Episode 59

One of the most common barriers to salvation is religion. The prospect of getting someone to see is futile and trust in the simplicity of the gospel is impossible by every measure but by the work of the Holy Spirit in the person’s heart.  In this episode of the Removing Barriers podcast, we talk to David G., a man of very few words, and discover how God saved him from a life of nominal Catholicism to new life in Christ.

I say that helps. But also, I say that sometimes you find it easier to do the door to door in a way because your family knows you a lot better than those people behind the door so they can call you out on some stuff that you know. So I think sometimes in a way it’s easier because you’re not going to see that person again. And then your family knows you.

Thank you for tuning into the Removing Barriers Podcast. I’m Jay and I’m MCG, and we’re attempting to Remove Barriers so we can all have a clear view of the cross. This is episode 59 of the Removing Babies Podcast, and this is the 14th in the series of How Were Your Barriers Removed? And in this episode, we’ll find out how David barriers will move when he came to a Saven. Knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ.

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David, welcome to the Removing Barriers Podcast. Thanks for having me. Great. Thanks for being here.

Let’s get into it. David, what state all country were you bought in? I was born in Okinawa, Japan. Camp Kui Hospital, Kadena Air Force Base. Oh, wow. And that was in the Air Force. Cool. Raise the Air Force. Okay. How long were you in Japan? Two years. Okay. Do you remember er thing about it? No. Nothing to the Japanese. Hi, Reymus. What about when you actually moved to the US? Where did you live? We moved to State College, Pennsylvania, and my dad went to teach Air Force ROTC at Penn State University. Cool. That was 19, 1964. Did you grow up in Pennsylvania for five years? From 64 to 69. Okay. And then where did you move the after that remove to Massachusetts? Springfield, Massachusetts. My dad got stationed on Westover Air Force Base. We were there for only eight months. And then we moved and went to another Air Force base down Louisiana. A tree Port Air Force Base. The way do you come to the self from Virginia? Okay. Yeah. Virginia. How long did you live in Virginia? Because you leave all over the place. My dad’s last duty station. We moved here in 1972 when I was ten. Okay, cool. Great.

What type of family now? You describe your family as being military? Of course, because your father was in the Air Force. Was your family religious family, or we were religious member. Just being a good Catholic family. As a young boy, I remember going through receiving the first Communion and stuff. And then later on, when I was about ten before we moved here. I remember with my grandparents, they were all Polish and the Polish Catholic. And remember going here in the Mass. I think it was a Mass in Latin. I remember being brought as in the Catholic Church. Okay.

Before Salvation. What was your life, an upbringing like. So you describe Catholic family, military family, going to math in Latin as a boy growing up, how would you describe your upbringing? I’d say religious. It was moral right from wrong. Man. We knew who God was. We knew who Jesus was. But being in the Catholic Church, it was this more formality. So there’s never. No, we had a Bible, but we never read the Bible. So like I said, it was a good moral upbringing and stuff. Did you go to Catholic school growing up? No, I didn’t go to Catholic school. Okay. Got you. Okay. So all of your morals and everything that came from your family shaping from what your parents taught you and what everyone else around you, because I would imagine, as a Catholic family, you probably had Catholic friends and Catholic surroundings. So that’s where your morals? I from the upbringing we had before the Mass Sunday. We go to call it a CCD. Well, I didn’t go to actual Catholic school for elementary school or high school. What’s the CCD? It was just the Catholic way of learning about the Bible. Okay. So something like vacation by school? Kind of. Yeah, it’s it before the Church, even for the older kids, too. I mean, all the way up to 12th grade. Oh, wow.

So when was the first time you heard the gospel? Then you talked about having the Bible but didn’t read it. The family wasn’t. We had time. You heard the gospel. Probably was when I was when I went in Marine Corps and I got to my unit. I remember I’ve shared this with people before. We’re just getting checked in. I was going get into my room with three other Marines. I met the first Marine. Then five minutes later, the other Marine came in and he said he got safe from something. And he said, you know, I said, what did you get saved from? And that’s really that was probably around 1980. And that really was the catalyst when I first really kind of heard, kind of like biblical terminal being saved. What is this? 1980s you say? So you were probably around 20 years old. I was not 18. You’re 18 at the 18? Yeah. So what did he say when you ask them, what did you get saved for him? What did he say? It’s real fine. He kind of gave me. There are stuff that was said. I just can’t remember what was said, but I think there must have been something about Jesus or something. In there. But later on, I got transferred to a different unit over to another, you know, next base. And it was always seemed like we had other Marines that were Christians that were, you know, someone always seemed like they were planning to seed there. So it was just neat to see, even though you think Marines are hard, you know, you can see how God is using even you said the hardest ones and ones. You really wouldn’t think that. Are you going to present you the gospel?

