~~ Matt's Testimony ~~
I grew up in a little coal camp around Bluefield, West Virginia. My upbringing was typical of those around me. The day would consist of playing in the woods, usually cowboys and indians or Army, complete with stick horses and oak machine guns.
I occasionally attended church, but not very often at all. I suppose I didn't go a dozen times throughout my entire childhood. My Mom would not go because every time she did, my Father (an alcoholic, among many other things) would ridicule her, in how she worshiped God, and he would also always make accusations of her "flirting" with others that went to church, because of his own insecurities, coupled with the fact that he was left to practically raise himself and he didn't really know anything about life... There was no one to teach him either.
God did, however, reach out to me one day, as recluse as I was from the ways of God. This memory would later escape me until a much later time. But there was a day when I was, I don't know for sure, maybe 11 or 12 years old, when I was sitting in the living room by myself. My mother was washing the supper dishes, and my father was in his bedroom reading the daily newspaper after supper.
Billy Graham was on the television preaching as he did quite regularly back then. I can't remember the sermon exactly, but I do remember him talking about the people that would not make it to heaven. By the end of his sermon, I was convinced I was one of those people. I was very worried that there was absolutely no hope for me what-so-ever.
But... At the very end of that sermon, Rev. Graham said, "But if you have been sitting here listening to my voice, and are thinking there is no hope for you, let me assure you, there is a Hope. And His name is Jesus Christ! If you wish to become a born-again believer in Christ and what he has done for you, say this prayer with me please."
Needless to say, I was overjoyed to learn there was hope for me! I did say the prayer with Rev. Graham, and I didn't just bump my gums together seeking fire insurance... I said it with all my might! I gave my "HEART" to God right then and there!
Thank you, Reverend Graham, for reaching me when no one else did/could! From the bottom of my heart, Thank You!
Well. I got up from there, wiped the tears from my eyes, and continued with my childhood. Everyone around me was totally unaware of what had happened to me, because the environment I was in didn't exactly promote or encourage such things... I felt as though it would be considered nothing more than foolishness by my father... But anyway! I grew older. I still did not attend church except for a handful of occasions. I didn't grow in spiritual things nor the knowledge and wisdoms of God.
By age 14, I was beginning to develop an interest in music. It was in my bones. It was a part of me since birth, thanks to God. But at age 14, my father gave me my first lesson on the bass guitar. My father regularly played the night club circuit locally, and in this particular instance, his bass player had just quit (a regular event in this realm).
My first lesson on the bass guitar was, we were playing for "A King For A Day" event, in Brushfork, WV. It was at an armory. There were about 6 or 7 hundred people there. It was sponsored for the mentally handicapped. My father had taken me with him, plugged up my amp and guitar, strapped the bass around my neck and said, "I don't care what you play, just don't quit playing." The first thing that happened was, the bass came loose from the strap, hit the floor and sounded like a civil war cannon going off through the amplifier I was plugged into! That was it... Lesson number one...
~~ Good Ol' Boy ~~
I continued playing in the bands with my father... I turned 15... 16... Still playing and making pretty good money at it also... I mean, when you're sixteen years old in my neck of the woods and making 6 to 800.00 in a weekend - and this was in 1976 - That's a lot of money at my age...
By this time, I was getting pretty good at what I did. I would later learn to play other instruments, but the bass is my most abundant musical gift. Such groups as the Doobie Brothers, Leonard Skynard, Three Dog Night, Molly Hatchet, Boston, CCR, Foreigner, and others taught me and shaped my style of music to a great degree... But I played a lot of classic rock for the "big bucks" on the weekend... Honest to goodness, if I ever hear "I found my thrill on blueberry hill" just one more time! -- (:^) -- You get the picture... Hey... It was for the Shriners and they pay good... (Looking back on it -- It wasn't that good) Just kidding! hehe
Along with my "Good Ol' Boy" musical development, came the same "Good Ol' Boy" development in personal character that is still dominant today in this sub-culture of mountain people... It's characterized in such ways as "redneck", "He'll give ya the shirt off his back, but don't cross him... He don't put up with any bull!" Like I said, this good ol' boy mentality is still ever-present in many sub-cultures today, and this local region is no exception...
~~ At 18 ~~
Immediately upon reaching the age of 18, I had married to my long-time girl friend in school. Ironically, she was a preachers daughter and had "attended" church all her life but had not made a personal decision to accept Christ... At least, not to my knowledge. Without a spiritual leader within our home (what I SHOULD have been), our marriage failed, along with many other things in our lives. But there was one good thing that came from it...
The beautiful young lady you see to the left here and to the right, is Audra Nicole, my first daughter by my first marriage, and her husband Mark. I am so blessed in that she has found her place with our Father God, and is currently enjoying life with her wonderful husband Mark, and their three children - Gabriel, Emmanuel and Joel.
Her salvation was in a nick of time, as she spent her childhood as lost and hurting as any of the rest of us. Her life was also governed by the sub-culture of American teens, caught up in physical beauty and all the things that make one --- cool... Thanks be to God, She met who is now her husband Mark, and him being a spiritual leader in and out of the home, was easily successful in leading her to Christ... Thank You, My Lord Jesus...
