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Testimony
of Chris Smith-Deliverance Miracle written by
Doris Denton |
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For
ten years, Chris’s life and the lives of those around him were filled with
heartache, pain and agony. He describes
himself, during that time, as the “scum of the earth”. It wasn’t always that
way for Chris. He was raised in
church. His mother was the song
leader, his dad, a deacon. He was in
Sunday School, children’s church and the youth group. He even had a part in a Christmas play or
two. He was involved in the things of
God, but, not with God. Years later,
he would find out what a profound difference there is between the two. |
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At
15, Chris started smoking pot. He then advanced to beer and whisky. He started skipping school. By his
sophomore year in high school, he was a full-blown alcoholic and drug
addict. His junior year does not hold
fond memories of a great ball game or the prom. He remembers it as being the time he went
on to do cocaine, crank and popping pills. |
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After
graduation, Chris took one factory job after another. He worked just long enough to get paid then
quit to party up the check he had just earned. “I never really had a place to call home,”
he says, “I guess you could say that I lived wherever I passed out.” After
several years of this, he got a really good job working for a local phone
company. |
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By
June of 1997, Chris had spent at least $40,000 on drugs that year. It was the middle of the summer. There was no air conditioner in the house,
no food and no money to pay the $13 water bill. He had sold all of the most valuable things
in the house to buy drugs. Fed up, his
wife Tami packed what little else she had and her babies into the only
vehicle they had and left. Chris went
to the drug house. |
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In
the end, he had lost his truck, house, job, and family. Desperate, he entered rehab where he went
through that program twice. He went to his boss to get his job back. Chris was told he would have to attend a
local church’s revival service. Being
at that service radically changed his whole life. |
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Chris
Smith was saved that night at 1st Assembly.
He ran to the altar with Tami by his side. Falling on his face, he cried like a baby
before God. “That night,” he remembers,
“Jesus wiped away all my sorrow and pain and saved me from a devil’s hell,
which is where I was headed. Jesus turned me around and radically changed my
life by totally setting me free from drug addiction and alcoholism. He put my
family back together and gave me back my house, my joy and my truck.” |
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God
gave Chris something else that night.
He placed a call on his life to go out and tell others how Jesus can
do the same for them. Chris is now the
evangelists on Friday nights at 1st Assembly! |
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