picked up the songbird I felt the presence of my Dad looking down at me. I turned and as our eyes met I saw a look of disappointment the weight of which I could hardly suffer. He only said, “Don’t tell your Mother.” And, that was it. There was nothing more that could be said. I had found the bottom of the barrel.
As a darkening cloud of despair hung over my head, I can only illustrate my feelings in the words of the early Baptist thinker J.L. Dagg in his autobiography in which he described his pre-salvation condition of heart as being “restless and unhappy.”
In the summer of 1961 there was a revival at church and being on the ‘outs’ with my usual pew mates I actually listened to the sermon, possibly for the first time in my young life. The itinerant revival evangelist was hammering away at the availability of forgiveness for all sinners. In point of illustration he informed the congregation that there was a time when he was making “big” money. In fact, he announced with a strange gleefulness that the money he had made was about one-quarter of an inch too big – he had been a counterfeiter of some renown in his prior life! He did a stint in prison where he was saved and called to the ministry. Yes, no sin was too great for the blood of Jesus to cover! It was quite a story, and it buoyed my feelings considerably to know that if Jesus could get this peculiar fellow back on the “straight and narrow” there might be some hope left for me.
I began to listen to sermons. Within a few weeks, and after much effort, I had more or less worked my way back into the good graces of my fellow pew mates, especially Susan Kelly, the preacher’s daughter. The fact that I was actually listening to her dad’s sermons went a long way with her, and I was not invited, but merely allowed, to sit with her entourage during church.
One hot August Sunday night Pastor Kelly preached with unusual vigor on the sinfulness of sin and its dreadful consequences on the human heart and how God was just letting go of some folks who were hopelessly lost. (I now recognize Romans 1 as the source of this sermon.) As the pastor guaranteed us that all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, I noticed that tears were streaming from Susan’s eyes. I was stunned that someone as perfect as Susan could feel that need for salvation, but she did. I knew that Jesus saved real sinners like the counterfeiter turned preacher, but if Susan Kelly was a sinner, I was in terrible need of God’s grace.
As if extending a hand to a drowning swimmer Pastor Kelly assured us that by grace we could be saved by faith in Jesus. All I had to do was “trust and obey” Jesus. As the choir began to sing I felt a warm consolation in that promise, and it wasn’t the summer heat. At that moment I turned my life over to Jesus.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
As I was swept down the aisle and into the arms of Pastor Kelly, I was no longer restless and unhappy, but a new creature in Christ!
On September 1, 1961, I was buried in sin and raised in life with Jesus in the arms of Pastor Stanley Kelly in the baptismal pool of the First Baptist Church in Brewton, Alabama. I don’t remember anything but me and him and the unpolluted certainty of salvation. The fruits of the spirit were wonderful and life was good, at least until I was launched into my college years, but that’s another story.
Now, this I do not deny; I took the Holy Spirit on a wild ride after parting ways with my church friends upon graduation from high school. He was surely grieved at times, but God is gracious because He sent a beautiful angel to be my helpmate. For 36 years Melane has inspired me because she believes God - completely. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Today, Melane and I are more convicted than ever that being equipped to share the Gospel “as we go” should be a central object of a Christian’s life. We are excited about where that is leading us spiritually, and, as they say, “We are not worried about the future, because God will get there first.”
Johnnie and Melane Byrd are members of Plant City’s First Baptist Church. Johnnie was ordained a deacon on November 26, 1989, and has served as a Sunday school teacher at different times over the years. Currently, Johnnie and Melane are enthusiastically participating in the F.A.I.T.H. Evangelism Strategy outreach learning to be more effective witnesses to the unsaved.
I was born and raised in Brewton, Alabama, a sleepy sawmill town situated just north of the Florida-Alabama line due north of Pensacola. From my earliest memories my family attended the First Baptist Church of Brewton, my ancestors having been steeped in the Baptist faith as far back as the mid-eighteen hundreds through the efforts and legacy of the patriarch of my grandmother’s family, Rev. James Lazarus Bryars, a circuit riding Baptist minister who founded a Baptist church at Bluff Springs, Florida.