~~ Sin Unannounced ~~
So things aren't shaping up exactly the way you would think they would for someone saved at such an early age, huh?
There are many things that were in my life that I have not conveyed here in this blog thus far... Many things in which I hope to go to my grave with the knowledge of, although "somehow" God has forgiven and forgotten these things, I am quite sure man would not.
I was truly despicable in all my ways anyway you look at it. I was a drug user - I sold drugs - I was a user of more than drugs - I used people - And I didn't care at what it cost them as long as I was satisfied in my fleshly lusts of various kinds... I got hurt - over and over again - the vicious circle never stopping - and I hurt others within the same vicious circle - Use and hurt - Use and hurt - Use and hurt - Many things within the lifestyle of the "fast lane" that are so detestable I cannot bring myself to even bear them mention...
I can tell you an absolute truth... I was vile... There was almost nothing beyond me in the arena of sin... Short of murder, in everything else I dabbled. The very thoughts of it make "ME" want to puke...Virtually anything you can imagine, I participated in it. Looking back, I cannot believe I was allowed to live. But that's just one small thing that is so incredible about the Graciousness of God... If any of us received that which we deserve, none of us would live... ~~None~~
~~ 1981 ~~
In 1981, I met the love of my life, my wife Gwen. As far as earthly treasure, she is my most cherished. I cannot adequately describe the personal benefit of having this young lady in my life. Daily, when I reflect on her, I still wonder why someone like her would actually "dedicate" her "entire life" to the likes of someone like myself... To this day, it remains a mystery to me.
We were married six months after we met one another and were as much in love as two people could be. She had a son, Wade, from a previous relationship and I would soon after marrying her adopt him as my own. But that doesn't mean I would be a father of any value.
In my child-like, adolescent, immature, jealous mentality, I resented the relationship my wife had with her former lover. In "MY" mind, I wanted to be "the only one"... Yeah boy... Like I really had a right to expect perfection from her or anyone else... And "good-ol'-boy" Matthew took it out on this young man... Oh, I thought I tried to "get along" as best I could, but the petty jealousy within me easily overtook my every motivation... Rings representing promises made (and broken) were tossed into the wilderness... Toys that were given by any individual other than myself, I made the boy destroy them himself... And let's just suffice it to say, he was not treated as the treasure he was... but more like an outcast...
"Just a good ol' boy"? Huh? Believe it or not, that's the way "good-ol'-boys" act...
~~ Wade ~~
Wade was raised by this "good-ol'-boy" until he was 17 years old. At that time, the "good ol' boy" re-dedicated his life to Christ. Wade had alot of adjusting to do. Wade went from having a Dad that would instruct him in having sex and promising him a prostitute on his 18th birthday, to a man that all of a sudden was administering the "hand of God" himself! What a change...
But even after I had dedicated my heart AND life to Christ, I knew nothing more than to rule with a iron fist according to what I thought was right...or wrong... I always had the best of intentions, but I still did not have a clue as to how to be what I needed to be to my children... A Dad...
Despite the many horrors he endured in childhood, Wade did somehow turn out to be a responsible, loving man that puts his family first. He is married to his wonderful wife Heather, and they have four children - Miaha, Summer, Faith and Skylar... They also have a relationship with God... More proof that God is awesome in His Power and Love...
But I'm getting just a tad ahead of myself...
~~ 2+2=4 ~~
Shortly after Gwen and I were married, we had two more children. Kalla Miranda Fawn (shown to the left with her husband Jimmy) and Charles Timothy Matthew (shown to the right with his wife, Shelly).
Like I said earlier, Gwen and I were in love as two people could get, but years of being totally blind to the Truth tried our bond in every way imaginable.
There was hurt after hurt. We have endured just about every hardship you can imagine. And yes... Even the some of the unimaginable. We had many trying times with our children, but also... things much worse. For twelve years of our marriage there was little to "celebrate"...
Life in the "fast lane" continued. I kept playing in the bands... Most notable I guess was a group called "The Southern Knights". We played with such groups as Pirates Of The Mississippi, Conway Twitty, Jerry Lee, Sawyer Brown and more I don't care to remember. I had to make myself remember the ones mentioned. Oh... We really thought we were something...
There was another group I played with for years, and they probably wouldn't care for me to mention them in this type of atmosphere, but they were a great bunch of guys with whom I probably had the most "decent" of times. With them I began playing the keyboard (which is now what I play with our Praise and Worship team at DTC).
Some of the guys with which I played music were real friends to me. "Chucky Ray" has always been a real pal... And a great guitarist... We now pick together in Church. I can always count on him...
Eddie Day and Chucky Ray once bonded with me in a very special way... He voluntarily stood with me (supported me because I couldn't stand up) in a shower one night, fully clothed, in a desperate attempt to revive me from my drunken, puke-soaked condition in a motel room late one Saturday night (or maybe it was more like early Sunday morning)... Now days, I see Eddie regularly in church, when him and his wife Mary aren't traveling across the country preaching The Word Of God...
