Welcome

I greet you all in the precious name of Jesus.
This blog wont start till i get the whole template edited how i would like it to be... But soon, i promise.
I will want to share good old fashioned biblical Christianity... Not the watered down impostor that America has embraced...And do i dare to say which satan has deceived many into believing and holding close to their still sinful hearts... O' how many of these professing "christians" have been mislead down that wide pathway to hell... How can i say such a thing right? I am being very judgemental right? Maybe even legalistic you may say. But THE LORD JESUS (and not i) said these things in Matt 7:13-23 (KJV):

"13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat:
14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life, and few there be that find it.
15 Beware of false prophets, which come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they are ravening wolves.
16 Ye shall know them by their fruits. Do men gather grapes of thorns, or figs of thistles?
17 Even so every good tree bringeth forth good fruit; but a corrupt tree bringeth forth evil fruit.
18 A good tree cannot bring forth evil fruit, neither can a corrupt tree bring forth good fruit.
19 Every tree that bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire.
20 Wherefore by their fruits ye shall know them.
21 Not every one that saith unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the kingdom of heaven; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is in heaven.
22 Many will say to me in that day, Lord, Lord, have we not prophesied in thy name? and in thy name have cast out devils? and in thy name done many wonderful works?
23 And then will I profess unto them, I never knew you: depart from me , ye that work iniquity."

So you see... Just because you call Jesus Lord don't mean that you are saved... Just because you said a prayer inviting Jesus in your heart don't mean that you are saved... Just because you do good things don't mean that you are saved... Just because you go to church don't mean that you are saved... Just because your a preacher, pastor, minister, etc. don't mean that you are saved... There is much more to it than that, much more.
I long to see a return to biblical Christianity... to see the church that we read about in the New Testament... Where is it???
Lets get back to the Bible and what IT teaches, instead of someone who spends more time preaching and teaching than reading and learning the very Word of God.

Until next time...Read and "study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth". II Tim. 2:15

RESPECTFULLY,
A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS,
Eric

TESTIMONY.......

I recently wrote to a fellow brother in the Lord and for the first time I actually started to write out my testimony like i never have before... It was a great time for me... The Lord was able to use it a great deal. Being able to look back and to "remember therefore from whence thou art fallen"... and to see all those times that the Lord was doing things and watching over me, it also was convicting as i looked back and seen how in certain areas and times that i was more excited about God, more zealous for Him, and more grateful towards Him than what i was being... so i was also able to "repent, and do the first works". It was an awesome time of refreshing and i have drawn back closer to the Lord because of it.
I would encourage all to set some time to the side for some detailed writing out of your testimony, and when you do i would say to make sure its a few hours that you set aside. Now remember, i didn't sit down and plan to write out my testimony, i sat down to write a letter to a brother i had recently met. I prayed and than began to write... i finally got to bed at 5:30 in the morning. I just couldn't stop, God was there, He was involved and had His way there that night... and truth be told.... that's the only reason that any good came out of it.
I am posting the testimony part of that letter. Now its quite long so you may want to print it out and read it later... or however you choose. Also, this testimony i have labeled part I because i plan to write more this is not where the testimony ends... far from it in fact. So plan on seeing part II
sometime soon. Until then, enjoy and keep your eyes on Jesus.

RESPECTFULLY,
A SOLDIER OF THE CROSS,
Eric

MY TESTIMONY (PART I)