One of my earliest memories is of my friend, Emile Harold, taking a sizable bite out of my arm in the church nursery one Sunday morning. (I never held it against him.) Suffice it to say that church was pretty much the center of our family’s social life. My dad was a deacon and my mother was a pillar of the WMU and could go on for hours about Lottie Moon and other notable foreign missionaries. My two older sisters and I spent many a Sunday morning being upbraided for making the family late to church – I learned later with my own family that this was a Baptist tradition of sorts. We also had perfect attendance for Training Union and church on Sunday nights, Wednesday night supper and prayer meeting and for each and every revival week(s). This celebratory record of attendance was made much more sufferable through the collegiality of other children my age. Bible drills and Sunday school lessons were bearable as Emile and Deborah Harold, Robert Crenshaw, Brooks Steel and Susan Kelly, the very sweet and pretty preacher’s daughter, were ever-present and available for commensuration.
As I hit double digits in age my outlook on life began to expand, and quite frankly, I became extraordinary self-centered. I found myself constantly in quarrels with my church friends, and I was constantly on probation or under sanction at home and school. I’ll never forget that even my oldest sister, Patty, who I adored, took the time to chew me out for something ugly I said as she was leaving for college. I had a fist fight with Robert Crenshaw after school one day for no apparent reason other than being egged on by some other passing boys, for which I was immediately, and have been permanently, remorseful and heartbroken and deeply disturbed at how I could have ever engaged in something like with anyone, much less a close friend.
And, believe it or not, things went downhill from there. One Sunday morning while I was killing time waiting for my sisters to get ready and make us late, I took my trusty Franklin pellet gun out in the back yard, and, I can hardly believe this now, almost as if in an out-of-body experience, I shot a Mocking Bird! Why did I do it? As I picked up the songbird I felt the presence of my Dad looking down at me. I turned and as our eyes met I saw a look of disappointment the weight of which I could hardly suffer. He only said, “Don’t tell your Mother.” And, that was it. There was nothing more that could be said. I had found the bottom of the barrel.
As a darkening cloud of despair hung over my head, I can only illustrate my feelings in the words of the early Baptist thinker J.L. Dagg in his autobiography in which he described his pre-salvation condition of heart as being “restless and unhappy.”
In the summer of 1961 there was a revival at church and being on the ‘outs’ with my usual pew mates I actually listened to the sermon, possibly for the first time in my young life. The itinerant revival evangelist was hammering away at the availability of forgiveness for all sinners. In point of illustration he informed the congregation that there was a time when he was making “big” money. In fact, he announced with a strange gleefulness that the money he had made was about one-quarter of an inch too big – he had been a counterfeiter of some renown in his prior life! He did a stint in prison where he was saved and called to the ministry. Yes, no sin was too great for the blood of Jesus to cover! It was quite a story, and it buoyed my feelings considerably to know that if Jesus could get this peculiar fellow back on the “straight and narrow” there might be some hope left for me.
I began to listen to sermons. Within a few weeks, and after much effort, I had more or less worked my way back into the good graces of my fellow pew mates, especially Susan Kelly, the preacher’s daughter. The fact that I was actually listening to her dad’s sermons went a long way with her, and I was not invited, but merely allowed, to sit with her entourage during church.
One hot August Sunday night Pastor Kelly preached with unusual vigor on the sinfulness of sin and its dreadful consequences on the human heart and how God was just letting go of some folks who were hopelessly lost. (I now recognize Romans 1 as the source of this sermon.) As the pastor guaranteed us that all had sinned and fallen short of the glory of God, I noticed that tears were streaming from Susan’s eyes. I was stunned that someone as perfect as Susan could feel that need for salvation, but she did. I knew that Jesus saved real sinners like the counterfeiter turned preacher, but if Susan Kelly was a sinner, I was in terrible need of God’s grace.
As if extending a hand to a drowning swimmer Pastor Kelly assured us that by grace we could be saved by faith in Jesus. All I had to do was “trust and obey” Jesus. As the choir began to sing I felt a warm consolation in that promise, and it wasn’t the summer heat. At that moment I turned my life over to Jesus.
Trust and obey, for there's no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey.
As I was swept down the aisle and into the arms of Pastor Kelly, I was no longer restless and unhappy, but a new creature in Christ!