Do you remember the time when you came to your first realization if your fin was it join one of the encounter under Marine base? It’s hard to say, like even growing up as a Catholic kid, we had to go to confession. And I knew, you know, you’re conscious right from wrong. And I knew basically, I don’t know if you really call it sin, but I think it was when these Britian Marines, we’re talking to me. And then I went to a priest one time and there’s this one verse that I have. How does it go? We do a quick search for it. There was one mediator being got a man, your Christ. And but is one God and one mediator between God and men, the man Christ Jesus. I came up with it for Timothy two five. Yeah, that’s the one I don’t. That’s really what convicted me a sin. But it kind of started me on my way to there. Because if a priest is a man, why am I calling a father? Why am I going to a man and confess my sins? I didn’t get saved right then, right. But it began to click. Everything that’s kind of stuff that really stuff began to click in my head about, you know, what is this? The young priest I went to couldn’t really answer my question. Or they just kind of beat around the Bush.

So what do you think? What’s preventing you from being safe? What barrier do you think that was the air that not allowing you to have that Clairview of the cross? I really think it was just having just too much religion. The Catholic Church. You know, even though the Catholic Church is that their Christian is not even having a really seen a Bible. A lot of people that see the Bible, they read it don’t mean that they’re going to get saved. But I have been nice to have something early on to maybe it’d have been a clear path to the cross. Let me see. So let me backtrack here. So 1980s, you’re 18 or so years old, you meet Marines that are telling you that they’ve been saved or Christian Marines that are talking to you here and there. You’re slowly beginning to ask questions. You begin to feel like you’re under conviction. You go to your priest or to the priest. I don’t know if he was your priest in particular, but you go to the priest and ask him questions that he can’t answer. And it begins to dawn on you. Why am I coming to a man when he’s only a man and I should be able to talk directly to God? And so you feel like perhaps Catholicism is that barrier that’s keeping you from seeing the cross clearly from actually getting saved? So then how was that barrier ultimately removed all of the bears that were keeping you from Christ? Whether it was obviously all of us have sinned that keeps us from Christ. But whether it’s the Catholic faith or your sin, how were those bears, I think, is because it was a simplicity, because when you’re into Catholic Church, it just seems Catholic Church is based on good works. To me. You just had to come to the cross with the Catholic Church. You went to confession, and then you had to go to a man. They say to come to Jesus as a child. So that was a neat. And the first time I went into a Baptist Church, it was this night and day, because you go into a Catholic Church is all these motions you have to go through. You have to do this and you have to do this. You have to do this in going into a Baptist Church, it’s not like a weight. It just seemed the weight. If you’re not Catholic, I it’s hard to explain. Right.

So this Baptist Church that you’re talking about, the first one that you went to was this after your Salvation, I actually went to a Baptist Church. I remember the first time it was in Jacksonville, North Carolina, and I remember going and I remember the first time I went in and I can’t remember too much about it. I remember they had and I didn’t know what it was as if you were saved. Go up to the altar. And it’s been a long time. But that was kind of the first time I ever was in a Baptist Church. It was down in Jacksonville, North Carolina. I just remember that. Yeah. Okay. Because when you first got thing, no, I didn’t get saved right away. Tell us how you got saved. Then I got saved. There were different avenues. They were different. Marines were presenting me. They had these tracks called Jack Chick tracks. And I thought I was saved. Then I think I might have been saved. But later on different circumstances. I finally got saved in March 3, 1993, under preaching. It was a missionary, Tom Parrot on a Wednesday night March in 1993. Oh, wow. So you went to over a decade of being on the conviction, trying to work a difficult the doubts and stuff and kind of thinking that if I was saved, that, you know, you go through and it’s not what you do or say. But I just didn’t have that certainty. And I know it’s not what you based on words. But I finally settled it then on March 3, 1993, on a Wednesday night.

