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My name is Doug. I was not born or raised in a Christian home. My family did seek to faithfully attend our family church, where I was baptized as a baby and confirmed into membership of the church. These rituals made me, I was told, “a good Christian boy.” My life in the years to follow would bear out the fallacies of that statement: I was neither good nor truly Christian. As a teenager, I endeavored to excel in academics and sports, but I also had to be “where the action was” having a good time. The older I became, the more I entered into the lifestyle of my beloved parents. My dad and mother were both employed in the sale of alcoholic beverages, dad as a bartender and mother as a waitress. Our family life centered around their business life. So for me, it was consistent with what I knew to practice a lifestyle of “eat, drink and be merry.”
Upon entrance into the U.S. Naval Academy, I was subjected to a rigorous, regimented lifestyle that required much discipline mentally and physically. In most respects, it obliterated my normal social life as I had lived it to that point in my life. When I could get away, I followed the path of “wine, women and song.” This was even truer following graduation and my years as a bachelor officer.
My second year at the Academy was noteworthy in one respect relating to my spiritual journey. I roomed with an outstanding born-again Christian, the first one I ever knowingly encountered. While I admired him for his convictions and assurance of salvation, I was not ready to abandon my pursuits to seek after what he possessed. Thankfully, what I saw in him never left me.
Once Leslie and I met and married, I was committed to settling down. I began to question if what I had by way of “religion” was adequate. During my sixth year of naval service, I was standing duty with a young enlisted man that I knew to be one of those “born-again Christians.” We entered into a conversation, and he presented the plan of salvation. I immediately knew that I wanted what he shared as the Holy Spirit brought conviction to my heart. On the spot, I committed my life to the Lord Jesus and a complete radical change in my life began taking place. Within two months, upon seeing my changed life and realizing her spiritual need, Leslie received Christ and we both became “fanatics” to our friends and family. We found a Baptist church to attend and soon we were baptized and became church members. We were at church every time the doors were open: for worship, Sunday School, Training Union, Wednesday night services and outreach visitation. We were “new creatures in Christ” and in love with the Lord.
Within six months of my conversion, I became unsettled about my naval career goals of one day being an Admiral and began to pray about whether God was calling me to the gospel ministry. In mid-August 1971, God spoke as loudly as I have ever heard Him speak, telling me that I was indeed under His call to leave the Navy and become a minister of the gospel. A year later upon resigning my Navy commission, our then family of four headed for Southwestern Seminary where I would pursue study for ministry. I was like a sponge during those years as I had such a large learning curve regarding the Christian life and life in the church. It was all so new and wonderful as I grew in the grace and knowledge of my Lord and Savior. |
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