On September 1, 1961, I was buried in sin and raised in life with Jesus in the arms of Pastor Stanley Kelly in the baptismal pool of the First Baptist Church in Brewton, Alabama. I don’t remember anything but me and him and the unpolluted certainty of salvation. The fruits of the spirit were wonderful and life was good, at least until I was launched into my college years, but that’s another story.
Now, this I do not deny; I took the Holy Spirit on a wild ride after parting ways with my church friends upon graduation from high school. He was surely grieved at times, but God is gracious because He sent a beautiful angel to be my helpmate. For 36 years Melane has inspired me because she believes God - completely. It doesn’t get any better than that.
Today, Melane and I are more convicted than ever that being equipped to share the Gospel “as we go” should be a central object of a Christian’s life. We are excited about where that is leading us spiritually, and, as they say, “We are not worried about the future, because God will get there first.”
Johnnie and Melane Byrd are members of Plant City’s First Baptist Church. Johnnie was ordained a deacon on November 26, 1989, and has served as a Sunday school teacher at different times over the years. Currently, Johnnie and Melane are enthusiastically participating in the F.A.I.T.H. Evangelism Strategy outreach learning to be more effective witnesses to the unsaved.
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Unrestrained Passion
Saturday, June 11 , 2011 Filed in: Bible Study | Jeremiah
You are … a wild donkey accustomed to the desert, sniffing the wind in her craving — in her heat who can restrain her? Jeremiah
Tallahassee is a feeding frenzy of special interests. Every spring the state legislators dole out $60 billion to those with the most compelling case for a share of the government largess. Thank Goodness, there is a Florida Constitutional limit on the spending by Florida legislators. Meanwhile, in our nation’s Capitol there is no such limit and no incentive for Congress to do anything but borrow and spend, more and more. Spending for things that Congress is ‘passionate’ about goes on unrestrained paralleling the contemporary American attitude about life in general.
Like an individual with a Platinum American Express card with no limit, the U.S. Congress has pledged the credit of our country without restraint. Yes, there will be a day of reckoning, and it now seems that there are few with the political courage to speak out, to be a voice in the wilderness. The question remains, will America repent of its fiscal sin? Or, will history repeat itself as our country becomes a broken debtor enslaved to other nations as our figurative and possibly literal masters?
Even after the annihilation of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the Southern Kingdom of Judah continued to follow idolatry and, more to the point, took God’s faithfulness for granted. The Prophet Jeremiah rendered God’s indictment against Judah in Chapters 2 through 6 of the Book of Jeremiah.
Jeremiah’s description of the apostasy of Judah bears a striking resemblance to American contemporary culture that is too wrapped up in the daily quest for more material things, more status, more esteem, more feel good moments and worse. The parallels to the sin of ancient Israel is frightening, but like us, the ancient Israelis never seemed to care or take the time to stop, get off the world, and realistically assess their circumstances.
Listen to the highpoints of Jeremiah’s sermons and decide for yourself whether there might just be a message for Americans individually and as a nation:
1 The word of the LORD came to me: 2 “Go and proclaim in the hearing of Jerusalem:
“This is what the LORD says:
“‘I remember the devotion of your youth,
how as a bride you loved me
and followed me through the wilderness,
through a land not sown.
3 Israel was holy to the LORD,
the firstfruits of his harvest; all who devoured her were held guilty,
and disaster overtook them,’”
declares the LORD.
4 Hear the word of the LORD, you descendants of Jacob,
all you clans of Israel.
5 This is what the LORD says:
“What fault did your ancestors find in me,
that they strayed so far from me?
They followed worthless idols
and became worthless themselves … Jeremiah 2:1-5
Jeremiah reminds his listeners of how good it was when they were close to God, even in their desert wanderings God provided and protected them from all harm, eventually leading them into the Promise Land which flowed with milk and honey. All He wanted was for them to return His love and commitment. Was that so much to ask? Yet, the Israelites turned their backs on God.
Tell me that the settlers of North America did not find a land of milk and honey, a literal paradise in which to form the greatest nation on earth – which today is the world’s only superpower. There was a time when America was unquestionably a “Christian Nation” but the advent of unprecedented individual wealth in the post-World War II era paved the way for Americans to forget God’s grace in the pulpit and pursue the idolatry of full blown cultural relativism in its legal and educational institutions. See how Jeremiah indicts the religious and legal institution of the day:
8 The priests did not ask,
‘Where is the LORD?’