Oh, great. You’re listening to the Removing Barris podcast. We’re sitting down with David and we are finding out how where his barriers removed. We’ll be right back. You have the desire to earnestly content for the faith which was once delivered unto the Saints. Answers and Genesis can help. They provide biblically sound books, CDs, DVDs, Homeschooling materials, VBS materials, online courses, digital downloads and the Answers magazine and more. Plus tickets to the Creation Museum and Ark Encounter. Go to the Answer’s bookstore by clicking the link in the description section below. So you, too, can be ready to give an answer to anyone who asks the reason of the hope that is in you.

David, tell me, what role did your parents play in all of this? And how did they receive the news of you leaving the Catholic Church and saying it being safe? For the most part, they were supportive. They would have liked if I stayed in the Catholic Church and found me a good Catholic girl. But you hear about any other countries that are in other countries or Latin American countries. That how they just disown a person. My parents, they’re very supportive of me. They want me to be happy. They were supportive even though I was leaving the Catholic Church, they wish I wouldn’t have, but they were supportive.

So is it true that in the Catholic Church, if you leave, it’s considered like an apostasy like you can’t be saved? You can’t be genuinely saved if you leave the Catholic Church. I am not sure on that. Okay, well, they’re not clear on how someone gets saved, so I would imagine. Yeah, exactly. Okay.

So second Corinthians 517 says, therefore, if any man be in Christ, he is a new creature. Old things are passed away. Behold, all things are become new after Salvation. David, what changes were evident in your life? I think it was. We’re not perfect, but I think it was the desire to serve God. And early on, too, I think it was. I saw some this simple prayers answered you think will even answer the simplest prayer. So I think it was just the prayer and being around God’s. People desire to be in Church and being around God’s people, I think, and growing even now, being able to understand God’s Word and growing in God’s Word and be able to go how God allows you to see the different truth in His Word that he wants to see.

So do you think the way your buyers removed? Think about your bar? The bar were the Barry of religion growing up in the Catholic Church and not fully understanding the gospel until you’re, like 1820 around it then took another decade before you actually get safe. Do you think the way your barriers will remove would be effective for someone like you coming up or listening to the podcast? Yeah, I think it would be because they could get a sense and not take as long if they’re not safe to understand that they’re a center and that you need a sub Christ as their savior. Yeah. That’s great. Because we know that Christ is the ultimate Baria remover. So if they not save as you said and they come to a realization, they send us like you did and they receive crisis like you did, that barrier can be removed as well. And perhaps you sharing your testimony here today on the podcast. Like you said, it won’t take them ten years to figure it out. They could hear your story and light will come on, and perhaps they might get saved a wee bit sooner, perhaps. Yes.

So, David, what are you doing personally in your life today to help others see the barriers that they have to Salvation and help remove those barriers? What are you doing personally in the area of evangelism to help remove those barriers? Like what you face when you were coming up, when you receive price, does your Lord and favorite in you, you find your local Church and you start serving in your local Church, start serving in ministries, especially. And you know, if you want to see barriers removed and learn and growing crisis, get out there and start telling people about the Lord. And for me, it happened later on. But this the basics is even this given out a track to someone. Yeah. And we know in your Church that you’re active in the in the Ministry, giving not track, verbally telling others about Christ. Those are some of the things you do. You remember talking to you outside of the podcast. You said that you tried to witness at work as well. Yes. You’ll find that helps you grow because you’re not dependent on it’s. Good to go out on door to door and witness and say you’re involved in the Church, but it kind of makes you say more accountable that you’re around your coworkers and even the same thing with your family members that it kind of makes you think that it gets you thinking about really, how much people really need the gospel, not just knocking on the door and then the person you’re witnessing to and then you’ll see no more. I think there’s a more personal accountability with the people you work for and especially family members.