But, as the "Good Ol' Boy" lifestyle went on, it had already claimed one marriage of mine, and was about to claim another. Leaving out the many times I let everyone around me down and being nothing more than a "curse" to everyone I knew, I swore off playing music. I vowed never to strike another note... of any kind... on any instrument... for ANY reason! Little did I know that this was my "training ground" for things to come...
God's gifts are, according to His Word, "irrevocable" (Romans 11:29). And I have no problem believing that. I was given a gift to be a musician, and if gifts were revocable, mine would have been taken from me, without doubt.
I did learn many things from my past about music. It was created, by God, to be a very powerful thing. I did have the ability to put a piece of wood about my neck, and with that piece of wood, I could influence people to do anything I wanted... "Oh, you're bragging now!" you might say. But it isn't bragging at all. It is Truth. Anyone who does not have The Spirit of God within them are very easily swayed this way and that... But music is even more powerful than that...
King David had the gift of "making the demons flee" when he played his instrument... Proof that music even holds influence in the spiritual realm... satan's own body is composed partly of musical instruments... And so are ours...
Music can be used to do anything from praising God and inviting God into your presence, to influencing someone to blow their brains out, and this includes all things in between. This is the power of music.
God gives the gift... then it is fully up to us as to what we do with it... We can suppress it, making it null and void of any real effect... We can use it for all the wrong reasons (as I have done in the past)... Or we can use it to glorify our Father, God... In whichever the case, the power is there... The reality of this is what I have whole-heartedly learned from my past experiences.
So... Was it worth it? Maybe it was... Just maybe... it was.
~~ Re-Dedication ~~
But life as we had always known it came to an end on the last day of November, 1993.
Just prior to this, my wife and I were contemplating divorce. Neither of us had mentioned it, but we both knew it was coming because there was simply very little left of our relationship. Life in ignorance of God's Truth had taken it's toll on two people that were very much in love with all their hearts.
We had been attending church services for about a month when one day the Pastor approached us and asked if we would like to become members. My wife was ok with it, and as far as I was concerned, it was a place where I found a little peace. A place I could be "comfortable". There were no old women trying to drag me to the alter at the end of the service as had happened to me once in my childhood... So I told the Pastor, "Sure. That would be ok with me." He then told us he would come to the house and go over a few of the "rules"... We set up the time (must've been the last day of November).
He and the youth Pastor came up at the appointed time. We were discussing this and that, then he said, "Of course you know you must be born again."
Uh-oh... No one had said anything about that... I had been running from the conviction of The Spirit for quite some time, though I did not know that was what was taking place. Prior to this I had played a few times at the invitation of Buford and Glowie Myers at a Gospel Music Studio. They had invited me to come to church and one day I told him, Don't hold your breath." That had bothered me until one day the wife and I went just to satisfy them. They were so nice and... real. To this day, some 13 years later, I haven't stopped going to church.
Uh-Hum! Back to the story, the Pastor said we had to be born-again... !!! ... Well. The tears started to well up in my eyes and I guess it was evident to the Pastor that I was quite uncomfortable. He said, "That's ok. I didn't mean to pressure you." I looked around, still very uncomfortable. I then said to the pastor, "To be honest, now is when I feel like running." He said, "Good! Let's RUN TO GOD!"
For the next thirty seconds, I did not worry about everything I had to change to be a Christian, I just followed him in the sinners prayer and GOT SAVED! I gave it all to God right then and there. Me AND my wife! There was such a feeling of relief... a feeling of peace... a sense of the knowledge that "somehow", everything was going to be alright! What a feeling! I'll never forget it... Nor will I fully understand why God loved me so much that He would be right there the minute "I" decide to reach for Him after watching me do the things I did before this. I'm still not over it...
And I suppose "Why?" will be the first question I ask Jesus...
~~ In Conclusion ~~
Like I said, many of the things I have done, I will never mention. What I have said here is embarrassing enough... At least it would be if I had any pride left... But thanks to God, there is very little pride left within me.
However, I do realize I have said this at the sacrifice of what many of you may think of me. I reluctantly do this, but the reason I have done this is:
Revelation 12:11, "And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb, and by the word of their testimony; and they loved not their lives unto the death."
We overcome the wiles of the enemy by the blood of Christ and the Power of our Testimony.
I have said all this so I can say this: I need a Savior! I have been shown what I can do on my own and it isn't SQUAT! Thanks be to God that I believe His Word to say that HE can save me and that HE HAS! In this lies all my hopes... All my joy... All my peace... All my understanding...
Another reason for this is to convey to all that may read this, that if Jesus did this for me, He can do it for you, also... He died for us ALL... He can deal with your sin and your ignorance, "once and for all"... It would take a long time for me to convey to you what God has done for me and my family and continues to do every minute of every day. He has made crooked paths straight. He has transformed me from being a curse to everything and everyone I touch, to being somewhat of a blessing... He has given me a most incredible purpose in life!
If any of you are searching for Truth and purpose in your life, please feel free to explore the remainder of these blogs.
No one can make these choices for you, as bad as they may wish to do so. Either you believe? Or you don't. It's my prayer you will find your way to the only Truth that's ever been...
~~Jesus Christ ~~
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But life as we had always known it came to an end on the last day of November, 1993. 