Those who deal with the law did not know me;
the leaders rebelled against me.
The prophets prophesied by Baal,
following worthless idols.
How could Judah be so oblivious to its precarious situation? Jeremiah’s use of the word “appalling” is more than appropriate.
9 “Therefore I bring charges against you again,”
declares the LORD.
“And I will bring charges against your children’s children.
10 Cross over to the coasts of Cyprus and look,
send to Kedar and observe closely;
see if there has ever been anything like this:
11 Has a nation ever changed its gods?
(Yet they are not gods at all.)
But my people have exchanged their glorious God
for worthless idols.
12 Be appalled at this, you heavens,
and shudder with great horror,”
declares the LORD.
Well, can America switch horses in the middle of its historic stream? History does not bode well for us. Those things in which modern society trusts will not save us in the end. Is it too late to repent and turn to God? At some point God will allow us to reap what we have sown; I hope that time has not come. This harsh discipline by God was earned by Israel and can be earned by the United States of America, too:
They have turned their backs to me
and not their faces;
yet when they are in trouble, they say,
‘Come and save us!’
28 Where then are the gods you made for yourselves?
Let them come if they can save you
when you are in trouble!
God only want a repentant and contrite heart, and the miraculous thing is that he is ALWAYS close by if we call on Him. Even the utterly corrupt society of Judah could have at any moment returned and been accepted by God:
“‘Return, faithless Israel,’ declares the LORD,
‘I will frown on you no longer,
for I am faithful,’ declares the LORD,
‘I will not be angry forever.
13 Only acknowledge your guilt—
you have rebelled against the LORD your God,
you have scattered your favors to foreign gods
under every spreading tree,
and have not obeyed me,’”
declares the LORD. Jeremiah 3:12
But they didn’t, and spent seventy years in captivity before they were allowed to return to the Promise Land. That is sad. Who will write the history of America? How will it read? How appalled will those who read about us in a thousand years be at seeing what kind of stewards we were with our national inheritance?It is never too late to learn from Israel’s plight - hopefully not the hard way.
The marvelous thing is that In the fullness of time God provided His ultimate plan of personal redemption for each one of us by giving His one and only son Jesus Christ as a savior for all who would believe. We may morn for the national apostasy, but there is blessed assurance that each one of us can make it right with God regardless of being surrounded by a godless culture. The ‘living water’ that God spoke of in Jeremiah 2:13 is now available through belief in Jesus if we only have F.A.I.T.H. which means that Forgiveness is Available, but not Automatic, because it is Impossible to have eternal life without Turning or repenting from our sin and self and turning to someone wonderful – Jesus – whereby we have Heaven? F.A.I.T.H. also stands for Forsaking All I Trust Him.
Trust Jesus and save yourself and continue to pray for America and its religious, government and cultural leaders. God knows we need it.
Jeremiah: Being Set Apart
Friday, June 03 , 2011 Filed in: Bible Study | Jeremiah
“Whenever you find that you are on the side of the majority, it is time to reform.” Mark Twain
Being from Alabama, I have always admired public figures with grit in their ‘craw’ – true grit as it were. I have an abiding respect for courageous souls who live their life to tell it like it is, and, if need be, to take a whipping for it.
I’m thinking of folks like Davy Crockett, the Tennessee frontiersman who served in the U.S. House of Representatives until he stood on principle against runaway government spending and was defeated in his next election. Crockett was said to have told his constituents that they could vote for him or “if not ... you may all go to hell, and I will go to Texas." They didn’t, he did, and the rest is history. Remember the Alamo!
Another profile in courage that has slipped into the mist of history was the story of State Representative Chris Corr. In 1990, the voters in Eastern Hillsborough County elected this popular, promising and impressive young man to the Florida House. Nobody would have dreamed that Chris would only serve one term. Well, it seems that Chris had the audacity to ‘call out’ Republican State Senator Malcolm Beard for switching his vote and joining in the passage of a redistricting plan created by his former Democrat friends, thus setting back Republican chances to take over the legislature in 1992. (We did it in 1996 anyway.) As punishment for his courage to speak out and put the spot light on the turn-coat Senator, the Democrats in the State Senate erased Chris Corr’s entire House district from the new map created for the 1992 elections – in essence, Chris’ district disappeared; it vaporized. Chris had no House district in which to run for re-election. That ended his political career. Chris paid the price – and taught me what courage was all about.