Did your mom, dad and view of siblings got save after you did? No. I think I got the witness for my brother before, and it’s been a long time a witness to my sister. And at one time I think she gave a testimony of being safe. So I’m just not sure Philadelphia prayer request as well, because a lot of times I believe that a lot more Christians would so win if they had unsave relatives. I think a lot of times we have our parents are save. Our children are save or siblings or save or Nita nephews are save and we feel like, oh, well, the burden is not, dear, my family’s. All right. Right. And they don’t want to go out there. And I know you actively go out, dear. Would you say that because your family is not save? Your mom is not safe? I know your dad passed on. Is it because the parents are not save? That help that motivates you? I say that helps. But also, I say that sometimes you find it easier to do the door to door in a way, because your family knows you a lot better than those people behind the door so they can call you out on some stuff that you know. So I think sometimes in a way, it’s easier because you’re not going to see that person again, and then your family knows you right.

So let’s go into a little bit of a fun section here. David, what is your favorite script of Earth? Mine is first John 513 is these things have written unto you that believe on the name of the Son of God, that we may know that you have eternal life, that you may believe on the name of the Son of God. And I was thinking, too, then in the next versus. And this is the confidence that we have in him that we ask anything according to his will. He here with us. And there’s other verses. But I kind of was thinking, I think that’s like one of my favorite scripture that I think it’s because how it says I’ve written onto you that believe all you have to do is believe on the name of the Son of God. That’s all you have to do that you may know that you have eternal life. You’re believing in God, believing on God. That’s this God simple plan of Salvation, method, assurance there. And I’d say probably first John is probably even my favorite book, the whole book of First John, your insurance book. It’s awesome.

What is your favorite Bible history? We call it Bible history here, and some people call them Bible stories, but we don’t think that the Bible has any stories on it. It’s all history. It’s all true. What’s your favorite biblical historical account? I think it is when the Jews exile into Babylon, and then when they came out of Babylon, I thought about this. I think it was a Prophet. Haggey came out, and then he built the temple. And then later on, I think it’s kind of neat. As you go into the Old Testament, you read Ezra Nehemiah. You read about the men and Dane came along, and then they did their stuff and the faithfulness of those two men, they built the wall and stuff like that. So I thought that history right there. How God brought his people back to the promised land back to Jerusalem. That’s kind of neat.

What is the most convicting scripture passage to you at 412? Neither is Salvation any or there’s no other name under heaven given him a whereby we must be saved. That’s the name of Jesus because it’s the name of Jesus. Man. Love it, love it.

What is the most comforting Scripture verse for you? Hebrews 1315 Let your conversation be without coverage. Business. Be content with a thing as you have, or I’ll never leave the Nor for safety. Why is that most competent? I will never leave you, nor forsake the end of the verse.

Do you have a favorite time of the feet? Bow the knee high and lifted up? Bow the knee. Right. That is a great one.

And what is this? Is probably similar to the historical account question. But what is your favorite giant of the face in the script? I’m gonna be common, like hobby. King David? I don’t know. I mean, he’s quite popular on the site. Then I put a knitter. I put joke down too. Oh, that’s how you had a poor point. We read the book a job, and when we go through reflections and stuff, it’s not necessarily the same way, but you can see how in Joe’s life and how we can apply it to our life. And it was kind of a little different process. But it was just we look at these characters back in the Bible and back in the old way back a long time ago. And sometimes it’s almost like a fable, but they remain just like lie convictions like us. So Joe was kind of one of my Giants of the faith. That’s really great. So we have looked at how you got saved.

What you’re doing now tell us, David, how can barriers be removed in the life of others? And they’re giving them the gospel of Jesus Christ, bringing them to God and showing them that they’re a sinner and they need a savior come to Christ by faith. And how would you show them that I show them that their center. I go through the Romans road and showed them that their center. And they need to put their faith in Charlton Christ. But I would lead them through a different scripture and the Romans road and show them and go back and ask them different questions. Just not say what I think I’m just a messenger. I’m just trying to lead them to Christ. So when they pray, they are the ones making the decision they want. Cash users come into their heart. So you just one bigger telling another bigger. Yeah, that’s all I am. I don’t get them saved. I miss a messenger.

David, thank you for joining us on the Removing Barriers podcast.

Thank you for having me. Great. Thank you for listening to get a hold of us to support this podcast or to learn more about removing barriers. Good to removing barriers. Net this has been the Removing Barriers podcast. We attempted to remove barriers so that we all can have a clear view of the cross.