The Master's Trail

In 1774 Thomas Jefferson wrote, the God who gave us life – gave us liberty at the same time –when we hear this phrase we traditionally think of Mr. Jefferson referring to the birth of our country – I would also like to believe his thoughts extended to include our spiritual liberation from our transgressions, and a new birth in Christ. Please listen to Paul’s words from Romans 11:6 – If they could be made God’s people by what they did, God’s gift of grace would not really be a gift. When I reflect on these men’s words and take into consideration my own experience the day I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior I would say, God’s gift of grace accepted me “as is” embracing me with unconditional love, liberating me from what I could not save myself from – myself. I was the teenage runaway who became a race horse trainer and jockey who lived a life of immorality, addictions, lies and deception yet – God walked across the universe accepting me “as is” breathing into my very existence new life. It was as if He said – I take you today as you are – follow me – and I will show you who I truly created you to be. I was given an opportunity to know the truth. I need to STOP for just a moment to emphasize one very important fact. The day I found out who God is I was not looking for Him and I felt very much in charge of my decisions and choices. I could not even see HOW destructive my way of life was. YET that morning while I was working in the barn cleaning a horse’s stall God made His presence known – just a few steps to make an eternal difference – using Bill Hybels words written on the front cover jacket of his book – Just Walk Across the Room. God did not let me fall through the cracks of life because I was not worthy. To this day I do not know how God did what He did, but for whatever reason – I stopped cleaning the stall and looked out the window at the sun rising over the race track clutching a pitchfork handle while being embraced with God’s love and grace. My tears released years of pain and what seemed minutes later I finally heard myself say, I can’t do me anymore, I need your help. Within moments I felt cleaned, the filth collected from my life style seemed to have been washed away and I became anew in Christ. At that moment DID I know HOW to give up my present life style, NO, but I knew I wasn’t alone and I knew who I wanted to follow. Today I have been given an opportunity to profess what Christ has done in my life and my testimony has a colorful background but the focus of my story is not my past but my present. Today, I am not the person I was – but the person who thoroughly enjoys finding out who I am in Christ – because He accepted me “as is” giving me His gift of grace. A gift I did not deserve and at times since that day in the horse’s stall I still feel unworthy of what Christ did for me, because I know I didn’t do anything to deserve it. I am compelled to remind us there are hundreds of people like myself who live in our neighborhoods who do not know our Lord OR they may think they know Him – but truly don’t. We all have a story to tell – a joyous testimony of what Christ makes possible in our lives by a single act of faith – AND – the IMPACT a faith in Christ makes on our lives. We are examples of the action God took through His son Jesus so none of us may fall through the cracks of life. If I could wrap up Jesus in a gift box and give Him to each person I met, I would do nothing but box up Christ and walk across the room and give God’s gift of grace to each person I encountered – for we all are worthy of His grace.


Download my entire testimony of the "The Master's Trail" in pdf format. Go to Windridge's website at http://www.windridgetexas.org/ - click on news then click on articles where you will find the title, The Master's Trail. Click on the title to open up the pdf file and a more in depth testimony of how I accepted Christ as my Lord and Savior.