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viltglance007
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Pastor.Pat.Nemmers - Iowa.USA
Hi, I'm Pat Nemmers, Senior Pastor at Saylorville Baptist Church. My wife Marilyn and I have been married three years and we have ten children! (I wish I could see your face right now.) The truth is we both were widowed. I had seven children, Marilyn had three, thus we have a total of ten! Believe me, we can fill up a pew!
I have pastored at Saylorville for just over two years having been blessed by a twelve year ministry in North Central Iowa. I am forty-two years old, but I feel as if I've had a full lifetime of experiences to share. My greatest experience however, occurred eighteen years ago. Allow me to share that experience with you.
I am thankful for my upbringing. As a Roman Catholic I was taught many truths about God, but His presence was lacking and my life began to show it. By the time I turned 24, I had a good job, a wonderful wife and a beautiful child. And although I attended church regularly, it was clear my life was going nowhere.
My search for God (better: His search for me), actually began in the late 1970s. After reading Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth," which describes the Bible's layout of the future, I was full of excitement and questions. I wanted to know more, but the priests I knew did not know their Bibles! So I went to my brother, a Baptist pastor who, besides knowing the Bible, had a wonderful peace and sweetness about him. He kindly answered my questions from Scripture; then hit me up with a question I hadn't considered: "Pat, if you were to die tonight, do you know where you would spend the rest of eternity?" Gulp! I wasn't ready for that! Die? Who wants to think about dying? Not me! Eternity? That's a long time! Before I could put those thoughts together, he hit me with something I had never heard: "Pat, the Bible tells us we can "know". (I John 5:13) That one rocked me. I was always taught that no one can "know" for sure, but as I learned that day, the Bible clearly teaches one can.
I left my brother that day challenged but not changed. I was greatly impressed, but grossly immoral. How so? Besides smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, I also smoked marijuana five to six times a day. My mouth, mind and life was filled with cursing and immorality. I was a slave to my sins. But now, having heard the truth, my sins began bothering me.
In the summer of 1982 I worked with a man who had a tattoo on his arm. Thinking he might be a dope smoker like myself I asked him if he would like to smoke some with me at break time. "I used to do that myself a few years ago," he said, "but then I got saved." Oh boy, here we go again, I thought. He went on to tell me how Jesus Christ had changed his life since he had accepted Him. I tried to argue with him but he kept referring to his Bible. I discovered my argument was not against him, but God. He showed me from Scripture that Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient payment for my sins (John 19:30); that His resurrection proved He was who He claimed to be and had the power to save me if I would repent of my sin and turn to Him by faith (Acts 20:21). Suffice it to say just a few months later, on September 6, 1982, I stopped fighting with God. I called upon Jesus Christ to come into my life and cleanse me by His blood and He did.
Since that day God has wonderfully changed my life. He has also given to me a great passion to declare His Word. If you are in the Des Moines area or are "just passin' through" come check us out at SBC.
Hi, I'm Pat Nemmers, Senior Pastor at Saylorville Baptist Church. My wife Marilyn and I have been married three years and we have ten children! (I wish I could see your face right now.) The truth is we both were widowed. I had seven children, Marilyn had three, thus we have a total of ten! Believe me, we can fill up a pew!
I have pastored at Saylorville for just over two years having been blessed by a twelve year ministry in North Central Iowa. I am forty-two years old, but I feel as if I've had a full lifetime of experiences to share. My greatest experience however, occurred eighteen years ago. Allow me to share that experience with you.
I am thankful for my upbringing. As a Roman Catholic I was taught many truths about God, but His presence was lacking and my life began to show it. By the time I turned 24, I had a good job, a wonderful wife and a beautiful child. And although I attended church regularly, it was clear my life was going nowhere.
My search for God (better: His search for me), actually began in the late 1970s. After reading Hal Lindsey's book, "The Late Great Planet Earth," which describes the Bible's layout of the future, I was full of excitement and questions. I wanted to know more, but the priests I knew did not know their Bibles! So I went to my brother, a Baptist pastor who, besides knowing the Bible, had a wonderful peace and sweetness about him. He kindly answered my questions from Scripture; then hit me up with a question I hadn't considered: "Pat, if you were to die tonight, do you know where you would spend the rest of eternity?" Gulp! I wasn't ready for that! Die? Who wants to think about dying? Not me! Eternity? That's a long time! Before I could put those thoughts together, he hit me with something I had never heard: "Pat, the Bible tells us we can "know". (I John 5:13) That one rocked me. I was always taught that no one can "know" for sure, but as I learned that day, the Bible clearly teaches one can.
I left my brother that day challenged but not changed. I was greatly impressed, but grossly immoral. How so? Besides smoking two packs of cigarettes a day, I also smoked marijuana five to six times a day. My mouth, mind and life was filled with cursing and immorality. I was a slave to my sins. But now, having heard the truth, my sins began bothering me.
In the summer of 1982 I worked with a man who had a tattoo on his arm. Thinking he might be a dope smoker like myself I asked him if he would like to smoke some with me at break time. "I used to do that myself a few years ago," he said, "but then I got saved." Oh boy, here we go again, I thought. He went on to tell me how Jesus Christ had changed his life since he had accepted Him. I tried to argue with him but he kept referring to his Bible. I discovered my argument was not against him, but God. He showed me from Scripture that Jesus' death on the cross was sufficient payment for my sins (John 19:30); that His resurrection proved He was who He claimed to be and had the power to save me if I would repent of my sin and turn to Him by faith (Acts 20:21). Suffice it to say just a few months later, on September 6, 1982, I stopped fighting with God. I called upon Jesus Christ to come into my life and cleanse me by His blood and He did.
Since that day God has wonderfully changed my life. He has also given to me a great passion to declare His Word. If you are in the Des Moines area or are "just passin' through" come check us out at SBC.
