Russ Pickett - Autobiography (original) (raw)
My life's road to eventually becoming " Saved by the grace of God " and called into His Service as an ordained " Bible Teacher " has not been an easy one for sure ..... Those that have known me, and my past, over the years would more than likely say :
However our " Heavenly Father " and His Son " Jesus the Christ " can, and have, made changes in peoples lives over time that can sometimes boggle the mind ! Two that had remarkable changes that almost everyone knows about include :
" King David "
A man who wrote most, or all, of the Psalms was a " murderer and adulterer " ..... but later in life after changes within David's life the Bible tells us :
Acts 13:22
[ 22 ] ..... He ( God ) raised up David to be their king, of whom He ( God ) testified and said, I have found in David the son of Jesse a man " After My Heart ", who will do all my will .....
Who wrote more books in the New Testament than anyone else ..... helped the local Jewish Leaders and the Romans persecute and kill " Christian Believers " until he had a meeting with, and was called to Christian Service, by Jesus Himself :
Acts 9:1-6
[ 1 ] Meanwhile, still spewing death threats against the Lord's disciples, Saul ( i.e. Paul ) went to the high priest.
[ 2 ] He asked him for letters to take with him to the synagogues in Damascus, so that if he found any men or women belonging to the Way ( i.e. Christians ), he might bring them in chains to Jerusalem.
[ 3 ] As Saul traveled along and was approaching Damascus, a light from heaven suddenly flashed around him.
[ 4 ] He dropped to the ground and heard a voice saying to him, " Saul, Saul ! Why are you persecuting me ? "
[ 5 ] He asked, " Who are you, Lord ? " The voice said, " I'm Jesus, whom you are persecuting.
[ 6 ] Now get up, go into the city, and you will be told what you are to do. "
Now ..... I'm not comparing myself in anyway to " King David or Paul " but merely using their stories to show that anyone, you or I, can have our lives changed so that we can serve " God our Heavenly Father " no matter what our lives were like in the past .....
I first found out about salvation thru Jesus Christ in the mid-1970's and even though I learned a lot about the scriptures and even made a lot of changes in my life I had fallen in with the crowd that believed the theology of " Once Saved ..... Always Saved " and today I know that theology to be " Biblically a False Doctrine ! " .... Thinking you are " Always Saved and going to heaven " causes people to get careless about following a Christian Life and can also lead a person to think they can be sinful and still go to heaven .....
During that time of my life I hurt " a lot " of people ..... and to this day if causes me pain when I think about those that I hurt ..... But praise be to my " Heavenly Father " because he wasn't through with me yet ..... Two decades later in the late 1990's my life took a turn as multiple things in my life started to cause me to be depressed ..... and as I had done during the mid-1970's I once again started to turn to the " Bible and prayer " for answers on how to make my life happier .....
And I came across " three scriptures " that finally give me what I had been searching for my entire life !
The first verse I found, or was lead to by the Holy Spirit, was ....
I Timothy 4:1
[ 1 ] Now the Spirit speaketh expressly, that in the latter times " some shall depart from the faith ", giving heed to seducing spirits, and doctrines of devils;
And seeing the statement " some shall depart from the faith " in that verse made me start to think about the idea of
" Once Saved ... Always Saved " and I found other verses in the Bible that basically said the same thing ....
" some shall depart from the faith " ..... and I thought " How does someone fall from the faith since I'd been told that I was always saved once I accepted Jesus as my Saviour ..... Maybe I'm not saved and going to heaven after all ? "
As I continued my studies in the Bible I then found this verse spoken by Jesus Himself ....
John 14:23
[ 23 ] Jesus answered and said unto him, If a man love me, he will keep my words: and my Father will love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode with him.
In my own way at that time I did indeed love Jesus ..... But no one had told me about having to " keep His words " to prove my love ..... I immediately went on a study to see what else was in the New Testament that might talk about the same thing ..... and that is when I came across the third verse ( shown below ) ..... written by the Apostle John ..... I knew what I had to do .....
And the third verse ....
I John 1:6
[ 6 ] If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:
That verse tied it all up for me ..... And seeing the statement about " If we say we have fellowship ( or love ) with him ..... but still walk in darkness ( sin ) ..... then we are " Liars " !
So if we " think " we are saved but " Don't Keep His Commandments " ..... Then, according to the Apostle John, we are not saved but instead we are simply " Liar's " and therefore there is no salvation of the soul.
Basic Training Systematic Theology Statement of Faith Our Mission Heaven ?
Send E-mail to Russ:
" webslave for Christ "
" or "
( russpickde@comcast.net )
with questions or comments about this web site and it's content.
Last modified: Sunday, June 27, 2021