First, let me just share with you a little about me… I was not raised in a Christian home nor even any thing close to what could be called “normal” or “positive”… I was raised in and around the real “biker” lifestyle. My parents are still to this day very little different than they were when I was growing up, and now think that I am some crazy religious nut that has been brainwashed.
I was locked up for the very first time when I was nine years old and continued down that path (which I had chosen) for the next16 years. I was in and out of programs, lock up facilities, juvenile detention centers, youth correction facilities, homes, juvenile probation and parole. A life of running away from home, the police and the probation officers, crime, drugs, gangs… the list is endless it seems. I was about 16 when things started to get more serious I began dealing drugs and dealing with people that were deep into things… I became one of the leaders of the gang I belonged to and I spiraled out of control. At the age of 17 I found myself sitting in a jail cell with the adults. I was facing a lot of time in state prison for stealing a truck and running two people down with it. It was a miracle that neither man died and when I went to court I ended up with a mandatory minimum 5 year and 10 month sentence, with no possibility whatsoever of seeing the so-called “free” world before then.
As I went into the state penitentiary I went in already knowing the rules of prison life and I determined in myself that I was going to survive and be a man that was to be respected… I was 5’4 , 95 lbs. blond hair and blue eyes… without going into great detail I will say this, I had gained the respect of the most respected convicts inside those prison walls and I gained it quicker then most people did. However I had already knew some of the well feared and respected men that was there. I began to get involved with the drug business and contraband business inside I also began to recruit people into the gang I was a member of, starting it up inside the prison. I became even more known and respected. I ended up getting busted for drugs and due to this they added more time onto my prison sentence. I really didn’t care anyway because I didn’t think that I was ever going to get out anyway. After awhile I was approached by another gang they wanted me to join with them. After some thought I had agreed . I quickly rose to a position of authority and became one of the leaders. When this happened I was once again “determined”… determined to have the most feared and respected gang. I quickly accomplished this goal and got more attention then I really wanted. The guards came down on me and the gang pretty hard, I was placed in max custody until I was to be released from prison because the administration had deemed me to be a threat to the safety and security of the facility, to the guards and the other inmates. Max custody is basically a 23 hour a day lock down in a single person cell, when you come out of that cell you are handcuffed behind your back and lead around with what they call a “leash”. 16 months later I was finally released from prison. I served a total of 7 years and was now 24 years old.
My first thought was to stay out, I mean I never thought I would get out but since I did I thought I should try to live something of a “normal” life. So I decided to move down to Georgia where my mom and sisters were. A fresh new start where no one knew me… I could start over. I got a job, got my own place, a car, a girlfriend and even a drivers license. However, within 3 months of being out of prison I found myself once again sitting behind bars. Georgia quickly decided they did not want someone like me in their state and placed me into federal custody. 6 months later I was released … in Oregon. I quickly got back into everything. I was right back into my old life. Nothing had changed… except I was far more worse than I was when I was a teenager. I was in and out of jail, and involved with serious people and crimes. One day I ran into an old friend of mine (Jason). We knew each other when we were teenagers, and we were even in prison together and now here we were again. We sat down and made some plans to rob some others drug dealers at gunpoint. We planed it for the up coming Friday night. All day Friday I was unable to get a hold of him, it was very weird and frustrating we both had cell phones and had been in contact throughout the week… I kept trying his phone over and over the closer that it got to evening… but never got a hold of him. A few days later I ran into a mutual friend and asked him if he heard from or seen Jason. He then proceeded to tell me how Jason met up with his little brother Friday and they went to go rod some drug dealers, there was a shootout and they were both killed. We decided to meet up later to go find them and take revenge. However, before we ever met up I was riding with someone, we got pulled over and the police found my gun underneath my seat. Back to jail I went and this time I knew that I would be going back to prison. They take guns and ex-convicts (especially ones like myself) very seriously. I was looking at another 5 years at least.