Yet, we can learn even more from a courageous prophet who lived a long, long time ago in a place far, far way.
In 640 B.C. the glory days of Israel were numbered. King David and King Solomon were only distant memories. The nation of Israel had split into two kingdoms, and the Assyrians had defeated the Northern Kingdom of Israel in 722 B.C., forcibly relocating its survivors and repopulating the territory with captives from other lands. Now only the Southern Kingdom (Judah) stood. King Josiah came to power in Judah in 640 B.C. and implemented some spiritual reforms, but it was simply too little, too late for God’s Chosen People to avoid judgment for turning from God.
Jeremiah was called by God to be a prophet “in the thirteenth year of the reign of Josiah” (Jer. 1:2). The first chapter of the Book of Jeremiah records Jeremiah’s Commission by God (Jer. 1:4-6), his receipt of the Lord’s Power (Jer. 1:7-10), the Lord’s Reassurance to Jeremiah (Jer. 1:11-14) and God’s promise of the availability of His Resources (Jer. 1:17-19).
Jeremiah is called directly by God, and although Jeremiah resists to some degree, the call is unmistakable and irresistible. Anyone who has ever been convicted of the righteousness of an unpopular stand knows the feeling. Some call it destiny. One person put it this way: “Destiny smiles upon me but without making me the least bit happier.” That summed up Jeremiah’s initial response to God’s call.
4 The word of the Lord came to me:
5 I chose you before I formed you in the womb; I set you apart before you were born. I appointed you a prophet to the nations.
6 But I protested, “Oh no, Lord God! Look, I don’t know how to speak since I am only a youth.”
7 Then the Lord said to me: Do not say: I am only a youth, for you will go to everyone I send you to and speak whatever I tell you.
8 Do not be afraid of anyone, for I will be with you to deliver you.
This is the Lord’s declaration.
9 Then the Lord reached out His hand, touched my mouth, and told me: I have now filled your mouth with My words.
10 See, I have appointed you today over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and demolish, to build and plant … Jer. 1:4-10
Certainly, the human mind can appreciate being ‘chosen’ for a job at an early age, or after an audition or interview, but being chosen before you were even conceived added a depth to Jeremiah’s call that Jeremiah could hardly fathom.
Knowing that Jeremiah has misgivings, God commits to Jeremiah to be his personal safety net in order to always deliver Jeremiah from harm. Quite a promise! Can it get better?
Well, next, God reassures Jeremiah and confirms that God’s presence and resources will empower and rescue Jeremiah from being intimidated those who ‘push back’ against Jeremiah’s prophecies. At this point Jeremiah must be thinking, “What am I going to be prophesizing that will cause kings to fight against me?”
In spite of the risks, inspired folks like Jeremiah don’t seem to have a problem with being intimidated, nor do they cower before those they confront. Remember, people on a mission, like Davy Crockett, Chris Corr or Jeremiah the Prophet, are not driven by public opinion or threats of retribution - they just keep on keeping on. In fact, I had an old politician tell one time, “Johnnie, just keep moving. That way they can only get a glancing blow on you!” There’s a lot of truth to that as Churchill said, “Never give in, never give up, never, never, never!”
As we see time and time again, God’s call is to action – right now!
17 “Now, get ready. Stand up and tell them everything that I command you. Do not be intimidated by them or I will cause you to cower before them. 18 Today, I am the One who has made you a fortified city, an iron pillar, and bronze walls against the whole land—against the kings of Judah, its officials, its priests, and the population. 19 They will fight against you but never prevail over you, since I am with you to rescue you.”
This is the LORD’s declaration.
The next time you see a courageous Christian going up against the seemingly overwhelming odds of American secular culture, stop and reflect on how God is willing to equip, protect and rescue you, too, so that you, too, can stand as a ‘fortified city’ or ‘iron pillar’ or ‘bronze wall’ in the fight for the spiritual future of ‘the nations’, including America.
In God’s word, “Now, get ready!” And, as Admiral Farragut said, “Damn the torpedoes! Full steam ahead!
