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| Our Associate Pastor Greg Mazak |
| Assistant Pastor Andersen |
| Assistant Pastor Mendoza |
(864) 877-9813
When I was a child, I had rheumatic fever five times. The fifth time it was accompanied by heart failure. I had a heart murmur and was out of school for five years.
My mother used to go down to the public library and bring me a stack of books to read. There was nothing else to do for sixteen hours a day. When I had finished those books, she would go back and get another stack. During this time my grandmother gave me a King James Bible without notes. It occurred to me, “You read all these books; why don’t you read the Bible?” I had no answer to that. So I started to read the Bible, beginning in Genesis. I soon got bogged down in the “begats” and gave up. The thought came to me, “You read other books from cover to cover; you started this one, but you didn’t finish. Why?” I had no answer to that either. So I started a daily program of reading the Bible and stuck with it.
There was much that I did not understand, but I did see a Person, a great Deliverer, Who was prophesied again and again. ( In the Gospels, I saw that Matthew portrayed the Lord Jesus as doing many things “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.” I knew that was true; I had just read those prophecies. In Acts, I saw the apostles proclaiming Christ as the Savior from sin, the Redeemer of His people.
When I got to Romans, the Holy Spirit really convicted my heart. I saw that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). I knew that meant me. I saw that “the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom. 7:19). I knew that described my condition. Paul cried out the question that I had: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).
In the next verse he gave the answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:25). I knew I needed Him. ( (So I climbed out of bed, kneeled down, and begged God to save me “through Jesus Christ.”
It was all done in a moment on January 9, 1946. He changed my heart, my thoughts, my life. From that day to the present I have searched the Scriptures with a consuming passion. I know that the Bible is a supernatural Book. It is God’s holy Word. No other book can touch the heart with such convicting power. May you turn to the Lord through His Word.
—Pastor Custer
My mother used to go down to the public library and bring me a stack of books to read. There was nothing else to do for sixteen hours a day. When I had finished those books, she would go back and get another stack. During this time my grandmother gave me a King James Bible without notes. It occurred to me, “You read all these books; why don’t you read the Bible?” I had no answer to that. So I started to read the Bible, beginning in Genesis. I soon got bogged down in the “begats” and gave up. The thought came to me, “You read other books from cover to cover; you started this one, but you didn’t finish. Why?” I had no answer to that either. So I started a daily program of reading the Bible and stuck with it.
There was much that I did not understand, but I did see a Person, a great Deliverer, Who was prophesied again and again. ( In the Gospels, I saw that Matthew portrayed the Lord Jesus as doing many things “that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the prophets.” I knew that was true; I had just read those prophecies. In Acts, I saw the apostles proclaiming Christ as the Savior from sin, the Redeemer of His people.
When I got to Romans, the Holy Spirit really convicted my heart. I saw that “all have sinned and come short of the glory of God” (Rom. 3:23). I knew that meant me. I saw that “the good that I would I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do” (Rom. 7:19). I knew that described my condition. Paul cried out the question that I had: “O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” (Rom. 7:24).
In the next verse he gave the answer: “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord” (Rom. 7:25). I knew I needed Him. ( (So I climbed out of bed, kneeled down, and begged God to save me “through Jesus Christ.”
It was all done in a moment on January 9, 1946. He changed my heart, my thoughts, my life. From that day to the present I have searched the Scriptures with a consuming passion. I know that the Bible is a supernatural Book. It is God’s holy Word. No other book can touch the heart with such convicting power. May you turn to the Lord through His Word.
—Pastor Custer