{"id":5312,"date":"2017-11-29T13:31:46","date_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:31:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=5312"},"modified":"2017-11-29T13:31:46","modified_gmt":"2017-11-29T19:31:46","slug":"back-into-the-fold","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2017\/11\/29\/back-into-the-fold\/","title":{"rendered":"Back into the Fold"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Roger Bentley<\/strong>
\nIt was 1974 in a small West Texas town that my dad was baptized.\u00a0 I was only four at the time but remember that night vividly.\u00a0 It was the turning point in my family\u2019s life.\u00a0 No more beer at family gatherings, Sunday and Wednesday were now \u201cchurch days\u201d and\u00a0growing up would be according the \u201cGood Book\u201d.\u00a0 From then on my parents made every effort to provide us with biblical answers for life\u2019s questions.\u00a0<\/span>
\nUpon graduation from high school, I attended Lubbock Christian University and majored in Youth Ministry.\u00a0 After two semesters of failing grades and\u00a0falling deeper into debt I dropped out of college.\u00a0 The United States Army was my next move and possibly one of my worst decisions.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI arrived at Ft. Stewart, GA on October 30, 1990 with the fear\/excitement of going to Dessert Storm.\u00a0 My unit was the only one from Ft. Stewart that would never see the Middle East.\u00a0 With everybody gone to war, the small military town seemed empty except for the night life.\u00a0 The few friends that I made in my new home invited me to join them at the dance club. Not wanting to spend another night alone in the barracks I quickly got ready to go out.\u00a0<\/span>
\nThe pulsing music, smell of perfume mixed with cigarette smoke and the dark atmosphere appealed to me.\u00a0 I can\u2019t explain what the draw was but I was hooked like a bass on a treble.\u00a0 I would spend the next three years drinking and partying myself right out of the military.\u00a0 I found that this lifestyle also came with \u201cone night stands\u201d.\u00a0 I was truly falling deeper into the world with each passing day.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI tried a few times here and there to go to church but found myself sitting alone on the back pew only to run out before anyone could speak to me.\u00a0 I truly believe it was because I wanted to do right but did not want to give up my fun lifestyle.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAs time progressed I became more reckless and these decisions began to catch up with me.\u00a0 I made it through my first DUI rather easily and then the second came shortly after that with some jail time.\u00a0 I was now driving on a suspended license and no insurance without a care, or so\u00a0it seemed.\u00a0 I wrecked my second car in a two year time frame.\u00a0 This time\u00a0the wreck involved another motorist.\u00a0 I would visit the inside of a jail cell yet again.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAs I\u2019m traveling up and down the eastern seaboard\u00a0as a construction electrician\u00a0I am constantly looking over my shoulder as I am now a fugitive from the law.\u00a0 A warrant for my arrest has been issued due to my failure to pay restitution and my negligence of the rules concerning my probation.\u00a0 A whirlwind tour that started in Savannah, GA through the Carolinas, Virginia, Tennessee, Kentucky, Florida, Alabama and finally ending in Valdosta, GA.\u00a0 I was at rock bottom here. Drugs, alcohol and fornication had made a weary man of me.\u00a0 I was twenty when this decline started and I am now\u00a0twenty eight.\u00a0<\/span>
\nDuring this time my parents are equally weary.\u00a0 Long nights of prayers and tears on behalf of their wayward son were met with continued sorrow.\u00a0 There would be months of no contact\u00a0and they would try different avenues to reach me, to find out if I\u2019m still alive.\u00a0 They contact friends and ex-girlfriends and try mapping a trail of where I am and where I\u2019m going.\u00a0 They try calling hospitals and jails to see if I am a resident of either one.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI finally make my call and inform my parents, \u201cI\u2019m tired,\u00a0I\u00a0want to come home.\u201d\u00a0 Without hesitation my dad tells me I have a place, I\u2019ve always had a place.\u00a0 I pack everything I own into a small car and make the trek from Georgia to Oklahoma.\u00a0 Once I\u2019m there, I begin to attend worship services with my family.\u00a0 I slowly feel my life beginning to take order again.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAfter being home for about a year and working hard to rebuild relationships with my family and my God I start looking toward a career in the ministry.\u00a0 After researching several schools of preaching, I settle on the Brown Trail School of Preaching.\u00a0 This is by no means the end of my story but a good place for some reflection.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI made it through those years of turmoil by the prayers offered up by my family\u00a0and\u00a0\u00a0friends\u00a0who knew I was lost.\u00a0 I kept going back to what I knew to be right and safe.\u00a0 I say this to make the\u00a0point;\u00a0biblical teaching will stay in the mind and heart.\u00a0 When it is taught with love and understanding and received with willful intent it will become the guiding light in a dark world.\u00a0 As a lighthouse brings ships in safely through treacherous shores, the Word of God will guide us safely through tumultuous times.\u00a0 The light\u00a0may grow dim over time when one is not walking in the light but that dim flicker maybe all that is needed to bring one back to the fold.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Roger Bentley It was 1974 in a small West Texas town that my dad was baptized.\u00a0 I was only four at the time but remember that night vividly.\u00a0 It was the turning point in my family\u2019s life.\u00a0 No more beer at family gatherings, Sunday and Wednesday were now \u201cchurch days\u201d and\u00a0growing up would be […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"give_campaign_id":0,"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[66],"tags":[1135,1137,1148,1149,1150,1151,1152,1153],"class_list":["post-5312","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-think-excerpts","tag-1135","tag-august","tag-back-into-the-fold","tag-coming-home","tag-lost","tag-personal-experience","tag-prodigal-son","tag-roger-bentley","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nBack into the Fold - 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