{"id":6197,"date":"2018-03-03T13:09:08","date_gmt":"2018-03-03T19:09:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/?p=6197"},"modified":"2018-03-03T13:09:08","modified_gmt":"2018-03-03T19:09:08","slug":"a-journey-to-jesus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/a-journey-to-jesus\/","title":{"rendered":"A Journey to Jesus"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Calvin Bailey<\/strong>
\nI grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas. My parents were not Christian and made getting to know Jesus quite challenging. The best part about growing up in my house was that I had two sisters, one four\u00a0years younger and\u00a0the other three years younger.\u00a0My mom enjoyed watching me play football and run track, so when\u00a0I was in the eighth grade, my mom told me I no longer had to do any work around the house\u2013\u2013my sisters would do it and I should focus on school and sports. God gave me lots of ability to do well in sports. I made honor roll and got scholarship offers to just about every college in the nation. It was a fun time.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWhile in high school, I was also blessed to have dated a young woman who was a\u00a0New Testament Christian. We both ran track for our track team. I also had a fellow football\u00a0teammate\u00a0and friend whose family was also members of the\u00a0church of Christ. As a young boy, religion was introduced to me in all sorts of ways.\u00a0My\u00a0mom\u2019s family had a family church\u00a0that\u00a0we attended for a while called Mount Sinai Christian Church. I would go when my\u00a0mom did not want to go. This created friction with my\u00a0mom and\u00a0me,\u00a0maybe my being there without her did not shine\u00a0a\u00a0good light on her with her family. My\u00a0mom later joined a holiness church, which truly confused me.\u00a0She had to give up all of her pants and other things she enjoyed,\u00a0which quickly helped her decide they wanted too much to follow Jesus at that church. We would visit from time to time, for what almost seemed like a show. There would be the same people falling out and running around with what was\u00a0\u201cthe Holy Ghost fever.\u201d\u00a0As\u00a0for\u00a0my desire to know more about God and what religion was all about, my woman friend and teammates helped a lot.\u00a0<\/span>
\nWith the association with my girlfriend and teammate being members of the church,\u00a0I had a clear road to checking in to what the\u00a0church of Christ was all about.\u00a0At seventeen years old I also simple logic that if\u00a0I had\u00a0started\u00a0my own business or built a park, I would probably name it after myself.\u00a0My end reasoning being the church should be name after Christ because Jesus started it; it should be named after him.\u00a0<\/span>
\nAs\u00a0providence\u00a0would have it, the church my teammate attended was a block down the street from where I live. I could look out of my front door and see people walking in the building.\u00a0I told my teammate I would come and visit.\u00a0After being taught more perfectly the\u00a0Gospel, I was baptized about a month later. I remember the\u00a0Brother\u00a0Gentry. His brother is an elder at the congregation I presently attend.\u00a0<\/span>
\nOne thing that never happened at that congregation that I truly needed was being taught how to live the Christian life. When I went off to college to play football and run track,\u00a0it was quite an adjustment and I did well my first year in sports. I did not do well on my journey to know Jesus.\u00a0The second year I decided to join the Marine Corps.\u00a0My\u00a0mom and stepdad split up, so I\u00a0thought that would be a good way to help my\u00a0mom out financially and see the world at the same time. It was good in many ways towards maturing as a young man, but bad as maturing from a sinner to a\u00a0Christian who\u00a0glorifies\u00a0God. I would from time to time visit congregations that were available in the different areas of the world that I was stationed.The\u00a0bases I was on in San Diego, California,\u00a0Washington DC, Japan, Hong Kong,\u00a0and others\u00a0did\u00a0not\u00a0have\u00a0a lot of\u00a0churches of Christ. I never was taught during the constant moving the military life offered.\u00a0<\/span>
\nOnce I finished my three years of active duty, I started my three years of active reserve time in North Little Rock, AR. I went back to the congregation I was baptized in and was blessed to get to know the minister Brother Robinson. He helped me to understand living the Christian life from the\u00a0Bible. He would have\u00a0Bible studies with me and let me ask questions, he then would use the\u00a0Bible to give me the answers I so desperately needed. Through our studies, I realized so much about how I needed to change my way of life.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI still had a desire to go finish college and get my degree. Therefore, as I would study with Brother Robinson at 15th\u00a0Street\u00a0Church, I realized I had quite a few friends I wanted to know the\u00a0Bible. My woman friend at the time,\u00a0along with many of my family members,\u00a0became Christians\u00a0through those studies.\u00a0<\/span>
\nI decided to go to Oklahoma to play football after my military career. While at OU, I met my wife Melanie and we started our family. We faced many challenges as we grew in our relationship with God and each other. Just as Brother Robinson\u00a0had been an inspiration in my growth as a Christian, Willie Franklin truly helps me to see and learn from his walk how to glorify Jesus.\u00a0<\/span>
\nRon Fletcher introduced Willie Franklin to my wife and me,\u00a0and it was wonderful. Willie allowed us to asked questions and he would use the\u00a0Bible to show us the answers. We started having\u00a0Bible studies in our home and many souls were added to the kingdom. I am truly thankful to God for leading\u00a0godly men into my life, as I have continued to be a student of the\u00a0Word.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Calvin Bailey I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas. My parents were not Christian and made getting to know Jesus quite challenging. The best part about growing up in my house was that I had two sisters, one four\u00a0years younger and\u00a0the other three years younger.\u00a0My mom enjoyed watching me play football and run […]<\/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":[1405,329,1410,168,1051],"class_list":["post-6197","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-think-excerpts","tag-august-2013","tag-bible-study-2","tag-calvin-bailey","tag-conversion","tag-feature","et-doesnt-have-format-content","et_post_format-et-post-format-standard"],"yoast_head":"\nA Journey to Jesus - Focus Press<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/tampaseo.expert\/focus\/2018\/03\/03\/a-journey-to-jesus\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"A Journey to Jesus - Focus Press\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"By Calvin Bailey I grew up in North Little Rock, Arkansas. 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