Well, I began to get myself comfortable… one day a Hispanic fellow comes up to me and asks me to draw him a card for his mother, he said that he would like me to draw a pair of praying hands with a rosary wrapped around them. I had no idea that drawing this card would change the course of my life forever. I went out to the bookshelf and grabbed a stack of religious magazines. I was only looking for a pair of praying hands to draw, so I was flipping through those pages as fast as I could, I mean I had a big stack to go through and I really didn’t care for anything that was in them…. However, I slowed down and a article caught my attention, it seemed pretty interesting, so I decided to check it out. I read a little… then a little more… and a little more till the article was finished…. Then I browsed for more articles that interested me, and I read those as well. Eventually I went back to the bookshelf grabbed some books and flipped through them reading here and there…. I began to see that my idea of “friendship” and “brotherhood” within the gangs and the lifestyle was all wrong. We didn’t really love or respect each other, we didn’t really care for each other… or at least the ways we showed it was completely wrong and hypocritical. We call someone “brother” and do things for and with them that doesn’t help them but hurt them, things that send them to prison or back to prison, things that cost them their very lives, and all the while we think we are actually helping our “friend”, or “brother” … it was all fake, nothing real and honorable about it like I thought. I was not “respectable”, I was not a “stand up guy” and neither were my so-called “friends” and “brothers”, we were all hypocrites, liars, fakes, and actual enemies of the very people that we thought we cared about and considered “friends” and “brothers”. We ’re not helping each other… we’re destroying each other in the name of loyalty, love, honor, and every other noble trait that we could think of to abuse and misuse.
I also began to see why my move to Georgia was all wrong and didn’t work for me… I realized that it didn’t matter where I went, I could have gone to Mexico, Canada, Alaska or even Hong Kong for that matter, and none of those places would have changed my out come because they could not change me. It would not have mattered where I went because it would still be the same old me and I surely couldn’t get away from him.
As I began to realize these things, to grasp them, to fully understand them, I couldn’t help but realize that my entire life was worthless. Everything… then I began to think about that Friday, that Friday that me and Jason were going to rob those drug dealers… I was supposed to be there, why couldn’t I get a hold of him that day? I should be dead, what happened? Then I remembered a few different times in my life when I should have died… accidents, shootings, fights, prison events, etc…. Then I knew the answer…. God! He intervened, he had to, there’s no other explanation. Just too much to be a coincidence. And of course once I understood this… I couldn’t help but ask myself another question… WHY? ……Then it was back to the bookshelf I went, this time it was to grab a Bible.
I would read and read… I couldn’t wait to get back to my cell and read my Bible… so eventually I went to one of the church services… of course I was lead through the old sinners prayer and told that I was saved…
The more I read, prayed and developed a relationship with Jesus the more that I began to realize that a lot of things had to change. I was convicted of the things that would come out of my mouth, the words I would use, the conversations that I would have … I tried so hard to stop , failure after failure… eventually, I learned how to get the strength I needed from the Lord and not myself, because my strength just wasn’t good enough. This was my first steps taken as a new baby.
One day I was sitting in a church service and something came across the pulpit that I knew was wrong. I went back to my cell and studied and studied till I found all the scriptural proof that I needed to prove to myself that what was said was wrong and un-biblical. With this freshly received knowledge I sat back on my jail bed with a smile… mission accomplished. My smile quickly faded when the Lord quickly corrected me…. “mission NOT accomplished”. What do you mean Lord??? And I tell you what brother I’ve never been so scared and nervous in my life as when the Lord impressed it upon me that I was to take all that I had just received and correct the false teaching. O how I began to come up with so many excuses and reasons that I couldn’t and wouldn’t preach… God very graciously and lovingly told me that I would. I didn’t want to preach, couldn’t preach, and that I would just talk to the guy at the next church service. The whole week I was shaky, He wouldn’t leave me alone about it. I would beg Him to leave me alone, it wasn’t for me. Well Sunday came, I was so nervous, I prayed that they would cancel church services. However they didn’t, it seemed to come earlier then normal actually… so there I sat in the front row as always, next to a fellow brother that I would always sit next to. I leaned over and I whispered to him that God had put something on my heart to share but that I couldn’t do it, he just smiled and said not to worry about it. We started to sing and I began to pray something like this: “God, I cant do this, there’s no way I have the strength or courage to even walk up to the pulpit, the only way that I could go up there is if I was pushed up there or something. Please forgive me.” once the singing was done and the service started, the preacher shared for about 5-10 minutes then opened the pulpit for anyone that may have something to share, and the brother sitting next to me gently placed his hand on my back and literally pushed me up out of my seat towards the pulpit in such a way that I would have been far more embarrassed to quickly sit back down than to go to the pulpit, so to the pulpit I went. Afterwards I felt something that I can not explain to you, I knew that the Father was pleased with me because I was fulfilling His will for my life… and that’s when I knew what the Lord had called me to do for Him. I began to preach in the jail every service.
Then a brother came up to me and told me that he had a word from the Lord for me, that I was not going to go back to prison if I took my case all the way, that I would be released. This was a hard one for me to believe at first, I mean I was just caught with a gun, I’m guilty and if I go to court rather than plead guilty then they’ll give me more time then normal. However, I decided to trust the Lord after all the same brother that God used to push me out of my seat that day was the same one telling me this. So I did as I was told, and trusted the Lord. I even made arrangements for my release. Court came and I was given a break, they let me go.
