A. My life before I met Jesus:
I grew up in Crestview, Florida with my mom and dad and 2 younger brothers. My dad worked at Eglin AFB and mom stayed home with my two brothers and me. We were a pretty typical family and I got along pretty well with my brothers. My last name being “Wise”, my dad’s favorite joke was that he was the father of the 3 wise men. I’m sure we were probably more like wise guys growing up than wise men. My mother should be a saint for putting up with the three of us. We were so bad that there were days that she threatened to just leave home.
I was the tightwad in the family and have carried that reputation ever since. The middle brother was the studious one but also prone to mischief. The youngest wise guy I would describe as, well, the comic. I’ll never forget when we would start out on a trip, Jim would loudly proclaim, “I hope we don’t have an accident.”
B. How I came to accept Jesus into my life:
Our family went to church every Sunday. When I was 11 years old, in the 5th grade, I realized that a sinner was someone who does things that displease God, like disobeying their parents or fighting with their brothers or selfishness or thinking impure thoughts. I knew I was a sinner because I had done all of those things. I learned that Jesus died for my sins and was raised 3 days later, and that he would forgive my sins and give me eternal life if I would just believe in Him.
I struggled with this new realization of knowing I was a sinner for several weeks and finally realized that God was speaking to me and asking me to trust Him to forgive my sins. So one Sunday I told the preacher that I wanted to trust Jesus as my Savior. I knew I was a sinner and remember feeling so relieved that Jesus had forgiven my sins.
C. My life since Jesus came in:
After Jesus came into my heart I remember immediately wanting to tell my classmates in school what God had done in my life. My life began to change after that. I tried to live a life pleasing to God but I remember drifting away from God my first year in college. I thought that if I totally committed my life to Jesus Christ that he might send me to Africa as a missionary. I started attending Campus Crusade for Christ meetings every Sunday night at 9:13pm in a Fraternity house. At those meetings I met a young man about my age by the name of Bob Tebow. You may be familiar with one of his sons, Tim Tebow. Bob would speak at those meetings about his faith in Jesus and I saw a love for God in his life that I knew I was missing. I really believe that Jesus came into my life as an 11 yr old boy, but that Sophomore year of college I knelt by a concrete block behind my apartment and recommitted my life to Jesus Christ and promised Him that I would go anywhere or do anything He wanted me to do.
It was at that point that God really started to change my heart and my desires. Life hasn’t always been easy. I’ve been through the great pain of a divorce but God was by my side the whole time. He showed me that He loved me and clearly guided my journey through that awful experience.
I met a lovely lady several years after divorce, we married, and thanks to what God has done in our lives we’ve been married almost 17 years and have a wonderful marriage. Today I have the great blessing of teaching young couples how to grow in their relationship with Jesus Christ.