Now that I’m getting out I don’t know what to do, where to go, or anything. I was just in jail for 4-5 months and was coming out different… I fell quickly. I was in a sinful relationship with a married but separated woman… ended up around drugs and I went down fast. In and out of jail again, back to the old me again… once I tried to turn back to God, but I stayed in the sinful relationship and I couldn’t draw close to God.
Then one day there was a big incident and I was being chased by the cops, I was caught and I sat in the hospital for 2 days before going back to jail. The court brought back the gun charge that they had released me on just a few months earlier plus the new charges that I was coming in with. There was no way that I was getting out of prison this time. I knew the court had had enough. So I sat in my cell waiting.
The funny thing is that my cell was right in front of the sign up sheet to go to church services. I would look at that sheet and feel such shame and guilt. I wanted to sign up to go to the service, but I didn’t want anyone to see me, I mean I preached in the pulpit, I was one looked to at times for help with bible studies, prayer and so fourth… I couldn’t show my face in there again. Eventually I signed up… but I didn’t go. Did that a few times and then finally I went. I wept the entire time I was there, and when I got back to my cell I spent the night getting right with my God.
I began to draw nigh to my Lord, and He began to show me all my errors. He began to teach me His ways, and a deeper understanding of His word. I was moved… I was able to see the Lord do so much in the jail before I was to go back into prison (I ended up getting a 2 year prison sentence). There was so much that He allowed me to be apart of. The unit I was in was dramatically changed before I left it. to see almost the entire unit in a circle holding hands and praying together, bible studies…. Things that you don’t usually see in jail, especially in front of everyone for all eyes to see.
There’s a intake center, which is where you go before you go into the actual prison. When I got there I began to realize and remember the reputation that I had built within the penitentiary. Everyone would know who I am, they would not be happy with me or the change that had taken place with me. What would happen to me? Would I get beat up? Would I be strong enough not to fight ? Would they kill me? Would I have the courage to stand for Christ? There in intake I took it all and placed it before the Lord and as I did that I came to a point where I said my Lord died for me and I will die for Him if I must. As it turned out no one ever messed with me, I give all praise to God because that’s not the way that someone like me that ends up turning their back on that lifestyle gets treated. Gods hand of protection was upon me. The Lord strengthened me and even though I wavered and often times would fall or stray off my path… I learned so much. I began to preach again and started bible studies and prayer meetings… but as I read my bible more and more, I started to get confused... What the bible said and what the "Christians" said and did didn't go together... I became ashamed of the "Christian" label due to how much it has been abused, watered down, misrepresented, etc... It's not what we read about in the bible. Churches that claim the name of Christ are so radically different than what we see in the New Testament that it made me ashamed to call myself a "Christian". When asked I would say "Yes, but NOT what the world has taught you to believe a "Christian" is!!!" I stopped going into the TV. room and began to encourage other “Christians” to do the same. To spend more time with their Bibles then working out or reading some magazine or novel. To stop doing the things that God hates and to give their lives to Him fully… I was quickly branded a “legalist”, my time in the pulpit was shortened and then ceased. I went through a time of discouragement… but God pulled me out of it. Eventually I was sent to another prison as I gained a lower custody status. And it was there that God began to move and work as He did when I was in the jail.
I got out in the last week of March 2006... And my walk has been full of ups and downs, failures and disappointments (and not me disappointed with God but Him disappointed with me), rising and falling, walking crawling, running, stumbling, sitting and standing. But God is good and faithful… even when I am not. And my relationship with God is stronger then it has ever been and it grows stronger with each passing day. The relationship that I have with my God can always be better, stronger and closer… but where I’m at with Him today is a place that I have never been before and I know that it will be deeper tomorrow. But its all because of Him, His greatness, His love, His mercy and kindness because I certainly don’t deserve any of it or a relationship with Him… He is definitely better to me than I deserve. I now have a wife that The Great God has provided for me and he blessed us with a baby girl on Feb. 12, 2007 we named her Heaven Leigh Lynn Frost. And then He decided to bless us again with a baby boy on Dec. 22, 2007 and we named him Elias Stephen Daniel Frost… but that’s not the end because He has decided to bless us even again and we are expecting another little boy around the middle of January. God has blessed us so much… the blessings cant be numbered. I deserve the flames of hell for all eternity… and I would serve Him all the days of my life even if I were to go to hell in the end because He is worthy.